this is the g3
its a german 7.62x51 battle rifle from the cold war used by a shitload of countries
the g3 and the fn fal were the two big competitors on the international market
but even tho they fill the exact same role
the ways they work could not be more different
so we talked about the sturmgewehr before
and how revolutionary it was
except it was so revolutionary it made mausers bolt actions obsolete
and mauser didnt have a contract to build any sturmgewehrs
bummer dude
so mausers engineers had been working on taking the idea and making it cheaper more efficient easier to make and so on
then maybe they could go back to getting that sweet government contract money
so they had a thing called the gerät 06
that just means like object 06 or something
so one thing the mauser guys looked at was the locking system
the stg44 used a tilting bolt
it tips down to lock into the receiver
thats a lot to machine precisely
and mauser thought thatd be a good place to simplify
the simplest way to make an autoloader is a blowback action like the ppk or the sten
but those shoot pistol rounds for a reason
the weight needed to hold an exploding rifle cartridge with nothing but resting inertia
its pretty intense
its much more than a little pistol
so they couldnt just use a straight blowback either
to try to keep it simple they put rollers inside the bolthead
those lock into grooves and press against an angled cone at the front of the bolt carrier
the bolt cant move until the rollers squeeze the bolt carrier all the way back
this is enough delay so the pressure lowers
and in fact the designers eventually noticed you could even ditch the gas system entirely
that ends up being a big savings in construction time
and the gun is lighter and simpler
they ended up calling this the gerät 06h
h means halflock
with the right combo of rollers and bolt carrier weight you can basically get a blowback action in a rifle
kickass
except bad news guys
like i know you are finishing up this sweet new rifle
but now its 1945
and germany is in chaos
the allies invaded normandy and are sweeping east
the soviets have delivered crushing blows on the eastern front
its basically a race to see who gets to berlin first
meanwhile mauser
well it was a pretty sweet gig while it lasted
but uh mauser is about to experience a hostile takeover lol
what do you do dude
the soviets would love to have you
they got plenty of space in a factory prison for guys just like you
or maybe the americans are a better choice
hey they might not even put you in a war crimes tribunal lol
well the choice many of the mauser guys made was neutral spain
see spain had a civil war in the 30s
they were like the opening band for wwii
and the fascists under general franco won with help from nazi germany
but they didnt actually join wwii because by then they were worn out from all the shooting they already did
so none of the allies were invading it
and the mauser engineers went there to lay low
after they set up shop they whipped out the gerät 06h and kept on tinkering
at first spain had some really weird ideas for them to work on but in the end they abandoned all that when they joined nato and adopted the 7.62x51 nato round
right after wwii people werent sure about that intermediate cartridge thing yet
but guys 7.62x51 is just the nato designation for .308
which is just a slightly reformulated .30-06
which is like trying to use the full size 8mm mauser round instead of the 8mm kurz the sturmgewehr was using
so the mauser guys took their gerät 06h and scaled it up for the beefy 7.62x51 round
but then they were having problems with the pressure blasting cases open
but man they really liked their cool roller delayed blowback and didnt wanna give it up
so what they came up with is the idea of fluting the chamber
those lines are little channels in the chamber
normally theres a bunch of pressure inside the cartridge trying to get out
like
thats the entire way the bullet gets pushed
but fluting the chamber gives little channels for gas to lean into
that equalizes some of the pressure and makes the brass float on a cushion of gas and extract more easily
check out this technical schematic
instead of megastretching against the chamber
some pressure is actually pusing from the outside to keep the brass in shape
and a cushion of gas forms around the case
that lowers the friction on the brass
and made it so the gerät 06h could even shoot the powerful nato round
so after inventing all these additional elements the mauser guys ended up with a decent rifle
they were working for the spanish centro de estudios tecnicos de materiales especiales
so the rifle was called the cetme
it worked out really well
in fact just as they were finishing the design up a couple of the engineers were able to start a new company in germany called heckler und koch
named after two of the mauser guys
originally the name was totallynotmakingweaponsiswear gmbh
but the restrictions on german arms manufacturing were quickly lifted because nato got super scared of the soviets
so hk manufactured the cetme rifle design and it got adopted by the german bundeswehr as the gewehr 3 or g3
and it was super popular
tons of people adopted it
in fact 8 million were made
4x more than the fn fal
so ya people really liked it
and hk went on to design entire families of weapons off of the design in all sorts of calibers
even very different weapons
like the psg1 sniper rifle
and the mp5 submachinegun
they all use a roller delayed blowback like the g3
hk loves that roller delayed shit
and the german military loved it too
even into the 90s they were putting out new improvements on the g3
everybody else had already switched to an assault rifle well before then
but the g3 kept on truckin
now we talked a lot about the specific changes that had been made to take the sturmgewehr concept into the g3
but all the other stuff
if i didnt mention something then just assume that stayed the same
its still stamped metal receiver with fire control group as a separate housing that pops out
disassembles the same way
pins holding the buttstock and everything
ya its totally just the nazis gun
so lets say you need an hk g3
well theyre select fire
but hk made a semiauto variant called the hk91
so go get you one
theyre expensive but hey its hk
they do it on purpose lol
and there are friggin 8 million of them out there
so it shouldnt be hard to find
and literally every country in the world cant be wrong
pewpew
#click here for previous articles
view the rest of the comments →
thedirtypuma ago
Oh man. I cam so close to getting a c308 which is a century arms cetme. They were like ~$450. Choosing the right battle rifle for me is such a hard choice.
Good read as always. The only downside is that it makes me want to buy more guns.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
dude i know
i need a semi auto 308
but this squirrel gun i got is exciting
because its like a dmr for squirrels
rapid fire variable power scope bullet drop compensator for quick hits
its becoming a study piece for the 308
really tho you cant go wrong with an ar
ill probably get an 80 percent lower
then put the primary arms acss on it
Battlefat ago
— some faggot
clamhurt_legbeard ago
lol
the cantilever scope mount i bought is an american defense quick detach mount for an ar
magpul stock and magpul forward mounting block
i dropped so much fucking money into this 22
its already tied for most expensive gun lol
i hope the system works
its right at the edge of mount stability and eye relief
im not doing this the easy way
but if it works its gonna be fuckin sick lol
Battlefat ago
—guy who starts with the most expensive thing
As long as you aren’t that guy, clammy, you still have more to spend
clamhurt_legbeard ago
only the bolt hold open and extractor lol
didnt even get the volquartsen firing pin
and to offset that im gonna eschew a fancy polymer buffer and just buy a nylon bolt at home depot lol