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First off, sorry for posting before a new topic, that was just me misclicking preview post. <_<

 

Okay, this is my first time reviewing anything, so go soft on me please! I'd review the actual Carbine as well, but I think the M15 base platform has been done to death, but there's little around about individual accessories, hence why I'd like to write these reviews. I'll include a few pictorial instructions as well despite some things being obvious once you fiddle around with your accessory, for two reasons: because the items do not include actual manuals with respective installation guides and in case there's someone else out there like me who enjoys these little bits of information before an item arrives. :P

 

I'll go from back to front of the rifles, starting with the crane stock.

 

Classic Army M15 Crane Stock

 

Contents

The package includes the actual stock, a proprietary 5-position buffer tube which differs slightly from the original M15 Carbine tube (more on this later), a large screw and it's respective insert, a mini-type battery wire extender, a small cap which sits between the buffer tube and the rifle, and an obscure pair of silverish, flimsy inserts which I assume were meant to fit between the cap and the buffer tube so to avoid scratching (the cap is made out of a semi-gloss black metal, unlike the original plastic cap).

 

It also includes instructions as to how to install a battery onto the crane stock, but surprisingly, no actual install instructions for the actual stock, so I assume CA likes us to have to mentally exercise ourselves!

 

Before showing how to install it, here's the actual stock.

 

stockxm0.jpg

 

Asthetics, design and quality of the materials

Unsurprisingly, it is made out of the same fiberglass/plastic as other CA products, exactly the same as the original M15 stock. The finish is quite good, with no rough plastic edges nor any horrible eye-gouging seams.

 

The actual design however I find a lot more comfortable to use whilst shouldering the gun, fitting perfectly onto my shoulder, with no slippage what so ever and very little wobbling. It also has large simetrical 'wings' on the sides which prove to be very comfortable cheekrests, regardless of you being a left or right-handed shooter.

 

The stock, despite being hollow to allow the insertion of a battery - installed in the central tube, left and right compartments - has a very good heft to it, quite heavier than the original stock and feels rock solid. As mentioned, there's considerably less wobble than the original stock when installed, it clicks perfectly into place on all five positions and won't budge, and the added heft aids with balancing the gun if you have your battery installed in a battery box in the front of the gun like I do. The heft is however a double-edged blade, as if you intend on getting this stock precisely for installing a battery in your rifle's back region, this'll be more of a curse than a blessing, making your rifle ever more back-heavy and unbalanced.

 

The buffer tube is your standard 5-position type, with a few modifications from the original one. For starters, it does not have an end cap and is slightly shorter. The reasons for this are so that it can accommodate part of battery if you decide to install one and because the actual crane design does not require an end cap as the stock has it's back entirely covered with it's texturized ridges.

My main nag with the tube is that as with CA's current metal parts, the paint scrapes off easily, more so than the receiver's.

 

tubescjx3.jpg

Crummy picture trying to show a small scratch done with my finger nails whilst fiddling with the tube. My photography skills suck.

 

The knobs in the front allow access to both compartments. I've read about people losing them in the field, mine however seem to be snugly fit onto the stock as I actually had a rough time removing them the first time! When reinserting the stock be sure you've installed both knobs in the respective compartment, otherwise the buffer tube will not slide in!

 

I'm quite happy with the actual stock and prefer it a lot more to the original one. The added heft and comfort are two welcome additions for me, the stock feels rock solid, well finished and the non-existent wobble when shouldering compared to the original one is a blessing. This was the first part I installed on my M15A4 Carbine and it was very easy to install it.

 

If I had to rate the product in a 1-10 rating, I'd give it an 8.

It doesn't get more because: 1- it's an expensive part, though in airsoft, what isn't?; 2 - the complete lack of instructions for installation is just laziness on CA's behalf.

Installing

The installation, despite there being no instructions, is quite easy and straightforward with no complications once you figure out how it's done.

 

installhb7.jpg

 

1 - Rather than pushing the tab upwards as you do to slide the stock into position, pull it downwards as shown and slide the stock off. It should easily come off if you've pulled the tab down enough.

 

2 - Staring at the back of your buffer tube, you should see this small hex screw underneath the end cap. Unscrew it and the end cap should come right off leading to what's seen in three.

 

3 - Although this is a picture of the Crane stock tube, you should see something similar (minus the gap for passing wires in the screw placer). Use a philips screw to remove it, pull back the tube and it should come right off.

 

4 - The cap between the tube and the receiver (the shiny black metal part seen in the 'scratch' picture) can come off, though this is optional, you should replace it if you intend to rewire your gun as it has a small gap to allow the passage of wires. (It also beats having a plastic cap! :P) Installing the crane tube is simply the inverse process of these four steps.

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Onto the RIS!

