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Meatball's Featured Reviews |
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Airsoft Core |
By Meatball
Published: December 6, 2003
Updated: October 10, 2008
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Note: I'm not a photographer, so some of the pictures are a little fuzzy from me slightly moving the camera. Please bare with me, and hopefully I can replace those pictures with better ones later.
Real Steel
The M16a2 is the current standard issue weapon of the United States Military. The M16 has been in the united states military since the Vietnam war when they have the M16a1, which was semi and fully automatic. Today's M16a2 offers the 3-round burst option and semi-automatic option. The ROF is 800 rounds per minute (technically, but never gets up to that fast due to only 3 round burst option, and changing magazines). The M16a2 has quite a bit of improvements over the M16a1. Included are the three round burst, which allows for better accuracy, and less ammo usage. A round handguard design, making it more comfortable. A modified reciever, which prevents ejected shells from hitting left handed operators. This is among other improvements... This gun has a maximum range of 800 meters, or 2,624 feet, and has a 975 meters per second muzzle velocity. The gun is produce by Colt Manufacturing and Fabrique Nationale Manufacturing Inc.
First Impressions
Well I got the gun in a huge box, which was a little intimidating, but there was not a problem since after getting it out of the box, I realized it was not too large to handle. I was able to manuever it around corners and such (outdoors) but it was too large to do anything in CQB. I mean of course you can move around, but in a skirmish it just gets too messy... Well being my first AEG, I was overwhelmed by the high quality plastic it was made of. I was half expecting the springer type plastic I had experienced with my HFC XM-177. But instead I saw the very hard, and apparently durable plastic this gun (and all Marui guns) are equipped with. After looking over the gun quickly, I notciced the tape over the trademarks, and decided it was time for them to go... Sadly, the rims of the tape could not come off, and to this day are still present.
You can see the close up of the trademarks as well as the white tape surrounding them, that I was unable to remove
The next thing I decided to play with was the "T" charging handle, which I knew from my research would release the dust cover, revealing the hop-up. Well unfortunately when I recieved my gun, my battery and ammo was not in yet, so this was going to have to be the my main source of entertainment for the next couple of days. It did well, it was very fun hearing the slick noise of the charging handle, and the dust cover slapping down. Only problem was I was kind of wearing down the dust cover, so now it is a little more difficult to close it, since it began to wear down the plastic holding it in. The dust cover reveals a black cover/slide, which will slide back when the charging handle is back revealing the hop-up. This is quite a pain since in order to adjust the hop-up you have to hold the handle back. The hop-up is a series of little plastic sprockets (black). You can the main one, which will start the series of turning, which results in the lowering or raising of the hop-up bucking inside the barrel. This affects the back spin on the BB, and you can adjust it to go higher, or lower. The idea is to have the BB going as straight as possible. I did this with little difficulty, it was very easy to operate, and coming up on a year of owning the gun, I have yet to have a problem with the hop-up moving itself around.
Sorry for the poor picture, but above you can see the dust cover down, the black slide pulled back, and the main sprocket in the hop up. (silver thing)
My next focus was on the sights. They were rather interesting. You could rotate the horizontal cylinder underneath the rear sight, and it will raise and lower it. Rotating the veritcle knob will adjust it horizontally, moving it to the left and right. Very simple, and can be done in the battle. However in my experiences with the gun in skirmishes, the sights are rarely used. In part because it takes too long, and you can easily point the gun and adjust the shots depending on where you miss, and also because the mask makes it difficult to aim. The sights do prove to be very useful for target shooting, and around the house plinking. They are very accurate, and when adjusted correctly, the BB will land with in the sights every single time. In addition to the rear sight, you may also adjust the front sight with a knob that is provided. You can only lower or raise it. The sight rotating knobs do have markings on them, and if you prefer you can make them so you can easily re adjust them if someone messes them up, same can be done with the hop-up.
As you can see in the above picture, the lower, horizontal knob with adjust the rear sight vertically. The higer, vertical knob will adjust it horizontally.
Now thats enough about adjusting the sights, what about aiming with them? Well The M16a2 comes with two options for sights, one is the assualt sight, the other is the sniper, or sharpshooting sight. The assault site is a large hole as a sight, that you look down, align with the front sight to aim. To access the sharpshooting sight, you simply flip the assualt sight down, which turns the next sight up. Easy, simple, and easily done in the field. The sharpshooting sight is much smaller, and allows for more accurate firing. But the disadvantage is it takes a second to focus with the sight, and aim. So if you are under fire, or need to aim quickly, this is not a good option.
