MAC1 USFT Analysis/Overview

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Franklink

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Sep 3, 2017
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There have been a handful of recent posts that got me thinking I need to finally get around to the review of the USFT that I've been wanting to do for a while now. Questions like "regulated or unregulated" from just a few minutes ago, or the guy a few weeks ago looking for hand-made/high quality airgun related items, or the occasional posts about buying American made airguns, or the steady beat of PCP greenhorns asking how many pumps to fill x gun, or what guns can be filled with a pump, or if a SCUBA tank can be of any use to an airgunner. All of those questions can be answered with a greater familiarity of the USFT, it's design, and operation. 

It just dawned on me that even the names of the maker and model of this gun sounds like a confusing jumble of alphabet soup to those unfamiliar with them. For starters, It is made by Tim McMurray, owner of MAC1 airguns out in California. The USFT stands for United Stated Field Target (I think). Tim makes each one, by hand, himself. When I ordered mine, the phone conversation was a little over an hour long. We discussed back and forth what I wanted (what side I wanted the breech to open to, barrel length, tube length, color, type of barrel, caliber, accessories, and other configuration details) and he gave me a time frame. Custom is NOT fast, by the way. 

As an intro, the USFT is widely known amongst the field target and benchrest crowd, and equally foreign to the large number of airgunners not involved in the aforementioned competitive events. For that reason, I feel it might be beneficial to share what I've learned about my specimen over the past few years of ownership. And if not beneficial, perhaps at least entertaining, for the USFT is a collection of oddities in airgun design. And it truly looks the part. 

USFT.1626355582.jpg


If ever there was a less gun-looking gun, I'm unaware of it. The USFT appears to be leftovers from what you might find in the bed of a plumbers pickup after a day of replacing pipes. But what it lacks in aesthetic appeal, it more than makes up for in performance and convenience. 

A detailed break down of the outstanding performance and rock-steady reliability I've experienced from this gun in the last 3 years is what I hope to achieve through an ongoing series of write-ups. I plan to take it at a leisurely pace, creating new posts as time allows. This won't be the typical "review," as there's no motivation to sell them, so there will be no "hawking of wares" in this series of posts about the venerable USFT.

If I've not got your attention yet, how does a gun that only needs to be filled to 1450psi sound? How bout a gun for which barrel swaps are so easy that 16mm Lothar blanks don't need machined to fit, just whatever smoothing you want to do to the crown? How bout a gun that allows direct access to the rear of the barrel for cleaning? What about a gun with an exposed valve stem that is hit by a revolver-esque hammer that is cocked for each shot? How bout a gun for which no regulator is necessary yet is still capable of competition winning consistency? How bout a gun with the fill port and gauge at the rear so that you don't have to look down the business end of the barrel to fill or check pressure? How bout a gun so simple in it's design that most of us have more fingers than all of the orings in the entire gun? How bout a gun with so many innovative features (when it first came out) that the rumor goes that Mike Nisch used it as inspiration for his Thomas guns? How bout the OG power plenum? 

I hope to answer all of those questions and more as I analyze what makes the USFT tic, and the performance the atomic clock of ticking that the USFT is, provides. 

More to come. 


 
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I can 100% vouch for the fact this gun in the pic above shoots "lights out". It is really dialed in.

Franklink let me use this gun (under his watchful eye) for the NM match last weekend since mine is currently with A.Z. getting some mods. 

I'm still trying to get the smile off my face. Insert smiley here.

This was only my second FT match and my scores went from 29 of 52 in June up to 51 of 60 for July. Wow! If you do your part, the gun will not disappoint!
 
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I can 100% vouch for the fact this gun in the pic above shoots "lights out". It is really dialed in.

Franklink let me use this gun (under his watchful eye) for the NM match last weekend since mine is currently with A.Z. getting some mods. 

I'm still trying to get the smile off my face. Insert smiley here.

This was only my second FT match and my scores went from 29 of 52 in June up to 51 of 60 for July. Wow! If you do your part, the gun will not disappoint!
Click to expand...

You shot it well last weekend. 

