[VFC MP5 (Umarex Licensed)]

 

Posted on November 8th

I dont like quoting pictures, but I cannot shoot that!  Saw parts from WE well over a year ago, and still pictures of a few parts is all I see.  I didnt get any reply from them when I tried to email them, so as far as I am concerned this probably aint gonna happen.

 

With regards to the Escort/YE MP5, the dimensions are all off, a big upset for me, more than the performance of the gun, although it seems to be pretty easy to slip the collar on the YE design. consistancy wise, yes it is better due to the design, so tuning for accuracy is more consistant.  Recoil is better and it makes a bigger bang, the hpa tank doesnt bother me as you can run the hose along the sling, but there is just something about the whole gun that I dont feel is as good, just my opinion.

[VFC MP5 (Umarex Licensed)]

Well, I have been away for a while, and see my review is still going strong!!    So, after over a year after writing my initial review do I still feel the same way about this gun?

 

Well, there is still no sign of the WE MP5, so I guess we will probably never see that one, so that leaves no choice still if you want a gas MP5.  I would like to mention that I also have an Escort MP5 and do not consider it anywhere near as good as this gbb.  In fact, the Systema MP5 is the only model I have not owned (I like the MP5!)

 

I do not currently use my vfc.  The main reason for this is due to the mags, the leaky leaky mags that I now experience, all three of them leak.  I still do not have much time to strip and repair my gun so it sadly stays well maintained but leaky and in need of a silicone bath.

 

I also found that sometimes the bbs would drop straight away, not even going about 10 feet!  This is really frustrating, and happens with all of my mags as and when.  Removing my mag and reinserting it seems to solve the problem, but most often the damage is done by then and I have been shot.

 

I would still use this gun if the mags didnt all leak, so dont be put off by the fact that I dont use it, it is still a really nice gun.  In fact, I have ordered the G36 finally this week after taking so long to do so!! 

 

Nothing else on my gun has failed, but due to the leaky mags it doesnt get much use at all anymore.  Would I still recommend this gun?????  The answer is still a definate yes, it is a lovely gun.  If you have the time which I dont, then upgrade everything that you can, especially the magazines!!!  Gas guns are definately not for everyone, as you do need to maintain them in order to keep them working properly, but I feel that the effort is worth it.

[VFC MP5 (Umarex Licensed)]

The VFC G36 is now using GenII mags, I might still think about getting one, though reviews on them are pretty scarse. I know that they dont have as strong a recoil as the WE version, but I dont know how they handle the cold, something that the WE does amazingly well.

[VFC MP5 (Umarex Licensed)]

Personally I would stick to the polymer ones, and the one that I installed is the one linked to earlier. I managed to test the gun, and it works fine again. I got no feed jams or feeding issues. I am starting to notice the inconsistancy of the hop a little more now as it is starting to bed in, so now is the time for me to start fiddling about with that, as I have said earlier that I wanted to give a chance to get some rounds through it and start to break in before I adjust it, mainly I think because it is such a pain to adjust! I am hoping that once the hop is adjusted properly then it may also smooth out some of my full auto firing inconsistancies. These are nothing major, mainly that it will fire about 8 or 9 rounds at a nice steady pace, and then seem to slow right down for one or two shots, then speed back up again. This may been down to cooldown, as it is only full auto, but it may also be partly to do with the hop, we shall see. I dont ever play with it is full auto anyway, it is just that sometimes you really need something to make you smile.

 

I havent had time to take any pictures.

[VFC MP5 (Umarex Licensed)]

Well, thanks to that link Hitman I ordered that feed nozzle. It came with no instructions how to install it. Now, I cannot recall whether I mentioned this really annoying fact earlier on or not, but I have found this now to be the case in a few manuals lately, the MP9 being another that has this lack of info. There is no exploded diagram in the manual. Where do all the parts go? How do they go? And the most important thing with some bits, which way round do they go? So, I have the new part with no instructions of how to fit it, and sweet fa from the original instruction manual. This wasnt a huge issue for me, as I am familiar with gas, but I really wanted to stress about it for anyone who is not. I did consult youtube to see how to remove the feed nozzle, and I am glad that I did, and it certainly didnt take much searching.

 

One thing that I did find quite difficult on the new nozzle, was putting the pin through the hole to hold the innerds in place. It was a very tight fit, slightly too small a hole in my opinion, but with a little force and a lot of patients in it went, eventually.

 

So, I now have a reinforced feed nozzle installed, so how does the gun work? Using an empty magazine to test with, it fires fine, no problems and everything seems to be working as it should be. But what about with a loaded magazine? Well, I cannot test that until my next skirmish, which may be next week, or a few weeks away, I am not sure yet when I will be able to make it next for certain as I am still so busy at the moment, but I shall update as soon as I do. I shall also take some pictures of the broken nozzle etc.

