10 minute read
RELOADED: VFC PSG-1
PSG-ONE YEAR ON!
HAVING HAD HIS ICONIC DREAM RIFLE THAT IS THE VFC PSG-1 GBBR FOR THE BETTER PART OF A YEAR NOW, HOW HAS IT FARED IN STEWBACCA’S RECKONING? WITH MORE USE IN THE FIELD AND ADDITIONAL ACCESSORIES, AND WORK BEING DONE ON AND WITH IT, WHAT’S GONE MORE RIGHT OR WRONG SINCE THE INITIAL PURCHASE AND ARMOURY REVIEW IN ISSUE 133?
As I eagerly await the imminent release and inevitable purchase and review of another long awaited 7.62 x 51mm platform in the shape of VFC’s LAR/FAL GBBR, which admittedly was announced or at least teased as far back as MOA
2018 and therefore didn’t sneak up on us all quite as much as their almost surprise announcement and release of their HK PSG-1 replica, I nonetheless find myself staring at the somewhat impressive gun wall in my new place and casting my eyes to the right where the ‘lorge boi’ HK still takes equal pride of place, and thinking about what I’ve put it through already and the future plans or other improvements I still want to make to it and how I can utilise it more often where possible.
One of the major improvements I’ve stumbled upon is a creature comfort factor of sorts; when I first acquired it I bemoaned the sheer bulk of the carry case supplied in lieu of your
typical cardboard box and blister pack carton most replicas would be sold in. To be fair the PSG-1 is one of the largest and most cumbersome platforms I think I’ve encountered, and I can just about get away with single point slinging it or an SVD, so I’m by no means small. Nonetheless, while the armoured realistic deployment case VFC supplied it in serves well in protecting your investment, its weight is equal to that of the fully decked out gun with all its accessories so you’re essentially carrying around the best part of 15kg or so with the gun, magazines and case, and the carry handle isn’t exactly comfortable for prolonged use as I experienced when navigating the local MRT with it for pickup to go to
games!
Similarly, unless you have your own vehicle, or even if you are sharing someone else’s, it’s somewhat cumbersome and doesn’t easily fit into most boot spaces; I had to strap it to my teammate Barrie’s roof rack atop his mini on more than one occasion, so just getting it to and from games can be a pain for yourself and anyone else who might want to fit a gun in the car!
In the end I stumbled on the idea of treating it as a cool assassin style ‘takedown’ gun; by popping the two body pins out and storing them in the typical stock mounted sling loop adjacent holes I can remove the somewhat clunky butt stock assembly, as well as dismount the trigger group and bulky pistol grip sub-assembly. By doing this I found I could store the PSG-1 in my long rifle case quite effectively, with the scope still attached to the main receiver and barrel assembly, and then the stock placed alongside the barrel to make best use of the bag space, while the trigger group is kept in the separate accessory pouch in between the four magazine pouches on the front of the gun bag which carry all of my magazines. I now have four of the full sized 20 BB G3 magazines as well as the custom “5 round” sized one just for perfecting the look and as a wall hanger or which can be used as an emergency backup magazine or to carry the heaviest ammunition in an easily distinguished manner. This is by and large a much more practical
solution, although it doesn’t afford the same level of protection to the whole system; I have to remain careful in how I carry it around or stack it in vehicles, but at least it has allowed me to make use of the PSG-1 far more readily and I’ve fielded it more often as a result, which is the main thing really, seeing as I refuse to let it languish as just a wall hanger, I bought it to test its limits and my own!
CONTINUATION TESTING!
On the subject of testing, since acquiring it and my initial review and zeroing process I’ve further experimented with a wide variety of ammunition weights from the BLS BB range, with everything from 0.2g, 0.3g, 0.36g, 0.4g, 0.45g and even 0.5g. All were chrono’d on the same day in an attempt to minimise the shift in other variables, although it was a particularly hot day at the indoor range SPPT use for action air, and I sat there ‘thumping away on the long gun’ and testing it out before one of our infrequent afternoon makeup sessions that usually fall on a national holiday weekend which upsets our usual training schedule.
