Gerkahn Posted October 2, 2009 Report Share Posted October 2, 2009 Long post coming up, will add bits to it, if anyne wants to know anything in particular Today the Tokyo marui l96 aws arrived, I will be comparing it to the vsr 10 gspec and pro sniper I used to own. The rifle comes packaged in an olive drab box with the usual assortment of speed loaders etc and a box of bb’s that will probably never get touched. Stock Removing the Aws from the box you will be reassured by solid bodywork, you’ll also notice it has more weight to it than the vsr does and feels nicely balanced. A tap of the stock reveals its still hollow but structure wise its still strong, looking along the body you’ll notice it has sling points on both sides of the rifle which is handy. There has been mention of a discolored joint piece under the thumb hole grip of the rifle, I too have this, though mine isn’t as bad as some photos have shown, It don’t think its that horrific but I will be sniper taping this rifle up regardless The rifle is comfortable to hold and as said before its balance aids in shooting posture, especially when you take into account its adjustable stock. The adjustable cheek piece is plastic but is comfortable and solid, its height is adjusted via two allen bolts into the left hand side of the stock and to my surprise once tightened keep the cheek piece in place extremely solidly, much better than for instance a well known m40a3 stock. Metalwork The bull barrel and the breech on the rifle is clearly metal (along with all relevant parts that should be) and the finishing is smooth, certainly a testament to marui’s quality. It comes with both a bipod nut and the l96’s unique bipod attachment piece; as of this moment i've attached a Harris bipod that does the job. A part worthy of note is the cylinder itself which is a darker finish than the vsr 10’s and a considerable improvement over the original which was far too shiny for most people, lifting the bolt handle is a pleasant experience and is free of slop, the handle is solid and is much improved for glove users in the field. To the right of the bolt is the safety, it performs as expected and nicely locks the bolt in place to prevent someone working the action without first intentionally removing the safety catch. Working the action although not quite as smooth as a vsr (I presume from the new feeding mechanism) is very pleasant and doesn’t feel forced or clunky. The less smooth action is a worthy price to pay for the new magazine system that whilst being visually appealing and more realistic, is more worth its weight in gold for facilitating quick magazine changes. The magazine itself is quite lightweight, similar in design to the marui m14’s, it does its job but I do find it harder to load with a speed loader, I expect it will get easier as the spring wears in, but loading by hand is a lot easier than it was with the vs., its crisp and can be done with the flat of your thumb rather than using your nails. I would have to say this is an improvement over the vsr in build quality and function, I prefer the hop, I prefer the magazines and I much prefer the finish, there is zilch barrel wobble, I attribute this to the increased threading on the barrel itself, and the additional screws to secure it in place. Hop up The hop up feels more solid than the vsr’s which I am certainly impressed about, and its location under the rifle gives me confidence it cant get knocked whilst stalking through the undergrowth, even in the event it did come into contact with branches or hard surfaces. I have faith it wont move as its certainly more sturdy than the visor’s; Twisting the hop dial gives a nicely spaced, satisfying click, whether there are more adjustment points I have yet to discover, but it feels like there’s more scope than before. Here and there you find some brilliant touches, such as the spring loaded tabs located inside the hop up that guide the cylinder nozzle into the hop cleanly. Shooting the rifle Inserting the mag is an easier affair and it slots straight up and locks firmly in place, no wobbles which is a good thing, not just for feel, but because a misaligned mag can cause erroneous results. Cocking the rifle, you can feel the bb being chambered nice and gently, then squeezing the first shot off the trigger pull weight is very light. The Aws despite its origins does not carry over quite so well to airsoft, the aws is a touch louder than the pro sniper and noticeably more so than the gspec, I remedied this with a suppressor on the end, although this does make the rifle noticeably longer. Accuracy wise, I would say this rifle is on a par with the vsr, those worried about the new feed mechanism shouldn’t be, I only had one stoppage, and that was probably user error whilst working the bolt, it hasn’t double fed or failed to feed any rounds, the bolt simply stopped whilst closing the action and was remedied by tugging back and then forwards again. Link to post Share on other sites
scar527 Posted October 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2009 Great review , are you going to do accuracy testing in the future? That is a beautiful rifle. Scar Link to post Share on other sites
