Vektor H5: Pump Action Adaptation of the South African Galil
Forgotten Weapons
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The H5 is a pump-action conversion of the South African R4/R5 Galil rifles, developed by Vektor in the early 1990s. It was fairly difficult at that time to get a permit for a semiautomatic rifle in South Africa, but manually operated rifles were much less strictly regulated - so the H5 was introduced to sell to the civilian market. It was found to be quite popular with private security firms, and so a second version was introduced for them, with a pistol grip, folding stock, and black furniture in place of the original wood. Three barrel lengths were offered between the two models, a long sporting barrel and two shorter ones equal to the R4 and R5 barrels.
The rifle is designed to keep as many standard Galil parts as possible for economic manufacture, but the whole gas system was omitted. This necessitated a new top cover, new safety, and obviously a new front handguard which would work as a pump handle. No iron sights were put on them, instead they have a scope rail fixed to the top cover and were shipped with 4x32 inexpensive scopes.
With the clarification of South African gun laws around 2000, semiautomatic rifle permits actually became substantially simpler to acquire, and the market for the H5 pretty much disappeared.
Many thanks to the private collector who provided me access to these two examples to bring to you!
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