Having watched one too many TV shows and movies with H&K’s MP5 submachine gun over the years, the sub gun has been on my “I want to have one list” for years but way out of my price range. While surfing, I read about how Pakistani Ordnance Factory (POF) licensed the design and tooling necessary from H&K Germany to make roller locked weapons including MP5 clones. In reading about the various Mp5 clones, it became apparent that the POF-5 units are actually well regarded. What really tipped the scales was a great post by T. Mark Graham at Arizona Response Systems who really knows his way around MP5s saying they were good to go with details of his analysis provided.
This led me to calling up Chuck at Kelly Enterprises and talking about whether to buy a Zenith (my first choice) or a POF. Chuck is a very straight forward guy and tells it the way it is. The Zenith would be hard to get and he had POF-5 pistols in stock plus he gave me a great deal so I ordered one and had it sent to my friend and FFL, Scott Igert, at Modern Antique Firearms. Chuck sent me all the tracking info and just a few days later, the POF-5 was with Scott waiting for me to pick it up.
On inspection you could tell the receiver paint was a bit glossier than the more satin finish of an HK but other than the action feeling dry and new (that gritty not worn in feeling), it looked good to go.
Now, I have two personality quirks. First, I can’t hit the broad side of a barn with a pistol let alone one this big and heavy. Second, I can’t help but customize any gun I buy and this wasn’t any different.
I did a ton of reading and decided to go with a cool S&B brace, a B&T scope mount, Dakota Tactical handguard, a B&T muzzle brake and ordered a bunch of POF MP5 magazines. You can buy the brace at PSA and Brownells. By the way, Brownells has a ton of replacement parts and aftermarket parts for the MP5 reflecting it’s long-time use by law enforcement no doubt – click here to see them.
Installing the brace was easy – like any HK, you push out the rear pin, pull off the cap and put on the brace. I bought one all ready to go.
The handguard is a keymod unit from Dakota Tactical and they use a screw instead of a front pin to hold the unit in place. It really locks up nice and I like the feel of it. The rail section holding the Streamlight in the below photo is made by Monoki.
Now the scope mount is the standard B&T universal rail, the BT-21262-1. I would caution against you buying a cheap optics mount for an HK-type weapon. There are tons of stories of cheap ones falling off, not seating properly, etc. The B&T unit is a mil-grade unit. You slide it on and then work the little claws or feet into position and then secure them with the supplied screws.
Next up was to install the Vortex Crossfire Red Dot optic. These are the latest red dots from Vortex and come with both low and high mounting options.
Out of the box it has the high mount installed for the AR enthusiasts but includes the low plate as well.
As you can see, with the default high riser on it, the optic is way too high. I prefer optics as low as possible where I can get a good cheek weld.
It’s real easy to change – there are just four screws that need to be removed on the bottom. I used a bit from my Weaver driver set vs. the supplied key which would work but is slow compared to a driver.
I have the Weaver Deluxe Tool Kit and use the drivers all the time. I use the block and hammer some but not a great deal.
Notice that Loc-Tite Blue (the medium strength formula) is used to secure the screws.
Here’s the end result. Note, I will install a quick release mount at a later date.
One side comment – you may find it funny that the thing that puzzled me most was the B&T brake. It installs on the tri-lobe fitting on the muzzle. There is a quick release lever that baffled me until I carefully inspected it and saw that one end is open and a cross pin is retaining it. I then pushed the other way and lever lifted right up. Duh! I’d never seen one before! It is solid and I like it.
The case you see is a 32″ Blackhawk Homeland Security Weapons Carry Case. It comes with one internal mag carrier and I added a second pouch. They are sized for 30 round AR mags and you can get two 30-round MP5 magazines in each pouch pocket.
Next up, I cleaned the bore and lubricated the weapon – especially the bolt head and trigger pack. Past experience taught me to go through and make sure it was ready.
Two of my brother-in-laws and I took it to the range. We used 124 grain S&B FMJ ammo and it functioned great and was accurate. We had a blast at 15-25 yards shooting it despite it being a brisk day. I really like how this combination worked out. We didn’t use the light but the green laser was nice and bright when we tried it out.
We put probably about 200 rounds through it. You can now feel the action has really smoothed out and I wouldn’t hesitate using this for home defense if I needed – which is why I put the light on it.
All in all, I’m very pleased and would recommend the POF-5 to anyone looking for a semi-auto MP5-type pistol.
Update 10/6/2018: We put almost 500 rounds through this pistol this summer without one single failure to feed or eject. We mainly shot the 124 grain FMJ S&B ammo except for one time, as a test, I shot about 20 rounds of Hornady 135gr Critical Duty ammo with no problem. All of the magazines used (and I have 10 of them) are POF magazines. Honestly, this thing is awesome. I’ve only cleaned and re-lubed it once so far but it is on the to-do list.
12/12/18 Update: I recently bought an HK SP5K and am documenting my journey with it. Click here for the first post.
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