sCorpionevo3 a1 - ActionSportGames

aeg review asg cz scorpion evo 3 a1 - asg cz scorpion evo 3 a1 - asg cz scorpion evo 3 a1 - asg cz scorpion evo 3 a1 - asg cz scorpion evo 3 a1 - asg cz scorpion evo 3 a1
ASG’s new Scorpion Evo 3 A1 boasts several accolades. At it’s heart is
a sophisticated electronic control unit monitoring the performance
and health of the gun, allowing for cycle control and burst modes
on the selector switch. It’s also “Made in Denmark” for strength and
durability for the discerning airsoft player. With so much hype,
we are expecting big things from this new blaster...
cz
scorpion evo3 a1
ASG said it was the AEG that
everyone thought couldn’t be
made. If I’m truthful it’s the AEG
that I hadn’t really thought
about being made since it’s hardly
a high profile piece of real steel
weaponry but to my surprise, I’m
really rather smitten by the end
result. It has been made as an AEG
but all importantly, it’s not just
another boring v2 or v3 gearbox
shoehorned into a plastic shell.
Action Sport Games or ASG are one of a few
companies heading up the charge to legitimise
airsoft by procuring official licenses prior to the
production of replicas. Instead of just slapping some
branding and legal jargon on the side of any old
airsoft gun that looks about the right shape, their
latest CZ licensed product, the Scorpion Evo 3 A1 has
been designed from the ground up to do the real
thing justice to the extent of carrying a selection of
genuine parts and accessories available through ASG.
Immediately if the idea of having a compact, capable
airsoft weapon in a kit form tickles your fancy the
Scorpion will have some appeal. Marketed along side
magazine kits, modular accessories and a lazer cut
carry case, this is one for the guys who are OCS about
keeping things tidy and organised.
The Scorpion
The CZ Scorpion might ring a bell with
you as it’s a gun that’s been available in
various airsoft forms for a while now,
including some GBB formats and also
an AEP. The guns these are based on
is the venerable SA Vz 61, a weapon
designed in the late 50’s as a
compact submachine gun. Whilst
functional as a military service
weapon and also one used for
nefarious deeds by several
terrorist cells, it has all the
ergonomic charm of stepping
on a piece of lego barefoot and
the aesthetic appeal of the resultant
image of a round of blindfolded “pin the
pistol grip on the machine gun”. To put it simply,
it’s awkward to hold and uncomfortable to fire but
in true Eastern Bloc style, this is not the fault of the
weapon, but a problem the firer must be man enough
to overcome.
The Scorpion Evo 3 A1 fortunately shares nothing in
common with the original aside from the name and the
fact it is also a submachine gun. It’s far bigger than the
“original” despite being chambered in 9x19mm but it’s
a whole lot more ergonomic, not just in comparison to
the Vz 61, but overall, it’s a pretty darned comfortable
gun to hold and shoulder. That’s something of a relief
because I can’t exactly see airsoft players queuing
around the block to buy into the limited appeal of the
original Scorpion.
the asg cz scorpion evo 3 a1
features a one-piece CNC
finished metal outer barrel
Build Quality
ASG have produced a lot of marketing
material to accompany the release
of the Evo, including literature about
how it’s designed and built in the EU
strictly following along the specification
for the size and shape of the real thing.
How it’s built from similar hardy and
durable composite materials and how real
steel parts will fit perfectly in many cases.
These are all great things, since it is a lovely,
well built piece of kit to hold. We could quite
easily regurgitate these statements and call it
a review, but we know you are here to find out
the stuff that ASG might not tell you, not that that
means we are going to be negative just for the sake
of making different points but if you are reading Ai,
you are presumably wanting to know more than the
ASG pamphlets tell you already.
For a start, this is going to be one of those guns
that gets the pedants up in arms… Where usually the
cover-all statement and indicator of a decent gun,
externally at least, of “all metal” is used, this gun isn’t.
It’s mostly “all plastic” but that’s no bad thing at all.
The real thing is mostly externally plastic. This results
in a lightweight piece of kit that’s comfortable to hold.
Certainly more so than the old pressed metal scorpion
complete with sharp angles all over.
As mentioned previously, it’s not exactly pocket
sized and considering guns like the MP9 also fire the
same 9x19mm round as the Evo, it’s actually quite
large coming in at roughly the same proportion as an
Easily replaceable,
off-the-shelf bolts
are used to hold
the scorpion
together
MP5. Out the front the gun features a 7.5” external
barrel that is CNC machined from one piece of metal.
If bolts into place on the receiver and has absolutely
no wobble at all, even under some vigorous force. The
barrel terminates at the muzzle in a unique 2 piece
flash hider design that also holds the nylon fiber RIS/
fore end section of the gun tightly into place. Just
like the barrel, this RIS system has no wobble or
movement in it when the flash hider is screwed into
place on the barrel. You will need to remove the RIS
unit to fit the battery, but unless you torque down
the flash hider hard, you will find it’s quite easy to do
without tools.
