hi everyone welcome back to what's this weapon I'm Jonathan and this is I'm afraid another beige rifle um now we did receive several beige rifles um if you saw our ks1 Knights armor ks1 or l403 A1 video recently uh that rifle was the winning um design for the project Hunter trials which took place last year to find an alternative individual weapon that's his name AIW for the uh Army Special Operations Brigade uh primarily comprising the ranger regiment who share a name and sort of lineage origin with the US army rangers but actually um the role is is quite different they're more about uh cooperating with with foreign forces training that kind of thing bit more like the Army uh Green Berets than the US Rangers and also for uh two elements of the rawal Marines you can always head back to that video or over to the Armor's bench for more on the background to that program but two reasons for showing you this one is this was an unsuccessful entry in that trial last year for that rifle um and the other is that uh it's essentially a sequel to our other HK416 video because this is in fact an HK416 um much later than our other example and the beess of it is actually a feature so this is the 416 A5 it's not marked on the gun that it's an A5 they're all just marked HK416 after that weird glitch where they were calling them hk416d which I cover in the other video um so you wouldn't know it's an A5 it's really an internal HK uh system to keep track of the configurations of rifles but confusingly you can change things like flash hider barrel length handguard furniture and it doesn't change the designation so it gets super confusing I'll try not to to confuse everybody with this the the main thing is this is the the HK416 you saw last time the A2 here it is as a reminder now it has a 16in barrel on it this has a 12 and 1/2 in Barrel on it that's the relevant that's just because this program required a relatively short barrel to allow for a suppressor on the end and as a generally a short weapon is useful for these um specialist light infantry units essentially is what they are so ignore the barrel length but this sort of first generation 416 this one is Mark D um essentially a mistake on on on the drawing from what I understand and it was in this configuration for for many years and this is the configuration that earned the sort of success um and pedigree that this this type of rifle has today Delta Force it was developed with Delta Delta Force with H&K for short barreled reliable High rate of fire operation again covered that in the other video so what we'll do is is compare the two to see what the changes are what led us to the current Baseline model of the 416 which is the A5 yes they're up to A8 in terms of designations but those are specific those are both variants for the bunders Weare um this was also adopted in in some numbers by the bunders whereare there are parallel military and internal designations so the A5 has been adopted but as the g38 rifle um the A7 and A8 as the g95 series already confusing I know but by hopefully grounding ourselves in the in the objects we can uh get our heads around it the changes are not huge to be honest now of course you will know that this these are just derivatives of the AR-15 and that hasn't changed since 19 well 1957 was the first prototype I remember rightly of the AR15 um signif on the macro level I haven't changed at all on the micro level they've changed a ton the big change with the 416 was putting a an ar18 style gas piston back on the gun we covered that in the other video that's still on here essentially unchanged so the A5 was introduced in 2014 I don't think it was available until the following year commercially um but that's what we're looking at here so it's already 10 years old but some features have already changed on it notably the handguard so this is uh I believe the current well it's the current standard handguard for the 12 1/2 in Barrel there are different handguards for different barrel lengths and as a customer uh the British army the mod could have specified a different handguard on this if they' wanted to I'm sure it is in fact with marked HK but it is also marked on this side with the magpole trademark because this is the slots which are magpole system for sticking bits of accessory rail onto the gun wherever you want them and acting as a as a good venting system when there's nothing fitted to them as as here um typically HK have been using their H key accessory system which is a bit like um keymod they on this particular variant have gone for this system which means as I say that there is a trademark uh acknowledging the sort of the legal ownership of that system to mpole the other markings we'll just uh very quickly cover well I've shown you HK416 absolutely standard it's on all of them and on the other side um just makers marks and made in Germany those do not change on I don't think any of the variants unless they are a military adopted version and then they have that designation so g38 for example and there on the other side are those markings we also had a you might a glimpse there the serial number which is on the upper and the lower receiver as well uh and the were tiny tiny HK and proof