Home | Guide | Safety First! | Terms of Use


REVIEW: H&K MP7A1 Steel Storm (Full Auto) Air Pistol

Umarex, which holds the worldwide license for producing H&K replica air pistols and rifles, has come up with a real winner in Steel Storm Tactical Air Pistol. While the Steel Storm is not branded with H&K trademarks, it is clearly styled after the popular Heckler & Koch HK MP7A1 Machine Pistol (MP).

The first thing you will notice about the Umarex Steel Storm, is the realistic look and feel of the real HK MP7A1 firearm.

The Steel Storm has many interesting features including true semi-auto operation and a 6-shot (Full-auto) burst mode. A lever on the rear of the air pistol allows you to easily switch between modes.

The Steel Storm is powered by two 12 g CO2 cartridges that are stored in the grip. To release the cartridges push the release button behind the trigger guard to partially release the trigger, and then press the secondary release on the back of the grip to fully release the cartridges. There is a small "key" stored in the bottom of the cartridge holder that is used to tighten fresh CO2 cartridges into position and removed old cartridges. A fresh set of cartridges will last around 300 shots.

The Steel Storm has a 300-round BB reservoir, and a built-in 30-round magazine. To load the pistol simply pour the BBs in the reservoir, push the magazine spring forward, gently shake the pistol to fill the magazine, release the spring, and you are ready to rock. The pistol produces impressive accuracy, and has a picatinny rail on the top and bottom for mounting optics. The Umarex Steel Storm is an excellent CO2-powered air pistol and represents a real bargain among replica air pistols.

Airgun Specifications:
  • Caliber 0.177" (4.5mm)
  • Max Velocity 430 fps
  • Loudness 4-Medium-High
  • Barrel Length 7.5"
  • Overall Length 15.0"
  • Shot Capacity 300
  • Barrel Smooth bore
  • Front Sight Post
  • Rear Sight Fixed
  • Scopeable Weaver mounts
Airgun Features:
  • 6-shot burst "full-auto" action
  • Single-shot semi-auto action
  • Buttplate None
  • Suggested for Plinking/Fun
  • Safety Manual
  • Powerplant CO2
  • Function Repeater
  • Max Shots per Fill 300
  • Body Type Submachine gun
  • Weight 2.7 lbs

More information about this product.


Additional Umarex H&K MP7A1 Steel Storm (Full Auto) Air Pistol


Amazon.com Product and Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
5Blast of Steel & fun!
By Kindle Customer
A blast to shoot, for sure. 6 - round burst, crazy sound. I love this pistol, if I wear it out i'll just buy another. Does go through, CO2 cylinders like crazy. But not super bad. They are cheap! Just a real fun pistol to shoot. Much better than I thought it would be. Has a smooth feel holding it.
I don't aim, I just put it on rock and roll. Remember to read all the reviews, before making your decision. Do your homework, first. so many pistols, and rifles.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
5Smile and Laugh Maker, Fun Fun Fun
By Bill Baehr
No one can shoot this the first time without smiling or laughing. Loading BBs into the magazine is a little awkward and slow. Very solidly built and working well. So much fun!!!

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
4A good value
By S. L. Daughenbaugh
Fun gun. I bought it to chase the Grackles (birds) out of the trees. Works great for that. The one small design flaw is that the slider that opens to allow you to put BBs in, does not have a way to keep it closed. I would remind you that this guy is only about $50. It's for fun, not a self-defensive life-saving device that you are going to use to conquer the new world! Lighten up, guys! Have some fun. It's NOT a toy, but it darn close.


History behind the firearm that inspired the Umarex Steel Force Air Pistol

The Heckler & Koch MP7 (Machine Pistol 7) is a German Personal Defence Weapon (PDW) manufactured by Heckler & Koch (H&K) and chambered for the HK 4.6X30mm cartridge. It was designed with the new cartridge to meet NATO requirements published in 1989, as these requirements call for a personal defense weapon (PDW) class firearm, with a greater ability to penetrate body armor than current weapons limited to conventional pistol cartridges. The MP7 went into production in 2001. It is a direct rival to the FN P90, also developed in response to NATO's requirement. The weapon has been revised since its introduction and the current production versions are the MP7A1 and newest MP7A2.

