Jonathan saw so many cursed guns on game spot so he had to get a portable emotional support mp5 😂

Hi Jonathan, I was actually trained on this configuration. The way it is deployed is: left-hand carry with the muzzle pointing BACKWARDS; drop the case; bring the gun up holding the handle whilst swinging it around into muzzle forward position and to eye level; putting your right hand on the pistol grip and trigger, aim and fire.

I was only familiar with the briefcase MP5 that was actually fired inside the briefcase rather than something that quick drops. This design does seem a lot more practical.

Still amazes me everytime I hear that the MPK5K was made in '76. It just doesn't feel that old.

FINALLY some gun range action!!! 😎 Jonathan, you're the most bad ass gun nut ever 🤣😎 I vote for Jonathan Ferguson as the next Q in the next Bond movie!

One thing I love about channels like this is that there is no rivalry they freely refer and mention each other when someone has done a similar video or breakdown

Everyone: German stuff is overengineered ! Germans: Pushes the button on the Zerfallkoffer

Now thats a real conceal carry policy

Ghost in the Shell vibes… cool.

Hey, nice to see people giving a shout out to The Armourer's Bench. Criminally underrated content, and if you like this, chances are you'll like some of their stuff too.

"What is this weapon?" That absolute weapon is called Jonathan Ferguson

Wow, I've never actually seen the Operational Briefcase used. That was much faster than I was expecting and about as slick. 👍

There is even on the inside of the claw mount a label with an arrow "Schußrichtung" (nowadays "Schussrichtung") which means "Shooting direction"

Masamune Shirow likes that. Ghost in the shell shows a few things very similar.

"Zerfallkoffer" would be closer to "fall apart suitcase" but "break away case" isn't far off so either would be good. As for pronounciation, the german Z at the start of the word is a hard z - much closer to a [ts]-sound (like in Tsunami or like "the explosive hiss sound of a snake") but aside from that the pronounciation is excellent. The pronounciation of "Schießkoffer" is pretty much flawless.

That moment in Ghost in the Shell's first scene is amazing.

Amazing that these things were actually made, and aren't just movie props! I'm surprised they recommended using it with the handle attached though, since that entire unit comes off with a single lever press. I guess with an item like this, if you ever need to use it, you probably need to use it as fast as humanly possible. So it makes sense to hold it in the off hand, drop the case, and move it straight into the dominant hand in one fluid motion, without bothering to hit the handle release. Still, really really cool stuff.

I had a play with one of these once in the very early 1990's and never saw or heard of it again. The RMP had it for CP duties. No idea how many were in service in the UK or if it was just for demo. The drill as I was told, was apparently to carry in left hand, drop case, keep hold of the carrying handle and get off the first burst before swapping to front grip. I do remember you needed a grip of iron to depress the release.

Jonathan 's audition tape for John wick 5 is looking good

Regarding the transition from carrying to shooting. Without handling the gun, the way of carrying suggested by the manual makes sense to me in way: If there's an immediate danger, you get your hand on the trigger without having to pass the grip at first, enabling quick firing while the other hand is still on the top handle. It's probably not very accurate or comfortable, but could have you spewing fire a tad quicker in the direction of the engagement.

NGL, the way the case flys open rather dramatically definitely adds to the cool factor.

If you’d CGI’d Desmond Llewelyn into that opening scene it would’ve been perfect!

I knew this existed! I saw a German language documentary on the GSG-9 unit. There was a spot in it where two of their operators in some sort of action demonstration as they sprung into action by deploying this particular MP5K setup and weirdly enough, they grasped the forward grip in an upside-down hold as they fired them. The documentary is here in KZfaq.

Someone PLEASE make a gif of Jonathan walking in and dropping that briefcase

This was clearly the inspiration for the bodyguards’ guns from the opening scene of the original Ghost in the Shell.

That comes out so fast, its kind of terrifying. I'm surprised I've only seen this style of concealment in Ghost in the Shell, it's highly cinematic, practical or not.