At the rear end of the gun there’s a folding stock that
wraps around to the right hand side of the receiver.
The stock is made from the same sort of tough-as-nails
nylon fiber as the front end and has three lengths of
pull. I found the first to be two short and the last to
be a little too long, but the middle was just right…
I suppose you could call me “Goldilocks”. The stock
itself is entirely removable and the gun functions fine
without it, just as it does when the stock is folded,
but it’s worth noting that the catch that retains it
when folded doesn’t work unless the length of pull is
adjusted down to the shortest setting. Fortunately, it’s
easily done by squeezing a lever at the back.
With the stock removed or folded, the Evo isn’t a
great deal difference in size to an AR variant receiver
set. In fact it’s a bit bigger. The pistol grip is built into
the body of the weapon and it’s pretty large both in
circumference and length. The bottom of the grip is
a bulged out pommel kind of design. I’m not entirely
sure I like the grip texturing, which features vertical
ribs and it otherwise quite smooth, making it tough to
keep hold of when sweaty.
The trigger guard is moulded into the receiver in
plastic and it’s large and deep; easy to use with gloved
hands. Forward of that is the small magazine well that
has a flared lip and a chamfered in leading edge for a
comfortable grip.
On the whole, the externals of the Evo are produced
very well. There are some inoffensive mold lines
present, but the gun is solid and free from the creaks
and ‘hollow” feeling that some guns of this type have.
It feels robust and solid and yes, it seems to take the
knocks well… It actually took a pretty serious tumble
here at AiHQ when we were taking some photos,
dropping about 4ft straight onto a concrete floor, but
it has shaken them off unscathed! I’m not a massive
fan of the bolts that clamp the sides of the receiver
together but they are a feature of the real weapon,
so it’s impossible to rate this replica down for that.
Looking at reference images of the real thing, the ASG
Evo is a very good replica indeed.
Features and Controls
Getting away from the general build quality of the Evo,
we can start to have a looks at some of the features it
boats, or doesn’t in this case. Picking up the gun, one
of the things you will notice is the lack of any kind of
sights, which took me aback at first. For a while I was
fiddling around trying to find the button or catch that
caused some back up irons to spring into place, but
no. There are none. The gun is devoid of any kind of
sighting system as standard and if you want ASG’s Evo
specific sights, that’ll cost you extra. In testing, we
made use of the RIS rail upper and clamped a Comp
M4 replica red dot sight in place. The slab sides of the
gun would also be well suited to wearing an Eotech or
similar sight too.
The ambidextrous fire selector has numerous
positions including Safe, Semi Auto, Three Round
Burst and Full Auto. It’s positive and feels good to
click distinctly into all three positions. Unfortunately
the same cannot be said for the trigger because, for
reasons we’ll outline shortly, feels rather mush and
indistinct which is a real shame when you start firing
the gun. I’m not sure if it’s my large hands or my
propensity towards getting a high grip on weapons
when firing, but I also found the fire selector fouled my
knuckles easily too.
The magazine catch is a great piece of engineering,
allowing the specifically made magazines to latch firmly
and positively into place, with no wavering. It’s also
quick and simple to release them, and thanks to the
A quick release
spring system
makes your FPS
changes easy
Numerous
ambidextrous sling
points are found
around the gun
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asg cz scorpion evo 3 a1 - asg cz scorpion evo 3 a1 - asg cz scorpion evo
the Good Stuff
Tought as nails, made for practicality in
Denmark, fully licensed, unique design.
The Not-so-good Stuff
Quite expensive, no sights or extras, has
limited battery space, trigger is spongy.
position of the catch, easy to do with the trigger finger.
This is one control that we really like on the Evo.
Another aspect that you’ll need to get used to using
is only present on the left hand side of the gun and
that’s the bolt release. Much like some of the more
realistic replicas on the market, the Evo uses a lever
on the magazine itself to deactivate the firing process
when the magazine is empty. When the magazine is
replaced with a fresh one, the bolt release catch must
be actuated to get the gun firing again. This enhances
realism and requires the user to adopt drills as per the
real Scorpion, which many users will love.
When the charging handle is pulled back, which can
be fitted to the left or right hand side, the mock bolt
cover locks back and the hop unit can be adjusted.
Unlike other hop units, the Evo features and all plastic
design that can be tweaked either with a dainty digit
or an allen key for finer adjustment. Additionally,
when the stock is removed, the button that retains it
is also the rear spring cap of the gearbox, which, when
depressed slightly and twisted through 90 degrees,
allows you to remove the spring without opening up
the gun. To get under the 345fps limit that many sites
adhere to in the UK, we found an M95 spring was ideal.
