high muzzle velocities of cheap AEG

Did you ever wonder why cheap AEGs from China (Cyma, Both Elephant, Jin Gong, Galaxy) have higher muzzle velocities than AEGs from Japan or Taiwan (Tokyo Marui, Classic Army, G&G, G&P)?

For example, new Cyma's AK47 has muzzle velocity of 410-430 fps (the one I own has 290 fps) and costs at WGC Shop $138 while Tokyo Marui's AK47 has only around 270 fps and costs $287 (price for AEG with battery and charger, to be comparable with Cyma's replica). You can easily see that the TM is twice as expensive as the chinese Cyma.

Many people in Poland buy those replicas because they think they'll get good replica cheap. They think that the more fps the better replica. Well... they are wrong...

What does the high muzzle velocity mean? Nothing except that the BB leaves the barrel with high velocity. It doesn't imply the replica has high range. It doesn't mean it has good accurasy, either!

What determines the range and accuracy? Inner barrel and hop-up. If the inner barrel is precise and made well, all the BBs will be fired in exactly the same direction. What happens after they're shot depends on the quality of the hop-up, especially the hop-up bucking (rubber). If the hop-up rotates each BB the same way, they all have the same trajectory. The better hop-up action, the longer range and the steadier trajectory.

One of my favorite replicas is the MP5K PDW that has less than 260 fps but is really accurate, despite it's short barrel.

So why the chinese replicas are made to have so much fps? Because this is the only thing that is easily comparable between replicas. You can measure the muzzle velocity easily, but you can't measure and compare the range and accuracy of different replicas! And it's easier to put stronger power spring than to make entire mechanism more precise and airtight.

I am in some kind of airsoft article frenzy -- expect more articles to be posted this week. I strongly suggest subscribing to my RSS feed on the upper left corner of the blog.

Carry handles for G36

If you compared different versions of G36 airsoft replicas (the G36, G36K (Kurz -- short) and G36C (Compact), you probably noticed the different carry handles.

G36 and G36K have a carry handle with 3.5x scope, similar to the one that is fitted on real-steel G36E (Export) version.


From WGC Shop

G36C has lower handle with Picatinny rail (more a rail than a carry handle).


From WGC Shop

But there are also other carry handles on the market. First there's a handle that is closest to the real-steel version, with 3.5x scope and reflex red dot sight.


Also from WGC Shop

And there's a cheap alternative of the carry handle above and something I always wanted...


From taiwangun

I just bought the latter, no matter that my mG36 is broken and is going to be sent for repairs.

I am going to use this railed handle with red dot sight I bought some time ago for my MP5K.

Guys from ASGShop.pl broke my mG36's hopup chamber

Last saturday I wrote a post on how my mG36 got home from tuning and repairs in ASGShop.pl broken. Now it is a good time to add some more details to the story.

On 18th, right after I posted an article, I mailed the guys from ASGShop to tell them the replica doesn't work.

Yesterday (on 23rd) I mailed them once again, as I didn't get any answer. Couple hours later I got a reply that my e-mail was forwarded to the guy who worked on my replica.

The guy called me today around 11 AM on my cellphone but I had another phonecall at work, so I didn't answer. I tried to call him back in a couple of minutes, but the phone was not answered (the message on their answering machine says the phone support works from noon). He eventually called me three hours later.

I told him that the I found one piece of hop-up / barrel assembly (the spacer I mentioned on the earlier post) lying somewhere in the box that held the replica. We discussed for a moment and he said that it is not possible that this part disconnected itself somehow while the package was being moved. He told me that if I feel like I may try to take a look at the hop-up assembly and fix it by myself. As all I want is to have my replica firing as soon as possible, I agreed. I am familiar with this mechanism as I tried to replace the inner barrel by myself.

So I came home and started working on the mG36. The first step was to remove the magazine nest (sorry -- don't know if this is the right word, I mean the part you put magazine in) and what I saw told me something is very wrong with the hop-up chamber. I saw this:

From Airsoft from Poland photos

On the photo above you can clearly see that there's a broken hop-up chamber and that the hop-up bucking (rubber) is broken as well. You may also see that the spacer I mentioned earlied is gone (no big mistery here -- I found it in the cardboard box). So I disassemblied it a bit more to remove the barrel and hop-up chamber.



You can see that the rubber is also damaged. The moving nozzle made a small cut on the lower part of the rubber. You can also see what happened to the hop-up chamber.

But the latest discovery was worst. Not that I did't expect it, though...



This is the part of the hop-up assembly where the spacer is supposed to go. On the original G36 barrels there are two notches that hold the spacer in place. You can see it perfectly on the photos here (a guide to G36 hop-up disassembly). The fourth photo shows the spacer (pointed with the red arrow). On the 8th and 9th photos you can see the notches on the inner barrel.

Why am I shocked? I tried to replace the barrel in my mG36 some time ago. I bought some long barrel that didn't fit because of those notches. And being aware of that (and since the precise barrel for G36 was not available at ASGShop.pl at the time I sent them my replica for tuning) I told them to install any precise barrel that will fit. Well... seems the guys decided that the barrel without notches is as good as the original. But they were wrong. I thought of this last week -- this is why I wasn't surprised. :(

I don't care! I am going to send them the replica tomorrow and phone them on monday (will probably e-mail them some of the photos as well). I suspect they will repair it as a part of their warranty, 'cause they have simply no other choice.

But I am going to write this whole story down on the biggest polish airsoft community's bulletin board. I would let one mistake go, but two mistakes are too much!

