Post by Enkidu on Aug 16, 2005 20:43:43 GMT -5
That's right, fellow Michigan Airsoft enthusiasts, the TM M14 has hit US shores, and I've got one!
Hadoken, with his tricksy PMs and persuasive arguments led me to a deal over at Airsoft Smith in Ohio. I ended up getting the gun for just about $390 shipped, and it took one and a half business days from order to doorstep (!!!). No complaints there!
I had the day off of work, so I was there to run out to the friendly UPS guy like an excited little girl. As you can see here, the shipping left a little to be desired.
My cat, Rocco expressed curiosity and disdain for the ripped kraft paper that was my gun's only protection against the rigors of UPS.
The outside box is stellar in its simplicity. Notice the black mark on the left side of the box: it covers up the word, "Springfield", as in Armory. Can't have any trades here in the USA®©™!
And there she is, in all her glory, untouched by [my] human hands. Look at the sumptuous olive drab cloth bed in which she sits, like a queen. The wood version was the only one currently offered at Airsoft Smith. I happened to be leaning toward the green fiber stock version, but I takes what I can gets. Besides, I've already got ideas for this gun, and they don't involve the stock, er, stock. For now anyway.
Those of you with TM AKs or Thompsons will recognize the faux wood finish. It's obviously plastic to the touch, but has a convincing wooden grain and solid feel. The rear sling clip is fixed, like on the real steel.
Moving to the right, we see more of the gun. Pretty much every black thing seen here is metal, of some kind. The very rear of the receiver (shown in detail below) is plastic, though. My ghetto metallurgical testing device (a very strong hard disk drive magnet) shows the magazine and trigger to be made of steel, while the rest of the receiver is made of a lightweight alloy containing iron (these pieces are significantly less ferromagnetic). The bolt assembly is either aluminium or zinc (my best guesses at these nonmagnetic metal parts).
The cloth in the box is laid over a molded Styrofoam cutout. It's got spaces for this over-sized box with only a tiny bag of .25s inside. Yay overwrought packaging! The top cover, shown clearly here is my biggest disappointment with the gun: it's rather shiny and cheap-feeling plastic, and also the only thing on the gun that rattles.
The camo box contains the original flash-hider, manual and ubiquitous Marui product lineup booklet. Airsoft Smith put that orange tip on there with either extreme force or extreme glue. I'm not going to mess with it until I get an email back regarding how they attached it. I am understandably worried about my investment, and thus am in no hurry to wreck the hours-old gun with a manly twist of my handy Gerber multi-tool.
The manual is a trip. It's got a khaki-colored cover and document design like a real small arms manual. Inside the tissue paper is:
... the original flash-hider, complete with bayonet lug. It's got an odd attachment design that involves a screw-in collar with O-ring and then a tiny hex set screw (for which I was not provided a tool to manipulate). It is, however, a quite realistic design, both in weight and looks.
A closer view of the left side. Note the rotary elevation adjustment dial - it actually works! Gun safety is that square-with-a-hole-in-it to the left/front of the trigger. Right now the safety's off. Oops!
The top rear, where the eyeball meets the world, as it were. Airsoft Smith covered the trades shown here with a piece of black grip tape, which peeled off easily. Not sure of the serial numbers are unique - I'll have to wait until Mr. Is Airsoft can verify. You can also see the thin, but visible seam lines in the stock and sight. For a relatively affordable airsoft replica, I'd consider these blemishes acceptable. Also, you can see the rear peep sight here. Elevation is adjustable via the clicky dial on the left, windage is adjustable on the right dial. It's not as clicky as the elevation dial, and you gotta spin it further. I can only assume this mirrors the real M14. The windage dial has about 20 clicks of motion total from left to right. I believe it is of dubious use, cosidering that at the ranges it is useful, the BB vary too much. The elevation dial works too, maybe with 50 or 60 clicks of adjustment and seems to me more likely to find a use during a game.
Marui replicated the hinged shoulder rest perfectly. It's solid metal, and the hinge appears ready for some abuse. It's spring loaded, and does not rattle or move at all when closed or open. Underneath the shoulder rest is the battery door:
A fingernail or other small prodding thing applied to that nubbin on the left opens the nifty spring-hinged door where the battery goes.
One thing TM replicated especially well is the bolt. The damn thing rotates, just like the real thing. It also makes satisfying shlick-schlack noises. From what I can decipher of the pictographs in the manual, you shouldn't be too rough with it, though. It doesn't do anything, besides look and sound cool. Underneath the bolt cover is the top of the Ver.7 gearbox. I'm not going to mess with the internals for a while - so no guts pics.