That's a nice T-Shirt, Mr. Ferguson👍

The most badass intro in all youtube history

I hadn't seen this one before. I knew about the operational briefcase, but this is actually a lot more practical. A semiautomatic version with no foregrip would also be legal to carry for Americans with concealed carry permits, since it would technically be a pistol. The original operational briefcase would be classed as an "Any Other Weapon" because it can be fired in its disguised configuration. This one can only be fired when it is outside the briefcase, meaning the case is just the equivalent of a holster.

0:04 when Bob has stolen from the office fridge for the last time. also, real nice shirt, they should add nother line on the name card, connoisseur of dandy shirts, and cool briefcases.

The MP5K is my favorite submachine gun! I first saw the MP5K when I was eleven years old when I first saw it in "Die Hard 2" and it's been my favorite submachine gun ever since!

Ghost in The shell!

The only thing missing from the intro scene was the Bond theme

Very very cool to see this version of the "Operational Briefcase"

I was right. It was an Mp5. Sweet. You had fun with it, and that is fun to see

Weaponised luggage....nice! You do have the coolest job in the world BTW.

Omg ilove Ferguson. The intro killed me 😂john you are golden 👍

Carrying left makes sense because you can have your shooting hand on the pistol grip the moment the case breakes away, so you can start firing even with your left hand still on the case grip if every second counts. Then you can switch your left hand to the foregrip. You have one less transition before the first shot. So the manual is plausible.

I think that, since your right hand has higher motor function than your left, it would be a slight bit quicker to do it as the manual says, as you can grab it quicker. And you already have a general idea where your right hand wants to hold a gun, whereas the left usually just follows suit. Just my thoughts. This would, obviously, be reversed for left handers.

We had the one that discharged from the case on a job once. Interesting bit of kit to master.

The example of the fire-inside-case version in the Dutch army museum has a big white dab of tipp-ex in front of the carry handle, as a visual reminder which side is the front. Just figured I’d share that info on a field modification. I dunno how common it was, but hey, it’s not every day I get to be the one sharing info on a firearm…

There's something wryly amusing following up firing concealed automatic weaponry with a polite, "Hello everyone, Johnathan here."

Im new to the channel. Im so glad i have some caughting up to do on videos.

when you have a very special Business offer

Honestly... you have the best job...

Great gun, as I use it in Far Cry 6 and especially Rainbow Six Extraction!

Okay this is the coolest intro I've ever seen on any KZfaq video, ever! 😂

This is so cool 😍

I guess nowadays all these weird guns(briefcase guns, shoot behind the corner guns, guns that collapse into a container, guns that can be concealed in a sleeve, etc.) would still find usage, but they would require updating to either similar PDW rounds to MP7 uses OR to heavy subsonic ammo like VAL or Whisper, depending on if the gun has space for silencer. Besides nowadays for most of them you can get far better sighting equipment that would allow to use them "off hand" or in weird positions like lasers(existed, but were weak, fragile, bulky and too expensive), red dots(existed, but had same trouble) and even direct feed(technically exists nowadays, but we're not on smartgun level yet. But someone like secret service can probably afford and maintain it).

I want this for my MP5K. MP5K is one of my favorite firearms that I own.

I'm pretty sure that this was shown in the first Ghost in a Shell movie, the animated one. Right at the start. Didn't think it was a real thing for the longest time. Guess that opinion is going to have to change.

Considering pronounciation - the first two were spot on. Zerfallskoffer is spoken with a hard "Z". Like Tsar - Zar in German.

Love the punchline at the end. 'So if I saw someone with a (hard shell) briefcase 💼 and a shifty pair of eyes 😎 walking around, I might be suspicious.' Same as you would be if you saw some guy walking around in a trenchcoat in Iraq probably.

Ah yes, notable firearms expert and vampire hunter Jonathan Ferguson

I never leave home without one.

For stylized variants of this and the Mateba, check the brilliant 1995 anime Ghost In The Shell. Yes, "Fallkoffer" means breakaway case, or literally "drop case". People often ask me what "Heckler and Koch" means and I used to answer "Nothing, they're just two very ordinary family names." That's not right, since family names often refer to a location or a profession. Heckler & Koch means "Lumberjack and Cook".

Carry it left handed but with the muzzle pointing to the rear. Bring it up to fire by dropping the case and bringing it up across your body. Keep hold of the carry handle with your left and then grasp the pistol grip with your right hand and push the safety/change lever all the way down to "A". Lean into it with your weight then have at it.

