Beta Project Gun Rack Review

[uscmCorps]

Beta Project Gun Rack Review

 

 

 

The Impetus:

I had been looking around for a while for a decent weapons rack. One of the guys on my crew made a pair of awesome double sided wooden weapon stands each capable of holding 10 guns, with felt lining and sporting professionally engraved team logos. They were beautiful racks, but they weren't easy to transport since they were nailed and wood glued together. I was looking online at various rifle racks that were available on the market, but the limitations I kept seeing were that most racks were weapon specific in that they were made for hunting rifles, shotguns, or guns of certain sizes (width, height). Or that they couldn't be broken down for easy transport. Or they were insanely expensive.

 

One gun rack system that piqued my interest was the Ares Gun Rack, which boasted a highly adaptable weapon racking system with several options for holding guns. What I wasn't crazy about was that most of the gun mounting options entailed locking the gun onto a magazine like mount (basically a magazine shaped object with a mount on the base that attaches to the rack). I personally wasn't comfortable about putting pressure on the gun's mag well and hopUp in that manner even though it was probably fine. Ares also offers a couple adjustable mounts, one that uses a peg that hooks into the gun's trigger area and braces the rear of the gun with a second peg. And the other type of adjustable mount consists of a clamp that is cinched tight on the gun holding it in place. Again, neither of these options are particularly alluring to me. They just seem overly complicated and over engineered. Another major turn off was that the Ares gun rack doesn't come with any mounts at all and they must be purchased separately. The price was frightening ... $154 for the rack, and $19 to $57 for each individual mount (Option 1, Option 2, Option 3). Plus with the high weight of the rack and all the individual mounts, the shipping fees would have been insane.

 

The Beta Project Gun Rack:

A few months back Beta Project released their own Gun Rack. It's a very simple design. Two black polymer panels are held together via three aluminum tubes, all fastened together by oversized bolts. Instead of fancy mounts for each gun, Beta Project uses simple polymer dividers that clamp along the top pole of the gun rack. The Beta Project Gun Rack comes with 10 dividers that'll allow you to separate up to 11 guns. Dividers are easy to install, simply hook it onto the pole, slide the divider into position and a screw locks the divider in place. At first I was nervous that you were screwing the screw directly into the plastic, but I was relieved to see that the screws are held in place by a nut, which is securely molded and embedded into the divider. Like most gun racks, you simply place a gun (barrel up) between two of the dividers, and rest the butt of the rifle on the front bottom rail. Simple and effective.

 

 

 

The Packaging and Assembly:

The Beta Project Gun Rack comes in a very compact cardboard box, fully disassembled, each part securely separated from the rest. The box measures approximately: 13.5" x 31" x 2.25" (34.5cm x 78.5cm x 5.5cm).

Assembly is super easy and takes just a couple minutes. Once fully assembled, the Weapons Rack measures approximately: 23.75" (60cm) Tall, 10" (25.5cm) Deep, 31" (78cm) Wide.

 

The Packaging:

 

 

The Included Instructions:

Interesting side note, the instruction sheet mentions a "Part C", which appears to be a coupler to extend the width of the rack in order to accommodate more guns.

Part C is not included however. Perhaps in the future it will be made available as well as an additional set of three poles. Here's hoping.

 

 

Close up of the threaded end of the pole and the locking bolts:

 

 

Close up of one of the dividers (note the embedded thread):

 

 

The screw clamps the divider securely onto the top pole:

 

 

The product itself:

The polymer sides are black and very well molded. They're also quite weighty too, I'm guessing either solid polymer, or they're weighted on the inside. The aluminum poles are machined and have many thin grooves running down their lengths making it easier for the dividers to clamp onto and for gun butt stocks to grip on.

 

Bolted together the entire setup is very solid. Stability-wise, I'd say it was perfectly stable on flat terrain, and relatively stable on outdoor terrain. Bare in mind the rack is designed to be a very rigid structure, so it's not meant to conform to non-uniform surfaces. Fortunately there's only two points of contact with the ground which is at the base of either side panel, so it still does a decent job of remaining stable in the outdoors, but it does best on a flat surface.

 

Capacity:

As mentioned earlier, the gun rack comes with 10 dividers allowing you to separately hold 11 guns. Unless your guns are pretty thin like AKs or KISS ARs, realistically, you're probably only going to be able to rack 8 to 9 rifles. The great thing about the dividers is that you can loosen a divider's screw and move them left and right to ensure a good fit for whatever gun you want to place there.

 

Only 9 of the 10 dividers are installed in this pic, and each divider is generously spaced out to ensure any gun with a top mounted PEQ-15 will still fit:

 

 

Price:

EHobbyAsia is charging $69.99 for the rack. That does NOT include S&H of course. Given the weight of the gun rack, S&H is probably about equal to that of the actual cost of the item. Spartan Imports imported the gun racks to the USA, and both AirsoftExtreme and AirsoftGI sells them at $130. I bought a couple of these Beta Project Gun Racks from AirsoftExtreme and having the two gun racks zip-tied back to back, I've found them to be very stable even on rough terrain.

