Airsoft "Chat"

Alright, this is the first of many posts from me talking about my airsoft arsenal. I plan on starting with the crap and working my way up to the good stuff. Plus, I have a special review for you guys later this week when it arrives....so stay tuned.

First up, the CYMA Chrome Pistol-Grip Shotgun!



These things SUCK. I must say, I'd be very angry if I actually paid money for these things. I have heard of people getting these or something similar to them from the internet or even Walmart for a whopping $10-$15....that's insane! I, fortunately, didn't fall victim to what may seem like a good deal. I got both of them for free from Kapowwe with my first airsoft order.

First of all, they are completely plastic. And it's not like the plastic you find on Tokyo Maruis or even on the stock of the CyberGun M1A1 Thompson, it's like the plastic that Gatorade bottles are made out of....it's like cow poo in a more solid form. I, luckily, haven't broken mine yet, mainly because I never use them. But, I have seen/heard reports of them breaking VERY easily, if not arriving broken. I seriously feel in danger of actually crushing them with my hand. Sad, right?. And then it's supposedly covered in a "chrome finish". Yea....Riiiiiight. It's more like a cheap chrome paint that feels like a baby's toy. It's disgraceful to the game of airsoft.

Now, you must be saying to yourself, "he can't just have bad things to say about this gun," but believe me, for the most part, I do.

The thing is loaded not from a magazine or shells, but through a hole at the top where you pour in BBs. It supposedly holds 150 BBs, I didn't test it, mainly because I never want to use one of these again. The pump action is pretty easy to use, but the scraping of plastic causes more resistance than the spring. It also screeches when you use the pump, so that you will want to rip off your ears to stop the pain. Then, the trigger feels like it's going to break off, and when it clicks, you'll swear that it had (and maybe it did). Once you cock the gun, you can repeat the pump action to feed another BB in, or two more, or however many you want. This causes the BBs to spray, like a real shotgun, but also causes the range to drop from 20 feet to 5 feet, so don't do it.

The performance is meh at best. Meh is buying a rifle from some chinese company that makes fairly good spring rifles that you can use as a side arm or whatever, and they actually cost over $20. This is below 'meh', this is 'pleh'. It doesn't shoot very far. You'd be hard pressed to hit something over 20 feet away without having to lob the BB. And, at that range, there's no way the BB would land anywhere near the target. I think muskets in the Ming Dynasty had better accuracy. You have to fire several BBs just to hit something with these shotguns. I missed a target that was about 15 feet away on a regular basis. But, I must admit, for a gun that's $10 (or free, in my case) this is to be expected.

It is fairly powerful for a cheapy cheap spring shotgun. I have no way of telling How powerful, but powerful enough to feel if you're a few feet away (still pretty sad). Don't expect to win any wars with it...or any backyard skirmishes.....or a fight with a sleeping cat, for that matter.

Really, I must say, the only thing this could possibly be good for is a couple of little kids who want to run around the backyard having a pretend war. It's not powerful enough to hurt them, and they're not smart enough to know the difference between CYMA and A&K. Otherwise, this gun serves no purpose whatsoever. When you get it, you may want to kill yourself, but then you'll realize that it's not even powerful enough to bruise your forearm....so you'll just have to settle with failing at life. In short....just don't get it. There are better ways to acquire a shotgun as you'll see in one of my later reviews.

Overall Score:
1/10
2/10 if you get one for free

Well, here is my second in a series of posts concerning my airsoft collection. This time....it's more crap.

CYMA P.618



These things, I must say......are not much better than the shotguns. The quality is a bit higher, but performance lacks even more. Another reason I'm glad they were free.

I got these two pistols from Kapowwe for free with one of my orders and I thought "Hey, cool, a couple free pistols to have as sidearms"....only if a side arm is as effective as throwing a cotton ball at someone. I shot my friend with one of these while his back was turned from about 4 feet away and I actually had to tell him that he had been shot....are these some sort of joke??

