The "F" setting in danish would be refered to as "Fuldautomatisk"("fully automatic") or among soldiers "Frås"("splurge") or "Fred"("Peace") or "Fisse"("female reproduction organ")
I like the US American meaning the most ;) Safe E-conomy F un but as a German... the "F" stands for " Frieden " based on the silence afterwards because you can't hear anything anymore because of the tinnitus
When I was in the Danish army in the 90s, we were told that the lease was about 1 DKr (around 0.13$ at the time IIRC) per year per rifle, or in other words, a symbolic amount.
Was told by my sergeant (1997) that our “total equipment has a value of 100.000,- DK kr, oh and we lease the guns for 1,- kr.” Still not sure if the 1kr is true, but I’ve heard a few times since, at least it’s a good story.
@@tekha1977 Given the state of the guns I figure HK and the Bundeswehr was glad they didn't have to store them anymore.Even if the lease would exceed the total price of the guns it'd be amortized over two decades so I figure it'd be a bargain either way.
Plus DKM sourcing other NATO nation's unwanted G3 parts, could mix & match the better surviving components together to keep operable and armoury/reserve storage rifles/war-muskets serviceable, whilst gradually working in though collected parts stockpiles to junk/recycle components back for smelting into useful other things like Nimbus parts, or back to HK to smelt down. Either way Denmark got a uem cost effectively and aided other nations reduce their own costs too .
Former (1995 - 2000) Danish army sergeant here. There were a lot of myths in the army at the time. 1 DKK for lease was definitely not an official piece of information we as NCOs were made aware of.
when we fased out the G3 we asked germany if they wanted them back they declined so we still have af lot of the G3´s in storage for use if a general mobilisation is required
I love how much attention you give Denmark, i never knew my country had so much interesting stuff!! I mean yea, i have seen stuff in Krigsmuseet alot of times but ofc they dont provide a detailed history like you Ian! Thank you!
I think he gives a lot of attention to everyone. Your Recoil Rifle Syndicate also had a cool name and a very interesting development cycle for the Madsen machine gun. But yeah, Ian has a very wide coverage. My country haven't much of an arms industry for a good while and yet Ian covered almost everything we produced in the 20th century.
When I started as a conscript in the Danish Army in 1992, I was issued a M/75 from 1963. "Only" ten years older than my humble self. It had plastic furniture, but I was lucky enough to get it replaced with a "wooden" version before I went to the Former Yugoslavia with UNPROFOR. The wood furniture was much more comfortable, not being freezing cold to the touch in wintertime or getting unpleasantly hot when shooting the rifle. It was a fun rifle to shoot, had a nice punch, but also too many reliability issues. Much preferred the M/95 when that was issued.
Denmark's journey with the m/75 is a fascinating example of pragmatic decision-making in firearm adoption. I appreciate delving into these lesser-known chapters of firearm history.
A pragmatic decision would have been to convert the M1 to BM59 standard in the early '60s. They would have had a serviceable battle rifle / grenade launcher / occasional LMG until the adoption of an intermediate cartridge.
@@neutronalchemist3241 I’m not sure that that option would’ve been feasible or desirable. Spending more money to improve a rifle that’s already clearly on its way out seems (and probably seemed at the time) to be throwing good money after bad. At the time, it wasn’t obvious that NATO would largely switch to an intermediate cartridge, as mentioned in the video. Indeed, the US had nixed the British proposal for such a cartridge in the immediate post-WWII years and Denmark did (and still does) take a lot of its procurement clues from Washington. In addition, with the MG3 entering service as the M62 and an existing inventory of Bren guns, there wasn’t a pressing need for an LMG either. Also, unlike in Italy’s case, there wouldn’t be the upside of using an M1 upgrade to pour state support into a domestic arms producer, either. Hence, I’d argue that the pragmatic choice was indeed to stick with the M1 - IF the government was reasonably sure that it wouldn’t actually have to send forces into a large scale, conventional war. Otherwise, it would’ve been pragmatic to choose one of the major battle rifles on offer (probably the G3/CETME/AK4 or FAL, since the M14 would not fit the bill and the SIG SG 510 wasn’t a NATO weapon). Ultimately, it was lucky that the Danish forces didn’t have to get into serious, large scale action while the government kicked the can down the road. But it also coincided with Détente, so the prospects that things would indeed turned out well would also have seemed fairly good to decision makers at the time.
@@DebatingWombat I said in the early '60. A that time, battle rifles were not on their way out. They had just been adopted. And the BM59 was no inferior to the FAL and the G3. It had some advantage actually. The use of the battle rifle as an occasional LMG is not due to the fact that you lack actual LMGs, but to the fact that the LMG gunner (or the SAW gunner) not always is in the best position to do its job, or can reach it. A battle rifle with a bipod and a muzzle brake / compensator can OCCASIONALLY replace it and spare some life. Knowing that you have such a possibility also gives to your squad more elasticity. The conversion job could have been done by Madsen. The pragmatic choice, if you don't have to fight a war, would be to not have an army, fact is that you don't know if you'll have to fight a war. Fact is that, until 1973, the Danish government run it's military on a VERY strict budget. That's why only then they started to look around for a new rifle.
@@neutronalchemist3241 Yeah, but running an army on a very tight budget and looking very much to Washington means you don’t start on odd redevelopment programmes based on a unique Italian solution that was at least partly about subsidising a domestic arms producer. You either go with a major supplier to get a low per unit cost on the back of other, larger purchasers (again, not something that sounds like the Italian solution), or you stick with what you already have, until you can figure out what the main products end up being.
Fun fact. We in the Danish Homeguard had a green selector switch, where as the army had the standard black one. The green one prevented us from going full auto, Our G/75´s would only fire semi-auto, regardless the setting. There was a little compartment inside the riffle, where our black selector was kept, but we had to be ordered ore given permission to switch. Apparently it was to prevent waste of blanks on exercises 🤣 ! Many Moons later they finally phased out the green switch and the black one also became standard for us 😁. Thank you for this trip down memory lane👍👍👍
The restriction on full auto fire was there to maintain every single rifles usability as a sniper rifle as it reportedly did not take all that many rounds on the shooting range in fully automatic to loose accuracy of that barrel forevever.
They wouldn't fire automatic with blanks either way. Because you don't have a projectile in the barrel when firing it won't build up enough preassure to cycle the slider to rechamber another round. And firing single shots is better for accuracy anyway, in auto you'd get 2-3 rounds on target while the rest go over.
@@DonGorgen That is why you use a pressure amplifyer on automatic weapons on exercise, but firing blanks is NOT the issue. Firing projectiles in full auto is what destroys barrel accuracy real fast.
I was surprised that my Danish girlfriend's landlord, whose attic she was renting, got to keep his G/75 at home while in the Home Guard. I'm a reserve officer and a UNIFIL/KFOR veteran, but the Finnish Defence Forces would never trust us with service rifles to keep at home. Anyhoo, the landlord once came back dead-tired from an exercise (on his bicycle!), so I offered to clean his rifle for him. He was skeptical, but I had it field-stripped in no time. We had cross-trained with the Swedes' AK4s in Lebanon.
Those with the wooden stock were highly sought by smokers, since you could peel the buttplate off, and hide a 10-pack in it. I had one G3, which couldn't hit a barn from the inside, couldn't extract, chamber and fire without serious gymnastics. The one I got later on, worked really good, Reliable and accurate.
those where normaly the instruction guns ... my g3 used in the portuguese army during the recruit had the barel slitly bent loll ... when we where on the shoting range we used other guns .... that actuly worked ... instruction guns usualy get banking around by everione
@@markcasila8310 the issue with the m75s that failed on the range or when shooting blanks is mostly down to the mag. The alu-mags tends to feed a bit off-set, which cause the round to not be properly chambered, or sometimes it interfere with the ejection. But most the times when the gun jammed; the mag had taken a beating. - and most conscripts wanted the alu-mag, since it weighed less, but they also experienced the most jams, which at the time was blamed on their low effort. Only after I signed a contract for a proffesional career and got a brand new m75 did i realize where the issue was; the gun itself can take the beating.. But the mag still has to be cared for. You dont want a dented mag..
My Danish eyes are pleased that you have the correct spelling of the word "gevær". And on the point of it probably being a bad deal for Denmark, I wouldn't be surprised. One other example of a bad deal I was told about when doing basic service with the Engineer regiment is, that we apparently some sort of mobile radar truck (I think it was) thing that is too heavy to legally drive on Danish roads. This means it'll have to be towed on a flatbed trailer, so it doesn't really get any use (in training or otherwise). It just sits in it's parking spot and gets shipped out for mandatory service and checkup every two years.
@@Humaftw The M75-deal was good. The comms-station (if my guessing is right, the "radar" truck above is actually a forward communication and computation centre which collects data from radars in the network to produce a more complete picture)... not so much. Doesn't really matter what it cost when it can't get to where it's needed, not only because of weight restrictions on the roads, but because it gets stuck in regular farmland that's taken a couple of days' worth of rain.
@@Smo1k My reply was based on this part of the comment, "And on the point of it probably being a bad deal for Denmark, I wouldn't be surprised." I have no idea about the radar truck.
As a historical comment on the leasing-situation: Denmark was in a real crisis of confidence as far as defense goes, having basically no even moderately successful experiences of warfare since 1848, in 1975 when the G3 was widely adopted. We were squeezed right in between the east and the west - the famous (and infamous) danish politican Mogens Glistrup has a hilarious quote on the subject, that I believe comes from the very same year, 1975: *the danish defense should be replaced by an answering machine connected directly to the Kremlin, with a message saying 'we surrender'*
@@willyvereb TBH I think the defeat against the Prussians in 1864 was more humiliating and more damaging to national morale. We had to cede territory that was never fully returned, although we got a good chunk of it back after The Great War.
