The HK416D is the ultimate in the cool guy kit. I have been issued one for two years now. I was dead set against the 416 when we were looking. I was on the selection committee, and shooting the carbine was what won me over. The gun has a very repeatable sight return. At 10 yards, shooting at a pace of 1 shot per second, the dot tracks straight up and down in a 3×5 card. Which makes rapid follow up shots out to 100 yards ridiculously fast. Policy allows for a little customization. My rifle is set up stock with a few exceptions. I replaced the HK pistol grip with a Bravo Company Gunfighter grip. I added a set of flip up Magpul sights, a Magpul vertical foregrip, and an Aimpoint T1. The gun started life with a Haley Strategic Thorntail Mount, and a 600 lumen Streamlight. But, after a failure with the light, it was removed and replaced with a Surefire Fury I had laying around. After a lot of research, I purchased a Surefire Scout light and installed it with a S and S Precision mount.
Reliability- Reliability has been as good as you’d expect from an HK product. The gun hasn’t been abused, but it lives a pretty hard life. I have shot a LOT of XM193 through it without a hiccup. I’ve used both GI style metal mags, manufactured by D&H, and the latest generation Magpul mags. Both have worked without issue. Cleaning is a breeze, as with any piston gun. After heavy firing, I simply remove the bolt, run a brush over it, wipe it down and reassemble. There is no heavy carbon build up that you get with DI guns. I clean the chamber, punch the bore and reassemble. I lube the 416 much lighter than I do my personal DI guns.
The one word of warning I will give any agency thinking of buying 10.5 inch guns. Across all of our guns, we’ve noticed a POA/POI shift between different bullet manufacturers. Our duty ammunition is the Federal T1. When we zero the rifles at 50 yards with the T1, our practice ammunition (Federal XM193) prints 2-3 inches low at that distance. It’s not a huge deal, but it will cause you to scratch your head switching when you switch back and forth between the two.
All in all, for a guy that did not want the 416D, I’m pleased.
Well I am glad you are happy with you HK416D. I have ran them for almost 5 years and was over all displeased. I saw several flaws with the weapon over all and with my 21 years serving in SOF I have to say that my Colt M4A1 was far more pleasing and better serving than my HK. While there is no arguing that the 416D is a fine weapon it is over priced, over complicated( the bolt carrier is a perfect example), recoils harder(not that 5.56 is know for recoil), heavier than needed (this becomes apparent when you add all your equipment to it), eats itself (carrier tilt, but I have heard this has been rectified), comes with terrible iron sights, and has had many magazine issues. At least we had them. While I am not arguing against the rifle I simply pointing out that there are other rifles that just seem to do the job better for far less. Not to mention as an 18B I am not a strong supporter of piston driven rifles for a platform that Mr. Stoner ment to be DI. Yes DI is dirtier but again my 21 years of using the M4/M16 platform from snow and ice to desert or for that matter in the ocean and with wet sand as well I have never had any issues out side of normal wear and tear that comes form a lot of shooting and use. In closing I again do not want to sound like a negative guy but there is a lot of performance that can be had cheaper and is 100 percent compatible with the rest of the AR market. Thank you for you time brothers.
Just out of curiosity are the positive recoil characteristics because of it’s particular piston system, or that it’s a piggy? Or both?
I got a little time on a MR556 SBR and the only differences I felt to my DI SBR seems like the noticeable weight difference, but I don’t know “know”.
They’ve always been attractive guns though.
I really like the 416 we have a post sample at the shop I work at since we deal with a lot of Local Law Enforcement agencies. My one big knock against it is weight it is considerably heavier than DI guns and noticeably heavier against most of its piston gun counter parts. Another thing is that the 416 seems to have a much more noticable ROF increase when you put a can on it versus other other guns and can cause feeding problems with some magazines like the Troy battle mag.
I am trying to convince my agency to switch from 16″ barrel rifles to something shorter. But the guy overallin charge keeps saying; “we’d lose so much velocity though from the round.” We run Federal 55gr for both training and practice. We are not making snipers hits with our patrol rifles. Is this really that big a deal or is my guy just reluctant to change?