Post by Ike on Oct 17, 2010 19:53:48 GMT -5
After hearing some good things about ARES as a company and also about their new M4 in particular, I decided to try it out to see for myself what the buzz was about. With a retail price of anywhere from $230-$250, it is cheaper than many other full metal M4 replicas on the market. It comes in black and FDE colors, but be prepared to pay a few bucks more for the FDE version.
The ARES M4 arrives in a plain brown box with an ARES sticker on it, nothing fancy here. Inside, the replica is held firmly in place by two large pieces of foam which also have cutouts for the magazine and loading/unjamming tool. The included magazine has a nice finish to it, and is a midcap, which is a nice change from the hicaps included with G&G, Classic Army, KWA, and other brands. I haven't experienced any feeding issues with it yet.
The gun has a very solid and hefty feel to it. It's a heavy gun, but well-balanced even with a battery in the foregrip. The finish on the receiver is excellent and ARES' logo is tastefully engraved. The receiver pins are of the locking type and aren't going anywhere.
Pulling back the charging handle locks the bolt back and allows for easy hopup adjustment. The hopup is very responsive and has no problems giving sufficient backspin to .25g BBs. Over time, my hopup started backing off. If this happens, simply add a washer or shim to the screw on the main gear, or file down the post that the main gear sits on. Pressing the bolt release makes a very satisfying sound and closes the bolt to cover your hopup.
The pistol grip is just a standard grip, but is very comfortable to hold and feels slimmer than my G&G grip. The texture is also very nice, and isn't as rough and sharp as the texture from the G&G. It does tend to get very warm while firing though, I'm not sure what exactly this is a result of.
The 5-position LE stock and buffer tube are commercial spec. I don't quite understand why ARES chose to use this size, because it means that virtually no airsoft stock accessories will fit. That being said, I have no plans to replace the stock right now. It has minimal wobble and the sling mount is very strong.
The other important thing about the stock is that it gives you access to ARES' quick-change spring feature. To do this, start by removing the stock. Then remove the buffer tube by turning the nut counter-clockwise, followed by the tube itself. This may require channel locks or a vice grip the first time if you don't have an AR wrench handy, it's on there pretty tight. Once that is removed, you will see the back of the gearbox and spring guide.
Use a flathead screwdriver or a quarter to remove the above piece, and then push in on the spring guide and rotate it counter clockwise until the notches line up and it comes out. The circle on the back of the spring guide that is roughly in the 2 o'clock position needs to end up at about 10 o'clock.
At that point, the spring guide and spring will slide out and you are free to change the spring. To reassemble, simply follow the steps in reverse order. Re-insert the spring and spring guide, turn spring guide clockwise, screw the cap on, and put the buffer tube and stock back on. The whole process only takes 5 or 10 minutes tops with the proper tools.
Moving towards the front end of the gun, the hand guards have a nice look and feel to them; similar but not quite the same as Classic Army's. Removing them exposes the wiring with a simple mini tamiya connector. Unfortunately, the barrel is a 2-piece and is secured by 4 set screws, 2 on each side. It has minimal wobble but a 1-piece barrel definitely would have been a nice addition.
The front sight post is of nice quality and matches the outer barrel; however the front sling mount looks and feels just as cheep in person as it does in the picture. And as with all replica guns, we have the blaze orange tip on the end. This one is plastic and is glued on very tightly. The end of the barrel is 14mm clockwise threaded so keep in mind that most aftermarket flash hiders will not work.
My thanks to kdogg for the information about the stock and buffer tube size and to Kurt at Eastside Airsoft for ordering the replica for me.
UPDATE! (11/04/10)
I found a reason to disassemble the gun and gearbox the other day, but unfortunately I didn't think to take any pictures. Dis-assembly is a breeze and with the exception of the buffer tube twisting off, it works like any other M4 replica. Being able to remove the spring before opening the gearbox means you don't need to worry about your spring guide flying out. With the gearbox open, everything stays in place quite nicely. The trigger is controlled by a proprietary microswitch. Closing the gearbox is extremely easy; the trigger stays in place perfectly and the anti reversal latch doesn't pop out of place anywhere near as easily as it does on other models. Just remember to replace the spring before cycling the gearbox after closing it... *cough*.
Long overdue update:
I realized that I never really included a performance section. The stock hop up unit, as a whole, is crap. It does NOT stay set and has no stopper to prevent you from turning the wheel all of the way around, resetting the hopup back to "0." The bucking is thin and tears easily, and the nub is proprietary and not cut straight. Range was terrible for a gun shooting at 400fps, hardly further than a stock TM. The motor was awful, providing both terrible rate of fire and trigger response. And thanks to ARES poor decision making, you're stuck with a lot of proprietary and non-standard parts (trigger switch, buffer tube, outer barrel, receivers, shitty locking pins).
