A quick review and heads up on the Dark Knight VP9L EBB pistol. Certainly not new but review worthy nonetheless.
Retailing for just under $200, they’re a viable option for anyone looking for something other than gas that doesn’t have to be maually racked each trigger pull.
BUILD QUALITY
Very solid nylon build, no shell flex, metal parts here and there, good weight, especially with a torch attachment fitted.
Metal outer barrel and inner barrel
Glock style trigger safety
Faux fibre optic sights
Removable cover for optics attachment
I’m assuming gearing is nylon and availability of replacement gears is sketchy right now, so longevity of this blaster’s a little unknown.
THE BATTERY
OEM battery is a tiny 7.4v lipo unit with a very different connector fitted, charging is via the balance connecror with the supplied USB charging cable, never the best option. I opted to swap over to XT30 so it could be properly balance charged using my Skymax charger.
The OEM connector
In the process I had a brain fart and shorted out the battery, cooking it and making it useless. Ooops, my bad.
Spare magazines are readily available from iHobby, but not the case with batterries. As of now I still haven’t sourced replacements, however I found a couple of small (but slightly larger) 7.4v lipos that will fit the mag. Here’s a size comparison…
The battery tucks away neatly with zero room to spare, but definitely not as difficult or tight as the old 3DG Glock batteries were to fit. Cover goes back on with no problems.
THE MAGAZINE
Similar to the 3DG Glock magazine, batteries fit as above, follower is spring loaded and gels are loaded through the aperture on the rear of the stack with a pistol speedloader. The mag holds about twenty gels in standard form.
The one issue I’ve found is that the follower isn’t long enough to completely empty the mag on slide lockback. Two to three gels are left in the mag and are rather difficult to remove. I added a rubber spacer to the follower on one mag, that one feeds all but the last gel then locks back. A quick slide release and trigger pull and the mag’s empty. It reduces the capacity by a couple of gels but it’s a worthwhile tradeoff.
PERFORMANCE
FPS is average at best at around 150 on 7.4v and about 130 on 11.1v, and that’s very dependent on gel selection. Feeding is also dependent on gels so a sligtly stronger mag spring would definitely help with that issue. It seems to prefer softer gels like GoldBag Milkies and War Interest Heavy Milkies. It will feed Ultra Elites and iHobby hard gels, but with no gain in FPS it’s probably better to stick to the softer gels.
It does operate as a manual blaster with no battery fitted, a handy feature. Rack back the slide as you would with any manual and fire away.
I’ve been told an upgrade kit is available (stronger piston spring and 11.1v battery) that puts it closer to 200FPS but with the better performance on 7.4v I’d run the battery at 7.4v and up the piston spring slightly, keeping in mind the nylon gearing.
Trial tests with 11.1v lipos showed an obviously much snappier trigger response but the occasional double feed and drop in power. Possibly a spring upgrade to allow harder gels might make an 11.1v viable, but 7.4v is good enough for now.
CONCLUSION
Worth a look if you’re after a half decent pistol that doesn’t run on gas. It’s a good looking very well built electric sidearm that is streets ahead of it’s better known stablemates like the SKD Beretta M90TWO and the 3DG G17. Quality wise I’d rate it as very similar to the UDL P320, even down to the manual operation option.
They have a lot of batteries around that size. Just have to check the dimensions which are listed.