Me personally I'm not a big fan of the AR-15 rifle series especially the gas operated rifles because they require constant maintenance, cleaning, and too many separated small parts, if not clean enough and property, they're known to constantly jam up very easily, that's why I rather have an AK rifle over a AR rifle any day.

Short answer is yes! The AK platform is designed for the bottle neck design of x39 cartridge. Not saying all 556 are unreliable but most have trouble at some point either with feeding or extracting!

Very expensive now. Because the Tv series

Great video! Impressed by your content and would love to work together on a review. Feel free to reach out if you're interested!😀

The problem is not the caliber but the builder. US builders paying US wages have to cut every corner that they can to turn a profit. Plebes in a goverment factory who have the Gulag to fear if they get too many rejects have a different attitude.

“Gun Mag Warehouse” 5.56 Ak mags work flawlessly. A tiny bit of light filling to the back just below the rear feed lips and they lock and unlock in my Z-M85 smoothly.

Beryl master race

Remember the Israeli Galil in 5.56 ???

Cartridges with straighter walls feed more reliably than those with aggressive tapers. Where in the world did anybody come to this opinion, that 7.62x39 feeds more reliably?! The French learned this in WW1 and switched from 8mm Lebel to 7.5 French, a straight wall bottle neck cartridge. We in America learned this in the Spanish American War and the Philippine “Insurrection,” switching from .30-40 Krag to .30-06 (yes I know it was actually .30-03 but the only tangible difference between the two is the bullet shape and weight. The cases are rather interchangeable). The Soviets learned this and switched from 7.62x39 to 5.45x39 which has a less aggressive taper than 7.62x39. Jeez, people are stupid.

They are awesome. Only AR-15 fuds say otherwise.

Russia made saigas and veprs in 223 ,556, and they work just fine.

Good video i just think its the mag thing people use the wrong mags

Depends on the ammo

I love my JAKL. It's very 5.56 AKish but way more comfortable ergonomically. I like it more than my AR. I was an Army guy though so I like the controls feeling very close to the AR. Edit: After reading the comments another point for my JAKL. No magazine issues. All STANAG mags work great. Another pro is that I don't look like a bad guy.

AKs in 5.56 are a great platform in the US. The problem is dometic products aren't good and the ones being sold that are high quality are stupid expensive. Polish, Bulgarian, Chinese, Yugo and Russian/Ukrainian AKs with universal magazine compatibility would be awesome to have but 922r compliance and additional executive orders issued since make that a non starter. One would hope Trump being back would reverse those executive orders but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon.

My works perfectly fine. Maybe if you buy an Ak from a garbage manufacturer, then you might problems.

Got m90, just as reliable as any other quality rifle. Wish it was shorter…

5.56 AKs aren't bad, it's just that many are made by PSA or otherwise hard to find. *At least ones that are built to Russian AKM/AK74(M) spec

Yes. 7.62 is the only respectable cartridge. next video.

Your logic is bad. the ak74 was essentially rebuilt and tested thoroughly for 5.45, and the 5.45 cartridge was designed for an ak style of feeding. most 5.56 AKs are akm conversions and commercial productions

WHAT A LOAD OF BULLSHIT LL

762 tru. NYET!!!!! 556 meh ar shit lol

I had a Galil Ace gen2 in 5.56. It didn't like the federal 223 I fed it. Multiple failures to feed. Multiple rounds forced into the casing, smashed between the bolt and the feed ramp. I suspected this was caused by the magpul AR-15 magazine, instead of a rock & lock style magazine, in conjunction with the AK style feed ramp. Along with the fact the 5.56 has a far less aggressive taper than 5.45 or 7.62. I eventually sold that rifle and bought a Galil in 5.45 and it works fine.

I've run a 556 Poly-tech RPK since 1988. Never a jam or other issue.

It's the best...

To save everyone...SHORT ANSWER: NO, they ARE reliable...as long as you don't buy American made AKs like Palmetto State 5.56 AKs...get a YUGO/Serbian...they won't fail

All AK’s are a no go. Accuracy beyond 100 meters is abysmal. It’s a metal grinder.

They are reliable but less effective in combat than modern assault rifles.

I have ar’s , ak’s , the only ak ive ever had jam on the range was a zavasta 556 , numerous ar jams/issues . but my 7.62 ak’s have never jammed. I think the poster is correct, there are reliable ak style 556 rifles , but at the end of the day just being honest, i never have issues with my ak’s in 7.62 and they shoot garbage steel cased .

As an owner of both a 556 Ak and an AR. I believe the reasoning why you want an AK over an AR is what matters more than the caliber itself.

idk where this myth that 7.62x39 was hard to get started, it’s still cheaper per round than 5.56, and 5.45 is now coming back down in price too. Honestly, can’t see a reason to use 5.56, it’s worse than both of them.

All of these concerns would be relevant in a homebrew conversion, not a factory produced and tested product.

They now are the p09 compact

I have a mini and full size beryl, and a sam 5. Only had a few malfunctions due to a few issues. 1. 545 conversions that were over loaded, they start to have issues getting the butt of the round all the way up after 28 rounds. 2. Under gassed when messing with kns. 3. Zastava spec being different. Otherwise they work fine with polish and bulgarian spec mags without issues.

Unreliable? I dont know. But why not just use an ar chambered in 5.56? It seems ridiculous to use a clunky ak platform to shoot 5.56, but to each their own.

The one gripe is that 556 AKs were developed in a mishmash of political situations, and can have mag compatibility issues, since they weren't designed around a single spec standard.

There’s a few countries that have 556 ak that they used in combat liek the m90 and the beryl 556

It has nothing to do with the cartridge, some manufacturers of the AK produce less reliable rifles than others

proof too on my channel js Ive had nothing but good times and good luck with mini beryl , and sam5 thousands upon thousands of rounds down range not a single malfunction to this day in YEARS of me owning and shooting them 😊 as well as using 74 mags with 556 followers, working very well too js

I got a romanian 5.45 in my 3 "trips" to Afg. It was very good weapon!!!!

I love AKs but I own ARs

I think there's two separate points to be made here can 5.56 AK's be reliable? sure but most of the commercially available one's in the US aren't and it isn't just the magazines for some reason they break firring pins every few thousand rounds and stuck cases are common.

I’ve never had an issue with my Z-PAP 85.

I have a m90 and I love it haven’t had any issues out of it. I’ve actually had more issues out of my ar15!

Waffenmüll trotz Kanalsperre englischer 👎👎👎👎💩💩😡😡😡🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️ Mega Scheiße jeden Tag

I’ve used a Beryl 556 and it’s a great weapon.. I mean the Polish military have used them since what 1996

IMO 556 Aks started to get a bad rap for reliability because for a long while the only ones you could get were prone to issues unrelated to the round itself. PSA's and Pioneer's current offerings don't help the perception either. -SLR 106's had tolerance stacking issues around the mag catch and feed ramps. -Saigas and VEPRs were at the mercy of the gunsmith or homebrewer who unsporterized them. -Kit builds and/or 5.45 to 5.56 conversions were held back by bad builders. -Old Yugos that took AR mags had cruddy plastic magwells. -Norinco 84s was hated as a Chinese rifle right up until they became desirable as $3K collector piece. All of this and there wasn't enough demand until recently to incentivize most companies to make a rifle that wasn't crap. 7.62 was always so cheap no one gave a shit the 556's didn't run. Look how the tables have turned.

I was in Serbian army ..1+16 years. Our riffles in both calibers worked fine.

Ive built 3 556 AKs and they run just like my 7.62x39 AKs. I cant stand the gun cult called a community. All garage with 90% having zero experience with what they criticize

no one says this