{"id":25382,"date":"2024-09-04T08:01:06","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T13:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/04\/hk21-or-portuguese-m-968-the-hk-g3-grows-into-a-light-machine-gun-2\/"},"modified":"2024-09-04T08:01:06","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T13:01:06","slug":"hk21-or-portuguese-m-968-the-hk-g3-grows-into-a-light-machine-gun-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/04\/hk21-or-portuguese-m-968-the-hk-g3-grows-into-a-light-machine-gun-2\/","title":{"rendered":"HK21 or Portuguese m\/968: The H&#038;K G3 Grows into a Light Machine Gun"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mejs-video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"autoplay\" width=\"580\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w0rOTsuENSI?controls=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>All the best firearms history channels streaming to all major devices:<br \/>weaponsandwar.tv<\/p>\n<p>When Heckler &#038; Koch produced the iconic G3 rifle, it was intended to be a parts of a complete small arms package. The G3 was the infantry rifle, and it was paired with the MP% submachine gun and the HK21 light machine gun for a complete set of weapons with the same manual of arms and disassembly\/maintenance procedures. The first client for H&#038;K was the West German Bundeswehr, and they were not interested in the HK21 &#8211; they had the MG3 already and were quite happy with it. Instead, Portugal would be the most significant early buyer of the HK21.<\/p>\n<p>Mechanically, the HK21 shares all the same general principles of the G3. However, it has elements strengthened or modified to suit an LMG. These include a reinforced receiver, heavier recoil buffer, better long-range sights, and of course a quick-change barrel and a belt feed action. While an insert was made to allow use of G3 magazines in the original HK21, this was not a common practice. The receiver did not have the modular features that would come later on iterations like the HK21E; this was a gun really intended just for belt-fed use in 7.62x51mm NATO.<\/p>\n<p>The HK21 was introduced in 1961, and Portugal adopted it as the m\/968. Portugal actually purchased a license to produce the gun, and this particular example was one of many made at FMP in Portugal. The gun weighs 17.5 pounds (7.9 kg) and fires at 800-850 rpm. It is a relatively difficult gun to use well, with a comparatively harsh recoil for guns of its type. It did compete in the US LMG trials, but lost out to the FN Minimi.<\/p>\n<p>Special thanks to Bear Arms in Scottsdale, AZ for providing access to this rifle for video!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/utreon.com\/c\/forgottenweapons\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/utreon.com\/c\/forgottenweapons\/<\/a><br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/ForgottenWeapons\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/ForgottenWeapons<\/a><br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floatplane.com\/channel\/ForgottenWeapons\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.floatplane.com\/channel\/ForgottenWeapons<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! <a href=\"http:\/\/shop.forgottenweapons.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/shop.forgottenweapons.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All the best firearms history channels streaming to all major devices:weaponsandwar.tv When Heckler &#038; Koch produced the iconic G3 rifle, it was intended to be a parts of a complete small arms package. The G3 was the infantry rifle, and it was paired with the MP% submachine gun and the HK21 light machine gun for&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/04\/hk21-or-portuguese-m-968-the-hk-g3-grows-into-a-light-machine-gun-2\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">HK21 or Portuguese m\/968: The H&#038;K G3 Grows into a Light Machine Gun<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":25383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}