I had the opportunity to fire a new gun to me today: The GSG-5. GSG stands for the manufactures, German Sport Gun, and the "5" refers to the fact that is a visual copy of the HK MP5. This gun, unlike the regular one in 9mm, is in .22 Long Rifle. The weapon I fired had a permanently mounted fake suppressor attached to the barrel to hide the last 8 to 9 inches of the end of the gun. In total the gun has a 16 inch barrel. GSG-5's are imported by American Tactical Imports.
It is not a true copy of the MP5, for reasons other then the caliber. This weapon was designed from the ground up as semi-automatic only, while the MP5 is capable as full automatic. None of the parts are interchangeable. The controls are the same, though. A huge, ambidextrous safety is just above the trigger assembly on either side of the gun. My friends gun had a 1913-rail and was mounted with an after market red dot scope. The GSG-5 comes with either a standard stock or a retractable stock that slides closer or further away from the gun body via an ambidextrous paddle near the shoulder portion of the stock.
The weapon weight about 6 pounds, give or take a few ounces.
In my sample, the retractable shoulder stock had two separate arms that slide in and out of an assembly on the main body of the gun and connected to the end stock plate. The two arms were not completely locked into the stock plate and I found that, often times, the arms would move independently of each other. I would then have to manually pull or push the other arm into place. It was a minor inconvenience.
The magazines looked well built and were easy to reload and insert into the gun. There was a positive click when the magazine was in place. Each magazine I had access to held 22 rounds, although I hear that 10 rounders are available for the people who live in Anti-2nd places. The large magazine release was just in front of the trigger guard and was easy to reach with the trigger finger, and like the other controls was ambidextrous.
I found the trigger to be very AK like. It was a long pull but not outrageously heavy. I would guess it was probably about 8 to 10 pounds, but did have a constant let off point. I did not have a problem hitting what I was shooting at due to the trigger weight, though.
The slide release is MP5 style; a paddle on the top of the barrel shroud, in front of the magazine housing. It is pretty far in front of a standard rifle or pistol slide release and took a second for me to fine. Once I got used to it, it worked well enough.
Since a red dot scope was already mounted to the weapon, I did not have an chance to test the iron sights. I sites certainly looked large enough, from an off center viewing, but the sight radius was pretty short. It looked to be less then 12 inches of sight radius, as the rear sight was above the pistol grip and the front globe sight was just before the long fake suppressor.
Since I was at an indoor range, I didn't have a chance to chase cans at 50+ yards, but the weapon is certainly capable of it. I wasn't expecting a new gun to play with, so i didn't bring a camera or any measuring tools, but I would guess that I managed to put ten shots into a 1,5 inch group at about 15 yards. I an sure the weapon could do better, but I was working offhand with a dot scope. I went through about 40 rounds or various brands of ammo without a single malfunction before I handed the weapon back to its owner.
While the gun looks cool enough and functions well enough, the base MSRP on it is $499. My friend probably spent another $200 on the red dot scope, mount, and retractable stock. That's a lot of money considering you can get a very tricked out Ruger 10/22 that will way outshoot this gun for about $200 less. Still, it was fun to play with at the range.
