Anyone have an HK 416 or 417 ???

Any thoughts/reviews???

My understanding is that H&K's rifles that they sell to civilians are on a whole different scale than those they produce for the military... And that's not good for us.. Again just what I have been told however, this is coming from multiple people who have used both. Everyone I know who has used both say that H&K's civilian rifles are overpriced and lack in QC.

The civilian version is the MR556, there are some differences between it and the 416. The MR556 is $2k for the complete rifle. You can find 416 uppers taken from post samples for sale, they tend to sell anywhere from $4k - $5.5k for just the upper since there is a loyal HK following and a limited supply.

There are other big names out there that make piston uppers that are the same quality (less money) and don't treat civilians like second class.

Please stop perpetuating this ignorance gentlemen:

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2013/09/02/hk-hate-you-import-export-laws-vs-people/


Yes, if you are an SOT you can get a 416 with a demo letter. Absolutely fantastic guns and extremely controllable on full auto. Damn reliable too:



If you are not an SOT, you are stuck with an MR556 which is a damn good rifle. Form 1 it to cut that barrel down, then weld up the gas bleed off port to make it into a little 416 wannabe. TPM or IGF can weld the carrier to trip an autosear and remark the lower for you too.

There is already a site for HK fanboys over at HKPRO. HK has brought many nice rifle designs to market but heavily neutered them for the civilian market and been very open that they were targeting the .gov contracts instead of being interested in civilian sales. (HK USC, SL8 for example; then the differences in the MR556 vs 416). It's only recently that they are changing their attitude with the with the HK243 and HK293 (what the SL8 should have been all along) now that they have had some financial trouble and .gov didn't give them contracts for some of the designs that they need to recoup R&D dollars from.
Other companies have long taken the stance that anything legal for the civilian market is available to that market. Sig, LWCR and many others provide factory SBR's and don't neuter down what they offer.

Also of note, is both companies listed above offer very nice piston rifles for less than the MR556....

Thank the H. W. Bush 1989 executive order, not H&K. In the 80s you could buy the entire 90 series. It is Our import laws that have forced Heckler and Koch to do this.

That was the start of it, but since then HK USA has manufactured firearms and could easily bring new stuff to market without the import restrictions. Also other companies like MKE have imported HK licensed clones and PTR started local production of the 91 series.

Not really. The German government effectively owns the patents on all firearms produced in Germany. It took HK 7 or 8 years to get approval to even sell an AR variant in the US. They were adversely effected by the '89 ban, they got hosed again by the 1994 AWB. They got screwed by American gun laws twice in 5 years, so understandably it left a bit of a bitter taste in their mouth.