{"id":133598,"date":"2021-05-23T10:40:26","date_gmt":"2021-05-23T14:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=133598"},"modified":"2021-05-23T10:40:26","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T00:19:28","slug":"sons-the-sturmgewehr-the-g3-and-the-ptr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/sons-the-sturmgewehr-the-g3-and-the-ptr\/","title":{"rendered":"Sons the Sturmgewehr: The G3 and the PTR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The German Gewehr 3 (literally Rifle number 3) is a 7.62\u00d751mm select-fire battle rifle. The operating system was conceived in WW2 and developed in the 1950s. The G3 was a ground breaking design which held communist hordes at bay for 30 years. PTR Industries in South Carolina is building the GI PTR 100, a semi-automatic version of this robust cold warrior. Where did it come from and why was it built?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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H&K G3 Rifle with standard 20 round magazine. 7.62 x 51 NATO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once used by the German military, the G3 has been popular in the export market, being adopted by the armed forces of over 40 countries. If you watch the news you will see that Mexico, Pakistan, and Iran all still make the G3 under license.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I saw these guns in service with El Salvador during the civil war there. When I was in Afghanistan in the late 2000s, Iranian made G3’s and MP5’s were common status symbols among the locals in Herat. Where did this ubiquitous rifle come from? Spoiler alert: It involves Nazi engineers and desperate wartime necessity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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German landsers in flectarn cammo with the trusty G3s and Marder fighting vehicles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1943, Russian hordes were introducing the human wave to 20th-century warfare. The Wehrmacht (German Army) disobeyed a F\u00fchrer directive and developed a new kind of gun. Designed for mass production, the rifle was designed to fire full auto and take advantage of the 7.92\u00d733 Kurtz cartridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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German 7.92 x 33 cartridge and an MP44 magazine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They hid the development by calling it a submachine gun (MP43 and MP44) and sent it to the Russian front. When Hitler asked the Commanders on the Russian Front what they needed to win in the east, they said \u201cMore of the new rifles”.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Sturmgewehr 44 entered into service in 1943. It was a revolutionary development that surprised the allies.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hitler finally shot the new gun and he liked it so much he didn\u2019t schedule a single execution. He named it the Sturmgewehr 44 (assault rifle). Always a master of propaganda, his made-up name is still used by modern national socialist to slander civilian semi-automatic rifles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rebel fighter using an STG-44 in 2013 in Aleppo, Syria. The rebels looted around 5,000 STG-44s from the Syrian government. Syria bought German WW2 weapons from Czechoslovakia in the 1950’s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The StG44 was made of stamped and welded steel. Difficulties with the manufacture, use of available non-priority steels, and the friction of war resulted in an unnecessarily heavy receiver for the intermediate cartridge which it fired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The StG44 was seen as late as 2016 in the Syrian civil war. Kurdish troops to the east were armed with German G3’s. Photo courtesy of wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another design for a Mauser rifle chambered in 7.92 mm Kurz inspired a whole new concept. This breakthrough was too late for the Nazis, but it planted a seed that would later bloom for Mauser\u2019s love child, Heckler & Koch. Some geek running the analytical department at Mauser, deep in the basement in Oberndorf devised a version of the retarded (a better translation than delayed) blowback system.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a genius design. Delayed Roller Blowback has NO gas system, NO piston, and NO rigid locking. Elegant and simple, rollers are used to retard the bolt just long enough for the chamber pressure to drop to safe levels.  This became the StG45.  When American forces captured Oberndorf, no more than 30 of these rifles existed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Sturmgewehr 45, a Mauser prototype developed at the end of World War II, used an innovative roller-delayed blowback operating system. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Captured parts were assembled into StG45 rifles for the allies to test. They were amazed, this was something completely new. There was no springtime for Hitler, but this idea was too good to remain in the rubble of Mauser Werk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all know how the story ends, the team with the prettiest uniforms lost, due in no small part to their sophisticated weapons which they could not mass produce.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The CEAM Mod\u00e8le 1950 was French derivative of the StG 45(M) chambered in .30 Carbine. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some of the more agile Nazis escaped Germany and were recruited to make guns for France. German engineer Ludwig Vorgrimler of StG45 fame spent 3 years working on the French version of the Sturmgewehr for the CEAM company.