A Brief History of Ingram and MAC

Gordon Bailey Ingram was born in Los Angeles, California on 30 December 1924. Ingram conceived a series of submachine guns that eventually led to his Model 10.

Ingram’s first .45 caliber submachine gun was made in 1946 and was designated the Lightening Model 5. Since there already were M1, M2 and M3 U.S. submachine guns, Ingram started with the designation M5, skipping M4 in case the Ordnance Department was planning to introduce another weapon.

During 1949, the somewhat successful Ingram Model 6 was introduced. Ingram also designed submachine guns, Models 7, 8, and 9, of which few were built. They were all similar in design to his Model 6.

In 1964, Gordon Ingram began to concentrate on a basic inexpensive weapon aimed primarily at the third-world market. While working at the Erquiaga Arms Company in California, Ingram made the first prototype of his Model 10 submachine gun. The M10 was radically different from any of Ingram’s previous designs. The Model 10 was designed to produce a high volume of fire at close range, and does so quite reliably.  

After leaving the Erquiaga Arms Company, Gordon Ingram attempted to find a major arms company to manufacture and market his Model 10 submachine gun. Ingram contacted over twenty domestic and foreign arms companies; all declined his offer.

Mitchell L. WerBell III’s primary business was designing and manufacturing sound suppressors. When WerBell learned of Ingram’s Model 10 submachine gun, he realized the compact weapon, fitted with one of his SIONICS suppressors, would be perfect as a concealable weapon with plenty of firepower.

After a deal was struck between WerBell and Ingram, the name of the company was changed from SIONICS to the Military Armament Corporation. In order to expand business operations further, the under-financed MAC organization was taken over by Quantum Ordnance Bankers Inc. Quantum was a group of investors that pumped millions of dollars into the company.

Shortly after the Quantum takeover of MAC, a bitter struggle broke out over policies, procedures, and operations. WerBell and Ingram were both forced out of the company. Quantum management then permanently changed the name of the Ingram submachine gun, to which they held all rights, to the MAC submachine gun (Military Armament Corporation). The Model 10 and Model 11 (renamed as “M10” and “M11”) receivers with Ingram’s name on them were pulled from the production line and placed in storage. Receiver production continued without the Ingram name, which was replaced by the name “MAC” on all M10 and M11 submachine guns. All weapon manuals, literature and advertising had the Ingram name replaced with MAC.

Company mismanagement and proposed government contracts that never materialized eventually forced the Military Armament Corporation into bankruptcy during 1975. The assets of MAC were auctioned off in June of 1976. Gordon Ingram passed away on November 4, 2004, with little personal or financial success from his submachine gun efforts.

The MAC Lives On…

Today, the Ingram Model 10, or MAC-10 as it’s more popularly called, is a very well-known submachine gun. The Model 10 and its variants have been produced under a number of names including the original Military Armament Corporation (Georgia), RPB Industries, Inc. SWD Incorporated, Military Armament Corporation (Texas), Jersey Arms Works and by Section Five LTD of Great Britain.

The MAC Models 10 and 11, and SWD’s M11/Nine, had always been at the lower end of the popularity scale with NFA enthusiasts. Their fast cyclic rate, while exhilarating, resulted in poor accuracy and tedious magazine loading. Over the years there have been several attempts by companies and individuals to tame the MAC’s cyclic rate and make them more ergonomic.   

The Inspiration

Organized submachine gun competitions, originated around the 1970s. Early contests were largely dominated by those wielding Thompsons, which soon gave way when HK 94 to MP5 submachine gun conversions became available. The MP5 soon became the submachine gun of choice for serious competitors. One disadvantage to the MP5 was their high price.

As in many endeavors, those with the best (read ‘expensive’) equipment usually prevail. However, Americans love an underdog, which what the MAC-type series of guns would certainly qualify as when attempting to compete with MP5 submachine guns in a contest environment. This is probably the mindset that began the evolution of MAC-type guns to be competitive. The first known transformation into a competition weapon was of an SWD M11/Nine, and was by individuals from the Triad Action Shooter’s Klub or TASK. Their earliest modifications included a wooden buttstock, a muzzle brake, and a red-dot sight.

