Marushin UZI 9mm

Post by Claymore

MARUSHIN UZI 9MM
Background
The uzi submachine gun was developed in Israel by Usiel Gal an officer in the army and manufactured by IMI iin the early 50's and has been adopted by police and military all over the world since then.

OUT OF THE BOX
The uzi is an all metal model (zinc) apart from the grip and front stock which are ABS also on the non factory version the trigger guard and housing are also ABS, on the factory version the trigger guard is metal.
The model comes in a dull black not matt or gloss but something in between. It is a very accurate reproduction of the uzi in size, looks and weight. This is a great looking modelgun and when you pick it up its hard not to be impressed, the stock on this model is the metal folding stock which again is accurate and works just as it should. To open the stock out you simply pull the shoulder stock down and pull into position.
You can also get a solid wood stock which would add more weight and if you are lucky you can get both stocks with one model.

The uzi has not been made for many years now by Marushin so any model you can get hold of is likely to have been fired, although there are some out there that are still unfired (my factory version appeared to be unfired). The fact that it has been used doesn't really matter, the model is very solidly built and being metal lasts long. Of course the trouble with a discontinued model is spares if you need them, like a new mag for instance the chance of getting one of them is as likely as finding rocking horse s*&^$, fortunately you should not really need other spares.
There are not many markings on the uzi, just by the rear sight on the left side it has MP UZI under that Kal 9mm under that a number and under that IMI, on the cocking handle bolt plate ther is smg marushin apart from that all you have is D.E.S above the selector lever which indicates safe, semi and full auto.
The barrel of the uzi is open so smoke can come out of it and as the barrel is short you can get a fair bit which is good.
LOADING AND FIRING
The mag holds 32 rounds of 9mm but i only put in 30, the mag then fits into the grip, a good push and it locks in place. The rounds are the normal plug fire type that are used in the MP40 and are still available which is important as the rounds don't always last that long. The threads get damaged so the base does not screw on to the body of the round or it gets loose and this can mean the base will literally blow off the body and jam in your gun. So you need to keep a good check on your rounds.
To fire you first need to make sure that the grip safety situated on the rear of the grip is depressed, same principle as on the 1911 45 colt, you need to grip so that it is depressed and then the cocking bolt can be pulled back. The uzi works from an open bolt so it locks back when you cock it, to fire select semi or full auto and squeeze the trigger (making sure the grip saftey is dpressed) and away you go.
The uzi has a pretty high rate of fire so it wont take long to empy a mag.
FIRING ADVISE
So far i have never got a whole mag of 30 to fire there has always been a few jams, although adise from this forum has got it working better yhan it ever did.
First the round ejector which is a small piece of metal inside the lower receiver behind the mag housing, this can get bent so cause jams, so make sure its at a 90 degree angle. Next the rounds themselves, if you use just one 7mm cap the gun will function but might give you problems as the uzi has a heavy bolt to blowback, also the sound you get from one cap is very poor.
You can use a 7mm and a 5mm together, this will give a lot more blowback power and a much better noise but it will slowly destroy your rounds, as said before the rounds are not strong and 2 caps puts a lot of pressure on them.
Last thing and what i do now is place a spent cap as an extra seal in the round and use one 7mm cap, this gives a much better blowback and good noise and does not appear to overstrain the round. Also i now use silicone to lube but have not tried it with the uzi this might take away the need for the cap as a seal, we shall see.
DO I LIKE IT
OH!! yes, the uzi needs a lot of tweaks to get it running right and there are still a few things i think mine needs to get it running better, but when you fire it, its great. It fires fast and makes a good noise not just from the caps but from the fact it is a metal model. More than that its an UZI an absolute classic used all over the world and still in use in different guises, mini uzi etc.
You have to accept the fact that it needs constant attention to keep it running right, that said i am determined to get moine totally sorted so that you can burst fire successfully. Apart from that the uzi causes no problems, no breaks which have plagued me with other models which is a big plus.
Stripping this gun is simple, there is a button at the rear of the cocking plate by the rear sight, push this in and the plate comes off giving access to the bolt, this pulls out anf you have access to the barrel pin, barrel and trigger housing are also easy to dismantle so its easy to keep clean

