Hatchet

Yeah, I fancy a solid stock version, but it doesn't seem sensible dropping £500 on an almost identical gun to the one I already have just for that. Probably better to await the inevitable solid stock MP5SD and pick one of those up so I can swap front ends over. Mag prices have actually come down from last week. I know this because I bought mags at Eagle 6 on the basis they were cheaper at £37 than the out of stock FS ones (which were down as £42!). Gaaah. Oh well, so it goes.

And also, 4 of the new solid stock MP5s...

The front triangle's normally held on with pins, so there shouldn't be any structural reason you can't do it. Could either just pick a free float rail that's shorter than your front sight, or one of the ones that has a cutout - e.g. https://madbull.com/catalog/en/products/handguard-ras-rail-mount/daniel-defense-licensed-omegax-rail-12-fsp-fde-tan.html

Because otherwise the motor shaft spins the grub screw the first time you pull the trigger and it instantly violently adjusts the motor height, jamming it into the gears and seizing everything up. Apparently. Not that I've ever done this...

This video might be worth a watch if you haven't already seen it, covering some of the potential weaknesses/upgrade options (easy HPA and box mag conversion as well as hop mods). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxwj6QbtjU4

No love for the G36? Picked up a TM one (non-recoil) recently, and it's ridiculously light, especially if you ditch the unnecessary rails/handstop (which is inexplicably made of pot metal). Okay, marginally heavier than the MP5K, but probably more capable in the field.

So if it's like the TM, it will look like the attached. Essentially the box is in permanent semi auto because it's got a cut off lever, but no fire selector plate on the side of the gearbox to hold it out of the way. To get round this, they have the second external set of contacts you can see in that picture. When the cut off lever disengages the first set of contacts, you can pull further back and make the connection via the second set, giving full auto. The problem I guess you've got with using a "standard" mosfet is lack of being able to select fire mode. I have no idea what the effect of wiring it up to one or the other set of contacts would be. Kind of does my head in a bit trying to think about it...

I've used the 9R's but not the 5's, so I'm at the other end of that comparison. They seem to work ok, usual deal with needing to program them, CHIRP works fine for doing so and saving the image for future use/programming multiple devices. In terms of power I'm lead to believe that any wattage ratings are entirely fictitious anyway, but they worked well enough for me in your standard woodland environment. Waterproofing... who knows? If that's an actual concern you'd probably as well putting your UV-5's in plastic bags and calling it a day. Point of note is that the accessories socket is different, being one of those motorola multi-pin styles, so you'd need to look at new headsets/mic interfaces, which might be a consideration.

Antlion do add on microphones if you have a favoured pair of headphones. It's what I have on mine, albeit using 3.5mm jack. Their FAQ suggests their Modmic USB will work with PS4 (dunno about PS5). They're not cheap, but I've had no complaints about quality and must have had mine at least 5 years now.

I've done something similar recently. Perun Hybrid, 13:1 gears and base 27k motor. Seems fast enough for me - I generally run on 7.4v. Could probably have just used a 35k motor, 11.1 and not changed the gears, but in some ways it's easier to get a slightly slower motor and have the option to increase speed (with gear or battery change) than it is to have one that's too fast and be stuck. Ran it last weekend spamming semi all day and only used about 50% of a 1300mah battery.

No experience with the Cyma, but MP5 sliding sling point in general should be fine, there's often a bit of movement, but it can't go anywhere. If you take the stock off you'll see that the sling loop is an L shape with the bottom part of the "L" trapped between the body and the stock mount. You might be able to take up the slack with a bit of electrical tape if it's rattling too much and bothering you. The MP5k is a different story, not sure I'd be as confident with that. You could also make sure your single point sling has some bungee in its design so it's not a hard stop if you drop the weapon.

The manual seems to suggest you might have it in stock wiring mode and need to switch it to modified wiring mode. Which I guess makes sense because it stock mode it's sending current the whole time and relying on the physical trigger to make the connection. (The diagrams help here) Can't work out how it fires in semi at all though. There's no fire selector sensor, so presumably it usually relies on standard mechanical cutoff provided by the gearbox for semi and then full auto is full or burst based on timing (what Adolf said). Which does make it puzzling that there's a modified fire option for burst/auto. I wonder if this is the one you want and it's a hybrid mode that does burst on a short pull and then switches to FA on a long pull. In which case, the closest you'd get to semi would be setting a minimal burst value.

