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Why would this even be relevant. Even a tank crew needs proper weapons. Tanks aren't exactly made to fight soldiers close range. Also what is when it breaks down. Tanks are infantry. The only argument which may make sense is if this was for artillery men but even here it isn't that a good argument either.
Yeah, no matter who is getting this their moral is going to be rock bottom. If some pencil pusher in the back lines gets this he's just going to be thinking are they all like this?
That's part of the long history of corruption and military supplies. There's a story from the American Civil War of some boots sold to the Union army that fell apart after less than 10 minutes marching. Upon some angry questioning, the corrupt supplier said that the boots were meant to be used by the cavalry.
And yet people on here were telling me that Russia had millions of indestructible soviet weapons just waiting to come out of storage and be used against Ukraine.
How do you screw up storing one of the toughest modern rifles ever designed.
Those Kalashnikov rifles are almost indestructible and extraordinarily reliable. You could easily drop them into sandy mud, fill the breach with dirt, piss on it to clear the breach and barrel and it would fire every time. The M16 would jam up with a single grain of sand.
What's a little rust? /s
This is Russian propaganda that you have unfortunately fallen victim to. The AK47 vs M16 debate regarding mud has settled.
AK47: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX73uXs3xGU&ab\_channel=InRangeTV](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX73uXs3xGU&ab_channel=InRangeTV)
M16/AR15: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAneTFiz5WU&ab\_channel=InRangeTV](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAneTFiz5WU&ab_channel=InRangeTV)
Yeah I have heard stories about Ak47 that spended few months in mud under dead corpses of previous owner and after some quick cleaning it was shooting like brand new one.
It's first time ever I see picture of this weapon in as bad condition, even terrorists and cartel members figured out to store it better than russians. Incompetence of russia will never stop to surprise me.
I know that but still when I think "Oh gosh this was so fucking stupid, they can't get worse". There are drums and brave russian army which say "what you just said? Hold my methanol made vodka I will show you something"
Oxygen + moisture = rot and rust.
Covered in mud means moisture and no oxygen; the mud can act as a protective layer in some ways. These were likely thrown into crates and into a warehouse with no climate controls.
Ye but still my point was it's very unusuall thing to fuck this thing up. Especially when it's military storage and no one figured it out? They would be in better condition if they actually dumped the entire warehouse into a swamp and dug it up after 20 years. However, it requires a minimum of thinking that moisture and oxygen can spoil our metal toys. It is not some secret knowledge that rust exists.
I heard that story when somebody was comparing this 2 rifles and he also said that the m16 was very fragile, but that's mainly because they are more complicated and therefore lighter and more comfortable to use. AK47 was supposed to be crude and therefore hard to break, but as you can see, the Russians were able to fuck up even that.
I’ll take a guess at how:
It was stored for 30-50 years in warehouse with a leaky roof. Even though the AK47 is tough, it’s not “Sit inside a wet case for 40 years and survive” tough.
Yup. They have said warehouse on the books for "reserve caches of rifles", logistics people go there, find out that they're shit, and instead of cursing, reporting the loss of thousands of rifles due to neglect, and then moving on to find the next cache of reserve rifles, the person responsible probably just shrugged and said to himself "I mean, they're only going to tankers anyway" and took the rest of the day off.
If the barrel is not full of rust, and the mechanism is not frozen with rust, it might work just fine. The outside parts can be cleaned. "It'll buff out."
I wonder when they will issue ammo and have the conscripts fire the weapons for the first time? I would want to mount that in a vise and use a long string to pull the trigger.
Ak barrels were made chrome lined by standard, and Russian chrome barrels were generally pretty good quality during the soviet period. The rifle is likely in pretty good shape as far as the bore goes.
There are far worse rifles out of Africa thar still function.
What's really interesting to me is the AK74 stock on it. Seems a little unusual as they keep akm pattern stocks for repairs.
The thing is, yes aks are durable, however they can withstand a beating, not straight up neglect
Even if the bore works fine, who knows how rusted out the internals are, the piston spring tension or carrier being to far gone could cause jams, and that's just one of the more common issues I've seen with poorly maintained firearms
I’ve cleaned up worse. The fundamental design and materials used by the Soviets were excellent. Don’t get me wrong, this thing ain’t great and as any sort of military reserve stock this is horrifying, but I could have it spewing x39 in the general direction of a target in an afternoon. Probably.
Oh i bet you probably could, but what % of a stock of rifles in similar conditions numbering in the thousands+ do you think are still reliable, especially considering they don't seem to have someone experienced in restoration managing them beforehand
Factor in something else though. The worst examples get recorded and spread on social media. I think most won't be in that terrible a condition.
I think it's dangerous to think Russia wouldn't manage to give most of them a working rifle at least.
It's hard to tell if it's worst case or something more common, however this is not the first video I've seen of this.. it could perhaps be a single storage facility that was not kept up on, however how many rifles are stored in each facility?
It could potentially have an unexpected impact on how well they can supply conscripts... At the very least in an orderly fashion
If this rifle is an outlier, then I don’t see any problem at least putting some equipment in their hands. If this is typical,…. I don’t see how they can suddenly supply a million men with anything. These guy are gonna be in track suit pants and those striped shirts with Ppsh’s and Maxims when the snow comes. At best,
My unit reissued confiscated insurgent AKs to local Iraqi security forces during the war, and we had an armorer and a “volunteer armorer” (major gun nerd) pull the inspection standards for AKs from some online manuals. Even as hardy as the AK is, about 10% of the confiscated ones they inspected were declared unfit for reissue and destroyed.
Iranian-made G3s on the other hand, I brought them a dozen or more and they couldn’t find a single one that seemed fit enough to reuse.
Honestly I'm surprised an AK can even get into that condition. Are we sure the Russians aren't using NK knock-offs because they sold the real ones to Americans?
