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Assume a Shooter's Stance

When Wooden finishes assembling the rifle, he hands it to me. It's compact but not heavy; the steel barrel feels cool and vaguely oily. He goes through a well-honed process to make me comfortable with the weapon, starting by showing me the empty chamber. Without ammunition, this is just a sleek metal club. Yet staring down the barrel is uncomfortable even when you know it's unloaded. I tilt the weapon and trigger a latch—the edge of the magazine well is conveniently beveled, making the motion ergonomically intuitive—and the steel clip slides neatly out. It holds 30 rounds of 5.56-mm ammunition.



The rifle can fire 800 rounds per minute, but SEALs on a raid would set the rifle to single fire, picking their shots carefully and conserving ammo. It's a shame that I can't pop off a few rounds myself to get the full experience. The techs tell me the kick is remarkably minimal, courtesy of a recoil pad in the butt stock.



I assume my best approximation of a shooter's stance, swinging the weapon straight up to my shoulder, my arms and the rifle rigidly rising like a tollbooth gate. The butt stock fits neatly into the hollow of my shoulder—it takes only seconds to extend the stock to fit my long arms. I lean into the weapon and take a couple of shuffling steps forward. I somehow feel taller, even though I'm crouching.



This HK416's barrel is only 10 inches long—the company also sells 16.5- and 20-inch barrels—and when I turn a corner, I can see why a pro shooter on a raid would like to keep things short. The tip of a long barrel would poke around the corner and betray my position a split second before I'm ready to shoot back, essentially breaking cover before the rest of me. Not so with the stubby barrel of the HK416. A mission's success or failure, life and death, can sometimes be decided in such brief moments.



The steel is cold hammer-forged, formed under intense hydraulic pressure as carbide steel hammers shape the barrel around a mandrel. The method takes time and money, but it avoids defects and preserves consistency. "The barrel on the HK416 is also probably one of the best-manufactured," Galloway bosts. "Some HK416 models have shot more than 20,000 rounds without significant deterioration of accuracy."



It's time to relinquish the assault rifle. I reluctantly hand it over to the ever-present techs, and feel immediately diminished. I am, of course, a fool. In the right, well-trained hands, the HK416 can make history. In my novice hands, it'd be a menace.