#Germany

What rifle influenced Kalashnikov’s famous carbine design more, the Garand M1, or the Haenel MP 43? This question was broached by blogger Jeff of TwistRate in a video posted to the Full30 gun video hosting website recently. Readers can follow the link to watch that video before reading my discussion of this question below.

Throughout the sixty-seven years Heckler and Koch have been in business, there are a number of firearms produced by the company that one could consider perennial. Chief among such designs would be the MP5 and or the G3, both weapons which continue to see use even fifty years after their creation. While for many, rifles and sub-machine guns would be the first to come to mind, HK has a history of producing pistols which define the concept of utilitarian and are practically indestructible.

Hami sent us a nifty photo of his American-made H&K collection. He writes ….

Larry Vickers’ TacTV YouTube channel has updated with an excellent series of videos on the major full-size service pistols used by the German Wehrmacht in World War II. The videos include both an overview of the handguns’ histories, as well as timed shooting trials with each. Larry’s claim, early in the first video, that viewers will learn something certainly held true for me:

Mark sent us photos of his commercial DWM Luger manufactured in 1909, making it 105 years old.The Reichsbank notes are a nice touch!

Troubleshooter Berlin, TFB’s favorite German-based amateur small arms designer, has been experimenting out in the Arizona desert with a blowback-operated design based on a Taurus 92 compact. He demonstrates that, strictly speaking, the locking mechanism on the Beretta 92 pattern of handguns isn’t necessary for the gun to work:

For those who thought the GunLab VG1-5 project was très chic, the first example is now complete and awaiting BATFE approval. Even better, Allegheny Arsenal is now accepting preorders! The guns will cost $4,000 each (despite the decidedly inexpensive construction of the VG1-5 design, there is expected to be only a small run of weapons, thus negating any real economy of scale).

One of the many projects GunLab has been hard at work completing is producing reproduction VG1-5 (more properly referred to as the Gustloff MP 507) carbines. These were last-ditch carbines, intended to be vastly cheaper to make than either the Kar98K or StG-44 carbines then in service. They were intended to operate via a closed bolt, gas-delayed blowback system; in practice, they were essentially straight blowback weapons, however.

Rock Island Auction time means we get to look at a bunch of really neat guns, thanks to Forgotten Weapons’ Ian. Today he examines one of the most important early selfloading rifles, the model 1908 Mondragon:

NDR reports that SIG Sauer (Germany) is reducing staff in their Eckernförde headquarters from 132 to 49 people. Some employees have been offered employment with Sig Sauer (USA). Just five years ago SIG Sauer had 500 employees in Germany.

For a change I thought I would feature an interesting military munition for todays POTD. A reader sent us this photo asking if we could identify it and if it was a real cartridge. It is indeed real, but it is not a firearm cartridge. This round is a 30mm AHEAD Air Burst Munition (ABM) manufactured by Rheinmetall Air Defence AG.

It will be no surprise to TFB readers that the German government is against its own arms industry, we have reported this many times, but now the German Minister for Economic Affairs is openly saying he plans on cutting down the number of arms exports. It is no wonder that German firearm makers are moving production overseas. National Public Radio  reports …

The Bundeswehr investigated the claims that the H&K G36 was suffering from accuracy problems and found that the rifle was not at fault. The problem lay with one of their ammunition manufacturers who were supplying ammunition with copper jackets that were to thin. AllShooter.de has published an article and a statement issued by the Bundeswehr (auto-translated with Google) …

STG 44 / MP43/44 rifles have been showing up all over the world in the last couple of years. An eagle-eyed reader spotted one at Ukraine’s newest and most popular tourist attraction, the private palace of their former President. The above image is a still from a VICE video (See 2:10. Embedded below) of the Presidents sprawling complex. Also take a look at his ammunition collection at 3:29.

Originally developed and manufactured by Rheinmetall (and later parts manufactured by H&K) the Bundeswehr’s MG3 has been in service since the 1960s. Its design is essentially an improved MG42 chambered in 7.62x51mm NATO. It retains that distinctive MG42 aesthetic many gun enthusiasts love, along with the MG42’s reliability and ease of use (and, as some might argue, its far to high rate of fire). But 50 years later it is showing its age, being bigger, heavier than 21st century machine guns built with polymer and modern alloys (not to mention covered in picatinny rails). The HK121 is being adopted as the future Bundeswehr machine gun, but it will be a very long time before budgets allow enough to be procured to retire the 10,000s (100,000?) MG3 machine guns in service. Enter the MG3KWS (“Kampfwertsteigerung” or “Combat Improvements”), an upgraded version of the MG3 being developed by Rheinmetall and Tactics Group.  Dr. Jan-Phillipp Weisswange, a Lieutenant Colonel of the German Army Reserve, was kind enough to share information and photos of the MG3KWS with us.