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G&P USMC SAM-R


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G&P USMC SAM-R (Squad Advanced Marksmen – Rifle)

Review by: A-Ron/rto64

 

 

Weight: Approximately 7 lbs.

Length: 1005 mm / Approx 40 inches

Gearbox: Version 2 pre-upgraded by G&P

Velocity: 385 fps .2g / 350 fps .25g (118 meters per second average .2g bbs / 108 meters per second average .25 g bbs.)

Price: $470

 

Pros:

- All metal construction

- Full RIS/RAS unit

- Long inner barrel

- Easily upgradeable gearbox

- Solid Construction

- Stock is not "shiny" and plastic feeling, rather a composite look and feel

- Free floating RIS/RAS design

- One piece outer barrel

 

 

Cons:

- Lacks body tabs, top rattles a small amount

- Screw for stock removal is far inside the sock, hard to get at

- G&P hopup unit, a bit finicky

- Outer barrel wobbles when pressure is applied (not the biggest of deals, whose going to sit and torque it anyway?)

 

First Impressions

I ordered it on a Thursday night from Redwolf Airsoft and got the last one in stock. It shipped out immediately Friday morning, I was stoked, I would have it by Tuesday! Oh! But wait… They have had problems with UPS and FedEx shipping the "guns," they ship it via Speedpost / Express USPS. My mood suddenly changed from happy to, dangit!!

 

So alls well, it ships and gets to Chicago O'Hare Intl. Airport, and goes inbound into customs on Monday early morning. Well usually customs takes about a day to clear (in my expierences), right? Nope! The package took three and a half days to clear, I thought I would end up getting the gun seized, luckily enough, Thursday afternoon while I was at work, it arrived, thank god the girlfriend was home, otherwise I would have had to wait another day, and we all know the anticipation kills!

 

So I get home, happy as all hell, to see the girlfriend mainly, and then I see the gun sitting on my couch. I threw my stuff down, and ripped it open.

 

The gun was packaged in a brown box with G&P Laser Product written on it (their standard logo) and just two pieces of foam holding the gun in place. One on top, one on the bottom, not much protection, but the gun was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I could not have been happier. Looked, saw the RIS/RAS covers with it and just fell in love with it.

 

 

 

Construction

Well, I'm not one to judge, because I think it feels weak because the top flexes due to no body tabs on the upper half of the receiver, but others think differently. But hey, its nothing really noticeable unless you are sitting there TRYING to make it flex.

 

Trademarks were your standard USMC logo, covered by grip tape (skateboard tape). They turned out beautifully! The RIS/RAS front end even has the Knights statement and fake number on it. The free floating RIS/RAS though is a beauty. Nice feel to it and its rock solid. The lower half of the gun is incredibly solid. From the stock to the feeding nozzle, it just feels like it's invincible. The upper half though, the inner barrel slides right out of the gun with no problem. That worried me, but honestly, when am I going to be field stripping the gun in a battle, and have to worry about that happening?

 

That brings up another good point, when you do need to take it down, since there is a lack of rear body tabs for the upper receiver, all you do is pull out the forward pin, and slide the top right off. The cocking handle doesn't catch on the nub on the top of the gearbox, because there is none! Kind of cool if you ask me!

 

 

 

Performance

Alright, so with the recent Blackhawk Down 2: Back to the Mog game, I had a great opportunity to test it out.

 

Charged up the batteries the night before, packed all my shaz, and left at 6 a.m. to get to the field. I was so freaking' antsy on the way down there just because I could play with my new gun! So we go through the game briefing, and get everything going, and game starts. SWEET!!

 

My first problem of the day, gun is TOO long with silencer on, lol. Well I got rid of that right away. Moving through the woods with the SAM is actually quite easy, with the silencer off. I'm not big, average height, and I could maneuver quite easily. Very comfortable to hold I might add, as your walking through the woods.

 

Well time comes to, and I find my spot and just start watching guys about 350 feet from my position. I moved in a little closer and so did they, not noticing where I was though. It got to the point where, I just wanted to see how far this thing can shoot. A guy moved within about 250 feet, and so it was time. I pulled off the first round, it plopped onto the ground; hit something inside of the silencer. Second shot followed suit, and I was getting ######, luckily enough the enemy didn't hear a thing, yet. Then I pulled off the third shot, and it seemed like it was guided on the wings of an angel, right into the head of the opposition. BOOM! HEADSHOT!! Wow, I had never pulled off a shot like that using NO aiming devices at all. I was impressed, greatly. Not only was it quiet enough, but it had some nice range and accuracy to it.

