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DBoyi's KAR98k - WWII01


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Damen und Herren,


Lassen Sie mich.....


Mauser Karabiner 98 Kurz


By DBoyi Airsoft


Review by Guinness


Oh..sorry, my bad :unsure:


Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the "WWII01" otherwise known as the Mauser Karabiner 98 Kurz (KAR98k)

This is a brief mini-review of the new product offering by DBoyi from their new WWII Series.


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Real Steel History

Much has been written about the venerable KAR98k and it is has been well known in Airsoft circles for years from both the Tanaka Works and the Marushin replicas, so I won't delve into great detail here.

From the Wikipedia entry on the Mauser KAR98k:

"The Karabiner 98k was a bolt-action rifle with Mauser-type action holding five rounds of 7.92x57mm Mauser on a stripper clip, loaded into an internal magazine. It was derived from earlier rifles, namely the Karabiner 98b, which in turn had been developed from the Mauser Model 1898. The Gewehr 98 or Model 1898 took its principles from the Lebel Model 1886 rifle with the improvement of a metallic magazine of five cartridges. Since the rifle was shorter than the earlier carbines, it was given the designation Karabiner 1898 Kurz, meaning "Short Carbine Model 1898". The standard Karabiner 98k iron sights could be regulated for ranges from 100 m up to 2000 m in 100 m increments.

The rifle was noted for its good accuracy and effective up to 500 meters (547 yards) with iron sights. For this reason, rifles selected for being exceptionally accurate during factory tests, were also fitted with a telescopic sight as sniper rifles. Karabiner 98k sniper rifles had an effective range up to 800 meters (875 yards) when used by a skilled sniper. The German Zeiss Zielvier 4x (ZF39) telescopic sight had bullet drop compensation in 50 m increments for ranges from 100 m up to 800 m or in some variations from 100 m up to 1000 m. There were also ZF 42, Zeiss Zielsechs 6x and other telescopic sights by various manufacturers with similar features employed on Karabiner 98k sniper rifles."



Airsoft Replica

DBoyi decided to 'clone' the older, 6mm design for their first in what appears to be a 'series' of WWII offerings. Although I was hoping there would be preview models or perhaps a list of the upcoming offerings from DBoyi in the manual, no such luck. We will just have to wait and see what they bring to market next.

The package arrived bright and early on my doorstep this morning, after an interminable wait of......2 whole days! from my friend Johnny at Boomarms

...I really have to speak with him about his shipping times :P

I ordered the gun sort of on impulse Tuesday evening, and here I am today playing with what so far, appears to be a very worthy Airsoft replica.


Price: $125 shipped to my door including express shipping- Did I say I love BoomArms yet? ;)


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Included two page Manual- "You may be punished if you are shooting for a practical joke"....Classic- I have a new sig tagline ;)




The packaging says "Built Material: Metal and ABS" and I already knew that the 'wood' furniture was supposed to be ABS, however based on reports from previous owners of the Marushin 6mm Mauser, I was expecting the receiver and much of the guns mechanicals to be plastic as well.

I was very pleasantly surprised. More on that shortly.

Upon ripping the standard green wrapping paper off....hmm that reminds me... I need wrapping paper for Christmas.....oh sorry :o

And then opening the DBoyi's box itself, I was greeted by the most 'authentic' looking ABS wood I have ever seen. I hope the images included in this review will do justice to what they have created.


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The 'Meat' Of The Review


Appearance: Stock And Furniture

Well, as I stated above, this is the best looking faux wood I have ever had on an Airsoft gun- much better than anything Tokyo Marui has produced to be certain. The manual lists all the parts of the gun on its back and it calls the wood 'Teak' now, I'm not entirely sure, but I expect that this manual is a direct copy of the original Marushin manual, but I can assure you this is not 'Teak'. The 'grain' certainly is good, but it has a somewhat darker, almost Walnut cast to it, Even with color correction the pictures here still give it a bit redder shade than it actually has in person.

Now, that said, while as you can see the furniture is very nice, it's not entirely with out issues.


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Poorly applied 'swirl grain' effect


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A bit further down the stock



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Both sides, looks like someone had sticky hands



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Seam City.... :(



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Ugh....



The images above show 2 issues I'm not entirely thrilled about.

1.) In what I believe was their attempt to create the swirls and the different color variations and grain patterns of real wood, it really just looks like someone was holding the gun with a glove while they applied the paint and some of that paint was botched during the process- I can see the effect they were trying for, but well...I'm just glad I'll be weathering the gun- let's just say that.

