I hate being a know it all...but theres a lot of misinformation being thrown around becaue of what one sees on the history channel. From extensive experience, the AK is just as capable of failure if used by idiots who dont maintain their rifles. I literally got back from training Afghans four weeks ago. You know whats among the most reliable weapons in such places with widespread disrespect of basic rifleman maintenence and cleaning? Lee Enfields.

AFghan Army are armed with M16s. Thier level of jamming decreases with training, and is on par with those with AKs, that the national police are largely armed with. Reliability ismore tied to training than the weapon when it comes to between ak/m16.

As for a forward assist...you realize the ak's forward assist is the fixed charging handle right? The ar15 has a separate one because its charging handle it non reciprocating. Again, from psonal experience, the "forrward assist" is used by untrained riflemen in firefights because they dont know how to clean weapons...I have seen guys kick the Ak handle to chamber or extract. If youve been in the Army, you remember SPORTS, the fwd assist for the m16 is one of those things that is not needed, but for super redundancy. I make no claims to have been in Vietnam...but theM4 is a rock solid weapon. Ive never fired an m16a1 in combat, but i have trained with them. I can tell you reliabilty variables lie with Blanks/bfas, magazines, and (from second hand reading) the different cartridges and terrible training issues they had when the a1 ws first fielded...fifty years ago. Its a different world. Unscientific survey, again, 90% of ftf in the Ar15 is user lack of maintenence. Theres a reason such problems are more widespread (read: virtually confined to) the non-combat personnel...

I love both AK and ar15s for personal use. But, if this were SHTF, as some of you are getting at, think for a minite and realize ar15 parts will be more available, and the common platform with government arms (and ammo) is infinitely more useful than anything the ak would offer... Effective fighting forces,be they insurgents or jackbooted thugs, have weapon uniformity for a reason.

And sorry for the atrocious typos, this i on the ipad, too lazy to get to a pc right now