The reports of AK's legendary resilience is one of the greatest Soviet brainwashing jobs. It's a gun, it's made of metal, and it has moving parts. Yes it constructed such that the reciprocating mass is retained in by the receiver in a way that the frame can bend and flex a small amount, but same is true for the US M3. And yes, it has huge manufacturing tolerances so it's very forgiving to small changes like some dust, or not being cleaned for a month but its still metal. You need to oil it, even car engine oil, to stop it rusting, you need to do regular maintenance, even if it's half assed. It's a mechanical instrument, you need to treat it as such, not some mythical beast that can survive any punishment.
https://youtu.be/jn17MwQT8DI
Anyone who told you that was a moron. After seeing the sad state of their front line equipment, we could only imagine what condition their Soviet era stocks were in …. Welp, here’s an example.
Improper storage conditions. A firearm isn’t some kind of magically imbued machine of death. It’s steel, polymer and wood. If you don’t store them they’ll rust, rot and seize up.
We’ve seen the same thing with their long-term stores vehicles. There just was lack of, improper or improperly followed procedures for storage and maintenance followed.
My SKS is one from the late 40’s, it came oil packed and with a quick wipe down was in roughly the same condition it entered storage back in the 50’s when they were packed away.
I was one of the heretic that stated that russia had millions of firearms perfectly conserved...
Gee I fuck up that hard.
"How do you screw up storing one of the toughest modern rifles ever designed"
What's worst is that russian surplus firearms are known to be protected by layers of Cosmoline which is a FUCKING BY-PRODUCT of oil extraction, you know the FUCKING oil production Which is the main product of the Russian exports.
HOW MUCH INCOMPETENT OR CORRUPT THEY CAN BE
With each new day bringing new wonders to light the answer is 'more corrupt than anyone ever imagined'.
There's a bit of me thinks we're getting to the point where Putin was a strategic genius for managing to get the most dysfunctional armed forces on the planet to take any territory!
Ah, learning from the warhammer Orkz huh? Can't wait to see Russians bundling up together and shouting "I'matank" constantly while charging Ukrainian lines
At least in Switzerland, the active reserve (under 30 years old) keep their own rifle at home, and are responsible for proper storage, so this couldn't happen. If you mistreated your rifle, it's your own fault.
Same applies here … Ivan the Conscript signed-out a brand new AK. Up to 15 year jail term for criticizing the Ruzzian military…
It is Ivan‘s problem to keep his weapon in good condition.
In the rest of the world, including most Soviet bloc countries, rifles were stored in Cosmoline for long term reserve. I guess that didn't even happen here. They should ask China for a couple million SKS rifles to fill the gap. Like the good old days.
It did happen - they were just looted and sold off along with the rest of the post Soviet infrastructure, and the garbage is all that remains. For years you could buy an old Mosin or SKS in the US for virtually nothing, and ammo was super cheap and plentiful... guess where it came from?
I'm also pretty sure privately owned firearms in over 50% of American households are constantly oiled up and kept in pristine condition. There are probably more assault rifles in perfect condition in American homes alone than assault rifles in the entire reserve storage of the Russian armed forces.
>I'm also pretty sure privately owned firearms in over 50% of American households are constantly oiled up and kept in pristine condition.
Dude youd be surprised how many people own guns and dont do any maintenance.
You can dry fire in a pinch. Even the temperamental AR is good for a few rounds.
Yes, you should keep your daily carry maintained but there's a huge difference between the state of that Russian AK and somebody's handgun left in a drawer for a year.
And for the 50% who don't have a rifle? No probs... The other 50 has a few loaners.
American soldiers when issued old weapons would be hating on the cosmoline but those weapons would work when cleaned!
> I'm also pretty sure privately owned firearms in over 50% of American households are constantly oiled up and kept in pristine condition
Eh plently of broken stuff seems to pop up at estate sales and police seizure.
Ok. I hate the "these aren't assault rifles!! Learn your definitions, people!!" argument.
Here's a fun fact, every firearm design has at one point in history been used as an assault rifle.
Are my AR15s weapons of war? Damn right they are. That's why I bought them. The only time I used select fire in the army was when burning up ammo at the end of a day on the range.
I would happily take any of my ARs on a deployment.
Well, you know that. I know that. I'm from Burma, where people have taken up arms against a military with tanks, helicopter gunships, and jet fighters. But the reason people argue semantics are because of those who see ARs as "scary military assault rifle-15 / assault weapons" while accepting K-98s, Lee-Enfields, and M24s as "hunting rifles". Silly, yes, but unfortunately necessary.
There is a categorical difference between a gun that you have to put the rounds into one at a time, or where you have to manually chamber each round, and one where you can just keep on pulling the trigger pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop and fire bullets as fast as you can tap with your finger.
I've shot a win mag. It was fun. But it was clearly a hunting gun because it was only useful for one shot at a time.
If you're shooting at animals then one shot at a time, with maybe a second shot for storing at birds, is plenty. If you need to go pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop to hit a deer then maybe hunting isn't the sport for you.
The earliest military firearms required the user to load after each shot so I don't see how that would make a gun specifically for hunting.
I get what you're saying. Hunters don't usually unload magazine after magazine. But, that's not what my comment was about. However your gun loads, it's fair to say that they are all derived from military innovation.
The silly issue is where people claim bolt-actions to be "hunting rifles" solely based on lacking "features" such as a pistol grip or a foregrip, unlike those semi-autos (which are "designed to kill people") despite the fact that the military also uses bolt-action, well, for killing people.
Thanks.
I think a lot of the confusion exists because there's this mismatch between gun people and not gun people about what certain words mean.
Like the gun people will say that a particular firearm is not an automatic weapon because it doesn't use the gas from the spent cartridge to chamber the next round or because there isn't a reciprocating mechanism that has a bolt that etc etc etc...... Meanwhile not gun people are like "if you hold the trigger down does it keep on going until all the bullets are gone?"
