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Angel Customs inner barrel Review by Booligan


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Angel Custom 510mm x 6.01mmStainless Steel Tightbore Barrel review by Booligan

 

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Table of Contents:

 

Introduction

 

Ordering

 

Basic Information

 

First impressions/Packaging

 

Inner Barrel Details

 

Performance

 

Pros/Cons

 

Overall

 

 

 

Introduction:

 

Angel Customs is a manufacturer ofhigh quality internal and external parts, and today I'm going to be reviewingone of their stainless steel tightbore inner barrels. Angel manufactures thesebarrels in a variety of lengths, from 110mm MP5K length all the way to 650mmPSG1+, with pretty much every AEG in between covered. I will discuss all of thevarious pros and cons of these barrels in this review!

 

 

 

Ordering:

 

I was sent this barrel byEvike, who has recently started carryingpretty much all of Angel's products. The various barrels are priced between $32and $53, depending on length. This model, the 510mm length unit, is availableHERE,priced at $50. The rest of the barrels can be foundHERE. From whatI can see, they only have AEG cut barrels currently, but they are producingseveral bolt action parts, so I wouldn't be surprised if they started sellingVSR cut barrels soon. Evike packaged the barrel well for shipping inside acylindrical tube package with bubble wrap inside, keeping it safe duringtransit.

 

 

 

Basic Information:

 

Angel Customs manufactured thisbarrel out of stainless steel, both for strength and durability. It is listedas having a 6.01mm inner bore, which is much tighter than most stock innerbarrels, as well as many aftermarket inner barrels. As mentioned before, youcan get these in pretty much any length that you might need for your AEG.

 

 

 

First impressions/Packaging:

 

Angel Customs packages their innerbarrels inside a clear plastic tube, like most inner barrel manufacturers. At theends of the barrel, they've inserted small rubber plugs, to protect the muzzleand hop-up openings from damage during shipping. This is a small touch, but itshows that they care enough about their product to keep it safe. There are twostickers on the tube, one indicating that it is made by Angel Customs, and oneindicating the length.

 

 

 

From here on, click all picturesto enlarge

 

 

 

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Barrel inside the packaging

 

 

 

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Rubber plug inside the barrel

 

 

 

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Sticker on the tube

 

 

 

Inner Barrel Details:

 

There's really not too much to sayabout the barrel that hasn't already been said in this review, however, I willstress the fact that it is made out of stainless steel, which is one of thepreferred materials to make inner barrels out of. To help you keep track of thelength and bore of your barrel, Angel laser engraved the barrel with thatinformation.

 

 

 

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Laser engraving on the barrel

 

 

 

At the hop-up end, you'll noticethat it has two notches for locking in the hop-up. The hop-up window is cut atan angle, which can help prevent damage to the bucking by reducing the sharpedges for it to contact.

 

 

 

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Hop-up window

 

 

 

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Hop-up locking notches

 

 

 

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Hop-up end of the barrel

 

 

 

At the muzzle end of the barrel,you'll find that it has deep crowning, which helps prevent accuracy issues whenfiring. It does this by providing a smooth path for excess compressed air toescape around the BB at the moment it exits the barrel. This effect is morepronounced on real firearms, of course, but in theory, it works for airsofttoo.

 

 

 

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Muzzle crowning

 

 

 

The inner bore of the barrel is veryhighly polished, and is without any defects that I can see. It is an extremelysmooth bore, and a BB slides smoothly down it. When you place a BB in thebarrel, cover the muzzle with your finger, it takes a very long time for the BBto slide down the barrel, indicating that the barrel has a very tightbore.

 

 

 

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Shot taken down the bore

 

 

 

Performance:

 

The barrel may be pretty, and it ismade of great materials, but that's not any good if it doesn't increase theperformance of your gun. Luckily, that is not the case with this barrel, as I sawa noticeable increase in FPS and range, as well as a decrease in grouping size.For testing purposes, I installed the barrel in my Javelin M4 based customrifle. You can see the review of the stock gunHERE.

 

 

 

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Javelin custom test gun

 

 

 

Since the review, I had installedthe M16 length outer barrel, as well as a Javelin 500mm inner barrel, that Itook from my Javelin AK project gun. After swapping in the longer inner barrel,I saw an increase in FPS from about 376 to 380 consistently. This gave me adecent starting place for testing the new barrel.

 

 

 

Before installing the barrel, Icleaned it with a cleaning rod and patch to remove any excess oils from themanufacturing process, and was pleased to see that the patches came out quiteclean. Installing the barrel was a piece of cake, as it fit perfectly insidethe hop-up unit and the outer barrel. The length was perfect for my M16 lengthouter barrel, and went right up to the end of the muzzle threading, leaving no wastedouter barrel length. After installation, I shot two hi-caps through the gunwith Matrix .20g BBs, to break in the barrel, and remove any tiny burrs thatmight have existed. I did a quick chrono test before breaking in and afterward,and saw no difference in the results, so it doesn't appear that this barrelwill require any break-in before use.

 

 

 

Chrono results, using Matrix .20gBBs came in between 402.6 and 404.2 FPS, an increase of 20 FPS on average overthe same length, but stock bore inner barrel, and with increased consistency.This is to be expected with a tighter bore, as less air gets wasted bypassingthe BB. Accuracy and range increased as well with this barrel. With thestock bore M16 length barrel, I was able to hit a torso sized target at 165'90% of the time, and after installing the Angel barrel, I saw that rangeincrease to 175', using .28g BBs. This increase in effective range can beattributed to the increase in velocity, however, there was a lot less side toside deviation in my shots compared to the stock bore barrel.

 

 

 

For more precise testing, I set upan 8x11 target outdoors at 90' in order to get grouping size before and afterinstallation of the barrel. Firing from a prone rested position, and usingMatrix .28g BBs, I was able to get the following groupings:

 

 

 

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Stock barrel

 

 

 

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Angel TBB

 

 

 

As you can see, the groupingtightened up substantially with the Angel barrel vs. the stock bore barrel. Atshort range, most of the deviation is from top to bottom, with side to sidebeing quite tight. Grouping size with the Angel TBB was about 2.9", with thestock barrel being closer to 5".

 

 

 

Overall, you can see that theperformance was greatly increased across the board using the Angel 6.01mmtightbore barrel. I saw an increase in velocity, consistency, usable range, andprecision. For the price, this thing gave me one of the best bumps in overallperformance that I've seen.

 

 

 

Pros:

 

Noticeable increase in range,precision, FPS, and consistency

 

Great price - $32-$53, depending onlength

 

High quality stainless steelconstruction

 

6.01mm inner bore

 

 

 

Cons:

 

Must use very high quality ammo withthis barrel, however, you should be using good ammo anyways

 

Tighter bore barrels requirefrequent cleaning to prevent jams

 

No VSR/APS cut barrels are currentlyavailable

 

 

 

Overall:

 

Angel Custom has produced a fewproducts recently, and if they're half as good as their inner barrel, they aregoing to be a force to be reckoned with. This thing is extremely well made, andgives you real, measurable performance increases across the board. It is easy toinstall, inexpensive, and gives you more useable performance for skirmish use.I'm very excited to see what else Angel has in store for the airsoft market!

 

 

 

Many thanks again toEvike, and of course, AirsoftRetreat!

 

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