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VFC MP5 (Umarex Licensed)


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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.

 

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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...

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

P1010334.jpg

 

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.

 

P1010335.jpg

 

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.

 

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

 

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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.

 

P1010343.jpg

 

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.

 

P1010342.jpg

 

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.

 

P1010341.jpg

 

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.

 

P1010348.jpg

 

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.

 

P1010338.jpg

 

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.

 

P1010340b.jpg

 

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.

 

P1010344.jpg

 

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! :D

 

P1010345.jpg

 

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.

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Here we go.       23 rounds in one burst, 6:30pm and normal early April breeze.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7qw7MiKius&feature=youtu.be     AP.

PDW conversion kit for VFC MP5k   Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Mine shoots like a charm and I have it for two years now.Well I don't field it every weekend but I do some firing every once in a while.

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Do you know if an H&K flash hider will fit? I wanted to put one on, but didn't want to purchase it w/o confirming first. Real lower also fits; for the American's out there, pinned and clipped lowers will NOT fit.

 

A few things to note:

 

1) The magazine is next to impossible to take apart. In order to use the follower that locks the bolt, it needs to be taken completely apart. A few tips: I needed to push the magazine valve in while pushing the outer casing out. Otherwise, the valve gets caught at the edge of the outer casing. Getting the outer casing off takes an unusual amount of pressure. I had to clamp it down and strike it very hard, multiple times, with a rubber mallet to get it loose. Once the inner casing is out, it is very important to wrap it with a rubber band or a clamp. The entire inner casing is held together by a metal plate at the top...once removed, it will come apart right away, ejecting the follower. Therefore, it's a good idea to wrap it with a rubber band so you can control the pieces coming apart.

 

Also, in my opinion, this double casing design causes extremely fast cool down as it doesn't allow heat to support the vaporization. I primarily use it in semi-auto without issue; since I've been using it in CQB games it's not a big deal. 30 BB's can easily be shot in a reasonable rate at semi-auto.

 

2) The lack of a valve lock or valve knocker lock is a very bad design in my opinion (I realize that some might not care, but a personal preference and feel it has an impact over gas efficiency). I've had several occasions in game where the magazine completely vented. I'm not 100% sure if a lock would have prevented the vent, but I feel it's always good design to have one. If your magazine begins to vent, pull the cocking handle back right away...this is the only way to close your magazine valve.

 

3) The stock springs are way too strong. My version came with an optional bolt spring which is weaker (for sale in Japan), but not a weaker hammer spring. The hammer spring is so strong that it constantly presses against the valve lock. As a result, the magazine can't be inserted without locking the hammer back. This, in combination with no valve lock, I feel increases the likelihood that the magazine will vent.

 

4) Using the strong springs, it can easily perform with HFC134A. I have been using it for about a month now with 134A in order to get it down to 1J power. The chrono reading unfortunately is extremely inconsistent using, using HFC134A, .2g @ about 75 degrees. Accuracy is also poor, but for CQB it is more than adequate. This may be because I need to keep it below 1J. Nevertheless, my stock Marui P226 is more accurate and has more consistent chrono readings using 134A in the same environmentals.

 

I've only had it for a month or so and it's still too early to tell what parts will begin to fail. I've also taken regular maintenance after each game and don't see any weak points yet. I did file down the surface of the firing block as instructed by VFC to get it to cycle smoother. I did have a few occasions where I had a hard time locking the cocking handle...I don't have a real HK, so not sure if this is normal. Again, it's too early to reveal any huge problems apart from the few points above. I'm cycling through 4 magazines and none leak...gaskets seems to performing ok as well.

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Another note - not sure what kind of mount can be attached over the receiver. I tried replica mounts (G&G, G&P, etc.) as well as a few real claw mounts (ARMS, MFI, and H&K) and nothing quite fits correctly. Some of the replica mounts don't fit at all; all the real claw mounts fit, but are very tight to the point where it leaves deep scratches over the receiver...not sure if this is normal.

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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. :D 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...

 

:D

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I can document how to change the follower - it won't be a while because it is VERY difficult to take apart these magazines and I've already replaced all four. I literally had to pound away at it with a rubber mallet for the outer shell to budge. I'll make sure to document it if anyone I know gets another magazine. I've been cycling through four and I have had no failures. I'm only using HFC134A. I think I read someone was worried about damaging the cylinder once it hits the follower. I don't detect any visual problems yet (this doesn't mean it's free of any damage or will eventually get damaged). The internal parts appear to be fairly strong on 134A, firing between 75 and 80 degrees.

