CYMA CM036 AKM

[The Crunchy Bunny]

CYMA 036 AKM Review
March 31, 2008
BY: AEGdude

Table of Contents
Introduction
Real Steel History
Ordering
First Impressions
Externals
Internals
Magazine
Performance
Modifications
Conclusion
Pros & Cons

In the recent future the airsoft market has seen a rise in new airsoft weapons known as “clones”. In reality these are copies of Tokyo Mauri, Classic Army, Guay Guay, and other high end AEG manufacturers designs, built in china, where labor and materials costs are much less. These usually range from $30- $100 less than there high-end counterparts. Of course, this low cost means that the materials and quality control may be lacking, but most of these are acceptable for skirmishing and while they may be more prone to damage earlier than the quality weapons, most broken pieces can be repaired for relatively low cost. Myself, I have only owned one china clone, the first generation CYMA 028S(which was phenomenal) in addition to the CYMA CM036 I am reviewing. I still don’t fully trust clones so I only use high end weapons for my first line skirmish weapons and for projects or backup weapons I may use clones since there lowcost facilitates any problems they may have. Enough about clones, lets get into the review!


Real Steel History:

I’ll keep this as brief as possible, the AKM is a modernized version of the much loved AK47, which is the brainchild of the great Mikhail Kalashnikov. There are around 80 million AK47's, there variants, and clones in the world today. Assuredly, a large section of the 80 million are AKM’s. The major differences between the AKM and AK47 is that the AKM has a stamped receiver while the 47 has a milled receiver. The receiver cover on the 47 is smooth and the AKM receiver cover has ridges. The handguard and stock are laminated with the sling mount moved off the receiver and placed at the underside of the stock. The lower handguard has a slightly raised section to provide a better grip. The pistol grip is brown or “brick red” bakelight. The front sight is thinner and usually fitted with an oblique cut muzzle break that prevents the weapon from climbing up and to the right during firing. The gastube is smooth with two semi circle cut outs, unlike the 47's gastube that has 4 holes for bleeding off gas during firing and an attached sling mount. The rear sight is graduated out to 800m on the AKM.
http://www.mandmgunsmithing.com/Images/FinishedAKM_03.jpg[/img]

Ordering: After my first AK’s demise and my constant need of at least three working AEG’s, I knew I needed another weapon. I new I wanted to give another clone a shot, and I wanted it to be an AK, since I had lots of AK related items. I decided I wanted to build an AIM(Romanian AKM variant), since I already had the snazzy furniture. I then realized how much work it would be and wished China would make an AKM variant as a base gun. Literally a week later, the CYMA 036 AKM showed up on overseas websites. I new I had to have it. After several months, ASGI had the weapon on there site and I had my $140. I placed the order, and with there free shipping offer, the total came to $142.50, with a handling charge. ASGI’s ordering/checkout sequence is very nice and simple, not complicated at all. Good Job ASGI!

[The Crunchy Bunny]

Cont.:

 

First Impressions:

 

I ordered my weapon on a Sunday, knowing that it would ship out Monday, and it did. I waited an excruciating five days and on Friday morning before school I logged in on my ASGI account and it said my package was out for delivery. After a terribly long school day, as I was walking home I gazed at my porch, noticing the large box and sprinted up to the door, I grabbed my box and fumbled with the key until the door opened running inside and grabbed my KA-BAR I sliced off the strange plastic coated wrapping paper an unearthed my baby. The weapon comes in a black box with “CM036" written in black lettering with white outlining, a rather unexciting photo of the weapon is shown beneath it along with” Do Not Shoot Any Human or Animal”. I ripped the lid off my the box and picked up my new weapon. I instantly noticed it’s heft, while it isn’t as heavy as my M14, it may be slightly heavier than my M4 RIS, but the weight is more evenly distributed. I also felt the cold metal against my hand. Such a nice feeling. It doesn’t come with anything very exciting, not even a cheap sling. Included in the package is a cruddy 8.4v 1800mah battery with small Tamiya plug, a basic trickle charger with, amazingly, plugs that fit in an American socket, 550 round orange bakelight magazine, front sight adjustment tool, and mag winding key, along with the usual barely understandable manual. ASGI also decided to be nice and include a black hat with there logo on it. How nice.

