Heckler & Koch pistols and German beer. What’s wrong with that? Nothing unless you drink the beer and shoot the pistols. And maybe not even then, depending on the amount of beer and your weight and alcohol tolerance and safety protocols and who am I kidding? There’s no way a gun blog can recommend, condone or promote drinking and shooting. You’d think the same rule would apply to Heckler & Koch. But, as we all know, the Germans have a different sense of humor than the rest of us. H&K fanboy Mark S. provided the pic posted on the gunmaker’s Facebook page. And there it is. So . . . das ist ein witz, yah?  FWIW, it’s an H&K branded stein. [h/t A-RA]
I have absolutely zero problem with that photo. Zero. If there’s a number less than that, then I’m that, too.
By extension, I have zero problem with what it represents. Know your limits, be an adult. If you don’t know your limits, don’t carry.
Agreed.
Moral supremacists, feel free to write below:
Indeed
+1000
+1000 – Most germans grow up drinking, so most beer has little/no effect on them at all due to their higher alcohol tolerances. Regardless, know your limits and don’t carry if you plan on getting drunk. If somebody grabs a beer with dinner after work, are they drunk? I am not advocating going bar crawling while carrying, but as long as your are 100% within your limits, I don’t see a problem. I guess you are going to have to arrest everybody who has one beer during celebrations/birthday parties with that attitude.
I know I have a low tolerance for alcohol- so if I am going to drink, I don’t carry.
If someone else can, great for them. If they are obviously unsafe- slurred speech, unsteady, etc, ill approach them if I know them and suggest they not continue carrying and/or drinking.
If I don’t know them I GTFO.
German: agreed
now where can I get one of those mugs?
Yes. The mug looks cool. I have one of their pens. Given to me by a good friend many moons ago. It’s made of .308 brass and says ‘made in West Germany’
I have no issue with going shooting and then having a beer afterwards.
Except that it appears to be crappy, non-German beer. I demand better head than that.
Ska-doosh???
“…. the Germans have a different sense of humor than the rest of us.”
More like…
“…. the Germans have a different sense of responsibility and personal accountability than most of the rest of us.”
Not to mention their genetic disposition to perfection.
Zero issue with that picture. Did HK post it on their Facebook picture or was it a fan photo? Does it matter it? It shouldn’t. I agree with Matt in FL on this.
Ever seen the average German family drinking beer together? Out of 1-liter steins? Beer to them is not an alcoholic drink that you indulge in with your drunken buddies in soggy revelry. It is something you drink. Get over it.
It’s kind of like the VW sign & drive / sign then drive commercials. Shooting & drinking = bad. Shooting then drinking = excellent.
You’d have to be drunk to buy one of their guns let alone fire one.
Guess I was wasted the day I bought my P30 😛
Only polymer handgun I own.
Drunk to buy an HK? Why is that? Sure, they’re expensive relative to their contemporary guns, but the argument can be made that their price can be justified. And while a Glock can do what my HK can do (mostly), it just can’t look as good doing it.
And I guess I was absolutely schmammered when I picked up my USP Tactical.
You do realize that in most sane countries beer is considered a soft drink right?
yup…..especially when it is a german drinking american light beers. I still don’t drink them when I want to drink beer, it is just a carbonated beverage that is not sweet. then again, I don’t do funnels or kegstands either…..never understood or got into the get-wasted-ASAP mentality of american teens. then again, I bought my first bottle of vodka at the grocery store when I was 14yo, so I didn’t grow up with the laws that prohibited me from experimenting with alcohol. I would have been long done with “learning alcohol” before I would have gotten my license at 18(after weeks of intense training that cost as much as my first car. (I say would have been, as I left germany prior to that.)
but without public transit in the US, there is no way to switch to a system where you allow alcohol prior to allowing a drivers license.
^this
I only have one question…
Where can I get that stein?
I have a new invention:
It’s a dual chamber smart safe.
