Broadsword calling Danny boy, Broadsword calling Danny Boy…

Anyhow…

I picked this up a two weekends ago at a game at Spectre Wargames near Hereford. For the princely sum of £30. New. Considering the price it was a crime to leave it there!

Anyhow, it was at the Urban site (which is now closed as it was the final day I attended) and this seemed like a good gun to use, however I didn’t really get a chance to as I’ll mention later.

First Impressions

This gun is solid. Couldn’t say what of it is metal but it’s hefty. Quite hefty. We’re talking probably about the same kind of weight as my RPK. It’s also solid enough to be used a sclub when the 50 round magazine is empty! The finish on it is excellent. However the only let down in my eyes, is that when the bolt is forward, the internals of the gun still show (that silver bit). However if the bolt is placed at the back, you open the hop adjustment so you have to put up with it. I’m going to paint it so it’s not so obvious.

Stripping the gun is insanely easy, so easy it had me stumped. Just where the folding stock is, there’s little twisty knob that you turn, then slide the entire front end off. I’ll get a picture of it when I can. Here’s where you put the battery in as well. Runs off a mini battery. Obviously the one included isn’t upto much and don’t mention the charger!

Main downside, is lack of mags. RSOV are currently out, as are anywhere in the UK. And only 50 rounds doesn’t last long.
The reason this gun was £30 was because no one really wants it. I guess it’s had to much bad press as the nazi gun but in my mind, it’s quite a nice SMG.

Performance
Ah, here we reach the point to wince.

I picked it up, put battery in, walked to chrono, fired. 330 give or take. Not bad, bit hot for Spectre Urban (300 limit as it’s close and the entire site is like the barns at MIA) Seemed odd, there was no single shot function. Safe or full auto. Went into game and fired 3 shots before the gun stopped working. Completely. No idea what was up with it. However, Yams, the owner, just swapped it for another one at the end of the day. This one I have now DOES work. Quite nicely I may add. RoF seems a bit slow and this was with my 9.6v RPK battery attached as it’s the only battery I have with a small connector to hand. Might need to nvestigate that further.

However, the flaw seems obvious now. The swith next to the bolt is the fire select. Single and full auto. The safety is a little switch at the bottom of the grip. Odd I know. So I can assume the one that broke on me was flawed from the start because the single shot selection didn’t do anything and stopped the trigger moving. However putting this on safe does not stop the trigger moving at all. Just stops it shooting.

Anyhow, it’s now working nicely and I cant wait to get some more mags to make it skirmishable. Just need a Whermacht uniform, call myself Lieutenant Schaffer and then I can re enact Where Eagles Dare O0

On an interesting note, I found out that the nobbly bit at the front of the barrel is for when the soldiers where in vehicles, they can rest the gun on a fire hole and this would reduce the recoil upward. (Mount it, pull the gun back into your shoulder)

Last weekend I got the chance to use my new berzerka pattern camouflage in woodland (where it was supposed to be used!) I thought I’d briefly write a few words on what I thought of it.

I have a Rex Design M7 pattern version though I believe you can also get it in a Bekas pattern. This is the first time I’ve come across the M7 and it’s a nicer fit than the Bekas I’ve used before. I might have mentioned it before but it’s very comfy! The trousers itself are very nice, with elasticated bottoms so the trousers don’t slip up the boot and the waistband also has a degree of elasticity. The material is a lot lot thinner than that of my Flora which is good as I bought this as a summer/spring/hot weather uniform to complement my KLMK. The uniform also thoughtfully has some mesh in the crotch area and in the under arm sections allowing air to reach these sweaty places more easily. (yep you all know it!) The uniform could be worn easily without any t shirt or base layer but I have a habit of doing so and in this weather we’ve been having in the UK recently, it got a tad warm.

As for effectiveness, I was unable to test this out as much as I would have liked due to the nature of the game we played (our team was attacking a lot and camo just doesn’t hide you when you supporting an infantry assault down a road!) However I thought it seemed to blend in fairly well with the sunny weather we’re having and with the sun coming in thought the leaf canopy.

Unfortunately because I ordered a size or two to big, I managed to rip the crotch section slightly. And the buttons seem a bit to large for the button holes and it can be a major struggle to do them up. However I reckon this will get better in time and use.

