Kalashnikov Love 1947 T-Shirt

The Kalashnikov Model 1947, more commonly known as the AK-47, is quite possibly the most widely used shoulder weapon in the world. The initials AK represent Avtomat Kalashnikova, Russian for “automatic Kalashnikov,” for its designer, Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov, who designed the accepted version of the weapon in 1947. The AK-47 was recognized as being simple to operate, rugged, reliable under trying conditions, and amenable to mass production. Built around a 7.62-mm round with a muzzle velocity of some 700 meters per second, it had a cyclic firing rate of 600 rounds per minute and was capable of both semiautomatic and automatic fire. It has been estimated that some 100 million AKs have been produced—fully half of them outside Russia.