AR or AK, feeding the hungry...
 

So I have been building a custom AR lower and I'm almost ready to purchase the upper and finish it. My issue is for less than my upper I can buy a complete AK, furthermore the price of ammo is about half, I could shoot an AK all day and not care about how much I just spent! For the $700-$800 range what would you guys recommend, my friendly local gun store has a CIA for $639. It seems the only thing on an AK that costs more is the mags. Lastly, anyone have an opinion on AK74's?

I have a pair of SKS's. I hunted with one of them for two seasons. It killed deer. But most of the deer I shot required the aid of a dog to recover the deer. Some of the deer I shot with the SKS were hit in the shoulder blade. The bullet passed through both shoulder blades. I still needed a dog to find the deer. If I had shot those deer with a larger caliber they would have been down on the spot.

Both the 5.56x45 and the 7.62x39 will kill a deer. Neither is an ideal round for deer hunting. They both are OK for SHTF situations. In such desperate situations any gun will do.

I wouldn't say ammo is cheaper for the Ak if u just wanna shoot run steel cased ammo thru it . It runs about $5 a box for both calibers. Get it built then save up for the AK. they're say in a shtf scenario you should have both. I always buy some ammo for the caliber I'm looking to buy. Every time I get in the ammo safe it's up front telling me I need that caliber.
my next one will be a AK but I have plenty of ARs to go around and ammo stocked up for it already ;)

AK74s are great all the accuracy & less recoil than the .223 ARs.
I like the 5.45 round so much I bought an upper of that cal.for my AR so now my AR & AK shoots the same round for only about .11 to .12 cents per round.;)

I did the same thing when I built my ar. Already had an ak47 so I got a model 1 7.62 upper for the ar to make the bulk ammo purchase simpler.

You could buy one of these uppers & shoot all day long for the same price as if you were shooting an AK.

http://www.usarmorycorps.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&category_id=6& flypage=Uppers_flypage.tpl&product_id=92&option=co m_virtuemart&Itemid=53

Let me start by saying I love ak's. they are the number one assault rifle in the world for a reason. However I am not a big fan of really small calibers. The ak74 round was designed around the idea of shooting a small projectile really fast to pierce body armor. Not good for hunting. Unless your hunting body armor. With that said every caliber has a "purpose" or effective use. So unless you are just slinging lead and don't care, think about what you want to use it for.

Maybe a better name for this type of weapon than "AW" might be Semi -Auto or Auto Rifle, some of us here are a bit anal about the "AW" word.

The entire AK lineup was also designed around a couple/ few other than non ballistic characteristics. Cheap, easy and fast to build, as loose as a $5 W%ore and the ability to swap parts like a Chevy Nova. Only weapon you can literally throw into a mud-pond and have a likelihood of it still firing without a thorough cleaning. Its certainly not the most accurate weapon Ive ever fired but Ive only fired stock weapons, not build ups.

They are fun to fire and probably still can get some cheap chi-com ammo for it. Great SHTF weapon cause parts and such can be made on a simple lathe by a machinist but unless you burn it up, its likely gonna stay working with very little maint.

I dont have either, Ive had my share of both and prefer a shotgun over all of them but if I wanted a Target Sport Weapon, the AR would be my choice. If I wanted to throw endless lead in the worst of conditions, give me an AK anytime...

I agree with the term not being very well liked and will do my best to refer to it semi auto rifle. Im not here to offend but the rifle is what it is. I own one shot gun,4 ak variants,2ar15,1sg43 semi auto belt fed in 7.62x54,m1a,semi auto 1919 .308 belt fed and more pistols than I have fingers and toes. I am a machinist by trade and have fully machined my own ar15 lowers. I would prefer any military based weapon over a wall-mart special any day. Ar15's are a very nice rifle but perhaps that is there flaw. There are a tight tolerance platform

The AK74 is good for prairie dogs, squirrels, & coyotes as long as you are not right on top of them when you pull the trigger.