Back to The Collection Back to Home

The Mac (Mac-10, Mac-11, Mac-12)
Model
 Length overall Barrel Length Weight  Caliber Action Type Magazine Capacity
Mac-10
 10.5
6.25
 45
 semi auto blowback
 10 to 30
Mac-11
 10.5
6.25
 9mm
 semi auto blowback
 10 to 32
Mac-12
 8.75
3.5
 380
 semi auto blowback
 10 to 32

The firearms version of junk food.
    When I was very young, back in the early seventies, the Ingram MAC-10 made a lasting impression on me. My first exposure to it was in the movie The Killer Elite. I marveled at the small size, and amazing cyclic rate (1100-1600 rpm) of the gun. It was not shown clearly, and I had no idea what it was, thinking that it might be some variation of the Uzi. I saw the gun once again, on a television rerun of the John Wayne movie McQ. The initial release of McQ, some years before I saw it, was actually the first public showing, or at any rate the first movie showing, of the MAC (Military Armament Company) Model 10, the MAC-10. The gun began to show up in magazines, SOF in particular, and I was finally able to learn the facts about this remarkable little pistol/smg. Latter on, when the little gun made an appearance in the Chuck Norris movie, Invasion USA, I was quite well aquanted with the MAC.
    The Ingram MAC-10 was (and is) just about the most compact assault weapon made. It is an intersting hybred of pistol, and carbine. Though it looks like an overgrown pistol on steroids, the MAC has a true bolt, like a rifle, and does not use a pistol style slide. The origonal model was chambered for .45 ACP, but variants soon appeared in 9mm. Latter on, a smaller version, the MAC-11, was made in 380 and eventually in 9mm. These were Viet Nam era guns, designed for use with a silencer. The guns came standard with a barrel threaded for it's use, even the semi auto civilian version.
    The Ingram was essentially the sixties/seventies answer to the same requirements which spawned the STEN gun in the forties. It was small, simple, cheap to make, rugged, and (unlike the STEN) very reliable. It was designed by Gordon Ingram around 1970. The exact date of initial production is rather cloudy, given the covert nature of the early users. These guns are made using simple stamping, welding, and pinning manufacturing techniques. The small size is due to the use of a telescoping bolt, which rides over part of the barrel. This is a modification, and further development of the bolt design of the Uzi, which is itself an improvement of an earlier Czech design.
    First of all, I must confess that, in their semi auto civilian legal form, these are just about the dumbest firearms you can own. As much as the design of the MAC-10 smg fascinated me, I never felt the desire to buy the civilian, semi auto, version. In 1934, roosevelt forced through a series of unconstitutional laws known as the NFA of 1934. One of the provisions of these acts was to prohibit manufacture of short barreled rifles, or of stocked pistols. These acts also taxed and restricted full auto firearms. Because of this, civilian MACs must  neccesarily differ somewhat from the standard military models, and come in pistol and carbine versions. The pistol version, is essentially a standard, semi auto MAC with the wire stock removed. The carbine is stocked, and has the legally required 16" barrel. In these "civilian safe" forms, the wonderfull MAC, becomes a rather unappealing and very compromised firearm.
    As a standard pistol, the MAC is far too bulky, and heavy. As a carbine, the gun is far too inaccurate. Slapping a 16" barrel on a MAC hardly quallifies it as a long range weapon. The MAC was never designed to fill either of these roles, and it is quite unsuited to them. About the only good thing you can say about the MAC pistol, and carbine, is that at least they are not the TEC-9. Early civilian models fired from an open bolt, in the same manner as the military smg. Latter models used a closed bolt. In both cases, the cocking handle is located on top of the reciever, as in the Thompson M1928.
    The ban of 1994 made these guns even less desirable by greatly increasing their prices, and by limiting the supply of high capacity magazines, and requiring the pistols to be shorn of their threaded barrels. This lessened the appeal of a weapon which already held marginal appeal for most shooters. The great increase in price made these guns desireable only to die hard collectors, and ironically, to criminals. Still, nothing lasts forever, and the odious clinton gun bill has expired, at least in most places. Because of this, prices have now dropped drasticly. It also seems likely that new manufacture magazines will again be available to civilians, and that the little guns can regain their threaded barrels. They will still not be permitted the addition of military wire stocks, since this is prohibited by the 1934 ban, which will remain in effect. New production Ingrams are once again available for under $300, making them cheaper than most regular pistols.



Mac-10
The origonal Ingram model, whcih was chambered for the 45 A.C.P., and issued to Special Forces for a variety of covert and guard duties. In it's origonal form, this was a select fire arm, and came with a folding wire stock.
Mac-11
A smaller version of the MAC, which came chambered in 9mm, and 380 calibers. This gun was the same length, but did not have quite so high a reciever as the origonal MAC 10
Mac-12