How AR-15 Looks to the Media

Jerry Miculek Speed Shooting .50 BMG

Heckler & Koch MP5 A5 .22 LR

	The HK MP5 is a hardcore submachine gun for operators. The MP5 A5 is just as rugged in its exterior, but since it’s  semi-auto and chambered in .22 LR, shooters can actually afford to pull the trigger.   By Guy Saggi

 Looks can be deceiving, and the wisdom of that motherly advice is underscored by the commando-tough appearance of the Heckler & Koch-licensed MP5 A5 .22 LR. Manufactured in Germany and distributed by Walther Arms, beneath its flat-black and rugged exterior beats the gentler, kinder heart of a budget-conscious blowback rimfire.

Sure, lots of lawful citizens have neutralized criminal threats with a .22 LR-chambered firearm, but this version has some intimidating cosmetics that do a good job making you think it’s a genuine 9 mm submachine gun. The fake suppressor, for example, caught my grandson off guard. He thought the non-functioning “can,” which is 7 7/8 inches long and 1.38 inches in diameter, was real. It cannot be removed, so the integral unit makes the overall barrel length officially 16.2 inches (so no federal stamp is required to take the gun home), although the rifling runs for only 13.78 inches.

The sights are equally convincing. A rotating diopter rear sight offers four different-size apertures, from a geezer-friendly .23-inch-diameter opening, to the more tack-driving .10. It’s both windage and elevation adjustable with the provided Allen wrench, and the metal construction makes it rugged enough for abuse. Rotate far enough in either direction and this sight will top or bottom out, so don’t be surprised if it happens. During testing the unit held zero, and adjustment was quick and easy. A protective metal circle with an interior diameter of .70 inch surrounds the front post sight. Its walls are .11-inches thick, so don’t expect them to succumb to daily abuse anytime soon. The setup makes finding the front sight an effortless and fast affair, even during fast-firing drills. The post itself is .067-inch wide and the MP5 A5 .22 LR ships with an identical-width replacement that is .056 inch taller. Both posts are also made of metal to survive the rigorous use for which this rig begs, and swap-out is simple by loosening the post with the Allen wrench, backing it out of its dovetail and reversing to install the new version.

If you’re an AR-15 fan and haven’t handled a gun like this, the stock may seem a bit clunky. This design is a product of the mid 1960s, when the real MP5 came off the drawing board and fell into the hands of operators across the globe. So there are two positions, collapsed and extended. That’s it.

Fully extended, the overall length of the gun is 32.5 inches. Collapsed, it’s a more transportable 26.5. The “stock” itself is composed of two, stout metal ribs that slide along both sides of the receiver.

When locked in the collapsed position, it’s solid and there is no rattle. Fully extended and locked there’s a slight bit of vertical movement—it’s annoying at first, but bear in mind this is, after all, a .22 LR lookalike, not a crisis-intervention tool. Besides, most of the originals had the same nuance. To alter stock position, a large knob (with a generous paddle that is 3/4 inches long to give you plenty of leverage) at the back and bottom of the receiver is rotated clockwise to unlock the mechanism. Push or pull the stock to deploy or collapse and once the paddle is released lockup is solid.

There isn’t a ton of polymer on this gun, but the stock’s butt is one such item. It’s shaped nicely to fit your shoulder, has texturing to ensure it stays put once shooting begins, and the hard, non-sticky injection-molded piece looks stout enough to take a beating.

Adding to the MP5 realism is an H&K logo and “MP5” stamped into the left side of the cast-aluminum receiver. That’s somewhat mitigated on the right side, where markings indicate the firearm was imported for Umarex and the mag well states the gun was manufactured by Carl Walther in Germany. That’s the ejection side anyway, so it’s doubtful anyone will see it when you’re on the firing line.

The non-reciprocating charging handle is on the left side of the receiver, further forward than most .22 LRs (above the fore-end). Its shape and texturing made it a breeze to use at the range, and it can be locked back (by pushing up at its full rearward travel) to show clear at the range. That also means you can perform that “Hollywood cool” reload, where you toss in a fresh mag, slam the charging handle with the heel of your hand and get back into the fight. The fact that my grandson was particularly fond of that maneuver proves he’s watched too many action movies.

Drift out a non-captive pin and the fore-end comes off easily. Disassembly is similarly effortless at the back end of the receiver, although bolt removal for a full scrubbing was a bit cumbersome. With familiarity it will become routine and fast. The Navy-style pistol grip, fore-end and charging handle are all polymer. Metal sling-attachment points are found up front (on the left side of the barrel, at the bottom of the front-sight assembly) and at the back end of the receiver (also on the left). These are old-school versions, so don’t expect to rig up quickly with your QD gear.

