LazzurusMan

I'll try that with his mags then. I'll still need to find him a new trigger sear as it still shoots full auto from time to time, and that's no good if we go to a semi only cqb site.

So, I gifted my WE XDM 45 to my littlest brother last year, mostly as a cool paperweight for his PC desk. He has since had me repair the damn thing (I'd have kept it if I realised I could fix it) and now needs some non leaking mags as he's gotten into airsoft too. I've searched online and the original green gas mags for the WE xdm seem to be out of production or at least very scarce, however I have found some co2 magazines for the XDM, from WE. What would ned to be done to make the pistol "safe" or strong enough to use co2? Is it even possible? I'm really starting out with teching GBB stuff, so I apologise if this is a dumb question.

Even without the magwell, turns out the mags still need to be pushed up for it to fire 100% of the time. I've reglued a piece of plastic, but this time I scored both the loading nozzle and the piece of plastic first to give it a better surface to glue. It seems to be holding so far, and feeds a BB every time with both the magwell and baseplates on. I'll probably redo it at some point with some epoxy adhesive, but this will hopefully work for tomorrow's day at Tud. Thank you everyone, I really didn't want to have to get another pistol yet.

Unfortunately I can't get the bbu out, not a clue how to do it and there's no tutorials online as my asg combat master is different to other hi-capas (why do I keep buying airsoft guns with proprietary parts??) However, I did glue a thin piece of Warhammer to the bottom of the loading piece of the nozzle to test the theory. I had to file it down even thinner, but it worked! Until the super glue gave out. I now know that it's definitely the loading nozzle being too high, I just need to figure out how to bring it lower or find a better way to glue the plastic piece to the nozzle.

I'm gonna have to try this, as even with the mag bases off I have to push the mags up about 1-2mm to get them to feed. Not great if I want to use it one handed in an emergency 😂

I can, the bottoms are just to cover the hex key for the CO2 bulb so they're not needed. I'll probably do that. I'm looking at picking up an aap-01 too at some point so the combat master will likely be relegated to display/when I want to pretend I'm good at shooting 🤣

No damage, but it loads fine if I take off the flared magwell or the bottoms of the mags. Guess I'll have to file down the bottoms of the mags.

Here's some pictures to show what I mean. Videos are too big to post unfortunately. Really bugging me as I don't need an excuse to buy an aap-01 right now 🤣😭

I've got an asg combat master c02, and it's not feeding right. Mags are fine, and when I slowly move the slide I can see the nozzle is pushing the bbs down instead of into the chamber. I can chamber a round if I push the slide closed hard, but when firing it tends to not feed. Anyone have any ideas what could be wrong before I take the slide off and start fiddling?

Part of the reason I want to do it is it has a quick change spring, so if something happens to my m4 and I need to use the l85 differently or we go to a different sight I can bring it back down to 1.14j.

Ah, see I try to avoid reddit after it started bombarding me with notifications, messages etc. Cheers for linking that! One final question before I put together a list of parts and things to do, is it gonna be worth short stroking? I don't see any reason to myself as I'm not gonna use full auto so pme shouldn't be an issue.

It's the best platform I've got, I don't want to buy another gun yet, and I already have a perfectly usable aeg for full auto fun.

Those are very good points. The reason I was going to replace the air seal parts is that I put an uncut sp120 spring in and got to about 400-410 fps, hence I cut down the spring as I hadn't planned in making it a dmr at the time. Reckon a 130 spring would get me there without having to open the box and start changing things? I'd rather avoid it if I can. Already have to spend 50 quid on the damn programmer to lock it to semi only.

I skirmished at combat thetford yesterday and was talking to the marshals about my upgraded ares mutant and my new l85a3 and whether I could use it as a dmr on site. As long as it's locked to semi auto and not over 1.88j it's a dmr in their eyes. Luckily I can lock it to semi auto with the ares programmer, so I don't need to permanently turn it into a dmr, or do anything like put a screw by the fire selector and ruin the looks of the gun. I also checked if that's allowed and they said as long as I have to do more than just pull the trigger a certain way to reprogram it I'm good. This way all I need to do to go back to a full auto aeg, in theory, is change the spring to reduce the power and reprogram for full auto.