Above is a picture of the assault sight, looking down the barrel to the front sight.
My next thought was about my bayonet, from my first airsoft gun every, the G3a3. The bayonet came for free, so I figured I'd check to see if it worked on my M16, since I had it laying around. I was very pleased to find out it did fit perfectly, and was a very fun accessory for looks, and fooling around the house. Of course it is just plastic, but it looks very realistic, and was the most valuable part of that G3a3.
Sorry for the fuzzy picture, but that is where the bayonet hooks up. Right below the barrel at the end of the gun.
My final "first" impression was on how to take the gun apart... Of course I was not going to completely take the gun down when it was not only brand new, but my first AEG, but I did the next best thing and found out how to take it down  As far as I was willing to go at first was to remove the handguards, yeah I know, really daring. Well I took apart the handguards, which was pretty fun...
Well there you go... Sorry for the bluriness.
My Second Impressions (week to a month later)
Well next I decided that I NEEDED a sling to help hold the gun. It is a fairly heavy gun at 3.1 kg which is about 6.8 pounds. Thats a lot for a gun and really tires you out when carrying it around during an entire battle. You get used to it pretty fast thought, but the strap is still very useful and safe for your gun. In the snow battles I took it in, and the muddy battles, it was essential since I could hold it on my shoulder while reloading magazines, and doing whatever. This makes it very convenient. This was not a problem installing a sling, rather than buy a $30 sling from the internet, I went to Wal-Mart and put out $5 to get a nice padded sling, that works like a charm. The M16 comes with two sturdy sling swivels, which allows easy installation, and never a worry of it breaking. This was impressive to me since I had seen the STTI G3a3 sling swivels break (then the G3 fell to the ground breaking in half) and the HFC M16a2 sling swivels break. So I was happy about that.
 
There you go, the left picture is the swivel held below the stock, and the picture on the right shows the front sling swivel below the outter barrel.
The next thing I noticed was the battery (when it came) was a challenge to get into the stock. Then I realized that the battery was supposed to go in, BEFORE I plugged it in. Stupid me, I plugged it in before trying to put it into the stock. Well the battery was easy to get in after that dilemma, and fit in there rather nicely with no movement in the battle field. The battery lasts quite long, but I will probably get a back up just so I don't have to worry about it dieing. It has happened at the end of some winter games (doesn't last as long in the winter) and I'm using a Sanyo 8.4 volt 1300 mAh battery. The battery goes in the end of the stock inside the completely metal butt plate. The hatch on the end opens, you put the battery in, and it closes securely.
My first problem was encountered about a month after the initial purchase... I was pulling my gun out of the carrying case when I realized the whole front barrel (from the reciever down shifted up and down. This was truly a problem, I could litterally shift the front of my gun up or down a signifficant amount, by applying next to no pressure! I went straight to forums, asking what was going on... I found out that it was a simple problem... I just twisted the handguard ring, and it tightened everything right up, and that problem was gone. It seems to occur every month or so, and I just simply twist that cap once, and its as good as new. That simple, so don't let people make a big deal of it. If you look at this picture you'll see the handguard ring in the upper right corner. That is the ring that connects the main body (reciever) to the handguards.
Another thing that began to bother me while messing around the house with the rifle, was handguard wobble. They do slightly wobble, when being handled and most likely it will bother you at first, since it slightly takes away the sturdy feel. Not to worry though it is not bad, you NEVER feel it during a skirmish, and after a month or two of worrying it, I began to completely ignore it. So it really is nothing special, and not a big deal at all.
Performance
Note: Through this I will be providing random pictures just to keep you occupied, they mean nothing to what I'm talking about.
After a couple of days of having the gun, I got in my battery, charger, discharger, ammo, and hi-cap from a different retailer, and prepared it fire. I made another newbie mistake by trying to plug the large battery end into the mini battery adapter for the charger (more of a half sleeping mistake than a newbie mistake). Well I charged it about half way and couldn't wait any longer, I pulled it out hooked it up, loaded both my magazines, grabbed an empty coke can, and went outside.
