Prepare to be disappointed ... the MSRP of the HK416 / MR556 / HK556 / MR556-A5 is $2995. This price is similar to the FN SCAR 16S and the Bushmaster ACR. This price is for the 16" barreled model.
[ Many thanks to ST for emailing me the link. ]
Posted because everybody love the MP7. My first impression was that it is much bigger in real life than in photos. While it is a sexy gun, the .17 cal (4.6x30mm) cartridge does not inspire me with confidence.
This video shows the internals of the H&K HK416. One nifty feature is that the handguard screws were designed so that they could be unscrewed using the bolt lugs. The video is well worth watching.
Video was made by GunWebsites.
The civilian HK416 is expected to arrive next year.
[ Many thanks to the reader who emailed me the video. ]
Earlier this year an H&K employee said, in an interview with Guns America (skip to 1:30), that Heckler & Koch would launch a H&K P30 pistol chambered in .40 S&W in the fourth quarter. So far the pistol has not been seen.
H&K enthusiasts have confirmed that a .40 S&W P30S/LS and P30/L will be launched at SHOT Show.
UPDATE:
Confirmed! Bubs Gun Shop is listing the pistols.
There are three .40 S&W models. All have 15 round magazines. Price is $831.
[ Many thanks to a reader for emailing me this infomation. ]
A couple of days ago I blogged about H&K winning the USMC's IAR competition. There has been much confusion regarding the IAR competition since then.
Dan Lamothe, who broke the news, updated his The Marine Times article and added that it now appears that the H&K IAR has not officially won but is the frontrunner ...
With several months of testing ahead, the decision isn’t considered final, but it makes the H&K model the clear front-runner in the competition.
...
The Corps will now put H&K IAR through five months of testing beginning in January and taking place in locations ranging from Panama to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center and Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in California, Eby said. The Corps has ordered 24 H&K IARs for testing, said Capt. Geraldine Care
Rob Curtis who blogs at GearScout (also part of the Military Times) wrote that the DoD appear to done a downselect, rather than awarding H&K an outright win ...
From what we understand, this is actually a downselect to just one system as opposed to a contract win
Dan send me an email regarding my previous comments on the supposed weight of the H&K IAR, which is almost identical to the standard HK416 carbine. He sent me the spec document which H&K provided him with. It does indeed list the weight as just 7.9 lbs!
Daniel E. Watters wrote that he suspects that the Marine command may have been framing the IAR as a partial M249 replacement but in reality they may have just wanted a piston operated full-auto carbine. By procuring what is sold as a new class of weapon they could sidestep the inter-service politics and bureaucracy ...
The weird thing is that the HK416 IAR is roughly the same weight as the M16A4, if not lighter when the latter is fitted with the M5 ARS. I'm certain that someone in Congress will ultimately ask what the HK416 can do that their issue M16A4 retrofitted with full-auto trigger groups can't.
Like others have mentioned, I can't help but wonder if the USMC didn't game the IAR requirements so that a basic carbine could win instead of a HBAR. The idea would be to gradually increase the number of IAR issued so that they could later justify standardizing on it to replace not just the infantry squad's M249, but their M16A4 and M4 as well. By framing it as a service-specific supplement to their M249, they skirted the need to argue with the other service branches over a set of joint requirements.
As for winning the contract, everyone needs to remember that Colt, FN, and HK were already awarded Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contracts for their IAR last year. An IDIQ contract guarantees the awardee that they will have a specific minimum of items ordered, with the possibility of additional orders up to a specific maximum. There is no guarantee that more than the stated minimum will ever be ordered. I've long suspected that contracting officers have been purposefully making multiple awards of IDIQ contracts prior to a final downselect in order to head off potential award protests by the disgruntled losers. It is my understanding that by accepting their IDIQ award, the contractor only has grounds to protest if the guaranteed minimum has not ordered before the end of the contract. They cannot protest that they did not receive additional orders in excess of the guaranteed minimum.
Make of all this information as you will. All I know is that DoD procurement was never designed to be understood by a mere mortal such as myself!
Umarex is also manufacturing .22 LR carbines patterned on the famous MP5 and MP5SD. These carbines features ...
The A5 model features a standard MP5 forend and a faux suppressor. The MP5SD foreend is modeled on the original SD forend although the suppressor is also just for the look and is non-funcationing. Standard fixed stocks will be able for purchase.
Both these guns will be able to be purchased with either a 10 round or 25 round magazine.
Hat Tip: On Point Supply
Umarex is manufacturing this .22 LR rifle patterned on the HK4161 . It features ...
The rifle will be sold with either a 10 or 20 round magazine but 30 round mags will be available for purchase.
The previous Umarex .22 rifle, the Colt M4, had some serious problems. Justin Biddle, Umarex's Marketing Manager, assured me that they have been made changes to the Umarex action and sorted out the issues experienced by the M4 owners.
Hat Tip: On Point Supply
Note that it is just patterned after the HK416. It is not a "real" Hk416 chambered in .22 and is not an AR-15. ↩
After a year of speculation and commentary from pundits, myself included, the Marine Times reports that the H&K has won the competition and that their entry will enter production next year ...
The Marine Corps has selected the infantry automatic rifle made by Heckler & Koch as the weapon that will replace the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon in infantry fire teams, a senior service official told Marine Corps Times on Wednesday.
The H&K IAR “was truly the best in the class on multiple levels and will finally allow the billet of automatic rifleman to be performed as intended without the disruption of the squad integrity that the M249 created,” Chief Warrant Officer 5 Jeffrey Eby, the Corps’ senior gunner, said in an e-mail.
