RELOADED: STONER

with an overall length of 930mm (but still with a 440mm inner barrel!), it’s not much longer than most mid-length AR carbines! Due to the design, with a very modern-looking pistol grip, full butt and sizable forestock, the Stoner actually handles superbly well and is as easy to manipulate as any rifle, even with the clever 1200 BB box-mag fitted. The butt, stock and pistol grip are made of a very durable polycarbonate/ glass-fibre mix, although some of the early models were reported to have a weak point of failure at the point where the butt met the receiver group. As someone who has done a full somersault and landed HARD with a G&P Stoner in hand, I can tell you that this initial weak point was most definitely rectified as production went on! The G&P is thankfully also rear-wired into the butt, so there’s a huge battery compartment but G&P recommended no more than a 7.4V LiPo for this AEG and even a small one will keep you effective for hours.

The big thing that we all love about the Stoner is that it’s a select-fire model, just like your regular AR, so its fully happy in both full-automatic and semiautomatic modes and it’s equally excellent in both, as I mentioned earlier! This is a support gun that you can sweep the street with one minute and then happily and confidently switch to semi as you step indoors the next; it really is versatile, and it’s as accurate as many DMRs when you have it on semi!

The Stoner is driven along by a V2 gearbox with 8mm Bearings, so no problems there. It’s nothing fancy, it just works and keeps on working but of course is very easy to work on and will accept most off-the-shelf upgrade parts, so you can upgrade the gearbox if you so desire. Why you’d want to though is beyond me to be honest, as the AEG “stock” works pretty much perfectly. The Stoner also comes with an M120 High Speed, Long Type motor and high-speed setup out of the box, which is brilliant for a support gun where you want it to lay lots of BBs down quickly and this has proved to be not only highly efficient, but also massively durable. The 1200 BB box mag is another piece of “airsoft art” that runs from a separate battery inside (there’s a neat little compartment for this!) and automatically feeds BBs as you fire due to some rather wonderful electronic wizardry, and there’s even a little hatch so that you can bomb-up on the move without disconnecting the box first!

Overall, it’s a stunning piece of work!

The Stoner can be shot comfortably from the shoulder, offers pinpoint accuracy and superb range and what you have is still more than enough ammo for support use, as a trip to a number of “In Country” weekenders proved to me beyond doubt. The Stoner runs beautifully on that 7.4V LiPo, and although some of the original models came it pretty hot, mine was down-powered to 1.07 Joule/340fps on a .20g BB when it came in and has remained there ever since!

And this is why we love it!

To conclude though, I’ll pass the “Stoner Flame” over to Scott who, as both a player AND an airsoft retailer at the highest level, knows exactly what he’s looking for from an AEG…

“THE ABILITY TO RUN A “MILSIM” SPEC RIFLE WITH A BOX MAG AND SINGLE SHOT FOR INDOOR USE WAS A DREAM COME TRUE. A FEW GUYS IN STRATEGIC POSITION WHO COULD LAY DOWN ACCURATE FIRE WITHOUT HAVING TO MOVE AROUND RELOADING EVERY 100 ROUNDS ABSOLUTELY MAKES A DIFFERENCE, UNLIKE MANY SUPPORT WEAPONS.”

SCOTT’S TAKE!

As the 10th anniversary of Airsoft Action coincides with one of my favourite all time rifle releases from G&P, we decided to take a look at why it’s just so damned good!

Vietnam saw weapon development on a scale not seen since WW2, we saw a transition away from wooden rifles and into the plastic and polymer era and from 7.62mm down to 5.56 which weighed half as much. The Navy SEALs (who were pretty badass back then wearing Levi’s in the jungle) started using the M63 Stoner, which had a lot of similar features to the recently developed M16, probably because a lot of the same people were involved. The Stoner was used right up until the 80’s before it was replaced by the M249, which is a fairly decent run for a belt fed platform that was a radical design.

G&P back in the late naughties were the kings of airsoft, they had the best finishes, the best externals and the true replica names in droves. We could literally spec our own rifles as we needed them as a store to sell. The gearboxes were basic but it meant you could throw great upgrades in there and see huge performance increases for not a lot of money.