[VFC MP5 (Umarex Licensed)]

Ok, time for a quick update. I am no longer happy. Having played half a day this Sunday using this gun, I started experiencing some problems, a few minor, and one very very major issue. Now, I have maintained my gun, not mistreated it, and used it not overly heavily as I only have the three magazines, and using them over and over and over again then they do very soon start to show cooldown. This is fine, it is the same with most gas guns. However, this Sunday I was finiding that it was venting gas much more heavily, and I didnt think that it was overly cold. As a result the gun started jamming every now and then, and releasing a puff of gas with no bb. Very frustrating. Then the catastrophic failure occurred. The nozzle broke. The part that broke was the little sticky out part just underneath the round bit that the gas comes out of to fire the bb (essentially the part that feeds the bb), and thus in turn rammed a bb into the feed ramp of the barrel assembly, wedging it very firmly in place underneath the round bit that the gas comes out of. It wedged so hard that you can see wear on the feed ramp, once I eventually prised it out, and that did take some doing. I shall try and take some pictures at some point, but hopefully the way I have described the failure everyone will know exactly which bit I am refferring to, as every new gas gun pretty much has one exactly the same. I do not have the time at the moment to get the replacement part and sort it out, so for the time being I have a very pretty and ultra realistic wall hanger. With WE keeping on threatening to come out with an MP5, I may not even get the chance to bother to fix it until I get one of thiers, and then we shall see if I will even bother.

 

I would like to point out that I very rarely used the gun out of single shot, as apart from the fact that I tend to use single more than full, the full auto on this is a little spuradic at times. I therefor have not put an excessive amount of rounds through the gun, probably not much more than 1000 (remember that I am running 90 rounds a time).

 

So, the bottom line so far, I have not bought their G36. I am still very impressed with detail and effort put into making this gun, and would still recommend it for anyone wanting a gas MP5, as it really is the only chioce at the moment. Performance wise, it is not bad, not as accurate as my WE guns when they are working, but it is not bad. My fault is probably easily repairable, I know what I need to do to fix it, I just dont have the time to find the parts I need and do it at the moment. If the WE MP5 comes along, then I may not bother, depending on how good that is. Considering how very very good VFC AEG guns are, their gas entries so far are very dissapointing, despite the attention to detail.

[Marushin XM177E2 Plug-Fire Review]

You just need to keep it clean. Clean it and it will work fine. Clean the shells, and clean the chamber, and most importantly clean the firing pin (the rod in the chamber) as if they gunk up with debris then the gun will fail to function. Also be careful for spent shells. They dont make the loudest bang in the world, which means you can fire them safely and indoors. They do however, really fling those cases, so if you are not careful you will end up with dents and chips in walls and even ceilings. That broken part should also be fairly easy to replace I would imagine. You might want to try a guy called Francky, I am sure you will be able to find him, he is very helpfull for parts. Last time I heard you should find him here, http://franckys-modelgun.com/ but it has been a few years scince I last had contact.

[Marushin XM177E2 Plug-Fire Review]

In answer to the above question, yes, you are still good to go. All that will be more tricky will be to release the catch when the bolt locks back, but not impossible. Just give the rest of the gun a good once over first to make sure that nothing else is damaged.

[VFC MP5 (Umarex Licensed)]

Yes, the trades are a major issue for me too, as you are paying to have them all legit and licenced and yet they are not there. Having said that, the attention to the small details is amazing, such as the roller cams and clips etc. It is not perfect, but it will certainly take a lot of beating.

[VFC MP5 (Umarex Licensed)]

For me it is still so far so good. I am even considering getting the G36 so that I can compare it to the WE G39, unless WE release thier MP5 for me to get first! If you want a gas MP5 then so far there is no doubt in my mind as to which one to buy, for all the reasons that I pointed out previously. The lack of bolt stop is an issue that when using the gun I find very frustrating. The umarex trades are also a little disappointing for me personally, but the attention to the tiny details like the rollers etc. is out of this world. I still havent messed with my hop yet, so I shall probably set that to true next game day, but I am getting very nice distance and good grouping as it is out of the box, it only needs fine tuning ever so slightly, which is why I havent bothered yet as it is a little bit fiddly to do. I would recommend it in an instant, unless you want to wait and see what the WE offering will be like. From what I have seen and heard of it so far, it should be a very nice skirmish gun. I dont think it will have the little details like the VFC one does, and I would imagine that it will have heavier recoil than the VFC one (which I like!), but then it was also supposed to be out months and months ago, so how long do you wait for a gun to possibly turn up and not knowing what it will be like when it does? When it does, and I get one, then reguardless as to how good it is, having bought the VFC one is not a purchase I would regret anyway, so yes I definately recommend it, with a big smiley face!

[First look at the H.K 3Px4 GBB]

That is the exact part that has broken on mine, looks exactly the same.

