RS or AS, don´t matter but I had to wait quiet a while until something was available.
Prime early announced a VIS and I shizzled my pants but ...nothing happened.
Then finally last year I heard solid rumors from my HK contact
that Bomber is planing to release a CNC VIS soon (that was in september)!
and I preordered mine at Rhino Airsoft.com
Packaging
The kit came in a simple plain cardbox, all larger parts carefully wrapped in cushion-foil,
the smaller parts packed in plastic bags. Just as usuall but not as "perfect"
like the Prime or G&P boxes with pre-stamped inlets to hold the parts in place during transport/shipping.
Initial impressions
"WOW, great piece of CNC machining" where my first thoughts, very black finish that matches my Prime lowers perfectly.
No scuffs or scars from shipping and handling, everything in perfect condition how it should be.
Kit contents:
- VIS-1 with barrel nut and dust cover pre-installed
- 7.5" aluminium outer barrel
- Vltor style low profile gasblock
- short gastube
- Noveske type flashhider
- proprietary barrel nut wrench
- adaptor for WA length bolt carriers
- various shims for the flashhider
- rubber BCG buffer
Built quality and finish
Overall machining quality is very good allthough it can´t match Prime´s final finish
in terms of tooling marks and and overall apearance ...just to clarify, I´m nitpicking here, this is still top notch.
The surface finish itself is hard anodizing which feels indeed more durable and scratch resistant,
than the only regular anodized Prime receivers.
Not so "top notch" with this kit are the laser markings.
I mentioned earlier in another thread that the first batch seemed to have slightly "imperfect" markings
due problems in conjunction with the hard anodizing. ...it seems like they didn´t solved the Problem,
allthough I waited for the supposed to be improved second batch, the markings are still far from "super-crisp".
Bomber VIS laser markings:
Prime MUR laser markings:
Bomber...
Prime...
"One-piece" design
As some of you might know, the real Vltor VIS is not a true one piece design like the LMT MRP.
Even if it apears to be milled from one solid billet,
it´s actually made of two pieces, upper and rail, that are cleverly connected to each other
with some sort of welding/glueing process.
The Bomber VIS on the other hand, IS milled from one piece from one end to the other.
A true one-piece design you ask now? Well, not completely, the thread for the barrel nut is actually a insert,
fixed by two bolts or pins and very good hided under a barely noticeable covers on each side.
While this would be maybe no good idea for the RS VIS, for airsoft use it´s solid enough for sure.
Well, it´s a matter of opinion and up to yourself in the end how to judge that feature
and that´s why I have listed it in both, the pros and the contras of the summary.
Personally, I prefer Bombers solution since I highly doubt they could achieve the same rigid results as Vltor...
Installation / compatibility with Prime lower receivers
Allthough the Bomber VIS is real steel speced and designed for use with with Prime lower receivers,
I had issues with both of my lowers and wasn´t able to fully close the VIS
for pushing in the takedown pin right out of the box.
The mod:
To make the VIS properly fit my Prime lowers, I needed to carefully remove some material
arround takedown pin area, where upper und lower contacts.
I did that very slowly and gently with a very small flat file but a dremel will do the job of course, too.
While it´s annoying to do that on a brandnew, super nice finished item,
I´m also not 100% sure if that is actually Bomber´s or Prime´s fault since the regarding areas on my Prime lowers
are both not machined perfectly (small but noticeable step in the radius).
I cannot imagine, they didn´t testfit their VIS on at least 2-3 different Prime MBK´s before releasing
...on the other side, two different Prime lowers with the same problem...
The rest of the installation proccess is pretty simple since the dust cover is allready installed
and similar to usual uppers/rails. The proprietary barrel nut and -wrench
that came with the kit are both made of steel and work very well
allthough screwing on/off the nut can be a PITA due the "small" gap for access.
As a nice addition to the kit, Bomber also included a perfect fitting (unlike the G&P buffers)
rubber buffer for the BCG. Only downside here is that the included gastube is too long for use with the buffer,
since it extends into the upper as much as the RS/INO gastube.
...so it´s your choice, cut down the tube for the buffer or use a INO bolt carrier/RS carrier key,
I´m going to cut it down because the hole on my RA-T key isn´t deep enough
and I prefer it to have the buffer installed.
Summary
All together, I´m pretty satisfied with my latest purchase ...ok, the needed mods and laser markings
where not so nice but in the end I still got more then 90% of what I have expected.
Because of the needed mod I was able to fit it to my Magpul lower 100% perfect without any whobble,
in any case I prefer that over the oposite issue where you need to add material
to reduce play between the receivers.
Pros
- "one-piece" CNC design, eventually even more durable then the original
- hard anodized finish
- very well built/machined
- authentic lower rail/locking mechanism
- easy to access HU due removeable lower rail
Cons
- "one-piece" CNC design, not accurate to the RS counterpart
- may needs modification to proper fit Prime lowers
- laser markings are partly "imperfect" but acceptable
- gas tube needs to be shorten to use RA-T/WA/G&P/... BCG and/or the BCG buffer
Rating
Overall I´ll give the kit 8 / 10 points,
minus one point for each, the need to mod and the laser markings.
DOC
Seriously, if you could keep us updated on how the finish holds up.