Here's a shot of the right side. That little rectangular knob above the trigger is the fire selector. Rotate top-wise for full-auto, rotate rear-wise for single-shot. Windage dial with markings is visible, too.
On to the videos! Right-click + save as, for each. They were taken with my crummy $90 digicam, so no whining from you artsy types. Turn up your brightness, ya wanker.
3.9 megs: One of me loading the mag, racking the bolt, and blasting away. Notice how the mag loads like an AK mag, one end placed into the mag-well and then rocked the rest of the way in.
0.9 megs: Me pulling back in the bolt handle. It's like music!
1.1 megs: Adjusting the elevation. Notice the peep sight raising and lowering.
1.7 megs: Adjusting the windage. Note the longer rotation on the dial before it clicks.
2.1 megs: The flip-out shoulder rest. On the real steel, it would be for comfort and recoil management. On the TM version, it looks cool and provides a bit of stability.
1.4 megs: Looking down the gun on single fire. I'd already emptied the mag in the first video, so these are dry fires. I'd call the sound about as loud as my AKBeita, but with less snap to it.
1.1 megs: Rockin' like Dokken on full-auto. ROF is as what you hear here - pretty high, actually. You may not be able to tell from the video, but it's somewhat quieter than both my AK and MP5k.
[UPDATE] Because I can, here's a video of a real M14, albeit of the SAW variant. Full-auto goodness, 1.9 megs, wmv format [/UPDATE]
As for my thoughts, I love the damn thing. It's clearly longer and heavier than any other gun I own - but I knew that going into the purchase. I've only got one 70 round mag, and it's going to be that way for some time. My M14 is as solid as my AK, and that's saying something important. It's got a good balance, fits my body well, and looks pretty, too. Of all my guns, it is far and away the most accurate. Note that I own no sniper rifles. Still, this thing is the closest I've ever come to a tack-driver on a stock AEG.
I don't have a chronograph, but it is clearly more powerful than my stock AK or upgraded MP5k. I haven't done a pop-can test, but experience tells me it's shooting somewhere north of 300FPS with .20s. ROF on full-auto is almost dismayingly high, considering the dearth of mags and my limited, 70rnd capacity.
And that's it. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. If there's a problem with either pics of video, please keep it to PMs.
Hadoken, with his tricksy PMs and persuasive arguments led me to a deal over at Airsoft Smith in Ohio. I ended up getting the gun for just about $390 shipped, and it took one and a half business days from order to doorstep (!!!). No complaints there!
I had the day off of work, so I was there to run out to the friendly UPS guy like an excited little girl. As you can see here, the shipping left a little to be desired.
My cat, Rocco expressed curiosity and disdain for the ripped kraft paper that was my gun's only protection against the rigors of UPS.
The outside box is stellar in its simplicity. Notice the black mark on the left side of the box: it covers up the word, "Springfield", as in Armory. Can't have any trades here in the USA®©™!
And there she is, in all her glory, untouched by [my] human hands. Look at the sumptuous olive drab cloth bed in which she sits, like a queen. The wood version was the only one currently offered at Airsoft Smith. I happened to be leaning toward the green fiber stock version, but I takes what I can gets. Besides, I've already got ideas for this gun, and they don't involve the stock, er, stock. For now anyway.
Those of you with TM AKs or Thompsons will recognize the faux wood finish. It's obviously plastic to the touch, but has a convincing wooden grain and solid feel. The rear sling clip is fixed, like on the real steel.
Moving to the right, we see more of the gun. Pretty much every black thing seen here is metal, of some kind. The very rear of the receiver (shown in detail below) is plastic, though. My ghetto metallurgical testing device (a very strong hard disk drive magnet) shows the magazine and trigger to be made of steel, while the rest of the receiver is made of a lightweight alloy containing iron (these pieces are significantly less ferromagnetic). The bolt assembly is either aluminium or zinc (my best guesses at these nonmagnetic metal parts).
The cloth in the box is laid over a molded Styrofoam cutout. It's got spaces for this over-sized box with only a tiny bag of .25s inside. Yay overwrought packaging! The top cover, shown clearly here is my biggest disappointment with the gun: it's rather shiny and cheap-feeling plastic, and also the only thing on the gun that rattles.
The camo box contains the original flash-hider, manual and ubiquitous Marui product lineup booklet. Airsoft Smith put that orange tip on there with either extreme force or extreme glue. I'm not going to mess with it until I get an email back regarding how they attached it. I am understandably worried about my investment, and thus am in no hurry to wreck the hours-old gun with a manly twist of my handy Gerber multi-tool.
