Hey guys, might hear from the armourer's bench.

Today we're going to do something i never thought i'd get the chance to do.

I'm going to show you how to field-strip an HK G11.

Okay, let's dive straight into the space magic and see how it works.

First, we remove the G11's cleaning brush that's held in a compartment in the pistol grip.

Little fiddly with just fingernails but it's doable.

The brush is used to check that the chamber is empty.

The brush is inserted into the circular ejection port seen a few inches behind the pistol grip.

This checks that the chamber is empty and the weapon is clear.

And when you finish with the brush you can insert it back into the pistol grip and carry on with disassembly.

Next, we'll remove the G11's 50-round single-stack magazine - as you can see, i've already freed up the fore-end as the plastic locking tabs are quite stiff.

Inside the fore-end is a metal tube that the barrel projects through.

The barrel assembly is essentially free floated.

Here's a photo of the inside of the fore-end, showing the barrel tube.

You don't have to remove the fore-end to field-strip the weapon but i thought it was worth removing so we could take a look at the barrel.

Now we need to remove the bolt assembly.

To do this we depress the two locking tabs at the same time and pull it to the rear.

As you can see, it's a bit of a 300 job here

you have to ensure that the action is cocked to allow the rear assembly to slide off.

And now we have the rear of the breech and barrel assembly exposed.

The next step is to free the control disc.

To do this we lift the catch spring and move it clockwise until it clicks.

Now we must have press the clamping spring to free the disc from its post.

With the spring depressed, the control disc can be lifted up from the top of the cylinder.

We'll set the control disc to one side for now and we'll take a look at it in a moment.

We can now push the catch spring clockwise again to its next stop point so there's no longer covering the cylinder.

Next we have to press the cylinder stop lever counterclockwise.

Then, pushing up from the other side of the action, we can lift the cylinder out of the breech assembly.

Sorry my hand gets in the way here but it was a little bit tricky getting the cylinder out of the action.

Here we can see the square chamber inside the breech cylinder.

This piece is held in place by a retainer spring.

Now that the cylinder is removed, let's take a closer look at the breech assembly.

We can see the compression spring which attaches to the clamping plate.

The space for the breech cylinder and the beginning of the barrel.

The spring catch and the ejector lever.

The striker assembly.

The control lever.

Beneath the action we can see the sear and the stop lever.

We're now beginning to get an idea of just how complex the G11's action actually is.

The 1989 HK ACR manual lists over 440 parts making up the rifle, with over 140 of those going into the actual action itself.

Okay, now let's take a close up look at the control disk.

That outer groove interfaces with a tab on a pivoting latch, which interacts with the stop lever.

Using my trusty swiss pointing device, you can see where the central post interfaces with the disk and how the clamping spring clips into the notch on the post.

Here we can see where the square breach lines up with the round ball.

And from this angle we get our first view of some of the G11's gears.

Let's look at the breech cylinder.

This can be disassembled further by removing the spring retainer which holds the chamber in the cylinder.

But while disassembling, i didn't want to take the risk of losing the spring.

The chamber was actually a replaceable part.

HK literature from 1988 notes that the chamber had an approximate service life of around 3500 rounds but it was hoped that a planned redesign would extend this towards 6,000 rounds.

With the weapon flipped we can see the other side of the action.

We can see the actuator lever projecting from underneath the spur gear.

And from beneath that we can just see the disconnecter.

And here we can see the magazine catch and guide housing.

Here we can see how the G11's pair of gears move.

During the firing cycle the connecting rod attached to the actuated gear here on the right moves the gear acting on the spur gear on the left.

This in turn activates the feeding lever which we can see here moving up and down.

Here at the back, attached to the clamping plate, we have the striker assembly and spring.

From this angle we can see into the rifles center assembly: we can see the magazine guide and the robust guide rail where the barrel and breech assembly is held in the G11's center assembly.

And at the base of the action we can see the sear.

And here's a side view of the G11's gears moving.

Inside the center assembly, just below the barrel, we can see the rear of the G11's recoil mitigation buffer system.

From this angle we get an idea of just how intricate and complex the G11's action really is.

We can see a number of springs and numerous high tolerance moving parts.

