Ares Amoeba Striker AS-01/AS-02 Owners Thread

[xollob]

New to the site, I did get a Ares Amoeba AS-02 Knee Capper Striker Sniper Rifle last year, and I'm finding that it comes in at 320 fps, is this normal? and if not how do I fix it?

[Skara]

Yes it's normal, it's a 150mm barrel + ported cylinder after all.

Due to the stupid low air volume, getting to 2+J energy is gonna be a) expensive and b) not a fun bolt pull.

[xollob]

On 14/02/2022 at 07:04, Skara said:

Yes it's normal, it's a 150mm barrel + ported cylinder after all.

Due to the stupid low air volume, getting to 2+J energy is gonna be a) expensive and b) not a fun bolt pull.

Thanks. Looks like I need a new hop unit to improve accuracy. Any ideas?

[Samurai]

On 18/02/2022 at 22:35, xollob said:

Thanks. Looks like I need a new hop unit to improve accuracy. Any ideas?

Factory unit is good. Get a gunsmithy hop arm and a decent bucking for accuracy.

[Skara]

On 18/02/2022 at 23:35, xollob said:

Thanks. Looks like I need a new hop unit to improve accuracy. Any ideas?

What Samurai said.

I used a (shit) 3d printed hop arm on mine so I could use Maple Leaf tensioners, but the GunSmithy is actually very well made.

[L1ct0r]

Hi

 

Hopefully I'm not reviving a completely dead topic. I've just picked up a new AS-02 as my first bolt action. My knees are feeling too old to run and gun and my local site is quite small and mostly wooded, so I'm looking for more of a scout rifle concept than a full-on long range sniper. I've got two 14 year olds who are happy to charge in on full-auto so I'm just going to sneak about in the bushes and take things slower. I've watched a lot of videos about various upgrades and I think I probably need to do a few things to make mine what I want. Also, I just like to tinker.

 

Looking around it seems hard to find some of the things like the ED 1 cylinder upgrade kits and the hop adjustment wheels. Speaking from 2022 in the UK, what do the experts recommend as 'must have' mods these days, and where should I look for them? I'm generally pretty competent, so I'm happy to do most work myself as long as there is a decent walk-through video to follow. I've not chrono'd it yet, but the shop said it should be running about 400 fps as is, although I don't know what BB weight that is with. They may also be fibbing, or guessing.

 

For my local site, I don't think I need to up the fps if it is near the figure I've been quoted. I'm most interested in finding the best bb weight for it and then making it as accurate as I can as well as anticipating known weak points (like low quality stock cylinder, etc) and replacing them before something fails. At the moment I'm thinking something like better hop rubber with the adjustment wheel upgrade and tighter barrel as well as a good after-market cylinder so I just don't need to worry about that either.

 

On a related note. I pulled the body pin earlier while familiarising my self with basic field stripping procedure. I notice that on mine the cocking indicator looks nothing like the one I've seen in videos warning against problems caused with using custom cylinders. Have Ares redesigned that part recently? Mine looks nothing like the blade/spring arrangement I see in the videos. It's more like a little silver bullet-point and I can't see how I would begin to attempt to remove it without replacing the entire part (pictures attached for anyone who is interested).

 

I'm interested in hearing what people who have been there before me would recommend to a first time AS-02 owner.

 

All tips and info gratefully received

[Skara]

So, yours is the new version with the one piece cylinder, which will save you a fair bit of money!

 

It still requires a TDC wheel (Action Army makes the best one) because the grub screw has a tendency to unscrew itself with use, then I'd look at a new o-ring for the piston head (it's AEG spec so any AEG o-ring will do), new hop rubber because the stock one is pisspoor quality and, if you can find it, a Gunsmithy hop up arm. You can keep the stock hop chamber because it's decent and seals well.

 

If you're looking at reducing the sound, I'm afraid there's not much you can do, airbrakes don't really work on this gun and the cylinder volume is barely enough for 0.32s, let alone heavier BBs.

