Tokyo Marui MP5K "Kurz" AEG Review/SMG Comparison



Intro:
Well, I have always wanted an MP5K, and I have earned a lot of money this summer which I have spent very little of, so when my friend Chris called me up yesterday afternoon to see if I wanted to go with him to AEX, the MP5K was the first thing that popped into my head. I went with Chris to AEX in Torrance, and looked at a few AEGs... I knew I wanted something somewhat compact but still powerful, and I didn't want to spend over $300 or so.

The first AEG I held at the store was the MP5K, which cost $215 at AEX (pretty good price since in HK they cost $175 plus ~$40 shipping), and it felt great... I'll go into detail on that later in the review. I also held the MP5K-PDW, which was very comfy with the stock out, but once the stock folded it hit your knuckles and made it impossible to use the vertical foregrip... this immediately turned me off to this gun. Next, I held the CA36C, and it reminded me why I love the G36C design... felt great, but it was above my price range with a battery and tax($280+battery+tax), and it was a little too big to be a sniper sidearm/CQB gun. Finally, I held the new G&G UMP-45, which felt much like a chunkier version of the G36C... a little too chunky for my liking, the mag was very light and cheap feeling (and no hicaps yet), and it was too expensive also.

So, after much contemplation, I went with the MP5K, a 1050 MAH NIMH battery (the guy at AEX chopped my cocking tube shorter so it could fit for free), and a 200 round hicap. Grand total came out to $312, a little over my price range, but I wanted one hicap for the gun, so I bought everything.

First Impressions:
The guys at AEX let me test fire the gun over at their indoor firing range, and I was very very impressed with the ROF, but then I realized it was a 9.6v battery... nonetheless the ROF is pretty good with a 8.4v... I think I may go to highspeed gears or maybe super-highspeeds in the future. The gun chronoed at around 235 fps with 0.25s, which is slow, but it does have a very short barrel and I'm going to use 0.2s in it most of the time, so it doesn't bother me.

The gun feels great... with a red dot and some minor ROF mods, this thing will be the perfect CQB gun. It's small, a little bigger than it's main competitors, the Mac-11 and the G18C, but it has better accuracy, range, MUCH better ammo capacity, and it can take tons of upgrades. I have a vision of this thing with a drum mag, red dot, super-highspeed helical gears and a new piston, and a tightbore with a suppressor... beautiful.

The only gripes I had with this gun pertain to the iron sights (I hate MP5 sights) and the fire selector (hits your hand when it's set to auto, and the selection is kinda sticky, not smooth with clicks at each setting). Other than that, the gun is fantastic externally, and AEX glued a thread adaptor to my gun and glued a orange M16 flashider to that, so I got a free $20 thread adaptor for the gun once I got the glue off (used a hair dryer to heat it and loosen the glue). Just when I was thinking "Man, this is gonna be a pain in the to get the orange flashider off" I ended up getting a free part which I was going to have to buy later...

Firing:
I couldn't fire the gun when I got home last night (it was dark, and I live in a residential area), so today I went to Chris's house and tested the gun out a bit. After charging up my battery (my charger had a blown fuse ), I filled up the hicap with some 0.2s and fired... this thing is LOUD compared to most AEGs. Even next to my 400+ fps AK47, this thing sounds loud, and since it has a short barrel it sounds more like "POP POP POP" when firing rather than "whirr-POP whirr-POP". Once I tried on my KM Lightweight 245mm silencer, the gun quiets down a LOT, since the silencer is probably 2-3 times the barrel length... the gun looks dead sexy with it on though, and it's pretty quiet, so I might actually use it in CQB with the silencer. The gun even has a tiny bit of recoil (nothing compared to GBBs, but it kinda vibrates on full-auto), which is pretty cool.

As I said earlier, ROF is pretty good, I'd guess around 800 rounds per minute with an 8.4v 1050mah, and around 950-1000 with a 9.6v (although I'd never use one without replacing the gears, bushings, and piston first). Next to Chris's Mac-11, the ROF is not very impressive, but it's pretty good when compared to AEGs, especially upgraded ones with heavy springs. Range is about 125 feet effective range (assuming you're spraying a lot of ammo downrange) or about 175 feet if you really arc it or if you crank the hopup up a little high... that's more than enough, and I could easily see myself using this thing in woodland games... instead of short bursts from bigger AEGs, you may need to spray a bit more, but hitting someone at 100+ feet is no problem at all.

