SRC AKS74U Gas blowback thoughts?

[straffham]

Anyone any experience of the above? Its on flash sale TODAY ONLY for £149.95 at Airsoft World and I'm mighty tempted to add to my collection.

 

Supposedly steel receiver and real wood. 45rd mag (though review says 65) so more useable than a 30rd AR.

 

I know SRC AEGs have a mixed reputation so input gratefully received if you have experience of this gun. Cheers!

[Chock]

It'd be well worth it if you could get it for less than 150 quid, but I suspect you may be reading the price wrong, it was 255 quid reduced from 299 when I just looked on there a second ago. Actually, scratch that, you were right on the price.

[straffham]

Yeah its only if you click on the Special Offers, then Flash Sale, looked at a few videos and certainly looks and sounds great, think I might have to scratch the itch!

 

Main concern would be the quality of the mags / valves, any idea on them?

Edited November 28, 2014 by straffham

[straffham]

Well I've ordered one to play with as been thinking about a GBBR to tinker with for a while, as well as a couple of extra mags which were also on offer. For basically Combat Machine money its a good deal, and I'm thinking the bigger 45rd plastic mags will be more useable than AR mags in a skirmish (if it gets that far!). So will see how it goes. . .

[Ian_Gere]

Keep us posted I suspect that a comment I read elsewhere will prove prophetic: something like "with GBBRs you can have either cheap or working, not both". But let's hope not...

[straffham]

Keep us posted I suspect that a comment I read elsewhere will prove prophetic: something like "with GBBRs you can have either cheap or working, not both". But let's hope not...

 

Well, quite!

[Unrustle_Thine_Jimmies]

I think these have gas systems designed by that bloke Tanio Koba or something,same guy who designed the KJW M4 GBBR which is one of the more reliable designs.

 

Please do report on it's quality. Lots of steel has me intrigued,and for all we know the gas system could be a hidden gem

[Chock]

Took a punt on one of these too. For a ton and a half I figured it was a bit of a bargain.

 

This means I've now got six AKs lol

 

Four AK74SUs, one AK47 and one AK12

[straffham]

Took a punt on one of these too. For a ton and a half I figured it was a bit of a bargain.

 

This means I've now got six AKs lol

 

Four AK74SUs, one AK47 and one AK12

Good man, bargain of the year I reckon, plenty of videos out there on the gun, will put a review on when I've assessed it.

[Chock]

Notable comments in Airsoft World review...

 

'it is about as close to an AK as you're gonna get without going to some odd parts of the world and purchasing one'

 

'comes apart just like the real thing'

 

'magazine holds 65 rounds'

 

'auto rate of fire is true to the original'

 

 

Internal GBB mechanism animation from SRC:

 

[straffham]

It would be great if the mags did hold 65 rounds as the review mentions, though AW's own sales page blurb says 45 rounds somewhat confusingly!

[Chock]

Well either way, it's not going to be too usable without a few extra mags, and they are 30-40 quid a pop, so reckon on throwing another ton at the thing.

[straffham]

Well either way, it's not going to be too usable without a few extra mags, and they are 30-40 quid a pop, so reckon on throwing another ton at the thing.

Yeah true, I ordered a couple with the gun, I figure on using it semi auto mainly and am fairly conservative on ammo so it may be sufficient with reloading at respawn/between games, if not I will prob get a couple more when funds allow.

[Chock]

It being a shorty, I reckon I'm most likely to use the SRC AK indoors CQB at Trojan's mill site, and that's semi-auto only rule in almost all circumstances, so technically I could probably get away with carrying just one spare mag, as that'd equate to having 30 three round taps with just one mag change, but I'll probably get a few mags anyway just to be on the safe side as I know GBB mags can go U/S occasionally. In any case I'm in no rush, it's probably gonna be too cold to get really good use out of a GBB at the moment (I'm not using my GBB MP5K at the moment for that reason, and that really has to be used on semi auto anyway because of its mental ROF, so the slower ROF of that SRC AK will be a welcome change, in any case, my GBB pistol was indicative of how crappy GBBs will do at the moment, barely managing three decent shots out in the cold last Sunday, although admittedly that pistol has a very small gas capacity, whereas those SRC AK gas mags apparently have good gas capacity). So if I really must use an AK whilst it is cold, I'll probably wheel out my AEG AK74SU, which has four spare 30 round mags for it. Either that or just stick with my M4 and its 300 round mag.

 

Looking forward to getting hold of that SRC AK though. I've read a lot of good things about it and it looks to be decent quality from the vids I've seen. If their AEGs are anything to go by I'm sure it'll be pretty nice and reliable too.