 

 

 

Externals:

 

Alright, moving from front to back. First we have the business end of this Eastern Block blaster, starting with the slant cut muzzle break, which is one of the most recognized pieces on the AKM. This is a surprisingly hefty piece, and helps balance the weapon. ASGI took the liberty of painting it with a kind of rubbery latex, bright orange paint. That had to go. Moving back a little is the front sight, it has a nice matte black finish and a push pin securing the muzzle break from turning. The actual aperture is adjustable for elevation using the silver key included in the package. It has 14mm negative threads and is attached to the barrel via screw under the sight that is hidden by the cleaning rod.

 

Moving right along, we come to the barrel, it is 8 1/4" from the tip of lower handguard to the tip of the front sight, not including muzzle break. It has a kind of vertical ridges running the length of the barrel. The barrel is finished in a nice matte black, but seems darker than the other barrel parts.

Next up is the gastube, it is AKM type, meaning it’s smooth with two semicircle cutouts, one on each side. It has sling mount affixed to the left side if your looking down the barrel. It seems hefty enough to take the weight of the gun and more. The gastube also holds the upper handguard to the trunnion block and has a bayonet lug affixed to the bottom. Whether or not it holds a bayonet I do not know, but why would you need one on when you skirmish anyway? The gastube’s finish is the same as the front sights and is attached t the barrel using a single, again hidden by the faux cleaning rod.

 

Onto the handguards, they are in AKM style, or rather a poor attempt at AKM style. The raised portion in the middle is nowhere near pronounced enough. Now you must remember, this gun does not have wood handguards, it has plastic handguards in the shape of and look of wood. The grain is decent, and from a distance it looks like wood, but once you lay your hands on it you can instantly tell it’s not wood. There is no texture, nothing feels like wood. It is smooth and flat and perfectly shaped, very much unlike wood. With a little work, it can look and feel decent, but not the same as wood. But as a skirmish weapon, they are fine and solid, the visual imperfections do not affect the performance.

Moving onto to the trunnion block, or for you folks not knowledgeable of the ways of the Kalashnikov , it’s the thing the rear sight is attached to. The trunnion block is finished slightly different from the rest of the metal parts, it has a speckled very realistic finish, it is similar to the Romanian and Bulgarian AK’s I have handled. It is a hefty, solid piece and has a faux handguard removal lever attached to the left side, with on the real gun, you would push upwards allowing you to remove the handguards, but on airsoft AK’s that use Tokyo Mauri’s designs, this lever does nothing. Now, in terms of airsoft, the main function of this part is to hold the handguards on and give the rear sight a place to sit. Now, one thing that astonished me on an otherwise imperfection free rifle is the rear sight, while it works perfectly well, it is graduate to 800m like the real steel and is adjustable, the paint is coming off, revealing a tarnished grey underside, is rusted in some areas, and feels rather flimsily attached.

 

[The Crunchy Bunny]

Moving on we have the receiver, it is full metal and has a similar finish as the barrel components. It is nice and heavy, decently thick and doesn’t feel flimsy at all. It has rivets affixed in all the right places some of them vary in color, from black to grey, as they would on the real steel. However on mine there are some mysterious scratches on the underside of the receiver, ahead of the mag well.

 

The bolt on this weapon is painted matte black, same as the other parts, it moves smoothly and makes a satisfying "clack" when racked. Pulling back the bolt reveals the hop-up which I’ll get into at a later time in this review. The bolt does not go all the way back, just like all other Tokyo Mauri style AK rifles On top of the receiver sits a ribbed cover it is secured surprisingly tight on the weapon and has very limited play. It is extremely hard to get on, I don’t know if it’s just mine but it took around 30 minutes and much profanity to get it to fit into place. Oddly, there is no fake “battery”, usually used to add weight under the receiver cover.

