The bolt was gone. We used up alot of our .223 that time too, so I haven't even been able to shoot the AR other than like 2 mags a year ago

Well the weight of it without the bolt is hard to notice that it's missing. You could have checked it before packing it up with you. One racking of the charging handled and you can tell the bolt is missing or is it even possible to pull the handle back correctly without the bolt.?

My father packed it while I was at school, and I sort of just picked it up, put a mag in without thinking and then noticed it didn't even have the charging handle

Well the first thing you would notice is lack of a charging handle.

Wow.... that is pretty fail.........

Yup. It's embarassing as hell, but it's the only fuckup I've ever had with a firearm

I have this friend who's a wannabe Marine/Blackwater contractor who claimed that the AK-47 would be the ideal weapon because you can use ANY caliber bullet in it.

...He also claims that the reason for sawing the barrel of shotguns down is so that it will have more killing power and spread.

I guess he was confusing the AK with the AR-15 because the AR-15 can use pretty much any caliber because if there isn't a special upper made for the AR-15, someone out there is making it right now. Just last week, I read about a new upper so it can fire a .50 BMG in bolt action.

nope, think stupider. He actually claims that you can feed any caliber bullet into the same AK-47 w/o modifications.

Do the world a favor and remove him from the gene pool. Dare him to prove his point with a .50 BMG.