[First look at the H.K 3Px4 GBB]

A little heads up for you all about this gun. I have had one scince they first came out. It is really a very excellent gun and the quality is great, as many people have pointed out above. I am waiting for some more magazines to arrive, so I only have the one that came with the gun at the moment. Up until today I have had no problems with the gun. I was so impressed in fact with this gun that I ordered extra magazines and another one for those times when one pistol simply isnt enough. It really is that good. And for the price!!!! If it was twice the price then I would still consider it to be excellent value. So far the single magazine has held up pretty well, handling cooldown quite effectively. However, at the very end of today I had a jam. Stripped the gun down and still had a jam. I couldnt quite figure out where it was coming from, then it hit me. A little shard of metal fell out, which was jamming the guide rod and preventing the slide from returning to battery. I test fired the gun once it was cleared and it seemed to still function perfectly well. I have yet to establish where the shard of metal came from as it was not glaringly obvious, but I shall now strip down the gun and find it, just in case it will be a problem. As I said, so far it still seems to work fine, so I am not worried yet. This gun is excellent value for money, and it performs fantastically well, I would still recommend it very highly to anyone. In case anyone is unsure just how highly I would recommend it, it is only the second pistol that I own or have ever owned that I have bought a second one, and I have well over 30 pistols plus all the ones I no longer have!

[VFC MP5 (Umarex Licensed)]

Part 3

 

Thank you BaBaBooey for the detailed description of how to take down the magazines to replace that follower, I am sure that many people will find that really helpful. I recieved my two extra magazines. Here is a picture of one in the box:

 

 

So, nothing too impressive there really, but what would you expect? Open up the box and here is how the magazines that I recieved came packaged.

 

 

As you can see, inside the plain box the magazine came sealed inside a plastic wrapper. Once I opened the wrapper and took the magazine out I was pleasantly surprised to see that the finish on the magazine was immaculate, not a single mark on it whatsoever, and it was stamped at the bottom instead of laser etched, which is not only more realistic (even if it doesnt have the correct stamping on it as you can see in my Part 1) but also helped me to differentiate easily at a glance between my new mags and my original one. However, and this is a really big however, niether one of them had the replacement follower to block the bolt to stop the gun from dry firing. From a skirmish point of view this is really annoying, and probably my biggest gripe about the gun, more so than the trademarks (6mm bb thing and lack of trades on the mag well), which really says something.

 

The magazines also as I stated before wear really fast, you pretty much just have to pop it in the gun once and much of the finish is gone. This, although not a major issue, is something that does concern me for the future, as I worry about how easily the rest of the finish will wear. Here are a couple of pictures of my original magazine (after only 1 day skirmishing), in the background are the two new magazines, one still sealed, and the open one which has had only one insertion into the gun, which I shall mention again shortly, but notice the wear on it already.

 

 

 

So, why do I seem so fixated upon the magazines? Well, the gun itself is great, almost flawless, about as perfect as I could expect. I see it to be very hard for WE to come up with something better, cosmetically at least. But, with any gas in mag gun, as long as the design of the gun is good, then it is the mag that is the most important part, as without it then the gun does nothing.

 

So, I gassed up the first magazine, and was greeted by the prominent sound of a leaky gas fill valve. Great. This I mentioned in an earlier part, other people have mentioned this with VFC gas guns, but I had found that to not be the case with my original mag. Not the end of the world for me, as I am able to replace the seals or the whole valve if need be, I have several decent spares, but the point is that I shouldnt have to, and some people might not be able to. So, with the gas leaking out of the fill valve I popped the mag into the gun to check that it at least worked, and it did. After a few shots the gas stopped leaking, so probably the seal will need a little silicone bath in the near future. Still not overly reassuring. The second magazine that I got however did not have any leaks, so as Meatloaf said, two out of three aint bad. The second magazine also did not come with the blocking follower, so for the moment I am stuck without the gun cutting off.

 

Now, for my second skirmish with this gun I decided to use heavier ammo just to see what it would handle it like. I did not approach it all scientific like so dont ask for chrono readings etc. as all I know is that people took the hit as soon as I hit them, and besides which our resident Hobo-Chrono was not there this week! I still have yet to adjust the hop, and used 0.28g bbs and found them to be a little heavy. I think that the perfect weight for this gun would be 0.25g bbs, but the hop will certainly allow for heavier or lighter.

 

I also did not experience the same problems with three mags and a lubed gun as I did the first time around, but still experienced some cooldown towards the end of the day. I will however hold off from buying other magazines until the WE MP5 is released, unless they take TOO long to release it! The main reason for this is due to thier AK series. The WE AK series employs a valve cut off (because like the MP5 the AK bolt remains forwards but doesnt fire, unlike the M4 series which locks the bolt to the rear) which stops the gun from being fired once the magazine is empty. If this is employed in the MP5, which I expect it will be, then the WE will probably be much more skirmishable than the VFC. That isnt to suggest that the VFC cannot be skirmished with, it is a very fine gun, but certainly the dry firing issue is a huge problem for most skirmishers, and VFC seem to have a certain lack of adressing that issue. It is probably the biggest flaw of the gun, with the finish of the magazines being second but not as important. I also did not weigh the gun, but hey ho.