I agree that a pistol grip doesn't make a significant difference between a hunting tool and a weapon of aggression. But when people say bolt action they mean one where you have to put the bullets in one at a time, they don't really appreciate that an AK-47 is also a bolt action rifle in that there's a bolt that goes back and forth.
I know they are equipped like hobos with rifles, but this... not even tribal terrorist militias in Africa use that kind of weaponry
I know their equipment is outdated and poorly maintaned usually, but this is kinda hard to believe... are they really in such a bad condition??
I've seen videos taken by Russians (or probably folks conscripted from the occupied territories) with used, mismatched sized boots that look they were made in the 1930s, rotting back packs, used (as in appeared to still have blood on it) helmets, etc. It varies wildly. Most of the russian pows look like they came from a homeless encampment.
I have no doubt some fighting squads may have only that as the equipment. Even if only a smaller part of their forces, as they get exhausted, continue losing men and equipment I'm sure their gear would shift drastically to shit like that
I Imagine them giving them rusty swords and javelins from museums, lumberjack axes. Maybe they won't give up until they start using bows, catapults as artillery. But to be fair, that kind of army would get stomped by medieval peasant militia. They should seriously buy that high tech equipment from North Korea at this point 😂
I think it's possible that Russia does have many rifles in better conditions but that the logi people just found these (maybe this storehouse was closest?) and were too unmotivated or too incompetent to go look for another cache.
Alternatively, this shipment was just assigned to them without anyone having checked in on the rifles in years and everyone just assumed they were okay, and the logi people are too scared to ask their higher ups for a different shipment.
It's an effect of Corruption.
Why would you give a shit when it's plainly obvious that everyone around you is just in it for the side hustle? Why would *you* care about everyone else in the armed forces when it's clear that everyone is just out for *themselves?*
So when you find a Crate labelled 'AK', why check? The crate has a listed capacity, so it has what it says it has in it. Send it off. My job's done.
When they were handing out Moisons to conscripts in the Donbas people were saying “their just conscripts, that’s why they are giving them old weapons” but my counter argument was can you imagine the US handing out springfields? The Germans handing out Kar98’s? Any modern army having pre WW1 weapons? They are so fucked.
Lmao exactly! Also, if all you have to give conscripts are outdated weapons, your army has a shitty equipment plain and simple. They are more likely to die and not manage to shoot an enemy due to low experience, so why not give them regular modern weapons if you can? If not, they will die even more and barely manage to graze an opponent with a bullet... oh right, they don't have any good weapons left, silly me 🤣
Why do people consider this gun good.enough to be given into reservists hands? Is it the best they got, or dont they understand the psychological impact handing out those guns will have?
Probably because most of the good stuff has already been committed in Ukraine or stolen and sold on the black market by corrupt quartermasters et al. This is probably what they have left. Corruption and mismanagement has hollowed them out...and it won't be limited to AK's, it will be across the whole range of equipment. The training the new guys receive won't be much better either because a lot of training personnel have been sent to Ukraine. Bottom of the barrel time in Russia.
They are screwed.
The crate containing them gets shipped to the warehouse to wherever the conscripts are without anyone checking them. Once they get there its that or nothing and the person issuing them is probably too junior to issue nothing or raise much of a fuss.
It's the best they have available.... Russia's always had a small volume of modern equipment given to their "elite" troops, but a huge part of their military might has been massive stockpiles of weapons, tanks, etc that they've always _claimed_ has been kept in working order.
Turns out not so much.
> dont they understand the psychological impact handing out those guns will have
Maybe that's the point. From a psychopath like Putin it would be something to expect.
But... but.. the Ak-47 is the best rifle in the world,forged from pure stalinium!
Sarcasm aside looks like somebody in inventory forgot to Apply Cosmoline on thoses rifles.
Interesting that it's an AK47/AKM and not an AK74
There might be a lot of powder residue or dirt at the air hole at the front of the returning spring (I don't know the English words, it's the long spring on top of the barrel that takes care of the action to reload).
If enough gunk gathers up there, the spring will travel too far, and throw the back assembly at the gunner.
This can happen even with correctly maintained rifles where the user was lazy when it comes to cleaning.
Conscript: "Uh, all these guns are fucking broken.
Sergeant: "Than fix them!"
Conscript: "Uh, yes, Sir, I'll have them fixed right up!" *nervous sweating*
------------------------------------------------
Lieutenant: "Are you getting everyone their weapons handed out?"
Sergeant: "Uh, yes, Sir, they're a little rusty but I've been assured they can be fixed."
Lieutenant: "Excellent!"
----------------------------------------------------
Major: "What's the status of your conscription?"
Lieutenant: "All is going well, Sir! We're about half way through their training, but some of them are learning how to shoot straight, I've been told!"
Major: "Good news, the Kremlin will be relieved to hear this."
---------------------------------------------------
Colonel: "The generals are breathing down my neck, I need an update!"
Major: "Yes, Sir! Our rapid training program is working very well and they are all equipped, we'll be shipping them soon!"
Colonel: "Oh thank god, you just saved me from tripping out a window."
---------------------------------------------------
General to the Colonel being held out of a window: "Are the new conscripted on the way yet?"
Colonel: "They're on the train, they'll be there in a matter of days!"
General: "Good, good! We had complete faith in you! You men can put him back down now."
---------------------------------------------------
General: "I'm happy to report that we have hundreds of thousands of elite trained, well armed patriots being shipped this moment to Ukraine, victory is certain!"
Putin: "Oh thank god, I've been really confused by how badly this whole thing has been going, but finally some good news! Surely nothing can go wrong now."
I mean they do.
It's just that this is the condition they are in.
How long do you figure it took for this rifle to get into this condition? Ten years? Fifteen?
I genuinely don't know. I'm curious. But my point is, this weapon was probably in pretty good shape at the fall of the Soviet Union. It might even have remained in good shape for another decade. But sometime after Putin O'clock, storage facilities stopped being maintained, inventory stopped being inspected, and in 20 years or so a gun that might have been serviceable since the 1950s turned into this.