So I've searched online and there are so many different guides on how to dmr a rifle that I'm getting confused. Figured I'd list the parts I'm looking to replace, what I'm aiming for in terms of fps, and ask for suggestions for which brands etc to go for. So currently my l85 is sitting just under 350fps on .2g with a cut down sp120. I'm aiming for as close to 450 or 1.88j as I can get, with great consistency and good accuracy and range. I've already swapped out the stock bucking and nub for a super macron and omega nub. I was thinking nozzle, cylinder head, piston head and piston. Replace the bushings with bearings, shim the gearbox, correct aoe, cut down the teeth on the piston so it engages properly, replace the stock "high torque" motor with a decent hi torque motor, new metal spring guide, add ptfe tape to stabalise the barrel and then if the fps still needs to go up replace the spring again. Trigger response is already pretty good on 11.1 lipos with the ares efcs so I don't think I need to replace the stock gears unless they break, or short stroked, unless short stroking will prevent pme (is that even a thing on single shot aegs?) Have I missed anything? And what brands should I be looking at for parts?

Ares L85A2 EBB FPS: (stock 300+) 330-340 Hop up: Proprietary with maple leaf super macron bucking and Omega nub (Will explain further in opinion and comments) Mag Capacity: Comes with two 130rd Mid-caps Battery: Suggested 11.1v Lipo Plastic/Metal/Both: Stammped steel, aluminium and plastic My opinion and overall comments: DISCLAIMER - This review is not based on the stock model. I replaced the hop rubber and nub with a maple leaf Super Macron and Omega nub, and added a cut down sp120 to get the rifle closer to 350fps. I will explain why in the review. My initial reaction when I first picked up this replica was how realistic the weight was, how sturdy the stamped steel reciever felt, and how comfortable it is to shoulder (I've always had a bias towards bullpups though). Plus, I love that it comes in a moulded plastic case, which even has spaces for the ares EFCS programmer, and small red dot, a verticle grip and a replica ELCAN sight. It also comes with two 130rd midcap magazines that feed flawlessly. Now, I have upgraded this replica pretty much straight out of the box with a new bucking, nub and spring. I did this as I intend to turn it into a dmr, and also know from personal experience that a lot of ares replicas come with pretty terrible air seal inside (hence the cut down sp120 spring), that their stock buckings will start to break after only a few mags, and the nub in the L85a3 was nothing awful, but when going fopr a mpale leaf bucking it just makes sense to go for the Omega nub. With this setup I was reaching out and touching players easily at 50-60 meters on .28g bbs. As I said at the start, the build quality feels great, and with my very limited experience with the l85 (semi auto target shooting with ATC) it felt like the reel thing, confirmed by my ex-army brother who used the A2. However, this wouldn't be a proper review if I didn't pick out any faults, and the fire selector is definitely something ares should look into. For most of the first half of it's first day out there were no issues, however after a few hours I found the blowback was knocking the fire selector down from rapid (semi) to Auto. This will not be a problem once I lock it to semi for a dmr build (I mean, it's perfect for it). Shooting this replica feels great. The blowback is nothing special, just a small nub connected to the bolt that gets pulled back by the force of the piston moving back, but it still feels good, and it works. The issue I see for some players is that the bullpup design means the blowback is all happening much closer to your ear, and is relatively loud. If like me youre half deaf in your right ear anyway it won't even matter. That brings me onto a darwback of ALL l85 blowback replicas. This is for right handed users only. Left handed shooters can still use the replica if they really want to, but that bolt is going you hit you in the face, a lot. The replica is also heavy, coming in at a little over 3kg, with almost all of that weight at the back, I very quickly started to wish I'd bought a proper l85 sling to carry it with, as attached to my sing point sling on my vest it definitel made my right should and arm ache. Performance out the box (chrono'd in my flat) was about what I expect from Ares. The air seal could be better, but with the quick change spring behind the butt plate all I needed to do was slap an sp120 spring in it, then test and cut down said spring to get it below 350fps on .2g bbs. I didn't bother using the stock hop setup at all as I know from my Ares mutant (let me know if you want a review on that too, I used that as stock a little bit so can do a more comparative review) that it would lift .28g bbs, but the bucking would need replacing after a day or two of use, so I just replaced it straight out of the box. With this setup I hardly have to apply any hop to lift .28g bbs, which gives me plenty of hop for when I dmr this replica and start using .32g or heavier bbs. I have to say, though the hop chamber (accesible like most aegs these days by opening the bolt, and this l85 has a functioning bolt catch to make adjusting the hop a lot easier to do whilst shooting to get it set up right) is proprietary and is actually clamped into the gearbox making replacing a broken one a little awkward, it's a lovely little hop. Rather than an arm held in with a pin levered onto the nub and therefore pushing onto the hop bucking, the hop weheel sits inside a block of plastic, and as you turn it the block pushes straighjt down onto the nub and bucking, essientially giving you a TDC on an aeg. A stock aeg at that. As well as it being proprietary the other drawback with the hop unit is that the wheel is held on too loosely for the blowback. Luckily I went to a friends field to make sure aall our kit was working as it should the day before we skirmished, and I found after a short burst on auto or about 10-15 shots on semi the hop will have turned itself off. I solved this by putting 2-3 gearbox shims behind the screw that hold the hop wheel in place, this made it a LOT stiffer and now doesn't move unless I really want it to. The trigger is pretty snappy, with quick follow up shots being easy to do with the EFCS from ares. As I said earlier, I was reaching out to about 50-60 meters with no wind, but this was with the new bucking, nub and uprated spring. I reckon you wouldn't be far off that stock though, but your hop bucking wont last long. Actually upgrading the replica is a bit of a mixed bag of dificulty. Getting the top reciever off and the barrel out isn't too difficult, but getting the gearbox out is a little more work. I'm not 100% on the gearbox type, but I believe its a custom shaped v2 to fit the bullpup design, so upgrade parts should be plentiful. Overall I'm very happy with it, and would definitely suggest this to anyone looking for an l85a3. But bare in mind that it is an ares, so you might get adamantium internals, or gears made of cheese, but this is a review of this replica, not the company. Overall rating: 8/10

