Hacker News Reader

Comment by paulhauggis | Hacker News Reader

Yo liberals, let me go hunting with an AK-47.

Not a good choice for hunting. AK's have pretty terrible aim, sure you can throw them in mud or have rocks in the magazine and they will work but the accuracy is hardly worth it. I have an ak merely because it looks cool. If you must use a semi-automatic to go hunting get an ar-15.

Sure, compared to some other rifles it's not as precise, but I can shoot you in the head from a distance of 150 m - and I'm not exactly Thomas Beckett. There were guys in my ex-platoon who could shoot you in the eye.

(Not that I want to shoot you :)

You can, even in pinko California. Just make sure you get a bullet button kit for your AK and you're set to go. If you want an automatic, I'm not finding any hard and fast rules for if fish and game allows it, but if you pay your $200 tax stamp and get approved by the sheriff, it's totally cool.

I don't think your decision is very logical, though. An AK-47 is a pretty craptastic rifle -- unless you're going to be trudging for miles and miles without a cleaning kit, you don't need its legendary reliability. If you need the rapid fire, then there are one of two issues here. The first, is that the deer are coming at you in such quantities and ferocity that suppressive fire is needed, then you're going to need at least a platoon sized group here, possibly with airstrike backup, and well-coordinated plans for dealing with the cervine hordes. Either that, or you are a pretty crappy shot, and need to spend some range time before you try hunting.

An AK is an assault rifle, not so good for hunting. A nice Remington 700 will do you better. But if you really want to... who's stopping you?

It is illegal in at least some parts of the USA... still not sure how it's related to bit torrent and Linux though.

Oh? I know there are restrictions, like magazine size etc. but I didn't know it was outlawed.

I believe they are trying to compare the argument for not blocking BitTorrent to an argument for less gun control.

Argument A: While BitTorrent is widely used for piracy, it has practical uses too so please don't ban it outright.

Argument B: While the AK-47 is widely used for mass shootings, it has practical uses too so please don't ban it outright.

Argument X: While [some thing] is widely used for [some bad stuff], it has practical uses too so please don't ban it outright.

But as others have pointed out, the AK-47 is not a suitable hunting weapon... unless you plan to totally mess up the deer.

Totally mess up the deer? I'm not sure how you've come to that conclusion.

An AK-47 fires a 7.62x39mm round, which is smaller than rounds like a .30-30 (7.62x51) or .30-06 (7.62x63), commonly used for deer hunting.

And as I mentioned in another comment, while an AK-47 is not an ideal rifle for hunting, it is a very cost effective choice.

The AK-47 is capable of getting out more rounds in less time than a traditional hunting rifle. So you'd be able to shoot the crap out of something a bit easier. So if that was your plan then the AK-47 is ideal. Otherwise... not so much. That was all.

You do realize the vast majority of AK-47s (at least those available in the US for less than $10k) are semi-automatic, right?

Doesn't matter. Parent post made no mention of what type of AK-47 they were using and where. The fact remains, AK-47s can be full-auto thus are capable of putting out more rounds faster. If you would like to go with the assumption that the parent post was referring to only a semi-auto AK-47 (in the US?) then we can certainly agree that it would not mess up a deer any more or less than a traditional hunting rifle. I'm cool with that. ;)

A typical AK-47 is select fire. So someone hunting deer with a fully automatic capable AK-47 would likely set it to semi-automatic.

So good for poachers then :-)

This is also like saying that making food widely and cheaply available encourages overeating which causes obesity, which is bad, so we should ration food.

You could say that providing subsidies that make unhealthy processed food artificially cheap tends to increase obesity. In fact, I think that that's the consensus view of experts on the issue.

That argument is about not giving bittorrent traffic first priority, and not offering AK-47 scholarships.

I have no doubt that there is a would-be authoritarian (or two) out there proposing precisely that.

While a Rem 700 would certainly be a more accurate and effective rifle, it is also significantly more expensive to purchase and feed than an AK variant or SKS would be. 7.62x39mm is dirt cheap, as are rifles capable of firing the round, and that is a strong selling point for impoverished families who help feed themselves by hunting.

OK that's a good point.

Comparing hacking tools to weapons might be a clever hack to get the US courts to allow you to use it, however that'll be used against the rest of the world. "Sorry we have to ban this, it's a weapon! Even the US courts think it's a weapon!"

Please consider hackers all over the globe.

Clever hack of the legal system? Good luck. A similar argument was tried in the old days of ITAR v. Crypto and it never worked.

That takes me back to the days of "military strength encryption", in the 90s, when you weren't allowed to let any code that used a longer than 40-bit encryption key to leave the country because it was too dangerous.

Good luck hitting a whitetail at 400 yards with one of those.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com