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WE M16 VN/Open Bolt


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mg0006e.jpg

 

Yeeeey it arrived !!

 

First of all let me just say that what i'll post now is just my first impressions, opinions and quick "facts" that i found during my initial "inspection" and by no means is a in depth review. Now that we've put that out in the open .... FUCLKGIUGNG FINALLY !!

 

The first thing you notice when picking it up from the box is how damn light the thing is :o I was surprised to see how light it is compared to my old M16 AWSS, so i picked one of my AWSS M4's ( vanilla ) and compared the two on a scale. Surprise surprise, the M16VN weighted the same as the much shorter M4 that didn't have any trigger group installed and has a partly steel outer barrel ( compared to the M16VN that came with a potmetal *?* one ).

 

The weight of it surprised me a lot and how flimsy the receiver looked/felt to the touch ... even the old AWSS felt "beefier" and found myself a bit disappointed while i was comparing the old AWSS receiver to the receiver found on the M16. But after i cooled down and the "omfg moment" dissipated i put some thought to it and couldn't find a reason why the new receiver was so much lighter than the crappy AWSS v1 receiver and decided to give one for the team and went to get a x-acto. I scraped the old AWSS receiver and saw a dull grey colour denoting that it was the zinc alloy i was expecting, i then did the same to the new receiver and gladly found a very bright shiny grey, this means of course that the receiver is actually mostly aluminium !

 

But since that now the BCG, charging handle, outer barrel and and how there's no steel parts on a removable carrying handle allied with such a lightweight aluminium upper receiver, you can't shake off that feeling of "how can this be so lightweight and still be strong enough not to brake as soon as i play with it ?!?". It's still a aluminium cast tough but fortunately the outer finish is almost perfect without any blemishes, cast marks and the surface is VERY smooth. Tt has a very shiny finish though ... it is the totally opposite of my old AFC dull grey AWSS receiver.

 

I can only see two differences in the lower receiver, the new bolt stop and that the auto sear is a couple of mm shorter ( and it looks like it is just an old AWSS sear that was filled down to spec ) and all other dimensions appear to be the same but i'll have to disassemble it first to be sure.

 

The steel parts appear to be:

 

  • Charging Handle Latch
  • Delta Ring
  • Takedown Pins
  • Flashider
  • Bolt Stop

 

 

The rest is a mix of potmetal, aluminium and plastic. Now the really bad part of this gun ... the plastic used on the handguards are ######, pure stinking ######. It looks like they made them out of plastic bags that were melted down and formed into the shape of handguards. And of course, since the material is balls and the fact that the gun came disassembled in 2 parts, my handguard set came obliterated from the transport :lol:

 

The BCG although being potmetal actually appears to be able to last quite a while ! Unlike the ###### poor attempted of reinforcing the potmetal carrier on the g39/SCAR with a tiny cube of steel, the AR carrier has a long strip of steel that goes from the bottom of the carrier right until to the middle of it, being surrounded with the rest of the carrier and only a small part of it actually interfaces with the bolt stop, not only that but the reinforced part of the carrier is a just a tiny bit larger than the rest of the carrier. But only time will tell how long the original carrier will last, although Ra-Tech already has a steel bcg in the works.

 

And now the interesting part ... how does it shoot ? Beautifully ... i just gassed up the mag, put some .25g BB's on it and went shooting on the usual spot. In the first couple of mags there were a few flyers ( the hop up came DRENCHED in silicone oil ) but after that the thing was shooting laser straight with .25g BB's and easily passing the 70m mark ( where i shoot i have a measured landmark at 80m and the BB's were falling very short of it ). This is how the WE M4 should have been made from day 1 !!

 

The 20 round VN magazine really is a one piece design, there's no shell ! It comes leak free though and handled 30ºC propane just fine, it cools down like crazy and even with on this weather became VERY cold to the touch after fully dumping the mag. Surprisingly though it didn't have any measurable effect on the performance and the gun performed flawlessly without any hiccups :eh: But only time will tell if this is a problem or not, it's so hot outside that even a really cold mag might not do any "damage".

 

I'll be taking a few nice pictures of it during the weekend and if time allows, i will try to transplant the internal bit into my old AFC receiver and see what changed, what is compatible and what isn't. Stay tuned :wave:

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Yaaay purty pictures!

 

The rifle itself:

 

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_mg_0051.jpg

 

Some close ups on the receivers:

 

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_MG_0006.jpg

 

Yes the receiver has a shiny finish although not as bad as it looks on the pictures, the sun and the fact that it's full of oil ampliated the effect a bit. The holes for the takedown pins appear to be made post anodizing and "hand made" rather than from the cast itself.

 

_mg_0013.jpg

 

Interestingly enough the inside of the magwell still has the same cast fault that the old v1 AWSS lower receivers had :lol:

 

Close ups:

 

_mg_0048.jpg

 

Apart from a new bolt stop and a somewhat shortened auto sear, the trigger box appears to be pretty much the same.

