MP5 Clone Malfunction

Well, that wasn't it. If anything, thing are incidentally actually worse now. I'm thinking my crappy clone has crappy clone parts, so having a perfect German in-spec ejector is causing a new malfunction. Round chambers but the friction of the ejector on the bolt is causing the bolt to not fully travel, thus not resetting the trigger. This happens once or twice a mag, AND this is on top of the old issue of unreliable ejection. And I think this ejection issue is leading to why I often get rounds trying to stuff themselves into the chamber perpendicular to the opening.

I'm almost ready to give up on this. Such a shame, as it's a joy to shoot when it does fire and it a tack driver. My only other thought is that the very large amount of magwell play (forward and aft) is promoting sloppy extraction, but I'm not sure how that would play into bad ejection.
 
I had lots of feeding issues with the straight mags. I replaced them all woth original hk curved mags and have very few feeding issues now. I also use 124-147 grain. The 115 grain was giving me cycling issues.
 
btnh6668 said:
I had lots of feeding issues with the straight mags. I replaced them all woth original hk curved mags and have very few feeding issues now. I also use 124-147 grain. The 115 grain was giving me cycling issues.
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My issues are present regardless of which mag I'm using. They're all HK with HK date stamps, but it doesn't matter. I'm still getting issues. I might try to bend my magwell tighter next weekend. I that's just about the last thing I haven't tried yet. After that though, I'm done messing around with this thing.
 
ReluctantDecoy said:
My issues are present regardless of which mag I'm using. They're all HK with HK date stamps, but it doesn't matter. I'm still getting issues. I might try to bend my magwell tighter next weekend. I that's just about the last thing I haven't tried yet. After that though, I'm done messing around with this thing.
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Is yours a bobcat or something? I forgot how many cheap clones existed
 
drgrant said:
Is yours a bobcat or something? I forgot how many cheap clones existed
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Probably a worse name. Special Weapons. Although, I lucked out and got one of the "better" versions from the accounts I read online. Welds are good. Nothing filed down to fit. And the components appear at least in spec. I have read horror stories about early copies from this company and all the corners they cut, so they don't have a good rep. I have also read that people really hate the owner (when it was active), Todd Bailey and all of his other companies. I believe he also owned Cohaire.
 
For what its worth I chased malfunctions for years in my Cohaire MP5K clone. Two things finally fixed it: Dropped the money on the HKparts brand US/German complete bolt carrier group ($400 I think), and used only real HK mags. Haven't had a single malfunction since.

ETA: My magwell is also pretty loose but everything works fine now.
 
FFMedic77 said:
For what its worth I chased malfunctions for years in my Cohaire MP5K clone. Two things finally fixed it: Dropped the money on the HKparts brand US/German complete bolt carrier group ($400 I think), and used only real HK mags. Haven't had a single malfunction since.

ETA: My magwell is also pretty loose but everything works fine now.
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All my mags are genuine HK. But you're most likely right about the German parts. I just don't know if I can stomach the cost on what might still be a bit of a gamble. At this point, I think I'd want to get a professional smith opinion (one with MP5 knowledge) before I do anything else, and I think I'll have to wait until my current disgust with this gun to subside.
 
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Completely understand what you mean, mine lived in my safe for years because I was embarrassed to bring it out and shoot it with all the crazy malfunctions and stuck rounds. Only reason I didn't sell it was because I had already SBR'd it and engraved it.

Best of luck with yours, but trust me don't lose faith! After sorting mine out with the new parts it's been 100% reliable with all types of ammo and a huge hit at the range.
 
FFMedic77 said:
Completely understand what you mean, mine lived in my safe for years because I was embarrassed to bring it out and shoot it with all the crazy malfunctions and stuck rounds. Only reason I didn't sell it was because I had already SBR'd it and engraved it.

Best of luck with yours, but trust me don't lose faith! After sorting mine out with the new parts it's been 100% reliable with all types of ammo and a huge hit at the range.
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That's exactly where I'm at right now. I will most likely eventually give it another go in the future, but for now, I'm just shooting my AR9 SBR when I need to scratch that PCC itch.
 
FFMedic77 said:
Completely understand what you mean, mine lived in my safe for years because I was embarrassed to bring it out and shoot it with all the crazy malfunctions and stuck rounds. Only reason I didn't sell it was because I had already SBR'd it and engraved it.