 

Flipping to full auto fire was a thing that most people would dream of. While I did not calculate the exact shots per second, on an 8.4v 1500 mAh battery, the G&P M120 hi speed motor really spits out the bbs, FAST! The rate of fire is identical, if not better, than a stock TM gun.

 

The rest of the day I used it, I noticed every few shots would just not have the power behind them that they should have, come to find out, the fps just bottomed out every few shots, and then just jumped right back up there. But it rocked everyone socks off. Good ol' Guppy even loved it. I am in the process of finding out why. I just need an 18 inch screwdriver to detach the stock.

Range Performance

I have yet to actually sit down, and range the gun. I do plan on doing so, but I would like to fix the gearbox first, if there is a problem with it. I have recently moved from my country house with a huge backyard, to a nice urban area, so I do not have any place to test it out really.

Versatility

I will find out once I get that screw driver, just how nice the gearbox is on the inside, but for a stock gun (yes folks, those fps calculations were stock) with a Head 1950 inner barrel, it rocked! Being a version 2 gearbox though, it should not be too hard to upgrade it.

 

Only thing upgraded right out of the box was the inner barrel. I was dieing to put in my Head 1950 509mm inner barrel.

 

What I will say, from just noticing from the exterior of the gearbox though, is that there is a metal feeding nozzle already installed, G&P polyecetal piston, and metal spring guide installed already. And the gears have to be somewhat "reinforced" to handle the fps that it puts out at the speed it puts out.

Conclusion

For the price tag, the gun is well worth it. What it would cost to just build the exterior of the gun, you would have paid over the price that I paid for the complete gun. The quirks just have to be worked out (as with every new 'non TM' gun) and "fine tuned." The range on the beast is awesome, and accuracy is just what you would expect.

 

 

Top view of box

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Inside box, two foam panels

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Problem-atic screw inside the stock. Its in there a ways so you need A LONG screw driver.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh boy! am i glad to be hearing good things about the SAM-R as i ordered one from REDWOLF last thursday, nice review by the way rto64. hehe It arrived here in the UK on friday, i just need to wait one more day for it to get my local parcel force depot (Oh how i hate the weekends lol) . lol RTO64 so you are the reason i couldnt order my SAM-R two week ago :D you snagged the last one..... lol

One question though how come it cost you $470 or is that including shipping? As it is only $399 on RW website.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

No i havent had it down graded, but i will be trying different setup's as far as the internals are concerned to try and fine tune it. Possible different spring strengths match with a precision barrel etc...

 

But i would suggest that if you do get one from HK that isnt downgraded go for a 8.4v 3300mah battery as oppose to 9.6v 4200mah like i did, as i have managed to strip two pistons before running 1 hicap worth of BB's through it. But then again i was using intellect cells and they dischagre at around 11v or near enough :blink:

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gun looks awesome. totally diamond.

 

but i hate to ###### on peoples parades, the 2 people who have commented who own them have both had GB problems. incosistent power, stripped pistons, wobbly bits and BB's hitting the silencer isn't what i would call G&P "getting their act together".

 

i know it was a 9.6v battery, but they are claimed to be pre-upgraded gearboxes. ive known peopel to run 9.6v batts in tm stock guns for a while before they died. if a 'pre-upgraded' G&P cant handle it, theres something wrong. as for the wobbly bits. ok so it doesnt affect its performance, but if ICS and CA can produce guns with no wobbly bits, why cant G&P ? you've just brought the gun and already say "i'll fix the gearbox first". and as fro quirks in 'every non-Tm gun'. thats opinion. ive had 2 ics mp5's, a ca36k, ca249 and none of them had out of the box problems.

 

still, it looks the tits, and like you said, with a bit or work will be awesome. godo review, though IMO slightly biased. i'd hardly call it a blazing success from these 2 reports though.

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gun looks awesome. totally diamond.

 

but i hate to ###### on peoples parades, the 2 people who have commented who own them have both had GB problems. incosistent power, stripped pistons, wobbly bits and BB's hitting the silencer isn't what i would call G&P "getting their act together".

