Madbull Sling Adapter QD Swivel Review

Madbull is a name widely recognized in the airsoft world for their variety of products, including grenades and grenade launchers as well as various external and internal upgrade parts.  Thanks to Madbull airsoft, today we're looking at one of their smaller external accessories - the SA03 which is a sling adapter with a quick detach swivel.

As you can see there are three models available - the SA01, SA02 and SA03.  The SA01 is a fixed mount with a horizontal loop while the SA02 is a fixed mount with a vertical loop.  We're looking at the SA03 which includes a QD swivel adapter.  The specifications are listed below.

• Aluminum T6 6061 metal construction
• Quick-detach design
• Matte black finish
• Steel mounting screw
• 100% made in Taiwan to the highest standards
• Fits picatinny MIL-STD-1913 rails
• Slim profile design
• Quick-detach sling swivel included

So this product is constructed out of aluminum to keep weight down, with a steel mounting screw for durability.  It attaches to any standard picatinny rail and includes a QD sling swivel so it's quite a universal sling adapter.  Now lets take a closer look at the product and its packaging.

As far as packaging goes, this sling swivel includes no surprises.  It's inside a sealed bag and on the opposite side you'll find an image and short description of the SA01, SA02 and SA03.  Opening the packaging reveals the hard anodized aluminum sling adapter and QD swivel.  It's considerably lighter than the sling mounts on my M4.

The swivel rotates in place and works like any swivel.  To remove it, press down on the button and then unscrew it with your fingers.  The adapter and swivel come pre-installed to a picatinny rail adapter.

The picatinny rail mount utilizes a flat head steel screw which works with small or large flat head screw drivers.  This is how I will be installing it onto my ICS M4A1 R.A.S. AEG.

To install it onto a picatinny rail, simply loosen this screw, attach it to the picatinny rail and then tighten the screw with a flat head screw driver.  If you want to mount it to a gun without a picatinny rail, you can use the included sling swivel.

Now it's attached to the bottom picatinny rail on my M4's R.A.S. unit.

One thing I noticed is that the paint scratches off quite easily with a screw driver or key, but not with your fingers.  However if you have it installed in such a way that the sling mount flaps around and hits a part of the gun, you will lose some paint over time.  Thankfully it isn't mounted in such a way - the sling mount is clear of any obstructions aside from my M4's connector.  Now lets install a UTG 3-point sling onto it.

Thanks to the picatinny rail mount on the Madbull SA03 sling adapter/swivel, I can now remove the triangle front sight post and pre-installed sling adapter and switch to a longer R.I.S. unit, while not losing my front sling mount.  This product is a great accessory for any rifle in need of a sling - whether it needs a front or rear sling mount.  It can be mounted onto virtually any gun thanks to the QD swivel and picatinny rail mounts.  Now it's time to sum up this review with a list of pros and cons and then a final score.

PROS

• Universal mounting options - sling swivel stud or picatinny rail options
• Full metal construction - combination of aluminum and steel for light weight and durability

CONS

• Paint scratches off rather easily

The only website I've found this product listed at is albertaairsoft for $35 although it should become widely available in the near future.  

Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 Review

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Seeing this increasing need for high end--feature packed computer cases that won't put your credit card to the limit, Thermaltake has answered with its new, Chaser MK-1 full tower computer chassis. While affordable, the MK-1 is stuffed with just as many features that you would find on a case priced double the amount. And what about performance you ask? Not to worry, there is enough airflow provided by this case to easily cool the most power hungry equipment."

Read more...

Careful...

This is another post regarding airsoft.  To those who don't know, most replica AR magazines are slightly shorter than the real 30 round STANAG magazines.  The only exceptions I know of are the ICS 450 round hi-cap and G&G 450 round hi-cap.  I wanted to find a full size mid cap mag and I found the ECHO 1 Extended 120 round mid capacity magazine.  Very interesting product, I must say...

What a long mag!  It's also grey which is a nice contrast in my opinion.  Here it is next to an ICS 450 round hi-cap - it's about a half inch longer.

Why so long?  Why that's because it's based on a 40 round magazine.  So for what it is, it's actually too short.  It's made out of metal although it seems like thinner metal than my ICS magazine, but I suppose it's robust enough.  It has nice trademarks on the side.

The bottom shows a Noveske trademark.  That's funny... looking on their website I don't see a 40 round magazine anywhere.

Here are two more shots of it in the gun.

So it looks nice... but how is the functionality?  Well I have one word for that... horrible.  They advertise it as a 120 round mid cap but it only holds 75.  To drive my point even further, it jams all the time.  Don't blame the BBs... they're made by the same company - ECHO 1.  And the properties of their BBs are very nice.  You'd think they'd test their own magazines with their own BBs right?  Even if it does not jam and you get to run one o these through your gun, it will not feed the last 15-20 BBs.  So this "120 round magazine" is only good for 55-60 rounds, about half of what it is rated for.  This might be a lemon but either way don't bother with it, it's not an accurate representation of it's real-life counterpart.  I need to get some JG quickwind mags...

I also got to try out a Mad Bull blue bucking, made of 60 degree rubber.  So it's nice and soft... softer than usual 70-90 degree buckings although not as soft as Guarder's clear 50 degree one.  But buckings this soft are a PAIN to install... so much so that I gave up on it.  The thing just stretched out too much and blocked the C-clip from installing property.  To hell with it.  Looking at the bucking though I'm sure it would have made a nice upgrade... it's softer so it can give a more crisp backspin on the BB and the better contact with the BB would definitely help.  I might try again one day but not any time soon.

I also got my SHS 16:1 gears and SHS high speed motor.  My pics of the motor disappeared but I have some pics of the gears.

The shimming is still off however, as the ROF of the gun has not changed.  I hate shimming...