Wild thing to note here is that nothing has been adjusted for longer than I can remember, likely 2 or more years. So haven't touched the transfer port restrictor or hammer tension in that long. In fact, it has held scope zero for the same amount of time. The dope sheet stickered to the "dog bone" is the same one I used to win the AZ State match in Open class last Sept. Tied with Lauren Parsons for match high that weekend 58/60, Her in WFTF, myself in Open. Truly phenomenal gun. Not many can go that long without needing at least a little scope adjustment here and there. 


 
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Give LD some credit for designing the MAC1 USFT.
Click to expand...

Yes sir. It was in the plans to go through what I've been told of the "Simple Simon."

(lots of the following is simply what I've been told, as I was not in airguns at the time)

Larry D (known in airgun circles as LD) was the designer/creator/inventor of the USFT, which he called the Simple Simon. The story goes, that he first made a very small batch (can't remember exact # but 9 or 13 is coming to mind, so say 10ish). Those earliest Simple Simons were made, piece by piece in LDs garage. I do not know LD, but have seen him post occasionally, and have heard stories about him from shooting buddies who have spent time with him at matches and/or attended the Temecula Challenge and FT matches that he used to, and occasionally still hosts. My impression is that he is an eternal tinkerer, always looking for how to make things better. He also appears to be a 100% function over form sort of guy. 

What he invented is perhaps the most simple and solid method of literally ANCHORING a barrel to a big block of aluminum, to which a scope can then be strapped, coupled with an again, SIMPLE, mechanism of releasing a very precise and repeatable blip of air to send the pellet on it's way. Beautiful in it's simplicity, the design allows many of the typically internal components of an airgun to be seen externally. For example, rather than a spring driven cylinder of steel "hammer" sliding within a tube to tap the valve stem (all typically INSIDE an airgun) the Simple Simon/USFT has no such sliding cylinder of metal to act as a hammer but rather a true revolver style hammer that is cocked for each shot. That hammer flys forward and taps the externally visible valve stem. Here's a visual help of that process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPgiL-GGP0M

The externally visible valve stem is circled in red here:

exposed valve stem.1626411547.JPG


More of the strange.......

  • LDs design did completely away with pellet probes. Let me repeat, there is no pellet probe for the Simple Simon/USFT. How you ask? Well the pellet is placed directly into the rear end of the barrel by the shooter. The operator of the gun can fully see the rear of the barrel, "hmmm can't remember if I put a pellet in, let me just look directly into the back of the barrel and see, nope, no pellet." Very unique, very convenient.
  • There is no transfer port machined into the barrel. Let me repeat, there is simply no transfer port machined into the bottom of the barrel like on nearly every other airgun that I've been inside. How you ask? Swing breech. Here's a couple pics....
    • rear barrel access.1626411977.jpg
       and the underside that shows the orifice by which air gets from tube to pellet 
      transfer port.1626412628.jpg
      compare that to the previous picture to see that the black rectangular piece of aluminum swings out of the way to provide access to the barrel. So the "transfer port" is actually part of that swing breech mechanism. Arzrover and I share a love for the USFT (he won Nationals with his, in 2018 I believe) and we'll often go down the rabbit hole in technical discussions about airguns, him mostly teaching me. This configuration of pellet into back of barrel, with no transfer port for the pellet to bump over, with air hitting directly behind the pellet MAY have some interesting down-stream effects on the accuracy potential of a gun. You see, there is no right angle path that the air must take to hit the back of the pellet like it would with a "regular" tp machined into the barrel. Yes the air has to make some turns as it passes through the swinging transfer port, but the simple fact that the pellet doesn't have to bump over a tp to get to where it's going could also be beneficial. So, Arzrover and myself have contemplated if that directly-to-the-rear push of air on the pellet somehow causes a different obturation effect on the pellet. We were brainstorming ways to test obturation and think we came up with something, I'll likely get around to catching some pellets fired from the USFT to see if this unique method of air delivery is changing the shape of the pellet in a perhaps beneficial way. 
    • Did you notice another unique design feature in those above pics? No oring groove necessary in the barrel. I understand some of the early USFT's had the groove machined into the barrel. but that was eventually done away with and the oring groove is now part of the swinging transfer port. So, any 16mm Lothar blank can just be plopped into the gun and tested for accuracy, no machining necessary.
    • Large air reservoir that acts a plenum
    • The original tubed version of the gun, like mine, operates on an extremely low fill pressure compared to most airguns. 
    • Uses the air reservoir as the "spine" of the gun, versus dropping everything into a wooden stock to offer rigidity

I'll go into further detail on some of those bullet points above, but how's that for thinking outside the box when it comes to airgun design?!?!? So extremely different than everything else, yet so simple, and so logical. LD most definitely thinks a bit differently than the average bear. 