marks as well so as I say beige design feature so um f Flat Dark Earth I think is is the term that they're using for it this is introduced on the A5 as an option and most of the a5s you'll see out there do in fact have it don't have to have it and there are changes to the receiver so if I just remove the magazines on these and show you side by side is probably probably save you some burbling from me so first of all the 416 as introduced has this very flat magazine well here a design improvement from hk's perspective the A5 and if you can see there I hope you can has reverted in fact to the AR-15 angled magazine well probably doesn't help that I'm holding them at an angle but so they went from quite a fled almost flat edged magazine well just to an ordinary AR pattern one and I think that's just for ultimate compatibility with ar patent magazines so that feature has gone you might have also spotted some other changes there so the on the lower receiver we now have an a heck pattern selector so it's not the um traditional AR M16 selector that it used to be it's now their own polymer one with a with a steel axis and it's on both sides because that one of the main features of this was to make it quote ambidextrous so it can be operated from either shoulder so selector on both sides we then have um this is just like the ks1 from the other day so uh ordinary magazine catch but a right-handed bolt hold open so you can push that up with your finger lock the bolt open with the right hand a lot slicker than I just did and then you can also drop it with the trigger finger as well which is pretty handy so magazine in drop it with the with the trigger finger and on the other side that means we've got um the conventional um hold open here but it's much enlarged and because it's much enlarged it's shrouded as well so this this is a part of the forging now this this Shield to stop you accidentally um hitting this catch and there is a mirrored magazine release as well so all of the major controls duplicated on both sides pretty standard these days opinions vary on whether that's a good idea or not but it was clearly required uh by the British um trial upper receiver has not substantially changed um there is a a there's a different bushing for the operating rod in here which reduces Parts where which you might Glimpse if when I take it apart um oh and on the lower effectively or attached to the lower this much much wider what they call a castle nut because it's shaped a bit like the walls of a castle to just reinforce this area and whereas the ks1 had a sideways quick detached sling swivel hole on this so on both sides this the HK system is plug it in the back so sling sling point there and a QD sling Point both sides on the handguard as well so we don't have any sling mounts on this we don't have the suppressor didn't come with it um an optic did come with it which we believe is the correct one from The Trial which is a Trijicon vcog so same idea is the ks1 um variable power low power variable optic and you crank it over to zoom in and they're both uh they're both what they call First focal plane Optics so so the um the the reticle changes size as you as you move it and it's more more precise more precise system more expensive system the vcog is 1 to8 power so it's two steps of magnification below the um Vortex that's on the ks1 as noted the barrel is a bit shorter than on the ks1 as well which is interesting uh the furniture changed as well um now don't be put off by the sort of um I'm not I'm not wild on this yellow color I will say hent k sorry but um don't be put off by the color it's available in both uh black and sand colored whatever it is but you can see there we got changes in in both pistol grip and butt stock so you can see that the HK design is uh elements are still there but it's been made much Slimmer much Slimmer than the original so that was shaped to give you a sort of a cheek uh more of a cheek rest um battery compartment on that one as well they've done away with that for I I think I guess for bulk and weight so this is a Slimline buttstock that's now standard on on this the pistol grip has gone from that sort of ergonomic organic shape on the on the A2 on the bottom to this much bigger uh bulkier version with replaceable backstraps like a modern pistol so you can adjust it to different soldiers hands and there is a tool uh compartment or cleaning kit compartment in that as well so this is HK Furniture not magpole the only magpole thing on it is the handguard I should have mentioned on the lower receiver we do have this curved trigger guard compared to the original design which is just a straight lift from the original AR this very standard now to have a a curved trigger guard for gloved hands Arctic use that kind of thing unlike the ks1 l403 A1 as it now is this does not come out readily is always just there so it's big enough in theory for the gloved finger um Knights allowed the option to have it fully removed HK haven't done that so let's at that point take this apart okay here's what I prepared earlier nearly I've left the handguard on the uh A5 because I actually think that's worth showing you so well we have a ambidextrous cocking handle or charging