The Cold War-themed Tennessee-based subsidiary of SDS Imports has gone MP5 and plans to hit the market with two very affordable 9mm roller locks.
“While we take our inspiration from the days of caterpillar mustaches, Thomas Magnum and Sonny Crockett, our contemporary products represent the cutting edge of technology in design and manufacturing for government and commercial clients,” notes MAC as part of its company ethos.
The new MAC-5 series are both 9mm pistols that use a very well-known style of roller-locked blowback actions and are compatible with HK and most other aftermarket products designed for MP5 variants. Both models have a 1/2x28TPI muzzle thread under a tri-lug, adjustable rear sights, use a paddle-style mag release, and sport a SEF pattern trigger with a 4.25-pound pull. They are HK claw mount compatible and have button-rifled barrels with fluted chambers.
The series introduction includes two models, the short MAC-5 and the shorter MAC-5K.
The Military Armament Corporation MAC-5 is 17.9 inches long with an 8.9-inch barrel and is 5.5 pounds unloaded. (Photos: MAC)
Meanwhile, the MAC-5K is 13.7 inches overall with a 5.8-inch barrel and weighs 4.6 pounds.
While it is not clear who the manufacturer of these semi-auto MP5 clones is, MAC says they are “Built on modern tooling based on original HK specs and decades of expertise,” which would seem to point to MKE in Turkey, who has been in the MP5 biz for generations. That would track as SDS gets most of their other stuff (Tisas, etc) from Turkey.
The MAC-5 Series pistols have an MSRP of $1,099– which could be lower at dealers– and ship with a premium case, sling, two 30-round magazines, cleaning kit, tri-lug flash-hider, trigger lock, and instruction manual. That undercuts all but the most fire-sale sub-MAP AP5s, is roughly half the ask of an American-made PTR-9, and is about a third the price of a German-made HK SP5.
I’ll bring you more on these from this year’s SHOT Show.
Here we see Heckler & Koch GRAY ROOM PHOTO#35, showing off a prototype HK MP5A2SF submachine gun in 9x19mm para complete with a 10-inch barrel with flash hider and bayonet attachment.
If room brooms with stabby things on the end seem odd, remember that they have been done several times in the past.
The Brit’s Lanchester submachine gun used the 1907 Enfield bayonet and “They don’t like it up ’em!”
The STEN, with the stick attached
The Japanese Hyaku Shiki Kikan-tanju o the Type 100 submachine gun (Photo: NHAM)
Came complete with an Arisaka style skewer (Photo: NHAM)
The Swedish K M/45 used the same bayonet as the country’s Mausers
And even the UZI, as issued by the IDF, used a FAL pattern bayonet
The Sterling accepted a bayonet, although it was rarely used. Still, it looked nice on the presentation models.
Texas-based TPM Outfitters has sold over 300 of these great little 9mm beauties. The TPM P5SD is a short barreled rifle with an integral suppressor that is 99 percent HK MP5SD with the exception being that the four-position switch only goes to safe and pew, not pew-pew-pew, or pewpewpewpew. These guns as they run are $3850 plus two NFA tax stamps (one for SBR, other for suppressor).
Some shots of the build process, which is all done in-house.
Transferable select-fire sears, if you can find them, are $29,500 up to $33,000 for the registered sears or packs, so you can get the full pew, you just have to pay for it.
When you cut a “stuck” suppressor in half, you shouldn’t be able to read the solid carbon build up layers like the rings on a tree. Yikes.
Carrollton, Texas’ TPM Outfitters took to social media with a cautionary tale of what not to do when it comes to firearm suppressor maintenance.
TPM specializes in Heckler and Koch products and they were recently sent some demo factory HK MP5SDs– you know, the neat little room broom that comes integrally suppressed– that were having some issues. The problem was two-fold: that the suppressors were “stuck” to the gun and couldn’t be removed and that they just weren’t working anymore.
Turns out there was a reason for that.
“They obviously did not try to take off the suppressors and were seized to the barrels, this is why it is so critical that the suppressors come off every 250-500 rounds to clean the barrel and ports of built up carbon,” notes TPM. “The suppressors were solid carbon all the way to the end cap inside.”
TPM Outfitters recently ran across a Heckler and Koch MP5 9mm submachine gun with a 1980s-era Hensoldt light.
As noted by TPM:
Old school HK optic made by Hensoldt that projects light with a crosshair in the beam. It runs on 5 C batteries and weighs as much as the MP5 itself.
The SAS, most notably in their Princess Gate operation in 1980 to liberate the Iranian Embassy in London from terrs, were big fans of overhand flashlight mounts on their German made room brooms, which seems to be the market that Hensoldt was aiming at.
The term “gun buyback” is kind of a misnomer as it implies that the people purchasing said unwanted firearms “off the streets” owned them in the first place. Nonetheless, they sometimes turn up interesting items for which those involved pay a song. In recent years this has included a revolver stolen from Teddy Roosevelt and a vintage museum-quality StG44, both of which were saved from the torch.
Well, speaking of odd catches at buybacks, the Marin County District Attorney’s Office hosted one earlier this month which was covered by the local paper and I picked up at Guns.com. Why would I pick up such a normally pedestrian news story?
Because they garnered a cherry HK MP5 with a side-folding factory marked stock and four-positon ambi Navy fire control pack lower, as well as a host of mags and a couple of suppressors for $200. At the very least it is a SP89 conversion Sterling VA marked H&K with nice laser on the front.
