For whoever asked about the SW760, yes, it is a domestic version (made by Smith and Wesson), of the Carl Gustav SMG, popularly known as the "Swedish
K".
I do not find anything surprising about US GIs taking AKs off of the enemy. My father did so in VietNam, along with half his unit.
The AK is a bulky, somewhat cumbersome weapon, and not exactly blessed with accuracy, but it has one attribute that the AR-15/M-16 seems to be
missing... when you load a clip, point it downrange and pull the trigger, it goes BANG, each and every time.
A lot of people like to say that the M-16 is "battle proven".... ummm yeah. I do know that when Jessica Lynches unit was ambushed, by the time it
was all over EVERY SINGLE M-16 IN THE UNIT HAD FAILED OR MALFUNCTIONED, AND AT LEAST 3 DIFFERENT SOLDIERS HAD RESORTED TO INDIVIDUALLY LOADING SINGLE
ROUNDS INTO THE CHAMBER BECAUSE IT WOULD NOT FEED FROM THE MAGAZINE.
Not exactly a glowing endorsement of the M-16s reliability.
I have had experience with both the AR and AK, and to be frank, Im not all that impressed with either of them, but for different reasons.
For the AR, besides the absolutely horrendous reliability issues (which in my book completely shoots it down from consideration for anything other
than a plinker, but then, thats what you get when you design a rifle by committee), the caliber 5.56mm/.223 is next to worthless in my opinion. It is
nothing more than a little .22 bullet that gets all its magic from its extremely high muzzle velocity. There is not enough bullet weight or sectional
density to decidedly settle a serious situation, it lacks penetration, and is easily deflected by any possible obstructions.
Also, considering that the high muzzle velocity is the ONLY hope the 5.56mm has, consider that the newest fad in the AR family are the new shorty
carbines, epitomized by the M4 carbine with a 14" barrel. What a lot of people dont understand is that when you chop that much barrel off, you are
dropping your muzzle velocity to the point that you are now shooting the equivalent of a .22 Hornet, just a step above the .22 rimfire magnum. Do you
want to trust you life to a rimfire pistol round?
(If any wish to dispute this, I will be more than happy to quote ballistics facts to back this assertion up)
The AK has 2 major advantages over the AR... it works, flawlessly (so, 100% preference in my mind over the AR), and, although its not exactly a true
powerhouse, it does have a good bit more impact energy than the 5.56mm. However, (and I say this from personal experience) the AK is not a
particularly accurate weapon. For the average military marksmen (ok, biting my tongue here), it will generate hits on a man sized target to 100
meters, and if you have a true Rifleman, with an above average grade AK, you can probably extend that effective range to 200 meters or so.
In terms of rifle performance, that is lackluster accuracy to be sure, but its still 2 steps above the AR!
For my money, I prefer a REAL rifle:
For the same weight as an AK, I can get 2.5x the impact energy and penetration, and about 3x the effective range....
My advice, get a real gun...