Perhaps the only complaint I have with the Heckler & Koch MP5 A5 .22 LR is the trigger. It’s a blowback-operated .22 LR, so my hopes weren’t high. Let-off weight averaged 6 3/4  pounds, which is acceptable for a gun whose primary mission is plinking, but there’s enough take-up that I considered homesteading somewhere along the line. It measured .14 inch at the bottom of the trigger, which doesn’t seem like a lot until you’re behind it and considering all the mineral rights you’re passing by. Yes, it’s not a bad safety thing since young shooters will flock to this gun and its economy, but then there’s the creep. It’s all survivable, and easy to get accustomed to, but after looking at the rest of the gun’s features it took me by surprise.

The fit and finish of this gun are very nice. It has an ambidextrous manual safety, and although the single, push-button magazine release is on the right side, a paddle behind the mag well performs the same function with equal aplomb from both sides. Reloads were a breeze on the polymer magazine.

The test rifle shipped with a 25-round version, although 10-round mags are available.

How does it shoot? It’s a .22 LR, so the real question is how fun is it to shoot? Let’s put it this way, I thought my 16-year-old grandson was going to run my rimfire supply dry. Were it not for the intervention of an unexpected downpour, I would be out of .22 LR. And even then, he didn’t surrender the firearm until after 30 minutes of drenching rain. I waited until he and the storm left, then I went back to shooting. It’s that fun.

Using three different test loads, there were no stoppages or malfunctions of any kind. Not too many new rimfire semi-automatics can make the same claim. At 50 yards (from a sandbagged rest), Remington’s 40-grain Target load had a five consecutive, five-shot group average of 1.718 inches.

The best group was 1.463 inches, and with the relatively short sight radius and thick front post, that’s decent accuracy. It only gets better. CCI’s 40-grain Mini-Mag HV averaged 1.612 inches and Norma’s 40-grain .22 LR Match load came in at 1.345 inches. One Norma group printed .809 inch. That’s not MOA accuracy at 50 yards, but awfully impressive for a rimfire made to look like, shoot like and feel like a submachine gun.

No, it probably won’t free hostages, support the toppling of a communist regime or storm beaches, but it will make you smile without breaking the bank. And that, alone, makes the Umarex Heckler & Koch MP5 A5 .22 LR worth a close look.

Manufacturer: Walther Arms, hk22rimfire.com
Model: Heckler & Koch MP5 A5 .22 LR
Caliber: .22 LR
Finish: Anodized black
Action: Blowback
Receiver: Cast aluminum
Rifling: Six grooves, 1:13.75” twist
Barrel: 16.2”
Magazine: 25 round (10-round version also available)
Sights: Variable diopter rear adjustable for windage and elevation, windage adjustable front blade
Trigger: Single stage, 6 3/4 lb. let-off weight
Weight: 6 lbs., 2.5 ozs. with empty magazine
Accessories: Owner’s manual, cable lock, disassembly tool, Allen wrench for rear sight adjustment, extra front sight blade
Suggested Retail Price: $475

Sniper Motivational Poster

It has been a while since I posted something just for fun, so here you go!

Basic Rifle Marksmanship

It has been a long time since I posted a funny poster. Enjoy!

The ISSC MK22

By Dave Dolbee

 

I’m not exactly sure when video games such as MW3 (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare® 3) replaced a Red Ryder under the tree on Christmas morning, but if you want to trigger the shooting spirit of a new shooter, the ISSC MK22 is the ticket. In fact, whether you are an operator looking for a new, low-recoil training toy or simply shopping around for something to put in a gun virgin’s hand for his or her first pop! pop! pop!, ISSC’s MK22 is exactly what you are looking for.
The MK22 is undoubtedly the love child of full-size combat rifle, scaled down in both price and caliber. Show a MK22 to an uninitiated fan of MW3 and they’ll likely spout off that it’s an FN-SCAR. Given the classic FN-style, folding stock and receiver outline, they’d almost be right, too. Although the pipe isn’t hammer-forged like the SCAR, the German made 16-inch precision match barrel does feature a 1:28 cut on the end to attach a muzzle break or flash suppressor, and the two guns have more than that in common.
The three-position, folding stock can be adjusted for length and height thanks to the adjustability of the cheek piece. The stout stock features a metal hinge that takes the MK22 from 36 inches down to a touch over 26.5 inches. The polymer frame hook keeps it securely in place during storage, transport or tactical training drills.


The front and rear sights flip down from CQB battle sights to low-profile, three-dot pistol sights. I don’t see the three-dot as particularly useful, but it is a nice touch. More important, folding down the sights allows you to mount a scope. And while on the subject of accessories, the quad rail system on the MK22 should allow you to tac it out with just about as many accessories as you desire.

