{"id":30400,"date":"2026-09-14T07:17:04","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T12:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/14\/saudi-gold-plated-presentation-g3-gaudy-or-elegant\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T07:17:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T12:17:04","slug":"saudi-gold-plated-presentation-g3-gaudy-or-elegant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/14\/saudi-gold-plated-presentation-g3-gaudy-or-elegant\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Gold Plated Presentation G3: Gaudy or Elegant?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mejs-video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"autoplay\" width=\"580\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/W_8Z5KO2YZY?controls=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The Saudi Arabian government signed a contract with H&#038;K to license domestic production of the G3 rifle at the Al Kharj factory complex in 1972. Production included standard rifles for general use, but also chrome- and gold-plated examples used as presentation pieces and diplomatic gifts. This is one of the gold examples, with deep decorative carving in the wood and gold plating on a number of parts, including the bolt carrier, charging handle, takedown pins, sling plate, and others. This one was made in 1988, and is serial number 00237. <\/p>\n<p>Saudi G3 production never did reach fully independent status, and used many semi-finished parts imported from Germany. Production of the MP5 and G36 were added later (1987 and 2008 respectively), but a diplomatic scandal in 2013 led Germany to cut off parts support.<\/p>\n<p>Many thanks to the IRCGN (Institut de Recherche Criminelle de la Gendarmerie Nationale) for allowing me access to film this very rare rifle for you!<\/p>\n<p>The best firearms reference books: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.headstamppublishing.com\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.headstamppublishing.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/ForgottenWeapons\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/ForgottenWeapons<\/a><br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floatplane.com\/channel\/ForgottenWeapons\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.floatplane.com\/channel\/ForgottenWeapons<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! <a href=\"http:\/\/shop.forgottenweapons.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/shop.forgottenweapons.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Saudi Arabian government signed a contract with H&#038;K to license domestic production of the G3 rifle at the Al Kharj factory complex in 1972. Production included standard rifles for general use, but also chrome- and gold-plated examples used as presentation pieces and diplomatic gifts. This is one of the gold examples, with deep decorative&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/14\/saudi-gold-plated-presentation-g3-gaudy-or-elegant\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Saudi Gold Plated Presentation G3: Gaudy or Elegant?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"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-30400","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\/30400","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=30400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}