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00:00:11
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another
video on ForgottenWeapons.com.00:00:15
I'm Ian McCollum, and we have a00:00:17
doozy of a video for you today.00:00:19
Today we're taking a look at the South African00:00:21
R4, R5, and R6 Galil copy rifles.00:00:26
This is the rifle that replaced the FAL00:00:28
in South African military service.00:00:30
So the ... FAL was originally adopted in 1960,00:00:34
and it was a pretty good gun for
the South Africans, they liked it.00:00:38
Particularly in Rhodesia and
South Africa it worked well.00:00:42
However the South Africans had some
trouble with it in South West Africa,00:00:46
what's now known as Namibia.00:00:48
It's a much more sandy
desert environment there,00:00:51
and the close ... clearances that allowed
the FAL to be a reasonably accurate rifle00:00:57
made it not so great in sandy conditions.00:01:01
That was a problem in Namibia.00:01:03
So, by 1974 they started a program
to look for a replacement rifle.00:01:08
And there were some other problems
with the FAL that they were running into.00:01:12
It was a very long rifle, South
Africa had some folding stock00:01:16
paratrooper type FALs,
but not a whole lot of them.00:01:18
And as they began to embrace more and
more armoured vehicles and helicopters,00:01:24
that length became a problem, they wanted
something that could be more compact.00:01:28
Certainly makes sense.00:01:29
And then of course the FAL
being a 7.62 ... NATO calibre rifle00:01:34
... you're limited to basically
20 round magazines.00:01:37
The amount of ammunition a
soldier can carry is fairly limited.00:01:41
Recoil is heavy, this makes it
difficult to control in full-auto.00:01:45
You're familiar with the plethora of
arguments against a 7.62 NATO combat rifle.00:01:50
And so the South Africans were
looking for something lighter.00:01:54
They kind of wanted a combination
of the accuracy of the M16,00:01:57
the reliability of the AK,
and a compact platform.00:02:01
And where they found that was in Israel.00:02:04
Now this ... development program
or adoption program began in 1974,00:02:10
and ... it ... processed pretty quickly.00:02:14
In 1974 Israel had adopted the
Galil as their new combat rifle.00:02:19
And they were one of the few countries
that was actively trading with South Africa,00:02:23
it was a military ally of South Africa.00:02:25
Because at that time South Africa
was under international embargo00:02:29
because of the Apartheid
system of government.00:02:33
So, when they went looking to
foreign countries for military arms,00:02:37
there weren't a whole lot of options.00:02:39
The Israeli Galil looked like the
perfect replacement for the FAL,00:02:43
and so South Africa
adopted it in 1975.00:02:46
Now the first batch of what became
designated the R4 rifle in South Africa,00:02:51
the first batch of a couple thousand
were actually IMI production Galil rifles,00:02:56
straight off the Israeli production lines,00:02:59
while the South Africans began to set
up production of the rifle themselves00:03:03
at the Lyttleton Engineering
Works in Johannesburg.00:03:07
... The tooling set up began in '77, the
first deliveries of rifles were in 1979.00:03:14
And the licencing agreement that the
South African government had with00:03:18
the Israeli government required Lyttleton
to produce exact copies of the Israeli Galil.00:03:24
They weren't allowed to make
any changes to the design.00:03:27
Why exactly I'm not sure, if these were going
to be strictly South African ... military arms.00:03:33
But ... whatever the reason, that was the case.00:03:36
So the original South African
production R4s were,00:03:40
just like the imported guns,
exact copies of the Galil.00:03:43
Now in 1979 that licencing agreement ended,
and at that point South Africa started00:03:49
making actually a really large number of
mostly pretty small changes to the rifle.00:03:54
Just little tweaks to make it a little more exactly
what the South Africans were looking for.00:04:00
So there were a whole
bunch of those changes,00:04:03
and we'll go ahead and take a
look at them in just a moment.00:04:06
Just so you have an idea, the other guns
we're going to take a look at here after we00:04:12
take a look at the R4 in detail are going to
