Splendid Isolation

A couple days ago, I made this statement:

Peter’s thoughts about maintaining your battle rifle are also why I prefer the AK-47 over the AR-15:  throw an AK in the mud, drop it off the back of a truck, and it’ll still shoot.  Good luck doing that with your AR-15, with all its electronic doodads and plastic furniture.

…prompting this response from Reader Amos:

“I have no real world experience, but Karl’s and Ian’s mud tests at InRangeTV dispute that AR/AK assessment.”

Purely coincidentally, a few days before that Longtime Friend & Reader JohnC had sent me this pic:

Frankly, I don’t believe the pic, myself — but even if an exaggeration, it’s probably not too far from the truth [/Dan Rather].  I’ve seen AKs in absolutely shocking condition that were still perfectly operable, and I bet that many Vietnam- and Sandbox vets would probably back me up.  Feel free to disagree with my original statement, however.

From Reader Martin M:

On your recent subject of rifle work during free time, here’s mine.  A Savage .22/.410, it was my dad’s Christmas present in 1940.  He decorated the stock with rivets while working on a fire lookout in high school.  The stock got old and oil-soaked, so I replaced it.  I had to fit and finish the stock from a blank.  This is how it came out:

Oh, that’s lovely.  And from scratch?  Even better.

I love those old Savage .22 single-shot rifles, and the .22/.410 combo even more so.  As a knockaround gun for a kid to play with while out in the fields and woods, it’s incomparable.