UMAREX Steel Storm

Just look at what 80 bucks can get you these days! The UMAREX Steel Storm is a fully automatic airgun (up to 6 shot burst fire) at a very attractive price point. It would seem UMAREX is trying to capitalize on the success of the Drozd by offering a similar product at about 1/3 the price. Well, that seems just fine to my wallet, but let's dig into the Steel Storm and see how it measures up against the competition.

Out-of-the-box impression: Okay, this thing does not feel as cheap as one might think. For 80 bucks I expected a housing barely better than those translucent water pistols we all shot at the cat's fart-hole back in the day... yea, you know you did it. Anyways- not bad: it could be heavier, but the housing does have weight to it, it is reasonably rigid, and the fit in my hand is pretty good. Maybe it's a little small, but what doesn't feel small to my lumberjack man-mitts? Integrated Picatinny rails on top AND bottom? No batteries to mess with? Already I like this more than the Drozd!

I'm holding the Steel Storm 30 seconds, and I can no longer resist the urge to shoot and destroy something. This speaks well of the airgun... or maybe it's just part of being a dude. "Mmmmmm f**k-s**t-up" spoken so eloquently by SoulFly is indeed ringing through my head as I reach for the CO2 cartridges. I pop the CO2 holder out of the handle using the 2 releases for the pistol grip's CO2 holder. One drops the gas unit far enough to disconnect it from the airgun internals, and the other keeps the gas unit from shooting out the bottom of your pistol grip if it was pressurized when you released it... slick.

TWO CO2 CARTRIDGES! The Drozd with only one cartridge would suck the gas and leave you limp just when the party started, but UMAREX steps up the game with double gas bulbs in the Steel Storm. Way to go guys! Lube and install both cartridges, snug one up, pierce the other, then pierce the first. You need to use the small included wrench to tighten the piercing screws, which I don't like, because I will eventually loose this thing. You'll need to make an effort to keep track of this sucker; don't drop it in the pine straw as you frantically reload gas in hot pursuit of a squirrel through the back yard. How many of those Crosman rotary mags have I lost?



And what is this? I see an affordable Steel Storm bulk CO2 adapter is available! So when I loose that stupid plastic wrench I can just replace it with a bulk gas system. Bonus!

Now load your BBs of choice. I have always used the Daisy silver BBs; the Crosman Copperheads do shoot slightly faster, but their coating quality is not nearly as consistent as Daisy's. So slide the front site rearward, and pour in a bunch of BBs into the hopper thingy atop the gun. It holds about 300. Now, you can't just blow through 300 BBs Predator-style, you have to load the internal magazine first and shoot 30 at a time. All you have to do is push this little side lever forward and maybe give it a shake to load the 30 BBs. Not bad guys and gals... way easier than loading the Drozd magazine.

So far so good. Safety ON, semi-mode, charge the cocking lever, aim at target, safety OFF, trigger. BAM! It actually has some recoil... and it's loud! Set to burst-mode: BRRRRRUP! The rate is a little fast, but this is FUN! It feels like the old T2 Judgement Day vibrating-gun arcade games. So it feels good to shoot, and I have already destroyed a coke can, but what kind of velocity are these steels a-stormin'? I'm measuring 420-430fps! That is respectable at this price point, and this is only about 100fps less than the Drozd (75% the velocity for 33% the cost ain't bad). Accuracy: good enough, but with no shoulder stock it is hard to hit targets past 20 yards.

To be honest, I'm actually impressed, and not at all let down like that first shot with the Drozd. I WANT to shoot this airgun, and for only 80 bucks, I could buy 2 of them plus ammo and CO2 for less than a Drozd. I think the biggest advantage the Steel Storm has over the Drozd (besides price) is that the gas input is separate from the ammo. As I discussed in that previous blog, to add a bulk gas system to the Drozd you must attach a hose to the magazine which holds the BBs. This means that your ammo magazine is now connected to your gun with a hose, and you must stop shooting to reload that one magazine. Having a second magazine loaded at the ready is not an option with a bulk gas Drozd. The Steel Storm takes that hassle completely out of the equation with its internal magazine... which is not only easier to load than the Drozd's, but also its operation is not hindered by a bulk gas addition. And with its upper and lower pic rails, lack of complicated electronics, availability of a bulk gas adapter, and even full-auto mods out there... the Steel Storm is a winner.