The MK22 is available with either 10- or 22-round magazines depending on the fanaticism of your local lawmakers. The MK 22 also sports ISSC’s UCAS, or Universal Charging Adaption System. For those who don’t wear boxers that are camo coordinated to the local flora and prefer a bit of plain English, this means you can move the charging handle from the right side of the gun to the left to make it easy for southpaws to chamber a round. The cool part though are the three different places on each side where it can be attached giving you six different options. This makes it as adaptable to small-framed shooters as it does knuckle draggers. Another bonus for lefties and tactical drills requiring the shooters to shoot from the weak side are the ambidextrous safety and magazine release.

Last, but not least, the MK22 comes in black or desert tan. Trust me, though — if this is for someone used to banging away with a SCAR-L on MW3, you’ll want the desert tan and a couple of bricks of .22.

Specifications
• Caliber: 22LR
• Overall Length Collapsed: 34.65 inches
• Overall Length Full: 36 inches
• Overall Width: 2.81 inches
• Barrel Length: 16 inches
• Rifling Length: 15 inches
• Number of Grooves: 6
• Sight Length Max: 15.7 inches
• Weight without Magazine: 6.5 pounds
• Magazine Weight, Empty: 3.8 ounces
• Trigger Pull, approx.: 4 pounds
• Magazine Capacity: 22 rounds

The MSRP for the ISSC MK22 is $550, but if you search the Internet you can probably find it for Cheaper Than Dirt! (Wink!-Wink! – Click Here)

In general, I am not a fan of Mossburg rifles. I know a couple people who have one, and they say that they are not up to the standard of most modern hunting rifles. This rifle, however, caught my eye due to the fact that if accepts AR-15 magazines. I did a little digging, and uncovered this article. Enjoy!

                          Mossburg MVP

If you've got a bunch of AR magazines, here's another gun that can feed from them, with a twist.

By Richard Mann
      February 8, 2012

Chances are good, if you’re reading this you have several AR-15 magazines lying around. You might even have more than one AR-platform rifle. However, what you don’t have is a bolt-action rifle capable of accepting those magazines. Now, you can get one. The Mossberg Varmint Predator (MVP) is the first commercially manufactured bolt-action rifle that accepts AR-15 magazines. (Toview a gallery of photos of the MVP, go here.)
The MVP sports ground-breaking features, partly due to its innovative magazine compatibility and partly due to its design. Building a bolt-action rifle to work with AR-15 magazines is a bit more complex than you might first imagine. For starters, Mossberg had to figure out how to work around a magazine designed to lock in place via a side catch. Then, the company had to devise a solution to feed cartridges from between the narrow feed lips of the AR-15 magazine. Mossberg’s solution was pioneering in concept, but from an engineering standpoint, it was practical and reasonably simple.

 

Senior Design Engineer Tim Blazek started with Mossberg’s 4×4 action, which is CNC machined from bar stock, and shrunk it down so the ejection port was only 2.16 inches long. This reduced action length and weight. He then devised a polymer bedding block with an integral magazine well fitted with a lever-like magazine release at the front. The bedding block/mag well fits inside the stock and is held in place by the two steel pillars, through which the front and rear action screws pass.

The lower portion of the bolt face is hinged to reliably interface with AR magazines’ narrow feed lips.

This solved problem number one. The next challenge was to engineer the bolt so it would slip between the narrow feed lips on an AR magazine, reliably push cartridges into the chamber and lock up tight enough to allow the rifle to shoot accurately. This was accomplished by hinging the lower portion of the bolt face so it dropped down slightly and sort of dug the cartridge from either side of the magazine.
Admittedly, this design, which Mossberg calls the Drop-Push Bolt, looks a bit frail. I thought it might not be very rugged and desperately tried to break it during a three-day varmint shoot. But, I failed, and so did several other writers. Cartridges fed slickly out of several different AR-15 magazines. The only hitch in the system was seen with the first two or three rounds from fully loaded 20-round magazines, which required slightly more force to dislodge.
Plain and simple, the MVP works and shoots reasonably well, too. The average for five, five-shot groups, fired with four different loads, was 1.38 inches. Mossberg claims the MVP will deliver MOA accuracy out of the box. The test rifle and I failed to live up to that claim, but came mighty close with DoubleTap’s 62-grain FMJ load. With all the .223 Rem. ammunition to choose from, it is hard to imagine several could not achieve MOA accuracy from the MVP.
Like most ARs, Mossberg chose to chamber the MVP for the 5.56 NATO as opposed to the .223 Rem. The only difference in these chamberings is how the throat is cut. The longer throat of the 5.56 NATO chamber can hinder accuracy when .223 Rem. ammunition is used. A better choice might have been the compromise chambering known as the .223 Wylde. It sort of splits the difference in throat dimensions.

