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The Krieghoff self loader receiver may resemble a Browning A5 one at first glance if looked at from the right side, but here the similarity ends. Note the receiver being hardly longer than an 8x60 cartridge! The Krieghoff action is unique among selfloaders as it is a true falling block action. The left side of the receiver contains a 3-shot magazine, fed through a trapdoor at the top. On firing, gas is trapped in a chamber in front of the muzzle, just like in the prototype Garands. This gas impinges on a piston inside the tube under the barrel and pushes it back. At the rear end of the piston rod there is a carrier inside the receiver. After a movement of about 5mm the carrier pulls down the breechblock. Now a clever groove-and-stud arrangement moves a separate “cartridge handler”, faster and farther than piston rod + carrier. The cartridge handler extracts the empty case from the chamber and ejects it to the right. At the same time the carrier cocks the internal hammer. Piston rod and carrier are now pushed forward again by a coil spring around the piston rod. The “cartridge handler” now strips a new cartridge from the magazine on the left and chambers it. At the forward end of it’s travel the carrier pushes up the falling breechblock again and locks it in the “up” position, ready for firing again. The whole action may be dis- and reassembled without any tools. The safety inside the trigger guard blocks the trigger. The triggers usually have a “single set” feature, also unique among self loaders. AFAIK only about 30 specimens of the Krieghoff semiauto rifles were ever made, most of them exported to the USA via Stoeger. An improved version with a short gas tube and detachable magazine was built as a few prototypes only.

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