The only big negative I see in this airgun (keeping the price in mind) is the lack of a shoulder stock and the inability to easily add one. That would drastically improve the accuracy and allow you to use a red-dot site on that beautiful upper pic rail. Have you ever used a red dot on a pistol? It's darn near impossible to keep the dot in view. Actually, the best thing you could do without a stock is add a cheap laser to the bottom rail... or a bright flashlight for 'point and shoot' night fun... or both if you like to be audibly and visually obnoxious while you kill the neighborhood's rodents and drain batteries.

So how does this Steel Storm measure up to the Drozd? No contest, UMAREX set out to compete with the Drozd and they have absolutely made a better product for a lower price. Gotta love free enterprise! Now, is the Steel Storm as good as the GMG? No, it's not even in the same ballpark. But, for $80, the UMAREX Steel Storm is a hell of a lot of fun. 

T

The Dark Side of the Drozd

Today I want to discuss the IZH-Baikal Drozd. The Drozd is truly an awesome and revolutionary airgun, and it has been widely popular in a worldwide market. However, even with it's decided success, there are several problems with the Drozd which have been gnawing at my brain during 'ponder-time', and I want to share them in hopes of encouraging discussion. For this blog I would like to look at The Dark Side of the Drozd.

The most frustrating problem I have with the Drozd is it's difficulty to modify. Admittedly, there are many 'hacks' to improve the Drozd, but they are exactly that- hacks. The modifications require great skill, intimate knowledge, or extensive cutting/drilling/removing plastic. After studying the device for some time, I almost want to say the Drozd was designed specifically to limit a customer's ability to modify or improve the airgun. Of course I cannot prove that assertion, nor do I even have enough data to effectively argue it. More logically I would need to blame the Drozd’s difficulty of modification rooted in the designer’s need to make the airgun safe and affordable… respecting the component design, manufacturability, assembly time, material selection, packaging size, liability insurance, and regulation compliance which are all relevant to a product’s retail cost. Whatever the reason, allow me to continue into the frustration of modifying a Drozd.


The 'easiest' and most readily available Drozd modification is an extended barrel. A longer barrel will improve the airgun’s muzzle velocity and potentially accuracy. But what does it take to install this barrel? Well, highlights from instructions to install the aftermarket barrel include: gripping the stock barrel's threads with needle nose pliers, holding the gun in just a manner such that it does not fall apart when the barrel is removed, and keeping the magazine installed during the barrel-swap or else an internal part comes loose which then requires the Drozd's complete disassembly to fix. What? You need to grab the stock barrel's threads with pliers? That does not sound good for the barrel! And it will disassemble itself if you don't hold it correctly with the magazine installed? Would it have been terribly expensive to add a screwdriver slot or wrench flat to the barrel? Or to hold the internal pieces differently such that the entire assembly is not dependent on the barrel?

And who wouldn’t want to add a cool laser or dot sight on their favorite airgun? Or how about attaching a flashlight for nighttime rodent hunting? Sorry… no dovetail, Weaver, or Picatinny rails were integrated on the Drozd. Well, yes a dovetail was molded just fore of the rear sight, but it is too short for many common accessories. If you want rails or mount points to add sights or accessories, then you have to carefully drill into the plastic housing and screw one on- lovely. How easy would it have been to add more rail to the top or bottom of the Drozd? To add those features into an injection mold tool would have added negligible cost- yet it was not done. Why? I could reason why a Russian company would not add a commonly American Weaver/Picatinny, but why no 11mm-13mm dovetail which is so common across the globe?

Another common upgrade to the Drozd is a bulk gas supply. Yes, it's hard to believe, those little 12 gram CO2 bulbs just aren't enough for an energy-thirsty device like an automatic BB gun. So after a while on the market, kits began to appear which adapted paintball style C02 tanks to the Drozd. Tank adapters were easily made to fit inside the Drozd's shoulder stock attachment taper, but to route the new gas source to the magazine took a good bit of 'hacking'. The plastic shroud on the magazine is modified for an NPT elbow which feeds pressure to a part replacing the intended 12g bulb. Some kits even used an actual 12g bulb with 1/8 NPT threads right in the side! Which, need I say, is a freaking scary liability considering the thin wall of the C02 bulb. The ‘hack’ has been quite popular, and honestly the end result is not horrible, but it is obvious that the Drozd was never meant to utilize gas from any source other than a 12g C02 bulb, which is silly considering the volume of gas required by an airgun designed to shoot such a large quantity of projectiles. I don’t know if the ASA tank mounts are common to Russia, but I do know they are common all across the globe, and the Drozd was designed as a global product- why not make amendments for the adapting of an ASA or even an 88gram bulb for all those BBs? Which brings me to my next point...

