[ Reproduction Rheinmetall VG-3 aka VG-45K ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and we have something pretty darn cool today.
This is a reproduction of the Rheinmetall VG-3.
The VG series of rifles were German last-ditch ... Volkssturm rifles
manufactured in the last couple of months of World War Two in a desperate attempt
to maintain armament production in the face of massive Allied advances into Germany,
destruction of German manufacturing infrastructure,
and just generic complete lack of materials, parts, labour and money.
So the best known of these is the VG-1, which was designed by Walther.
There was competitive testing for bolt action 8mm Mauser calibre rifles in November of 1944.
And a bunch of different companies submitted designs, Walther's was the best.
Rheinmetall was actually late to that trial, and their gun was rejected.
Which should tell you something, like even at this stage of the war
the gun that they presented wasn't considered good enough to actually put into production.
However, a month later in December of '44
they came back with a bolt action 8mm Kurz calibre rifle, that's 8x33,
and it used the same magazines as the Sturmgewehrs.
Now this is something that the German military was interested in.
Certainly there was like, "Why not? Let's consider last-ditch stuff in that calibre too."
Well at trials, the Kurz calibre version of Rheinmetall's rifle did really well actually.
They put [2,000] rounds through it without any substantial failures.
They fired 20 rifle grenades off of it in testing.
I'm not sure exactly what they used for the rifle grenade launcher,
probably a standard K98k one because the front end of the barrel is pretty much standard K98k.
And the gun was approved basically on the spot for production.
Rheinmetall got a contract to make 25,000 of them,
and also 25,000 of Walther's design, VG-1s.
So they're going to be making Volksgewehr rifles in 8x57 and also 8x33.
Now ... the records get pretty sketchy as the very end of the war approaches,
but by March Rheinmetall had produced some of the VG-1s,
but they still hadn't produced a single VG-3
(which is the designation given to the 8 Kurz rifle).
And it ... doesn't appear that they ever produced a substantial quantity of them.
After the war, German inspector teams in Sömmerda found ... two.
They found one that had a full-length one-piece wood stock.
That was actually marked Rheinmetall Number 4, ("Nr.4") VG45K.
And then they also found one that was configured like this,
with a stamped receiver, a two-part stock, and that is what this is a reproduction of.
There are no known photographs of surviving examples, but there was one that was found years ago.
It was documented in drawings by a guy named Warren Odegaard.
The gun itself has disappeared. ...
There's a surviving photo of one of the full stock versions that came out of Russia,
but as far as I know its location in the Russian MOD system is unknown.
It's probably buried in some Russian military museum archive somewhere.
But this was made because it's a really cool combination of features.
So it is a stamped, folded sheet-metal receiver,
as you had with many of the last ditch German rifles.
It is a two-lug rotating bolt system.
What's neat here is there are rails. The top of the receiver is folded over into two bolt guide rails.
And there are two slots cut in the lugs that run on that folded rail, so it's a very simple system.
In the original drawings the bolt handle doesn't even have a round end on it,
it's just a straight cylinder.
Also worth pointing out, in the drawings this actually has a lever safety on it that blocks the sear.
In this one, this has been made with a simpler style of safety,
where rotating this over simply blocks the trigger.
So 16.5 inch barrel, little short thing.
I'm going to run it with a 10 round magazine to start with
because this is going to be a lot more reliable I suspect.
But I am curious how this actually feels and handles.
It's an exceptionally crude rifle. It's cock on close.
There we go, you ready?
A hit.
Argh! OK.
Come on.
This has a long crunchy trigger. It has a crunchy bolt throw.
The striker spring is pretty stiff, so that you have to have that last little bit of energy
when you're closing the bolt at the end there.
Which makes it a little tricky to do from the shoulder.
But you know what? It hits.
It's actually not that unpleasant of a gun to shoot either, which is a little surprising.
It's starting to get a little toasty already. But the stock has almost no contour at the top.
It's just like a flat corner, and that's a little bit uncomfortable.
But not too bad.
Alright, and then if you want the serious firepower for it,
well, it'll use original Sturmgewehr magazines. That's the magazine that was available.
You will see pictures of little 10 round magazines like this
with some of the late-War ... last-ditch German rifles.
And this was never actually intended to be a fielded magazine.
These were made for testing in the factory because the full-size Sturmgewehr mags
are long and clunky and they get in the way.
Especially of testing stands for zeroing or for reliability checking.
So they made some cut-down 10 rounders just to use in the factory.
Guns that were actually going to see service in the field all used 30s.
Ha ha, holy crap! I did that spur of the moment
because I didn't think I was actually going to be able to do it with a
slow-operating bolt rifle like this.
But, there you go. So.
One more for good measure.
This is a prototype, well not a prototype sort of, this is a
limited run reproduction, not available commercially, unfortunately.
But it's a super cool example of something that
Germany actually did adopt at the very end of the war.
It gives you a really interesting insight I think, into their manufacturing techniques,
what some of these German arms companies were looking at
as a way to minimise cost in every possible way.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed this one. Maybe ... this thing's doing decently enough,
maybe we'll actually take this out to a match.
That would be asking for trouble, but you know, what the heck?
Thanks for watching.