If you saw the M14 video a while back, here’s the next cold war veteran I fired at Battlefield Vegas this year in 762×51.
The G3 family of rifles was made famous by Heckler & Koch, but the design was first mass produced in the form of the Spanish military’s CETME rifle, which itself was mostly drawn up by German engineers who had previously been employed by the Nazis.
The upper receiver comprises the main body of the weapon and is made of stamped steel, with a plastic lower that was definitely ahead of its’ time when you look at modern assault rifle designs like the ACR, SCAR and HK-433.
The infamous roller-delayed blowback action means there is no gas tube or piston running parallel to the barrel, it is simply the rearward force imparted on the base of the brass case that forces the bolt to cycle back. While the MP5, HK-33/53 and many other extrmely well known HK guns used this system it is not found in many other firearms manufactured around the world, especially compared to gas piston systems and standard blowback.
While the recoil is not quite as severe as the M14 is still pretty damn strong in full auto and being the first ever rifle I had ever fired offhand in 762 in full auto it definitely pushed on my shoulder. The G3 is also fairly light compared to most of the belt fed machine guns that fire 762×51 adding to the practice needed to control it in automatic fire. I have to say that the best thing to make you realise how easy 556/545 guns are to shoot is to compare them to older self-loading rifles chambered in .30 calibre cartridges.
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