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ICS CXP Review


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ICS CXP Concept Rifle Review



CXP2.jpg

Let me start out by saying a few quick things. One this is my first ICS gun ever, it is far from my 1st M4 variant. Having been playing Airsoft for around 7-8 years and returning from a 2 year gap in play quite recently.

What ICS Say:

The original ICS Creation, It’s one and the only in the world
Because of the market demand, ICS created CXP. ICS CXP has fantastic appearance and useful tactical rail. This design allows players easily to install different kinds of accessories on CXP. No matter where you are, ICS CXP always makes you under the spot light and to be the champion.

The new designed retractable stock is very easy to use. There are six positioning holes. You can change the length of the stock according to your favor and your mission. It can work with the sling ring and make you completely win the assault battle.

CXP has the strongest fore structure. The embedded barrel joins to metal body tightly. This deign removed the waver problem which results from the weak structure of the outer tube or the incompact body.

ICS pursues quality without limited. We create our CXP with M4 pistol and upgrade the shooting speed to M120 / 395 fps. We also use our reinforced gearbox that you can only find in ICS to create the masterpiece.


I know I know….

Its just another Armalite variant… this is indeed true, I have always told myself ‘Never again’ I have owned around 6 different M4 style rifles over the years, ranging from TM, CA and G&P.
This is my 1st CQB / Shorty / Stubby Killer style one and will be used for woodland skirmishing.

Stats

Length (Extended) - 695mm
Length (Retracted) - 595mm
Weight - 2750g (Even though mine just tipped the scales at 2860g)


Ordering

Ordered from Zeroone, always used them in the past and even though I have not purchased anything I a few years I was delightfully reassured that their service was just as good as it always was, placed order, email confirmation and within 3 days I had my gun. I felt the price of the weapon if pretty dam good, having never owned an ICS gun I was quite shocked at the price when I saw it listed. £249… even though I usually fit metal bodies etc on to my guns, this is only the 2nd full metal airsoft gun I have purchased, but when it comes to metal receivers, rails, stocks, barrels I have had my fair share of different styles / markings and quality.

1st Impressions

The box…. Well either I have been away a lot longer then I thought or I have been missing out on a lot, the box is cool. It comes with a handle!!!! Ok, I may be over doing it a bit, bit the box is built very well, its strong and got a textured finish over it, with a handle poking through. I though to myself, if they build the box like this, what will the gun be like….

Open it up, and wow… its small..! They have the stock as usual fullretracted and with the x2 high caps in there + the usual little bits and bobs you get like the 1000 ICS bb’s (Yellow 0.2g) there is still bucket loads or room, the box could be easierly half the size and it would still all fit.

Picking it up the 1st thing I noticed was not how heavy it was, but how your eye’s are automatically drawn to the stock, then to the foregrip, then to the stock again! The reason I ended up getting another M4, was due to the stock, it looked awesome in the pics and now that I can touch it (touch it… go on, you know you want to) it is solid, quiet to extend and built to last. But I have said that about a G36 stock before, and my old one of those squeaks like a church mouse on steroids, but anyway, it looks good!

The whole gun is metal, I mean everything! The receiver, stock, foregrip, rails, top spine. Everything apart from the grip and the ICS 450 round High caps (plastic – but do look quite cool in the Canadian style).

Ok, lets start from the back, I am giving this review from how I see it, there are bits I like, and bits I think really need to change.

Stock

Full metal, the end plate is well moulded, and very thick, actually weighs quite a lot so helps with the overall balance. It has 6 positions so suits all, I have found the 5th one to be perfect, as I do have long arms and quite a big bloke, but I still like to have the gun close to me, on the 5th it feels like an MP5 stock fully extended.
The button underneath is big, bloody big, its firm to press but the stock slides out nice and smooth. It may be how I hold the gun but it quite hard to adjust the stock with one hand, like on an M4 or MP5. I find with the stock I am unable to press the button in its location and extent the stock very easily without a 2nd hand to help slide the stock while 1 presses the button. But I’m sure I’ll get used to it.


Buffer Tube

Metal, sling mount fixed on the left hand side, has about 2 cm movement up and down and feels very secure. The buffer tube sits nicely with the stock and as its slightly higher then the stock bars, it acts nicely as a cheek rest when stock is extended. I am think that a liPo bat could fit in there, but that’s something I will have to check out next skirmish and play around with one.

