,Rawles had an article on his website about the Uzi the other day. As you know, years ago I picked up an Uzi after carefully trying come up with a non-SBR solution to a rugged,proven, 9mm carbine that would take down into a package small enough to fit in your average ‘three day pack’. At the time, there were not a lot of choices…while there were guns on the market that fit most of the criteria, virtually all of them were new designs that did not have a proven and established track record in terms of performance and durability. When I lucked out and fell into an Uzi, it pretty much hit all the high points in terms of what I was looking for.
You have to keep in mind that, nowadays, a ‘wrist brace’ lets you create short-barrelled ‘not a carbine’ guns quite easily, but at the time I acquired the Uzi that was not an option. So, since we are in a new era of designs and rule-bender/beater gimmicks like the wrist brace, would I still go with the Uzi.
Honestly, probably not…for that purpose.
THe Uzi is a fine gun, no two ways about it. But like the M1 Garand, or the 1911, it was a fine gun for it’s time. And times change. The Uzi has a few things going against it as a semi-auto carbine…scant availability of accessories, not ambidextrous, very heavy, virtually no optics mounting options, etc, etc. Compare and contrast the Uzi against something more contemporary like, say, a CZ Evo or Sig MPX, and you can see that the design is pretty dated and doesn’t offer the features we’ve gotten used to in more recent designs.
What the Uzi does have, in spades, is a proven history. It’s been around long enough to have figured out what works and what doesnt work. Other guns like the MPX, Evo, etc, are too new to have decades of experience behind them.
The reason I wanted a takedown carbine was to have something compact enough to be extremely portable, but carry a goodly amount of firepower. If the world came crashing down and I had a need to have a high-capacity ‘long gun’, the Uzi would be the one tucked in the bag under my desk.
Nowadays though…I’d trade it out for the Ruger PC9 in an aftermarket sidefolding chasis, or a ‘wrist braced’ 9″ AR style gun. Why? It comes down to one big factor – logistics. A half dozen Glock magazines, 17- or 33-rd, can be interchanged between pistol and carbine, streamlining logistics considerably.
Some people will, of course, say that the issue of magazine interchangeability is overblown and that the tradeoff of stepping down to a pistol caliber, versus a rifle caliber, for the sake of magazine interchangeability is a bad tradeoff. Well, as it turns out, if I wrist braced a 9″ .223 AR pistol the reduction in ballistics performance drops me down to almost identical energy of a 9mm +p. In other words, the .223 out of a ‘wrist braced’ AR pistol fairly equals a 9mm out of a 16″ carbine. There’s more to it, of course… the .223, even at the lower velocity, will shoot flatter and probably penetrate a bit better but with the similar ballistics I’d rather have the option of not having to keep two different kinds of magazines in my bag and on my belt.
I’m not foolish enough to say that money isn’t a consideration when choosing gear that may someday be called upon to keep you hale and hearty, but it shouldn’t be an overriding consideration. AN original IMI Uzi, in semi-auto, is going to set you back somewhere in the $1200-2000 range depending on a few factors like caliber, condition, and accessories. For that money you could buy two or three CZ or Ruger guns, or one gun and a metric crapload of magazines and accessories. The acquisition of my Uzi was serendipitous so I got an exceptionally good deal on mine. Your mileage will vary.
Options? The CZ Evo is sweet and I do have one with a buncha mags. It does everything my Uzi does at half the weight and price. The Ruger, once I get it geared out, will probably cost as much as the Uzi but will have several features, described earlier, that the Uzi never had. Additionally, there are other guns out there these days that give you the traits and features I was looking but those are the two that immediately spring to mind.
The future of my Uzi? I’ll keep it, of course. It’s an excellent house gun, a good vehicle gun, and it has a certain visual impact that is pretty hard to get elsewhere. But I suspect I’ll be dumping some money into the Ruger PC9 to optimize it for my anticipated needs and purposes.