be the R5, which is a shortened version.00:04:17
And the R6, which is a
shortened, shortened version.00:04:20
And the LM4, 5, and 6, which are
the civilian semi-automatic versions00:04:26
of these rifles that were sold on the
South African commercial market.00:04:29
So, without further ado, let's take a
look at what ... the South Africans00:04:33
changed to turn the Galil into the R4.00:04:36
Alright, so we have a standard
South African R4 here on the bottom,00:04:42
and we have a Galil SAR here on the top.00:04:45
Now, this isn't quite the perfect comparison
because this is the short-barrelled version,00:04:49
this is the Israeli equivalent of
the R5 and this is the standard.00:04:53
This is the equivalent of the
Galil AR, this is the Galil SAR.00:04:56
But these only really differ in overall length,00:05:01
so we can use this to show you
the ... original Israeli features,00:05:05
and this guy the South African changes.00:05:08
So the first one we're going to take a look
at is the front sight, and the front sight hood.00:05:12
The original Israeli guns have
a narrow front sight hood.00:05:17
On the R4 they opted to increase it substantially
in diameter, and actually thin it as well.00:05:23
And the reason was to basically
allow more light transmission through,00:05:27
you got a better sight picture that way.00:05:29
At the same time they also
took the front sight post00:05:32
and narrowed it significantly
compared to the original Israeli guns.00:05:37
That was partially done for
marksmanship reasons,00:05:40
like on the known distance training range,00:05:42
but that definitely gives
you a finer sight picture.00:05:46
It might be a little more difficult
to find that sight in low light,00:05:49
but it's going to let you shoot
more accurately in daylight.00:05:53
The South Africans also ...
strengthened the front sling swivel.00:05:58
This is a fairly subtle change, but00:06:00
you can see this goes just a piece
of wire straight into the gas block.00:06:04
And they added this angled reinforcing.00:06:07
They added a flange to the
end of the gas tube on the R4.00:06:12
You can see here the
Israeli guns don't have it.00:06:15
The purpose of this is to prevent the takedown
latch on the front handguard from coming loose.00:06:21
This can rotate up, but it can't rotate
all the way forward with that flange.00:06:26
Now, ... I guess they had trouble
with the handguard coming loose.00:06:30
It's not something I've ever
encountered on an AK, but00:06:33
that was apparently an issue,
and so they changed that.00:06:37
The South Africans kept the
integral bipods on the guns,00:06:41
but, when they were allowed to,
they got rid of the bayonet lugs.00:06:44
And in fact none of the ... R4s,
or R5s, or R6s, have bayonet lugs.00:06:50
They replaced the handguards
with a plastic style,00:06:54
the Israeli guns had
wooden handguards.00:06:57
And they got rid of the carry handles.00:07:00
So the Galil has a folding
carry ... handle on the front.00:07:03
These still actually have some of the cutouts
in the receiver and the other parts for them,00:07:07
but the carry handles were [dispensed] with.00:07:10
And apparently that was primarily to prevent
troops from carrying the rifle by the handle,00:07:15
which ... makes it very slow to get into action.00:07:18
They wanted guys to carry these by the
pistol grip so that they were much more00:07:21
ready to fight should they be ambushed,
or otherwise need the rifle.00:07:26
The Galils were made with this
integrated scope-mounting rail.00:07:30
And the South Africans got rid of that, replaced
it with just a lightening cut in the receiver.00:07:36
The Galil also had selector
markings with these hash mark lines00:07:40
to indicate the lever positions, like so.00:07:45
The South Africans replaced those with dots.00:07:48
Now we're getting into some kind
of inconsequential stuff here, but00:07:52
that is one of the specific
changes that was made.00:07:55
Another change of kind of
maybe minimal consequence was00:07:59
even the Galil has a spring retainer
tab that's longer than a standard AK,00:08:06
but on the R4 they lengthened it even more.00:08:09
And that was done for the use
of rifle grenades to ensure00:08:13
that the dust cover didn't pop off
under recoil from a rifle grenade.00:08:17
Now there are two changes left