The ARES M4 arrives in a plain brown box with an ARES sticker on it, nothing fancy here. Inside, the replica is held firmly in place by two large pieces of foam which also have cutouts for the magazine and loading/unjamming tool. The included magazine has a nice finish to it, and is a midcap, which is a nice change from the hicaps included with G&G, Classic Army, KWA, and other brands. I haven't experienced any feeding issues with it yet.
The gun has a very solid and hefty feel to it. It's a heavy gun, but well-balanced even with a battery in the foregrip. The finish on the receiver is excellent and ARES' logo is tastefully engraved. The receiver pins are of the locking type and aren't going anywhere.
Pulling back the charging handle locks the bolt back and allows for easy hopup adjustment. The hopup is very responsive and has no problems giving sufficient backspin to .25g BBs. Over time, my hopup started backing off. If this happens, simply add a washer or shim to the screw on the main gear, or file down the post that the main gear sits on. Pressing the bolt release makes a very satisfying sound and closes the bolt to cover your hopup.
The pistol grip is just a standard grip, but is very comfortable to hold and feels slimmer than my G&G grip. The texture is also very nice, and isn't as rough and sharp as the texture from the G&G. It does tend to get very warm while firing though, I'm not sure what exactly this is a result of.
The 5-position LE stock and buffer tube are commercial spec. I don't quite understand why ARES chose to use this size, because it means that virtually no airsoft stock accessories will fit. That being said, I have no plans to replace the stock right now. It has minimal wobble and the sling mount is very strong.
The other important thing about the stock is that it gives you access to ARES' quick-change spring feature. To do this, start by removing the stock. Then remove the buffer tube by turning the nut counter-clockwise, followed by the tube itself. This may require channel locks or a vice grip the first time if you don't have an AR wrench handy, it's on there pretty tight. Once that is removed, you will see the back of the gearbox and spring guide.
Use a flathead screwdriver or a quarter to remove the above piece, and then push in on the spring guide and rotate it counter clockwise until the notches line up and it comes out. The circle on the back of the spring guide that is roughly in the 2 o'clock position needs to end up at about 10 o'clock.
At that point, the spring guide and spring will slide out and you are free to change the spring. To reassemble, simply follow the steps in reverse order. Re-insert the spring and spring guide, turn spring guide clockwise, screw the cap on, and put the buffer tube and stock back on. The whole process only takes 5 or 10 minutes tops with the proper tools.
Moving towards the front end of the gun, the hand guards have a nice look and feel to them; similar but not quite the same as Classic Army's. Removing them exposes the wiring with a simple mini tamiya connector. Unfortunately, the barrel is a 2-piece and is secured by 4 set screws, 2 on each side. It has minimal wobble but a 1-piece barrel definitely would have been a nice addition.
The front sight post is of nice quality and matches the outer barrel; however the front sling mount looks and feels just as cheep in person as it does in the picture. And as with all replica guns, we have the blaze orange tip on the end. This one is plastic and is glued on very tightly. The end of the barrel is 14mm clockwise threaded so keep in mind that most aftermarket flash hiders will not work.
My thanks to kdogg for the information about the stock and buffer tube size and to Kurt at Eastside Airsoft for ordering the replica for me.
UPDATE! (11/04/10)
I found a reason to disassemble the gun and gearbox the other day, but unfortunately I didn't think to take any pictures. Dis-assembly is a breeze and with the exception of the buffer tube twisting off, it works like any other M4 replica. Being able to remove the spring before opening the gearbox means you don't need to worry about your spring guide flying out. With the gearbox open, everything stays in place quite nicely. The trigger is controlled by a proprietary microswitch. Closing the gearbox is extremely easy; the trigger stays in place perfectly and the anti reversal latch doesn't pop out of place anywhere near as easily as it does on other models. Just remember to replace the spring before cycling the gearbox after closing it... *cough*.
Long overdue update:
I realized that I never really included a performance section. The stock hop up unit, as a whole, is crap. It does NOT stay set and has no stopper to prevent you from turning the wheel all of the way around, resetting the hopup back to "0." The bucking is thin and tears easily, and the nub is proprietary and not cut straight. Range was terrible for a gun shooting at 400fps, hardly further than a stock TM. The motor was awful, providing both terrible rate of fire and trigger response. And thanks to ARES poor decision making, you're stuck with a lot of proprietary and non-standard parts (trigger switch, buffer tube, outer barrel, receivers, shitty locking pins).