 

Final conclusion. The gun is superbly detailed, and about as realistic as I think airsoft will get from a practical point of view, but it does have some minor flaws. The biggest issue has to be the gun continuing to fire when empty. The replacement follower really does seem like an after thought, and the fact that most players would want it to function that way it seems strange that the blocking follower is not installed as standard. It would have been a really nice feature if it had been the other way around, giving you the option to replace to replace the follower with one that doesnt cut off. The finish on the magazines is a little dissapointing for me, as given the amount of time that one of these has taken to surface properly (forget the Maruzen or Bell versions!) I would have expected them to have blued the outer shell, however, the detail is amazing with dummy feed lips etc. The finish on the gun is great, feeling just like the real thing, although if anything a little more refined! The muzzle is the only really strange part as it is lighter than the rest of the gun, not as bad as it appears in the pictures, but certainly lighter. Any other details are certainly taken care of, with even the firing mechanism resembling the real gun fairly closely. So, if you want the most detailed replica MP5 available then buy this without hesitation. If you want to skirmish it, in my honest opinion, it will do, but so long as WE dont take much longer to release thier version, I would wait to see what that is like, as I mention I suspect they will use the valve cut off mechanism for the magazines, which is a major plus point from a skirmish point of view.

[VFC MP5 (Umarex Licensed)]

Part 2

 

Ok, so today I took my MP5 skirmishing to see how it performs. I made no midification to the gun prior to shooting it, so that I could see how it worked 'out of the box'.

 

I did a chrono reading using green gas, and it was consistant, with a +or- 1>2 fps variant between shots, reading at 385fps over 5 shots. I forgot to take along some 134A gas to test it with that, so that was my bad, but at 385 it was a little lower than I have read elsewhere.

 

Now, armed only with one 30 round magazine, I proceeded to go up against aegs quite happily, and can honestly say that I was having so much fun until it died on me, and then I just resorted to a pistol or 8.

 

The first thing that I did was check the hop up quickly on the range. It will need ajusting as it fires fairly straight for a while and then arcs upward, but I left it as it was as it was not bad, and I wanted to bed the hop in and run the gun as it was as much as possible. So, the distance it was ranging was good, and despite arcing up slightly, it was pretty consistant. I dont think that it has the accuracy at range as good as the WE G39, but that uses a copy of the VSR hop, but it isnt bad, and as usual, it outranges any of my aegs. I dont know what type of hop VFC use, but it obviously isnt a bad one, and given a little adjustment and a chance to bed in, I shall see just how accurate it is then. That will be for Part 3.

 

I should have kept count of how many shots I fired, or how many times I reloaded my mags, but I didnt. All that I know is that I got through almost a complete can of green gas during the day. All morning the gun worked flawlessly. It is such a nice gun to use. Eventually though the gun died on me. I think that there are two reasons for this. What started to happen was that the blowback nozzle stopped retracting properly, leading to feed jams, or double feeding. This only happened later on in the day. I think that one of the main reasons this happened was down to cooldown. I know that it was gloriously nice day today, not cold in the slightest, in fact if we did beach skirmish I would have been there, just not in a mankini. Remember though I only have the one mag, and I am up against aegs, so I was getting through some mags, reloading quickly, regassing when I needed to, but basically just shooting the same mag over and over again. For one mag, I am surprised at how well it didnt cool down actually, and as soon as I get some more, then I shall update, again in Part 3.

 

One of the other reasons that I think the gun failed on me was probably down to lube. As I mentioned, I wanted to keep it original for use, so havent lubed it at all, it is only the lube that it had on it when it arrived. It didnt seem to be poorly lubed, but I normally lube my gas guns after each game, and figured that this first game I would run it as it was, and then lube it up for the next one and see if it improves or not because of it. So, combine lube and cooldown and the gun started jamming, and even once vented gas, a classic sign of cooldown.

 

One other point that I mentioned earlier in Part 1 that I would like to clarify is to do with the stock. I ran the gun with the solid stock for today, although I plan to put my real slither stock on. As I mentioned the real steel slither stock will fit without modification and does work. This is what I would just like to clarify.

 

The real steel slither stock will fit without any need to modify the real steel stock or the gun body or the pin holes etc. in order to make it fit. It will slide in and out, maybe a little bit stiff, but it works fine and there is no need to modify the stock in any way shape or form.

