12 SEPTEMBER 2014

THE CZ SCORPION EVO 3 A1 NOT ONLY HAS A BUMPER NAME but it has been chosen by ActionSportGames in Denmark to be their first rifle produced entirely in Europe. “Ah but…” I hear you say and I will stop you there. No Airsoft company manufacturers on mass outside the Far East at the moment.

OKAY SO WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS? Imagine you are ASG; a huge distributor with a good reputation in the EU as being upstanding and straight-laced good guys. You want a product that won’t be ripped off as soon as you commission a Far Eastern company to produce it for you, so you get burned a few times and end up doing it yourself. Good lads! Brave… but good.

WHY DOESN’T EVERYONE DUMP LOADS OF MONEY INTO NEW PRODUCTS?The move from a box-shifting distributor to manufacturer is not only a mind-bending job but a brave move. Think “Sinclair C5” (Google it) and you get a bit of an idea.... Essentially Sir Clive Sinclair had a great computer company, comparable to Amstrad

(who had an investor you may have heard of - Sir/Lord/King Alan Sugar). Anyways, Sinclair decided to revolutionise the transport market by making electric kiddie cars for grown-ups. You may have noticed the fact that we don’t use them or anything like it even to this day – this is because the idea flopped and all of the investment from the successful computer empire was gone forever.

SO WHO ARE ACTIONSPORTGAMES?For a start they are from Denmark, so I like them instantly. They have casual attitude to everything in life and they make great beer. Oh and bacon! Don’t forget bacon, although I suppose they don’t actually make bacon as that would crudely suggest that there is some bestial skulduggery afoot. ASG was the result of a merger between two companies in 2003, Pedersen & Grobelnik (founded in 1992) and Vestergaard ApS (founded in 1960). They also dip their toe in the air gun market and the budget market, though Airsoft as we know it these days is their key sector. Over the years they have worked with many manufacturers in the Far East to bring us good quality products.

SCOTT ALLAN REPORTS ON ONE OF THE MOST MONUMENTAL MOVES EVER FOR THE AIRSOFT MARKET; EUROPEAN AIRSOFT RIFLE PRODUCTION AND ASG’S LONG-AWAITED CZ SCORPION EVO 3 A1, AS HE GETS HIS HANDS THE FIRST OFF THE PRODUCTION LINE.

ASG + INNOVATION = EVO 3 A1

THE ARMOURY

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ASG CZ SCORPION EVO 3 A1

Even if they came from the same factories as the “unbranded” rifle types, the ASG versions underwent QA testing so were generally better.

WHY ACTIONSPORTGAMES?Having dealt with pretty much every single manufacturer at one point or another over the years, I can tell you more often than not most promises are hollow tales of sorrow and despair. Sales staff encouraged to get the orders in without actually knowing what is happening on the production line are all too common. Whether this is purely a “get the money in” tactic, they just don’t know, or they are too afraid to say no, I have never worked out. ASG are different. I’d like to think it was because they are European but then most European distributors who I have worked with can be an equal nightmare at times and some of them are, undoubtedly, reading this very article. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not bad companies but the turnover of the product from receipt of an order to delivering into a customer is slow. ASG really are a company after my own heart in terms of service. Yes things break, turn up late and they have let me down in the past but genuinely, it always worked out okay in the end. They try and that is the key; trying. They are upfront with cock-ups and try and help you make things right. Surely you can’t say fairer than that?

SO WHAT MAKES A BUNCH OF DANISH BOX-SHIFTERS QUALIFIED TO REPLICATE A REAL STEEL RIFLE?Well you start with the two company owners, Johnny Pedersen and Henrik Grobelnik, being engineers - very good engineers actually! For example the machines that Johnny and Henrik designed and built do all the bottling and sorting of the Blaster BBs that ASG sell. Simple designs mean that they machines work very well to deliver a high standard of product to the end user.

