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(before you read furter: i\'m belgian & English is not my native tongue, so excuse me for spelling errors & bad terminology)

 

Motivation

 

For years (6 of them to be exact) i have been waiting to buy an M60E1 to airsoft with. For years i tried to save up large sums of cash to buy the TOP (which was ok after spending as much money on upgrades, but still plastic), the inokatsu (wich weighed 15kg & cost 2600usd without shipping) & the asaki copies (which were almost as costly as the inokatsu & practically impossible to find). 3 Years ago i bough myself the VFC M60 MK43 MOD 0, which was excellent at first, but which was a small disaster for ingame use. The boxmag was a POS which fed on in six times, the barrel mount broke after first use, the sling mount the second & the gearbox jammed because of unknown reasons (still unknown till this day ) after six months of use. A hell of a way to spend 1800+€ on an airsoft replica imho :rolleyes: . About a year ago i bought the A&K M60 MK43 Mod 0, a copy of the VFC 2nd version, which had ironed out most of the 1st editions problem. It cost about 1/6th of the price i paid my VFC & except a couple of basic problems which were easily fixed, worked excellent ingame

 

Now, after this motivational info / rant, the review can begin

 

Real Steel info:

sorry, but i\'m honest enough not to copy/paste info from world.guns.ru or Wikipedia

so here are the links:

http://world.guns.ru/machine/mg12-e.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M60_machine_gun

 

You know Rambo uses it in about every movie, Animal motha uses it in Full Metal Jacket & Joacquin Phoenix gets to lug one around & shoot his own car with it in Buffalo soldiers. In short, it\'s a badass gun used by some of the coolest movie characters for the last 30 years; Onto the review allready.

 

Package

 

I ordered the gun at www.taiwangun.com in poland, a shop which i got to know from Mike west (u are my hero man ) & which has the best prices & assortment in ACM stuff of the whole of Europe imho. ( http://www.taiwangun.com/machinerifles_aeg...0_p_j-1640.html for price on the M60). As usual it took 4-5 days of shipping & this afternoon the DPD guy brought it in.

 

The replica came in a plain brown box with isomo inside, thus protecting the package perfectly while not showing off any eye-candy :( . In the box were: the m60 (duh), the boxmag, an 9.6v 1200mah mini battery, useless charger, manual, info forms (ll come back on that later), two slings (one for this M60, the other one for my mk43) & an M100 spring (for the downgrade as the local sites\' limits are 350fps (+10fps \"breathing\" space)).

 

There isn\'t much else i can say about it that would be interesting, so on to the looks.

 

The looks

 

pic1.jpg

 

As u can see it looks very nice, with a matte black finish on all parts, just like the real one. The body is an m60VN (i\'ll call it M60VN to differentiate it ) version , & completely in aluminium, but for the pistol grip, buttstock (which has a full metal buttplate like the original one) & handguard. The texturing is nice imho, almost on par with the VFC i had & the other A&K i have. Total weight is around 7kg, about half the weight of the fully loaded real M60. The body is a combination of the TOP & VFC design: the front end of the body is connected to the back end with 6 screws, just like the A&K MK43. There are complaints from some for this, but i have yet to find anyone having real probs with it. On the mk43 i noticed a tiny bit of wobble, but i stuck some tape on it to fix it

 

pic7.jpg

 

The first thing purists will see is the E3/E4 pistol grip, which isn\'t correct on the M60VN . To be honest i\'m glad it\'s the modern grip, since the old type is way to small to use comfortably for a weekend soldier like me. I tried it on a deact \'60 once, & i got RSI just by looking at it let alone using it) .

 

Another negative thing for the purists are the trades, which are the same as the A&K M60 MK43 mod 0. I took a black marker to erase it a bit, but the flash made the erased text light up ;)

 

pic14.jpg

 

A nice touch is that the boxmag mount is a correct M60VN connected to the bullet link mount, not the E3/E4 one fixed to the body (altough that one is sturdier & easier to use).

 

pic2.jpg

 

The removable barrel is a little harder to remove & replace than the MK43 one. Especially the barrel lock is a hard little devil to close again, but imho this is because of the fact the bipod is attached to the upper barrel & thus needing to be a lot tighter & more solid when playing. I find the whole barrell assembly much sturdier & it hasn\'t got the least bit of wobble in contrast to the mk43 (which is very wobbly).

 

Internals

Taiwanguns changes the basic internals standard with the following parts (taken from site):

 

Replica in our configuration have 450 fps, we achieved this score by changing some internal parts, such as:

 

• M130 spring

• Chrome bore-up cylinder

• Reinforced metal cylinder head(bore up type matched for the silent system)

• Reinforced silent type piston head with ball bearing (bearings helps with smoothly rotating the spring Turing the work)

• Hi-torque motor

• 8 mm ball bearings

• Spring guide is standard-metal reinforced with Ball Bering so the spring will rotate smoothly

• Low resistance gearbox wiring

 

This will probably be true since i have compared the internals of the MK43 (which i bought from asia) with this one & they all have different parts (no XYT gears except for some non-standard ones) & a lot better quality cabling. The price of the \'60 this is a bit higher then on other sites, but imho worth it.