that are much more substantial.00:08:21
One of them is the recoil buffer, which is not
in this rifle because this is the Israeli Galil.00:08:27
And there's just this open plug at
the back where the stock is attached.00:08:32
The South Africans took advantage
of that hole to put in a rubberised,00:08:37
or neoprene, or some sort of composite, slightly
squishy, material there to act as a recoil buffer.00:08:44
Now, when you're actually shooting this,
only the very top of that buffer is actually00:08:48
impacted by the back of
the bolt and the bolt carrier.00:08:50
So the buffer is held in place by
this stock-retention cross-pin.00:08:56
So after you've used the buffer for a
while and it's got really beat up at the top,00:09:01
you can then take it out, flip it over
180 degrees, and use the bottom.00:09:04
And if you go ahead and
drill it crosswise as well,00:09:08
you can use the 3 and 9 o'clock positions.00:09:11
And then you throw it out and
replace it with a brand new one.00:09:14
So that's a feature unique to the R4s.00:09:17
And lastly the stocks. So the stocks
that the Israelis made and the copies00:09:22
made by the South Africans are
metal, it's an aluminium stock.00:09:26
And it's of a relatively short length, well
actually, it's kind of a fairly normal length.00:09:33
What the South African Army
found is that it was too short00:09:35
for a lot of their soldiers,
for most of their soldiers.00:09:38
So Lyttleton Engineering developed
a new stock that was a bit longer.00:09:42
It is a plastic coated stock with
steel reinforcing on the inside,00:09:46
so it's got all the durability of the
original stocks, but it is longer.00:09:51
So apparently they originally planned to
do a couple of different lengths of these,00:09:54
but they ended up only making the
long one because it worked the best.00:09:58
So the thing to consider here is the South
African Army at this point was a segregated army.00:10:04
And the units that they were issuing these
brand-new, top of the line rifles to were00:10:08
all-white units of South Africans,00:10:11
a large percentage of whom were
descended from the Dutch Boers.00:10:15
And the Dutch are, statistically speaking,
the tallest population in Europe.00:10:19
So the South African Army
was kind of abnormally tall,00:10:24
and the longer stocks fit them a lot
better than the original Galil stocks.00:10:29
Now, after 1994 the South
African Army integrated,00:10:35
and has actually ended up going
back to the original pattern of stock00:10:39
because the integrated troops,
many of them are of Zulu descent.00:10:45
And the Zulu folks are typically shorter, and
the standard pattern stocks fit them better.00:10:50
So they now keep both stocks in service,00:10:54
and issue them out to
appropriate sized, height, people.00:10:59
So at this point you probably
are familiar with what an R4 is,00:11:03
but we'll go over the basics
just in case you're not.00:11:06
It is obviously a copy of the Galil, which is an
improved pattern of Kalashnikov style rifle.00:11:12
So the fire control group in this
rifle, the bolt, the bolt carrier,00:11:15
all of these are mechanically
identical to the Kalashnikov.00:11:19
They're not interchangeable
because the R4, like the Galil,00:11:22
is chambered for the 5.56 NATO cartridge.00:11:25
South Africa was not a member of NATO,00:11:28
but they were generally associated
with the western bloc of nations.00:11:31
And so it made sense that they would choose
a calibre in common with those countries.00:11:37
That facilitates military aid,
and all that sort of stuff.00:11:41
All of the R4s had folding stocks.00:11:44
This was one of the substantial
reasons that the rifle was adopted00:11:48
was to make it more compact for
armoured vehicles and aerial use.00:11:52
When the stock is folded like this, all you
have to do is pull it open in order to unfold it.00:12:00
It has a nice strong latch there,00:12:02
and in order to fold the stock you
have to push it down and then fold it in.00:12:07
It has a nose in, rock back style of magazine.00:12:10
With a Galil-style (because this is a copy
of the Galil), a Galil-style magazine release,00:12:15
that has a shield here in the front so you
don't accidentally hit the magazine release.00:12:19
You just grab it with your
hand, pull the magazine out.00:12:23