The Europeans have a much better sense of worth of each person in their society..... why do you need "the best" firearms when you try (successfully) not to have to use them...? Well up until Putin anyway...? @@hairydogstail
I love these stories. You could easily see the video and think “ugh yet another G3 with a slightly different designation or something” but it’s the same reason I love C&Rsenal: the stories behind these guns and even identical models used by other countries and things like that are so interesting and so is all the reasoning behind it all.
The thing is that the German and Danish language is alot alike. So S=Sikker(safety mode) E=Enkeltskud(one-shot and F= Fuldautomatisk(full automatic) actually makes sense.
I started my army service at the Danisharmed forces medical School in 2004. We were some of the last who got issued the M/75. Awesome weapon for long range shooting in windy Denmark - not particularly suited for combat medics, too long and cumbersome. When I went to sergeants training I was issued with a M/96 carbine (5.56) which compared felt like a puny plastic toy 😂
You should have had the M/75 with the retracabke stock. We got them in the Danish airforce in 1997, made it easier getting in/out of our patrol cars without banging the windows all the time.
In 1989 I had a M75 service rifle with a mashup of plastic front grip and wooden buttstock. Mine was actually pretty good and reliable if I kept it lubricated (duh!) and very accurate too. The 7.62 had a lot penetrating power but on full send it was a little hard to control. Mags were luck of the draw, whether they liked to load or not. You had 5 issued, but normally only 2 or 3 really worked due to dents or weak springs. Liked the rifle a lot, though.
I served in the danish army as an assistant mg gunner. I loved both weapons. But it was old allready when I served in 92. They were good rifles but some had excessive wear and tear, and as such were not very precise. But very sturdy. The wood furniture was usually relegated to officers and Ncos. However I never liked the M-16 clones. Felt like plinkerers compared to the 7,62. Primary reason we got them was that they were cheap to lease. But then the danish armed forces did not stick to their 2pct of the gdp for their armed forces... which has caused a military that needs to shop when the price is high due to the fact that all nato nations are now shopping for gear. Demand makes the kit more expensive.
Og hvis de stod i våbenlåsen i en PMV og man havde været i ujævnt terræn, så kunne man være sikker på at sigtet var røget ud af vvinduet på trods af at det lige var blevet indskudt
@thatdude1435 l live in the United States. Purchased it through the CMP many years ago. They had a shipment from Denmark lend lease program. I feel lucky to get one. All of the rifles were in excellent condition.
I know they were issued up until at least 2004. Source: I was issued one in spring of 2004. Was later given a M/95 in late summer. I know that several conscription units after 2004 were issued M/95 as their standard rifle but were also given a brief introduction and a bit of shooting time with M/75. Reason being was that there wouldn’t be enough M/95 / M/96 to go around in case they were to be called in after their conscription.
Yea conscripts/recruits still had M75 in the Royal Guard in 2000-2001.. we then later got the M95 for guard duty at the Royal Castle and for the DIB contract.
I had that one week of "erhvervspraktik" in 9th grade, I think 2012-2013 when I was 14, and they issued us these old ladies. The cartridge was the same, but the projectile was hard blue plasic. It still punched right through the metal targets so not sure why they bothered with that change.
A terrible deal for the Danes definitely. When I started in the Danish army in 1995 we were issued G3's. Ian's explanation that they were assembled from several sources makes sense, because some of the rifles were obviously Franken-rifles from several different styles. Many of them were completely worn out and ridiculously unreliable. Unfortunately, the majority of basic infantry gear at the time was similar; completely outdated and worn out.
My rifle at basic training was rattling and had loose bolts. But once I got to my assigned squadron (RDAF) I was issued a much nice example. Suspect the conscript rifles had been polished to death every evening by conscripts for the better of 20 years. Not even a German rifle will handle that.😂
@@frankpersolit9727 And still in by Danish airforce in 1997. Cool to be able to tell your son when he is watching Saving private Ryan: “Look there, dad also used that equipment Tom Hanks is wearing”
in my combant engineer platoon in 2001 had we had weapons that where in good shape and I would have trusted mine in combat. Later as a professional I have had a way way way worse M/95 issued... one that I would not trust with my life. (it was almost brit from way to much polishing over the last 10 years had it for a few month in 2007 until I got a compleetly new, unused one that had been produced in 2006) So I guess it depend on exactly where and when one served.
Had one of these in the army in 76 in DRLR. On the plus side it’s super easy to field strip and clean on the minus side is terrible on a march, completely out of balance in any position, and the standard aperture is a nightmare. The M1 in comparison was harder to fieldstrip - rekrutfjeder - but much easier to march with and way more accurate. Shot a few marking sticks ‘markørpinde’ with one of those. No praise for the straight shooting though 😂
Very interesting! I work the danish military pretty often. Very detailed oriented bunch. I’ve learned a ton from them so far, they really try to dive into every detail of every task.
It is missing the deflector bracket that we made ourselves. The G3 has a tendency to kick brass out very perpendicular to the rifle, so Denmark made a big wonky looking "clasp bracket" that hooks into the grooves in the receiver. If placed right it will make the rifle eject brass at about 45 degrees forward. If placed a little too far forward you'd get a pling-ing-ing-ing sound and the case would just lie there in the bracket, having done a couple of funny looking loops before coming to a rest. I was lucky enough to get a seriously good example and would pretty consistently shoot 198 or 199 out of 200 at 300m on a 6" center. Never got that perfect 200 though.
If my info is correct, the Germans actually adapted the deflector idea on later versions. The problem was the brass went straight out and would hit the man next to you. So they made a small deflector at the end of the ejection opening. This was afaik carried over on newer versions of the HK rifles.
Funny thing - Despite the danish militarty at large adopting the M95/M96 the Royal Guard (at least the Guard Company, the ones standing guard at the royal family) didn't adopt it until around 2001/2002. Then Again when the rest of the Danish military adopted the updated version of the M95, the M10, it would take about another 10 years before the Royal Guard, Guard Company would adopt that one
I had alot of fun with the M75 during my military service.. it was extremely reliable and durable. The M75 was actually still in use in 2000-2001 for most recruits.. so the M75 was not pulled from use in 1996. Nostalgic watching this.
@@Chokokk vi brugte m75 det meste af rekruttiden som LG'er.. der var kort træning med m95 dels pga den blev brugt til vagt på slottene og fordi de var implementeret for DIB'erne. Personligt synes jeg m95 var et legetøjs gevær sammenlignet med m75.. der var mere spark i m75.. i mine øjne.
Hi Ian being part of the last rotation of the Danish Lifeguard , that had the Lovely G3 Gevær M75 as our drill weapon , i can truly say its a marvel to handle , and the puny m95 , even though it has optics , feels and behaves like a toy, both in drills and in weapons training. we had a sergent who broke a wood but stock while doing drils, i just love this piece w
The explanation I got - at the time - was that the Danish Army wanted the G-11, and as it went nowhere, they were in a bit of a pickel. They had acturally wanted to skip a generation of rifles. So as an interim solution the G-3 were available at a fairly low risk patch. The leasing was probably fairly advantageous to Denmark as it was a marketing tool for the G-11 - which eventually was scrapped. The point about the Home Guard is that they were at the time still to a large extend using the M53(17) simple bolt action (they are still in service in some special applications). Not a bad rifle, but definately smelling like WW1. What was wanted was a replacement for both the submashine gun AND the standard infantry rifle. The problem with the Garand was that they were worn out and left to the conscripts. My specimen as a conscript in the air force was so worn, that if I sat at foot, not being to gentle - the bolt carrier with bolt would drop out. Why was a clearly unserviceable rifle not scrapped? Well, simply because, the depot NCO was specifically chosen for his incompetence and being a suitable patsy for the highly incompetent officers and NCO's of the air force infantry, when the Home Guard in a exercise (NATO-TACEVAL) just walked in with a dummy ambulance, and placed a pretend explosive charge at the fuel dump. Not only did they get out without being challenged, but was helped to change tyres on their exhausted "ambulance" (the blue revolving light was actually a marmelade-glas coloured blue - and as the store sold to the guard was a patient transfer - flashing lights would not be needed. About an hour later someone got the genius idea to check with the infirmery and they said: "What patient transfer?????" That incident naturally was the occation for a massive demotion of officers and trusted NCO's of the biggest Air Station in Nato - at the time. I meat them perifially as a conscript. Only problem: Their replacements were handpicked by idiots, and of exceedingly low integrety and competence. Back to the G3: As there was a surge in Home Guard volunteers, the G3 was not the perfect choice. The 53(17) I later met in Greenland as a hunting rifle sold off as surplus at a redicilous low price of 20 USD. The local got them and went reindeer hunting - gutting the reindeer and throwing the rifle away and walking back to the boat with the carcass and sold the reindeer. I have had more than one delicious prime reindeer steak from such expeditions. I secured myself a GV 53(17) in mint condition - which I later donated to an old freind in the home guard - who later sold it off. The point is that the girls (some around 70 with bifocals) did not like the rifle due to the recoil. If You have ever seen a lightweight pensioned lady propelled backward by the recoil of a rifle - You'll see my point. If Your are confused by the procurement policy of the Danish Army -- You are a lot less bewildered than the idiots in charge.