Thank you LD, I've gotten lots of enjoyment out of the specimen I own, and plan to get much more. 
 
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It's okay you can say "Bag o Pipe's" was just as common as simple simon once upon a time. Esp. on those 1st "10" and back when for a small extra charge you could have your USFT sent directly to him for wind tunnel accuracy testing and LD's personal unknown magic before you received it there was never a single that wouldn't prove on a miss, it WAS you. Just not the latest greatest. Naturally because of that (1,400psi no reg) all you need is that $100 scuba bottle you dont get the pleasure of needing a scba and a booster and spending that money, shucks. And what's the heck up with more than three shots and being the simplest ever to repair will never shift poi no matter what dependable for a lifetime crap. Just not the in thing these days.

Thanks for the fun writings/review on still made classic. Look forward to more.

John


 
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I’m puzzled by the fact that back in the day when the USFT was the latest and greatest, with many local and national wins, that their popularity seems to have faded. The total number of guns produced is still quite low but you still rarely see a used one come up for sale. I too have had the urge to own one since forever. Your review may have rekindled that urge. Thanks Cole😳. Uj
 
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I’m puzzled by the fact that back in the day when the USFT was the latest and greatest, with many local and national wins, that their popularity seems to have faded. The total number of guns produced is still quite low but you still rarely see a used one come up for sale. I too have had the urge to own one since forever. Your review may have rekindled that urge. Thanks Cole😳. Uj
Click to expand...

I estimate there aren't more than a couple hundred in existence, based on the numbered breeches that I've seen at matches and in the rare shared photo on the forums. I suspect the guns were originally issued in a sequential fashion, with the numbered breech coinciding with how guns had been made up to that time. But at some point the numbering seems to have gotten off. Mine is technically a "Hunter" version, with a straight grip versus the canted grip like the true USFT designated models. Anyway, mine is #165, seen here:

165.1626441823.JPG


I've seen a handful with higher numbers (in the 200s) that were sold years before mine was made. 

So, I'm not sure what all that means, perhaps not as many "Hunter's" have been sold and my breech sat in a pile of parts for at least a couple of years until I ordered it, with canted USFTs being issued after the creation of my breech but prior to the creation of my gun. 

Memory is a bit fuzzy right now, but I'm kinda remembering seeing one numbered up around #280 at some point. I think that's the highest I've seen, so if any weight can be given to the numbering system, I'd be surprised if there are more than 300 total in existence. 

You make an interesting point on the "latest and the greatest." The industry is driven by the average airgunner's insatiable desire to have the best, and the industry has created an arguable illusion that best = newest. While not the only company practicing such tactics, look at FXs business model. By hyping every new iteration of the Impact (to the point of absurdity usually) they have many of us that like to tinker (read: fiddle with reg pressures, chase impact points, consistent fps's, and chase buckets of gold at the bottom of rainbows) convinced that we're "less-than" or sub-par if we're running the prior model. Just lately when the M3 was released there have been posts guys started wondering if they can/could/should upgrade their M2 in parts to make it an M3. And there's also been posts with guys trying to argue themselves into being happy with a lowly M2 when the M3 is now out. Or the guys pissed that FX released an M3 right after they bought an M2. All of that illustrates the consumerism mentality. These companies want sales. Sales drive profit. They'd really like to sell every new version to every single airgunner, as can be seen in their marketing. Enter the USFT; solid, stable, steady, dependable. But there's no hype train and no cool kids making youtube vids featuring/showcasing it. No advertising dollars. Those of us that value things like never shifting scope zeros, very rare leaks (like once a decade maybe), couple ounce triggers, air efficiency, ease of cleaning, etc (basically a collection of features that equates to a no-hassle, pinnacle of accuracy possible in an airgun ownership experience) see the value in the USFT, and the rarity that such a collection of features is. 

Like Steve123 and I were talking about at a local FT match last month, those that know about USFTs, KNOW about USFTs. People simply don't know what they're missing when it comes to the USFT.