As yet I still haven’t adjusted the NPAS at all, but will look towards this as the next phase of fielding and fine tuning the whole system to use an optimal ammunition weight and output power suitable for sustained in game use where I’m not concerned about it being overpowered even by Taiwanese gameplay standards. The 650mm barrel and large gas cylinder volume and heavy action in general make for a noticeable joule creep effect, when comparing the same 12kg ‘green gas’ usage and 0.2g vs 0.5g ammunition the resultant muzzle energy is essentially doubled, with less than a 20% velocity drop it seems, so it’s definitely a potential hot runner by most standards; something to seriously consider if you are looking to use it in game!
With responsible use and adherence to the minimum engagement distances however it can be used very effectively to deliver long range supporting fire, and during one session where I fielded it at our Xindian mountain site in the southeast of Taipei I managed to get some uphill long range shots to drop onto opposition snipers and designated marksmen hidden largely behind a ridge line overlooking our team as we tried to advance up the main track flanked by trees.
I did frustratingly find the wind that day carrying my BBs off course just as they’d reach the opponents positions at times though as there was a break in the treeline just downhill and off the track so I’d see the rounds majestically sailing toward them through the very clear Vortex 2-7 x 32mm scope I have mounted on it, only for them to drift off target at the last moment! Some would also frustratingly ping off branches just ahead of the targets, but regardless I was enjoying stretching its legs and assessing its realistic capabilities. Gas blowback guns are after all not always the most consistent performers, but the PSG-1 still manages to throw BBs down fairly well and I’m sure the hop unit will continue to bed in well with time spent in use.
ATTS AND DETS
The addition of a VFC Harris-style bipod became an immediate priority after my first fielding or two of it, not wanting to rely on sandwiching my
support hand between it and low lying cover when using it prone, and saving my old back some of the suffering! Of course this addition now brought the gross weight up to 6.5kg for the PSG-1, scope, bipod and magazine, but the two point quick adjustment slider style sling at least makes it more manageable for me to hang off my large frame and comfortably field it without having to strain my arms or back as much. The bipod itself has sprung flip- down legs with spring-out telescopic legs and reasonably wide feet on their ends which enables me to get a good firing position, and when stowed actually provide a surprisingly comfortable grip and indexing point for my larger hands than the front foregrip alone used to before I fitted the bipod beneath it… win win I guess!
One thing I noticed after the first game or two trying to make use of it was the need for me to increase the length of pull due to the positioning of my scope and its required eye relief; when playing around with it at home I’d failed to account for the offset in your shoulders you tend to get when lying prone or taking cover on an incline behind it, so I soon found myself making use of the wind out acme-threaded butt plate, which now sits around an inch or so out of the flush position and is locked there for convenience.
On the subject of the scope I still need to get around to either machining off the picatinny rail claws of the scope rings I bought and direct tapping and threading them to the stanchions welded onto the receiver… or come up with an entirely custom machined scope mount that interfaces with them to avoid that stepped rail which doesn’t look particularly realistic or appealing. This also increases the height over bore considerably and therefore the cheek piece comb height has to be at its upper limit to align my eye with the scope. Hopefully I can work something better out when I find the time.
The two point sling I added is affixed to the rear sling loop in the buttstock and then wrapped around the front of the receiver just ahead of the magazine well and behind the charging handle slot’s rearmost edge, all held in place with the aid of the bipod mount to keep it reasonably static. That way it isn’t inhibiting the shouldering or movement of the rifle much but also isn’t in the way of the action or cocking handle.
The only issue I have to report thus far has been the perhaps somewhat undersized recoil spring mount screw that holds that whole reasonably heavy spring system into the butt stock socket; this has worked its way loose and partially stripped its thread extremities during all the firing and perhaps as a result of my repeated dismantling of the gun for transport, but it wasn’t an impossible fix. I just had to remove the mounting plate from the butt stock and retighten the recoil spring assembly mount screw to it from behind with the plate out of the stock. This small gripe aside, the VFC PSG-1 has been performing very well for me thus far and I look forward to beating it some more and fine tuning it to the point where it starts earning its keep on the field as much as it earns my admiration on the gun wall.
If you find yourself able to pick one up, or someone very nice will let you take a few shots on theirs, it’s definitely an experience worth trying; there’s typically a queue forming behind mine whenever I field it! AA