As California frowns on suppressor ownership altogether for civilians and you have to get special permission from DOJ besides your regular NFA hoops for full-autos, the MP5 combo likely came in from out of state, was illegal (say it ain’t possible), a prop house gun, or is a Post-86 dealer sample or LE gun. In any of these cases, there are likely some questions.
Machine Gun Mike breaks out a select-fire, suppressed HK MP5SD built by Urbach Precision and shows you why it’s so muffly.
It’s got all the goodies, being a suppressed SBR with both three-round burst and full-auto selector switch and on-board en-quieter that is capable of putting the hush on even super-sonic hardball. Yup, the MP5SD was developed by Heckler & Koch in 1976 for military commandos and was designed to allow standard NATO ball, already in service for subguns and handguns, to be used in the integrally suppressed little SD, but still be quiet enough to where mechanical action noise is all you hear.
Plus, the way the can is made, it is very effective at eliminating muzzle flash, making it a good choice not only for operators at night working by PNVs, but also in use by clandestine lab teams taking down meth labs with potentially lethal fumes– which is why you stumble on a lot of these that have been loaned by the feds to podunk local SWAT teams.
Perhaps the most unsung use of a MP5SD was in the Gambia.
You don’t have to look in this diplomatic pouch
The Gambia is the smallest independent country in mainland Africa. It gets its name from the River Gambia that cuts it in half. Independent since 1965 it is almost completely surrounded by its much larger neighbor Senegal which it was friendly with. In 1981 its population was slightly under a million and it did not even feel the need to have an army. The country’s president Sir Dawda Jawara was invited to attend the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles due to the Gambia’s status as a member of the British Commonwealth.
On July 31, 1981, 400 Marxist radicals under the name of The Movement for Justice in Africa that had been armed and trained in Libya took advantage of his absence to seize control of the country. In the capital city of Banjul they sized Jawara’s family, the radio station, police armory and airport. President Jawara declared he would return to his country and asked for British help. He was given a British Army force of two men. These two men were not your average soldiers, they were SAS men.
Margaret Thatcher and three SAS personnel after the six-day Iranian Embassy siege in London, May 1980. She was a big fan of the SAS, who in turn were a big fan of the MP5.
The 22nd Special Air Service Regiment, (better known as the SAS) has been Britain’s premier commando force since the end of world war two. The detachment was made up of then-Major Ian Crooke and a picked sergeant. Crooke had years of experience in Borneo, Ulster, the recapture of the Iranian Embassy in London and other hot spots by the time of the Gambian affair and had risen to third in command of the SAS. He and a sergeant that remains unnamed to this day donned civilian clothes and left for Senegal, Gambia’s neighbor.
They brought grenades, a pair of Heckler and Koch MP5SD submachine guns and a matching set of Browning Hi Power pistols, all of which fired the same 9mm cartridge in a diplomatic pouch. They arrived the next day and walked over the border and into the lawless Gambian capital dressed in polo shirts and blue jeans. They were met by Mr. Clive Lee, a former commando who had retired in Gambia who had been in touch to see if he could be of assistance. The three men ventured together through the capital to assess the situation.
They found that the airport had been retaken already by elite French-trained paratroopers from Senegal, who President Jawara had also contacted for assistance. The three commandos made contact with the Senegalese forces and outlined a plan to retake the city and defeat the rebels. The SAS team went first – disguised as doctors -to the local hospital where President Jawara’s family was being held and disarmed the rebels there without incident. The commandos then led the assault on the radio station and the government’s police armory with support of the Senegalese the next day.
A film crew from the BBC captured the out of place and out of uniform British commandos several times running all over town from engagement to engagement. By August 3rd, the attempted coup was over and the quiet and professional SAS men flew back to Britain just as President Jawara returned to the Gambia from there.
In the aftermath of this stunning event Major Crooke was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. He retired as a Colonel and now lives in South Africa. It was estimated that anywhere from 600-1000 Gambian casualties were suffered in the three days of rebellion and anarchy. In December 1981 seven ringleaders were sentenced to death after trail for their role in the coup. President Jawara was re-elected five times in democratic elections and remained the leader of his country until he was removed in 1994…..by a military coup.
Just gonna drop this Heckler and Koch spec sheet off for their new German-made “SP5K” semi-auto NFA legal 9mm handgun, expected to ship sometime in 3Q 2016 to U.S. distributors.
From 1918 until the end of the 20th century, the submachine gun had a special place in the armories of military and police forces around the world. Perhaps no better specimen of the species exists than the finely tuned German designed Heckler and Koch Maschinenpistole Number 5, better known by its initials, the MP5. With more than a half century of use around the world, it could in all honesty be the subgun that all others are compared to.
The submachine gun has proven itself one of the most influential types of guns born in the past hundred years. A compact pistol caliber weapon, these guns were the ‘in between’ bridge from a small handgun which could provide five to 15 shots out to 25 yards and a larger, often bolt action rifle that was accurate out to a thousand.
These submachine guns were ideal for non-front line troops such as vehicle drivers and radio operators that didn’t need to lug around a 10-pound rifle. The compact size of these guns and their brutal effectiveness at close range also made them a quick choice for paratroopers, tank crews, and special ops type characters that needed to squeeze into tight places.
In the early 1960s, the preeminent subguns were the British designed Sterling, the Israeli Uzi, and the Czech Sa vz. 23. These guns equipped the troops of dozens of nations. West Germany, recently formed from the ashes of the Allied occupied Third Reich, was stuck with WWII-era British Sten guns, and a few remaining MP40 style subguns. With the adoption of the new, HK designed G3 rifle by the West German Army in 1959, the company saw the writing on the wall for a new subgun.
