May Staff Picks: Hot Weather, Cool Gear & Mild Financial Damage
- Vector Air
- 9 hours ago
- 4 min read
England has been absolutely melting this month. The sort of heat where even the pigeons look annoyed and every building turns into a badly ventilated microwave by 2PM. Frankly, the closest thing to a unanimous staff pick this month was “air conditioning”.
In fact, if you are currently reading this while fused to a leather chair and reconsidering every life decision that led to living in Britain without climate control, maybe have a look at this portable air conditioner: Portable Air Conditioner
Anyway, onto the actual staff picks before we accidentally become an appliance retailer.
As always, these are products the team would genuinely spend their own money on. Sometimes, because they solve a problem. Sometimes, because they are impressive. And occasionally, because someone in the building has spotted something shiny and immediately developed financial irresponsibility.
Tee’s Pick: Airgun Challenge Target by Tom's Targets
Tee took the longest to submit her pick this month, which sounds bad until you realise the actual process was:
“We need your staff pick.”
“Yeah alright, I’ll think about it.”
Entirely forgets for several days.
Despite that, she eventually landed on the Airgun Challenge Target from Tom’s Targets, and honestly it makes sense.
Now let’s address the obvious thing immediately. These targets are agricultural. Not metaphorically either. They genuinely look like they’ve been fabricated in a shed next to a tractor. They arrive bare steel from the factory and definitely benefit from a coat of paint before use.
But here’s the thing. That lack of fancy finish is probably part of the reason they cost less than many competing heavy-duty targets while still being built properly.
Too many people buy the absolute cheapest targets possible, shoot them for 2 weekends, bend them into modern art, then act shocked when they need replacing. Sometimes spending slightly more once is cheaper than spending slightly less repeatedly while muttering at broken welds.
This falls firmly into the “buy properly, buy once” category.
Craig’s Pick: UX NOTOS Carbine by UMAREX
Despite sounding like a prescription allergy medication or an ancient Greek weather event, the NOTOS is probably going to do very well.
Craig’s reasoning for picking it was wonderfully simple:
“It’s basically a full power PP750.”
Which, if you know what a PP750 is, tells you almost everything you need to know.
Compact PCPs are becoming increasingly popular because people are finally realising they don’t all need a rifle the size of a canoe paddle to shoot rats in a barn. The NOTOS fits neatly into that modern lightweight compact category while still delivering proper performance.
It’s affordable, practical, compact, and not trying too hard to be tactical. Which ironically makes it feel more tactical than many guns covered in enough rails to assemble scaffolding.
Craig may also be secretly trying to win the staff picks competition by choosing something likely to sell very well. We see the game. We respect the game.
Karl is what engineers would probably classify as “ergonomically inconvenient”.
The man has an ongoing feud with grips because, apparently, most manufacturers rudely insist on designing products around normal human hands.
So when MDT’s adjustable vertical grip arrived and got fitted onto an EPIC VISION, things suddenly clicked into place.
The clever part of this grip is the adjustable outer shell and internal core setup, which lets you alter the grip angle and trigger reach independently. That means you can position your trigger finger flatter against the blade without needing to awkwardly twist your hand or heavily angle the trigger itself.
In practical terms?
Straighter trigger pull. Less side pressure. Less chance of dragging shots off target because your finger placement resembles a crab trying to open a jar.
It’s one of those upgrades that sounds boring until you actually try it, then suddenly every standard grip feels vaguely wrong afterwards.
Luke’s Pick: Strike Industries ARK17
Also read the full review here: Strike Industries ARK17 Review
Luke has become increasingly tired of replica markets that seem obsessed with producing the exact same pistol repeatedly with only tiny cosmetic changes before acting like they’ve reinvented engineering.
So naturally, he picked something that actually looks different.
The ARK17 is Strike Industries taking the Glock 17 blueprint and essentially asking:
“What if we made this less boring?”
The result is a much more aggressive, stylised design with cut slide work, threaded front end, improved aesthetics, and generally more personality than the average polymer rectangle currently flooding the market.
This EMG licensed version built by KWC keeps much of that same energy. It feels more refined than the standard Glock-style replicas, the slide rattle is reduced compared to many competitors, and the threaded barrel means suppressor setups actually look intentional instead of like someone glued plumbing parts to the front.
It also helps that it just looks cool, which despite what internet purists pretend, is still 90% of why most people buy replica pistols in the first place.
Final Thoughts
This month’s picks somehow ended up revolving around practicality with a slight undercurrent of “yes but does it look interesting?”
Which honestly feels about right for May.
There’s a decent spread this month too:
Proper long-lasting steel targets
Compact modern PCPs
Ergonomic upgrades for precision shooters
A gloriously overstyled replica pistol
So whether you’re sat indoors hiding from the heat or out shooting while slowly turning into human jerky under the British sun, hopefully there’s something here that catches your eye.
Poll Time
Which product would you pick?
Tee’s Pick: Airgun Challenge Target by Tom's Targets
Craig’s Pick: UX NOTOS Carbine by UMAREX
Luke’s Pick: Strike Industries ARK17
Karl’s Pick: MDT Premier Vertical Grip – Adjustable
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