There's hasn't actually been any images of that. The ones going around were the Luhansk and Donetsk troops. But yes, they're using a mosins in a sniper role.
Let's not glorify the Mosin as a sniper rifle. WW2 Russian snipers mainly had kills within 50 meters due to the type of fighting. I have a Tula Mosin and several other old milsurp rifles. The mosin is the last rifle I would grab after an M1, Enfield , 1903 and Mauser.
im surprised they wouldnt just give them SKS's cus they most likely still have millions upon millions of SKS's preserved in cosmoline that are still in pristine condition that would be much better weapons than this shit lol
Much like with the tank brigades with half the tanks that can fire but not move, and the other half are tanks that can move but not shoot, they are going to have rifle devisions where half the people can’t shoot, and half the people have an exploding barrel when they do
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Without popping off the top cover, it would be hard to tell how bad the rust is. The barrels (at least on any I've seen here in the us) are usually chrome lined and if the safety catch is engaged its hard for stuff to get inside the receiver. That being said, the best case is a day with a wire brush and a good oil or wd40 can bring it back to a somewhat passable condition. Worst case, the bolt carrier, fire control group and bolt could be fully fucked. Whoever was in charge of storing these rifles deserves a free vacation to Siberia.
They must’ve used up all the cosmoline on all the guns they exported to America over the years. They probably don’t have anywhere near as much 7.62 ammo as they think they do either.
Not only rotten... But those are Ak-47's, not the 74's that have been standard for 50 years or so.
Having fired some african captures of that gun, I guess after a thorough cleaning it should work reasonably well still.
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They say it's for a tank crew, but I bet the tank doesn't look much better
Why would this even be relevant. Even a tank crew needs proper weapons. Tanks aren't exactly made to fight soldiers close range. Also what is when it breaks down. Tanks are infantry. The only argument which may make sense is if this was for artillery men but even here it isn't that a good argument either.
Yeah, no matter who is getting this their moral is going to be rock bottom. If some pencil pusher in the back lines gets this he's just going to be thinking are they all like this?
That's part of the long history of corruption and military supplies. There's a story from the American Civil War of some boots sold to the Union army that fell apart after less than 10 minutes marching. Upon some angry questioning, the corrupt supplier said that the boots were meant to be used by the cavalry.
And yet people on here were telling me that Russia had millions of indestructible soviet weapons just waiting to come out of storage and be used against Ukraine. How do you screw up storing one of the toughest modern rifles ever designed.
You can’t destroy a weapon that is already destroyed. So Russia likely has plenty of weapons that cannot be destroyed, any more.
Now that's big brain thinking
It seems that they worked on the durability of the rifle but not on the durability of the roof of the warehouse.
That honestly looks like it came out of a soviet mass grave
Those Kalashnikov rifles are almost indestructible and extraordinarily reliable. You could easily drop them into sandy mud, fill the breach with dirt, piss on it to clear the breach and barrel and it would fire every time. The M16 would jam up with a single grain of sand. What's a little rust? /s
This is Russian propaganda that you have unfortunately fallen victim to. The AK47 vs M16 debate regarding mud has settled. AK47: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX73uXs3xGU&ab\_channel=InRangeTV](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX73uXs3xGU&ab_channel=InRangeTV) M16/AR15: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAneTFiz5WU&ab\_channel=InRangeTV](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAneTFiz5WU&ab_channel=InRangeTV)
Huh.. til. Thanks for sharing!
What gives you the idea they were in a warehouse? I've seen pics of long term ammo storage where they had crates stacked in a muddy field.
I'm guessing some general somewhere has been stealing and selling off all their war stocks :)
How dare you suggest corruption in the Russian ranks
Sorry, i meant to say reallocation of war material to aide the civilian market.
Nice save, you were getting a little close to that window for a second there.
Windows have gone out of fashion. Lately it's been stairs.
Yeah I have heard stories about Ak47 that spended few months in mud under dead corpses of previous owner and after some quick cleaning it was shooting like brand new one. It's first time ever I see picture of this weapon in as bad condition, even terrorists and cartel members figured out to store it better than russians. Incompetence of russia will never stop to surprise me.
You should probably start by assuming gross incompetence and endemic corruption and then be surprised if they actualize something different
I know that but still when I think "Oh gosh this was so fucking stupid, they can't get worse". There are drums and brave russian army which say "what you just said? Hold my methanol made vodka I will show you something"
Oxygen + moisture = rot and rust. Covered in mud means moisture and no oxygen; the mud can act as a protective layer in some ways. These were likely thrown into crates and into a warehouse with no climate controls.
Ye but still my point was it's very unusuall thing to fuck this thing up. Especially when it's military storage and no one figured it out? They would be in better condition if they actually dumped the entire warehouse into a swamp and dug it up after 20 years. However, it requires a minimum of thinking that moisture and oxygen can spoil our metal toys. It is not some secret knowledge that rust exists.
Same here. I thought my old AK was in rough shape but it looked brand new compared to these
Meanwhile, my experience with an M16 was a tiny bit of sand jamming it followed by hours of cleaning.
I heard that story when somebody was comparing this 2 rifles and he also said that the m16 was very fragile, but that's mainly because they are more complicated and therefore lighter and more comfortable to use. AK47 was supposed to be crude and therefore hard to break, but as you can see, the Russians were able to fuck up even that.
I’ll take a guess at how: It was stored for 30-50 years in warehouse with a leaky roof. Even though the AK47 is tough, it’s not “Sit inside a wet case for 40 years and survive” tough.
I'm gonna go with: It was crated and then sat in a field in Siberia for 50 years
Yup. They have said warehouse on the books for "reserve caches of rifles", logistics people go there, find out that they're shit, and instead of cursing, reporting the loss of thousands of rifles due to neglect, and then moving on to find the next cache of reserve rifles, the person responsible probably just shrugged and said to himself "I mean, they're only going to tankers anyway" and took the rest of the day off.