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was called the Carabine Mitrailleuse Mod\u00e8le 1950. Since France was busy losing the war in Indochina and looking toward NATO standardization, France couldn\u2019t afford to produce this new rifle. France continued using antiques and American hand me downs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The CETME Model A chambered for the 7.62x51mm CETME cartridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You can\u2019t keep a good engineer down, Vorgrimler didn\u2019t file for generous French unemployment, he moved to fascist Spain and designed LV-50 rifle originally chambered for the 7.92Kurz cartridge. The West German Border Guards (Bundesgrenzschutz), were interested in this rifle but wanted a NATO round. CETME produced the Model A chambered for the 7.62x51mm CETME cartridge, identical to NATO 7.62 in chamber dimensions but with less velocity. Close, but not NATO standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1949 Heckler & Koch was founded by engineers Edmund Heckler, Theodor Koch, and Alex Seidel formerly of the Mauser rifle company. The Germans pronounce it Heckler and Cock. They never did figure out why Americans find that funny. I never could find out why Seidel didn\u2019t get his name on the sign. H&K made machine tools, sewing machine parts, and gauges and dreamed of the day they would again make guns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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West German G1 with a Rifle Grenade. In November 1956 West Germany ordered 100,000 FALs, designated the G1, for the army. FN made the rifles between April 1957 and May 1958.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1956, the Bundesgrenzschutz instead adopted the Belgian FN FAL (It was called the G1 by the Germans, probably because they didn\u2019t want it to look like they were buying guns from Belgium). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Belgians later refused to grant a license to manufacture them in Germany.  Too soon? In November 1956 West Germany ordered 100,000 FALs, for the army. The G1 is distinguished from other FAL weapons by a pressed metal handguard and a removable flash hider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new West German Army was looking across the inner-German border with their M-1 Garrands and G-1s at the new East German Army carrying the StG44 and the SKS. Our Germans wanted a new NATO standard rifle to keep the Warsaw Pact Armies on their side of the border. In 1958, they conducted trails between the German designed CETME, calling it G3, the Swiss SIG SG 510 (G2) and the American AR-10 (G4). I guess they wanted to German-up the Spanish, Swiss, and American guns too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 1959, the Bundeswehr adopted the Automatisches Gewehr G3.   Rheinmetall and H&K both made the G3. In 1969, Rheinmetall gave up production rights to the G3 in exchange for H&K\u2019s promise not to bid on the MG3 contract. In 1977, the West German government ceded ownership of G3 production and sales rights exclusively to H&K for the G3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The MG3 is a copy of the World War Two MG42 general-purpose machine gun, now chambered for the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong here. I am not an H&K hater. I love the story and the design of the G-3 family, but there are many people who just cannot grok what I am about to say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It has always amazed me that people associate the G-3 with high quality and precision. Like the Sturmgewehr 45, the G3 is built for crude war-time production using as many stamped parts as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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German conscripts clean their G3’s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The G3 receiver is stamped from sheet steel. The trigger unit housing along with the pistol handle frame, also are stamped from steel. The early G3 even had stamped steel handguards.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This modern HK91 receiver flat is virtually identical to the G3 flat. Photo courtesy of RTG Parts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you compare the G-3 to an M-14, an M-16, or an FN FAL you will see the difference between war-time production and precision manufacture. If you take the stock off, you can look directly into the sheet metal maw of the receiver. It is a great gun, and its origins are part of its functional beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The G3 is a select fire roller-delayed blowback-operated firearm. This retardation or delay is achieved by two cylindrical rollers acting as transmission elements against a movable locking piece which drives the heavy bolt carrier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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G3 bolt assembly, Photo courtesy of gatewoodsupplyco.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The two-piece bolt assembly consists of a bolt head and bolt carrier. The bolt is held in battery by two cylindrical rollers that engage locking recesses in the barrel extension. The breech is opened when both rollers are driven inward against angled ramps of the barrel extension and interact with the wedge-shaped locking piece, pushing it back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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