The Best Ways to 'SBR' Your MP5 Clone

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There’s just something about the HK MP5. It’s hard to quantify exactly what that something is. A gun is simply a tool. It is a mechanical contrivance designed to accomplish a certain specific task. In the case of the MP5, in addition to running reliably and shooting straight, it is also inexplicably sexy.

Origin Story

There are several good reasons for this. First fielded with the West German border police in 1966, the MP5 is a direct evolutionary development of the previous 7.62x51mm G3 battle rifle. The G3 was itself a descendent of the prototype 7.92x33 kurz StG45 that evolved from the MG42 belt-fed machinegun. All of these disparate weapons had one thing in common--they were all driven by a unique roller-delayed action.

The recoil-driven, roller-delayed mechanism of the MP5 was actually patterned after that of an industrial pile driver. The end result, while lyrically complicated when compared to a Sten gun or MP40, was inimitably smooth and exceptionally controllable. Additionally, the Germans employed a dichotomous engineering ethos in executing the MP5. The receiver is a simple pressed steel contrivance designed to be inexpensively mass-produced, while the sundry components of the weapon are executed to the highest standards of manufacture. The end result is a gun that is renowned for its quality while not costing a fortune to build. That all adds up to quite the profitable product for Heckler and Koch.  

War Story

Prior to 1980, the MP5 was just one of many post-war 9mm submachine guns available on the international arms market. When Colonel Charlie Beckwith needed a 9mm subgun to equip his earliest Delta Force operators back in the late 1970’s, he actually opted for the Walther MPK. And then, on 30 April 1980, a group of Iranian terrorists inadvertently gifted HK with the sort of advertising money just couldn’t buy.

Six Iranian Arabs led by Oan Ali Mohammed seized the Iranian embassy at 16 Prince’s Gate in London demanding autonomy for Khuzestan Province in Iran. Radical Islamists had only recently deposed the Shah. Oan and his mates sought freedom for their oppressed countrymen. Tragically, geopolitically speaking, these six terrorists were technically the Good Guys.

Things deteriorated over the next six days until Oan murdered Abbas Lavasani, the embassy’s chief press officer. That’s when English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady, unleashed the 22d Special Air Service. The subsequent raid took place in broad daylight under the very noses of the world’s accumulated press. 

Otherworldly images of SAS operators in respirators and black fatigues blasting their way into the embassy with HK MP5’s were nothing less than iconic. When the smoke cleared, the SAS had killed five terrorists and captured the sixth for the loss of two hostages. The remaining seventeen were successfully liberated. None of the assaulters were lost.

For those of us who watched it in real time, that was arguably the coolest thing we had ever seen. Suddenly every cop and special operator on Planet Earth coveted an MP5 submachine gun of his own. HK sold between 700,000 and a million of the guns in total. Meanwhile, American civilian shooters were pretty much out of luck.

HK imported a lame long-barreled sort-of clone of the MP5 they called the HK94, but President Bush the First outlawed these weapons in 1989. Prices suddenly skyrocketed. And so things remained until fairly recently.

The Lay of the Land

Nowadays, MP5 clones are both ubiquitous and relatively cheap. There are several fascinating reasons for this. For years, these guns were produced in dribs and drabs by small shops, often commanding serious prices. Quality ranged from superlative to poop with everything in between. And then the Turks got involved. 

Century Arms is likely the biggest player. They import short-barreled pistol versions of the standard MP5, the MP5K, the MP5K PDW, and, now, the vaunted MP5SD. These guns are superlative copies produced on licensed machinery in Turkey. These examples are actually closer to the GI versions than even the original Germans weapons were. Little things like flapper magazine releases and double-pushpin fire control packs come standard. Normal people don’t care, but freaks like me sure do. Throughout it all, an economy of scale keeps prices fairly reasonable. 

There are other sources as well, to include some very nice guns from places like Zenith and PTR that are made right here in the USA. SDS is importing their own line of Turkish MP5 clones as well. Google is your buddy for the details. The bottom line is that MP5’s have gone from unobtainium to most everywhere nearly overnight. This is the best time in all of American history to be a gun nerd.

The Seismic Shift

While these guns are undeniably cool, with the exception of the Century AP5M version of the MP5K, they still aren’t quite right. They sell as pistols. To complete the total package, these weapons need a proper buttstock. Until 1 January 2026, slapping that stock on will cost you a buttload of paperwork and a $200 tribute. However, after New Year’s Day, that unconstitutional $200 making tax goes away.