I need some sophisticated equipment

I don't have any high-tech charger / discharger. At the moment my equipment used for charging and discharging my batteries consists of:

• charger for 8,4 V batteries, capable of supplying 250 mA current, the one that comes with Cyma replicas,
• some variable rate charger that gives 12 V and 15-240 mA current,
  
• very simple discharger, made of 55 W 12 V car bulb, shown on the following photo.

From Airsoft from Poland photos

Discharging batteries takes time. Since it's not automated, I have to look at the bulb from time to time when I am discharging a battery. I can't leave it unattended...

Charging batteries is not fully automated. The chargers are cheap, they only supply the specific amount of current. They don't check if the battery is fully charged, so may overcharge and destroy the battery. The only way to make sure the battery is not overcharged is to watch the time carefully (and know exactly how long the battery is supposed to be plugged to the charger) and check from time to time if the battery is warm... I can't leave the charger unattended for the last part of the charging, when the battery needs to be unplugged.

I need to buy a good automated charger and some cheap discharger to make sure my batteries are healthy and may live long...

Cyma AK47 review -- bullshit

I saw a review of Cyma's CM028 - AK47 replica. And I thought I must write here something, because the review is bullshit. But what to expect when the replica is reviewed by someone who sells them, not by someone who only uses replicas!

Around 2:12 the guy says the following:

Not only will bigger and more powerful battery increase the rate of fire (...), also increase the range and accuracy up to 5 to 10 per cent.

Come on! The only thing that changes when you supply 9.6 volt current instead of 8.4 volt is the engine speed. The engine revolves faster, the gears in gearbox revolve faster, the power spring gets compressed faster. But the energy delivered to the piston by the spring does not depend on how fast the spring was compressed! So no matter what battery you use, the amount of compressed air that will push the BB through the inner barrel remains the same.

Well... there may be one case when it isn't the same. If you connect 12V battery to stock replica, the engine may try to compress the spring when it didn't decompress itself fully. The engine may revolve so fast that the next gearbox work cycle will start before the piston reaches the cylinder head.

mG36 at home, but broken

Recently, when I used the phrase "my favorite ASG shop" I meant the asgshop.pl. It changes today! They aren't my favorite airsoft reseller anymore, 'cause they screwed up my replicas twice. The AUG was first (the guy who repaired the replica didn't replace the broken engine) and now the G36 is broken...

And what's the most hilarious in this whole story? I think I know what is the problem as I almost forseen it...

Two years ago I tried to replace the inner barrel for my G36. At that moment it was difficult to purchase a proper barrel since it wasn't available at any of local airsoft shops. So I bought some 509mm-long barrel for AUG and M15s. But I couldn't install it, as it had notches in wrong places. The notches are used to hold the barrel to the hop-up chamber.

When I unpacked the replica from the box, I found a small piece of hop-up assembly. This part - spacer - stopped me from installing the barrel when I tried it. On this photo you can see when this spacer goes on the barrel, it is the place where the notches are. I the notches are somewhere else, you can't install the spacer. And the spacer is very important as it: holds the barrel from sliping out of the hop-up chamber and holds the hop-up adjusting wheel from moving to the front.

Okay, so I took the mG36, plugged charged battery and then tried to fire the replica. It made some noise, as the gearbox worked. But the BB wasn't shot. The BB wasn't fed to the hop-up chamber and wasn't shot. I rotated the replica upside down to make sure there is no trouble with the high capacity magazine. Nothing changed. So I thought maybe the hop-up is set on high BBs turning and then I turned the adjusting wheel to the other side. Nothing changed, but the adjusting wheel moved a bit to the front of the replica.

As the mG36 doesn't work, it's going back to asgshop.pl for further repairs.

mG36 is ready

On thursday a guy from my favorite airsoft shop called me and we spoke for a while about my mG36 replica I sent for repairs and tuning.

He said that he installed the parts I asked for (precise inner barrel, 6.04 mm by Systema, and sealed air nozzle) and tested the replica on the chronograph. I wanted the replica to have around 350 fps -- enough for playing with guys that have 400 fps installed, but not very much). And I thought that after this barrel and nozzle installed it’ll have something close to that (330...340 fps maybe), since the G36 from Classic Army has 315 fps in stock!

Do you want to know what were the results from chronograph? A shitty 290 fps! I was stunned when I heard that.

It seemed that there was no other choice than to change the power spring. I asked the guy what caused such poor results. He said that the cylinder - cylinder head - piston head set is not very airtight and the spring looks weak. He suggested to change the spring go M100 and new cylinder with both heads made from aluminum. When I approved those parts to be installed, he asked me if I didn’t want to have the M110 instead as it’ll give me something close to 400 fps. Of course I agreed...

On friday he called me again. He installed the M110 and the other parts I mentioned above. He checked the replica on chronograph again and had result of 390 fps. That’s more than enough, I think...

Would you guess how much I’ll be charged for this tuning? PLN 460, amount equivalent to $170.

But hey, if the mG36 is supposed to be an light support weapon (as it’s real steel MG36 counterpart), it must have better range and accuracy than typical ASG replica...

the mG36 sent for tuning

Today I sent my mG36 replica. I must say it was a struggle to pack it in some cardboard box, 'cause I didn't have box that was big enough to fit the entire replica, even with folded stock. So I used two smaller boxes and taped them together, then taped them both around, wrapped in paper and taped again. ;) It weighed 5 kilograms as I was told at my post office.

I will keep you updated with mG36's tuning news.