Egyptian Hakim Service Rifle: Crushing Thumbs Since 1956
The Egyptian Hakim service rifle was a license-produced version of the Swedish 6.5mm Ljungman AG-42 semiautomatic gas impingement rifle. Egypt changed several features such as the grasping grooves, a removable muzzle brake, an adjustable gas system, and no cleaning rod. Some references will state that the Hakim was used in the 1956 Suez Crisis, however, upon review of available serial numbers on the current market, it appears that less than a few thousand Hakim rifles even existed in 1956. From observations of archival media from the war it appears that Egypt had a much great stock of Soviet SKS carbines and Czech Vz.52 rifles from the 1955 Czech Arms Deal which rippled across the Middle East as one of the largest arms deals in the region during that time period.
Egypt also brought some of this surplus in addition to Hakim rifles to Yemen where Nasser was supporting the Yemeni Republican forces with both troops and materiel for much of the 1960s, otherwise known as “Egypt’s Vietnam Conflict”. Today we still find Hakim rifles in Yemen and Iraq, in addition to a large surplus market in the United States where complete Hakim rifles can be purchased for under a thousand dollars most of the time.
Hakim production appears to have overlapped with Rasheed carbine production in the mid-1960s, after which it was discontinued. Some sources estimate total Hakim rifle manufacture between 70,000-80,000 rifles, the highest serial number observed by the author in the 50,000 range.
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Infantry Marine, based in the Midwest. Specifically interested in small arms history, development, and usage within the MENA region and Central Asia. To that end, I run Silah Report, a website dedicated to analyzing small arms history and news out of MENA and Central Asia.Please feel free to get in touch with me about something I can add to a post, an error I've made, or if you just want to talk guns. I can be reached at miles@tfb.tv
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I think the reporting on this really droped the ball. It is a rifle designed to be loaded with stripper clipps. A soldier is only ever going to remove the magazine when cleaning it. With the magazinge in you are not going to smash your tumb. You have to go out of your way to fuck up to fuck up. You can smash your tumb in the AR15 as well if you really really want to.
The recoil of the 8mm Egyptian FN-49 is severe, since the convex brass buttplate focuses the recoil energy into a small space.
On the other hand the muzzle brake on the 8mm Hakim is so efficient that recoil is surprisingly mild, but the noise from the muzzle brake is also brutal.