brian10x said:
A question for the AK experts out there.
It is my understanding that the first AK-47 was stamped steel, but production problems forced the Soviets to change to a milled receiver.
PLEASE, correct me if I'm wrong. I want to be smart.
The AK design was based, since inception, on a 1mm stamped receiver, yet the soviets produced AK variants around three families of receivers. If you teach yourself to recognize them (and the two types of gas blocks) you'll be able to tell most AK variants at a glance.
The three soviet receiver types were developed as follows:
-Stamped 1mm
-Milled
-Stamped 1.5mm
Focusing on Soviet production variants only, the first AK produced was the Type 1, which used a stamped 1mm receiver (as originally designed and prototyped by Kalashnikov and as accepted by the soviet ministry of defence). The Type 1 was in production for about two years but soviet stamped metal industrial production at the time was in its infancy and they were scrapping too many receivers. As such, it was decided to temporarily abandon stamped manufacture until a proper industrial process could be developed and, in 1951, they started to manufacture the milled receiver around which they built the AK Type 2. This could solve the mass manufacturing problem (they could easily drop forge and heat treat a receiver based on technology developed for the RPD during the war). Even if a milled receiver went counter the original AK design principle (heavy, slow and wasteful to manufacture), it was not as wasteful as the Type 1 stamped receiver once scrapping losses were factored-in. The type 2 was manufactured for a couple of years. The stamped receiver production line was slow to come on board so the milled receiver was refined a bit and put in the type 3, which took the AK platform to 1959 when the 1mm stamped receiver AKM was finally born. A 1.5mm version of that receiver would then follow, to be used in the RPK (and later in commercial/export AK variants such as Saigas, Veprs, etc.).
Alternating political tensions within the Warsaw pact, coupled with the fact the USSR didn't really believe in subsidizing military production in satellite countries, meant that most eastern block countries had to go through the same process as the Russians and independently acquire the scale/knowledge of heat treating and other processes required to achieve reliable 1mm stamped receiver production. As a result, some just stuck with forged or 1,5mm receivers for much longer and that's where you get the variety in offerings once you factor in non-Russian production.
When the American civilian market became a significant outlet, some of the heavier receivers were used commercial lines based on premium positioning (heavier can be perceived as higher quality, particularly among those who don't actually use the rifle in their line of work) or other marketing considerations.
This notwithstanding, the AK was designed around a stamped receiver. For as many claims that AK is a copy of the STG (mechanically it actually copies the Garand), this is the one technology that is truly taken from the STG. The soviets saw the RPD as slow to produce and too heavy. When they looked at the STG they saw a rifle that could not practically have been made if it wasn't for stamped steel (handle one and you'll agree)*. The ministry of defense actually cited this specific feature ahead of the trials and all the main rivals of the AK at the competitive test were also based on stamped steel technology.
*The RPD and the STG had essentially the same firepower (both fired an intermediate cartrige at a similar cadence of fire and neither could replace a barrel in combat) but the RPD could only be set up as a squad weapon due to its much larger weight.
