The AR-15 is basically a semi auto version of the M16. So does the AK-47 have a legal semi auto version that has the same appearance and uses the same rounds except is semi auto instead of fully automatic? If so what is the name for it?
I’ve only ever seen both the military and civilian version called an AK-47.
Depends on Country of manufacture and what they call it there. Lot of times they’ll be referred to as “AK pattern” rifles. Years ago I had an Egyptian made one by Maadi, they gave it the name “A.R.M.” I currently have a Romanian one called “WASR 10/63.”
Tangent: AIUI, what we call AK-47s are really AKMs.
I had a Maadi back in the '80s. How does the Romanian one compare to the Maadi?
There are legal (which ones legal where depends on state law in the US) semi-auto versions of the AK. They have no single name.
But just to clarify, AR-15 does not really mean semi-auto version of the M16. The original semi/full weapon adopted by the US armed forces was designated by its designer/manufacturer AR-15. In fact when first adopted by the USAF in 1962 its military designation was ‘Rifle, AR-15’. The Army applied the ‘M’ series designation M16 to the same gun in 1964 after having also previously using it in trial quantities in Vietnam under the moniker AR-15. The same year Colt first marketed a semi-auto version with the mouthful of a designation ‘Model R6000 Colt AR-15 SP1 Sporter Rifle’. Since then it has become common to use the term AR-15 to refer to civilian semi-auto versions of the M16 family, but it’s not actually quite right.
The “generic” for a sporterized version of the AK series I suppose would be “a Kalashnikov semiautomatic”.
As mentioned above, the M16 and derivatives are military versions of a greater AR15-derivative family of weapons. AR-15 itself is a trademark of Colt; but people use “AR15” colloquially as we use “PC compatible” to refer to weapons that are based upon that Armalite/Stoner design.
The Avtomat Kalashnikova family of weapons is an extensive one, of which AK47 was the first model adopted by the Soviet military and most of what we see around the works are really AKMs and variants thereof. But again, people thus use “AK47” colloquially to refer to virtually any weapon made after the Kalashnikov design (or, if you’re not particularly familiar with weapons, that even remotely looks that way).
The terms in general conversation are simply “AR” or “AK”. No numbers. That’s it. No numbers, No “variant” or “clone” modifier; just simply AR or AK. Everyone knows what you’re talking about if you say that.
The MAK-90 is a semi-auto version of the AK-47 without the flash suppressor, pistol-grip stock and bayonet. It has a funny-looking stock with a thumb-hole.
'bout the same. both are stamped receiver, and the build quality of both can best be described as “approximate.” the Maadi I had was an AWB-compliant one, so it had a silly thumbhole stock and welded ring on the muzzle to prevent installation of a flash hider or muzzle brake.
The rifle was originally developed by Armalite as the AR-10 chambered in .308 Winchester/7.62x51. They designed it as part of a bidding process for the US military, which went with the Garand-based M14 instead. When they were looking for an M-14 replacement, the AR-10 design was scaled down for .223 Remington/5.56 NATO and called the AR-15. When the US military fully adopted it they gave it it’s “M” designations as the M16 and M4 carbine.
“AR” supposedly is an abbreviation for either “Armalite” or “Armalite Rifle.” Colt kept the “AR” nomenclature when they bought the design from Armalite.
The AR-15 was indeed a scaled down version of the AR-10, the first prototype of which was in .30 caliber actually though all subsequent ones in 7.62 NATO. But it’s questionable IMO to speak of the AR-15 and original AR-10 was ‘the rifle’ since they have no parts in common (in contrast to 7.62mm NATO members of the family decades later which are sometimes called AR-10 but use many M16 components, like the SR-25).
And the AR-10 was an independent development Fairchild Aviation (which owned Armalite at the time) hoped to sell, not actually part of any bidding process. They managed to get Continental Army Command interested and gained a demonstration in 1955 followed by a directive to ‘test the military potential’ but which just demonstrated over 1956-7 that the AR-10 was not a mature design yet and anyway Ordnance had intended to adopt the M1 derived T44 all along and did so, as M14, in 1957.
Likewise the AR-15 was sold to the US military through persistence in the absence of any stated requirement, though eventually Fairchild gave up and Colt ended up with rights to the design by the time it succeeded. I don’t know what you mean exactly by ‘fully adopted’. The M16 wasn’t officially designated the Army’s standard rifle till 1969. OTOH as mentioned the USAF was allowed to ‘fully adopt’ the gun in 1962 (after trying since the late '50’s) still carrying the designation ‘Rifle, AR-15’. The designation M16 first appeared at the end of 1963, after the Army was already using AR-15’s, called that, under Project Agile in Vietnam. Even after, official documents still sometimes called the weapon ‘AR-15/M16’.
Which is to repeat my actual point: AR-15 does not really mean civilian semi-auto version of the M16. Rather, as JRDelirious put it more succinctly, AR-15 means the progenitor of a whole family of weapons; military such as the M16 series and the much more recent M4 carbine, and others (Diemaco C7, Colt LSW light machine gun, USN Mk.12 sniper rifle, HK416/M27, etc); myriad civilian semi-auto weapons and semi/full auto law enforcement weapons that aren’t just military standard.
To the very casual observer, the differences would be lost between an AK-47 and an SKS.
