Universal Love for the AK
“AK’s are kind of like a cheeseburger. However you want it, you can have it.” Those are Jared LaMarche’s thoughts on the Kalashnikov, or AK, rifle. LaMarche is a gunsmith at Windsor Arms in Windsor, Vermont. They bring a bunch of their AKs and other guns to the Green Mountain Boys Machine Gun Shoot in Eden, Vermont. The event takes place mid-July of every year.
LaMarche is a big fan of AKs. “A lot of people think that the AK is not a fun, or a great gun. I think it’s awesome,” he told Guns.com at last year’s shoot. He went on to explain that the AK platform was made for a conscript army. “Which is when you take a potato farmer, you take him out of the field and you give him a rifle, and now he’s a soldier.”
LaMarche demonstrated a few full auto AKs, ARs, a VEPR-12 full auto shotgun along with a few other interesting and rare guns at the Vermont shoot. He believes that once you shoot a good quality AK, with good quality ammo, you too will be a big believer in the AK platform.
What do you think? Do you prefer AK or AR?
Here are a few AKs that I’ve had the pleasure of photographing over the last few years.
An AK-47 with a chopped down barrel. (Photo: Ben Philippi / Guns.com)
A super shorty AK-47. (Photo: Ben Philippi / Guns.com)
An AK-47 with a chopped down barrel and extended magazine. (Photo: Ben Philippi / Guns.com)
Krinkov AK-47. (Photo: Ben Philippi / Guns.com)
An AK-47 being fired at at the Green Mountain Boys Machine Gun Shoot in Eden, Vermont. (Photo: Ben Philippi / Guns.com)
Douglas Wood firing an AK-47 at the Green Mountain Boys Machine Gun Shoot in Eden, Vermont. (Photo: Ben Philippi / Guns.com)
An AK-47 being fired at a gun shoot. (Photo: Ben Philippi / Guns.coaAn AK-47 being fired at a gun shoot in Georgia. (Photo: Ben Philippi / Guns.com)m)
Tana Leggo with her WASR-10 AK-47 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo: Ben Philippi / Guns.com)
Jonathan Amborn and his AK-47. (Photo: Ben Philippi / Guns.com)
JoAnn Guidos with her AK-74 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo: Ben Philippi / Guns.com)
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