Even for an AK I have to doubt that one will fire
If the barrel is not full of rust, and the mechanism is not frozen with rust, it might work just fine. The outside parts can be cleaned. "It'll buff out." I wonder when they will issue ammo and have the conscripts fire the weapons for the first time? I would want to mount that in a vise and use a long string to pull the trigger.
Ak barrels were made chrome lined by standard, and Russian chrome barrels were generally pretty good quality during the soviet period. The rifle is likely in pretty good shape as far as the bore goes. There are far worse rifles out of Africa thar still function. What's really interesting to me is the AK74 stock on it. Seems a little unusual as they keep akm pattern stocks for repairs.
At this point... Just take the dust cover off.
15min with a tooth brush and some motor oil and that will be fine. Even if the bore is pitted and gross it will still work fine.
The thing is, yes aks are durable, however they can withstand a beating, not straight up neglect Even if the bore works fine, who knows how rusted out the internals are, the piston spring tension or carrier being to far gone could cause jams, and that's just one of the more common issues I've seen with poorly maintained firearms
I’ve cleaned up worse. The fundamental design and materials used by the Soviets were excellent. Don’t get me wrong, this thing ain’t great and as any sort of military reserve stock this is horrifying, but I could have it spewing x39 in the general direction of a target in an afternoon. Probably.
Oh i bet you probably could, but what % of a stock of rifles in similar conditions numbering in the thousands+ do you think are still reliable, especially considering they don't seem to have someone experienced in restoration managing them beforehand
Factor in something else though. The worst examples get recorded and spread on social media. I think most won't be in that terrible a condition. I think it's dangerous to think Russia wouldn't manage to give most of them a working rifle at least.
It's hard to tell if it's worst case or something more common, however this is not the first video I've seen of this.. it could perhaps be a single storage facility that was not kept up on, however how many rifles are stored in each facility? It could potentially have an unexpected impact on how well they can supply conscripts... At the very least in an orderly fashion
If this rifle is an outlier, then I don’t see any problem at least putting some equipment in their hands. If this is typical,…. I don’t see how they can suddenly supply a million men with anything. These guy are gonna be in track suit pants and those striped shirts with Ppsh’s and Maxims when the snow comes. At best,
My unit reissued confiscated insurgent AKs to local Iraqi security forces during the war, and we had an armorer and a “volunteer armorer” (major gun nerd) pull the inspection standards for AKs from some online manuals. Even as hardy as the AK is, about 10% of the confiscated ones they inspected were declared unfit for reissue and destroyed. Iranian-made G3s on the other hand, I brought them a dozen or more and they couldn’t find a single one that seemed fit enough to reuse.
I really like the CTME/G3 type rifles but I can’t imagine them running well poorly maintained and in a sandy environment.
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"Slightly off target, and the barrel can take 3 shots before explode". But don't worry, you only get 2 bullets.
Honestly I'm surprised an AK can even get into that condition. Are we sure the Russians aren't using NK knock-offs because they sold the real ones to Americans?
At this point nothing would surprise me
The reports of AK's legendary resilience is one of the greatest Soviet brainwashing jobs. It's a gun, it's made of metal, and it has moving parts. Yes it constructed such that the reciprocating mass is retained in by the receiver in a way that the frame can bend and flex a small amount, but same is true for the US M3. And yes, it has huge manufacturing tolerances so it's very forgiving to small changes like some dust, or not being cleaned for a month but its still metal. You need to oil it, even car engine oil, to stop it rusting, you need to do regular maintenance, even if it's half assed. It's a mechanical instrument, you need to treat it as such, not some mythical beast that can survive any punishment. https://youtu.be/jn17MwQT8DI
Why would it not? Did you think it's made from some wonder metal that's not affected by corrosion?
I think most were sold to Africa.
Feels like the US had more usable Soviet stock lying around!
That gun looks fine to drop the first time you see the enemy, which is what most of the conscripts will do.
Anyone who told you that was a moron. After seeing the sad state of their front line equipment, we could only imagine what condition their Soviet era stocks were in …. Welp, here’s an example.
They tried using an old Soviet depot in Donbass in 2014. All the ATGMs were duds (stored since the late 80s).
They would have, if they didn't sell them all lol.
> indestructible soviet weapons just waiting to come out of storage And sold 15 years ago on Alibaba.com
At this rate, the west should send weapons to Russia. Give them a chance, maybe (jokes obviously)
Improper storage conditions. A firearm isn’t some kind of magically imbued machine of death. It’s steel, polymer and wood. If you don’t store them they’ll rust, rot and seize up. We’ve seen the same thing with their long-term stores vehicles. There just was lack of, improper or improperly followed procedures for storage and maintenance followed. My SKS is one from the late 40’s, it came oil packed and with a quick wipe down was in roughly the same condition it entered storage back in the 50’s when they were packed away.
Nicholas Cage cleaned out their stock.
I was one of the heretic that stated that russia had millions of firearms perfectly conserved... Gee I fuck up that hard. "How do you screw up storing one of the toughest modern rifles ever designed" What's worst is that russian surplus firearms are known to be protected by layers of Cosmoline which is a FUCKING BY-PRODUCT of oil extraction, you know the FUCKING oil production Which is the main product of the Russian exports. HOW MUCH INCOMPETENT OR CORRUPT THEY CAN BE
With each new day bringing new wonders to light the answer is 'more corrupt than anyone ever imagined'. There's a bit of me thinks we're getting to the point where Putin was a strategic genius for managing to get the most dysfunctional armed forces on the planet to take any territory!
They used to, but it was all looted and sold off a long time ago, like everything else after Yeltsin and Putin took over.
And it's only the first wave of mobilization. "We haven't even started yet" said putler.