An update, Combat South have repaired it using the method mentioned elsewhere of taking another piston (I think AK, but didn't check) and modifying it. Firing okay now. My next puzzle is why the charging handle doesn't release sometimes without a bit of a tap forward. Cleaned it last time I had it apart, it just feels like it's binding slightly. I am wondering if the environment I've been playing in has just caused it to wear. Perhaps it's the old story of the better the tolerances, the less they like getting crap in there. I shall probably be keeping this one for days at urban sites rather than a standard woodland gun I think...

Not sure properly gluing them in would be a great idea if you ever want to take the gearbox out again, but *maybe* some sort of threadlock might hold it sufficiently. Sometimes they get held in by general tension, but I've also had ones that are just slack and seem to want to vanish on their own. Could either consider buying a new one (working on the assumption that yours might be a bit worn, or mildly thin) or take the cheaper option of just putting a tiny square of gorilla tape over the top of it on each side of the receiver so it can't fall out.

Now that's interesting. The Faceache page has a bunch of pictures of the gearbox on it, looks like a partially split design so you could run different cylinder/spring assemblies. Some specs reproduced below. Looking forward to seeing some reviews, but not certain I'd want to be an early adopter. That said, they've had a lot of time to get it right and they've done well with their other guns thus far. -CNC aluminium wide bore cylinder/upper gearbox (26mm diameter, +19% compared to a standard AEG), including a spring quick change design. -CNC aluminium cylinder head, NBR piston damper, stainless steel nozzle. -CNC aluminium ventilated piston head, FKM o-ring, POM glider ring. -CNC stainless steel & aluminium spring guide, equipped with a thrust bearing. 3 lugs design ensuring a better axial alignment. - “Tappet plate-less” construction. -CNC aluminium piston body, hardened MIM steel 16 teeth rack. -18:1 torque up gear set, hardened MIM steel. -ADC 12 aluminium gearbox carter, 10mm ball bearing. -Designed to operate on 11.1V Li-Po batteries (possibility to operate on 7.4V). -Electronic Trigger Unit, CPU motor control, gear cycle and fire selector position detection by Hall Effect sensor. 2 mosfets for power, 1 mosfet for active braking. -Neodymium high-torque motor 19000RPM (11.1V), short axis. -Silver-plated wiring, Teflon coated.

Kit looks good, although I am surprised that 13 posts in, nobody has yet commented on the lack of pens. "I won't argue that it wasn't a no-holds-barred adrenaline-fuelled thrill-ride, but there's no way that you could perpetrate that amount of carnage and mayhem and not incur a considerable amount of paperwork."

Ran an "East and Crane" XM 177 today (various places have them in stock). Did alright with it, seems solidly put together. 11.5" barrel, so not exactly SMG sized, but right in your price range. They do a bunch of shorter ones according to the poster in the box (7, 5 and 4 inch). No fancy mosfet on mine, but rotary hop and a quick change spring that you don't have to take the gearbox out to swap. Might be worth a look.

That's exactly the chap/gun I was referring to. It's broken really isn't it?

If you're looking for a cheaper option, I picked up one of the issue deployment bags off Ebay for next to nothing and it's great for carrying kit in (as you might expect). Boots, helmet, belt rig, etc.

You can get really silly with it with a bar to operate it with the left hand so you don't even have to come off the trigger. That said, I've been considering HPA'ing an SRS just because my arm's buggered and I can't pull the spring at present. (It's either that or get a TAC41 and try to learn to shoot left handed)

Cheers for that. I was in the Combat South shop this week and had a similar conversation with them. This might be the way to go since there are aftermarket AK ones more readily available. Will report back with any news.

They do a bunch of different ones, one of which is blank.

Guarder make those too.

There's a fairly comprehensive review of the G&G TR16 here if that helps.

Seems to work okay for me, thanks. (Albeit I am using a different authenticator app, but the principle is the same).