H&K roller-lock rifles have never been guns for the faint of heart. Their delayed blowback actions result in greater felt recoil for the shooter compared to AR or AK platform rifles. They’re also made of thick welded steel stampings which makes them heavy. If you want a compact, rifle caliber, gun designed for extreme ruggedness and dependability in brutal environments that will keep shooting without maintenance or even lubrication, and you can tolerate the weight and recoil, you should take a look at the Century Arms 5.56 x 45 NATO caliber AP53 pistol.
The AP53 is a semi-automatic pistol version of the 8.3 inch barrel HK53 without the collapsable buttstock. It’s made in Turkey by MKE. Government owned MKE started making licensed copies of HK guns in the 1980s for the Turkish military and export. Aside from the pistol style receiver end-caps and the substitution of a lightweight, transparent, amber polycarbonate, 30 round magazine for the original metal one the, the AP53 is very true to the Cold War H&K submachine gun. I’m sure collectors will want to register it as an SBR and install the original pattern collapsible buttstock. With that in mind, Century Arms offers it with your choice of endcaps: a plain one for an ordinary pistol and one fitted with an AR buffer tube and MagPul BTR pistol brace. The MSRPs are $1,799 and $1,899 respectively. Equipped with standard, and excellent, H&K type iron sights, each gun also comes with a user installed 6 inch Picatinny optics rail, an H&K pattern three-point sling, cleaning kit, and hardcase.
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The chrome moly steel, cold hammer forged, chrome lined barrel is long wearing and corrosion resistant with a fluted chamber for reliable extraction and a ½ x 28 threaded muzzle equipped with an excellent four prong flash-hider.
The Navy style polymer pistol grip/fire control assembly has ambidextrous safety/selector controls with faux burst and full-auto markings.
A compact powerhouse of personal defense at close quarters, my test gun was very also accurate. 50 yard 5 shot groups fired from the bench averaged from 2.00 to 2.5 inches. For more information visit www.CenturyArms.com