With a flat-bottomed fore-end, the rifle is comfortable to shoot off sandbags. The included bipod mounts to the front sling swivel stud.

Two things that make shooting the MVP fun and almost effortless are the configuration of the varmint/target-style stock and the trigger. The stock is cut from a blank of laminated hardwood and boasts a nearly camouflaged appearance. Its wide and flat fore-end interfaces well with sandbags, and the high comb combined with the near vertical pistol grip is very comfortable.
Mossberg wisely chose its Lightning Bolt Action (LBA) trigger, which has a center lever that blocks the sear from releasing the striker unless the lever is depressed, even at the lowest setting. It is adjustable from 2 to 7 pounds and the only tool you need to do so is a screwdriver. The trigger on the test rifle broke crisply and consistently at 2.25 pounds.
Where does the MVP fit into the commercial sales picture? There’s no doubt it can excel in the field as a varmint rifle. If you are an AR guy, you should have plenty of magazines lying around that will work in the MVP, making it a great companion rifle.
The MVP might have appeal to law enforcement, too. Smaller agencies cannot afford a dedicated, high-end, sniper rifle or sniper team, but designated marksmen are becoming popular assignments on day and night shifts. Here, a shorter-barreled MVP might fit well, and its operator could share magazines with other officers armed with ARs.
For enterprising shooters who might want a bolt rifle to match an AR in a chambering other than .223 Rem., converting the MVP to work with, say, 6.8 Rem. SPC should be an easy task. The bolt uses a plunger-type ejector like on a Remington 700 and a spring-loaded extractor mounted perpendicular to the bolt face. For the 6.8 conversion, slightly opening the bolt face, tweaking the extractor and swapping barrels should be all that’s required. Conversion to a cartridge based on the .223 Rem. case, like the 7.62×40 WT, would only require a new barrel.

Mossberg’s LBA trigger can be adjusted to the shooter’s preferred pull weight using only a screwdriver.

Mossberg is offering two versions of the MVP. The standard model comes with scope bases and the package gun comes with a Barska 4-16×50 mm riflescope and a bipod. Both are reasonably priced considering the new engineering involved, and are without a doubt the best bolt-action companion you’ll find for your AR. I expect the future will show us varied configurations of the MVP.
Finally, we have an American-made, non-custom, .223 Rem. bolt-action rifle. On top of that, the MVP accepts AR magazines. As if that isn’t enough, it’s affordable, too. It is the most innovative bolt-action rifle we’ve seen in a long time.



Manufacturer: O.F. Mossberg & Sons; (203) 230-5300, www.mossberg.comAction: Bolt-action
Caliber: 5.56 NATO
Capacity: 10+1
Stock: Laminated hardwood
Barrel: 24 inches
Rifling: 6 grooves, 1:9-inch RH twist
Sights: None. Weaver-style scope bases, Barska 4-16×50 mm AO scope and rings
Trigger Pull Weight: 2.25 pounds
Length: 43 inches
Weight: 10 pounds with riflescope and bipod
Accessories: Folding, adjustable bipod
MSRP: $796.50

Dual Wielding

Surprising how many different firearms are shown here. I see a couple Mini-14s an AK-47, an AR variant, two 1911a, and it looks like the guy on the back corner has an MP5.

Glock 17... The Chocolate Version

Chocolate Glock 17

If you’re reading this, chances are you like chocolate. If you don’t like chocolate, there’s clearly something wrong with you, but you still might find this product exciting.

By Ed Friedman              February 6, 2012

The Glock 17 is an iconic pistol, but its polymer frame is tough and tasteless and its steel slide is quite difficult to digest. Also, it is incredibly unsafe to even attempt to eat a firearm.
Enter the Chocolate Glock from Popguns.com. This near-exact, Belgian milk-chocolate replica of the legendary Austrian 9 mm will amuse the eyes and taste buds alike. At 13 ounces, it’s a hefty hunk of sweets, but still lighter than its inspiration. The only detail missing is the famed trigger face safety, which would be too fragile for a confectionery weapon. Instead, the Chocolate Glock’s trigger resembles that of a 1911, meaning even Glock haters will find some degree of satisfaction beyond the delicious taste. Adding to its charm, the Chocolate Glock ships in a hard-sided handgun case, just like a real Glock.

 

Perhaps the only drawback to the yummy gun is its complete failure when carried concealed. Body heat melts the chocolate frame, slide and barrel, leaving a sticky mess for when you get that afternoon craving for something sweet. At $24.73 plus shipping, however, you’ll be able to purchase several Chocolate Glocks before you approach the price of an actual firearm, so there’s no reason to fret if your shooting grip causes it to break.

Variety

Ghost Snipers

Easter Seals

Attitude!

Motivational Gun Poster

This is truly an awesome picture. I hope y'all like it!