H&K MP7

H&K's personal defence weapon and its 4.6×30 cartridge, from the 1990 PDW programme to the MP7A2: the NATO evaluation read from its sources, every published loading, the mechanism and maintenance from H&K's own operator's manuals, variant identification, suppressors and optics, and why no private American can own one.

Firearms

H&K MP7 · Deep Dive

H&K MP7

NATO's own proof manual names the MP7 as the weapon it uses to test 4.6×30 ammunition, two decades after an evaluation whose famous "27 per cent" verdict against the cartridge traces to a single unbylined article written from FN's side.

H&K's personal defence weapon and its 4.6×30 cartridge, from the 1990 PDW programme to the MP7A2: the NATO evaluation read from its sources, every published loading, the mechanism and maintenance from H&K's own operator's manuals, variant identification, suppressors and optics, and why no private American can own one.

Photo: H&K MP7 by KrisfromGermany · Public domain

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    Volumes

    1. Vol 1 From NBW to MP7: H&K's Answer to the PDW Requirement How Heckler & Koch got from a caseless close-range weapon and a joint study with GIAT to the 4.6×30 PDW, the MP7 and the MP7A1, told from H&K's own presentations of 2000 and 2004, with the NATO evaluation as it touched the weapon and the dates H&K itself could not keep straight
    2. Vol 2 In Service: Who Carries the MP7, and What the Record Shows The Bundeswehr, the UK Ministry of Defence Police and the users that official and government-photographed sources actually confirm, separated from the long user lists that circulate without them
    3. Vol 3 The 4.6×30 Cartridge Dimensions from the NATO standard, every loading H&K and its ammunition makers have published, the hardened-steel bullet and the patent that kept it from eating barrels, and the armour argument kept in its two halves: what the bullet does, and what the law calls it
    4. Vol 4 Telling Them Apart: PDW, MP7, MP7A1, MP7A1-KSK, MP7A2 and the Replicas The prototypes and production variants identified from H&K's own documents and from photographs, the features that separate them and where to look, the dimension figures that never agree, and how to tell a real MP7 from the licensed airsoft copies that outnumber it in every image library
    5. Vol 5 How It Works: A Short-Stroke Piston and a Six-Lug Rotating Bolt in a Pistol-Sized Gun The cycle of operation part by part from H&K's operator's manuals, the NATO proof manual's figures for the mechanism, why a gas-operated locked breech suits a cartridge this small, and the controls, stock, grip and magazine
    6. Vol 6 Field Strip, Maintenance and Repair H&K's own procedures from its 2006 and 2011 operator's manuals, compared where they differ: unloading, stripping into the main groups and the bolt, reassembly and function checks, the cleaning and lubrication schedule, cold and dust, zeroing, the faults table, and NATO's published service life and wear limits
    7. Vol 7 Accessories, Suppressors and Optics H&K's own accessory programme by part number, the issued Hensoldt reflex sight and the optics H&K designed the sights to match, the H&K, B&T and A-TEC suppressors from their makers' data sheets, and why their decibel figures cannot be compared
    8. Vol 8 Can a Private Citizen Own One? Why no MP7 can be transferred to a private owner in the United States, what H&K has and has not offered, and the legal alternatives with dated prices from the sellers' own pages: licensed airsoft copies, 4.6×30 semi-automatics, and the first MP7-styled civilian guns