How to write

I don’t know anything about guns, but my characters do. I have to assume my readers do also, so I research any artillery mentioned in my books.  I haven’t had an opportunity to write about an AK47, but since I’m sure it’ll come up sometime, here a few notes:

Mikhail Kalashnikov was the inventor and sometimes the AK47 is referred to as a Kalashnikov.  He was born a Russian peasant and served in the Army for 3 years, until he was wounded in duty.  While he recovered, he began to work on gun designs.  2 years after its creation the AK47 was deployed to the Red Army.  Kalashnikov became General Designer of small arms for the Soviet Army, and developed several other machine guns, which were used but never became as famous as the AK-47.

The AK47s are favored by terrorists, because of their durability and power.  It is the most highly-produced assault rifle today with only minimal changes from the original design.  The AK-47 rifle has only eight moving parts so it can be disassembled in fifty seconds.  The design is so simple, it can be used by children (and sadly, it is.) It is gas operated, but has a shorter range than other assault rifles.

Fully automatic AK47s fire multiple shots when the trigger is pulled and held down.  They are also capable of semi-automatic fire, so only one shot is fired when the trigger is pulled.  A semi-automatic weapon can be converted into full automatic with a conversion kit. Conversion Kits are illegal in the US, because their only purpose is to create a machine gun.  Bump Fire is repeatedly pulling the trigger to simulate automatic firing.  Fully automatic AK47’s are most common in underdeveloped nations.  ‘In the United States it is illegal to own a fully automatic AK-47, unless you procure the stamp tax and meet the proper requirements for such a firearm, which was not registered as a National Firearms Act weapon after 1986.” Wikipedia

AK47 cartridge case is 1.5″ long. A cartridge or round packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer.  A cartridge without a bullet is called a blank.