R5/6 Wood Handguard

**Gekishibu86** · 01-03-2023, 17:43

Has anyone seen one in SA mounted on a rifle? I was told they were doing prototypes in Lyttleton in 1979 but was eventually drop due to higher cost compared to polymer.

**A-R** · 01-03-2023, 21:42

The only wooden handguards that I have seen were on the imported "R4" rifles, being Galil ARM's.

All local production was with polymer hand guards.

**Mark357** · 01-03-2023, 23:15

According to the book "Firearms Developed and Manufactured in South Africa" no wooden Handguards were ever made in SA
The original batch of Galil ARM's had them but they were replaces during upgrades.
It says if any wooden one is found on a locally made R4 the handguard would have been imported from Israel or taken from the original Galil ARM's

**DaveSheerGuns** · 04-03-2023, 09:02

Not true. I have a wooden handguard and grip that came from a good source that says they were made as prototypes for testing. They are clearly not Israeli made. R4 and R5 ones iirc.
Need to dig them out.

**Gekishibu86** · 04-03-2023, 17:53

I have pics of said handguard but have difficulty posting pics here. I did comparison between a known wood Galil SAR handguard from Israel, polymer SA, polymer Galil and this handguard and saw differences. The rivet tails are much smaller on the mystery R5 wood compared to the Galil but identical to the polymer R5. I would appreciate if someone could help me post my pics here. Email me at gekishibu8@yahoo.com for the pictures.

**Spliffcat** · 05-03-2023, 12:19

At the end of 1980 we got issued R4's with the wooden grip just before we went to 61 Mech I cannot remember if the rifles were locally made or not.
The rifles had the bipod and wire cutter.

Maybe someone here remembers?

**STEVIE** · 05-03-2023, 20:17

I did a favour for one of the armourers at our base and he agreed to do a swop on my very used standard R4. I got a brand new wrapped in grease & grease paper wooden forend R4, took me an age to get it cleaned up.
It was definitely a R4 with carry handle and all.

Raised many a PF eyebrow...

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**A-R** · 05-03-2023, 20:36

Originally Posted by STEVIE

I did a favour for one of the armourers at our base and he agreed to do a swop on my very used standard R4. I got a brand new wrapped in grease & grease paper wooden forend R4, took me an age to get it cleaned up.
It was definitely a R4 with carry handle and all.

Raised many a PF eyebrow...

I got issued one like that for a while as well. Rifle was well used, but the barrel seemed good. It was likely replaced at some point.

Mine still had the single trigger/hammer spring, small sight protector ring and shorter aluminium stock. Handguard was wood with carry handle. No ring on the gas tube. A genuine Galil ARM.

Yes, in SA that was known as the R4. The difference is between Israeli and local manufacture.

The local manufactured R4's had the bigger front sight protector, plastic hand guard without carry handle, 2 seperate springs on trigger and hammer, longer plastic stock, ring around the forward end of gas tube and a few smaller details.

**Gekishibu86** · 05-03-2023, 21:27

The very early Galil/R4 definitely came from IMI with wood handguard but what I need to confirm is if the R5 wood handguard was indeed prototyped for the carbine.