The manual is a trip. It's got a khaki-colored cover and document design like a real small arms manual. Inside the tissue paper is:
... the original flash-hider, complete with bayonet lug. It's got an odd attachment design that involves a screw-in collar with O-ring and then a tiny hex set screw (for which I was not provided a tool to manipulate). It is, however, a quite realistic design, both in weight and looks.
A closer view of the left side. Note the rotary elevation adjustment dial - it actually works! Gun safety is that square-with-a-hole-in-it to the left/front of the trigger. Right now the safety's off. Oops!
The top rear, where the eyeball meets the world, as it were. Airsoft Smith covered the trades shown here with a piece of black grip tape, which peeled off easily. Not sure of the serial numbers are unique - I'll have to wait until Mr. Is Airsoft can verify. You can also see the thin, but visible seam lines in the stock and sight. For a relatively affordable airsoft replica, I'd consider these blemishes acceptable. Also, you can see the rear peep sight here. Elevation is adjustable via the clicky dial on the left, windage is adjustable on the right dial. It's not as clicky as the elevation dial, and you gotta spin it further. I can only assume this mirrors the real M14. The windage dial has about 20 clicks of motion total from left to right. I believe it is of dubious use, cosidering that at the ranges it is useful, the BB vary too much. The elevation dial works too, maybe with 50 or 60 clicks of adjustment and seems to me more likely to find a use during a game.
Marui replicated the hinged shoulder rest perfectly. It's solid metal, and the hinge appears ready for some abuse. It's spring loaded, and does not rattle or move at all when closed or open. Underneath the shoulder rest is the battery door:
A fingernail or other small prodding thing applied to that nubbin on the left opens the nifty spring-hinged door where the battery goes.
One thing TM replicated especially well is the bolt. The damn thing rotates, just like the real thing. It also makes satisfying shlick-schlack noises. From what I can decipher of the pictographs in the manual, you shouldn't be too rough with it, though. It doesn't do anything, besides look and sound cool. Underneath the bolt cover is the top of the Ver.7 gearbox. I'm not going to mess with the internals for a while - so no guts pics.
Here's a shot of the right side. That little rectangular knob above the trigger is the fire selector. Rotate top-wise for full-auto, rotate rear-wise for single-shot. Windage dial with markings is visible, too.
On to the videos! Right-click + save as, for each. They were taken with my crummy $90 digicam, so no whining from you artsy types. Turn up your brightness, ya wanker.
3.9 megs: One of me loading the mag, racking the bolt, and blasting away. Notice how the mag loads like an AK mag, one end placed into the mag-well and then rocked the rest of the way in.
0.9 megs: Me pulling back in the bolt handle. It's like music!
1.1 megs: Adjusting the elevation. Notice the peep sight raising and lowering.
1.7 megs: Adjusting the windage. Note the longer rotation on the dial before it clicks.
2.1 megs: The flip-out shoulder rest. On the real steel, it would be for comfort and recoil management. On the TM version, it looks cool and provides a bit of stability.
1.4 megs: Looking down the gun on single fire. I'd already emptied the mag in the first video, so these are dry fires. I'd call the sound about as loud as my AKBeita, but with less snap to it.
1.1 megs: Rockin' like Dokken on full-auto. ROF is as what you hear here - pretty high, actually. You may not be able to tell from the video, but it's somewhat quieter than both my AK and MP5k.
[UPDATE] Because I can, here's a video of a real M14, albeit of the SAW variant. Full-auto goodness, 1.9 megs, wmv format [/UPDATE]
As for my thoughts, I love the damn thing. It's clearly longer and heavier than any other gun I own - but I knew that going into the purchase. I've only got one 70 round mag, and it's going to be that way for some time. My M14 is as solid as my AK, and that's saying something important. It's got a good balance, fits my body well, and looks pretty, too. Of all my guns, it is far and away the most accurate. Note that I own no sniper rifles. Still, this thing is the closest I've ever come to a tack-driver on a stock AEG.
I don't have a chronograph, but it is clearly more powerful than my stock AK or upgraded MP5k. I haven't done a pop-can test, but experience tells me it's shooting somewhere north of 300FPS with .20s. ROF on full-auto is almost dismayingly high, considering the dearth of mags and my limited, 70rnd capacity.
And that's it. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. If there's a problem with either pics of video, please keep it to PMs.