 

 

Conclusion:

I'm really pleased with these Gun Racks. Yes, I probably could have made a similar system cheaper myself, but it's unlikely I would have made anything as high end as the product Beta Project made. This Gun Rack is solid, stable, holds a lot guns, is adjustable, and can be quickly broken down and setup for transportation. The price isn't the cheapest, but it's one of the cheapest commercially available Gun Racks on the market today that fulfills everything that I require of it. Personally, I'm well pleased with my purchase.

 

Edited May 18, 2010 by uscmCorps

[hwagan]

Nice rack

 

 

 

 

Sorry, someone had to say it.... Still, i could do with one of these - Seems like a very reasonable price for a nice, simple and effective product.

[uscmCorps]

I'm probably going to get some laser engraved team logos to mount on the side of the Weapon Racks.

[hwagan]

Those slashes on the side look like they'd be good to fill with some sort of customisation... Inert rounds maybe?

 

Also, pardon the off-topic, but have i been smoking too much or is that a Bizon AEG?

[L4byr1nth]

Your stash obviously ain't strong enough, man - I think it is a Bizon!

 

A bit more on-topic, I just bought a Beta Project AN/PEQ-15 laser version. I think they've been out for a bit, but not seen anything on them.

 

 

Really impressed with the quality. Beats the VFC by a long shot in the price department at least, and reports suggest it's on-par with the build quality.

 

Interestingly, on several sites, I've seen the Beta Project wares being peddled as 'Beta Project (Magpul)'.

 

Do they have any affiliation?

 

Ben.

[hwagan]

If it is a Bizon, i'm a ) Jealous, and b ) Amazed and stupefied as to where it came from...

 

I notice the Beta project plastic AK mags are sometimes peddled as 'Magpul'... Maybe some kind of subcontracting thing?

 

 

 

Also, nice to see a PEQ that doesn't have wires sticking out

Edited May 18, 2010 by hwagan

[L4byr1nth]

Oh yeah, it seems as though Beta Project make some of the Magpul PTS kit, like the MS2 sling.

 

Good old WE SCAR - no need for wires!

 

The laser is suprisingly decent, too.

 

Ben.

[uscmCorps]

Also, pardon the off-topic, but have i been smoking too much or is that a Bizon AEG?

Yep. AEG Bizon. All steel construction made by GunsWorkShop in HK a couple years back. They only made 50 of them as complete builds and another 50 as kits. Mine was a complete build. I have 8 hicap mags for it which I'm modifying to be midcaps. Great gun. Aside from one I bought for another forum member which was a kit, I've yet to see another on the fields. I think they mostly went to collectors.

 

A bit more on-topic, I just bought a Beta Project AN/PEQ-15 laser version. I think they've been out for a bit, but not seen anything on them.

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn100/L4byr1nth/DSC_0002-9.jpg

Really impressed with the quality. Beats the VFC by a long shot in the price department at least, and reports suggest it's on-par with the build quality.

The Beta Project PEQ-15's have been out for a little while. Overall feel of the unit is not quite as good as the VFC's in my opinion, but they're certainly inexpensive and built to accommodate a small lipo. The VFC offers a lot more functions and has an illuminator. The Beta Project PEQ (from the sample I saw a while back) was a constant on switch from what I recall and didn't have a tape switch for momentary on/off. The VFC's inability to be zero'ed properly is utter fail though.

 

I notice the Beta project plastic AK mags are sometimes peddled as 'Magpul'... Maybe some kind of subcontracting thing?

Beta Project is a pretty new HK based company. They were interested in some of the products covered within Magpul PTS' copyrights, and approached Magpul PTS to make some of those products like the MS2 Slings, transparent AK mags with Magpul PTS base plates, and the FPG holster. They're basically sub-licensed by Magpul PTS to produce certain Magpul replica products, similar to STAR, G&P, A&K, King Arms, Western Arms, VFC, etc. Beta Project isn't restricted to only make Magpul PTS products, they just know that making and selling those products is a safe investment as Magpul PTS products are statistically strong sellers. From what I've seen of Beta Project's quality and cost, they aim for good quality at a low or at least extremely competitive price. And that's been consistent so far. Once the Magpul PTS Masada comes out, and whenever the 7.62 lower for it is released, Beta Project will probably be making the AK mags for it.

[hwagan]

You lucky git Looks very nice, that's for sure. So the mags are hicaps? They look like they'd hold about 2,000 rounds! Mags a bit difficult to carry i assume?

 

Still, back on topic - I may have missed it in the review, but do you happen to know the weight of the package? I'm really quite tempted by one of these, but i imagine the shipping to the UK is going to be insane...

 

 

[uscmCorps]

It did cross my mind to weigh the whole thing but I don't have a scale handy. I think the easiest thing for most people to do would be to begin the check out process at their preferred online airsoft store. There's usually the ability to see the total cost including shipping without having to actually buy the item.

 

For example, at EHobbyAsia, the full price with S&H to the UK is $154.99 via Standard Shipping, $172.99 via EMS, and at RSOV Express, the total is $164.49

It might be worthwhile asking your local retailers if they'll get them in and if so, how much it'll be. It was certainly cheaper for me to buy locally than importing from HK.