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Well if you don't want AK style then your only real choice is the RPD!

Fedaykin wrote:Well if you don't want AK style then your only real choice is the RPD!

If we're getting into the realms of fantasy ownership... Then I raise you SiG 550.

fantasy ownership?

To be fair I'd quite fancy a straight-pull RPD....or a PKM for that matter!.

I know it would never be the same as them being FA but imagine the looks you'd get at the range as you put a belt in and cocked it!

The main Achilles heel for the RPD is its fixed non interchangeable barrel which means it can maintain a sustained rate of fire no better than an AK without burning the barrel out which is why it was retired from front line Soviet service in favour of the RPK.

Ironically the Russians had built a family of weapons around the M43 cartridge:

Sub Machine Gun: AK47
Rifle: SKS
Machine Gun: RPD

In the end they had to go back to a mixed cartridge family of weapons:

Assault Rifle: AKM
Squad Light Machine Gun: RPK
Designated Marksman Rifle: SVD
General Purpose Machine Gun: PK

Fedaykin wrote:The main Achilles heel for the RPD is its fixed non interchangeable barrel which means it can maintain a sustained rate of fire no better than an AK without burning the barrel out which is why it was retired from front line Soviet service in favour of the RPK.

Ironically the Russians had built a family of weapons around the M43 cartridge:

Sub Machine Gun: AK47
Rifle: SKS
Machine Gun: RPD

In the end they had to go back to a mixed cartridge family of weapons:

Assault Rifle: AKM
Squad Light Machine Gun: RPK
Designated Marksman Rifle: SVD
General Purpose Machine Gun: PK

If you take the AKM and RPK and the PK/PKM and SVD that's only two cartridges, both the PKM and SVD were chambered in 54r by necessity as the 7.62x39 round is only effective out to 300-400m and this was also one of the main reasons the RPD was replaced.The SKS was pretty much obsolete as soon as it was adopted for service due to the introduction of the Avtomat Kalashnikova

Later on they'd throw 5.45x39, 9x39 and 12.7x108 etc into the mix

The ones that spring to mind are the Cz 527 and the AIA M10.
I own & shoot a AIA and it is nice but after trying in Czech Rep a 527, I realized I should have got the later ...
BTW, the Bren2 is now chambered in 7,62x39 but I doubt you'll ever get that one in the UK ...

I'd say AK......but only if you could have a "proper" one.

Pete

Pete wrote:I'd say AK......but only if you could have a "proper" one.

Pete

What's your definition of a "proper" one?

+1 for the Howa. I am about to buy one myself in .300 Blackout.