Tokyo Marui VSR 10 Platform Review

[Unrustle_Thine_Jimmies]

MARUI VSR 10 PLATFORM REVIEW

 

 

 

So,I'm really bored today.

 

I'm going to review the VSR 10 Platform today,all it's traits,how it works,overall quality of the platform,design issues and to hopefully help any budding snipers help make the ever so dreaded decision 'wot am best upgrade platform'.

 

Pictures will not be super high quality as I don't own a photo studio like everyone on Arms-Cool forums.

 

Was not bothered to take it apart at the time so I robbed some picture sources off google

 

 

Note,the VSR platform costs around the 170$ mark in Japan,and I'll be judging it by it's budget oriented merits,not by it's hilariously inflated prices sold by us filthy gaijin.

 

 

Main differences between the Gspec and Pro/Real shock

 

-6.08mm 430mm Aluminum inner barrel,Not super high quality,not even crowned. But performance with it is good..

 

-Early models had issues with the hop up unit,causing it to hook. Rectified when Marui re-made their molds for it when the Gspec game out.

 

-No rails stock-only iron sights,with the front sight being attached by double sided tape. Marui did provide a rail after market though.

 

 

The VSR 10 Gspec:

 

-Improved,more precisely cast hop up,leading to the elimination of the 'hook' at range. Pro inherited this after it came out

 

-303mm 6.08mm Brass inner barrel.

 

-Rail included stock

 

-New style ergonomic bolt handle only moving up 60 degrees to prevent slamming into optics.

 

-Foam filled aluminum suppressor,deadens sound to a church mouses' fart.

 

-Shorter,rolled and machined aluminum Bull style outer barrel

 

-The Gspec's about 210$ compared to the Pro at 170$.

 

The VSR 10 Recoil Shock came out about the same time as the Gspec. It was essentially a VSR 10 pro with a wood effect stock and lead weight on the piston to simulate so light recoil. They kind of had a habit of breaking.

 

In about 2009/2010 the Pro hunter came out,coming with an included clone Tasco scope,wood effect style stock and nickel plated externals. the Pro Hunter G came out in 2013,featuring all the Gspec's differences,nickel plating,the scope and a sound system,giving the gun 'realistic' sounds. It was more catered to the backyard plinker crowd. The actual sounds are pretty corny,unimpressive and rather pathetic.

 

EXTERNALS

 

Covering build materials ad how to get the damn thing apart.

 

It's not a large gun at all. Only 1.10 meters long without the suppressor and about 1.9kg in weight,with no attachments.

Even with a scope and bipod it's rather light,lighter than pot metal ACM M4s with nothing on.

It's only a bit thicker than a P90. It's nice,slim and maneuverable,when you're in the field it feels much smaller and lighter. This is one of my favorite attributes of it personally.

 

Most zinc parts are either anodized or chemically treated,everything else is painted.

 

Stock

Made from an ABS plastic,very rigid,seam lines are tiny. Next to no flex,barring some light bits in the front,but very rigid.Not creaky. Reinforced in all the right places.Has a more matte finish when new,but of course this will degrade over time. It did have a rubber butt plate with the VSR logo on it but I managed to lose that. It was held on very weakly in my opinion,could have used a punch able pin to hold it on better,but the rubber may have deteriorated with age and weakened.Stock is good quality but loses points for the poorly attached butt plate.

 

 

Receiver

Made from cast Zamak,a Zinc based alloy with some aluminium mixed in. A rather soft metal. The screws which hold the rail on strip easily,be cautious and use thread lock if you must remove the rail. The rearmost screw threading died on me rather easily. Sintered,like most metal parts on airsoft guns. Main concerns for it would be thread stripping, It's sandwiched by the stock so don't expect it to disintegrate from a fall or anything. Decently cast,no marks inside or outside so the bolt doesn't scrape along rough casting.

The paint on it could be a bit better. Yes,my gun is old and pre owned but the pain comes off a bit too easily for my liking when scratched.

Marui are very consistant with casting to expect most aftermarket parts to work.

Note that if you want to use a PDi Cylidner make sure to go for the bore up version,as it's diameter is made to fit the TM reciever

 

Rail

 

It's a rail. It holds things. It does it's job. Seems to be made out of zinc.