 

The selector switch, which is different from regular AK47 type, moves smoothly throughout it’s three positions with a clank of metal on metal. The selector switch firing modes, which are abbreviated in Cryllic, the first being automatic, the second being for semi automatic fire. The selector locks in to each position and stays there positively, unlike my old CM028S, where the selector was rather “mushy” and wouldn’t stay in the selected position.

 

On the other side of the receiver is a very nice addition, a scope mounting bracket, which are usually aftermarket. It is secured to the receiver via three Allen screws and appears very solid. It allows you to mount several Eastern Block optics such as Kobras and PSO scopes. Also, if you fancy that sort of thing, you can buy a mount with just a standard 1913 rail so you can mount any Western optics your heart desires (in fact CYMA makes just such a mount for around $22 on ASGI)

Moving rearward still, we come to the pistol grip. It is modeled after the brown bakelight pistol grip found on the real steel AKM. The CYMA version is a rather poor adaptation of the pistol grip. It is all one solid, slightly off color and has a massive seam line going from front to back. It feels flimsy to hold and by lightly tapping on the exterior of the pistol grip, I do not think it is very thick at all. It should hold up to skirmishing rather well though. Provided you don’t smash it into any hard objects like concrete and trees.

Lastly, we come to the stock. It’s what holds the battery on this particular model. It seems surprisingly solid for what it is, two piece of “wood grain” patterned plastic sandwiched together. There is no wobble or creak whatsoever. It is secured by one screw on top and two screws on bottom. Now, be aware that the stock tangs are different from other TM compatible Kalshnikov variants so fitting after market stocks will require some modification. It seems to be able to take some strain, as long it doesn’t collide with much force into any hard objects. Again, as with the handguards, it has a decent “wood grain”good enough that from a distance it looks like wood. But once you hold it, you can tell it isn’t wood. There is no texture, the grain is uneven on either side of the stock. There also is a massive seam line on the top and underside of the stock, detracting from the “wood” fell a little. But, if you just using it for skirmishing and don’t care if it looks pretty or not, than the most important part is that it holds a battery right? Well this stock does. By sliding the buttplate downward, it reveals the stock cavity, it’s not super big but can accommodate most mini-type batteries. Tried the OEM battery, a 8.4v 1100 mini battery, an 8.4v 1400 stock battery, and my huge 9.6 3600 large type (which you would need an small to large adaptor for) battery. Only the OEM and 8.4v 1100mah fit. The 1100mah wobble around a lot. The reason being the other won’t fit is that there are support pegs in the way, but it is a common practice “knock out” these support pins allowing for more room, at the cost of some strength in the stock, but not enough to make much of a difference.

 

[The Crunchy Bunny]

Internals:

 

Onto, the insides. Well, I won’t be taking a look into the gearbox anytime soon, based on my past CM028S experience. But, based on my view into the receiver, on CYMA’s latest weapons they have moved away from the from the silver, horribly finished boxes to the snazzy black gearboxes of VFC and Dboys/Kalash. I have heard reports that CYMA has also increased the quality of their internal parts, at least I hope so based on the amazing and slightly terrifying speed this weapon fires at. But were save that for a later section.

 

Moving onto to the Hop-Up, or for those of you who have been living in a cave, it’s a device that as the BB moves from the magazine into the chamber, it puts a backspin on the BB as it fires, allowing it to fly farther and more accurately. Anyway, the Hop-Up this is much different from the past CYMA Kalashnikovs in that they use to use non TM compatible inner barrel and Hop-Up units. Meaning that if you want to replace your inner barrel with a tightbore, you’d have to replace the entire unit. Since it’s all proprietary. This is one of the nice features with the CM036 and most new CYMA AK-Series rifles, they use Tokyo Mauri compatible Hop-Up units. So if you wanted a tighter barrel (it is rumored the CM036 comes stock with a tightbore, but I don’t have a pair of calipers so I can’t find out). The Hop-Up unit in the CM036 is black and seems to be constructed more solidly than the past CYMA AK-Series rifles were. Regardless of whether the adjustment increment sticker on my weapon was placed on upside down.

