Airsoft Core |
By Tony
Published: December 3, 2003
Updated: October 10, 2008
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When I started with Airsoft in my early teens, the world was a very different place from what it is today. In-fact, the whole world of Airsoft was different. The most complicated Airsoft guns were those that took a small gas cylinder within the grip and actually had a blowback, albeit a weak one.
After I graduated from high school, I immediately enlisted in the Navy and things became interesting, but I also lost track of Airsoft for a while.
After getting back into airsoft, I came upon some previews of Tokyo Marui's M4-A1. Now, being someone who had served in the military, I was pretty familiar with most issued weapons. When I saw the M4-A1 in that specific review, I wasn't completely thrilled. First off, the weapon depicted by the model being reviewed was not an M4-A1 at all, but was instead a regular M4. Nevertheless, I was intrigued. I heard, however of the M4-RIS (a close replica of the real M4-A1) but was not excited with the battery options. So, I purchased the M4 since I wanted to upgrade, as usual, and knew I was going to need larger batteries.
As soon as the box arrived, I couldn't wait too long to open the package and map-out my upgrade plan. I originally intended to use it for skirmishing, so my upgrade plans had to take that as a major consideration. Later on, however, I acquired a Tokyo Marui MP5-SD6, and I came to the decision to turn the M4 into a project gun for plinking and target practice. I wanted the gun to have major power and that meant major upgrades. With the upgrades I had planned, however, came the requisite risk of damage to the AEG, so I had better do it right. I had decided to shoot for over 500 fps. So I purchased a reinforced gearbox, Super Torque-Up Helical gears, a 6.04 BS inner barrel, an M160 spring, a polycarbonate piston, a bore-up cylinder set, a reinforced spring guide with bearing, and an Ultra Torque-Up motor, all from Systema. I also purchased three 12V batteries to take care of the power requirements.
Now some people would say I should have gone ahead and upgraded the body as well, but I wasn't worried about that. My first priority was getting the gearbox upgraded. After having made some considerations, however, I decided to replace the foregrip with a RIS foregrip and also purchase the recently released ICS AN/PEQ-2 battery holder (another review for another day). If you're interested in a review of this piece, I'm sure the review by DumboRAT would be an excellent reference.
After having upgraded the gearbox, I am happy to report that I reached my goals on this project. The gun is more than capable, at an estimated 550 fps. It actually embeds .25g BBs into trees and can decimate a soda can at 15 feet. It is also definitely capable of punching a hole through a can top. Again, I meant this to be a non-skirmish piece, so no need for anyone to worry. It will never see a field.
OK, so the internals are upgraded, and it's a pretty powerful gun (at least as far as airsoft is concerned), but what about accessories? I purchased two Marui Hi-Mount scope bases, one holding a Tasco Pro-Point 30mm red-dot scope, and the other holding a Tasco 3-9 X 40mm scope. I also purchased a 3-point sling, but prefer my Delta-ring rig. As for other enhancements, I replaced the grip with a Guarder enhanced grip with baseplate, which will soon be replaced with Carrot's TAC grip, which I think looks very much like the grips used on the Wilson Combat tactical rifles. In other words, I'm far from done with this gun, and I doubt I ever will be.
- Tony
http://www.masdevgrp.net/airsoft.asp?mode=airsoft&id=70
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