Floro MK-9 - Design Details

Design Details

The standard Mk. 9 is a blowback operated weapon chambered for the 9 mm cartridge. It fires from a closed bolt with a selector switch allowing semi-automatic or full-automatic fire. There is no bolt-locking mechanism. The upper receiver is a steel tube and the barrel is held in place by the perforated barrel jacket. The lower receiver and magazine housing are of sheet metal. The long magazine well has a plastic handguard and doubles as a forward grip. It has the Uzi submachine gun-type magazine interface and uses Uzi magazines which are locally available. The folding metal butt is based on the Uzi pattern as well. The Mk. 9 uses the firing mechanism of the M16, the standard service rifle in the AFP.

Speaking of the origin of the design, on the external look of the gun, there is a striking resemblance to the Federal Engineering XC series of semi automatic "assault rifle lookalike" carbines (marked 220, 450 and 900; in .22lr, .45 ACP and 9mm Para calibers respectively) produced in mid 1980s in the USA, approximately 20 years before the emergence of Floro MK 9 on the market.

It is undoubtly certain that the makers of Floro MK-9 studied the XC 900 carbine and based their design directly on it, although with some slight differences, addons and modifications that in some way improved the original design. One such improvement is usage of the Uzi magazine style catch in Floro magwell, rather than making modified Uzi magazines with welded steel insert at the top of the magazine, serving the purpose of catch retainer surface, as in the original XC 900. This decision to bind the users of the gun in buying only the company spare parts, certainly made logistic problems as it disabled the compatibility in using that particular magazine directly in Uzi (which cannot be put in the magwell due to the steel insert), or buying the standard 25 or 32 round Uzi magazine on the surplus market to be used as a spare one for XC 900 carbine. Other usable addon to the design is the Picatinny rail, allowing to easily place scopes and other equipment, which was in the original XC troublesome. Also sights are different, as the original ones were very user unfriendly when trying to zero them.

The cocking handle is on the left side of the upper receiver incorporated with a dust cover. The front sights are fixed and rear sights have an adjustment knob for windage. The upper receiver has a Picatinny rail installed allowing telescopic and red dot sights to be used.