1.Initial impression
2. Externals
3. Internals
4.Other
5. Cons
6. Final impression
1.----------------Initial impressions------------
Today I’ll be reviewing the G&P WOC RAS M4 gasblowback rifle. This weapon is entirely based off of the Western Arms gas blowback M4 platform while being able to take higher powered propellants such as Propane and Green Gas straight out of the box! This offering from G&P comes ready to rock with high quality, factory upgraded internals from G&P topped off with detailed externals that will put VFC owners in amazement.
I purchased my weapon off of Tokyo-Model company through a wholesale distributor who had it drop-shipped to me for the amazing price of 510 dollars shipped. Normally this rifle will be found overseas at places like WGCshop and Redwolfairsoft for 540 dollars without shipping. The boxing used was the usual to be expected from G&P, a brown cardboard box with G&P technologies stamped on the top of it. Non-chalant and simple.
Upon taking off the top to the box, you are greeted with the sight of your new found love. Included is 2 rail covers and a vertical foregrip. The vertical foregrip is made of a durable plastic that feel great to the touch.
2.------------------Externals ------------------
Upon picking this rifle up you will be greeted with the awesome fit and sturdy feel that is to be expected of such a high quality replica.
At the end of the 10.5” outer barrel stands an M4 flash hider with QD suppressor attachment point. The barrel is contructed of aluminum and is threaded CLOCK-WISE! Yes, the death of all of us. A clockwise threaded barrel. Thanks a lot G&P! The front sight post is held in place by a replica gas tube that runs from the receiver through the RAS to the sight post.
The included Knights Armament free floating RAS unit is constructed of 6061 CNC’d aluminum. It’s a high grade piece with authentic Knights Armement logos etched into the top portions of the rail. The delta ring and free float collar are held in place VERY TIGHT with extremely strong thread lock. I don’t think I can emphasize enough, be prepared to give it some muscle if you plan on swapping out rail systems.
Moving onto the receiver area, you can see where G&P has really gone into detail with this piece. Deep Laser etched trademarks, zero play between the receivers (a common problem on the lower quality replicas and even in real steel) and the finish is evenly applied without leaving blotch marks or scratches. The deep laser etched “United States special forces” trademarks found on the left side of the receiver are fake although they give the weapon a nice touch of authenticity. On the right side there seems to be scripture of some sorts with “Stay back 100 meters or you will be shot” translated underneath it. The fire selector is held in place tight and requires a good flick of the thumb to get it to move around un-like most AEG’s. The magazine has very little play in the magazine well and locks in extremely tight.
The included 6 position LE style stock is made of a very high quality nylon fiber that feels awesome to shoulder. I don’t know why, but my model did have some wobble to the mil-spec buffer tube. Again, the castle nut that holds the buffer tube in place is screwed on there TIGHT and sealed up with tough loctite so it’s not coming off without a large amount of force.
The plastic used on the stock, vertical foregrip, rail covers and pistol grip feels much like that on a real steel Daniel Defense AR-15, it’s a nice matte black and provides a good grip and is very strudy. The seams are very well sanded and are not noticeable to any degree.
The weapon takes down identically to a real steel AR-15. Pop out the back receiver takedown pin and the rifle hinges open to allow you to pull out the bolt carrier grouping and charging handle.
3.------------------ Internals ------------------
Due to the nature of how the gas blowback system works in this weapon there are certain “disposable” parts which can include but are not limited to- The bolt catch, hopup rubber, the recoil buffer springs and nozzle on the bolt carrier grouping. All of the aforementioned are meant to absorb the impact of the bolt slamming back and forth and take much of the stress off of the other parts.
(Pictured is the bolt carrier grouping, recoil buffer, recoil spring and charging handle)
Performance wise the WOC does not let down. The hopup unit is G&P’s aluminum machined form of Western Arms “Bulls eye” style system. It features a unique Western Arms/G&P specific hopup bucking so your VSR and AEG buckings you have laying around your work bench will not fit. I was accurately popping heads at 170 feet with Bioval BBBMax’s at the past skirmish I used my WOC in. Of a 5 shot grouping at 50 feet with my aimpoint sighted in, from a shouldered stance I was getting quarter sized groupings with a 2 second delay between shots. Very impressive! Shouldered stance with iron sights and same shooting conditions I was still getting 5 inch groupings with 1 flier (I’ll equate that to my shooting technique). The hopup unit can be accessed underneath your rail system or handguards to tweak the optimum hopup flight to BB weight. Disassembling the unit is tricky and requires you to take off your rail or handguard and slide out everything from the aluminum barrel covering. I would not recommend doing this if your in-experianced with mechanical work, especially on hopup units.
The recoil is more then satisfying on the WOC. As the bolt flies backward you hear the buffer tube recoil spring “twang” and the rifle jolts back into your shoulder. The kick is comparable to a .22 rifle and on fully automatic you can witness the muzzle rise and recoil taking effect. I’ve had more fun using this rifle to skirmish with then any other weapon I have ever owned. It is extremely fun to have the rifle jolt backwards as you unleash a magazine in fully automatic and it sure turns heads.