 

My chrono results are drastically different than yours. I get tremendous variation - I typically loose at least 1 to 3 FPS per shot and has yet to stabilize. Here's last weekends results prior to the game. Again, using HFC134A, indoor temperature was from a thermostat on the wall at 75 degrees. My BB's are 0.2g with zero hop. Chrono is an XCORTECH:

 

334.5

332.8

331.7

330.9

326.1

322.5

320.1

318.6

314.8

317.4

 

And so on. This is at a rate at about 1 shot per second (maybe even slower). I had my colleague record the first 10 shots. When I get down to the last BB, the FPS is down to the mid 200's. In my opinion, this is primarily due to the poor design of the magazines. The double shell makes it cool down extremely fast. On full auto, the gun sometimes does not fire all 30 shots. As I mentioned, since the springs are so stiff, it fails to cycle and vents all the gas at about shot #25. On semi, it definitely vents less - I think I only had one over the weekend. I just purchased a semi only picto lower and planning to ditch full auto components (PM me if anyone wants it).

 

I too replaced my solid stock with a H&K "F" stock. You can file down about 2mm of the buffer and it should fit perfectly fine so you can lock the cocking handle. I also read that you can simply flip it around, without filing anything, so the spring is facing out (not sure if this is advisable). I was also advised to replace the hop rubber with a Marui AEG hop (or equivalent). I have yet to do this, but I understand it makes it considerably more accurate. On a side note, it's giant pain to adjust the hop up.

 

Another thing I noticed, mine might be slightly different than yours. Mine came with a manual with step by step take down instructions. The problem is that magazine take down steps were wrong. It also came with a "GBB Service Pack" which included a weaker recoil spring (which I installed immediately). It is labeled "VFC MP5 JPVersion".

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Wow. This looks good. Very tempting. A couple of questions I hope can be answered:

 

1. There's been talk that it doesn't stop firing after the last round. Any truth in this?

2. Is this actually designed for long term use with Green Gas?

 

Can't wait for part 3 :)

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1. There's been talk that it doesn't stop firing after the last round. Any truth in this?

2. Is this actually designed for long term use with Green Gas?

 

1) Yes and no. VFC provides a replacement magazine follower that locks the cylinder back after the last BB is shot (it should come with all guns and spare magazines). I haven't seen any magazines or guns shipped with this follower installed. Without it installed, the gun will keep firing.

 

2) In my opinion, there is never a right answer to this questions. As with all liquid charged guns, there are several factors that affects the reliability, temperature being the most important, how well you maintain the gun (how experienced you are with gas blowbacks), the amount of upgrades put in (typically the more you more you upgrade, the higher the likelihood something will go wrong), etc. Since it's only been released a few months, it's way too early to tell how well it will hold up. I've been using various propellants, but have made sure it chronos no higher than 340 FPS. I've used it about a dozen CQB games and don't see any damage or unusual signs of wear.

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Here's how I replaced the follower on a few of my spare magazines so it will lock and not keep on firing when the last BB is shot. I do NOT recommend doing this if you don't have any experience with gas guns. Always make sure you have the correct tools. Make sure to empty the magazine of propellant. Always thoroughly function check the gun after the mod is done before charging it and firing.

 

1) Tools I used. I grabed the thickets punch I had and the thinest (1/16" I think?). I also use a lot of cloth tape whenever I do work. It's actually the same tape I use on my hockey sticks (not the friction tape for the blade...the grip tape). It comes off very cleanly, doesn't leave a sticky residue, and is very thick. It protects surfaces remarkably well from scratches. I also grabbed a small clamp and small hammer. Notice I wrapped some of the tape over my thick punch - a tremendous amount of force is needed to remove the outer shell. The area that is struck is made of metal, but it's surrounded by fragile parts: the magazine gasket. The gaskets are very fragile and I find it very hard to detect damage to it. I basically used the punch cushioned with tape to apply pressure where it can do the least amount of damage.

