Tag Archives: MP5

Firearms

Are the MAC MP5 clones made by the same company that made the iconic MAC-10 and MAC-11 SMGs?

When I saw a MAC MP5 clone listed on a firearm website it immediately caught my eye mainly because of three key letters – “MAC”. When many folks see “MAC”, including me, they think Military Armaments Corporation and the iconic MAC-10 and MAC-11 submachine guns. But where did “MAC” come from? Had someone bought the brand or what? In typical firearm industry fashion, the brands are related by name but not by birth … at least that’s how I’m going to put it and let me explain why.

The Original Military Armaments Corporation (MAC)

The original MAC was founded in 1970 by engineer Gordon Ingram and businessman Mitchell WerBell III. MAC is best known for its iconic submachine guns (SMGs): the MAC-10 and MAC-11 that were featured in countless movies, TV series and video games.

The MAC SMGs were designed for military and law enforcement, these compact firearms quickly gained a reputation for their high rate of fire, affordability, and ease of concealment. While originally intended for professional use, their popularity soon extended to the civilian market.

Let’s sketch out a timeline:

  • 1969: Gordon Ingram joins SIONICS as Chief Engineer.
  • 1970: Ingram designs the original MAC-10 prototype.
  • 1970s: MAC manufactures and markets the MAC-10 and MAC-11, primarily to the military and law enforcement.
  • 1973: Production stopped due to internal politics
  • 1975: Financial problems worsened including failure to pay creditors and filed for brankruptcy
  • 1976: Bankruptcy sale of MAC assets including weapon and parts inventories (with some ATF-prohibited exceptions) and tooling

After that, various companies, including RPB, SWD and Cobray, manufactured versions of the MAC-10 and MAC-11. The MAC brand name kind of faded away and maybe for many reasons despite the iconic SMGs – the company failed, association with criminals, relatively low quality firearms, …. probably some combination but the MAC brand did die.

The Current Fate of the MAC Brand

As I’ve mentioned before, companies come and go but well known brands live on. Now MAC is an interesting case so someone email me if I am wrong because I am trying to string together nuggets of what I can find.

Let’s start with some background on the current owner – SDS Arms was founded in 2017 and is located in Knoxville, TN, and helps bring foreign firearms to the US market. Until October 2024, most us knew them as “SDS Imports” and the name change, according to them, was to better connect with their customers.

SDS Arms has a bevy of brands they import. The list includes: Tisas USA, Tokarev USA, Spandau Arms, Inglis Manufacturing and now, MAC.

In 2017, SDS revived the MAC name. They didn’t buy it from another firm – it would seem the MAC brand had fallen between the cracks in the industry brand ownership fabric and so SDS scooped it up. Well played SDS.

SDS has begun importing a number of firearms under the MAC brand name. The ones that caught my eye and caused me to want to find out more were the MAC-5 (MP5-clone) and the MAC-5K (MP5K-clone).

A quick comment on those two HK clones – they are made in Turkey but I think they are made by Mertsav. Interestingly, Mertsav is a subcontractor to MKE where they probably learned what they needed to know to pull this off.

Now who makes all of the parts that Mertsav is assembling from, that I do not know. There’s a lot of conjecture and not many facts. People seem to think that at least some of the components are from MKE while Mertsav builds up its capabilties.

In terms of MAC overall, they are importing a number of firearms including double stack 1911s, shotguns that look like Benelli M4 clones and more.

Summary

So, the MAC brand lives having been resucitated by SDS Arms. The MP5 and MP5K clones are being made Mertsav in Turkey and imported here. MAC is also selling other firearms as well.

I hope this helps you out.

The MP5 icon was downloaded from Wikimedia.

Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.

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Roller Locks - HK

Why grips converted for MP5Ks have a weirdly shaped rear pin hole

Grips for the MP5/HK33 and HK91/G3 rifles can be converted for use on MP5K-type weapons. As you can see in the photo above, a small circle appears at about 2:30 position on the larger hole for the pin when this is done. I used to wonder why and since I started offering converted grips for sale, I’ve had a few guys also ask me why this is the case.

Well, the short answer is that the steel reinforcing that is cast into the rear of the grip has different holes when an MP5K grip is made vs. the others. This allows the hole for the pin and the countersink for the head to not encounter another hole.

This is a real German H&K MP5K grip. The top rear hole doesn’t have that telltale circle of conversion because it was purpose built to be mounted on a MP5K.
Not one of my better photos but you can see the pin hole on the far side. The anchor holes to secure the metal strap are to the left and right of it are filled in with plastic during injection molding. Notably at the rear right there are two anchor holes to help compensate and secure the strap.