I really liked the history about the G3 battle rifle being used by the Danish and i also liked how much attention you gave to Denmark in the field of firearms. It was a very funny fact knowing how the Danish were the last ones to replace the M1 Garand. Well done Ian.
I was a conscript to the Royal Danish Navy in 2001. Mobile MedEvac Unit. We were issued with the G3 with a folding stock. Very handy in a dingy but a nightmare at the range… 😜
Had this in the Danish army.... It was IMPOSSIBLE to empty a clip without a jam... I never in my life, saw a working burst from these, and it was our MAIN rifle.... PURELY for training...
Mine was mint with live ammo but would foul up after just a couple of clips of blank. I always had an extra bottle of oil when doing blank fire exercises, so I could slather it constantly. That made black oil drip out everywhere, but it would keep it running. My personal experience is that people who couldn't get full/short burst working simply didn't jam the rifle hard enough into their shoulder, as they would complain, and I would pick up their rifle and have it work fine.
You are a part of the recoil system on any rifle. Blanks have far less recoil thus YOU the firer have to compensate for that by being rigid so every particle of recoil can be used to action the mechanism. It's the rifle version of any semi auto pistol's user "limp wristing"... @@andersjjensen
@@JohnSmith-yv6eq I know. I was a sergeant for 15 years. I tried many other rifles, and I saw how other people's rifles reacted. I think mine simply opened slightly too early (it was VERY picky with shoulder contact with live ammo as well). But since it was one of the most accurate rifles in our battery I didn't want the armourers to fiddle with it. I won several medals with it. And as I said, I managed to get around it's "funny idea" by just keeping it absolutely sloppered up in oil. But MAN was it hell to clean after blank fire. I mean, every file is always more dirty with blanks due to the blank fire compensator, but mine was GROSS. I would pick out entire "cakes" of gunk. Never saw that in another rifle.
@@andersjjensen Did you have a blank-firing adapter (a device put on the muzzle of the barrel when blank firing, so to enhance the pressure generated by blank cartridges)? Without that, it's a miracle it cycled at all.
For such a small country and with a relatively limited defense budget it makes a lot of sense to rent the rifles, more so when a new rifle and NATO standard cartridge is looming in the distance.
Was this deal a sort of 'rent-a-gun-by the day' ? Weekly rates ? Or is it 'Hire purchase' (HP) as we say here in the UK/England, where you pay a bit each week and own them after the price is reached ?
@@adrianparker-e9f Ian was sort of incorrect that we made the "final payment" in '96. We made the "last payment" in '96 and asked the Bundeswer for shipping instructions and they pretty much replied "your own local metal recycling facility would be most convenient for us, thank you very much". For that reason 25.000 were put together of the best parts and put into storage, and the second best replacement parts were kept to service them. In case of general mobilization that pretty much means that all back-end logistics personel will be equipped with them. Which sucks, as it is objectively a better combat rifle than the M16 (yes, I served with both for extended periods of time). TL;DR: It was a legally pure renting but turned into lease-to-own by declining to receive them back.
I got the M75 with the green plastic front and back, when I started in the Danish Military. After 3 months I enrolled in Sergeant school and we were given the M49 Machine Gun . Much less kick in the shoulder with the 9mm bullets, which we also used with our Neuhausen (SIG P210) guns.
my brothers was in green plastic instead of wood and this was in 1991 ,the m1 garant was leased also and got returned to the u.s. in 90 or 91 ,leased for 5 danish kroner ,not even a dollhair for all the time we usd it , wonderfull rifles .
This brings back memories. When I was a kid, my grandfather who was in the Danish home guard, would let me play with his M/75. By law, the central mechanism and ammunition had to be kept under lock, which he did, so it was safe for me to play with, but to this day I’m amazed that he let me do it, and that my parents were fine with it. I got to take all the pins out and take it appart, and put it back together, and asked him a million questions about it. I was disappointed to learn that full auto had been disabled in the version issued to the home guard.
I was issued M75 in 98/99. So the phase out took some years. We also used the M49 smg for a few months because there had been an accident with the M75 and they were called in for inspektion.
I had used the M/75 in 1999-2000. I really liked it. I was accurate, reliable and kicked ass. At this point in time the condition of the danish service rifles varied massively though as many were worn out. Some units got the m/95 (M4) toy-gun but I liked my G3 sledgehammer ❤
Price: I believe the rent price was 1danish crown pr. gun. The M/75 was still in use in 2002 with some artillery and combat engineers. (I had one for 10 month in 2001-02) And some are stil in homeguard inventory. Over the last years I have a few times seen photo of them in use. (1-2 in use on the firing range so most likely just being used for fun) And it is still listed with the different weapons using 7.62 in the regulations covering live firing. (dangerzones and so on, relevant if creating temporary firing ranges) I heard that we basically still have them all in storage, but not sure it that is true. One reason being that the germens, who owned them, did not want them back.
So much better than its replacement the m95 love the iron sight and the robustnes...in 2005 we got issued m75 for part of our basis training .....so they were still around at that point of time
When was a conscript in the danish army in 1993. I was in the Royal Guard. We had 7 month as green soliders where We had the M75 as rifle. The last 5 month as guard at the Royal palace We had the M1 Garand😉
When I was at NCO training in Værløse in around 1999-2000 we were issued this rifle. Min was with wooden stock and plastic foregrip. When one of my buddies had to leave, i swapped the foregrip with him to a wooden one, so my rifle was all wood and steel. 2 weeks later we had weapons inspection and the weapons- mechanic saw a slight crack in the foregrip, and snapped it into pieces like a rotten stick. Then it was back to wood and plastic! 😂
When i was a professional soldier in Denmark from 1978 to 1981 (sounds cooler than it was, it just meant we had a contract on 2,5 years, and had some special training) At that time the M-50 was still in use on a few locations, but by the called in conscripts. We had, as you pointed out the M-75. The M-75 had a jamming problem; also the cartridges from your neighbor rifle could hit your face if you where at the shooting range and target practicing.
I was issued this rifle when I was a conscript in the Danish Army, and I, loved it. A year later we switched to M/95 (dimarco C7) in 5.56 and I really missed the M/75.
I was a conscript in 2001/2002 and was issued this riffle, while the professional soldiers deployed to Bosnia were using the M95 (licensed Colt M16A4). We also used this rifle during palace guard duty when guarding the Queen.
In 1999 I was a conscript in the Danish Navy's guard squad (Bevogtning og Nærforsvar), and we had a version of these called M-85, which had collapsing stocks. I believe we were the last regular danish troops who still had G-3s.
As a conscript in the Danish Army in 2003/2003, we were issued the M/95, but we did see the conscripts from the previous year/round (2002/2003), where some of the units still had the M/75 for some odd reason. They looked at our M/95's in envy! The M/75 was known to conscripts as Funk 75, (Funk would be short for Funktionalitetsfejl, or directly into English, Functioning Error), as it would jam quite easily with blanks, due to lower/insufficient recoil. So no problem with with live rounds.
We still had the Garand with conscripts in 1979 - remember loading those 8 round clips. Home guard was issued G3 with green “non auto” selectors - not that anyone really wanted to fire the G3 inn full auto.
I mean, the S, E, and F settings still make sense to a Dane. We'd just think about them as "Sikker" (meaning Safe), "Enkelt" (meaning Single), and "Fuld automatisk" (meaning Fully Automatic).
I had the pleasure of using this lovely rifle for the first half of my conscription .. not the wood, mine was polymer. Such a precise weapon, and packed so much more punch than the 5.56 Colt (M16 carbine) we were given after. (M-96 Gevær)
The m/75 and 66 were not fully phased out of active duty until well into the 2000s, the home guard wasn't fully equipped with the 95/96 until much later. So when I joined back in 2002 I was issued s m/75 with plastic stock and guard (some had wood, mine didn't), and I got to shoot it for a few years before we were issued m/95s. And we weren't the last unit to phase out the 75 either.
Are You going to make a video about the 1960s Danish DISA assault rifle prototype in an experimental 7x36mm cartridge? The rifle is in some sources referred to as the "DISA Karabin".
I am Danish too and a couple of childhood friends of mine served at Skive Kaserne and in the Royal Guard. They were issues the M1. The latter only for guard duty, though. That was between 1989 and 1991. I think the Royal Guard still used the M1 for guard duty well into the 90’s
Please make a video of the brief introduktion of the LSW m/O4 in Denmark. Its actually a pretty interesting story. And funny because it was a massive failure.
I wouldn't call it that. Sure it sucks as a support weapon (30 round magazine fed /100 round ones didn't work so well) and fixed barrel), but its an excellent rifle and it was issued with the best night vision sight I ever saw in the Home Guard.
We used the M/96 back in 07/08'ish during my conscription days, but when we had to act the "enemy" for other units during training missions we used the M/75, ours had the green polymer instead of wood though, only ever got to blankfire it but it was a hefty boi compared to the M/96s for sure.
Thanks for a great review. Having served in the danish national guard (1989-1994) I was a LMG m/62 gunner (7,62mm). I would like to see a review from you on that.
@@thatdude1435 Danske Livregiment Vordingborg 1983 Stabskompagniet 3 Deling, kørte opklaring de sidste 6 måneder i gamle Jeep min var en 131. Var genindkaldt i 89 og 90 i 90 fik vi på den sidste natskydning udleveret 18 lade rammer til Garand geværet jeg nåde som den eneste at affyre dem alle og var lige ved at brænde forskæfter af, fed oplevelses skæftet var så varm at jeg måtte bære geværet i remmen på vej væk fra skyde linjen og skæftet røg en del.
