Firearms News November 2024 — Military Armament Corporation MAC-5

This Month in Firearms News

On the cover: Military Armament Corporation's MAC-5

It was the mid- to late-1970s, and I jumped head-first into the gun enthusiast pool. Besides a few guns I had received from my maternal grandfather, by 1978/79 I got some “fun guns” in the form of a Colt SP1 AR-15 and an Iver Johnson Paratrooper M1 Carbine. I loved any firearm that was a semi-auto version of an assault rifle or submachine gun. And of course, I loved machine guns, but those were out of reach for a kid just shy of his teen years. It was in 1979 that I got my hands on a then-brand-new book entitled The Complete Machine-Gun: 1885 to the Present by Ian V. Hogg. A fantastic hard-backed book about my favorite firearms, and that is when I discovered what a Heckler & Koch MP5 was. There were only a couple of illustrations of this subma- chine gun, and just a little information, but I remember that the gun made an impression on me as a very modern, high-quality subma- chine gun designed in Germany during the late 1960s. My father, a Korean War combat veteran, told me stories about the M3A1 Grease Gun, another favorite of mine, but the open-bolt Grease Gun compared to the closed-bolt MP5 was like comparing an Edsel to a Corvette. The first MP5 I ever saw for sale was in a J. Curtis Earl machine gun catalog (ordered from the clas- sified section of Guns & Ammo magazine) that same year. This was almost a half a decade before the HK94 carbine (semi-auto only MP5 with 16-inch barrel) would become available, and I figured that this would be one gun I probably never would get my hands on. Boy, was I wrong. 

[Continue reading "Military Armament Corporation's MAC-5" in the November 2024 Issue]

Also, inside this issue: 

• Smith & Wesson's Performance Center Carry Comp Shield Plus Pistol - Back to the Future! Review by James Tarr
• LWRCI's 350 Legend – Straight-wall hunting AR-type rifle. by Patrick Sweeney
• The PM-12 SMG Series: Beretta's Open-Bolt Lioness : by Pierangelo Tendas
• Carrying Concealed: The Evolution of the Aimpoint ACRO by James Tarr
• In Hushed Tones: Gemtech’s GM-9  by Patrick Sweeney
• Musings From the Ammo Bunker: Defender of an Empire, The .303 British by David M. Fortier, Executive Editor
• The War Guns: Italian Vetterli Fucili E Moschetti by Paul Scarlata

Pick up a copy of "Firearms News November 2024" at your local magazine stand, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, or major book retailer. Firearms News prints a new, exciting issue every month, so be sure to get a copy or subscribe!

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