Heckler & Koch G11

Last Updated on Tuesday, 21 July 2009 15:25 Written by Administrator Thursday, 02 July 2009 16:40

The Heckler & Koch G11 is an experimental bullpup rifle on the 1970s and 80s. The design of the G11 is highly unconventional. It is also notable for its use of case-less 4.7x33mm ammunition. Since it uses case-less ammunition, it doesn't have an ejection mechanism as the all the contents of the chamber are ejected out of the barrel when the ammunition charge is ignited.

The G11’s ammunition consists of a block of propellant and the bullet embedded into it. Since, the weapon doesn’t have an ejection mechanism its reliability is significantly increased. It may be noted that most weapons malfunction because of problems with the ejection system. In addition, the smaller round of the G11 also means that more ammunition can be carried without adding extra weight.

The G11 can fire both in automatic mode and also in a three-burst mode. In the three-burst mode, all the three rounds are ejected simultaneously one after another in a single recoil cycle. This gives the weapon a superb firing rate of 2200 rounds per minute.

The G11 is accurate up to 500 meters. It also comes with an optical scope for better accuracy. Its bullpup design and advanced construction make the weapon very small and light-weight.

One of the main problems encountered during the design and testing of the G11 was the issue of ammunition “cooking-off”. In a normal rifle, the ammunition casing absorbs most of the heat generated by the propellant. Subsequently, as the casing gets ejected the chamber doesn’t heat up and so the next round that enters the chamber doesn’t “cook off” until the igniting pin hits it. However, in the case of the G11, since there is no casing, the chamber heats up causing the next round to cook off as soon as it enters the chamber. The problem of ammunition “cooking off” was solved by created a new type of propellant that had a higher ignition temperature.

Though the G11 proved to be an engineering challenge to its designers, it was nevertheless a successful weapon at least design wise. However, it was not adopted by any mainstream, service due to its high manufacturing costs. Nevertheless, its design easily outshines other conventional rifles.

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