A&K SVD PICT'O'RAMA + first look

[Horsem4n]

i have worked with tap and die sets befor, i planned to totally strip the gun befor drilling the holes. thanks for all the information. i greatly appreciate it.

 

im also working on getting a firefly bucking (cant find KWA G2s for some reason) and a precision barrel made by EdGi. cant decide between a 6.01 or a 6.05 bore size though. decided on a standard PSG1 length (600mm) as the length of the barrel is actually just about 700mm, which is ridiculously long.

 

so far, it doesnt seem too expensive to build up one of these. just sucks that it takes more work than any other sniper rifle. oh well.

 

one more thing, i have a source lined up to get a 12x12in sheet of .062in (around 1.5mm) medium strength neoprene rubber (like 20 bucks shipped). with that, im going to grind down the rear face of the hop up chamber and stick a fashioned washer so that it hugs the nozzle and creates an air seal there.

 

i also wand to add a groove th the very tip of the nozzle and put a small oring there, but i want a more precise way of doing it than using a dremmel before attempting it..

Edited November 28, 2009 by Horsem4n

[Bane]

Only way you could do it would be with a lathe (O-ring on the nozzle that is)

 

And if you can get access to a lathe, would be best to machine the back of the hop unit instead of grinding it. More accurate and better finish.

 

Also allow a little bit of "Crush" for the rubber, say if you have .062 rubber then only machine about 0.055-0.058 off the back of the hop

[Horsem4n]

yeah, i only have about that much room back there anyway. cant interfere with the ball detent.

 

may invest in a small hobby lathe. or wait for my dad to retire in a few months and see if he decides to become a machinist again. hes talked about that.

 

maybe i should take a trip to my high school on monday morning and see if the metal shop teacher would let me use the schools lathe.

 

to be honest, putting the oring on the tip of the nozzle leaves only one reason the turn down the end of the chamber and sticking some rubber to it, which would be to dampen the strike of the bolt as you let it forward. i may still do it, but after adding larger grub screws to hold the barrel in, i don't think it will be necessary.

 

it will probably work well enough to just add a groove to the face of the chamber and glue an oring into it. yeah, that saves me time as i can just get a large oring at a store in town when i go to get the small oring for the nozzle.

 

continuing thought on the oring on the face thing. it may hold the bolt a little far back, enough to where the nozzle wont be fully seated. i may just get the rubber sheet anyway. maybe i can find some at home depot. make it out of any thin rubber thing like a lid or washer from a plumbing kit. as it is, the nozzle only goes passed the BB feed hole about 1.5mm.

Edited November 28, 2009 by Horsem4n

[Horsem4n]

hay bane, i just thought of something. i think it would be smart to also put the recoils into the plastic stock. or would that be worthless?

 

sorry for the double post, but its my topic!

Edited December 4, 2009 by Horsem4n

[Horsem4n]

ugh, i didnt want to triple post, but this topic is dying and i needed to tell some more info.

 

well, i recently bought another one. it appears to be of the finalized or most current model. bought it off a friend who won it in a raffle 2 or 3 weeks ago for a clean hundred.

 

i bought it cause i needed a new nozzle. i did the aforementioned nozzle/cylinder head work with a dremmel. my work was precise, but i never ended up finding a propper fitting o'ring or making one fit. so my airseal was in the pits.

 

i am VERY glad i bought a new one. it is so much better.

 

list of noticeable differences:

hop up is of better quality. the V shape of the bucking and form of the nub was very well shaped.

the barrel looked of a small bit less quality (doesnt matter as i have a 6.01 EdGi on the way) albeit longer.

the selector lever and mech was held together with an externally visible allen screw instead of 2 oddly placed internal grub screws that hung half way out. its MUCH cleaner.

the cheek rest is of slightly better quality

the orange tip was just a glued on cap this time instead of painted. that came right off.

most of the 2mm allen set screws have been replaced with 3mm ones. the only 2mm ones left are the hop up adjuster and ball detent. im not sure if the first barrel set screw (the one attaching the blue collar to the hop unit) is still 2mm also. i think it still is. but the rest are 3mm screws now. i wish they up sized the main barrel set screws too, but no.

the mag, while still a high cap, is of higher quality. the ratcheting is more defined instead of loose, the loading door is better(just like a g36 hicap) and best of all, the externals of the mag is METAL! i dont know if this means that its steel, but it is stamped metal and it is magnetic.

 

thats all for the changes. but they have also started giving them serial numbers. my first didnt have anything on it. but my new one says "S10402" right in front of the mag well. the marking appears to be laser etched through the paint.

