Saturday was a wild one. Pennsylvania Airsoft productions hosted another zombie game (Zombie Hill V), which generally gives players a change to run some unique load-outs. I was certainly no exception. I hit the field with a Classic Army BT5K (MP5K) slung with a condor single point sling, a UTG M3L full stock shotgun, a WE-25 1911 high capa pistol, and 6 shot spring revolver... I'm not kidding, a single shot single action 6 (BB) shooter. Zombies don't shoot back (not usually, anyways), so you can get away with things like that
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This game was my first with either the single point sling or the CA BT5K. I must say how absolutely impressed I always am with condor equipment. The sling comes with two mounting systems: One with a metal clip for guns with mounting rings, and another with straps to connect to strap adapters. Both of these options connect to the rest of the sling with a quick detach buckle that is made of a very robust plastic.
In the case of the MP5K, I was able to connect the steel slit ring to the mount point, and comfortably secure the gun aroung my body. The really remarkable thing about it is that after slinging it on, there is not much more to say about the thing. The weight is evenly distributed, and the bungee moves a little to smooth out jostling. I could always find my Classic Army MP5k hanging neatly in place when my shotgun ran low on ammo, or when I needed some more range. During downtime it was off with a just a click, and back on just as fast when we resumed. It wasn't until thinking back on it now that I realized it was invisible to me all day, simply because it was working perfectly.
This will naturally bring me to talking about what was connected to the sling - the Classic Army BT5K. To fully appreciate the kind of challenge this gun was up for you need to understand some of the rules of a zombie game. AEGs are limited to Real Cap mags (In this case, a STAR 30 rounder that feeds 27 BBs at best), it takes 3 hits to put down a zombie, and the BBs are black. I had 4 x 30 round magazines on my rig, firing BBs I had zero chance of tracking through the woods onto either zombies or members of the two other teams (who may be hostile). Much to the credit to this small gun, it was not hopeless at taking down a man-sized target at 100 feet, when all I could rely on was the iron sites.
Clearly, this AEG is not the sort of thing you would want to have as your primary as it's generally under powered for distance shooting. At the same time, it certainly has its strong suits in compact size, light weight, reliability, and rate of fire. If you're looking for a back up weapon or a CQB weapon, the MP5K will perform nicely. When ever I ditched the shotgun and grabbed the MP5K to fire from the hip, I could count on having a nice sub machine gun to work with before dropping to my 1911 (or worse still, my spring 357 "magnum").
All the secondary options aside, my primary weapon was really the UTG M3L Shotgun. This is the full stock model of the UTG trishot shotguns. It's a shell fed spring shotgun that holds 30 rounds per shell (10 burst shots each). When chrono'd, the gun reads at 320 fps, which across 3 BBs makes for quite a sting if your on the receiving end. Just like the MP5K, the UTG shotgun is a very situational gun. While it shoots 320 and with decent accuracy, it lacks adjustable hop-up (for obvious reasons), meaning that range is reduced. Don't expect to take on M16 in the open, and you wont get into trouble with this gun.
There were two things I would nitpick on about UTG's shotguns. Reloads must be practiced. The latch that opens the door is on the side of the trigger guard. You must catch your old shell (unle$$ your ballin like that), stow it, then retrieve and load the new shell. Practice makes perfect, because if you hit the latch just right, you can get the shell to catch half way out allowing you to easily retreive it without looking. The problem is when you are in despiration mode you are very likely to just drop the shell. My other nitpick is not really a fair one considering the price of admission: The sling that comes with the gun will perhaps get you through a day if its a necessity, but it should absolutely be replaced. It was worth using it to be able to say that for a free sling, it works, but I would much rather have had a Condor Shotgun Scabbard on my rig like several other teammates had (Just remember to remove the front sling mount).
The scabbard can be side mounted to a belt for a cross draw for the pistol grip UTG M3S Shotgun, or across the back of a MOLLE/ALICE vest for the full stock version.
We'll work on getting up a video of a six human vs. 28 or so zombie rush, where Shotguns and pistols helped us survive the zombie horde...
Overconfident with my full loadout, I unexpectedly was hijacked by a Zombified Rat