TESTING THEIR MATTEL

WHILE HE’S NO DOUBT BEST KNOWN FOR HIS LOVE OF GERMAN GUNS AND IN PARTICULAR ALL THINGS H&K, STEWBACCA HAS NONETHELESS BEEN GETTING TO GRIPS WITH VFC’S RECENT AR GBBR RANGE WITH ZEAL AND HAVING ALREADY SECURED HIS OWN T91 SOC TAIWANESE SERVICE RIFLE AFTER REVIEWING IT IN ISSUE 161, HE’S NOW EYEING UP ITS ORIGINAL FOREBEAR FOR HIS EVER-GROWING GUN WALL TOO, THE DADDY OF ALL-THINGS-AR AND THE MOST COMMONLY SEEN US RIFLE DURING THE VIETNAM WAR, THE ICONIC M16A1 GBBR!

The Armalite AR15 is an epoch-defining firearm design which has spawned numerous variations and licensed offshoots, including the odd AR15/ AR18 hybrid variants in the guise of the Taiwanese service rifles, as well as leading to the AR18 and all of its more successful derivatives; the L85, AUG, F2000, G36 family, SAR80, SAR21, VHS1 & 2, it’s hard to think of a western bloc / NATO variant service rifle these days which doesn’t use either the AR15 or AR18 operating system, the FAMAS being the only one that comes to mind and even that’s being phased out for just such a system!

Our lord and saviour, Eugene Stoner, clearly didn’t know they needed until its virtues were shown to them in stark contrast to the established order.

As it was, the US Air Force were in fact the earliest adopters given their specific needs for lightweight and easily-handled firearms and in particular compact survival rifles for pilots to carry with them in case of being downed behind enemy lines, and they forged ahead acquiring Stoner’s earlier design iterations of the XM16 series back before the Army were even convinced of its benefits and got in on the act.

First revealed by Stoner at Fort Benning in May 1957, and officially adopted under a “special permission” by US Special Forces in early 1963, the they’re finally moving back towards seven decades later… ah, politics and the military industrial complex and procurement game… something Stoner himself was evidently keen to avoid entanglement with and devised his lightweight and modern polymer and aluminium alternative to the good old ‘iron ‘n’ wood’ that many of the establishment preferred.

Applying aviation industry ideas, materials and processes to firearms design somewhat made him the Gaston Glock of his era, trailblazing a newcomer’s perspective and approach to building a demonstrably better product which the military and end users became synonymous with the helicopter-borne Vietnam War and its baptism of fire that led to an initial reputation for unpopularity and unreliability as a result of meddling from the establishment with Stoner’s otherwise well-devised implement, but that ultimately led to a thoroughly reliable platform that right gained its place in “gun lore”.

Top Notch Replication

VFC’s GBBR offering of the M16A1 replicate its true forebear excellently; having handled and fired the real steel equivalent in semi and full auto alongside the

“THE AR15 WAS THE 5.56 X 45MM ‘.223’ ADAPTED ‘LITTLE BROTHER’ TO THE EARLIER AR10 7.62 X 51MM ‘.308’ ELDER WHICH STONER HAD WORKED ON ORIGINALLY IN AN ATTEMPT TO BUILD A BETTER ‘BATTLE RIFLE’ THAN ITS PREDECESSOR THE M14, THE SHORTEST SERVING RIFLE IN US HISTORY!”

AKM on my Cambodia trip in 2015, the familiar ease of handling and wielding immediately came flooding back as soon as I first handled one of these at VFC’s HQ while Bill was visiting back in November last year.

It just points and balances so nicely with its overall light weight despite its still significant overall length of 990mm, with its fixed stock sitting comfortably under your armpit if you have to wield it one handed while doing admin tasks or just moving around in ‘high port’ or ‘high ready; it certainly isn’t an ideal CQB platform for indoors use as I found out at its later outing at our Yangmei disused-university-dormitories indoor/outdoor CQB venue furniture all adding to the overall aesthetic. Drawing the charging handle back reveals a very nice and smooth internal action with a stout recoil spring in the buffer tube that makes for a snappy action coupled with an excellent trigger which has a pull of around 4lbs (just shy of 2kg) and drops a very positive hammer strike with an authoritative clunk. The front face also features a grub screw that can be backed out to ensure the hammer impinges on the striker and opens the valve earlier in its forward travel and thus allows for a greater volume of gas to be dispensed for those of you using it in cooler climates or where latent humidity otherwise hampers GBBRs. outing when I first began fielding my example having picked it up from VFC’s Pentagon Service Centre in the usual fashion before gleefully toddling home with it in tow on the MRT home.

