German Sport Guns GSG-5:

RIP GSG-5

October 16 2009 - HK and German Sport Guns have settled their legal battles. To you the shooter this means no more GSG-5 rifle. Read the quote below.

"Production and importation of the original design GSG-5 ceased as of Oct, 8, 2009 with the signing of the agreement. The remaining inventory now in the USA can be sold by ATI, all distributors and dealers. ATI currently has GSG-5’s in stock. All sales of the GSG-5 by ATI must conclude by January 31, 2010. ATI will continue to service every firearm that it imports into the USA."

Its no secret that HK has little respect for civilian gun ownership. They just keep driving the wedge deeper.

If you want a GSG-5 go out and get one today. Time to load up on spare parts and magazines.

GSG-5 Carbine

From the manufacturer:

The GSG 5 is an identical replication of the MP 5, except one great thing: Its a 22 cal. Because of the low cost of ammunition the GSG 5 makes a perfect plinking rifle, training rifle or a serious varmint hunting rifle. Nothing of its kind has ever been introduced in the United States. The user will be impressed with its weight and performance. If you are a varmint hunter you will be encouraged by all the options the GSG-5 has to offer with its railing system, faux suppressor and easy change magazine. For training purposes, the GSG-5 is a low-cost alternative for Law Enforcement agencies and departments that use MP5's in the field.

Technical Specs:

• Caliber - 22 Long Rifle
• Capacity - 10, 22 round detachable magazine
• Working System - Semi-automatic
• Overall Weight - 6.6 pounds
• Overall Length - 33.5"
• Barrel Length - 16.25

Initial Impressions

The acquisition of the GSG-5 was brought on by what I believe was subliminal messages. Every visit to the gun shop I saw a GSG-5 sitting on the rack just begging me to pick it up. I know how that works. Touching it is the first step to purchasing it. Well I fought the urge as long as possible. I woke up one Sunday morning with one thing on my mind, buying a GSG-5. So Monday morning I headed off to my local gun shop about 5 minutes from work only to find him closed. Now he's a one man operation so this is not totally unexpected. So no problem I will swing by on my way home from work. Still closed and this time i notice the sign "Closed Mondays". Now I'm bummed I need to wait another 12 hours before can get my hands on the GSG-5. Tuesday morning I decide to call in advance (I'm learning) and the owner answers the phone and informs me he has a few of the GSG-5's in stock for $529 out the door cash. Great I'll go at lunch. I arrive at 12:05 and the place is packed. Apparently not being able to purchase a gun on Sunday and Monday creates quite a stampede on Tuesday. Well after some time its finally my turn to trade cash for the little black gun. The owner tells me to open the box to my left that there's 2 brand new GSG-5's inside and one has my name on it. Now comes my first surprise. The box is much too short. My first thoughts are he misunderstood what I wanted or its a shorter model, perhaps the pistol version. Upon placing the box on the counter I notice all the right wording,brand,model and distributor. I'm mildly baffled but don't say anything because we are on our way to open the box. Inside the box was another surprise. The gun required a bit of assembly. Assembly consisted of Installing the stock and the 2 piece screw that holds the stock in place. The dealer spends sometime explaining how to assemble it but I really wasn't paying attention as it looked like a no brainer and there was an interesting Para Ordnance pistol in the display case directly beneath the GSG-5 that was soon to be mine. Moving forward I fill out the redundant paperwork for the local and federal governments, exchange cash and away I go. After work Ill scrap all my plans to go home and assemble, drool over and fondle the GSG-5.

Assembly:

I open the box and lay the various parts out on the bed. I grab the stock and go to slide it on to the appropriate mating grooves on the receiver. This is where I met my next surprise. The stock appeared to be about 1/4" to narrow to fit the GSG-5. Now at this point I realize why the gun shop owner went over this, he's aware its a little challenging. I then recall him saying something about putting it on at an angle with the stock butt higher then the receiver. I figure what the heck Ill give it a try. Perfect the stock snapped right on and was about 1/4" short of where it needed to be to allow for the installation of the two piece screw. A few healthy whacks with my palm and the stock ends up exactly where it belongs. That's it, I turned a 2 minute job into a 30 minute ordeal.

GSG-5 Accessories

If anyone has any info on accessories please pass them along through the contact page. So far Combat Optics is the only place I've seen with any type of variety. I did some Google searches for GSG -5 22 round magazines and it seems they are out of stock just about everywhere. Update: March 17,2009 The ProMag GSG-5 22 round magazines are beginning to hit stores. I ordered 2 for testing purposes. Read about the ProMag GSG-A1 magazines here

GSG-5 Scope Mounts

Picking out a quality scope mount for the GSG-5 has been much more difficult then I had anticipated. Even though the GSG-5 can utilize just about any scope mount or accessory designed for the Heckler Koch MP5 most of the scope mounts advertised for the GSG-5 are actually designed for air soft guns. The .22 long rifle's zero recoil means that the airsoft mounts are sufficient and appropriate.

While there's generally only six or so different style of mounts available for the GSG-5 the difficult part to get a grasp of is that the lower cost mounts generally look identical to each other and can range from about $8 - $40. The question is are these mounts that look the same actually the same or does the quality of the mount increase as the price goes up? Over the length of this page we will figure it out. Today I have ordered the G&G Low Profile Mount for G3/ MP5 Series ( With Marking ) (GG-MP5-L-MB-03-031-AG). The mount was $63 delivered and was reviewed pretty good elsewhere.