A LITTLE ABOUT THE REAL EVOThis is a 9mm Sub Machine Gun that is lightweight, reliable and easily manoeuvred in tight spaces. It comes with multiple fire settings; single, three round and full automatic bursts. As you would expect in a modern firearm they come with a variety of rails that allows for mission-specific changes, such as the addition of flashlights and lasers. Admittedly it is not the most common SMG in the world, unlike the MP5 by H&K. It is reportedly used by the Czech forces but also Egypt, Thailand and Malaysia. Unusual places but there you go. The real version also sports some great adjustable features such as the stock and the pistol grip. The cocking handle can also be mounted

on either side, which means those cursed lefties don’t have to struggle while on duty. The full polymer design means less external corrosion regardless of the geological or atmospheric conditions. The 20mm top rail means that you can fit an optic of any type quickly without any additional mounting, unlike the MP5 family that requires a claw mount. On top of that it is over 10% lighter than the MP5, which means that you will tire less carrying it around and will be able to bring it onto target faster. In a life or death situation, clearly that really could be the difference between you or the bad guy getting hit first.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM THIS VERSION WHEN IT IS RELEASED THIS SUMMER?For a start ASG have worked with Airsoft Systems (who make the ASCU) and so that this £80 extra is pre-installed and set up as standard. The ASCU is the best electronic trigger/MOSFET unit available at the moment and this means you get an amazing trigger response and battery control out of the box. “Stop on Empty” and “Magazine Detection” features are also on the list of specs and this, coupled with the non-sweatshop production, should have you positively moist!

SHOULD YOU BE EXCITED?Probably, yes! It is an unusual choice but CZ are very much on board with the production and have actually made many of the parts for the Airsoft version, so your pride and joy will have real steel pedigree. Spare magazines aren’t going to break the bank either at £16 a mag for a 75-round magazine. The real CZ parts include the front hand grip section and the entire stock assembly and all the accessories, such as the iron sights and slings, come straight from CZ too. This is quite possibly the most authentic rifle the Airsoft market has ever seen! The final price of the EVO looks to be just over £360 in the UK which given that the ASCU unit on its own retails at £80 isn’t so bad. While many of the stats don’t shake the earth in terms of size and weight the performance, construction and the backup behind this product is not only unprecedented but are very exciting. Every part will be available as a spare from ASG. I know as I watched many of these parts being produced in Denmark. We visited several companies that were involved in the plastic moulding, zinc casting, aluminium casting, CNC machining and more. It truly was an eye-opening experience

“It is a better rifle than a standard Far East counterpart, even the fire selector was redesigned four times so that it “sounded” better. That is the kind of attentionto detail you would expect from Ferrari.”

ASG have created a special website for the EVO 3, at: www.actionsportgames.com/evo3a1

14 SEPTEMBER 2014

and while ASG kept costings tightly to their chest for a variety of reasons, we have it on good authority that a single, fairly simple mould would cost around the €10,000 mark. ASG have dozens of moulds that they opened, one of the largest was 8-feet tall, weighing hundreds of kilos and all it did was make 4 polycarbonate magazine shells to the same design spec as the real version! Quality was always going to be an important factor. The bonus was that most of the factories that are producing the parts are within a short drive, or even walk from the offices and warehouse of ASG. The quality of the work was quite staggering. We saw parts being manufactured for Audi in one plant. The pop-up tweeter from the Bang & Olufsen stereo system – made there. The Audi R8 paddle shifter – made there… And that was just on one set of machines we saw. The CNC machining company work was also extremely high-end and although they had some really old cam driven machines that would’ve sent Guy Martin into an engineering frenzy, we saw modern machines churning out parts for a variety of very expensive Swiss watch companies. Each of the companies ASG is working with has their own name to promote and image to maintain. They are not small one man bands, they are large businesses with big contracts. That is the important part of the last sentence, ASG work WITH these companies. It’s not just “can we have 500 screws from B&Q or eBay” set up. Everything is counted, measured and planned out right down to the assembly of the EVO. You would have suspected that Howard Hughes had a hand in the assembly line. Certainly “military precision” is a term that pales in comparison to what ASG are doing.

