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Digicon Target Copy (Thompson Contender)


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A few years ago while doing some online window shopping at Dentrinity, I remember seeing this very peculiar pistol. It was a breech loading, single shot gas powered pistol that took brass shells and was made by an obscure Japanese manufactor called Digicon. It was a replica of the Thompson Contender and at the time I thought it was a useless gun, being only suited for target shooting with its limitations; however...recently I seem to have a fancy for them after seeing one in a show >XD. Granted that Digicon had gone under long ago, my only choice is to source one used if I wanted an original, but I had also recalled that a while back there was some chinese/taiwanese company that made a copy of this.

 

Upon spending a few moments searching, I came across this on Tokyo Model Company:

http://www.tokyo-model.com.hk/ecshop/goods.php?id=1211

 

Now my question is....Does anyone know anything about these copies? In terms of build quality, aftermarket parts compatibility, can it take c02 etc.

 

The Digicon Targets were known for their superb accuracy with heavy bbs and high power and I was wondering if the copy lives up to that.

Im a bit wary of spending $120 for a subpar copy of a gun who's original used to be only $20 dollars more.

 

Thanks

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Whose original copy used to be only $20 more some 20 years ago and can never find again being banned in Japan! Thanks for pointing it out though, never knew a copy was made and will be adding this to my list.

As to how it compares to the original, the low price and the fact it doesn't even have a brand (TW = Taiwan) are clues to that. But the notoriety of the old Digicon comes from its upgrade potential from the simplicity of its design. You just have a barrel, valve and hammer. The valve you can't really do much with other than replacing the o-rings with better ones, but the barrel you can swap out and the hammer made stronger with a stiffer spring. Granted the barrel isn't compatible with any current designs and there's no indication of it having a hop-up, you could likely bodge in a VSR compatible one with the right skill set and equipment.

These can't take CO2 ootb as the gas reservoir is built like most any other NBB and won't take the pressure. But there are mods where the tank is replaced altogether with a pressure hose leading to an HPA source or regulated CO2.

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>w<; I totally overlooked the "banned in japan" part.

Oh so that's how they used C02...it didn't occur to me that they would have a rig for that...

If the original is so hard to source out I suppose I wouldn't mind trying out the copy...but if you look at where the barrel sections off and the sight placement, its different than the Digicon, so I'm just a tad worried in terms of compatibility...as I also found these:

 

TN barrel for the Digicon near end of the list (20in):

http://www.dentrinityshop.com/den_search.jsp?sby=3&sstr=digicon&pg=4&rpp=10

 

Guarder hammer spring:

http://www.cobraairsoft.com/product_info.php?products_id=1773&osCsid=88472884190b647c96a9367aefb62dfb

 

Then there's also the issue of shells, which I think Guarder made some but I cant find them anymore...I'm not too confident with just the two shells the copy provides...

 

I was hoping to build a simple sniper's side arm with own of these...*sad face*

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I have done a lot of work with the original Digicon target. It is one of the most simple gasgun designs. It is of course always a gamble buying from an unknown manufacturer, but due to the simple design, i'd say that fixing stuff on the TW version will most likely be simple.

 

The best upgrade (if it is'nt already there on the TW version), is the hammer spring. The guarder kit comes with two different springs. But if it is unavailable, it should'nt be hard to source a similar one from a hobby or home improvement store.

 

Other than that, you should make sure there are'nt any leaks at both at the front and rear end of the shells, when they are in the chamber. Use PTFA tape or o-rings.

 

The original version came without hop but with a 6, 04 brass barrel. This meant that it shot good groupings but not very far. I have installed a km hop kit and tn barrel and this improved range a lot. If you are handy and like tinkering, you should be able to fabricate your own hop. As the barrel is fixed you can easily drill and tap a hole at top of the chamber for a grub screw that can press on a hop chamber.

With a 50cm barrel I can now shoot further than 80 meters.

 

Small bits of info: the rail is plastic and the same diameter as old airgun rails. The original Digicon shells have a slightly larger bore and thus shoots a bit harder than the guarder versions

It is of course, very slow to reload!

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Oh I see, thanks for the info!

 

Looks like shells are going to be The most annoying to find....

 

Hmm, looking at the barrel design, it looks pretty simple. You think one could easily modify a vsr/tm pistol type barrel to fit? Maybe one could use a vsr rubber?

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You are right about the shells, they are hard to find. Maybe some of the Marushin x-cartridge shells will fit? I tried the KWC Python shells but they dont fit.

 

If I remember correctly you should have a look at some of the Taiwan shops, they sometimes stock shells and parts. But I dont know about ordering from them.

 

I have compared a hop unit from a hi-capa and the chamber of the Target. The Tm barrel has a slightly bigger diameter. The target uses the same barrel diameter as Maruzen guns. This should be an easy fix though. The problem is that the Hi-capa hop adjuster sits below the chamber. On the target there is a small metal bar that is pushed backwards towards the shooter when loading the gun (to push out the shell). This bar would be blocking for the hi-capa adjustment wheel.

 

I dont know about TM v-hop of other guns. If they would be a better fit? The lovely v-hop and the power of the Target would be a neat

combination : ).

