what a dragunov

WHAT A DRAGUNOV


Okay, this really kind of hacks me off. My big return, lacking only a ticker tape parade and some cool initials like VJ Day, I’m leaning towards BM Day for Bison’s Marvelous Day, or fill in the blanks for a preferable title, and Creekmore steals my thunder and makes me look like a thieving lurker. I actually had the idea last Friday after reading a response to http://www.survivalblog.com/ article on theSaiga arsenal. The comment went something like, the magazines make this a bad idea since they are $35 each and went on to suggest it would be cheaper to go with the generic HK-91 since the mags are a buck each. Sure they are, until the surplus is all gone. Kind of like the 303 Brit ammo that was only a quarter each until it was all gone and those guys over in Eastern Europe thought that it would be a great idea to stick it to the capitalist running dogs, beat them at their own game of free market pricing, and now even that once cheap ammo is 75 cents a round retail. But that isn’t what prompted me to write this article. My thought was, they should be focusing on the ammunition instead of the magazines.

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Before we get too far into this, let me just stop you right in your tracks. Do not under any circumstances get the wrong idea. I am not endorsing semi-automatic weapons here. While I love semi’s all to pieces and would love to have racks of gleaming HK’s, since they are the perfect end of the world battle rifle being virtually indestructible and last in a field environment beyond the other hunks of junk that foul themselves with their actions or are made with crap parts, and several 1911A1’s since while they might not be as great as the Austrian Glock’s they are certainly better for beating an enemies brains into bloody pulp having quite a bit more heft to them, semi-automatics are a child of the Oil Age. When oil was nearly free, it makes sense to mine ores that are in very low concentrations. Metal is then quite inexpensive. Unless you have pretty much been asleep at the wheel of your SUV lately, you might have noticed how expensive steel and other metal has become. You could blame the Chinese if it makes you sleep better at night but I’ll place the blame where it most likely belongs which is on high energy prices. You think we are driving on half our corn crop because we like to pay three times as much for meat and dairy? No, dumbass. It is because we have no other choice. Just because we are forced to doesn’t mean Big Ag isn’t going to line up at the public trough to enrich themselves at the same time ( and also the banks as the corporations take out loans for the equipment ). And I wonder if anyone has figured out the following: Is government really losing money on ethanol if you factor in the gas tax? I’m not talking about 85% ethanol, just the 10% added to regular gas. Anyway, ethanol use isn’t because Big Ag bribed the government as much as it is we are losing too much regular oil NOT to use it. And that is why metal is now expensive and will stay that way. We already have the ammo equation to screw up our prep plans.

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But let us just say for the sake of argument that you are going to ignore my great advice yet once again. You simply must have a semi-automatic. If you do, you must factor in the ammunition price. Not just the weapon and the magazines. If it isn’t tactical suicide, you might want to consider pistol ammo carbines. Or, if battle rifles are your thing, what about the Dragunov? That is/was the Russians semi-auto sniper ( or at least counter-sniper ) rifle. The two great things about it are that is uses the AK gas system and that it uses the cheapest rifle ammo available right now, the 7.62x54r. Now, I don’t profess to be an expert on this weapon. I always thought it would be cool to own, but have done almost no research on it until this weekend. I couldn’t even find out if it can be manually reloaded by stripper clip, which would be a deal breaker on this system since the mags are $70 each. Unfortunately I found nothing spelling that out. Not at http://www.dragonuv.net/ , nor in the comments section at Creekmores article. I didn’t have time to slog through 60+ comments. If the rifle takes stripper clips, then you might be golden. Here is a breakdown on price, excluding scopes or scope mounts.

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A Dragunov is about $800 and uses a 20 cent round. A Saiga is $400 and uses a 60 cent round. A generic HK is about $900 and a 60 cent round. Assuming a dozen mags each will get both the Saiga and the HK at the same price. If you want two thousand rounds of ammo, it is the Dragunov $1300, the others $2k. At three thousand rounds it is $1500 and $2600. Four thousand rounds of ammo brings it to $1700 and $3200. Now, obviously, whether you reload or not might alter the equation, but if I’m not mistaken the HK is usually impossible to reload after the action chews up the brass. I’m not saying the Dragunov is the best system to own, I don’t know that for sure. I am pointing out that once you factor in the ammunition it might behoove you to pick a weapon that isn’t part of the normal Militia’s Choice. Now, if anyone is unsatisfied with my lack of field testing, please feel free to contact me for my local gunshop’s phone number and you can buy the rifle for me and I’ll evaluate it in more detail. And, damnit Creekmore, please clear all article subjects through me before you post. I don’t want a repeat of this, it’s simply too embarrassing. You know how fragile my ego is. You just can’t get good free help anymore.

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