KNOW THY ENEMY

Most sources concur that over 100 million individual AK-pattern rifles have been produced worldwide. At time of writing, the world’s population is estimated at 8 billion. That means there could be roughly one AK for every 80 people on the entire planet; counting out those that have been lost or destroyed in combat, let’s call it one Kalashnikov for every 100 people on earth. There’s a statistically significant chance that, if you haven’t already seen, touched, or fired an AK, you will at some point. Hopefully it’s because you buy one or shoot a buddy’s at the range. But, with the commonality, low cost, and popularity of this rifle — particularly among radical actors around the world who have imported their extremism to American shores — there’s an unfortunately real possibility you may come across one in the “real world” under less enjoyable circumstances.

Regardless of the context, understanding the Kalashnikov’s unique manual-of-arms is a valuable skill to have in your library of preparedness knowledge. While most of the RECOIL OFFGRID team has previous experience with AKs from personally owned weapons or deployments overseas, it never hurts to refresh a skillset under the guidance of specialists. In this case, we attended the three-day D5 Kalashnikov course put on by Haley Strategic Partners (HSP). Former Force Recon Marine and HSP owner Travis Haley has extensive knowledge of this platform through multiple deployments around the world as a Marine and independent contractor. More recently, HSP teamed up with famed AK gunsmith Jim Fuller and his new company, Fuller Phoenix. We had the privilege of learning directly from