South African R series of weapons information thread (lots of pictures)

[lcastillo]

Finally Have the Trio

Here is a closer view of the forward end of the gas-tubes. The story behind the flanging on the gas tubes on R-Series is in the event the locking pin comes loose on the front handguard retainer it will prevent the handguard falling out. I still to this day cannot figure out why the R5's gas-tube was so over-sized and different from the R4 and R6 design.

 

[lcastillo]

Finally Have the Trio

Ok I hope you ladies enjoyed the pictures! I am going to wrap it up now , but feel free to ask any questions.. Cheers! Lou

 

[WILDCARD]

Lcastillo thank you for posting the pics on the gatubes.

it does struck me with amaze that some R6 and LM6 rifles I have seen, the gastube does not have the lip.

Here is photos of a LM6 (LIW produced, not Nobleteq):





I have been in discussion with some people here in SA that have close ties to Denel and Vektor back in the day. I was informed that Vektor never made it a priority to produce the semi auto LM6 as it did with the LM4 and LM5. Each LIW/Vektor produced LM6 semi auto you will find in fact used to be a R6 that was modified to semi auto. Unlike the LM4 and LM5 that left the production allready in semi auto. Basically the semi auto internals was put in and the auto parts removed. Thus the receiver still having the A notch. Although some later produced LM rifles also have the A notch. This was done to ssave costs apparently and they just used the full auto receivers with semi parts. Although the LM receivers came from the exact same production line as the R receivers they just never had the A notch engraved. Seeing that more R rifles were produced than LM rifles as demand went higher they just started using R receivers. To save time and money apparently...

Coming to the gastubes. I was also told that the R6 and LM6 gastubes were R4 gastubes that were shortened by Denel. No production line existed for these gastubes. I was also told that modifying the tube to keep the lip was more expensive and time consuming. So they just shortened it and drilled new holes for the gas. Instead of cutting and joining to keep the lip.

So in my opinion to actually have a LM6/R6 gastube with the lip you can consider yourself to be one lucky guy! As they do exist, they are extremely scarce and pricey here. With or without the lip. I have gone through endless ways to find a gastube with the lip for the LM6 to no avail. We had a Denel presentation in town a few months ago where they showcased a R4 rifle in Nutria brown which had the cut aways done to see all internal working parts. After speaking to the guy from Denel present he told me to find LM6/R6 gastubes with the lip will be a problem. You will have more luck finding a chicken with teeth...n Also, they have basiccaly no LM 4/5/6 parts left as Nobleteq purchased the whole lot. And even the LM6 gastubes from them does not have the lip as I went this route and it was confirm to me that they received all LM6 tubes from Denel.

Also, If you want to part with that R5 gastube let me know....

 

[WCC]

I know the Nobleteq guys quite well and they get all their R/LM parts directly from Denel. Right now there’s a huge shortage and they just can’t get parts. I think it is just a priority thing for Denel as the parts get produced in batches and currently they just aren’t making them. Even Nobleteq could not give me any indication of when they will get stock, not even whether it will be 2016 or 2017.
I think the lack of parts availability is a concern and with no indication of whether they will be produced in future they will be at a rising premium going forward.
At the same time the SANDF are getting parts and have them available, so obviously Denel gives them priority, which makes sense given their mandate.

 

[lcastillo]

Wildcard,

Thank you for the kind words. I would like to thank you for posting pictures of the LIW LM6/R6. They are some of the best close up pictures of the LM/R6 gas block I have seen yet. We just do not have enough pictures of R6's in this thread. Yet still this is one of the reasons I like referring to this thread. Yes I agree these parts are hard to find and I have been hunting for them for years now. I have faithful copies of the R4 and R5 rifles that without help from members here at UziTalk I would not be able to own. Especially from the members that hail from South Africa. I finally put together enough parts to build a R6, but unfortunately the state I live in does not allow me to possess a SBR (Short Barrel Rifle). So I feel saddened to say I sold the R6 kit to another member here on the board out of frustration of not being able to own it with a correct sized barrel. The member who bought this R6 kit is in the process of resurrecting it to a new rifle as we speak! I am sure you will get a chance to see it here on the boards when it is done.