The original TASK M11/Nine design continued to evolve becoming more ergonomic and reducing the cyclic rate to approximately 500-550 rounds per minute. In capable hands, with these modifications, the underdog M11/Nine was able to record times that could compete with, and often beat, the MP5, M16/9mm and UZIs in the Modern and Open division events. The (relatively) inexpensive MAC-type submachine guns modified for competition opened up participation in the matches for those who could not afford an expensive weapon to be competitive.      

Enter Lage Manufacturing LLC

Richard Lage bought his first machine gun, a SWD M11/Nine in 2000. After shooting it for less than a year, the novelty wore off and he wanted to find a way to slow it down. It wasn’t long until Mr. Lage decided to convert his M11/Nine to the very popular TASK Slow Fire configuration, he made some improvements and created the Lage MAX-11/9 for the TASK conversion. There were only 22 of the MAX-11/9 upper receivers produced.

Mr. Lage’s efforts continued, resulting in a very successful line of upper receivers and accessories under the Lage Manufacturing brand, all designed to reduce the M10, M11 and SWD’s M11/Nine submachine gun’s cyclic rate and improve their ergonomics, some models were configured to use the 71-round Suomi drum magazines.

The Latest and Greatest

After the success of his line of upper receivers, Richard Lage had a number of requests for a rifle caliber upper receiver for the MACs. Retaining the recoil of the .223/5.56 round in a short MAC receiver was a challenge. Such a conversion had been attempted before by Alliance Armament with their 556 S.A.B.R.E. The unit was heavy, bulky and it did not sell very well. Before long the S.A.B.R.E. upper was dropped from production.

Lage was hesitant to embark on such a project, believing that after a labor-intensive development process there was a possibility that the BATF would not approve it. In addition, Richard was basically a subgun guy and wasn’t excited about a rifle caliber MAC. A customer and MAC enthusiast by the name of Mike Burrows had designed a .223 upper receiver for the M11/Nine. He offered it to Lage to develop and put in production, in exchange for four production upper receivers. With the initial groundwork done by Mr. Burrows, Richard submitted the prototype to BATF for approval, if approved, he could start refining the upper for production. BATF approved the upper receiver for the M11/Nine in 90 days. However, the MAX-11A1/15 and MAX-10/15 was submitted in July of 2019 and wasn’t approved until December 2021!

Initially, an AR spring and buffer in the buttstock of the conversion was used to handle the recoil of the 5.56mm cartridge. This was called the external AR Recoil Mechanism (ARRM). This required drilling a hole in the back of the receiver to allow a rod from the bolt carrier to push on the buffer and spring assembly in the stock. Many potential customers were reluctant to modify an expensive registered receiver, thus the concept was not well received and dropped from production. Lage also developed an upper with a completely self-contained recoil mechanism inside of the receiver. This Internal Recoil Mechanism (IRM) did not require any alterations to the receiver. Both have features that are covered in U.S. Patent 10,794,647 B2.

The Lage .223/5.56 conversions are designated as; the MAX-11/15 for the M11/Nine, MAX-M11A1/15 for the M11/.380, and the MAX-10/15 for the 9mm and .45 Model 10. The handguard of the upper receiver conversion is made of 7075 black anodized aluminum 20-inches in length, with a Picatinny rail on top for mounting optics, and M-LOK mounting points on the sides. The system uses standard AR magazines. The barrel is 10.5-inches in length, chambered for 5.56 x 45mm/.223 ammunition. Rifling twist is 1:7, muzzle threads are 1/2-28 with a M16A1 style flash suppressor. An Odin Works adjustable gas block is installed on the barrel to allow the gas system to be tuned for specific ammunition. A non-reciprocating charging handle is located on the left side. A shell deflector is provided for left-handed shooters. At the rear of the upper is a rubber gas seal to keep blowback gas away from the operator’s face when firing with a sound suppressor. The Lage system fires from an open-bolt and allows both full-auto and semi-auto operation. The cyclic rate is approximately 790-950 RPM. Weight of a MAX-10/15 mounted on a MAC 10 receiver with buttstock and loaded 30-round magazine is 9 pounds, 7 ounces.