 

The gun will still work with a real steel slither stock fitted, but there is one little problem. I didnt take a picture of it, so cannot show it at this moment, but if people want me to then I shall do in Part 3, just ask me to, but inside the stock there is a little bit of tube with a spring on the end. This is the buffer for the bolt carrier group. On the solid stock version it is obviously a little bit longer than the slither stock would need, which is why the VFC slither stock comes with a new buffer. It is not a lot different, as with the slither stock fitted the only thing I cant do is retract the bolt far enough to lock the charging handle up into place. The gun will still work fine without shortening the buffer, but if you want it to do everything that it should, then shortening the buffer is required in order to use the real steel slither stock. I am sure that replacement buffers will become available soon anyway, but if like me you plan to use a slither stock, and like me want to use a real one, then like me you will be shortening your buffer slightly eventually, but for the moment I shall leave mine as is just until I have finished my review.

 

In respose to the earlier question about claw mounts, they are indeed really stiff to fit, they should fit really tight to prevent any movement. On my real steel MP5 you can see where a mount has been fitted as it does indeed kind of eat into the finish of the gun, so this is perfectly normal.

 

I cannot answer whether the real flash hider will fit or not, as I dont like them and therefore dont have one. I can tell you that the airsoft ones will not fit, and I suspect there are a few different reasons why, and they should be easy to rectify to make one fit. One reason could be because if you look into the flash hider it is kind of hollowed out to fit around/over the tri lugged muzzle of the gun. The real gun/VFC gun has a longer muzzle than the airsoft guns. So one reason that it may not fit is because the hollow is not deep enough, so the muzzle cannot go in far enough to allow it to fit, an easy fix as it just needs deepening. The other reason could be because the rear part is not the correct dimension to pass behind the tri lugs and twist into place. Two possible ways to fix the problem without ruining your gun. The first (and harder) way is to remove some material from inside the flash hider to allow it to pass behind the tri lugs. The second way is to remove some material from the rear of the flash hider to allow it to pull back closer to the gun, therefore passing further back to clear the tri lugs and allow it to work. This may also require the deepening of the hollow as mentioned above in order to work. As I say though, I dont like them, so I have no intention of bothering to try myself to modify one to fit, but hopefully that observation might help.

 

The magazine follower. Now this did really annoy me. I shall definately be fitting the after thought blocker to stop the gun from dry firing. I love having the option, as for filming stuff this is great, but for playing with I would want it the other way around. It would make more sense to fit it so that the blocker is in place, and we have the option not to block, or do it like the WE M4 mags where you have a simple sliding bit to either activate bolt lock or not. The more I used it the more I felt like they really *fruitcage*ed up the design of this mag, and then tried to get out of jail by putting a bit of plastic in there. Where are my instructions to change it? The rest of the manual is good, but no mention of the bit of plastic. How do I change it? How do I take the magazine apart?? And in fact, another thing that I have just noticed because of this, there is no exploded diagram in the manual. So the manual is great, but it lacks an exploded diagram or instructions about what the little bit of plastic is and how you change it. This is not a good point. BaBaBooey, would it be possible to post up some pictures showing how you changed your magazine followers, as I am really not quite too sure with these, and I am sure that I will not be the only one. Do you need to remove the valves and base plate before pushing the internals down?

 

I am still not happy with the finish of the magazine. You can really see signs of wear where the mag has been put in and out of the gun, and the two lugs at the back of the mag look like they are experiencing a bit of wear on the metal itself. As I said, it will be different once I have more than one mag, I shall try and blue one to see how it goes, but I shall be keeping an eye on the wear to the metal, and shall take a picture for Part 3.

 

The last point I would like to mention in this part is the valves used by VFC. I mentioned them in part 1 for a reason. I shall mention them again in part 3 also for the same reason. I have seen people take VFC gas guns (G36 not MP5) out of the box and have magazines leak. I have not had this problem. I only have the one mag. I have more on order. I have experienced no leaks at all from my singular magazine from the moment that I got the gun until now, so I am happy so far. The valves do appear to be a good quality as far as I can tell. In fact, I feel that if I had lubed the gun prior to playing, and had more than one mag then I would have experienced no problems today at all.

 

So far, mini summary, the gun looks great, better than the real gun (and also lighter, I should really weigh them, something for part 3!) and works really well. So far I am happy with it, the attention to detail is amazing, and it works right out of the box without any modification or adjustment needed (apart from maybe the hop). The finish on the magazines is dissapointing, but the magazines themselves are very detailed. The worst point has to be the magazine follower, which feels like an after thought. So, until Part 3...

 

[VFC MP5 (Umarex Licensed)]

PART 1

 

Ok, as nobody has yet taken the time to write anything about this gun, I figured that I would, now that mine has finally cleared Customs! Hopefully I will come across in the way that I intend to share my opinion, and not sound opinionated. So, to start with, here is the obligatory box picture.