Despite what is said in the above quotation, I do not think that the SAW is being replaced outright. The Marine Times has at times reported that the SAW would be replaced with the IAR, and at other times reported that it would augment the IAR, not replace it ...
The plan is to buy 4,100 IARs and reduce the number of SAWs in the Corps from 10,000 to 8,000, Cantwell said.
“We are still going to maintain SAWs in the company,” he said. “Only 2,000 SAWs will be replaced. The reminder will be kept as an organizational weapon for when commanders need them.”
The H&K entry was a modified version of their HK416 piston-operated AR-15 rifle. Unlike the Colt and FN entries, it is said to fire only from a closed bolt. Given the lack of an open-bolt fire mode I had presumed it was the least likely choice for an automatic rifle.
Presumably it is fitted with a heavy barrel, like H&K's previous, and commercially unsuccessful, attempt at the automatic rifle: the MG36. The Marine Corps has been reporting the weight of the 16.5" barreled H&K IAR as being 7.9 lbs. This is not possible as a standard 16.5" barreled Hk416 weights in at 7.84 lbs. I also think that the photo of the H&K IAR shown by the Military Times is that of a standard HK416.
![hk416 14 5 links tfb tm H&K wins USMC IAR competition [Big News!] photo](http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/hk416_14_5_links-tfb.jpg "hk416 14 5 links tfb tm H&K wins USMC IAR competition [Big News!] photo")
I have contacted H&K to see if they are willing to publicly acknowledge if they have won. If they do, I will endeavor to get the specs of the new weapon.
UPDATE: The Marines Times has an updated article here.
Many thanks to Mark and Matt for sending me the news.
Advocate posted this comment on my blog post about the H&K / ATI lawsuit ...
I really think its important to remember that they sued over trademark and trade dress infringement ... not patent infringement. Very different things.
Add to that the fact that ATI openly claimed it to be a MP5 lookalike:
Add to that the fact that HK can absolutely smother them in legal fees and you have a no win situation for ATI.
Love them or hate them i feel HK had the legal right to pursue this course.
... i’m just glad i got my gsg-5 long ago
I had forgotten about that advertisement.
REMOV let me know that H&K have redesigned their version of the FN MAG 7.62mm machine gun (designated the L7A2 in the British Army). The new models have been completely redrawn from imperial to metric and also feature a lengthly picatinny rail (what self-respecting military firearm does not these days?).
Manroy Engineering have also redesigned their ME 7.62 GPMG, which is a mix of features from the L7A2 and MAG 58.
A big thank you to REMOV for the photos and information.
Because Australians are not allowed semi-automatic guns, rifle manufacturers make some interesting bolt and pump action conversions of AR-15s, AKs and other rifles for the Australian market.
H&K produce a special version of their SL8, itself a consumer friendly version of the G36, for the Australian market called the R8. It functions as a bolt action. The rifle is not manufactured with a gas system, that is then blocked to make it single shot, as other single shot conversions have been.
Last year H&K Australia were informed that they could not longer import the R8 because it is duplicates a military rifle. They are pissed because as you can see below it barely resembles the G36. The R8 receivers and barrels were never capable of functioning as a semi-auto (or at least that is what they claim).
Earlier in the year H&K again entered into proceeding to get it reclassified.
Many thanks to Ben for sending me the documents relating to the story.
The lawsuit between ATI and H&K has been settled. Ed reports ...
Production and importation of the original design GSG-5 ceased as of Oct, 8, 2009 with the signing of the agreement. The remaining inventory now in the USA can be sold by ATI, all distributors and dealers. ATI currently has GSG-5's in stock.
Read the full press release over at at Ed's blog.
SaysUncle reports:
Heckler and Koch is suing German Sports Guns and American Tactical Imports over trade dress infringements. Seems they don’t like GSG making a 22LR version of their MP5.
These cases, like when Colt sued H&K over the 416, are counter productive to the industry in general. It seems bizarre that a firm, which is a subsidiary of a German company, is suing the importers of a German made gun. They must not be able to sue for it in Germany court.
I know nothing about "trade dress infringement", but I do know that those fanciful concepts of "common sense" and "justice" have long been forgotten in intellectual property court, thanks to the efforts of Disney Corp's hard working lawyers and lobbyists.
I recently reported that H&K has licensed the production of .22 rifles patterned after the MP5, MP7 and other H&K firearms to Umarex. No doubt this is the reason they have taken legal action against ATI.
UPDATE: H&K and ATI settled. GSG-5 sales will cease.
UPDATE:
How long till the Wii MP5 controller gets banned! (Thanks David for the link)
Another new gun on display at DSEi was this H&K HK416 sub-carbine / PDW. What is very interesting about this gun is the buttstock and upper receiver design.
It has a much shortened buffer tube and a collapsible stock in the H&K G3 / MP5 style.
This firearm appears to be positioned in direct competition to the Sub-Compact Weapon (SCW) that Colt is developing. The SCW features a similarly shortened buffer tube.
I think the H&K design is much more elegant. The H&K stock pull straight out, while the Colt stock must be unfolded out and then down before it can be adjusted for length.
Now if H&K would just stop hating us and start selling this nifty upper to us civilians!
Big thank you to Lusaka for the information and photo.
UPDATE:
REMOV has kindly provided me with these photos that he took of the new H&K. The gun has a 9.3" barrel.
Many thanks REMOV!
Hi, welcome to The Firearm Blog! This blog is dedicated to all things firearm related. If you are into AR-15 and AK carbines, skeet shotguns, self defense pistols or hunting rifles then there will be something here for you. I hope you enjoy it.
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