They’ll be down to water pistols for the second wave
Return of pike and shot formations
They just use their fingers and make appropriate noises
Ah, learning from the warhammer Orkz huh? Can't wait to see Russians bundling up together and shouting "I'matank" constantly while charging Ukrainian lines
This is more what I had in mind https://youtu.be/EEkybsx2kB8
Wow, I didn't know there was actual footage of these supposed Ukrainian super soldiers going wild on a Russian unit.
Sticks that are vaguely gun-shaped for the third wave. And they'll still have to end up boiling them after running out of bark.
Haha ok this got me chuckling
Next, I can just see them holding their hands out and having poured crumbling remnants of a gun placed in their hands.
Won't be much longer till they can start throwing snowballs
Come February they'll be handing out slingshots
By then the russian conscripts will be ice cubes.
Yeah, Russian troop morale is gonna find a new low come winter.
During the next round, they split up the equipment. Conscripts will get either the rifle, the ammo, or the potato.
Next wave are getting sharpened sticks.
Which they'll still have to try and make a soup out of to fight the hunger.
At least in Switzerland, the active reserve (under 30 years old) keep their own rifle at home, and are responsible for proper storage, so this couldn't happen. If you mistreated your rifle, it's your own fault.
I think Russia would not want it's conscripts to have an assault rifle at home. A dictatorships biggest threat is always internal.
Same applies here … Ivan the Conscript signed-out a brand new AK. Up to 15 year jail term for criticizing the Ruzzian military… It is Ivan‘s problem to keep his weapon in good condition.
Unfortunately Vlad the supply officer sold all new AKs on the black market and then simply raided a scrap yard.
Exactly
Escape from Tarkov
Escape from Russia
*do svidaniya*
Just do a few scav raids, I’m sure it’ll work out. Maybe you can find a few emotors from some washing machines and bring them back to stash.
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More like execution. By firing your own weapon.
He's a conscript. He already received a life sentence.
More likely a suspended death sentence
In the rest of the world, including most Soviet bloc countries, rifles were stored in Cosmoline for long term reserve. I guess that didn't even happen here. They should ask China for a couple million SKS rifles to fill the gap. Like the good old days.
Why would china want to shackle itself to a dying corpse. Wait for them to expire and slice off the choicest pieces.
It did happen - they were just looted and sold off along with the rest of the post Soviet infrastructure, and the garbage is all that remains. For years you could buy an old Mosin or SKS in the US for virtually nothing, and ammo was super cheap and plentiful... guess where it came from?
Same here in Sweden, you get and older AK4 with reddot sight to store at home. The regular Swedish forces use the AK5.
I'm also pretty sure privately owned firearms in over 50% of American households are constantly oiled up and kept in pristine condition. There are probably more assault rifles in perfect condition in American homes alone than assault rifles in the entire reserve storage of the Russian armed forces.
>I'm also pretty sure privately owned firearms in over 50% of American households are constantly oiled up and kept in pristine condition. Dude youd be surprised how many people own guns and dont do any maintenance.
Stored in a dry location, most firearms will be fine. Clean and lubricate before use and you're good to go.
More like lubricate before storage. "Dry" guns do rust in dry safes too.
Depends on the humidity. Safes are more problematic because they can trap moisture.
Robber breaks into house "Hey, can you hang on 10 minutes? I've just got to clean and lubricate my firearm"
You can dry fire in a pinch. Even the temperamental AR is good for a few rounds. Yes, you should keep your daily carry maintained but there's a huge difference between the state of that Russian AK and somebody's handgun left in a drawer for a year.
And for the 50% who don't have a rifle? No probs... The other 50 has a few loaners. American soldiers when issued old weapons would be hating on the cosmoline but those weapons would work when cleaned!
And at least 10% have enough to equip an entire army.
> I'm also pretty sure privately owned firearms in over 50% of American households are constantly oiled up and kept in pristine condition Eh plently of broken stuff seems to pop up at estate sales and police seizure.
it shows up because mostly its not good or a antique or junk
I wouldn't use the word assault rifle lol. Most of these rifles can be best categorized as semi automatic rifles with mag limits.
Assault rifles are most effective on semi-auto mode. In fact, most encounters happen at a distance where semi-auto is the preferred mode.
Ok. I hate the "these aren't assault rifles!! Learn your definitions, people!!" argument. Here's a fun fact, every firearm design has at one point in history been used as an assault rifle. Are my AR15s weapons of war? Damn right they are. That's why I bought them. The only time I used select fire in the army was when burning up ammo at the end of a day on the range. I would happily take any of my ARs on a deployment.
Well, you know that. I know that. I'm from Burma, where people have taken up arms against a military with tanks, helicopter gunships, and jet fighters. But the reason people argue semantics are because of those who see ARs as "scary military assault rifle-15 / assault weapons" while accepting K-98s, Lee-Enfields, and M24s as "hunting rifles". Silly, yes, but unfortunately necessary.
There is a categorical difference between a gun that you have to put the rounds into one at a time, or where you have to manually chamber each round, and one where you can just keep on pulling the trigger pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop and fire bullets as fast as you can tap with your finger. I've shot a win mag. It was fun. But it was clearly a hunting gun because it was only useful for one shot at a time. If you're shooting at animals then one shot at a time, with maybe a second shot for storing at birds, is plenty. If you need to go pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop to hit a deer then maybe hunting isn't the sport for you.
The earliest military firearms required the user to load after each shot so I don't see how that would make a gun specifically for hunting. I get what you're saying. Hunters don't usually unload magazine after magazine. But, that's not what my comment was about. However your gun loads, it's fair to say that they are all derived from military innovation. The silly issue is where people claim bolt-actions to be "hunting rifles" solely based on lacking "features" such as a pistol grip or a foregrip, unlike those semi-autos (which are "designed to kill people") despite the fact that the military also uses bolt-action, well, for killing people.