The VFC replication of the overall appearance is top notch, and being officially licensed by Colt via Cybergun it has all the appropriate markings, the familiar prancing pony on the left face of the magazine well, as well as the government markings and even the white highlighted open winged eagle logo on the front face of the magwell, and the flat grey appearance of the receivers and darker plastic

SOC it really blew me away out of the box, making hits at both Yangmei and Xindian out to 55-60m on coffee cups and used gas cans repeatedly after I spent five hours bedding in all my long guns on a range day up to Xindian using a hastily thrown together wooden clamping sled and my laser boresight as well as 0.48g BLS BBs and 12kg green gas.

Once I’d dumped a few tens of magazines through it the thing was shooting laser straight in a most satisfying fashion and slapping BBs off the tree trunks at 55, 60 and 65m respectively, making it easy to hit player-sized targets at relatively extreme ranges

AND

OFFICIALLY LICENSED BY COLT VIA CYBERGUN IT HAS ALL THE APPROPRIATE MARKINGS, THE FAMILIAR PRANCING PONY ON THE LEFT FACE OF THE MAGAZINE WELL, AS WELL AS THE GOVERNMENT MARKINGS AND EVEN THE WHITE HIGHLIGHTED OPEN WINGED EAGLE LOGO ON THE FRONT FACE OF THE MAGWELL” in airsoft terms; I was in my element with it, and as always the usual crowd of interested onlookers and teammates clamoured to get hands on with approving nods and noises once they too found they could beat up paint-cans or trees at daft long ranges! Clearly whatever VFC are doing with their HOP units and barrels lately, they should keep doing, it’s wild how well these things perform out of the box, and with the M16A1 being essentially an intentionally vanilla platform throughout most of the war, there’s really nothing else you need besides additional 20 or 30 BB V3 magazines to suit the era of your preferred loadout. Both options fit and feed excellently, and while I love the classic aesthetic of the shorter “20 round” boxes, the 30s definitely found equal if not greater use in games; I was once again taking players out through bushes and multiple aligned window frames or single shot eliminating them from great distances and loving every minute of fielding it.

The general form factor and comfort is perfect for my long arms, with me comfortably reaching the narrower end of the triangular front handguards with my Kermit arms and indexing my thumb in the front top vent hole, as well as wrapping my fingers around the front sling swivel to index off it and stop it clunking when moving. Of course you couldn’t do that with a live rifle for fear of burning yourself on the barrel or gas tube, but I’ll probably look at removing the front sling swivel or at least taping it in the fashion of the Nam-era to stop it jangling as I run about with Stoner’s wonderful implement in the future… once I inevitably buy it off VFC as it’s another in an evergrowing well executed and far-too-fun-guns to return!

Good In The Woods

The muzzle velocity is actually fairly low, in the 100110m/s region with .20g BBs, and dropping into the high 70m/s range with the heaviest BBs such as my somewhat standard .48g; yes, they are more expensive, even out here in Taiwan at source, but oh my, do they fly straight and take all the energy out to the target consistently!

If you’re carrying a GBBR with just a few hundreds of BBs you might as well improve your chances, and with VFC’s recent releases I am certainly finding myself

“THE WHOLE INTERNAL FIRE CONTROL MECHANISM IS THE FULL STEEL CONSTRUCTION AFFAIR THAT CLOSELY REPLICATES THE LOOK AND FEEL OF ITS REAL STEEL COUNTERPART, GIVING AN EXCELLENT GAS PERFORMANCE AND OPERATING FEEL OUT OF THE BOX - AND IN TERMS OF THE BALLISTIC PERFORMANCE IT’S NO SLOUCH EITHER” easily doing so; everything from the FAL, HK53, T91 SOC, FNC and this M16A1 are just throwing BBs reliably out into the aether and OpFor.

