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Recently, going through my old photos, I found a few pictures of POF G3 rifles from the time I worked in Pakistan. The rifles on the picture are old, first generation G3s with wooden handguards and stocks, something you don’t see every day.
In 1965, Pakistan received ToT (transfer of technology) from H&K and was one of the first countries that started production of G3 rifles outside of Germany.
Other countries that produced G3 variants include Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Myanmar (Burma). If you want to know more about Burmese G3 variant, check out this TFBTV video by Miles.
The company producing G3s in Pakistan is called Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) following the tradition of Royal Ordnance Factories in the UK. It should not come as a surprise that former British colonies adopted the name, creating Indian Ordnance Factories and Bangladesh Ordnance Factories.
Presentation video of Pakistan POF factory.
The quality of POF G3, in my experience, is pretty good. Finish is rough, but mechanically the rifle functions well and demonstrates very decent accuracy results, hitting targets up to 600 meters in the hands of a competent marksman (and yes, it is a first hand experience and yes, I was as surprised as you are).
Obviously, the variant with wooden handguards, demonstrated in the first picture is not currently in production. The majority of Pakistan army is armed with POF G3 A3 variant that features so-called “angular handguard” which I personally find to be way to thick and very uncomfortable.
Some of the POF products are currently sold in the US, namely MP5 pistol imported by FEDARMS. For some reason, G3 variants chambered for 7.62×51 never came to the US market, despite the fact that a designated “Sportster” model was introduced a few years ago. You can read an exclusive review of this model right here on TFB.
I am not a fan of G3, but just the look of those thin wooden handguards and German-engineered stamped steel, so similar to Sturmgever, makes me want to buy one. Unfortunately, there is no way you can buy one legally, and attempting to smuggle a full-auto G3 from Pakistan to Russia in about the dumbest thing you can do.