In May of this year, I got the rare opportunity to travel to Heckler & Koch’s headquarters in Ashburn, VA, to take a look at some of the experimental and prototype firearms they have located there in their famous “Grey Room”. It wouldn’t be worth as much for me to just tell you about it and to snap a few foggy cell phone pictures, though, so I brought along Othais of C&Rsenal to help me take high resolution light box photos of these unique and rare firearms.

Like the XM29 OICW that we showed off last time, what we’re actually looking at is a wooden mockup, not a functioning firearm. In fact, so far as I know, this mockup is the only example of MP5 PIP hardware that was ever made. Beyond the fact that the MP5 PIP was one of the early attempts to produce a follow on design to the MP5, along with the SMG I and SMG II designs, and the MP2000. I am not even sure when the MP5 PIP was developed; I have heard alternately late 1980s or early 1990s. What is clear is that the MP5 PIP has some interesting features, including a weaver-style top rail, a “chute” type magazine well, a centrally located button that appears to be a bolt catch/release, and a round magazine catch. Also, the MP5 PIP appears to be the origin for the distinctive “flipper” charging handle of eventually used in the G36.

If you want to download all of these photos in their full resolution, you can follow this MediaFire link to a zip file containing them.