Quote:
Originally Posted by Giligan
I see. Still a nice firearm, though. I've always been a fan of the Galil, in asthetic terms. Supposed to be a pretty good assault rifle otherwise, too, except it isn't quite as robust as the Kalashnikov, its competion in that region of the world.
I target shoot with mine; I'm not into hunting at all. And I certainly don't have the funds to collect. If I did, I'd have a Martini-Henry and a Garand. 
Most people just collect, though. We gun owners love our steel and polymer babies in a way that would put car owner and hot-rod relationships to shame. |
The Galil was developed as the FAL did not seem to function well in fully automatic in the 6 day war or yom kippur war in Israel, it was also quite heavy. This led to the Israelis developing the Galil which was based of the Finnish Rk62. The Rk62 is based off the AK47, the Israeli variant which featured milled receiver was designed to take the best features from the M16 and the AK47. It took the .223 bullet which was lightweight and more capacity, it took the design and durability of the ak47 and it had better sights which made it quite a bit more accurate than the AK47. The Galil is quite heavy due to being milled rather than stamped. Overall it's a solid rifle though expensive. It was exported to several South American countrys (infact Colombia is the only country with a license now to produce the Galil). You will see them in Chile, Guatemala, Colombia and a few other South American countries. It was also exported to South Africa during Apartheid due to the European embargo. The South African version is still in use and is called the R4 there. Estonia uses the Galil and I have heard Serbia has their own version, i've also seen them in Portugal. There are a few other nations that use it like Tonga, Micronesia, Phillipines, etc.
Overall it's pretty similar to the AK47 in appearance except that the receiver is tilted upwards near the barrel which gives it a different cosmetic look. Charging handle is pointed up to use both hands, has a folding stock which most AK's use underfolders and full, different sights, different gas block, different handguards, different magazines. Esentially I wouldn't really consider it an AK47 clone at all, while it is based off the system it is quite different in many respects.