 

 

It is nothing that many people have not seen before, same design as the MP7 or G36 aegs that are also licensed by Umarex. I like it, I feel that it has a certain classiness about it that many other manufacturers miss out on, but at the end of the day, it is only a box. Mine was opened and inspected by customs, then resealed by customs, so it is not in the best shape, but as I said, it is only a box, it is what is inside that counts.

 

So, here is what is inside...

 

 

So, inside we obviously get the gun. There is also the magazine, which came packaged seperately. There is also the manual, which for a change is really nice, as it is not only informative, but it is also in English, and another 3 languages. For once I understand exactly which way to adjust the hop! There is a speed loader, which it would appear is a fairly sturdily constructed one, the additional little adaptor to pop on the end to allow it to work easily (I hope, unlike WE mags!) a really long Allun key to adjust the hop up, and a little piece of plastic (I shall mention this again later).

 

Ok, so, I may be taking this in a direction that is not expected, but I shall start my review with the most important part of a gas in mag gas blow back gun, the magazine. I have three magazines, from left to right there is the VFC MP5 magazine (the one that came with the gun has what appears to be laser etched or roll stamped trades, but I have seen ones where the trades are properly stamped in), the one in the middle is a genuine MP5 30 round magazine, and the one on the far right is an aeg low cap.

 

 

Looking at the magazines together, it is blindingly obvious how different the aeg magazine is. It is a completely different size from the real thing, and the VFC has obviously tried to go for the more realistic approach, again I shall mention this a little later.

 

 

One of the little details that really impressed me about the VFC, was that the magazine has the same feed lips and bullet cut outs as the real magaine. It is almost like they have taken a real MP5 magazine shell and popped the gas components inside it! The detail is really good.

 

 

Sadly, my photography is so bad that I could not take a clear picture of the top of the magazine to show the comparison. So I have mentioned a bit about the size difference, so that means that aeg mag clamps will not fit, not even in the slightest. However, I have also found that genuine H&K mag clamps also do not fit! I am not an engineer, so can not tell you exactly where the magazine is different, only that it must be but only ever so slightly, as I cannot see any difference when holding the mags against each other.

 

I feel that the finish of the magazine really lets it down. If you look at the pictures it is quite clear just how much the paint has worn away from being inserted and removed only a few times. The real magazine is blued, and as a magnet sticks to the VFC magazine, I see no reason why this too could not have been blued as per the real gun. I may look at doing this myself sometime in the future when I have more than one magazine!

 

The other thing that bothers me is that little bit of plastic mentioned earlier. Basically this is a different shaped follower for the magazine that blocks the blowback unit once the magazine is empty, therfor preventing it from dry firing. I like the fact that you get the choice, but there are no instructions as to how to replace this part, so although I would, I am not sure how, so havent yet. This therefore feel like it was just an afterthought, as if it was intended to be this way then surely instructions of how to swap the two parts over would also be there. I know that there was a lot of comments about dry firing on forums and how much people would avoid this gun if that was the case. I like the fact that we have the choice, but instructions how to swap them would really be essential.

 

What about the valves? I have heard tell of some vfc gas guns leaking out of the box. I have heard some real horror stories about the quality of thier gas guns, as opposed to the really highly reguarded quality of thier aegs. All I can say is that I have had no problems at all with my magazine leaking, in fact, it appears to be quite a good quality valve, but I guess time will tell on that one.

 

Now, onto the big enchilada, the gun itself. I will be comparing (probably rather annoyingly for some) it against aegs and the real steel for a comparison on the external quality of the gun. So, without further ado, here is the VFC pictured with a real steel MP5.

 

 

In case you are not sure, the VFC is the top gun, the real steel is the lower one with the SEF trigger configuration.

 

 

I will start with the plastic. The lower reciver, stock, and foregrip are all made from a polimer on the MP5. On aegs this is a really cheap feeling plastic. On some of the newer makes, like the SRC it is much much better, but on this VFC is really is the best. It doesnt feel quite as tough as the real thing, as if it will scratch much easier, but it is really good. You can see some casting circles on the lower reciever. These are not on any aeg that I have seen, and look a bit cheap, but this is how the MP5 should be! You will see the same casting marks on the real one, albeit the SEF lower, the casting marks are still there. This is a really nice touch.

 

I have taken pictures of the real steel tropical handguard, and the VFC hanguard together to show the differences between the two. The real one is on the top.

 

 

As you can see they are pretty similar. There are minor differences, but really only very minor. The quality of the copy here is so good that if you look at the grip from the inside then you will see they are virtually the same.

 

 

The stock is equally as impressive. It has the holes in it to locate the pins when stripping (a feature which has continued to the G36 etc.) and that is again a really nice practical feature. Open it up and inside it has the same recoil plate as the real thing, except that the VFC one falls out easily, the real one I have never got out! This is only with the stock off though, so doesnt affect anything. My main criticism about the stock is that it is too neat. The back end looks like an aeg stock, as if it is removeable to pop a battery in there or something. I know that stocks vary slightly from era and manufacturer, but you can see just how rough looking the real one is in comparison. The butt plate is sealed to the stock.

