My Brand New Dragunov!

[Money Bags]

This is sort of gonna be a bit of a review, but i think its neccesarry to get my points across .I'm planning on writing quite a bit for this, so here goes:

 

Background Information/Reviewish Part

 

Well, I got my AtoZ dragunov last week from 6mil in Cannok after waiting on it for about 4 or 5 weeks (since it had to be ordered in from South Korea I think). I had fancied myself one ever since i saw the King Arms version a couple of years ago but it was too expensive at the time especially since I was looking for my first rifle.

 

 

It was a very nice feeling to finally have it in my hands and i carried it around the shop for about half an hour until my lift turned up, but I never shot it in the shooting gallery in the side of the shop as I thought that I'd just wait until I got home.

 

It is a stunningly beautiful rifle and it is solid as a rock - very good build quality indeed! The wood is a very nice colour, although it would be nicer if it was a bit darker. And it is very long and heavy especially compared to the VSR G-spec (which I'm mentioning because it's the main airsoft 'sniping' rifle).

 

 

I had heard conflicting reports on the rifle in terms of noise. But now, I know that it is loud to shoot compared to the G-spec even with the silencer off. Sometimes you even get a little ringing of some metal from inside the gun which i think is probably either the main spring or the smaller spring which pushes the cocking handle back.

 

One thing that i find quite satisfying is that there is a little bit of recoil when you shoot the rifle. Watching my friend shoot it, when he shot it the gun shuddered like cheapish air rifles tend to do. Something that didn't really happen when i fired my friend's G-spec. This was a welcome change from the normal AEG firing (really boring).

 

 

The Problems!

 

Range and Accuracy!

 

When i got my rifle home i shot it using .25g ICS bbs and i wasn't really impressed by its accuracy. Also, it seem to fire in an arch shape - hop over to the bb. This seems strange to me since the AtoZ is supposed to fire around 350fps and my previous TM M14 is supposed to be around 300 - 320fps (if i'm correct) and the m14 fired straight to the end of my garden with .25s(approx 20m).

 

 

 

So I decided to change the spring to a Private Parts M130, which i was told would result in 328 + 102 to +132 fps which is probably about right since it goes in and out of a coke can with a .20gbb. When firing with this spring I got the same sort of result with .30 Blaster BBs.

 

Reading various reviews from about the internet, i had come to believe that the hop unit was very good. I am unable to form my own opinion of it really. The only think i can say is that it seems to be quite temprememental. Sometimes it seems to be not enough, and sometimes it seems to be too much when it is on the same setting. It's quite hard to find the optimum.

 

This is the sort of grouping i'm getting at about 20m is a circle of about 30cm in diameter

 

Now on to range.

 

This weekend i've been to a friend's house and We've been shooting it out of his window, which is ok cause he's got fields out the back of his house.

 

Especially with the .30s, range seemed to be very limited. It seemed to be that of my old TM m14, sometimes much less because it didn't go past 30m or so. Compared to the G-spec (328 + 72 fps), it still shot shorter with the same weight bbs. With .25s it did shoot much further but they just too light 'cause they weren't accurate. So I went back to using the .30s, and the range was nearly that of the .25s again! I found this very confusing because it seemed to be constantly changing.

 

I've ordered some .36g Straight bbs from zero one which should be here some time this week and i'm hoping they'll give me better accuracy.

 

 

How should Lube it?

 

I have read a post on here in there saying that it was neccessary to to lube the gun when they got it 'cause it was very dry internally. So i bought some Abbey lubericant (the one in the blue bottle).

 

I didn't use this straight away because after buying it i read that it should not be used for metal to metal lubing which pi**ed me off a bit but eh. Then I read on Zero One's website that it can be used on the internals of your gun. So I used a bit in certain places because I thought it might improve the performance of my gun.

 

I sprayed some into the hop unit. Here...

 

 

And into the chamber and onto the underneath of the cocking handle (which i think is a bad idea 'cause it's a metal to metal moving part).

 

 

I sprayed some down the barrel...

 

 

Then I also sprayed some onto these plastic parts. (not sure what they're called, just the bits around the spring).

 

 

I's just like to know if i'm doing this right and if anyone else has experienced similar problems to me, if i'm expecting too much in terms of range and accuracy or if anyone can help me in anyway.

