By Jim Dickson | Contributing writer
The first roller locked weapon to reach our shores during WWII was one of the first captured MG42 general purpose machineguns.
At that time the late Colonel George Chinn was America’s greatest expert on all the different mechanisms utilized in machineguns. As everyone gathered around the revolutionary new gun there were a lot of remarks about “The cheap German stamped metal machinegun.” Colonel Chinn shocked everyone when he made his pronouncement: “Germany should give the inventor of this gun their highest award and a million dollar bonus!”
From then on he lobbied for the U.S. to adopt this gun. One of his favorite tricks was to trickle sand into the roller lock and let the roller’s hammer mill action pound the sand into fine silicone lubricant for the rest of the gun!
Unfortunately the attitude of Ordnance was best summed up by General Creighton Abrams’ comments when the U.S. signed a treaty with Germany that said the winner of the trials between the American M1 tank and the German Leopard II tank would be adopted by both countries. General Abrams said “We’ll adopt a damn kraut tank over my dead body!” That was the same way Ordnance felt about German guns so we went through WWII and Korea without a general purpose machinegun and when Ordnance finally came up with one of their own, the M60, it jammed. A lot. Today the M60 is mostly a bad memory while the MG42 is popular worldwide and often praised as the best machinegun of its type even today.
Colonel Chinn went on to write his monumental four-volume set of books, The Machinegun, which the Bureau of Naval Ordnance had classified for years before it was made available to the public. It was only made available when it was found out that the Soviets had already stolen a set of the books.
Colonel Chinn always maintained that the roller locking system was the most reliable of all and he used this system when the Navy had him design a 20MM cannon.
Development of roller locked guns continued in Germany during WWII with the prototypes of the Stg 45 all having this locking system though now it was modified to work without the recoiling barrel. When the war ended some of the gun designers on the project fled to Spain and continued their work resulting in the CETME rifle.
Meanwhile, back in Germany the FN FAL had been adopted but when Germany tried to get a license to build it in Germany FN rebuffed them so rudely that they determined to ditch the FN FAL and build a better gun in Germany. The German designed CETME now being built in Spain filled the bill and soon H&K was licensed to make it in Germany. Adopted as the G3 rifle it was an instant hit. More rugged and reliable than the FN FAL it quickly dethroned the Belgian FN FAL rifle on the world market. It entered service in 1959 and has been sold to over 70 countries. Some NATO countries like Norway not only adopted it, they built it under license as have at least 14 other countries. Over 7.8 million have been made to date. It is by far the most reliable rifle in large scale use, surpassed only by the Johnson rifle and LMG series that has not been made since WWII.
If the U.S. Forces in Vietnam had been given the G3 in 7.62 NATO instead of the M16 in 5.56 it would have saved many American lives. The early version of the M16 was notorious for jamming, even when squeaky clean while the 5.56 cartridge was ill suited for jungle use as it tended to deflect, tumble, and break up on jungle growth that the 7.62 NATO simply punched through.
Problems with the almost total lack of stopping power of the 5.56 cartridge on torso hits showed up at the beginning and have continued to this day.
Typical of this was an incident in recent years where German troops went ashore chasing Somali pirates. A German soldier emptied his clip into the chest of a skinny Somali just across the road from him with all the bullets striking in the torso witnessed by the rest of the men with him. The bloody Somali then ran away. Stories like this date all the way back to the Vietnam War. Mortally wounding is not the same as stopping power. If the enemy can still return fire he can kill you.
Military rifles have always been popular as hunting rifles and the G3 was soon made in semi-auto only version for sale to hunters. The ability to fire fast follow up shots in the hunting field was what made the lever action so popular in its day. A modern semi-auto is obviously superior. Just as the lever action was used on the American frontier to defend against man or beast the modern semi-auto G3 excels at this and is as far superior to the lever action as you would expect it to be.
The lack of a selector switch is no handicap as the G3 fires from a closed bolt instead of an open bolt which reduces 50% of the recoil and at 10 pounds it falls far short of the 15 pound minimum weight for controllable full auto fire with a full power rifle cartridge. It is simply more effective in semi-auto fire.
Some people say that you don’t need a 20-round magazine. Try telling that to a farmer who has a herd of wild hogs in his crops or a pack of wild dogs or coyotes among his livestock. In Georgia, I know of two separate instances where a pack of coyotes attacked a hunter. In the 1960’s attacks by packs of wild dogs were common in the Georgia woods and it seemed that every game warden in the state had a story about being personally attacked by a pack.