The upper is not considered a firearm, so no license is required to purchase one. They are for submachine guns only and will not convert a semi-auto MAC to full-auto.

What would Gordon Ingram think of Lage’s conversions? I think he would be impressed.

Resources

• “The MAC Man: Gordon B. Ingram and His Submachine Guns” available from Chipotle Publishing LLC.
• Lage Manufacturing, LLC
• Special thanks to Richard Lage for his contributions to this article.

Masterpiece Arms has long been known as the “company that fixed the Mac-10”. The Mac-10, as it started life when made by Gordon Ingram in the 1960’s, was a very reliable and robust submachine gun. It later lost its well deserved reputation for being one of the most trouble free subguns when “other” companies started to produce this compact piece of firepower. Masterpiece Arms has changed all of this and has brought the Mac-10 firearm back with a vengeance. They call their guns the Defender series and they are the most reliable and well made Mac’s ever produced.

The guns are all CNC machined and all parts fit and function perfectly. When Ingram introduced the first Mac-10’s he offered it in two calibers, 9mm and .45acp. These first guns were select fire and had collapsible shoulder stocks. The guns boasted a lot of firepower in a very small package. Later another Mac was introduced, the Mac-11. This gun was chambered in .380 acp and was even smaller that the Mac-10. It was so small in fact, this author remembers the advertising campaigns showing the little gun compared side by side with a Colt 1911 pistol and they were both about the same size. This tiny buzzgun has a cyclic rate of around 1300 rounds per minute depending on the ammo used. Because all of the MAC series of guns fired so fast they were very expensive to feed even at yesterdays ammunition prices. In the late 1970’s and through the 1980’s there were several attempts to manufacture .22 LR conversion kits for both the Mac-10 and Mac-11 guns. These attempts had varying degrees of success. Some worked well and some didn’t work, no matter what ammunition you used in them. My friend Bill Fleming of Fleming Firearms built one of the best. His conversion used Ruger 10/22 magazines that stuck out the side of the upper receiver much like a sten gun. This unit consisted of an entire barreled upper receiver that you just swapped with the existing upper receiver. Talk about a fast firing gun, these conversions literally poured brass from the ejection port.

Masterpiece Arms makes the Defender series of handguns and rifles in both 9mm and .45acp. They are made in both pistol and carbine versions. Now they have introduced a new pistol in their Defender series of firearms. Designated the MPA22, the gun is chambered in .22 long rifle. It is not a conversion. It was designed internally from the ground up as a .22 firearm. It is very small. In fact it is the same size as the Mac-11 in .380. The gun is semi-auto with no provision for a shoulder stock and has a 5 inch barrel which is threaded 1/2 X 28. It is fed by 25-round magazines that are designed and built by Black Dog Machine LLC. The magazines are transparent smoke colored so you can see the rounds remaining. The magazines are very easy to disassemble for cleaning which is nice as .22 LR ammunition is inherently dirty when fired. The operators manual lists the magazines as 25 rounds but the authors mags would hold and function the 30 rounds in them. It’s a nice touch that Masterpiece Arms decided to thread the barrel and offer it as standard equipment. It helps the MPA22 look like its big brothers and makes adding a barrel extension or suppressor very easy.

The MPA22 comes in two different models. The first is the MPA22T that looks like the traditional series of Mac pistols and subguns. It has a cocking knob located on the top of the upper receiver which rides in a corresponding cocking slot. The other model is the MPA22SST and has a side mounted cocking handle. The side mounted handle leaves the top of the upper receiver open to accept a 4.5 inch optic rail. This model is the subject of our test.

