Having done a fair bit of research online, I chose my weapon and am pretty satisfied with it. Time and time again on AF-UK I've read warnings about the budget "Pro" guns. But what happens if you DON'T research properly? Enter the BS(?) M901A from justbbguns.co.uk. The reason I'm posting this is because I think the website is quite misleading about the gun. Anyway, here's what I see..
In fairness to my friend who bought it, she has neither the spare cash to buy a better weapon nor the patience to save up for it. So £60 for an AEG with battery and charger and a V2 Metal gearbox, "just" like the one I paid £155 for, seemed like a bargain to her.
Unboxing the M901A reveals it to be initially appealing. It's got a good weight to it (more of that later) and not being bothered about mil-sim at this point, the orange colour isn't unpleasant. The magazine is metal and has a winged allen key to wind the spring, as well as the usual thumbwheel underneath. The thumbwheel isn't particularly nice to use. It's a little stiff and the metal edges on the gap exposing the wheel are a little sharp IMO, so the key is the way to go. Fitting the slim battery and cover is a bit fiddly, but actually slightly less of a palaver than my ICS. Incidentally, the battery is rated at 8.4v but measures at 9.5v on my DVM. Unhelpfully, the charging advice is rudmentary, to say the least. Essentially it is "charge the battery until it gets warm, but stop before it catches fire". Brilliant(!) A phone call sorted out a rough charging time from the guys at justbbguns.
In use, the claimed 12BB/s doesn't seem to be achieved. I'm guessing it's more like 5-8BB/s, I'll have to measure it. Certainly it's a damned site slowwer than my ICS M4. Until I can get the thing on a rig, I can't comment on it's accuracy.
While we were having a play with the gun, we found there was a rattle coming from the stock. So we took the bottom of the stock off to reveal....
View attachment 5131
What's this? An extra battery perhaps.....? Erm, sadly not. It's about a pound of weight added to the gun to make you think you're getting value for money. Or maybe to "balance" the gun? The whole shooting match weighs just under 2kg.
View attachment 5134
But without the ballast, the gun is a little less substantial at 1.5kg.
View attachment 5135
Additionally, justbbguns claim "This NEW gun features a reinforced metal gearbox, which allows for it to give just a little bit more power while improving overall durability.". It then says "New high-strength polymer internals have been installed for maximum performance without compromising reliability". Looking behind the trigger I can see one of the polymer gears through clear plastic, so I'm not exactly how that fits in with the unit having a "reinforced metal gearbox". (I've tried uploading a picture of this, but cannot for some reason. I'll maybe try again in a subsequent post.). It's obvious that justbbguns are trying to big-up this gun to make it sound more impressive than it is. I found the added ballast particularly irritating, but it COULD be argued that it gives the gun a better feel.
As a skirmish AEG, I really don't think this AEG would take much heavy use and the £60 would be better spent hiring or going towards buying better equipment. But as a fun toy, for £60 all in, it doesn't seem to be outrageously bad value for money. And if the gun fails, you can always throw the weight at the enemy!
In fairness to my friend who bought it, she has neither the spare cash to buy a better weapon nor the patience to save up for it. So £60 for an AEG with battery and charger and a V2 Metal gearbox, "just" like the one I paid £155 for, seemed like a bargain to her.
Unboxing the M901A reveals it to be initially appealing. It's got a good weight to it (more of that later) and not being bothered about mil-sim at this point, the orange colour isn't unpleasant. The magazine is metal and has a winged allen key to wind the spring, as well as the usual thumbwheel underneath. The thumbwheel isn't particularly nice to use. It's a little stiff and the metal edges on the gap exposing the wheel are a little sharp IMO, so the key is the way to go. Fitting the slim battery and cover is a bit fiddly, but actually slightly less of a palaver than my ICS. Incidentally, the battery is rated at 8.4v but measures at 9.5v on my DVM. Unhelpfully, the charging advice is rudmentary, to say the least. Essentially it is "charge the battery until it gets warm, but stop before it catches fire". Brilliant(!) A phone call sorted out a rough charging time from the guys at justbbguns.
In use, the claimed 12BB/s doesn't seem to be achieved. I'm guessing it's more like 5-8BB/s, I'll have to measure it. Certainly it's a damned site slowwer than my ICS M4. Until I can get the thing on a rig, I can't comment on it's accuracy.
While we were having a play with the gun, we found there was a rattle coming from the stock. So we took the bottom of the stock off to reveal....
View attachment 5131
What's this? An extra battery perhaps.....? Erm, sadly not. It's about a pound of weight added to the gun to make you think you're getting value for money. Or maybe to "balance" the gun? The whole shooting match weighs just under 2kg.
View attachment 5134
But without the ballast, the gun is a little less substantial at 1.5kg.
View attachment 5135
Additionally, justbbguns claim "This NEW gun features a reinforced metal gearbox, which allows for it to give just a little bit more power while improving overall durability.". It then says "New high-strength polymer internals have been installed for maximum performance without compromising reliability". Looking behind the trigger I can see one of the polymer gears through clear plastic, so I'm not exactly how that fits in with the unit having a "reinforced metal gearbox". (I've tried uploading a picture of this, but cannot for some reason. I'll maybe try again in a subsequent post.). It's obvious that justbbguns are trying to big-up this gun to make it sound more impressive than it is. I found the added ballast particularly irritating, but it COULD be argued that it gives the gun a better feel.
As a skirmish AEG, I really don't think this AEG would take much heavy use and the £60 would be better spent hiring or going towards buying better equipment. But as a fun toy, for £60 all in, it doesn't seem to be outrageously bad value for money. And if the gun fails, you can always throw the weight at the enemy!
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