In recent years airsoft shotgun technology has changed pretty dramatically; once the bastion of spring-power we now have a choice of both gas and electrically-driven shotgun platforms driven in many instances by the “Mighty Marui” but not solely their purview…
As we start digging into our enlarged RED CELL testing pool again, alongside some of those awesome older “springer-shotguns” and the newer AEG and gas models, there has, for a considerable time, been another option, and that of course is the CAM 870 family from APS that continues to grow and improve!
Now many will immediately point to the APS CAM and say “well, it’s a shell ejector so it’s not suitable for skirmishing”, and we’d begrudgingly have to agree with this… however, with so many different airsoft competition disciplines now gaining in popularity, and especially that of “Action Air” we have to say that this family of shotguns (the “classic” metal and wood CAM870 MKIII-M is pictured) most certainly has a well-deserved place in our airsoft world.
And finally APS is re-launching the MKI system, calling it the CAM MKIII, and the MKIII is an improved version internally modified to make sure no real gun parts or shot shells could be used (something that caused some lengthy debate with the MKI!). The body receiver and its cradle have been re-designed so that they 100% cannot interchanged with real shotgun parts…
Due to some clever re-design and re-engineering throughout, CAM MKIII we’re told should be delivering 330-360 FPS on a .20g, so it’s better able to deal with heavier weight BBs than the old MKI system; that said, the new CAM MKIII shotgun are 100% compatible with MKI shells and the Smart Shot shells that we spoke about when we reviewed the “Street Sweeper” not so long ago… the Smart shot shells allow you to fill gas directly through the valve, so with the use of either an 88g cylinder adapter or other cylinder adapter, the filling is up to THREE times faster than the old MKI system!
Fact is we’re suckers for an “old skool 870” and the APS CAM has always been on our wish list… perhaps it’s time now to look at this in earnest, finally bite the BB, and add one to our own armoury!