Grub screws secure it to the receiver which can have dodgy threading.

These generally don;t break or warp so don't worry about it too much.

 

 

 

Bolt handle,end cap & safety lever

Made from nice and chunky zinc,these generally don;t break unless something goes desperately wrong with your life or Marui's factory or whatever poor asian nation they have their OEM in.They are both well cast and the seam lines are hardly visible. The handle goes up about 60* to not interfere with optics.

Good quality casting,won;t cut up your hand or anything. I quite like the comfort of the handle and the 60* movement allows you to cock it more smoothly.

 

Trigger & trigger guard

Trigger is made from cast zinc decent quality,but seam lines are bigger than all the rest of the parts and feels a little cheap. too sharp on the sides too,but not painful. I'd like a beveled one,but you don't feel it's cheapness with gloves.

 

Trigger guard is make from some Creaky and more flexible ABS to save costs. Probably most prone to breaking during a drop,but it's bendy enough to absorb shock

 

Misc

All screws of the gun are made of machined steel and won't strip anytime soon,all threads are nice and deep.

 

The external hop up adjuster is also bent steel and is good quality,clicks into place nicely. Internal one is made of plastic and does it's job well,I'll cover more in the internals section. It works pretty well,but tends to be sensitive to being clicked about,easy to knock off when crawling,hence the tape over the adjuster to keep it in place while crawling about

 

Outer barrel

made from rolled and machined aluminium,good quality,nice and strong. Has a few dents from BB strikes,taken a fair beating too. Paint seems to stay on better than the one of the receiver. Bull barrel style makes the gun look super cool and makes women think you are a swelll guy who likes cool things. It has the following markings engraved onto it:

 

''Warning:refer to instruction manual''

''Tokyo Marui made in Japan''

''M70030''

 

Serial isn't unique,unfortunately.

 

Barrel end cap,where the suppressor is threaded into,is made of zinc. Looks a bit cheap in contrast to the barrel but it does it's job and won;t break.

 

 

 

Sling mounts

Slings mounts are absolute sh*t. The screws on them are machined steel,cool. The sling mount and ring itself is made from a nasty cast zinc which loves to shatter and make you sad.

 

They break really easily and probably the weakest part externally. Sling mounts are fairly important so this is a big con for me.

 

Suppressor

The part that makes Gspec super duper coo. It has four foam pieces which deaden the sound to a great extent.Without it,the gun fires with a snappy 'crack' but the suppressor reduces it to a silent 'puff' which can hardly be heard. If there is action going on,you will not hear this gun past 15 meters. It's all made of rolled and machined aluminum,nice quality.Serial also isn't unique but it's not too much a problem really unless you're Japanese or mental.

If you manage to double feed the gun and fire you will wreck the plastic spacers inside,which is what happened to the previous owner of this gun. I've removed them and it has not impact from performance.

You may need to get a rod in there to push the foam about from time to time.

 

The ''trades'' read:

 

''G SPEC SOUND SUPPRESSOR''

 

''SER. NO 200204 TOKYO MARUI CO. LTD MADE IN JAPAN''

 

 

Overall

Good and strong externals,pot metal content is reasonable enough for a cheaper gun(Like I said earlier,only 170$-200$ in Japan). The most stress bearing parts(Receiver,barrel and stock) are all made out of good quality materials. I've fallen on these things countless times and nothing has broken. Probably one of the stronger and most simple external designs for airsoft rifles,in my opinion.

 

CONTINUED ON NEXT POST

[Unrustle_Thine_Jimmies]

ASSEMBLY & INTERNALS

Assembly is quick and rather simple,you can field strip the gun with three screws and in less than a minute.

The stock is held on to the gun with two 2.5mm allen screws. Remove these and pull the gun out of the stock.

BE CAREFUL! This little bugger here,the mag catch,simply sits in the stock and is not held on by anything because f*ck you. Loves to fly out.

The rifle action:

Pull down this tab on the trigger mech and pull out the bolt assembly.

 

Now to remove the outer barrel,undo this screw. Then screw out the barrel from the receiver.