 

 

 

Magazine:

 

So, now onto the magazine. This is a crucial part of your weapon, since it holds you ammunition and it is imperative it works properly. Well, the magazine that comes with the CM036 does just that. The magazine included with the weapon is an orange “bakelight” magazine in the AKM shape (more curved than that of the AK74 mag). It holds approximately 550 rounds in Hi-cap format. Meaning you have to wind a wheel on the bottom and it pushes BB’s up towards the chamber. One neat feature of this magazine is that it comes with a little key, that when inserted into the hole on the bolt side of the weapon and turned, it winds the mag, a lot faster than using the wheel located on the bottom. The obvious downside is that you can loose the key. The mag included with the gun will feed about 3/4 of the BB’s on a single winding session.

 

In this weapon, I have only tried two other types of mags, my old CM028S hicap and a MAG “Plum” AK74 mid cap (worth noting that while the AK74 mag fits this weapon, it is not accurate to the real steel weapon, in which only AKM bakelight mags and standard steel mags where used). Anyway, both of the mags I tried fed well and I am almost positive any AK mag made for AEGs on the market right now will fit this weapon and most should feed, unless there is a problem with the mag itself.

 

Performance:

 

So this is what we’ve all been waiting for right? After I finished looking over the weapon, I went loaded up the included magazine, popped in my 8.4v 1100mah mini battery (all I had charged), wound up the magazine and took aim at the soda cans hanging from my fence about 50 feet away. Set on automatic, the little stream of white pellets headed towards the target very fast. Hitting it’s intended target for the most part. May I remind you I had not yet adjusted the Hop-Up. I then realized that firstly, the rate of fire was incredibly slow on such a weak battery. Secondly, the weapon was very loud for a full length rifle. About as loud as my friends AKSU.

I placed the weapon on semi automatic and took aim at the same cans, which are now fairly torn apart. I hit the cans easily, still with no Hop-Up. Then, after about the tenth shot, my gun locked up, switched to auto, fired a burst switched back to semi, fired about five rounds and locked up again. Moral of the story, use a fully charged large battery above the 1400mah range and preferably of the 9.6 voltage. Keeping in mind the plugs must be small Tamiya, unless you use and adaptor.

Moving onto the good ‘Ole Coke Can Chrono. This method of measuring velocity in airsoft weaponry is near and dear to the airsofters heart. So, after consuming a Cherry Coke that afternoon, I placed the can on a table, loaded up the stock magazine with Airsoft Elite .20 gram BB’s and a fully charged 8.4v 1400mah battery Jerry rigged to the stock and placed the muzzle of the weapon two inches from the middle of the Coke can’s side and pulled the trigger. The BB penetrated both sides of the can and the BB continued right on through for about 30 feet before dropping. Decent I thought to myself as I laid the can on it’s side to test whether the weapon was bottom can capable. I fired and the BB went clean through the bottom center of the can. I then realized this weapon has some serious velocity behind it. For a final test, I tried the top of the can. Yep, popped a clean little hole through that to. So, as you would have guessed already, this weapon shoots very, very fast. I would speculate in the 450-480 range. That is injury causing velocity. So kiddies, don’t take this weapon for granted. It is dangerous at close range. I won’t be using anything lighter than .23 gram BB’s in this weapon when I skirmish with it.

 

At longer range testing, I found it proved to be relatively accurate to around 100-120 feet on .20 gram BB’s and the range and accuracy will get better when heavier ammunition is used. On my particular weapon when using .20's, I only had to move my Hop-Up adjustment lever a couple millimeters to get it “In the Zone”. I thought it seemed a little strange,. But it ‘s probably a combination of the high velocity and light BB’s I’m using. This rifle isn’t a DMR by a longshot, but it will still get plastic downrange and on target.

 

I'm sure most of you are wondering, if a stock, Chinese made weapon shoots so hot, is it reliable? Well, from my tests, of firing about 1500 rounds through this rifle, it seems to be a reliable platform. When firing, it doesn't sound to loud or strained, and the gears seem to be shimmed well enough. There is no grinding or sqreaching whatsoever from the gearbox. In my test fireing, there was not a single hang-up, apart from when the battery was low. I would venture to say this weapon is a very relaible and internally durable platform as long as it is not treated poorly.