Edit: not trying to make the case that a USFT and an Impact fill the same niche, quite the contrary actually. USFTs realm is a a Target rifle, specifically in a powe restricted discipline like benchrest or field target or even really accurate and trouble free backyard precision. I only brought up the Impact as an example of latest/greatest versus tried and true mentality. Popularity faded because of consumer mentality. 
 
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I have shot against a couple of these in USARB events, usually the owners of these CAN SHOOT! as well.

Pretty cool guns, not nearly as refined or executed as aThomas. But are very robust and accurate gun!
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Yes a Thomas is a much nicer looking gun but the refinement you mention is mostly in the looks department. I've shot some of the earlier USFTs (not Simple Simon early, but definitely "first gen") and they are NOT as refined of a shooting experience as mine made in 2018. 

One of the major arguments I've seen against the USFT is the delayed lock time, or time from trigger break to pellet leaving the barrel. Yes, the early ones that I've shot have that impression. Mine does not. #165 is crisp and quick, I do not have to employ any more follow through when shooting my USFT than I do when shooting my Veteran (a gun which is know to be QUICK and SNAPPY). Furthermore, the early ones have more of a recoil/burp sort of effect when being shot. Mine is DEAD: squeeze trigger, watch pellet fly into the exact location you want it to go. I have no idea what internal changes were made for such a profound difference in cycle to have occurred in the 10-15 years that separates mine from the early ones, but the changes were a good thing, a very good thing. As for robust and accurate, agree 100% with you here. 
 
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Tim won EBR a few years back using a 30 cal MAC1 USFT that he built for a customer.
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In 2014. I understand it was only to 75 yards that year as EBR rules have changed throughout the years.

Here's a pic of the gun he won with that year.

ebr winner.1626496978.JPG


Quite a few modifications from the standard tubed, or even bottle/regulated configurations. That bottle looks like the float in a livestock watering tank!!!


 
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Left side of gun video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM8YRhI4jFk

This overview video shows the swing breech in action, and another example of how the gun is cocked. 

This was an average of 10 trigger pulls:

trigger weight.1626610891.jpg


The trigger on mine is really one of my favorites. Very crisp, able to know exactly when it's going to break. Really aids in accuracy. 

Refer to the vid above for the following:

  • Gauge shows that I'm right in the middle of the pressure range that I usually work with, fill to 1450, refill at 1250. 
  • Note the Max Working Pressure of 1800psi on the breech markings
  • Simple dust cap on the foster fitting (so nice that it's located where it is on the gun). 
  • Supposedly any 1911 grip can be swapped onto the gun, mine has the grips it came with from MAC1, although I've eyed these a few times, in walnut as it seems like they'd go well with the overall look of the gun
  • Aluminum palm shelf/plate at the bottom of the grip. I was skeptical at first but being able to place the meaty part of the bottom of than hand on that shelf helps to lock the gun into place when shooting from ft position (bumbag)
  • My dope/cheat sheet on the rear "dogbone"
    • Yards in the left column, scope clicks in the right column
    • Tims term, "dogbones" refers to the anodized aluminum drop pieces that put the shoulder plate lower than the spine (tube) of the gun to align better with the shoulder
    • Dogbones can be ordered in custom lengths, I went with fairly long ones b/c I like to shoot in a more upright position, more for comfort than stability, crunching my neck down into a gun and pinching my shoulder up to make things line up gives me a sore neck, the higher dog bones help me avoid that soreness
    • I also opted for longer than standard dogbone on the knee riser
  • Thigh rest and function of such
    • I believe it was Lauren Parsons who told me these thigh rests were deemed illegal in WFTF class after they started showing up on USFTs, which blows my mind as that class allows the craziest contraptions to help with stability (foot long butthooks that curve under and over the shoulder, shooting gloves, shooting jackets, etc). 
    • When seated on a bumbag the thigh rest is flipped outward and locked into place. That little round knob of walnut rests on my inner thigh, a bout 5 inches up from my knee. 
    • REALLY aids in bumbag stability
    • Thigh-rest is one of the contributing factors that make my field target position with this gun nearly benchrest stable. Hardly any scope wobble.
    • Cylindrical piece of aluminum that affixes the thigh rest to the gun can be swiveled in 360 degrees, and locked into place with a large bolt on the underside. I only need to use the lever to lock it into place after swinging down to thigh. The large bolt controlling angle of the thigh rest is a set it and forget it thing.
  • Canted shoulder piece (buttpad but aluminum in this case so not much of a pad)
    • shoulder piece allows for up and down adjustment, as well as cant. I like mine canted towards me, and adjusted down quite a bit, as seen in the video
  • Mine came with an what Tim calls a "striptease" air stripper
    • airstripper.1626612923.jpg
      airstripper2.1626611868.jpg
      • VERY loud with as issued air stripper
  • I had Rocker1 over at GTA machine me an aluminum (raw aluminum in vid) adapter for a 1/2x20 moderator
  • Currently running with a DonnyFl Tatsu for a total OAL of just under 43 inches
    • oal.1626611981.jpg
    • not even slightly loud with Tatsu
    • previously had a 7.5inch Hogan Decimeter on the gun and bystanders thought the gun was broken it was so quiet, but that extra 3 inches with the Hogan made OAL up around 46 inches and was unwieldy, so compromised with Tatsu
  • Barrel band-only in name
    • barrel is free floated as the ID of the barrel band is much larger than the 16mm OD of the Lothar barrel
    • Tim told me that is to protect the gun from large/violent impacts, but not to act as a barrel band/support in normal situations
    • Tim included an additional band with a sling adaptor in case I wanted to use a bipod sling adaptor at some point
      • sling adaptor.1626612212.jpg
      • I've never used it
  • Barrel movement is minimal and goes back to original location after any force is applied
    • really takes substantial force to even get it to move as much as it does in the vid when I'm pushing on it
  • Full length barrel-I think it's 23.6inches long
  • Burst disc in endcap of tube out by the muzzle
    • have yet to have one let go-hope it stays that way
  • Endcap held in tube by numerous and substantial allen head bolts