 

 

One of the other little details that blew me away was the bolt carrier group, and the rotating roller delayed blow back action. The VFC doesnt employ this mechanism, it is after all only airsoft, so it is pretty much a straight blow back unit, but the detail compaired to the real thing is astounding. For those of you who have never seen it before, here is the bolt carrier group removed so you can see the detail. You can see the rollers, you can see the head, you can see the pins that hold it all in place. This is more detail than even I would have dreamed of.

 

 

The ejection port is even the correct shape, one of the main bug bears of mine for a long time, but as you can see, this is perfect in getting that right. You could critisise that the bolt carrier is bright green, and yes it is slightly, but it looks much worse in the photos.

 

 

The biggest problem for me however, has to be the barrel. Compared to every aeg they are too short. The threaddded aspect although practical really annoys me. Compare it to the Escort and the Escort/YE is the wrong shape. More often than not, when manufacturers make the tri lugged muzzle for the MP5 it is missing the scallops between the lugs. This VFC has it all. Aside from being a bit on the grey side (nowhere near as bad as it looks in the photos) it is really spot on.

 

 

So good is the finish on this gun in fact, that it actually does feel like the real thing. The real gun has a kind of rubbery feel to it, very similar to the old .22 blank firing revolvers that you used to be able to get, like the model 29 or peacemaker. If anything, the finish is a little too neat.

 

One really good thing is that so far the gun has accepted every real steel part that I have trown at it, apart from the mag clamps. The surefire foregrip fits without modification.

 

 

The real steel slither stock also fits and works fine without having to modify it. The slimline foregrip also fits without any modification. The only thing is that with this set up, be prepared to keep trying to explain where the battery is!

 

 

Well, I have made it this far without mentioning the trademarks. This is a really big issue for me personally, but I know that some people dont care. It is an issue for me simply because we are paying for them, and so I want them to be correct. So, what trades does this MP5 have? I couldnt take a picture of them, I am too rubbish there, but basically it has stamped into the top of the gun HK MP5. That is it. No 'Made in Germay' etc. stuff on the magwell, just the MP5 on the top. This annoys me. The cheap ACM MP5 GBB based on the Maruzen aweful MP5 made by Bell or Well had the HK94 trades on it, so I do feel a little let down that I am paying for a licensed product and it doesnt have anything. Having said that, no trades is better than wrong trades, so I shall count my blessings. I also like the fact that at the rear of the trigger group it says licensed by H&K as opposed to licensed by Umarex. For once the licensing is fine to live with!

 

So how does it perform? I dont know yet. That is for part 2. All I can tell you is that the recoil isnt huge, nothing like the WE G39. I shall see in about a weeks time what it performs like, and I shall post up then.

[WE G39C GBB]

You beat me to it! www.tacticalquartermaster.co.uk , and if you cannot find those specific parts, then drop him an email stating what you are after, he will probably be able to get them for you. If you like or use WE guns, then this is one website to bookmark.

[WE G39C GBB]

If it worked then leave it alone. I have a habit of trying to improve things, and they end up in 1,000,000,000 pieces!

[WE G39C GBB]

I would blame it on the Gremlins myself. They are probably the same Gremlins that brought down our planes in the big one. WWII. They are still shipping them over here, they put them in the cars, they put them in the tv, They even have these teeny little Gremlins that go in the watches. So, I would blame the Gremlins.

[WE G39C GBB]

That is true, I forgot to mention that it does come as a complete fixed one piece unit, but my set up uses the two peice sectional method to allow me to change parts as required.

[WE G39C GBB]

LordElpus beat me to it! Yes, it is exactly that, and in case I confused you about all three being lined up, the carry handle has a built in magnifyer, I think it is about 3.5x but not sure, then the bolt on top part (clamps onto a standard rail, so you could probably just use this on its own if you wanted) has a red dot scope (non magnifying) and a laser! I personally if I am budget restricted on something like this, would go for the cheapest one that I can find that ticks most of my boxes, that way if it breaks I havent lost as much, but that is just me, cheap.

[WE G39C GBB]

I think that generally the cheap optics dont hold thier zero, mainly because they are cheap. I have the cheapest of the cheap dual optic on my G39 at the moment, and although I havent actually zeroed it as it is not too far out and all 3 optics line up perfectly, it has not adjusted itself at all, if that is any help. I know that the recoil of a gas airsoft gun is not the same as a real rifle, but if you use any real optics, cheap or not, they should in theory be designed to handle the recoil and shake thier insides to pieces.

