TFB Review: The POF SMG MP5 - MP5 Performance Without the PriceThe Firearm Blog

The venerated MP5 design is one that has lasted well beyond its practical use and into the modern age. The MP5 has made itself a comfy home in the minds of American gun owners due to a combination of real-world and fictional portrayals in the hands of operators and action heroes alike. The MP5 is simply a near-ubiquitous design when it comes to the term SMG or submachine gun. However, the trouble with MP5s, especially in the Heckler & Koch manufacture, is they are really hard to get a hold of and on top of that, they’re also insanely expensive. There are a few other great options out there if you’re unwilling to pay two and a half racks for that roller-delayed goodness and today we’re taking a look at one of the more affordable options in the MP5 scene with POF’s (Pakistan Ordnance Factories) SMG MP5 otherwise known as the POF-5. These Pakistan-produced and Arkansas-imported firearms come in at a competitive price, and really have great performance to match if you’re looking to scratch that MP5 itch and don’t really care about the roll mark.

More MP5 Content @ TFB:

TFB REVIEW: The POF SMG MP5 – MP5 Performance Without the Price?

TFB Review: The POF SMG MP5 – MP5 Performance Without the Price?

The POF SMG MP5 features a traditional MP5 design but lacks any sort of included stock – because it’s a pistol, not an actual PCC/SMG. Weighing in at 8lbs you’ll most definitely need to pick yourself up a compatible brace and for that, I’d recommend using the B&T MP5/SP5 folding brace. This addition is going to set you back an additional $300 but when all is said and done, you’re still out the door for about $1,000 less than you’d pay for an H&K MP5/SP5 variant. We’ll come back to the price point again at the end of this article but for those curious, the POF-5 only costs $1,099 retail – no that’s not dealer pricing and no that’s not suggested pricing that’s the price you can add it to your cart for right on the FSAAP website (FSAAP is the principle importer of the POF-5). The price almost seems too good to be true so how does it perform and where have corners been cut to get it to that price point?

Fit and Finish

When I first opened the box that my MP5 came in, I was pleased to see that it came with its own dedicated slipcase. The slipcase is big enough to fit several magazines, a few boxes of ammo, and a suppressor if need be and is similar in size to a tennis racket case (just a bit thicker). Even with the attached brace, the pistol fits in there with no problem. The MP5 came with an attached 2-piece thread protector and hard muzzle cap. The hard muzzle cap needs to be removed before you start shooting and POF makes a point to say that “excessive force may be required.” Long story short, they weren’t lying and I had to pry the hard muzzle cap off with a pair of locking pliers.

TFB REVIEW: The POF SMG MP5 - MP5 Performance Without the Price?

The hard muzzle cap and the knurled thread protector

After the thread protector was removed I immediately took the gun apart to inspect the internals for completely legal reasons – to inspect the internals to see if they might be compatible with other genuine HK parts. Turns out that they indeed are, so a forward-thinking SOT license holder might be able to have a bit more fun with the POF MP5 than I ever could.

The POF SMG MP5 loses a few points for having a loose magazine fitment and also a pretty lackluster paint job when compared to an H&K MP5. This paint job extends to the 30-round magazines which by the end of my review period were starting to show some serious signs of wear. A couple of other slight QC issues I noticed were that the fill for the fire sector markings was sort of spilling out of the groves and onto the frame of the gun. I’m not really a stickler for small details like this on what is basically an antique gun but for some people this might be an issue if most of your guns are safe queens anyway.

Reliability Accuracy and Slap Factor

Along with the MP5, FSAAP sent me a bunch of ammunition to aid in the review but they didn’t exactly send really expensive ammunition. In fact, they sent me what many people would consider the two least desirable kinds of ammunition on the market and I really liked that they did. I’m happy to report that the MP5 reliably fired, cycled, and fed every single round that FSAAP send which included several hundred rounds of Sterling 115 grain 9mm and several hundred rounds of steel cased TulaAmmo 115 grain 9mm. In addition to those two types of ammunition, I also threw in several hundred rounds of my own 165-grain subsonic hand loads, and some of Federal’s 150-grain Syntech ammunition – zero malfunctions throughout the entire experience save for a few old underpowered hand loads of mine that wouldn’t cycle a single-shot gun if it had moving parts.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a tri-lug equipped suppressor at my disposal, and from what I hear, the POF MP5s are kind of hit or miss when it comes to the timing of the Tri-Lug. However, since it comes standard with 1/2×28 muzzle threads, I just used my Dragoon 450B suppressor and it worked like a dream. MP5s are really great suppressor hosts and a blast to shoot either suppressed or unsuppressed. The gun was accurate enough at a 50-yard distance but is somewhat hard to do pinpoint shooting with due to the heavy and sloppy trigger pull of about 6 lbs according to my scale. It’s not so much the weight of the trigger pull but rather the vast amount of creep there is before the trigger breaks.

One final negative I’ll note is that the fire selector was kind of a nightmare to deal with since it was so stiff. Due to the combination of the stiffness and the distance at which your thumb sits from the selector, it can make it really difficult to take the firearm off of “safe” without breaking your grip on the gun. Switching into safe is still difficult but doable with the sector’s curved design. However, none of these things really detracted from the fun I was having with the MP5. I quickly combined my MP5 with a Midwest Industries Picatinny rail for the MP5 (which fit perfectly) and an EOTech XPS2 and had a ton of fun at the range with friends ringing steel and mag dumping the ammo that FSAAP sent. Many HK slaps were had by all.

Final Thoughts/ Worth the Price?

I really like MP5s. I’m sure every contributor at TFB would agree with me that the MP5 is a timeless design that is just an absolute riot to shoot. To sum things up, the POF SMG MP5 loses a few points for having a weak paint job, heavy trigger, and hard-to-use safety, but it absolutely wins when it comes to HK parts compatibility, reliability, and fun factor.

I would say that if you’re looking for an H&K MP5 clone and want that H&K roll mark on the gun, the POF MP5 isn’t for you and you’ll be upset with it. However, if you just like the concept of the MP5, and you’re looking for a fun range toy that won’t fetch typical HK pricing, the SMG POF-5 is probably the best option out on the market right now. Even though by the end of this review the finish paint around the magwell was starting to show the bare metal, this somehow, at least to me, made the MP5 look that much better – maybe I’m just into weathered guns.

However, I’d like to hear your thoughts. What’s most important to you when it comes to the MP5? Does an MP5 need to have a near identical fit and finish to a genuine HK MP5 or SP5 to be worth considering or do the general appearance, parts compatibility, and function of this particular pistol make it convincing enough to pick up for $1,100? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below and a big thanks once again to FSAAP for loaning the MP5 out to me. If you’re considering picking one of these up be sure to check them out while they still have these in stock!