Denmark relies only on price when it comes to introducing new weapon systems into our armed forces. This rifle is still using by the danish reserve forces (totalforsvarsstyrken). We also chose the COBRA helmet over the OPS-CORE even though it failed on all parameters besides price ;)
The M/75 was issued to line infantry but units like airforce guards, navy and rear echelon etc. would continue using M/50. One big difference between the army M/75's and those of the home guard was that the army could mount a bayonet, the home guard guns just had a flat plug in the upper tube so could not have a bayonet mounted (and weren't issued with bayonets)
Funny to see this in your channel, which I follow. I served with the m/75 as a conscript. We then actually switched to the m/95 after signing with the Danish International Brigade and deploying to Bosnia. (Conscript from January to December 1996, so our unit must have received the m/95 in December '96)
The G3 wasn't fully phased out till at least 2004 when I stopped in the army. My regiment were still using them by then, I am not sure when they were fully phased out.
The M/75 was still in service in the danish airforce in 2000 when I was a conscript. The airforce kept them long after the army and even the home guard switched to the M/95
The rumor in the danish army at that time was that Denmark had paid 1 DM a year in rent per weapon. And when it came to us handing them back to Germany, they didn't want them because they were too worn.
@@kristianhartlevjohansen3541 I was making a reference/joke to the Fallout games, wherein this rifle (or at least a fictional version that is near identical) is featured. But in the games universe is called the R91
My PTR-91 GIR looks a lot like this rifle but with a dark grey parkerization . Mine has the surplus G3 wood furniture and metal trigger pack with plastic grip along with the SEF markings. No giggle switch functionality though. Love the G3 series of rifles and I want to get a PTR 91 K3P and SBR it to a G3KA4 style at some point.
While the Sexy FAL, the Techno M-16 and the Grimmy AK get all the attention, the good 'ol G3 was there through conflict after conflict, too. Kinda like your Uncle Bob, boring and not too handsome, but gets the job done at the end of the day. My only issue with the G3 is that roller "delayed" "locking" which is really just over-engineered straight blowback. A real lack of subtlety in the recoil department for sure, but a truly rugged and dependable tool. Edit: Love the Wood!
Greg, I have a slight disagreement with you, on the physical appearance of the G3; I've always thought it was a nifty-looking rifle. Saw one first on an episode of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." Had no idea what it was until seeing the same episode 35 years later.
I was issued the G3 first and the M16 6 years later, and I have shot several .308/7.62 hunting rifles. The G3 has a pleasant "distributed" recoil compared to a bolt action in the same caliber. If I had to go to war (again) and was given the choice between the Swedish AK4 update of the G3 and the latest iteration of the M16 I would chose the former without even blinking. Sacrificing 10 rds per mag and about a kg of extra weight in exchange for a rifle that hits a human sized target all the time, every time, in adverse weather conditions at 500-600 meters, and has the oomph to go through civilian cars, garden sheds, shallow ditches, etc, is an easy choice to me. Those of my buddies who were less good shots liked the M16, but it never won me over. The correct NATO cartridge change (as the US is figuring out now with the .277 Fury) would have been 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser. The 7.62 was too powerful and the 5.56 was too weak.... Oh, and that you put locking in quotes means you don't understand the mechanics. The bolt head stays in place until the bolt carrier has moved 7mm. The easiest way to think of it is to compare it to balls on a pool table. The "ping" from the cartridge sends energy through the bolt head to the wedge so it starts moving (like two touching pool balls being hit), which pushes the bolt carrier backwards until there is enough space that the rollers can retract, at which point the bolt head starts following the bolt carrier. It's as much a locking system as a rotating bolt head. It's just two different mechanisms that actuate the unlocking.
You are missing out on some things... Like the deflector screen, that was mandatory, it was not allowed to use it without that attached.... and the lightweight mags, nobody had the heavy mags that you show. You also missed the fact that we had two fireselectors A green and a black, the original. The green one did not allow the rifle to be fired in full auto, so in practice it was a semiauto only, but that only applied for the homeguard, the army had only the black one. In peacetime we were only allowed to use the green selector, only in wartime were we allow to shift from green to black(the original) But in time that changed, and the green one was taken away, and we only used the black one. It wasn't so that we didn't have the black selector, it was store on the back of the triggerhouse so we could switch to it in case of war. So to make it a real clone there must be that hole in the triggerhouse. By the way.... Danish homeguard has just startede issuing them to the homeguard reservists. Of you really want to dive into it, I visited the Swedish homeguard... And they had ALL the sniper version, and they had cut of the front sight, removed the bag sight and welded a picatinny rail on top of the frame... And they had all red dot on.
Only the home guard had two selectors, and I can assure you that in the army which mags you got was a luck of the draw. I got three lightweight and two clonky bois.
Thank You very much for your video's and the hard work it takes in making them Canada classifies an airgun as a firearm 😆 Take care and have a great day
its important to know that some g3 rifles were not freefloated. most g3 especially the later production runs have freefloated barrels. there is a gap where the tube from the charginghandle goes into the frontsight. i did not know until i discovered it when 9 hole reviews talked about the g3 being freefloat but mine is not. mine is a g3 bundeswehr surplus made semi only from 1958 (really one of the first ones) and thats pretty interesting. so when ian talks about the heating influencing accuracy well maybe he refers to that
The many time Ian is perplexed, confused, flabbergasted, suprised or outright in disbelief in regards to the decisions of the Danish armed forces has been mirrored by any and everyone who has ever served in the Danish armed forces.
The "F" setting in danish would be refered to as "Fuldautomatisk"("fully automatic") or among soldiers "Frås"("splurge") or "Fred"("Peace") or "Fisse"("female reproduction organ")
The vernacular used in Norway at the time I in the army was "Family". :)
@@antisoda thatss wholesome, but you need 'Fisse' before 'Family' my friend ;p
I like the US American meaning the most ;)
Safe
E-conomy
F un
but as a German... the "F" stands for " Frieden " based on the silence afterwards because you can't hear anything anymore because of the tinnitus
"Fuld Fisse." Det spiller bare :)
Godt at se nogle danske basser herinde. 😅
When I was in the Danish army in the 90s, we were told that the lease was about 1 DKr (around 0.13$ at the time IIRC) per year per rifle, or in other words, a symbolic amount.
Was told by my sergeant (1997) that our “total equipment has a value of 100.000,- DK kr, oh and we lease the guns for 1,- kr.”
Still not sure if the 1kr is true, but I’ve heard a few times since, at least it’s a good story.
@@tekha1977 Given the state of the guns I figure HK and the Bundeswehr was glad they didn't have to store them anymore.Even if the lease would exceed the total price of the guns it'd be amortized over two decades so I figure it'd be a bargain either way.
Plus DKM sourcing other NATO nation's unwanted G3 parts, could mix & match the better surviving components together to keep operable and armoury/reserve storage rifles/war-muskets serviceable, whilst gradually working in though collected parts stockpiles to junk/recycle components back for smelting into useful other things like Nimbus parts, or back to HK to smelt down.
Either way Denmark got a uem cost effectively and aided other nations reduce their own costs too .
i was in the army in 01 and i also heard about the 1kr deal
Former (1995 - 2000) Danish army sergeant here. There were a lot of myths in the army at the time. 1 DKK for lease was definitely not an official piece of information we as NCOs were made aware of.
when we fased out the G3 we asked germany if they wanted them back they declined so we still have af lot of the G3´s in storage for use if a general mobilisation is required
A pretty recent counting - we have around 25000 of these in stock (source: public docs from folketinget)
@@simonjensen596 stadigvæk en del men stadigvæk for lidt ifht hvad vi burde have på lager
@@simonjensen596 faldt du tilfældigvis over tallene for MG3 også ?
@@stigchristensen2597 fra hvad jeg hører så er mange af MG3/M62erne sendt til Ukraine.
@@TheNewAgeViking måske men kunne stdigvæk godt tænke mig at vide om vi har nogen tilbage
I love how much attention you give Denmark, i never knew my country had so much interesting stuff!! I mean yea, i have seen stuff in Krigsmuseet alot of times but ofc they dont provide a detailed history like you Ian! Thank you!
IKR YAY DENMARK
"Denmark: Not Just Lego Anymore"
Spyker 60 HP?
That`s a Dutch make.@@nucleargrizzly1776
I think he gives a lot of attention to everyone. Your Recoil Rifle Syndicate also had a cool name and a very interesting development cycle for the Madsen machine gun. But yeah, Ian has a very wide coverage.
My country haven't much of an arms industry for a good while and yet Ian covered almost everything we produced in the 20th century.
When I started as a conscript in the Danish Army in 1992, I was issued a M/75 from 1963. "Only" ten years older than my humble self. It had plastic furniture, but I was lucky enough to get it replaced with a "wooden" version before I went to the Former Yugoslavia with UNPROFOR. The wood furniture was much more comfortable, not being freezing cold to the touch in wintertime or getting unpleasantly hot when shooting the rifle. It was a fun rifle to shoot, had a nice punch, but also too many reliability issues. Much preferred the M/95 when that was issued.
Denmark's journey with the m/75 is a fascinating example of pragmatic decision-making in firearm adoption. I appreciate delving into these lesser-known chapters of firearm history.
It's a typical political nightmare decision/non decision...
and it insults the intelligence with it's level of stupidity!