The standard magazines here are
35 rounds, not 30, a little bit more.00:12:29
South Africa did manufacture these.00:12:31
The Galil was also manufactured
with a 50 round magazine for00:12:36
improved use as a light support weapon.00:12:38
This is similar to why it
has a bipod built into it.00:12:41
Now South Africa never manufactured
its own 50 round magazines,00:12:45
but they did purchase them in
substantial quantity from Israel.00:12:49
And they did actually issue them as well.00:12:51
So during the Angolan War, 50 round
mags were issued one per soldier.00:12:55
And that was the magazine that
guys actually had in the gun00:12:59
when they were on patrol, with 35
round magazines in their web gear.00:13:03
In fact, if you look at the South African pattern
83 web gear, the battle jacket and the chest rig,00:13:08
there is no pouch on that that
can hold a 50 round magazine.00:13:11
Whether that was an oversight or deliberate
I don't know, but they only issued one per soldier.00:13:18
Then starting in 1981, Lyttleton Engineering
decided to work on developing a polymer magazine.00:13:24
Something that would be a little bit
lightweight, less expensive to make.00:13:27
They ... took several iterations to get it right,00:13:31
but they did end up with a 35 round polymer
magazine and these were widely issued.00:13:35
And continue to be widely used in South Africa
by everyone who's using R4, R5, and R6 rifles.00:13:44
The bolt handle on the R4 is bent vertically up.00:13:48
This in theory allows ambidextrous
operation over the top of the rifle.00:13:52
I don't know how realistic that is.00:13:55
In my experience, ... I'm left-handed,
so it's easy for me to use as is.00:13:59
But I've seen a lot of people
who continue to roll the gun00:14:02
over the top or over the bottom
to use that charging handle.00:14:06
The R4 has an integral, permanently
attached, bipod. Legs fold down.00:14:15
And this allows the gun to be a little more
stable shooting from the prone position,00:14:19
using it in full-auto as a support
weapon, that sort of thing.00:14:24
They are also equipped with grenade
launcher capable muzzle devices.00:14:29
It's a flash hider there with this
tensioning spring for rifle grenades.00:14:34
They do also make a special 12 round
magazine that is blocked at the front,00:14:38
so that it can only hold crimped, no projectile,
grenade-launching blank cartridges.00:14:45
So of course one of the primary
benefits, or improvements, of00:14:49
the R4 and the Galil pattern
rifles over the standard AR00:14:52
is the ... relocation of the rear sight
to the rear of the receiver cover,00:14:58
and the use of an aperture
sight instead of an open notch.00:15:02
Now ... there are two apertures here,
there's a 300 metre and a 500 metre.00:15:07
Just flip through. However, if you notice,00:15:10
there's also a third detent
position right in the middle.00:15:14
Now this is, I believe, intended for
use with the flip-up night sights,00:15:19
which are just a big open notch
to allow plenty of light through.00:15:22
However in practice, both military
and competition practice today,00:15:28
guys actually for very close range shooting
will leave the sight in this middle position,00:15:32
and use these two protective
wings, along with ...00:15:36
the front sight hood as a very gross,
very close range, very fast, sight.00:15:43
Now when you're not doing that, you have a
nice narrow post as we already talked about.00:15:48
And should you actually
want to use the night sights,00:15:50
you have a flip-up
front night sight as well.00:15:55
The selector of course is on the left side of
the rifle ... in the form of a thumb selector,00:16:01
as well as the big
safety lever on the right. ...00:16:08
The bipod on the rifle was also specifically
designed to function as a wire cutter.00:16:12
So you can hook a strand of wire in there,00:16:14
and then you just pop the bipod down
like that, and it will shear the wire off.00:16:19
More importantly, this
functions as a bottle opener.00:16:22
So you can put a bottle cap
in there and pop it off nicely.00:16:26
In South African military service the rifle's serial
number is located on the bottom of the barrel,00:16:32
which you can see through
the bottom of the handguard.00:16:34
And ... all of the R4s have
a "K" prefix serial number.00:16:39
