AK47S sold

Recently I sold my Cyma CM028, the AK47S replica.

I liked that gun very much. It had stock gearbox and shot around 270 fps, but I changed the body to metal.

Read the rest of the "AK47S sold" article.

First game this year?

It seems that the airsoft game I attended yesterday was my first game this year!

It started very weird on friday, when I started preparing my gear for the game. Three of my replicas, along with some of the batteries, were in the trunk of my wife's car for several months. None of the batteries I had (together with those that were stored indoors) seemed charged. Only one of them, the 1,800 mAh Sanyo NiCd 9.6V battery did work! And this is one of my oldest batteries, that was treated badly by me... Soon after I bought it with the M15A2 rifle, I connected it to my charger, but with reverse polarity! It was completely discharged the following morning, I connected it again (this time properly) and it works great from that time!

Having only one battery operational, checking my replicas was not easy. The G36 didn't work fine, and I recalled that it was broken some time ago. So I called my friend who previously repaired that replica and asked him, if he could do it again. He agreed.

So to the game I carried my AK47S, MP5K and the G36 to be repaired. I brought two large batteries (one partially charged 8.4V 3,000 mAh NiMH no-name and the Sanyo 9.6V) and two stick 600 mAh 8.4V Sanyos. I connected the first large battery to the AK, and used it for the entire game.

When I met the friend of mine at the location, we discussed about the G36 and he reminded me that he already fixed the gun from the failure I remember. I connected freshly chareged battery and indeed, it worked great! How sad I was when I found out that I have my favorite replica on me, but no magazines!

The game was rather boring for me. I spent most of the time camping in one place or the other. I was killed twice and didn't shoot anyone. To be more exact, I only fired three small bursts during the entire 3 hours we spent playing.

But I had to go to that game, since it took place in one of my favorite locations. :)

The work on Cyma AK47

I promised to write more about the work I did on my Cyma AK47S (CM.028) yesterday. So here it goes.

The goal was to:

• put new Systema tightbore,
• install metal body from Cyma,
• install side rail (from Cyma) for side lock mount rail.

I started with the metal body -- I wanted to drill three holes for the side rail. I attached the rail to the body with plastic straps (I have no idea what is the proper word to use), as shown below.

From Airsoft from Poland photos

I soon started drilling holes -- I just marked it using my drill.



And then I removed the rail to finish the drilling.





When the holes were made, I bolted the rail.



And then I attached the mount rail.



Then I removed the entire mechbox and all the other parts from the old plastic body. I had some help from this very good video of AK47 disassembly.



At this moment I wanted to remove the barrel and install the tightbore. I followed this video but it was incompatible...

I was very surprised to see that the original barrel in Cyma CM.028 did not have the notches and hole that are used to install the hop-up bucking, as you can see on the video. It was just put inside the hop-up chamber, along with the hop-up bucking! So I didn't install the tightbore. :(

I also had a lot of trouble with installing the mount for stock on the new body. One of the parts didn't fit inside the body. This is the troublesome part. I don't have any file at home so it required some work to make it fit. :(



I finally put everything together. I tested the replica today -- it does work, but I want to change this barrel anyway.

Late night work on my Cyma AK47

Short post this time, 'cause it's nearly midnight in Poland and after 3 hours of struggling I finally managed to put together my Cyma AK47 replica.

I wanted to:

• install metal body,
• install systema precise inner barrel (as I learnt yesterday, it's called tightbore),
• install side mount for side lock mount rail.

I managed to do the first and the third. More details tomorrow. Subscribe to the RSS feed if you want to know when those details are published.

Short night game last sunday

On last sunday I took Ania to Warsaw for a short night airsoft game. It was supposed to start around 5 PM -- this time of year it is already after nightfall. We went to Fort Piłsudskiego -- one on many old military forts in Warsaw. We played for about two hours and I had lots of fun.

I never liked playing airsoft at night. It started when we played in Halinka some four or five years ago. I got shot by Mamut with his pump action shotgun -- the benelli m3 super 90. Two of three BBs hit me in the ear while the third hit me somewhere else in the head. I didn't like the night games because I felt very vulnerable -- I don't have any tactical flashlight on my replicas, so I can rely only on the natural light...

But last week I had fun. :) There was only eight of us but it was more than enough.

I took the AUG and AK47S with me for this game. At first I though I'd use AUG, but I felt like it was too powerful for playing at night. So I decided to use the AK47S instead and it was a good choice.

From Airsoft from Poland photos

The game was very slow. All night games are slow. You move slowly, because you aren't sure what are you walking onto. You try to move quietly, because the sound is what will tell where you are. So the best way to score some points at night game is to hide somewhere and wait for someone to come.

