The VFC / Umarex HK416 Owners Thread

[RostokMcSpoons]

Yeah my correctly sized screwdrivers have stupidly thin handles.  I tried using with pliers for more leverage, but it's not the same.  So I used a slightly wrong bit in a t-handle, and it chewed up the heads.  

Should have gone shopping, would have saved me time and/or money in the longer run ?

 

[Ajaxiasty]

I got the wera precision set as it fits  the npas too and they have a spanner like slot so you can use a spanner for more torque.

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

I'm in conversation with a guy who 3D-prints adapters for Odin type speed loaders, about getting a VFC HK416 version made... I asked if the WE M4 adapter might work - does anyone know if they're compatible?   I'm thinking "no" because otherwise when there's a VFC mag shortage, it would already have been suggested to use those instead, but I thought I'd check...

If is it is a "no", then he says for me to send a magazine to him, and he'll conjure one up in a couple of weeks.
Let me know if you're interested in buying one, I might be able to use the expectation of selling more to keep the unit cost down.

 

[Ajaxiasty]

Keep me posted . I am interested 

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

Apropos of nothing, but my child-like excitability... I watched Guy Ritchie's "The Covenant" on Amazon last night.   Pretty decent film - a slightly low-budget-y "Lone Survivor" meets "The Killing Fields" kinda thang.

The thing that got me hitting the pause button a couple of times was the fact that most of the Yank troops were noticeably rocking HK416 A5's through most of the film.   Given the recent chat of Mr Ritchgie's disavowal of using real-steel on his sets from now on, the faked gun flashes, and absence of slow-mo brass flying around (maybe they CGI'd the brass, I can't say I noticed any), it got me thinking "he actually really is using my gun" as I don't think there's an obvious A5 GBBR other than the VFC...?

Simple pleasures for simple minds...

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

I added a restock alert on the Airtac website, for the Odin adapter.  It's just popped into my inbox

https://www.airtac.me/shop/p/vfc-m4

Now the thing is it's £30, whereas the eBay adapter will only cost me the price of posting my magazine off to the chap to create the adapter (that's how he works... He'll then add it to his shop for sale at the normal price)

The eBay version is rather less impressively made (judging by the pics), on the other hand the WE M4 version sells for only £16. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ODIN-Sidewinder-Hand-Crank-Airsoft-Speed-Loader-Adapters-/223829128666

I guess I'm going to try it out, I'll lose a mag for 2 or 3 weeks, but it'll be useful to try it for you guys

 

[CrackCommandoUnit1972]

Apropos of nothing, but my child-like excitability... I watched Guy Ritchie's "The Covenant" on Amazon last night.   Pretty decent film - a slightly low-budget-y "Lone Survivor" meets "The Killing Fields" kinda thang.

The thing that got me hitting the pause button a couple of times was the fact that most of the Yank troops were noticeably rocking HK416 A5's through most of the film.   Given the recent chat of Mr Ritchgie's disavowal of using real-steel on his sets from now on, the faked gun flashes, and absence of slow-mo brass flying around (maybe they CGI'd the brass, I can't say I noticed any), it got me thinking "he actually really is using my gun" as I don't think there's an obvious A5 GBBR other than the VFC...?

Simple pleasures for simple minds...

My missus watches SWAT (it's awful). I think they use VFC airsoft guns as they all look very realistic. Although they are pretty good at disguising the weapons as reals ones, you can tell they are not shooting blank firers during the actions scenes.

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

My missus watches SWAT (it's awful). I think they use VFC airsoft guns as they all look very realistic. Although they are pretty good at disguising the weapons as reals ones, you can tell they are not shooting blank firers during the actions scenes.

So I'm going to have to watch a bit of an awful series now ?

I sent the mag off, will get to see how good the adapter is...

 

[Ajaxiasty]

Regarding upgrades. 

I have the tnt hop and barrel  on order.

Crazy jet inner barrel and 60° rubber Mr hop bucking on my desk so in a few weeks time I will have a definitive revieve what's the best setup.

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

Regarding upgrades. 

I have the tnt hop and barrel  on order.

Crazy jet inner barrel and 60° rubber Mr hop bucking on my desk so in a few weeks time I will have a definitive revieve what's the best setup.

That's excellent news, looking forward to it.  I haven't yet found anything that will remove my cheesed screws from the hop unit, so I'm stuck with whatevers in there for the moment.  The TNT barrel setup would at least give me a simple replacement so it's tempting if it turns out to be good

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

Riiiiight... I have finally managed to crack open the hop unit on my 416.  I bought some 'Screw Grab', which is a paste containing metal filings which helps the screwdriver grip the screw head.
And I bought a set of screw removal bits (burnish + reversing drills)

View attachment 110350

Deep joy, I actually managed to extract one of the damaged screws with the removal bits... but the other wouldn't budge, I ended up just drilling it out.  Guess I'll need to buy a new hop unit (less than £20 for the two halves from WGC... though god knows what the p&p will be)

Anyway, I could finally change the hop rubber for the Maple Leaf Autobot 60deg I bought a while ago.

It doesn't look the same as the black standard rubber... there's an extra rib on one side for which there's no slot on the hop unit.   

View attachment 110351

Did I buy the wrong one, or do I just have to file / cut that rib off?

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

I cut and then filed the rib off and managed to re-assemble everything, I've had a quick test fire and it seems ok, but I can't tell if the accuracy is better, or if the hop is working as well or better, as I've only got ~17m to shoot across.  And as soon as I started shooting the wife went off at me,  so didn't manage many shots!

Sunday will be the big day!
 

