ICS L85A2

[Airsoft-Ed]

Gun make and model:

As above, L85A2, made by ICS.

 

FPS:

It can be changed to one of 3 possible options. With the stock spring I've had mine chrono'd at 345 on the lowest setting, 370 on the middle and I've never had it checked on the highest because it's got to be over 370 which is my site limit. If I were to make a guess, the highest setting is probably around 400 to 410. Bear in mind these tests were not done with the stock barrel, but with a twist barrel which I think have a bore diameter of 6.05 if I remember correctly.

 

Hop up:

The hop is adjustable of course and is adjusted just like most M4 platforms, with a dial that you twist. Anti-clockwise for hop on, clockwise for hop off. The annoying thing about this is that the stopper that ought to prevent you from being able to turn the wheel forever in one direction, is a very small nub. So if you twist the wheel fast, you just brush over the stopper without even realising you've done it. Meaning that the hop can seem very iffy and crap at first until you figure this out. Out of the box I also had issues with the hop sending all my shots sky high even when the dial was turned completely off.

However, this can be remedied by using .25s, which I would recommend doing anyway.

By buying a new hop rubber - I'm using a Madbull Blue.

Changing your hop up nub to a better, harder one and finally,

By packing out the hole that the spring sits in that pushes on the hop arm, to make the spring more effective.

 

Mag Capacity:

One of this gun's best features is that it comes supplied with 2 470 round high capacity magazines, it is the only L85 that comes like this as far as I'm aware.

 

Battery:

With the standard hand guard there is ample space for a large 8.4v battery. With the Daniel Defence RIS fitted your battery space becomes VERY small and tight, I use 7.2v 1450mah LiPo batteries, they're just the right size to fit along the bottom inside edge of the RIS and if you're not rambo you can probably make it last you all day, I always do.

 

Plastic/Metal/Both:

Just like the real thing, metal where it ought to be, plastic where it ought to be. Simple as.

 

My opinion and overall comments:

Well, where do I start?

Out of the box this thing is very good, there is no call for any form of upgrade. Just simply putting a tight bore barrel in this thing ups the range substantially. 40m is a breeze even in stock form. Mine after upgrades can push 60m and still retain reasonable accuracy.

Although a lot of the parts are proprietary they are very good, some people may be disappointed that you can't change the hop unit but there's really no need.

It's the easiest gun in the universe to work on. Just remove two body pins, take the stock plate off, separate the upper and lower halves, disconnect the motor and then the entire gearbox just slides right out in one piece. Fully stripping it to change the spring tension can be done in less than 2 minutes, easily.

Due to the adjustable spring it also means you can take the spring out of the gearbox before opening it up, meaning there's no chance of the spring exploding the gearbox everywhere and making you lose any gears or shims or springs etc.

 

This is my favourite and most used gun and I've poured one hell of a lot of time and money into it, it's the gun that keeps on giving. It has its problems but it more than makes up for them in performance. The internals are amazingly good, the gearbox is built like a bomb shelter, the motor it comes with is the kind of thing you'd buy as a high end upgrade, everything's just utterly bullet proof. All parts are easily replaceable if anything goes wrong, gear sets, hop unit, trigger mechanism etc you can even buy the entire gearbox and motor combo as one item which I think is great.

 

To top it all off though, it's an L85. You just can't ask for more.

 

Buy one now, all of you.

 

Overall rating:

Once you've put the work into it to make it shoot as you want, it's definitely worthy of 10/10.

 

Additional stuffs:

 

Problems and solutions:

 

Here are a list of problems I have run into and what I did to sort them out -

 

Over hop - I mentioned this above, under the hop up section. Solution? Heavier ammo, pack out the spring, change the rubber and the nub.

 

Double feeding - Mine has done this a lot, on and off at random. Solution? Again, use .25s, I can't understand why this works but it does. Also ensure your magazines are working correctly and that the gearbox is seated as far forward as possible. A lot of the time small performance niggles can be solved by taking the gun apart and putting it back together again.

It's like some sort of weird gun placebo surgery. The gun thinks you're fixing it, so it works. I can't explain it.

 

The biggest problem I had manifested itself thusly - The gun would not work. Everything was in place, but the trigger did nothing.

After a LOT of dismantling the trigger mech, the gearbox, checking my batteries, following the entire circuit through to find a break etc etc I realised that it was being caused by the two connector pins on top of the trigger mechanism.

These pins cause the circuit to break when the gun is taken apart into upper and lower halves, they can become bent slightly through rigorous assembly and take down. I change my fps a lot for the different sites I play at, so from taking the gun apart so much they had bent just enough so that they missed their contact when the gun was closed. Just get a pair of pliers and bend them upwards. Never had the problem again since I did that.

 

If you have a problem I've not mentioned then PM me about it, I can probably help you figure it out, either that or I'll have had it happen to me and just forgotten to add it to this list. I'll update it as I run into issues and find fix for them.

 

For fear of causing you all to commit suicide at the sight of so much text I will hold back on the skirmish report until anyone wants to know more about it, but I will say that it's the most beastly gun ever.

 

Thanks for reading, let me know if I missed anything.

 

For more info about my L85, see my L85 rundown thread, here.

[DX115FALCON]

You really should merge this with your custom review, or rename it "Ed's Custom L85 review" because this one has got no exposure, and it's a really well written review of the stock ICS L85

[Airsoft-Ed]

I think I wrote this one before the massive one lol, I'd forgotten all about it until I saw your comment bump it to the top of the section.