Civilian XM8?

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mattx109

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Assuming the XM8 is adopted, do you think a civilian version would be offered? I'm afraid that it wouldn't. HK doesn't seem to market to the general public as much as I wish they would--I'd take a semi-auto G36 any day.

Americans have owned the firearms of their military for a long time and I'd hate to see it stop with the XM8. Any thoughts or news?
 
The reason that the G-36 is not offered to civvies is because it is currently illeagal to import. Pending the construction of HKs Georgia plant (which IIRC is currently a muddy hole), it is a remote possibility. Don't completly disregard HK in terms of civilian long guns- they have gone through many hoops and troubles to bring the HK-9x series and the SL-8/USC to the US in the past.

Cue Aerosmith's Dream On

Sig builds a US facility, and DSA starts building AUGs, and HK gets off their tooshie and builds the G-36 and M-8 at their new facility, all within the next 5 years.]

Hey, I guy can dream.
 
I'll find out for sure, but I believe there is a proposed clause in the licensing agreement that only other NATO members and those governments approved by the DOD/executive branch would be allowed to aquire them. No civilain sales.

By the way HK does not own the rights to produce the XM8...., the US Government does. Those patents don't mean much unless we release them to produce it.

We have paid over 40 million bucks in development costs.

One of the sticking points on the contract now is HK (under pressure from the German Govt), wants to produce the weapon in Germany,(jobs, good for their economy etc.) which is not in agreement with the terms of the contract which states the weapon must be mostly manufactured and assembled in the USA. (just like the Beretta)

If anything is a deal breaker, I'm told that this is it. We can also pull the rug out from under them and contract anyone we want to build it, just like we did Colt with the M16..

HK has the "expertise" to build it, we know they can build it right and we want them to build it. But it must be here, and not there.
 
Civilian XM8? I doubt it. HK has been on the snob bus as of late. Anyone remember their M4 piston-driven rifles/uppers? The uppers, although completely legal to sale to civilians, was going to be an LEO item only. HK didn't want it to reach the civilian market and put requirements on its dealers/distributors to adhere to such. This was prior to Colt's lawsuit and the AWB sunsetting though, but I doubt they would have changed their minds.

As for the G36... They could import them in semi-auto form and have a small US manufacturing facility to make US FCGs, stocks, and magazines, install them at the docks and they would be legal. A fairly small endeavor if they wanted to get into the market. They could even license it out to some company so they wouldn't be out the setup costs. Either way, they had options and went the SL8 route, which probably didn't make them much profit due to the exclusive furniture, rail, and mags.
 
HK doesn't own the XM8 anymore. General dynamics does.
Click to expand...

Sorry, that's not correct.

GD has entered into a manufacturing agreement (partnership/joint venture) with HK, as I said in my post above, we are requiring the weapon be manufactured in the USA, The German Govt want's German companies producing their products in Germany and has put great pressure on HK.

The US government "owns" the XM8, just like they own the F22, etc. We paid for the development work, we paid for the design changes, the testing, the research.

The weapon can only be produced at the will of the US Govt and they can select whichever contractor they wish.

A joint venture with GD gets HK off the hot seat a bit.

And we've told them if they can't build it here, an american contractor will.
 
It would not suprise me if some enterprising US manufacturer started offering SL-8 conversion kits.
 
The SL-8 is not being made anymore, IIRC... but XM8 lookalikes would be neat anyway.

Too specialized to make a living from it.
 
NMshooter, then don't be surprised because Top Notch does offer conversion parts, including services to dye your gun black. Problem is, all these new parts that you're buying just to bring it back to factory specs, adds about $1k to the price of the gun. Far from economical and it puts it in the "amusing but not widespread" catagory.
 
i did my part to help HK out :)

still own an sl8-1 and USC, converted to UMP-look-alike by hdps, and i'm extremely fond of both

if i could get quality high-cap mags for the sl8, i'd probably shoot it a lot more than either of my AR15s

on a side note, if the US adopts the XM8, then what are the odds an sl8 conversion could be used in NRA "Service Rifle" matches?
 
How long was it before M1s were available to the public?

I'm pretty sure (barring a nutsy Hillary-like administration, of course), that should the XM-8 become the dominant service rifle, eventually we'll see civilian versions. Of course "eventually" may mean 20-30 years, as patents and such run out and more small companies start making "open source" type rifles.

Now that said if they're adopting the darn thing, the smartest thing the fed.gov could do is just buy the patent rights and make it freely available. They'd have more nifty gizmos, ergonomic tweaks, and all kinds of blackhawk-lightfighter-ish gear to service the rifle available off the shelf by Christmas than they'd get in a decade of throwing money at official contracters.

-K
 
But, Kaylee, that would make too much sense, and put too little money into those contractors pockets. Contractors who maintain lobbyists in Washington. ;)
 
If you just want a piston upper AR, look at the Leitner-Wise. The upper is $1200 and they will convert your upper for $600. -Ian
 
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