Post by Ocelot on Mar 20, 2010 18:14:47 GMT -5
Since y'all MI doods don't have a review section, I'm dumping this here and then you can move it to the proper place.
KJ Works / Tanio Koba M4A1 Review
So last night I finally came home for spring break, and waiting for me on my bed was this beauty, the KJW/TK M4A1 GBBR. I opened the box to this gorgeous sight:
(I bought two extra magazines with it, only one magazine comes with it.)
Contents of the box on opening:
Rifle, 1 magazine, a small box of .25g bb's, a loading tool, and a delta ring wrench.
First Impressions:
The packaging made me a bit sad. It was sitting inside of a thin plastic sheet, and then in a simple standard Styrofoam insert
WOW. This gun is an M4 done RIGHT. It's 100% solid, except for a little bit of stock wobble, and the bolt flies forward with a satisfying clack. Literally, this rifle is the closest to the real deal I've felt in airsoft.
Externals:
Everything on this rifle is 100% metal (minus the hand guards, stock, and pistol grip of course.) So I'm going to start reviewing the externals from the flash hider back to the stock.
The flash hider is metal, and is painted orange. Now in other reviews I read, it was glued in place and people had to remove a small allen screw underneath it. All that the allen screw holds onto though is a small brass tube that has 14mm threads inside. On mine, there was no need to remove the screw, the whole flash hider set just unscrewed from the rifle, revealing 14mm counter clockwise threads.
The outer barrel is all completely metal, and rather simple. One of the best features of the rifle is that it is capable of using any AEG outer barrel with slight modification. The hand guards are extremely high quality texturized ABS plastic. Now I know everyone says this in a review, but comparing it to all of the brands I have used in the past (TM, CA, G&G, G&P, Systema), these are the best I have felt, and the closest to the real deal.
The metal body, sadly, has no trademarks. Although it has safe-semi-auto on it, there are no markings above the magwell on either side. This is the only downside to the rifle that I came into contact with. Also, the metal carry handle is just like any other metal carry handle would be, it attaches to my gun stable enough to tote it around, and is quickly replaced when I want epic optics. Also, a nice note, the forward assist works. In the event that the recoil spring didn't push the bolt all the way forwards, you can push it with the forward assist nob.
The only other downside to this rifle is the model of all of the magazines. As of now, KJW/TK have not released non-Thermold mags for their replicas. As much as this doesn't bother me (I think they are bad ass) people like their Stanags.
The stock is a normal LE stock. As of now, the rifle isn't capable of taking AEG buffer tubes (obviously, since the recoil spring sits in the buffer tube) or real steel stocks, but I've heard of people developing conversion kits to take real steel (though none are on the market yet.) Very high quality plastic again, but the little wobble annoys me a bit.
Internals:
Taking down the rifle is as simple as pressing out two pins with your fingers. Although they 'lock' into place, they are VERY easy to pull completely out. NOTE: Make sure not to remove the pins fully. Although simple to put pack into place, they are just a hassle.
Internally, for review purposes, I left stock KJW. Here are a few pictures of the hammer and such from the inside:
And two showing how the safety can only flip when the hammer is locked back.
The recoil plunger and spring can be removed easily by pressing down on the small nub holding them in, and then removing.
Function:
Firing this gun is SO much fun. The blowback is crisp, hard, and pretty fast on full auto. A small chrono test (with an unreliable Madbull V2 chrono) gave the following FPS readings on propane with .20g BB's:
401.2
401.1
390.6
Although it felt much harder than those. Another more reliable chrono reading will be needed here, because a lot of other users reported mid 420's. (Note to haters: Don't worry. I have an FPS adjuster.)
The rifle functions flawlessly, although I hate silent fill magazines, so filling with gas is a little iffy. Gas mileage on this rifle is a BEAST. I got out an average of 2-3 fills of 30 BB's per complete fill of gas.
The bolt and bolt face aren't 'realistic' like other GBBR's, but in the end, it's functionality that matters. There is also a strange rubber band that doesn't really seem to serve a purpose, but I'll leave it in anyway.
In the end,
Pros:
Amazing gas consumption.
Crisp blowback and non sluggish firing.
No BB's dribbling out of the barrel like other gas replicas.
Ability to take AEG front ends, which allows for tons of customizations.
14mm CCW threads.
Upgrade internals already available from Cradle Airsoft (shameless plug, I bought the new piston and FPS reducer.)
Cons:
FPS is a bit too high.
Thermold only mags (I think they are cool)
Stock wobble a bit.
Non-realistic bolt (although it doesn't bother me)
Overall, I give the rifle a 9.5/10.
