When SRC announced the MP5 and claimed it would have a CO2 magazine, I was full of hope. I liked what I saw during the first presentation videos. I was presented with a massive, heavy submachine gun with a noticeable recoil and rate of fire thanks to the CO2 propellant. Then the day of market launch came and I could take a look at the user manual. Taking a quick look into this manual, I immediately lost interest. Regardless, one of my friends bought one despite my warnings, and years later, this gun made its way to me. This is my review about how SRC ruined the whole thing – at least in my opinion.

Before reading the review, here is a quick note. Are you aware that Umarex uses very strong, Jihad-like attacks against airsoft manufacturers as the licence owner? And that perhaps this is the reason why Glock and H&K models have awfully limited offerings nowadays, with radio silence from airsoft manufacturers? You can also see that the whole sport had become licence-oriented. New models only come to the market under official licensing, there are no budget options/cheaper clone versions or even competition, and any issue with your replica will be difficult to solve. Could it be, that old times were better, back when we could play with whatever we wanted?

The first time I grabbed it in my hands, I got what SRC is very strong at. A solidly built, heavy replica. I don't have the impression of a toy gun, but I do have the feeling that I'm holding a "cheaper" replica. Compared to the WE it is nicer, but it doesn't have the external quality of the VFC. I like the fact that it has the same welding spots and marks as the real steel MP5. The paint is matte black and the exterior color is consistent with the plastics. Otherwise the paintwork is thick and apparently stands up well to wear, but there's nothing particularly durable about it - nothing like the VFC which even challenges the paint remover chemicals. There are inscriptions here and there, but with the Umarex licensing craze, it's a very humble affair. The old fashioned - S-E-F grip - is very impressive and cool. Those lettering are spectacular and clearly visible with the different color highlighting. It's made of a chunky, non-rattling polymer- but it is closer to (regular) plastic than fiberglass. The WE, for example, is clearly some kind of fibreglass material, with a better feel and grip; the SRC in this respect gives a much rougher and simpler feel. The handguard's rubber is quite soft, the grip is very good - even with the owner's green paint job applied to it, actually the black and green two-tone looks very good. The knob that holds the grip seems to be missing or not properly worked - possibly it has been removed by the owner. This replica was stylishly fitted with an M4 KAC RAS handguard lower section using clamps - giving it a good look and a very old-school feel. The stock is very solidly attached, almost hammered into place and not exactly easy to remove. Slack is minimal, it's easy to get used to and falls into the negligible category. There is a huge, thick rubber pad on the stock that actually helps hold the gun, greatly reducing the slippage.

The controls are also much simpler and rougher to operate compared to a WE. The firing lever can only be switched with firm movements - perhaps that's more of an advantage compared to a WE. The magazine release holds much more firmly. The stock also holds solidly in place while pushed in, the release/locking lever is more solid compared to WE, but has a softer operation compared to a VFC.

Disassembly can be done in the classic MP5 way. Once the pins are removed, it can be partially disassembled in seconds. As I mentioned, removing the stock can be a bit of a struggle - which I don't mind at all and after the VFC G3, it didn't surprise me at all. You just have to fold downward the trigger group with the grip and lift it off. On the other hand, removing the bolt carrier requires the removal of some screws. The Taiwanese/Chinese designed the spring guide in a way that they pressed the plate out of the receiver end and put a thread into each side of the spring guide. The receiver has some leftover bumps from this, they did not bother to grind it away, leaving a fairly sharp residue - when the bolt carrier is inserted, it gets stuck in these ever so slightly. The spring guide can be separated from the bolt carrier, but that requires further disassembly - otherwise I wouldn't do it, as at least it keeps the whole thing intact and out of the way as far as I'm concerned.

Looking at the trigger, I immediately thought of a WA M4. It has the typical M4 full-auto switch and no firing pin lock. The hammer is large, thick and solid. It has a huge bearing on it, which is not a ball bearing, but a simple roller bearing. The bearing is held in place by a pin, the pot metal alloy around the pin is tolerably thick - but I wouldn't bet on it not deforming over time and letting go of the pin, making it fall out and take the bearing with it, too. There is also a sizable case around the firing pin, which also holds the magazine in position. The part of the firing pin that strikes the valve is made of steel, otherwise everything inside the trigger group is pot metal (apart from the roller bearing and this firing pin part). The hammer spring is strong, which is necessary because of the CO2 magazine - by the way, cocking the hammer is surprisingly easy compared to this fact. If there's no deformation along the pin holding the hammer bearing, I don't think there's anything to be done here in the long run.

The bolt carrier itself is extremely light and tiny. A lot of material has been cut out to save weight, which gives the replica a very fair rate of fire. When the gun is operating, you can somewhat feel the energy of the bolt carrier - but this model is definitely not the type you love because of recoil power. Its nozzle is two-piece, both the front part and the internal piston part are made of metal (aluminum, I guess). There is no separate BB loader pin on the nozzle, instead the nozzle itself does the loading - which is why I don't think nozzle breakage would be a problem. The nozzle has a good length, it is thick and solid. There is a longitudinal notch in the outer shell, into which the screws threaded into the bolt carrier can fit into- this also serves as the nozzle guide and the nozzle stopper to pull the nozzle out of the hopup unit. The nose guiding uses a weird solution, a bit unusual and it was perhaps designed due to the shake from CO2. The nozzle is assembled by loosely threading in the screws that guide it - it doesn't touch the sidewall of the nozzle and is practically loose in the thread, it can come loose from the shock. Then a fixing clip is snapped onto the threaded part of the screw from the outside. This would be perfectly fine, if the clip itself didn't get a shock from the recoil, but after a while it deforms and almost certainly bounce off the screw - with a good chance of getting into the piston. You can clearly see from the photos that there was quite a bit of wear and tear caused by the clips, they filled the end of the nozzle (piston) with dust, dirt and the ventillation at the end of the nozzle was also nicely plugged. Not to mention that the o-rings on the nozzle had to be replaced because of this. By the way, the piston of the nozzle was also hit, you can see the deformation. Thorough cleaning, replacing o-rings, putting o-rings under the nozzle guide screw, replacing the clips have brought significant improvement. In its original condition, the nozzle was jammed, it did not seal perfectly - the nozzle was practically moving with the bolt carrier. Because of the spring guide, I used quite a lot of threadlocker glue to reduce the problems of later shaking - I hope this will work in the future.

