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Comment by SV_BubbleTime | Hacker News Reader

>Sniper attack

>7.62x39

One of these things is not like the other.

The supposed inherent inaccuracy of AK pattern rifles is a fud meme, primarily perpetuated by the type who also think M-16s are made by Mattel and other goofy boomer legends that were popularized before the internet made it easy to fact-check. However it's also a popular misconception that sniping is necessarily a matter of long range shooting. JFK was shot from under a hundred meters and that's commonly agreed to be the work of a 'sniper'.

It’s the sights on the AK platform. They’re awful and they always have been. Not getting into vodka-specials or bent barrels, poorly pressed trunnions or eccentric cut chambers, none of which are uncommon. They have a reputations not because of FUDDs but because 95% of them ARE bad.

It seems this calibre is more commonly used for assault rifles like AK-47s [1] than sniper rifles [2]? However, it seems to me that sniping describes behaviour more than weapon (e.g. the DC Sniper seems to have used an assault rifle [3]), so I don't see the problem.

(I don't really know anything about guns, I'm just trying to understand the comment above that assumes we all do.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.62%C3%9739mm

[2] https://www.snipercentral.com/sniping-ammunition-calibers-ca...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.C._sniper_attacks

No, the DC Sniper did not use an assault rifle. They used a Bushmaster XM-15, the same pattern as the most popular rifle in the country, sometimes called an “assault weapon“ (a political term for political purposes) because of four or five cosmetic traits. An assault rifle would have been prohibitively expensive.

On the x39 and AK pattern guns, 400m for the round, 200m for the gun, typical maximums, although obviously there are videos of people shooting them both longer distances.

By using the term “sniper” for “a bunch of guys unloaded on a transformer station with AKs or SKS”, it’s just using your ignorance to create a picture of the scarier thing. Same thing as confusing the difference between assault rifle (real) and assault weapon (not real).

The SKS rifle chambers 7.62x39mm and can be used effectively at a distance.

That’s true. I wrote that in my other post. It still isn’t a “sniper rifle”. It’s a carbine in an intermediate caliber.

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