And my take on it:
Delicious.
KJ Works / Tanio Koba M4A1 Review
So last night I finally came home for spring break, and waiting for me on my bed was this beauty, the KJW/TK M4A1 GBBR. I opened the box to this gorgeous sight:
(I bought two extra magazines with it, only one magazine comes with it.)
Contents of the box on opening:
Rifle, 1 magazine, a small box of .25g bb's, a loading tool, and a delta ring wrench.
First Impressions:
The packaging made me a bit sad. It was sitting inside of a thin plastic sheet, and then in a simple standard Styrofoam insert
WOW. This gun is an M4 done RIGHT. It's 100% solid, except for a little bit of stock wobble, and the bolt flies forward with a satisfying clack. Literally, this rifle is the closest to the real deal I've felt in airsoft.
Externals:
Everything on this rifle is 100% metal (minus the hand guards, stock, and pistol grip of course.) So I'm going to start reviewing the externals from the flash hider back to the stock.
The flash hider is metal, and is painted orange. Now in other reviews I read, it was glued in place and people had to remove a small allen screw underneath it. All that the allen screw holds onto though is a small brass tube that has 14mm threads inside. On mine, there was no need to remove the screw, the whole flash hider set just unscrewed from the rifle, revealing 14mm counter clockwise threads.
The outer barrel is all completely metal, and rather simple. One of the best features of the rifle is that it is capable of using any AEG outer barrel with slight modification. The hand guards are extremely high quality texturized ABS plastic. Now I know everyone says this in a review, but comparing it to all of the brands I have used in the past (TM, CA, G&G, G&P, Systema), these are the best I have felt, and the closest to the real deal.
The metal body, sadly, has no trademarks. Although it has safe-semi-auto on it, there are no markings above the magwell on either side. This is the only downside to the rifle that I came into contact with. Also, the metal carry handle is just like any other metal carry handle would be, it attaches to my gun stable enough to tote it around, and is quickly replaced when I want epic optics. Also, a nice note, the forward assist works. In the event that the recoil spring didn't push the bolt all the way forwards, you can push it with the forward assist nob.
The only other downside to this rifle is the model of all of the magazines. As of now, KJW/TK have not released non-Thermold mags for their replicas. As much as this doesn't bother me (I think they are bad ass) people like their Stanags.
The stock is a normal LE stock. As of now, the rifle isn't capable of taking AEG buffer tubes (obviously, since the recoil spring sits in the buffer tube) or real steel stocks, but I've heard of people developing conversion kits to take real steel (though none are on the market yet.) Very high quality plastic again, but the little wobble annoys me a bit.
Internals:
Taking down the rifle is as simple as pressing out two pins with your fingers. Although they 'lock' into place, they are VERY easy to pull completely out. NOTE: Make sure not to remove the pins fully. Although simple to put pack into place, they are just a hassle.
Internally, for review purposes, I left stock KJW. Here are a few pictures of the hammer and such from the inside:
And two showing how the safety can only flip when the hammer is locked back.
The recoil plunger and spring can be removed easily by pressing down on the small nub holding them in, and then removing.
Function:
Firing this gun is SO much fun. The blowback is crisp, hard, and pretty fast on full auto. A small chrono test (with an unreliable Madbull V2 chrono) gave the following FPS readings on propane with .20g BB's:
401.2
401.1
390.6
Although it felt much harder than those. Another more reliable chrono reading will be needed here, because a lot of other users reported mid 420's. (Note to haters: Don't worry. I have an FPS adjuster.)
The rifle functions flawlessly, although I hate silent fill magazines, so filling with gas is a little iffy. Gas mileage on this rifle is a BEAST. I got out an average of 2-3 fills of 30 BB's per complete fill of gas.
The bolt and bolt face aren't 'realistic' like other GBBR's, but in the end, it's functionality that matters. There is also a strange rubber band that doesn't really seem to serve a purpose, but I'll leave it in anyway.
In the end,
Pros:
Amazing gas consumption.
Crisp blowback and non sluggish firing.
No BB's dribbling out of the barrel like other gas replicas.
Ability to take AEG front ends, which allows for tons of customizations.
14mm CCW threads.
Upgrade internals already available from Cradle Airsoft (shameless plug, I bought the new piston and FPS reducer.)
Cons:
FPS is a bit too high.
Thermold only mags (I think they are cool)
Stock wobble a bit.
Non-realistic bolt (although it doesn't bother me)
Overall, I give the rifle a 9.5/10.
And my take on it:
Delicious.
for about 2 months. Two more months after that I finally got my mag and shipped the WE GBB mag back to them. It was a headache.