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Unicorn ASK74U Review


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did a full days CQB with my unicorn on sat, worked great with my 1500 9.6v, fps was around 330 - 340, all held together pretty well, even the bolt, the one thing which came loose was the selector by the afternoon and was stuck on full-auto

I have problems going from semi to full auto dispite tightening up the screw on the selector lever.I find that if i want full auto i have to first go to semi before full will engage.Sooner or later i'll have to strip the gun to find out what the problem is,i'm to busy at the moment. :huh:

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Hey Snorkle,

 

I have been looking at both of these models, they Unicorn and D-Boys AKS-74U's, and I had a few questions.

 

Which in your opinion is superior in the performance department?  I have alot of experience with upgrading and fixing things, but I was just wondering so that I wouldn't have to replace alot of stuff on the gearbox (i.e. wiring, and parts that need to be made exact, etc).

 

Also in your oppinion, which has the better externals when optimized? (i.e. tightening down body parts, etc.)

 

Thanks so much,

 

-Blink

 

Could anyone reply to that? It doesn't have to be Snorkle, even though he has both! :P

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aegs arent really my thing I bought em for gas conversions The kalash gets my vote on basis of its externals as I prefer that sort of look and construction method over te unicorn. Others will prefer look of the unicorn

 

the wiring on both looks OK, which leaves you with the gearbox innards as main potential cause of contention. In all honesty untill they've been around the block a bit who knows both sound OK gears on unicorn look OK piston cylinder head etc aint anything special just your average chinese clone but compression is fine.

 

pair3.jpg

dboys is at the top with unicorn underneath

 

bottom line buy the one you like the look of more and on basis you'll have to rip the gearbox down at some point and you wont be dissapointed with either if it turns out that you have to. Based on current chronod results folks have posted both are over UK limits (the unicorn reported at 345 while the dboys has been clocked at 405) so both will really need the box cracked open and downgraded to keep them legal anyway

 

A year and a half ago I said same about the VFC which cost four times as much and prior to that the only AKSU you could get was a guarder kit that didnt even have a gearbox and cost twice as much again :)

Edited by snorkelman
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BTW, the CYMA clocks at 380fps, has metal bushings and a tightbore as standard.

 

IMO, it's a toss-up between CYMA and UNICORN - I dislike the shiny DBOYS finish. CYMA has the better internals, but Unicorn has the best externals by far.

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adjustments to the unicorn for proper fit, from the back (starting with the stock)

 

up and down play in the stock

 

stockwasher.jpg

use a small washer I used an M5 washer that has a 5mm hole (cos its M5 duhh) and 9.9mm outer diameter reduced from original thickness of 0.72mm down to 0.6mm

 

stockwasherandpin.jpg

This you slip into the gap between hinge of the stock and hinge parts of the rear trunnion thats riveted to the receiver (just keep reducing thickness of the washer so its a good fit without being too tight and making the stock too stiff to fold and unfold or too narrow and not curing the up and down play).

 

Once you've got thickness of the washer just right, pop the pin into the hinge on receiver feed the stock into place and as the pin comes down slide the washer in between them so the pin goes thru it too.

 

side to side play when stock is extended

 

stockplate.jpg

An easy fix. Cut a 17mm tall by 22mm long bit of sheet steel (use 2 bits of 0.5mm thick or one bit of 1mm thick steel).

 

Glue them into the back of the receiver behind the latch (as per the bit of paper I've placed in there) using strong epoxy or jb weld. If you've gone with two 0.5mm thick rectangles try one first if using 1mm thick you might need to file its thickness down a little.

 

This ensures that the metal plate on the stock gets trapped firmly between rear of the receiver (where you've glued the metal plate) and the latch of the stock locking mechanism When its trapped tightly between those you'll have no wobble

 

top cover

 

rearcoveralign.jpg

loosen the grub screw that holds the top cover hinge point to the outer barrel, then drop the top cover down so it locates in its groove at back of the receiver.