After that, I arrived at the hopup, which is why I was handed the replica in the first place (I was asked to fix it). The primary problem was poor hop performance. It was one thing that it couldn't really handle even medium BB weights, but the spread was also terrible due to the wobble of the hop up tensioner. The hop up is basically based on a metal cnc machined body with an aluminium tube mounted on it for fixing it into position and and eliminating slack - unfortunately I didn't photograph the hop unit as a whole. Inside this is the inner barrel, the bucking, a one-piece hop tensioner/nub secured by a pin and countered by a spring. The hop adjustment wheel, on the other hand, seems to be a cast alloy part, which was then fine-tuned by a CNC machine. The dial wheel itself is one of the main problems in my opinion. Although the disc is completely circular, it is tapered on both sides to a D-shape and it can wobble in the absence of a proper thread. In addition, as the extra casting line on the part starts to wear off, it can wobble more. So I was forced to fix the existing threading with threadlock glue, Teflon tape and other means - making it significantly more stable, but harder to adjust. The front of the adjusting disc is tapered, which as you thread it in starts to act on the nub. The arrangement also makes the hop adjustment logically inverted, as you start screwing the adjuster in, you reduce the hop effect. The hop up lever is made of one piece, but the pin is a separate part. Here too, the whole thing can move up and down slightly. The lateral support was quite good, I didn't have to do any significant spacing on this part. However, I did replace the spring because of the up and down movement - considering the factory one was slightly deformed anyway. Onto the inner barrel. As you can see on the first photos, I have removed the anodized coating - as the replica contains an aluminium barrel that can be called average at best. There's not much room for the lever - in other words, the window is small, the bucking sticks up and there's not enough pressing surface or clearance. I replaced the bucking with a TNT, then I increased the window size substantially - almost doubled the surface area. After these modifications, the replica went from barely hopping 0.25-0.28 gram weight BB to being able to handle 0.36 and similar weight BBs with the hop unit - the hop unit now works spectacularly better.

Next came the magazine. According to the owner, he also had problems with the magazines, as they all leaked gas according to him. In reality, after disassembly and cleaning, it was still holding pressure after 3-4 days, so I suspect it was a matter of dirt in them. In terms of construction they were quite cost effective while also doing a good job with the magazines. The magazine shell is a tiny plate from which the inner part of the magazine can be pulled out in one piece. On the left side, a plastic element snaps into the magazine shell, securing the two together. This button can be easily pushed in and the inside of the magazine can be easily removed. There is an empty switch/dryfire switch, which lifts the firing pin, causing an empty click. The magazine lip rises above the top significantly, as it lifts the BBs to the same height as the nozzle. The gas port rubber is also relatively high up and delivers the gas pressure to the nozzle at a well-designed massive point. The magazine is more reminiscent of WE's old closed-bolt design, but otherwise works very nicely. The valve is brass, large and looks solid. I also liked the sealing arrangement, the valves and cartridge seals on SRC CO2 magazines are usually pretty good - maybe even better than KJ's. The magazine has a separate machined element attached to the magazine body, secured by pins. It's quite sturdy and sized, I wouldn't worry about a cartridge explosion like with the GHK AK series. The CO cartridge securing end cap is also a big, sizable piece of aluminium with a nice machining. The insertion is helped by a longitudinal notch, which is well pronounced and deep - it won't deform or break. Very interesting and a good solution is the use of a copper band around the CO2 cartridge holder, they wanted to counteract the cool down and speed up the reheating - I think it was a great idea on their part. The cartridge puncturing pin also has a large spike, with a good quality but I think slightly flimsy PU rubber seal around it - it should not be twisted strongly, that's for sure.

During operation, the gun is louder than other MP5 GBBs, but the sound is not comparable to other SMG/rifles. Its rate of fire is quite rapid, which gives the MP5 feeling. HK-slap is always fun, but not always practical for me in a combat situation - I tend to powerstroke the charging handle with my left hand rather than slamming on it. The operation of the gun itself has improved a lot after the overhaul, but I still have the negative feeling I had around its appearance. It's not a bad SMG, especially since its CO2 option makes it playable in winter and summer - except the CO2 magazines make the muzzle energy exceed 1.5 Joules in the summer (making the replica banned as an SMG in local fields). It's rare to find an MP5 on the battlefield these days anyway, it's a rarity now and it has quite an old-school feel to it - the modern competitor SMG designs have spread instead. A further complicating factor is that this model is not available at all in Europe due to Umarex, and parts and accessories are certainly not available - this replica also came from Taiwan via private import. Due to being a significantly cheaper purchase option than the WE and VFC, it could be a tempting buy, but only if you can deal with the disadvantages - which will be more than adequate in a CQB-only environment.

Text: Batmause
Translation: Yssomru
Fényképek: Batmause