Internals
Sometimes the concept of an all-new gun will strike fear
into the hearts of airsoft technicians the world over.
How new will it be? Will spares be available? Is it even
going to work? Thanks to ASG knowing their market
and their customers, they have made the vast majority
of the parts in the Evo that are likely to fail or require
any kind of upgrading compatible with their existing
ASG Ultimate line of parts. The gears and piston are
compatible with regular V2/3 parts, the motor is a
short shaft AEG motor and all this is good news.
Of course there are some items that are proprietary.
The fire selector linkage for one and of course
internally there are some rather funky electronics
that give the Evo it’s Three Round Burst modes. When
you first plug a battery in the ECU makes a beep that
will be very familiar sounding to those that have
used an ASCU any time recently. Our suspicion is that
Airsoft Systems loaned their expertise to ASG in the
engineering of the smart control system that infers
the Evo with all sorts of goodies like failure detection,
cycle completion and low power cut-off.
ASG say they have developed the internals of the
gun with the player in mind, to withstand upgrades
and numerous assembly/disassembly cycles and we
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can see no evidence of this being a spurious claim.
The whole things certainly takes down easily and
goes together with the same degree of ease. ASG
are certainly forging ahead by removing some of the
incredibly frustrating “booby trap” type assembly
processes seen in some less well-designed guns.
The hop unit and barrel of the gun, although unique
are far from anything remarkably ahead of other stock
set-ups they work in much the same manner as usual
and if we are honest, don’t provide the same range
of adjustment that some do. A consistent airseal is on
offer though and we have been coping just fine with
designs like this for some years now so there’s no
reason to be worried here.
Internally, the Evo is a solid product. It’s not as
ground-breaking as you may be led to believe, since
it’s simply and AEG gearbox with an electronic control
unit. Thanks to it being a well thought out AEG though,
it’s a very good example of integrating new technology
with tried and proven stuff.
The Magazine
The ASG Evo uses a
proprietary magazine based
on the magazine found
in the real weapon. A
black polycarbonate type
material is used for the
majority of the construction
and they hold 75 rounds.
Thanks to the mid-cap style
design they need to be filled
with a speedloader. The BBs
are retained by a system similar
to that in PTW magazines,
that’s two small sprung claws.
Unfortunately, much like the
PTW and it’s clones, we found
these feed lips to be sensitive to
knocks, causing the magazines
to jettison the contents it you
are not quite careful about
your reloading process. We also
didn’t break one of the magazines
in testing, but they certainly don’t feel
as robust as the rest of the weapon does, which is a
shame. Aside from the occasional eruption of a few
BBs, the magazine fed flawlessly and continues to do
so. Perhaps it’s just the robust feel of the gun itself
making the magazines feel comparatively flimsy?
Performance
Thanks to the ECU inside the Evo it has absolutely no
qualms in running on and 11.1v LiPo battery and it is
certainly advised to get the best out of the trigger
response and burst modes that feel somewhat sluggish
on a 7.4v battery. Even so, it’s impossible to half cycle
the gun so it still feels reasonable good to shoot. Our
model was running at the US Spec, meaning it was
putting out closer to 400fps, although thanks to the
quick-change spring design, this was bought down to a
more reasonable circa 340fps just by taking less than
20 seconds to drop in a m95 spring.
Summary
We hadn’t really taken much notice of the real CZ
Scorpion EVO 3 A1 until ASG announced their airsoft
replica but we’ve taken a look and although it’s quite
big for what it represents (compared to some other
submachine guns), it’s still comfortable and easy to
shoot. It’s pretty light too, making it ideal for CQB
gaming. The Evo is a solid gun and even if it isn’t to
everyone’s taste, we like what it represents. It’s a gun
that’s thought out from the ground up and made for
airsoft players, not collectors that just want something
that looks right regardless of how impractical it might
be to use.
We also like that the gun is made entirely in Europe,
showing that there’s a healthy market outside of the
Far East when it comes to quality products. It’s possible
to not rely on Hong Kong or China for production. At the
time of writing, the Evo is available to pre-order in the
UK at around £360, which certainly doesn’t make it a
cheap gun, especially when you get just one magazine
and not even any sights in the package for that.
We certainly enjoyed testing the Evo and it hasn’t
missed a beat yet, we are confidant it’ll be just the
same many thousand rounds down the line. Even
though the gun is quite expensive, the simple fact
that it’s unique will no doubt pull in a fair share of
interested parties.
Vital Stats
■ price: £359.99 (Pre-Order)
■ Weight: 2.4kg
■ Length: 425-625mm
■ hop: Adjustable
■ Mag capacity: 75rnds
■ velocity: 390fps US Spec (quick change spring)