Umarex/VFC G3 GBB (first look)

[1st Commando]

The Umarex G3 Gas Blowback Rifle by VFC

Firstly it's been a while since I wrote a review , years in fact . This rifle has been one i've been looking forward to for many years so a bit of that enthusiasm is most certainly going to find it's way in . However I am not one of those young guys from Youtube who gets  their first rifle and thinks it's the best thing ever. I've got an extensive collection and have been in airsoft since 1990 . This rifle was not supplied for review , I paid for it myself as soon as pre order was available .

Upon the rifle arriving you will see it packaged in typical umarex style with black H&K marked cardboard box with stiff card inserts holding the contents very securely . The rifle itself being wrapped in a tough plastic “bag” . Also in the box you will find the instruction manual and loading tool for the included 20 round gas magazine .

Once unwrapped you can feel the heft of the G3 with it's steel construction running around one metre in length. The plastics are of good quality and feel very solid with only the very slightest of sideways play at the  rear of the handguard , Although the plastics are of high quality , I intended from the start to switch these out for real furniture as I do with the vast majority of my rifles . If anything the VFC plastic is of too high quality with decent texture in contrast to the H&K parts .

The muzzle device is steel and a very good replica although I will likely switch this out for a real one soon. Behind that is the steel outer barrel extension which runs into the steel front sight block . The outer barrel under the handguard is alloy and does serve to lighten the front end a touch compared to the full steel barrel of the LCT but it does not detract from the overall feel for me .

The Handguard is patterned on the slim green handguard we are all so familiar with . It is real spec and every real handguard I have tried has fitted perfectly unlike the LCT which has some annoying protrusions from the reciever pin that  must be ground down to fit some . So far Ihave tested the following real handguards …. Slim , wood , Wide(tropical) and RAS from Fab Defense with no issues . In fact all of them removed that tiny bit of sideways slop that the factory handguard had .

Above the handguard is the steel cocking tube with it's steel charging handle assembly which has the usual green plastic sleeve on it (the cocking handle appears to be real spec but I have yet to find time to change mine out). The cocking tube is correctly and neatly welded to the reciever which is of course more steel .

The reciever appears to be made just like the real rifle , being made of a stamped sheet which is then folded and welded in all the right places and with attention to detail.
On the left side of the magwell you will find the markings which say “G3FS 106****(serial number protected) HK 2/72 Bw . These markings denote that this is based upon a later “freefloated” model of the G3 manufactured in 1972. The only other markings on the upper are the usual white umarex markings which are very cleverly done on the part that is covered by the lower when assembled so there is no “cal6mm” ruining the look of the rifle until you take it apart for cleaning .

The lower is again a stamped steel construction and is again real spec so you can fit the real pistol grip sleeve on with no mods required . Due to the insane attention to detail from VFC you could also use a real lower by dropping the well replicated GBB trigger box into the real lower . I will be doing mine in the next few days hopefully but mine is a FMP lower so I will need to quickly run a file inside the front lugs to make it match up against the VFC (this is a known point when using FMP lowers on H&K G3s).

The stock again is a very well replicated part , VFC opted to fit the recoil assembly to the end cap like it would be on the real one so you will need to move this to the real stock unless you use the VFC end cap . I have tried using a real stock on the VFC end cap and also using a real slither stock and moving the recoil assembly over and both worked great.

Internally the level of replication continues with the trigger group and bolt carrier group both replicating the real parts very well . Field stripping this is all but identical to the real rifle.

So …. onto the airsoft side of the replica 

The 20 round GBB magazine is a good design and not only replicates the real one very well but also cleverly enables the rifle to give the “dead mans click” on empty or allow for dry firing depending on how you set the “dry fire switch” . The fill valve is on the back of the magazine just below the strike valve which means it's protected from debris but also hidden from view when in the rifle .
Filling with gas and Bbs is easy which is a relief  for those of us that use GHK rifles . The gas tank is enough for around 60 shots when using RWA Airsoft Surgeon gas unless you try to mag dump every mag. Given the size and weight of the bolt carrier this is quite astounding .

Upon inserting the magazine (if you haven't used a G3 this can take practice) you need to charge the rifle by pulling the charging handle to the rear and then allowing spring pressure to carry it forward into battery . This gives a very satisfying “clunk” and you feel the weight of the bolt carrier close as it hits the steel trunion . Once charged you remove the safety catch which has a stiff , positive feel like the real one (manly) and you are ready to fire . The trigger has some take up and not a very distinctive wall before breaking at surprisingly lightweight . The reset is quite short with a bit of slop but audible with a noticeable click on the trigger finger once it resets . The recoil is sharp and has good travel which is nice for a rifle of this size and weight but does not feel sluggish in the slightest . It's very satisfying . On auto the rifle will rock about nicely but of course that is not what users of this rifle will be using in the field so it's just a fun factor when messing about .

Once the magazine is empty the hammer will fall will a”click” and you will be required to change magazines and charge the rifle again . The “correct” military way to do this is to lock the charging handle into it's rear recess , take out the spent magazine , insert the fresh mag and then “H&K slap” the charging handle into battery . This feels great and you can be confident doing this with the steel construction .

The hop up is easy to adjust and is located under the handguard (no more damn allen keys) . I have not range tested my rifle yet but the grouping at CQB distance was nothing short of surprising . With 0.28g airsoft surgeon ABS Bbs ,the rifle was easily grouping into an inch group from rested and not quite two inches freehand !
That kind of repeatability on a GBB is almost unheard of from the box and the chrono helped me understand why that may be with only a few FPS variance over a  20 round mag when firing semi auto at a steady pace . Mine currently reads 416 fps average with green gas and 0.2g but I will be restricting that to be around 1.1J with 0.3g just to be safe ,

This is just a first look and I will be updating this review with photos and more data over the coming days as well as continuing to test real parts compatibility 

Please feel free to ask questions and I will try to answer them ASAP

[Bada Bing]

Good write up, mate. 

