[ MPi-69 at the Range ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am out here at the range today
courtesy of Morphy's with
a very rare submachine gun in the United States.
This is an Austrian MPi-69, and
I did a desktop video on this yesterday going over the mechanics and the history of it.
The short version is: this is essentially Steyr's take on the Uzi.
And I've never actually shot one before, and I'm really curious to see how it handles.
So let's go ahead and give it a try.
I've got proprietary magazines for it, 25 rounds.
They did also make a 32 rounder, but not what I have today.
So, we have a sling swivel-based charging handle here.
There we go.
Hah! That is a remarkably slow firing gun,
that's very comfortable, very convenient, I like it.
It's nice, that's ... easy to shoot.
It's got a bit of up and down bounce to it.
But the rate of fire is slow enough that you can pretty easily have the gun right back on target
before the subsequent shot actually comes out.
Alright, one other thing that I was curious about.
This has a charging handle built into the sling swivel.
And there's a little metal tab here on the top that will lock against the front sight protector
to prevent the charging handle from being pulled back
under sling tension if it's in this position.
And I was a little curious, ... how practical is that?
How effective is that particular little stop?
Well, I understand it now, because ... if we're talking 1960s submachine gun shooting,
shooting from the hip, or from a tensioned sling,
is going to be a significant part of how this gun was intended to be used.
And when you've got the gun right-handed, up, with tension on the sling,
... as long as you hold the gun vertically,
that lock does exactly what it's supposed to and allows you to shoot from here.
And it prevents you from accidentally pulling back on the charging handle
and causing a malfunction.
So that's kind of cool. This is one of those things that you really only I think discover
when you ... take a gun like this out onto the range to try it out.
That is a really unique kind of oddball charging handle system.
But, I guess it works.
This is really pleasant and controllable.
Frankly I didn't have particularly high expectations for it
because ... well, it's a very economically designed and built submachine gun.
There's not that much to it and I figured, "Ah, you know, how useful will it really be?"
And actually, this is really quite nice.
I'm out.
Well, a big thanks to Morphy's for giving me the opportunity
to come out here and try out an MPi-69.
The successor design to this, the MPi-81, is quite a lot more readily accessible and available.
You'll find those around, you very rarely find actual MPi-69s.
So thanks to them. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video.
Thanks for watching.