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Thread: HK416: The Gun that Took Out Bin Laden

  1. #1
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    HK416: The Gun that Took Out Bin Laden

    Due to its design, it doesn't get carbon fouling which is a problem with the M-16 family of weapons.


    HK416: The Gun that Took Out Bin Laden

    The rifle is still controversial in some circles - but is now generally regarded as superior to the M4 carbine that it replaced for this mission.

    Heckler & Koch’s HK416 flew under the radar for quite some time. That all changed in May 2011, when the now-famous SEAL Team Six raided a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan where Osama bin Laden and several of his family members had been living for nearly a decade.


    During the raid and subsequent firefight, bin Laden and several of his family members were shot and killed. Although accounts of what happened differ slightly and are likely attributable to "the fog of war” and impeded situational awareness, one thing is certain: the rifle that killed bin Laden was none other than Heckler & Koch’s HK416.


    Heckler & Koch HK416


    The H&K416 was designed in the late 1990s as a more robust, long-lived alternative to the ubiquitous M4 carbine. Unlike the M16 and M4 family of rifles, the H&K416 uses a short-stroke piston system, rather than a direct impingement system. The advantage to the H&K416 piston design is that combustion gases generated by firing the weapon are unable to enter the rifle’s interior, reducing the amount of fouling, and consequent stoppages.


    The H&K416 is designed to be similar to the M4 and M16 family of rifles to help soldiers transition from those platforms. A nearly identical layout helps facilitate weapon crossover.


    Thanks in part to the H&K416’s piston design, the rifle is prized for being highly reliable with a good reputation. In addition, the rifle is regarded as highly accurate, and can reliably hit point targets at a range of six hundred meters, or area targets as far out as eight hundred meters.


    Widespread Adoption
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    The 416 is a good gun. I have used it.

    I don't think it is any better than a good quality direct impingement gun. One of the gunsmiths I use is regarded as one of the best AR smiths in the country and he actually prefers the DI guns over the piston guns. He is not alone in that. I have talked to number of gunsmiths who specialize in ARs and virtually all of them prefer DI over piston. They have all cited long term reliability as the main factor in their preference.

    I had CH (my AR guy) modify a direct impingement AR I have and make it a piston driven gun. He wasn't crazy about the idea, but he did it and did a great job of it. About 6 months and a couple of thousand rounds later, we returned it to its original configuration. He was right when he said the AR15 was designed to be a DI gun and when you stray from the original design, long term unanticipated problems tend to pop up. Stoner knew what he was doing.

    That said, the 416 (and a couple of others) were designed from the ground up to be piston guns, so they may have found some workaround for the negatives that come with modifying the design. All I can really say is that almost every piston driven AR operator I know has given up his piston gun and gone back to the original Stoner Direct Impingement design.

    The idea behind the piston guns was that they would be easier to maintain. It is really not that hard to keep your DI gun running. Just clean the damned thing.
    Last edited by Cletus; 07-12-2021 at 01:18 PM.
    “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.” - Barry Goldwater

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    Peter1469 (07-12-2021)

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