Coharie Arms CA94FS
Two weeks before the last presidential election, with the unholy spectre of an Obama presidency looming ever more likely, I bit the bullet (so to speak) and bought an MP-5 clone.
I bought a clone because the HK rifles that were introduced to the American market in 1983 for under $900 are now selling for around $4000.00.Yes, you read that correctly: FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS. Oh to have bought a freighter full...a truckload full...a pallet full...heck, to have even one!
I DID have one. I bought it when they were selling for around $2000 after the 1st Assault Weapons ban. I held onto it for a month or two and then sold it for a modest profit. Then I figured they were out of my price range ever after.
Then, back in about 1998, a fellow in Arizona started wondering if anyone would pay for a clone of one of these rifles. People jumped at the idea, and his production capacity was soon swamped. Accordingly, quality started to suffer as people demanded more and more features for a cheaper and cheaper price. Other entrepreneurs jumped in, and a whole cottage industry was created.
Now HK clones can be had from several vendors, with parts, accessories, and services provided by several dozen more.
Quality always seemed to be hit or miss, with each of the manufacturers. One person would swear for them, the next would swear at them. However, as the years went by, and I watched the products and vendors mature, I figured it might finally be time to buy one. So I did.
Thus far I have been very pleased with this rifle. It took me ten years to become comfortable with the idea of buying a clone, but now that I have it, I wish I had bought it years earlier. Oh, sure, then I might have been one of the guys cursing and swearing, but at least I would have had it!
It took the pending election of Barak Obama to force me to get off the fence and pick one up. It was one of the best firearm decisions I've ever made. This rifle is compact, ergonomic, handy, and with 5.56mm ammo so expensive right now, relatively affordable to shoot!
Thus far, I've put over a thousand rounds through the weapon with only six stoppages. Two were failure to ejects, two were bad ammo, one was a failure to feed from a fresh magazine (which wasn't seated correctly), and one was a failure to dimple primer. That last one was mysterious, and I am watching to see if it reoccurs. So far, 6 out of 1000 makes it 99.4% reliable. The ratio climbs even higher if you remove the 3 rounds which were related to poor ammo, and poor user.
Due to the fact that it IS a clone, I am paying extra attention to the total round count, and the number of failures. I want an exact understanding of the ratio of the one to the other. After I get up around 2k-3k rounds, I will re-evaluate how reliable it has become. So far, it's working fine.
There are few weapons on Earth that have ergonomics on par with an MP5. The big, open sights, the light weight, and the generally "handy" layout are very satisfying.
The first time I had it out to really test it, I put about 300 rounds through it with a number of different magazines, HK curved, HK straight, Asian Contract curved, and the one that actually came with it. The carbine ate it all up. I was worried about the "Contract" mags...but they seem to work great.
I was really impressed by the ease which I was able to rapidly lay on multiple targets and pop a few into each. Small wonder this thing has been such a success globally over the years.
The folding stock is a surplus Police MP-5 unit, which should explain its wear and tear. The sling is left over from my original HK94 of so long ago. I live in a non-class III state, which doesn't even allow short barreled rifles, so I'm stuck with the faux silencer...at least until I move to another state, civilization falls, or Sarah Palin wins the next election!
You can see here, the one problem the rifle had when I got it. The rear take-down pin was miss-aligned about half-a-millimeter when I swapped out the stock that came with it for the surplus Police telescoping unit. Ten minutes of careful filing and it's much better. Now, it slides in and out with just a little, hard, sharp push of the finger, as it should.
I love this rifle. If this is an example of the quality one can expect from Coharie Arms these days, then I wouldn't have any problem recommending them to anyone.
Click here to download a 5mb Windows .WMV movie of this weapon in action...
I still have oodles of gadgets and gizmos arriving daily for it...Optics, stocks, scope mount, a dozen or so magazines, and ammo...lots and lots of ammo!
