Well I finally gave up on any UK shops getting these in and tried to order from Hong Kong, paid my money's and then....out of stock.
My intention was to order the rifle from HK and the magazines from the US having them drop shipped here. A spend of about £85 or so with shipping.
I was about to give up but remembered that 2ndBattalon over on the US WW2 Airsoft forums was doing completed carbines a while ago.
A few emails later and I had a converted M1 carbine winging its way to me for just over £95.
After paying customs their bribe and a fee for mishandling my package after they didn't bother delivering it, I got it home and had a look.
First thing out of the box I had to knock on the stock to check it wasn't wood. It really is that convincing now it's been re-done.
In the package were 3 Mags, a sling, standin oiler, speedloader and the manual. Interestingly enough the manual and the box show a large image of a late Pacific theatre WW2/Korea M1 carbine with the long curved magazine, bayonet attachment and adjustable sights, whilst the background images all show the standard WW2 short mag version that we all know. Maybe someday manufacturers will ask what people want....
Anyways after verifying the stock was indeed plastic (I was planning on fitting a real M1 stock but now I don't feel that is too urgent) I had a closer look at the rifle and the conversion work done.
The bayonet fittings have been removed, the adjustable sights have been replaced with a fixed peep sight at the rear and all the parts which are supposed to be metal have had a faux parkerized finish applied to them. I haven't been at it with a magnet yet but it feels like the only metal parts are the trigger, the barrel, the cocking lever, sling mountsand the magazine catch. Basically all the parts that matter.
The finish is a little rough on these parts but from a foot away you hardly notice and with a little TLC they'll be spot on. the stock and all the action parts feel pretty solid, not a creak or rattle to be heard. One upside of all these parts being plastic is that it is super lightweight! This thing will be a breeze to run around all day with.
The original magazines have been shortened to a more accurate length for this particular rifle. This has meant that the surface detail has been messed up and has had to be re-applied. They do look a little rough but way better than huge banana mags. Again I'm sure the majority of people arent going to be fussed by this but if it really bothered you it could be easily corrected.
Well thats the externals covered now for a look at the internals. The meachanism has been given a clean and a little fettle before re-assembly and it really shows. Most budget springers like this will shoot with a wildly variable range and accuracy but this is a really accurate little shooter. I've not given it a full run through yet but it seems to be able to hit a man sized target at around 50m pretty easily on 0.2g bb's. Quite stiff to cock the spring but I guess its not the most air tight system in there. I'll chrono it too before the weekend. It is quite loud when firing. This could be because there are spaces inside the stock. Might use some expanding foam on those.
Anyway in conclusion I would wholeheartedly reccomend this as an affordable alternative to tempremental gas carbines. I can see this being a great backup rifle for odd use and a fun little shooter for the odd game. Pity more of these didn't make it to the UK but grab a 2ndBatt one if you can!
More pics and maybe some video coming soon, let me know if theres anything you'd like me to cover.
