Having fired both weapons I would concur. The Kalashnikov family of assault rifles and carbines are not high grade sniper weapons to be certain, but the accuracy is more than sufficient for infantry battlefield use. Furthermore, the weapon is cheap to manufacture, easy to maintain in the field, and robust in adverse conditions ranging from desert sand to arctic sleet and snow; the loose tolerances of the weapon and a design tolerant of contamination result in a weapon of superior reliability. Contrasted with the Armalite AR-10 and AR-15 pattern rifles using direct gas impingement to cycle the weapon (resulting in contamination problems in real-world conditions that continue to plague this system today), the AK-XXX family of rifles enjoys a much better reputation as a true infantryman’s rifle, and it has been widely cloned and otherwise had many of its innovative features copied on other notable rifles.
As for the question of the o.p., the tape is most likely for marking the magazine; these people won’t have ready access to spare mags and magazine theft is probably a chronic problem. MarcusF is correct about the inadvisability of taping magazines ‘head to toe’: it is too easy to bang down on the magazine bending a lip and rendering the magazine useless, or getting grit or water in the magazine. I’ve seen some magazines designed to be clipped together facing the same direction so that to switch you pull the mag and then just shift it over. Generally speaking, however, it is better to carry your mags protected in a pouch mounted on a load carrying harness, keeping the weapon profile clean from snagging and as light as possible.
The AK-series has adequate accuracy for infantry use. IME, the things limiting AK accuracy are
Ammo isn’t held to the tight specs and standards that we in the US are used to. A lot of the Eastern Bloc surplus ammo I’ve used was, frankly, crap and not good for much beyond happy fun time blasting. The stuff they use in places like Liberia wasn’t any better to start with and suffered further degradation from poor storage, I’ll wager.
Short sight radius.
Crummy sights. You’d be surprised how much an AK improves just by adding an aftermarket peep sight or using the Kobra optical sight.
Underfolder stocks aren’t stable. Side folders are a little better. None of the metal stocks are comfortable.
Even though the barrels of many AK variants are chrome lined, constant full-auto hosing, like the Liberian irregulars are doing, erodes the bore more quickly than disciplined firing.
I’ve been privileged to see how the AK performs when handled by trained personnel from Ukraine, Belorussia, Georgia, and Poland. Many American shooters believe that the AK is inaccurate and that Soviet soldiers were"illiterate conscripts" who knew nothing but spray 'n pray. Neither is true. A trained soldier with an AK will have no trouble killing you at realistic combat ranges. At somewhat longer ranges, the Soviets had a man in each squad with an SVD to make your life miserable.
Yeah, that’s a pretty good clue too. I don’t think you could get a photo like that on semi-auto, unless the first case is falling from a high arc while the second is rising, and even then, don’t know. No doubt it’s full auto firing though.