[L1ct0r]

Thanks for the speedy reply mate

 

I found a site with the AA hop wheels in stock, so I've got one of those on the way. Glad to hear I've got the latest version of the gun. What does a one-piece cylinder do for me? Does that mean that I don't need to worry about replacing it at all, or would an after-market one still be better, but no longer a 'requirement'? Do you have any recommendations for a new hop rubber (assuming I'm only going to replace the rubber and add a TDC wheel)?

 

I'm not so bothered about the noise as long as the BBs are going where I point them. So what BBs would you recommend? Is it worth going to .3s or .25s or should I just stick with .2s?

 

Does my new-style body pin mean it would continue to work fine with a custom cylinder, or would I still have to get rid of the cocking indicator for continued smooth operation?

 

Do you have any recommendations for cleaning the inner barrel? I have heard the best way is to take the inner barrel out of the hop unit and clean it with alcohol rather than any sort of gun oil.

 

Thanks again

[Skara]

One of the problems the AS01 and 02 had was that the cylinder was made of brass and the butt plate (where the charging handle screws onto) was simply held in place by four small, presumably steel, pins.

The pins being much harder than brass would then carve their way out of the cylinder body, causing catastrophic failures.

 

A one piece cylinder, as the name suggests, has the cylinder body and butt plate made of a single solid block of metal, which makes it much, much stronger.

 

Regarding the hop rubber, it's up to you really, when I had mine a simple Maple Leaf Decepticon worked exceptionally well (if you go with concave rubbers you need a concave tensioner, which on the striker implies replacing the hop up arm because it has a very thin integrated one) but there are so many available it's not even fun.

 

The new design of the cocking indicator should be much better although being Ares I don't really trust them on actually improving something.

[ARC Fives]

Has anyone found a holster for an AS03? I was thinking of a back holster or something that will keep it fairly secure while I'm crawling about. Any ideas?

[ARC Fives]

Also, does anyone know if the AS03 fits into the AS01 stock?

[Skara]

10 hours ago, ARC Fives said:

Has anyone found a holster for an AS03? I was thinking of a back holster or something that will keep it fairly secure while I'm crawling about. Any ideas?

Nope, don't think it's possible to holster it, your best bet is a 2 points sling.

 

7 hours ago, ARC Fives said:

Also, does anyone know if the AS03 fits into the AS01 stock?

Yes it will

[ARC Fives]

On 15/06/2022 at 06:58, Skara said:

Nope, don't think it's possible to holster it, your best bet is a 2 points sling.

 

Yes it will

Cheers for that! I'll look at a 2point with a buckle in the middle so I can wear it across my back and release it when needed. I would like to use it as a secondary.

[L1ct0r]

On 18/06/2022 at 08:09, ARC Fives said:

Cheers for that! I'll look at a 2point with a buckle in the middle so I can wear it across my back and release it when needed. I would like to use it as a secondary.

I picked up a 2 point sling for mine from ebay. I got one with the quick adjustment cam on the strap, which works very well. You can quickly loosen then tighten again to shift position from front slung to rear slung, or to cinch it in tight as another point of contact when in the aim. definitely very usefull and worth having. Try and get one with some sort of quick release at at least one end.

 

while I'm here, does anyone have any idea what rating the stock spring is on the latest AS-02 rifles available in the UK might be? I've had chance to chrono mine now and it was shooting 410-420 fps with the stock Spring and .20g BBs. With .30g it was getting around 380 fps. I've got room to upgrade the spring without exceeding site limits but I don't really want to spend loads of money upgrading everything else to cope. My local site is small and very wooded so I don't need monster range. I just want to push those .30s a bit faster but I don't want to start buying new springs until I know what I'm running at the moment.