The MPA22 comes from the factory in a nice plastic case that is big enough to hold the pistol, magazines and some accessories. It is lined with egg crate foam, is lockable and features secure latches. The guns comes standard with one 25-round magazine, a solid aluminum barrel extension (which looks like a suppressor), and a magazine loading tool. The author found that it was easier to skip using the loading tool and just load the mags by hand. They load very easy and 25 rounds can be loaded in record time. A ventilated barrel shroud is available as on option.

When the gun was sent for testing I had a conversation with Jimmy Payne, co-owner of Masterpiece Arms, discussing different attributes of the gun. He told me to try using Federal Value Pack ammo that was available most anywhere. I told him that I always used CCI Mini-Mags when I tested a gun chambered in .22LR. He recommended trying several different kinds to see what the gun liked best. So I tried about 10 different brands and styles of .22 shells. I used hyper-velocity ammo like CCI Stinger as well as Remington Subsonic. Like Jimmy said the gun runs the best using Federal Value Pack. This is great as it’s usually the cheapest anyway. As for the other brands that I tried, let’s just say if I had read the manual I would have known what Masterpiece Arms recommended.

I chose to test the MPA22SST model as I wanted to try using the gun with an optic attached. The gun comes with the same pressed metal type sights that the first MAC’s had. They are adequate for a fast firing submachine gun at close range but not for a serious plinker handgun. For a small gun like this I chose the Aimpoint Micro T-1. For those who haven’t tried one of these diminutive red dot sights they are of the highest quality, feature long battery life and are nearly indestructible. They also weigh next to nothing. The Micro comes in three models, the H-1, the R-1 and the T-1. All feature different finishes and all have features that allow the user to tailor the scope to his or her needs. The T-1 features 12 brightness settings, 4 for night vision and 8 daylight settings, one of which is extra bright. It is a 1X non-magnifying scope that is parallax free. The Micro can be used as a primary sight or it can be piggybacked with larger magnifying scopes. It has a 4 MOA dot and battery life is advertised at 50,000 hours. If that’s not enough it is even submersible to 80 feet.

Loaded with Federal .22 ammo the gun is a plinkers dream. It spits out 25 rounds as fast as you can pull the trigger. It doesn’t just spray bullets everywhere, like it’s submachine gun cousin, it is actually a very accurate little gun. Five shots groups fired from a rest, using the Aimpoint, measured around 1 inch at 25 yards. As for reliability, as I said before, it’s fine as long as you use Federal Value Pack. Everything else I tried caused as least one or two malfunctions per 25 round magazine. As long as I stayed with the Federal it ran like a sewing machine. As the gun has a threaded barrel I just had to attach a suppressor to the gun. I switched to Remington Subsonic and still had a few malfunctions (the owners manual recommends not using subsonic ammo). Mostly it seemed to be failures to fully eject. It seemed like the Remington just didn’t have enough “oomph” to always cycle the gun. Maybe a subsonic round with a heavier bullet would cure the problem. It would be a shame to have such a “cool” little gun with a threaded barrel and not be able to quiet it down. A word of warning is in order here. There is a full 1 5/8 inch of barrel extending past the threaded part of the barrel. This presents a problem as it makes the barrel extend into the suppressor. With that length of barrel extending inside the suppressor the barrel will come in contact with the rear “blast” baffle on most suppressors and not allow the suppressor to screw all the way on. Masterpiece Arms is in the process of making their own suppressor to alleviate this problem.

My conclusion on the Masterpiece Arms MPA22 is that it is a very well built plinkers delight. With the right ammunition it will go bang every time you pull the trigger and equipped with an optic sight it is capable of outstanding accuracy. It also has a “cool factor” that is way above any other .22 long rifle handgun out there. If shooting one of these doesn’t put a smile on your face there’s something wrong.

Masterpiece Arms, Inc.
105-A Kingsbridge Drive
Carrollton, GA 30117
Phone: 1-770-832-9430
Fax: 1-770-832-3495
Website: www.masterpiecearms.com

Aimpoint, Inc.
14103 Mariah Court
Chantilly, VA 20151
Phone: 1-703-263-9795
Fax: 1-703-263-9463
Website: www.aimpoint.com