CYMA CM.123 AEP 1911 bloaty blaster

[Rogerborg]

The CM.123 is notionally a 1911, but uses the same AEP internals as the TM G18C copies.  This makes it a broad and bulky BB bunger, with no rail attachments and some annoyingly sticky-outy controls which I'll come to later.

 

Stock out of the box, it chronoed at 205fps x 0.2g - the site chap was "impressed", having guessed 180.  I was told to be careful with it, tres ironic.

 

The effective range therefore wasn't anything to write home about.  Realistically, you're looking at 15m for people to acknowledge that they've been hit, but then you're using pistol sights, so what ranges are you going to be using it at?  For peeking round doorways, it worked fine.  Late in the day, I just ditched my M4, ran with just the 123, and some cheeky pistol kills were achieved.

 

As other reviewers have noted, the accuracy was surprisingly decent, with little horizontal deviation.  The hop up is very sensitive, wanting tiny turns to get it dialled in with 0.2g (I've been advised to try 0.25).  It's easy enough to do, just remove the top slide (one click), and shoot it with the wheel exposed.

 

There are a couple of big negatives though, and they're to do with holstering it.  Shoved deep into a generic cheap leg holster, two things happened.  First, the magazine release got pressed (I believe), and it dropped the mag.  Second, when drawing it, the fire selector lever on the back left kept getting flipped forwards to full auto - a no-no on my CQB site.

 

It also comes with a 1911 style safety on the back of the grip.  Squeeze to shoot.  The idea is fine, but because the grip is so bulky I found it a little awkward to get a good wrap-around grip on it, and I was also jerking when banging with my index finger.  I taped the safety down, and middle fingering works fine, haters can step off.

 

Always up for a mid-game bodge, I took off the plastic-wood grips to de-bulk it marginally, wrapped electrical tape over the fire selector, and also taped 3 BBs next to the magazine release to protect it from being accidentally pressed.  However, it dropped the supplied metal mag again later in the day.  Hmmm.  Might just be an inherent problem.

 

What did work fine was a 100-round mid-cap mag intended for the G18C / Cyma CM.030 / 127.  The angle once it leaves the grip isn't quite the same as the 1911 grip, but it slots in perfectly and fed just fine.  It's also a lot harder to lose than the internal 30-round one.  I reckon I'll run with that mag and cable-tie it to my pistol lanyard.

 

More fps would be appreciated, so I've ordered an upgraded spring from Eagle6. Other than that, i'll be getting a barrel clean, some washers glued around the mag release button to form a well, and a less ghetto solution than the tape over the fire selector, maybe a drill-tap-screw.

 

Why did I get the 1911 rather than the CM.127 glock-knock-off?  Well, everyone's got one, I wanted something a little different it was £10 less, just £60 delivered in easily removed blue-tone from onlybbguns.  

 

Would I recommend it?  No, not really.  It worked OK when it had a mag in it, but is somewhat of a project gun.  Get the 127 / 125 / 121, or go gas.

 

 

[UPDATE]

I've been into the gearbox now to fit an Eagle6 power-up spring and have some observations.

 

First, the Eagle6 spring seems extreme.  It's both longer and stronger than the stock spring and I was really struggling to get it to fit.  In the event, I clipped it down by a few coils, and then later a few more after the gearbox locked up.

 

On the lock-up, it may have been down to me over-shimming it.  It clearly needed done, with 3 out of 4 gears having noticable play.  However, I made the noob error of not screwing it back together as I was going, and I reckon I removed too much clearance.

 

After a more careful re-shimming it now sounds good, whacky rather than whiny.  I have no idea if I've actually increased the power with the cut down spring, I'll find out this weekend.  Worst case I can put the stock one back in.

 

What I will note is that the stock nylon bushes are the weak point, with far too much lateral play in them.  If I upgrade a CYMA pistol in earnest, metal bushings will be a must.

[Rogerborg]

Some very belated followup to the above:

 

With a clipped down Eagle6 spring, I got a reliable 220fps.  Flat hopping and fitting a block of pencil eraser as a nub works well and the hop is fairly consistent now.  After re-shimming, it's never locked up again.

 

Wiring it for lipo makes a huge difference to both response and rof.  It's as simple as soldering JST connector wires onto the existing battery terminal points, either retaining or removing the stock battery connector as you see fit.  300mah 7.4V mini lipos just about fit under the barrel.

 

Even after filing the mag release button nearly flush with the frame, it was still dropping mags even when not holstered.  Eventually I had to accept that it was because the mag retention catch isn't sliding far enough into the magazine cut out even with no pressure on the release. After some failed attempts to glue shims on, I just drilled through the catch and added a tiny screw on the inside then formed a small blob of JB Weld around that to effectively extend the catch inwards (a blob of solder might work as well).  This seems to have done the trick, but other owners have reported the same problem, and I suspect these catches need sorted in the factory.

 

Of course, I couldn't help fiddling more, and so went in with a fresh Eagle6 M80 spring - which does squeeze in, if you're confident - and Laylax metal bushings.  After getting it all shimmed up nicely and put back together, it's now chroning at.... uh... 220fps.  Hmm.

 

However, I suspect this was down to bolting a rail section through the slide, the front mount of which was just slightly fouling the hop arm, causing it to either under-hop or double-feed depending.  With everything filed down, the hop is working well again although I don't know what the final fps is.

 

Very much a project gun, but something to note is that I've ham-fisted this thing apart many times now, and it's always gone back together and kept shooting reliably.  For all that AEPs are complicated things, they're not necessarily fragile.