Never a real star on the battlefield, the 8mm Egyptian Hakim probably has more of a following today among plinkers and gun nuts than it did while on active duty in the 1950s. "The affordable Garand" is the sobriquet given by shooters who dislike the recoil of the big Mauser cartridge (including me!) and are also fascinated with Rube Goldberg hardware. It was Egypt's first native-made battle rifle and has enough curious features to keep the campfire stories going for the next century. But, there was also an Egyptian air rifle trainer that's of far greater interest to us.
History
In 1954 the Egyptian army acquired a pellet rifle made to resemble the 8mm Hakim semiautomatic rifle. They contracted with Anschütz of Germany to design and build the gun, so the quality is excellent. The pellet rifle is about the same general size as the firearm, but not quite as heavy, and there is no provision for a bayonet that some other military trainers have. The pellet rifle is also called the Hakim.
The Hakim air rifle trainer is big and heavy, as was the 7.92mm semi-auto on which it was based. Airgun or not, it looks and feels military. Notice the Egyptian markings on the butt.
We presume the purpose of the air rifle was to promote rifle marksmanship, and at least one report has said that the basis of issue was one per company. Some of the rifles, like the one shown here, still have their arms-room military markings in the form of painted Arabic numbers and characters on the stock.
The airgun had very high interest in the army, and the Egyptian Inspector General made a trip to the Anschütz factory while production was underway. The number of guns procured has been reported as 2,800, which makes the model rather scarce because there is no civilian counterpart. It was produced in .22 pellet caliber, although in his book, Small Arms of the World, W.H.B. Smith erroneously reports it as a 4.5mm or .177. If an example of the airgun exists in that caliber, it has not yet come to my attention.
There is also a semiautomatic 10-shot .22 rimfire trainer that must have filled a similar purpose, though I find little information on it. Both the air rifle and the .22 were imported to this country by Navy Arms in the late 1980s through the early 1990s. I bought a Hakim air rifle from a newspaper ad and, upon seeing how well made and accurate it was, purchased four more direct from Navy Arms for $65 each.
The appendage spot-welded to the receiver tube resembles the front end of the cartridge rifle's sliding bolt cover. A wire "brass deflector" is mounted on either side and does absolutely nothing.
The Egyptians were hard on their air rifles, and the usual grade of surplus gun is NRA horrible. This is due to the fact that, at one per unit, nobody actually "owned" the air rifle, so that's also who took care of it. When you're issued a weapon by serial number, woe on you if it doesn't shine all the time. But, the orphan down in the supply room only gets used, so that's what happened to these once-fine airguns.
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