First off, they are quite small, especially since I have big hands, but this is most definitely due to the fact that they are based off of a real gun...I feel really bad for that gun. It comes with the gun, a clip that holds around 15 rounds off the top of my head, and a bag of BBs that is probably the worst quality I have ever seen. You can easily see where the injection happened in the mold and the line where the two halves of the mold were put together....it's disturbing.

My two guns also looked as if they had sat in the package for decades. The styrofoam from the box was stuck to the guns, so after too much effort trying to wash them, I finally got most of it off, though you can still see where the styrofoam was.

The build quality is lacking. The material is a much nicer plastic than the CYMA shotguns, but that's not saying much. Beyond the material quality, it drops off quite a bit. The molds are terrible, and the guns aren't put together very well. The two sides of the cocking slide on both of them are not lined up correctly and the sights are pointless because there's excess plastic stuck in them. This is a bad omen, seeing as the entire gun is plastic.

Speaking of build quality, let me say right now that neither of my guns work. One of them stopped working randomly. Upon pulling the slide back, nothing catches. So, it goes through the motions perfectly, except the spring is never locked back, meaning the gun can't be fired....and I'm not willing to spend time trying to fix it....it's just not worth it. The other one I dropped on a wooden floor and the cocking slide split in two and fell off. After this happened, I glued it back together and it worked fine. Now, it barely fires. The BBs go a maximum of 3 feet, a major drop in performance that wasn't there to begin with. It also doesn't feed correctly. Half the time, no BBs will be in the chamber. When a BB is finally fed into the chamber, it rolls out. Again, not worth the time to fix.

Performance wise....it sucks. Like I said, I shot my friend and he didn't feel it. So, it lacks in force, but what about range....what range? Back when I had one that worked, it shot only about 10 feet before the BB hit the ground. Now, if you're in CQB, this wouldn't be too bad....but only if it's EXTREMELY close quarters, and even then he won't know he's been hit anyway. If you intend to shoot at something that's 6 feet tall and 12 feet away, be prepared to lob the BB....a lot. Plus, it is a spring pistol, so you have to cock it again after every shot. Now, for most people, this isn't a problem, but the more you have to cock it, the better the chance you have of breaking it. Like I said....cotton balls would be more effective.

Really, there's no point to these things. They have terrible range, terrible power...and I won't even go into accuracy. The only point is that it's a pistol, and that's the only reason I still have them. You can run around, act like a 'gangsta' or draw it on your unsuspecting neighbor's girlfriend, I dunno....think of something, because it's not useful in airsoft. If you try to use it in battle, it will either not work, or plain old break on you. You'll be better off not having a side arm.

In short, don't buy it....the ones they sell at Walmart are better than these....unless you get these free, that's the best deal of all. The only reason I'm rating it so high is because it actually feels like it could be a quality gun....but how wrong you are....

Overall Rating:
2/10

Hehehehe, they do look rather small.


-Stormy

Stormleader wrote:

Hehehehe, they do look rather small.


-Stormy

They are very small. My hand dwarfs the stupid things.

Well, here is the next review. But first, I have a teaser of a review coming as soon as possible, plus Tim voted for a video, which may be in the works also. Teaser away!


(teaser changed so it doesn't give it away as much)

Any ideas as to what it is?....Tim....keep your mouth shut


For the scores on my actual airsoft guns, I will follow this format:

Overall Scores:
Price: Hows the price compared to what you get?
Quality: What's the quality material and build?
Performance: How well does the gun perform?
User Satisfaction: Most importantly, how does the user feel when using the gun?



Now, today's review.

The Matrix M14




Let me start off by saying that these guns are not terribly high quality, but that's because they are from Matrix and they cost $35 off of Evike. Not bad for a spring (yes, it's a spring rifle, hence you have to cock it every time) rifle. The reason I bought these is because it's the closest thing I could find that resembled an M1 Garand, that cost less than $50. Thanks to Tim for the help finding it.

