Tokarevs and Makarovs are fun. I don't have any yet, but I have played with a few. The only AK style weapon I have is actually US made. It's a milled receiver Century Arms product and is really excellent. It's a braced pistol and I would certainly stake my life on it functioning. I don't really have anything Eastern Bloc except my Tara TM-9 and TM-9X from Montenegro but those are modern products and not reminiscent at all of the earlier commie stuff. I do have a modern CZ-75 clone from SAR USA.

Thank you for the excellent video. I am old school DA/SA, hammer fired trained a long time ago. So, I have some "tendencies" to like longer trigger pulls and hammers. Years ago my bedside gun was my S&W 659, which I still have and really like. In the bedside stand currently is a belt/holster with a Walther Creed and four magazines loaded with Hornady Critical Defense. I shoot it well and love the trigger. It has a hammer that fires from a partially cocked state and the trigger is light and very smooth. It was a "budget" gun but in my opinion is excellent for me, and it's a Walther. Also close at hand is my KSG for all the common reasons advocates of this shotgun would claim. My choice of the KSG was originally based on the notion of being able to run through doorways with the gun sideways and to bring it to bear around a door frame without having to worry about banging into the opposite side of the door frame. There was also the notion of having to roll for cover under or behind furniture. For any firearm, training is key, but I would say it is even more important with something like the KSG. If you are not well practiced with the manual of arms and firing from all positions, stay away from it. It is a real possibility that you shoot your hand off if you do not respect that matter. As a side note, the KSG also fits in the hard saddlebag on my Harley and has been there on a few occasions when I was headed toward probable danger. That's a lot of firepower and generally I like it better than an AK pistol or AR pistol in that role, though my AK pistol has occasionally been in the saddlebag when I thought it was better for whatever reason.

@Graham Baates I feel strongly about certain political concepts as well, likely similar to your own. I just don't want it to lead every conversation about firearms, as you say, just a mechanical device...but also a hobby, a pursuit, a passion, a martial art, and even a way of life. It's sad you experienced that reaction, but telling. As far as military service, my wife served in Afghanistan and is disabled due to multiple issues including brain injuries. Sadly, she has PTSD and can't go near my guns anymore, but when we were younger I taught her to shoot and she did well. It is uncanny how some women tend to be naturally good shooters. I never served in the military, but I now take care of my wife. That is my service. As for the AK, I have one and enjoy it. I appreciate it for what it is. For those that need to make something of that, I have compassion for their cognitive difficulties.

Hi- My friends just call me Doc. I started shooting when I was 8 years old under the direction of my father. We had property and our own shooting range. I grew up out in the woods and we lived in a log cabin, a real old one, not a kit. When my father died, I inherited the first gun I ever shot, a Marlin 39 Century Ltd. .22, which is in very nice condition, and I cherish. I am now a collector, shooter, 2A advocate, and armed citizen. In between all that I travelled through 9 countries and 15 states, stopping to live in a variety of places for a time. I was a pistol instructor over 30 years ago, trained citizens and police, I was the head of a small private security force for a luxury 26 story community, and I am a patched member of a motorcycle organization and Sergeant At Arms for the local chapter. I am an MD, trained in surgery, and I have been exclusively teaching medicine/surgery since 2008, which includes the ballistics, projectile characteristics, wound channels, and the associated medical/surgical management. I have thoroughly enjoyed numerous videos by GBGuns and find them to be extremely well presented and thoughtful. Nothing flamboyant, just honest observations. I am glad to see them open a venue where they will not be so limited in their presentations or words by the views and actions of their host. I dislike it that politics are so often pushed to the front of any discussion of the sports and martial arts of firearms, but I also know it is necessary. I don't avoid it, but I am careful in how I engage it. I think it is just as easy for any of us that support such rights to do damage as well as benefit the cause. It is, after all, a very serious matter. I feel that bravado, arrogance, and the deriding of others (including those with polar opposite or even radically opposite views) have no reasonable place in the conversation and in fact can easily provoke conflict, which is unwise where firearms are concerned. With our rights come responsibilities both to ourselves and our brothers and sisters in our communities. I am glad to see this web site and will be happy to stop by occasionally. Respect all, fear none.