A pragmatic decision would have been to convert the M1 to BM59 standard in the early '60s.
They would have had a serviceable battle rifle / grenade launcher / occasional LMG until the adoption of an intermediate cartridge.
@@neutronalchemist3241 I’m not sure that that option would’ve been feasible or desirable. Spending more money to improve a rifle that’s already clearly on its way out seems (and probably seemed at the time) to be throwing good money after bad.
At the time, it wasn’t obvious that NATO would largely switch to an intermediate cartridge, as mentioned in the video. Indeed, the US had nixed the British proposal for such a cartridge in the immediate post-WWII years and Denmark did (and still does) take a lot of its procurement clues from Washington.
In addition, with the MG3 entering service as the M62 and an existing inventory of Bren guns, there wasn’t a pressing need for an LMG either. Also, unlike in Italy’s case, there wouldn’t be the upside of using an M1 upgrade to pour state support into a domestic arms producer, either.
Hence, I’d argue that the pragmatic choice was indeed to stick with the M1 - IF the government was reasonably sure that it wouldn’t actually have to send forces into a large scale, conventional war.
Otherwise, it would’ve been pragmatic to choose one of the major battle rifles on offer (probably the G3/CETME/AK4 or FAL, since the M14 would not fit the bill and the SIG SG 510 wasn’t a NATO weapon).
Ultimately, it was lucky that the Danish forces didn’t have to get into serious, large scale action while the government kicked the can down the road. But it also coincided with Détente, so the prospects that things would indeed turned out well would also have seemed fairly good to decision makers at the time.
@@DebatingWombat I said in the early '60.
A that time, battle rifles were not on their way out. They had just been adopted. And the BM59 was no inferior to the FAL and the G3. It had some advantage actually.
The use of the battle rifle as an occasional LMG is not due to the fact that you lack actual LMGs, but to the fact that the LMG gunner (or the SAW gunner) not always is in the best position to do its job, or can reach it. A battle rifle with a bipod and a muzzle brake / compensator can OCCASIONALLY replace it and spare some life. Knowing that you have such a possibility also gives to your squad more elasticity.
The conversion job could have been done by Madsen.
The pragmatic choice, if you don't have to fight a war, would be to not have an army, fact is that you don't know if you'll have to fight a war.
Fact is that, until 1973, the Danish government run it's military on a VERY strict budget. That's why only then they started to look around for a new rifle.
@@neutronalchemist3241 Yeah, but running an army on a very tight budget and looking very much to Washington means you don’t start on odd redevelopment programmes based on a unique Italian solution that was at least partly about subsidising a domestic arms producer.
You either go with a major supplier to get a low per unit cost on the back of other, larger purchasers (again, not something that sounds like the Italian solution), or you stick with what you already have, until you can figure out what the main products end up being.
Fun fact. We in the Danish Homeguard had a green selector switch, where as the army had the standard black one. The green one prevented us from going full auto, Our G/75´s would only fire semi-auto, regardless the setting. There was a little compartment inside the riffle, where our black selector was kept, but we had to be ordered ore given permission to switch. Apparently it was to prevent waste of blanks on exercises 🤣 ! Many Moons later they finally phased out the green switch and the black one also became standard for us 😁. Thank you for this trip down memory lane👍👍👍
The restriction on full auto fire was there to maintain every single rifles usability as a sniper rifle as it reportedly did not take all that many rounds on the shooting range in fully automatic to loose accuracy of that barrel forevever.
They wouldn't fire automatic with blanks either way. Because you don't have a projectile in the barrel when firing it won't build up enough preassure to cycle the slider to rechamber another round.
And firing single shots is better for accuracy anyway, in auto you'd get 2-3 rounds on target while the rest go over.
@@DonGorgenthat's what blank adapters are for.
@@DonGorgen That is why you use a pressure amplifyer on automatic weapons on exercise, but firing blanks is NOT the issue. Firing projectiles in full auto is what destroys barrel accuracy real fast.
I was surprised that my Danish girlfriend's landlord, whose attic she was renting, got to keep his G/75 at home while in the Home Guard. I'm a reserve officer and a UNIFIL/KFOR veteran, but the Finnish Defence Forces would never trust us with service rifles to keep at home. Anyhoo, the landlord once came back dead-tired from an exercise (on his bicycle!), so I offered to clean his rifle for him. He was skeptical, but I had it field-stripped in no time. We had cross-trained with the Swedes' AK4s in Lebanon.
Those with the wooden stock were highly sought by smokers, since you could peel the buttplate off, and hide a 10-pack in it.
I had one G3, which couldn't hit a barn from the inside, couldn't extract, chamber and fire without serious gymnastics. The one I got later on, worked really good, Reliable and accurate.
those where normaly the instruction guns ... my g3 used in the portuguese army during the recruit had the barel slitly bent loll ... when we where on the shoting range we used other guns .... that actuly worked ... instruction guns usualy get banking around by everione
@@markcasila8310 the issue with the m75s that failed on the range or when shooting blanks is mostly down to the mag.
The alu-mags tends to feed a bit off-set, which cause the round to not be properly chambered, or sometimes it interfere with the ejection. But most the times when the gun jammed; the mag had taken a beating.
- and most conscripts wanted the alu-mag, since it weighed less, but they also experienced the most jams, which at the time was blamed on their low effort.
Only after I signed a contract for a proffesional career and got a brand new m75 did i realize where the issue was; the gun itself can take the beating..
But the mag still has to be cared for. You dont want a dented mag..
@@markcasila8310 but the service ones ussually are in good condition
Mine had a cleaning kit in that space. I had the plastic hilt
Also the blank ammo were under powered trash, I could never shoot two consecutive rounds without having to manually reload
My Danish eyes are pleased that you have the correct spelling of the word "gevær".
And on the point of it probably being a bad deal for Denmark, I wouldn't be surprised.
One other example of a bad deal I was told about when doing basic service with the Engineer regiment is, that we apparently some sort of mobile radar truck (I think it was) thing that is too heavy to legally drive on Danish roads.
This means it'll have to be towed on a flatbed trailer, so it doesn't really get any use (in training or otherwise). It just sits in it's parking spot and gets shipped out for mandatory service and checkup every two years.
It was actually a brilliant deal. We barely paid anything to lease them, and we got to keep them afterwards. :)
@@Humaftw The M75-deal was good. The comms-station (if my guessing is right, the "radar" truck above is actually a forward communication and computation centre which collects data from radars in the network to produce a more complete picture)... not so much. Doesn't really matter what it cost when it can't get to where it's needed, not only because of weight restrictions on the roads, but because it gets stuck in regular farmland that's taken a couple of days' worth of rain.
@@Smo1k
My reply was based on this part of the comment,
"And on the point of it probably being a bad deal for Denmark, I wouldn't be surprised."
I have no idea about the radar truck.
5:18 So 20 years later, they finally adopted (basically) the rifle that won the original competition.
Weapons procurement is a weird balance of military needs, budgets, international treaties, and what's actually available.
And still here, almost 30 years later, we use that old garbage
@simonjensen596 only conscripts I think. The M95 got replaced by the M10. And the M95/C7 supposedly has several improvements on the M16.
@@simonjensen596its hardly garbage. The G3 is a fantastic rifle.
@@suprlite I think he means the M95/C7
As a historical comment on the leasing-situation: Denmark was in a real crisis of confidence as far as defense goes, having basically no even moderately successful experiences of warfare since 1848, in 1975 when the G3 was widely adopted. We were squeezed right in between the east and the west - the famous (and infamous) danish politican Mogens Glistrup has a hilarious quote on the subject, that I believe comes from the very same year, 1975: *the danish defense should be replaced by an answering machine connected directly to the Kremlin, with a message saying 'we surrender'*
WW2 had quite the negative impact, huh?
I'm glad the army is in a much better place now.
@@willyvereb TBH I think the defeat against the Prussians in 1864 was more humiliating and more damaging to national morale. We had to cede territory that was never fully returned, although we got a good chunk of it back after The Great War.
So things have still not changed in Europe today...Trump was right!
Which would have sucked as if West Germany fell then Denmark would be vital to keeping the Baltic sea bottled up.
The Europeans have a much better sense of worth of each person in their society.....
why do you need "the best" firearms when you try (successfully) not to have to use them...?
Well up until Putin anyway...?
@@hairydogstail
I love these stories. You could easily see the video and think “ugh yet another G3 with a slightly different designation or something” but it’s the same reason I love C&Rsenal: the stories behind these guns and even identical models used by other countries and things like that are so interesting and so is all the reasoning behind it all.
Couldn't agree more!! The stories behind the adoption or not of certain weapons can be full of intrigue and labyrinthine in its complexity 😮
The first rifle I was issued was the M75 with wood furniture so this brings back memories
The thing is that the German and Danish language is alot alike. So S=Sikker(safety mode) E=Enkeltskud(one-shot and F= Fuldautomatisk(full automatic) actually makes sense.
Postponing descisions...renting stuff...compromising ....😂
Scandinavia in a nutshell. Cheers to the channel and our Danish neighbours from🇸🇪
Scandinavia represent! :) Greetings from a fjeldabe in Norway. :)
Heya nabo!
I started my army service at the Danisharmed forces medical School in 2004. We were some of the last who got issued the M/75.
Awesome weapon for long range shooting in windy Denmark - not particularly suited for combat medics, too long and cumbersome.
When I went to sergeants training I was issued with a M/96 carbine (5.56) which compared felt like a puny plastic toy 😂
You should have had the M/75 with the retracabke stock.
