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The M10 is frequently called the MAC10. This is incorrect; MAC stands for Military Armament Corporation; the company that originally built the weapon.
The M10 was originally designed in 1970 by Gordan Ingram for the Military Armament Corporation. The philosophy behind the design was that the less moving parts there were, the less things that could break, and so to produce a reliable, inexpensive weapon. As a result, the M10 was very compact and made of steel stampings. Although it looks shoddily built, the weapon is quite reliable.
 | The bolt of the weapon is wrapped around the end of the barrel, much in the same way as the Uzi. This allows for a shorter overall weapon, and, combined with the magazine that feeds through the pistol grip, gives a center of balance that is almost perfectly aligned with the grip. This makes the weapon quite steady in the hand, and one handed fire is possible, although not advised due to the extreme cyclic rate of the weapon. Depending on the type of ammunition, the weapon can fire from 1145rpm to a blistering 1600rpm; at that rate of fire, the magazine is emptied in just over one second. The knob on top of the weapon serves as a cocking handle and as a safety, and was notched so that when the weapon was safed, it would block the line of sight and lock the bolt. Twist it 90 degrees, and the bolt is unlocked and the weapon can be fired. |
The barrel of the M10 is threaded to accept a suppressor. Two types were made; one is made with neoprene wipes that must be replaced every few hundred rounds in order to keep the weapon quiet. As one might imagine, this is not very convenient, and so the second time, which did not require wipes, was much more popular. The suppressor had a thick portion which served as a foregrip. The suppressors were quite large and heavy; adding one would just about double the weight of the weapon.
The M10 has a smaller brother - the M11. The M11 was made in .380 ACP caliber, and looks generally the same as the M10 except that it is smaller in all dimensions than the M10. One of the primary differences is that the M11's cocking knob is flatter and wider than on the M10's, which only makes the job of overcoming the 25lb recoil spring even harder. It was suggested as a police weapon.
Militarily, the M10 wasn't much of a success. It was sold in small quantities to several countries, but never in enough quantity to keep the MAC company in business. The design plans passed through the hands of several other companies including SWD and Cobray, but by the mid-1980's, production had practically ceased. The M10 recieved tremendous publicity, most of it bad, by appearing as a terrorist/gangster weapon in several movies, but in real life, it never really attained the success it was thought to deserve.
M10's used to be available to civilians for the bargan price of $125. Nowadays, civilians can pick up fully automatic M10's for just over $1,000, a relatively good deal in the world of Class III firearms. Although in their stock form, they fire far too quickly to do anything more than dump $10 of ammunition downrange in two seconds, with some small 'Slow fire' modifications, they become world-class submachine guns, having beat out MP5's and Colt Model 635's in some SMG shoots.