As some of you might of saw, Victor has been hard at work running around MOA 2023 checking out next year(s) most highly anticipated releases. While we would like to provide more concise coverage, our priotity this year was networking with industry partners as our core business still remains importation into the Canadian market. However that does not mean he wasn't able to go around and take a look at some real cool shit.
Kicking things off, I'm sure the one thing that jumped out to everyone first would be VFC's AK74M. We have a fairly concise breakdown of some key design features of this gun over at our youtube page. But please, excuse the mess over there for now, we're only two dudes trying to sort out the whole social media aspect. The video has been translated by us from Mandarin.
If you're like me and own like four GHK AKs right now, you're already dreading the prospect of replacing them. Our initial impressions of the gun is very positive. We're not just saying that because we sell VFC primarily, but because we truly like their products best, notwitstanding the issues they have here and there. As explained in the video, the gun is claimed to have been designed with completely real steel dimensions. For reference the GHKs are based off the classic Marui AEG receiver length specifications, and tend to come up a little short (har har) compared to the genuine article. This means a lot of our zenitco bolt covers are going into the trash sadly. We're optimistic VFC will be producing accessories as usual, perhaps under their crusader line for this gun. The one aspect we thought was unusual, but not that unusual, would be that the magazines are not polymer. Much like their Vmags, they are actually made of aluminum and painted to resemble polymer or composite materials. While initially this did raise an eyebrow with us, we also came to the conclusion this has never bothered us with our Vmags. We're also speculating them to be quite reliable as most VFC magazines tend to be, along with a strong parts line to support maintenance and spares when needed.
To cap off VFC's offerings this year, they are also releasing the highly anticipated and already rumored months ago, FN FNC. This will pair quite nicely for any HEAT style bank heists with their M733 without a doubt. The details look faithfully reproduced and that para stock is looking real nice. The gun is stated for the Japanese market, but we got a feeling a few might fall off the VFC truck for other territories if need be.
As mentioned, Victor wasn't able to cover every release there. This MOA has been quite eventful too. VFC is producing a PPSH which we feel is odd, but there could be other reasons at play there as well as a certain other company being a bit slow to the roll to get their gas PPSH out *cough. I believe there are a few DSA Style SA58 revisions coming out for their FAL as well. Their PPK shown off last year is supposed to be finally getting produced as well but that remains to be seen.
Moving on from VFC, we have the also very highly anticipated Krytac Kriss Vector. As many of you know the KWA GBB Vector stonks have been plumetting since this guy was announced. We're expecting to see them early next year, roughly March but do not quote me on that one.
Admittingly, i'm not a big Vector guy myself. And I don't believe Krytac has much experience in the gas blowback field. But seeing as i've heard quite a few bad things about the KWA version of this gun as well over the years, I feel prospects can only go up on this one. The price is also very reasonable in our opinion and we have no doubt these things will fly off the shelves given how desirable this gun is generally. I'd love to see a Krytac P90 GBB personally, so my WE can finally die a dignified death.
Another new company we've spotted this year on the scene is ITP. A relatively new company with a focus on CNC produced products. Their main fixation appears to be producing gas blowback drum mags for some of the more established platforms out on the market currently. Doing what GHK themselves failed to do even (amongst many other things), which is strange given GHK started off as a gas magazine manufacturer years ago, they are looking to release an RPK drum for the GHK AK very soon.
Frankly we love seeing this go down. For far too long there hasn't been much variety in terms of drum magazine offerings for gas blowback rifles, especially ones meant to look like real equipment for the firearm in question.
While we do not usually cover or work on Marui guns, this Saiga 12 drum is looking really damn cool! We spoke with the CEO of ITP Anthony briefly at the expo, and he made it clear that they are open to the idea of custom orders given they are a CNC factory and can design and turn around production. We asked if they will be making a drum magazine for the VFC AK, and while open to the idea, he iterated their focus would be the Tokyo Marui AK platforms next. We eagerly await their products to test for ourselves of course!
Comments