Deciding that, while plastic mags seem to be doing okay, it might be nice to have some durable metal magazines for the HK94/MP5 series of firearms I own, I ordered up a six-pack of MKE brand metal MP5 mags.

Results were mixed. The mags functioned fine in two guns, but in the MP5k-style gun the recoil of each shot would displace the magazine in the well and the mag would not be locked in place, thus resulting in failures to feed. Since the mags worked okay in the other guns, and the plastic mags worked fine, I’m suspecting that the mag catch on this particular gun is not ‘pushing inwards’ all the way to securely engage the magazine notch. Not sure if its a part that can be adjusted, as on an AR, or what. I need to experiment a bit.

For the record, the Unity-AC and ETS plastic mags have worked fine across the board..Because these are metal mags, and the area for the magazine catch to engage is pressed into the metal rather than milled out as on the pastic mags, perhaps the recess is not as deep as it could be. But…that didnt seem to matter in the other two guns…so Im guessing its the magazine catch. Fortunately, if thats the case, it could be as simple a fix as replacing the magazine catch. Need to play with it some more.

One of the nice things about having guns that are identical is that when it comes to testing things out, having a sample size of more than one is very handy for eliminating variables.

I’m going to go ahead and say the MKE mags were worth it since they appear to work just fine in my other two guns and its only these mags, in one particular gun, that is giving me a problem. Im pretty confident the problem is the magazine catch and I’ll probably head over to HKParts and order a replacement.