HFC HG-132 gas revolver 4" barrel

[Rogerborg]

One of these fellows. 

 

 

 

I have no idea about pistols, I think it's some sort of Colt Python .357" Magnum PI inspired thing.  I bought it because, well, I don't have a revolver, and I might want to use it in Very Hard Mode in Very CQB.

 

 

Out of the box:

 

Quality is mixed. The outer barrel is metal, and there are metal weights under the grips, giving it some nice heft.  The frame is a decent solid plastic, I don't have any robustness concerns there.  However, the grips are a cheap feeling hard plastic, there are too few points of contact with the frame, and too much free play in both the grips and the weights under them.  No big drama, I've packed it with tape.

 

The mechanism feels OK. The plastic cylinder is solid enough and the shells are metal. When flipped out, the hinge feels fairly robust, but I doubt you'll be doing that much, if ever, should you be inclined to field it - read on for why.  The inner barrel and nozzle that keys into the shells is sprung to press it back and engage solidly, without making closing or rotating the cylinder too onerous.

 

 

Initial range shooting:

 

A disappointing and inconsistent 0.3 - 0.5J with either 0.2g or 0.25g on ASG ULTRAIR green gas at 15C - the minimum recommended temperature.  The note in the box from Bullseye claimed 242fps on 0.2g (0.54J) with Swiss Arms 130psi gas at 14C.

 

The energy inconsistency is reflected in shooting inconsistency too.  It's 90% accurate, 60% of the time, but there are a lot of wild fliers. The rear sight adjusts for uppy-downy and sidey-sidey, although that's somewhat of a gimmick given the inconsistency.

 

Some sellers claim there's a fixed hop.  Nope, nothing, you'll need to lob beyond point-blank ranges.

 

It's gas efficient and I put about 80 shots through it without refilling (or needing to).  Bad Influence Airsoft tested its HG-133 sibling and saw 150 shots out of it.

 

 

After investigation:

 

On disassembly (careful now, the 4 screws are in 3 different sizes), it turns out that the gas is routed from the reservoir and valve up a channel on the inside of the frame, sealed by o-rings at top and bottom.  They were essentially unlubed, and the frame side needs to be screwed on as securely as possible without stripping out the plastic in order to get a good seal.  I've silicone lubed the seals now, or you could alternatively just spooge as much silicone as you like into the nozzle that feeds into the back of the shells - there's no hop to contaminate, so go wild. The excess will get blown out.

 

Another issue is that the cylinder is rotated by a bar attached to the trigger.  Cocking the hammer pulls the trigger partially back and raises the bar, but not quite enough to completely rotate the cylinder. Only when the trigger is pulled does it complete the last of the rotation and line up the shell, and it seems that it can still be slightly misaligned when it spurts.  Cocking the hammer and then giving the cylinder a tiny nudge to get it fully aligned before pulling the trigger seems to help. Since the most effective way to use is pre-cocked, this isn't as onerous as it sounds.

 

With it lubed and the cylinder aligned, I am now actually seeing the advertised 0.6 - 0.7J out of it.  It's still not super-consistent and the lack of hop means it's still a short ranged plinker at best.

 

 

Loading:

 

Yes, the shells come out, and the shell extractor works well enough.  There are no spares though, so doing so is fraught with hazards.  At about £10-11 for another 6 shells, reloading via shells will get expensive, and you'll doubtless lose them as fast as you buy them if you actually try reloading in-game.

 

However, it turns out that you don't have to.  Just point the gun up at your face, and drop a BB into the front of each shellazine as you rotate the cylinder.  You can press them in individually with a finger, but you don't even have to do that.  Fill two, rotate, fill two, rotate, fill two, then do another complete rotation and the nozzle will push each BB back to exactly where they need to be.  With practice, you can reload this thing in-game that way, and quicker than fumbling around with shells.  So I reckon that if you actually want to skirmish with it, you'll never bother to actually open the cylinder.

 

 

[Update] Play:

 

The real effective range against a fully exposed target is maybe 40 feet.  To be fair, HFC do list the range as effective/maximum 37/48 ft which is surprisingly realistic, although it lies about the hop and magazine so I suspect it's from the wrong gun or just random text.

 

So is it useless?  Well, no, not quite, and the most memorable kills I got with it were point-blanking folk in a killhouse.  With the hammer cocked, you can get an effective close range shot off.  However, the double-action trigger is so heavy that you're unlikely to get a second.  This wasn't a problem in practice given the intensity of the action, and surprisingly, neither was the capacity.  Most hits were trade-offs, I never lived live long enough to get through 6 chambers, and it can be reloaded on the way back to respawn.

 

It's daft to try and use it versus just about anything else, but this is a daft hobby, and I had fun with it in that specific situation.

 

 

tl;dr summary:

 

It's a working revolver, it shoots BBs about as far as a cheap springer or (unhopped) AEP, and you can just about skirmish it.  For £53 plus postage, I'm happy enough with it, although (e.g.) an AA R17 can be had for much the same money and will outshoot it all day long.