 

_mg_0070.jpg

 

As you can the the mock gas key is a bit different and you also can see the small steel reinforcement on the carrier where it engages with the bolt stop. It looks sturdier than that found on the G39 and SCAR.

 

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The hop up unit.

 

Some completely random pictures:

 

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Feel free to ask for any other specific picture ;)

 

PS. Mods feel free to remove my post from the WE M4 thread that is a copy of the first post of this thread.

Edited by danielsilva
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Any idea what size allen wrench/key is needed for the hop?

I unfortunately dont have a calliper/ruler handy to check.

 

Going to look for a ball end allen wrench to make adjusting the hop easier.

 

Dunno cause the thing didn't came with it's own allen key and the smallest i have around here is 1,5mmm which doesn't fit. So it's either 1mm or .5mm, i'll have to buy them before i can say for sure.

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Any idea what size allen wrench/key is needed for the hop?

I unfortunately dont have a calliper/ruler handy to check.

 

Going to look for a ball end allen wrench to make adjusting the hop easier.

 

 

hi, the size it's 0,05" (~1,25mm) (my 416 don't came with the right key <_< )

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hi, the size it's 0,05" (~1,25mm) (my 416 don't came with the right key <_< )

 

Hi Maxou, Where did get from your OB 4168? How is it shooting? I'm very interested about the OB 4168 receiver and finish, thanks for any info.

 

Great pics Mr Silva, I was waiting for those first impressions, Did you swapped the internals already? Thanks...

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Hi Maxou, Where did get from your OB 4168? How is it shooting? I'm very interested about the OB 4168 receiver and finish, thanks for any info.

 

 

Hi, It came from airsoftglobal for me it shoots great (better after having the right key for the hop-up :P ) for the finish,... can't really compare, it's my first GBBR (I just have a Dboys M4....) at this moment don't regret my purchase

 

only one thing... 1 magazine it's not enough (just buy 4 from WGC this morning for 32 $/each)

 

 

now I want the M16 A1/VN (but I'll try to wait for the scar H )

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A little update.

 

img0099hg.jpg

 

As you can see, the new open bolt M4/M16/HK416 doesn't use the same trigger cage nor the old type valve delayer, instead it uses the new type delayer found in the newer OB guns and the trigger cage from the OB SCAR(?).

 

So you CANNOT use the old trigger cage ( and thus not be able to use the upgraded ra-tech delayer if you already have one ) because the "new" trigger cage is a bit thinner near the firing pin ( encircled in red ) than the old cage and the new bolt stop won't allow the cage to fit. However if you're a cheap bastird like me and don't want to loose the old upgraded parts, you can just file down the old trigger cage to spec and use the old parts. I shot a couple of mags with the old trigger cage that i filled down and had no stoppages.

 

You can also see that the new OB system uses a "different" auto sear but it's nothing than an old type sear that had about .5~1mm shaved off, so you can just either pop the new one into the old cage or file down to spec the old auto sear.

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So with regards to the front handguards, were they broken out of the box? and do they wobble around? Id of hoped they would have used the same plastic from the g39, which is pretty high quality. blink.gif

 

About the plastics quality, see 1st Commando's post above. They didn't come "broken" but they came all dinged up, they shipped the gun with the receivers apart and the handguards were being rubbed on by the hammer <_<

 

Ahhh I am still at a undecided nature on whether to go for the M14 or the M16A1 ... damn my flittery mind.

 

Although i have both and love my M14's. GO FOR THE M16 NAO !!! The more i shoot it, the more i'm loving it :D

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¡Saludos cordiales compadre!

I'll wait until the end of the month for the non-trademarked 416 (it's going to get painted anyway). What do you guys reckon is a good place for magazines? Airsoftglobal has them at $38, RA-tech at $32.

 

EDIT: Oh Lord, RA-Tech already has it, standard and modified. How needed are the steel parts of their custom build? Does anyone have them?

Edited by Wingmann
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I tested the M16 today and oddly enough quite a few BB's would get any hopup effect applied to them. At first i though that it was because the system was full of oil ( came this way from the shop ) and so i went and disassembled the gun.

 

The a flaw in the hopup unit, the inner barrel is able to rotate quite a bit on the hopup unit :blink:

The fix was easy, i just applied a good amount of Teflon tape around the barrel and with a drill bit i removed a bit of material from the end of the hopup unit, just enough to fir a small ring to help centre the inner barrel on the hopup unit.

Edited by danielsilva
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If you take a look at their custom build you'll see the NPAS in the picture. So, I think it exists (probably the same as in the M14 and others) but the RA-T $400 build doesn't include it.

 

I would try a fixed valve that does what you need, though.

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