SO WHY NOT JUST MAKE IT IN CHINA?In a conversion with Johnny over a few Carlsbergs, it made sense to ask the question. While it is nice to make something in Europe if you can make the same item in China for 20% of the cost of Europe then why wouldn’t you? I think largely it is the way the Chinese and Far East Airsoft market works.

THE ARMOURY

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ASG CZ SCORPION EVO 3 A1

EMPTY MAGAZINE DETECTION

FUNCTIONAL BOLT LOCK

CNC METAL FLASH HIDER

QUICK CHANGE SPRING

REMOVABLE FOLDING STOCK – REAL STEEL

POLYMER FRONT RIS GRIP – REAL STEEL

REDUCE BB LOSS HOP UNIT

3 ROUND BURST FUNCTION

FUNCTIONING CHARGING HANDLE

AMBIDEXTROUS CONTROLS

FAST RELOAD DESIGN

BATTERY MONITORING

FAILURE DETECTION

CRISP ELECTRONIC TRIGGER RESPONSE

SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT AND COMPACT DESIGN

CNC MACHINE OUTER BARREL

INTEGRATED STANDARD SIZE RAILS

BUILT ENTIRELY IN EUROPE

STATS LENGTH: 623/425MM

WIDTH: 58 MM BARREL LENGTH: 208MM

MAG. CAPACITY: 75 ROUNDS HOP UP TYPE: ADJUSTABLE

VELOCITY: 95 (312)MS/FPS (UK VERSION) WEIGHT: 2400GR

ENERGY: 0.95 JOULE

FEATURES

It’s all a bit… off the shelf. They didn’t have a gearbox that would work and it would be a hassle to make a new one, also China wouldn’t build the Evo the way ASG have chosen to build it. Remember the 4 magazine mould, 8 foot tall and weighs hundreds of kilos? If China did that magazine, they would make it in two halves and glue it. ASG wanted it one piece, like the real version – and that meant a mould that is ten times more complicated and more expensive. Remember also that much of the design has been taken from original drawings given to ASG directly from CZ. Another point is China copies what they’ve done before. Imagine someone built a path with a drain cover that people tripped over, if China copied this they’d make it exactly the same with the same drain cover causing the same problems. One way in which the engineering eye was cast over the design was the gearbox case and, specifically, the cylinder exposure. Johnny knows that gearboxes crack at the front and always wondered why the cylinder was so exposed. What was the reason? There isn’t one, no reason at all unless you have a porting which only needs to be a few millimetres not the huge area exposed like a traditional gearbox. Also the gearbox is thicker aluminium than a standard gearbox case with rounded edges rather than square, to even the stresses out. If you are unsure about the stress differences between squares and ovals find a documentary on the De Havilland Comet in the late 40’s. If that isn’t enough the short shaft motor has a bearing support that fits perfectly into the mounting to optimise power transfer. Many of these designs Johnny implemented himself - simple, but also clever engineering. That is why it is a better rifle than a standard Far East counterpart, even the fire selector was redesigned four times so that it “sounded” better. That is the kind of attention to detail you would expect from Ferrari.

BUT WON’T IT JUST GET COPIED?You could make it close, but you couldn’t copy it exactly without considerable cost which would put the price above the ASG rifle and you’d have to make the stock and front end anew, as ASG get the existing real steel parts. So in short, yes you could but it really isn’t worth it? Best of all is Asia is screaming out for this product and finally they will bear the brunt of shipping costs that the European stores have faced for years. So after seeing how it was all designed, not losing my genitals in an unfortunate smelting accident like Goldmember and firing a prototype we had to wait for the first one to arrive off the assembly line….