 

pic18.jpg

 

Like i mentioned i got a couple of info files with the gun (as usual with Taiwangun) containing firing tests results, warranty papers, etc.

Mine got following FPS values with .20gr bb\'s:

 

443-445-443-455-457-450-459-450-448-447

 

nice values for a support gun, but unfortunately to high for local use, so i had to replace the spring

 

pic6.jpg

 

One of the main advantages of the VFC/A&K M60 series is their gearboxes, based on the CA/A&K M249 gearboxes (which in turn are PGC based, from the TOP conversions). They are a bit different in form & function, but maintains the quickchange spring design. To change the spring you have to take out the gearbox: you take off the 4 screws (and washers) fixing the gearbox, remove the stock (also fixed with a screw, instead of the large pin of the MK43) & just take it out.

 

pic8.jpg

 

The gearbox itself is the standard M249 box, but with a seperate electric connection system, which is a lot more interesting since you can put your battery in the boxmag, & also power the boxmag with the same battery u use for the gun itself.

 

pic10.jpg

 

The quickchange spring is as easy to take out as a regular M249 gearbox: pull the lip backwards, hold it & the spring guide & spring comes out.

 

I put in a Guard M100 & put everything back together.

 

I also took a look to the hopup unit. This is the standard M249 hop which CA, VFC & A&K use for all their support guns. They al share the same problem: the hopup nub is too damn short so you don\'t have any hop at all.

However, this is easily fixed: take a bit of aeg electric cable (i use TM cabling), cut it to the preferred lengt (about 1.5mm bigger than the original nub does it for me), gut the electric cabling out & put it in place. The hop works perfect now ;) altough i find it a thing most airsoft producers could easily (& cheaply) fix! The barrel itself is a 580mm 6.08 barrel. Maybe i\'ll swap it for a precision barrel, but i have to skirm with it first.

 

After the full reassembly i got following values (with hopup completely off, so detract about 10-15fps with hop on):

347-349-347-346-349-350-347-354-347

 

this fits perfectly for local use now.

 

pic11.jpg

 

The ROF is adjustable with the built in rheostat. This is a mosfect coupled with a voltage regulator so you can change your rof from +/- 500rpm to +/-850rpm, like the real steel one. It works flawless, like on the A&K MK43 & is a nice touch compared to the Inokatsu & TOP M60\'s. Included in the box is a small cable connector to bypass the rheostat completely & get whichever ROF you want. Since local fields allready complain about spraying, i\'ll leave the adjuster on

 

The boxmag

 

pic20.jpg

 

The included boxmag is a copy of the VFC MK43 V2, which has a better inner motor, better cabling & a plastic inner instead of the cartboard inner of the VFC V1 (altough that would have been more realistic, but functioned like a pos). Like the A&K MK43 boxmag i own, it functions perfectly, being more than capable of following the ROF adjuster.

 

 

Ingame use

 

This will be for next weekend.

 

First Look Conclusion

 

ACM guns have been maturing steadily since they came up about 4 years ago. Since the A&K m249, you can get a lowpriced supportgun, which needs a couple of tweaks (& with the occasional lemon) instead of a highpriced one having the same problems. For collectors, built quality & details aren\'t good enough yet, but for regular players (like me ) who have a minimum of experience with tweaking & changin parts, they are a good VFM product (value for money), since you only need to invest a minimum of money & time for it to workd perfectly. This M60 is a good example of this. Sturdy, well made, but with a couple of small problems easily fixed by the owner. I\'ll have my next skirm with it next sunday, so expect more info next week!

Edited by Forze
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Well i took the gun to it's first skirm today & i can say the following:

 

It's one hell of a support gun, excellent ROF (for use on this field) & quite easy to use with the sling.

 

Unfortunately i slipped while carrying it, causing a part of the bipod assembly to break off. The bipod cannot be stored in the closed condition now.

 

I already sent an email to taiwangun so we'll see about a new bipod.

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As you can see in this image that my love of all things belt fed continues. As I also have several competing machine gun replicas a direct comparison is possible as well my hope is that this will make the review even more informative and comprehensive.. I will be initially comparing closely with the STAR/ARES M60E4/Mk43.

 

11810055.jpg

 

Purchasing/ and packaging

 

My A&K was purchased at Airsoft Atlanta for $395 on Thursday and shipped via UPS, It arrived today a few hours ago due to the weekend and the holiday. Packaging was excellent. One of my concerns with A&K is the resent raid by Chinese government official has shut manufacturing operations down, whether or not this is permanent or not only time will tell. In the mean time replacement parts for any A&K products has proven to be difficult. (I can not find a replacement upper stock pin for a M249) What this means to us and this review is if you want this replica don't wait, once they are gone, they are GONE! at least for the near future.

 

The replica arrives with a proper metal flash hider which is sadly painted orange and a improper M16 plastic flash hider which is glued on. To remove this one needs to back off a set screw and apply moderate twisting force onto the plastic flash hider, initially I thought it was threaded on to but it is a press fit. After it is removed you only have to clean the glue residue off with a wire brush and screw the metal one into place (it is left handed threads) In addition the replica is shipped with a pouch, powered box magazine and a user manual.

