Why no Semi-auto MP9?

[collector rob]

http://world.guns.ru/smg/usa/ruger-mp9-e.html

I didn't even know Ruger made these until a few months ago. Now that they are selling more "tactical" style guns, why not a run of Semi-auto MP9's?
If people will pay for a Century made Uzi, I am sure Ruger could sell a few of them. It fires from a closed bolt, so the FCG wouldn't need much modifying. Just put on a longer barrel, or make a pistol version sans stock.

Oh well I guess I will have to be satisfied with my PC4.

 

[BlkHawk73]

Funny...I was thinking this exact same thing just last night. With the whole market being swept by anything black and "tactical", :roll: they'd probably sell well with a reasonable price-point.

Here's the old ad sheet for the MP9:

 

[blume357]

Here's the closest I could get to one of those...

 

[tuftrk]

In 2000 I had the pleasure of shooting a PM-9 while atending a Ruger Armourers Course at their Newport plant. The full auto sure was great fun. I would sure buy a semi-auto version.

 

[FergusonTO35]

Is that Bill Ruger shooting the MP-9? Ruger finally got around to advertising Mini-14 GB's to the general public, I seriously doubt we'll ever see a semi MP-9. I've read in a couple of places that the MP was discontinued after only a couple of years due to very low sales. I find that totally believable, as HK has dominated the tiny, post-1986 U.S. submachinegun market for a really long time now.

 

[TRanger]

I suppose the mall ninjas would buy them; but what you'd have is an oversize, overweight, inefficient weapon firing the same cartridge as the P95.

 

[chet15]

Yes...Ruger made 2,000 in a first run and never had to make any more. They didn't sell well enough to continue. Guess everybody had to know about them and want one back then in order to keep the model in production. Makes perfect sense.
Chet15

 

[Snake45]

I suppose the mall ninjas would buy them; but what you'd have is an oversize, overweight, inefficient weapon firing the same cartridge as the P95.

Exactly so, and such has never appealed to me--not even the revered UZI.

I once owned a semiauto closed-bolt .45 MAC-10. A more useless, worthless "weapon" it's hard to imagine. It even made a Glock look classy and feel "right." :lol:

 

[collector rob]

Well, I went to Ruger's web-site and "told the CEO" I want a MP9 semi-auto. It would go nicely with my PC4, CX Storm 9, Vector Uzi, Lusa 94SA and KelTec Sub 2000. I like pistol caliber carbines. :lol:

 

[oregon73]

A semi-auto MP-9 would either have to have no stock, or a 16'' barrel, in order to be legal, even in semi-auto. I suppose one could get a SBR stamp for it but that would raise the price (and paperwork hassle) even more. If it left the factory as an SBR it would have to go through a Class-III dealer, wouldn't it?

Even so.... if Ruger made a semi-auto MP-9, I'd probably get one just for the novelty of it.

Rob

 

[toysoldier]

It was a "better Uzi", but was it worth the cost increase over a conventional Uzi? After WWII, Douglas designed a "Super DC-3", with more capacity, range, and power. At demonstrations, everyone loved it. But it cost $200,000 at a time when a surplus DC-3 could be purchased for $8000. It was better, but not 25 times better. Only 3 sold.

Armies around the world started phasing out submachine guns after WWII, except for small numbers issued to special units. Ruger's gun, while doubtless a great little weapon, came out at a time when a couple of other designs had the shrunken market sewed up.

It didn't sell as a sub-machine gun, because military and LE agencies have realized that the sub-machine gun is not the best solution for problems of firepower. A semi-auto version would sell no better than other pistol carbines, like Marlin's Camp Carbine. I'm surprised Beretta's carbine is still on the market. The MP-9 is no more likely to be put back in production than the Hawkeye pistol, another BR "neat gun" marketing failure.

 

[EVR]

There are lots of reasons for a lack of these things on the market.

First, tho, I do not know that it WAS a good gun. As stated, it had stiff competition off the blocks and it had better have been a very, very good gun to have beat several others. It didn't and maybe function was a part of the equation...?

Also, redesigning an open bolt subgun to closed bolt firing to meet BATFE requirements can be much more difficult from a production standpoint than might be thought at first blush.

In essence, the gun {I've never seen the internals on one close enough to know for sure} might for all intents and purposes require such a radical redesign that it would require substantially new tooling, etc.

This thing is dead.

I owned a couple Stemple .45 ACP submachine guns {full auto} and had some fun with them for a while till they became boring, but as for semiauto pistol carbines, well...really, those who have owned semiauto 9mm's know what popguns they are. For the cost, I'd rather be shooting a .22 LR.

I think most who buy one {like I did} get bored with them and wonder what they can do with them that cannot be done 1000X's better with a carbine shooting a cartridge of even the 5.56 or 5.45 or 7.62x39 performance level. Or a .22, or a heavier "pistol" caliber like the .44 Mag.

Musing some more...

In my opinion, pistol caliber carbines only become useful, at least for the practical puposes we put them to, when they get into the .357 Magnum {minimum} ballistics range, on up. My little folding stocked .44 Magnum carbine works for me, but I would not want a 9mm or .45 ACP carbine at all. No matter how cute it looked.

Maybe I'd extend my horizons a bit to include a sub-caliber PDW-type like the P90 5.7 or the HK 4.85 as those rounds are flat shooting enough for some varmint work, but again, the wimpy rounds like 9x19 and .45 ACP hold no interest for me in a carbine, and evidently they don't for nearly everybody else, too.

Shoot a 9x19 or .45 ACP carbine at even 100 meters and you quickly learn just why even the sub gun has gone the way of the dodo.

 

[FergusonTO35]

LE agencies are the only people who can buy one, and if they are going to buy a SMG it'll be an HK. Now, if Ruger had come up with this 20 years earlier I bet it would be a hot commodity among full auto enthusiasts.

 

[piratedude]

I like my Cobray M11/9 better because I only have to pull the trigger once to empty the mag. Having said that, I would love to have one of these in full-auto.

 

[FergusonTO35]

With a Lage kit, you could probably come close.