Careful to not forget these plastic rings which help guide the bolt.

Simple,no? Everything is held on well and solid like a brick sh*t house. Note,the outer barrel has a little bit of movement on the receiver,but It's held together by the stock and does not affect the hop up unit.

The hop up unit is held by this cast zinc block,which also secures the outer barrel to the stock.. It has two screws,once they are removed you can take off the block and slide the hop up unit out.

 

CYLINDER

 

Made of nickel plated brass, Cylinder head is brass.

The end, pinned on and hidden by the handle is made of zinc and pinned with steel pins. Much better than Maruzen's method of crimping the handle to the cylinder,which is famous for coming off and making you look like a tit in the wrong situation.

 

One thing that's a pain in the ass is that the cylinder head is held on by an incredibly strong stainless steel pin,known as the cylinder pin. You can drill it out easily enough and no structural weaknesses will come up if you keep the drill from wandering.

 

To get inside the cylinder you have to drill it out and screw off the cylinder head. The head can be screwed off with a special tool that Marui graciously does not provide us with. you can however use a pin face spanner such as this one to remove it easily:

http://www.galleyrack.com/images/artifice/fitting/mechanics/tools/pin-wrench/link-to-pin-face-spanner-2012-11-24-9939-sf0.jpg

 

Piston

Made of ABS plastic

Lasted approx 7000-8000 rounds in my experience,probably a lemon. Not the strongest of things,combined with the stressful design of the 45* system. However,has Good air seal on it, especially for a non ported piston.

O ring is pretty decent,better than the junk ones you can get with the laylax piston.

 

I have the remains of it from my old VSR,It's half chewed up on the catch end. It has four screws on it which lead blocks can attached to it, so It can give a recoil effect(read:pathetic vibration & chewing up the bloody piston),they come on the recoil shock version of the VSR.

Bit on the sh*t side,but like I said,mine was probably a lemon- Previous VSR had a myriad of other issues which spurred me to sell it.

 

Spring guide

also ABS and pretty strong. These rarely break unless you use a spring higher than 120m/s or something.

 

Overall:

Stock compression is good. I managed to squeeze out +/-4 FPS variable out of it. However,durability on the piston is poor. You can correct air seal by putting some PTFE tape on the cylinder head and giving the thing a nice re-greasing.

The remains of the piston catch. Bit hard to see.

TRIGGER MECHANISM

Pretty much everything made of zinc. Good for everything but the sears.

 

Here's a quick diagram on how the system works. Simple and a bit crappy but it gets the point across.

 

 

Sears

Two pieces of zinc,one acting as a piston catch(Piston sear,colored yellow on the diagram) and another,acting as a base to the catch and main trigger(Trigger sear,large red bar on the diagram) The trigger sear is held up by the trigger(Green thing on the diagram) and is dropped when the trigger is pulled,it returns via a simple spring.

 

The Piston sear is held onto the trigger sear via a steel pin,it moves down while the piston is pulled back and returns via a tension spring in time to catch the piston. If you ever lose the piston sear spring,you can cut up an Anti reversal latch spring to fit which is what I've done on mine.

 

The small blue part on the diagram is the bolt safety. It's activated when you move the bolt handle up and down. Once you depress it by moving the handle up,it engages the safety and you cannot fire. It's strong enough and it's not a high stress part to pot metal use can be forgiven on this one.

 

The bright green parts on the diagram are used to adjust trigger stroke and pull length. They both use grub screws. The stroke & pull must be adjusted properly for the mech to function without slam firing. There is a window on the shell where you can view trigger to trigger sear alignment.

 

Sear Durability

Quality not great,made of an unsuitable metal.

The piston sear gets eaten away easily (But generally last longer than the trigger sear) The trigger sear has various weak spot where it can develops hairline cracks and warp,particularly around the cutout where the piston sear sits. You can see on the picture of my old wrecked sears. Can't give a good life approximation aside from 'not long' since my old gun was a lemon.

The piston sear may look fine but it has a few hairline cracks and it developed a U shape further up making it useless.

Recommend upgrading out of the box honestly,for long term's sake. This rifle platform's main downfall.