So, in case anyone else has this issue at any point, I'll explain what the issue/s was. 1. Short troking and precocking without adjusting the tappet timing. Nozzle was coming forward just after the piston. Big loss of fps there. 2. Shagged bucking. Speaks for itself. 3. Crap mags. I kept getting anything from 160fps to 330 with the wind up mags I have that don't fit great but usually still feed. I switched to a poly midcap that fit better, and I went back up to a relatively consistent 343-345. Thank you again everyone for your help, now I can focus on starting a dmr build 🤣

Ok. I'm at my wit's end. Stock nozzle refitted, brand new super macron bucking with omega nub, barrel polished, piston, piston head, cylinder, cylinder head all checked for compression and it's all good. I'm still only getting 140 FPS on .2s, and using the paper test the paper still flies out of the magwell. The only thing I can think of is the stock nozzle not sealing with the hob bucking well enough, which means taking it all apart and fitting the new nozzle. Again. Anyone got any other theories?

Ah, if they recommend 11.1 then that's what I'll go for. Cheers.

Quick easy one (hopefully) for anyone that owns an ares l85a3. I've seen some places say to use 7.4v lipos, some say 11.1v. Which would be the better bet? I have two 7.4s and the shop has said I can swap them for 11.1s if I want, but suggests the 7.4v. However other shops, reviews etc say 11.1v. I just don't want to break my new toy 🤣

Ok, just been thrown a curve ball here. My nozzle doesn't go all the way back before coming back forwards. It looks like the tappet plate itself bends upwards towards the piston and doesn't go back all the way. It's almost like the tappet spring is too strong. Possibly a stupid question, but is the nozzle supposed to go back as far as the cylinder head?

Unfortunately the maple leaf bucking is all I have. I've also had no issues with them before (except for the shagged one, which probably happened when fitting it knowing my clumsy hands). I don't know the length of the ares nozzle as I don't have any calipers to measure with, but the replacement is listed as 21.4mm. it's the rocket double oring nozzle. I'll wack the original nozzle in and see what happens. It had perfect fps before I changed the nozzle, but the stock one is plastic and I wanted to eliminate that as a weakpoint.

Ok, so I put the new bucking in, and it wouldn't feed at all with the aftermarket nozzle I put in. (Didn't lose my range time though as I also bought a new areas l85a3 as an early birthday gift to me). Seeing as the new nozzle is only a millimeter or two longer, would that really stop it from feeding at all?

Picked this up today. Loving the blowback.

Oh it's tight against the gearbox. The amoeba mutants have a spring in the outer barrel that pushed the proprietary hop unit tight, then it's also held in place with a couple of hex bolts. I've gone through everything except putting a new maple leaf bucking in, so hopefully when I pick up a new super macron today it should be back up near 350. Might be a little over as the new nozzle, which has never been tested with a decent bucking, has orings and the stock one didn't. That'll be an easy fix If it is, I'll just rip the spring out and take a little more off it. Cheers everyone, hopefully I won't be posting I'm this thread again 🤣🤣