The reason I have two is because my first one, the lower one in the picture (socom version), arrived broken. The spring that made the bolt return after cocking was broken. So, I sent it back for $50, more than the gun is worth, and they returned it to me saying that there was nothing wrong with it. So, after an email and phone call, they agreed to send me a replacement for free. Before the replacement arrived, I was able to mod the broken one so that it worked. The replacement happened to be the long barrel version, which is cool, so now I have one of each.

First off, the box includes the gun, some crappy BBs, a speed loader, and a tactical sail system which slides onto the front of the gun and then screws into the receiver. Very cool inclusion, if you're into more modern stuff you could find numerous stuff to attach to it. But, seeing as I was going for the M1 Garand look, I tried the rail system and then put it back in the box. The longer barrel version also came with a plastic sling that I put on my MP40 (review coming), and it immediately broke...never use the slings they include, unless they are high quality. You'll be lucky to avoid and accident. It also included a set of really cheap, plasticy goggles. They suck, I wouldn't be surprised if you could shoot a BB through them.

The gun itself is all ABS plastic, but it's a fairly high quality plastic. Although, the quality isn't overly amazing. The plastic is still a little sharp and feels kind of weak. Select parts such as the barrel, lower tactical rail, front sling mount, rear sights and bolt, are in fact metal. Which is nice to see that so much metal is included on a gun that's only $35. The removable rail system is plastic, however, and rather flimsy until attached to the gun. I also don't really trust the sling mounts, especially the plastic one in the back, it feels like it might break if strained too much. I'd be careful, it could break if dropped. The rest of the gun is all ABS plastic, like the stock, butt plate, magazine, front sights, rear sling mount and trigger/trigger guard.

You would think that the gun would be fairly light, but Matrix has come to save the day.......they added a big weight in the butt of the gun. I found this rather stupid. It adds, weight, but it makes the gun feel very unbalanced and it isn't noticeable when the gun is raised and pressed against your shoulder...so, nice try, but it would have been better had there been weights spread throughout the gun.

The gun is pretty fun. The cocking mechanism feels a bit stiff and seems like it might break the gun. It actually feels better on my modified gun, even though all I did was reattach the spring, it somehow feels smoother, whereas the other one feels rough. But, the sound the bolt makes when it returns is quite satisfying. The magazine is a little hard to get in, but you get used to it.

The accuracy I found to be a little lacking, but it is a cheap spring gun after all. However, I heard from Tim that his was quite accurate, which leads me to believe that there may be a few quality control problems with these guns. After setting the hop up, I experienced problems with the BBs spreading quite a bit and also lateral problems with the aiming, which leads me to believe the sights aren't entirely correct. But, no matter, it's still fun to shoot.

The power is what you'd expect from a cheap spring gun. It makes a pretty good sound, but I don't find it to be all that powerful. Nowhere near as good as my two AEGs. I have no way to chrono it, but I'd imagine it would be where you'd expect a spring rifle to be.

So, overall, it's a good gun for the money. Obviously, you can easily find AEG versions or GBB versions for more money. I know there are AEGs for around $150. But, if you're looking for something that's cheaper, this does just fine. Despite all it's cheapiness, it's still a good gun for the money.

Overall Scores:
Price: 8/10
Quality: 6/10
Performance: 6/10
User Satisfaction: 6/10

And as Ian said, I'd have to write a review of the Matrix SOCOM M14 that is almost the exact opposite...with a few exceptions.

The M14 I received has the exact opposite specs of Ian's - it shoots hard, accurate, and I love it.

I've only had the following problems with it -

When I received the gun, almost 2 years ago, the mock flash suppressor on the end of the barrel came fractured. At first I was moderately disappointed, but that was the first time a flash of a Garand came to mind when I look at the M14. So, using my sweet Dremel skillz I learned from modding LEGO, I spearated the suppressor and barrel, and then the thin strips of plastic from the orange tip. I then glued the orange tip back onto the gun, and wha-la! Good as new!

