All posts by David Zakar

Industry News

New MagLULA Product: 30-round AR15 / M4 universal heavy-duty Range BenchLoader

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maglula

I got an email this morning from Guy Tal over at  MagLULA announcing their newest Israeli-made product, the 30-round AR15 / M4 universal heavy-duty Range BenchLoader. It appears to be a polymer cost-reduced version of their existing AR15 / M16 / M4 BenchLoader. Given that this new version has a MSRP of $165 (versus $430 street for the older one), I think it has much more of a chance at succeeding in the market. You can see how it works in this video.

Personally, I’ve always been a little skeptical of the need for this product for individuals – I find that the stripLULA works wonderfully if you get your stripper clip infrastructure in place ahead of time. I would have a lot more use for a cost-reduced variant for AK and/or Galil mags, since neither of those can use stripper clips effectively. (And where is the AK-74 stripLULA?)

Research

The Mysterious Jericho-B

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jerichob

One of the least-known modern pistols made by IWI is the Jericho-B, announced in 2010, discontinued in 2012. The Jericho-B appears to be an updated version of the IMI Barak pistol, the main difference being an updated slide design, removing the Barak’s characteristic (and unflattering) “rear sight hump” and making the slide more rectangular rather than cylindrical.

Want to know more? After the break!

Continue reading The Mysterious Jericho-B →

Research

Speaking of the Galil… the GAL Assault Rifle

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Top to bottom: GAL assault rifle in 7.62x51, GAL in 5.56x45, Balashnikov (Galil prototype), Galil ARM
Top to bottom: GAL assault rifle in 7.62×51, GAL in 5.56×45, Balashnikov (Galil prototype), Galil ARM

Hot on the heels of my “Why the Galil Failed” post, The Firearm Blog has linked to a pair of videos showing the GAL assault rifle in some detail. I am blown away at the excellent condition of the GAL being shown at what appears to be Silver Shadow, and it’s really reinforcing my desire to take a research trip out there sometime soon. If you’re interested in more information on the GAL, the book “The World’s Assault Rifles” has a section on it.

It’s tempting to think that the GAL would have succeeded where the Galil failed, but I believe that would be a mistake. The GAL weighed about as much as the Galil, and shared its inadequacy in the areas of being an LMG/SAW and a DMR. There’s also no reason to think that the IDF would have adopted it in a lighter configuration.

Research

Why the Galil failed

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IMG_0597

The Galil is generally considered to be one of the best AK variants ever created, standing right up there with the Finnish Rk95. It was adopted by a number of Central/South American militaries, and South Africa. It even came rather close to becoming Sweden’s service rifle instead of the FNC. Yet, with regards to Israeli military service, it’s the equivalent of the US experience with the M14: phased in, and then phased out in rapid succession.

What happened? I’ve been shooting the Galil for a couple years now, and I have some thoughts on the subject…

Continue reading Why the Galil failed →

Site News

Upcoming Content

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I know it’s been a little sparse around here lately, but I’ve got plenty of content in the pipeline:

  • Review of the IMI Barak
  • Review of the IWI Jericho-B
  • Review of the BUL Storm
  • Thoughts on the Israeli 98k Mauser
  • Thoughts on the Galil
  • The versatility of the Uzi magazine
  • More accessory reviews
  • Interviews with Israeli firearms and accessory manufacturers

I’ve bought the handguns, but they haven’t been transferred to me yet due to hassles with the MD handgun roster. This is kind of a shame, given how little US coverage that the Barak has gotten.

Research

FFV-890C: The Swedish Galil

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I have no idea how I missed this, but the Forgotten Weapons blog has an excellent post up about the FFV-890C. The FFV-890C was the Galil variant submitted for the Swedish service rifle trials in the latter part of the 1970’s, which the FNC eventually wound up winning.

Most of the modifications are nothing terribly special, but the case deflector on the dust cover was a clever idea. The cross-bar safety on model 2 is just flat-out weird, though… seems like they should have just gone to the drawing board and redesigned the entire selector system.

Speaking of which, there’s one other Galil variant out there that doesn’t get a lot of discussion: the Bernardelli Mod.378 VB-SR. This was license manufactured by Bernadelli in Italy. The only major user is the Italian national police SWAT force, NOCS, although I’ve also read that the Italian Army also uses it for M203-equipped soldiers/grenadiers. The major improvement is that it was sometimes manufactured to use standard AR-15 mags. I’ve heard rumor that other things may have been changed, but I’ve never seen a list or any solid info.