Well R2 (Skorpion Vz.61 AEP) Review

By MikeG
March 24th, 2009

The Replica

I’ll just begin by telling you that this replica feels excellent in hand.  It’s a solid, heavy, and surprisingly ergonomic weapon.  The Skorpion’s solidity comes from its full metal cast lower receiver.  This is the structural part of the gun, linking the stock, pistol grip, magazine, rail and gearbox all together, and it’s wonderful that Well made the wise decision to make this from a substantial material.  The upper receiver which comprises the cocking handles, sights and muzzle is made from plastic.  This is not entirely bad as it looks quite similar to the stamped steel of a real Skorpion.

I purchased my Well Skorpion from RSOV.com for approximately $60 plus shipping.  This is less than third of the asking price for a Tokyo Marui Skorpion.  RSOV processed my order quickly and I received the gun within about a week.

Included with the gun were: a 7.2V 450mAH battery, one stick magazine, an excellent manual, a orange rubber muzzle cap, a magazine loading tube, and a trickle charger with a 220V Asian-type AC adapter.

As this adapter is completely useless here in the United States, I chopped the charger’s cord near the socket for the battery and instead attached a female Mini Tamiya connector so I could charge the battery like a standard mini.

The pistol grip of the gun contains the battery compartment and is extremely solid, with no wobble whatsoever.  The cap on the bottom of the grip is removable by rotating the small flange, allowing you access to the battery and the plunger that helps you remove it.  This battery compartment cap is made from metal and feels substantial, though, I would prefer that it were a bit more secure while in place since it performs such a vital function.

The Skorpion features a small RIS rail under the muzzle.  It is made of plastic and could easily be described as flimsy.  I would not recommend mounting any heavy accessories on it, as it is secured in place only by one small screw.  Luckily this makes it easy to remove, restoring the gun to it’s original, authentic and non-tactical look.  Personally, I removed the rail within 15 minutes of opening the box.

The sights seem quite durable and appear to be made from cast potmetal.  They are easy to use and the rear sight has two settings for range – rotate forward for close and rotate back for far (marked 150).

The fire selector switch is also made from cast potmetal and it does its job, clicking solidly into each position; 0, 1 and 20.

The Skorpion’s trigger and trigger guard are both made from metal.

The charging handle affords access to the hop-up when pulled back (through the ejection port on the top of the gun.  You can adjust the hop-up either through the ejection port, or the magwell.  The charging handle nubs (on either side of the receiver) and the ejection port door are all made from metal.

The stick magazine that was included from the gun is made from stamped steel.  In terms of look and feel, it locks into place securely, and has a strong magazine catch mechanism, unlike the MP7 AEPs.  The magazine catch button, on the left side of the gun, is made of metal and is easily reached with your index finger if firing the Skorpion left handed.  If you are firing it right handed, you must use your off hand to operate the catch, which is not too inconvenient if you are already using it for support, in front of the magazine.

The stock is my main gripe as far as the look and feel of the gun go.  First, the good: the stock is built solidly and locks closed very securely (around the front sight hood) and it will never come open unless you want it to.  I think it would take quite an effort to break the stock in any way.

It has a sort of checkering on its butt that looks excellent and makes the muzzle of the gun appear even more aggressive when it is locked closed.  Now for the bad…  The stock does not lock open nearly as securely as it locks closed.

When open, it has significant up and down wobble, about 10 degrees of it, stemming from the lock mechanism at the stock hinge.  I can only imagine that this wobble will increase as the hinge wears in.  Finally, the stock does not open to the correct angle, making it exceedingly difficult to shoulder.  When fully open the stock wires are approximately parallel with the gun’s receiver.  On the real Skorpion the stock angles down by about 15 degrees.

The battery, and gun itself are completely compatible with Marui SMG-size 7.2V batteries, with one small caveat.  The Well battery is approximately 1/4 of an inch shorter than Marui batteries.  To make up the difference, there is a spacer pad of the same dimension glued the the pistol grip cap.  This is easily removed if you wish to use Marui batteries in the Skorpion, and if you would like to use Well batteries in a Marui SMG, then you just need a small spacer.

Disassembly of the Skorpion is relatively simple.  First you must remove a small grub screw forward of the magwell, then you can remove the single body pin and slide the upper receiver forward and off of the lower receiver.  This will get you a view of the tiny mechbox within.  This is as far as my curiosity would allow me to to proceed.  I have no desire to yet learn the secrets of the AEP mechbox.

Performance

This gun sounds quite smooth when fired, rivaled only by the Tokyo Marui MP7 AEP that I have had the pleasure of firing.  From this, I do not predict any immediate problems with the gearbox.  I did, however, notice that there is a strong ozone smell emitted from the gun when fired.  This is caused by poor contact of the motor’s brushes and is common among cheaper Chinese guns.  I hope that this will improve in the future as the motor wears in.  I chronographed the gun at approximately 210 ft/sec on a Madbull chrono using TSD 0.20g BBs.  This is standard for AEPs and is more than adequate for CQB play.

The rate of fire on a fully charged battery varies from 800 to 900 rounds per minute and drops to about 600 rounds per minute as the battery discharges.  You can fire about 15 magazines worth of BBs before discharging the battery completely – about 750 rounds.  Unfortunately, after two skirmishes and about 6 charges, I noticed that one of the battery cells has begun to leak, encrusting the terminals of the battery in orange chemicals.  While this did not seem to affect the performance of the battery, I would invest in a replacement regardless.  Luckily, replacements are extremely cheap at about $6 to $7 at RSOV.com.  Might as well order a few at a time.

As for the magazine, it has an extended follower to ensure that no BBs are wasted.  Unfortunately, I had significant trouble getting mine to feed properly.  What I discovered was that you must be careful not to pull back on the magazine if you are using it like a vertical foregrip.  If you are not paying attention, and pull back on the magazine, even slightly, the gun may decide only to fire a BB every other cycle.  Another Well Skorpion I have fired did not exhibit this problem, so it is likely fixable with some minor modification to the magazine.  In the worst case, replacement stick magazines are $16 for two and plastic drum magazines are $6 at RSOV.com.

As mentioned earlier, the hop-up may be adjusted either through the ejection port or magwell of the gun.  It is easy to adjust and stays in place well.  Hop-up performance was lower than average, with large vertical shot-to-shot variance at 50 feet.  Even so, it is relatively easy to hit a 1 foot by 1 foot target at that range with a burst of fire.  Once again, I would not recommend this gun for long range outdoor engagements, but it will be more than adequate for CQB.

Conclusion

The Well Skorpion is a durable replica that should hold up well in serious indoor skirmishing.  What’s more is that it’s a purely fun weapon that just begs to be fired with one hand, or dual wielded, and fired in the most ridiculous manner possible.  If you don’t like fun, I wouldn’t recommend buying the Skorpion.

Performance: 2.5/5
While the gun fires well, it looses most of its points due to a leaky battery and magazine that has trouble feeding if not treated gingerly.

External Design: 4/5
The external design of this gun is excellent, with exception of the stock angle and locking mechanism.

Value: 4/5
For $60 plus shipping from RSOV.com, this gun is an excellent value.

Overall: 3.5/5
This is a hugely fun gun that will serve CQB players extremely well.