Although it'll be years before I can scrape together enough funds to purchase an evil black rifle, I do enjoy pondering the pros and cons of each, and I've gone back and forth several times. Shot KingKeoni's AK at the range, and man that thing was sweet. But then I got home and read up on both, and I think I'll eventually be going with the AR when I make my purchase. It's basically exactly what ren said in the OP; a good AK might match up well with a crappy AR. I looked at some of the stuff that's out there online, and "minute of pie plate at 100yds" or "minute of bad guy at 300" just doesn't cut it for me. If I had all the money in the world, I'd buy one of each, and maybe by the time I'm old and gray I will have done so; but my first EBR is definitely going to be an AR. The accuracy is what I'm going to notice at the range or on the hunt, and in those situations, reliability isn't too critical. If by some horrible twist of fate, I ended up in a real end-of-the-world, full on firefight with Nazi zombies or Russian paratroopers, I'll be trusting to the good Lord for plenty already, if He's going to get me through at all, I'm sure He'll have no problem making my rifle feed properly.