 

rearcovertighten.jpg

While holding the top cover in that position, tighten down the grub screw for the hinge mount that you loosened and voila - top cover will be in exactly the correct place to fit in its notch every time you close the cover down.

 

selector lever

when refitting the gearbox, make sure no wiring is trapped interfering with selector parts on left hand side of the geabox as you move the selector lever thru the fire modes.

 

Provided thats ok to fix selector lever coming loose put a teeny bit of red loctite on the selector lever retaining bolt threads. Just a teeny amount don't drown it in the stuff, then tighten the bolt down into place (wrap the head of it with tape and grip it with mole grips or pliers for a final quarter turn).

 

 

lower handguard

 

lowerhandguardtang.jpg

remove the leaf spring from the rear of the lower handgguard and shave the two tangs down by approximately 3mm.

 

lowerhandguardtight.jpg

Fit the leaf spring back in place offer the lowerhandguard up to front of the receiver and push it in tightlyas far back as it can go. With the two tangs shaved a little it should go further back than previously. while holding it tightly in that place slip the front retaining ring over the outer barrel and clip front of the handguard into it.

 

lowerhandguardring.jpg

Still pushing the rear of the lower handguard as far back against front of the receiver as possible to keep the leaf spring tangs compressed, tighten the grub screw that holds the retaining ring tight on the outer barrel.

 

 

 

upper handguard

Drop this into place and then slide the front sight block onto the barrel

 

tophandguardintosight.jpg

Align the rear of the front sight block with the fake gas tube and push the front sight as far back as possible to trap the upper handguard in place.

 

Still pushing on the front sight block (and making sure the foresight is straight) then tighten the grub screw under the sight block. Voila upper and lower handguards should now be rock solid.

 

 

The Bolt :(

Theres very little I can say about the bolt other than its truly awful Its also deformed (or at least mine was)

 

bolt.jpg

Be warned to partly fix mine I had to bend the entire plate on the bolt that runs along the top of the gearbox down to the left a little (blue arrow) just to get it to make some contact with place its supposed to run along and that was enough to have the spot welds partly give way (purple arrow) I could feel them starting to go and backed off on bending the plate any further. Having done that it did begin to make partial contact so I followed that up with pinching the sides of the piece that contacts the gearbox by clamping it in a vice (yellow arrows) and squeezing it in 2 to 3 mm.

 

still not perfect but doesnt rattle with a battery in place now, in fact its now tight enough that the bolt will stay back if you pull it to access the hop unit needing you to slide it forward again. However I think that binding is due to the left most side of it chafing against the inside of the receiver cover so if you were to bend the part marked with the red arrow (or just file it along that edge a bit) it should be smooth enough to return under its own steam. to be honest it really needs ditched in favour of a better design.

Edited by snorkelman
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alldone.jpg

And that is basically it, dye the handguards a colour of your choice, batter some scrapes scratches and wear onto the metal work and slap some varnish on the mag if you dont like its bright orange finish and your pretty much done other than a nice slim-style aksu canvas sling

Edited by snorkelman
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IDK, I ordered mine from Russian Mania on the 15th. It just arrived today. It had an orange plastic M16-style flash hider on it, but the regular kind (unoranged) was included in the box and was easily replaced. It did have a nice hole in the box though, no idea how that happened.

 

God, I'm so in love with it. I've been carrying it around all day, bugging my roommate with refernces to Goldeneye and just dressing up in my Insurgent loadout and posing lol.

I've also started weathering the steel (which looks fantastic btw) with a wire brush.

 

One thing though, the bolt handle was broken in the box. I'll JB it on later. It seemed to be barely welded on.

 

I'll have pics once I can get my chip to work.

 

 

EDIT: I shot it a few times, testing all my mags. WOW! I swear I got a good 45 yards with the hop up barely on, with a solid 'tink' as the bb struck metal far away. I'm impressed, and I'm no fan of 'clones'.