I would be interested to see how this will perform as you continue to put miles on its clock. You’re very brave for giving it a go. 

[1st Commando]

21 minutes ago, Bada Bing said:

Good write up, mate. 

I would be interested to see how this will perform as you continue to put miles on its clock. You’re very brave for giving it a go. 

To be fair on the occasions I use an MP5 my go to is one of my VFC ones despite having a couple of the WE ones as well . This is mainly down to how it feels but also because despite the MP5 having it's flaws I've found it performed really well with the right combination of £23 worth of upgrades . However the gas effiency on those is still poor but I don't reload in the field anyway

[Zereck]

I assume like other recent VFC rifles this one also has a built-in FPS adjuster in the nozzle?

[1st Commando]

1 hour ago, Zereck said:

I assume like other recent VFC rifles this one also has a built-in FPS adjuster in the nozzle?

Sadly mine would appear to not have it although German market versions did. German versions also have white markings visible externally though

[sear]

Cannot wait to see pictures of the internals.

[Reppyboyo]

Hows this holding up?

[1st Commando]

Very well , shockingly decent in the cold too (using semi only) . Last time out people were struggling to get through half a pistol mag as it was just over zero degrees but the G3 emptied all four of it's mags every time it was called to . I did not expect that at all 

[DarkLite]

Big GBBR mags tend to be very good for that as they have proportionately a much higher ratio of gas to bbs.

I've been trying to get a look at the internals of the magazine, I had hoped that with all the space available you could get a GHK style dual chamber design in for more reliability.

[Reppyboyo]

It would be nice to see some internals shots if at all possible.

I'll admit im tempted by the VFC.

[1st Commando]

18 hours ago, DarkLite said:

Big GBBR mags tend to be very good for that as they have proportionately a much higher ratio of gas to bbs.

I've been trying to get a look at the internals of the magazine, I had hoped that with all the space available you could get a GHK style dual chamber design in for more reliability.

I'll be honest it was handling the cold even better than my good old reliable GHK last sunday . The G3 has a very long stroke and a large bolt carrier so it was still surprising that it handled it so well. Better than any of my other 7.62mm based GBB rifles 

12 hours ago, Reppyboyo said:

It would be nice to see some internals shots if at all possible.

I'll admit im tempted by the VFC.

I'll try and upload some later , I keep forgetting 

Edited January 29, 2019 by 1st Commando
speeelang

[Reppyboyo]

Gonna prod you again 😜

[1st Commando]

1 hour ago, Reppyboyo said:

Gonna prod you again 😜

I'm trying to upload but it's giving me trouble 

[1st Commando]

https://imgur.com/a/8MLdgX1

link to some images 

Edited February 18, 2019 by 1st Commando

[Bada Bing]

Glorious images. Thanks for uploading, bud.  

 

[DrAlexanderTobacco]

Sploosh

[1st Commando]

An update on use after a couple more events .

a month ago I used it in minus 3C and incredibly it emptied every mag , every time which was a shock having had earlier VFC rifles and it also having such a large bolt . Especially on only green gas and not red or black

I used it again this weekend and this time it was a little warmer . I had also fitted the adjustable valve so I was using it as a battle rifle with slim fore-end and iron sights instead of as a dmr . 

Range was still amazing with airsoft surgeon 0.3g BBs with no loss of range with the drop in power created by the adjustable valve . The hop has bedded in now and accuracy was nothing short of astounding to the point  I was quite easily picking out parts of bodies behind cover at 60-70M . Mag changes are getting smoother too.

As an aside , I had also fitted the selector from a real G3 and that worked flawlessly on all modes with no modification or tooling . Literally a drop in fit 

[DrAlexanderTobacco]

You're really testing my decision to wait for the WE before I make a decision, haha!

 

Thanks for the pics

[Reppyboyo]

Same, it's getting harder to resist. 

Where did you get the adjustable valve BTW? 

[1st Commando]

5 hours ago, Reppyboyo said:

Same, it's getting harder to resist. 

Where did you get the adjustable valve BTW? 

I used one from a VFC M4 but they are easy enough to make and super easy to open the nozzle to fit . Only one pin to remove the front of the nozzle 

[renegadecow]

Scrolled too fast, got this.😑

[sear]

What brand is the retractable stock and does it fit well? The internals look quite good. How many mags have you shot so far?

Edited February 19, 2019 by sear
Revised the question.

[1st Commando]

1 hour ago, sear said:

What brand is the retractable stock and does it fit well? The internals look quite good. How many mags have you shot so far?

The stock is real H&K and yes it fits well (AEG stock is unlikely to fit) . I couldn't guess at the number of mags but quite a few 

[vietnammarine]

I got tired of waiting for WE-one and grabbed one of these.

 

 

I am really positively surprised by VFC’c performance. I have expected it to be amazing outside, but I was really happy to find out it also shoots very well.

 

With the only another spare mag, I was able to cycle it 6-times (including one mag in bursts) on green gas (Protech). The sixth mag cycle was lazier, but until the fifth it was almost the same all the time.

 

Good job VFC.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Reppyboyo]

Just dont drop it.
The material used for the outer barrel under the handguard is very thin.

Dropped my g3 from waist height and snapped it.