Try to be really honest with yourself about what scenario you are likely to encounter where firearms will be useful. Use that scenario to guide your choices. That said, here’s some general advice: get a cheap AR (maybe not the absolute cheapest) in .556 (also shoots .223), sights upgrade (perhaps a red dot/holo sight). Get a 9mm pistol (Glock or similar). A few boxes of defensive ammo for each (green tip .556, and hollow point 9mm) and a bunch of cheap target ammo for both for practicing. Get a couple of trauma kits and learn how to use them. Plates would be low on my list, but this will depend on the imagined scenario(s). Leftover money? Duplicate the set since another armed comrade is worth way more than one Gucci AK.

The most expensive thing over time will be ammo. If you don’t mind having multiple guns and all the fees that might entail, dropping $100 on a cheap 22 rifle and $250 on a tx22 will pay for itself in a dozen range trips. 22 can be found for ~5cpr, whereas 556 is gonna be ~50cpr and 308 ~70cpr.

AK is for style only and imo you can self express other ways. The cost difference between a decent AR and an equivalent or worse AK is better spent on sites, slings, mags, a gun safe, and training.

Make it a top priority to get good sights and learn how to use them

Any reason you want an ak pattern over an ar pattern? An ak that shoots 5.56 and uses stanags seems overcomplicated compared to getting an ar.

1500$ is an extremely expensive rifle if you’re not an enthusiast. You can get a PSA ar15 for 5-700$ and it’ll go bang every time and leave you money for glass, upgrades, mags, and other stuff.

Plus, ars have vastly more aftermarket parts and if your gun breaks it’ll be a lot easier to get ar replacement parts than ak replacement parts.

I’ll always advocate for a basic ar15 for a first gun

• ammo compatibility, 5.56 is plentiful
• you can share mags with other ars
• it’s easy to get parts
• tons of aftermarket crap if you want that

Sbr “pistols” are a gimmick for dorks who want to be operators and think they’re smarter than the atf. The reduced weight can be nice but you’re making your life much more difficult with all the regulatory bs in exchange for like 6" or something of shorter barrel. A carbine length rifle is good enough for anything you’d ever need.

Regardless, guns are worse than useless without regular practice. You gotta commit to doing dry fire practice, working on clearing jams, range time, and probably learning a little bit about squad level rifleman tactics. If you don’t put in the practice and education you won’t be able to fight at all.

Also - before you even buy a gun - take a stop the bleed course, get some na rescue tourniquettes and learn how to use them, get a basic “someone has been shot” first aid kit together. Statistically you’re much more likely to kill or injure yourself than you are to ever use your gun in any defensive situation. Having a good first aid kit, practicing with it, and knowing how to use it is at least as important as a gun right now.

You can get a drop-in .22lr bolt for ar pattern rifle so you can practice with much less expensive .22lr instead of 5.56. Idk how much they cost these days but they used to be under 200$

Everyone already told you not to buy an ak for a million good reasons, let me add another:

The cmmg ar 22lr bolt conversion.

You pop the upper off, pull the bolt out, put in the conversion and you can feed cheap 22lr out of its specialty magazines.

It’s not as accurate and can wear your barrel (people say, I haven’t experienced anything) and the gun doesn’t handle exactly the same, but for some kind of handling training and practice it really makes things cheaper and can help people get over the loudness and controls hump.

SHTF rifle

5.56NATO AR15 if you want to have the possibility of finding a replacement bolt carrier in a crisis situation.

Probably “when you start chasing diminishing gains relative to what your purpose for the weapon is”

I would honestly start out by getting a cheap AR15 like from PSA for around $500 and see how things go. You don’t really know enough to really buy something expensive. I mean that as in, you don’t know your own preferences - what you like and what you dislike, so it’s better to get something inexpensive to start and then figure out what you like and don’t like, then get something expensive.

The problem is most people go all out, buy something expensive, realize they don’t like it, then either sell it or it just sits in their safe gathering dust.

A .22LR plinker is always a great choice. The ammunition is the cheapest and you can shoot it all day without hurting or going broke. It’s a great way to improve your overall technique and accuracy. If you get a rifle and a pistol, you can develop both skills with the same ammo, probably for less than a good 9mm pistol. In the mean time, if you go to some ranges with a friend you can rent something to try it out to see what you’re comfortable with.

I haven’t bought a gun in several years, so I’m not really sure what prices are like rn.

I’d look into a pistol first, the stuff your talking about is for a shooting war which I think is a bit far from happening at the moment. Gonna be cheaper of course but also much more useful in self-defense. You can buy a Glock clone for $350 to $400. I have a Turkish SAR 9mm that’s given me no issues and is quite affordable.

Lurking this thread taught me a lot so thank u all

(also had a friend that got a RAS-47 that had nothing but bad things to say about it and the experience of buying something that uses 7.62x39mm in the US, so I’d prefer not to do that)

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