Hammerli FK-31: Diopter Competition Rifles for the Haganah
Forgotten Weapons
•
6m 42s
In 1949, Israel was still fighting its war of independence, and purchasing arms internationally was difficult to do. The recently-formalized IDF wanted sniper rifles, and looked to Hammerli in Switzerland for a variant of the K-31 straight-pull bolt action action. Two different models were purchased; 100 of the ZK-31 with 4x Kahles scopes, and 100 of the FK-31 with target diopter sights. The Swiss could not legally ship them directly to Israel, and so the order was placed for Nicaragua instead. Mysteriously, the freighter carrying the rifles somehow sank off the coast of Egypt, and the guns ended up in Israeli hands. They were taken into IDF service, and saw use in the early days of Israeli independence.
Up Next in Forgotten Weapons
-
PMM: Russia's Modernized Makarov (Now...
Having served as the standard Soviet military sidearm for several decades, the PM Makarov was getting a bit obsolescent by the late 1980s. More of the world was using locked breech, 9x19mm service pistols but the Soviet Union still had essentially a domestic version of the Walther PP. To extend i...
-
Just How Bad Is It? Vektor CP-1 at th...
Yesterday we looked at the history and the mechanics of the Vektor CP1, and today I'm taking it out to the monthly BackUp Gun Match. It isn't a pistol with a good reputation, but it's also not a pistol very many people gave a fair shake to. It has a decent grip, pretty decent sights, a fixed barr...
-
M90A Close Assault Weapons System Pro...
Thanks to Nathan Frisque for loaning us this very cool project to film - a very merry Christmas to him and to all of you watching! If you haven't caught on, this is a real-life recreation of the M90A CAWS shotgun from the Halo series of video games...