“Good in the woods” is a Nam-era phrase that was used to describe what we would now refer to as an “operator”, and the M16A1 “operates” excellently! I got into some pretty intense firefights at Yangmei with it and managed to work my way through all 80 BBs I was carrying in short order despite making a lot of eliminations and well-aimed shots; it was just a busy day and we were going hell for leather playing against our own teammates split into opposing squads. Similarly after the main shoot we spent a further hour or two doing team marksmanship drills on a makeshift range upstairs in one of the buildings, and the M16A1 was just casually drilling a hole in the wall over the course of the persistent fast shooting and reloading exercises, allowing me to easily and fluidly dump BBs, reload and fire to empty again before some of my teammates had finished their reloads.

Throughout all my exploits with it I never felt remotely encumbered either, while the FAL, FNC and PSG1 are pretty heavy-set chonky-bois by comparison, and strain my arms and back after a day of ‘silly knees bent running’ around the hills, the original intent of Stoner’s creation shines through, with some of the female shooters also gladly availing themselves of it during our range sessions as it just points and shoots so readily and easily given its low overall weight of just 2.5kg (6.25lbs).

This is pretty close to its real steel compatriot, albeit with an alloy bolt carrier group and outer barrel as standard the weight distribution is a little different. Nonetheless it’s just so handy and fun to shoot, much like the M733 I tested a few years back it just makes for a genuinely very enjoyable shooting experience and a great entry platform for anyone looking to join the Vietnam-era re-enactor troop or just the ever growing ‘carry-handle gang’ of retro aficionados who appreciate the original outline and aesthetic before everyone ruined the original intent of the lightweight combat rifle with all the rails, bells and whistles that weigh down the more modern iterations many carry these days.

The iron sights are surprisingly good to use, albeit a little hard for my ageing eyes to pick out at times

OF MAGAZINES THROUGH

THE THING WAS SHOOTING

STRAIGHT IN A MOST SATISFYING FASHION AND SLAPPING BBS OFF THE TREE TRUNKS AT 55, 60 AND 65M RESPECTIVELY, MAKING IT EASY TO HIT PLAYER-SIZED TARGETS AT RELATIVELY EXTREME RANGES IN AIRSOFT TERMS; I WAS IN MY ELEMENT WITH IT!” in terms of the front post being silhouette against darker or low contrast backgrounds; I’d be tempted just to put a smidge of white or yellow paint on its tip to help, but once I got it sighted in at Xindian I was again regularly making single-shot hits on a used gas-can taped onto a tree branch at 55m, with a little variation in the HOP at times making some misses, but I counted 15 hits out of the last few magazines by the time I’d sighted in and bedded the HOP in nicely! By the end of the range day my teammates were duly impressed and also appreciative of the lightweight and practical nature of the M16A1.

The HOP itself is the familiar ribbed turn dial which is accessible from above or below the barrel, unfortunately though not as readily as the T91 SOC with its specific M-LOK rail cut-out giving tool-less access to the dial; the M16A1 has the triangular lateral split handguards in the way and the vent holes on the top and bottom do not reach back far enough to allow access. I’d almost be tempted to cut an extra one in the underside where it’s less visible to enable access, although having said that, once I wrestled the damned things off (with much swearing and consternation!) and subsequently struggled to get them back on in the field, I left it until I got home and had G-Clamps to hand. I altered the HOP and it’s stayed true since then, so perhaps it’s just a case of adjusting it to a consistent ammunition standard and leaving it be; the handguard removal was basically the only pain in the backside part of the whole experience and you can get the appropriate leverage enhancing tool to drag the delta ring back, but otherwise it can be a sweary three or four-handed job as the spring behind the ring is pretty keen.

Regardless, I’ve had an overwhelmingly positive and enjoyable experience fielding the VFC Colt Cybregun licensed M16A1 GBBR and look forward to it hanging on my gun wall for a long time to come, as well as hopefully getting more chances to lend it to others or field it myself! I’ve seen other very positive experiences already from the likes of our good friends at Explosive Enterprises in the USA and Phil at Clearwater in the UK who report similarly great performance and gameplay experiences on their Youtube channels.

So, what are you waiting for fellow shooters? Come and join the carry handle gang!

Many thanks as always to VFC for entrusting me with another of their new babies that they aren’t likely to get back, and for Andrew Paul, Nick Wang and ‘Jerry’ Cheng Yi Wu for their supporting photography. AA

EVER GROWING

GANG’ OF RETRO AFICIONADOS WHO APPRECIATE THE ORIGINAL OUTLINE AND AESTHETIC BEFORE EVERYONE RUINED THE ORIGINAL INTENT OF THE LIGHTWEIGHT COMBAT RIFLE”