 

If it is adjustable zoom that you are after, have you considered using an EoTech holographic image projection sight, like a 552 or something similar, along with an EoTech flip to side magnifyer. They should be easy to find in the states (but dont buy cheap airsoft ones as they do break easily) and are awesome to actually use. Dont get me wrong, you may be able to find an airsoft 551 or 552 or similar that will work fine under the small recoil of a gas gun like the one mentioned above, but they are all cheap and do not work in the same way when compared to a real one, but more like a cheap red dot, and they are meant to go on replica guns, and replica guns dont have much recoil if any at all, so there is no need to build them to withstand any. They are however also much cheaper to replace if the lens gets shot and broken, so I would also invest in a lens protector if you do get a proper one of these, just to be on the safe side.

 

I dont knock cheap, I like cheap, not everyone has deep pockets and it serves its purpose, but I dont know what sort of budget you are looking to spend, and you can still get some pretty decent buys that are a good value for what you get. Personally, I am cheap when it comes to airsoft stuff, I can and have spent several hundreds on guns, but cheaped it on the little parts or accessories. It depends what you expect from it. The last replica EoTech I bought (I dont know the make I am afraid) only cost me £10 because it had the very problem we are talking about, it didnt hold its zero, but I only wanted it for appearance so I didnt even care if it worked or not at all. I have my dual optic (cost me about $70 in total) on mine purely to make the gun fit the look that I want at the moment. I dont use the optics as such anyway at the moment, as I normally dont use optics, so for me the look is what matters more and as long as that works, cheap does fine.

[WE G39C GBB]

Thanks for that Kruck, I understand exactly what you mean, wedge it in and churn the *fruitcage* out, basically! I may well have to invest in those valves. How is the performance of them, do they seal better? I have found a few of my fill valves have leaked slightly, although not anything that a bit of maintenance gas hasnt fixed apart from the one that I tried to tighten, and boy did that turn extremely well, right off! I did recently take them all out and silicone them just to be on the safe side. Oh well. Still a damn fine gun, even despite the few little niggly problems.

[WE G39C GBB]

Ok, @ Shabby, how dare you mention the superb gbb MP9 on a thread about the H&K G36, now you are going to annoy all of the G36 fanboys reading. (only kidding by the way ) You are very wrong about the dissasembly being like and aeg, it is closer to the real gun, part of the beauty about it. Be careful when tightening things, I just snapped a gas valve off on one of my mags (now I have no idea how to get the thing out!). Dont overtighten as it is still only made from poor quality metal (probably more of a legal point than a manufacturing one). It is very easy to do a basic strip down, just as the MP9, and basic maintenance will hopefull be all that you will need, but as you become more familiar you will no doubt strip it down further, just dont be too scared, the basic strip down is very very easy and can be found almost anywhere on youtube. One screw that you must not overtighten is the one at the front of the trigger group (near the mag well) which holds the arm that moves up and down to give you bolt lock. If you tighten this too much then it will hold the piece too tight and stop it from moving freely, simply tighten it until it is tight enough not to offer retension on the part.

 

@ Redneck. I have had a couple of problems with my hop up this last week, I found that the black nub was slightly smaller than the white one (width wise), and that allowed it to move off centre slightly, which prevented my hop from working hardly at all. I replaced it with the white one and put a mag through it without issue, so now I need to test at a game. Did you replace your rubber as well, or just the nub? Also, did you open up the hop unit to swap it, or simply lift up the arm, drop out the original, and drop the replacement one back in? It sounds to me like the rubber/barrel has shifted out of the correct place, meaning that the cut away for the nub to push into at the top is not in the correct place, preventing the nub from being able to move properly. I would open the unit up and make sure that everything is lined up where it should be, which is not as difficult as it sounds, it is pretty obvious as I found out the first time I did it. Whilst you are doing it, you may as well wrap a bit of teflon tape (ptfe tape) around the seal between the rubber and barrel, it will improve the consistancy. You will find a fantastic guide all about the hop unit etc. on page 29 of this thread.

 

@Bankz5152. I have so many guns where I have done just that, popped it to one side and just got a new one. I know how you feel. I also still need to sort out with you about getting those kydex holsters, I have not forgotten, just been really busy, I shall have to pm you again very soon about them.

[WE G39C GBB]

The guide on page 29 is great because it shows you which way to turn the nut. Knowing that you are turning it the correct way help immensely as it is very tight indeed (mine even squished some of the metal I had to turn so hard) but a good fit with some pliers will do the job. I did at one point have a problem with my bolt not locking every time, so I stripped the lower group and lubed the spring part and catch, and worked it up and down by hand to get the lube right in there. No problem anymore. You do need to drop out the lower to get to the spring.

[WE G39C GBB]

As said above, most likely the grub screw holding the internal gubbings to the hop unit. Refer to page 29 of this thread for pictures and instructions how to get there and find it.