FEED DEVICE WEIGHT (EMPTY) – 20-round 0.16 kg (5.6 oz), 25-round 0.20 kg (7 oz), 32-round 0.22 kg (7.8 oz)
FEED DEVICE WEIGHT (LOADED) – 20-round 0.41 kg (14.5 oz), 25-round 0.51 kg (1 lb 2 oz), 32-round 0.61 kg (1 lb 5.5 oz)
BASIC AMMUNITION LOAD – One 20-round, Two 32-round magazines (84 rounds)
LOAD WEIGHT – 1.63 kg (3 lb 9.5 oz)
MANUFACTURER – Israel Military Industries (now Israel Weapons Industries), Ramat Hasharon, Israel
STATUS – Out of production in Israel
SERVICE – Special Forces and Law Enforcement commercial sales worldwide
When the Uzi pistol went into production in 1984, the basic design had been changed to that of a semiautomatic-only, closed bolt, striker-fired system to allow the weapon to be put on the commercial market in the United States. The bolt system had been developed several years earlier for the Uzi carbine, which was also a semiautomatic-only weapon intended for the American market. Everything in the bolt system had been redesigned to operate in the very small envelope allowed by the size of the Uzi pistol. In 1985, IMI took the commercially successful Uzi pistol and converted it into a select-fire weapon, creating the smallest version of the Uzi submachinegun.
The internal changes to the Uzi pistol to make it a select-fire weapon were relatively simple as the designers retained the closed-bolt system. The largest change was the addition of a folding stock that was a slightly-modified version of the stock used on the Mini-Uzi. Named the Micro-Uzi, the new design had no fore stock of any kind. But the butt piece of the folding stock extended downwards when folded and could act as a solid vertical front grip, able to be gripped with the shooter’s non-firing thumb wrapped through the front of the trigger guard. Later production versions of the Micro-Uzi, produced beginning in the early 1990s, have a redesigned trigger guard with a noticeable “step” at the bottom front. The step allows the shooter’s non-firing hand to hook a finger into the front of the trigger guard when the weapon is being fired from the shoulder and both hands are wrapped around the pistol grip.
Several barrel lengths have been seen on the Micro-Uzi. Most of the short barrels have two diagonal slots cut into the bore of the barrel to act as a compensator and help hold down the weapon when it is fired on full automatic. The controls are exactly the same as those found on the full-sized and Mini-Uzi with the stock unfolding and locking in place in the same manner as that of the Mini-Uzi. A very small number of Micro-Uzis were manufactured for the Israeli Special Forces with the cocking knob moved from the top of the weapon to the left side. The left-side cocking handle reciprocates with the bolt but leaves the top cover of the weapon clear for the attachment of a section of MIL-STD-1913 “Picatinny” rail to use for mounting sighting devices.