OVERALL
The uzi is an excellent replica and the fact that it fires is the icing on the cake, you can get annoyed with the jams but that does not detract from the fact that it is still a very accurate reproduction of a classic firearm.
There is one other thing, the paint. On my factory version its fine but then i have only put about 20 rounds through it to test it. My normal version is losing paint everywhere and is in serious need of a paint job.
So anyone out there who can advise me what paint (a spray i would think for a good finish) to use i dont want a gloss finish and obviously i need to take the old paint off and give the zinc surface a polish, do i need to put a primer on first.
Any help on this will be appreciated.
The top uzi is the real one by the way mine is the bottom with paint coming off thought i would put a real one in for comparison

Post by Mark

Nice review claymore, although, the real Uzi picture threw me off, as i wondered how you did the incredibly realistic finish on it! The good old Marushin Uzi works good but it can be a cartridge eating heavy modelgun! They often "eat"cartridges due to the heavy cast zinc bolt smashing in the cartridge sides when they fail to eject properly. The earlier versions of the Marushin Uzi had the all metal trigger housings and all of the later versions had unfortunately, the plastic housings whether they where factory assembled or put together from the kits..


claymore, if you are planning to repaint the uzi, get some paint stripper and remove all of the current paint (as well as you can) and then buy the best brand of paint that you can and some "SuperBlue" liquid bluing. Then, using fine steel wool buff the zinc parts that you wish to paint until they are free of old paint and any corrosion (if present) then, clean the parts with denatured alcohol to degrease them. And then once the parts are clean,degreased and dry Use a clean rag to apply the "SuperBlue" to the zinc parts after a few seconds on the zinc parts, wash off the "SuperBlue" chemical this should leave a somewhat grey parkerizing appearing finish. After a while of drying, paint over the black/grey finish if done properly, the painted finish will be like the real Uzi as the "SuperBlue" parkerizing leaves a primer like finish that will help the paint to adhere to the parts..

I suppose that you might be able to get a light green paint that just might simulate parkerization and it might look somewhat like the real Uzi in your picture!
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Wanted to buy: MGC Sten MK3....trades?(still)

MGC MP40 Marushin MP40 Nakata MP40 TRC MP40

Modelgun manufacturers, past and present:CMC,CAW,Hudson,HWS,LS,MGC(R.I.P. 1960's~2007) Marushin,Marui,Kokusai,Shoei,Tanaka and Western Arms

Post by Reemo

Hi Guys

I know trhat this is an OLD post and you may have already painted your UZI, but I recently painted one too.

Here is what I did.

Strip the old paint off with whatever you decide - I used a gel stripper which made fast work of it all.

I then washed (rinsed) the parts with "prep-sol".....denatured alcohol would work well too. Just clean off ALL the old stripper and let dry.

Next is very fine steel wool to really clean the zinc and prep the surface for painting. Once clean it will have good "tooth".....once done, redunk the parts in prepsol and let dry.

For paint, I used an airbrush and HUMBROL enamel paint (Made in England).......it is an ultra premium hobby enamel and is very inexpensive - available everywhere in the world.

I used a mixture of matte black and raw steel - the color was very accurate when done. Humbrol makes sooooooooo many WW2 colors and many steel greys, so choose what you think looks best - its your party!

Once that dried (several coats) I used KRYLON "crystal clear".

It is so durable and resists handling - it is neither flat nor glossy - its somewhere in between and its perfect. You can spray from the can...or as I did.....spray into a airbrush bottle then attach the bottle to your airbrush.......the airbrush will spray it just fine and due to better atomizing, the finish comes out flawless. NO chance of orange peel or "texture" to the new finish. Just smooth "plated" appearance.


The gun can be handled with no chance of scuffing or "burnishing" (shine from handling paint in the same spot over and over).

There are many ways to paint a gun, but this is what I did and I was very satisfied. Give it a shot!
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"This is your life......and its ending one minute at a time."

Quote :

one thing and what i do now is place a spent cap as an extra seal in the round and use one 7mm cap, this gives a much better blowback and good noise and does not appear to overstrain the round)

Hello All,
I've just got myelf a Marushin UZI and have been reading up the reviews and comments, all really helpful stuff as always, Thanks!
Could Claymore please either draw or post photo's of the assembled round showing where and which way round the spet cap goes please?
I've seen mention of this tip for M16/XM177E rounds too but can't quite visualise it.
A photo might help!
Thanks very much

Cerwyn

claymore wrote:

I will take a pic and post one on site, however the uzi works much better and i mean really really good if you change to using the mgc sig 220 round all you need to do is adust the detonator, Jay did mine as i had bought the gun from him but i will post a pic of the detonater as well.
It is well worth changing to the 220 round as burst fire and full auto work superb with it.

