I’ve heard past reports that German troops in Afgan operations were well pleased with the performance of their G36’s. A magazine article last year showed dust chamber test results from a handful of current/potential carbines. (M4, SCAR, 416 and XM8). The XM8 (which I understand is a redressed G36) outperformed all others. It would seem the G36 is one of the best performing plateforms around.
Anyone have any more information/thoughts/opinions on the G36?
Is HK likely to ever produce a G36 variant in the US?
I can’t see HK making G36’s here in the states…hell, I’m not holding my breath that they’ll actually deliver the MR223’s, which are civillian HK 416’s.
The SOT that I work with has a post '86 dealer sample G36C.
I’ve run it in a Vickers class, which wasn’t that high a round count. It did well, I fed it Brown Bear 62 gr. steel cased .223 and it never missed a beat.
They’re “neat” carbines, but I don’t think I’d necessarily choose one over a well kitted out M4 type.
The selector, while being better than the HK G3 or MP5, isn’t as ergonomic. The irons on the G36C pretty much suck…and the front gets in the way of red dot. I got used to the front crowding the sight picture of the T1 I was running on it, but it could have been better.
I’ve heard of them suffering from zero shift at high round counts or heavy strings of fire, but I haven’t experienced that in the C model, but I also wasn’t in Afghanistan.
The US Park Police bought some but gave them up for 416’s I believe, partially due to the zero shift issue.
The weapon system is probably a not going to be a big seller world wide. The Bundeswehr uses it, as do the Spanish. The British police use them as well, but other than that I’m not aware of too many high profile end users.
I wouldn’t want one…a dozen maybe, but not one. I heard the thermo-plastic would heat up and cause the barrel to misalign when it recooled. Also heard the ‘receiver’ would warp causing bolt stoppages, mis-feeds, diahrea, droop-eye and maybe even pregnancy, all of which are unverifyable by this peon (me) so I take it all as corporate rumors meant to undermine competition. I remember seeing the DC police in 2003 having these and I wished I could find a way to sample a few at the HK factory up in Chantilly, but I just ended up with poop in one hand and empty in the other.
Not negating the opinions or observations of anyone here, but as always, we need to be cautious about forming (and repeating) viewpoints that are based upon second- and third-hand impressions, rather than verifiable fact.
A close friend of mine is a Bundeswehr officer who has multiple deployments under his belt in the modern era, and while his first love will always be the MG3, he raves about the G36. I’ve heard the same from other friends in the German military, and another well-placed colleague who is basically the German equivalent of America’s Dan Shea (of MGN/Small Arms Review fame).
The G36 is simply not a weapon with which most of us are very familiar (myself included), but it seems to me that a lot of the popular stories are unfounded – or at the very least, suspect. Those who carry it into harm’s way are wholly persuaded inasmuch as I’ve been able to determine from my observation post in the Fatherland.
I only got to put about 300 rounds down the pipe of a G36K Compact and I fell in love with it. Incredible ergonomics, light weight, and it hit everything I pointed it at. The only improvement that I could think of would be a reversible bolt and movable ejection ports so that it could truly be an ambidextrous weapon. There are a couple of outfits out there that sell the parts to convert an SL8 to whichever G36 version you’d like.
I just wondered why it has not been given a closer look in light of the SCAR competion and if it truly performed as well as I have read it has in the dust chamber tests. I also wonder if not being strapped with M16 type magazines might also have improved it reliability record.
The SL8 conversions do look good but to me it is still short of being an honest to god G36. If for some unforseen reason HK were to offer them in the US then I might be very interested, again if they offer the performance leap I’ve heard they do.
In the mean time I’ll keep the SCAR 16s at the top of my wish list.
I’ve shot them and the UMP 45 at a few of the schools myself and a fellow Swat guy teach. It was a fun gun to shoot but the ergonomics are horrible and the stocks do suck.
Honestly I think the AR platform is the best thing out on the market today.
I do think the flash hider on the G36C looks cool. Anyone know if they have one similar that will fit an M4?
Looks close to an AAC blackout which I guess would be close enough.
Templar it was US Capitol Police which had some extreme zero shifts. My old boss Phil Strader was working for them then. They later got Rock Rivers for their uniformed officers and HK416s for the full-time SERT guys (one of my IPSC buddies is one of their SERT guys and carries a 10" HK416).
FWIW, I can confirm what Lil’L and gotm4 have said about Capitol Police. I was dealing with them directly at the time they dropped the G36 and they were not the least bit happy with them. They bought their Rock Rivers off the FBI/DEA contract. You have to remember at that time, everyone was raving about how great the RRA guns were. Some very highly respected M4C illuminati even recommended them as “the closest thing to a Colt” back then.
The only other fed agency I know that had any G36s also ditched them, though at least part of that issue was the inability to get maintenance parts from HK.
The death of XM8 didn’t do the G36 any good, either.
Police work is not combat. Sitting on a rifle rack or standing guard at a capitol building is not real use. Many were trying to compare this RRA issue as them being on the same level as Colt and FN being the supplier of M16s to the military.
Having spoken to folks who were actually present when Colt, RRA, and SIG were doing the endurance/reliability testing for the FBI/DEA contract, I think it would be very fair to say that anyone looking at those results would reasonably expect a RRA carbine from the 2002/2003 “era” to run every bit as well as a Colt from the same time.
Given that, apparently, both the actual end-users who switched felt it was an upgrade and the person who was training them thought it was an upgrade then just possibly they were, in fact, getting better performance on whatever level(s) mattered to them.