 

Spring guide stopper

The Spring guide stopper is actually alright and I would upgrade if it breaks or going for over 320FPS/1 Joule builds. Right now in my current VSR it's original and has some microscopic bending,but still holding after 60,000+ rounds.

 

Overall

I'm not too happy about the stock design,Although I am happy with it's current performance-It's the tinkering to get it to not suck that annoys me,and the overall poor material usage out of the box.

It pushes the piston too hard against the cylinder making bolt returns feel rough,however my piston seems to have bedded in a good bit and it has decreased,you can also counter this by pushing the cylinder lightly down when returning after cocking.

It really isn't suited to anything using more than a 1 Joule spring.

 

I'd go for an after market 90* platform for anything over an M110 Spring. I'm sticking with the 45* mech because I'm poor.

 

There are plenty of aftermarket 90 degree systems available,LayLax,PDi,Action Army,S trigger and the EZ trigger from ASPUK are popular choices.

 

Note when upgrading to a 90 degree mechanism,never use a 45 degree piston with a 90 degree mechanism. You will need a piston with a 90 degree catch for this new mechanism.

 

BARREL

Pictures are taken from WorstInFinland's VSR 10 Total take apart guide, as my camera is having really bad issues with it's touchscreen.

http://www.airsoftsniperforum.com/41-vsr-rifles/3165-worstinfinland-s-vsr-10-total-take-apart-guide.html

I highly recommend AirsoftSniperforum,great guides and an excellent source of info. Paired with AirsoftMechanics Sniper section, and just fiddling about with your VSR you can learn a lot,this what I've done.

 

The Barrel is 303mm long,machined out of brass.

Bore is 6.08mm,like most stock ones. Machining quality is very good,crown is cut well. No jittering or crooked machine work.

Performance is great,coupled with the stock hop up rubber,the stock factory polish looks damn good on them and it's often cleaned of machine lubricants when boxed,however I still recommend giving it a thorough cleaning and polishing out of the box to further increase performance. Barrel has some glue on it to hold the barrel spacer,comes off easily but no big deal.

 

Joule Creeper

The gun does have a nice ''trait'',if you want to call it that,The cylinder is over volumed for the barrel as it was designed for a 430mm barrel.

This means that the volume of the air pushed out of the cylinder is greater than the volume of the barrel.

This can cause joule creep with heavy BBs. With .20 round,my gun clocks in at 1 Joule on the dot. With .28s,it fires on average 1.35J and with .30s 1.3J.

 

Why does Joule creep happen?

Example .2gram BBs accelerate so quickly, they leave the barrel before all of the air from the cylinder "gets behind it". Because the heavier BB is more massive, it takes longer to accelerate from 0 and therefore has longer time for greater air pressure build up behind it.

This only occurs with guns which are over volumed,or gas/HPA systems which expel all their air volume at once.

 

HOP UP UNIT

The hop up unit is cast out of zinc,and pretty well. No burrs,everything is smooth and there's no defects in the casting,no swirls and the zinc 'grain' looks smooth and evenly colored. It has ridges cast onto it to give a 'click' when you move the adjuster and to hold it in place.

Marui sell complete Gspec hop up units as an upgrade part,only anodized in fancy black and they come with the gspec barrel in 430mm as a package.

 

The Hop up Arm,BB retainer and adjustment mechanism are ABS plastic.

 

Here is a picture of the unit. I've labeled the parts.

(Source: WorstInFinland's VSR 10 Total Take apart guide)

 

Arm

Arm is a two prong design and works well with the rubber and it's non split bucking. Very little play in the hop up unit,didn't even need to shim it.

 

The part of the arm in which the adjuster prong slides about in is free of any casting marks and burrs,allowing pressure to be applied well.

 

If you want to run a a split bucking I recommend adding an AEG nub or something similar between the prong to apply better pressure to the split bucking,alternatively you can get a Dangerwerx type B arm which works well along with a firefly bucking,maple leaft bucking or Pdi W hold.

 

Retainer

BB retainer puts pressure on the BBs as they feed from the mag to stabilize them and allow them to feed smoothly into the chamber. Without it your gun will not chamber BBs,but cause them to play about in the outer barrel and clog up the gun.

