[ IM Metal VHS-1 Prototype (Tavor-Like) ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today in
Karlovac, Croatia, at the HS Produkt factory
where we are continuing our look at the developmental
track of what would eventually become the VHS-2.
Or as it's known in the United States, the Hellion.
Our last video was on the initial attempts of IM Metal to develop on the basis of a FAMAS.
They liked the bullpup idea, but they wanted to change it to a gas piston system.
Today we're looking at one of the two developmental projects
that followed the FAMAS experimentation at IM Metal.
And this one has a bit of influence from the Israeli Tavor.
Now the reason for that is in about 1997 or 1998
the Croatian army gave serious consideration to adopting the Tavor.
But part of the deal was going to be that it needed to be manufactured domestically under licence.
Having just undergone an arms embargo and a war for its own independence,
Croatia had an understandable desire to maintain domestic small arms production.
So there was like a good deal of three-way discussion and investigation
and experimentation between IMI and the Croatian military and IM Metal.
Who was of course, and still is, the most substantial rifle manufacturer in Croatia.
If the guns were going to be built under licence, it was going to be IM Metal that was making them.
So IM Metal's engineers got a good look at the Tavor.
And when it ended up not being adopted by the Croatian military,
the engineers at IM Metal decided to integrate some of the design elements of the Tavor
into one of their two developmental prototypes.
So that's the one we have here, let's go ahead and take a closer look at it.
OK, first off we have to talk about this bipod,
because it is both extremely cool and a really terrible idea at the same time.
It is two really quite springy legs, this is not a particularly stable bipod.
They are mounted to the front strap of a very Tavor-like pistol grip.
... And if I lift this lever up, I can fold both legs of the bipod together.
And they snap right together into the front of the pistol grip ... whole-hand trigger guard.
But moving on to the rest of the rifle, still a bullpup configuration of course.
We have a magazine release on the side of the receiver here,
and this is designed to take standard M16 type magazines.
This one's actually an AR-18 magazine, but same idea.
We have a full-hand trigger guard as you already saw.
And the grenade launcher is not ... really a removable part of the action.
One of the really cool things here is that the grenade launcher controls
have been integrated completely into the receiver of the rifle.
So in order to open it we have a latch right here.
Push that back, and the grenade launcher tube springs open to the side.
There's the spring around the barrel.
This is actually something you have to watch when you reassemble the gun,
to hook this coil spring under the upper handguard there.
So you load a grenade in from the back and then snap it shut.
And then the firing controls are built into the receiver, like I said.
So this is the cocking lever for the grenade launcher.
You pull that back, and that's the striker that will fire a grenade.
This is the grenade trigger, it's a lug on the side that you pull down.
And kaboom, that's what actually fires a grenade.
So you don't have a second trigger guard hanging out here under the rifle somewhere.
Or some sort of linkage trying to connect it to the main trigger.
I think this is a pretty cool setup,
if you're sure that you actually want a grenade launcher on every rifle.
We're still talking about a period here where iron sights were the predominant
sighting system on standard military rifles.
People were starting to issue optics, but they weren't as ubiquitous as they are today.
And so this ... still has a FAMAS-style carry handle with a rear sight in the back.
Those rear sight parts are missing on this particular example. This is, remember, a prototype.
And we have our front sight up here.
There are a lot of bits of rail on this rifle,
and it's a little bit unclear what they're all meant for.
Although I suspect back here you have rails that are probably intended
for grenade launching sights, since there is a grenade launcher built into this.
It could very well be the same idea up here, especially as a prototype.
I can see them putting ... a bunch of different rails on so they could experiment
with different styles of grenade launcher sight to see what would work best.
We have a selector lever on the back of the rifle here. So safe, full and semi. Very simple.
And a non-reciprocating charging handle located on the left side.
So for a right-handed shooter that's going to be nice and convenient.
In order to disassemble this we just have two pins to pop out.
There's the front one. The handguard is going to pop up as soon as you pull that pin out
because the coil spring for the grenade launcher [is tensioned].
If this had gone to full production, this should have been mounted
to some sort of fixed ... lug on the barrel.
But at this stage of development
it's just pushing directly on the handguard, so that's going to pop up there.
Then the second pin is right here in the back, pull that out.
And now ...
there we go, we can lift the upper ... receiver element off.
Important to point out that the iron sights are not actually connected to this.
The sights are here and here, fixed solidly to the barrel.
So you don't have to worry about those two front and rear pins,
or the somewhat flexible plastic of the upper here impacting your zero.
Yes, you'll have grenade launcher sights mounted on this,
but the grenade launcher sight is a much less precise sort of thing.
You're not trying to maintain one minute of angle accuracy on high explosive grenades.
The charging handle is right there. It's just a lever that's going to pull back ...
on this, which is your dual recoil spring system.
That comes back like so.
So the system is a bit frozen up right now, but I can sort of demonstrate it.
You have a gas block here. And then this centre tube right here,
this is actually a short-stroke piston.
So when the gun fires, this centre tube is going to move backwards.
And it is going to impinge ... on the bolt back here.
You can see it actually nests inside the bolt.
It's going to kick back, and that's going to provide enough inertia
for the bolt to cycle backward (and eject the empty cartridge)
far enough to come forward and pick up a new cartridge.
The fire control group is basically a self-contained assembly back here.
There is a connection up to the trigger right there.
So when I pull the trigger I am pulling a wire forward, you can see it moving there.
And that's what's actually going to pull the sear and release the hammer.
And then we've got our selector switch right there.
That spring is ... the hammer spring.
As far as the basic mechanical action goes
we have a system very much taken from an AR-180, which is the same as a Tavor.
So multi-lug rotating bolt, ... dual guide rods, dual springs.
And that is one of the two initial developmental tracks
that IM Metal set out on that would lead to the VHS-2.
When it came time to do some actual testing, this pattern of rifle
turned out to be more complicated and less satisfactory than its alternative.
So it was the other rifle design that would go on to become the VHS-1.
And then that is the rifle that would continue to be iterated into the VHS-2.
So next time, next up, when we continue this series
we'll be taking a look at the VHS-1 itself.
I'd like to give a big thanks to HS Produkt for giving me access to
their really cool prototypes like this, that exist absolutely nowhere else.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video. Thanks for watching.
Thanks for watching.