Spartan Imports, Classic Army, and Me: SHOT Show 2012

Those of you who have an ear to the ground in the airsoft industry may have heard the rumor that the president of Classic Army was in prison. These rumors varied from “All of CA is shut down, and the president is in jail” to “Classic Army is completely out of business and their CEO is in a Chinese Gulag”. The truth, of course, is that all these stories are completely false. We spoke with an employee at Classic Army in Hong Kong who confirmed that, while the president of CA had visited mainland China, he was not in prison. When we contacted Spartan Imports, they said that we “would be meeting with our representatives from Classic Army next week at the SHOT Show”. In fact, reps from Classic Army were at the SHOT Show, and CA is still in the business of producing some of the industry’s best airsoft rifles.

While we were at the SHOT Show, I found out about another rumor. As the story has it, I went to prison (or even was still in prison) in regards to the seizure of the WE M4 airsoft rifles in Tacoma a few years ago. This was the first I had heard of it, and it goes to show that you really can’t always trust what you hear.

I am actually still completely at large, and still in possession of gas blowback airsoft rifles. The rifle in my hands to the left is a Magpul PTS ACR or Masada with the Gas Blowback Conversion Kit installed. While there is no price set yet, these conversion kits will be available at some point soon through Spartan Imports in the US. While this is not actually distributed by Magpul PTS, it was developed specifically for the PTS ACR. The GBB conversion requires an ACR automatic electric gun as the base, and includes all the necessary components to change to a gas powered replica.

The conversion itself is fairly simple, since the conversion kit is so complete. The ACR GBB conversion includes the assembled lower receiver, the bolt assembly, the outer and inner barrel assembly, and the replacement barrel nut to mount the barrel assembly to the receiver. The barrel nut requires an allen key and a few screws to replace, but the rest of the assembly is tool-less and quite simple. After watching Peter Ho from Spartan Imports disassemble the GBB ACR, I was able to reassemble it in only one minute.

The conversion kit is designed to be WA compatible, so any Western Arms, King Arms, or other clone magazines will fit.

Spartan imports is also working with Magpul PTS to import the Magpul PTS PDR Airsoft Rifle, which should be available later this year. You can read our complete Magpul PDR Article on our website.

Other additions from Magpul PTS this year include the Masada SPR accessories for the Magpul PTS ACR. The PRS stock includes an adjustable butt pad and cheekpiece, as well as a QD sling swivel mount point. In order to build a complete ACR SPR, you would want to add the 18″ SPR barrel and the extended rifle handguard for the ACR. Both of these parts will be available from Magpul PTS this year. We don’t yet have exact release dates or pricing for most of the parts, but Spartan Imports told us most of these items will be available this year, and all their new AEGs should start arriving within 6-8 weeks. You can read about all the other new AEGs soon.