Sadly, I didn’t grow up poring over history books related to firearms. I was more of an aviation buff, so the significance of historical guns has been lost on me. I appreciate the mechanical function of older guns, but I’m a bit of a Johnny-come-lately to the world of old guns. Chances are that if you show me a cool old gun, I’ll subtly be Googling it on my phone while we talk. Given that, my apologies to the folks at Hill & Mac for looking distracted while you were speaking. I just had to familiarize myself with the StG 44 . . .
If, like me, you aren’t familiar with the StG 44, all you really need to know its’ the reason the term “assault rifle” was coined and it was the first large scale battlefield usage of a mid power caliber in a machine gun. In this case, the 7.92x33mm Kurz.
At the time, ze Germans were fielding the 8mm Mauser (7.92×57 mm) in their battle rifles. The StG allowed troops to effectively lay down automatic fire within the confines of ~300 meters in a handy, maneuverable package. Soon thereafter, the Russkies debuted the 7.62×39 powered AK-47 which followed a similar concept by having a shorter, weaker round than the comparatively large battle rifle of the time (7.62 x 54R) in a lightweight machine gun.
Sensing that consumers might very well want to own to own an StG, but don’t find themselves with many, many thousands of dollars burning a hole in their pocket, Hill & Mac has come out with a full powered reproduction available in four loadings. As you’d expect, you can get one in 7.92×33, but 7.62×39, .223, and .300 BLK are also available.
The STG utilizes a long stroke piston operated tilting bolt and feeds from STANAG magazines according to the one pager sitting in my grubby little hands. Furthermore, it uses HK style trigger packs and comes with the barrel threaded for your favorite muzzle brake or silencer. The rep at the Hill & Mac booth indicates that this gun is quite pleasant with a can on the end.
The STG comes in a sixteen-inch barrel configuration with a fixed beech stock termed the STG-N that weighs in at a touch over 11.5 lbs and carries a MSRP of $1799. The thirteen-inch barrel version with no stock — technically a pistol — is termed the STG-P and will set you back $1799 as well. The NFA version, with the short barrel and the fixed wood stock is the STG-K model and it costs $1959.
At the moment, Hill & Mac is targeting a ship date in the June/July 2016 neighborhood. Conversion kits are “coming soon” as well, so you can swap between calibers with one rifle. No price set for those yet.