Best of luck with yours, but trust me don't lose faith! After sorting mine out with the new parts it's been 100% reliable with all types of ammo and a huge hit at the range.
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Same here. SBRed my SW5 before really even getting to know it. Realized what a shitshow it was and tried replacing a few parts, then gave up for a while and tucked it back in the safe. Dug it out a year later and brought it to someone who knows what they're doing. He did a little work on the ejector lever and it's been running great ever since.
 
not new guy said:
Same here. SBRed my SW5 before really even getting to know it. Realized what a shitshow it was and tried replacing a few parts, then gave up for a while and tucked it back in the safe. Dug it out a year later and brought it to someone who knows what they're doing. He did a little work on the ejector lever and it's been running great ever since.
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If you're at liberty to disclose, would you mind PM'ing me the shop you brought it to? Even better that they've fixed a SW clone before.
 
I didn't catch which clone you have. Is this a PTR? I had similar issues before I finally figured out that the bolt head was out of spec. I changed the bolt head and the gun has run great ever since. If I had it to do over, I would have sent it back to PTR.
 
travx said:
I didn't catch which clone you have. Is this a PTR? I had similar issues before I finally figured out that the bolt head was out of spec. I changed the bolt head and the gun has run great ever since. If I had it to do over, I would have sent it back to PTR.
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Special Weapons (SW5). Company is not known for good clones, but I will stand by my prior statement that at least my flats were decent and the parts appear to mainly be in spec. There were some horror stories about what this company did at one point right before disappearing. The people putting them together would more likely take parts to a grinder to make them fit instead of properly fitting in the first place. But mine doesn't have any of those terrible signs.

So far, I've replaced the extractor, ejector, and recoil rod. I've checked head space numerous times as well. When it fires, it's a thing of joy. But malfunctions once every mag at least now.
 
ReluctantDecoy said:
Special Weapons (SW5). Company is not known for good clones, but I will stand by my prior statement that at least my flats were decent and the parts appear to mainly be in spec. There were some horror stories about what this company did at one point right before disappearing. The people putting them together would more likely take parts to a grinder to make them fit instead of properly fitting in the first place. But mine doesn't have any of those terrible signs.

So far, I've replaced the extractor, ejector, and recoil rod. I've checked head space numerous times as well. When it fires, it's a thing of joy. But malfunctions once every mag at least now.
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I had good luck with the Mad bolt head. It might be worth a try. Home

If you want to ditch the clone, GP is trying to sell a preban HK94 with a broken A3 stock. They only want 8k for it.
 
travx said:
I had good luck with the Mad bolt head. It might be worth a try. Home

If you want to ditch the clone, GP is trying to sell a preban HK94 with a broken A3 stock. They only want 8k for it.
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As much as I love the MP5 platform, I think I'd sooner buy like 9+ Grand Stribog A3's than drop $8k on a legit MP5 these days. That is to say, I probably wouldn't do either, but I'd most certainly cover the "1 is none" with the Stribog route.
 
not new guy said:
You can get an SP5 closer to $4k, which itself is no small sum of course.
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Even if I had a $4k stack to burn, how would I get one of those in MA? I got my clone because someone had a terrible faux suppressor pinned on it so it was a "rifle" at the time of purchase. It was a blessing though because once my tax stamp came through, it was like 5 minutes with a dremel to remove the weld holding the pin in place.
 
not new guy said:
Yes, cut it, or send it out for a tri-lug barrel swap.
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I've heard of that before, but I've also heard 16" MP5 barrels are 1/7 twist and the 8" barrels are 1/10, so cutting the 16 in half isn't exactly the same. But then again, those twist rates don't make any sense to start with because:HK, so who knows?!?
 
Oh, I don’t know about twist rate concerns. If you’re willing to go the sbr route you have options though.
 
Quick update on this MP5 clone issue: Turns out, I'm a FN idiot. I probably should have started with that assumption and checked everything again from the start. When I previously checked bolt gap (multiple times), I was missing a crucial step that I must have glossed over while originally reading instructions. That was to let the hammer fall on the bolt carrier, which I assume adds pressure to close the distance between the bolt head and bolt carrier to actual operating distances. There, I was getting .004", which is well below the optimal .010 - .018" gap. So yeah, I had a bolt gap issue all along.

So timing is off and that might explain all the FTF/FTE issues. Still to be seen, but I like the thought of $16. worth of +3 rollers over buying a new bolt. I'm going to give that a go and will report back once tested.
 
For the record, the +3 rollers I installed cured the problem. Still had an issue with extraction with every third mag, but I have a feeling that was either the cheap Wolf steel (felt tacky, very little case lubricant) or my extractor being mangled from when I had this timing issue. Will be changing that out too. But no weird issues with rounds trying to go in perpendicular or bullets getting crushed into the casings. It's crazy how a fraction of a MM can throw timing off on these guns.
 

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