Comprehensive Ares AW .338 spring version (MSR-006/7/8) review.

[Airsoft-Ed]

How much was it with shipping?

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

I just stumbled across a review of the MSR, which is largely the same as this apart from the bolt handle and the trigger unit.

http://www.airsoftsniperforum.com/36-rifles-parts-reviews/6451-ares-ms-700-msr-review.html

It seems a few people have CNC'd their own parts out of steel and it performs quite well. There's also talk of people buying 90 degree piston sears and pistons, or modifying the existing sears and pistons to make them 90 degree, so I might look into that.

Nineball Purple hop rubbers, 500fps springs and steel spring guide stoppers seem to be a winning combination. Shouldn't even cost too much to sort the gun out like that, so once pay day comes around I might try my hand at upgrading it a bit.

It seems I'm the only person on this earth to have had any feeding issues <_<

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

Also just found another review of this actual rifle: http://www.airsoftsniperforum.com/36-rifles-parts-reviews/7897-ares-aw338-comprehensive-review-msr-008-spring.html

It seems I'm the only person in the entire world that's had any negative experiences with it at all! It's not fair D=

 

[Sic]

Crappy camera in my phone but maybe you can see it anyway.. it had to be filed down about 3-4 mm and it fits nice now.

I found another problem with it. when i bolt and fire the second sear falls out after 3 shots so i get slamfire after that and have to set the pin back in and it works fine.. will put some tape or something on it to make it stay in the gun.

the total cost was $250 with shipping and customs fee

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

What fps are you firing at? If it's low, upgrading the spring to a more powerful and longer one, ought to stop the stopper falling out. Though it being missing shouldn't make the gun slam fire.

$250 is about £160. I dunno what ZeroTrigger's usually cost, but that sounds like a lot for it to not even fit the gun and fall apart once it's in the gun... I might hold off until I hear more about it, or an alternative comes available.

 

[Liam Porter]

£160 is about right, apart from it not fitting and falling apart, the Laylax one for the Maruzen and clones is £180.

Sic, are you on about the spring guide stopper, or the piston sear? If the piston sear, then it definitely shouldn't fall out in a zero trigger, and if the spring guide stopper, then you have a couple of options; put a more powerful spring in it, or put a spring with the same power, but a longer length in it, or, as you said, put tape over the bottom, which is what I do with mine.

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

I've managed to get R-hop working, but I don't honestly see any improvement over the stock rubber, other than it having lasted longer so far.

It's far more hassle than it's worth, I'd have sooner bought 500 shit hop rubbers and replaced them every 50 shots than go through the rigmarole of pissing about with R-hop again.

I've had to use an old L96 cut twist barrel, which is sending my shots off everywhere, so it's nothing close to accurate and the range is pretty erratic too, sometimes it'll shoot 80m, sometimes it'll drop off at around 50, I think I might need to locktite down the hop adjustment screw.

 

[Unrustle_Thine_Jimmies]

I'll be interested when/if you get the new rubber and try Ghop,I'm set on doing it to my gun when I come back from Ukraine,not much stuff on it being done on a VSR type hopup.

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

Nineball purple rubber came today, works the best I've had it so far. It's pretty much one shot hit guaranteed out to 30m so long I have a full torso to aim for, I can get up to 80m range out of it, but I'm worried about actually maxing the hop out in case I destroy the rubber like last time.

Think I might skirmish it seriously for the first time on Sunday and see how I get on with it. I just wish the mags were so incomprehensibly shit, I have 3 but I can't load more than one at a time because if I try to store the ones not being used they just spray their entire load (hurhurhur) everywhere the second I try and pouch them in a pouch, knock them on something, or even touch them for that matter.

Still getting feeding issues as well, I actually can't chambre a round from the mag without cocking the bolt, releasing the mag and then reinserting it, then closing the bolt; that's literally the only way I can get it to feed. Which means I pretty much have to work off a bipod.

Annoying.com

 

[Liam Porter]

Is the Nineball rubber soft or hard?

Did you ever try again with the R-Hop, or did you give up with that?

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

It's soft.

The hop unit also has a tendency to adjust itself without me touching it, so I actually didn't end up skirmishing it <_<

I've not tried R Hop again yet, but I may do at some point.

 

[Liam Porter]

When you did R-Hop, what nub and bucking did you use?

How's the hop adjusted? Is it the same as the Well/Warrior, with an Allen key in the bottom of the gun?

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

It's adjusted with a top grub down screw that pushes directly onto the hop arm.

I used a biro nub and a red bucking I had lying around, not sure of the make.

 

[Liam Porter]

Did you remove the little 'nub' from inside the bucking?

And you should use a flat, soft nub for R-Hop, the regular nub is probably what was giving you bad results.

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

I removed the bump from the bucking yeah.

I think the issue with it was that none of the patches properly matched the barrel, so I couldn't stop it from sitting flush. BBs wouldn't just roll through I'd have to force them to get them past the patch.

If I try it again I'll get a different set of patches and a new barrel.

 

[Liam Porter]

Did you sand down the patch, I've had to do quite a lot of sanding on mine.

A normal nub is no good, you want one that's flat and covers the same area as the R-Hop patch.

I use a piece of rubber band cut to size, with a small piece of milk bottle glued onto the top of it, so the hop levers push down the whole patch equally.

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

I sanded it down on the top side, but I didn't want to sand the inside edge down because I assumed it was important to keep it as it came, since that's the part that effects the BB.

The Rhop patches I have are hard as fuck, so they protrude into the barrel flat and evenly anyway. Though I have sanded the biro tube flat on one side anyway, so it's a pretty even surface.

 

[Liam Porter]

You want to get really, really fine sandpaper, wrap it around an Allen key or cleaning/in jamming rod, and sand the inside down so it matches the curvature of the BB.

For the nub, you'll still want one that's the same length as the patch, so the whole patch pushes down evenly, otherwise you may as well just use a normal hop.

Another thing, how smooth is the part where you removed the nub on the inside of the hop rubber? Mine wasn't very, although I tried really hard. To solve it, I also removed the fin (that makes the rubber only go on one way), twisted the rubber 90 degrees and then put it on.

For your hop, it may be worthwhile for you to do the TDC mod, although that'd require drilling a larger whole into the top of your barrel and having a screw poke out the top. It makes for easier adjustment on the go, and is apparently very stable and consistent, although I'm yet to try it.

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

I tried the top down mod already and it readjust itself just as easily as the regular hop. It's one piece of plastic away from being top down nodded anyway.

I twisted the rubber to one side too, and I actually cut a small trough into the rubber where it used to be, so it's definitely not the inside f the hop bucking.

I don't think the patch is wide enough for me tone able to sand that much of the inside edge away. I don't have the rightsand paper either, or any way of holding it that'd let me sand it accurately enough to do it right anyway.

Main priority is getting the feeding mech to behave, 'cos that's the one I have to sort if it's ever going to be remotely skirmishable.

 

[Liam Porter]

I just sanded it down holding it between finger and thumb.

How many mags do you have? Could just be a crappy one?

And I think I saw a replacement feeding tube thing for the TM version somewhere, maybe there's one for the ARES, or the TM could even fit? They can't be too different.