The HS2000 is a famous and or infamous handgun in the states.
We know it as the XD, and it is an import of Springfield Armory first glimpsed during the striker gun days. That period of time where we saw the M&P emerge, the Gen 4 Glock, and the early (and gravity vulnerable) iterations of the P320. We have seen many iterations since.
It’s many variants are a popular handgun series, however the basic HS2000 design was a Croatian duty pistol and was an inexpensive addition to the U.S. Market that grew wings with the rebranding.
But HS Produkt, maker of the HS2000, is a full on military and police firearms designer/manufacturer and they competed to replace the aging FAMAS bullpup for the French military.
They submitted a replacement bullpup, however the H&K416 won ultimately.
But the rifle, the VHS-2 (no, it does not rewind) was the resultant rifle, Ian over at Forgotten Weapons got his hands on it and shot with it.
It looks like a G36 with a touch of IWI X95. It has a 40mm Grenade launcher as most infantry rifles do and is one of the first mainstream (ish) bullpups to offer an adjustable length of pull on the stock.
Most bullpups have a fixed length of pull as the action is housed inside the stock, crowding any mechanism that would otherwise allow adjustment. HS found a way to add some. They also made a fully-ambi rifle, to include selectable ejection, and different selectable magazine patterns.
All in all they produced a very solid modernization on the bullpup concept.
Of my personal criticisms, the only thing I can see on the design that I wouldn’t care for is the selector design and that could be mitigated by positive detent positions so that it is fairly difficult to go to full-auto (level) from the safe position which is at an upward 45 degree angle. It would all be in the detent feel.