I camped this way a couple times. With success. :)

At first I hid behind a large tree on some small hill (around 1 meter / 3 ft high), in some bushes. When the opposite team killed three of my teammates I was left alone. They thought they killed everyone else and walked less than 10 metres from me to the point where all the killed gathered. When they were told I was still alive, they walked near me again and then I started to spray BBs. I killed one or two of them and received a hit by myself. It is not easy to aim at night... ;p

The second time was when I crouched in one place for some 5 minutes. I saw a guy walking in my direction but wasn't sure if he's in my team. When we saw each other I asked him if he's my mate or enemey -- and then he started to shoot his cheap AEP (Glock 17 by Double Eagle, I guess). At the same instant I shot him back and I decided we should both be considered shot, though I did't feel or hear his BBs on my parka.

The third time was the most interesting. This time the idea was similar -- to crouch in one place for some time and to wait what will happen. I saw one guy from the opposite team, he walked in my direction. I aimed at him to shoot whenever I feel threatened. He stopped for a moment and fired a short burst very close to me (I talked to him couple minutes later, he told me he fired at some point near me, because he heard some noise). I was scared, but didn't pull the trigger. He started walking again, walked by me and then I shot him in the back. ;)



We also had some fun with using an old refrigerator as a shield. On this photo you can see Indianin with his AK47, hidden in the refrigerator. :)

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.

Airsoft hunger

Long time, no airsoft game. Nothing new, my engagement in airsoft games changes frequently. There are times when I play more than one game in a week and times when I can't find couple of hours to go and shoot somebody on saturday or sunday.

At this moment, my friends from Shamo Warsaw ASG Team play airsoft two times weekly. On thurday afternoons/evening and on weekends. Since I live 40 km away from Warsaw, I am not willing to go so far to play airsoft. But I work in Warsaw so thursdays would be a good time to play some airsoft. Unfortunatelly on this thursday I am going to meet my mechanic to work on my camper.

I also plan a small airsoft purchases:

• metal body for my AK-47S (only $46),
• large replica case/bag,
• AK scope mount.

I want to invest some money in the AK-47S since it's been forgotten until now. I only bought one extra magazine (mid-cap if I recall correctly). I will perform some junk tuning on this replica later on. I bought a precise barrel some time ago, it'd be a waste of money if it was only going to lie on some shelf.

Junk tuning

Long time, no see, huh? I didn’t attend any airsoft game for two months, so there’s nothing to write about. But when I’m not playing airsoft, I am thinking about it. So this is what I found out lately.

I mentioned here, that I have my AUG tuned. It has Guarder M110 / SP110 spring, helical gear set, full set of cylinder / cylinder head / piston head (bore-up) and some other stuff. This left me stock Classic Army spring and stock cylinder with two heads.

I am curious if I can use the spring to tune my AK-47S. If this Cyma replica is an exact copy of Tokyo Marui’s one, then I guess there’ll be some trouble with the piston / piston head / spring. As far as I remember, the TM’s piston is permanently connected to it’s head, so to change the spring you have to do something with piston / piston head. I don’t know exacly what needs to be done, i.e. if I need to have spare piston or not.

I also have one 170% CA spring, which is similar to M110. I think I’ll put this spring to the mG36, ’cause it lacks good range for being a support weapon. I’ll put it inside along with sealed air nozzle I bought a year or two ago and didn’t have time to install. ;)

Two winter games

This is the post in which I'll write about the last two games I played. They took place at january 20th and 27th.

January 20th, 2007. Radziejowice.

The game was played in the same place as on previous weekend. But this time it was much crowded, each team consisted of 15 players. The scenarios weren't interesting enough to mention here. It was simple "you start there, we start here and have to reach that point". I uploaded satellite photo of the area to my cellphone and used it along with my GPS receiver to know where to head. I used G36 on first round and AK47S on the second round. We didn't limit the amount of ammo in magazines, so it was quite fun. :)

The team I played with used walkie-talkies (handheld radios) for the first time so it was more fun than actual gain from using those radios. There was a lot of mud and moisture, unfortunatelly the temperature was above freezing point.

From Strzelanka Ra...

My girlfriend Ania made those photos along with couple of videos. I put them together and here they are.

I wanted to add subtitles to this video, but I am not sure if anyone is interested in knowing exactly what is going on. If you want to read subtitles, let me know. :)



January 27th, 2007. Adamowice.

Remember the game in unused railway complex? If not, read the article I posted last year. The game took place in the same place. For the last couple of rounds we moved to another spot.

