I'm a long time airsoft player on a well known team that tours the UK and Europe playing any and every game I get my hands on, from weekenders to night games to town assaults and even zombie games.

There's no doubt that it's very difficult to please any airsofter – there's always an alternative gun to yours and the grass is always greener on the other side. However, throughout my many years of airsofting there's always been one gun that has been a continued source of fun and strategic advantage in games, and that's the MP5.

Whether you're fighting indoors, outdoors, between buildings or underground, the MP5's light weight and flexibility makes it an incredibly effective and versatile weapon and is something that should not be missed.

The MP5 was invented in the 1960's by Heckler & Koch, now a huge name in the gun industry for consistently reliable and effective weapons.

The MP5 is a submachine gun with a metal or ABS plastic body that fires 9mm rounds from a 15 round curved magazine at a very fast rate. It's small size, lightweight and versatility has made it a favourite for room entry and indoor-based military forces including SWAT teams in the US and the British armed response, and is now used in over 40 countries worldwide.

The MP5 has also seen a wide range of variants across it's lifetime, including the MP5A3 with a retractable metal stock and the MP5A series featuring four trigger groups – safe, single fire, burst fire and fully automatic.

With worldwide acclaim it's no wonder that the MP5 airsoft version was one of the first to hit the market. Created by Tokyo Marui, the gun featured a hard ABS plastic body and a battery compartment along the top of the gun; a design copied by many other manufacturers in later years.

Nowadays MP5 airsoft gun variants are produced by a wide range of manufacturers including A&K, Jing Gong, Classic Army, ICS and ACM. As with the majority of airsoft weapons, the MP5 uses a version 2 gearbox, neatly stashed away at the back of the body just above the trigger assembly. The motor is held inside the handle and kept in place with a shaped cap used to hold the motor while it's raised and lowered into the gearbox with a wide screw head.

As the real MP5 uses small magazines, the high capacity magazines for the airsoft version only hold around 200 bb's each, a  relatively small amount compared to most airsoft electric guns; AK47 magazine for example will hold up to 470 bb's. However, as the magazines are very small, 4 or 5 can be easily carried in a tactical vest and taped together to form a double (or even triple) magazine if necessary.

By using the length of the gun as a battery compartment, the MP5 can hold up to an 8.4v 1500maH battery – easily capable of lasting a day (assuming you're only firing at people you can hit) and the same size as that used by AK47's. However, it can be rather difficult to remove the battery, especially when being shot at, so if in doubt make sure you switch the battery with a fresh one to avoid it running out.

Given its compact size it's no surprise that the inner barrel of the MP5 is quite short. In fact, the MP5K, a smaller version of the MP5 with no stock, sports a tiny 110mm barrel. This does make for a shorter effective range (the range to which the gun is accurate), but can be extended using a silencer or one of the other MP5 variants such as the MP5SD6, which features an extended fore grip and built in silencer allowing up to a 363mm barrel.

As with any airsoft gun, effective range can also be improved by upgrading the quality of the barrel or hop up unit to one of the premium brands such as Tokyo Marui or Classic Army.

When you are considering an airsoft gun it's critical that you understand what you will be wanting the gun to do. Real guns are made to a specification and you need to know what yours is. You don't want a support weapon if you're planning on sniping and you don't want a sniper rifle if you're planning on assaulting.

If I had to choose one style that the MP5 is great for, it would be assaults. It's light weight and short size makes for an effective weapon when storming rooms, sneaking and getting in up close and personal. It's also very easy to run with and its rate of fire is very handy in woodland games where lots of bb's are required to suppress the enemy while moving forward.

Its compact nature also makes you to get stuck in. The guys that are assaulting and capturing objectives are the ones that win the games. If you want a gun that'll stick up for you when your behind a tyre wall with bb's whizzing past you, this is the one to have.

For more information on airsoft guns, visit: