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Airsoft Surgeon Arnie Custom

by Arnie

CL
Arnie’s STI Eagle 6.0″

by Arnie

Stock
Specifications
FPS
???m/s
Length:
???mm
Barrel
Length:
 ?
Weight: ???g

Ammo
capacity:

???
rounds


The
story:

Not so long ago Herman (aka DolphinCommand) headed
off to HK on a short holiday. One of the many people he met
up with was the well respected Clarence Lai (the gunsmith previously
known as CL, now known as AirsoftSurgeon). As a result of their
conversations, and when Clarence realised that BB-IPSC was taking
off in the UK, he amazingly, and completely unexpectedly offered
to make me a custom replica for competing in IPSC.

Ever
since the accidental conception of this website there’s been
a few targets that I’ve set myself. A few of these aims you’ll
probably already know, one was to continuously update the website
with roughly 48hour updates, another was always to post fun
readable news in an unbiased format from any honest source.
Sorry for getting a bit sentimental here, but Arnie’s Airsoft
won’t be around forever, and it’d just be nice to leave a few
unique personal touches to Airsoft history. Nah, I’m not getting
bored of the website, far from it, but you’ve got to have aims
in life and it’s nice when things pan out. This is one of those
moments when you just get that warm and fuzzy feeling of sheer
happiness. I mean, the king of Airsoft custom pistols wants
to make me my own custom pistol? I nearly fell off my seat when
Herman told me the news… ^_^

No amount
of thanks can really be enough to say thanks to Clarence, but
thank you Clarence, I really will cherish this replica. It will
become a heirloom to ArnieJr someday.

On the
2nd of October, Clarence dropped me an email that the
Eagle was on it’s way, and (amazingly) it arrived at 9:45AM
on the 4th. I don’t know what happened to ParcelForce that day,
but it must be a good omen.

Specs:
So what has Clarence built? Well here’s the full specifications:


1) WA SV 6 limited base
2) PGC aircrift aluminum slide with hybrid cut
3) Full hand polish frame with special words
4) WA standard magwell with fluted cuts
5) Steel bearing hammer
6) CL custom solder STI grip
7) PGC reinforce loading nozzle
8) Super light 10 oz trigger pull
9) Reinforce part no 8
10) Steel firing pin
11) Upgrade magazine valve
12) KM 6.04 TN inner barrel
13) Sheriff steel chamber
14) Custom hybrid outer barrel
15) CL upgrade hammer spring
16) Steel fibre optic front sight
17) CL shok buff

The
pistol:
The pistol is based on the WA SV6 ‘limited’.
It’s well renown that the WA series are quite possibly the finest
production GBB Airsoft pistols out there, and the original SV
limited editions are some of the most sought after.In truth
I don’t think there’s a better place to start when building
a custom pistol.

Starting
with the basics; the ArnieSTI is 6 inches long, and features
a double stack extended mag – this places it in the ‘open class’
in IPSC. I’m fairly new to IPSC, so I’m afraid my knowledge
in this area is somewhat limited and hence I can’t go into the
classifications with much detail.

Looks:
Although based on an SV chassis, the pistol is designed around
the looks of the STI
6.0
. The pistol is a full frame design, with a custom
made aluminium slide and frame.

The
slide features some gorgeous authentic markings engraved on
the LHS, and some handy chevron markings to the front and the
back of the slide, which ensure a firm grip when racking the
slide back that first time.

On the
RHS of the slide you will find the markings

“Design
for Arnie’sAirsoft custom by Airsoft Surgeon CL”

Second
to the slide markings is the grip, and its custom finish. I
don’t know how long Clarence takes on this part, but the efforts
are well worth it. Using a soldering iron set to a medium heat
(not so hot that it burns), Clarence has effectively ‘engraved’
the slide with a wood texture pattern, not only does it look
amazing, but the grip is firm to hold and ensures a firm stance.

Feel:
I can’t think of a much more pleasant pistol to hold, and it
even outrates my prized M93r collection. In the world of Yhetti-like
fingers, the SV double stack really is the best. Clarence has
cut a notch under the trigger grip to allow your second finger
to easily rest under the trigger guard. Again it’s a nice touch
that a seasoned IPSC vet such as Clarence will add simply because.

Performance:
Sadly I have misplaced my chrono so I can’t clock this powerhouse,
but as it punctures both sides of a coke-can which puts it in
the 350 to 370fps range, and it is therefore powerful enough
for me. Remember that this piece is for competing not skirmishing
(that’d just be silly ^_^).

For
anyone that isn’t familiar with the concepts of IPSC, the shooter
needs to engage the targets as quick as possible, and he/she
is both scored on where the shots hit, but on the time it takes
him to complete the stage.

It’s
advisable to have a decent powered pistol, as you are firing
at cardboard targets, and therefore a clean hole makes for accurate
and easy scoring. There’s nothing worse than searching for that
lost shot where the BB just made a tiny ‘dint’. There’s not
a chance with this pistol, as it’ll leave nice tidy clean 6mm
holes.

The
pistol lcaks hop-up, which si a good thing for two reasons:

– With
a hop-up unit your BB will stay in the breach when you drop
the mag to clear the gun and make it safe. The only way to remove
it is to poke a stick down the barrel. With no hopup you simply
remove the mag, and rack the slide to let the last (loaded)
round out.

– Hopup
actually decreases the muzzle velocity as it diverts some of
the energy intot he spinning motion. There’s no need for the
additional range that hop-up produces, and the uncertainty it
brings into the firing leads to decreased accuracy.

Firing:
If you have never used a full metal Airsoft pistol, you really
are missing out. It’s just ..different. There’s something about
that click-click sound that is very appealing. But enough of
that matcho procrastinating, it’s more important to talk about
the actual firing.

The
action is delightfully fast and crisp, even depite it’s vast
slide length. Thankfully I’ve never had to strip a WA pistol
down much further than a basic field strip, as none of my WA
pistols have required it. Clarence on the other hand has basically
taken a WA SV, and thrown away all but the original grip and
trigger. The overall effect is to coin a cliche “more than
the sum of it’s parts”. There’s something about the carefully
matched spec that provides as much of a “wow” factor
as when I first set eyes on the piece.

One
homurous point is that the ‘firing pin’ (the bit that strikes
the gas valve) is sooo long that you must first cock the hammer
before you put the mag in, otherwise the pin protrudes too far
into the mag well to alow you to seat the mag correctly. This
is not a bad thing – it’s just the way this beauty is!

Features:
In IPSC there is a requirement for only one safety. The SV series
features both a standard slide safety, and a beaver-tail safety.
As this duplicaiton is uneccesary, the beaver-tail has been
disabled and locked in place. This is a welcome addition, as
I’ve already found that beaver-tail safeties can get in the
way, as if you don’t grip in the right place, or hard enough
you’ll be unable to get the shot off. When 1/4 seconds count,
every tweak made can mean the difference between getting that
first shot in, or stumbling around wondering why the darn thing
won’t fire.. Yup been there, done that, got the T-Shirt. ^_^

Front
sight – now this is a rather simple, yet cunningly handy addition.
It’s no secret, but I’ve never been a fan of scopes. Coming
from a marksman background if it didn’t come with steel sights
I wasn’t interested, the same counts for me now. I just can’t
get to grps with red-dots, and I find it easier to snap shoot
with a plain sight system, than focus on a red-dot.

For
this reason I was incredibly happy to see that Clarence had
installed a fibre optic sight. This little contraption collects
light from it’s surroundings and directs it towards the shooter.
Simple and ingenious.

There
is of course more to add to this review, but that shall have
to wait until the next update. :)

I’ll
just add this little addendum – Before the Arnie STI, I was
using a WA SpeedComp I – gorgeous yes, but sadly it suffered
the death that all SpeedComps do int eh end, and the slide smashed
clean in two at the end of its last event; the Arnie STI can/will
never fall fowl to this.

It’s
difficult to explain in words the differing ‘feel’ between this
pistol, and mass produced items such as the WA IPSC spec pistols.
All I can say is that a hand built custom pistol is just better.

If
you are looking for an IPSC pistol Clarence is your man – no
challenge is too big for him, and I’ve yet to see a piece of
work from him that wasn’t unique and brilliant in it’s own right.

Clarence
– you da man! (British translation: I take my hat off to
you sir!
)

Stay
tuned for part II of this review.




External
Links:
Airsoft
Surgeon

Site
links:

TBA

Comment
on this review in the forums


Last
modified:
Thursday, November 28, 2002 8:34 PM
Copyright ArniesAirsoft




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