Vector 45 SBR vs. Other Pistol Caliber SBRs

[Naphtali]

And more importantly, the MKE is superior to any US receiver clone. I don't care who builds it, and there are some talented builders out there, the US made receiver is the problem and it isn't even close to true HK or HK contracts like MKE.

Regarding JHPs, the MKEs feed them just fine. So long as you are using curved mags and not old HK straight mags, the MKE will be 100%.

While we are at it, the Colt 9mm is another excellent SBR candidate.

Separate topic - Steyr, I checked ZQ's site and MKE's site (which is mostly in Turkish) and I don't see anything about the manufacturing location or the quality of the pistols. It also looks like none of those pistols are available in the U.S., though the Z-5p is evidently going to be the first model released in the near future. What's the source on where it's made, and separately, what's the source on the quality / reliability? When the Vector 45 hadn't been released, you wouldn't have known all of the shortcoming that it would ultimately have. On paper it was basically perfect, and won the Discovery Channel's best SMG on Ultimate Weapons. But it's a sucky personal defense weapon for several critical reasons.

But if ZQ / MKE have the quality you say, their SBR's are the only thing that I might prefer over the suppressed .223 SBR route, due to its extremely short length, and JHPs should work properly in those barrel lengths.

[SteyrAUG]

The only semi-auto model on Colt's site is a 16" barrel, which I'm assuming you could replace with the 10.5" barrel found on the burst or auto version. But then best case scenario you're putting 9mm rds through a barrel 2.5" longer than an mp5... I would be really surprised if JHPs would adequately penetrate going that fast. It's possible, but I wouldn't bet my life on it without seeing a credible agency testing that barrel length using a quality JHP round with the FBI protocols. I don't know that this testing has been done... a quick search now yielded nothing. Or you'd have to resign yourself to ball ammo, which is just such a big hit to weapon effectiveness, especially in 9mm.

I think you are putting a lot of thought into the performance characteristics of a 147 gr 9mm JHP fired through a handgun length, smg length or carbine length barrel that really doesn't matter. The only time this is really an issue is on a ported barrel system like the MP5SD. I've fired shocks, talons, sabers, dots, etc. through handguns, subguns and semi carbines and they all perform well. You simply do not get the barrel length issues with 9mm that you have to consider when using 5.56mm.

Here are the ballistics for most 9mm rounds by barrel length.

http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/9luger.html

As you can see, the variation isn't very dramatic and you really need to drop below a 5" barrel to get significant variation. For example a 147 gr. Hydrashock is 1073 fps from a 16" barrel, 1067 fps from a 10" barrel and 1007 fps from a 5" barrel.

Separate topic - Steyr, I checked ZQ's site and MKE's site (which is mostly in Turkish) and I don't see anything about the manufacturing location or the quality of the pistols. It also looks like none of those pistols are available in the U.S., though the Z-5p is evidently going to be the first model released in the near future. What's the source on where it's made, and separately, what's the source on the quality / reliability? When the Vector 45 hadn't been released, you wouldn't have known all of the shortcoming that it would ultimately have. On paper it was basically perfect, and won the Discovery Channel's best SMG on Ultimate Weapons. But it's a sucky personal defense weapon for several critical reasons.

But if ZQ / MKE have the quality you say, their SBR's are the only thing that I might prefer over the suppressed .223 SBR route, due to its extremely short length, and JHPs should work properly in those barrel lengths.

I don't know who is going to be importing what or when. But MKE is good to go. MKE is a HK contract factory set up by HK to make weapons to HK specifications. That said, obviously not all HK contracts are equal. According to many the Swiss B&T MP5 is actually superior to the German made MP5. Pakistan has a reputation for cutting corners and POF product isn't quite up to the German standard. I'd rate the MKE as somewhere between POF and German HK and better than any US receiver clone.

The B&T TP9 is Swiss and basically a product improvement of the Steyr TMP. It's an incredibly compact package that is reliable and accurate.





About the only complaint I have is suppressor options suck. It requires a proprietary Rotex suppressor that costs as much as the host gun and are now almost impossible to find. You also have to use a very large volume suppressor or the back pressure will destroy this gun as many people who used an adapter to run other suppressors have discovered.

Here is a 94k version of the MKE.





As this was basically a SP-89 copy there are no suppressor options with this one either unless you are willing to rebarrel with a German PDW barrel. Streamlight makes a MP5 mount for a light which fits "k" models as well as full size MP5 variants so that does give you a weapon light platform.

When these were imported and sold in the $1,200-1,450 range it was a no brainer. They can easily fetch twice that amount today. If there is another batch of imports anywhere near $1,500 or less anyone who is interested in a MP5 type platform should buy one immediately.

Can't really comment on the POFs, back in the 80s BSO got their hands on some very affordable MP5s which started having parts breakage and performance issues. Turned out they were POFs and not German MP5s. I have some experience with POF G3s and there were noticeable fit and finish issues even though they ran without issue during my limited time with them.