Here, with the weapon on safe (unsafe?) , we can pull the trigger to show how the actuated weaver acts on the clamping plate and compression spring, which in turn acts on the firing pin.

These diagrams from the G11's manual go some way towards showing how complex the action actually is.

The magazine when loaded travels back through the center assembly into the action.

Here we can see the magazine catch which is enacted on by the external magazine release button.

Here, with the magazine inserted, we can see how the catch works.

Note the white outline of a caseless round to show which way up the magazine should be inserted.

Once the breech cylinder is removed, the operators manual provided to the us army in march 1989, actively discourages further disassembly.

I could only go a little further before special tools (that sadly i didn't have) were needed.

To release the breech and barrel assembly from the central assembly a small catch has to be released to allow the breach assembly to come free, allowing it to slide out of the rear.

Here's the G11 disassembled into his major assemblies.

We've got the magazine, fore-end, center assembly, barrel and breech assembly, and buttstock

Join a field strip at the G11 is not necessary to remove the barrel and breach assembly from the fore-end and center assembly.

But i decided to do it, so that we could have a look inside of both the gas cylinder and the buffer assembly.

Here we can see the housing containing the counter-recoil mechanism which mitigates the weapons' recoil.

We can also see the pointed tip of the buffer extension.

This overlay diagram from the 1989 armors manual shows the internals of the recoil system.

Under the barrel we can see the sear our(?), operating rod and the various catches, springs and clips which holds the assembly together.

On the right side of the gun we can see where the operating rod connects to the gas piston system.

And the other end of the rod we can see where it attaches to the actuator gear.

Here we can see the underside of the barrel and breech assembly, including the counter recoil buffer system and the gas system.

As we move along the underside of the weapon we can see the gas piston at the top and the recoil mitigation system below.

And here's another look at the underside of the action.

This view at the top of the barrel and breach assembly shows the position of the recoil system on the left and the gas piston system on the right.

We can also see the markings on the top of the barrel which can just be seen through the guide rail.

Let's take a look inside the central assembly which houses the trigger mechanism and the guide rail interface.

Above the guide rail we can see the sealed track that the magazine rooms in.

Here we can see the hole in the center assembly that the barrel projects through.

And in the magazine compartment we can hinged door that stops death from entering the action.

Okay, before we reassemble the rifle let's take a look at how it worked in principle.

G11 has three modes of fire: single-shot, three-round hyper-burst at approximately 2,000 rounds per minute (that's about 33 rounds per second), and full auto at 450 rounds per minute.

It's a gas operated rotating breech system with a spring buffer system to control recoil.

Rotating the weapons cocking handle drops the first round into the breech cylinder vertically.

It then rotates 90 degrees with the breech cylinder lining up with the ball. (?)

When the trigger is pulled, the striker assembly ignites the round and fires the weapon.

As the rounds a caseless, there is no extraction of the spent cases.

An ejector is present for clearing the weapon only.

Once a round is fired, propellant gas is tapped from the barrel and a piston system connected to the breech cylinder rotates the cylinder and actuates the loading mechanism, before rotating the cylinder back into battery and allowing the cycle to begin over again.

When a round is fired, the barrel and breech assembly recoil along the guide rail in the center assembly.

This compresses the recoil spring into the buffer.

In single shot of the barrel and breech assembly moves about 50 millimetres or 2 inches towards the rear.

In burst mode it moves 110 millimeters or 4.3 inches but only once the last round of three has left the barrel.

This limits recoil until the last round has been fired and ensures a smaller round dispersion downrange.

Okay, let's reassemble the G11.

First, we inset the barrel and breech assembly back into the center assembly, lining up the guide rails until it locks into place.

As you can see this was a little tricky: lining up the barrel with the hole at the front of the center assembly.

But eventually the barrel and breech assembly seek home with an audible 'click'.

Then we place the breech cylinder back into the action, align the cylinder, let the silver stop lever go home and then we slide the catch spring and counterclockwise until it clicks into place.

We then replace the control disc (this is one of the most fiddly steps) and allow the catch spring to seat.

Then we replace the buttstock assembly.

Finally, we replace the fore-end and slide the magazine back into the weapon.

Thanks for watching guys.

I hope you enjoyed this look inside the mysterious and legendary G11.

* Бла-бла съели мыши *