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JTarrou  1yr ago (text post)   4226 thread views

I'm a "gun guy", AMA

A couple people had expressed interest in this topic, and I have a bit of extra time for a couple days, so here goes:

Bona fides: I am a former infantry NCO and sniper, hunter, competitive shooter, reloader, hobby gunsmith, sometimes firearms trainer and currently work in a gun shop, mostly on the paperwork/compliance side. Back in the day, was a qualified expert with every standard small arm in the US inventory circa 2003 (M2, 4, 9, 16, 19, 249, 240B, 21, 24, 82 etc.), and today hang around the 75th percentile of USPSA classifications. I've shot Cap-and-Ball, Trap and Sporting Clays badly; Bullseye and PRS somewhat better and IDPA/USPSA/UML/Two-gun with some local success. Been active in the 2A community since the mid-90s, got my first instructor cert in high school, and have held a CPL for almost twenty years now.

I certainly don't claim to be an expert in every aspect of firearms, there's huge areas that escape my knowledge base, but if you've got questions I'll do my best to answer.

Technical questions

Gun control proposals for feasibility

Industry

Training

Wacky opinions

General geekery

Some competition links (not my own) just for the interested.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=U5IhsWamaLY&t=173

https://youtube.com/watch?v=93nEEINflXE

https://youtube.com/watch?v=utcky0zq10E

https://youtube.com/watch?v=xVh4CjbgK7s

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0IK2RUxVq3A

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How about this video from InRange? Karl has even less incentive against being honest, and I remember he judged it to be lore.

ETA: For my own money, I'm aware the US Army were reportedly not happy with the melting on the XM8, which is basically a G36 with new furniture, but you would think that if melting problems were found on the original G36, the Bundeswehr would surely have found that out within months of getting the first guns before wide-scale adoption. Unless the Bundeswehr does not really test the stuff they buy.

Unless the Bundeswehr does not really test the stuff they buy.

Bundeswehr was the one who wrote the contract in such an absurd way in the first place. One may wonder about corruption in weapons procurement.

I'd be really interested to find out what the original series as delivered us as reciever material, because polyamide with fiberglass - what the newer guns Ian tested use, is a very high end material.

Actually, someone at another forum says he's translated the actual testing report:

https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=562681

quoting his post:

D: At some point without the knowledge of the Military, H&K changed the formulation of the polymer used to include a cheaper and more common Thermoplastic. (I want to say PET, but my memory could be faulty on this point) Basically the polymer was no longer a Thermoset plastic (or at least not completely) and was now able to melt slightly and soften at increased temperatures. During firing, the heat would rise above that point. This meant the plastic was soft enough to allow the barrel trunnion to shift position in the polymer frame. I seen a cross section picture of a G36, and you could readily see the evidence of melting and trunnion movement.

@FcFromSSC ^^

That's apparently the culprit, so I remembered correctly. It's not really a design issue, but the design requires very particular manufacturing, so perfectly plausible the rifles manufactured at other times aren't as affected which is why the problem wasn't discovered by foreign buyers.

Wow, from Karl's video you'd think the G36 had slept with his wife. Or something else that made him love it.

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