Indians For Guns

I’m a sucker for .22 LR guns. I shoot more .22 LR ammo than anything else. So every time I see a new .22 LR rifle or handgun, I lose all reason and I start salivating like Pavlov’s dog.
Last spring, I was at a gun show with a friend. I didn’t want to go because it was still cold outside and I really didn’t need anything but finally decided to go along. So we’re walking down the aisles and all of a sudden, my progress is arrested in mid stride. I start thinking: “Oooh! Shiny! Mine”!
My friend says: “You already have one of those”. Then: “How many .22’s do you need”?
I’m reply; “no, no, no, this is different” (this is where my wife, if she were along, usually rolls her eyes and snorts).
It’s Sunday and my bank is closed. This dealer who has this rifle on his table is a farmer who operates out of his house and doesn’t have a credit card machine at the show. So I get his contact information and tell him that I will give him a call. I go home and my wife asks how the show went and I say; “I fell in love….”. I get the look. “…with a rifle”, I hastily add (she rolls her eyes and snorts). I tell her the story and she says; “why didn’t you pick it up”?
Thus emboldened, I went over to his place the next day and filled out the requisite background check info and sorrowfully parted with several Bennies so I could get my hands on it.

By this time you’re probably thinking; “what in the world is it”?


Well, it is a Hecker & Koch G36, in .22LR. The G36 is the current assault rifle of the German Armed Forces. However, this particular model is not made by H&K (as H&K doesn’t currently make any .22 LR firearms) but is instead made by Walther, under license. One of the features of the G36 is the centrally mounted charging handle (right above the receiver). It allows either a left handed or right handed user to operate the rifle without any issues. The charging handle on this .22 LR rifle works just like the real thing. It even allows you to lock the handle to one side and use it as a bolt assist (like the real thing). The safety switch is fully ambidextrous too.


After getting home I did some Internet research on this particular firearm and saw many photos of Flecktarn camo clad Bundeswehr soldiers on patrol with their G36’s.

The Walther G36 rifle was introduced at SHOT SHOW 2015. It does show in their current online catalog but I have never seen one anywhere till now. Apparently this particular rifle is not that easy to find, it is expensive for what it is but most people comment on its reliability and its accuracy. So I’m still interested and call the dealer the next day. Conveniently, it turns out that he lives about two miles from my house.
Walther’s original shot show video


I’ve always thought the G36 was an ergonomic and good looking rifle. Some time ago, I posted my conversion of a Ruger 10/22 to a H&K G36 clone. That turned out to be very accurate but it has some flaws. The safety is a dummy safety and the awesome G36 charging handle is a cast-on plastic blob. I spent quite some time thinking about how I could make the dummy charging handle work but finally gave it up as a lost cause. Taking it apart to clean it is a major chore and I’m always afraid that I will strip out some of the threads in the plastic shell.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to use the excuse that I’m looking for a target rifle or a survival rifle or anything like that. This is all about the looks and the fun of shooting a .22 LR firearm.

G 36 .22 LR Field Strip


Unboxing

With the stock folded (left side)


With the stock folded (right side)


Stock unfolded (left side)


The factory iron sights on the sight rail


Stock unfolded with a Vortex SPARC II red dot (right side)


Stock unfolded with a Vortex SPARC II red dot (left side)


The Walther G36 field strips in a way that is very reminiscent of the real thing. Removing two pins drops out the entire trigger/grip assembly. The bolt assembly/charging handle removes from the back. Another pin allows you to remove the handguard assembly. All the pins can be stored in holes in the stock, which prevents them from being mislaid. Disassembly and reassembly is very fast.

The HK markings


The Walther markings


From the Walther website


From the Walther website


The size compared to my AR 15 carbine

So far I have put about 5000 rounds through it with no malfunctions. I did have a few of what looked like out of battery firings but it turned out to be the cases splitting on Remington Golden bullets. I had the same thing happen with the same ammo in my Smith & Wesson Victory. Since then I’ve stopped using any .22 ammo that Remington makes. The magazines are easy to load and have functioned flawlessly.



Obligatory porn shot posed with a surplus German flecktarn camo parka


Links
The walther website: http://www.waltherarms.com/tactical-rim ... as/hk/g36/
The definitive Internet review on this rifle was done by Dave Norman of Personal Defense World.

Congratulations, XL. That is a sweet looking rifle. .22lr is a such a fun calibre and very pocket friendly where you are. Do tell us when you take it to the range. Thank you for the write up and the photos.


Best-
Vikram

What a coincidence, I was watching MI3 today and ther was this scene on the bridge where Ving Rhames ask Tom Cruise to use G36. At the look of it I thought what a beauty and I am not a fan of military rifles. Gimme blued steel and walnut anyday but this one tugs the heart

Congrats Xl for so nice looking rifle. Wish you many years of fun with it

Congratulations XL! It's a real beauty.

Regards
Pran

Congratulations on the new rifle XL! .22's are indeed fun to shoot

After many years of wanting a .22 LR rifle, I finally picked one up, a few months back. Will try and post about when I get a chance.