Nothing very interesting, worth mentioning. Just videos here. Some photos were made, but aren't worth putting here. If you'd like to see them, visit the gallery.



The following movie is quite interesting, you'll see a nice skirmish between three players, a very Close QB. :)



In the movie below take a good look at the part that starts around 3:40. You'll se a guy outside the building. He didn't know that the guy next to the window was in the opposite team and forgot to shoot him. :)











Comments are welcome! :)

AUG: dissapointment

AUG dissapointed me today. Or maybe I should write: people who repaired it dissapointed me.

First brake down of the AUG looked like this: it worked for a while with no trouble at all. Then I fired it on full auto. And that was it. The engine coudln't move the piston at all. I think that the piston was pulled a bit during the previous shot. The anti-reversal latch ensured that it will stay in this position. Since the power spring is compressed, the energy required to move the piston from that place is greater than the energy required to start its movement from the beginning. I believe that the gears aren't positioned well to each other because the shims aren't placed properly.

When the mechbox is put together it does work. But in situation as described above it may stop.

I thought that the guys from my favorite airsoft shop will fix it. But they didn't. :(

I fired only 20 BBs or so, and then the AUG just stopped... :( It'll have to be shipped for service again... But I am not going to pay a dime...

Now two words about the game today.

There was 10 of us. We played a scenario twice.

The scenario was quite simple. There was a team of mercenaries (6 of them, me and Ania included), who was dropped on parachutes to a foreign country. Their goal was to get retrieve two "treasures" from one place, using explosives. Unfortunatelly their aircraft was shot down. So the explosives are now in the plane wreck. So this team had to get those explosives and proceed to the "treasure spot". After retrieving the treasure this team had to cross the border to reach safety. There was second team (4 players), who had to stop the mercenaries...

First time we played this scenario there was some misunderstanding. The second team took one explosive and one treasure from and went to cross the border. They probably thought that it is they who has to do this stuff. We played for 90 minutes but had only two chances to shoot those guys. First was when they were camped on the treasure spot. Ania killed 3 of them. :) I didn't fire a BB... Second chance we had when we were approaching the border. They camped there. At that moment I wanted to shoot some BBs but then the AUG broke down again... We won as two of our guys carried the treasure beyond the border.

From Airsoft from ...

The second time we played the scenario on opposite sides. I carried AK47 with attached large battery on top of it, because the battery I wanted to use with AK47 turned out to be discharged. We won again, because we camped on the treasure spot and defended it successfully. I killed one guy and probably another also. I say "probably", because I thought that at that moment I had no BBs in my hicap. It seems I was wrong. ;) Soon after I run dry I got shot.

I must mention that we had limited ammo during this game. We were told not to put more than 100 BBs in the magazine... I didn't like it at the beginning and at the end of the second round. When we were attacked the first time I forgot that I have limited ammo and I fired almost half of it in three bursts... ;)

We spent there 3 hours but most of the time we were walking, running and waiting for the enemy. There was more "hide & seek" than ever. I play airsoft for 4 years but this was the first time I had to crawl to approach the enemy and lie on the ground to be safe. But it felt very nice to wait for the enemy to appear on the opposite side of the sight.

Airsoft game at old railway buildings

Yesterday I played an airsoft game with Pluton Egzekucyjny (a young ASG team from Żyrardów, the town I live in). The game took place in Adamów, in couple of abandoned buildings. They were used by PKP, polish national railroad company.

First of all, when I opened my car's trunk and the replica bag I noticed that my Cyma AK-47S has broken stock. When I bought it I was aware that the folding stock in every replica is very delicate and may be broken soon. This disallowed me to use the replica, because I couldn't separate the stock from the rest of the gun. Only one of those rings that attach the stock to the body was broken and I didn't have hex key to remove the other.

From Airsoft from ...

When I took my stuff we could go for a walk to see the place.

From Airsoft from ...

This was it -- one large hall, one three-story office building with two stairways and many entrances.



The hall inside.



The office building as seen from the inside of the hall.



The office building. Cool red paint on the walls and pink tiles in toilettes.



One of the stairways. Broken windows. I heard that one of the people almost fell out through this window. It looks as it is not high above the ground, but this photo was taken while standing on top floor.



The hall seen from the office building.



The office building seen from near the hall.

I had much fun, 'cause I played with my favorite replica - MP5K PDW. :D

You can find the photos on Picasa Web Albums. Here's gallery of photos taken by my girlfriend and couple of photos I took yesterday. I can't promise they'll be held on the Picasa forever. ;)

Cyma AK-47 (CM028) review

This is the review of my Cyma AK-47S replika. I wrote it because I believe there is still some place on the internet for articles about cheap airsoft replicas. Cyma replicas are certainly the cheap ones. I'd say, they're on the second shelf, while the first shelf are Tokyo Marui, Classic Army and similar priced replicas.

