OK, I’m posting this here rather than in the NFA section because a great deal of this thread is applicable to standard semi auto variations of the Galil.
These are pics of my pre-86 dealer sample Magnum Research machine gun. This is a factory full auto rifle that was imported prior to 1986 to be sold to dealers licensed to sell machine guns, mainly as sales samples for police departments.
It was new in the box when I got a hold of it…it’s not new in the box any more…
There are three things I’m not real enthused about it, all of which are a product of the time and design of the Galil.
1/12" twist barrel. Not a lot to be done about that, other than scoring a 1/7" IMI barrel and dealing with the head ache of replacing it.
The selector works in the opposite direction of the civilian semi auto selectors…in other words, safe is up front, full auto is in the middle, and semi auto is all the way at the rear…much less ergonomic than the civilian set up where fire is up front and safe is in back. Not a lot that can be done about that, I don’t think.
In the 1970’s, when the Galil was being developed and finally fielded, being able to charge the weapon with your off hand, coming over the dust cover, was high speed, low drag…but with the advent and use of modern, high quality optics, that vertical charging handle gets in the way and is a disadvantage. Fortunately, I was able to score a piece of unobtainium, an IMI/IWI horizontal cocking handle bolt carrier that was made up for a small contract in South America (Colombia I think).
Troy is now making their Battle Rail for it, and I think they will also have an upgrade kit for the cocking handle as well.
I’m seriously considering the Troy rail…these were developed primarily for customers in Central and South America. Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico; many, many countries south of the border use them.
I’m not connected to Troy at all. It does seem like they’re in the fore front of Galil upgrades.
I’d hardly be bothered by that. 1/12 just means you’ve been at this for a long time. It’s not like the Galil is a “go to” gun anyway. If the Russians started dropping parachutes on us you aren’t gonna grab that Galil anymore than I’m gonna grab my AR-180, my old SP1s or or my HK93.
These are guns we have for collector purposes. We all want the Reed Knight / Dan Shea “reference collection” and we are doing our best to catch up. At most we shoot them recreationally for fun. But we have much better candidate firearms for personal defense and unlikely events like Red Dawn scenarios.
Now if we were discussion a hypothetical firearm like the Galil(M) “modern” where the design was being updated for current military applications then we’d have to see more than a few changes and design upgrades.
In the meantime, it is just nice to own them and share the details with those who aren’t fortunate enough to have any first hand experience with them.
Great pics and narrative Templar. The SAR has always been my favorite Galil. I was collecting parts to build a SAR clone and I never got past the receiver and barrel (it was 1 x 7 twist); both of which I sold several years ago.
Wow, thanks for sharing that Templar. I’ve never seen or heard of that cocking handle. Very interesting how another item (The upturned standard Galil cocking handle) comes up that in it’s time was forward thinking, but nowadays may not be (i.e. HBAR’s; cocking handles on the right side because most shooters are right handed; carry handles).
Very nice. That right there is pretty much my grail gun.
Templar, what would you suggest if I wanted to get my hands on a setup (semi auto) just like that? SBR etc of course. I dont want to deal with Red Jacket, Elite, or of course Century. Got a reccomendation for a builder of a quality SAR like that?
The movie was written directed and produced by Shmulik Maoz, our former company sergeant, in our IDF Armor Corps reserve unit.
The movie is based on his experiences in the First Lebanon War (Peace for Galilee Campaign began 06/06/1982).
Shmulik was wounded in an incident in Rafiah when we were deployed sometime in the late 1980’s. His optic nerve in one eye was damaged. That marked the end of his reserve service. At the time he was studying film at Tel Aviv University.
Ok, I’ll join the fun. Here is a pic of my Galil SAR semi. It has a perm attached extended FH to make it legal and the buttstock is an ACE side folder. The orginal weapon had a Galil buttstock, but the POS guy I sent it to to have it engraved switched buttstocks and won’t admit it or return my call. What a turd.
So if anyone out there has a line on a galil buttstock I’d sure appreciate it.
Elite Firearms out of Fort Worth. I guess Karma was looking down on me when I posted this because I went over to gunbroker after I posted this and found a Galil buttstock, refinished, for 60 BUCKS!!
It’s not the best looking buttstock, but I figure it will hold me over until I find a like new one down the road. It’s better than the freakin ACE folder on there, IMO.
Once I have it and install it then I’ll take some better pics. The rifle itself runs well and is a great little shooter.
When I was with the Navy back in the 1980’s, I worked pretty closely with a group that tested all types of weapons.
I particularly was very fond of the SAR Galil. Your model is one of the early versions, since it has the pinned on bayonet lug (used for mounting a huge lighting system circa 1980) and flared limiter on the flash hider.
I fired several thousand rounds out of two during a weekend test session at the old Navy Firing Range at Indian Head, MD. One was a SAR like yours…and the other was an IMI modded one. It had a pistol grip on the front handguard and a Mini Uzi style wire folding stock. The magazines were the south african R4 synthetic mags…great item by the way. The “Mod” SAR also had a Smith Enterprises Vortex style flash hider only the prongs of the flash hider were straight (ca. 1988). Only differences in firing were the Mini Uzi style wire stock was not as comfortable to fire as the full size SAR stock and it kicked spent cases all over the place with no set pattern.
I had a chance to play with the same group at the range a year later, and they had upgraded all their Galils with the Buffertech style buffers that are available now. They also got a hold of a Galil 22 caliber subcal kit…which did not work very well and ultimately got thrown away. The unit gunsmith also modified the SAR stock so it folded in the opposite direction (folded on the left side of the receiver) for a left handed shooter & they had the IMI scope mount that mounted on the receiver dovetail. The smith also cut up an IMI steel mag and mounted it to a Beta C Mag for them to test. It worked pretty well, but it made the whole combination pretty heavy compared to the Colt M16A2 carbines they were carrying at the time.
I will try and find some of the photos we took at the range, but they are old 35mm prints, so I would have to scan them.
BTW, There was a guy in Virginia Beach that had 1/7 twist barrels for the SAR a few years ago. All were timed for IMI receivers and did not have the gas ports milled. I was told they were an easy rebuild, but the requirement for a good gunsmith with a mill was too much of a hassle since I had a Galil Semi ARM that is worht more than my first Jeep cost.
If you look you will find the parts for them. An original Magnum Research Galil AR15 magwell adapter would be cool to have also.
I’ve heard a boatload of bad things about them, but that’s the worst.
Was it SBR engraving, or Hebrew?
Jeff Miller of Hill Billy Firearms does some really amazing Hebrew markings and IDF crest, for those who are into that:
He’s actually the one that reworked my Century (yeah… I know) above and got it running like an absolute champ again. Easily the most knowledgeable and skilled Galil guy out there…