 

also, about the mods to the cylinder head. there is only the need to grind it down a bit, but no need to glue on a rubber washer. after you grind down the face of either the hop up or cylinder head, the bolt contacts the body instead of the hop up making contact with the cylinder head. so just grind it down a bit and theres no problems.

 

still waiting on pics Bane.

 

out of my shelf upgrades. i have a soft firefly bucking sitting on my desk and im about to pay for a EdGi 600mm 6.01 barrel. i have around 9900 Pforce .3g BBs to shoot with for the next year. i am going to scrutinize them before putting them through the 6.01 though. have never use Pforce, they are a budget brand, but hopefully they will fly well.

i have a belarussian low profile scope mount on there with my ultra beefy chinascope on there (3-9x32 [30mm tube] blue illuminated mildot scope with a red laser. its that $90 "bushnell" scope you see often at HK shops). pics will be up soon.

Edited January 2, 2010 by Horsem4n

[Username_Here]

I was given one of these newer version for Christmas by my girlfriend, and I pretty much agree with everything stated about it. Although I did have one problem with mine. The little ball under spring and grub screw pressure on the hop up unit was put in about a millimeter to far back and allowed for BB's to just feed straight into the barrel. Odd, but once I just completely undid the screw and let the ball and spring fall out the triple and quadruple feeding stopped instantly. Haven't bothered yet to really mess with it any, but performance sucks. Seems to be having trouble hopping BBs and power is low.

[Horsem4n]

with the 700mm barrel, the spring needs to be powerful to put the bb through it fast enough to make any real performance numbers. they really should have stuck to the original, powerful spring.

 

its weird that you have feeding issues because of the detent. its there to prevent BBs from spurting back into the bolt area when you draw the bolt back. i am going to check my feeding now as i have yet to shoot my new one. if it has the same issues, i can transplant the chamber from my old one.

 

 

i forgot to mention. my barrel wobble issue is because one of the 2 set screw holes in the blue collar that holds onto the outer barrel isnt fully threaded. so the screw stops half way leaving only the opposite to hold onto the outer barrel. thats no good.

 

the only reason im going so far with my SVD is cause i plan to scrimmage it primarily.

[Horsem4n]

######, cant edit.

 

well, i took it apart again (the new and old and switched the blue collar thingy) and reminded myself of a few things.

 

the change in set screw size wasnt very important. only the set screws holding in the front sight/flash hider and the gas block have been changed out for 3mm set screws.

 

i also found something a bit disappointing. the 3rd screw that attaches the stock to the receiver (the one under the spring guide block) isn't an allen screw anymore. its a *fruitcage* long *albatross* Phillips head wood screw that appears to be force threaded as if the person assembling the guns ran out of allen screws and instead of calling for more, turned around to his buddy working on furniture sets on another conveyor belt and took some of his. it bothers me a lot. the only thing is that the stock shape is a bit different and more comfortable in the hand than the old stock. so i don't want to transplant stocks between the guns. i just hope it stays together until i can afford to get a wood kit, not that i really want one.

 

and both my mags feed fine into it. so thats good.

Edited January 3, 2010 by Horsem4n

[Username_Here]

Odd, another local player for me was having the feeding issues that was solved by the ball removal. Might be common problem with this first batch of newer ones.

[Horsem4n]

whats your serial? is it lower or higher than 402?

 

i think, based on realistic numbers, that mine is the "S10" model and the 402nd made. or the model number is just "S1" and theres just a zero in front of the number.

 

or A&K have produced 10,402 or more of these things. then again, the number sounds about right in the scale of things.

 

oh, and i found an A&K marking. on the inside of the hand guard shells is an extrusion of "A&K". they finally put their name on it.

Edited January 4, 2010 by Horsem4n

[Bane]

Hey horseman

 

Havent forgotten about those pics.. just been... rediculously busy.

 

Getting back onto the SVD and a few other projects, just wondering would you compare the newer version to be a noticeable upgrade to the older? or same-same?

[Horsem4n]

theres a few things about the new one that far surpasses the old one. especially the new safety mech. i feel the the old one will come apart at any time while the new one is very clean and sturdy.

 

the only bad part is that wood screw in there, everything else is the same or better than the old. the finish doesnt scratch as easily. took a while for the selector to make that line in the receiver.

 

i also have mag capacity numbers:

old mag without winding: ~208 - with winding: ~231

new mag without winding: ~186 - with winding: ~209

 

so their pretty close. the new one has a lower capacity cause of the "L" shaped loading door instead of something that just swings open on the top.