Now you'll notice this has an A1 suffix.00:16:41
That indicates that it has been upgraded
with a modified and improved firing pin.00:16:47
There was really only one product
improvement that was made00:16:51
to the R4 during its military life, one fix.00:16:55
And it technically actually became the R4A1,
although no one ever really used that designation.00:17:00
Instead you only see it on the
serial numbers, like we just saw.00:17:03
Now the change is they went from
originally a free-floating firing pin00:17:07
to one with this rubber grommet,
and then later on to one with a spring.00:17:12
So the problem with the free-floating
firing pin was, as you might suspect,00:17:16
it would occasionally have enough
inertia when the bolt closed00:17:19
to run forward and detonate a primer.00:17:22
And so they did occasionally
get doubles and triples00:17:24
and runaway guns with
free-floating firing pins.00:17:28
What they did to solve this was00:17:31
to add a cross pin at the
back, and then a little ring,00:17:35
and then this ... almost a piece of
rubber tubing, a rubber grommet.00:17:40
In military service this was called an "effie".00:17:44
... A condom was called an "FL", or French letter,
and this was a little effie for your firing pin.00:17:51
And the idea here - they actually
started by trying springs,00:17:54
a spring-loaded firing
pin as one might expect.00:17:57
The problem was they found
that the springs wore out quickly,00:18:00
and it ... didn't work effectively.00:18:04
So instead they went to this rubber
grommet, and that acts as a cushion,00:18:08
much like a firing pin, so it absorbs the
energy when the bolt slams forward.00:18:12
The problem with the rubber
grommet was that it reacted with oil,00:18:16
and over time it would degrade
and become very hard.00:18:19
And then it actually produced
a worse problem,00:18:21
if it hardened too much you could
get the firing pin actually stuck00:18:24
in the forward position, which
would really cause a runaway gun.00:18:28
So eventually they went
back to the springs.00:18:32
And I guess just kind of accepted
the potential spring weakening,00:18:37
and the loss of ability to have
... reliable full-auto fire.00:18:41
Especially in the civilian market,
that's not a problem at all,00:18:44
full-auto civilian guns are
very rare in South Africa, so.00:18:49
Anyway, pretty cool to actually find
one that has the grommet setup in it,00:18:53
as well as one that
hasn't been modified at all.00:18:56
Now we can move on to the next
variant of the gun, and that is the R5.00:19:01
So in 1984 this was adopted, and it
is basically a copy of the Galil SAR.00:19:07
The Israelis had decided that
they wanted a shorter rifle,00:19:11
... more compact for specialised troops
who really had a particular need for that.00:19:16
The South Africans shared
the exact same desire.00:19:19
And so they came up with a shorter barrel.00:19:22
... In fact, from here back the gun
is identical to a standard Galil.00:19:27
What they did is shorten the barrel, shorten
the gas tube, shorten the gas piston inside,00:19:32
and, presto, you've got a new gun!00:19:34
Now, the gas block is the
same as the standard rifle.00:19:38
The muzzle device is slightly different.00:19:41
The R5 (and the R6 for that matter) muzzle devices
have this increased diameter ridge on them.00:19:48
And that prevents you from
putting a rifle grenade on,00:19:50
because these guns are not
intended to fire rifle grenades.00:19:54
Unlike the R4, they don't have
bipods on the gas blocks.00:19:59
And unlike the Galil SARs, they
don't have bayonet lugs either.00:20:03
In addition all of these are
"C" prefix guns, the R5s.00:20:10
And beyond that, they maintain all the
basic elements of the South African pattern.00:20:16
So, front sight hoods and that sort of thing.00:20:18
Notice that the gas tube, the flanged
section is much longer on this00:20:24
than it was on the standard ... R4.00:20:26
And ... honestly, that's pretty much it00:20:30
for the changes made on the R5.00:20:33
These were issued out specifically to
reconnaissance troops, paratroops,00:20:37
and the tank and armoured car units.00:20:41
The guys who ... were operating
in cramped conditions,00:20:44
and ... had a justifiable
need for a shorter rifle.00:20:47
In addition these were also adopted
