Heckler & Koch’s Gray Room, Part I

Residing in Ashburn, VA, at the U.S. home of Heckler & Koch (H&K) is The Gray Room, a hidden gem brimming with prototypes and rare examples of H&K’s manufacturing expertise and American Rifleman got a first-hand inside-look. Watch our American Rifleman TV video above to learn about Heckler & Koch’s Gray Room and the designs that established the German-based firearm manufacturer.

Rooted in Oberndorf, Germany, H&K has built a world-wide reputation for its design and manufacturing capability.

Edmund Heckler, Theodor Koch and Alex Seidel, all former Mauser engineers, started in the late 1940s what would become today’s Heckler & Koch. The newly-formed Germany engineering firm quickly morphed from a manufacturer of bicycles, machine tools and sewing machine parts to a firearm builder following an official West German request to product a new rifle for its Army's infantry.

What the Bundeswehr received from the fledgling company is known as the G3, a semi-automatic rifle with Spanish CETME roots that operates via short-recoil operation by way of a roller-locking mechanism. This new and innovative mechanism paved the way for H&K and the success it has earned over its 70+ years of manufacturing history.

Follow along with American Rifleman’s Joe Kurtenbach and his visit with Heckler & Koch’s Gray Room to learn more about the company’s manufacturing history.

For more on firearms and shooting content, please visit https://www.americanrifleman.org/

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