I have to heard that the lip on the R6 tube is quite rare. Question: So I can see that the R6 gas tube that has no lip is much easier to disassemble for cleaning. The member who bought my R6 kit told me that he could not flip the locking lever on the front handguard retainer closed because the R6 gastube lip was in the way (preventing from being able to lock down the handguard retainer) Are you aware if there is a special way of re-assembling a R6 with the gastube that has a lip on it? Any R6 manuals out there to post?

I did buy my R5 gastube from Nobelteq. It's kinda funny that Nobelteq sold us the first batch of parts, then when we went to order more parts they raise the prices considerably on us with little warning. I felt like they did not want to sell us the parts (our first initial order was over $1,000.00 USD) even though we went thru a intermediary buyer. Now they won't even sell us parts because apparently there are new export laws. I have heard the R5 gastubes from Denel do not even come with the bell shape at the end anymore, instead they are doing the same as the R6 gastubes (flush at the end). What's this world getting to man! Wildcard if I do sell my R5 gastube you will be the first I offer it to. Are you trying to build a R5 currently? What rifles do you own currently?

 

[lcastillo]

I know the Nobleteq guys quite well and they get all their R/LM parts directly from Denel. Right now there’s a huge shortage and they just can’t get parts. I think it is just a priority thing for Denel as the parts get produced in batches and currently they just aren’t making them. Even Nobleteq could not give me any indication of when they will get stock, not even whether it will be 2016 or 2017.
I think the lack of parts availability is a concern and with no indication of whether they will be produced in future they will be at a rising premium going forward.
At the same time the SANDF are getting parts and have them available, so obviously Denel gives them priority, which makes sense given their mandate.

WCC, Answer this question for me: I thought that Denel's R-Series factory was all but closed until the SADF decided not to replace the R4 and R5 as the main battle rifle and paving the way for the Denel plant to re-open to make parts to repair current SADF R-Series rifles? So is Nobelteq the only source to buy parts in SA for civilians? Or is there other companies in SA that offer the sale of surplus parts for civilians?

 

[WCC]

WCC, Answer this question for me: I thought that Denel's R-Series factory was all but closed until the SADF decided not to replace the R4 and R5 as the main battle rifle and paving the way for the Denel plant to re-open to make parts to repair current SADF R-Series rifles? So is Nobelteq the only source to buy parts in SA for civilians? Or is there other companies in SA that offer the sale of surplus parts for civilians?

Lou, right now Nobleteq is "in theory" the only way to get parts from Denel, but they don't have stock. Of course, there are guys that have parts, some ex SADF members that have parts from their national service days while others may have extra parts they stocked up for their own use.
One thing is for sure, they are becoming rare where once you were able to get hold of them without much hassle.

Re the LM5 gas tube from Nobleteq, I have never seen one that they sold without the bell as you call it. According to them they only sell parts obtained from Denel.

 

[Ady]

Below is a pic of my spare LM5 gastube. You will notice it has no flare at all.

The gas tube on the CR-21 is totally different from all the LM gas tubes i have seen so far. The CR21 is basically a LM4 inside that has been reconfigured into a bullpup design. I am getting things together and will start a CR21 thread with pics etc.

 

[WILDCARD]

Ady, is that spare LM5 tube of yours from Nobleteq?

Ive just purchased a gasrod from the for my LM5. But they told me they dont have gastube will have in about 3 weeks.
But this my fear now as I want an original one and bot the flushed one.

 

[Ady]

Ady, is that spare LM5 tube of yours from Nobleteq?

Ive just purchased a gasrod from the for my LM5. But they told me they dont have gastube will have in about 3 weeks.
But this my fear now as I want an original one and bot the flushed one.

No Wildcard. I got this one off Bid or Buy. Nobelteq didn't have stock when i tried them either. I don't think the Nobelteq gas tubes are flared, i think they are flush like my pic above.

 

[WILDCARD]

No Wildcard. I got this one off Bid or Buy. Nobelteq didn't have stock when i tried them either. I don't think the Nobelteq gas tubes are flared, i think they are flush like my pic above.

