Clasic Army MP5-A2 Tactical Forearm.

By Mark Jones (jonesey2k)



Overview



After playing airsoft games with my friends using spring pistols, one of them decided to aquire an AEG. It was a Marui MP5-SD5 and he proceeded to own us all. Enough is enough I thought to myself, I had to have an AEG. But what one? There are hundreds out there, some good, some bad. After much research I finaly decided to go for a Marui MP5A5. But then I found the Classic Army MP5A2!! This was a full metal gun with uprated inernals out of the box! I was sold.



First Impressions







I took the day off College so I could take delivery. I couldnt help grinning when I saw the white Transit pull up outside. When I removed the cover my first thought was "Wow! they wernt joking!" As I picked it up I couldnt beleive how solid it felt, but one would expect that from a metal body. It was also very heavy, much more meaty then the Marui version. The box was a large molded polystyrene base with a cardboard top. Included was a manual, CA products catalogue, a cleaning/unjaming rod and a different type of Flash hider. The tactical lamp uses a Surefire 6v bulb, but I was stuck for what batteries to use? I eventualy used the ones out of my Nikon F60 camera. The lamp is very powerfull.



Range & Accuracy & Power



After the battery was fully charged up I then went outside into the garden to see how she shoots. It fired the .20g bb's in a downward curve but a quick ajustment of the hop-up resulted in the bbs flying in a very straight trajectory and only droping off after about 170 feet or so. The acuracy from the gun is very impressive for a gun with such a short barrel. It is comparable to my webley longbow at short range and I could consistantly hit a head sized target form medium to long range. A few flyers were experienced due to wind blowing them off course. The gun has a very impressive rate of fire, thanks to the reinforced Version 2 gearbox and Eg1000 motor. I would say about 800rpm as it can empty a 100round standard mag in a matter of seconds. This gun is also very powerfull! I know becuase it hurts A LOT more then a .5j spring pistol! I havent got a chrono but using the poor mans chrono (coke can) I could see the power. 1 shot would rip right through the can form a few feet away! You could cut it in half on full auto! This was done using a large 2100mah 8.4v battery. I found that becuase other players know that your gun is uprated then you only have to raise your gun to make them duck for cover!



Detail & Build Quality







I've heard that the older Clasic Army's had a very poor finish but this new model is right up there with Marui and ICS. There is absolutly NO body flex but the forearm had a slight creek to it: fixed with electrical tape. The detail is such that it could class as a real-steel replica, not an airsoft gun. I couldnt find any trademarks on the gun but there was the serial number stamped onto the top of the reciever and the caliber stamped onto the mag well. There is no unrealistic "Made in japan" or other wierd characters on the gun. One of the advantages of having a full metal body is the noise it makes: slap in a mag hard and the sound it emits makes you smile. Even better is the "HK Slap" that a lot of people like doing, sounds great! The cocking tube is very hefty and the cocking lever looks to be of good quality. There is one major flaw of this gun: the weight. Although it is very well ballanced, your arms will soon start hurting after youve been running around with it for a few hours. A sling is recomended. One thing that sets this gun apart from the rest of the ICS and Marui MP5's is the use of the old A2 "SEF" trigger unit. I find this to be a lot more comfortable to use as it has funger and thumb groves. Also looks better in my opinion. The Surefire lamp is activated buy a presure pad that runs the whole length of the foregrip. It is very powerfull for its size and makes dusk/night battles very cool. The camera batterys will give you about an hour of hard use.



Overall.



Overall, this is one fine piece of hardware. Anybody who has some extra cash and looking for an AEG should consider this weapon. Past-Quality issues aside, CA have produced a very competitive product. The shear quality and attention to detail, right down to the fake welding on the reciever, is amazing. Value for money wise, this is also a good purchase: I paid £240 for the gun. If you wanted to convert a marui to metal body and have better internals, it would cost you a lot more. This gun comes very highly rated and I would give it a score of 9/10 becuase of its weight. I plan to fit a Clasic Army 1x40mm red dot in the near future.





*update* something got stuck in the hop up system causing the bbs to fly right. The complete take-down took less then 15 minutes.