[Ian_Gere]

It's an AKS-74U

[straffham]

It's an AKS-74U

Indeed it is, thanks for the correction, was going with what AW market it as.

[Unrustle_Thine_Jimmies]

Bit concerned by the Bolt stop being the bolt slamming into the mag follower. I guess we know where KWA got their idea.

[straffham]

Bit concerned by the Bolt stop being the bolt slamming into the feed lip. I guess we know where KWA got their idea.

It actually hits the mag follower afaik, and this has been mentioned as a potential weak point (AW review video's sample has no follower in the mag). Hopefully an aftermarket one will be made available if this is the case.

[Unrustle_Thine_Jimmies]

It actually hits the mag follower afaik, and this has been mentioned as a potential weak point (AW review video's sample has no follower in the mag). Hopefully an aftermarket one will be made available if this is the case.

Yeah,meant follower,don't know why I wrote feed lip. Hopefully SRC take after KJW and offer a good source of parts

[GiantKiwi]

My god someone else bought one. Do not buy them. Want an AK GBBR, get a WE or a GHK.

 

Was given one to fix a few weeks back -

 

Owner claimed no more than 50 mags had been through it - Internals were pulverized.

 

Go to get spare parts to replace pretty much everything inside - No one stocks them, go to a few separate distributors, who incidentally don't stock them. Go to SRC direct....."Sorry we don't make spares yet" This gun has been out for over 3 years, yet they've not made any spares?

 

Hand gun back to a miffed owner, who now has nothing but a wall hanger.

[straffham]

My god someone else bought one. Do not buy them. Want an AK GBBR, get a WE or a GHK.

 

Was given one to fix a few weeks back -

 

Owner claimed no more than 50 mags had been through it - Internals were pulverized.

 

Go to get spare parts to replace pretty much everything inside - No one stocks them, go to a few separate distributors, who incidentally don't stock them. Go to SRC direct....."Sorry we don't make spares yet" This gun has been out for over 3 years, yet they've not made any spares?

 

Hand gun back to a miffed owner, who now has nothing but a wall hanger.

Ok cheers for the comments, its good to get first hand feedback, what were the worst offending parts? I take it there is no parts commonality with WE or GHK then?

End of the day I've bought one as its a cheap gun to add to my collection and don't plan on using it massively, if it dies it would be annoying obviously but not the end of the world. However any first hand knowledge on minimizing wear / damage would be good to know?

[GiantKiwi]

Ok cheers for the comments, its good to get first hand feedback, what were the worst offending parts? I take it there is no parts commonality with WE or GHK then?

End of the day I've bought one as its a cheap gun to add to my collection and don't plan on using it massively, if it dies it would be annoying obviously but not the end of the world. However any first hand knowledge on minimizing wear / damage would be good to know?

 

SRC is entirely proprietary, nozzle is incredibly fragile. Have actually just found a replacement nozzle for it, but at £60 for a piece of flimsy plastic. Yeah...no.

 

The trigger control group is all cheap pot metal (where the hell did they find stuff that bad?) so it has a very limited life. The example I worked on the hammer had snapped. Even Stock WE's don't do that.

 

The bolt carrier group was deformed to the point where it had to be removed with a few taps from a mallet.

 

Hop unit...well there wasn't much left. Genuinely surprised he wasn't hurling flecks of pot metal at people instead of bb's. Disintegrated comes to mind.

[Chock]

It's an AKS-74U

 

Yup, it is indeed, but I tend to just type AK74SU out of habit.

 

Not good to hear those reports about it being crap internally, but I guess we'll find out.

 

Like straffham, this is not a critical purchase for me, since I tend to use an M4 actually, and I already have a few AKs anyway (AEGs), including three other shortened AKs with folding stocks. So for 150 quid, obviously I'd not be thrilled if this SRC one fell to bits, but I would be okay with then either messing about with it or having it as a wall hanger. For me, airsoft is as much about tinkering and having stuff on the wall as it is about shooting people in the face

[Chock]

SRC AK arrived in post today.

 

Here it is in the box, alongside one of my AEG AKs:

 

[straffham]

Nice one! Mine SHOULD have arrived today, at 4am it was marked arrived at my nearest UPS depot 20 miles away for delivery, 8am ready for despatch, but by 11am it had changed to delayed with the message "left at depot, delivery may be delayed by 1 business day" FFS! When I phoned them the automated message said its on its way but nothing turned up, so I'm expecting it to arrive tomorrow now. AW always been good with my deliveries to be fair.