Boland 5" and Accucomp 6" Hi-Capa - Tokyo Marui/Elite Airsoft
Mike Cripps at the Elite Shooting Centre got in touch with me offering some custom guns for reviews at exactly the time I decided to write a Race Gun article for Airsoft International, which seemed too much of a coincedence to ignore.
John Reddington and Mike (the people behind Elite) are both practical pistol shooters (real and airsoft) of some note and if anyone should know what makes a good race gun, it's them.
You can read the Race Gun article in AI, but I thought the Elite Custom Hi-Capas were worth a closer look, so decided to review them in full on JustPistols.
Both guns are based off of standard Tokyo Marui Hi-Capas (the 6.0" off of a 5.1" and the 5" off of a 4.3"), but feature custom parts. Elite can build you a custom gun with virtually any degree of customisation that you require - For more details, contact Elite directly.
Apologies for the less than stellar photos in this review, but my SLR was in for repair whilst I had these guns, so I had to fall back on my older camera.
In the Box
Despite being custom guns, all you get box wise is a standard box (assuming your customisation doesn't make the gun too big to fit!)
With compensators, neither of these guns would fit their original boxes, so they came carefully packaged without a box. Elite can include a aluminium or plastic gun case to keep your custom pistol in, if you require one.
First Impressions
The Boland gun is named after the designer (Jim Boland) of this compensator style and is the less modified of the two.
Based on a 4.3” Tokyo Marui Hi-Capa, it retains its stock plastic slide and controls, but the custom compensator, full length guide rod and custom 5 inch barrel are all added as, of course, is the Panorama scope and mount.
As configured, this gun would cost around £295 from Elite.
In contrast, the Accucomp 6” is quite heavily modified. The base gun is a 5.1” Hi-Capa, but the whole frame has been replaced with a Freedom Art Accucomp frame, to which a fixed compensator is attached. The idea is to lock the front of the extended inner barrel (from Tanio Koba and featuring a rifled barrel) down, delivering improved accuracy.
Combined with the Accucomp system is a Guarder SVI alloy slide, alloy trigger, extended magazine release, slide lock and thumb safeties, a magazine well and the gun is fitted with a scope mount for your choice of optics.
The Accucomp 6”, in this form, would cost around £460 from Elite, but Mike can build a gun to virtually any specification you require starting with a standard TM 5.1 fitted with a 6” inner barrel and compensator, with a scope for around £225.
Closer Look
The Boland retained its standard plastic slide, but features the Boland compensator kit, extended, tightbore inner barrel (out to 5") and a full length guide rod (in a cut out section of the compensator).
The front sight is removed from the slide and, on the example I had, impact with the compensator broke away the small part of the top of the slide ahead of the sight dovetail. Mike said that he'd not seen this before, but that most people opt for a metal slide, anyway. It may well have been a fluke and it in no way affected the operation of the gun, happening after just a half dozen shots and before any of my tests were carried out.
Other than these mods (and the sight mount), the Boland is a standard Hi-Capa 4.3".
The Accucomp is based on the longer barreled 5.1" model, but features a new frame from Freedom Art. The idea is that the, extended, inner barrel is secured in the barrel block which is firmly bolted to the front of the rail.
The gun's inner barrel features rifling (Tanio Koba's design is intended to put a cushion of spiralling air around the BB, rather than spin the BB directly) and extended out to 6".
The various controls, like the trigger, slide lock, magazine release and thumb safeties are replaced with better quality extended aftermarket versions and there is a mag well to hide the mag bumper as well as help guide mags into the grip during fast reloads.
A word of praise should be given to the Panorama scope, too. Elite Shooting Centre sell it for £30 and it features a switchable selection of crosshairs and dots and the ability (unlike some red-dots, intended for rifles) to adjust to pistol ranges - I was able to hit the target dead-centre time and again with the scope aimed at that point at 5m.
Shooting Impressions
Needless to say, both Elite guns shoot accurately.
Click on image for bigger version in separate window.
Carrying out my standard 5m/6 round, off hand test, the Boland excelled, delivering 6 rounds almost into a single jagged hole, dead centre on the target with the first 6 shots I fired at the target (For completeness, the Boland put the best 5 of 6 into a 15mm diameter).
I suspect the gun’s standard lightweight slide helped deliver an almost flinch-free cycle, keeping the muzzle dead on target.
Click on image for bigger version in separate window.
The Accucomp’s heavier muzzle and weightier slide made it more difficult to maintain the sight on target from shot to shot, especially shooting quickly, as Practical Shooting demands, but it was still good, with the best 5 from 6 shots ending up in a 30mm diameter.
Both guns cycle, like the base Hi-Capa, very swiftly, allowing you to put 10 or 15 rounds into a target very quickly.
Performance is good, with the longer barrelled Accucomp delivering around 297fps with .2g BBs at 17C on Ultrair Summer gas and the, shorter, Boland around 285fps.
Elite Boland FPS
| Shot | FPS |
| 1 | 290.5 |
| 2 | 288.1 |
| 3 | 285.4 |
| 4 | 288.2 |
| 5 | 285.9 |
| 6 | 283.6 |
| 7 | 285.4 |
| 8 | 281.2 |
| 9 | 285.0 |
| 10 | 280.3 |
Elite Accucomp 6" FPS
| Shot | FPS |
| 1 | 301.3 |
| 2 | 299.5 |
| 3 | 300.0 |
| 4 | 300.5 |
| 5 | 301.1 |
| 6 | 295.4 |
| 7 | 297.2 |
| 8 | 296.0 |
| 9 | 290.0 |
| 10 | 295.1 |
I didn't test trigger pull, but the standard TM Hi-Capa had an impressively light pull of 600g (21oz) and the Elite guns exhibited no issues with trigger pull.
Take Down
I didn't field strip these guns, but both would neccesitate more complex field stripping than a standard 2011 style gun, with the compensator/barrel block needing to be removed before the slide could be parted from the frame.
Conclusions
Overall, the Elite custom pistols are great if you want a good shooting, custom pistol off the shelf.
Hopefully, this review will show what can be done to improve a standard airsoft pistol through the careful selection and matching of aftermarket parts.
Many people will enjoy the process of choosing parts and fitting them themselves, but if you don't feel up to this (or lack the time or inclination), Elite can build you a Hi-Capa based race gun (or a more combat ready custom, if your need is for a customised skirmish sidearm) to your specfications and there can be no quibbling with the accuracy or performance of these guns; the Boland is the most accurate airsoft pistol I have tested.
Weight : 5.0" : 995g (400g magazine)
6.0" : 1200g (400g magazine)
Realism : ***
Quality : ****
Power : ****
Accuracy : *****
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