Cybergun GSG 522PK. Extremely solid. Mp5K lovers need this.

[Jakkal]

Cybergun GSG 522 PK review

Second gun review time! I wanted a primary CQB smg, and by god, I got one. This review is of the Cybergun GSG 522 PK, which is essentially an Mp5k with a forward RIS system. I got this from a local retailer (Bronson & Bronson). I will cover my personal observations and try to do this review head to toe using my experience with the gun as well as what I’ve seen on the chrono.
• Operation: Electric
• Fire mode/s: Semi / Full Auto
• Muzzle velocity: 320 fps w/ .2g
• Effective range: 150 feet
• Rate of fire: 1000 RPM
• Ammo type: High polished .2g to .28g
• Hop Up: Adjustable
• Weight: 5.3 lbs
• Magazine capacity: 250rds (Wind Up High Capacity Magazine)
• Length: 15.5 inches
• Battery: 8.4v or 9.6v AK Stick Type
• Motor type: Long Shaft Type
• Inner barrel: 145mm
• Comes with orange tip: Plastic Cap

The Gun Itself
You know, I was really expecting this to feel lighter. It’s actually a fair bit heavier, but has a GREAT feel to it. Upper receiver is a really nice, sturdy metal. Lower is polycarb.
The side folding stock on is actually a lot more comfortable than I thought it would be, and is a lift-swing instead of a push button. I was really not a fan of that at very first on this gun, but it’s really comfortable to do once you get the motion down. The stock isn’t going to move or wobble unless you tell it to move – another unexpected bit of sheer glee when I was on the field. It also has the standard MP5K buttplate sling mount, which is a life saver, and really, REALLY solid.
Moving forward to the lower receiver, the grip is NOT removable. The grip on this gun is textured with nubs, but is integrated into the lower receiver. Slightly above this is the fire elector switch with safe, semi and full auto. I was slightly disappointed to find that you can push the fire selector a little bit past the safe and full auto modes so it’s not properly locked into its’ mode. This doesn’t seem to have an impact on the fire modes themselves, but a bit of polish that I would have liked. The finger guard also has a little sling attachment, but honestly use the one off the buttplate. I’ve heard of these ones breaking. Holding and firing this gun is a bloody joy – the lower and grip have a great feel to them.

The upper receiver is a really nice, solid, heavy piece of what I think is machined steel . The integrated top rail is fantastic for mounting optics (I’m using a multi-dot reflex sight that works great) and right down to the GSG brandings it’s a great piece of work. No wobble here. The only thing I’ve found is that the rear iron sight can get loose – easily fixed by opening up the gun and tightening the screw on the bottom of it. You should be able to do this just by removing the butt plate. The magwell and mag release are really solid too – the only part of this that kind of disappointed me (As I love doing this with my AK) is that in this model the cocking lever moves, but not when the battery is in. Even when the battery is out, the machining for the battery wires makes the handle get caught up on the inside, and isn’t the greatest of motions. Doesn’t matter so much unless you upgrade to a shorter battery or a LiPo. (More on the battery in a few minutes)
One thing about this that caught me a bit off guard was the forward grip. It only has one pin and part of the receiver holding it in place and has a very minor wobble. Honestly I only ever noticed this right out of the box. In combat it doesn’t matter as much as the foregrip has no top rail section for optics – that’s firmly attached to the body. Your red dot (if legal in your fields) might go about an inch off at 25-20 feet. Again, another polish thing.

Battery and differences with the 522 and 522PK
The stock battery, I’m told, is proprietary. On the PK version of the Cybergun GSG 522 it is a linear cell that follows the top of the receiver. This means that in contrast to the regular GSG 522, you can’t use the cocking lever when the battery is in, and the cocking lever does NOT move the slide to reveal the hop-up adjustment. This is due to the shorter fore-grip of the 522PK The Hop-Up is relocated (more on that in a bit!)

Performance.
Holy f*c|< I love this gun. Using the stock 9.6v 1200mAh battery the first time I opened this up on full auto I squealed. Seriously, it was that awesome. The fire rate is rated at 850 rpm, which is about accurate. My gun’s FPS clocked in at 347 at a recent local game using .2 BBs (After about 2500 rounds had been put through it) and it’s a thing of beauty to handle. It’s a great style of gun overall, but this thing handles like a dream with or without a foregrip. It has a surprisingly small barrel (more later… again.) and after 9 hours of suppressing fire it’s energy efficient enough, even in the rain not to drain the battery! I was really amazed by this thing!

It has a great bit of kick and pop when fired, but the recoil is actually enough to make the hop-up shake and adjust itself. This is easily fixed if you open the gun, and just requires a quarter turn on the hop-up screws to fix. The hop-up adjustment, because of the battery relocation as mentioned earlier, is actually found in the forward grip. I found it easy enough even in battle to pop the one pin out and adjust if I wasn’t under heavy fire. It would still be nice if it was somewhere just a little easier to get to.

The hop-up itself is a freaking godly thing. Using a n type hopup rubber, it takes .3 bbs to make this thing shoot straight with the hop-up all the way OFF out of the box. After 1x 18 hour game and 2x 8 hour games and a fair bit of plinking inside my garage, I finally had to give it a bit of hop. It still won’t shoot .25s straight. This thing has tons of range.

