Suomi;
-Very high quality; gun is heavy but you'll cry when you see how well made everything is compared to even an HK. The giant tube receiver was machined from a solid forging.
-Very well-trod ground; both striker and hammer conversions are well established and successful, and even have ATF approvals to follow
-Very good condition; many of these were in unissued condition
-Very good magazines; the sticks are probably the best straight-style ever made, the drums ARE the best ever made. Coffins are pretty good, too.
-Excellent support; almost as many build threads/guides out there as for ARs
-Excellent aftermarket; I think TNW is still making semi reciever tubes, but there are many folks making tube components weldable into a converted semi-auto scheme. There are also folks doing bolt conversions. Don't expect any of this stuff to be as professional/slick as for ARs, since it is still a niche market run almost entirely by hobbyists, but the resources are out there
-Extremely cheap parts kits; they were given away for free as a gift-with-purchase in the late '90s, but now that people know they can be built they run about 150$ for a full matching kit w/ mag(s)
-Extremely cool history; not even the BAR can be said to have single-handedly held off a Soviet trench-charge. Individual sub-gunners w/ mag-loader helpers cut down whole advancement moves on multiple occasions during the Winter War
-Extremely easy builds; with a tube, it's an afternoon with a MIG once the bolt is converted. Said conversion consists of a milled slot for an AR hammer. Without a tube, it's two afternoons MIG'ing the slant-cut remnants back together & burning in a blocking bar
-922r is easy; I believe this gun has so few 922r parts, being a blowback, that it does not apply after the FCG conversion
-Extremely good barrels; I can't recall if chrome-lined, but fairly heavy and great-quality rifling means they are quite accurate.
One of the few parts kits remaining which come with barrels (t'anks dubya)
"anyone with any experience with the czech VZ26? it has some potential and parts kits are around $100"
Very good and clever guns, I'd stack one against an Uzi any day. However, the semi-conversion requires the ability to drill a very long, very skinny hole for the striker rod; typically is done with a lathe. Aftermarket support is not quite as good, but the prices can't be beat (which is how it goes with parts kits; they are cheap until someone learns how to build them, starts making conversion parts, and makes the build easy enough for everyone to start throwing up money for kits which increases the price)
"well, i think i could narrow it down to the MP5 and sterling at least, problem with the MP40, suomi, and sten is theyre not dimensionally efficient, the magazine and thus the chamber is so far forward that the overall length of the rifle is excessively long for the barrel length, this isnt the case with the sterling or the MP5, and they both weigh a heck of a lot less by 2-3 pounds"
With the exception of the STEN, Suomi, and (possibly, there's none right now) Sterling, those are also gonna run about a grand
just for the no-barrel parts kit. MP5 stuff has been stupid-expensive for like a decade, now, the only 'decent' deal being the repro telescoping stocks HKParts had for 180$ recently (and those stocks suck at anything but looking cool
). Better bet would be buying an HK33 kit, MP5 reciever flat, an MP5 barrel (unfluted for even cheaper build since 9mm doesn't need it), and an MP5 locking piece, then playing with the springs/wedge until it runs on pistol ammo.
HK guns are also among the more advanced builds to cut your teeth on, also (not at all like an AK due to the amount of precision involved in getting the rails correct & the trunnion straight)
"Have you considered the delayed roller-locked MP-5 is so much lighter and more controllable then anything else because it doesn't require either a heavy chunk of steel for a bolt to keep it shut?
Or, that it fires from a closed bolt, so it can be fired much more accurately then a slam banger open bolt gun flies foreward when you release the trigger??"
All these guns will be firing closed both if Justin is to every actually build them, so no advantage there. The AR-conversion Suomi will likely have a better trigger than most SMGs, though (and tons better than any striker-conversion Uzi or similar, and probably more reliable). MP5's not all that light, btw; that trigger housing, cocking tube/handle, and most of the stock designs truly are needlessly heavy --but that's a good thing when talking full auto SMGs! Its compact size is much more important, and the main effect of the rollers is to allow for smooth shooting with a much heavier(longer) bolt and receiver, as did the earlier non-telescoped SMG open-bolts.
TCB
