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    Umarex Tactical Force CO2 Pistol


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    Umarex Tactical Force "Combat" CO2 Pistol review by Booligan
    Discuss this review HERE
    Table of Contents:
    Introduction
    Ordering
    First impressions/Packaging
    Included
    Gun Specifications
    Externals
    Trademarks
    Magazines
    Performance
    Internals
    Modifications
    Pros/Cons
    Overall
    Introduction
    Umarex USA is a distribution/production company based in Arkansas, who specializes in bringing in licensed airsoft replicas into the US. They have another line of products without real steel licensing, under the Tactical Force name, and this pistol falls under that category. It is a unique CO2 powered GBB/NBB hybrid (I'll explain more about this later), that is designed for the skirmisher in mind. Overall, it takes several design queues from a certain popular pistol design, which we won't go into here. Read on to see the highs and lows of this interesting pistol!
    Ordering:
    I obtained this pistol directly from Umarex in order to review it here on Airsoft Retreat.
    It is currently available at a few retailers, such as Pyramyd Air, and Airgun Depot, priced at about $60. It is available in full black, and "LE Blue", which has a blue slide to signify it as a training weapon.
    First impressions/Packaging:
    The TF Combat pistol comes blister packed in a plastic package, designed to be hung on retail shelves. It's not the best packaging, but it certainly gets the job done!
    From this point on, click all pictures to enlarge
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    Packaging
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    Packaging information
    Included:
    The pistol comes as a pretty sparse package, only including the pistol itself, a manual, and a few documents from Umarex regarding safety and registration. You need to supply CO2 and BBs in order to use the gun, but those are certainly easy to track down!
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    Everything included
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    Manual

    Gun Specifications:
    Weight: About 1.25 lbs
    Length: 7.5"
    Width: 1.25"
    Height: 5.45"
    Sight Radius: 6.5"
    Externals:
    Umarex chose to have this pistol made out of a combination of metal and polymer, in keeping with the layout of most polymer framed pistols. Its design is similar to a certain Austrian made pistol, however, it is a unique and distinct pistol, with its own design elements.
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    Pistol, left side
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    Pistol, right side
    Starting with the grip, you will notice that it has fairly aggressive texturing not only on the front and back straps, but on the sides as well. The back strap opens in order to install the 12g CO2 cartridge required to operate the gun. It is very comfortable to hold for either left or right handed shooters, so it should be able to fit pretty much anyone.
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    Grip texturing
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    Grip opens using this button
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    Grip opened
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    CO2 installed
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    Thumb screw used to secure and puncture the CO2 capsule
    The frame of the pistol, which is made of polymer, houses the fairly simple controls, which consist of the trigger, slide lock, right side mounted safety switch, and the magazine release. The trigger has an internal safety lever, however, it is nonfunctioning. The trigger pull is long and heavy, like most NBB pistols, as the act of pulling the trigger cocks the hammer that strikes the firing valve. Jutting out of the left side of the grip is the magazine release, which is quite large, but not in a position where you'll hit it accidentally.
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    Trigger and magazine release
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    Safety switch
    Moving forward on the frame, you'll see the 20mm rail, designed for mounting lights, lasers, foregrips, or whatever else tickles your fancy. The rail appears to be made to spec, and I haven't had any issues mounting any of my accessories onto it.
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    20mm rail
    Above the frame is the metal slide. Now, this is an interesting part of the gun, as it does blow back while firing, however, the action of the slide blowing back doesn't cock the gun, or chamber a new round. It's a feature that adds to the realism of the gun, without affecting the actual firing. This is why I called it a NBB/GBB hybrid in the introduction. The slide movement during firing is crisp and firm, and the slide locks back when the magazine is empty, although you can continue firing even when locked back.
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    Slide
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    Slide locked back
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    Shot inside the chamber with the slide pulled back
    The outer barrel is metal, with a plastic orange tip glued in place. The barrel is fixed in position, so it doesn't tilt, or otherwise move when firing the gun. I am trying to come up with a method for mounting a threaded adapter to the muzzle to allow for the use of barrel devices.
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    Orange tip
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    Orange tip removed
    Aiming the gun is accomplished using the fixed sights, which are mounted on the slide. The rear sight is a green fiber optic loop, which gathers light quite well and is very easy to see. The front sight is a white plastic dot, which does work quite well with the rear sight. Unfortunately, it is not fiber optic, but it still high contrast enough that you can see it easily.
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    Rear sight
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    Front sight
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    Bright!
    Trademarks:
    The gun does have a few molded in trademarks, although none of them are real-steel, as it's not designed to replicate a real gun. The trademarks are molded cleanly and deeply, so they should last the life of the gun without wearing down.
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    Grip
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    Slide trademark
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    Serial number
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    Warning/safety information
    Magazines:
    Feeding the gun is a stick type magazine holding 15 BBs in a single stack layout. I haven't found spare magazines for this yet, but I will update the review when I do. Feeding is pretty much flawless, however, I have had the slide lock back on empty when a round or two remained in the magazine. The bottom of the magazine covers the CO2 screw, hiding the fact that this is a CO2 powered replica.
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    Magazine
    Performance:
    Baseline performance at about 75 degrees, using Airsplat .20g BBs, powered by CO2 after a 100 round break in period is as follows:
    FPS
    High FPS: 310.5
    Low FPS: 299.6
    Average FPS: 305.5
    I was surprised and pleased to see that the gun only shot in the 300 FPS range, as it was advertised at shooting in the 400s, which, frankly, is too hot for a pistol. Range and accuracy left something to be desired, as the gun doesn't appear to have any hop-up, at least not one that is adjustable. The fired rounds tend to drop relatively quickly after firing, even using .20g BBs. Because of this, I was only able to consistently hit targets out to 75', and that was with some arcing. The long, heavy trigger pull did make rapid firing difficult, and made accurate shooting a bit of a chore.
    Being a CO2 pistol, gas economy was quite impressive, giving me over 100 shots per cartridge. Overall, the pistol is certainly skirmishable, but its limited range and heavy trigger pull make it better suited as a secondary weapon as opposed to a primary.
    Internals:
    There doesn't seem to be a way to easily disassemble the gun, so I can't delve to deep into the internals. I can show the blowback mechanism, which is painfully simple in its functioning. On the inside of the slide, there is a plastic piston, that sits inside a small chamber inside the gun. When firing, a small bit of CO2 gets expelled through this chamber, blowing the slide back.
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    Blowback piston
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    Blowback chamber
    Modifications:
    Aside from bolt on external accessories, there really isn't too much that you can do to this pistol. I do, however, intend to mod a threaded insert onto the barrel to mount a muzzle device.
    Pros:
    Very inexpensive - $60 or so
    Shoots at a reasonable velocity
    NBB internals make it very reliable and efficient
    Comfortable grip
    20mm rail to mount accessories
    Fiber optic sight is quick to acquire
    Cons:
    Short range
    Long, heavy trigger pull
    Not a true GBB (but with decent, crisp recoil)
    Overall:
    I wasn't really expecting too much from this pistol, but I did find the NBB/GBB hybrid design to be quite interesting. The gun shoots consistently, and seems to be quite reliable, making it good for CQB or sidearm use. It does have a few flaws, but overall, for the price, it's not a bad CO2 pistol at all.
    Many thanks again to Umarex, and of course, Airsoft Retreat!