 

 

Modifications:

 

This rifle isn’t an AR variant, but there’s still a plethora of parts you can add to it. Different colored polymer furniture, wood sets, railed handguards for attaching “tactical” accessories. Since it has a scope mount, you can attach either Russian/Eastern Block optics(like the PSO scope and Kobra red dot Sight), or any sight with a Picatinney/1913 standard rail mount and by purchasing a railed side mount like the CYMA version at ASGI mentioned earlier in this review. You can also add silencers and flashiders via the 14mm counter clockwise threads on the front sight. I myself am going to be adding Romanian AIM furniture and possibly black polymer furniture when I want a more sleek, modern look. Along with replacing the pistol grip and getting several more mags.

 

Conclusion:

 

Overall, I am happy with my purchase, I think it was well worth the money I spent on it. The minor imperfections on the outside can all be repaired for a nominal fee and do not affect it’s great, albeit very hot performance and will assuredly see some action in skirmishes to come!

 

 

Pros and Cons:

 

Pros:

 

-Full metal

- TM compatible Hop-Up unit and inner barrel

- Great external finish on metal parts (even and same shade, unlike old model CYMA AK weapons)

- High velocity (450-480 range)

- Solid, no creaks and cracks (more than I can say about the old CYMA/TM offerings)

-Hefty, not awkwardly heavy, but not plastic toy light

- Magazine feeds well (unlike past generations)

-Relatively accurate

-Good handling

 

Cons:

 

-Metal not of highest quality

- Terrible feeling furniture

-Poor attempt at furniture

- Dangerously high velocity at close ranges

- Bad finish on magazine

- Some imperfections on metal parts

- Not huge battery capacity

- Not realistic disassembly/attachment of parts ( not pinned on sights/gastube, non functioning takedown lever)

- Useless included battery

- Over greased gearbox( seeps out behind trigger)

 

 

 

[Magsz]

Dont you think you should get that thing downgraded?

 

Using heavier weight ammunition isnt going to prevent you from hurting someone with it.

 

Is cyma still using nylon bushings?

[The Crunchy Bunny]

Yeah, I'll probably get it downgraded to 400. I'm waitngf to see if the spring will settle or not. I know it's hard to tell, but the main reason I'm using heavier BB's is so I get better range/accuarcy. I'm not sure about bushing though. I heard they might be metal, and I hope they are.

[Magsz]

Yeah, I'll probably get it downgraded to 400. I'm waitngf to see if the spring will settle or not. I know it's hard to tell, but the main reason I'm using heavier BB's is so I get better range/accuarcy. I'm not sure about bushing though. I heard they might be metal, and I hope they are.

 

Unscrew your pistol grip and you will be able to see the bevel gear bearings/bushings. Let us know.

[The Crunchy Bunny]

Sorry for the late response, I just checked a minute ago and it does, indeed have metal bushings.

[bah]

would it be possible to see some more pictures of how the stock attaches to the receiver. and maybe some of it with it off.

 

come to think of it detailed pictures of all the furniture would be great.

 

[airsoft_maniac]

Great Review Crunchy Bunny I have just ordered this gun cause of this review...

I also hope to add the romanian grip to it later!

Looks Great!

[The Crunchy Bunny]

A little late, but thanks man. It's a really great gun, you won't be dissapointed.

[Romeo98]

Crunchy,

Is been about a year and then some since you made this reivew.

Assuming you still have this weapon.

Does it still work good for you? Any further impressions since then? Tips? Comments? Smart a@@ remarks?

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

[CSAirsoftJunkie]

I feel like I am promoting a necropost, but I am curios also how the gun is lasting if he still has it. Did the FPS drop at all or did you replace the spring, or is it still the same?

[The Crunchy Bunny]

The FPS may have dropped to around 430ish. However, I'm going to pop in a spring to get me as close to 400 as I can here soon. the guns held up really well, except that the little piece of metal on the reciver just ahead of the charging handle broke off, it's still attched, just independant from the reciever. Other then that, it is virtually the same.