Then, a year later, the mag removal lever broke - but just in my luck, it broke about 2 millimeters from the bottom of the stock - leaving just enough for my finger to catch, and a silouette that looked even MORE like a Garand! Once again, disaster chose to reward me!

Last thing, the front sling mount broke on me. I use this as my main gun, though, in battles, so that doesn't matter to me much now.

The only thing I've found quite annoying is the magazine doesn't feed the last 3 or 4 rounds. So when you're out, you take out the magazine, and 3 BB's fall out. It's just a waste, haha, especially for a springer! Also, it's really hard to tell when the mag is full - I've overloaded it more than a couple of times. The last time, the mag started to split in half. So, I've put it back together, superglued the edges, and wrapped electrical tape around the whole thing. Works like magic now.

Otherwise I've had no other problems. I do concur with Ian though about the weight added to the gun - I'd like it better if it was distributed more evenly. But I've learned to deal with that.

Overall, it's really quite odd the difference between Ian's and my own gun. A large flex in quality, indeed. And also, my M14 doesn't have the lower rail that both of Ian's have.

Adrenaline wrote:

The only thing I've found quite annoying is the magazine doesn't feed the last 3 or 4 rounds. So when you're out, you take out the magazine, and 3 BB's fall out. It's just a waste, haha, especially for a springer!

Overall, it's really quite odd the difference between Ian's and my own gun. A large flex in quality, indeed. And also, my M14 doesn't have the lower rail that both of Ian's have.

Yea. My guess is that within the time that Tim and I purchased our guns, Matrix decided to change a few things. Obviously the sling mount/lower rail on mine versus Tim's without the rail. Also, mine seems to have fixed that feeding problem you just described as mine feeds every BB perfectly.

The only gun I have that has that same problem is my MP40, it doesn't shoot the last 2 BBs, which sucks considering it is an automatic with a low cap (50 round) magazine.

Ok, here, it's my turn!

Here's all three of my current airsoft guns:



Here's the first of the three, a random MP5:

This was purchased at a local store, and it's plain crap. The plastic is cheap, it's a springer, doesn't shoot very far, and is amazingly underpowered. I think I used it once. Ever.

With the mag in:


Overall score = 4/10.

Next, the Double Eagle G36C:


Now this was and is my one and only AEG. It's on the lower side of the scale, but it's ok. All plastic body, it's durable, moderately powerful, but not all that accurate. 9.6v battery, a moderate rate of power. An ok gun to keep someone on their feet, but no sniper. I got it for $50 from Kapowwe.

With the mags in:

I bought an extra mag because I ran out easy, and the mag was kinda difficult to refill. It's nice, they snap together on the side. I never have to fumble with pockets, it's always right there, easy reload. And those plastic bullets inside looks sweet.



It also has the foldable stock, just a nice feature put into a simple gun. I enjoy. I'd say overall score = 7/10.

The teaser looks to be a scope mounted onto a M249, which seems rather goofy to me.
UTG Shotgun

Mine came from Dick's and is actually the Remington model, which means that it comes with an M4 style stock and Hi-cap mag.

Power and accuracy is pretty good, although it doesn't have iron sights, it has the rail which means you can mount what ever you want on it.

It's not to flimsy, but it's not the strongest either, but most of that comes from the stock, the rest of the gun actually surprisingly sturdy!

Not much is metal, the mag tube (Where in the real gun the shells would go), the action bars, and that's about it. Like in the "Matrix" rifle it has a weight in the stock tube, but has one in the mag tube as well, which balances it out nicely.

The Hi-cap holds about 250 rounds, which should be enough, as this isn't a AEG spitting out 30RPS or something.

You can slam-fire it, but that will break it with enough of it, so slam-firing is not recommended.

