Heckler & Kock debuted their new GEN3 Polyner Magazine at Enforce Tac. It is a 5.56mm, 30 round STANAG magazine which is now standard with the HK416 and 433 rifles.
They put quite a bit into the design aesthetic. For instance, the round count window conjures a projectile, moving toward the target.
Speaking of round count windows, there is also a window at the backstrap. The spring has an orange indicator letting you know you are empty.
Grooves for a positive grip extend completely around the magazine’s body, as you can see in this photo of the front aspect.
Here is a view of the feed lips and follower.
It has a removable floor plate.
Made in Germany, the Gen3 PM is available in this RAL8000 shade as well as Black.
Design features will eventually find their way into a 7.62 version as well.
Tags: H&K
Can’t wait to see the very reasonable MSRP on this.
79.99 introductory price. You American’s don’t appreciate H&K quality
I guess I don’t get the point of designing and manufacturing an AR mag in-house at this point. HK does great things, but I can’t imagine how it benefits them over using Lancer, Magpul, etc… as OEM.
You dont really know how these contracts work. HK sold the French the HK 416 F packages. It comes with the gun … and 6 HK made aluminum AR Mags. These mags are disposable items. The break, they get lost, they need to be replaced.
This is where money is being made. They dont care about the civilian market, no one except a very few would ever buy these mags for 50 or 70 bucks. No one.
The government does.
Remember the G36 and its magazines? Hated by many soldiers as it was hard to pull them out of their west, all for the seldomly used ability to stack magazines together. G36 would have run flawlessly with normal AR mags as later mag adapters proved. But HK made these mags and sold them with their gun as a system. Government was happy to have one supplier and tax payers money is always spent easy.
Jordan gets it
Very well written Jordan
“HK sold the French the HK 416 F packages. It comes with the gun … and 6 HK made aluminum AR Mags.”
10 mags, not 6. And these are steel-made, not aluminium. They’re a bit different from AR mags too… They’re fully curved and have twice the empty weight of an aluminium USGI 5.56 magazine for instance.
“This is where money is being made.”
True, but you could also mention accessories. The bayonet sold with the HK416F is expensive, more than 300$ displayed civilian price on the cuttler’s site, opposed to less than a hundred for the model from which the french contract bayonet is derived.
The history of HK with proprietary accessories, pursued to this day with the HKey rail interface system, culminated with the XM8 “fish gun”. Everything, from forward grips to red dots, was supposed to be HK proprietary on this gun.
The reason why the HK416 got successful also lies here: despite many proprietary features, especially around the internals, it’s still an AR that can be tweaked way more than any other HK rifle can.
This was proven for example by the desire from HK to make the A5 compatible with Gen3 Magupul Pmags. Which are prefered to the steel HK mags by the french SF who’ve been operating with HK416 A5s for 10 years now.
Why re-invent the wheel? Because every magazine sold represents money in HK’s pocket, and not Magpuls.
“OK, you adopted our Mk-whatevah, now we can make you a deal on magazines.”
Exactly this. Money is made not on the initial contract but on the servicing and parts contracts afterwards. Magazines are consumables and need replacing.
Why not a clear plastic mag?
Because they have those already…they’re like $20
“That will be extra.”
They build a polymer magazine so they aren’t slaves to the limitations of the stamping process and related geometries…and then keep the dogleg, which causes a significant portion of the problems in many magazines, in the design.
And…based on some of the things I’m seeing at first glance…they apparently didn’t mind lots of IP risk in this program.
Kraut space magic is dead, apparently.
They love our Gen M3 PMAG when it comes time for testing against other platforms, but don’t like writing checks. I get it.
HK has not had an original idea since,……EVER.