 

Physical impressions and Description

 

The A&K M60 replicates the first issued M60 machine gun, nicknamed the pig, it is a awful heavy hunk of fire power. So much so that the military considers the M60 a crew server weapon to help lug its weight around. The replica itself is massive compared to most airsoft replicas most players are familiar with even in comparison to the now common M249. What surprised me is the difference in weight between the STAR/ARES M60E4/MK43 (12.2 .lbs empty) and the A&K M60 (20.2 .lbs empty) Understand that the M60E4/Mk43 is a improved lightened, easier to handle M60 machine gun so it makes sense that the full size one would be awkward and heavier, I just did not expect it to be nearly twice as heavy! If you are a small person, this is NOT the replica for you.

 

I knew from a excellent review of the A&K M60E4/mk43 done by Hillslam that the A&K M60 replicas where body chassis is in two major sub assemblies that bolted together into the middle. I had serious concerns about this as it has been proven to be problematic in other replicas. Mine is no different, the screw in my replica are mechanically tight but the forward portion of the operative charging handle has a wobble not unlike that of the infamous barrel wobble found on some M4/M16 replicas. I intend to look into eliminating this wobble in the near future. luckily this loose fit is much better than the prototype which looked bent.

 

The gearbox is massive, It is if not the same then based on the M249 gearbox that is known for its resistance to abuse. It does have the quick change spring/ spring guide found in the M249 and M60 replicas however there is NO space in the body to use this feature, one much remove the gearbox to do so. In the competing STAR and ARES M60s there is a cavernous space for a battery behind the gearbox. There is not room for even this in the ARES, instead it is wired to the side with the intention of placing a battery into a hanging nylon pouch that also encloses a plastic powered box magazine.

 

11810053i.jpg

 

The box magazine

 

I have high hopes for this box magazine, The biggest problems I have had with the STAR and ARES M60E4/MK43 has been with the box magazine. The A&K box mag looks very similar to its competitors. Thankfully upon closer inspection it is not (thank lord) I have not yet disassembled it yet but some of the difference appear to be more than superficial. More on this at a later date. One thing I can mention is that the box mag does lack the mounting buttons that the ARES and STAR box mags are fitted with. It is wired into the gun with a 3 pin connector (ARES uses a 2 pin connector and the STAR used 3 AA batteries (or 4 A or a 9 volt depending on how desperate you where to get it to feed)

 

Considering that I have heard of 5 of these replicas break the bipod mount off here are some of the places I am searching for M60 bipod mounts from surplused or demiled weapons.

http://www.autoweapons.com/photos/accys/m60.html

http://shop.ernstarmory.com/product.sc?pro...p;categoryId=-1

http://e-gunparts.com/product.asp?chrProdu...1142560&MC=

 

11810056.jpg

002pbu.jpg

 

 

More on this replica review after I get some field time with it.

Edited by JeepCJ8
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As you can see in this image that my love of all things belt fed continues. As I also have several competing machine gun replicas a direct comparison is possible as well my hope is that this will make the review even more informative and comprehensive.. I will be initially comparing closely with the STAR/ARES M60E4/Mk43.

 

 

More on this replica review after I get some field time with it.

 

 

:unsure: Isn't this already someone's review work? That you have kind of just come along and added yours to?

 

That doesn't seem quite right does it?

 

Here, let me just spend my time and energy writing a review and formatting it and taking pictures and working to present that to the community....so that someone else can come add theirs on top?

 

Not the coolest of things to do to a fellow Airsofter Sir- There is plenty of room in the review section for your very own review ;)

 

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anyway ;)

 

The bipod problem is sticking it's ugly head up on practically all A&K M60VN's

 

i have now contacted nearly everyone who sells either M60 bipods (or parts) & nearly every airsoft store, dealer, distributor.

 

most of the replies were no go's (even got a threat: i would be reported to homeland security for not being a US class 3 license owner ;) ) & for the others i'm still awaiting replies.

 

I also contacted Gunnerairsoft & RSOV if they were able to order the spares straight from A&K.

 

If not i'll check up with Frontiers to adress this problem next time he visits A&K!

 

I'll keep you guys posted on further developments.

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Ok i've just purchased a new bipod assembly at http://shop.ernstarmory.com/product.sc?pro...mp;categoryId=8

 

Thank god they are able & willing to send me some parts (apparantly i've even dealth with them before ;) great guys to work with ;) )

 

'll keep ya guys posted!

 

edit:

The people from gunnerairsoft are also going to contact A&K to possibly be able to order M60 spares

Edited by Forze
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  • 2 weeks later...

Quick question for you Forze, or anyone here that has one. I'm having body sagging problems in the middle, apparently the 6 tiny bolts (3 on each side) they used are too small. Another guy here in Michigan tapped his out and used larger bolts, m3's and I think a m4 to stiffen the body. Before I tap this out, any simpler fixes you've come up with?

 

-Chad

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