Hello, new user here.  Just went and shot my shiny new 522 for the first time today.  Everything worked great for the most part.  Shot thru 150 rounds without any issues except for the cocking handle thing

Just to be sure, the cocking handle IS supposed to stay back after the last round is fired... right?  This part pictured below stays open when the last round is used, and the spring is in there




I read thru most of the posts that talked about the missing spring in there, but didn't see anything that mentioned the cocking handle only

On mine, the bolt is held backward after the last round, but not the cocking handle. upon inserting a fresh mag, i have to pull the cocking handle back and release to bring the bolt forward.  


The way i do it is, *empty mag*, bring cocking handle back and up to lock into place, drop empty mag, insert fresh mag, slap cocking handle so it brings the bolt forward, shoot.

hmmm, that's how mine goes too... so what exactly is the point of having the notch up there if the handle doesn't go up by itself?  Am I missing something??? lol

It seems silly to shoot, pull the handle back and up into the notch, swap mag, press handle down, shoot when you could just shoot, swap mag, pull handle back, shoot

HK handles don't reciprocate, so that's why it's "silly".

ohhhh duh... makes total sense now.  Guess I'm the silly one =\

You don't need to do that.

Fire to empty, swap mag, pull the charging handle all the way back and let it fly home. You are not required to lock it back. It's a manual safety feature to lock the bolt open in the absence of a magazine.

Pulling it back will release the bolt if there is a (not empty) magazine seated, otherwise the bolt stop stays engaged.


Also note that on a real MP5, there is no bolt-hold-open after the last round, so you would have to do the same thing with a new magazine. Again, you can just seat a charged magazine, pull the charging handle back and let it go, you don't have to lock it up, then slap it down.