Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video
on Forgotten Weapons.com. I am Ian McCollum and today
we are out at the range with an XM-8 carbine
and this is very cool and exciting. So, of course, hopefully you watched our previous video
on the whole XM-8 family, also our discussion with
Larry Vickers about the development of the XM-8 program
and our conclusion to that 3-part series is today actually doing
some shooting with one. So, this of course came relatively close to
actually being maybe adopted by the US military but not quite.
My initial thoughts on handling this thing is, they feel a little bit big and bulky.
They're very Starship Troopers-ish looking, they're very futuristic looking.
They're actually pretty comfortable in the hand, despite being a little bit larger than I might expect.
I think that comes from the polymer. But it also has a relatively long receiver,
so you'll notice if you compare barrel length and overall length with some other common
military carbines, you'll find that this tends to have a short barrel relative to its overall length.
There's a lot of receiver space in here and I'm curious if that receiver space has been suitably
used to allow the bolt to decelerate and make this a nice, soft-shooting gun.
So, let's go ahead and find out.
There is a bolt release in the front of the trigger guard, there we go.
Go ahead and set it to semi to start with. We, of course, have this multi-purpose
aiming module, it's a red dot with a couple of lasers. We're just going to use the red dot today.
That's a silhouette at 50 meters, maybe 60 meters.
Pretty easy to hit. Let's try full auto.
The XM-8 was designed to use G36 magazines because this is at heart a G36 action.
However, because those have been standardized and the G36 has gone into extensive international use,
PMAG makes a G36 magazine. So, the G36 PMAG will also work in the XM-8.
Let's try this left-handed, which should be a little bit easier for me.
So this thing has a substantially lower rate of fire than HK's 5.56 roller-locked guns
like the HK33 and G41. It's a really smooth-shooting, very pleasant gun to fire.
I was able to hold at least a couple of those on that silhouette at 50 or 60 yards.
We have two rounds left. Let's put it on semi and see if we can hit something a little bit harder.
So I totally understand why these rifles didn't end up getting adopted by the US military.
Basically, an issue of they didn't offer a sufficient improvement on the existing
AR15/M16/M4 platform to justify the cost of scrapping everything
and starting all over with brand new guns.
That said, this basic package, if you take it out of its fancy fish-looking furniture,
and put it into different furniture, you basically get the G36.
Which, despite some of the current political rhetoric about the G36
has really proven to be a very successful and a really nice rifle.
For those countries that didn't have a large existing stockpile of rifles that they had a good incentive to keep,
things like the G36 and XM-8 were potentially really good options.
Of course, the XM-8, I think it got adopted by Malaysia and that's it?
This was largely an American project and
the international sales for this sort of gun went to the G36 instead.
I would like to give a big thank you to HK for giving me access
to their guns in the Gray Room to actually do some shooting with
It is really a spectacular and fantastic opportunity to be able to take an XM-8 carbine out to the range
and put some rounds through it and I really appreciate their generosity.
And of course also a big thank you to Trijicon for giving us access to their range to do it.
As I think we are going to be making a habit of doing
because by popular request, we'll go ahead and close this out
with a full dump of 30 rounds full auto.
Twist my arm, it's such a terrible job.
Got at least a couple hits! Thanks for watching.