Click the READ MORE below to see Part One of our coverage of Shot Show. This segment covers the Bushmaster ACR and the Umarex HK MP5 22 Rifle.
Shot Show 2010 Part 1
by Jessie Indracusin
Initial Impressions
As I closed out Day one of the Shot Show 2010 in Las Vegas, my shoulders and back killing me hauling all my video equipment and computer equipment around in the show, the sheer magnitude of this show is hard to describe. I guess the best way to describe it, is walking into your local Costco, imaging it all with Firearms, Accessories and Hunting Equipment and then sticking eight Costco’s together. Pretty much the Entire Sands Convention Center (2 levels of it) is completely encompassed by the show. There is pretty much something here for everyone.
Since we focus on Tactical Related only topics, we skipped about 75% of the show. Spending 8 hours on Tuesday, I may have covered less than half the booths I wanted too in just the Law Enforcement Military Section. So our goal of the Shot Show was to spend time talking to the manufacturers and investigating the relevant items that our viewers are interested in. We will not be covering various other things from next generation socks (yes, I did say that right. There were manufacturers their bring out their special outdoor socks.) to custom engraved clay guns. I am sure there are plenty of others that will discuss those types of activities since there were over 1500 representatives from various media outlets.
Bushmaster ACR
The Bushmaster ACR has received a series of recent press. The gun comes in to flavors. The military contract version is done by Remington and the semi-auto civilian model will be made by Bushmaster. We are doing are best to get a sample unit sometimes in the future to do some more hands on investigations wtih the gun. The big question will be with this gun is if it can overcome some of the reliability issues the Bushmaster AR platform has been well known to have. However, this is a completely re-designed gun and we are hopeful that Bushmaster and Remington can really turn a corner with this gun. Original designed by Magpul and named the Mosada, Magpul was looking for a manufacturer with the capacity to take this to full production. This is where Remington and Bushmaster came in.
ACR stands for Advanced Combat Rifle. You will hear this same term used in various videos covering the Shot Show. I wanted to start off our multipart video segment on Shot Show with the Bushmaster ACR since it is one of the most well known of the guns. The gun has a solid balance, just like all of the next generation Combat Rifles we looked at. The ACR is a gun that is a very functional design and not a lot of bells and whistles. This has a similiar look and feel of a FN SCAR. In fact, most of the guns that fall in the “ACR” descriptions tend to all have similiar looks to an FN SCAR. The ACR by Bushmaster has options of quick change out of barrels, magazines, etc. to easily convert in the field from a 5.56 rifle to a 6.8 SPC on the spot. Long precision barrels, short tactical entry barrels, if you want it, you can build it out of this one single platform.
We are anxiously awaiting a chance to put the gun through it’s paces in the near future. The Mosada is a gun that we anxiously awaiting it to become a real gun we can get our hands on.
Video link for this combined video is available at the end of this article.
UMAREX HK MP5 22LR
Some of you may have remembered are review of the GSG-5 which is a 22 caliber MP5 looking weapon. Although if you gave the GSG-5 a quick glance, it looked like an MP5. The similiarities ended right there. The gun was more of a jig saw puzzle than an HK at the end of the day. The constant changing of tools to break the gun apart and put it back together made it an extremely difficult gun to deal with. For the price, it is an okay gun to plink around with, but by no means anything like an MP5. Now let’s talk about Umarex.
Heckler and Koch and GSG-5/ATI have been in a legal lawsuit for a while over the GSG-5 series. The lawsuit was settled a few months back and as a result, the GSG-5 as we know it, stopped production. I actually stopped by the GSG-5 booth (a VERY small booth at Shot Show) to chat with them. The conversations did not make me feel very well settled. I understand the reason why certain invidivuals like this gun. I was not made aware of it at the time, since I am not a participant in Airsoft, but it does seem to answer maybe a lot of “Why did they do it that way?”
The Umarex is the only 22 Rimfire MP5 that actually advertises with the HK name with it. It is completely licensed and developed under HK rules. The gun feels to be a much more solid design than the GSG-5. Most likely the street price of the upcoming MP5s will come in a couple hundred dollars more than the GSG-5. So expect prices for the gun to sell at discount for around $650 versus the $450 we are seeing the GSG-5s for. They feel a lot more like an HK across the board. They have push pins break downs similiar to the HK MP5s. They come apart fairly easily and seem very versatile. They also suffer from the same poor magazine design which prohibits the gun with the infamous MP5 hold. Since the magazine has a button along the magazine, if you hold the front of the magwell and the clip, your hand can catch the button on the mag and cause slack in the magazine. At this point, the gun would fall under the same problems as the GSG-5.
Surprisingly when I mentioned this major complaint to both GSG-5 and Umarex, they seem to react as if this is the first time anyone has every told them this. I am starting to think anyone who actually a large collection of H&K Firearms, does not own one of these .22 LR options. I do like the Umarex design and feel much more. It feels more of a solid design and you can see in the video, the breakdown is simple. I think the relationship between .22 Caliber rifles and Airsoft is fairly strange to me, but then I make no claims to understanding Airsoft at all. Umarex also had a very large selection of Airsoft items in their booth.
The MP5 .22LR rifles will be coming from Umarex sometime in June 2010. We may be getting a sample for review here on www.civiliantacticalweapons.com around that time.
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