This particular rifle is of note to me as it's around the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre. I was in the fourth grade when it happened. So, if you could (I know
@buffalowinter already gave the history once, but were these used as the Polizei sharpshooter rifle? Or, what were they using? As I understand it, the PSG-1 was developed because they felt what they had was lacking. Also, brought about by that massacre was GSG-9. A counter-terror group much like our SFOD-D...do expound
Woo necro-posting!
So the history of German sniping back then is a bit complicated. They basically came out of WW2 defeated, and with very strongly enforced anti-Nazi bent. This in large part manifested as anti-elitism, because of course the Nazis were at the core elitists. So while the Bundeswehr when it was eventually reconstituted with largely American equipment, they perceived sniping with well, some strong cultural distaste, because of course there were still alot of former SS snipers around. And if you were in the SS that basically meant you weren't in the Bundeswehr. Anyhow, the 50's come and go and the G3 is introduced, and there is a need for a sniper rifle.
So they go and ask all the former WW2 snipers, what would your ideal rifle have been? And to make a long story short, its the same answers that former Soviet snipers gave, so in reality it was the SVD. Well, the Germans weren't gonna go build a special rifle for "elite" soldiers. But some things were easy enough, a semi-auto rifle, a 4x optic (deemed good enough), and in a bit of political expediency, the scope/mount were to be quick detachable, partly from the practical point of view of not damaging the optic, but also from the point of view of hey we are about to be overrun and I don't want to be identified as a sniper so I just toss the optic over there, so I'm not immediately shot for being a sniper.
So, the very first German sniper rifle in the early 60's was the basically just a run of the mill G3 with the Ferro ZF24 scope on it on the claw mount. Very little else was done with these rifles, no cheek piece meant you were using some hilarious chin hold, and the "Drop proof" trigger mean it was like 10lb trigger pull. These were designated as the G3Z or G3Zf (G3 Zielfernrohr) i.e G3 with optic. No special sniper ammunition was issued, but the DAG/MEN ammo was generally high quality anyway. The Optic was decent enough quality, 4x but ultimately pretty uninspired, shitty post reticle, and range adjustment (with detents) out to 600m.
Thats what they had for Munich. Which, well, failed, for obvious reasons.
After that fail boat, 2 other rifles were developed.
The PSG-1, the worlds first crew served sniper rifle. Which was huge refinement of the G3 in general, heavy barrel, totally new bolt system, good trigger system, great stock, and a welded on optic (because the claw mounts had issues holding zero). They were amazing systems by 70's standards, but also heavy as fuck. Which is why Police units used them, cuz you didn't want to haul it around, and well it was absurdly expensive.
And what the German Army actually used, which was the G3 SG-1. Which improved most of the obvious failings of the standard G3. It got a new stock with an adjustable comb which actually let you have consistent cheek weld, it also had a heavy buffer which helped a bit with recoil. And then a new "swiss watch" trigger system, which was full auto (god why?), but with a set trigger as well for precision shooting which is sorta useful, but also not. And finally a 1.5-6x variable power optic which at least improved the reticle to a fine crosshair with some limited milling capabilities (so you could actually hold for wind), elevation was again adjustable to 600m. Which given the capability (or lack therof) of the ammunition is probably a pretty realistic upper end for range.
HK also eventually built the MSG-90 which was a more lightweight version of the PSG-1, but it never really lived up to the hype or caught on. And of course the civilian derived "match" variants of the G3, which were mostly mix-masters of features of the G3 SG-1, G3Z, PSG-1 and MSG-90 series.
Probably the biggest drawback to any of the HK sharpshooter rifles is that more or less you shouldn't reuse the brass. It just gets too fucked up by the extraction cycle (and yes I have port buffers and I have reloaded it). So you more or less are stuck running factory ammo, or you basically take your brass from your match bolt guns and use it at the end of its life in the G3.
