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Please note: No pictures until tomorrow due to no camera battery.

 

With a recent spring/gas day coming up at my local I thought it was time I went down the bolt action route again. On a whim I spent £110 on a rifle which pretty much sold itself to me on looks alone. I read no reviews apart from the one on the website and thought to myself "If it's bad I can either upgrade or sell it". A couple of days later a large parcel was left looming in my porch. The rifle, a bottle of .3 Blaster Devil BB's, a pack of 10 rifle targets and a bottle of Abbey silicone grease were tucked safely inside.

 

First thing to note was "Should the parcel really be this light?". After getting through the parcel wrapping and ties I was presented with a fairly bland box wrapped in cellophane with a nice picture of my new rifle. An interesting term used on the box was "Museum piece quality". Now whether that meant to me it could stand the test of time or fall apart as soon as you look at it. Ripping through the box I got to the Styrofoam bed which housed the rifle, a small bag of cheap and nasty BB's, a long plastic rod which had no normal cleaning rod ends, a cheap quality sling and a magazine loading tool. Lifting the gun out of the box I was impressed at how solid it was considering the body, stock tube, pistol grip and stock were plastic. There was no creaking, no wobbling at all (apart from the M4 stock but that's solved with a strip of gaffa tape) and most importantly, no sense of the rifle falling apart through some abuse.

 

Cocking the rifle I was surprised at how easy and smooth the action was. The bolt handle needs barely any "lift" before you can cock the rifle which decreases your cocking time. Loading up the magazine I noticed that it was different from other APS2's and APS2 clones. Rather than pressing a magazine release in front of the magazine you had to pinch two tabs on the magazine and then it would slide free from the rifle. The hop is adjusted by using a 2.5mm hex key in the hole in front of the magazine well.

 

Another nice feature of the rifle is the familiarity aspect. It uses an M4 pistol grip and stock which means that you have some choice of extras you can add to it. I believe that you can swap out the pistol grip for GBB pistol grips (I don't have any to try though) but I do know that the stock tube will take normal AEG stocks but they may be a bit tight to adjust and get on. I put on a ASG crane stock on mine and it's made it so much better to shoulder.

 

I got the magazine loaded with .2 BB's, adjusted the hop using the supplied 2.5mm hex key and then ran it through my Chromro Mk4 chrono. The first shot came in at 286 FPS. A little low I thought and ran a few more shots through, all coming in around the 280 mark. It then struck me, the rifle was fitted with a velocity reducer (according to the website). A quick disassembly of the rifle (undo 3 hex bolts, slide the hand guard forwards and separate the receiver from the body) I had the bolt out. Now this is actually something I'm genuinely impressed with. In the air nozzle was the velocity reducer. It simply screws into the air nozzle to reduce airflow and lower FPS. None of this Marui reducer nonsense of using a rubber washer to slow down the BB. A simple yet effective way to bring the rifles power down.

 

With the reducer removed and a fresh mag in the gun I was now hitting around the 420 FPS mark, a 200 FPS increase! It was now time to break out the artillery! Attaching a 4x32 scope (about all I had) and zeroing it I was seeing some awesome accuracy on the .3 BB's. In my mind I thought to myself "What can I do to make this better?". The answer was indeed very simple. With the rifle apart I wrapped a couple of layers of PTFE tape around the hop unit and around the cylinder head. During my testing I also noticed that the rifle wasn't holding it's hop setting very well. This became apparent when I took the hop apart. The hop arm had a crack in it! I used some Araldite to fix the crack and the hop arm was as strong as it should be. I also wrapped a layer of PTFE tape around the hop adjustment grub screw to ensure that it didn't unwind itself. I also cleaned the barrel which on inspection looked clean but it took 6 swabs to clean it!

 

Now it was time to see whether my hard work tinkering was going to pay off. The first shot went through at 486 fps! Another serious gain from simply taping up the air seals! Whilst the rifle was not as consistant as I had hoped it was performing like nothing I'd ever seen from an airsoft sniper rifle. On that note I got my gear ready for the day which would allow my rifle to prove it's worth to me.

 

Morning came, I geared up and headed to site. After showing off my new toy I went to the range to make sure I was ready to pass my sniper test (a requirement on my site for using BA rifles over 400 FPS). My first test was to hit a target at (I think) 60 meters at least seven out of ten times. What happened next surprised everyone (including me!), 9/10 hits landed on target... better than an upgraded VSR that was also on test! Next test was something only my site would come up with, 3 shots from your rifle... on yourself at minimum engagement! I made my way to the MED target on the range and waited for the shots to do their damage. Against an AEG this would be easy to bear, but a 490 FPS rifle loaded with heavy ammo was slightly nerve racking! First shot came... and hit my riggers belt! I was saved! Second shot came and landed square in the centre of my back as did the third and final shot... there was some rude language served up for entertainment purposes but overall it wasn't THAT painful but people would know when a shot had hit them.

 

Cutting to the point as I think I've bored you enough already, the rifle was an absolute gem to use. It's light, damn accurate on the stock barrel with heavy ammo and has a range that has to be seen to be believed. The only problem I had with it at the end of the day was the fact that at least two other players were going to buy one to counter mine!

 

TL:DR...

 

PROS +

+ Removable velocity reducer

+ Near 500 FPS after air leaks are sealed

+ Very accurate on stock barrel after a clean and using quality ammo

+ Extremely light weight

+ Option to use different telescopic M4 stocks

+ Easy to cock

+ £110!

 

CONS -

- Plastic stock tube might be a weakness, too early to tell though

- Difficult to find spare magazines

- Needs air leaks fixing before it really shines

- Funky "Urban sniper" look might not be everyone's taste

 

To be honest I find it hard to fault this gun if you know what you're doing on the insides. I'm very impressed with mine and the impulse buy was well worth it.

 

Overall score - 9/10 once tinkered with and 7/10 without anything done to it at all.

 

I'll get some pictures of the rifle up tomorrow and am happy to answer questions about it as well. :)

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The only problem I had with it at the end of the day was the fact that at least two other players were going to buy one to counter mine!

 

 

Dude, it's £110, it's not like i have a choice :P

 

Good review man - Having had a few shots with this on Sunday, it's frankly astonishing for the price. Really, a man size target at 60 metres is child's play. I'm sure Ollie saw me running away a fair few times after thinking i was out of AEG range and seeing him sitting there - It's quite intimidating being on the other end once you know what it can do.

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  • 11 months later...

Replied to the man above, however no pics but once I get my new cylinder I'll get some up.

 

One word of warning to any MB-06 owners who are looking to upgrade. Cylinder! If you chuck a bigger spring in the stock cylinder it will come apart and stop the rifle from working! I speak from experience here. :(

 

I reccomend Airsoft Sniper Parts UK for spares. I have the upgraded piston and it's very well built and light. I've spoken to Darren at ASPUK and they do have a batch of cylinders being made but it could be weeks before they have them in stock.

 

Be aware that the MB-06 cylinder is different to the L96 cylinder in the fact that it's shorter and has a different back for the bolt handle.

 

Also just a quick mention about ASPUK, I emailed them on a Sunday and got a reply back about 10 minutes later! These guys have great customer service and parts, so they get a thumbs up from me. :)

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  • 3 months later...

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