Right side of gun vid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKE9ch63CUQ

Again, refer to this vid for the following comments

  • Screws on dogbones can loosened to allow changing of angle, rear tube that supports shoulder pad and thigh rest can be rotated within the dogbone to fine tune fit of gun to shooters preference, retightening screws "lock" new setting in place. Tightening of screwes allows the semi split rings to clamp down on the tubes that run through the dogbones. 
  • Round thumbshelf
    • bolt in the round, disc-shaped thumbshelf can be loosened to allow disc to rotate, effectively increasing or decreasing the distance the shelf is from the trigger (up and down as it rotates around). 
    • Once preferred location is found, bolt tightened to "lock" setting in
    • I like right thumb up for shooting and I utilize the snot out of this thumbriser.
    • Odd design, but it fits all the rest of the quirkiness that is the USFT 
  • Swing breech function from this side now
    • Swing breech can be changed to open to the left or the right
    • I prefer it like this, opening to the right

Sorry about both videos rotating towards the end, wasn't paying enough attention during filming. 

It's not apparent when just glancing at the gun, but all those atypical adjustments allow the shooter to really make the gun fit them like a glove. For the first 6 or 8 months I made small changes here and there, figuring out what I liked and didn't like. I've not touched anything since I got it how I like it. I can sit down on a bumbag now, close my eyes and get the gun in position and open my eyes and look through the scope and have everything nearly where it should be. When used in conjunction with a shooting harness, the gun fits me so well that I can relax all my muscles and let the gun just sit there. It doesn't even require my right hand to be holding it and it will just perch in place, steady as a rock. Not needing to utilize any muscles to support the gun I think is how I can be so stable with it. The ability to change the fitment to the shooter is one of the things that many overlook as they glance at the bag-o-pipes and critically decide it's an ugly beast. The adjustment to shooter methods are so unconventional that non-owners don't even realize they're looking at extreme adjustability in all the strange disjointed components of the gun. 
 
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Yep, great review as usual Cole! 

I remember back when you got your USFT that you started winning FT matches much more often than with the previous guns you used! I might have had some influence on your purchase decision which I might regret a little, lol. Just kidding.

I don't think a more solid air rifle has ever been made than the good ole USFT. Mine has been nothing short of phenomenal in precision and reliability for almost two decades. But as I age I'm finding mine starting to get a bit heavy in offhand which is one reason I decided to sell it. Well the other reason is I want a lighter weight Thomas FT rig to go with my HPX EFT rig.

Shameless plug - it's in the classifieds for all you USFT hopefuls.




 
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