You can take the rails off for a more classic 870 look. The stock also comes of with one screw, so you can use it as a secondary.

All in all not a bad gun for what they went for, something around $30-40.


-Stormy

Then, the pics of my painted Matrix M14.

Overall:


With the magazine:


The modded barrel and missing(?) rail/front sling mount:


The magazine release - actually only about 1 mm(!):

Now you just need a Mag that fits inside the gun....
Looks good!


-Stormy

Next teaser, this will make it quite obvious:



Review should be up hopefully by Monday, because I go back to school on Tuesday. I am going to try to make a video, but it may not be until after the review is posted. I plan on doing a quite in depth review of this gun.


But, for now, you have to settle for this:

TSD Shotgun




Let me start off by saying THIS GUN IS GREAT! And that's quite something seeing as it was only $35 off of Evike. It actually leaves a better impression on me than lots of other guns that exceed that price. This gun gives some of the really nice shotguns a run for their money.

First off, the box contains the gun, a speed loader, unjamming rod, 4 plastic shotgun shells (which are cool, but have very bad Chinglish on them "1x30 ROUNDS SHOOT-MAGZINE TYPED Always use the precision BB Bullet for this magzine typed shotgun" and yes, that's how they spelled magazine), and a plastic shell holder that clips onto the gun. I don't use the shell holder, because it holds the shells so securely that it rips the stickers off the sides of the shells. So, you'd be better off buying one of the fabric ones that straps on and uses elastic bands to hold the shells.

This gun is a lot of fun. It has a 4 point, retractable stock. I use it at the longest setting, because I have long arms. It has a safety located behind the trigger. And, it has a lever to open the door on the bottom. This is where the fun comes in. In this door is where you place the shells. Each shell holds 30 BBs...which I found impossible to believe, but it's actually true. I believe the BBs are spiral fed into the shell. So, you pop open the door, and stick in one shell, and close the door. Then, like any shotgun, you pump it, and fire. The pump feels GREAT. The spring inside is good and strong and when you pump the thing, it feels powerful. Note: THIS IS A SINGLE FIRE ONLY. They offer a three shot version, which is $60. You keep pumping and firing until the shell is empty. The shell is not ejected after every shot. Instead, it is manually ejected when you pull the lever to open the door on the bottom. Then, the shell falls out and you load the next one in. Great for hours of fun.

TSD is in charge of packaging and marketing for this product, and they are the ones who decided to include 4 shells with each one. That's right, 120 shots from this baby before you have to put more BBs in your shells. And, you can always buy more shells. This is great, considering low cap mags hold roughly the same amount of BBs, and they take up a lot more space. You could throw 10 shells into one pocket and you're good for 300 shots.

My one gripe about this gun is that sometimes the shells get stuck within the chamber. So, you open the door and they don't fall out. This isn't too bad, you're not in any danger, you can either pull the shell out, which is easy, or smack the top of the gun and usually it will fall out. I have, however, figured out that if you load the shell a certain way, it will always fall out. So, this is good. But, if you're in a skirmish, it may be a bit of a pain. You either spend time trying to load it the right way, or spend time trying to get the shell out.

Now, the build quality. It's great. The body is all ABS plastic, but it's very good plastic. It feels very sturdy in your hands and it's great to hold. It's pretty light, but somehow the weight feels good for this gun. It feels very maneuverable due to it's lighter weight. All of the plastic feels finely molded and it's very hard. The only metal parts I have found are the trigger, door, lever, and inner barrel. Also, the butt stock has a nice piece of rubber on it, making it very comfortable. There is a little jiggle in the front sling mount and the pump, but it's not very noticeable and the stock wobbles a bit, but that's because it's retractable. When it's against your shoulder, you won't notice.

