| Review: Dboys Full Metal M4A1 Author: Zachattack Table of contents Real steel history Ordering First Impressions Feel Accessories Performance Externals Internals Pictures with my jg guns Pros and cons Conclusion Real steel history The M4 is a shortened version of the M16A2. According to different sources it is between 80-85% interchangeable with the M16A2. The only diffrences in the M16A2 and the M4 is the barrel length and the stock is adjustable. In the US military it replaced the M9 pistol, the M3A1 smg, and a few M16A2's. At first it seemed like the perfect weapon, but it has it's problems. Due to the 5.56mm round and the shortened barrel it muzzle velocity is lower than the m16's and it's range is decreased by a significant amount. The differences between the M4 and the M4A1 are these. The M4 has a semi and three round burst option, while the m4a1 has a semi and a full auto option. And the M4 has a fixed carry handle while the M4A1 has a removable one. Sites used to research the real steel article are www.baseops.net www.world.guns.ru Ordering I ordered this gun from pointact.com. I ordered it on a Monday night and had it Thursday afternoon. I would recommend pointact to anyone. I've ordered from them twice and they have exceptional CS. The reason I got this gun was because I wanted the metal body from it for my m16 and this seemed like the best way to get it. Shipping for this item will be around $11.50 to the lower 48 states. First Impressions I opened up the package and the box had no plastic wrap on it, but it had two thick plastic straps around it. I cut those and pulled the cover off. Everything was shuffled around in the box. No big worries. I actually sort of expected that. When I picked up the gun it was, as expected, heavier than a plastic body m4. It's about as heavy as my jg m16. Feel This guns feel is awesome. The cold metal touching your hand along with the dboys nylon is a great feeling. The gun is weighted correctly and doesn't feel lopsided either frontwards or backwards while carrying it. This gun is as solid as a rock. Next to my jg m733 this gun feels a lot nicer. The metal seems to be of decent (good clone quality) quality on this gun. Accessories It comes with a standard wall charger, a battery, allen wrench, philips screwdriver, small bag of bb's, a 3 point sling, that feels to be of very good quality, unjamming rod, and of course the gun. The only thing that really can be put on this m4, as it is, is a scope or rds. Performance This gun is a great performer. I would recommend it for a beginner. Stock it is very accurate, and the fps is in the low 300's. (Not chronoed, but it goes through one side of a coke can) Not too much for a beginner. At 120ft measured I can hit a tree, that's about 3/4 the width of a man, nine times out of ten. One of this guns plusses is that it is very quiet, which I like a lot. It is the quietest clone that I've heard. It's not as quiet or as smooth sounding as a TM, but it definitely not a gun that sounds like it is under a lot of stress. It's rate of fire seems a little slower than other clones. I've heard this was caused by the motor. I haven't tested though. Externals The externals of this gun are really good. Everything but the handgrips, pistol grip, and sliding stock is metal. Those parts are made out of dboys nylon that feels really nice. I prefer it to abs plastic. The outer barrel is a one piece, so that's a nice bonus. I couldn't get the barrel to shorten as the plastic body version can do though. A different person got theirs to shorten though so I must not have been twisting it hard enough. The flash hider is painted orange and is a 14mm CCW. The metal on the gun is fairly good. I've heard reports that it's pot metal, but it doesn't seem like it to me. Mine doesn't nick or scratch that easily. I would definitely recommend it above a plastic body. One of it's bad parts is that the magwell is a little too big. The mag it comes with is a little loose and my jg mags don't even work in it. However I put some one sided stick felt pads (skinniest ones I could find) in there and now the mag doesn't rattle around, but I still can't get my jg mags to work. They won't clip into place. Edit 9/22/07 The front pin that holds the upper receiver to the lower receiver is really tight on a lot of dboys metal body guns from what I've heard. Mine was this way so I took a look at the problem. The problem isn't the pin being to big or the holes it goes into being too small. The problem is that the lower receiver holes aren't lined up correctly. This makes the bolt have to go in a little bit sideways. The was to fix it is just to dremel a little bit off of the top of one side and a little bit off of the bottom of the other side. Edit 8/31/07 I found out the reason why jg mags don't work. The little plastic piece that holds the bb's from squirting out is a little too long. If you shave a little bit off it can still hold the bb's in and work in this gun. Another problem with this gun is that the top rail is too skinny. It won't let a rail mount mount properly. Internals First the hop up. The hop up is a one piece metal hop up that is really consistent. Very few shots are fliers compared to my jg's hop up which sends one crazy about one in every ten shots. The stock hop up rubber could use replacing though. It's too hard to be really effective. The inner barrel is a brass barrel. It looks to be decent. At least it's not aluminum. The gearbox shell is a reinforced one, and the gears are standard xyt gears. The spring guide is plastic with a metal base. The piston looks like a reinforced one, while the piston head looks like a normal ported acm one. It has 6 holes. The cylinder is a type 0 cylinder and the compression was horrible until I changed the o ring on the piston head to a new #14 o ring. After that the compression was great. I didn't put any teflon tape on the cylinder head. That had a good seal. The tappet plate's plastic is of high quality. It seems like it could stand a lot of bending before it would break. Air nozzle I've never seen a clear gray one before. Kind of odd. The cyma ones are/were clear, but not a see through color. The shimming wasn't very good. Just one shim on each side of every gear. This let the gears spin fairly well though, so if you don't know how to open up a gearbox it isn't totally necessary to re-shim it. The wiring doesn't look the greatest either. It looks like 18 awg. A little small imho. It has a fuse that is strapped to the outer barrel under the foregrip. I read a review that said the wiring looked bad, but in reality it was ok and the motor just wasn’t good enough to give it a good rate of fire. The gearbox has very little grease in it. If you get this gun and can work on gearboxes a regrease, shim job, and a new o ring are the best things you can do. Pictures of it with my jg guns Dboys in the middle. Jg guns on top and bottom of it. Pros Full metal Metal hop up that's consistent 7mm reinforced gearbox shell Brass inner barrel Great stock accuracy Quiet for a clone Price Cons Upper and lower reciever have a very little space in between them Stock wobbles a little bit Magwell is a little too big and mags rattle around in there. My jg mags don't even work in it. Shimming could be better Conclusion In conclusion this is a very good gun for the price. It is just an outstanding clone. For just $130 you get a full metal gun that is very accurate. It's fps isn't to high to use for cqb and it's not so low it can't be used for woodland. There is nothing on this gun that needs immediate attention which makes it a good gun for beginners. But of course like all clones there are things you can do to make it better. |
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