 

Thanks, Money Bags.

[msx361]

Nice review, but why not put it in the user review section?

[Money Bags]

Its not really supposed to be a review, i just thought it was neccessary to post a little bit about how it runs and everything. I suppose it is a bit thick, but if i was writing a review, i would have written a lot more probably.

 

I'm thinking of making a video review for it. There was someone on you tube who did it but it's gone now.

 

EDIT: Yeah, sorry. There is a bit too much detail. The main point is that there are some problems with it that are a bit out of the ordinary (as far as i can tell from what i have read about it).

[eventer289]

That thing is beautiful.

[toyboy]

It's normal to have to break the hop in on most guns, you'll probably need to fire a few hundred rounds before it settles down nicely. Probably best done with 0.2g bbs to save a bit of money!

 

Graham

[PartNinja]

It's normal to have to break the hop in on most guns, you'll probably need to fire a few hundred rounds before it settles down nicely. Probably best done with 0.2g bbs to save a bit of money!

 

Graham

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Make sure you swab the barrel with your cleaning rod. Dont just spray donw the barrel. It will just leave the liquid in there...Also, just spraying into your hop-up isnt a good idea. It will get on the bucking, and make it slick which negates the purpose of it. Some lubricants will also deteriorate rubber.

 

Swab the barrel out, and try breaking in the hop-up a little more. You may need to get a new bucking ( Most stock guns from what ive seen usually could use a better bucking ). You may also want to try .28s. Other than that, I'm not sure. You could just have a lemon. Also, from my inexperiences, even 500fps rifles using .3s or higher dont have any or much range over an AEG.

[otherrandomhero]

Note: I'm talking about the AtoZ full metal and wood SVD, which I can't seem to locate on any sites. It cost around $500 though.

 

This is very interesting, since I've read (and seen) much about this gun in the states where it apparently fires around 520 with .2s out of the box, darn that UK limit. I know someone who has since moved away about a week after he got it. The real wood was very nice I thought and so was the metal, which is all it is made of sans the cheek pad and the magazine, the latter of which was surprisingly poor quality compared to how amazing the rest of the gun was. Seriously, a cheap plastic mag on a full metal and wood gun? Weird.

 

Shooting it was an absolute dream. Seriously, I could hit a man sized target over 200 feet away right out of the box using PHX .28g bbs. Using .25 the bbs were traveling no less than 250 and still keeping a good trajectory. Seriously, this performed equally to most upgraded sniper rifles I'd seen, probably due to the super-nice 6.01mm barrel installed standard.

 

You may have a completely different gun, or they may just be different versions, or something else entirely, but the one I've used was very good.

[Money Bags]

I didn't get a cleaning rod with my rifle which is pretty strange. I had to use an m4 ram rod.

 

Noted, will not spray into the hop again.

 

 

 

I think maybe they might be different, like, maybe a different version (cause there are 3 generations). Mine has a 6.04 barrel stock.

 

I'll try some .28s aswell. The real test will be when i skirmish it in a couple of weeks. Just gotta wait til the exam period is over.

[Thorbard]

Not a huge amount wrong with getting lubricant on the hop rubber, so long as you put enough ammo through it after. Obviously thats not particularly practical with a single action gun like this, but just something to remember. If its silicone oil it can help to soften the rubber and make it work better. Just make sure its clean by putting a mag or two through it before trying to set it.

[The Bushman]

I think silicone should be used very sparingly on your hop. Just use it to condition the rubber and stop it from going brittle. When you are firing you don't want it to be lubed as it will give less constant results on the spin imparted onto the pellets.

 

Same for the barrel. Use silicone on first swabs to help clean it and avoid corrosion then do numerous dry swabs before firing.

 

Be careful when cleaning not to unseat your hop rubber. This will result in accuracy problems. Only push the ram rod short of the HOP rubber, then twist it on the way back out.

 

Run a single shot rifle dry and use use lube between events to maintain it if required. You do not need to do it every time on a spring rifle. Once the initial overgreasing is shot into the barrel (from the cylinder) and cleaned out you will notice the swabs comign out far cleaner.

 

Interesting rifle, but too big for me.

 

Good Hunting