handle if you prefer as well which I didn't mention ear so that means every control you need to operate the firearm is accessible from both sides standard in the in the modern rifle in the AR world but it's worth mentioning nonetheless the old um a well A1 A2 A3 we're not sure about A4 by the way uh it has the standard pattern AR-15 well M16 pattern really charging handle with just the lat on one side so you have to do the two finger thing or operate it from just the left side all about ergonomics uh so really nerdy changes on the lower receiver uh the buffer I believe hasn't changed I won't pop that out if we put the hammer forward and we look in inside on looking inside we find there is a shiny new bit of metal hopefully the camera can pick that up so it's a it's a piece of bench sheet metal um chromed or finished in in some way and it's curved over the back parts of the trigger mechanism the disconnector in particular now that's because this Hammer coming back as it gets forced back by the mechanism was apparently slamming into that disconnector and distorting it damaging it so they're prolonging Parts Life by putting a shield over it weird but interesting otherwise it's the same apart from those external features that we've covered of course so up next the bolt carrier group almost the same we still got the firing pin safety that was already on there the bolt hasn't changed the carrier hasn't changed the cam pin is a slightly different shape for those Uber AR nerds out there it's it's just there's just less Machining going on they haven't knocked the corners off it guess because they discovered they didn't need to minor minor change the big change well the big the small big change here is that we've gone back to the original 1950s design sort of with the firing pin retaining pin pop that out lo and behold well a it's no longer a cotter pin me show you that for as a reminder for those who are interested but don't know so the standard what became the standard AR-15 M16 retaining pin was uh originally a proper pin for some reason Colt changed it to a just a an ordinary little split pin what what's called a cotter pin um you recognize it from your vintage bicycle uh only it's a smaller one and it holds the firing pin in place uh as does the firing pin safety if I if I lift that up the whole thing shoots out the back we won't do that back to the new one that is not only a proper machined pin which is a bit more bit more Gucci it's retained so no more soldiers military people no more losing this when you strip your bolt carrier group if you buy these or if you issued these so that stays in place which is very nice and actually we don't need to take that apart any further and we will pop it back in so little quality of life improvement from H&K there um now because it has this uh piston system operation well they're all piston systems nod to bloke on the Range there and and even direct gas let's not go there yet there's no gas gas hole in here this is just a surface for the Piston to Flack into standard on the 416 standard on the the caracal the Sig 516 all of these uh the MCX all of these piston driven but AR derived rifles all all work in a well the MCX doesn't sorry the ones that are adapted from the classic design have just a solid face for the the opo to hit but that's not a feature of this it's a feature of of of both um so I mentioned the hanger this is pretty slick I think so there is a latch on the left side with a sliding retaining catch which isn't great for gloved Hands by the way but um pretty good otherwise so I won't be able to necessarily show you that um well I'll try and show you that so you push up the catch you pull down on the latch it's it's hinged it drops away and it's straight off with the handguard I'm pretty impressed with that I think that's that's really slick bearing in mind some the ks1 does require a special tool that goes down inside the handguard to remove that on the plus side it's much Slimmer um other systems require a nut a bolt the old HK system required a um a bolt to be undone and the L8 5 A3 is the same way so that's that's really good still very light though and you have that pick atiny rail on the top underneath uh as I say gas parts are the same absolutely identical pop those out that's the Piston that does all the work just like the piston in your car engine pistons hopefully you've only got one piston in your car get it into the garage that's bushing there super super nerdy that has changed it's now pinned in place not screwed in that again was a point of wear so a lot of these changes they're either feedback from the user on the ergonomics or their feedback again mainly from the user on Parts where over time bearing in mind the whole point of this is It's supposed to be able to take higher rates of fire over shorter periods of time for people well people that need that or think they need that um I'm a big fan of the original uh non the original so-called uh direct gas system but hey selling point of this is this system so they're not going to suddenly start doing gas tube systems at HK I don't think the gas block has also changed fairly significantly so the original one on the bottom it's bigger it's heavier