by the South African Police in 1991.00:20:53
Prior to that they'd all been
using folding stock FAL rifles, so.00:20:57
I should say the actual barrel length
on these is 13 inches, or 332mm,00:21:02
as compared to 460mm, or
18.1 inches, on the original R4s.00:21:09
So a substantial shortening in the barrel.00:21:12
Next there is one shorter
version, and that's the R6.00:21:16
The R6 is actually a
bit of a misnomer,00:21:18
because while it was originally
produced for a military contract00:21:22
and the guns were all made in
full-auto, the contract fell through.00:21:25
And it's not entirely clear if it was
a South African Army contract00:21:29
or it was a foreign military contract.00:21:31
But they contracted with
someone, it fell apart,00:21:34
and they ended up converting
the R6 guns to semi-auto00:21:37
and selling them on the civilian market.00:21:39
So all the R6s you find, ... they
are all built on full-auto receivers00:21:44
but they've been converted to semi-auto.00:21:46
Now, ... before they were sold as civilian guns,00:21:50
they were actually offered to all the
same people who had purchased the R5.00:21:54
But all of those organisations,
agencies, and military branches00:21:58
were quite happy with the R5.00:22:00
The R6 only shortens the barrel
by two inches from the R5,00:22:04
so this is an 11 inch barrel, that's 280mm.00:22:08
And again, same sort of changes: they
shortened the gas tube, shortened the barrel,00:22:13
shortened the piston inside, and that's it.00:22:16
The gas block is the same
as on all of the other rifles.00:22:20
These have "L" prefix serial numbers.00:22:25
And beyond that, there's not a whole lot else
unique about the R6 compared to the R5,00:22:30
it's just a little bit shorter.00:22:33
Next up we're going to take a quick
diversion over to the "LM" series of rifles,00:22:38
that stands for Lyttleton Musgrave.00:22:41
Now Lyttleton Engineering Works
was the government contractor00:22:44
that manufactured these guns
for the South African military.00:22:47
And they were legally prohibited
from selling to the civilian market,00:22:50
they weren't a commercial company.00:22:52
However, they recognised that there was a definite
demand for these guns on the civilian market,00:22:58
especially farmers in rural areas were
very interested in firearms for self-defence.00:23:06
And there's a long shooting
culture in South Africa.00:23:09
So some of the guys at Lyttleton
approached the Musgrave Company,00:23:13
which was really the premier
firearms manufacturing00:23:16
and retailing company in
South Africa at the time.00:23:19
And they basically came to an arrangement
where Lyttleton would supply guns to Musgrave,00:23:23
and Musgrave would act
as their retailer or reseller.00:23:27
So from ... 1983 until 1998, ... LM4 rifles
were available on the civilian market.00:23:36
And this is effectively completely identical
to the R4 military rifle, just in semi-automatic.00:23:43
All the parts are interchangeable, that made it
very efficient for Lyttleton to manufacture them.00:23:49
And they ended up with actually four
different types of receivers on the LM4 rifles,00:23:54
and that's what we have showing here.00:23:55
So the way these differ are based on the
number of selector positions that they have,00:24:00
and whether or not they have the
pin hole drilled for the auto-sear.00:24:05
So, we have a version with 3 selector
settings: safe, semi and full, but only 2 pins.00:24:12
We have a version with 2 selector settings,
only semi-auto and safe, but all 3 pins drilled.00:24:19
And in this case what they did is modify the
auto-sear so that it doesn't actually do anything.00:24:24
We have a version that has all
3 selector settings and all 3 pins.00:24:29
And again in this case they would
have modified the selector lever00:24:32
and/or the auto-sear so that
it only fires in semi-auto.00:24:35
And then we have a version
that is actually a Galil receiver.00:24:39
So you'll notice this has
3 selector settings, 3 pins,00:24:42
but it also has the scope
cutout from the Galil receivers.00:24:47
... Now the reason that any of these
Galil receiver examples exist is because00:24:53
while Israel had originally
supplied rifles to South Africa,00:24:58
by the mid-1990s the situation
had actually turned around00:25:01
and Lyttleton was exporting
