Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I'm here today at the National
Firearms Centre, part of the British Royal Armouries
collection in Leeds. And we are taking a look at
an extremely cool, very early HK prototype rifle.
This is the prototype of, or a prototype of, the elusive HK-32.
Now HK has a nomenclature system that they stick to about half the time, or at least that they did.
And it worked with two different digits, the first digit in one of HK's numbers is the type of firearm
and the second digit is the calibre. So, for example, when you have the HK-21 and 23
machine guns, that first digit, 2, indicates a belt-fed machine gun.
The second digit indicates the different calibre, 1 would be 7.62 NATO,
For example, HK-91 where 9 indicates a semi-auto civilian rifle, 1 indicates 7.62 NATO.
The HK-23, 2 is belt-fed machine gun, 3 is 5.56 NATO.
Well, this is a 32 and just as in the HK-33 the first 3 indicates a select-fire shoulder rifle,
the second 3 there indicates 5.56 NATO. This, as a 32, is a select fire shoulder rifle in 7.62x39.
You'll note, of course, the curved magazine which is designed specifically to match
the taper of the 7.62x39 cartridge.
These rifles didn't use AK magazines, although there was a developmental batch made
that did use AK magazines specifically for competing for a Finnish rifle contract, which it didn't get.
... There's been a lot of debate about the HK-32, because it shows up in HK catalogues,
but doesn't appear to have ever been manufactured.
Well, maybe, maybe not, it definitely was manufactured at least in small numbers.
I'm aware of a contract that was made to someone in Africa, possibly Tanzania, but I'm not 100% sure on that.
There are also some photos recently that came out of Mexican policeman with HK-32 rifles.
Although it's not clear if those were made domestically in Mexico, or if they are an HK contract.
At any rate, this is not one of those contract guns. This is an extremely early gun.
We know from the date on the side of the receiver that this was manufactured in September of 1957,
which is extremely early in HK's history.
It was 1957 when the German army was actually testing the CETME rifle.
The Spanish army didn't actually adopt the CETME C until 1958.
So in fact we know one more thing from here, and that's the serial number on this is 1,727.
And at this point in HK's history they were sequentially numbering every single rifle they made
in the same series. So, for example, 1706, ... less than two dozen rifles before this, is
a 7.62 NATO StG CETME rifle, so this was a period when they were making small numbers of rifles
(almost certainly by hand), for a whole wide variety of different trials and experiments.
And what we have here is a rifle that's actually kind of as much CETME as it is what we would
recognise today as G3. So it has a CETME style muzzle brake, has the CETME metal fore-end and bipod.
Has a very CETME-like rear sight, which is a two- position rear notch instead of what we would later
come to recognise on the back of the receiver in the HK diopter aperture sights.
The fire control group, which we'll take a look at in a moment, is also very much CETME style.
So what we have here is almost certainly the very first iteration of a 7.62x39 HK rifle.
So I know some of you guys are fanatical HK devotees, and you're gonna want to see inside this. So let's pull it apart.
Alrighty. So let's start by taking a look at the receiver markings.
We can definitively rule out this being a Spanish production gun because of that nice big HK right on there.
Serial number is 1,727 and production date is September, 10, month 10, of 1957. Again extremely early.
In fact, I would point out ... in 1956 they had not yet started putting in paddle magazine releases.
So this would have been one of the very first guns to actually have a paddle magazine release.
I will also point out that the button magazine release is fixed and does nothing on this gun,
because well, it doesn't interact with the magazine the same way as on a standard 7.62 magazine because we have
(wedge this out of there), what we have here is actually
a standard 7.62 NATO size receiver that has a filler block in the back to accommodate the 7.62x39
shorter magazine. Anyway, the other side of the receiver has nothing.
The selector markings are in German, S E D, that's safe - Sicher, Einzelfeuer and Dauerfeuer,
so single shot and repeat or multiple shot.
So when people talk about the HK-32, one thing that's always brought up is what the magazine would be.
There was, like I said, a small batch made for Finnish trials that used AK magazines,
but in general the HK-32s used their own proprietary magazine.
Simply something that would fit better into HK's
magazine locking system. So you can see we have a little locking notch back here,
the magazine insertion stops there and what is very much an AK style
magazine design. It is curved, of course, to accommodate the cartridge taper.
Interestingly, this actually has the serial number marked on the magazine, which is I guess not that
uncommon on very early prototype sorts of rifles. And this is a matching magazine, which is cool.
... Well, there are a couple pictures that have been published that originally came out in an HK
self-published book about the company's history, and there are a couple pictures in there of later
prototype HK-32 rifles, or like sample model HK-32 rifles, and those use a very different pattern of magazine.
So this is clearly one based on the CETME style of magazine construction that wasn't used later on.
Now one of the things that makes this rifle very interesting to me
is how many of the early CETME features it has on it.
The rear sight is a perfect example of that. Instead of having the HK diopter,
we have a sight in the middle of the receiver that [has] two positions.
We have a 250 and we have a 150, which just by itself is kind of an unusual choice in two different ranges.
But you can flip back and forth between those.
The front sight is a very sharp point, which is also kind of unusual and interesting.
The front sight block and the muzzle brake are very distinctively CETME,
HK would use a slotted flash hider that's pretty familiar to us today.
But the early CETME rifles used this pattern, and that's what HK was using in these very early designs.
Same thing goes for the metal handguard here with the fixed bipod legs.
That's very reminiscent of the early CETME rifles.
And also the carry handle. It does fold up like that, but this again is very much a CETME feature.
Lastly on the butt-stock we have storage holes for the takedown pins, but where on the G3 they put them back here,
... when this was still the CETME, they were located closer together and right up here behind the sling slot.