Receiver

Nice colour, ICS CXP markings, its not the best quality metal body I have owned or fitted to a gun, but its rock solid and looks the part, has a nice feel, nice black in colour. Selector switch feels a little light compared to most metal bodies I am used to, but hopefully can tighten it up somehow.
Splitting the receiver… best bit by far! Slide pin out, crack it, and there you go, you have access to it all. See the gears, 2 screws and you can get to the spring and piston, it opens nicely, closes with a snap and there is no movement at all. This I am very pleased about, as I was unsure about how ICS would fair up with the build quality of the receiver and the split gear box. 10/10 for this bit.

Ok, the whole reversal latch button thingy. Very good idea, I love how it works, reminds me of my old FA MAS. Only use it when your putting the gun away at the end of a day’s skirmishing, don’t try and use it when your not firing for 5-10 mins. The 1st shot you try and fire has a slight delay on it as the gears get back in to their normal sync with the piston, but it’s a good idea, and works very well, makes a cool noise also lol.

Sites / Top Rail

Fixed metal iron sites, standard M4 pinhole style, look good and strong, work as good as all M4 sites do. They are fixed onto the top spine rail, so when trying to fit a scope or red dot, you need a mount that can get your optics high enough so you can actually see something. But the top spine rail goes from front to back and really does make the gun feel nice and secure, really holds the gun rock solid. No wobble or shakes, squeaks or anything.

Grip

Standard M4 style grip, feels just like always. One thing I have noticed though… the magnet in the motor must be bloody powerful as everything metal gets stuck to the grip! Alan Keys, screws, nuts, even my metal scope mount, its very powerful, never had that on any other M4 before.

This was a real shock, i mean most things metal are getting stuck to the sides of the grip, found out when i dropped the top rear rail screws and both ends attached themselves to the grip hehe.
Its strange i have never had this on any gun i have ever owned, maybe this is how ICS motors work. I have heard this from Systema motors before, but never owned one myself.

Motor adjustment is new, i like the change, no more alan screws, its a large flat headed standard srew for motor height adjustments, it seems like a nice change, will update once i have had time to play around with it more.

Foregrip

Made from 1 piece aluminium and looks fantastic! 3 sides of small rails which seem quite low profile compared to ones on a standard RIS, finish it off nicely.
The front of it is quite menacing, a dark whole looking in, but you cant really see much, sounds odd, but I get a pic up later tonight to explain.
To remove the grip you must remove the sling mount by unscrewing a thumb screw on the right site, this is not an easy job as its small and hidden close to the grip. You need a screw driver to fully take this off and get it tight again when screwing it up. Not a problem for me as I am not using a nun chuck bat in the grip anyway.
The small bat connector sticks out of a small slit in the left or right side of the rear end of the foregrip. This in turn allows you to connect it to the small ICS APEQ (Which is quite slim, so only custom bats in there).

The grip slides in from the front on 2 metal runners built onto the gun. The heatsheild on the gun looks kinda cool, not to easy to see as it is mostly hidden and you cant really see much unless your close to the gun, but does finish it all off nicely.

Getting the foregrip on and off takes 1-2 mins, but unless your running a bat in there, no real reason to remove it, its tight and snug, no movement at all from what I can see.

I am using a Latex bat sling to hold my 8.4V 3500m Bat. This attaches well to the front and rear sling mounts and even though the connection plug poking through the foregrip is about 2 inches to far back, its no big deal, I’ll spray the plug black to match the gun and sling and when the rifle is shouldered you cant see anything anyway. And gives me max power without having to use the silly little APEQ.

Flash Hider

It’s a short, stubby, metal flash hider, looks pretty cool. Suits the size of the gun very well. This I was a little unsure of, as all the reviews I had read of the pre production model said that the flash hider did not have a thread and was just held on by a grub screw.
Its ok guys, it has a threaded barrel, unscrew the grub screw and spin it off. Actually the gun looks pretty cool with my MODE 2 HK Supressor fitted on the end. The way the barrel is attacked really does lock everything on securely, I mean, nothing moves.


Internals

As this is my first ICS gun, I was a little unsure what to expect, and how much work I would have to do to upgrade them etc. The gears are metal, good quality and the finish on them is amazing, the gears really do look as good as they seem to work.
Everything is easy to check and keep an eye on.
Piston and cylinder seems strong as standard and the seal / compression seems very good, as I have had problems with some of my CA guns in the past with low compression and stripped gears.