The proliferation of high-quality body armour has begun to make guns that fire pistol ammunition (such as Heckler & Koch's earlier MP5 submachine gun or USP pistol) ineffective. In response to this trend, Heckler & Koch designed the MP7 (along with the now cancelled UCP pistol, which uses the same ammunition) to penetrate body armor while being small enough to be used in place of either a pistol or a submachine gun.

Design and Development

The MP7 uses a short-stroke piston gas system as used on H&K's G36 and HK416 assault rifles, in place of a blowback system traditionally seen on sub-machine guns including those by H&K. The 4.6X30mm ammunition is exclusive to the gun and offers low recoil. This ammunition is unique among submachine guns in that the bullet is made almost entirely of a hardened steel penetrator instead of softer copper or lead.

The MP7 allows a conventional 20-round, 30-round or 40-round box magazine to be fitted within the pistol grip (the 20-round magazine being comparable in size to a 15-round 9X19mm magazine, while the 40-round magazine compares to a 30-round 9X19mm magazine). It features an ambidextrous fire selector, bolt catch lever and magazine release. It has an extendable stock and a folding front grip; it can be fired either one-handed or two-handed. It is compact and light, due to the use of polymers in its construction. The MP7 has a cyclic rate of fire of 950 rounds per minute (RPM).

Ammunition: The MP7's specially designed armour piercing (AP) high velocity rounds consist of either copper plated solid steel (DM11), alloy plated steel jacket (DM21) or copper-alloy-jacketed lead core projectiles (Fiocchi FMJ ZP). Standard AP high velocity DM11 (Ultimate Combat) round with a 2.0 g (31 gr) projectile has a muzzle velocity of 720 m/s (2,362 ft/s) and has a muzzle energy of 506 J (373 ft-lbf). The DM11 round penetrates the NATO CRISAT target (20 layers of kevlar with 1.6 mm titanium backing) even at 200 m. The round has a small diameter, allowing for redoubling penetration capability and high capacity in a very small magazine.

VBR of Belgium produces a 4.6X30mm 2-part controlled fragmenting projectile that is claimed to increase the content of the permanent wound cavity and double the chance to hit a vital organ. Heckler & Koch claims that the CPS Black Tip ammunition made by Fiocchi has a muzzle energy of approximately 525 J, which would be comparable to 9X19mm Parabellum rounds.

Accessories: The MP7 features a full-length, top-mounted Picatinny rail that comes as standard with folding fore and rear iron sights attached. When the sights are folded flat, they resemble Patridge style open sights. Folded up, they feature aperture sights. The sights can easily be removed by loosening a single screw and lifting them off. It can fit additional rails on the sides of the barrel, which allow it to mount commercial optical sights (telescopic and red dot sights), laser aiming modules (LAM), and tactical flashlights. It can also accept a suppressor, and its tailor-made suppressor does not interfere with its accuracy or rate of fire.

Heckler & Koch MP7 Variants

PDW: The first prototype shown in 1999 was designated the 'PDW' (Personal Defense Weapon). It had a short Picatinny rail on the top and a smooth pistol grip surface.

MP7: In 2001 it was named the 'MP7' and went into production. It included a full length Picatinny rail, a thick curved stock and an anti-slide surface on the pistol grip much like the HK USP. It also featured folding iron sights mounted on the Picatinny rail and the button to fold the foregrip was made larger for easier operation.

MP7A1: In 2003 its designation was changed to 'MP7A1' and featured a redesigned pistol grip with a different surface and curved shape, a smaller stock with a straight buttpad, side mounted picatinny rails as standard and the folding iron sights were made more compact. The weapon was made slightly longer, but because the stock was shortened, the overall length did not change. The stock is also able to be locked into 3 positions. Recent MP7A1 models have a trigger safety similar to a Glock pistol; the middle section of the trigger must be pulled first before the outer part will move. This helps to stop accidental discharges if the trigger is bumped.

MP7A2: Without folding front grip and added fourth Picatinny rail in its place to mount grips of the user's preference.

MP7-SF: Semi-automatic only variant of MP7. Currently used by Ministry of Defence Police in United Kingdom.



Disclaimer: While we aim to provide accurate product information, it is provided by manufacturers, suppliers and others, and has not been verified by us.

Home | Guide | Safety First!
By using this site you are under our :: Terms of Use
© RedOctober All Rights Reserved.