I know I should reach into my bank account and buy a something from the MP5 series, most likely the SP5K, with lower chances for the SP5 or MKE series.

Question - do any of those have problems feeding hollow points?  I've read it's hit or miss on the MKE series.  What about the HK's?  100% from the start?

Thanks.

My MKEs can’t get through a mag of critical duty, which is about as tapered as they come, even with HK magazines.

However, there were empty casings bouncing around in there when I was clearing the malfunctions, so I’m not sure if they were failures to feed more so than failures to eject.  I switched to ball ammo and the problems went away (except for one more malf on the full size).

I’m going to replace the extractor springs with HK brand ones and give the 135 critical duty one more attempt.

I’ve got maybe 150 rounds total through each gun.

They say to “break in” these AP5s with 500 rounds of 124gr NATO ammo. I haven’t had any issues with 115gr bulk ball. I’m cheap so no HP ammo yet.

Yeah, mine seem to do fine with 115 as well.

I’m going to get some more through them, revisit the hollow points, and go from there.  

In the meantime, I got a few HK ejectors, extractors, and some more extractor springs.  They’ll get those swapped in, then I’ll go from there.

Results seem to be mixed with these guns, which depend largely on the magazines used. HK seems to work best of course, but YMMV. I’ve been able to feed Federal HSTs in my Z5-RS, but the only way to know is to try them in your gun.

Usually good to go in my experience

All mine feed JHPs pretty good

Every now and again the last round will stop on the face of the barrel. But other than that it feeds just fine

My Friend has 2 MKE, The small one and the normal size one.  Both had issues feeding HP.  It was resolved by buying HK mags.  We can't tell what's different between the mags but the HK ones fixed the issue.

Edit: Spelling

I think it's all hit and miss.  You'll have to try out your individual gun with different types of HP ammo after confirming it runs reliably with ball ammo.  I ran a 15 round MKE mag of 124 gr.  Golden Sabre through my AP5-M without issue.  I still need to try some HST.

But I would assume the HK would be the better gun at running HP's.

I would imagine that magazine wobble, and the resulting changes in feed angle it brings about, can cause feed issues when using hollow points. Anecdotally, MKE and POF MP5's seem to have magazine wobble more often than H&K MP5's. This might explain why H&K MP5's are more reliable, or more often reliable, when using hollow points.

I have a PTR clone, which may be heresy around these parts, but it seems to love JHP, including Ranger 147's

No issues with SP5 and HK magazines

I havent shot a ton of JHP thru my PTR (it's a range toy only for me) but it didn't have any issue with Sig V Crown or HST 124gr.

The only ammo it hates is Syntech 150gr. Wanted nothing to do with feeding the stuff.

I had the same issue with syntech when using one of the older straight mags, the 150gr were mostly reliable with new mfg hk mags.

No issues with the 150 gr Syntech in my PTR in any of the steel curved mags (POF, KCI or HK.)  Original HK straight mags did not like the 147 or 150 gr with the flat nose.

On my 9KT and 9CT I have had zero issues with Speer GDHP 124+P, 124, and 147s with or without a can.
No issue with Win NATO 124+P ball, or any of the Syntech I've tried including the 124 and 150 stuff.
I'm only using HK 15 and 30 round mags.

I tried a couple of 30-round HK mags full of 147gr Federal HSTs through my HK SP5 without a hiccup.

HK SP5 with HK mags here. I've been using a bunch of IMI black tip +p JHP here lately without issue. May try a few hundred rounds of HST this weekend. Seems to be HK mags fix a lot of problems people have.

Ran 150 rds thru my new SP5 yesterday.  100 rds 115 gr FMJ (WWB) and 50 rds misc loose JHP ammo, zero issues.

Bought my SP5K earlier this summer. After reading this forum and others, I was a bit paranoid that I was gonna have issues with certain ammo types and weights, as well as needing to keep it sloppy lubed. Well, all that energy was wasted. I've had it out twice without lubing it, and shooting tons of FMJ round nose, FMJ flat nose, and various JHPs in 115, 124, and 147 grain bullet weights. Not a single jam, misfeed, stovepipe, or any other kind of reliability issue. Doesn't mean that some don't, but I certainly got lucky in buying someone's "throw away". Buying it used at a killer price was what had me worried. But I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth!

Back in the 20th century when I shot Uncle Sam's MP5s and SDs we went through metric ass-tons of Hydra-Shocks, Silver Tips, and Olin Special Munitions with no problems at all.

My AP5 feeds my 115gr HP handloads without any problems, suppressed or unsuppressed.

I have both the full size AP5 and the K style (AP5-P).  Have not shot them yet, but have a case of 124g ball ammo to blast away with.  I'd like to be able to shoot HP reliably and was thinking of picking up some IMI Ammunition 9mm Luger +P 124 Grain Black Dot Jacketed Hollow Point .  Anyone have any luck with the IMI?

Like others of stated HK mags fixed a lot of my feeding issues with my AP5. I mainly run Syntech 150gr thru my AP5 with a Dead Air Wolfman.

Ok- Ran the critical duty standard pressure 135 again today after installing HK ejector, extractor and extractor spring, using HK magazines.

AP5 Full size- 100%

AP5-P (referenced as K)- 75%.

The 135 critical duty spits out shells like 115 ball in the K when it cycles- in that its relatively weak; even the full size doesn't launch them out with much authority.  Every malfunction had an empty casing floating between the bolt and the chamber while the bolt was trying to feed the next round- there were no failures to feed, every round that was trying to load was perfectly centered and would have fed....had it not been for that empty casing blocking it.

Tried some 124 v-crown in the K- 100%
Tried some Gold dot +p 124 in the K- 100%
Tried some RA9T 147 in the K - 95%- First round actually popped out of the magazine and went up, but it may have started to slide forward out of the feed lips prior to the HK slap- I cleared that then it ran 100%.