rifles to Israel for the IDF.00:25:05
So they manufactured
guns to the Israeli pattern.00:25:08
However in 1994 when the new
government was elected in South Africa,00:25:12
they were much less friendly to
Israel than the previous government.00:25:17
And there was a final batch of
R4/Galil rifles that was awaiting export,00:25:24
and the new government
denied that export00:25:26
and the guns ended up
staying in South Africa.00:25:28
So, looking at what to do with all of
these full-auto Galil pattern rifles,00:25:34
Lyttleton decided to simply convert them to
semi-auto and sell them on the civilian market.00:25:39
And so that's what we have here.00:25:41
Now during this time period ... ultimately
all of the small arms production at Lyttleton00:25:49
slowly was moving into
the Vektor brand name,00:25:52
and under the control of the
Vektor subsidiary company.00:25:57
And by 1998 most of the small
arms were being made by Vektor.00:26:01
And in '98 that all shut down.00:26:04
... This whole conglomerate
was a government-owned entity,00:26:08
Vektor became ... Denel Land Systems,
and all small arms production was stopped.00:26:15
So, eventually in 2008 the remaining parts
from the R4, LM4, all of this rifle production,00:26:23
the remaining parts were sold
to a company called Nobleteq.00:26:26
And they went ahead manufacturing guns as
they could from this stock of existing parts.00:26:32
They didn't have any barrels, so they
actually imported Galil barrels from Israel,00:26:36
and put together guns. And this
is an example of a Nobleteq gun.00:26:40
And here in South Africa these
have a relatively poor reputation.00:26:44
Anyone who's really seriously looking for
an R4 or an LM4, well, looking for an LM4,00:26:49
you really want to get a
Vektor manufactured one.00:26:53
The finish is much better and just
the general quality of the assembly.00:26:58
They are kind of subtle things, but for example,
the roll pin holding the stock in place00:27:02
isn't flush with the receiver, it's sticking out.00:27:05
Little stuff like that, just the attention to
detail was lacking on the Nobleteq guns.00:27:10
One other really interesting,
unique, element is Nobleteq00:27:15
bought an entire supply of
selector levers marked "Single Shot"00:27:19
which have been modified on the inside so
that they only allow semi-automatic function.00:27:23
And these were originally
manufactured for the elections,00:27:27
the ... security services who were monitoring
polling places during the 1994 election.00:27:34
The agreement in place for
that election stipulated that00:27:38
there would be no machine guns used
by troops involved with the election.00:27:43
So they converted all of the rifles
for the National Peacekeeping Force00:27:47
to semi-auto using these selector
switches marked "Single Shot".00:27:50
When Nobleteq bought out
the whole stockpile of parts,00:27:54
they ended up with all of these
things, because after the elections00:27:57
the guns were swapped back
to their original selector levers.00:28:01
And so the Nobleteq guns are semi-automatic
... by virtue of these single-shot selector levers.00:28:08
With all of the LM4s, while the parts
were identical to the military parts,00:28:14
there are a few bits, primarily
here the night sights,00:28:17
that were actually considered an optional
accessory. So you didn't have to actually get them.00:28:22
And ... if you find guns like this one
that don't have the night sights installed,00:28:27
that doesn't mean that they were
removed, it most likely means00:28:29
that the original purchaser of
the gun opted not to have them.00:28:33
The front sight here
doesn't have one as well.00:28:37
In fact you can actually distinguish Nobleteq
guns because, since they use Israeli barrels,00:28:43
there's a little bit more of a barrel step right here
than there is on the African produced barrels.00:28:48
Some of these rifles were actually made
on dedicated civilian semi-auto receivers,00:28:53
and those will actually be marked either LM4
or LM5 depending on the model of the rifle.00:28:58
And that's the marking here.00:29:00
There is no corresponding
military marking in this location.00:29:03
On the military receivers the
trunnion area here is just blank.00:29:07
But this logo is the Lyttleton Engineering logo,
and then LM5 in this case, calibre 5.56.00:29:15