 

[Ajaxiasty]

I cut and then filed the rib off and managed to re-assemble everything, I've had a quick test fire and it seems ok, but I can't tell if the accuracy is better, or if the hop is working as well or better, as I've only got ~17m to shoot across.  And as soon as I started shooting the wife went off at me,  so didn't manage many shots!

Sunday will be the big day!
 

You will notice a small improvement. I did with the 70° one.

But still to many stray shots . Mine just strays to the right every 3 to 4 shots . Specially noticeable over 40m. I wonder if its the metal hop lever arm ? 

If you can wait a couple of weeks till my tnt set up arrives I can sell you my hop up unit. 

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

You will notice a small improvement. I did with the 70° one.

But still to many stray shots . Mine just strays to the right every 3 to 4 shots . Specially noticeable over 40m. I wonder if its the metal hop lever arm ? 

If you can wait a couple of weeks till my tnt set up arrives I can sell you my hop up unit. 

Yeah I'm fairly sure I made it a little worse... some of the shots are going in to a 1" bullseye, but I also have occasional fliers that don't hit the (portait) A4 page at 17 metres

I think it needs to bed in, at least it's holding on to the hop setting again, so it'll be useable!

Thanks, I'll definitely be interested in your hop unit

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

It turns out the weird shite I was suffering yesterday was mostly likely down to crap in the barrel... There was a visible ring of cruddy stuff a few centimetres down from the breech.

I cleaned it out with some kitchen roll on my cleaning rod, it came out blackened.  Looks like the same stuff that I get on my fingers when handling the bolt - a combination of oil/grease, general dirt and perhaps worn metal?

Once cleaned and reassembled I went through a couple of mags without a hiccup, whereas before I'd had shots where nothing seemed to come out of the barrel, and other times shots were flying out of end of the suppressor at odd angles.  (The suppressor contains a series of foam rings, they are still all in place)

It does seem odd that so much trouble was caused by a little dirt, do I need to give the bolt and inside of the upper receiver a good scrub and re-lube?

In other news the Odin adapter should be here in a day or two.  The chap who makes them told me the mag spring is very stiff so the whole thing has to be held together tightly to allow it to work.  I shall report as soon as I can test it... But does that hint the springs need some more breaking in?

 

[Ajaxiasty]

It turns out the weird shite I was suffering yesterday was mostly likely down to crap in the barrel... There was a visible ring of cruddy stuff a few centimetres down from the breech.

I cleaned it out with some kitchen roll on my cleaning rod, it came out blackened.  Looks like the same stuff that I get on my fingers when handling the bolt - a combination of oil/grease, general dirt and perhaps worn metal?

Once cleaned and reassembled I went through a couple of mags without a hiccup, whereas before I'd had shots where nothing seemed to come out of the barrel, and other times shots were flying out of end of the suppressor at odd angles.  (The suppressor contains a series of foam rings, they are still all in place)

It does seem odd that so much trouble was caused by a little dirt, do I need to give the bolt and inside of the upper receiver a good scrub and re-lube?

In other news the Odin adapter should be here in a day or two.  The chap who makes them told me the mag spring is very stiff so the whole thing has to be held together tightly to allow it to work.  I shall report as soon as I can test it... But does that hint the springs need some more breaking in?

Realisticly you need to clean the barrel after every day of use.

Get some rubbing alkohol and then soft cloth to dry it up. Watch out  as not to put alkohol on the hop rubber.

With the bolt of you use silicon it will travele everywhere but if you use grease it will stay in place and don't soil everything.  

With grease there is no need to re apply after every game and makes the gun cycle better.

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

The VFC Odin adapter has arrived!
Decent bit of 3D printing... but does it work?   Yes! 

Here are my initial impressions...

Caveat 1 : My Odin is one of the cheapo knock-off versions that I bought for peanuts from the Classifieds.  I used the cap off a bottle of glue to replace the missing crank handle... so it's not in the best nick!

Caveat 2 : I don't have any experience using either the Not-an-Odin in combat, or on any other mags, so can't really compare to a proper setup with a real Odin and a more expensive adapter (i.e. Airtech)

View attachment 110933 

View attachment 110934  View attachment 110935

Initially I thought the adapter wasn't going to click into place and engage with the mag catch, but a little extra force did the job and it did.   A little filing may be required.

The VFC mag engages very easily into the adapter.

Feeding the BB's in requires a bit of torque on the crank handle, I think 'slow and easy' is required otherwise my cheap components might break, but as the chap said, the VFC mag springs are strong. Anyway, I successfully filled a mag (and had some fun blasting them into the garden), so I'm happy.

The adapter doesn't seem to be in the list on eBay yet... here's a link to his AK page
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223829128666

I expect the price will be around £16

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

A couple of things from Sunday's skirmish:

1) Update on the Not-an-Odin with the adapter:   It worked fine! 
 

Although it didn't get as much use as expected, due to the bad weather in the morning, and the weird problem I had in the afternoon:  my bolt wouldn't cycle fully.  No idea what happened, but the upshot of trying to fix it was that I've lost my rear receiver pin... so... 

2) Do I need a specific VFC HK416 rear body pin, or will any M4 pin do the trick?  

 

[Wavey_Gravey]

Pretty sure you need the 416 specific…did you loose your capture spring after your buffer tube meddling? ?

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

Pretty sure you need the 416 specific…did you loose your capture spring after your buffer tube meddling? ?

This is bad news, no-one seems to have them in stock

I've still got the capture spring, but I was trying to remove the buffer tube to get the receiver split open, so pulled the pin all the way out.   And when I took the gun back to the safe zone, I just left the pin floating around in the hard case rather than reinstalling it.  I didn't think the pin would be able to exit the case.  But somehow it did

I've pinged Fire Support and HPA-UK in case they know what'll work as a replacement