 

Adjustment mech

The adjustment mechanism works similar to an AK one. It slides about with one prong moving up and down the arm,making it go lower and higher. It has one inherent flaw-It only applies pressure from one side,and if left on a high setting for a long time it can bend. Marui should have designed the adjuster to be on both sides of the hop,the amount of plastic they saved by doing this is tiny and would not have affected cost.

 

Here's a solution which can he;p counter this:

 

(Source:Noobie on Airsoft Retreat.)

 

The adjuster has one plastic pin and spring which grind against the ridges on the casing to give it a click. The little pin doesn't tend to get eaten up but mine has been destroyed now. It's lost the satisfying click but the hop still holds position.

(Source:WorstInFinland's VSR 10 Total Take Apart guide)

 

Hop up rubber

The stock hop up rubber is a standard non split Hicapa/VSR type Durability is solid,easily will last to the 30,000 round mark or even more.

Air seal on it is good enough,I was able to squeeze a +/- 4 FPS variable out of it which is decent.

 

Can easily lift anything up to .28g weight,but at max level adjustment. You'd need a new arm or bucking for anything over .30,unfortunately. You can also do this mod:http://www.airsoftsniperforum.com/41-vsr-rifles/9398-hopup-lever-modification.html

You could also do the TDC mod,which would allow weights over .30 to be lifted to long range easily. Have not tested it with .29g BBs but I would not expect good results. The components are capable of good performance but the adjustment mechanism lets it down.

 

Performance

When I tested groupings and range all the BBs were washed and the scope more or less zeroed,shooting at a bit bigger than A4 size cardboard box. Target 30 meters away. measurements are horizontal x vertical,fliers did not count. Effective range was tested by shooting at the target until I could not hit it more than 5 times.

 

.20s-fairly poor

approx 100x90mm for the .20s. Effective range of about 35m.

 

.25s is a bit better but still a bit inconstant left-right wise. Hop height is pretty consistent. less affected by wind.

Approx 80x70mm groupings and just about 40m of effective range.

 

.28s were very good,removed a fair bit of left-right BB flight.

Grouping at 60x60mm, effective range about 50m

 

.30s were struggling to be lifted. About the same effective range as .20s,at 35~m due to them simply dropping off.

Groupings are good,at 50x50m

 

Hop mech doesn't seem to apply enough pressure to the rubber to lift .30s well,leaving .28s as the best option.

 

Overall

Good quality hop up,good performance,simple design and easy to modify.

Stock,the heaviest weight it would lift is .3g,however it drops hard past the 35m mark,.28s are ideal for range. Stock,max effective range would be just about or under 50m with a .28g.

 

I upgraded mine with a PDi W hold and created a nub for the arm,my max range has been upped to about 60m,I really recommend this modification. I did it a less primitive way by filling the two arm prongs with epoxy and sanding it to shape however.

http://www.airsoftsniperforum.com/41-vsr-rifles/9398-hopup-lever-modification.html

 

Nice and accurate for an out of the box gun,good confidence in hitting thing up to 50m

 

Despite it's flaws in the adjustment mech It's a great hop up unit and probably one of the better designed for sniper rifles. Very easy to take apart and tune,plenty of mods can be done to it to tweak it's every aspect which is fantastic as this is crucial for a BASR.

 

Overall thoughts:

 

The trigger mechanism & piston combo reeks of cost cutting on Marui's part,however these parts are cheap and easy to replace

 

Main draw for this gun is the massive amount of aftermarket support and it's friendliness to tinkering and upgrades.

 

I'd personally say for 170£ you are getting a good base platform,you can make these guns shoot well for very small amounts of money by doing DIY mods . For the 1J market it's even better value.

[Unrustle_Thine_Jimmies]

SO TOKYO MARUI DID A THING

 

Now cylinder heads are crimped because f*ck you.

 

It seems the pin was not enough.

 

Bottom line is,you have to shell out for a new cylinder and internals if you want to upgrade. I'd stay cheap on the cylinder,Action army make good quality cheap ones. A JG bar 10 seems to elevated itself to a better option now,we don;t want to pay nearly 100 quid more for better screws and a marginally better hop up unit do we?