The_Lord_Poncho

I've had a cyma 028 for a year or so (I bought it used very cheaply). Cracking bit of kit for the price, a little lighter as parts of it are plastic (there is a surprising amount of metal on it still though). Only negatives really for me- the plastic part of the receiver is a wierd grey (nothing that a spray of matt black can't solve), and if you ever want to get inside it, it's a bit of a pain to take apart.

Cracking Sunday morning at Driver Wood, introduced a mate and his son to the game - I suspect that it won't be their last! Circa 100 players, 20%(ish) rentals, and really good game play. I had a three moments where I had managed to get behind the opposition, and shoot 5 or 6 of them in the back before they worked out what was happening, including 10 seconds before the last game ended. Good hearted congratulations and fist bumps from them all round really added to my enjoyment of the day, and hammers home just how worthwhile it is to dish out the praise when someone pulls off a good move, a tricky shot, or manages to drop a Mk5 right next to you! I played with my first RIF - an ancient Cyma AK 028, picked up second hand a few years ago for £40, and given a new piston and rack. The thing absolutely rocked,and truth be told, started to put the Cyma SR25 in the shade....

Would a light/thin silicone oil (e.g. 100wt) or a heavy/thick silicone oil be best to add to mags to assist the seals etc?

Driver Wood is my local site, and i really enjoy it. Its a great site, plenty of thick vegetation to allow sneaky three dimensional play, interspersed with open areas to add variety. Definitely don't write it off - from all that I've been to, its by far the most professionally run and managed, and the safe zone feels, well, safe. In a year and a half of going there, I've only ever witnessed one proper argument between players, and I can't fault the manner in which the marshals reacted to that situation - ultimately though, I appreciate there is only so much that they can do. Seeing that kind of behaviour definitely leaves a bad taste, but it really isn't something I see as endemic to Driver Wood. I tend to go only to the morning sessions, plausibly people might be a little more level headed when they are less tired?

I did all of this, with the exception of replacing the barrel to my UTR45 - to be honest I find the stock barrel pretty good. The only additional change I have made was to swap out the motor to an SHS High Torque motor. I found the stock motor was adequate, but not great. Changing to the SHS high torque has made it a more satisfying experience.

Agreed! I certainly go as light and unencumbered as possible, in CQB often just with a few spare mags on a belt and a pistol - whilst others have full on plate carriers, helmets with more attachments and wires than the average christmas tree, pouches everywhere. I suppose its a personal preference for the ratio between supposed 'realism' and comfort/performance. That said, three shots on a nipple from 2m away, with only a UBACs to protect it last time i played indoors did make me consider my options!

I'm rather happy with their SMG flavour (M917) - albeit i changed the spring (just to bring the power up a little), and put in a SHS hi torque motor to make the trigger response a little snappier (the stock motors are a little on the weak side). I also had a weirdly sporadic fluctuation on the amount of hop it applied between shots, so changed the hop unit for a cheap ZCI plastic one. All good now though, first two changes didn't really need to be done, and the hop problem was just me being unlucky, no one else seems to have a drama with the stock hop units as far as I can tell. Do you really need to 'risk it' with an 11.1 battery? A 2s with a reasonable C rating would be more than adequate, and if you were inclined for a greater trigger response etc, you could always later pop in a higher torque motor (or even buy an 11.1 as your second spare battery if you feel the need). I'm sure there are lots of people who have happily run them on 11.1, but I've never seen the need for any of my RIFs, and take a little comfort that I'm putting less strain on the electronics and mechanicals as a result.

I ordered a battery from them earlier this week, ordered in the morning, and received less than 24 hours later. They were the cheapest around, and reasonable postage too - I'll definitely be using them again .

Well that's taught me something new, thanks! Interesting that the L119A2 didn't stick around for long at all!

I hadn't heard that. What's it being replaced with?

When I had this issue a while back, it turned out there were two causes- the 'storm' style grip was indeed very tight on my motor of choice- sand paper on the inside of the grip solved that; and the neck of the motor was too tight on the corresponding hole at the top of the grip which I had to open out/bore a touch wider. If you haven't changed your motor and/or grip before the problem appeared though, disregard this post!

My Cyma 098 came new with a metal midcap that looks identical to those that you have bought, and don't appear to fit. Obviously, the one that came with the RIF fits perfectly. Very surprised to hear that those are proving problematic for you. I assume that you have checked inside the mag well in case the previous owner has 'shimmed' it - e.g. with tape, glue, or self adhesive velcro? If the magwell isn't the problem, perhaps its a non standard hop unit that has been fitted which is fouling the top of the mags, or is not shimmed itself correctly? My hop barrel has a few O rings on it in front of the hop unit to ensure the unit is pushed backwards enough to align the unit with the corresponding 'hole' in the top of the mag... Failing all of that -appreciating that its not a route you want to go down - my P-mag style battleaxe polymer mags (220 rd) fit perfectly...

Spot on, many thanks!

Many thanks mate! (by the way, the G&G had an outing yesterday morning - performed flawlessly, thanks!)

Thanks Dan R - I actually have one of the mad bull clones to refill mags from a plumbers style bottle (and like it rather a lot) - the adaptor i was after though was one to refill a plumbers bottle from an e.g. 6kg calor propane bottle. The thread sizes etc are a bit of a minefield and most aliexpress and amazon adaptors seem for the EU or US spec large gas bottles which (as i sadly found out) are different from the UK spec!

