Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am out here at Trijicon's
shooting range in Virginia taking a look at briefcases.
So, some of you are going to already notice that
there's a trigger on that briefcase, and yes, these are
the infamous (or famous), MP5K briefcase guns.
Now this is actually the first model that they did,
and you can see there's a hole there for your muzzle.
And on the back there's a big open hole.
Because the idea with this one, where the modern (well, more modern) version has a trigger mechanism
built into the handle, this thing just had this ... like open T-slot in the back.
And by the way when it was new it wasn't folded open like this, this one's been used extensively.
And you'd carry this around with an MP5K built into it, and when you needed to use the gun,
you stuck your hand in there, grabbed the pistol grip and fired, like so.
You could then get access to the gun by opening all four of these classy little brass clamps,
and then the whole top half of the briefcase comes out with your scope mount type clamp here holding the gun,
little metal bracket here with a muzzle shute. Once you've got it out like this, then you can hold the gun like this,
sort of aim it, at least at very close ranges. These things were actually developed by HK,
sold by HK, and they were intended for diplomatic protection, VIP protection.
That sort of use where you might actually have to shoot someone at very close range
under very immediate circumstances to protect an asset,
and couldn't be seen carrying around a submachine gun.
So what's the alternative? You need some way to hide it. Now HK introduced the MP5K, the really short
covert version of the MP5, in 1978 or '79 I believe. The very late '70s, and then they introduced this guy in the mid '80s.
This is the modern incarnation of the briefcase gun. It is an MP5K, no stock,
there is a trigger mechanism here which has a linkage going down to the trigger,
there's a little safety, right there.
This ... has a 15 round mag in it right now, but it can actually fit a 30 round magazine in here.
You have to set the trigger to either semi or full-auto before you close the briefcase,
because once it's closed up you have no way to change that from the outside.
A cleaning kit and a spare magazine here in the case. And we have a firing hole in the front. So,
you can walk around with this and not look particularly conspicuous.
And if you need to shoot someone at very close range, you have a full-on full-auto submachine gun on you.
Now a lot of people think that, you know, you'd shoot this like this.
That's not actually how this is supposed to be used because of basically the same principle as
the broom-handle Mausers used in China in full-auto. The idea that
you hold it sideways, so that when you pull the trigger the recoil swings it around and you get this arc of fire.
Well, that's what's gonna happen to this guy if you fire it when you're holding it like this.
The first shot is going to go out, and it's gonna start doing this.
And ... your rounds are gonna immediately start going low and you're going to spray the ground.
The way that this is intended to be used is you pick it up, hold it against your body,
and you can actually use your core, your torso, as an index for accurately shooting this thing.
We're gonna go ahead and give that a try and see how well it works.
Alright, so loading procedure for this: you have to be really careful with this thing because
this is a little wonky to treat like a gun, and you have to treat it like a gun. Once it's loaded,
whichever way you point this briefcase, that's a hot muzzle. So what we're going to do is we're going to start by
locking the bolt open, got a 30 round magazine here. This will just barely fit a 30 rounder.
Then I'm going to close
the bolt, then I pick whether I want to have this thing on semi-auto or full-auto.
Full-auto naturally. Now this thing is totally hot and that's a live trigger. So we're gonna go ahead and close it up.
And now we're ready for some shooting.
Alright. So key to this, spread your legs, get your weight nicely balanced.
There's not a whole lot of recoil from it because you've got a whole briefcase and your whole body bracing it.
Probably the most important thing is to be aware of elevation, because it's really easy to hold this pointing up
and not really notice that you're doing it, and sail rounds over your target. So, hold it dead on, disengage the safety.
That can actually be pretty darn effective. Now on a paper target like this
I have a really good visibility to exactly where my rounds are hitting.
If I was actually doing VIP protection and having to shoot a person, you don't quite get nice visible holes like that.
However, apparently they did actually potentially use tracers with this, such that you could see where they were going.
I can probably shift fire and...
This thing is really cool. And once you do shooting, you can hear the empty brass rattling around in the case.
People are gonna ask if that causes malfunctions. In theory it can, there is a little deflector built into the mount,
and of course, you can only fire 30 rounds, cause it's empty.
There's no way to reload it without opening it up,
so you don't really have to have to worry about what happens when the briefcase becomes totally full of brass.
This is the sort of thing that once 30 rounds are empty, your gunfight's probably over, and if not,
you're gonna switch to a handgun which you almost certainly also are carrying.
That's just really cool.
Alright, open that up, nice little waft of smoke out of there.
Now to clear this thing, we're going to start by putting it on safe, we'll then pull the mag, mag is empty,
lock the bolt open, like so. And now the last issue you have is you can't see the ejection port,
which means you can't actually visually confirm that the chamber is empty.
With a gun like this, who knows? Maybe it jammed up and there's a live round in the chamber.
So what you have to do is actually stick your finger in the mag well and
dexterously (ooh, that's got a little bit warm), feel to make sure that the chamber is empty.
This one is, so it's all safe, and we're good to go. We can go ahead and dump ... all the brass out.
Well, I have to say, this is one of the coolest, most unusual and interesting guns I've gotten a chance to fire.
These things are not exactly unknown, they're far from it. In fact, they're kind of...
I suppose HK probably prefers they were still a hush-hush quiet secret but, far from it,
they've been in a bunch of movies and video games, and they're well known on the internet.
But not a whole lot of people have actually had the chance to fire them.
So it was very cool to be able to do that. Hopefully you guys enjoyed seeing
how this thing is supposed to be used, and how effective it actually can be.
Big thanks to HK for letting me bring this thing out to do some shooting, and also to Trijicon for letting us
shoot hand-luggage on their cool range here in Virginia. I hope you guys enjoyed the video.
Thanks for watching.