The Heckler&Koch R8 Rifle....hopefully coming to the UK mainland soon.

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sterling180

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Hello there fellow Uk& International shooters.Whilst trawling the web,looking for potential firearms manufacturers,who'd be willing to make a manual-opearted versions,of the standard semi-auto fullbore models,I encountered a suprise,on the google search engine-the R8 rifle.:cool::):):D

The Heckler&Koch R8 rifle is the bolt-action,version, of the SL8 rifle,which was originally created for the Australian PR& Service rifle,shooting communities-by H&K Australia.The Authorities banned it over there,after fears of unlawful conversion risks,by unscruplious,gun dealers-by means of sending them abroad to Germany(Home of H&K:),for an apparent conversion.Its funny that,no such conversions,occur here,in the UK,from purpose-built centerfire black rifles,without the semi-auto function.Anyway,I contacted Shooting Sports editor Peter Moore & told him about this gun& its specifications.He replied to me a day later& said that 'he will contact H&K personally to see if its possible to get an R8 rifle to test-fire,for a review& also to see if a UK distribution dealer,would be willing to import the rifle,for the UK rifle shooters.Pete,thanked me for this,as he 'found it very interesting',not to mention,the stupid,draconian,paranoid views of the Australian authorities.:rolleyes:
I'll post a couple of links below,which will show the article,from the Australian paper,'The Herald Sun'&from H&K Australia,on the specification sheet,for the R8 rifle.
Please feel free to air your views guys,as always.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/convertible-guns-banned/story-e6frf7kx-1111116062977
http://www.hksystems.com.au/Brochures/R8%20Specs.pdf
r8.jpg

The R8 Rifle.
 
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I hope you guys will be able to take ownership of them. My only question is, why the hell did HK make the optic rail so damned high above the bore? It looks like it's an inch or an inch and a half higher than it should be!?
 
WOW....that turned the lame SL8 into an even more lame rifle....why?

Because you suck and we hate you! Thats why!
 
My only question is, why the hell did HK make the optic rail so damned high above the bore
Click to expand...

As he said in the original thread post, they were meant for match shooting with open sights. They were never really meant to have optics installed on them. The rail seems to be built for no reason other than making the plain piece of metal between the two sights slightly useful. WHY DO PEOPLE LOVE TO HATE HK?
 
With all due respect Gelgoog that rifle with is not a beautiful queen in any way to my eyes either and neither is the G36 which it is design from. But, it like the SLR8 were their way to get around a dumb gun law. And it is not a sign of hating the civilian shooting public. They are trying to get around a law so a shooter can get one of their rifles where otherwise they could not even they of getting one.

The fact that they make their beard and butter from sales to the military and law enforcement sales, are they the strongest support of the rights of an American shooter no. They might be friendier to the civilian public if a larger part of their sales came from that part of the annual sales. a groups or person that for example buys a 100 or 1000 items from a company is more likely to better service than a group or person that buys one unless those small sales are a major part of their business. This is the differance betwen a arms manfacturer that is geared to civilians shooters and hunters versus one geared to law enoforcement groups and the military. But it doesnot make them an enemy of our personal freedoms.
 
kentucky I actually like HK stuff and have quite a bit, however they are not a US friendly gun company. The fact is that it would not be difficult at all for them to get weapons into the country in the post ban years, however they just do not want to do it, nor do they want to sell the public the parts to do conversions themselves.

They also price their guns far and above what it actually costs them to manufacture them. They are no CZ thats for sure. If it weren't for some ingenious companies out there making HK clones then we would be sorely hurting for HK military weapons.

we want to love HK, but that company makes it so hard for us to do it.
 
Wow, thats some ugly duckling they got there ;)

Whilst I support any manufacturer bringing something new to the UK shooting scene, against a strong AR15 straightpull market, I'm not sure the R8 will cut the mustard.

Like the Steyr Aug before it , I can see some people buying one just to be different or in this instance just because its an HK. The Aug suffers from the usual heavy bullpup triggerpull & left hand only cocking which appears to be quite tiring to use.

The AR rifle family on the other hand offers huge flexibility in both configuration and caliber choice and pretty much dominates the UK Civilian Service Rifle & Practical Rifle scene. The UK AR straightpull has been in development for around 10years, so has the advantage here.

A 10 round mag is just about adequate with 20's and 30's being more useful.

Is the top rail removeable & where is the cocking handle located ? The blurb mentions a central cocking handle location ?


Thanks for posting, it'll be interesting to see if HK will deliver the goods.

Cheers
Steven
 
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The cocking handle is underneath the rail, you pull it to either side and back, it has a folding piece at the end that you pull to the side and then use as a straight pull bolt handle.

You guys have a strong AR strightpull market?

Learn something new every day.
 
NG VI said:
The cocking handle is underneath the rail, you pull it to either side and back, it has a folding piece at the end that you pull to the side and then use as a straight pull bolt handle.

You guys have a strong AR strightpull market?

Learn something new every day.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, primary extraction here is key as you dont want to be fighting the rifle during a course of fire.

Its all relative of course but we have 4 or 5 AR builders here in the UK.

Action from a recent CSR match
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx60gGA9JLI

http://www.youtube.com/user/gsw2chest

Cheers
Steven
 
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I own quite a few HK pistols as well as a USC and an HK91. I've had no problems getting the weapons. Since I've yet to have a failure in any of them I've had no problems with support. When I have contacted them for bits and pieces to keep on hand they were polite and got the items to me in short order. I wouldn't say they are civilian shooter unfriendly. The biggest gripe I hear about them is the price of their weapons. This is coming from the same crowd that moves on down to the 1911 display cases and drop unreal sums of money on Colts, or Colt clones. The HKs are less expensive more often than not. I personally am not a big fan of the SL8, but know shooters that are. Hopefully you'll get the R8 coming into the UK as you'd like. In the US we are fortunate in having a wide variety of guns to choose from and with the exception of a few gun unfriendly states we can own as many as we desire, or can afford. You gotta love the Second Amendment. :D
 
As he said in the original thread post, they were meant for match shooting with open sights. They were never really meant to have optics installed on them. The rail seems to be built for no reason other than making the plain piece of metal between the two sights slightly useful. WHY DO PEOPLE LOVE TO HATE HK?
Click to expand...

I dunno. I'm just not seeing it. If it's meant to be irons only, why does it have a picatinny rail? Why place irons so high above the bore that you now need a raised cheekrest to use the system? If the goal is to shoot the rifle as a "service rifle" then having an integrated optic like the real G36 would make more sense, not a contrived iron sight setup.

For the record, I never once showed any HATE for HK, in fact I probably own more than most people who are so quick to throw them under the bus. The fact of the matter is, the arrangement of this rifle just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

HK should revisit the Prototype setup pictured at the top here:

sl8proto.jpg
 
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