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Thumpy

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Hey fellas about a month or so back I bought a mint condition vector uzi was told it’s never been fired looked to be true. Was curious any of you have one? Or have had one? Did you have any trouble with it? How’d it run? What caliber is best for uzis? The receiver is marked for 22/9mm/45 so is it pretty easy to swap calibers? Just change out grip and bolt and barrel? Or is there more to it?

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THUMPY, WITH VECTORS UZI'S IN MY EXPERIANCE IT WAS HIT OR MISS AND MAINLY MISS. they bought most everything left over at GROUP including all the out of spec shells (rejects) laying in the corner. for the most part it seems they got them all corrected but I was not so lucky. I traded a NFA-FAL for 2 full size and one MINI UZI all full auto all nib. the 2 full sized guns would not run consistent and that's always hard to pin down but a GURU finally tweaked the ejector's and got them going. the mini has NEVER missed a beat and gets pounded. the full sized UZI is a gas in all 3 cals and its a simple plug and playWITH THE BOLT , BARREL AND MAG. no need to change the grip. the only 22 parts I have ever used are ORIGINAL IMACTION ARMS. I heard mixed results with all the others but suspect most negatives are caused by poor ammo selection. I find a load that works and LOAD up on that only! surprisingly the BLAZER was my winner. I am a hard core 45 guy and always have been . I like the downrange impact and love suppressors and the standard 230 ball round is already sub sonic . NOTHING IN THE GUN IS A QUIET AS A CLOSED BOLT 45 FULL AUTO CONVERSION AND I USE THE AWC Mk-9 DEDICATED UZI CAN. in the sub gun world , NOTHING beats the ease to maintain/ parts ease and cost and joy of use that an UZI can provide and at the price NOTHING  comes even close.

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One thing you are going to find out is there is no such thing as a "mint"  Vector Uzi.  Many of them have issues and are the lowest rated uzi in the chain regardless of what the experts say on uzitalk.  Hope it works out and you don't have one with issues.    I've never owned a vector, but I do have others including an IMI with a bolt.  The best cal. is 9mm,.  45 is expensive, and .22 is for tinkerer's like any .22 conversion they all require a degree of patience.  You do know they make drums in 9mm?  Gotta have one of those! 

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Hey fellas about a month or so back I bought a mint condition vector uzi was told it’s never been fired looked to be true. Was curious any of you have one? Or have had one? Did you have any trouble with it? How’d it run? What caliber is best for uzis? The receiver is marked for 22/9mm/45 so is it pretty easy to swap calibers? Just change out grip and bolt and barrel? Or is there more to it?

 

you dont have to swap out the grip for cal conversions- at least not the .22.

I think 9mm is the best for the gun. While others enjoy tinkering with other cals I've found that frustrating- esp the 22 kits. They require a lot of tinkering. Not worth it . plus the 22 mags suck to load and generally hold 20 rounds or less and have a super fast ROF. Stick with 9mm. Your Uzi should NOT be ammo sensitive - other than maybe not liking the weakest cheapest underpowered crap. It likes hot ammo. They eat most anything though. I wouldnt bother cal conversions.

I own Vector, Group, and IMI full sizes. All run fine, look great. All vector/group uzis were out of spec from the start from bad heat treating and other crap...but by now the vast majority run just fine and have been fixed. Watch for broken trunion welds and general rec. alignment issues with vector/group. If yours doesnt run right then first thing to do is replace the bolt w an IMI bolt if it has a group ind. bolt in it. GI bolts sucked. bad.

 

I personally would rather buy a used , proven to be good shooter vector/group than a NIB one.

BUT chances are your gun is fine and will be a great shooter for deacdes to come.

Uzis are tanks.

Dont even bother buying any spare parts. You'll rarely use them if ever. And they are cheap and plentiful regardless.

 

If you have issues actually the first thingt you wan tto do is change the mag. Plenty of the surplus mags out there suck. Cheap fix.