I read a review written over a year ago, followed by long thread of replies on one of airsoft discussion forums. The thread author wrote:

I found the CYMA AK on airsplat some time ago, and believe me, I was as skeptical as you. (...) A less informed friend of mine who is getting into airsoft (...) bought one. I expected him to receive it and immediately be sorry with his purchase--surprisingly, it wasn't the case. Upon arriving for our game that day, he showed me the AK. I was shocked upon picking it up to discover how heavy it was--it felt like a real steel AK from the weight. Also, I was surprised to notice the gun was almost all metal--in fact, ALL metal except for the grip, handle and stock, which were shockingly decent feeling plastic. Then I figured, what the heck. It looks good but will shoot like crap. Not so! I was VERY surprised when I was hiding behind a tree about 40 feet away from my friend (...) when suddenly a barrage from his AK ripped through the branches and demolished me.

I won't agree that Cyma CM028 is able to break tree branches. Nevertheless, I agree that most of serious airsoft players year ago wouldn't consider purchasing Cyma's replicas. The manufacturer's name was known as a definition of poor quality.

But the replica I own is supposed to be cheaper copy of Tokyo Marui replica! It has metal gearbox, plastic body and metal hi-capacity magazine! With the replica you get the hi-cap mag, stick type 1,100 mAh battery (I got S version with folding stock) and a battery charger! This means, that you need only the replica, BBs and eye protection to have airsoft fun! Standard Tokyo Marui replica comes with low-cap magazine, with no battery or charger. The player had to buy battery and charge it somehow. This makes this Cyma replica a good bargain!

What about muzzle velocity? There are two generations of Cyma AK-47 replicas on market. Mine is from first generation, an exact copy o Tokyo Marui replica. It is supposed to have something around 290 fps on 0.2g BB. I use 0.23g BB, and had 266 fps on chronometer. The replicas from second generation are said to have 360-380 fps muzzle velocity. They still cost in Poland somewhere around $150. :D

The guy quoted at the beginning of my article is wrong. The replica has plastic body, and plastic (wood imitation) grips. They imitate wood really good, I must say...

The hopup is easily adjusted. The sight can be adjusted as well. One can adjust it to aim higher - in the real-steel version this was used for shooting long range. In airsoft I use this feature if I adjust the hopup for long range.

Here are two video reviews I found on YouTube. :)





This article will start "my replica reviews" series. :)

Added on December 3rd, 2007: I believe it is worth mentioning here that I broke my replica's stock.

The game in Kamion, nov. 11th

I had no time to write here about the last game I attended. Since last saturday I am ill and have to stay in bed. Of course I use the computer every now and then, but that's not enough time to write a new blog post.

There was 25 people at the game, some 8 of them young, less than 15 or 14 y.o. But since it was only couple of them for each team, it wasn't very disturbing.

The game took place at a place with two deserted buildings, grass and some other plants and stuff. Nothing very interesting, but it was small enough for fast game rounds.

I used, as usual lately, the AK 47s. My girlfriend played with MP5K PDW.

Here's a photo of me, proud with 4 kills in one round.



That's the new sight on PDW, in my girlfriend's hands.



One thing more: a movie made that day. Nothing very interesting, but photos and videos are always better than my poor english language. ;) The guy who posted it on YouTube doesn't allow it to be embedded, so you have to watch it on your own. ;)

Comments are always welcome. ;)

Cyma AK47S "at work"

Today two photograps taken last sunday. Author: Fredzia/www.cannon-fodder.pl.

From Airsoft from...

From Airsoft from...

First game with my new replica

As I mentioned my new airsoft purchases, I bought one new replica. This is a good time to tell my blog's readers what I got.

So I bought Cyma AK47S and I must say that this was one of my best purchases. I paid 429 PLN which is equal to $150. It came in complete set with stick 1,100 mAh battery (NiMH) and (what is very important for me) 500 BBs hi-cap magazine.

I bought the AK47S because it has folded stock and stick battery. As I own also MP5K PDW, now I have 3 stick batteries.

As I thought, the replica is equivalent to Tokyo Marui and I hope that it'll last at least as long as TM do. I used 0.23 gram BBs and measured 266 fps muzzle velocity. This is equivalent to 280-290 fps on 0.20 g BB, the standard for stock TM replicas.

Addition: I wrote an article on Cyma CM028 (AK47) on one of my sites in polish, thought you might be interested.