Gerkahn Posted October 2, 2009 Report Share Posted October 2, 2009 i'll probably do a skirmish review, but i can see if i can get some accuracy results too. Link to post Share on other sites
Trasher Posted October 2, 2009 Report Share Posted October 2, 2009 Initial impressions... Pros: + Well balanced + Smooth cycling + Nice and crisp trigger + Steel magazine body + No magazine wobble + Magazine well is metal + Stock spacers Cons: - Stock feels cheap and hollow - Stock material is too smooth, almost slippery - Finish wears down quickly (outer barrel, for example) - Hopup has pretty big adjustment steps - Recessed muzzle, no thread protector (will attract dirt) - Bipod adapter can self-eject easily - Magazine lock spring is too light - Unloading magazines is complicated, requires tool (BBs will not eject, no manual release button) - Sharp magazine lips (BB wear?) - Bolt handle can bump into scope ring Link to post Share on other sites
Trasher Posted October 3, 2009 Report Share Posted October 3, 2009 Fps variation w/ hopup dialed to 8-o-clock position, 5 shots: - Marui .20: 273-278 fps - SGM .29: 247-253 fps Nothing exceptional. Plus another con to the list: - Because the feeding angle, a tool is required to load the magazine to avoid putting excessive strain on BBs (hand loading gets pretty hard after a few BBs, you need to press down the previously loaded BB with something to get the next one in, Marui should have made a pistol like magazine where you relieve spring tension manually) I like VSR mags better, not impressed. Accuracy looks decent at 40m, a shooting test is coming up on Sunday... Link to post Share on other sites
Gerkahn Posted October 3, 2009 Report Share Posted October 3, 2009 I havent had any trouble hand loading, the flat of your thumb is enough to push them easily up to 30 rounds and the last ten are a harder, certainly doable without a tool. 3 fps variation with marui .25's after a barrel clean Link to post Share on other sites
Trasher Posted October 3, 2009 Report Share Posted October 3, 2009 Yes, hand loading is not a problem - if I care little about BB quality... Compared to this, loading a VSR mag is effortless to the last round. My problems occured (with SGMs) after loading just 10-15 rds or so... Since then, I cycled the mag a couple times and now it's a little better. I think the new mag design is less than fortunate, based on following points: 1. Feeding angle is "pistol-like", but no manual access to mag spring for easier loading. 2. Unloading requires a tool. (to strip BBs, one at a time) 3. Tool is recommended for loading, if you wanna make absolutely sure you put the least strain on BBs. 4. BBs are more exposed to dirt through feeding slit than VSR mags. The advantages: 1. Stronger mag body 2. Capacity 3. No stray BB falling out when removing mag Link to post Share on other sites
genetik Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 That looks amazingly hot! Link to post Share on other sites
Gerkahn Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 to be fair i havent tried loading the mags with sgm's, but will do shortly, took it out for skirmish today in totally stock form with .25's. no complaints so far, shoots nicely to 40m and still very acceptable to 50. although i had problems applying enough hop with the .28's. i believe this can easily be remedied with a firefly hop, or by extending the spring loaded rod that pushes the hop arm - accuracy is still on a par with VSR Link to post Share on other sites
Trasher Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 Shot around 100-150 BBs today... With the hopup fully dialed up, the stock (sub joule) rifle was able to put ten SGMs inside a 210mm diameter circle at 40 meters. Decent performance. SGM proved to be too heavy for longer ranges at such a low muzzle energy. With G&G .25 bio maximum effective range was extended to 50m with nice trajectory (hopup set to two steps down from max). Zero feeding problems, the bolt is cycling smoothly. I also experienced some horizontal "zero shifting" after I let the rifle rest for while. Maybe scope creep, or something is loose inside the barrel assembly. The mag problems are still there... G&G .25 and Marui .20 are easy to load, Bioval .25 and Maruzen .29 SGMs are getting stuck, I had to use my swiss army knife to load and strip the magazines which is slow and annoying. The stock material is soft, it scratches easily. Link to post Share on other sites
Gerkahn Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 dont think it could be the barrel assembly, that things more threadlocked with more screws than ive ever encountered, i hope you get to the bottom of it Link to post Share on other sites
Trasher Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 I disassembled the rifle, drilled the cylinder, and snapped a few shots of the internals, plus added crude measurements: http://www.shooter.hu/L96/ The hopup chamber looks SCS / H-nub ready to me. Not sure if this is good news or not... The hopup rubber and barrel is VSR compatible, the rest is not, as expected. Link to post Share on other sites