Can the motors be swapped out in AKs (V3 gearbox) just by removing the grip? (I know that 10 seconds with a screwdriver would tell me, but unfortunately I'm away from my RIFs for several days, and have a hankering to put an order in for a Big Dragon m140 motor - the answer to the above will guide my decision as to get a long type and fit to one of my AR RIFs, or short type for one of the TM clone AKs)

I'm also very interested in this as a possibility. In fact i bought an adaptor from Aliexpress a few months ago with the intent to re-fill the plumbers bottles from a big calor (propane) bottle. Turned out that the threads weren't compatible. DanHC - have you got any suggested links?

Controversial opinion from a bit of a 'boot nerd' myself - I own many nice pairs of boots - issued Haix, issued Aku, Lowa mountain boots, Lowa Zephyr etc. I started playing airsoft in the lowas, and the Akus. They were absolutely fine. But after a short while i decided a) they were too expensive to be bashing around the sites i play at, and b) they were still a little heavy/clompy for the task. So i started looking for boots that were cheapish, very lightweight and flexible (i.e. more towards the trainer end of the spectrum), and still had a waterproof membrane. Settled on on some (and here is the controversial bit) Magnums. One of the newer styles, mid cut - the 'Magnum Ultima'. e.g. https://www.workwearexpress.com/magnum-ultima-6.0-waterproof-uniform-boot?vat=inc&gclid=CjwKCAjw1YCkBhAOEiwA5aN4AZpqNmycjIivW1l-om8l5ZN1k2dfF8T2IvJhf1F7quJ2AOrAX_LjwBoCF5MQAvD_BwE#205=68&93=926&fo_c=4025&fo_k=cab0fb1b55b29929c9c1f946c2ce97e5&fo_s=gplauk I've used them for just over a year, and they have been great - both indoors and outdoors. Negatives - after about 8 months the waterproof membrane has broken down (still more protection than if it wasn't there, but water now gets through if the ground/grass is persistently wet), and the membrane is not the most breathable, so your feet get a bit sweatier than, say, in a very expensive goretex membrane (e.g. AKU's). I think I paid £60 for my pair a year back.

In way of an update - I popped a ZCI hop unit in + macaron bucking. It really didn't like the macaron - wasn't reliably feeding, so I used the bucking that came with the ZCI unit. A few times to reassemble due to the hop unit not being entirely centred on the barrel, but all good now. Still not really sure what was up with the original hop unit/bucking - it didn't look damaged.

Yes, I've used three times over the past year - this is generally my experience. 2 of my orders each took circa 3 weeks to arrive, one of the orders (albeit over Christmas) took closer to 6 weeks. Everything arrived as ordered, though you do need to be a little careful - the descriptions of the items on their website can be a little hit or miss.

Sage advice - I shall do as you suggest. Having had a ganders at Pheas Airsoft's strip down video, it looks pretty straightforward to get to the barrel/hop group at least. I think you are probably right - grease on the bucking wouldn't dramatically clear after ten or so shots to head back into overhopping territory.

Ah, awesome, good to know that a ZCI hop unit will work. I might just order one+ the ubiquitous macaron and Omega nub then and be done with it. Which is a shame, as all the reviews I've seen have never mentioned utterly erratic hop on these! It has also come in on only 305fps on a .20 - nothing that an easy spring change can't solve though.

Hi all - upon trying out a new DE UTR45, the hop seems to be incredibly erratic - varying from being spot on (and stunningly accurate) for ten shots or so, to dramatically underhopping (i.e. no hop being applied by the unit at all) for a random number of shots, to then overhopping etc etc. No real logic to it! Only thing i can think of before I strip it down to take a look is that there is some excess grease inside the new gear box/cylinder that is finding its way onto the hop rubber? I am assuming that a standard AR style Hop unit (e.g. ZCI Plastic Rotary) would fit in the UTR 45 if i can't suss it out?

All - I'm not sure if it is general knowledge, but from internet research it transpires that the usual trimming of an M4 style selector plate to semi lock isn't always successful on the Cyma SR25 (098). There exists an alternative very easy way to semi lock them which does not involve drilling holes/epoxying physical external blocks to prevent the selector switch moving to the auto position - and doesn't require the gear box removed from the lower receiver. Essentially, a washer is inserted, sitting on the rear retaining pin, between the gearbox and the passenger side of the lower receiver. As long as its a snug enough fit, this has the effect of preventing the rearward movement of the selector plate. The easiest way i found to locate a washer of the perfect size was to 3d print one from an existing free file on the net, and simply scale it up until it fitted perfectly- albeit with a little trial and error I'm sure this isn't necessary and standard metal washer(s) would work. As i went as large as i physically could, there was a little interference between the washer and the lip of the top receiver when snugging the two back together, that i rectified by shaving a tiny amount off the top outer of the washer (obviously super easy with a plastic 3d printed washer using a knife when it was in-situ). If people have access to a 3d printer, the file for the washer that i used was this one https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3178444/files an m6 washer, which I scaled up width wise/z axis to 195% (resulting in it being circa 3mm thick), and increased the diameter to 105% (resulting in the diameter being 13.1 mm, and the resulting hole in the middle of the washer being very slightly larger than M6. Seems to work perfectly, with no movement of the safety selector possible past semi. I perhaps might worry that the selector plate could be damaged if someone tried to put ludicrous pressure on the selector switch, but i don't think that is likely - not least as the selector switch is pretty stiff anyhow on the CM098. As an aside, if anyone is interested, the CM098 that I just purchased from Patrol Base arrived doing circa 300FPS on a 0.2BB. The spring was super short, and looked like an M90. The SHS M130 spring that I popped in took it to a consistent 430fps.