The second big problem with the Drozd is it’s magazine. The magazine in the Drozd contains not only the ammunition, but also the gas supply and the valve. Normally, the purpose of utilizing a removable ammunition magazine in a gun is to allow the shooter to load several magazines before engaging whatever target they feel the need to destroy. This is especially important with automatic weapons which have the tendency to exhaust said magazine fairly quickly. Now, by integrating the ammo magazine with the gas supply (and all associated parts and support geometry) and the gas valve (with its tight-tolerance fits and complicated parts) the Drozd magazine now becomes a very expensive part of the airgun... around 50USD. This therefore renders moot a removable magazine, as it is too expensive to buy multiple magazine to load and have at the ready.

Furthermore, because the bulk paintball tank adapter discussed above ‘permanently’ attaches to the magazine, a shooter cannot use more than one magazine with the same bulk adapter. Yes you could devise some sort of double-tank and double-magazine or a tank magazine with another 12g bulb magazine firing scenario... but that is irrelevant. It is difficult and expensive to concurrently increase the gas and ammo supply to the Drozd... to the great irritation of nearly every user.

Speaking of increasing ammo capacity; what a crock! How long have people been trying to invent and market a bulk magazine for the Drozd? Why is it taking so long? That should be an easy task right? WRONG! Even I 'gave it a shot', and I promptly quit after finding so many faults in the Drozd design relating to upgradeability. It is very difficult to make a market-successful bulk magazine for the Drozd. Why? Firstly because the valve and gas supply are integrated into the magazine- that immediately makes an aftermarket magazine expensive because the manufacturer must either reproduce valve parts, use Drozd valve parts, or modify Drozd valve parts... and all of those options require expense. It would be exponentially more simple to design a bulk magazine were the valve not integral.

Secondly, the Drozd fires into an open breech which places a high force on the stack of ammo below the projectile being accelerated down the barrel. This is a serious design problem. This force is why a magazine cannot simply be made with a longer track and spring, and this force is exactly why you cannot use an airsoft style hi-cap magazine... because the back-pressure of the open breech damages or disrupts the feed wheel mechanism. Novel attempts to overcome or 'deal with' this force have been presented, but the resulting concepts were either expensive, cumbersome, or ineffective.

Another big problem… steel BBs or lead balls? Steel BBs are supplied with the Drozd, but distributors and the manufacturer state to use lead balls. Lead balls often jam in the magazine and quickly become a pain to use; steel BBs on the other hand work flawlessly in the magazine even at 1200rpm full auto. The barrel of the Drozd is rifled- which would require lead balls to ‘take’ the rifling. Steel BBs simply damage the rifling (as a side note- no one has proven with certainty that spherical projectiles benefit from a rifled barrel, and one could argue convincingly in loose conversation that the projectile’s lack of a polar moment bias along the axis of travel causes rifling to actually decrease projectile accuracy). Were I to choose a projectile, lead balls would be more satisfactory because of increased impact energy and reduced possibility of harm from ricochet. However in my dealings with the Drozd, lead balls are just not practical. The Drozd more effectively shoots steel BBs, but consistently launching lead balls (or even better- lead pellets) would make for a much better product.

My last grievance with the almighty Drozd is it’s feel. Thinking back a few years to the arrival of my first Drozd- after much anticipation my excited hands ripped open that cheap Ruskie (or Chinese for all I know) cardboard, and I quickly picked up the Drozd. I remember thinking 'Oh jeez! It feels like a toy!'*. The feel certainly did not live up to my mind's preconceptions about the world's first commercial fully automatic airgun**- with the potential to fire 6 BBs over 500 fps in under a second with one trigger pull, I would have assumed it would be a meaty, metal, gnarly, aggressive ... GUN... not the soft-curved, comfortable, plastic, ray-gun I held. Those plastic/sticky/fragile switches worried me. At that point I hadn’t even read that it required batteries. BATTERIES? You mean… like in a toy? So I loaded it up and went out to shoot. That first trigger pull of the Drozd… what a let down. No kick. No recoil. It was like shooting a rubber band gun. Sure the BBs were traveling 500fps… but it didn’t feel like they were. The Drozd has serious performance- it needs to feel serious. It needs to feel threatening. It needs to demand respect. But alas, I remain disappointed.