I just re watched ghost in the shell they have inspired by this the guards in the opening scene

Seeing Jonathan with a MP5K at a shooting bunker wants me him as a side character in Cyberpunk 2, don't know why. Dont know why the manual would not mention that PROBABLY the best use of this is to carry the gun with your right hand, deploy/disgard the case, grab the front handle, HK slap the handle lever with your right hand and then grab the handle of the gun, the gun is clean of the hood ornament for better sight picture in a short time. Gun aiming evolution in progress I guess.

your sooo lucky to be able to shoot these in the uk

not a german speaker (not a native english speaker either, so this might be really wrong), but zerfall pretty much means "to fall apart" so "break-away" seems to be a fitting translation.

The left hand operation is probably to get the trigger hand on the weapon first. You could fire while still holding the carry handle

love the shirt!

Thats such a cool intro

Great German pronunciation and spot-on translations.

Regarding the utility - consider the temperature. If one is in "comfortable," perhaps 10 to 20 degrees C temperatures, having even something as large as an MP-5K under an unbuttoned overcoat is reasonable. But as the temperature climbs, the overcoat becomes a severe hinderance. You overheat quickly, and just as importantly, you stand out because you're overdressed. Even a suit jacket has to become thinner and lighter to deal with warm weather. Wearing body armour would only increase the risk of heat stroke. On the other end of the scale, below 0 to -5C you'll need the jacket buttoned for your own comfort. Below -10 to -15, depending on the wind, you'll need a heavy parka. Trust me, trying to get something out of an inside pocket when it's below -15C is *not* easy, and pulling off your glove isn't a good choice either - at those temperatures, you'll start freezing exposed skin fairly quickly. But - assuming the weapon inside was setup with an oversized trigger guard - I'm pretty confident I could easily operate the Zerfallkoffer with my gloves on. Living in central Alberta, I spend 3 months of the year dressed for -20 or below and another 3 months dressed for +25 or higher. If I was an executive protection sort, I'd be very happy for a discrete weapon that didn't rely on hiding it under my coat!

Now thats an intro johnathon

Zerfallkoffer would be more like a fall-apart-case.

The Royal Military Police close protection teams still had these in inventory in 2017, they may still be using them today.

way too cool

ISS Props in SoCal has a newer one for the MP7. I saw it when I toured their facility in 2019.

I can contribute something to this. A friend's former husband was crafting the handle fired versions of these using MP5Ks in his garage during the early to mid 1970s. US, in Florida. As well as other briefcase models with suppressed Beretta pistols. Model 92s, and later 84s or 81s, if memory serves. She swore that the suppressors had Beretta factory markings. He had reportedly made many variations under a contract and was well paid. His client was supposedly an alphabet agency. His former wife never knew until well after the divorce and his later arrest for other charges.

Break-away case sounds like a good translation, fall-apart case would work well too; Zerfall can also mean breakdown like in nuclear material but thats not useful here

I would love to see more about the EM-2 rifles in the backgound! most of them have wood furniture that I love but, some have a black material, polimer/plastic I wonder?

Would be interesting to bring it through airport security today, not sure that would fly. Even for high end businessmen! My father would travel to northern Norway in the 80s for hunting. When they did, they handed their shotguns (which they walked onto the plane with!) directly to the stewardess. Not exactly concealed like these are.

Jonathan is the coolest nerd out there 😎

Nice to see this low visability option. I did know a person who used a system like this. he was a courier escort in london. Him and a partner would shadow the carrier if anyone tried it on his job was make them regret it. he was very well paid and retired early.

These were in the Ghost in the Shell movie. I kind of want one.

One problem I see with this…..I came across when looking up similar weapons. Modern briefcases not only look different but…..briefcases as a whole seem to have fallen out of favor in exchange for other options. In short…..I feel it wouldn’t be as inconspicuous considering how rare it would be seeing someone carrying a brief case in 2023 ^^;

Very cool case and video. Although I'm very distracted by all of those Em's, an entire rack of them! Lol

Zerfallkoffer sounds like something from Schrödingers lab. Beautiful word.