 

i know it was a 9.6v battery, but they are claimed to be pre-upgraded gearboxes. ive known peopel to run 9.6v batts in tm stock guns for a while before they died. if a 'pre-upgraded' G&P cant handle it, theres something wrong. as for the wobbly bits. ok so it doesnt affect its performance, but if ICS and CA can produce guns with no wobbly bits, why cant G&P ? you've just brought the gun and already say "i'll fix the gearbox first". and as fro quirks in 'every non-Tm gun'. thats opinion. ive had 2 ics mp5's, a ca36k, ca249 and none of them had out of the box problems.

 

still, it looks the tits, and like you said, with a bit or work will be awesome. godo review, though IMO slightly biased. i'd hardly call it a blazing success from these 2 reports though.

 

 

The reason why G&P guns strip pistons so often are because the rate of fire is so fast.. The combination of G&P M120 hi speed motor and 7mm bearing gearbox with 9.6v battery will definately kill any pistons with a spring weaker than m100. This is because springs weaker than m100 are not strong enough to push the piston back to its original position before the gears are on their second cycle (I know this because I own a G&P too). And that is why on their website they suggest people to use 7.4 or 8.6v batteries ... and they will still have a very high rate of fire

 

The reason why the top receiver wobbles is because they don't have lugs to attach to the lower body, there are pros and cons for this feature.. bad thing is it will wobbles, but the good thing is it is Quick Detach (like the real steel), so taking the upper and lower receiver apart is just a matter of seconds compare to other metal bodies.. To fix the problem all you need to do is to stick a thin paper to where the end of the top receiver engage to the lower receiver, and the problem will go straight away

 

I have to admit in terms of internals G&P still have some places to be improved compare to CA, but it is no doubt that the exterior of the guns they made are the best in the market. The dimensions comparing to the real steel, finishing, colour and the quality of the external parts simply have no competitions.. (in my own opinion after spending many times and money on search for a best looking M4/M16)

 

anyway, let back to the topic, it is a very good reviews there rto64, I hope that you enjoy your rifle ;)

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  • 1 month later...
No offense but i doubt it was 250 feet. We tend to estimate distances alot farther than they really are.

Given that the total maximum range is more like 150-200 foot, I seriously doubt the headshot from 250'.

No offense taken, but after I took the shot my spotter and I did measure out the distance to 245 feet away.

Be it a lucky shot, or maybe a little too much hop, the distance did surprise the hell out of everyone on the field that day.

 

...though IMO slightly biased...

I'm just curious as to what you mean.

 

...One question though how come it cost you $470 or is that including shipping?...

No, the $470 was what total the gun, bipod, and bipod mount cost without shipping.

 

 

A little bit of an update on the gun.

Pictures of its actual setup, but it now has a low profile gas block on the front. I intend on replacing the flash hider, but do not know what one to get for it to give it that "special" look.

 

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Difference of flash on and off, same spot and time.

 

I also installed a PGC Pro-Win gearbox into the gun. Somewhat detailed review can be found here.

In reply number six I posted a couple spring results with the new gearbox.

 

As screamin_weasel has said, the G&P guns do have their flaws just like any other manufacturer. G&P's guns however, just have a bigger flaw, imo to deal with.

I never could figure out the compression / power problem in the gearbox. Everything was perfectly seutp, and it just would not provide the power.

Edited by rto64
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  • 4 weeks later...

It's like X-mas is here again, got my SAM-R home today :rolleyes:

 

First impressions are like follows:

+Really stirdy, solid, I don't see any wobbling in this individual

+Looks like a gun, long enough, yet still agile enough for serious milsim skirmishing

+Stock, I preplanned to change it but not that I've tested and feeled it, I won't

 

-G&P Mag ... really good impression of a stanag mag ... lots and lots of feed problems, same thing with MAG made mids

-Sound, really "clampy", sharp sound. Really differend compared to my (home production) G3SBS (fullmetal). I think I'll fill the interior with Systemas Complete really soon

 

Overall it's rock solid package with plenty of performance with only some need for fine tuning and really gives quite a good value for the money invested in. ROF with 9.6V / 1700mAh (Sanyo cells) battery is indeed infernal, think I'll have to make it 8.4V.

 

I'll post some pics as well when I get the time to take em. Many thanks for all the contribuion regarding all reasent info about this gun, it had a signifigant role in this purchase.

Edited by ReInforcer
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