HK G3A3

The HK G3 A3 is a select fire battle rifle, manufactured by Heckler & Koch. This was a standard rifle for the German Army or 'Bundeswehr' in 1959, until 1997. As it is an excellent weapon many other countries adopted it as a standard issue. The weapon uses normal 7.62 × 51 mm NATO cartridge.

The HK G3A3 is one of the of the G3 series of weapons. The G3 series or Gewehr3s, the German for 'Rifle, 3" replaced the German soldier's original G1 series. These were the first infantry rifle of the West German army to be indigenously produced.

The HK G3A3 is modular in construction with stamped steel receiver. This makes it easy and even economical to produce.

The pressed in barrel, and a removable trigger group, which consists of the handgrip, trigger, and fire selector mechanism, with different fire combinations. This is the 'SEF" fire settings on the selector switch. In German it would read as as Sicher, 'safe', Einzelfeuer or 'single shot' making it semi-automatic, and Feuersthoss or 'burst shot/full-auto.
In many export versions, only the safe and semi-automatic modes are offered, and icons denote firing combinations - a single dot for safe and three dots for 'burst' fire.

The gun has a roller-delayed blowback system, which does not lock the bolt is into the receiver in the usual static manner. Small rollers designed on sides of the bolt head, match the niches in the receiver, these protrude slightly from the rest of the bolt. The bolt head is pushed backward when a cartridge is chambered, locking the rollers into their niches. A round with an intense pressure of 50,000 lbf/in², or 300 MPa has to overcome the rollers before the bolt pushes rearward against the recoil spring. The harder spring buffer at the end of its travel then stops the bolt. The recoil springs then pushes it forward, while stripping another round of firepower from the magazine.

One of its unique features is the charging handle set on the left side. This is in line with the forward handgrip, unlike similar guns that have this directly on the receiver. Though this feature may seem awkward, many experts feel that this is a natural style. This is because the left hand is on the foreguard below it to support the gun during firing. Thus when a reload is required; the hand naturally folds the handle out and pulls it back. It then locks the handle in the rear position and continues moving to the magazine release. Once the new magazine is inserted the hand quickly puts back the charging handle out of the locking slot, and easily returns to the foreguard to support the rifle.

As the handle is unlocked, the recoil spring moves the bolt, and chambers a fresh round. The charging grip that is designed to catch and fold in along the barrel arrives to the fully forward position. The shooter is forced to allow the bolt carrier to fly forward with full power; otherwise rollers will not lock and the bolt, leaving it a bit open. Final rounds are sometime loaded to signal when a magazine is nearly empty, instead of the bolt hold-open device used by guns of the same genre. The magazines are made of steel or a lighter aluminum, this makes durable, however the metal edges at the top of the steel magazine are easily is damaged if dropped. Sometimes with reused magazines, the gun jams the feed mechanism, so these have carefully handled.

The gun is easy to strip by pushing two small pins from the buttstock; the trigger pack is folded down once this is removed. It is finally uncovered when the charging grip is pulled to push the bolt out of the rifle. The G3 A3 has deliberately removed many moving parts, increasing the reliability and ease of maintenance. The gun is easy to strip by pushing two small pins from the buttstock; the trigger pack is folded down once this is removed. It is finally uncovered when the charging grip is pulled to push the bolt out of the rifle. The G3 A3 has can be easily recognized form the other G3 guns from its drum sights, fixed plastic buttstock, and plastic handguard, that is available in both the slimmer, ventilated version and the wide version.

There are a few variations of the G3 A3, it is classified as G3 A4 when issued with a scope, and it is G3A3ZF, when given with a 'Zielfernrohr' or "Telescope, the ZF stands is its designation.

The G3A4 version of the gun is also known as G3A7 in Turkey. In Denmark these are referred to asG3A5, and those manufactured in Iran are G3A6.

This is quite a classic modern gun, with all the features that make it a technological masterpiece.