Cold War Classics: H&K G3 vs FAL

Used G3 in the Greek military as a conscript. I have seen a lot of G3s getting nasty beatings from soldiers. Didn't see bent receivers ever. The guns were quite functional with no issues. Cosmetics is another story. The guns would look like trash after 2 or 3 months of daily guard duty from new, but would function ok. Officers, special forces and professional soldiers would always prefer the FAL as it was still available to them. Consensus was that the replacement of the FAL by the G3 was a mistake. Auto was pretty much useless on the G3 for me. In training, after running, jumping over obstacles or crawling under barbwire it was pretty much impossible to control. Sure. Rested in the shooting range I could fire full auto and hit the target with half of the rounds but actual combat is not like that ...

The G3 was our service weapon in the Danish Army. I don't recall having just a single issue with it. Nor any of my buddies. It did not had issues or a bad rep among soldiers, except from the claw on the bolt of course :) Not an issue though. If you don't want to lose your pin for the front guard, just push it back into the guard when released from the weapon.. Ours all had the "AK" mag release and third pin in the trigger assembly. Ventilated front guard with a aluminum heat shield. It's a little wild on full throttle without bipod. I don't remember ever seeing a service G3 with the "folding" stock as you call it. Excellent service rifle. Interesting fact if you read this. The DMR variant has a cut out with checkering on the bolt for the shooters thumb. This was made so the shooter could close the bolt silently without the H&K slap, which is needed for locking the rollers.

My G3 has kept me alive on three continents.. and I will not give it up.

I was in German armed forces serving as a Jäger (rifle infantry). We were trained to diassamble and reassembly a G3 in indeed 45 sec laying blindfolded on our back and placing all parts on or body. It's just a matter of training.

I love how the G3 gets it reliability by violently shitting itself with every round. So getting it caked in mud or frozen over isn’t ever too much of a problem, it thrives on lack of maintenance

I would like to point out that is not carbon build up, but is in fact an emergency portable black camouflage production facility, after all German efficiency is always at work

Norwegian G3 actually had a free floating barrel, the G3-F and the ring for mounting rifle grenades. The MSG90 is not an improved PSG1 however, it’s a cheapened and lightened PSG1 to be more mobile, but was not built to the same accuracy standards. Basically the PSG1 was designed for police and counter terrorism use, while the MSG90 for military and designated marksman

The South African military used both of these guns. The fal was called the R1 which was made under license by fn and the g3 was called the R2 which was also made under license. As a South African, this is a real awesome video for me.

Two things to mention that play into eachother. One: Stamping is actually a more modern method of weapon production, it's just that it's cheaper than milling which leads to point two: The G3 was cheaper to produce. For example when the swedish army trialled both guns they actually found the FAL to be slightly superior but they both performed admirably and since the G3 was cheaper that ended up being the adopted rifle. When discussing military firearms one can not forgo to mention the price/ease of production of the guns since that is always a very important factor.

I served in the German Bundeswehr and carried the G3 before the G36 was issued later during my time of Service. For training we sometimes used (quite terrible) plastic cased blanks which regularly caused malfunctions. To remedy the problem with the front sitting charging handle while shooting prone we were taught a little trick. One would simply clip on the end of the leather sling to a little hole in the charging handle. That way, to clear the chamber, one simply had to pull on the sling. In many ways I actually preferred the G3 over the G36. It felt more like a true rifle. The G36, while cool looking, sort of felt like a toy.

While the USA was urinating on the FAL Italy was having a BM.

Hopefully both rifles are still around by the time I move to America :)

In 8 years of service, i never saw a broken reciver on a G3. The only fragile part on the rifle is the plastic stock and handguard. The more than 30 years old plastic becomes britle in verry cold climate.

Calling the FAL's lower receiver "sheet metal" is like calling a B-52 bomber little. Its more like plate steel. I love my FALs.

Serving in the Greek army thirty years ago, I had the opportunity to have both rifles. For 8 months the G3 and 10 months the FN. So I can have a detailed view of these rifles. G3 is harder and does not get easily clogged. FN has better accuracy. Both rifles are good, but I prefer the FN.

What really makes the action of the G3 family of weapons sing for me is the combination of brute force and split second timing. The spring-loaded claw that makes the reassembly of the bolt such a trial (especially if you have a little grease on it or your hands) keeps the bolt and carrier locked together while pressure from the rollers on the locking piece builds. When that force exceeds the claw's ability to hold on, everything starts moving at full speed, with virtually no delay from acceleration. The delay is that split second the retaining clip can hold on before it lets go, and the few millimeters of play between the locking piece and the bolt. Just don't be at about 2:00 o'clock from someone shooting one of these. The cases are definitely a secondary projectile.

When I was in the Norwegian Army we used 20 seconds on disassemble and 40 seconds on assembling the AG-3 as we called it

In the past i got the chance to test a old military g3. It was converted to civilian use. The owner used it to hunt. It was one of the best guns I ever shot. I shot on a hunters target at 100m with a sight. On my first five shots I hit 10, 9, and three more 10s. I never shot this rifle and a hunters target before. I liked it very much. Greetings from Germany.

In my Servicetime in 1985 i had to use a G3. I was a conscript like the others. We did’nt need to use our gun to save our life. We did’t know anything about weapons, and so we tread our Guns, with no respect or sense for sensibility. We kicked it, threw it, and did other nasty things to it. But i had never a malfunction, i could get the target up to 400m. It was reliable, precise, and easy to maintance. I wish i could get one of this old G3 today, with woodhandle and stock. Today i would be proud to have it.

Hi Tim, thx for a great channel! I was issued the G3(German manufacturer) in the Danish army and in the national guard, used them for about 15 years untill we got the Canadian C7 :( The thing that stands out to me as the best about the G3 is the precision and the diopter sights, specifically the round hood on the front sight wich makes it real easy to align the sights perfectly every time, I really dont like the bunny ears on other rifles. Maybe its because i started shooting in the local club when I was 10 yo and all the rifles there had round sights and the targets were round too.. I had no problem hitting targets at 600m every time with the G3. We zeroed them at 300m and left the diopter at 3(called combat viser) except at night, the v-notch were for nighttime shooting. In all my time in service I have seen only 1 G3 receiver bent, the soldier fell from the back of a truck and landed on the rifle.. The G3 handguards in Denmark and Germany were simpler and way more narrow than the one in this video and they were loose so they would rattle in the field untill we pinched a small piece of wood between barrel and handguard.. the furniture came in 3 variants, real wood, black or green polymer, they were usually mixed up so we had rifles in all kinds of color variants, this made it easy to find your rifle fast between all the others, this is a problem with the all black C7 The only problem about the reliability and cleaning of the G3 were the chamber flutes, we were not issued a chamber brush, only the machinegun helper in each squad had one we could borrow, it was easy though to identify this problem before it got bad, since the spent casings would get black stripes from the gunk in the flutes, the darker stripes the more need for cleaning.. The bump on the stock have never been a problem to me, just hold the rifle firmly against the shoulder and it wont hit your eyewear.. The loading handle was never locked back and slapped in my army, we pulled it back using only the thumb and indexfinger untill it hit the back and slipped thru your fingers, way faster.. After loading it thousands of times, the loading handle will wear the slot it rides in to a knifesharp edge and your fingers will bleed every time you load it untill you dull it with sandpaper.. To assemple the boltcarrier, just put in the locking piece and turn it half a turn, press the bolthead all the way in, push it back out untill the rollers are in and then turn it home, its real easy when you get it right :) Please keep doing what you are doing, cheers from Denmark