[Bullpups and no brains :D]

Right, I've been gifted an AK 74. (my friend was very grateful for me rebuilding his motorbike engine with new pistons and rings).

This model. http://www.airarmsports.com/CYMA-AKM-AK-74-V3-Airsoft-AEG-Rifle-CM036/

It's one of the metal and wood CYMA ones, not plastic like I thought it was going to be.

The body has a crack in the pot metal where the barrel screws to the receiver due to a badly implemented fix. Looking at the damage I think it's fixable.

I'm going to order up some materials in a few days to work the fix. It'll be a low temp (300 degree) aluminium braze, with a propane torch for heat.

Once I get things in order and get the parts together, I'll put up some before and after pictures.

[Bullpups and no brains :D]

That's great to know, I know I added a 330 rnd mag but that is a stop gap. The set-up I want will be 5x 110/170 and 5x 45. I can add those in later. I figured for this season 2x 330 would be enough to game with and would give me some backup mags in the future.

It's the same reason I took off the extra upgrades I was planning on the initial purchase. I figured I have time to add them at a later date. The gun model and basic mechanics are not going to significantly alter in that time.

Out of all the problems I'm seeing with the AUG, by far the most common are poor mags, switch gear, and poor plastics. Short of a little tweaking to stop airleaks most people who have one seem to like it.



Edit:

Back on the polishing thing.

My friend has a broken AK with a couple of barrels, I think the main body has a crack in the plastics. We're going to see if we can get it to function. If it works then we will get one of the spare barrels and I'll polish it. Should give us a good idea about how a mirror polish will affect performance. He has bets on a performance reduction, Claiming that some barrel friction acting on the air cushion is needed to get the absolute best BB exit. If that is the case I have the stones to work back from mirror to a grit facing, and check the accuracy as we work.

I won't be getting the gun and barrels till after the weekend but it should be interesting.

[Bullpups and no brains :D]

My job requires me to have a fix it and make sure it lasts mindset. Most of the time that means I have to work stuff out very quickly.

I can be on any random day doing anything from plumbing, plastering, electrics, electronics, machine repair, housing repairs on equipment. If it can be damaged it can be fixed. I save our company a lot of money and am pretty much free to choose my working hours and equipment list. They still don't want to get me a tig welder tho.... I'm working on that as there are a lot of places in the company I could find a use for it.

I don't throw things away unless I have to. Testament to this are my PC speakers. I have a creative DTT2200 5.1system from 1999. I've rebuilt the unit several times, Replaced the pots, Remade the controller using maplin boxes. It works as well as the day I got it 16 years ago. This is the reason I've written off models like the Fn2000, and the Tar-21. Whilst they may work well for a product lifetime I want a product that I can keep working until I say it's dead.

[Bullpups and no brains :D]

I should be sorted for power options.

I have several masterplug laptop chargers, 9-18v with the different connectors and they all have decent ampage outputs. (some are pretty old and have silly output ampages).

And I can always butcher a spare ATX power supply if need be, I have several of the EVGA style PSU bridges. So I should be able to set up a charging station. I already have something very similar working in the house for my main PC's watercooling. It's a seperate case with all the pumps, resovoirs, rads and it's own PSU, Then quick release piping to the back of my main PC. It was done to aid moving the PC while I was moving about a bit. It's works well and if you forget to turn on the pumps it just thermal throttles till you flip the switch. It also means there is about 75ml of water in the main computer when static rather than a few hundred ml.

 

If I was doing it for a long term solution I may go as far as to desolder all the non essential cables and just have a direct connection to the charger and velcro it to the PSU. At worst it's an afternoon with a soldering Iron and some desoldering ribon. It's not a hard job just a little tedious.

[Bullpups and no brains :D]

I was told the piston head would reduce gearbox shock on the castings. Nothing to do with the sound and loudness of the gun just a simple upgrade to help keep it working for longer.

I'll look into chargers some more as well I picked that one beacuse of the fast charge option with the 5A current. Most of the cheaper ones were 850-1000mA. I'll do some more digging as your B3 in ebay option pulled up a B6 that looks promising for £12.

