I guess I could put this under black rifles. But oh well. Same disclaimer as my Walther P99 review.
Firearm: H&K SL8-6 Rifle
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This is the civilian version of the German H&K G-36 assault rifle seen in movies (such as Equilibrium along side the P90 ^^) and games (way too many to list) . There are actually quite a few differences between the SL-8 and the G-36 other than selective fire. The most obvious is the butt stock, the least obvious and most disappointing is the magazine size, but I'll get into that one later.
So lets start off with the basics. The SL8 is a piston driven semi-auto rifle with a rotating bolt firing .223 Remington. The charging handle is right under the carrying handle and has a small lever that can go either left or right. The lever can even be used as a forward assist.
Charging Handle
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Shooting this gun was a dream. Easy to handle, accurate, and very controllable. When I went out to shoot it, there was also an AR-15. Suffice to say everyone wanted to shoot the SL8 and loved it. Here one of the differences between the SL8 and G36 is shown, a heavier barrel. This brings up the weight of the gun, but does provide more accuracy.
Taking apart the SL8 is somewhat easy, but to field strip it just to clean the bolt requires two screws to be taken out to separate the butt stock from the receiver. Taking off the foregrip is as easy as removing a pin.
SL8 Broken Down
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Foregrip with the retainer pin partially out
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Foregrip off showing the piston
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The bolt assembly is very easy to take apart. Just removing a retainer pin and slide out the bolt and firing pin.
Bolt+Bolt Carrier/Charging handle
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No we come to biggest detraction to the whole gun. The terrible decision by H&K to cripple the American version of the SL8. As it is, the SL8 only accepts single stack magazines. To make the gun accept double stack magazines you'd have to get a larger magazine well and actually cut out the small depression in the receiver.
The Crippled Stock/Magwell
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BUT IT DOESN'T STOP THERE! Unfortunately. H&K decided that changing the magwell wasn't enough and actually crippled the bolt itself. So if you did expand the magwell, you'd either have to make sure all the rounds fed on the left side of the magazine or get a new bolt.
The Crippled Bolt
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If you notice in the picture above, you'll see one of the lugs is actually slopped. This slope prevents the bolt from stripping out a round on the right side of a double stacked magazine.
As if this wasn't enough, H&K decided to ground our hearts even more into the ground by releasing the uncrippled version of the SL8 to other countries such as Europe and Canada, and for once I blame California and not Canada for this travesty.
And because of our laws concerning imported guns, if you did do any modifications to the SL8 you have to make sure to replace enough parts with American made parts to maintain the legality of it.
There also exists a community such as this one that SBRs their SL8s, but because of the inane changes made by H&K they have to go even farther to make their G36 clones.
Despite my little rant on the crippling of the SL8, I still love the thing and I do it a disservice not going out and shooting it when I can. I'm not going to do any modifications to it as I view it as taking a milsurp rifle from WW2 and sporterizing it (such as taking a Mauser and cutting it down or something). I like to keep my guns as original as possible, but if I every get money to waste I'd consider buying another SL8 and modifying that one.
Firearm: H&K SL8-6 Rifle
This is the civilian version of the German H&K G-36 assault rifle seen in movies (such as Equilibrium along side the P90 ^^) and games (way too many to list) . There are actually quite a few differences between the SL-8 and the G-36 other than selective fire. The most obvious is the butt stock, the least obvious and most disappointing is the magazine size, but I'll get into that one later.
So lets start off with the basics. The SL8 is a piston driven semi-auto rifle with a rotating bolt firing .223 Remington. The charging handle is right under the carrying handle and has a small lever that can go either left or right. The lever can even be used as a forward assist.
Charging Handle
Shooting this gun was a dream. Easy to handle, accurate, and very controllable. When I went out to shoot it, there was also an AR-15. Suffice to say everyone wanted to shoot the SL8 and loved it. Here one of the differences between the SL8 and G36 is shown, a heavier barrel. This brings up the weight of the gun, but does provide more accuracy.
Taking apart the SL8 is somewhat easy, but to field strip it just to clean the bolt requires two screws to be taken out to separate the butt stock from the receiver. Taking off the foregrip is as easy as removing a pin.
SL8 Broken Down
Foregrip with the retainer pin partially out
Foregrip off showing the piston
The bolt assembly is very easy to take apart. Just removing a retainer pin and slide out the bolt and firing pin.
Bolt+Bolt Carrier/Charging handle
No we come to biggest detraction to the whole gun. The terrible decision by H&K to cripple the American version of the SL8. As it is, the SL8 only accepts single stack magazines. To make the gun accept double stack magazines you'd have to get a larger magazine well and actually cut out the small depression in the receiver.
The Crippled Stock/Magwell
BUT IT DOESN'T STOP THERE! Unfortunately. H&K decided that changing the magwell wasn't enough and actually crippled the bolt itself. So if you did expand the magwell, you'd either have to make sure all the rounds fed on the left side of the magazine or get a new bolt.
The Crippled Bolt
If you notice in the picture above, you'll see one of the lugs is actually slopped. This slope prevents the bolt from stripping out a round on the right side of a double stacked magazine.
As if this wasn't enough, H&K decided to ground our hearts even more into the ground by releasing the uncrippled version of the SL8 to other countries such as Europe and Canada, and for once I blame California and not Canada for this travesty.
And because of our laws concerning imported guns, if you did do any modifications to the SL8 you have to make sure to replace enough parts with American made parts to maintain the legality of it.
There also exists a community such as this one that SBRs their SL8s, but because of the inane changes made by H&K they have to go even farther to make their G36 clones.
Despite my little rant on the crippling of the SL8, I still love the thing and I do it a disservice not going out and shooting it when I can. I'm not going to do any modifications to it as I view it as taking a milsurp rifle from WW2 and sporterizing it (such as taking a Mauser and cutting it down or something). I like to keep my guns as original as possible, but if I every get money to waste I'd consider buying another SL8 and modifying that one.
