ICS makes some really nice pistols and the latest one that I’ve been testing is the ICS vulture. The vulture has been my main sidearm for a bit over a year and I’m very impressed by its performance.
Not only is the performance great, I just love how it looks. Especially in this tactical configuration with that beefy compensator on the front
The Vulture, Why
When ICS released the teaser video of the Vulture, over 3 years ago, I immediately sent them a message to say that this was one the most fun teaser videos they made. The style, the look and the focus on nature, calmness and the pistol hit something right. I will link the full video here below. I hope they will keep making videos like that.
The Vulture is built on the previous Korth model, which was very much liked because of its performance. ICS released the Vulture and the Vulture Tactical. Both are basically idendical, except the compensator and the slightly longer inner barrel on the tactical version.
Features
First let’s check out the features that ICS puts out about this pistol,
- GBB system
- REVO valve in the mags
- Adjustable trigger
- Fixed Barrel
- Steel made fire control system components
- Stainless steel searing spring
- 3 dot Luminous sights
- Hop-up adjustable
- 14mm barrel adapter
- Optional short stroke slide
There are some interesting parts in it that we will go over step by step.
The magazine
There are 2 options, Gas and CO2. The pistol is ready to take both. The magazine is of course different where the gas goes, but similar where the BBs go. The magazine holds 15bbs and can easily be loaded by the opening at the bottom. Pull the spring down and use a speedloader to load it up. It’s a single stack mag, that’s why it only takes 15bbs, similar to other 1911 style pistols. The magazine firmly locks in place.
You can see the grooves at the magwell, because it’s ready to take the CO2 magazines that are a bit thicker because of the cartridge.
The mags have the REVO valve system which allows you to adjust the output pressure a bit. An interesting technology that I tested a few years ago.
The grips
You might have noticed that those are not the standard grips. The standard grips are black and plastic and I wanted to spice it up a little and added wooden grips from Swiss arms. The quality isn’t the best but it looks a lot nicer with wooden grips. Because of the 1911 style, you can fit a lot of different grips on it to customize it to your style.
The compensator
The thing that makes the pistol look the way it does and why I like it so much. The function of this is to compensate for the recoil, which is a nice recoil on the gas and I’ll be testing the CO2 for the first time when doing the chrono. But I expect it to be as nice as the gas mags. I like a nice little kick from my pistol.
To remove it, loosen the small allen key at the bottom and rotate the compensator off, counter clockwise. To remove the adapter, also twist it counter clockwise. Put everything back together and even if you have the compensator installed, you can tighten the adapter again with a 8mm allen key from the front.
Because of the compensator the inner barrel is a little bit longer, which would make for a little bit better accuracy. I’m curious about your opinion if that little bit of barrel will make a lot of difference.
You can add an extra adapter to the compensator but I would not add any weight to it. It will tilt the barrel a bit forward and make the operation of the slide not as smooth.
The Slide
It has some aggressive cutouts and patterns on it. The front and back as grooves for easier slide racking but the most helpful parts to do that are the 2 fins on the back of the slide. They really catch your fingers.
The slide is very smooth and gives a nice kick when moving back and forth. It locks nicely in place after each shot.
The sights are very usable and working great. The long, glow in the dark, front sight works very well even though you don’t see how long it is while aiming. The back sights are not glow in the dark but a fiber optic one. I noticed that this mix works really well for bright and darker moments. The front sight pops more in the dark and the back more in the light.
The switches and nubs
On the left side you have your safety, slide catch and mag release. It’s not ambidextrous but I don’t mind this for a pistol like this. The back of the pistol grip has the grip safety and the bottom has a nice pattern which helps for more grip.
There is a rail section at the bottom to add your light, or any other rail attachment you would like to have on there.
Let’s go to the inside of the Vulture. To open it up you half cock the slide and remove the slide catch. Push the slide forward and it comes off nicely and it reveals some of the interesting features.
The bottom half
The trigger is very firm. I struggle to find the correct word, but it feels very solid. No wobble in the trigger unit. This might be because of the Stainless steel searing spring. Those little details make a difference in pistols. You don’t see it but it’s there. The trigger itself can be adjusted by the little screw. I’m not a fan of very short triggers so I leave it as standard.
The front shows the rails where the barrel sits in and that brings us to the slide itself with the fixed barrel that goes in those rails. Because of the fixed barrel, there is almost no wobble and the barrel doesn’t go up after a shot. This is the reason why this pistol is so accurate and consistent.
Behind the rails there is the hop-up adjustment. Very similar to any other pistol and does the trick.
Not much more to say about the inside. Keep it clean and lubed so the action keeps being smooth.
Chrono
I do want to show the difference between the gas and the CO2. To show the difference but also just to show you the pistol in action after me talking so much about it.
Before we do that, don’t forget to like the video if you enjoyed watching it and subscribe to the channel if you like what I’m doing. For the chrono I’m using .25 bbs. First the gas mags, I’m using red gas at the moment because it’s not that warm here. With one fill you can empty almost 2 magazines.
Numbers
And very lastly some numbers,
The pistol is 240mm long with a barrel length of 115mm and a weight of 558g. That was fast and easy.
The Vulture has become a trusty sidearm for longer games. It will be by my side in many games to come because the next pistol I’m testing is the Cornataraus, which is not made to be used as a side arm but as a primary. That gives me the opportunity to stress test this beauty even more.