[Bullpups and no brains :D]

O.k I've had time to browse the gun selections.

I've looked into most of the models and it's come to a choice between the ICS L85. I would have to go second hand. Or I can get a new JG AUG. I just can't seem to find as many parts for the guns that don't use standard gearboxes. And that for me is a big problem as I play with things, And like tweaking.


The AUG I'm looking at would be this setup.

http://en.safarasoftair.com/golden-bow-aug-military-tan
http://en.safarasoftair.com/element-silent-head-set-ver-3
http://en.safarasoftair.com/golden-bow-magazine-for-aug-330
http://en.safarasoftair.com/weapons/battery-charger/lipo-battery/ep-2800-7-4-30c-lipo-battery
http://en.safarasoftair.com/weapons/battery-charger/battery-charger/we-nuprol-lipo-battery-charger-with-balancer
http://en.safarasoftair.com/weapons/sling-and-adapter/sling/multipurpose/pantac-tactical-sling-ver-ii-tan

With postage that comes in at about £180

[Bullpups and no brains :D]

Don't worry about me making it wavy, I've seen the regular cleaning guide with T-cut. It's one of those fluids that I see as been agressive and not much use other than for paint. The grits I have acess to are graded and much finer, And the method would be much the same as the T-cut method. The only difference is you don't pour onto your wadding. You wet the stones, then build a paste on them with a diamond lapping plate, then take that paste to the wadding. The actual material this method will remove is less than the T-cut method, and will take longer. I have the stones and I have the correct rotation of stones to get to a mirror finish, I'd be an idiot not to use them. Provided I start at about 5-8K rather than 1K then it's a pure polish rather than a cut and polish. Same as refreshing a straight razor edge, Your not cutting a bevel just polishing what is already there. I'm also the sort of person who will happily sit for a day doing this. I never rush.

this is the sort of polish 12K would get you.

[Bullpups and no brains :D]

You guys are all stars!

Granted you have changed what I'm looking at a fair bit, but that is good.

I'm still working through gear, I found a page on one website with exploded diagrams of the guns. And that has been helping a lot. And I have acess to a setup L85a2 so I think my next port of call is a cup of cofee and a good chat with the owner. Then perhaps a few hours shooting with it to evaluate it.

Barrel wise I did a fairly extensive module in material science at university. I've looked into the barels available and provided the tollerances listed are correct I think I can work with a stainless steel uncoated model I have a vernier guage and some micrometers and know what to do with them. I have a range of sharpening hones for my other big hobby (cut throat razors). And stones that rate from 1K grit to 20K grit (naniwa chosera/suherio), + graded Chromeoxide powder (60K) and diamond lapping fluids (decimal micron grades). With those I can polish stainless up to mirror finished internally using slurries and wadding. And with that I should be able to make a cheaper barrel perform a bit better by removing all machining marks. Stainless is horrible to work with tool steel would be better but it's still workable provided I go at it correctly (stainless will pull and slough rather than grind in a lot of cases the solution is less speed and more time).

I'm looking into second hand as well. I'm have no problem with a faulty gun. I'm capable of rewinding motors, soldering cleanly, and re-wirewing. As well as rebuilding a gearbox with a diagram. Provided I can see it I can do it, It can't be any harder than an engine or vehicle gearbox and I've done plenty of those.

[Bullpups and no brains :D]

So what does improve accuracy then? Tighter bore, Better inner barrel spacing, better air regulation without internal system leakage. Higher quality BB and more weight if windy.

I'm working through a load of websites now, Looking at several options.

I'm concirened about a few things and am getting sidetracked pretty quickly having to look into gearboxes and switchgear. I've done some reading on how the mosfets work and why arc suppression is needed with a higher C rating.

There is a lot to take in.


There are several guns appearing that are certainly within budget.

The JG's Civilian Aug A1. It would need some tweaking, A seperate selector switch for single auto. Tigher barrel. The magazine quality appears to be an issue.

The Famas seems like it might be a contender as well.

