My main reasons for choosing the Ingram were the internal gas expansion chamber, fire mode selection feature, Hop-up, and of course the extendable stock. I could find no other compact full-auto gun that was able to provide those 4 important features.

The internal gas expansion chamber is one of the guns best features, It allows liquid Green Gas from the magazine to first expand into the internal chamber before it is actually used to work the slide and propel the BB. This means less wastage of gas, and less of the gas escaping still in liquid form from the gun - more efficiency. An important note is that the gun retains gas in that expansion chamber even when the magazine has been removed, so be careful of the trigger even when the mag is out. One thing to add here would be that the magazine supplied as standard is a 20-round mag, although a full charge gives enough for at least 40 shots - so allowing 2 ammo-refills before a gas recharge.

The Ingram has a fire mode selection switch on the left-hand side that has a rotary motion. It allows selection between full-auto and semi-auto - as with the real Ingram no burst selection is available. The only real competitor with the Ingram that I can think of is the Micro-Uzi, this gun has no fire selector switch, and so you are stuck with full-auto fire. The selector is very handy, because firing in full-auto with a 20-round mag (supplied as standard) is not a good idea in a game - the mag will be empty in well under a couple of seconds! I always leave the gun in Semi-auto to conserve BB's, the only time I would switch to Full-auto would be to either take out a fast moving target (bad guy runnin' like Mr. 'Beep.. Beep..' himself), or too strafe a room from behind the door before entry. One thing I don't like about the rotary motion of the selector, is that it can be continually rotated in a full circle (there are no stops), if it has been rotated too many times in just the one direction (not back and forth between east & west), the gun will fire one shot, and the bolt will not return to the center position ready for the next shot (so it had to be cocked again). To fix the problem you have to rotate the selector in the opposite direction - enough times as too return it to its original position, before the gun will fire in semi-auto or full-auto again - Not a big problem really.

The safety catch is not part of the fire mode selection as with a lot of guns, it is actually a separate switch positioned directly next to the trigger. This means that the safety can be operated with your trigger finger, without even having to move your right or left hand. Having a quick and easy to use safety catch means you are more likely to use it frequently, and instead of leaving the gun in 'fire' because working the safety catch is a pain, its easy to keep it in 'safe' when not actually firing. The safety switch also has a very positive action, you never have any doubts whether you have engaged or disengaged it properly.

The Ingram has a built in non-adjustable Hop-up - many guns still don't, so this is a bonus. As you will probably know the Hop-up system simply puts a slight back-spin on the BB in the barrel, so when the BB starts to arc down to the ground after travelling some distance, the backspin gives the BB lift and so keeps it on an accurate and level path. I have found that the Ingram is very capable of firing quite accurately at distances of around 40m - Which is quite impressive. It's of course not as accurate as a rifle like my AUG, but the Ingram was only really intended for close range work.

The Ingram has a very nice all-metal extendable stock, which allows more accurate shooting as it reduces the effect of the blowback producing recoil. To extend the stock, the end piece that is normally folded over the rear-sight must be folded down, and then a small button under the rear of the gun is pressed in order to release the stock from its locked position before it can be pulled out from the back of the gun, and locked into its rest position by releasing the button and pulling it until a sturdy 'click' is heard. The only thing I don't like about the stock is that when closed and the butt is folded over the rear-sight, it does tend to reduce the ease of use of the sights - However I don't really use the sights on the Ingram, Its more an 'aim by pointing' weapon. If you want to, you can actually completely remove the stock - This almost converts the gun to a full-auto pistol!

I am generally VERY pleased with the Ingram, and would recommend it too anyone. Its compact, sturdy, has a good weight, won't break easily because of its simple internals, all working or moving parts are metal, and it shoots fast, accurate, and powerful. Of course I couldn't forget that it’s a blowback gun, and so it has quite realistic recoil and sound, it also looks the business! The other little things I should mention are that it has an metal attachment for a sling, is quite easy to disassemble with good set of tools, and it has threading for an existing and available mock-silencer.

So… INGRAM Mac11 = Very handy piece of very nice kit! Well worth the money, Gas is most definitely as good as electric.

Basic Info:

ACTION: Gas type full auto blow back
AMMO: 6mm BBs
MAG: 20-Round Standard (All Metal) - (Think biggest Hi-Cap is 140)
BARREL: Smooth bore, 120mm long, has non-adjustable Hop-Up
SAFETY: Manual Safety (Metal)
SIGHTS: Front, Rear/Fixed (Front is Metal, Rear is part of body)
LENGTH: 254mm
WEIGHT: 850g (with 20-Round Mag)
VELOCITY: 270fps. (82.3mps.)

If anyone has any questions or problems, and if anyone knows how I can get hold of an Lock Knife made by H&K (maker of MP5's) here in the UK (or any other good quality gun blued lock knives), please feel free to mail me at… 'k_cruz_4nd_cr3w@hotmail.com'.