Apparently H&K G36 issues totally overblown....

[Firefly]

Whaddya mean......ugly?

Not to sound crass but my SP1 is like the nice blonde next door.
With the poodle skirt, bobby socks, and Letter sweater.

My Sterling is Bettie Page in her BDSM gear. Take it to the range, slap a 40 rounder in and heads WILL turn. IIRC That's why it was used in Terminator because it looked so EVIL.


Not a SCAR guy, but I thought all these SF people thought it was so great.

[Valintina]

I don't stray into other forums as much any more. I have never thought it was anything other than yet another .223 poodle shooter but I guess people have a lot wrapped up in these debates.

The internet is some serious business.

[montrala]

Original article: http://www.dw.com/en/heckler-and-koc...ger/a-18781312

As on what is going on, one can get his own opinion, but I will point for some facts:

1. Fr years German Left (progressive leftist as much as it can get) and Green (even more left than Left) parties politicians are trying to kill HK. Even up to comparing company to Chernobyl Plant and proposing crowd funding campaign to cover factory with concrete (seriously).
2. Problems started when after series of scandal with German MoD in 2011. Left wing (extremelly left wing) parties made their point to "cleanse" MoD, who is for long time managed by CDU/CSU (theoretically right/conservative/christian - but their right is ala US Democrats).
3. 'Christine Buchholz, defense policy spokeswoman for the socialist Left party [...] said. "The whole swamp needs to be drained. The Heckler & Koch clique needs to be exposed; only then, can such problems be avoided in the future."'

[MountainRaven]

The thing that get me is that the AR-18 seems to be the system that so many of the major newer Western rifles seem to be based on: The G36, The L85, the SCAR, the ACR, CZ 805, and others I'm sure I'm missing. Obviously, some deviate from the design more than others, but overall, they're all based on the 18. The thing is, it doesn't seem like many of them have track records that would rank any of them above "mediocre" (though admittedly, the 805 needs more time). Compare that to rifles based on the AK, such as the SG550 series, FN FNC, RK95, Galil, or the AR, which have excellent track records for ruggedness and reliability. I can't help but wonder, is it the AR18 design, or is that more of a coincidence that has little to do with why those other rifles have had issues.

I know Swedes who are rather displeased with the FNC/Ak5. And the country that invented the Galil mostly dumped it about the time it went into production. And we can't mention the ACR as being an AR-18 derivative and being mediocre, given that the only version anybody has any experience with is the roughshod POS bearing Bushmaster's name, without also mentioning the SiG 556 and the Century C39 and RAS AKs as Kalashnikov derivatives that are mediocre at best. Never mind that when it comes to addressing the modern battlefield (optics, lights, NODs, IR lasers/illuminators, &c.), most of the AR-18 derivatives are much better options than most of the Kalashnikov derivatives.

In any case, with the AR-18 we have the good:
HK416, HK417
SCAR
AR-18/AR-180

The meh:
G36
L85A2
R-ACR

The bad:
L85A1
B-ACR

The R-ACR might be worthy of moving up, the L85A2 might be worthy of moving down, and a G36A1 (a model in which the issues - however minor or major they may be - of the G36 have been addressed) might move up.

Thats funny. German SOF carry 41x types, that should be a clue as to how good the G36 is.

Maybe it isn't a clue as to how good the G36 is but to how good the HK416 is.

Or maybe the KSK are using it because SFOD-D and SEAL Team 6 and GROM use it. Because that's never happened before (*cough* SAS *cough* MP5 *cough* IDF *cough* Uzi).

[Slater]

Heck, just go back to G3's

[montrala]

Other G36 user, Lithuanian Armed Forces, took matter seriously. They even considered stopping procurement of G36, but not without extensive testing. They also analised data received from other G36 users (including Germany) This is what they found:

The testing completed by the Lithuanian Armed Forces proved that the G-36 assault rifles diverge from their technical characteristics only in case they are used for fire support, i.e. as light machine guns, instead of small arms.

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/art...lt-rifles.html

Looks like this was yet another attempt of smear campaign against HK inspired by leftist activist in Germany.

[Serious Account]

I wouldn't hesitate taking a G36 into combat. Bad things are going to happen when you use pretty much any rifles as a LMG

[HKGuns]

I don't own one yet but one is on my list. Pffft, it is usually the Indian and not the arrow.

[Mrgunsngear]

A friend of mine from a previous deployment to Iraq is German SF. I shot him an email when this controversy came out to see what he thought. His thoughts:

The ones with the metal optics housings have never had an issue. The ones with polymer optics housings have. So just use metal optics housings.

Seems simple enough.