 

I also have a small flat head screw driver to remove the inner magazine top cover. Finally a chrono, in my opinion, is very important. Whenever I make modifications, I check the chrono readings before and after to make sure there is no unusual drop in out-put. In this case, since we're not doing any upgrades, the chrono readings before and after must be identical (see my above post for my baseline chrono readings).

 

001.jpg

 

2) Keep an eye out for the magainze valve. When the outer shell is pushed off, the edge of the outer shell well get caught on the face of the valve (the valve can NOT be screwed off without removing the outer shell). While punching the inner magazine out, we want to press the vavle in at the same time so it won't get damaged. I also applied a small drop of 1.5 wt silicone oil before slipping the outer shell off, as it rubs against the inside as it is slid out.

 

002.jpg

 

3) The outer shell is hold the inner through friction and a small pin near the main valve. I removed the pin using the thin punch. I did NOT need to apply a lot of pressure to remove this. Gently tap it out. If you need a lot of force removing or inserting it, I would stop right away; something is wrong.

 

003.jpg

 

4) Once the pin is out, I clamped the magazine down on the corner of my work table. Again, we are going to need to pound the inner magazine out with a LOT of force, so it has to be tight. However, it can't be too tight where the compression from the clamp holds the two parts together. Make it tight enough so that when you're pounding it out, the magazine doesn't slip off the table. Again, I wrapped it several times with tape. You can also clamp it between some scrap material - whatever works best.

 

Again, I used the thick punch to tap out the inner magazine. The inner slides out from the bottom so tap it out from the top of the mag. I used the thick cushioned punch and hit it out against the metal area BEHIND the magazine gasket. Again, stay away from the gasket as well as the lip. You do NOT want to damage these parts. You have to strike the punch VERY hard several times and it will begin to slide out. MAKE SURE YOU PRESS THE MAGAZINE VALVE IN WHILE IT IS SLID OUT...as shown in the photo above, it will get caught at the edge and get damaged.

 

004.jpg

 

5) As soon as the inner magainze slides out, wrap it with tape right away in the area shown in the photo. The magazine follower is slightly compressed and held together at the top by thin metal clip. It's actually loose towrads the bottom. It's not under tremendous pressure where things will explodes out, but it's easier to control when the follower is removed.

 

005.jpg

 

6) This is the thin metal clip that holds the bb column together. It's a bit difficult to remove. There's a small channel on the rear that clips over the magazine (the photos shows the bottom). Very gently push it back and it will come loose (I used my small flat head screw driver). Again, be very careful with the gasket - it's a bit tricky, so take your time.

 

006.jpg

 

7) Once the top clip is removed, remove the tape, and gently take out the follower and spring. It's not under termendous compression, but it will shoot out if you're not careful. Notice the smooth side of the follower faces forward - the side with the holes faces back.

 

Notice the follower that locks the cylinder is much taller.

 

007.jpg

 

8) Do everything in reverse to put it all back together. The tough part is the top metal clip and the outer shell. I put another drop of silicone on the valve as it rubs against the outer shell as it's hammered back on. I used the cushioned punch again, but hammered the bottom end to put it back into the outer shell.

 

008.jpg

 

9) Once you got it all back together, the cylinder will not fully return to battery once the last BB is shot out. If it doesn't something went wrong. Also, do a chrono check to make sure nothing was damaged during the process. Finally, keep in mind it's probably a good idea to lock the cocking lever back before pulling out the magazine. I didn't do this during the game and I thought the magazine was stuck.

 

I'm worried that the plastic cylinder hitting against the plastic magazine follower will eventually cause some type of damage. I did replace the recoil spring with the softer 1J spring that came with it. So far, I don't see any visable damage to the magazines or the cylinder, but time will tell.

 

009.jpg

 

Please post here if there might be any questions or would like more take down instructions. It looks like several aftermarket parts were just released and the I noticed the instructions that VFC provided were not very accurate.

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You can do something more destructive and cut down the length of the inner barrel or maybe replace it with a wider one (not sure what the stock diameter is). I wouldn't recommend it as it's a pain to get to the inner barrel in the first place and it might have problems once the weather gets colder.

 

On a side note, I just received a spare VFC trigger pack and it came with a very rudimentary valve knocker lock.

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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:

 

P1010359.jpg

 

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.

 

P1010360.jpg

 

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.

 

P1010366.jpg

 

P1010367.jpg

 

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. :angry:

 

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.

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