We got them in the Danish airforce in 1997, made it easier getting in/out of our patrol cars without banging the windows all the time.
In 1989 I had a M75 service rifle with a mashup of plastic front grip and wooden buttstock. Mine was actually pretty good and reliable if I kept it lubricated (duh!) and very accurate too. The 7.62 had a lot penetrating power but on full send it was a little hard to control. Mags were luck of the draw, whether they liked to load or not. You had 5 issued, but normally only 2 or 3 really worked due to dents or weak springs. Liked the rifle a lot, though.
The same here in 1993, wooden stock and plastic frontgrip.. and damn good accuracy up to 450-500 Meters...
Hard to control :-) True that. The 2 pound bolt hammering back and forth 600 times per minute generated recoil in all directions 🙂
Used to put grass between the pipe and the front grip so it wouldn't rattle loudly while on night patrols!
I served in the danish army as an assistant mg gunner. I loved both weapons. But it was old allready when I served in 92. They were good rifles but some had excessive wear and tear, and as such were not very precise. But very sturdy. The wood furniture was usually relegated to officers and Ncos. However I never liked the M-16 clones. Felt like plinkerers compared to the 7,62.
Primary reason we got them was that they were cheap to lease. But then the danish armed forces did not stick to their 2pct of the gdp for their armed forces... which has caused a military that needs to shop when the price is high due to the fact that all nato nations are now shopping for gear. Demand makes the kit more expensive.
I would be happy with either wepon, but more familiar with the garand. I do own a Danish lease M1 with a VAR barrel, and some beretta parts.
Og hvis de stod i våbenlåsen i en PMV og man havde været i ujævnt terræn, så kunne man være sikker på at sigtet var røget ud af vvinduet på trods af at det lige var blevet indskudt
@@brianhoxworth3881 in Denmark? how did you get cleared to own that?
@@thatdude1435 Probably not Denmark because as far as I'm informed semi-auto rifles are completely banned. Handguns are very regulated, too.
@thatdude1435 l live in the United States. Purchased it through the CMP many years ago. They had a shipment from Denmark lend lease program. I feel lucky to get one. All of the rifles were in excellent condition.
S E F markings translate to Safe, Economical, Fun.
I always thought the E was for sEmi (because S was already taken)
I know they were issued up until at least 2004. Source: I was issued one in spring of 2004. Was later given a M/95 in late summer.
I know that several conscription units after 2004 were issued M/95 as their standard rifle but were also given a brief introduction and a bit of shooting time with M/75. Reason being was that there wouldn’t be enough M/95 / M/96 to go around in case they were to be called in after their conscription.
Yea conscripts/recruits still had M75 in the Royal Guard in 2000-2001.. we then later got the M95 for guard duty at the Royal Castle and for the DIB contract.
I had that one week of "erhvervspraktik" in 9th grade, I think 2012-2013 when I was 14, and they issued us these old ladies. The cartridge was the same, but the projectile was hard blue plasic. It still punched right through the metal targets so not sure why they bothered with that change.
A terrible deal for the Danes definitely. When I started in the Danish army in 1995 we were issued G3's. Ian's explanation that they were assembled from several sources makes sense, because some of the rifles were obviously Franken-rifles from several different styles. Many of them were completely worn out and ridiculously unreliable. Unfortunately, the majority of basic infantry gear at the time was similar; completely outdated and worn out.
My rifle at basic training was rattling and had loose bolts.
But once I got to my assigned squadron (RDAF) I was issued a much nice example.
Suspect the conscript rifles had been polished to death every evening by conscripts for the better of 20 years. Not even a German rifle will handle that.😂
cobat harness in the danish army up until 1996 was from the marshall plan (american leftovers from WW2)
@@frankpersolit9727 And still in by Danish airforce in 1997.
Cool to be able to tell your son when he is watching Saving private Ryan:
“Look there, dad also used that equipment Tom Hanks is wearing”
@@frankpersolit9727...And they used it in ww1
in my combant engineer platoon in 2001 had we had weapons that where in good shape and I would have trusted mine in combat.
Later as a professional I have had a way way way worse M/95 issued... one that I would not trust with my life.
(it was almost brit from way to much polishing over the last 10 years had it for a few month in 2007 until I got a compleetly new, unused one that had been produced in 2006)
So I guess it depend on exactly where and when one served.
The S-E-F markings also make sense in danish. Just F for fuldautomatisk, instead of A for automatisk.
We calles it "Sikker", "Enkelt", and "Festfunktion"
@@Kar4ever3 "Festfunktion". Perfect. We fjeldaber just called it "Family". :)
Frås
@@RuneJuhlPetersen
Den, der staver D i Gjort, han skal have halen smurt.
Den, der glemmer D i Fråds, han skal have stribet mås.
😉
@@antisoda Dark. I like it.
Had one of these in the army in 76 in DRLR. On the plus side it’s super easy to field strip and clean on the minus side is terrible on a march, completely out of balance in any position, and the standard aperture is a nightmare. The M1 in comparison was harder to fieldstrip - rekrutfjeder - but much easier to march with and way more accurate. Shot a few marking sticks ‘markørpinde’ with one of those. No praise for the straight shooting though 😂
Very interesting! I work the danish military pretty often. Very detailed oriented bunch. I’ve learned a ton from them so far, they really try to dive into every detail of every task.
The rifle I was trained on as a conscript in the Danish army. Several had black eyes as first day at the firing range.. has a nice kick to it 🙃
Be careful using the G3 A4 (G3 with rifle scope and retractable shoulder rest).
It's intriguing how they navigated through various rifle options before settling on leasing from the Bundeswehr.
It is missing the deflector bracket that we made ourselves. The G3 has a tendency to kick brass out very perpendicular to the rifle, so Denmark made a big wonky looking "clasp bracket" that hooks into the grooves in the receiver. If placed right it will make the rifle eject brass at about 45 degrees forward. If placed a little too far forward you'd get a pling-ing-ing-ing sound and the case would just lie there in the bracket, having done a couple of funny looking loops before coming to a rest.
I was lucky enough to get a seriously good example and would pretty consistently shoot 198 or 199 out of 200 at 300m on a 6" center. Never got that perfect 200 though.
If my info is correct, the Germans actually adapted the deflector idea on later versions. The problem was the brass went straight out and would hit the man next to you. So they made a small deflector at the end of the ejection opening. This was afaik carried over on newer versions of the HK rifles.
Funny thing - Despite the danish militarty at large adopting the M95/M96 the Royal Guard (at least the Guard Company, the ones standing guard at the royal family) didn't adopt it until around 2001/2002. Then Again when the rest of the Danish military adopted the updated version of the M95, the M10, it would take about another 10 years before the Royal Guard, Guard Company would adopt that one
I had alot of fun with the M75 during my military service.. it was extremely reliable and durable.
The M75 was actually still in use in 2000-2001 for most recruits.. so the M75 was not pulled from use in 1996.
Nostalgic watching this.
jep, rigtigt. Blev trænet i brug af både m/75 og m/95 i år 2000..
Jep, vi havde dem ved KAR 99/00 også. Holdet efter fik dog m95. HJV havde dem indtil midten-slutningen af 00erne.
@@Chokokk vi brugte m75 det meste af rekruttiden som LG'er.. der var kort træning med m95 dels pga den blev brugt til vagt på slottene og fordi de var implementeret for DIB'erne.
Personligt synes jeg m95 var et legetøjs gevær sammenlignet med m75.. der var mere spark i m75.. i mine øjne.
Hi Ian
being part of the last rotation of the Danish Lifeguard , that had the Lovely G3 Gevær M75 as our drill weapon , i can truly say its a marvel to handle , and the puny m95 , even though it has optics , feels and behaves like a toy, both in drills and in weapons training.
we had a sergent who broke a wood but stock while doing drils, i just love this piece
w
The explanation I got - at the time - was that the Danish Army wanted the G-11, and as it went nowhere, they were in a bit of a pickel. They had acturally wanted to skip a generation of rifles. So as an interim solution the G-3 were available at a fairly low risk patch. The leasing was probably fairly advantageous to Denmark as it was a marketing tool for the G-11 - which eventually was scrapped.
The point about the Home Guard is that they were at the time still to a large extend using the M53(17) simple bolt action (they are still in service in some special applications). Not a bad rifle, but definately smelling like WW1.
What was wanted was a replacement for both the submashine gun AND the standard infantry rifle.
The problem with the Garand was that they were worn out and left to the conscripts. My specimen as a conscript in the air force was so worn, that if I sat at foot, not being to gentle - the bolt carrier with bolt would drop out. Why was a clearly unserviceable rifle not scrapped? Well, simply because, the depot NCO was specifically chosen for his incompetence and being a suitable patsy for the highly incompetent officers and NCO's of the air force infantry, when the Home Guard in a exercise (NATO-TACEVAL) just walked in with a dummy ambulance, and placed a pretend explosive charge at the fuel dump. Not only did they get out without being challenged, but was helped to change tyres on their exhausted "ambulance" (the blue revolving light was actually a marmelade-glas coloured blue - and as the store sold to the guard was a patient transfer - flashing lights would not be needed. About an hour later someone got the genius idea to check with the infirmery and they said: "What patient transfer?????"
That incident naturally was the occation for a massive demotion of officers and trusted NCO's of the biggest Air Station in Nato - at the time. I meat them perifially as a conscript. Only problem: Their replacements were handpicked by idiots, and of exceedingly low integrety and competence.