The M63A1 seemed to be “coming soon” for a long time from G&P; I remember being in HK and seeing some prototype parts and it felt like years before I saw a complete rifle. However, come it eventually did and I’ve personally run one of these AEGs for many years and after a few England vs Scotland victories we saw the Stirling Airsoft guys buying them slowly, yet surely too. The ability to run a “milsim” spec rifle with a box mag and single shot for indoor use was a dream come true. A few guys in strategic position who could lay down accurate fire without having to move around reloading every 100 rounds absolutely makes a difference, unlike many support weapons. Where it wins over the M249, M60 or, God forbid, the M240/GPMG, is the slightly more compact box magazine, as in the M240/GPMG case of the box hanging exactly where your arm needs to go, it causes all types of crazy C-clamping to hold the gun in the supported position!

Externally they couldn’t be much sweeter, a nice matt black throughout, although like any long rifle they’re prone to cracking the main receiver if landed on (which is a little pricey to replace). Internally they are basic as they were 10 years ago but with the likes of GATE Titans and other electronic triggers around now, you’d be laughed at for caring about a standard gearbox these days. The full stock can take any of the big batteries including the chunkier Titan Power types (which last forever and a day), meaning you don’t have to sweat it if you’re going the whole 9 yards against the enemy that day.

It’s still a bit long and a little bit heavy for a longerduration event but letting rip in a MilSim type setting always proves that the Stoner is today, as it was 50 years ago, a force multiplier! AA

COVERT BOOT

BLACK / BROWN / TITANIUM / SRP: £49.95

CLARENCE LAI : NEW BEGINNINGS

CLARENCE LAI, AKA AIRSOFT SURGEON, HAS BEEN A CLOSE FRIEND OF AIRSOFT ACTION FOR MOST OF OUR TEN YEARS IN PUBLICATION, SO WHEN HE MOVED AWAY FROM HONG KONG TO SETTLE IN TAIWAN WE ASKED OUR MAN ON THE GROUND, STEWBACCA, TO CATCH UP WITH THE MAN HIMSELF AND GET THE LOWDOWN ON WHAT HE’S BEEN UP TO - AND WHY THE MOVE.

Following the easing of our three-month, quasilockdown in Taiwan, which kicked off just as I was on the PengHu islands reporting on PAF Airsoft back in July’s Airsoft Action issue 127, I finally got out and about again and began slowly regaining my sanity. Although granted, I’m sure many of you all suffered for far longer elsewhere, the walls close in very quickly for me when things get in the way of my burning desire to get on with things.

So it was that I got around to a meet up that had been in the works for a while, but had been hampered by restrictions and my shifting teaching timetable, resulting from a gradual return to normality (which is still in progress as I write this atop the bar of one of my favourite craft beer establishments in central Taipei!).

Clarence Lai is, without doubt, a household name for many and needs no introduction! Arguably the godfather of action air in general and a renowned and respected figure and brand all his own within the wider airsoft community, word on our internal grapevine came down that the good man himself - along with his lovely partner in crime Katherine - had relocated to Taipei from Hong Kong in mid-April 2021, just prior to restrictions tightening. With just enough time beforehand to settle themselves into a comfortable new abode to endure the isolation within, they were also quick to share their love of the convenience of life in Taiwan with me and “Ms. Stewbacca” when we recently visited them at their new digs in the very South of Taipei, near one of my regular workplaces during my day job.

Having finally organised a face to face meeting with restrictions loosening (and me being lucky enough to be further ahead in the queue for vaccination thanks again to the day job), we settled in to an evening of pizza, pasta and beer - although the latter being more of an accommodation towards myself, given our gracious host’s perusal of my Facebook feed and my evident love of a drink in good company!

Adorning Clarence and Katherine’s apartment is a veritable “kid in a candy shop” selection of custom gas pistols flanking the TV, including the cheerful couple’s own competition Infinity race gun blowback pistols with SHIELD sights on cantilever mounts, plus an array of other CL marked projects Clarence has been working on since his departure from his longstanding Airsoft Surgeon brand (which he will now use only as an organising body for action air events, rather than anything related to tangible products in future).