I'm still working reviews atm so everything is still in speculation. I will look through everything and every design internally and externally before I start to look for shops with stock to visit.

My location is Coventry. We have The Grange locally (350fps auto 0% tollerance on fps) and I belive fireball is pretty close as well.

[Bullpups and no brains :D]

 

I do have a 416 though and am a little mystified by your weight/balance comment. Mine is quite well balanced and was quite manageable until I loaded it up with furniture.

 

Extras may well have been the problem with the M416. It's a full metal body, with the 4 sided rail system, Front grip, Flash light, long barrel (16" I think). And on the stock side it only had the plastic 5 position stock, with a 1600mAh NiMh. So I think it was suffering from what I can only describe as exessive pendulum momentum on the front end, With no weight in the back to counter it. Had the gun been balanced a bit better so I could have shouldered some weight when sighting it I think I would have been happier. The guy who owns the gun is 8" taller than me and also has arms like other peoples legs. So for him the balance was probably pretty good. He also spent the first day skirmish we went on with his full metal L85, He didn't put it down once, the man's a beast.

 

The actual physical weight on the strap wasn't bad but the single point harness dropped a lot of weight onto a single neck point, rather than spreading it over my shoulders. The gun shoots great, better than any of the others I've tested it's just not the right gun for me. Again a simple 2 point strap system and some careful kit conciderations to spread load would have improved the gun for myself.

 

 

I've got more systems to look into now.

 

L85, F2000, P90, UAR. I'll do some digging on all of them.

[Bullpups and no brains :D]

Hey!

I'm very new to airsoft. I've had 2 registered skirmishes and plan on having a 3rd very soon so I can get my UKARA. Like all things that are fun I've started to look at equipment. And It's led me on a strange path down what can only be described as a spiral of confusion!

I'll start with what I am. I'm a middle aged 30+ working person with some available funds but still opperating in a budget.

I got introduced to airsoft by a friend who I'd done a few computer favors for, He took me to a skirmish, Dressed me (in oversized camo), And slapped an M416 in my hands.

His expirience is quite vast. He's worked as an airsoft tech, Has good knowelege of gearboxes and rebuilds, And when he was working as a tech he was well known for knowing his stuff. I don't however want to leech from him, or get him to do the work in getting anything I get working well. I'm a hands on person with a technical mind, I'll learn as I go and watch countless video's and read strip down guides on the system I pick until I can do the work myself.

From my fist games with the M416 I noticed off the bat it wasn't the firearm for me. It is nose heavy, Hard to keep on point for extended periods without support, And most anoying to me it was difficult to get a confortable sling position with a single point. It was however very accurate and great at range with the sights been almost perfect (akog 1.5x red dot).So I started to look into other designs and built myself a set of criteria based on a fair bit of forum reading.

The criteria I came up with is as follows.

Longer than average barrel length.
Mid cap magazines.
2-3 point sling options.
Under £200 with modifications.
Scope and as many options included.


This led me to look at bullpups. And I've looked into L85's and AUG's so far. Both systems have merits and flaws. So I've decided to make a post regarding bullpups in general. I don't know enough about the systems to go any further, and what I have looked at is all begining to blur into company hype rather than in the field expirience. What is the difference in a Kryptek typhoon and the lesser model other than the paint and £50!

I have no set system, And what I want is something I can pick off targets with at decent range and good accuracy. I'm not a spray and pray kind of person, I'd rather dig in and wait. I don't want a sniper rifle, AEG snipers are limited at my local site (370fps) to the gas and spring's (500 fps). So I'd rather stick to 350fps and have the middle ground. Better than average range, no 20M restiction, fire rate isn't as important on full auto. Whist still having mobility, ease of use, and a weight that can be held on point in a kneel without needing support. (I'm asking for the world I think).


Anyway I've waffled on a lot. What I want to know is what bullpups would be a good place to start searching. I'm not going to mention what I have picked out at this point because It's not going to be the gun I end up with. All I ask is when you post you make an effort to explain the merits of the system and it's flaws. It's important to me to be able to evaluate things from an actual users perspective. Reviews other than 1min you tube video's would also be very welcome!