Comments by "" (@pwrserge83) on "Night Operation Against the Islamic State: The Battle for Rojava (Dispatch 2)" video.

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  2. Lotak Smith No, it's just a combination of cheap ammo, an inherent design choice in the AK, and worn out barrels with bad rifling. The AKM series derivatives which are predominant in the Middle East don't use any sort of flash hider on the muzzle. AKMs use a simple muzzle brake to redirect the exhaust impulse down and to the shooter's left. This keeps the gun on target however, it also does nothing to dissipate the spray of half-burned powder that comes out of the muzzle. Given that flash suppression is only really an issue when you care about your soldiers loosing their night vision, expecting this to be considered in the mid 1940s era of large caliber battle rifles is a bit unrealistic. It wasn't until the Soviets switched to the 5.45x39 round in their AK-74 family that flash suppression became a priority of any sort. The second part is the fact that durka durka sourced ammo is not exactly known for quality manufacture. This is, best case, 40-50 year old Soviet satellite state surplus or even worse home brewed crap. The concept of low-flash powders is foreign to these loadings. Hell, most of them use corrosive components the US military and sporting communities had stopped putting into our ammo in the 60s. Finally, you have to consider the fact that most of those AKs are about the same age as the people firing them. The fact that these guns are running at all is a minor miracle and entirely attributable to the design. I guarantee you that most of those barrels are shot nearly smooth and have quite a bit of windage between the bullet and the barrel letting half burned powder escape during firing.
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