It has a 1J spring fitted and the ICS sticker on the front of the box had the FPS written in at 321 fps. I have run it through my crono and the average shot hit 326 fps. This I feels is very good for what is a standard M4 gear box, but running a shorter barrel length, meaning I should get less fps then a normal M4 with a standard length barrel and 1J spring….. very odd. I am guessing it is to do with the seal on the piston, nozzle etc. The results were very pleasing.

1st Shots

Loaded up the high cap fully (cant see how it holds anymore then a standard M4 high cap, but they say 450 rounds…will check this). Semi, and fired, the motor whizzed and after a 0.5 sec delay the round launched out and after about 15m straight into the ground. Hopup was obviously off. But the noise was a little worrying from the 1st shot, fired again, much better, instant shot and a loud thwack from the gun. This is a very loud gun guys, its small, full metal with metal gears, it makes a lot of noise! Which I find really adds to its character.
Played with the hop up for a while and without a doubt it is the best hop up rubber / buckling I have ever used. Its suits this gun on this power perfectly. Its not to sensitive, you can adjust it nicely and for such a small gun the range is great. Accuracy is ok, about the same as an MP5 A5 which I compared it to.

I wasn’t expecting the accuracy to be that great, but it is as I expected, more then enough for woodland warfare. It’s the range that compeatly wow’s me. I had to test it against my CA M4, running 331 fps before testing took place + tight bore barrel.

Fired 10 or so shots from my CA M4, the range was like always, very good and the bb hit the group a long way off, used the 300m driveway of the garages at the back of my house.

Fired 2 shots from the CXP and they flew at least 15-20m further then my CA M4… Really quite shocked by this, so kept firing, they all just kept going, and after tweeking the hop up a little more I got the range even further. This was a great surprise and I really was loving it because of this.

Full auto test. Fully charged 8.4V 3500m bat. ROF is good, the noise the gun makes is just insane, it’s so loud! Not an ‘oh ###### whats that sound my gun is gona break kind of noise’ but a nice solid set of thuds. It rattles bb’s out at somewhere around 20-24 bb’s a second. Quite surprised by this on an 8.4V bat. The motor is obviously just as good as ICS said it was, and from what I saw with the magnets power, I was expecting something good.

Skirmish report

The gun even though it’s another M4 Variant, still manages to turn heads.
New guns never give the best 1st skirmish reports as you take extra care of them lol. But it worked as I was expecting, plenty of kills racked up during the day and 1 very good game where its size really did pay off, the ability to actually get stuck in behind 2 barrels, close the stock and the gun acts more like an MP5K and with the vertical grip I installed to test it out, works good together, popping up, it comes to aim quickly and just spray away.
I found that the range was most impressive, really it is! Being able to lay down burst fire at a target that 90% of people were not even considering taking aim at. This is one of the best and biggest surprises, the range is amazing. The bb’s do start to spread a little at that range, but they stay straight just a little spread at the last few meters, but that just adds to its spraying power.

Over all this gun was a great buy in my opinion. If this is how ICS roll now, then I’ll will be jumping on their band-wagon every time. I am looking forward to their other up and coming releases now.
I shall be giving the whole thing a few coats of Krylon in the next 2-3 weeks, but will get some pics up when i can of the before and after.

Conclusion

Price – 8/10 – Nice price for a full metal gun I would say, about average as china guns are becoming dead cheap atm.

Build Quality – 9/10 – Rock solid, metal could be finished slighty better, but that’s just me nit picking

Internals – 9/10 – Gives good range and looks well built

Looks – 10/10 – Real head turner! Looks and feels like a gun should

Power – 10/10 – Amazing, makes the gun what it is, really does.

Skirmish Ability – 8/10 - Long range in a small package works a treat. Accurancy does let it down, but that’s the same with all small guns

Overall – 9/10 – I would love to give this thing 10 but I just cant, as with everything in life something can always be Improved. The small niggles I had have now been sorted and apart from filing down a slight imperfection on the ejection port cover (it wouldn’t stay closed) and fitting a slightly bigger black thumb screw (from an old PC Tower) to the front foregrip to aid in foregrip removal. That’s about it, everything else is working as it should and performing well.

7th Sept will be the next main full skirmish and I’ll hopefully give a much more details report + pics when I get a chance to take a few.

Hopefully pics will be up in the next 4-5 days.

This is my 1st full review so bare with me if i missed anything out guys.

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Edited by Taragon
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wonderful

 

The usual 'pics' request please?

The ones on ICS' website just are a bit, umm, 'bluh'

Will have some full details pics up sometime over this weekend hopefully, just need my camera back. Also will update next week with a more detailed skirmish report

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