Overall it’s a very very nice piece of camo and one of my favourite ones I’ve owned. Also I think it’s the first time since I started airsoft (4 years ago!) that I’ve had a complete set of camo in one pattern! (as in boonie/hat, shirt, trousers and webbing/vest) Not since I skirmished in flecktarn have I worn all one camo pattern.

I bought myself a PBS1 silencer from RSOV.com a while back.

Picture from RSOV.com.

The silencer recently arrived, mainly due to it taking time to reach me from my mate who had ordered it as part of a team order.

My initial impression of this silencer was good. It has an impressive weight and I ordered the lighter aluminium version over the heavier steel one. It has an nice weight.

However, when I attempted to attach it to my AK47, I came across my first problem. The small section of the silencer you see above the TM in the picture above is what attaches the PBS to the AK. It screws into PBS at the base of the silencer. The problem is with the attachment to the AK. The AK itself has a small nipple (for want of a better term) that extends out of the front sight that stops the flash hider unscrewing. The attachment on the silencer was to small to allow this nipple to lock into place. I filed this down for quite a lot. This allowed the attachment to to fit.

The second problem was related to the first. My attachement wasn’t quite locked into place and whilst trying to screw it off, the attachment section actually screwed off INTO the silencer, thanks to the attachement screwing onto the AK one direction and into the silencer in the other. However I managed to remove it by unscrewing the thinner front part of the silencer from the fatter rear section.

Eventually I got onto attaching it and test firing. This is were the big disappoint happened. BB’s would not exit the silencer and those that did, exited in pieces, shattering inside. Having gotten into the silencer before, I had another look inside. The sponge rings inside I believe are casuing the issue. It’s low quality foam inside and probably wont silence BB’s much but I’m mainly using this as cosmetic aspect for the AK. That leads me onto my next article where I investigate it further and find out how to allow the BB’s to exit unaffected. I have already found out that the problem is not related to the fatter rear end as I have attached that to the AK and use it without any trouble. So my next article will be how I managed to fix the silencer.

Well final review!

Took it out to Cerberus Airsoft on Sunday for it’s first test fire in anger. Earlier in the week I sorted out a hop problem but I lost the hop bucking. My team mate fixed that with a bit from a biro. Cant really adjust it now but luckily the hop was set pretty perfect!

Dboys 1000 Round AK74 Style Mags Review
Feeding wise, the gun performed admirably. The only let down were the Dboys large mags. I’m not sure as to wether it was the BB’s I was using (ICS white from Zero One) but the mags seemed to be jammed. The BB’s seemed to stick to come almost to the top of the magazine but would not have enough pressure behind them to come out from the mag. Also they were to large to carry about. My M23 Pioneer chest rig is fantastic and that carried them but I have a couple of other russian vests/webbing that they would not fit into thanks to the sheer width of them.

I believe they need further testing to see if it is the BB’s I used or the mags themselves.

The gun managed quite a few kills in the morning and it was easily out ranging the hire guns on the site, which was good because they were mainly on our side and I was glad to provide support. The longer barrel seemed to come in useful, making the gun more accurate.

Unfortunatly, various parts managed to come loose and fall off or nearly fall off. I lost the rear sight. I knew this was a bit riskiy leaving it on but it fell off well before I expected it to.

The bipod screws onto the barrel and I nearly lost the screw to this. I had stuck a piece of electrical tape over it and this kept the screw in place so I managed to resuce that. Also the selector plate rattled loose towards the end of the game and I stuck that in place using tape. I’ve ordered some loctite from eBay so that’ll be sorted out soon and that should also fix the bipod problem.

The battery lasted for the mornings game and began to give out towards the end of that. I used about 4000 rounds in that game so I think that’s a decent enough battery life. My home site in Cornwall, MIA, run a different CQB games in barns in the afternoon so this would be fine for there but up north in Leeds, I play at sites that have woodland  games all day so I might need another battery for it.

I’ve noticed now after leaving the gun for a few days, that some rust patches have appeared on the barrel. I’ve ordered some oil to take care of this.

Overall I’m impressed with it and the problems can easily be sorted out with a bit of effort.