Innards
Honestly, this thing has performed well enough that I have only taken the major components apart, and not cracked the gearbox open. For me, this falls under “Don’t fix what’s not broken” as there isn’t any overheating, shaking, no noticeable gear or motor whine, and this gun shoots with absolute consistency. The gearbox looks to be a V3, the hop-up is more or less standard, with a metal cradle piece that allows it to sit inside the 522PK frame like a glove, and a surprisingly short barrel (especially for how well it was shooting on the field) clocking in at only about 6 inches long. From all I’ve seen, heard and felt of this gun it’s built like a brick that spits out smaller bricks very, very fast. Except the smaller bricks are round.

Personal experiences and Upgrades
I simply threw on a fore grip and grabbed a couple midcaps for this thing. I do find the flash hider maybe a bit long for my liking, and will be replacing it with a stubby flash hider or a short suppressor. I honestly am glad I bought this gun. It’s treated me very well and I was one of the longest shots with an AEG in my squad at a recent game, probably with the shortest gun and barrel there. This thing put out the punishment.
As an example we dismounted from a vehicle to get behind some cover. Two guys were shooting at someone laying in a bush, who apparently refused to call their hits. As mag change time came, I grabbed a spare mag and asked them to let me try. Within half a minute both 100rd mags of .3s were spent, and he finally called hit because he couldn’t take it anymore. This was at about 60-80 feet or so.
I will say that having a ton of .25s kicking around with the box saying “Suggested to use at least .25g BBs” it took me awhile and some frustration before I turned to .3s. the over-hop with .25s was ridiculous. Expect to get some heavier ammo, but don’t worry about your range.

In Conclusion
With my first gun (My AK, which review is also on these forums) I had a lot of tinkering and a lot of changing things around to make it work. I added a lot of parts to that gun. Simply enough, grab a fore-grip and an optic for the Cybergun GSG-522PK and it’ll keep you going all day. I freaking love this thing, and I can’t suggest it enough. I think Cybergun will sell a lot of these great items despite some (in my opinion) very small issues with polish. Let’s face it, if they fix those issues and keep the rest the same next year, they’re going to kick some butt on the market. I picked this thing up for retail value and I think I paid just under $300 AFTER TAX IN CANADA. This is worth SO much more.

[solidgear34]

sounds decent.. do you know the original company for the mp5k?

[Dimitri]

ICS makes the regular version of the Cybergun GSG MP5 clone. The plastic receiver looks the same on both, so I would be surprised if it was not the case.

There are retailers online who claim its a ICS product for the MP5K as well.

Dimitri

[Viperfish]

I still love the fact someone made a clone of the mp5 clone thats chambered in 22lr

I might actually grab one just for shits and giggles.

[Styrak]

It's ICS.
Jakkal, it's not a proprietary battery, it's a standard stick battery.
Viper, I sell these for $200 in my store.

[Kryptik Pig]

I in fact just bought the GSG-522 (it came with a spring M1911 also).I unboxed it, went outside to try it out. The instructions told me to load the bbs into the compartment and to rotate the wheel at the bottom of the magazine. I did that until all of the bbs were at the top of the magazine. I put in the mag and I started shooting (full auto) 2 or 3 bullets came out and nothing else. I pulled out the mag and 3-4 bbs just dropped out of the gun when I pulled the mag out (where u put the magazine in, a bunch of bbs came out of there). I put the mag back in and rotated the wheel again and it wouldn't work. I flipped the gun upside down and it was shooting fine. Is there something wrong with my gun? Somebody plz help me

[IceLion]

Zombie thread revival

I have one of these - the model without the stock. Never really shot well out of the box with .2g bbs. Is it possible that I simply need to move up to .3g?

[alexd22]

Hi guys, first post from a long time lurker.

I recently got into airsoft with my friends during the pandemic. It was on private property, so don't snitch!

I'm also looking for an MP5 for some arena games once everything's fully back to normal, so I'd appreciate any updates or reviews on the gun since it's pretty cheap and seems to do the job.

Also looked through some MP5 lists online, but they're usually more expensive than the GSG 522PK mentioned here.

Tbh tho I trust user reviews like this and discussions on forums more than lists online.

[Drakker]

This Cybergun GSG MP5 is ancient, hasn't been improved upon, and those being sold today are probably old overstock. It dates back to when ICS was willing to make cheap crap for the likes of Cybergun.

If you want a cheap MP5, I'd look for the JG plastic MP5s, they work well enough, are cheap enough, and use standard parts, so they are easy to fix. Alternative include Classic Army MP5s, which are also pretty good, although the body is pot metal, some players here have been using them for years with low breakage rates.

If you are willing to get an MP5K, the Galaxy MP5K is cheap, not too hard to find, and works surprisingly well.

If you are a little more adventurous, and are willing to pay more, the new ICS MP5 with a stamped steel body looks pretty good. Early reviews with disassembly images/videos show a fairly well designed product.

If you are patient, get in line with us, LCT is supposed to release an MP5 soon. If its anything like their AKs and G3, it's going to be near indestructible, will look amazing, and will perform very well out of the box. It's going to be more expensive than cheap plastic MP5s, but its going to last you forever.