ROF with a 9.6v 1400mAh is pretty good, my mids seem to have trouble keeping up.

Edited by Kraut
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Got mine today from Gunner, everything with gunner went well. Only had a chance to play with it at lunch time (I live 5 minutes away from my work), seeing the posts on here I was a little unsure of what to expect, sort of a mix of old AK from Russia’s stocks and a badly put together AEG which rattles and shacks.

 

I’ve very glad to say that when I opened the box I was very pleased with the resulting AEG, it looks great. I think the best way to describe the looks is how one poster puts it, the gun was used in Afghanistan, captured and presented to the British as a gift. I really does look like it’s seen some service.

 

The externals on mine where pretty good, the stocks doesn’t seem to move much, either side to side or up and down, nothing has fallen off or been broken and the charging handle doesn’t look like it’ll break if I look at it. The only thing wrong, bearing in mind that I haven’t got through everything yet, is that metal rod which the bolt is on isn’t long enough, it just floats in thin air.

 

I’ll be taking it apart to check everything, Snorkelman, thank you again for the guide.

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Got mine a couple of days ago as well, and as everyone put it before me it looks really great.

The only bad thing is the cocking handle that barely fit and thus looks like ######, bugs the hell out of me.

Someone talked about replacing it with a Guarder cocking handle (only found one at airsoftextreme.com so far) but before i buy one it would be nice to know if it even fits and that kinda stuff.

So if anyone who has the Guarder one could try it out and write about it here I would appreciate it very much :)

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i received mine yesteday an was appaled ...

 

DSCN1599.JPG

DSCN1601.JPG

 

so after opening the receiver ...and comparing to my CYMA O31 gearbox CM02 the same than unicorn ,one main piece has 1 teeth missing and by watching well , the piece is in fact lacking of that teeth ( broken ) not found in the box ...so i sent a mailto the HK shop to do something ....Knowing that the owner is also posting here...to make a commercial gesture

 

the right piece

 

piece2.jpg

 

and the Unicorn one

 

piece3.jpg

 

my rewiew is being processd

 

http://acsalim.free.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1582

 

after that receiver good quality ...

Edited by superfelix
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well uh, u just need to remove the screw cover on the selector switch and tighten the screw underneath. o.O

 

one missing tooth off that i don't think should make a huge difference

 

but it seems like they are doing one hell of a sloppy job.

 

sucks for me cause mines is still in the mail

Edited by greatwatermelon
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WTF, i got a demand for £44.68 in charges from TNT this morning for my Unicorn AKS74U which was delivered on the 17th.They are demanding payment by the 28th of this month.That can't be right,i wasn't notified of any duties & worst of all i payed enough cash for delivery with out the additional £12.50 charges they have wacked on it.

Seeing as they have alreay payed HM Customs what are TNT going to do if i don't pay? :angry:

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WTF, i got a demand for £44.68 in charges from TNT this morning for my Unicorn AKS74U which was delivered on the 17th.They are demanding payment by the 28th of this month.That can't be right,i wasn't notified of any duties & worst of all i payed enough cash for delivery with out the additional £12.50 charges they have wacked on it.

Seeing as they have alreay payed HM Customs what are TNT going to do if i don't pay? :angry:

 

 

standard method of TNT shipping - parcelforce send letter first and hold package till fees are paid (sometimes you get package going thru customs for charging sometimes it slips past) TNT are an expedited service they note values deliver package inform customs of the values pay the bill and then send you a letter after the fact. Means items arent tied up in a bonded warehouse and get delivered quicker but leaves folks with a bill after the fact. One of the reasons I prefer the EMS/parcelforce method as you do have a better chance (50:50) of skipping a customs charge

 

Theres a very good chance if you dont pay TNT will pursue it they've laid out the dough to HMRC if they let folks off they'd be bankrupt in no time There may well be a threshold below which they dont proceed cos its administratively too expensive to be worth their while but I wouldnt count on it.

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