Back to the G3: As there was a surge in Home Guard volunteers, the G3 was not the perfect choice. The 53(17) I later met in Greenland as a hunting rifle sold off as surplus at a redicilous low price of 20 USD. The local got them and went reindeer hunting - gutting the reindeer and throwing the rifle away and walking back to the boat with the carcass and sold the reindeer. I have had more than one delicious prime reindeer steak from such expeditions. I secured myself a GV 53(17) in mint condition - which I later donated to an old freind in the home guard - who later sold it off.
The point is that the girls (some around 70 with bifocals) did not like the rifle due to the recoil. If You have ever seen a lightweight pensioned lady propelled backward by the recoil of a rifle - You'll see my point.
If Your are confused by the procurement policy of the Danish Army -- You are a lot less bewildered than the idiots in charge.
You're right about the WWI "feel" of the GV 53/17 as it is the US M1917, chambered (IIRC) in .308.
You’re right about the procurement policies. A wonder it was so late they were put on a leash. After the Tårnfalken and Westland debacles.
I really liked the history about the G3 battle rifle being used by the Danish and i also liked how much attention you gave to Denmark in the field of firearms. It was a very funny fact knowing how the Danish were the last ones to replace the M1 Garand. Well done Ian.
I was a conscript to the Royal Danish Navy in 2001. Mobile MedEvac Unit. We were issued with the G3 with a folding stock. Very handy in a dingy but a nightmare at the range… 😜
Ok THIS is the fallout 3 rifle
R91 assault rifle as its known in the fallout lore
I love these little tangents in firearms history.
Had this in the Danish army.... It was IMPOSSIBLE to empty a clip without a jam... I never in my life, saw a working burst from these, and it was our MAIN rifle....
PURELY for training...
Mine was mint with live ammo but would foul up after just a couple of clips of blank. I always had an extra bottle of oil when doing blank fire exercises, so I could slather it constantly. That made black oil drip out everywhere, but it would keep it running. My personal experience is that people who couldn't get full/short burst working simply didn't jam the rifle hard enough into their shoulder, as they would complain, and I would pick up their rifle and have it work fine.
You are a part of the recoil system on any rifle.
Blanks have far less recoil thus YOU the firer have to compensate for that by being rigid so every particle of recoil can be used to action the mechanism.
It's the rifle version of any semi auto pistol's user "limp wristing"...
@@andersjjensen
@@JohnSmith-yv6eq I know. I was a sergeant for 15 years. I tried many other rifles, and I saw how other people's rifles reacted. I think mine simply opened slightly too early (it was VERY picky with shoulder contact with live ammo as well). But since it was one of the most accurate rifles in our battery I didn't want the armourers to fiddle with it. I won several medals with it. And as I said, I managed to get around it's "funny idea" by just keeping it absolutely sloppered up in oil. But MAN was it hell to clean after blank fire. I mean, every file is always more dirty with blanks due to the blank fire compensator, but mine was GROSS. I would pick out entire "cakes" of gunk. Never saw that in another rifle.
Well done that man!
It may have been an ugly rifle but boy could it shoot!
@@andersjjensen Did you have a blank-firing adapter (a device put on the muzzle of the barrel when blank firing, so to enhance the pressure generated by blank cartridges)? Without that, it's a miracle it cycled at all.
Thank you Ian. That is a beautiful rifle. Love the wood.
For such a small country and with a relatively limited defense budget it makes a lot of sense to rent the rifles, more so when a new rifle and NATO standard cartridge is looming in the distance.
Was this deal a sort of 'rent-a-gun-by the day' ? Weekly rates ? Or is it 'Hire purchase' (HP) as we say here in the UK/England, where you pay a bit each week and own them after the price is reached ?
@@adrianparker-e9f Id assume some kind of lump sum payment up front, followed by a quarterly bill til the end rather than a weekly or monthly payment.
What limited budget?!
Back then, they used a heck more on our military, than today!
@@adrianparker-e9f Ian was sort of incorrect that we made the "final payment" in '96. We made the "last payment" in '96 and asked the Bundeswer for shipping instructions and they pretty much replied "your own local metal recycling facility would be most convenient for us, thank you very much". For that reason 25.000 were put together of the best parts and put into storage, and the second best replacement parts were kept to service them. In case of general mobilization that pretty much means that all back-end logistics personel will be equipped with them. Which sucks, as it is objectively a better combat rifle than the M16 (yes, I served with both for extended periods of time).
TL;DR: It was a legally pure renting but turned into lease-to-own by declining to receive them back.
I got the M75 with the green plastic front and back, when I started in the Danish Military. After 3 months I enrolled in Sergeant school and we were given the M49 Machine Gun . Much less kick in the shoulder with the 9mm bullets, which we also used with our Neuhausen (SIG P210) guns.
my brothers was in green plastic instead of wood and this was in 1991 ,the m1 garant was leased also and got returned to the u.s. in 90 or 91 ,leased for 5 danish kroner ,not even a dollhair for all the time we usd it , wonderfull rifles .
"It was a terrible deal for someone, but I don't know who." That is history in a nutshell.
This brings back memories. When I was a kid, my grandfather who was in the Danish home guard, would let me play with his M/75. By law, the central mechanism and ammunition had to be kept under lock, which he did, so it was safe for me to play with, but to this day I’m amazed that he let me do it, and that my parents were fine with it. I got to take all the pins out and take it appart, and put it back together, and asked him a million questions about it. I was disappointed to learn that full auto had been disabled in the version issued to the home guard.
I was issued M75 in 98/99. So the phase out took some years. We also used the M49 smg for a few months because there had been an accident with the M75 and they were called in for inspektion.
I had used the M/75 in 1999-2000. I really liked it. I was accurate, reliable and kicked ass. At this point in time the condition of the danish service rifles varied massively though as many were worn out. Some units got the m/95 (M4) toy-gun but I liked my G3 sledgehammer ❤
Price: I believe the rent price was 1danish crown pr. gun.
The M/75 was still in use in 2002 with some artillery and combat engineers. (I had one for 10 month in 2001-02)
And some are stil in homeguard inventory. Over the last years I have a few times seen photo of them in use. (1-2 in use on the firing range so most likely just being used for fun)
And it is still listed with the different weapons using 7.62 in the regulations covering live firing. (dangerzones and so on, relevant if creating temporary firing ranges)
I heard that we basically still have them all in storage, but not sure it that is true. One reason being that the germens, who owned them, did not want them back.
I miss that rifle, and that life.
So much better than its replacement the m95 love the iron sight and the robustnes...in 2005 we got issued m75 for part of our basis training .....so they were still around at that point of time
That is the prettiest G3 I've seen in my life. Almost worth moving to the US for.
When was a conscript in the danish army in 1993. I was in the Royal Guard. We had 7 month as green soliders where We had the M75 as rifle. The last 5 month as guard at the Royal palace We had the M1 Garand😉
When I was at NCO training in Værløse in around 1999-2000 we were issued this rifle. Min was with wooden stock and plastic foregrip. When one of my buddies had to leave, i swapped the foregrip with him to a wooden one, so my rifle was all wood and steel. 2 weeks later we had weapons inspection and the weapons- mechanic saw a slight crack in the foregrip, and snapped it into pieces like a rotten stick. Then it was back to wood and plastic! 😂
I really hope Ian does a video on the danish colt LSV M/04. Which was basically a very bad lmg based on the ar15 type rifles that were already in use
When i was a professional soldier in Denmark from 1978 to 1981 (sounds cooler than it was, it just meant we had a contract on 2,5 years, and had some special training) At that time the M-50 was still in use on a few locations, but by the called in conscripts. We had, as you pointed out the M-75. The M-75 had a jamming problem; also the cartridges from your neighbor rifle could hit your face if you where at the shooting range and target practicing.
Thank you very much for all your great videos.
I was issued this rifle when I was a conscript in the Danish Army, and I, loved it. A year later we switched to M/95 (dimarco C7) in 5.56 and I really missed the M/75.
I was a conscript in 2001/2002 and was issued this riffle, while the professional soldiers deployed to Bosnia were using the M95 (licensed Colt M16A4). We also used this rifle during palace guard duty when guarding the Queen.
In 1999 I was a conscript in the Danish Navy's guard squad (Bevogtning og Nærforsvar), and we had a version of these called M-85, which had collapsing stocks. I believe we were the last regular danish troops who still had G-3s.
Used this rifle until 2005, before my unit switched to m/96.
Fantastic long-range rifle. That 7.62 isn't that sensitive to weather conditions.
As a conscript in the Danish Army in 2003/2003, we were issued the M/95, but we did see the conscripts from the previous year/round (2002/2003), where some of the units still had the M/75 for some odd reason. They looked at our M/95's in envy!
The M/75 was known to conscripts as Funk 75, (Funk would be short for Funktionalitetsfejl, or directly into English, Functioning Error), as it would jam quite easily with blanks, due to lower/insufficient recoil. So no problem with with live rounds.
We still had the Garand with conscripts in 1979 - remember loading those 8 round clips.
Home guard was issued G3 with green “non auto” selectors - not that anyone really wanted to fire the G3 inn full auto.
The one I fired had a green polymer stocking and handguard. Wonderful rifle.. truly truly wonderful.
I mean, the S, E, and F settings still make sense to a Dane.
We'd just think about them as "Sikker" (meaning Safe), "Enkelt" (meaning Single), and "Fuld automatisk" (meaning Fully Automatic).