Previous generations did not have run ins with drug gangs in the woods like some have had today. At one Georgia hunting campsite, drug dealers raided during the night driving their vehicle over the hunter’s tents. Only gunfire drove them off. Betty and I had to quit hunting and fishing at one wildlife management area because of the ongoing battle there between law enforcement and drug dealers. Just like on the American frontier, the gun you hunt with may be called upon to protect you only this time your adversary may be armed with an AK-47. It behooves you to have the superior weapon.
For the average deer hunter having more ammunition means that when a heart-shot deer does their famous last 100-yard dash you can put more shots in as needed to prevent the animal from piling up in front of another hunter’s stand.
As a former Alaskan bush dweller and trapper, I am sometimes asked what is the best rifle for living deep in the Alaskan bush country. Of all the rifles currently available, the semi-auto G3 is by far the best choice, in my opinion. The fact that Norway adopted and used it successfully is all the proof one needs that it will work flawlessly in the extreme bitter, sub-zero cold of the far North where metal and plastics often turn brittle.
Once again the 20-round magazine and semi-auto fire come to the forefront. A few years ago wolves killed a school teacher in Southwest Alaska when she was out jogging. Trappers have also been attacked in recent years. There are more wolves in a pack than you can deal with if you have a 5-shot magazine and in the thick cover of the Alaskan interior ranges are short. If you are surprised by a bear at close range, as has often happened, you will trying to get the gun up in time to fire before he knocks it aside. The ability to keep pumping bullets in fast at a range of a few feet is paramount in some of these encounters where there may not even be time to bring the gun to the shoulder.
Finally, Alaska, like anywhere else, has its share of criminals who prey on folks far from police protection. Frontier living never really changes and you do need the most modern weapons.
For Alaskan hunting the 7.62 NATO will kill anything in Alaska at any normal hunting range. The almost total lack of recoil makes shot placement easy and recoil-shy folks can enjoy using a rifle of adequate power without the pain of a hard recoil. That’s more humane for the game and better for the hunter needing meat.
The legendary reliability and longevity of the G3 come to the forefront when you are on a long trapline. Some of these Alaskan traplines are 100 miles long. Not a place for a rifle to break down on you. With the G3 you can be confident of it always working.
Many Alaskans use the caribou to stock up their meat cache for the winter. The G3 with its 7.62 NATO cartridge is ideal for this. As for moose, the Norwegians and other European hunters have used this cartridge successfully on moose ever since it first became available.
Regardless of what state you are in the semi-auto G3 remains the best all round rifle currently available.
When Portugal was through building the G3 under license to H&K they sold the tooling to make it to the American firm of PTR 91 and they have been building semi-auto only versions in the U.S. ever since.
I received the sample gun for review at Reeves Ace Hardware in Clayton, Georgia where it made a good impression. The sample gun sent for review was the GIR Model which is your basic GI Model military G3 except for having a Picatinny Rail mounted on it. Exact military configuration limits you to G3 scope mounts.
The rifle came with an 18-inch barrel in 7.62 NATO/.308 Winchester. The G3 doesn’t care and digests all factory loads in either label equally well. It measured 40 ½ inches overall and weighed exactly 10 pounds. The stock set, metal lower trigger pack, and magazines are surplus rated in good or better condition.
The trigger pull broke smooth and clean at 11 pounds as measured with a Lyman mechanical trigger pull gauge from Brownells Gunsmithing Supplies. I have found the mechanical trigger pull gauges far more consistent in their readings than the electronic ones which also often have a short life. The stock and forend were the H&K green color which I have always liked. The durable military Parkerizing offers a more resilient finish than simple hot bluing.
Fit and finish was up to German H&K standards and functioning was perfect, just as I expected. Recoil was hardly noticeable. This is a VERY pleasant gun to fire.
I had 400 rounds for test firing consisting of 200 rounds of Black Hills 168-grain ELD Match .308, 160 rounds of Privi Partizan 145-grain FMJ 7.62 NATO, and 40 rounds of Steinel 168-grain Match BTHP .308.
I just wish that I had more rounds to fire for this is one more fun gun to shoot. It hangs rock steady and is superbly accurate. It handles perfectly coming up fast and unerringly on target. This is a rifle that seems to want to hit the target all by itself in the best tradition of German Military weapons.
Germany has always striven to give its soldiers the most accurate arms that they could make for they understood that many times this is the life and death edge in combat.
It transfers seamlessly into the hunting field where it can make the difference between bagging the trophy of a lifetime or not.
There is an old saying “Don’t bet against a man with only one gun. He probably knows how to use it.” Of all the guns currently manufactured this is the best choice for the one gun man.