D DAY ARRIVED!I’ve seen a lot of rifles real and Airsoft. I’ve fired just about everything that is worth looking at and a lot that would make you cry - they were that bad. I really hoped that the EVO was everything I had hoped it would be. At the end of the day there are limitations to what can be achieved with an airsoft rifle and the EVO did have a fairly high bar in my mind, most of this being set by ASG’s sales pitch and the manufacturing processes I’d witnessed. After seeing the precision of the manufacturing I was sure it would be great and I wasn’t disappointed…. Once I got the battery in that is! So yes, I found the first drawback; the battery is a royal pain in the ass to fit inside. That said, there have been many that are a hassle to change. Hell, my VFC KAC PDW couldn’t be changed, it had to be charged while in the rifle! The 11.1v LiPo fitted into the EVO after some time and effort between three of us. The next thing was the hop bedding in; it took about 300 rounds for it to all settle down and optimise. Once it had it was good, very, very good! The realistic function of the EVO is great: Magazine in, cock it and then fire until the magazine runs out and it stops on empty. The 75-round magazines don’t last too long and I think I would be tempted to run the magazine clamps (also real steel from CZ).

“The real CZ parts include the front hand grip section and the entire stock assembly and all the accessories, such as the iron sights and slings, come straight from CZ too. This is quite possibly the most authentic rifle the Airsoft market has ever seen!”

16 SEPTEMBER 2014

FIELD TESTINGA slight drawback for this package is the lack of iron sights with the rifle as standard. Although it is still usable without iron sights (by using the top rail as a guide), 90% of players don’t actually use them anyway I find. I fitted it up with an EoTech and a vertical grip and it was good to go. With this being a “first off the line” rifle I expected niggles but didn’t find anything major. At the time of shipping I was told there is a revision for the final version that changes something in the hop unit - so the bedding-in time may be non-existent by the time these come to market fully. The trigger response is smooth and positive and the range from this compact little monster is definitely above average, winging tightly grouped shots out to 50 metres with relative ease. The version I tested was a Europe spec at 400fps out of the box but I had quickly swapped out the spring for a M100, giving me 355fps. A spring change really does only take 30 seconds with this. Obviously running a single 75 magazine leaves you somewhat at a disadvantage but still the EVO claimed a good few victims. Running relatively quiet is probably a major factor, along with the snappy trigger from the extremely good high torque motor often beating an opponent’s gearbox cycle.

IN CONCLUSIONThe EVO is a first in many ways. It is the first version of the CZ Scorpion Evo 3 A1 ever produced. It is the first rifle I know of that uses real steel parts as standard and most importantly, it is the first rifle ever produced in the EU. The performance is very good out of the box, with the quick change spring to suit all game sites in the UK. You could baulk at the price but then you’d just be tight-fisted. When you break down the components, the construction process and the EU manufacturing it’s actually a bit of a steal. The draw backs are few and generally down to the individual buyer, it is fairly small so large players may feel that it is too little. There are no high capacity magazines but the mid-caps are great and cheap. The battery is a bit of a fiddle but that wouldn’t put me off personally. The last potential point is the design. Some people are die-hard M4 fans and the futuristic design will undoubtedly put off the odd player who prefers “a classic”. These few picking points aside the EVO is a dynamite little nail gun that has the talk and the walk and I doubt there are many players who will regret buying one. It is hard to find a major flaw with the design at all and I can’t wait to see them on the game field…. I just hope that they are on my side or I’ll be in serious trouble.

Fancy winning an ASG EVO 3 A1? We thought you might! With huge generosity, ASG have agreed to let us give away the very gun that Scott reviewed. So you have the chance to win not only an abso-lutely awesome airsoft rifle but also a little bit (actually, quite a big bit) of airsoft history. When we told ASG what we want-ed to do, they thought we were mad but, like us, they absolutely believe in giving back to the community that supports them. So one lucky Airsoft Action reader will win this stunning prize simply by turning to Page 97 and entering the competition.

Good luck!