Apparently some 30 MP5s have disappeared from the LAPD arms locker. And LAPD spokeswoman is saying they were MP5s altered to fire blanks. This didn’t make sense to me, because I thought you only needed a blank firing adapter on firearms that needed gas pressure to cycle the action. The MP5, as I recall, is a roller locking, delayed recoil mechanism. Can anyone who’s an expert comment on this? Can you fire blanks from an MP5 unaltered? Even if you need a blank adapter, I can’t imagine it’s difficult to remove, as is claimed by the LAPD spokesperson.
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I have to wonder if they were modified to fire blanks of simunitions? The later would make more sense for training purposes.
Not for training porpoises!
I think they must be modified to fire simunitions. I don’t know about the MP5 in particular, but I’m familiar with modding the M4 to fire simunitions from my time in the Army. It requires a totally different bolt carrier assembly, so if they got the guns with the simunition bolts, then they would need to find actual full auto bolts from somewhere to swap them out. Not sure if you could mod the bolt from an SP89 pistol to use it in those MP5s as a replacement. Or even if there’s any difference in the bolts themselves. Maybe the difference between auto and semi is in the receiver itself?
I would think that full and semi would be largely contained in the trigger pack.
Recoil operated guns also won’t cycle blanks. I shot a blank cartridge through a SIG 226 and the gun didn’t cycle.
I imagine you need SOMETHING to generate more back-pressure to make up for the inertia of the bullet.
Gas guns won’t necessarily cycle either. That’s why the military uses blank firing adapters for training exercises with the M4. They limit the rate that propellant gasses can exit the barrel and create the gas pressure the gun needs to cycle properly.
Most smokeless powders have burn rates that vary significantly with pressure (unlike black powder). No bullet to contain the gas, no pressure, poor propellant burn.
If they’re dedicated blank guns, then the MP5s may be modified to run straight blowback instead of delayed (take out the rollers) and may have barrel constrictions to help create backpressure to cycle the action.
Even replacing the bolts should not be that difficult. Most full auto parts are available for purchase because you need the receiver to make any use of them. (If you have some full auto parts and a receiver that could conceivably make use them–say, AR-15 receiver and M-16 full auto parts–BATFE may well be spending some time seeing if they can send you to prison for it.) In at least some cases, people who were selling full auto parts mail order and ran afoul of the law (as is easy to do) have been given the opportunity to stay in business, but provide all customer information to BATFE.
I suspect that anyone trying to buy MP5 parts anywhere in the U.S. right now is going to get a lot of careful attention from BATFE.
it doesn’t matter if they were blank firing, or if they shoot rainbows……If they are registered as machineguns…..they are machineguns.