I'd like to use the gun with 0.2s since it's mainly a CQB gun, but right now I'm low on 0.2s, so I tried some 0.25s. Once the hopup was adjusted, the BBs carry a little farther, but after ~100 feet they're just painfully slow... lots more accuracy and a bit better range, but BB flight slows down a lot. I think I'll stick to 0.2s, since I don't really need precision accuracy with this thing , but 0.25s are still playable.

Conclusions:
In my opinion, if you don't want to deal with the hassles of gas SMGs (jamming, gas consumption, fairly bad accuracy, lots of recoil, not very good range), the Marui MP5K is the perfect SMG. This thing is nearly as accurate and powerful as a TM MP5A#, but in a package the size of a gas SMG... if it was one of these against any gas SMG (unless very very very heavily upgraded), I honestly think there would be no contest. The only things that gas SMGs have on one of these are realism (blowback), possibly rate of fire (depending on the model), and a little more power... the MP5K has better range, accuracy, reliablity, upgradability, and ammo capacity.

Since I'm working on fixing my friend James's little brother's Maruzen MP5K, I got the chance to compare the two. Although the Maruzen is not firing right now (this should tell you something), I have fired it in the past. The Maruzen fired about 50-60 feet maximum on HFC134A, and on green gas/propane (which causes it to jam horribly and eventually break) it fires about 75-85 feet max. The Maruzen has massive insane blowback, incredible recoil, and is very loud, but range and performance are disappointing due to fixed hopup and gas cooldown on full-auto. The finish of the Maruzen is shinier and more metallic looking, compared to the flat dark grayish finish of the TM. After seeing both perform, the TM is the obvious choice unless you're willing to give up power for much more realistic recoil.

Even compared to Chris's upgraded Mac-11, this thing is better or equal in every category except ROF (800 rpm vs. ~1200), realism (blowback), and power (~260 fps on the TM vs. ~350 on the M11, but the TM still outranges the KWA), and Glock 18C/26C/23Fs and M93Rs have too much kick to be very accurate in comparison. I'd take the Marui MP5K over a GBB SMG any day of the week (even though gas may be more fun to shoot around with ).

Marui has done it again...

Some pictures (thanks to chris for the artsy camera work... more photos will come later):




Videos (yes, we have permission to play there from the owners of the land and the police):
MP5K Firing (0.25g AE BBs, approx. 125 feet):
http://media.putfile.com/Picture-00129

MP5K firing at a sign (0.25g AE BBs, approx. 60 feet):
http://media.putfile.com/Picture-00471

KWA Mac-11 (converted to look like an MP7, green gas, 0.2g Infinity BBs) firing 50 rounds:
http://media.putfile.com/Picture-00398

Comments/questions are welcome. Hopefully I helped someone out with this review.

This post has been edited by -=Bloodred=-: Aug 29 2005, 12:31 AM

That is the only MP5 that I actually think looks good. Nice choice, eh. Nice review at that, too.

Good review! Might add this gun to my collection soon!

Now, when you say that the folded stock hit your knuckles when using the foregrip, how severe of a problem is it? Is the foregrip TOTALLY unusable? My birthday's coming up, and I might have enough for a TM SMG. I almost never fold the stock on any LPEG I use. Would it be different with a TM, or would I really need to collapse the stock during CQB? Did the come with a battery and charger?

This post has been edited by rhodekill_96: May 30 2006, 06:30 PM

My friend wants to use one of these for his backup. What should he get with the gun. I know a battery and charger, but what else. Any idea.
PS-Great review, better than some other "K" reviews I have seen.

He should get some hi caps. and pick an avatar and leave it that way. Nice sig though.

This post has been edited by rhodekill_96: May 31 2006, 08:40 PM

any one have any imput on the ICS mp5 full stock. Im trying to decide if I should get that or not. Specs would be nice. I just need to know if it hurts from a distence and is accurate?

Thx man I was looking for a mp5k review and I found it! I am going to buy this gun