UZI Conversions - Micro UZI

 

 

 

The UZI Pistol was designed for the American market and released in 1984 - before a fully automatic version of the pistol (later to be known as the Micro UZI) was ever designed. Immediately people began to thinking about full auto conversion methods for the new UZI. For a period of nearly two years, transferable registered conversions could be done on the UZI Pistol. Many of the UZI Pistol conversions are registered bolts like the Mini UZI. Also like the Mini UZI, the Pistol has no bolt blocking rail so there was no need for slot bolts. A number of manufacturers also did registered receiver conversions, including Wilson Arms, Fleming and Hard Times Armory. LaFrance did quite a few UZI Pistol conversions for the movie industry.

 

Sears:
Fleming has stated that he did some registered sear UZI Pistols but those appear to be very rare, seldom showing up for sale.

 

Bolts:
Factory Micro UZI's were all closed bolt guns, but most of the UZI Pistol conversions are open bolt. The open bolt conversions are generally more reliable but closed bolt conversions can be made to run. The Mini UZI and Micro UZI both use essentially the same closed bolt assembly - the only difference being that the Micro UZI/Pistol bolt has a notch in the top to accommodate the top cover's cocking lug.

The proper open bolt conversion requires a bolt with feet, just like the Mini UZI bolt, but the UZI Pistol has the same issue as the semi automatic Mini UZI in that the trunion is not relieved to make room for the bolt feet. There have been several approaches to this.

 

Barrels:
Unlike the full size UZI and Mini UZI, the semi and full auto barrels for the UZI Pistol and Micro UZI are interchangeable. In the photo below you can see that the trunion band and the chamber area of the barrel are all the same diameter. The only difference in the barrels is that the full auto Micro UZI barrel was longer to make room for compensator cuts. The conversion process merely requires a simple barrel swap. Depending on who did the conversion, the barrel may or may not have been swapped out. If you buy a conversion that has the original UZI Pistol barrel still in it, Micro UZI barrels are now easy to obtain and drop in with no further modifications required.

 

 

Stock:
The most obvious difference between the UZI Pistol and the Micro UZI is that the full auto Micro UZI has a folding stock, which is not permitted on a standard UZI Pistol. A conversion may or may not have installed a folding stock. The folding stock makes a huge difference in the controllability of this small weapon during full auto fire and is a very desirable feature to look for when buying a conversion. Adding the stock requires a stock hinge on the back of the UZI receiver. This hinge is milled right into the back plate of the Micro UZI and is not present on the UZI Pistol. The easiest way to address this problem is to buy a new back plate with a hinge and weld it right over the top of the original UZI Pistol back plate. Vector Arms sells a hinged Mini UZI back plate that can be used on an UZI Pistol conversion. It's important to remember that if a stock is installed on an UZI Pistol that has a registered bolt in it, the bolt must stay with the gun or an illegal short barreled rifle has been created.
 

 

Sling Pin and Bayonet/Accessory/Lug:
The Micro UZI has two other things that the UZI Pistol does not - a sling pin near the front sight and a bayonet/accessory lug on the bottom of the receiver. A conversion may or may not have these two features installed. The sling pin is easy to install by drilling a hole in the left ear of the front sight. The bayonet lug needs to be welded to the bottom of the receiver.


 

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