- Praat jy Afrikaans? - Ja. - Ja? Awesome, very GB.
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and today we are out at the range with a full-auto FAL,
I'm sorry, a full-auto R1 and a Halbek device. This is a clip-on muzzle-brake redirector
that was developed by a pair of Rhodesian guys by the name of Marthinus Bekker and Douglas Hall, hence Halbek.
And they patented it in Rhodesia in 1977, and then they also actually patented it in the United States in 1980.
There are a number of different variants out there. This was in very limited use with the Rhodesian army.
And this one, I'm honestly not sure if this is an original production or if this is a repro that
someone was making like in the US to take advantage of the market interest in Rhodesian stuff.
But either way it works the exact same as some of the originals that you can find
that are really kind of crude and welded together. This one was cast.
Here's the Halbek device up close. We have a spring-loaded catch that locks over the barrel.
And then we have this lever with a pin right there that locks into one of the muzzle brake holes on the R1 rifle.
So the idea here is on the R1 you have four sets of ports in the muzzle device (and they're meant for launching rifle grenades).
And ... they're all diagonally offset from the bore, so you've got them at these angles.
And what the Halbek device does is it blocks off one set, and redirects them up.
So you can set it to either right-handed shooting or left-handed shooting,
because depending on which shoulder you're firing, you're gonna tend to climb to one side or the other.
And allegedly, this reduces muzzle climb and makes the gun more controllable in full-auto.
So what we're gonna do today is try it both ways.
I'm going to start with the device on, do some shooting,
take it off, do some shooting, and then go back to it on, and we'll see what happens.
Alright, here we go.
Full-auto with the Halbek device.
Wow! That actually feels like it's pushing the thing down.
I'm going to pull that device off and try some without it, and see how it feels that way.
That was like weird, like, ... the gun recoils down.
Alright, regular muzzle. And because we don't have a Rhodesian Halbek we don't have Rhodesian paint.
OK, that's actually not too bad by itself.
But I kind of figured I was going to get a little bit better handling the gun as I continued to fire it, so
now we're going to go back and do some more with the device, and see if I can feel a difference.
Alright. Now we have the device back on, but I don't have enough ammo in my painted mag, so regular mag.
Alright, I can say without any doubt
(that's always cool) that Halbek device absolutely works.
It absolutely is actually pulling the muzzle down when I'm firing.
So you're getting just as much vibration and intense recoil force,
I mean, it's kicking me around and it's pushing me backwards.
But that Halbek device prevents the muzzle from climbing. In fact, it's almost, I almost have to say it's too much.
And I'm able to keep the gun from climbing very much on my own,
and having that device on there almost is counterproductive.
... I'll be honest, I did not expect that result. I figured this was going to do basically nothing.
So, wow.
Don't know that it would be all that useful in semi-auto but, boy it might, it really might be.
That's pretty cool. It's not every day that I get my initial hypothesis completely wrong,
but it's really cool when it does happen.
Anyway a big thanks to the folks who set this up for me.
If you guys enjoy seeing this sort of thing on the net, please do consider checking out my membership and Patreon pages.
It is you guys, the viewers, that make it possible for me to travel about
find cool guns with cool muzzle devices, and bring them to you.
Thanks for watching.
[ cc by sk cn2 ]