Thank you Ady.

Well hopefully i will get a reply from them soon. They did assist with supplying a gasrod so lets see. I will however ask for a photos first before any transaction takes place.

 

[WCC]

Here's a pic of the Nobleteq gastubes - LM4-6.

 

[WILDCARD]

WCC I suppose you only have that one LM5 tube?

 

[WCC]

WCC I suppose you only have that one LM5 tube?

The only ones I have are in my LM5 and Galil. The pic above is just to show what Nobleteq sells, which are the Denel made tubes.

 

[adipose]

Lcastillo thank you for posting the pics on the gatubes.

it does struck me with amaze that some R6 and LM6 rifles I have seen, the gastube does not have the lip.

Here is photos of a LM6 (LIW produced, not Nobleteq):





I have been in discussion with some people here in SA that have close ties to Denel and Vektor back in the day. I was informed that Vektor never made it a priority to produce the semi auto LM6 as it did with the LM4 and LM5. Each LIW/Vektor produced LM6 semi auto you will find in fact used to be a R6 that was modified to semi auto. Unlike the LM4 and LM5 that left the production allready in semi auto. Basically the semi auto internals was put in and the auto parts removed. Thus the receiver still having the A notch. Although some later produced LM rifles also have the A notch. This was done to ssave costs apparently and they just used the full auto receivers with semi parts. Although the LM receivers came from the exact same production line as the R receivers they just never had the A notch engraved. Seeing that more R rifles were produced than LM rifles as demand went higher they just started using R receivers. To save time and money apparently...

Coming to the gastubes. I was also told that the R6 and LM6 gastubes were R4 gastubes that were shortened by Denel. No production line existed for these gastubes. I was also told that modifying the tube to keep the lip was more expensive and time consuming. So they just shortened it and drilled new holes for the gas. Instead of cutting and joining to keep the lip.

So in my opinion to actually have a LM6/R6 gastube with the lip you can consider yourself to be one lucky guy! As they do exist, they are extremely scarce and pricey here. With or without the lip. I have gone through endless ways to find a gastube with the lip for the LM6 to no avail. We had a Denel presentation in town a few months ago where they showcased a R4 rifle in Nutria brown which had the cut aways done to see all internal working parts. After speaking to the guy from Denel present he told me to find LM6/R6 gastubes with the lip will be a problem. You will have more luck finding a chicken with teeth...n Also, they have basiccaly no LM 4/5/6 parts left as Nobleteq purchased the whole lot. And even the LM6 gastubes from them does not have the lip as I went this route and it was confirm to me that they received all LM6 tubes from Denel.

Also, If you want to part with that R5 gastube let me know....

ADY - WCC - Wildcard - Ruski,

Can any of you get me the dimension of the thickness of the bottom part of the gas block?

From the picture above; from the bottom of the barrel to the bottom of the gas block?

A standard Israeli one(s) vary from .140 to .200

 

[Ady]

Adipose

My LM5 gas block is about 8,3mm which converts to 0,326772 inches

 

[adipose]

Adipose

My LM5 gas block is about 8,3mm which converts to 0,326772 inches

Adrian, Thanks very much for the info.

I kind've figured it was around .375 (10mm) but looking at the picture of how beefy it is.

I should of have you posted the picture of you taking the measurement with the calipers.

But hearing from you as always!

 

[WILDCARD]

Adipose

My LM5 gas block is about 8,3mm which converts to 0,326772 inches

Exactly the same as my LM5. In at my dealer as I am typing now. Just measured it now. My LM5 has to remain in dealerstock until my license is approved.

 

[adipose]

Exactly the same as my LM5. In at my dealer as I am typing now. Just measured it now. My LM5 has to remain in dealerstock until my license is approved.

Even though you have shown some pictures; Can't wait to see it in action; especially with the smile on your face.

 

[AspektZA]

Hey Ouens,

Has anyone got an R5 gas tube they're willing to part with in the US?

Also looking for a ZA gasblock and folding stock.

Thanks