The onerous registration and paperwork requirement remains, but we will no longer have to pay for the privilege. You can file the Form 1 to legally “make” a short-barreled rifle (SBR) online through the BATF website. As with anything the government does, the process is a pain. You’ll need a photograph and a set of digital fingerprints. However, if you can navigate your cell phone contract, you can figure it out. In years past, this process took months. Nowadays it is down to a couple weeks or so. Nobody really knows what the landscape will look like after 1 January. My gut feeling is that there will be a pretty big rush. Hopefully, our BATF buddies at Martinsburg are planning for that.

Once you get the form back approved, the world is your oyster. At that point mounting up a buttstock requires nothing more than punching out a couple of pins. That done, you have a gun that will pass for a real-deal MP5, even up close. The full auto giggle switch is, tragically, still off the table. However, the dirty little secret is that the new line of forced reset triggers is currently federally legal and the very next best thing.

The AP5M version of the MP5K comes without the forward broomstick grip. Mounting up that grip pushes the gun into the AOW or Any Other Weapon category. AOWs are pretty much any gun Uncle Sam thinks is spooky but is otherwise not regulated. In the past, the registration paperwork was the same as that for an SBR. While the tax to transfer an AOW was only $5, the tax to make one at home was still $200. Don’t even try to understand that. After 1 January, however, all those taxes go away and none of it matters.

Sourcing the Support Stuff

This is going to be a huge market, so folks are gearing up to fill it. Original HK-style sliding stocks are invariably expensive--like $675 apiece. Essentially the same piece of kit made in America by Zenith will set you back about $500. B&T USA offers a polymer side folder that resembles the stock of the HK UMP SMG for about $325. Quality Turkish-made factory sliders can be found for $289 from Atlantic Firearms. Magpul sells something that is pretty darn close and built to their legendary standard of quality for around $150. All of these stock options are plug and play.

Most of these guns already come nicely accessorized. The Century AP5’s all include an HK-style sling and removable aluminum optics rail. The guns with stubby barrels include detachable flash suppressors as well. MP5K-style vertical foregrips can be found for as little as thirty bucks online. The original German versions are more expensive. You’ll need one of those should you be building up the MP5K or MP5K PDW.

The factory MP5K PDW uses a proprietary side-folding stock designed and built by Choate Machine and Tool here in the States. These rugged rascals can be had for $200 to $400 dependent upon the pedigree. Be aware, however, that the stock mounting geometry is different between the MP5K and the standard full-size gun. 

The MP5K and MP5K PDW include reinforcing plates welded to the receiver that preclude a conventional sliding stock. Additionally, the actual mounting interface is different. Bottom line is that you need to make sure the stock you’re considering will fit the gun you have before punching the “Buy” button. The details should be in the description. Just study it closely.

Magazines range from a low of about eighteen bucks for aftermarket polymer boxes to around $70 for original German fare. I have found Turkish mags to run great. However, I once bought a handful of Korean versions because they were cheap that are inadequate to serve as doorstops. 

The Sound of Silence

The AP5SD includes the traditional MP5SD rubber handgrip and an open-ended aluminum fake suppressor. However, underneath is a standard MP5K PDW barrel. That means that you can remove the fake suppressor and replace it with a live can so long as its diameter is such that it will fit inside the metal heat shield. This will put you in an decent facsimile of an MP5SD at a fraction of the price of a factory-style clone.

The factory gun sports a ported barrel that drops supersonic 9mm ammo down to the subsonic range. This automatically excises that hasty sonic crack you get with standard velocity 9mm rounds. To get truly superlative performance out of the AP5SD with a live suppressor necessitates the use of subsonic ammo.

It Is Alive!

An AP5 and a little onerous paperwork dropped after the first of the year will put the spitting image of a factory MP5 in your hands without any extraneous transfer taxes. Locking that bolt to the rear and then slapping it down with each magazine change is incrementally slower than the same chore with your favorite M4. However, the cool points you earn on the range for doing this professionally and well far outweigh any tactical tradeoffs.

We’re all grownups. We really shouldn’t care what we look like on the firing range. Most of us won’t be winning any beauty pageants anytime soon anyway. However, the average grizzled gun guy isn’t all that different from your typical 13-year-old girl. We all want to look cool. A tricked-out MP5 clone SBR will reliably get you there.

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