An excellent design paternity and a consequential realization marketed today with a brand of the group that brings to mind high-level weapons in the military as in the sports sector.
by Emanuele Tabasso
We were able to observe, thanks to the courtesy of Bignami di Ora (BZ), the Haenel SLB 2000+ rifled semiauto: apart from some innovations and marketing under the historic brand taken up by the German financial group that has the availability, this rifle reminds us of the first meeting a few years ago when we tried it under the name of the designer company, Heckler & Koch.
With an unusual and vaguely militaristic shape, this weapon was making its way and certainly not thanks to its formal beauty: but the FN Auto 5 already taught that an aesthetic that was not beautiful, but with a strong personality, has valid motivations in itself. implying something interesting.
What made several choices converge on this gritty shotgun? We tried to grab him and that impertinent hump in the breech of the castle sent the eye on the notch and front sight as if on a set course; likewise the line of the stock with axis almost aligned with the barrel, with the back at the right level and that funny pistol grip always brought the weapon there, to that position in which even the finger that operates the trigger did not have to do research to find the its location. We quickly understood that the beauty of that project was the functionality pushed to the maximum and elevated to a system: the design of the company that remained in Oberndorf had poured its extensive and experienced knowledge of highly reliable military weapons into the sports sector.
The mechanical part
Of H. & K. it should be remembered his first rifled hunting semiauto, the Model 770, equipped with a fixed barrel and a Vorgrimmler type roller closure: the considerable weight and a certain hardness in the recoil limited its diffusion together with the consequent rise in costs. unavoidable productive in a difficult mechanics and in need of a lot of precision. In this SLB 2000+ model, now marketed under the historic Haenel brand, the transition to the gas system proves to be a radical solution to the problem. The adoption of an aluminum alloy castle favors lightness and handling: this component shaped in a lying L shape incorporates the guard in the horizontal part, with the percussion and trigger mechanism, the compartment for the magazine detachable by means of a butterfly connected to the guard itself, while the safety lever is inserted in the short vertical portion. A steel element with a prismatic shape and an inverted U section supports these components: the barrel to which the gas intake block is clamped, the piston with pinned the motion transmission levers, the flat section recovery spring, the carriage with rotating bolt head equipped with six lugs that close directly into the breech of the barrel. There is also a lower bracket designed to support the rod by means of two long screws. This assembly is connected to the fixed breech by means of a front interlocking tooth and an internal rear dowel: two through pins, the rearmost one with an Allen key, stably connect the two parts. The advantages lie in quick access for cleaning and cost-effective processing.
The functionality
An aspect of primary importance is functionality: a semi-auto that gets stuck is a misfortune of colossal proportions, arousing the furious anger of those who find themselves stuck in front of the wild boar, and who then have to suffer the teasing of colleagues. The Haenel has a reset cycle perfectly designed for an optimal delay in the execution times in which rotation of the head, primary extraction with detachment of the case from the walls of the cartridge chamber, retrograde stroke take place in a perfectly sequenced manner and without marked pulses. The extractor then presents a sturdy nail, of large proportions and derived from military automatic weapons, which works orthogonally therefore with minimal possibilities to cross the groove of the bottom: a wire spring wound on the head and inserted into the base of the nail ensures durability and elasticity while the doubling of the elastic pawls inserted in the lowered head of the bolt guarantees a fast and safe push on the case for an imperative ejection. The release of the bolt from the open position in which it remains when the cartridges are exhausted, takes place by lowering a button on the left side of the breech: convenient to operate while keeping the weapon gripped with the right hand.
Rear sight with anti-glare inclination and movable in drift on dovetail and red fiber optic front sight mounted on base and adjustable in elevation form the open sights; together there are the holes prepared on the castle for the bases of an optical or electronic medium. The very small barrel, 500 or 510 mm with or without muzzle brake, favors the swing to exploit the power of a cartridge like the .300 Win. Mag. Chambered in the example in question (alternatively: .30-06 Sprg. - .308 Win. - 9,2 × 62 are proposed). The use usually at a short distance still allows you to discharge on the target a quantity of energy and a highly respectable vulnerable power: the muzzle brake attenuates a lot of recoil and detection keeping the rifle aligned with the target, ready to double the shot thanks to the trigger release of the right roundness and appropriate weight. There are two versions of the magazine, in sturdy folded steel sheet, suitable for holding 2 or 5 cartridges.
The details
The stock with its peculiar shape is combined with the prismatic shaped shaft, which can be easily grasped for safe swinging; the medium-fine checkering does not slip the grip even with wet hands. The version in wood is flanked by the polymer version. The sling t-shirts are applied near the butt of the stock and in the schnabel at the apex of the shaft. The decidedly low cost together with the intrinsic qualities just described make the Haenel SLB 2000+ a respectable option in the panorama of rifled semiautomatics.