Hi Claymore,
I'll be interested to see that please. Was the adjustment difficult (read expensive???) Not wanting to stray too far off the Uzi topic but if the Sig220 rounds are that much better, have you tried them in the Marushin MP40?

Cerwyn

Post by Claymore

Jay did not charge for the conversion and i thought it would be difficult as i thought the bolt and extractor claw would need adjustment as well as the detonator, as to the mp40, jay was working on trying that himself so i dont know if the 40 will work or not.
My broken nakata has been converted to fire sig rounds so i will try the pin from that in the marushin and see what happens.

My all metal Uzi arrived and Wow, what a fabulous looking toy! This thing looks real, no doubt about it, it looks real, makes all the right clicks and sounds when you handle it, incredible!
The version I've got is a few years old, there are signs of wear on the paint, but some of them add to the realism, scuff marks around the butt pivote, along the cocking handle's plate, that kind of thing.
Unfortunately, the rest of the black paint seems to be falling off everywhere though! I think somebody must have given it a light coat without preparing it properly!
I loaded it with 10 of the mgc 9mm rounds, not the marushin's, as Claymore's suggestion...
single shot first... no problem...
Then another... jammed... oh sh*t...
mag out, clear the jammed round...
Switch to Full Auto and Rrrriiipppp... 8 out and clear before you can get your finger off the trigger!
Lovely!
Clearing up afterwards though showed the round that jammed must have been whacked by the bolt, crushing the casing enough that it won't come apart! The rest were fine but I hope jams don't destroy brass rounds often!
The gun's easy to strip, although the firing pin is reluctant to come out of it's chamber. There's 2 c'sk screws holding the chamber in place, take them out, remove the assembly. Remove the c'sk screw from behind the firing pin, but then what? How does the pin come out? Should it?
All in all a Great model gun, can't wait for a mag' full of rounds!

Cerwyn
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Hobby collector of mainly WW2 era uniforms, headgear, field equipment and replica weapons.

Post by Claymore

There is nothing worse than getting a new gun and the damn thing jams first shot. One thing to check is that Jay tests the guns before sending but does not always clean the pin and the bolt so dirt can get around the ejector and the gundge on the pin which causes problems, clean them up and it should be fine.
As for getting the pin out, yes it sticks in there , i have a metal rod that goes through the screw hole (but does not touch the threads of the pin) and i give the pin a push which frees it up OK just be carefull not to damage the threads. The pin needs to be secure in the chamber as any movement and the rounds will jam, at least the old marushin ones would.
Another problem with the uzi is the ejector, its pretty small and does not always do the best job (although with the mgc round it seems fine) Francky does a custom ejector for the uzi however it is much thicker (approx 3mm) than the normal one which is what it needs but because of this it will not fit all models, you need to check the bolt on yours and see if the resess for the extractor is wide if not it wont fit. One of my uzi bolts it fits the other it does not, why the difference i dont know.

Hope you enjoyed the full auto, mine fire great with the conversion and to be honest full auto is the only way to fire this gun. Oh! yes the paint, yes all the paint is coming off mine as you can see in the pic, in the next few weeks and i am going to try aluminium black on it, if it works i will let you know.

Hiya!

I think you're right there mate! When we took the chamber and pin assembly off, a load of soot and gundge broke away from around the pin. I can't imagine for a minute that my 10 rounds put all that there. I'll try pushing the pin out a bit harder now then. I was a bit wary of pushing too hard in case I bloody broke anything!
I'd have to agree that Full Auto's the only way really innit? As you know, I have problems using my hands so my long suffering Better half gets all the fun firing whilst I watch and listen. The Uzi was jumping about in her hands like a good 'un! I can't wait for a magazine full!
Cerwyn
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Hobby collector of mainly WW2 era uniforms, headgear, field equipment and replica weapons

Post by Claymore

One thing i forgot, the bolt is connected to the bolt carrier by 1 allan bolt. This comes loose and needs tighting, it will take about 2 mags then its worth checking the bolt and tightening the allan bolt if needed (it wont need much, just a touch) if you dont do this well you have a loose bolt that could cause jams but worse it could damage the bolt itself and that would be bad, real bad.
Had to go fire mine after all this and it was great, the uzi really fires well now and fires just about the right rate, it fires fast but not so fast that you cant control the bursts.
I will have to get some vid sorted and posted.

Thanks v. much! Tips like this are worth their weight in gold.
Nice to know that thinking about the UZI made you give it a burst! Just the thing for a quiet Sunday ;0)
Vids would be great!
C
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Hobby collector of mainly WW2 era uniforms, headgear, field equipment and replica weapons.