Reviews American-Made G36C: Now Available to Civilians. Kinda. Iain Harrison February 13, 2026 Join the Conversation At RECOIL, we review every product fairly and without bias. Making a purchase through one of our links may earn us a small commission, and helps support independent gun reviews. Read our affiliate policy. Find out more about how we test products. The HK G36 has something of a checkered past and an uncertain future. Designed in the 1990s to replace the obsolescent G3 roller-locked battle rifle, it promised to bring the wonders of modern polymer technology adopted in the Glock handgun to an issued long-gun. It achieved some initial success in Europe, with multiple countries adopting it for their troops and special police units. You could make the argument that, at the time, there really wasn’t much in the way of locally produced alternatives to product coming out of Germany, as both France and Britain’s small arms industries were dead and buried by their respective governments, and Czech, Croatian, and Polish talent was yet to mature. In terms of its operating system, it’s yet another variant of Stoner’s other design, the AR-18. In it, a short stroke piston drives a bolt carrier with a helical cam path, which rotates a multi-lug bolt engaging with a barrel extension. That’s 70 years of small arms development summed up in 25 words — feel free to copy and paste when referring to just about any modern Western service rifle. The G36C thankfully dispenses with the stratospherically tall top rail of its longer peers. While closer to the receiver, there’s still plenty of room to reach the charging handle. S5 Tactical, HK Parts SG36 Caliber: 5.56 NATO Capacity: 30 rounds Barrel length: 9 inches Length (stock folded): 20.5 inches Weight: 6.4 pounds MSRP: $570 receiver, $1,200 parts kit, $167 stock URL: s5tactical.com, hkparts.net RISE AND FALL In 2012, the Bundeswehr received reports from troops in Afghanistan that their rifles wouldn’t hold zero after firing a lot of rounds during extended firefights in a hot environment. After a lot of rounds downrange, the chances of connecting with an enemy at 100m with a well-aimed shot allegedly went down from 90 percent to near zero, as the polymer receiver heated up. The next few years saw a period of buck-passing and blame shifting, until 2016 when Ursula von der Leyen, then defense minister, announced the G36 was being phased out of general service. Whether there was a real issue was still in question, but politicians never miss an opportunity to present themselves as saviors while blaming their predecessors for any problems. Certainly, VDL was not held in high regard by the troops during this period and gained a reputation as being self-serving and only marginally competent. This is the entirety of the parts kit you’ll need to build your own G36C. The “L” shaped piece at the top right is the specialized barrel nut wrench. As police units and specialists were not expected to have to call for an ammo resupply halfway through their shift, the G36 remains in use with other purchasers and is highly respected by those who still carry it. Several variants exist, with three different barrel lengths, but as we all know, shorter is sexier. All models share the same basic architecture, consisting of a polymer receiver, folding stock, and, as you’d expect, HK-style takedown using non-captive pins. A plastic carrying handle serves as both an optics mount and shield for the folding, reciprocating charging handle. UNDER THE HOOD Heckler & Koch USA does not sell the G36 to civilians — the closest you’ll get is a 22LR version produced under license or the bastardized SL8. If you’ve got an itch for a grown-up version, you’ll have to roll your own. The stubbiest G36 variant is the G36C, with a 9-inch barrel. Ours started life as a parts kit from HK Parts in Utah, which substitutes a nitrided 416 stainless American-made barrel for the German hammer-forged and chrome-lined original, due to import restrictions. The folding mechanism is robust and an improvement over the German original. This was combined with a USA-made receiver from S5 Tactical in Mesa, Arizona, and assembly couldn’t have been easier, as most major components are already put together. If you’ve ever built an AR-15 from a kit, this project will be easy in comparison. The most involved procedure is barrel installation, but a specialized wrench is available, and the barrel nut comes already installed on the barrel, with the gas block in place, so it’s just a matter of slipping the barrel into the receiver’s trunion/barrel extension and torquing to spec. Once the barrel is installed, the rest of the assembly is very straightforward, and, really, it’s not much different from putting the gun back together after field stripping — with one exception. The mag catch spring was shat from the bowels of Satan himself and will cause all manner of swearing while you figure out how to install it — so make sure small children are out of the room while you fiddle, curse, and recover it from the carpet. S5 Tactical’s receiver looks like a very high-quality injection molding, and we can only speculate as to how much the tooling for it must have cost them — we’re guessing at least one kidney must have been involved. It provides a foundation for the system and, unless HK were handing out CAD files like Halloween candy, was accurately reverse engineered from an original. The designers included a few improvements along the way; stock lockup is very precise, and when folded, remains rattle-free. Carbine controls are fully ambi. The magwell can be swapped out to accept STANAG mags. Controls remain true to the original, which was designed from the outset to be completely ambi. The mag release is an AK-style paddle, while the bolt release/hold open is an “L” shaped lever inside the trigger guard — push up with your trigger finger to engage, press down with your support thumb to drop the BCG, and chamber the first round of a reload. It’s intuitive and means both sides are uncluttered with buttons and levers. Safety selector levers are identical and fall naturally under your digits; we found it easier to swipe the safety to “Fire” with the master hand’s thumb and reapply with the first phalange of the trigger finger. ROUNDS DOWNRANGE Sight selection for the G36C is a bit of a compromise, as it already has considerable height-over-bore issues. We wanted to test for group size, so in the end wound up with the smallest LPVO on the shelf, but this gun really cries out for a 1x prism or low-mounted red dot. Our first range session was an exercise in frustration. Multiple failures to feed occurred right off the bat, and the problem seemed worse when shooting from the prone position, using the magazine as a monopod. We quickly became experts in stoppage drills and found that if you dropped a live round into the chamber by hand, the carbine would get through a dozen or so rounds before choking again. LPVO is probably not the best optic option, but allowed us to assess accuracy. Height over bore is a thing … On examining the Magpul P-Mag, its feed lips had a tiny bow to them, and the center part was dragging on the carrier, slowing it enough to prevent it going into battery after stripping a round. A couple of file strokes solved the problem, and we were off to the races. You could possibly avoid having to deal with that particular problem altogether by using genuine HK mags, which have the added advantage of being able to be clipped together, side by side. Or not, given that they’re about four times the cost of their American counterparts. Despite its 9-inch barrel, the G36C is pleasant to shoot. Sure, there’s a fireball out front and no escape from the concussion, but compared to a 10.3-inch Mk18, its action feels much softer and more subdued. All cases ejected in a neat pile at the 4 o’clock position, and the trigger, while it’s never going to win any prizes, was very usable with a clean, 8-pound break (which feels lighter than it is) and solid reset. Integrated iron (plastic) sights are adequate for the purpose. The polymer top rail can be deflected with hand pressure, so we’re not sure we’d want to mount a laser there. As far as accuracy goes, Black Hills Mk262 produced 2.75-inch groups, shot prone unsupported. No, it’s not stellar, but it’s acceptable for the role of a PDW or CQB weapon. If you’re prepared for the possibility of having to do some tweaking and troubleshooting, the prospect of owning a unicorn is very appealing. Even though HK USA has made some overtures to the U.S. civilian market with regards to availability of their previously closely kept models, we don’t see any prospect of them releasing a G36 any time soon, especially not a shorty version. This combination of an American receiver and German small parts is about as close as you’re going to get to the real thing, and we have no doubt availability is going to be limited. 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