This article is a stub, intended primarily to serve as a linking point for articles on HK firearms
HK is a German gun manufacturer, probably best known for the iconic MP5 and G3 rifles. After the prolific AR and AK families, HK's designs are probably currently the most widely copied semi-automatic (or select fire) rifles in the world. For details on the company itself, please see the Wikipedia page:
The table below represents the last known status of all HK manufacturers I'm aware of. This does not count the various builders you can send a parts kit to, but only manufacturers providing complete rifles. I keep inactive dealers in the table here because people researching used items will still find the information useful. Most of the inactive dealers are inactive in the HK market because parts kits are difficult and expensive to come by at present, and are still in business producing other types of gun.
This tends to come up whenever HK rifles are mentioned in the US, so it may as well be mentioned here. For many years, the only source of "budget-priced" HK-pattern rifles has been a progression of companies linked to one man: Todd Bailey. While the rifles his companies put out are almost universally derided, dealers seem to agree that his companies follow a pattern. This pattern is that their early products are actually fairly decent, but it's not long until they manage to annoy their experienced builders into quitting their jobs. At this point, the company starts using inexperienced builders and the quality of the final product suffers. One very interesting piece on Bailey's companies is here.
Companies known to have links to Todd Bailey are:
Bobcat Weapons (Note that Todd does NOT run this company - only supplied them some parts. BW put out good rifles, and stopped in Jan 2006)
Cohaire Arms (the most recent company, and as of 2008 their work was fine)
Special Weapons (the only good thing I've heard about SW rifles is that once you've fixed them, they stay fixed and run well - view these as parts kits)