Piman

While generally that advice is very good this is from personal experience with the cyma platinum. It really benefits from a replacement hop unit and the ZCI unit is very cost effective. For me the cost of the gun and these mods came to less than £200 and it is now shooting better than most of my other RIFs costing more than twice a much. Get the air seal good and the weakest part on these is the barrel & hop combination. These are far from top of the range parts but combine to give a performance comparable to top of the range RIFs. I can understand avoiding going into the gearbox if you are not mechanically minded but the hop and barrel are easy to replace following the many good YouTube videos out there.

The Cyma platinum is very good out of the box an needs very little doing to it. A new nozzle with an o-ring and gearbox re-shim and grease while you are in there. Replace the hop unit, rubber and barrel. A very good option is a ZCI plastic rotary hop unit and a ZCI barrel along with a Maple Leaf hop rubber and omega nub. All of that should be no more than about £75. Anything more is a waste of money. The Cyma 098 is not an AK. It is an M4/SR25 style. They are typically around DMR fps as standard. Is this to be used as a DMR (as it will need mechnical locking to semi only) or has the spring been set for a lower fps?

Just when I think it is impossible for UPS to be any more incompetent they outdo themselves again. So I got through, provided my tracking details and said I wanted to query an issue and I get put straight back into the queue again. Now at 1 hr 57 minutes in the queue.

In general their support over the phone is not good. However you can try the following for UPS Brokerage. Tel: 03457 877 877 Then choose option 6, then option 1. Be prepared to wait easily over an hour in a queue. In fact I am in that very queue right now at 1 hr & 12 minutes after two unsuccessful calls last week.

I have been looking online at a lot of sites and the Government website and I cannot see this anywhere. That certainly used to be the case but with the new rule changes they all clearly state this is now the responsibility of the shipper. I am trying to get a clear understanding of this so if you can find a clear reference on this that would be really helpful.

Agreed, but you need to take that statement in context as it immediately goes on to explain that it is paid to the delivery company when over £135 and when under £135 it is not my responsibility. This is an error on the part of the sender and UPS who should have identified this and be chasing the sender and not me. James

I guess that is the problem that they have not marked the shipment. The statement on the Government website is very clear though. I should not get a bill and I should not pay anything to UPS for this shipment. The issue is then with the shipper and UPS.

Do not believe the estimates. I had many of those during my shipments and they never met any of them. My first one was also overly optimistic as yours. It is an auto generated date base on assumptions there is no processing for customs or any of the backlogs they have at their depots.

So UPS strikes again. This time not from Taiwangun but an order from the US. I have already ordered other items from the US and had no issues with other couriers. For instance it took 3 days with FedEx and they clearly understood the import limits. Now I am struggling to deal with UPS as they want to apply charges to shipment that is below the £135 limit. The government website is very clear on this stating: "You will not have to pay anything to the delivery company to receive goods worth less than £135" But UPS are a law unto themselves. I even had the delivery driver turn up today with an invoice to pay but he has had to return the parcel as I was not willing to pay. I have still not heard anything back from UPS after having raised this issue with them via phone and email. For a logistics company they have no clue what they are doing. I have an order in my Taiwangun basket but it will never be placed until they offer an alternative courier. Their excuse that there are no other couriers that will handle airsoft RIFs is BS. I suspect it is more a contractual/cost/to much effort issue. James

I have the Predator L and you can place the tracer at either end. It just has a spring in it to hold it in place.

One key thing to note. If you are going to fit the ksv angry gun suppressor don't get the shorter outer barrel. The KSV is designed to go over this barrel and then held in place by a grub screw. It sounds terrible but seems to work OK. I have the 13 inch version fitted on mine.

We can only hope they do move to another shipper as I would really like to use them again but not with UPS. So this was a real surprise. Current the UPS tracking says my shipment is on hols (see below) yet out of the blue it has just been delivered this morning. I have mixed feelings of joy, anger and confusion. The package had been opened by border control but only for a quick look by all accounts. Everything is there. The RIF box is a bit squashed at either end thanks to UPS's handling but nothing is damaged.

There are a lot of factors - Nozzle length, nozzle alignment, nozzle timing (tappet plate + spring + gear with or without delay chip), Hop alignment (to gear box and magazine), hop rubber size, magazine performance (alignment in receiver, spring strength, BB retention clip). Those are what I can think of right now and some will be far more significant than others. Has the RIF always done that from new and how old is it? Is there an option for a warranty inspection?

Check out Octagon Airsoft for the Narcos AAP01 CNC Aluminum 6061 Front Barrel Kits.

A hop rubber that is slightly too long can also cause this. Can you see the lips of the hop rubber through the bb feed tube? Generally you will be able to see them but only just. (<1mm). Th bb drop test can show iff bbs are getting caught (i.e. with the hop and barrel out of the gun drop a bb into the infeed tube and it should drop straight out the back without any resistance. Otherwise it might be a nozzle length issue as suspected. When you say you measured the nozzle what length did you measure and what length did you buy to replace it? Did you notice if there was a delay chip on the gear when you replaced the nozzle.

Not TG but don't you hate it when you specifically choose an alternate shipper to UPS and then they go and use them anyway!!! Well I won;t expect that order any time soon.

I still see a UPS delivery option for Great Britain. However there is no evidence that things have improved with UPS. Expect 1-2 months for deliveries unless you are very lucky.

Given that the label looks to have green tinges I would go with dyed.

Fantastic. Thank you. Odins are scarce as it is let alone the red versions. I thought they had long gone.

Where on earth did you find a red Odin M12?

Update: If only UPS were as responsive as UK boarder force. I sent the details as requested to them via email this morning and within 4 minutes I got a reply confirming my UKARA was OK and they would release the parcel. What a relief

Well I have just double checked with the shop this morning and my UKARA is fully active. So after all the chasing by UPS to fill out the paperwork they have obviously failed to process this properly and now I will have to do their job and clear this with the boarder force myself. I don't know how much more incompetent UPS can get.

No harm comes from clean alcohol solutions with a high percentage IPA being a good option. Any adverse affect is so small it would be impossible to measure. For most hop rubber silicone oil will also not cause any damage as the hop rubber itself is not silicone. However it will leave a film that can impact accuracy and attract dirt especially on a dry and dusty day. The issue with silicone oil is not to use it with silicone rubber. Most O-rings, seals and hop rubbers in airsoft are not silicone. They are Nitrile or EPDM although Maple Leaf have just released silicon hop rubbers (the translucent ones). Silicone rubber absorbs silicone oil and can swell. How much of an effect this would have on a hop rubber is not clear. The swelling could help improve a poor seal for instance or make it a tight fit when fitting or removing. The same for most O-rings in AEGs. The impact on the patch may not be notice as after all it is an adjustable surface. If it swelled you might not notice any difference by just adjusting the hop. However it is probably not worth the risk when you are probably better off cleaning the barrel with IPA.

Well I have just got a 'Notice of detention for Imported Goods' from the Border Force today. I had thought that my UKARA had been renewed and will have to check this, then I have to write to them with the proof. Of course none of this would have been an issue if UPS had done their job properly and delivered in a reasonable time.

Good luck. I also responded to that email and although they initially responded it ended up going nowhere with the same level of capability as their customer service on the phone. I This it is only really there to make it look like they care in the Trustpilot reviews.