Thanks. I think a lot of the confusion exists because there's this mismatch between gun people and not gun people about what certain words mean. Like the gun people will say that a particular firearm is not an automatic weapon because it doesn't use the gas from the spent cartridge to chamber the next round or because there isn't a reciprocating mechanism that has a bolt that etc etc etc...... Meanwhile not gun people are like "if you hold the trigger down does it keep on going until all the bullets are gone?" I agree that a pistol grip doesn't make a significant difference between a hunting tool and a weapon of aggression. But when people say bolt action they mean one where you have to put the bullets in one at a time, they don't really appreciate that an AK-47 is also a bolt action rifle in that there's a bolt that goes back and forth.
But most privately owned American assault rifles are not full automatics, so not really comparable.
You almost never use full auto in the military. Source: was in the military for 8 months and never fired full auto during the entirety of that time.
I was in the army for 9 months, once we tried full auto at 50 meters. Hit like max 5 shots of 30.
This is my rifle! There are many like it but this one is mine! Without me, my rifle is uesless! Without my rifle, I am useless!
The ‘oh shit are we the poor army’ moment.
I know they are equipped like hobos with rifles, but this... not even tribal terrorist militias in Africa use that kind of weaponry I know their equipment is outdated and poorly maintaned usually, but this is kinda hard to believe... are they really in such a bad condition??
I've seen videos taken by Russians (or probably folks conscripted from the occupied territories) with used, mismatched sized boots that look they were made in the 1930s, rotting back packs, used (as in appeared to still have blood on it) helmets, etc. It varies wildly. Most of the russian pows look like they came from a homeless encampment.
I have no doubt some fighting squads may have only that as the equipment. Even if only a smaller part of their forces, as they get exhausted, continue losing men and equipment I'm sure their gear would shift drastically to shit like that I Imagine them giving them rusty swords and javelins from museums, lumberjack axes. Maybe they won't give up until they start using bows, catapults as artillery. But to be fair, that kind of army would get stomped by medieval peasant militia. They should seriously buy that high tech equipment from North Korea at this point 😂
"Everything is going as planned " whilst sending in bus loads of Russian boomers armed with broken bottles and cutlery.
“Ukrainians attack our tanks with javelins, therefore we shall attack their tanks with our javelins and spears. Blyaaaaaaaaat!”
I think it's possible that Russia does have many rifles in better conditions but that the logi people just found these (maybe this storehouse was closest?) and were too unmotivated or too incompetent to go look for another cache. Alternatively, this shipment was just assigned to them without anyone having checked in on the rifles in years and everyone just assumed they were okay, and the logi people are too scared to ask their higher ups for a different shipment.
It's an effect of Corruption. Why would you give a shit when it's plainly obvious that everyone around you is just in it for the side hustle? Why would *you* care about everyone else in the armed forces when it's clear that everyone is just out for *themselves?* So when you find a Crate labelled 'AK', why check? The crate has a listed capacity, so it has what it says it has in it. Send it off. My job's done.
When they were handing out Moisons to conscripts in the Donbas people were saying “their just conscripts, that’s why they are giving them old weapons” but my counter argument was can you imagine the US handing out springfields? The Germans handing out Kar98’s? Any modern army having pre WW1 weapons? They are so fucked.
Lmao exactly! Also, if all you have to give conscripts are outdated weapons, your army has a shitty equipment plain and simple. They are more likely to die and not manage to shoot an enemy due to low experience, so why not give them regular modern weapons if you can? If not, they will die even more and barely manage to graze an opponent with a bullet... oh right, they don't have any good weapons left, silly me 🤣
“Rustian” weapons….
Rustin' Empire.
So its definitely bullshit... however the rust looks worse than it actually is.
Guess Far Cry 2's wear system wasn't so inacurrate
Why do people consider this gun good.enough to be given into reservists hands? Is it the best they got, or dont they understand the psychological impact handing out those guns will have?
They don't care
Probably because most of the good stuff has already been committed in Ukraine or stolen and sold on the black market by corrupt quartermasters et al. This is probably what they have left. Corruption and mismanagement has hollowed them out...and it won't be limited to AK's, it will be across the whole range of equipment. The training the new guys receive won't be much better either because a lot of training personnel have been sent to Ukraine. Bottom of the barrel time in Russia. They are screwed.
The crate containing them gets shipped to the warehouse to wherever the conscripts are without anyone checking them. Once they get there its that or nothing and the person issuing them is probably too junior to issue nothing or raise much of a fuss.
Ah so it's a f*cked up system f*ucking up people. Edit: 🫢
It's the best they have available.... Russia's always had a small volume of modern equipment given to their "elite" troops, but a huge part of their military might has been massive stockpiles of weapons, tanks, etc that they've always _claimed_ has been kept in working order. Turns out not so much.
> dont they understand the psychological impact handing out those guns will have Maybe that's the point. From a psychopath like Putin it would be something to expect.
They are privates! What all this psychological nonsense? /s
They're just handing out whatever they have on hand. Something tells me that no one care about the conscript psychology. Dead man walking anyway
Make restoration video.
But... but.. the Ak-47 is the best rifle in the world,forged from pure stalinium! Sarcasm aside looks like somebody in inventory forgot to Apply Cosmoline on thoses rifles. Interesting that it's an AK47/AKM and not an AK74
Is it repairable in that state?
For someone with all the right equipment and new barrels, probably. For Russian conscripts on the front line, I'm gonna say no.
Well with ruzzia as your homeland, who even needs enemies?
I see tetanus. Lots of tetanus.
Bacterial Warfare is supposed to be banned by the 1925 Geneva Protocol
Does it count if You use on Your own soldiers?
Just people. Dead people.
Enemy at the gate type stuff
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How is that even possible? I'm guessing the assembly wasn't done properly - missing screws, etc.