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WOW this is a nice can of worms !YOU MIGHT OWN THEM BUT, "DONT BOTHER BUYING SPARE PARTS?" NOW WE KNOW HOW MUCH YOU SHOOT YOURS! SEARS/EXTRACTORS DO WEAR! GOOD LUCK WITH THAT ABOUT 2025 OR SO!  I SUGGEST YOU DO LIKE LIKE EDDIE MURPHY AND DAN AKROYD "BUY EM" 'BUYEM" "BUY EM". HELL I HAVE 3 BARRELS THAT ARE SMOOTH BORE ! DONT GUESS YOU NEED ONE OF THOSE EITHER? for myself I have always wanted every option when it comes to caliber choices for my weapons. one never knows what is going to be on hand or available cheep in the 70's you could buy 8x56r or less than .02 a rnd because there were no guns.  I fired more than 200k in my bren and brownings and still do at times. my factory IMI .22 UZI NFA kit NEVER skips a beat and I have several 40 round factory mags and they load as easy as possible. YES the 18rnd 45 mags can be bothersome to a few folks, but I bought SEVERAL when I should have . when I go shooting and take a MAC, THOMPSON, GREASE, why grab a can of 9mm for the UZI? I just take the .45 kit.  I use the same can for all 3 calibers. one gun needs a slotted bolt but all of the 9mm bolts for it are slotted original SMG BOLTS I did myself the other I ONLY USE ORIG MG BOLTS IN THE OPEN BOLT MODE FOR 9MM. the closed bolts are all converted IMI commercial's . BEING A HARD NOSE DEDICATED TO THIS, I WAS FORTUNATE TO BE ABLE TO GET ANYTHING I WANTED AND DID WHEN THEY COULDNT GIVE IT AWAY. MAGS FOR.25 CENTS? BOLTS $4.00? THERE IS TOO MUCH AFTERMARKET JUNK OUT THERE AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN. STAY AWAY FROM IT UNLESS YOU WANT TO "TINKER" BUT I SUGGEST SAVE AND BUY THE RIGHT STUFF THE FIRST TIME! GADS THIS WAS ALMOST ASNINE!   GOD HELP THE GENE POOL! 

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Thumpy...

Im sticking w what I said but I appreciate Mike Todd’s input. We just disagree. 

My points again are:

1. Uzis are one of the most- if not the most- reliable SMGs out there. Like MT I have many ( although not for as long as he has I’m guessing) SMGs. It’s RARE that an Uzi needs a spare part - and when they do it’s an easy cheap fix. Despite what MT said about how much I shoot-well I’ll tell you. I shoot about 20k-30k 9mm reloads per year x 15 yrs or so. Not all in the Uzi of course. Actually most in MP5 bc I prefer that gun. It takes a LOT to smooth bore any SMG barrel bc the heat and pressures just aren’t there. Sure you can do it but hey they aren’t beltfeds. I’ve destroyed many a beltfed barrel but that’s an entirely different gig than 30 rnd mag Fed 9mm. Go ahead. Buy a bunch of spare parts like I did. Buy. Buy. Buy. Stack em deep. YOU WONT USE 99% Of THEM. I realize it’s heresy to say “ there’s no need to hoard Uzi spare parts” when talking to gun guys who are hoarders by nature. I am. I did. I have piles of that shit in my garage. I shoot plenty and as much as I want. And I never replace Uzi parts. That’s just the straight truth. If it were o/w hell I’d tell you! Buy ! Go crazy! The market says Uzi parts are CHEAP, Plentiful, rarely used. Go check it out. Dirt. F’ing cheap. So I’m summary - if you are anything other than an extremely high volume shooter then you don’t really need many if any spare parts for the Uzi. If you want to buy some parts then sure pick up an extractor and whatnot. Better yet just buy a de mil surplus Uzi kit. The entire gun will run ya $175 or so ( what does that tell you????).

 

2. Caliber conversions. This is certainly more individual than 1. above. I think they aren’t worth it. And yes I have piles of them for all kinds of guns- HKs, AR,Uzi, AUG, 1919a4, blah blah. Ain’t worth the headaches. Never get used anyway by me. Especially the .22 kits. Search Uzitalk and you’ll discover many a thread about troubleshooting 22 kits. That’s bc there’s a reason. BUT I appreciate it that some folks want to do that thang. I thought I did. Bought em all....& I never use them. 