The performance on this thing is amazing, especially on a cheap shotgun. It's extremely accurate, even though the sights are quite rudimentary, and it's very powerful. It has a slide hop-up on the side, which I was surprised by. I figured a cheap shotgun would have a fixed hop-up. So, once it's set, it has an amazing range. I shot things with ease that were 100 feet away. And it's powerful. I do not want to be shot by it. Evike says it shoots around 330-380 FPS with .20 gram BBs. I don't always trust what Evike says, usually the quality guns have a higher FPS than what Evike says and the crappy guns have a lower FPS than what Evike says, but I would not doubt that this thing shot around 350 FPS.

In conclusion, this gun is great. I would have liked to see more metal on it, but it's only $35, so what can I say? It's fun and it performs well. The reason I bought it is because I wanted a shotgun that used shells, and this thing does not disappoint. I have no need for a 3 shot shotgun, so this is perfect for me. I have fun just playing with it. The shell feature is very cool. Final verdict, if you want a shotgun, don't bother shelling out the dough for a Tokyo Marui...this thing is just as good for a fraction of the price.

Overall Scores:
Price: 9/10
Quality: 7/10
Performance: 8/10
User Satisfaction: 9/10


EDIT: I forgot to mention, you can slam fire this gun. I'm not sure it's good for the gun, but if you're in a tight spot, you are able to slam fire it if need be, which is pretty awesome.

Oooh, a Barret? Nifty!


-Stormy

'Cyma': CM .023



When you open the box you see 'Cyma's usual:

]Cheap 'safety'(not) glasses.
]Gun
]Red Dot Sight(Don't use, it's about 2 feet off 0.o)
]Sample BBs(Don't Use)
]Low Cap Mag
]Medium Cap Mag
]Battery
]Nylon Sling(Don't use)

As you can see all the extras are basically pieces of crap.


The plastic is alright for 'Cyma's standards. Comfortable to hold atleast. For some reason the metal parts are in the most useless areas. Including the unused cocking lever and fire selector.

The gun's accuracy is alright for the price, but don't expect to win against the guy with the Tokyo Mauri. The standard Banana Mag holds about 20 rounds, which will be out in 2 seconds on full auto. The hi-cap holds about 115 rounds. I've had some issues in semi-auto, but it can be overlooked.



This MP5 gets a nice 7/10 from me due to it's price. If you had the money though, I'd recommend the CM .027 more. It's basically a step up from this one.

http://www.airsofttitan.com/jgm16a1vstfu.html
JG M16a1 Medium Power Electric Gun


Externals=
Looks nice! The body is mostly ABS plastic but that are a few metal parts as well. Common on most MPEGs. The upper and lower receiver are NOT black as picture, but a dark grey color. Overall, besides some barrel wiggle it is an aesthetically pleasing gun. The A1 style carry handle is NON-removable. If you want to mount optics get the A4 version instead.

Internals=
It features a Type 3 Metal Gearbox and an 110 spring. It's muzzle velocity is about 370 FPS with .20 BBs. It's effectiveness range seems to be about 125 meters. It comes with a Vietnam style 190 round midcap magazine. It will also fit many other TM knockoff M4 magazines.

Overall-
This gun is pretty cheap sitting at about the $150 mark. It is a nice gun for midway shooting and "spray and pray" tactics. I'd give this gun a 8.5/10.

Meh, this place is dead so might as well write another review.



This shotgun is the Tri-Burst variant PuffDaddy Mentioned. This one fixes a few problems with the single shot. It Comes with the strap on shell holder that is fabric. It is also available in a multitude of flavors. Collapsible stock, reg stock, and no shock. Each version also has a short and long barrel version. Both the barrel and mock mag tube on bottom are metal. The adjustable stock tube is metal also. The rails and fully adjustable sights are too. The only thing BAD about the shotgun is the collapsible stock,It IS very wobbly when you get it and it turns. Easily fixed problem however. The tri-burst doesn't decrease accuracy, because each BB has it's own barrel inside the outer barrel. It runs about $55 and includes 4 shells.


For it's price I'd have to say I'd give it a 8.5/10