 

Any help greatfully recieved, 

 

Thanks

[fraaaa]

Hello to everyone, i just bought a new piston for my as02, the ares CPSB stainless one (CPSB-002-PT) with his spring guide from ares too (CPSB-002-SG), everything else is original, but when I put both on and tryed to "reaload" pulling it back (it's kinda hard to explain in english for me, also bc i'm a noob in term of snipering, so sorry for my vocabulary ahah), basically it won't "lock" back, which it does with his original piston (even with the new spring guide), so why the new piston isn't working for me? 

[Samurai]

Without knowing the exact parts you have, could be the spring guide is too long. This cylinder might not have enough space to allow it to be pulled back enough.

Or the cylinder doesn't have enough space for this spring and it's fully compressed before it's pulled back enough.

Try if it locks back if you don't have the spring in it. Then with the original spring guide.

[Josh C]

Anyone got any spare gunsmithy hop arms? It costs so much to import that tiny thing from the Netherlands!

[MrWolfmoney]

Heya guys, I've had an issue plaguing my Ares x Amoeba striker AST-1. The details are bellow and any help figuring out how to fix this would be massively appreciated. I know there must be a seal issue somewhere, but I'm sure its not the cylinder, and the hop-up unit appears to be fine, however if there is, I have no idea how to resolve that.
 

Current Internals

 

Cylinder: Ares C.P.S.B 007 Large Capacity Cylinder

Piston: Ares C.P.S.B Piston Type D

Spring: M150

Hop-up unit: Action Army Striker Hop-Up unit

Hop Rubber: Maple Leaf Autobot 50*

Barrel: Action Army VSR-10 6.01mm (550mm)

Extras: Sanded the chamber for smoother bolt pull

 

Issue Summary

 

All was firing fine, however, was hot on the M150. So went down to an M130 however was too weak so went to try an m140 however the spring wasn’t working with the cylinder, so I have opted to cut down the M150. On placing the M150 back in to get a new base reading to adjust from, the power was heavily reduced and then inconsistent with some shots jumping closer to where the m150 was before the issues started. Upon cleaning and re-lubricating the piston and spring, more shots were up inconsistently in power, however, a lot were still heavily underpowered. 

 

Airseal at the nozzle appears to be great, and can hold 20+ seconds with very little air loss. (See link to video). I have also tested the rifle with the original hop-up unit and barrel and the issue is the exact same, however obviously at a lower fps, the same also counts for the original cylinder and piston. I have also tried multiple hop-up rubbers and another m150 spring. See below for the test results with different internals.

 

Nozzle Air-seal test video - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uK0Z9RGWTzI3UHkhic6VYtx1L6Fz8T49/view?usp=share_link

 

FPS Results (Big Anomalies are highlighted) 

 

Pre-Issues (all upgraded internals with 70* Rubber on .4’s)

 

1. 340.7 fps

2. 340.1 fps

3. 340.8 fps

4. 343 fps

5. 344.1 fps

 

With Issues (all upgraded internals with 70* Rubber on .4’s) - Test 1

 

1. 263 fps

2. 358.8 fps

3. 264.7 fps

4. 269.6 fps

5. 273.5 fps

 

Test 2 (With 70* Rubber after a complete re-assembly on .4s)

 

1. 281 fps

2. 365.7 fps

3. 282.2 fps

4. 284.1 fps

5. 360.3 fps 

6. 286.5 fps

7. 284.1 fps

8. 359.8 fps

9. 358.3 fps

10. 355.7 fps

 

Test 3 (All upgrades with 50* hop up on .4’s)

 

1. 252.5 fps

2. 252.2 fps

3. 251.4 fps

4. 309.9 fps

5. 250.8 fps

6. 260.1 fps

7. 262.8 fps

8. 249 fps

9. 256.2 fps

10. 257.6 fps

 

Test 4 (All upgrades with 50* hop up on .4’s)

 

1. 268.6 fps 

2. 232.3 fps

3. 233.4 fps

4. 233 fps

5. 232.7 fps

6. 251.7 fps

7. 294.6 fps

8. 248.7 fps

9. 246 fps

10. 251.1 fps

 

