XPower M18 CO2 Powered Claymore Mine

Operator7

24 Jun 2013

Recently, I’ve come across a product which I wanted to have for a quite some time now: a Claymore mine! Like many Airsofters, I have seen several models out there which at first look quite interesting, but once you look at their features they are quite limited and most of these require the user to “detonate” them which has nothing to do with the objective of a claymore mine, since its autonomous.

Some mines will have a small keychain remote that is the only way to activate and “detonate” the mine, and others will use a remote attached to a wire. This means you’ll have to be within visual range to “detonate” the mine once an opponent is near.

This is rather stupid, since the opponent could detect you or the mine before you even see them, they could see the wire that goes to the remote, and finally they can just pass by the mine and it won’t detonate at all if you are re-spawning or simply not paying attention to the area where you’ve setup the mine.

So those models for me simply just won’t cut it. However after searching the web for a decent Claymore mine I came to find XPower, and their M18 model seemed to be exactly what I was looking for: a fully autonomous mine that has very nice features.

OPERATION

This mine, unlike most claymore Airsoft mines out there, won’t use BBs. And I’ve tried using BBs inside the cup holder, with a bit of duct tape or adhesive tape, but it didn’t work very well since the cap and the small cylinder were also projected along with the BBs and this way they could get lost very fast.

So this mine uses small white powder cups, which in my opinion is much less dangerous than if it were to shoot BBs. Just imagine if a player were to crawl near the mine, it could receive the impact of dozens of BBs directly to the face at around 200fps at extremely close range.

So the white powder is much safer and it works quite well since a claymore mine is mainly a proximity mine which has a limited effective range at around 50 meters or 55 yards.

The mine needs three power sources in order to operate: one 9v battery that will be used in the mine itself, three AA batteries for the wireless remote and finally CO2 gas for the gas system.

Just like any real military device, this mine requires some practice before you get all the steps right so don’t get frustrated if you miss any, the mine won’t work initially, since you most certainly are missing a step.

Once you get a hang on how it works it’s easy to use and you’ll be more successful hunting enemy players with it.

So let’s get into the operational part which has several steps that have to be followed or the mine won’t work at all or it will not detonate correctly, and I’ve had the opportunity to experiment several times.

The first step is to pull the safety pin, and open the lid by pressing a small pin on top of the mine. Then you’ll have to remove the gas system from the mine and use the included CO2 charger in order to fill the CO2 reservoir through the valve. Be careful not to push the detonating pin in or it will release all the gas. Also if the pin is not protruding, the reservoir will not hold the gas, so you might have to release it.

Once you fill the reservoir, you must remove the cap and the small cylinder. Insert the powder cup with the print facing down, insert the cylinder and then close the cap by rotating it until the two arrows are aligned.

Now, on the mine you must push the percussion or detonating pin back and lock it by pushing the locking pin on the back of the mine.

Once this is done you can safely insert the gas system into the mine, turn the switch to the ON position and close the lid.

Once the lid has been closed, you can place the mine on the desired location using the scissor legs. In order to arm the mine, you must pull the locking pin on the back of the mine so that the detonating pin is now free to be released by the lid once it’s opened.

At this time the wireless remote comes into play and here is where you have to choose which one of the three detonating modes to use.

MODES AND RANGE

One of the nicest things about this mine is the fact that you have three modes of usage: you can use the wireless remote to manually detonate it; have the infrared sensor included on the mine to automatically detonate it once a player is near the mine; and finally you have small tripwire that can be attached to the mine and once tripped will detonate it.

The wireless remote unit is essential to activate the infrared or remote clacker mode. However if you want to use the tripwire you won’t need the remote at all, nor the batteries. Only the powder cup and the CO2 gas.

In terms of range, the powder reaches up to 4 meters, depending on weather conditions and if you are outdoors or indoors. The thermal IR sensor has a maximum range of 2.5 meters which is more than enough to catch the most unwary player, especially if you hide it well.

As for the remote, it can be effectively used up to a distance of 30 meters.

There is also a very useful locating function which will help you to find the mine in case you have misplaced, since as you can see in the following image the OD colour blends quite well with nature, especially in darker spots with some low vegetation. By the way, be careful however not to obstruct the lid too much with vegetation or it will not open wide enough to trigger the detonation pin.

To find the mine, it’s possible to hear a loud beep emitted by the mine and see its LED light flashing. All you have to do is to turn on the mine with the remote control, then click on the red button and afterwards on the green button. The mine will then start beeping and flashing the LED making it almost impossible to misplace or loose it on the field.

MATERIALS AND BUILD QUALITY

The mine is rather heavy, weighing around 1.8Kg. But this also means it’s very sturdy and durable, thanks to the heavy duty Nylon glass fiber shell and, the steel scissor stand and metal internals.

The steel scissor stand is very heavy duty and will withstand the impact of the gas being expelled very well. And with the tip of the legs being pointed, they will help you to slightly bury them under the ground to absorb the kick from the gas. This way, the mine won’t tip over.

Most components such as moving components are well built and seem to withstand the repeated use very well.

CONCLUSION

If you are looking for a way to step up a notch the realism of your Airsoft games and introduce a whole new variable that is a part of the real world, then this will do the trick for you. Want to protect an objective and don’t have the manpower to do so? Claymore! Want to get your back covered and don’t have enough guys alive on your team? Claymore! Want to have a kick and surprise the s&#! out of some enemies? Claymore!

What can I say? This is by far the best Airsoft Claymore in the market, for its construction quality, but most of for its features such as the three modes that you won’t find on another Airsoft Claymore mine.

Oh and by the way, the white powder is just food-graded powder. :)

Now how much is it? Around $249 at hopairsoft.com and you’ll be spending around $5.75 for each six-pack of powder cups, so the running cost is very low.

Pros