Excellent information from both postoak and Brian. I have no real disagreement with either of your opinions.
I maintained both AKs and M16s in a tough environment in that these were rental guns receiving far more use that anything you'd ever expect from a service rifle.
I don't remember the round count on any of these but as I stated earlier one of the 28 Thompson rentals had over a million rounds through it.
We get bus loads of tourists in and sometimes these rentals would have to run through a couple of thousand rounds without even a cursory cleaning. This was particularly true on weekends when the gunsmithing area wasn't staffed.
The bottom line was the AKs were simpler and quicker to maintain then the M16s. The platform tradeoffs in accuracy, ease of use etc. have been well covered by the two gentlemen in the previous posts.
I personally would not feel undergunned with either of these weapons in a situation where I had to be able to defend myself and my family.
Jim
