A few months ago I bought a .22 rifle that I'd had my eye on for several years. It's made in Germany, and it's a dead ringer for a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun. I waited a long time because I wanted to see if they were junk, or worth the rather pricey tag they had, for a .22 - even a really cool one. Well, in December I'm cruising the forums and come across a post that says that Heckler & Koch has sued GSG (German Sport Guns) and has forced them to cease production on their patent infringements. I figured I'd better get one while I still could. What did happen during the interval I waited was that GSG came out with an SD version of the rifle, the integrally suppressed version of the MP5, which was just what I wanted. So.....I sold a few guns, ordered one from a dealer in Oklahoma, set up the transfer with a local dealer, filled out four pages of paperwork for the state police for transferring a "regulated firearm" and waited. Between the big snow storm we had and some paperwork hickups, it took me about a month before I could finally take delivery on my .22 rifle. If you're thinking that's a little ridiculous, you're preaching to the choir, believe me. Anyway, all's well that ends well, I finally got the rifle and was able to take it up to the range for a little workout on February 20th. It works great! I probably put about 250 rounds through it - using three different brands and types of ammo - and not one single malfunction. That is downright amazing for any .22 self-loading firearm, especially a brand new one. A lot of times people forget that the .22LR cartridge was never intended to be used in any semiauto firearms. It's a rimmed cartridge. The only reason they work at all is because of the excellent design and workmanship that goes into them. So when you get one that REALLY works, it's cause for celebration - in a low key, modest sort of way. Yea, well anyway, here's a picture of me at the range with mountains of snow still remaining. They dug a trench so that you could reach about ten firing points at fifty yards. That was it, the rest of the range was still snow covered.
I got home, cleaned the rifle, and was all set to write up a range report/review of it and put it on the Maryland Shooters forum. As I'm looking over the latest posts I see one that says, "important notice for GSG-5SD owners." So I'm thinking, "great, what now?" To make a long story short, the ATF had decided that the fake suppressor (known in the vernacular as a "can") was far too easy to convert into a real, working suppressor, so I was now illegally in possession of an unregistered NFA (National Firearms Act of 1968) weapon, and could be in very deep shit if I didn't comply with whatever they specified. At this point, I'm starting to think that this rifle was somehow starcrossed or something, just a bad luck kind of rifle. As it turned out, the importer of the GSG line, American Tactical Imports, did a fantastic job of processing these recalled cans, and I had my ATF approved can back in hand one week from the time I shipped it back. So, my rifle and I are, for the moment, in a happy place in our relationship. All is well. It's here, functioning very well, and there won't be an ATF swat team kicking in my door in the middle of the night. These are good things. I don't think I could ever really sell this rifle - we've been through so much together!
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