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houston8, you are a true gent and I totally support your right to disagree with me , just don't understand it. if we all liked the same stuff I couldn't have all the joy I have endured these past 60 years with the huge variety. imagine buying a NEW UNFIRED MG-42 for $500. the handing it to a friend and he has a bolt bounce and hands it back to you with a hole in the receiver , no extractor and 3 months later STILL NO EXTRACTOR at ANY PRICE and I KNEW THE PEOPLE! OR finally talking someone out of one of those new plastic MG's proposed to the AIRFORCE and all the ammo you can find is 31 rounds in the entire COUNTRY. the only .50 brng ammo you find is in pics? in 2019i went too the Y/O ranch MG shoot. my Vickers? 43k+ Russian long. M-60 and 240? 60k+ 7.62 that's only 3 of the 14 guns that went . yes there were 3 shooters but that's only 1 1/2 days and I shoot EVERY WEEK at least once and often more. the ONLY holdup is my illness these days. my sub guns go out with 2 -50 cans BULK ammo unless just testing a combo . I have a soft spot for .22 because I rented a 1917 A1 out in .22 long rifle 3 weekends and they paid for the gun mount and STAMP! YES I know about the issue with .22 and the UZI, but 99% is because of the kit NOT the gun!  must admit I hand carried my factory 40 rnd mags from ISRAEL and never seen any for sale here, but I also have 20's and that's what I load for others to use at shoots. THE KIDS LOVE IT!  OVER THE YEARS I LEARNED ABOUT MAGAZINES, AMMO AND SPARE PARTS AVAILABLILITY AND MANY TIMES THE HARD WAY!  when the MAB-PA-15 pistol landed, the dealer kept the 2nd mag and refused to sell them. almost 30 years ago and I still only have ONE!   $200+ ?, hard to pay more for a mag than the gun cost new! I have a set standard for any system I buy. sometimes I buy the extras first then the gun, but this is my minimum level,= semi handgun, 3-mags min , 6 better, I extractor and 1 firing pin and spring more if easy and not too high. 1 thousand rounds ammo that is not for use. SUBGUN= 1 barrel, 8 mags for use, 8+put away, 3 extractors, 1 bolt, 3-SEARS and springs others if used. squad autos and beltfeds, 4 extractors 2 bolts and at least 4 of EVERY MOVING PART or MORE. ALL NFA WEAPONS HAVE, 5- thousand rounds of first class ammo that is not touched. EVER TRY TO SELL SOMETHING AND AMMO IS NOT IN COUNTRY ? WHEN M-62 VALMETS FIRST LANDED, FOR THE NEXT YEAR, I BOUGHT THEM FOR A THIRD OF COST BECAUSE NOBADY HAD ANY RUSSIAN SHORT AND IF SO IT WAS MORE THAN $1.50 RND.  NOW THE BAD PART, ONE DAY THESE ASS WIPES ARE GOING TO DISCOVER THAT THE WAY TO CONTROL THE GUNS IS WITH WHAT MAKES THEM OPERATE! THE 2ND AMMENDMENT SAY'S NOTHING ABOUT EXTRACTORS OR AMMUNITION. LOOK TO THE WEST COAST, ALL MY LIFE THE FEDERAL LAWS HAVE FOLLOWED THE EXAMPLE SET THERE WITHIN 10 YEARS. AMMO IS TOTALLY CONTROLLED IN L.A. AND SAN DIEGO COUNTY. I can add reasons ALL night why and I may be an extreme example, but wear and breakage should be enough for ANYBODY!

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Fair enough. You’ve been in it for the long haul and in serious Ammo vol. I’m more a recreational shooter - every 3 weekends go blast a couple thou rnds mixed cal. ( I did manage to smooth bore my 54R at OFAST this past June. 4500 rnds of 54R over 8 hrs and she was toast. Great fun !) Ammo IS something I’d stock up on when it’s cheap. Bc I burn thru it. Bought 50k rnds of 54R back when it was $0.20/rnd. That’s as good as it gets for me. I wasn’t around MGs in glorious days of 5cent 8mm Or when ANY MGs cost less than  $3,500 ( mac at that price was my cheapest ever Mg purchase- At KC maybe 2008?). 

 

Lastly I stick to transferable “common “ MGs and “common “ calibers -9,45,556,308 with 54R in the 1919. I try to keep it simple. 30 carbine or really 7.62x39 is as weird as I get. 

 

I speak of not buying <many> spare parts but even as I say that I personally have cans of them for each MG. I’ve just been fortunate in not requiring much. I did manage to break a 54R 1919 bolt itself a few mo prior to OFAST. Troy at barrelxchange set me up with 3 additional ones. I have broken a M60 bolt as well. And wore out an already used MP5k barrel. 

Ok ok how about this for a weird failure? Bent HK rollers. And I mean instead of round it was octagonal - flat sides. Receiver/trunion  fine-no dimples. Oh and unilateral, affected only 1 roller. Crazy huh? Bent up hk roller! 

Happy shooting my friend!

 

 