And the LM5 rifles were manufactured from
1985, when the gun was adopted by the military,00:29:21
until '98 when all small
arms production ceased.00:29:24
The LM6 guns are all military
receivers, because of their origins,00:29:29
and those were made from 1991 until 1998
when all small arms development ceased.00:29:37
Alright, and we will close this out
with what I think is the coolest00:29:42
setup of South African military rifle.00:29:45
And that is right here, we have an R5.00:29:48
13 inch barrel, very handy,
folding stock, super cool.00:29:52
It's got a set of coupled magazines with it.00:29:56
This was an official South African magazine
coupling pattern, and actually really low profile.00:30:01
They've got these cloth straps
with spacers in between.00:30:05
It should actually only have two of the
spacers, this one's been set up with three.00:30:09
But a couple of magazines, and
then this is the official R4/R5 sling.00:30:17
When the South African
military was using the FAL00:30:20
this pattern of sling was used
on the MAG 58 machine gun,00:30:24
and the FAL had a much thinner
sling, about half the width.00:30:27
And guys really liked this wide pattern
of sling, so when they adopted the Galil,00:30:32
the R4 and R5, they adopted this sling with it.00:30:35
And I think that's a really good idea, it
would be much more comfortable to carry.00:30:39
So there you go, the super cool
R5, jungle mag, sling setup.00:30:50
So we have a little bit of an extra cool treat
here, we have an Armson red dot scope.00:30:55
And this is actually South
African military issue.00:30:58
I don't think they actually
used it on the R4, R5, R6 series.00:31:02
However they did absolutely use these
on the R1s, the South African FAL.00:31:07
And also on their 40mm grenade
launchers, so this is kind of cool.00:31:11
I've worked with one of
these of the American pattern,00:31:14
what they used in Vietnam
for very brief reasons.00:31:19
This one's a little different in
that it has a very small red dot00:31:23
instead of a very large white dot.00:31:24
So we're going to try a little bit of
shooting with that and see how it is.00:31:29
OK, we're going to do a
lot of shooting with that.00:31:42
That's zeroed like perfectly.00:31:57
That's a pretty slick optic for a full-auto.
Now it's surely not the most modern,00:32:02
and the South African Army
doesn't use this any more.00:32:05
But you could do a lot worse than that thing.00:32:08
Thank you guys for watching. If you're still
here, boy, you are quite a dedicated viewer.00:32:13
Hopefully you learned quite a lot about the
South African Galil, the R4s through R6s.00:32:19
It was very cool to be able
to get this extensive of a set,00:32:24
a collection of these rifles
available to show to you.00:32:28
Of course, this sort of thing
is only possible because00:32:30
I was able to find these
guns in South Africa.00:32:33
So it is thanks to you, the viewers,
directly supporting the channel00:32:36
that it's possible for me to travel
and bring these guns to you.00:32:38
So if you enjoy seeing this sort of
content, please do consider signing up,00:32:42
either on the website or through Patreon
below to help support the channel.00:32:47
Thanks very much for watching.Description:
https://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons When South Africa decided to replace the R1 rifle (a metric FAL), they chose to adopt the Israeli Galil. Both nations had similar environmental issues with blowing sand (in northwestern South Africa particularly), and Israel was one of the few nations willing to trade arms with South Africa in the 1970s. The Galil ARM was adopted as the R4 rifle, with the initial batch of guns purchased directly from IMI, and a licensing agreement put in place to follow those up with domestic South African production. These would be followed later by the R5 carbine, and the abortive attempt at the R6 carbine. In addition, semiautomatic copies of these rifles were also available on the civilian market at the LM-4, LM-5, and LM-6. Today we will look at the differences between the South African and Israeli guns, the changes made through production, and the variation in the different types. Everything you wanted to know about the South African Galils!
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