 

Classic Army M4 Rail Interface System

 

I bought my Carbine originally intending to eventually buy a RIS system and forward grip for it, just so I can have choice as to if I want a plain typical 90's M4A1 look or the modern style.

 

Contents

 

The system comes in a small, prismal-shaped box which includes only the actual R.I.S. system (divided into top/left/right and bottom portions), a delta ring and a front handguard. The latter two being entirely optional to install, as if you own an M15-type rifle these are identical to the stock ones.

 

Again, no instructions on how to install it are included in the package. Lazy people.

 

risstslo7.jpg

The R.I.S. already installed on my M15 because I was too busy drooling over all my new parts to actually remember to take pictures of them!

 

Asthetics, design and quality of the materials

I was expecting the same quality of materials as used on the M15's metal parts, which are very well finished, albeit with, again, a somewhat easy-to-scratch paint coat. I'll put in a picture just for reference as to how perfectly shaped the rail on top of the M15A4 receiver is.

 

originalog7.jpg

Although it's a bit scratched from me frantically removing and reinstalling the original carry handle, the rail is perfectly shaped with no defects whatsoever.

 

So upon reading that CA's top rail on the R.I.S. had an extra 1mm due to design flaws, wanting it to match the receiver perfectly in colour and size, I ordered one expecting that it was of the same quality metal as the receiver, totally normal right?

 

Unfortunately... wrong.

 

risnn4.jpg

Yeargh! Dents & Scratches! *flees*

 

"Argh", I thought to myself on first inspection. Either I got a lemon or CA's standard's have come down a notch. It came with the dents from the factory. These weren't made by me or from abusing my AEG. These were fortunately mainly only seen on the upper portion of the R.I.S., although the imperfections are seen throughout the entire thing.

 

The scratches are, again, a testament to how flaky CA's paint is -- the ones shown in the right portion of the picture were made when I tried to install my rail covers on the top section of the rail, something I have yet to have been able to do. Admittedly, the part which stroke the rail was metal and not having much contact with rails in general, I can't say for sure if this flaky paint is my own fault for being a careless bum or if it's a CA issue!

 

However, despite these aesthetic faults the rail functions perfectly and the laser engravings are a really nice touch which compliment well the ones on the M15. I just wish the metal wasn't so ... mediocre, to say the least.

 

There are no KAC trademarks, despite this being a replica of one of KAC's rail systems.

 

It's impossible to install a battery inside the R.I.S. as the space between both parts is minimal, I had a hard time putting my fuse into place and rerouting my wiring outside, let alone an entire battery.

 

A nice touch is the aluminium 'heat shield' featured on the bottom portion which also serves to slide the bottom part onto the upper part, although again I can't say if this is a common feature as I haven't had much contact with rail systems. It looks good though and that's what matters to me.

 

I'm not too satisfied with the R.I.S. to be honest. It was a *badgeress* to install as I had to completely remove my front sight and sling swivel because I couldn't install it as a handguard (I'll detail how I did it below), the quality isn't exactly top notch but it works. It slides around the delta ring a bit, but not too much to be annoying. It's, despite not properly, solidly installed and won't come off anytime soon.

 

I was expecting more considering the 120 euros I paid for it, to be honest. For 150 euros you can purchase a decent metal body which doesn't include any of these dents and far superior metal quality, even if it may need some modification to fit whatever you want to put in it. In a 1-10 rating, it gets a 6, simply because:

 

1 - It's too expensive for it's quality; 2 - A *badgeress* to install; 3 - questionable durability of the rails, the dents that came from factory might be indicative that the rails can't take too much abuse before becoming useless; 4 - again, no instructions! I believe there were some on the CA website, but they should come in the actual packaging;

 

Installing

Right, theoretically, installing is is pretty straightforward and identical to the real thing. You remove your original handguards, fit the top rail section from front to back, allowing a bracket in the back of the R.I.S. to fit into the delta ring, which you then insert a hex screw into to make sure the R.I.S. doesn't move. You then slide the lower rail section on like a regular handguard. Voilá.

 

However, I couldn't by <Insert your god's name here>'s name get it to fit. The rail system just seemed to long to install and thus I scratched my delta ring to hell (as seen previously). So I gave up and looked around. Here's the solution I found whilst searching on Arnie's, by removing the front sight:

 

installal4.jpg

 

First, sorry for not photographing it without the rails installed, but I am not removing them again, ever! Just imagine you're staring at your handguardless M15.

 

The arrows indicate the presence of hex screws which need to be removed. One is in the forward handguard support, inside it, in the top section. This connects the support with the front sight. The second one is between the native sight swing swivel brackets, just stare at your rifle from below and you should see them.

 

The circles indicate two push pins which need removing. Just use a hammer and some (if you're smart, unlike me, I used a small philips screwdriver! Dur. :P ) preferably non-sharp, yet, steady pin-like item and they should come off after some bashes.