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FUNNY THING YOU MENTION TROY AT BARREL EXCHANGE.  THEY DONT COME ANY BETTER THAN THAT MAN AND WE HAVE A LONG STANDING GOOD HISTORY!  this fits this thread perfectly, I was THE first to offer BROWNING caliber conversions in 8mm, 7.62 x 54 etc in the U.S. and doing 25-30 a month with a 1 man operation many years. when my illness first struck, it effected signals to my hands and they did what they wanted when moving the table on my mill, so I had to quit with several paid orders pending! TROY EDLUND was one of those people, when I offered the refund he offered to BUY my conversion business and fill all the orders. we agreed he would take over at no cost, and as he filled orders he STILL offered me a cut.  he still offers cal conversions and made his own links for Russian short out of plastic while I had bent existing links.  MONEY was never my goal with the conversions. it was giving the industry a low cost option to SHOOT MORE and maybe increase our numbers. I did this long b-4 the net was born and many so called experts said I would NEVER get Russian long to run well in a BROWNING but time proved them wrong. I was able to get RELIABLE function with 38/357 , 5.45 x39 and even .410 shot gun which was a real challenge let me tell ya!  you mentioned HK's my first G-3 conversion has a hole worn in the top of the receiver from the tip of the carrier rising as it hits the buffer its been fired so much and a smooth bore.in the early 2000's J&G sales in Prescott AZ sold me crates of 8mm or Russian long for less than $30 a crate by the truck and I bought SEVERAL ! and there is still plenty left. so I have a good place to shoot and plenty of parts to keep em going. wish that were true for ALL you out there. stay focused , get ALL you can, enjoy WHILE you can. it looks awful dark ahead.  mike

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YUP, I got the idea back when 54r was less than .03 a rnd. at a BIG MARANA SHOOT, I asked several big wigs about the idea and they said the BROWNING would NEVER cope with the required round spacing in belts or links. somehow they forgot about the CHINESE ?  when you load 54r in cloth belts the belt will start to form a circle back on its self and give the impression it wont work.  in frustration at first I used SWEDISH  NATO CLOTH BELTS they curved but I just loaded them up and hung em from the rafters and they straightened right out. at first I whittled and added too the feed lever but found it was best left alone . it even works with nato links but I suggest mainly cloth to save trunnion wear. on many off my BROWNINGS I set them up with a dedicated brl extension then faced the barrels and chambered them in a fixed headspace. sure saves time when you must tear down due to corrosive ammo. SHORTLY after I started selling converted MG-34 brls for the BRNG , someone ran new 8x57 brls and sold them. BAD DEAL as they short chambered them and people suffered blown cases. THAT WAS THE MAIN REASON TURK 8mm GOT A BAD RAP! I shoot it by the thousands and have NEVER had an issue except loose primers. HOWEVER I have since found there IS SOME bad YEARS and thank fully its all sold off by now.

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YOUSE GUY'S wanna really cry here is one much worse! about 2006-2007 someone bent the top cover on a semi auto 1919 using TURK 8mm they bought from the J&G RIFLE RANCH in PRESCOTT , AZ. so they stopped selling it. one of my stores was in that town and I had to send at least ONE truckload a week up there to keep its stock up. often I would drive the truck myself just to check the store etc and I would stop in J&G and pick up a few crates of ammo and save shipping. THEY would walk me thru the warehouse to see what was available and I bought all the 8mm AS IS for less than .02 rnd. 500k rounds or so. at that time they were selling me a 720 rnd case of ROMAINIAN 8mm for $29.95. after the 2nd truck load I asked about 880 rnd 54r case price. and they said EITHER ONE  $29.95. after the 6th truck I ran out of room. when you think about that, it makes one wonder just how cheap was it at the port? someone took it to the ship , offloaded in SAN PEDRO or the like, shipped it to the distributor, THEN shipped it too J&G ! so that was a min of 4 handles B-4 I got it at $29.95! GADS ?

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On 9/21/2019 at 4:50 AM, mike todd said:

THUMPY, WITH VECTORS UZI'S IN MY EXPERIANCE IT WAS HIT OR MISS AND MAINLY MISS. they bought most everything left over at GROUP including all the out of spec shells (rejects) laying in the corner. for the most part it seems they got them all corrected but I was not so lucky. I traded a NFA-FAL for 2 full size and one MINI UZI all full auto all nib. the 2 full sized guns would not run consistent and that's always hard to pin down but a GURU finally tweaked the ejector's and got them going. the mini has NEVER missed a beat and gets pounded. the full sized UZI is a gas in all 3 cals and its a simple plug and playWITH THE BOLT , BARREL AND MAG. no need to change the grip. the only 22 parts I have ever used are ORIGINAL IMACTION ARMS. I heard mixed results with all the others but suspect most negatives are caused by poor ammo selection. I find a load that works and LOAD up on that only! surprisingly the BLAZER was my winner. I am a hard core 45 guy and always have been . I like the downrange impact and love suppressors and the standard 230 ball round is already sub sonic . NOTHING IN THE GUN IS A QUIET AS A CLOSED BOLT 45 FULL AUTO CONVERSION AND I USE THE AWC Mk-9 DEDICATED UZI CAN. in the sub gun world , NOTHING beats the ease to maintain/ parts ease and cost and joy of use that an UZI can provide and at the price NOTHING  comes even close.

Mike if you don’t mind me asking who does a good closed bolt conversions for the uzi? Or is it something I could do at home?

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