2.) Seams. In my book, there is really nothing that ruins a replica more than seeing the seams where something was fit together. This stock really needs a lot of work in that regard. Right now, my plan is to probably sand everything down first and foremost to remove any burrs and ridges where the halves meet, and then likely go over the seams with some good wood putty to fill in. Of course I will take plenty of pictures of that process to share.






Part II DBoyi KAR98k

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Edited by Guinness
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Part II

Mauser Karabiner 98 Kurz




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The 'Meat' of the Review continued

The Gun: Metal or Plastic?

As mentioned in Part I, I was prepared for a nice metal bolt and plastic bits everywhere else. I am happy to report that is not the case. The Bolt, the Receiver, Breech, Outer Barrel, Rear Sight, Trigger Guard, Trigger, Barrel bands, Front Sight, Sight Hood, Cleaning Rod, Bayonet Lug, Cupped Butt Plate,....are all metal.

And oh yeah, 5 silver-colored metal shell casings.

What isn't metal is that black piece that sticks in between the front barrel band and the rear barrel band- that is plastic.

And the furniture, we already mentioned that.



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View of Bolt face looking toward rear of Receiver


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Magazine Well with floor plate and follower removed


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Stock end and metal buttplate




Let me just say here that I have not torn into the guns mechanicals yet- I wanted to get this mini review done and pictures up for folks that are anticipating a purchase.

So I haven't removed the bolt from the receiver yet to inspect the spring etc.

The gun works on the 'Push Cocking' spring charging method, which means rather than pulling the spring to cock the gun and set the trigger as the bolt is pulled to the rear, it instead pulls easily, then requires pushing effort to cock it as the bolt is returned home and loads the shell into the breech. With practice this can become a fluid motion.

But here are a few closeups of the left side of the receiver ::)



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Gun 'Safe', Not Cocked



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Spring Visible, Gun is Armed





Testing


So, as I always say right about here...... I'm not cool enough to own a chrono yet...... ::)

It's still true- So I do the 'Coke Can Bottom' test- 8-) The DBoyi KAR98k does not perforate the bottom of a aluminium can from 1 foot away.

It will go through the side of a can from up to 4 feet away.

Sorry as usual for the lack of truly 'Scientific' data. But here is a target test- 5 shots from 32 feet.

The very first shot was pretty much the proverbial 'Bulls Eye'! But I think I pulled the rest of the shots.

Followup data this weekend as I break the gun in- One note- the receiver and breech were coated in a pretty thick grease- I really don't think it was white lithium, so I am going to clean all of that mess out, re-grease with quality white lithium.


More to come as I use the gun-

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Conclusion


All in all I must echo what I have come to believe and say with pretty much all of the Chinese product I have been reviewing lately.

This gun is an great value for the money.

Yes, it will take some 'tweaking' here and there, I'm very anxious to get it on a chrono and get accurate readings so I know if I need to mess with the spring to get a little more 'juice' or as I suspect based on most of the clone products, It is likely in the 300-330 range already. We'll see.

Also expect me to do my usual work of weathering and aging to the stock- Who knows how long it will actually live in this plastic stock, but in the meantime I am going to make her look like all my other "veterans"

As far as the question of skirmishability goes, As has been said elsewhere, with these shell casings, it's probably not going to be a realistic battlefield weapon. Especially here in Colorado where the shells will get lost on the ground and underbrush (or Snow) very quickly.

This is really a plinker or Reenactment loadout weapon to carry, but probably not use a lot.

For the WWII Airsoft reenactor that needs a backup rifle or something to have for target practice, you can't beat it for the price. So far its a hell of a lot of fun, and I don't even do German gear!

As mentioned at the beginning, it appears from the packaging that DBoyi is planning on an entire WWII line of weapons, not much detail is available anywhere currently, and there are no 'clues' on the included manual or printed material that accompanied the KAR98.

Also worth mentioning, the guns comes with 250 .2 6mm BB's and......that's it. No strap, no stripper clip either which I really expected, oh well.



Positives:
-Best looking faux wood furniture I've seen
-Metal Receiver, and 99% of the rest of the gun
-6mm 'old school' gun
-Great value for your Airsoft dollar

Negatives:
-Plastic instead of wood furniture
-Older 'push spring' design, upgrade issues?
-Furniture finish could still be better
-BB's in shell-casing design- lose shells easily
-No accessories with purchase, just bbs


Still, I am happy with the Mauser and see a lot of potential for this rifle, just not on the battlefield against AEGS so much. Given enough spare shells (at about $3 USD a piece) and a keen eye, maybe- It would still be a lot of fun.





Many thanks to Boomarms, and Arnies Airsoft.