Got home, tried to manually cycle some RA9T since I have a ton of it, and other than the first round anomaly, it ran great. First round from open bolt was fine, then almost every subsequent round nose dived just prior to the chamber- go figure.  Manually cycled critical duty, 100%

So........thinking the 135 standard pressure may be a touch anemic, I ordered some critical duty 124 +p.  No doubt the tapered round helps feeding as even when I ride the bolt, the rounds still feed when cycling manually, I think the K just needs a little more powder in there to toss those shell casings out of the way, at least I hope so.

If that doesnt work, the 124 V crown may be the ticket- the shape of that round was much less aggressive than the RA9T and Gold dot ammo.  V crown also launched spent casings from the K farther and harder than the rest.  The GD+P 124 tossed them almost as far.

So, still a work in progress.  The Full size has gotten better the more ammo I put through it.  The K has as well, just not quite there yet.  Neither has 500 rounds on them yet.

Both will get a wipe down, to ensure all the gritty gunk is out of the way, then I will run a box of 124+p critical duty through them and report back.  I am guessing both will run very well on that....at least I sure hope so.

Have a small shipment on the way, will run some next week in my Z5P. Seems like the hotter the ammo the better they run.

@greyeyezz

Look forward to hearing how they worked for you.  I was thinking the same thing.  I really like IMI for my go to SHTF ammo in my AR's and .308 rifles , adding some 124g HP +P 9mm to the stockpile sounds like a nice add on if it works.

@greyeyezz

Look forward to hearing how they worked for you.  I was thinking the same thing.  I really like IMI for my go to SHTF ammo in my AR's and .308 rifles , adding some 124g HP +P 9mm to the stockpile sounds like a nice add on if it works.

I have some critical duty +p 124 on the way as we speak.  Hopefully I can have a report on how it works by the end of the week.

My AP5-P gobbles those up flawlessly using HK mags. Ranger 147’s are a no-go. They won’t even chamber.

My ptr 9c eats 124 +p gold dot and the 147gr ranger, using kci gen 2 mags.  Those mags are a great fit in magwell, including mke and the crappy ets mags.  Real hk mags were loose in my ptr 9c and 9k and a friend's mke.  Sample size of 4 new hk mags from euro optic.

Winchester Ranger RA9T is good to go in the HK SP5.

The guy who got me into the AP5-P has said his eats 115 Critical Defense (not sure if it's +P or not).

I have a bunch of Federal white-box 115gr +P+ HP that I THINK was meant for sub-guns. I ran one mag of them without issue. So maybe these guys like lighter and faster HPs without super wide mouths.

Worst case scenario, I'd think the Corbon Pow-R-Balls would work well, if those are still available--though it would cost a fortune to shoot 5 mags to test for reliability. I need to test out some of those phillips head screw rounds from Lehigh/Underwood and see if they feed. Underwood also has a VERY rounded HP that looks like it would feed well.

Is there a fix for HP ammo?

Side note:  My uzi hates HP, but the forums say to install a semi model feed ramp and it will work. I'm not modifying a SMG in mint condition just for one type of ammo.

I'd agree with you about modifying your SMG.  The semi Uzi's seemed to work with all rounds - both my full size and mini worked just fine with hollow points.  It's hardly rocket science to get guns to feed them, but I guess for military guns there was no need to so as long as they feed FMJ there was no reason to go to polishing feed ramps or having better angles on them.

My AP5 (stock internals) did not feed 147 HST well from the factory MKE mag. It got through maybe 5 in a row at best. I’ve got two POFs now that I’ll try at some point, hopefully I don’t have to resort to the HK mag.

I’ve run about 400 rds of 124gr nato and 100 rds of 135gr +p critical duty for break-in without any issues. I tried some Federal JHP and couldn’t get through a mag without issues.

Just an update to my earlier post in this thread.  I picked-up a new SP5 a month ago and it also fed any type and weight of ammo 100% reliably. So I'm 2 for 2 on the MP series. I would say 4 for 4, because my pair of MP5-22s have also been dead reliable. But of course the 22s don't really have any relevance in this thread. I'm just stoked that all 4 HKs have been 100% reliable. I didn't really expect that kind of reliability after browsing various threads here and at HK Pro.

I played with them some, but had a G36 myself for SWAT.  The MP5 users ran Winchester 147 gr Black Talon / SXT (RA9T load) and they worked well, even in those old guns.  We had them for several years before they got rotated out for Colt Commandos, while I ended up with a new 416.  

So a legit MP5 should cycle HP just fine.

Check out Winchester Train and Defend. Mine had no issues with those.

I'm finding you just need to try whatever HP ammo you have in your particular AP5 and see if it works.  I own 5 (2-M's, 1-P, 2 full size).  I shot some 124 gr. HST's yesterday through 4 different guns.  They only reliably worked in one.  I'm finding the narrower the HP tip is, the more likely the round will work.  I took out 3 guns today and tried out some old Win. 147 gr SXT's.  They worked in all three guns.  And these rounds have a pretty small HP opening.  So the red tip FTX ammo mentioned above might be a winner (or XTP's).  And I ordered some of the IMI also mentioned above, as it looks to have a less aggressive HP opening.  

I also have some PMC Bronze 9mm Luger Ammo 115 Grain Jacketed Hollow Point on it's way.  It' looks to be another rounded smaller opening HP.  I'll try some out when I get them.

PMC Bronze 9mm Luger Ammo 115 Grain Jacketed Hollow Point $20.50 /$0.410 Per Round

PMC HP

Fiocchi 124 grain defense dynamics works great fyi.

IMI was a no go for me.

That ammo was the duty load for the Illinois State Police side arms.
Good stuff at a very reasonable price.