During my trip to Germany last week, I took a special trip up to Hamburg, Germany to visit Zib Militaria. Zib is a surplus dealer in some rare gun parts. Heiko, the owner, has acquired some rare machine gun parts as well as stock piled a bunch of HK goodies. Among them are piles of HK 416 and 417 parts along with guns minus the barrels and bolts. This is due to the laws regarding firearm components in Germany. While I was there, I learned that Brownells has bought a majority these components and is planning to import them for sale in the US.

This has been confirmed by Paul at Brownells via email.

We don’t have prices firm yet, but we will have: HK 416 & 417 Parts Kits (less barrel, bolt & lower) Germans could not have the barrel & bolt, and we can’t import the lower. We are importing all the lower components with the kits. HK 417 & 417 Stripped lower receivers, machined off original HK forgings

While I was touring Heiko’s facility I took pictures of the HK 416 parts I saw. This was before I found out Brownells was buying them.

Below is a semi auto HK416 PDW lower receiver. See the large hole above the hammer pin? That is for guides used to hold the PDW stock bars in the stored position.

Of course they also have the full auto lower receivers.

Notice anything interesting about these lowers? They don’t have serial numbers.

Sadly they are not importing the lowers.

Brownells bought up most of these 416 blanks and will be machining them with the proper 416 profile and contours. It will be the best clone possible. But is it a clone if it is made from an HK 416 blank?

See these boxes and the three columns wrapped in black plastic? Those are unused HK416/417 sans barrel and bolts. Right now there is a gentleman from England currently disassembling these by hand for Brownells.

Take a closer look at these 416s. The upper receivers have matching serial numbers.

Here are the current collection of small parts like triggers, sears, full auto trip, safety levers etc. However they only have HK416 parts, they do not have the newer 416 A5 parts like the ambi bolt catch and ambi mag release.

I will be writing an article about the other gems I saw at Zib Militaria. Stay Tuned.