 

oh, with my balarussin scope mount, i had to grind away a bit of it to fit it on the old guns rail. the top cover was a little too thick. on the new one, i wouldn't have had that problem. i gotta take more pics.

Edited January 4, 2010 by Horsem4n

[GnGArmament]

i have around 9900 Pforce .3g BBs to shoot with for the next year. i am going to scrutinize them before putting them through the 6.01 though. have never use Pforce, they are a budget brand, but hopefully they will fly well.

 

 

I had a small pack of P force .2's. They were utter *suitcase*. The accuracy was really bad on them. (My cheap Crosman .2's were more accurate then them on the same gun!) I cracked a few open and found several air holes in the center. At least they were nicely polished. Sorry for the dissappointment, but it's probably what you'll see.

[Horsem4n]

well, absolutely no BB that is .28 in weight or higher has air bubbles from what i have seen. and i have cracked a few of these open and found none anyway.

 

air bubbles wasn't my worry.

Edited January 7, 2010 by Horsem4n

[Horsem4n]

hay guize, i have some new developments.

 

i was able to get back in contact with EdGi to discuss more on the correct size of the barrel i need. the OD of the barrel is 8.128mm, and because the inner barrel meets up to the ID of the outer barrel on all sides, it makes normal AEG barrels incompatible.

 

so, anybody that desires a precision barrel for their A&K drag has to measure their inner barrel size and make sure of its size before ordering any random AEG barrel.

 

now, because all Chinese manufacturers dont have the greatest production tolerances, and a quarter of a millimeter can change between rifles, your gun can end up being compatible with normal AEG barrels.

 

so, if your barrel is between 8.5 and 8.55mm in thickness, then you can order any barrel you want, but if your like me and have a barrel thinner than that, you must order a custom cut barrel from EdGi.

 

i should be able to pay for my barrel in a couple days, as long as EdGi stays in contact, so hopefully ill have numbers for you guys by the end of February.

[Dr Pepper 6pk]

So how good are these guns stock? The svd caught my eye seeing how its only 50 dollars more than a sub-par JG BAR 10. Accuracy and stock range any good?

[christavel!]

question lads, and ladys

Best scope option?

From kalinka optics which scope would be the best? illumated or not? any tips would be greatly appreciated:)

[Horsem4n]

So how good are these guns stock? The svd caught my eye seeing how its only 50 dollars more than a sub-par JG BAR 10. Accuracy and stock range any good?

they arent that great in stock form right now. they use a lower power spring and in such a long barrel, the bbs just dont go that fast and sound and perform like they are being spat out of a straw.

 

the original barrel and hop up unit are pretty good, but they only shine when you use a strong spring and heavy ammo.

 

so, if you get yourself an M150, make a spacer about 3cm long and use .27+ BBs, it should be usable.

 

but, if you plan to seriously scrimmage with it, you must also replace the hop up bucking with either a firefly AEG bucking or KWA bucking and get a precision barrel.

 

theres also the barrel wobble issues. but, the tape i stuck in there a few months ago is still working to keep it rock solid.

 

as for you Chris, its up to your personal preference on what scope you want to use. all the ones available at kalinka are beautiful Belarussian scopes. most of us choose a fixed 4x illuminated scope as they are cheap and work well for airsoft, but ultimately any of them are good choices.

 

EDIT: i just test fitted an AEG barrel i had laying around into the outer barrel of my SVD and it fit. so my claim about it not fitting was totally false and im sorry. should have tested it first, didnt know what i was thinking.

 

so yes, the gun is fully compatible with any randm AEG barrel.

Edited February 7, 2010 by Horsem4n

[christavel!]

Should buy the SVD version over the AK version scopes right?

[Horsem4n]

yeah, you got to get the right mount.

[christavel!]

okay so out of these two

http://www.kalinkaoptics.com/detail.aspx?ID=567

http://www.kalinkaoptics.com/detail.aspx?ID=62

Which would you guys recommend for airsoft use?, and also they should fit on the ANK SVD right?

[KMFDM]

 

Mine has gone through a bit of a makeover. Though it's not complete just yes. Gonna put a magpul-PTS stock on it aswell (=

[PlasticMag]

I hope you burn in hell.

[christavel!]

I agree, thats not a nice thing to do to an Dragunov

[KMFDM]

But... I maded it bettar!

 

Besides, I've left my Real Sword one completely untouched