it has um straightforward sling loops on both sides which again adds to the bulk and a little bit of weight and it has a folding sight attached to it uh now folding sights are found on a5s as well but with a short barrel version like this they are not present and I think increasingly they'll be using gas blocks without folding sights so not an A5 specific feature but nonetheless uh this is non-adjustable this just does does the gas it does the A5 introduces a an adjustable regulator accessible through this hole in the side here and but it's only two position it's not for adjusting to adverse conditions it's only for n for normal and S for suppressed so that narrows down that hole reduces the pressure because you're getting increased back pressure when you have a suppressor fitted so it's only for adapting it to a suppressor it's not for adverse conditions as I'm sure HK will sell you a gas block for adverse conditions should you require it as a an armed Force the barrel nut uh is the same nearly the same the interface is slightly different with the with the upper receiver there is one difference on the upper receiver that you can just about see they have given the soldier a slightly increased amount of rail space at the back that's it there's an extra couple of teeth of patini rail there compared to this negative useless space that was on the old HK so they filled that in not entirely but there's a couple more slots available oh so barrels um not again not really significant uh in terms of what's an A5 what's an A2 whatever um but they did reintroduce an 11in Barrel on the A5 so we're almost back to the the 416 C which was with prototype only with a very short sort of Entry carbine this is the next one up from that um this trials gun and then there's still a well actually they've gone to 12 1/2 14 1/2 which is the M4 barrel length 16 and a half which is like half an inch longer than a lot of barrels of that length if that makes sense and 20 in which is the old school M16 barrel length so you can mix and match as a customer and essentially choose what you want the profiles might have changed I haven't got enough information to to to go really granular and and um look at the different Barrel profiles but you can see here that the 16 the original 16-in Barrel quite a heavy profile and this 12 1/2 here is significantly lighter uh it's Slimmer that is under the handguard and even Slimmer almost an A1 pencil Barrel up here with a big thick section here the same diameter as this because the gas blocks have to be interchangeable so they've made it as light as they can which makes up somewhat for the extra weight of this gas system which is one of my criticisms of the system so overall this is similar weight to the nonoperating rod uh guns like the kns arm ks1 they're all sort of coming out to the same sort of weight which is interesting comes down to preference of the user of the government that's buying it do they want the perceived reliability of a gas piston external piston op Rod piston whatever you want to call it or do they want the lighter weight uh cuz you can then beef up your Barrel if you want to of the old school AR-15 that Mr Stoner invented of course now as i' as I've mentioned before I'm not a huge fan necessarily of this system it's a great design um very high quality I just think it's a bit redundant having the additional operating Rod system at the front but lots of people disagreeing with me serious people who use these things for Real uh very successful system the A5 has has just propelled it um into the sort of Stratosphere of lots of countries adopting the hk46 so as much as I'm not a huge fan of this additional operating Rod clattering around on the front and the Tilt that it induces on the VA carrier uh lots of customers disagree with me this thing was a huge success the the A2 era 416 France adopting a version of it Norway and then we have the A5 and that's just gone that's gone nuts lots of lots of places lots of countries militaries police adopting it as well so uh doesn't matter what I I think about that this thing is a huge success it's even competing against its own stable mate the hk433 which is a scratchbuilt design using this gas system and the B and the bolt but yeah I think that's a better gun but no doesn't matter what I think that Eugene ston of design from the 50s is is still soldering on in its traditional form and in this piston form as well thanks very much for watching guys we really do appreciate it in fact we appreciate even more the fact that you have pushed us over 300,000 subscribers which is fantastic can't thank you all enough for that um if you haven't already please do check out our website our social media channels Twitter Facebook Instagram events wise we do have coming up the summer joust which is taking place over the summer bank holiday that's definitely worth a look and should be some nice weather as well as I've probably tempted Fate by saying that from the website you'll also find a link to our online shop um all sorts of great stuff on there from uh Firearms related stuff that I'm interested in obviously uh some books by me if you're interested in 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