 

I have used a barrel and fixed hop from a Maruzen m870 BV in one of my digicon barrels. It was almost a perfect fit. All I had to do was cut a new groove for a c-clip and trim the inside of the chamber.

I know not many people have an old barrel from a m870 BV, but it is just an example of how one can make a simple hop for the Target.

 

As you can probably tell I am a huge fan of the Target. If you do decide to buy it, send me a PM and I will see if I can help you out with fabricating a hop system.

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In theory it would be possible, but it would involve a lot of chopping and fitting.

 

The dimensions of the shells are as follows: full length 40,7mm

outer diameter 9,66mm

The rim is as follows: width 1,7mm

outer diameter 10,8mm

 

I hope these numbers make sense. It would be great to be able to use other shells.

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The closest to that are the cartridges for the Marushin SAA:

41.1mm overall length (40.6mm w/o rubber seal)

10.4mm case wall outer diameter

1.9mm rim width (1.2mm w/o rubber seal)

12.0mm rim outer diameter

 

These are the smallest X carts there are in 6mm. It's only slightly bigger than the measurements you gave, but if those Digicon shells aren't an exact fit in the chamber the Marushin shells may still very well go in. At worst some sanding of the chamber may be needed but not by very much.

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That would be nice jv83. I'll send you a pm when I get the gun and start on the hop up...though unfortunately it won't be in the near future due to the alllocation of funds for fixing a few broken guns *sniffle*...

 

It would be pretty cool if you could use those Marushin shells..wit those dimensions it seems pretty close, though I wonder if the ejector is going to allow the rim diameter...but then again one could just sand it down.

 

Yea I think I'll avoid using the tm hopup. I think fumbling with individual bbs would be difficult during a skirmish, especially with gloves. Maybe one could just use the rubber and have the before mentioned grub screw for adjustment?

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alright, i has bee skirting this topic for a few days trying not to post and rope myself into buying one, but im giving in. seams loke a great platform to *fruitcage* around with on getting a unique sniper pistol. im going to order one tonight or tomorrow and start dumping reasearch time and money into it.

 

i figure you could modify it with a flat hop right in front of the sealing rubber. i have a few HS5 r hops im not doing anything with. ill also see if i can solve this shell problem.

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Sorry for the late reply, have been in the non internet land for the weekend. Supposedly you could sand down the Marushin Saa shells carefully to make them fit. The thing is that there is a small recess in the chamber for the rim to fit in. You would either have to fit the shells for this or inlarge it slightly. Both things are feasible. If you did this the ejector rod would still work.

If choosing to inlarge the recess you would have to grind a bit of the ejector though.

 

The ejector rod is easily removed when taking the chamber apart. This could be handy if you decided to make it single shot with a rear feeding shell. I believe it was Angs who once upon a time made made such shells.

 

KM also made multishot shells for shotgun effect. I would love to have some of those. : )

 

Horesm4n, that is def. the spot to situate the hop. There is a bit of space in the chamber, and it would have maximum effect that close to the bb. An anti rotation device would be good, to stop the barrel from moving. There are some screws going through the top of the chamber. I have successfully filed down a small portion of the inner barrel and replaced one of these screws with a slightly longer one (just in front of my home made hop). This stops the barrel from rotating. That is one way to do it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

jv83, or anyone else who owns the Digicon Target, could you post a pictorial feature of all of the innards and the shells? i want to have a better idea of my build before i purchase one of these things in a couple weeks.

 

also, i sent an email to TMC asking if they could get extra shells specifically for the TW model. otherwise, i will gladly guinea pig the marushin SAA shells.

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Ah yes that is the korean site I used when I started working on my Target. They show pretty much all the original upgrade choices. Most of these are unlikely to be around any more. But a simple hop a, a TB barrel, a stiffer hammerspring and if you wish an external co2 rig are stil a choice for the tinkerer. I will see if I can post some pics and info about all this stuff.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, This shop has them:

 

http://www.kic.com.tw/shop/index.php?cat=c67_------------------.html&XTCsid=5890746b00efee8ccc4995d899b0b3ff

 

I have ordered from them before, and they are fast, if not expensive. I recommend emailing them first (copy and attach the link of the gun of your choice to the email), but they're pretty good on keeping up with their inventory.

 

Here's their email:

 

kicbbgun@gmail.com

 

Don't be fooled by their site, they speak perfect English, they can also write well too!

 

Basically we will use hot melt glue to cover the SIG trademark for you unless you don't wish us to.

 

If this quotation is ok, our PayPal account is #############.

After your payment is confirmed, we will send your order out ASAP.

Thank you.

 

 

Best Regards,

--

Rick Hsia

KIC Airsoft Co., Ltd (Taiwan)

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They have some pretty awesome stuff. Only airsoft retail shop in the world that still sells a Carom Premium hammer and trigger for an WA M92 magna...

 

Only problem is, they have been my secret store for good and rare stuff for a couple years now, and I just told the world! :o

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Hehe, quite the lot of cool and rare stuff indeed. I want that HWS New Army revolver carbine...

 

Well, I would join in the group buy with you Horseman, though I wonder how much we would save on shipping if its only a few people. I also live on the west coast - quite some distance away from where you're at, so I would imagine that it wouldn't make much sense on the buy if we're not saving much. Unless of course you have different sort of plan >u<.

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