The Firearm Blog

Last year American Tactical Imports was forced to take their GSG-5, a .22 MP5 patterned pistol and rifle, off the market after they were successfully sued by H&K for trade dress infringement. You can imagine my surprise when I saw them on display at SHOT only a couple of months after the lawsuit.

It turns out H&K had initially sued them over a long list of complaints. Most of these, the trade dress infringement being the sole exception, were thrown out of court. By simply making some design changes to avoid the GSG-5 being confused with the H&K MP5, ATI has been able to bring the gun back into the market under the GSG-522 name. The GSG-522 design was signed off by H&K and no royalties are required to be paid.

The GSG-522 has many subtle design changes. The biggest changes are ...

• Textured pistol grip
• Redesigned selector switch
• Picatinny rail on top
• Square "open" front sight rather than the classic H&K ring front sight.
• Integrated sling bracket (on trigger guard ... looks a bit flimsy to me)

New GSG-522 Pistol (bottom) compared to original GSG-5 PK Pistol

Close up of the new sight.

It still retains the MP5 style but is much less likely to mistaken for a real MP5 (although in reality the original GSG-5 would also not have been confused with the real deal).

The joke is that ATI will offer "upgrade" kits that will allow you to retrofit a GSG-522 to look like the original GSG-5.

GSG-522 Pistol and SD Carbine (with 110 round drum!!!)

The GSG-522 will be available in many configurations:

• GSG-522 Carbine with 16.25" barrel
• GSG-522 SD Carbine with 16.25" barrel (MP5-SD style)
• GSG-522 Pistol with 9" barrel
• GSG-522PK Pistol (MP5K style) with 4.25" barrel

The carbines will be available in black, nickel and camo finish. Each model will ship with either a 10 round or 22 round magazine.

One of the coolest features of the new GSG-522 line is the 110 round drum magazine.

The drum does not need to be wound. This is a plus, although I imagine after 75 rounds your fingers are going to be very tired (a mag loader is not yet available). An adapter will be offered at a later time which will allow the magazine to be used with the ATI GSG Kalashnikov.

As soon as this drum goes on sale you can be sure that in no time Youtube will be filled with videos of people dumping 100 rounds as quickly as possible

I do not yet have pricing info for the drum or GSG-5 firearms.

GSG-522PK

Advocate posted this comment on my blog post about the H&K / ATI lawsuit ...

I really think its important to remember that they sued over trademark and trade dress infringement ... not patent infringement. Very different things.

Add to that the fact that ATI openly claimed it to be a MP5 lookalike:

Add to that the fact that HK can absolutely smother them in legal fees and you have a no win situation for ATI.

Love them or hate them i feel HK had the legal right to pursue this course.

... i’m just glad i got my gsg-5 long ago

I had forgotten about that advertisement.

The lawsuit between ATI and H&K has been settled. Ed reports ...

Production and importation of the original design GSG-5 ceased as of Oct, 8, 2009 with the signing of the agreement. The remaining inventory now in the USA can be sold by ATI, all distributors and dealers. ATI currently has GSG-5's in stock.

Read the full press release over at at Ed's blog.

The GSG-5. If you want one, buy it NOW.

A while back I reported that GSG (German Sport Guns), makers of the GSG-5, announced an endorsement by General Kalashnikov and that they would name a rifle after him. It looks like the GSG .22 “Kalashnikov” is now in production.

Click to expand

Impact Guns says it features a 16.5″ barrel and 15 round magazine and has it listed for $529.99. It is not clear when it will ship.

These ATI ads have been floating around the internet. The girl looks like a stock image and rifle is not the actual .22 Kalashnikov.

General Kalashnikov at GSG holding a GSG-5

ATI have announced the GSG5-PK pistol.

The new GSG-5PK pistol is a .22 Long Rifle HV Caliber with a barrel length of 4.52″, total length of 15.275″ and a total height of 10″. It weighs in at a dainty 5.2 lbs. It has an alloy frame construction and features a magazine safety and click-adjustable target sight. At a MSRP of $549.95, the GSG-5PK pistol is the perfect partner to the original GSG-5 rifle model.

It is basically a GSG5-P (pistol) with a shortened barrel and MP5K style handguard. Some photos (click to expand):

Hat Tip: SayUncle

Atlantic Firearms will be getting in the MP5 pattern .22LR GSG-5 Sport rifle (although I would call it a carbine).

Specs:

Caliber: .22LR
Action: Semi-automatic
Length: 855mm
Height: 207mm
Width: 53mm
Barrel Length: 414mm (16.3″)
Weight (without magazine): 2930g (6.45 lbs)
Magazine weight: 115g
Magazine capacity: 22 rounds ( 10 and 22 will be available in the future)

It also comes with a fake suppressor.

Apparently MP5 accessories and furniture is compatible with the GSG-5

Atlantic Firearms will be selling if for $499 and they are expected to arrive in January or February 2008.

Some more photos:

A video of the GSG-5 in action

Looks like fun!

UPDATE

Some more photos from American Tactical Imports

DEMIGOD has written a review:

Is the GSG-5 anything other than a plinker? For shooters who need to use an MP5 “for work”, the GSG-5 may be a viable training platform since the controls are identical. In addition, a suppressed GSG-5 may have some law-enforcement applications.

According to Tony at Amchar, the first shipment to the U.S. will contain 1320 rifles and should be heading out to dealers around the country and the end of February 2008. GSG’s production plans for 2008 include 10,000 GSG-5s.