Now here's a neat little feature that I have not seen on any HK or CETME rifle before, and it's really neat.
Inside the grip we have
this,
slotting right in there. So there's a little spring-loaded button to keep it from just falling out.
This obviously is a rifle grenade sight. Did you notice before that there's a slot
in the front sight protective circle? Well, if you didn't, now you know why. Because this
drops right in there to give you your grenade launcher sight. That is super cool.
And then when you're done, just slip it right back up into the grip.
This disassembles just like every other HK, so I'm not going to bother walking you through that.
But I want to point out a few comparisons here. This is the butt-stock from a standard
Spanish production CETME rifle, early CETME rifle, and there are a couple things you can see here.
First off, the location of these pin storage holes is just like this guy.
Also note that the recoil spring is just loose, as it is on our 7.62x39 gun.
Recoil spring is actually the exact same length
(if I can get this far enough back to show you that, there you go),
the camera distorts this a little bit but these recoil springs are in fact the same length.
Also note how the rear end cap here comes straight back, and then there's a quite steep drop to the stock.
If we compare that to an HK G3 stock, and this is a pretty early one, this is 1966.
Note that the end cap on this guy drops down at the back here unlike the straight
CETME pattern, or CETME style, and then the stock itself has a little bit less of an abrupt drop to it.
Some of that is actually taken up in the metal end cap.
And of course, you can see that the storage pin holes have moved.
We also no longer have a slot clear through the butt-stock, we have
what would become ... the standard HK style there.
So a bit of a comparison you can see between CETME pattern and G3 pattern.
And of course by this time the Germans had standardised on a captive recoil spring.
Now to look at pistol grips and fire control assemblies.
We will again compare between our CETME B. Remember this gun actually predates
the Spanish adoption of the CETME C, so basically from the same time period CETME would be the CETME B.
This is our 7.62x39 gun, and this is a 1966 HK G3.
So right off the bat, you can see that the style of attachment here changed.
This is a little more secure, a little stronger in the G3.
Comparing the CETME to the 7.62x39 HK, you can see that the
... fire control groups are basically the same internally. You've got the same style of of parts in there.
However the CETME B actually has T for, I believe, ...Tiro, semi-auto and then safe here
and then Rápido, full-auto on the bottom.
That 7.62x39 from HK has changed ... the relative location to be the standard for HK,
which is safe, semi and then full. So they changed ... the orientation of the selector,
but the parts inside are basically made the same way.
If we swap out and compare the 7.62x39 gun to a standard G3,
now you can see some substantial differences. Look at the construction of the hammer.
Note that the G3 has a linear hammer spring back here,
where the 7.62x39 gun has a CETME style coiled up,
you know, torsional ... hammer spring ... back there.
The selector positions are the same, however.
So this just goes to show the developmental iterations.
They still had some development to do from the CETME style fire control
to what would eventually be the standard G3.
If we look at receivers, 7.62x39 here, CETME B up here,
you can see that this 7.62 gun is made on the exact same
size of receiver as the standard NATO calibre CETMEs.
There is just a magazine block that has been added to fit the shorter magazine in.
Note that the CETME B has this exact same style of folding carry handle as the 7.62 gun.
However, it actually had a rear tangent sight at this point instead of
HK's change to the two position flip sight.
The handguards of the two are basically identical, as are the bipods,
(a little bit of a difference here with an extra cut-out where there isn't one on the CETME, but not a big difference).
And then the muzzle brakes are also virtually identical, a little bit of a difference again.
This rifle, the CETME B, is set up to attach a bayonet up here,
where the 7.62x39 gun is not, it just has a simple plug.
(I can wedge it out of there), just has a simple plug there in the front of
the charging handle extension tube where you could store a cleaning kit.
I certainly wouldn't finish off this video without also taking a look at the bolt assembly.
It's basically identical, this sort of thing didn't change much. So we'll go ahead and take it apart,
because that's what a lot of you guys are gonna want to see. So, bolt head
pretty typical, set that aside.
And now the really technical bit. Of course these are roller delayed guns, which means the ...
... angle of the wedge surface here is quite critical to the proper functioning of the guns,
and requires quite a lot of calculation. This is our standard G3
and this guy is our 7.62x39 gun, which you can see has been made substantially differently.
And in fact, if we look on this side, it actually has 70 degrees electro penciled on it.
I have not measured it.
... I can't guarantee that that is correct, but
I don't see any other reason for them to have put that on there unless it is in fact a 70 degree wedge angle.
So that is really cool, a sneak look inside. And you can see from the wear that this gun has definitely been fired.
A cool sneak look inside HK's engineering process for the HK-32.
It's really cool to get a chance to see what is really the beginning of the story of the HK-32.
It's a very poorly documented story. We don't know very much at all about it.
But here we have the beginning. I am very hopeful that at some point
I will manage to find one of those African contract rifles
to see an example of what HK actually mass produced.
Well, very limited scale mass production, but certainly series production of a 7.62x39 calibre rifle, so.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video. I'd like to thank all of my patrons,
it's your direct support at a buck a month (or more if you like some of the Patreon perks),
but it's your support that makes it possible for me to come to places like the UK
and bring you guys awesome prototype guns like this. And of course I need to give a
big thanks to the Royal Armouries for giving me the chance to pull this down out of their collection,
tear it apart and show it to you guys. They have probably the best firearms collection in Western Europe.
It is not open to the general public, but it is available by appointment to researchers.
So if you are working on a firearms research project, it could be a book or other media,
and you're interested in taking a look at something in their collection, give them a ring.
Their website is in the description text below and there's some great people,
they'll help set up a meeting for you, and you can get to take a look at all the cool stuff that's back here.
Thanks for watching.