greg Posted October 5, 2009 Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 Shot around 100-150 BBs today... With the hopup fully dialed up, the stock (sub joule) rifle was able to put ten SGMs inside a 210mm diameter circle at 40 meters. Decent performance. SGM proved to be too heavy for longer ranges at such a low muzzle energy. With G&G .25 bio maximum effective range was extended to 50m with nice trajectory (hopup set to two steps down from max). Zero feeding problems, the bolt is cycling smoothly. I also experienced some horizontal "zero shifting" after I let the rifle rest for while. Maybe scope creep, or something is loose inside the barrel assembly. The mag problems are still there... G&G .25 and Marui .20 are easy to load, Bioval .25 and Maruzen .29 SGMs are getting stuck, I had to use my swiss army knife to load and strip the magazines which is slow and annoying. The stock material is soft, it scratches easily. Thank you for your information. I have to say, the accuracy/fps consistency does not impress me. I may have high standards but used an out of the box g-spec the other day & hit a 6" (150mm?) disk @ 50m 14 times on the trot before missing. The gun chronoed 300-305fps, hop off .2's & I was shooting with sgms. Conditions were good with virtually no wind. The action of this gun was unmodified although I had done the stock resonance thing with dynomat extreem, & expanding foam. Either way, 210mm @ 40m?????????? Not bad, but I was hoping for better. This does not strike me as any improvement over the vsr. Looks pretty though & that mag will go at least 180 for a spring fed mid style 'hi-cap'. Greg. Link to post Share on other sites
Trasher Posted October 5, 2009 Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 This new hopup has an AEG style soft bucking which is not the greatest for consistency. It will be an interesting experiment to test a Firefly or Nineball VSR rubber with H-nub, SCS or "solid bar" type of bucking. Talking about experimenting, I'll order the PDI 6.08mm barrel. Link to post Share on other sites
Gerkahn Posted October 5, 2009 Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 hearing the theory that the v hop does not work well with the freflys jellyfish lead me to the same conclusion, also ive got my vsr spare chamber here, and it looks suspiciously like it could be made to fit the aws, will see how the firefly etc works out first Link to post Share on other sites
Trasher Posted October 5, 2009 Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 Sorry, I meant hopup nub, not bucking... The L96 has VSR type bucking/sleeve with AEG type soft nub. Link to post Share on other sites
Echo Posted October 6, 2009 Report Share Posted October 6, 2009 hearing the theory that the v hop does not work well with the freflys jellyfish lead me to the same conclusion, also ive got my vsr spare chamber here, and it looks suspiciously like it could be made to fit the aws, will see how the firefly etc works out first Not sure how you would adjust it once you got it in there. Link to post Share on other sites
Trasher Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 According to PDI they will release >1 Joule L96 springs this week. Link to post Share on other sites
Gerkahn Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 Thats great news, hopefully the compatible vsr sear will be enough to support 350-360 fps spring Link to post Share on other sites
Trasher Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 Thanks to Gerkahn we know now that the spring guide stopper is identical with VSR. So a steel replacement is already available from PDI. How about the 1st / trigger sear? A guy from Edgi USA is saying it's different. Link to post Share on other sites
Gerkahn Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 I'll strip down the l96 and get some pics, wont be long Link to post Share on other sites
Gerkahn Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 sorry for the double post but ive stripped it down and checked, there is one difference between the spring guide stoppers, the size of the circular depression is different. the stock vsr one does fit but the action becomes much rougher (and i would not suggest buying an upgraded vsr one to use at this time) the piston sear is compatible, mine did cock with it, but infrequently due to my old deepfire one having worn down. the trigger sear is definitely not compatible as it has entirely different dimensions Link to post Share on other sites
Trasher Posted October 8, 2009 Report Share Posted October 8, 2009 PDI 6.01mm tightbore is out for the L96. Link to post Share on other sites
Gerkahn Posted October 8, 2009 Report Share Posted October 8, 2009 pdi release so much contradictory info on their barrels i always end up confused as to which is the best to go for, i like the idea pdi 6.01 as i can keep the bolt action nice and smooth and get improved fps, but im more likely to sway towards the 6.05 or the laylax 500mm when they come out Link to post Share on other sites
Trasher Posted October 8, 2009 Report Share Posted October 8, 2009 Other than the fps, there is no big difference - unless the stock barrel was very low quality. Which is not too likely with a Marui. It's a busy day at PDI, they just released an 140 spring for L96... http://www.x-fire.org/etop/bolt_sp_thicker.html From the specs (length, id/od), I think other springs will be also compatible... Link to post Share on other sites
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