Cheers!
Abhijeet

Gentlemen - Edited Post; I replaced the 'Sticky Keys' - please excuse the tardiness! !

Hey XL Nice toy-again!?

MN seems too far away to visit any time soon.

For every snort you seem to acquire a new-22?

Lovely piece though; funnily enough just before your post came in I was watching Forgotten Weapons about a HK G36 and how much of a fire arm it was that everyone wanted in the States! The company tried its best to get the 'Assault Rifle' stateside in a new 'legal' declassified avatar.

H&K SL-8: The Civilian G36

Very interesting rifle in all calibers available! One look and you are hooked!

Enjoy!

P.S. My apologies -a good friend kindly spilled a liter of beer all over my keyboard! Result - I have Sticky Keys,and the dang space-bar, plus many other keys are DEAD! But I had to respond!

@xl_target,
Adopt me!

I love it
Very nice weapon

But in India ...... It is impossible to get like this one

kshitij wrote:@xl_target, Adopt me!

Sorry kshitij - he already has me an he can't afford another brat!

Thanks Vikram. I will get a range report done sooner or later. Family issues have been keeping me extremely busy this year.

Inder, for some reason that collection of plastic parts is appealing to the eye. Not only that the ergonomics of the rifle are good enough to make the rifle fun to carry and shoot.

Thank you, Pran.
Abhijit, Looking forward to seeing the review of your new .22 LR rifle.

CK, Look for "SL8 conversion" on YouTube. There have been a number of conversions of the SL8 to the G36.

Kshitij, come on over.

chahal 1979, thank you.

ckkalyan wrote:

kshitij wrote:@xl_target, Adopt me!

Sorry kshitij - he already has me an he can't afford another brat!

May I add, I am a self feeding, self maintaining brat who will buy you a drink whenever you please and can help clean, maintain and keep your guns, cars and accounts. All i need are some good guns and a nice loong range

@xl_target, your acceptance of my request is noted. Please expect me to be knocking at your door sometime

I just realized that I didn't post a range report on this rifle.
Well, here goes:
The ergonomics are great. It tucks up nicely into the shoulder, the pistol grip feels fine and there are several sling attachment points.
The charging handle and safety are in very intuitive locations.

Magazines "snick" right in, lock perfectly and feed flawlessly. They also drop free when the mag release is pushed. The mag release takes some getting used to . It is a copy of H&K's STANAG magazine well, which allows them to use standard M16/AR15 magazines but is on the left hand side of the rifle. H&K's G36 uses a proprietary magazine design in real life. Walther chose to use a common magazine for all its "black rifles" which I certainly applaud as they are available everywhere. This magazine resembles the standard M16/AR15 magazine to a large extent.

The iron sights are functional but it would be impossible to do any precision shooting with them. Ok, they're garbage! I took them off immediately and put them away. As mentioned disassembly and reassembly is extremely easy and doesn't require any tools.
The trigger, however, sucks. Granted, this is not a target rifle but the trigger is preposterously heavy. The break is relatively crisp and the reset is tolerable. This does hinder your group size as a momentary lapse in concentration will give you fliers.

Last Sunday at the range, I was able to shoot a few groups through it.
I haven't cleaned it in about a thousand rounds and really should have cleaned the barrel before shooting but... ya OK, I'm lazy.


This was with the red dot at 25 yards. The upper group is ten rounds and the lower groups is six rounds.
I had the Vortex SPARC II sighted in for a much different distance when I shot the above groups (Since re-zeroed).

The dot covers the bullseye completely at 25 yards so you have to hold at what you approximate is the center. I believe that it might have fared better with a scope. Despite the poor trigger and the less than optimal sighting system, the Walther barrel is quite consistent. I think the groups are more than good enough for what this rifle will be used for (plinking/short rage varmint control).
Unlike a lot of semi-auto .22 rifles, there is no first round flyer.

Conclusion:
There have been no rifle related failures through many thousand rounds now (I've lost count). I think I've had about two ammo related failures in all that time. Which is quite surprising for .22LR ammo. The rifle has fed fired and ejected everything I've put through it. It has been supremely reliable.

I have a confession to make; I have wantonly and impetously unloaded several thousand rounds through it. I've pointed the rifle at and shot at paper, steel, clay pigeons, Tannerite (Big Boom!), cardboard and sometimes just into the berm behind the target area. Many times I did it as fast as I could pull the trigger.
A prodigious waste of ammo but damn, it was FUN!

Thanks for the range report, XL. It does shoot so well.

xl_target wrote:I have a confession to make; I have wantonly and impetously unloaded several thousand rounds through it. I've pointed the rifle at and shot at paper, steel, clay pigeons, Tannerite (Big Boom!), cardboard and sometimes just into the berm behind the target area. Many times I did it as fast as I could pull the trigger.
A prodigious consumption of ammo but damn, it was FUN!

Most of us only dream of that stuff.


Best-
Vikram

Lovely rifle XL and a wonderful review as always

This one looks HOT

Cheers and enjoy your new toy

TC

Very, very nice xl_target...what a day - you should have also added a picture of the small hillock of empties!!

Thanks for sharing the joy - as always.