You put the beer, wine, or liquor in one side (with variable refrigeration, naturally).
Then you go shooting.
When you’re done, you place the gun in the other side.
The safe scans it, determines it’s the correct gun, then unlocks the libations.
It’s as simple as it is practical!
Bloomberg, is that you?
At least the magazines are loaded with the bullets facing forward…
You sir are obviously not a manly Teutonic operator to understand the value of loading bullets backwards into your magazine.
What the heck happened to that magazine though? It looks like it was sanded down, rubbed with dirt, and baked in an oven.
Thats a translucent polymer 18 round 9mm mag for the USP with the Jet Funnel.
http://www.hkparts.net/shop/pc/HK-USP-9mm-18-Round-Jet-Funnel-Magazine-199p317.htm
Edit: It appears that particular USP is 9mm Combat Competition awesomeness based on the Novak sites and LEM/Match trigger hybrid. The Jet Funnel kit was part of the CC package.
The non-fail ammo loading was the first thing I noticed in this pic. Probably makes me some kind of nerd. I just wish HK loved us…
Check out some Swiss gun ranges some time. You can buy and consume wine there. And they take their shooting seriously. And they have effectively zero injuries at the range.
So you’ve never been to a PA gun club. Nearly every club here has a bar and most will let you drink while shooting the sunday morning trap shoots. Bonus points if you can tell me why the trap shoots are on a sunday and not a saturday.
Because you can’t hunt on Sunday in PA.
I understand that consuming large quantities of beer was routine during shooting back in the old Schutzen (off-hand, rifle competition) days. And when they were going to attack the Russians. I’m pretty sure alcohol was routine in those situations.
Guys to Germans you drink Jaegermeister to help with indigestion, Brandy to help with a cold, and Beer because too many fish fuck in the water thus water is unsanitary until it is turned into beer. I swear if they could get away with it they would rig every house in the land so that Beer flows from the faucets instead of water.
Ding Ding WINNER Here.
if you learn your limits at the same pace as you learn your native language, there really is not much of an issue. as they are just responsible human beings.
prohibition and the whole anti movements from churches and .gov made it into something else. so that many ppl feel they can only have the choice to preload, get wasted and write off the day as one that they didnt follow their conviction.
Alcohol was never a point of contention in germany. You could drink in high school if you wanted to but as there was not real excitement about it. Kids didn’t do it, they just drank when going out and had means to take the subway/bus home.
As buses ran 24/7, nobody bothered to drive drunk. why drink and drive when you can sit on a bus and sip on a drink while getting home in maybe 30 mins vs 20.
More importantly where can you get an HK beer mug? I know they hate us but I still want their stuff!!!
To me it’s all about German engineering, not the alcohol content.
H&K pistols and a Bavarian bock beer.
Qualität
Who says you can’t drink the beer after your done shooting ?
And yet the beer and the guns are both overrated by Americans who are all to willing to pay a premium for a logo.
Well played Sir.
Elected to have a Jack & coke about 5:30 today. Figured I might have a second, too (third?) – so took off the Crossbreed holster and it’s resident Glock 23. Figured I’d put a bit of separation between my carry weapon and my bourbon influenced self. Just sayin’….
So many reasonable comments about that picture. I am impressed.
A refreshing change to the usual firearms forum horror and smug, self-serving indignation whenever alcohol and guns are mentioned in the same paragraph.
As far as I’m concerned, drink whatever you like and go shooting if that’s what you want to do. You are responsible for your own actions.
Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!
I couldn’t have put it better myself.
I don’t touch firearms after or while having a beer…mostly because I never have just one !
Beer is for children. Real men drink bourbon and Hoppe’s.
If you throw some nice kerosene in, you can serve it on fire…
Sounds like something they inject in Novosibirsk.
As Ret Army and 16 yrs in Germany and a hard headed German wife. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm GERMAN BEER !!!