 

Once you've removed these items in any order you prefer, you can slide off your front sight (assuming you've removed the swing swivel and your flash hider). It should come off without much resistance.

 

After you do this, you can remove the front handguard support section, which should also slide off since it's no longer attached to the front sight.

 

To be honest, I was pretty dumb at the time and forgot I could do this. Attach your R.I.S. top and bottom sections together, attach them to the front section but don't forget to leave the hex screw in place so you can attach it to the front sight (somehow)! If you want, install your front sight onto the front section, slide the entire block onto the barrel, pull back your delta ring, put the R.I.S. in and lock it, insert wires into the R.I.S. if necessary. All that should be left to do is put the pins back onto the front sight (just bash them in).

 

It sounds easy, but I spent around an hour and a half to two hours just trying to install this damned thing. It's relatively okay-installed, I forgot the hex screw that connects the front support to the front sight and the R.I.S. wobbles a few degrees around the delta ring, but I don't mind nor care to be honest, I had such a hard time getting this in I swear I'll never remove it again. I wouldn't recommend installing a R.I.S. this way yourself unless you're extremely used to fiddling with your AEG's externals (which I'm not!).

 

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Finally, CA battery box, CA forward grip and G&P rail covers.

CA Battery Box

 

Originally I wanted an AN-PEQ2 style box, but unfortunately Firesupport weren't carrying any at the time, but I spotted this old type battery box for a relatively cheap price so I got it.

 

batterywj3.jpg

 

General review

I'm not going to go much in depth with these items as they're simple accessories, so they're not worth overanalyzing. Here's the basics on this battery box: it seems to be made out of plastic, with the same kind of finish as the stock and the original handguards, albeit with worse molding (rough edges) and it seems a bit flimsy (probably because it's very thin), but not too fragile to destroy itself over some typical airsoft abuse.

 

Installing a battery into it is fairly simply, just remove two small philips screws in the back section and twist off the 'laser' sight in the front. The top then comes off and you can see what's shown. I reckon it'll take a 10.8v as announced.

 

bboxwn9.jpg

 

Installing it is easy, just screw it onto your rail. It's tightly attached to mine with no visible signs of becoming loose.

 

If you don't mind having a box that isn't exactly a replica of a real accessory serving as your battery container like I don't, it'll do the job. My 8.4v NiMh battery will also have less room to bounce around with it's more compact setting in comparison to an AN-PEQ2, I could fix that with duct tape, but meh, I'm lazy. 8 out of 10.

 

CA Forward 20mm Grip

 

risgripge2.jpg

General review

Again, the same CA plastic/fiberglass is easily spotted, it looks okay. The grip is a replica of the KAC grip, once again, no trademarks are present, not even a CA logo.

 

The grip will not tightly slide on the rail, instead the molding on the grip seems to be made with a loose tolerance and it bounces around inside the rail, wobbling even when locked in place. Also, after some abuse, it doesn't seem to be able to lock entirely in place as the upper plastic section which locks the grip between rails (which isn't 19-21mm wide, meaning more wobble) has worn off, so my grip slides around doing a 'traaack' sound as it scrapes between rails if I pull or push it too hard. This could probably be remedied by inserting a screw in the hole present on the grip. I'll try it once I get around to getting something to attach the screw to.

 

4 out of 10 simply because a grip is meant to aid me with support my rifle, not turn me into Stretch Armstrong as my arm attempts to accompany the grip's sliding (read: scraping) along the rail.

 

Installation is pretty straight forward, just turn the lowest portion of the grip clockwise to lower the locking section, slide it onto the rail and rotate the lowest portion anti-clockwise to lock it, it's very simple.

 

NOTE: I'll admit to abuse my guns, a lot, I love fiddling with them and I'll treat them very, very harshly. This grip has already worn as a result of it, but keep in mind it already came wobbly from factory. If it wasn't so loose, it wouldn't have worn itself out, as it continuously hit against the rail, shredding the plastic!

 

G&P Rail Covers

 

Out of the smaller accessories, these were the nicest surprise. Having read that the CA ones wobbled around like crazy and didn't tightly lock in (unlike their forward grip), I decided to go with these.

 

covercopyhl6.jpg

 

General review

They're rock solid plastic pieces, made of a different plastic/fiberglass in comparison to CA's parts. The material seems very robust, molded into a flat gray colour. They're manufactured to very good tolerances unlike the CA grip I got, these slid on my rails tightly, but not tight enough to scrape on the rails (being that this only happened as I stupidly tried to pull the rails up without sliding them off entirely).

 

Installation requires simply sliding on the rail and pressing the small button. Release the button and the cover locks into place. There's no wobble on them and they seem to provide the protection these rails need as no doubt they'll endure quite a bit of abuse. 9 out of 10 from me. :)

 

 

 

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment! :D

Edited by Solid Snake.pt
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