Cetme-L

Hill & Mac gunworks shows off its diy vintage-inspired rifle.

- Iain Harrison

In the 1970s, most NATO countries saw the writing on the wall and started the process of converting their armed forces’ main small arms over to the 5.56 cartridge. This must have been particularly galling for many, as they were originally forced to adopt the 7.62 NATO round by the U.S., despite several of them coming up with smaller, better, general purpose designs. After being in service for less than a decade, America then did an about face and introduced the .22 caliber as its main infantry round, while keeping the 7.62 for crew-served weapons.

As part of the switch to the lighter caliber,Spain looked at its successful CETME 58 battle rifle and used it as a basis for a smaller version. If you think the CETME looks like an HK, well there’s a very good reason for that. Ludwig Vorgrimmler designed the CETME in the early 1950s, in a career path that took him full circle from Mauser during WWII, to France in the immediate post-war years, to Spain, and finally back to Mauser in 1956. During his time in Santa Barbara,the West German government adopted and adapted the design of the CETME 58,producing it under license as the G3 in the factories of Rheinmettal and Heckler & Koch. HK then used it as the basis of an entire line of some of the most iconic 20th century firearms.

The CETME-L then, while it isn’t an HK design, certainly shares some DNA, and is an interesting side note in small-arms development. Due to asinine federal legislation, we mere serfs aren’t able to own a real CETME-L, though Hill & Mac Gunworks has an interesting workaround that allows us to own a semi-auto version of the original. It’s also a cool project to show off to your friends at the range, as you’ll create a fully functioning rifle from a collection of scrap metal.

H&M CETME-L KIT