Slainte!
Edited by Guinness
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Du bin toll Guiness!

 

So... how is the internals? Much like lets say a TM VSR-10 with a cylinder etc? Ja oder nein?

 

Great review and pics as well!

 

I need to learn more German so I can mess with people if and when I make a WWII Bundeswehr Loadout!

 

 

 

 

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Guinness, if you decide you want to sell this gun, let me know. I want one, although I'm going to try to get one to write a full review on as well, and do my usual deal of coming up with budget performance mods to maximize performance. And, we both live in Colorado :)

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awsome review

 

any word on range of the gun and its accuracy as it reaches its limit?

 

i know the old marushin shell rifles (at least the gas ones) had problems with bending the springs and such if you closed them without any shells in it. does this gun suffer from anything of that nature?

 

lastly, do the shells kick out far when you cycle the gun or do they just kind of pop out and dont go anywhere?

 

 

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Spare shell prices from rsov.com- 2 shells for $8.16 USD and the good news doesn't begin there either, shipping on 2 from rsov will run you $18 USD. Hardly affordable, why is shipping inflated on rsov like it is on ebay? Anyways if someone will send me one of the shells I'll send you some striper clips. I am gonna try and make some shells from mauser brass considering I have a few hundred spent 8mm shells. If anybody does send me a shell I'll send them a dozen home made shells to test for me. Since all I have are real mausers I can't really test them out.

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Spare shell prices from rsov.com- 2 shells for $8.16 USD and the good news doesn't begin there either, shipping on 2 from rsov will run you $18 USD. Hardly affordable, why is shipping inflated on rsov like it is on ebay? Anyways if someone will send me one of the shells I'll send you some striper clips. I am gonna try and make some shells from mauser brass considering I have a few hundred spent 8mm shells. If anybody does send me a shell I'll send them a dozen home made shells to test for me. Since all I have are real mausers I can't really test them out.

 

 

I just looked at some pictures of 8mm ammo casings and those shells and i think you are quite clearly in trouble if you want to make rs shells fit in it for replacement. The problem is that either clearly the real 8mm (ie the 7.98) is wider or it is way to short.

 

if the shells are wider you are sol right off the spot because i would bet money the piece which catches and moves the them wont grab and move the round properly and worse, the bolt might not even close to begin with and forcing it would probably result in lots of broken parts.

 

if its simply that the airsoft rounds are way longer then the rs (which i personally doubt) then you stand a chance if you can extend it properly and feel like machining little custom tubes that would take an exuberant amount of time to make versus there worth.

 

I feel if some one wanted to make there own shells the best way would be to make a mold of the shell and then start churning out plastic molds. if you dont have the equipment to make the molds or a plastic injector the investment cost would probably be way to high unless you wanted to sell shells are $1-2 a piece at which point there is a huge profit to be made. i know i would buy lots of shells if they worked and were only $1-2 piece versus 15 for one metal shell >_>

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Yeah just comparing used brass to the size of a bb instantly tells me that it would be a mega uber pain in the a55 to make it work. But because I'm stubborn I will make at least 5 of the shells out of real mauser brass. The key here is the Argentinian 6.5mm mauser. The bb's fit perfectly in the end of that stuff.

 

This new rifle has me pumped up, I'm already cleaning one of my real ones down to the last little piece of cosmoline. I've got a donor rifle here that I'm gonna take the stock off of and put on the airsoft one when it gets here.

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Hi nice review. I have had my kar 3days now and i have a big problem reloading. It has something to do whit the shells. when i try to push it forward it doesent go all the way. it doesent matter how hard i try it still dont go all the way to lock position. But if i reload whitout any shells in it then it works 100% have you had similar problem?

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awsome review

 

any word on range of the gun and its accuracy as it reaches its limit?

 

i know the old marushin shell rifles (at least the gas ones) had problems with bending the springs and such if you closed them without any shells in it. does this gun suffer from anything of that nature?

 

lastly, do the shells kick out far when you cycle the gun or do they just kind of pop out and dont go anywhere?

 

good work Guinness :), and yeah would like to know answers for all thats asked above myself.

 

cheers

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great review, but imho you focused pretty much all on the looks and the action of the gun, and not enough about the performance. so far the only info i seem to find is that its not skirmishable because of the shells. but what about the range? accuracy at longer ranges? hopup? how far does the action eject the shells? not trying to be rude, just saying that im sure plenty of ppl are wondering like myself how decent does it perform as not to buy a gun like that 20 dollar springer sks that shoots 10 feet lol.

Edited by khyronthekitsune
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