Semi-Automatic
Very impressive! I of course started on semi-automatic, and was kind of intimidated by the full auto from such a big gun, considering I had been playing with springers for nearly a year. The sound was kind of disappointing, it felt like the motor was holding back at first (which I guess it was) but it was not a big deal, and I overcame it with in a few shots. I believe it was test fired before being shipped to me, so the hop-up and sights were already perfect. I put the can about 50 feet away, and just began shooting away, hitting it almost every single time. On Semi the gun is very consistent, the BB's falling behind one another almost single file on a clear day. In battle it proves to be both useful, and conserves a great amount of ammo. I don't use it too much in battle though
Full Automatic
VERY VERY impressive. When first letting her loose on full auto I was shocked. They came streaming out at an amazing rate, and with a great sound coming from the gun. After awhile you can smell the motor running, and the pistol grip gets hot (motors in there). Perhaps the most impressive thing was the accuracy. Full-auto was barely less accurate then semi-automatic, and in battle it proved a lot better with hitting a target. When shooting the can, I could litterally aim from 50 feet, and move the can 5 feet any way I wished with full-auto. It packed such a constant punch with a full auto burst, you can easily blow a can away. Another fun thing to do with full auto is full auto into a pond, river, poll, swamp, etc. Ahh.. the thrill of the water flying everywhere.
Battle Capabilities
The M16a2 proved to be very impressive in the field, even at only stock power the gun could shoot at a effective range of 120 feet, and easily pin someone down from quite a distance away. The best part of the gun performance wise was the long barrel. After using my gun for awhile, then using a friends SR-16, I was shocked to see the difference in range. The M16 shot the BB's much straighter, and they stayed in a straight line much longer the the SR-16 or the M1a1 Thompson I used later on. This made me very satisfied with my choice to get the longer barrel. Of course you can add silencers, upgrades, etc. to compensate for that, but that would cost at least $100.
Manueverability also was better then I had thought. People make this gun out to be a big monster, just waiting to screw you up in battle, but really its not that big. It is a full size rifle, and will not work as well in CQB, but I did not have a problem manuevering it in the outdoor playing fields. This I figured would be the case, since the US Army would not have this as their standard issue if it was that difficult to move with. I also have been getting better and better with it, the longer I have owned it.
Accessories
The M16a2 offers a large amount of accessories, probably second only to the M4's. The reason being they're such popular guns, and there for companies like to produce more accessories for them, to make more money. That's simple enough... Also because in their real steel versions they have a lot of accessories. Some accessories for the M16a2 are the M203 grenade launcher. This basically adds a shotgun to the end of your M16, and makes it look awesome, and can be very useful in a heated skirmish. There are also plenty of scopes, and mounts available for the M16a2. It does not have a built in mount, but you can easily buy a plastic mount for $10-15. There are also plenty of Bi-pods, flash lights, and lasers available, not to mention parts options such as the full-metal body, real steel handguards, and sniper stock. You can really do a lot of things to this gun to make it unique.
Also included in the accessoris is the wide range of magazine options. There are currently 6 styles of hi-caps:
- Standard Bannana Hi-cap (300 rounds)
- Vietnam style Hi-cap (190 rounds)
- Thermold magazine (350 rounds)
- TOP Drum magazine (1000 rounds)
- W-mag, electric magazine (600 rounds)
- DTP Motor Driven C-Magazine (guess: 2000 rounds)
And two styles of standards:
- Standard 68 round, comes with gun
- G&P M-mag, holds 130 rounds with same function as regular standards.
Why I purchased it? Do I like my decisions?
I'll go right throught my desision making process... The first gun I wanted was the M4a1. It was small, looked awesome, and was available everywhere. After awhile I began not to like it because of the fact it was front heavy with the battery up there, and that it had a mini battery. A after thought was the short barrel. My next thought was the G3-sg1. A local store was selling it, so that got my attention, and I fell in love with the unique look, long barrel, large magazine, bipod option, and the fact it was a sniper rifle that could act as a assault rifle. To this day I still like the gun, but not what I went with.
My final thought, and eventual decision was the M16a2. Great looks, US standard issue, it had the "cool" factor going, I could show it off better, more options with accessories, long barrel, eg1000 motor, large battery, and cheaper price tag. I could not ask for more, and I had my decision made. I am very glad I decided to get a gun with a large battery, and a long barrel. The other reasons aren't as important, and wore off over time, but I am still very glad at my decision, and would make the same one today.
Summary
I am very glad I got this gun, it was worth every penny of the $235 I payed for it, and I would have trouble selling it since I like it so much. The gun has great capabilities to be upgraded, and accessorize, which I hope to take advantage of one of these days.
Pros:
- Long barrel
- Large battery
- Tons of accessory options
- Great looks and a lot of the "cool" factor going
- EG1000 motor
- Low price in comparison
- Easily can be upgraded with common gearbox, EG1000 motor, and large battery compartment.
- A lot of magazine options including the G&P M-mag.
Cons:
- Large and heavy gun
- Handguard wobble
- Barrel wobble (easily fixed)
- Meatball
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