Was used in The movie The Replacement Killers

if you said a left hander should have it in their left hand after stating what sounded like the opposite. the only reason to sacrifice saftey of passing to the offhand first would be to fire with one hand asap. you could even fire while holding the handle without changing grip if you need to spray some cover fire asap. which speedy shooting would be a purpose of having the gun already in your hand.

Love the backdrop of Em2's and L85 prototypes - Maybe a vid idea is a tour of the racks? Anyway, interesting briefcase idea.. looks a bit clunky shooting it with the handle on top, but I suppose its situational to the use case eh

wow you really surprise me! awesome videos! Thank you.

Nailed it at the end.....who the hell moves with 80s cases anymore....unless they're Moore era Bond villain.

The ejecting case would be "nicer" in the USA since you can't shoot the gun from inside. It wouldn't need to be registered as an AOW if you had it with a SP5K semi pistol. Its just a quick deploying case or "holster".

I suspect the reasoning behind carrying it in the left hand might be to get your right hand on the trigger more quickly. If you are in an extreme close quarters situation such as being indoors in the same room as your targets then it might be more important to get shots off quickly than to take proper aim. Depending on how sturdy the briefcase handle attachment is perhaps it is even viable to still hold on to that when you fire rather than switching grips?

Because you asked in German the 'z' isn't voiced. In English 'Zerfallkoffer' would be writen 'Cerfalkofer' or something similar. Translated it means "disintegrating briefcase".

The carrying on the left side maybe connected to a thought principle in the German military to keep the "working hand" free. At least that what was thaught in basic training.

There is also protection duty done by the normal police, they get a measly bonus and get to drive around and bodyguard politicians and state officials. Among the embassy personell you might have espionage branches operating as well. GSG9 might do special protection duty. They were formed after the 1970 Munich Olympics desaster. They only had standard MP5s until then, no sniper rifles, and no special counter terrorist training.

Jonathon there's a HK product video on here showing the one case being fired if you want to look it up! the title is the HK weapon system (full video)!

First saw one of these used by the UK Special Police (Firearms Unit SO9?) for when President Reagan went to UK in the 1980s. US Secret Service were not allowed to carry weapons (at least openly) but SO9 carried these along with handguns and rifles (H&K 33 SG1s). Some other special units were involved due to the "Troubles". H&K USA in Arlington and later Chantilly had these in inventory, but the "reach in" style leather case and later Operations Case were demoed to Police and Federal Agencies, and the drop free case was not. Biggest buyer of these was Saudi Arabia. I had two H&K MP5Ka1 fixed sight SMGs in my 24 hour command post with these drop fee cases. I traded the Saudi Security officer in charge a whole bunch of Marlboro hardpack cartons of cigarettes for one. I had a H&K MP5K-Navy SMG with the long barrel, and it worked fine with this case. Sold it to a collector in Indiana years ago for the price of a new Jeep......he had more money and desire for things H&K than I would have thought possible. Still nice to see a H&K rarity documented outside of Germany and the Middle East! Nice content Jonathan!

"Whenever I see a man with a briefcase, I think he has an MP5 (and I am jealous)."

Someone did a very interesting cased firearms in the 90's. it was a 22 but with thousands of rounds fired very fast, cut right through anything with the weight of rounds going down range very fast firing no recoil to speak of. Saw it once in a demonstration, but never heard of it again.

Left hand carry for right hander makes sense to me, because if the gun is deployed there propably would already be an ongoing life threatening situtation and in that case the priority would be to get the firing hand on the gun first and be ready to fire immediately. Getting the support hand on the gun would be a secondary priority in my eyes.

Could you show us round the shooting range at the museum? How does it work, are rounds counted in and spent rounds counted out for security? Knowing are gun laws are so tight? Be interesting to see i think

I never knew about this variant of the briefcase. I've seen something just like it in sci-fi; makes sense that was copied from a real thing.

Reminds me of the opening action to the original Ghost in the Shell movie.

I think that since it is meant to be concealed and you shake hands with your right. I imagine salutes were also a major consideration. Not to mention that these weapons are clearly meant to get close to a target and the assailant may need to quietly use their dominant hand to knife a dude in the neck to get close to whoever their target is. I'm just speculating.