Would have been a better laugh if they’d had the bullets loaded backwards
Well other than the fact that its illegal for me to drink and carry in my state, or be within 10 feet of a bar with a gun, no I don’t care. I hate beer and I don’t like German guns. I like my alcohol to start at 80 proof, not 2.5.
I don’t drink, so no worries for me.
That said, I don’t condone alcohol and firearms, unless ATF becomes a chain of stores~
Beer after shooting,not a bad idea,beer before or during shooting a bad idea.Don’t care for H&K firearms too over priced,not really any better than other leading firearms,just have that German arrogance going on about them.Be prepared and ready.Keep your powder dry.
“not really any better than other leading firearms”
lol, no.
That stein is available to the public at a cost of $699. You know, German Engineering and Superior Materials and all that.
We all need to lighten up a bit, I mean, it’s not like beer or alcohol companies are sponsoring sports car racing.
I was recently at a shooting range in the German speaking part of Europe. I did some exercises at the range, checked out some cool guns in the gunstore, then had a beer at the range bar. Perfectly normal.
“Drink this glass of our urine and then you may look at some of our guns. Was ist das? No, of course you can’t buy them, because you suck and we hate you.”
Wait, this isn’t a photo caption contest is it?
See, this is why I can never win.
On to drinking and guns:
It’s entirely about personal responsibility. If you know that having a couple tends to lead you to more don’t drink and carry. If you know that even a couple tend to alter your thinking, don’t drink and carry. If you just plan to drink much don’t carry, but please folks, lets not make a couple of beers (or a cocktail or a glass of wine) such a major issue. Driving a car is far harder than shooting a gun so the same sort of rules ought to apply. There really is room for nuanced thinking here.
I like everything but the price from those pistols.
Thats funny I just so happen to own one of them….may have been a gift at shotshow for the lucky chosen……
Just FYI…the guy who posted the photo originally is now really griping up a storm over on the HK PRO forum about how it was used by TTAG and others, etc.
Here is what he said in his comment:
http://www.hkpro.com/forum/hk-talk/193422-my-picture-submission-heckler-koch-s-page-need-vent.html#post1451367
Well last October I decided to send a picture to HK’s facebook page and after over 4k likes it was pulled. I am the original poster of this image and am kinda annoyed that others are posting it and just wanted to vent after letting some time fly. I messaged HK (have originals and convos saved on hand) and my picture was pulled due to this article.
Incendiary Image of the Day: German Guns, German Beer Edition | The Truth About Guns
Not only was this article slanderous but TTAG had the audacity to post a link to my personal Facebook page as well. It wasn’t until I e-mailed Matt from TTAG did they remove the link. Thank goodness no radical moral police people PM’d me or spammed my page.
HK still hasn’t mailed me the shirt and I have a feeling they blacklisted me because I sent other pictures for their social page (alcohol free) and have not gotten any responses. I’m a bit frustrated that this happened and is ruining my brand loyalty, especially when people are asking about the stein.
Here are a couple facts about the picture before people reply:
1: It is a German beer in the HK stein unfortunately the foam head had disappeared by the time I got the lighting and angles right.
2: I was not intoxicated when I took the picture. Most comments about that are purely speculation, I’m not exactly drinking a 40 and holding my USP CC gangsta style facing the camera.
3: I’ll be more than happy to back up my claims including having the original proof on hand, emails, and FB messages.
4: I’m bummed that moral supremacists ruined this for me.
5: I understand firearm safety and the stein is only relevant because it is an HK branded stein given to me by a friend.
6: This is a static picture but safe picture.
7: The bullets are facing the right direction in the magazine 🙂
8: I want to vent because I’m a little bummed about the situation
I know its New Years but I just wanted to vent and let this out. I wonder what each of you has to say about this situation. Also I love the TTAG comments.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Just another feeble minded attempt to make fun of HK after some thorough Facebook research. Too bad you didn’t even look deep enough to find out it wasn’t even HK’s picture.
Gotta love this great, holier than thou journalism. Is this a CNN website?
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