With the MP5/HK33 and HK91/G3 grips, the designers never planned for a hole to be made in that location and as a result, the newly drilled hole runs right into an anchor hole they have in the metal to allow the injection molding to adequate bond to it.

If you try to drill into one of these grips, the smaller hole will get cut open and then ride the flute of the drill upwards and make a mess. To compensate for this, an end mill must be used to do a plunge cut straight down. There must be careful workholding fixtures to keep the grip from moving. Trust me, I’ve trashed a bunch of grips by not making sure the grip was completely secure.

This HK33 contract grip has anchor holes that go evenly across. There isn’t enough spacing between those holes for a new 6mm pin hole and 9.5mm countersink to be milled without hitting the rear anchor hole.
This is a Malaysian contract grip that has the rear steel “tail” cut off. Both pin holes and countersinks have been milled. Look at the hole on the right. The pin hole ran right into the anchor hole and tore out the plastic that would have filled it. By the way, the orange paint was from me tracking early prototypes. It’s not something someone would normally see.

Despite those rear anchor holes being removed, the steel reinforcing is still held in place. While theoretically weaker, I have not heard of any real world cases where the the steel (it’s folded sheet metal really) has come lose due to separation from the surrounding polymer.

For people using converted grips, just insert your rear pin such that the retaining wire is on the shoulder and not in the hole. That’s really the only difference. Of course, like most grips, some final fitting may be required – by using a circular file to adjust the rear hole, filing the front locking plate or removing a bit of material off the back with a file or by sanding.

Summary

In short, purpose built MP5K grips have enough spacing between the rear metal strap’s anchor holes for the 6mm pin hole and 9.5mm countersink to be drilled. Other HK models do not use that same spacing so the tell tale partial hole appears at the 2:30 position. It’s purely cosmetic and just requires the user to insert the rear pin such that the locking wire rests on the normal shoulder of the hole and not the newly formed void.

I hope this helps you out.

If you are interested, our online store has a number of HK grips available – both converted and not. Click here.

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Germany plus Historical East and West, Roller Locks - HK

So, I have an HK SP5K …

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Folks, I have thoroughly enjoyed my POF-5, which is an MP5 pistol clone, this past summer.  We easily put way past 500 rounds through it with zero failures to feed or eject.  All my family members and friends wanted to shoot it and we had a ton of fun.  However, in the back of my head, there was a little voice saying “you need a real HK”.

Finding a Real HK

I’d talked to a few guys and the consensus was that a real HK will just go up in value even after being shot plus there are the bragging right of owning a real HK.  There was one problem – HK stopped making MP5s available for civilian sales.  There are definitely a lot of parts kits out there but then someone needs to pay an HK smith to assemble the subgun.  I thought about doing it but I lack the experience and the tooling.  Given the price $1,600-3,200 price of kits, I wasn’t about to experiment.

It turned out that HK still made a civilian pistol – the SP5K – “Sporting Pistol” 5K – that is a semi-auto version of the short MP5K submachine gun.  The one catch is that it comes to the US market a tad neutered.  Surprisingly, this was done due to strict German export laws and not US import laws.   For me, the sad part is that the barrel is 115mm/4.53 inches long and ends abruptly at the sight block – not only is there no threading or tri-lug attachment point but the abrupt end means you can’t add one either without replacing the barrel.  However, accuracy reports are excellent so at least that and reliability were still there.

Before I seriously considered buying one, I did some research:

There are also some choice articles:

Hard to Find an Affordable SP5K

Of course, these things aren’t cheap and they are really hard to find in stock.  I hunted around online while my FFL, Scott Igert of Modern Antique Firearms, did the same.  After hunting for a few weeks it dawned on me that I would need to use GunBroker.  So, I started by watching auctions and seeing what stuff sold for before I started actually bidding and losing.  I learned a while ago not to chase auctions – set a price and don’t go past that limit.  I finally found a deal after watching and bidding for over a month. 

So, the seller was Town Police Supply, located in Collinsville, VA, who goes by GunTalker on GunBroker.  They had an A+ reputation with over 700 trades.  I always prefer to deal with sellers that have a lot of trades.  At any rate, they were great to deal with.  I won the auction on 9/24/18 and it arrived at Scott’s shop on 9/25.  Literally.

As you can imagine, I picked the SP5K up as soon as I could.  It came in a real cool HK hard case with two 10 round magazines, a sling and a sight adjustment tool as you can see in the featured photo at the top.

Here’s the plain pistol out of the box:

In summary

So, it was definitely cool but if you know me, you also know what was going through my head – “I can customize this!”  In my next blog post, I’ll talk about what I considered for braces.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

Amazon product links are at the bottom of the blog.

Pakistan, POF, Roller Locks - HK

Customizing and Shooting the Pakistani Ordnance Factory POF-5 Pistol

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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.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.