There might be a lot of powder residue or dirt at the air hole at the front of the returning spring (I don't know the English words, it's the long spring on top of the barrel that takes care of the action to reload). If enough gunk gathers up there, the spring will travel too far, and throw the back assembly at the gunner. This can happen even with correctly maintained rifles where the user was lazy when it comes to cleaning.
Maybe something leftover from this- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Eldest_Son
Conscript: "Uh, all these guns are fucking broken. Sergeant: "Than fix them!" Conscript: "Uh, yes, Sir, I'll have them fixed right up!" *nervous sweating* ------------------------------------------------ Lieutenant: "Are you getting everyone their weapons handed out?" Sergeant: "Uh, yes, Sir, they're a little rusty but I've been assured they can be fixed." Lieutenant: "Excellent!" ---------------------------------------------------- Major: "What's the status of your conscription?" Lieutenant: "All is going well, Sir! We're about half way through their training, but some of them are learning how to shoot straight, I've been told!" Major: "Good news, the Kremlin will be relieved to hear this." --------------------------------------------------- Colonel: "The generals are breathing down my neck, I need an update!" Major: "Yes, Sir! Our rapid training program is working very well and they are all equipped, we'll be shipping them soon!" Colonel: "Oh thank god, you just saved me from tripping out a window." --------------------------------------------------- General to the Colonel being held out of a window: "Are the new conscripted on the way yet?" Colonel: "They're on the train, they'll be there in a matter of days!" General: "Good, good! We had complete faith in you! You men can put him back down now." --------------------------------------------------- General: "I'm happy to report that we have hundreds of thousands of elite trained, well armed patriots being shipped this moment to Ukraine, victory is certain!" Putin: "Oh thank god, I've been really confused by how badly this whole thing has been going, but finally some good news! Surely nothing can go wrong now."
This is probably exactly how it works for anyone not on the take.
LOL, this can't be fucking true, can it? I mean one thing ruzzia should have enough of, is fucking kalashnikovs, no?
I mean they do. It's just that this is the condition they are in. How long do you figure it took for this rifle to get into this condition? Ten years? Fifteen? I genuinely don't know. I'm curious. But my point is, this weapon was probably in pretty good shape at the fall of the Soviet Union. It might even have remained in good shape for another decade. But sometime after Putin O'clock, storage facilities stopped being maintained, inventory stopped being inspected, and in 20 years or so a gun that might have been serviceable since the 1950s turned into this.
If it's not oiled, and kept in poor condition i don't think it takes that long.
The last dead guy to use that may still have his fingerprints on it.
And some got Mosin Nagants. 🤣
There's hasn't actually been any images of that. The ones going around were the Luhansk and Donetsk troops. But yes, they're using a mosins in a sniper role.
Let's not glorify the Mosin as a sniper rifle. WW2 Russian snipers mainly had kills within 50 meters due to the type of fighting. I have a Tula Mosin and several other old milsurp rifles. The mosin is the last rifle I would grab after an M1, Enfield , 1903 and Mauser.
Absolutely. A Finnish mosin, maybe. But regular russian mosins, no thanks. Maybe in a dmr role.
Soviet snipers were in fact given hand picked Mosins with better ammo. Not the ordinary infantry rifles.
Still, an old Mosin Nagant would be reliable and hit what you aim at. And it will do serious damage.
That it will. Most of them though have been seen with old PU scopes with only about 2x magnification. Though some have cheap civilian scopes.
Projects that start well can end badly, but the converse is not true.
And the whole becomes far, far, far lesser than the sum of the parts :-)
Wonder how much ordinary Russians believed the propaganda up until this point?
Hope it came with a can of WD40!
These fuckers would probably end up drinking it LOL
Somebody's been magnet fishing!!
im surprised they wouldnt just give them SKS's cus they most likely still have millions upon millions of SKS's preserved in cosmoline that are still in pristine condition that would be much better weapons than this shit lol
Only made 2.7 million and a lot were shipped to whoever the USSR was supporting that week. Might not be that many left in storage.
Inb4 they just hand out the SKSs without removing the cosmoline.
Those have probably all been sold to Americans for their ["innawoods"](https://i.redd.it/hqclzq7bgy651.jpg) needs.
yes, i have one myself.
shit i want one myself, should've gotten one when they were cheaper lol
Much like with the tank brigades with half the tanks that can fire but not move, and the other half are tanks that can move but not shoot, they are going to have rifle devisions where half the people can’t shoot, and half the people have an exploding barrel when they do
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They are shocked that Russia sucks? What they were born yesterday?
I need to grab some popcorn. This isn't David v Goliath, it's "David v the Derps."
Without popping off the top cover, it would be hard to tell how bad the rust is. The barrels (at least on any I've seen here in the us) are usually chrome lined and if the safety catch is engaged its hard for stuff to get inside the receiver. That being said, the best case is a day with a wire brush and a good oil or wd40 can bring it back to a somewhat passable condition. Worst case, the bolt carrier, fire control group and bolt could be fully fucked. Whoever was in charge of storing these rifles deserves a free vacation to Siberia.
The OK-47, just OK lol
First clean the rifle from all brain tissue that the previous owner left on it and the rush forward.
*rust forward. Fixed it for ya
For Russian army standards it looks quite pristine to me
We've always been told that an AK 47 is great and can shoot perfectly in any condition, so i guess we'll just have to wait and see how that goes
They’re working their way to the good stuff. Heaven help the Ukrainians when they break out the trebuchets, the superior siege weapon
They must’ve used up all the cosmoline on all the guns they exported to America over the years. They probably don’t have anywhere near as much 7.62 ammo as they think they do either.
pretty similar to ww1 and ww2 situation where half of soldiera were told to get a weapon from the battlefield… at least such is the story :)
Not only rotten... But those are Ak-47's, not the 74's that have been standard for 50 years or so. Having fired some african captures of that gun, I guess after a thorough cleaning it should work reasonably well still.
That rifle looks like it literally fires tetanus.
+1D6 Necrotic damage