Don’t mistake my complaints for ingratitude. I wholeheartedly respect every man-hour which went into designing, manufacturing, marketing, and distributing the Drozd. The airgun is very well designed and executed- even if the end product does have serious shortcomings. Some would ask why… Maybe product planning was distraught with compromise and bureaucracy. Maybe Baikal seriously underestimated the wide acceptance and desire of such an airgun in the market and undercut its features accordingly. Maybe the powers that be were hung over during that phase of the project. Whatever the reason… it leaves me very excited, because we live in an economy where competition is encouraged. Therefore the market is free to respond to the Drozd by improving upon all of it’s problems to release an even more impressive product. Perhaps someday the world will see such an airgun.

cough, aahem, GSMG, cough, Sorry- something in my throat.

Thanks for reading,

\m/

T

*'toy': I strongly believe that airguns should never be referred to as toys. Any airgun, even the weakest single pump pistols, has the potential to kill a person. They should never be thought of as toys- they demand the respect and safety which is required of anything that can cause harm or death to a person. My comment was only meant in comparison to Baikal's other products and the Drozd's mismatch of performance to perception.

**I do not consider the Larc an airgun. It was a sandblaster fitted for lead shot.

A fully automatic pellet and BB machinegun - the GSMG

This is my first blog. Not only here, the Fully Automatic Airgun blog, but anywhere. I've never 'blogged' before, but wow do I have a reason to start.

The GSMG is a semi and full automatic gas powered pellet and BB machinegun. It uses gas pressure from a standard ASA paintball tank, and shoots pellets or BBs at very fast velocities... over 600 feet per second. This is a project we have been working on for quite a while, and it is nearly ready for the market.

The GSMG is a response to a very popular airgun- the IZH-Baikal Drozd. The Drozd has been around for a few years, but has some serious shortcomings. I will go over those issues in a later blog. For now- you know where we're coming from.

The GSMG is a Gas Sub Machine Gun. It's design was inspired by modern day firearms... rugged tools which perform flawlessly for years (the good ones do anyways). The receiver is a hard-coated aluminum which is durable and will not rust. The pistol grip is a high-strength engineering resin to withstand impacts but still be comfortable in the hand. Internal parts are made of hardened steel to last a lifetime with proper maintenance.

The GSMG was laid-out to be a versatile weapon used for many tasks. It can fire lead pellets which are accurate... to hunt. It can fire steel BBs which are cheap... just to destroy paper targets or soda cans. And it can fire lead round balls which are heavier and safer than BBs... to hunt, plink, or just plain have fun.

The GSMG uses a 30-round ammunition magazine; 2 of which come with every airgun. The magazines are fairly inexpensive, so you can buy several to load up at the same time. The magazines are easily and quickly installed and removed from the GSMG. You can unload an entire magazine then switch to a fresh one quickly... just like a real gun.

This BB machinegun uses standard paintball style air tanks and functions on C02, nitrogen, and high pressure air (HPA). Even the small paintball tanks provide enough pressure for hundreds of shots, or several clips, so you can focus on shooting and having fun. The larger HPA tanks will last you days of shooting.

An aspect key to the design of the GSMG, was optimal versatility and modifiability. This airgun can be readily adapted to suit the owners' needs and desires.

• Want to attach a flashlight or laser sight? ... the GSMG has integral upper and lower accessory rails.
  
• Want to add a strap or a sling? ... the GSMG has integral sling mounts.
• Want to increase the projectile velocity? You can easily change to a longer barrel or install a hammer/valve upgrade for maximum muzzle energies.
• Want more than the 30 round capacity of your magazine? ... a bulk magazine will soon be available for the GSMG.

Well there you have it. I hope you enjoyed reading this brief rundown of the GSMG automatic airgun. Please visit the GSMG website at www.fullyautomaticairgun.com for more information.