Bolt locked back:
My gun was clocked in around 382-390 FPS on a .25g BB with a shortened inner barrel, it reaches out to around 270mm’s and is found in every one of the WOC’s to put a limit on the potential for FPS. With a tighter barrel or even longer barrel, I could easily see these going beyond 500 FPS which would make them a perfect candidate for an SPR or DMR styled weapon.
The rate of fire was measured around 14-16 rounds per second. This means that you will be emptying your 50 round magazine right around 3.5 seconds in theory. However, this is not usually the case. Unless you are in optimal conditions for a gas blowback rifle you will rarely fire a full magazine on one magazine dump in fully automatic. Short bursts of 3-10 rounds works the best to conserve the limited ammo capacity and to maximize your gas effeciency. With short bursts and semi-auto mingled in on a full gas charge the bolt has always locked back after the 50 rounds are dispensed.
The recoil, noise of bolt charging shot after shot and loud reports leads to an intimidating weapon that is TONS of fun to skirmish or plink with.
The gun comes very dry of any lubricant from the factory with the exception to the trigger parts. I would highly recommend taking your rifle down and giving everything a good spray down with silicone lubricant to ensure proper functioning.
1,500 rounds later, here's the lower assembly, looks good as new!:
The bolt carrier grouping is made of cast aluminum, the nozzle fits in the bolt carrier grouping perfectly. It is machined to replicate the looks of a real steel M4 bolt.
After 1,500 rounds on propane and lubricant this is the wear that is to be expected on your bolt carrier grouping:
The nozzle is made of a durable plastic, but after the estimated 1,500 rounds I have shot through mine I am starting to see wear develop on the actual nozzle head itself. This is a commonly known stress point in the weapon and replacement nozzles are fairly in-expensive at 20 dollars a piece from RA-tech and 60 for the full Airsoft Surgeon set.
To have the weapon firing you need to charge the magazine with your form of compressed propellant, weather it bet Propane, 134A/Duster gas or Green Gas. I am using Propane due to cost. It also runs much cleaner then green gas, GG sprays silicone lubricant all over the weapon shot after shot. This is good if your cleaning it but after 100 rounds it becomes more of a trouble to clean out the grime it attracts. After charging the magazine with propellant you insert the magazine through the magazine well and release the bolt, letting it slam forward and chamber a BB. Switch the fire selector to your preferred mode of operating and let loose.
4.------------------Other ------------------
It seems that the gas blowback trend is really starting to catch on in airsoft. With the recent release of the AGM, WE, WA and of course G&P rifles there are many options to choose from with the G&P coming out on top for overall quality for the price paid, in my opinion. The WE system is completely different, the AGM is the lower priced alternative much like a JG or Echo would be in the AEG world and the WA is meant for 134A/Duster gas use. If you do not use propane in a WA gas blowback rifle it will last for a VERY long time and shoot extremely well, the problem is that here in the western world we like to push things to the limit and have our guns shooting harder then most.
The largest dissapointment to me about the rifle is the lack of affordable, good quality magazines. Coming in around 60 dollars for Bomber magazines and 100 for Western Arms “super” grade magazines you need to consider how much you really want to spend to make this a skirmishable rifle.
WA "super grade" magazine with G&P seals, comes with every G&P rifle:
The WA system has attracted attention from many aftermarket parts manufacturers like RA-tech, Prime, Pro-Win, GHK and others to come! This means that most all parts of the rifle can be purchased seperately if anything does happen to go wrong or if your looking for a better performing rifle or a harder recoiling rifle it can be done.
I view the WOC as a gun that you will bring out to skirmish often, plink with and have fun modding and tweaking. Although I could not envision having the WOC as a primary skirmish rifle unless you were willing to spend lots of money on aftermarket replacement parts and magazines or have the desire to be hardcore milsim.
5.------------------Cons ------------------
As cool as I think it is, the recoil can be seen as “gimmicky” to other players since it serves no purpose other then entertainment and the low, 50 round magazine capacity is a large turn off to players used to box magazines and high caps. I see this weapon being more then formadible in a CQB or midcap only situation but for nomal field play it will be out gunned by players who can shoot 700 rounds without stopping unless you have great field technique and makeup for the rifle with your play style
Parts reliability is good until you change the parts to aftermarket parts. I have snapped my original G&P charging handle near the front where it connects to the bolt carrier and have another on order at the moment. Until you find a setup that works well you will be changing parts around trying to find the happy medium between performance and reliability. Word is that G&P has acknowledged the charging handle malfunctions and has a new handle out there. I would guess that it is probably to be found in the newer generation WOC's and can be bought at Redwolf for 44 dollars+shipping, Ouch!
Snapped charging handle:
6.------------------Final impression ------------------
I am very happy with my WOC, if given 510 dollars and refunded my purchase I would not think twice of ordering another. It fills it’s spot in my collection and I enjoy changing my play style up to refresh things. It shoots very far and accurately for a stock weapon and with proper upgrading I could see it working quite well for a medium engagement weapon. I would rate this a 7/10 for field skirmishability (Mainly due to price), an 8/10 for overall externals and build quality and a 9/10 in the gas blowback rifle performance category.
How she's looking now that I have installed an ACM UBR, Magpul MIAD pistol grip, VFC 416 iron sights, Madbull Noveske rifleworks 10.5" rail system and a G&P EOtech 551 replica:
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