I had the pleasure of using this lovely rifle for the first half of my conscription .. not the wood, mine was polymer. Such a precise weapon, and packed so much more punch than the 5.56 Colt (M16 carbine) we were given after. (M-96 Gevær)
Would love to see a video of the short barreled/modernized G3s used by the Haitian security forces!
The m/75 and 66 were not fully phased out of active duty until well into the 2000s, the home guard wasn't fully equipped with the 95/96 until much later. So when I joined back in 2002 I was issued s m/75 with plastic stock and guard (some had wood, mine didn't), and I got to shoot it for a few years before we were issued m/95s. And we weren't the last unit to phase out the 75 either.
I love these videos. Thank you!
Are You going to make a video about the 1960s Danish DISA assault rifle prototype in an experimental 7x36mm cartridge? The rifle is in some sources referred to as the "DISA Karabin".
Portugal also manufactured G3s under HK license and tooling.
I am Danish too and a couple of childhood friends of mine served at Skive Kaserne and in the Royal Guard. They were issues the M1. The latter only for guard duty, though. That was between 1989 and 1991. I think the Royal Guard still used the M1 for guard duty well into the 90’s
Please make a video of the brief introduktion of the LSW m/O4 in Denmark. Its actually a pretty interesting story.
And funny because it was a massive failure.
I wouldn't call it that. Sure it sucks as a support weapon (30 round magazine fed /100 round ones didn't work so well) and fixed barrel), but its an excellent rifle and it was issued with the best night vision sight I ever saw in the Home Guard.
We used the M/96 back in 07/08'ish during my conscription days, but when we had to act the "enemy" for other units during training missions we used the M/75, ours had the green polymer instead of wood though, only ever got to blankfire it but it was a hefty boi compared to the M/96s for sure.
Thanks for a great review. Having served in the danish national guard (1989-1994) I was a LMG m/62 gunner (7,62mm). I would like to see a review from you on that.
I had a M/75 in the Danish Home Guard. What a punch, the M/75 could deliver...but the recoil was insane!
And we still have them in store. oiled and ready
Vil hellere have en M50, den kan man hvis alt andet svigter bruge til at slå fjenden i hovedet med 😂
@@bentchristensen3770 haha! en god kølle fejler aldrig
@@thatdude1435 Danske Livregiment Vordingborg 1983 Stabskompagniet 3 Deling, kørte opklaring de sidste 6 måneder i gamle Jeep min var en 131. Var genindkaldt i 89 og 90 i 90 fik vi på den sidste natskydning udleveret 18 lade rammer til Garand geværet jeg nåde som den eneste at affyre dem alle og var lige ved at brænde forskæfter af, fed oplevelses skæftet var så varm at jeg måtte bære geværet i remmen på vej væk fra skyde linjen og skæftet røg en del.
I like the speed holes in the furniture!
Awesome video, I have had both that version and also a later version with the plastic furniture issued. Both were older than me.
The M/75, Ak4 and G3 are having that one spiderman standoff where they all point at each other
Denmark relies only on price when it comes to introducing new weapon systems into our armed forces. This rifle is still using by the danish reserve forces (totalforsvarsstyrken).
We also chose the COBRA helmet over the OPS-CORE even though it failed on all parameters besides price ;)
The M/75 was issued to line infantry but units like airforce guards, navy and rear echelon etc. would continue using M/50.
One big difference between the army M/75's and those of the home guard was that the army could mount a bayonet, the home guard guns just had a flat plug in the upper tube so could not have a bayonet mounted (and weren't issued with bayonets)
Funny to see this in your channel, which I follow. I served with the m/75 as a conscript. We then actually switched to the m/95 after signing with the Danish International Brigade and deploying to Bosnia. (Conscript from January to December 1996, so our unit must have received the m/95 in December '96)
All the infantry night vision optics in Australia's ADF are leased from the USA
The G3 wasn't fully phased out till at least 2004 when I stopped in the army. My regiment were still using them by then, I am not sure when they were fully phased out.
In the previous video on the sniper variant a former air force guard attested that they didn't get them replaced until 2007.
The M/75 was still in service in the danish airforce in 2000 when I was a conscript. The airforce kept them long after the army and even the home guard switched to the M/95
The g3 is so brutally simple and robust, love it or hate it it’s something you can trust your life too
The rumor in the danish army at that time was that Denmark had paid 1 DM a year in rent per weapon. And when it came to us handing them back to Germany, they didn't want them because they were too worn.
I'd imagine that if West Germany ever invaded Denmark in the 1980's, the Danish army wouldn't be able to fire back under the lease terms & conditions.
You're not foolin me, that's obviously an American R91 assault rifle
HK 91 was for the US market, so no select-fire 😂
@@kristianhartlevjohansen3541 I was making a reference/joke to the Fallout games, wherein this rifle (or at least a fictional version that is near identical) is featured. But in the games universe is called the R91
My PTR-91 GIR looks a lot like this rifle but with a dark grey parkerization . Mine has the surplus G3 wood furniture and metal trigger pack with plastic grip along with the SEF markings. No giggle switch functionality though. Love the G3 series of rifles and I want to get a PTR 91 K3P and SBR it to a G3KA4 style at some point.
Imagine this guy and Doug Demuro reviewing a Hilux technical
Yes, it's the Fallout 3 Assault Rifle.
While the Sexy FAL, the Techno M-16 and the Grimmy AK get all the attention, the good 'ol G3 was there through conflict after conflict, too. Kinda like your Uncle Bob, boring and not too handsome, but gets the job done at the end of the day. My only issue with the G3 is that roller "delayed" "locking" which is really just over-engineered straight blowback. A real lack of subtlety in the recoil department for sure, but a truly rugged and dependable tool. Edit: Love the Wood!
Greg, I have a slight disagreement with you, on the physical appearance of the G3; I've always thought it was a nifty-looking rifle. Saw one first on an episode of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." Had no idea what it was until seeing the same episode 35 years later.
@@kevinohalloran7164seasons 3 and 4. Also GFU.
I was issued the G3 first and the M16 6 years later, and I have shot several .308/7.62 hunting rifles. The G3 has a pleasant "distributed" recoil compared to a bolt action in the same caliber. If I had to go to war (again) and was given the choice between the Swedish AK4 update of the G3 and the latest iteration of the M16 I would chose the former without even blinking. Sacrificing 10 rds per mag and about a kg of extra weight in exchange for a rifle that hits a human sized target all the time, every time, in adverse weather conditions at 500-600 meters, and has the oomph to go through civilian cars, garden sheds, shallow ditches, etc, is an easy choice to me. Those of my buddies who were less good shots liked the M16, but it never won me over. The correct NATO cartridge change (as the US is figuring out now with the .277 Fury) would have been 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser. The 7.62 was too powerful and the 5.56 was too weak....
Oh, and that you put locking in quotes means you don't understand the mechanics. The bolt head stays in place until the bolt carrier has moved 7mm. The easiest way to think of it is to compare it to balls on a pool table. The "ping" from the cartridge sends energy through the bolt head to the wedge so it starts moving (like two touching pool balls being hit), which pushes the bolt carrier backwards until there is enough space that the rollers can retract, at which point the bolt head starts following the bolt carrier. It's as much a locking system as a rotating bolt head. It's just two different mechanisms that actuate the unlocking.
I have to admit to hsving a soft spot for the G3. A beautiful rifle and to my mind it's what the FAL could have been with a little effort.
Oh I miss this so much
You are missing out on some things... Like the deflector screen, that was mandatory, it was not allowed to use it without that attached.... and the lightweight mags, nobody had the heavy mags that you show.
You also missed the fact that we had two fireselectors
A green and a black, the original.
The green one did not allow the rifle to be fired in full auto, so in practice it was a semiauto only, but that only applied for the homeguard, the army had only the black one.
In peacetime we were only allowed to use the green selector, only in wartime were we allow to shift from green to black(the original)
But in time that changed, and the green one was taken away, and we only used the black one.
It wasn't so that we didn't have the black selector, it was store on the back of the triggerhouse so we could switch to it in case of war.
So to make it a real clone there must be that hole in the triggerhouse.
By the way.... Danish homeguard has just startede issuing them to the homeguard reservists.
Of you really want to dive into it, I visited the Swedish homeguard... And they had ALL the sniper version, and they had cut of the front sight, removed the bag sight and welded a picatinny rail on top of the frame... And they had all red dot on.
Only the home guard had two selectors, and I can assure you that in the army which mags you got was a luck of the draw. I got three lightweight and two clonky bois.
Thank You very much for your video's and the hard work it takes in making them Canada classifies an airgun as a firearm 😆 Take care and have a great day
So does New Zealand if it is a "particularly powerful" air gun....
i remember seeing these at the local national guard center where i lived a a kid.
Would be really cool if you could get into the Colt Canada collection and cover their myriad of neat firearms there
its important to know that some g3 rifles were not freefloated. most g3 especially the later production runs have freefloated barrels. there is a gap where the tube from the charginghandle goes into the frontsight. i did not know until i discovered it when 9 hole reviews talked about the g3 being freefloat but mine is not. mine is a g3 bundeswehr surplus made semi only from 1958 (really one of the first ones) and thats pretty interesting. so when ian talks about the heating influencing accuracy well maybe he refers to that
The many time Ian is perplexed, confused, flabbergasted, suprised or outright in disbelief in regards to the decisions of the Danish armed forces has been mirrored by any and everyone who has ever served in the Danish armed forces.
This or any g3 makes me instantly think of fallout 3