Test 5 (Re-seated the inner barrel hop up rubber within the hop up chamber. On .4’s)

 

1. 242.5 fps

2. 250.1 fps

3. 238.3 fps

4. 487.9 fps (Huge jump in fps)

5. 242.6 fps

 

The next test is with the original cylinder with an m150 spring however it has a poor piston air seal. This is also in conjunction with the Action Army hop-up and Barrel on .4’s. Interesting to see a higher average fps despite a lower air capacity than the 007 cylinder which currently has a way better air seal too. However, that huge jump in FPS inconsistency is still there.

 

Test 6

 

1. 297.2 fps

2. 298.2 fps

3. 293.6 fps

4. 300.2 fps

5. 299.4 fps

6. 300.7 fps

7. 301.8 fps

8. 303.7 fps

9. 300.9 fps

10. 298.3 fps

11. 388.8 fps

12. 390.7 fps

13. 301.7 fps

14. 299.3 fps

15. 301.4 fps

 

Test 7 (With the original hop-up unit also installed, so completely stock except for the M150 spring - a separate one to the one in the 007 cylinder) 

 

1. 307.1 fps

2. 304.5 fps

3. 310.8 fps

4. 310.8 fps

5. 308.2 fps

6. 310.9 fps

7. 309.7 fps

8. 307.2 fps

9. 310.6 fps

10. 396.6 fps

11. 310.7 fps

12. 305 fps

13. 307.5 fps

14. 305.8 fps

15. 307.1 fps

16. 305.2 fps

17. 302.1 fps

18. 305.3 fps

19. 304.4 fps

20. 303.1 fps

21. (Shot 28) 394.1 fps 

 

When possible, I’m going to get an after-market piston for the stock cylinder to test the rifle with the stock cylinder with a perfect air seal. However, I doubt that will solve the issue as this issue is persisting across multiple cylinders and multiple hop-up units. I am also wondering too what is causing the large cylinder to have a lower average fps than the stock cylinder/piston even with this issue persisting.

 

[Cannonfodder]

On 18/06/2022 at 08:09, ARC Fives said:

Cheers for that! I'll look at a 2point with a buckle in the middle so I can wear it across my back and release it when needed. I would like to use it as a secondary.

I use something like this on my AS02

[Alemazzini1996]

I know this thread Is unused for long now, but i have a issue with my as-01; i bought It a couple of days ago, new and It doesn't shoot. I tried to adjust hop up, i checked if the barrel was obstructed but nothing... It doesn't feed. I cycle the Bolt, shoot, and doesn't propel the BB, but when i remove the magazine the BB falls off... Do you know what could be the issue and how to solve It? Thanks to everyone in Advance 

[Cannonfodder]

If it's dead out of the box then return it for a refund or replacement. You shouldn't have to spend extra time or money to fix something that's sold not working. Also don't open it up as this could make the warranty invalid

[Alemazzini1996]

6 hours ago, Cannonfodder said:

If it's dead out of the box then return it for a refund or replacement. You shouldn't have to spend extra time or money to fix something that's sold not working. Also don't open it up as this could make the warranty invalid

Too late, that was the last One in the shop and the guy stopped answering, i'm getting custom parta from a shop, i'll see if i can fix It. The. I would like to know how to remove the cocking indicator, not the whole thing Just the small pin

[Skara]

2 minutes ago, Alemazzini1996 said:

I would like to know how to remove the cocking indicator, not the whole thing Just the small pin

Snap it off with a pair of pliers, doesn't get easier than that.

[Alemazzini1996]

5 hours ago, Skara said:

Snap it off with a pair of pliers, doesn't get easier than that.

Did that and changed piston; now It works like a charm (even tho a couple of the custom parts I took don't fit) last 3 BBs don't feed, it's more than enough for now (i tried the custom barrel but It was shooting at an angle of 30° downwards)