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CYMA CM031 Pictures


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If you've been following Chinese AEG clone development recently, you've probably heard of the CM031. Almost identical internally to the already successful CM028 series released by CYMA, previously known for somewhat lack-luster LPEG's, this gun takes on the ambitious task of replicating a gun that in AEG form is generally only available with metal receivers. The CA SLR-105 and ICS AK-74 are the obvious inspiration, and the CM031 does a commendable job. The receiver cover, like all AEG Ak's, is metal, with the lower receiver being the best looking plastic AK receiver I've seen to date.

 

Here is a photo of the 031 next to its close cousin, the 028s:

 

cm031-002.jpg

Externally, few parts are shared between the guns. The entire of the 031 is an even matte black. The selector lever, trigger guard, receiver cover, furniture, outer barrel and flash hider are all different parts as per AK74 specs.

 

cm031-003.jpg

The furniture, lower receiver and forward receiver are the only major plastic components to the exterior. And they are without exception all finished to where they blend in seemlessly with the metal pieces. Truly an excellent job on the externals of the gun.

 

cm031-007.jpg

I especially like the big chunky 74-type muzzle brake, which is spring-keyed to keep it oriented the correct direction, a nice touch that means you don't end up over-tightening it. The threads are 14mm ccw, as is standard.

 

cm031-010.jpg

Selector switch is chunky and moves to each fire mode affirmatively... the cap that covers the screw was missing on this one. I removed mine permanently on my 028, I don't think the exposed screw detracts much to the appearance.

 

cm031-015.jpg

Typically simple AK style sights. I do miss having some degree of windage control... if you are adventurous, you can loosen the forward site and rotate it around the barrel before cranking it down to get some degree of windage adjustment... which may be necessary. We found this gun to group slightly to the left of where aimed.

 

cm031-024.jpg

CYMA Ver.3 gearbox. Nothing seems to have changed between the 028 except these gears are marked CA. I don't know what that means. The ones on my 028 are marked 'XYZ.' The gearbox was *EXTREMELY* dry when I got it... I applied copious amounts of grease during this initial stripdown, will apply more when the first round of internal upgrades gets performed.

 

cm031-030.jpg

Close up on gearbox. Dry dry dry.

 

Thats all for the pictures. Overall, I am extremely impressed with the exterior of this 'cheapo' AEG. Once these find their way into more vendors' hands, I expect a price drop to occur. Gunnerairsoft is one of the only (if not only?) places I know of to get it, and his price is fair but shipping can be a bit dear to the states... but this gun still seems like a great value.

 

As for shooting... anyone adapted to the refinement of some of the higher end AEG's, TM in particular, will find some aspects of its performances a little rough. Gearbox noise is generally pretty high, but not as bad as you might expect. With the standard 8.4v battery included, the ROF is good... much better then my 028 with the AK-stick style battery that is came with. As I've found with my 028 and a higher quality battery, ROF is bound to increase with a better battery, but the CYMA battery will definitely do in a pinch.

 

The CYMA style hopup is still used here, and that is a burden if you plan on dropping a better barrel, which is recommended. CYMA seems to have wised up a bit, and now uses a brass barrel instead of the flimsy aluminum ones used in their 027s and 028s, but it still safe to consider it worthy of an upgrade.

 

If you like the styling of the AK74, in particular with some modern-type black furniture, this gun is definitely of incredible value, especially if you enjoy working on your own AEG.

 

I'll have more to say about the accuracy and skirmishability of the AEG once it gets fielded this weekend... the owner is eager to give it a try at our woodland setting, and I'm eager to see how it performs. We've been very happy with even the stock performance of the 028, which didn't find itself that terribly outgunned even in the company of much more expensive and refined AEG's, and I have even higher hopes for this new addition to the CYMA lineup.

 

Thanks for reading...

 

Steve

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Excellent review! China are making far to many nice things that I want.

 

I also love the muzzle brake.

 

Calcifer

 

Yes... the quality improvement between this gun and the Cm028 is evident. Though... the CM028 does not differ much in exterior quality to that of the TM AK's, so this may be a case of CYMA just replicating what exists. What this means to me is that when CYMA finally gets around to releasing other high-end clones, such as the M14 and Thompson, fans of the company and these AEG's should have correspondingly high standards.

 

CYMA has excellent fake food grain and high-quality metal casting on metal parts, so it'll be interesting to see what they can do with that in the future.

 

Also, I neglected to mention that the cylinder/piston made very good compression, some blowby was detected, but it was better then a stock CA SAR Taktik II compression I saw two days ago!

 

Steve

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Nice little review! I am planning on buying one of these within the next few days along with one of Element's new metal AK74 receivers. That way i can have a good AK-101 for just 100 bucks! I too am becoming a major CYMA fan as my Cm.028 has held up extremely well since i purchased it in March and I cant wait to see what other guns they will be coming out with in the future.

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Nice little review! I am planning on buying one of these within the next few days along with one of Element's new metal AK74 receivers. That way i can have a good AK-101 for just 100 bucks! I too am becoming a major CYMA fan as my Cm.028 has held up extremely well since i purchased it in March and I cant wait to see what other guns they will be coming out with in the future.

 

Yeah, the metal element receiver is intriguing. Unfortunately, shipping from Gunner can get pricey, and all of a sudden that extreme deal doesn't seem that extreme.

 

Once you upgrade the internals to the point where the AEG is as capable as a stock SLR105 (bushings, springs, motor, battery, metal body kit, element hopup, stock TM barrel or tight bore, etc.), you are only about 40 bucks away from an SLR105. Kind of a hard call!

 

Steve

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That about the shipping is true, that's why i plan on buying all the stuff at once so that i can save some on it.

 

Internally, in stock form this gun is perfectly fine for me as it probably wont see tons of action since ive already got a TM M16A2 with a CA metal body as my main. I just love AKs! lol

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Really good review with some especially excellent photos. Thanks.

 

It was fun to write, I'll try to do more when I get my hands on something else interesting. When I complete my build of my own CYMA 028, I'm gonna do a write up on that... my friend has a bone-stock CYMA 028, so I'll be able to compare the two back to back, should make for a somewhat empirical review!

 

 

That about the shipping is true, that's why i plan on buying all the stuff at once so that i can save some on it.

 

Internally, in stock form this gun is perfectly fine for me as it probably wont see tons of action since ive already got a TM M16A2 with a CA metal body as my main. I just love AKs! lol

 

I also use as my primary a TM AR... and I think its important to have at least one of the higher-end guns in any serious airsofters arsenal. These Chinese clones are remarkably good... and getting better. But there are some performance shortfalls and certain aspects of how they shoot and feel that detract from the overall airsoft experience. I've nearly worked them all out of my CM028, but it hasn't been a free process, and I'm deffinetely starting to enter the territory where a used TM AK would be just as much money. But, the learning process has been well worth it and I should be left with a very skirmishable gun... right now it is an extremely capable loaner.

 

Steve

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I also use as my primary a TM AR... and I think its important to have at least one of the higher-end guns in any serious airsofters arsenal.  These Chinese clones are remarkably good... and getting better.  But there are some performance shortfalls and certain aspects of how they shoot and feel that detract from the overall airsoft experience.  I've nearly worked them all out of my CM028, but it hasn't been a free process, and I'm deffinetely starting to enter the territory where a used TM AK would be just as much money.  But, the learning process has been well worth it and I should be left with a very skirmishable gun... right now it is an extremely capable loaner.

 

Well said. I fortunately haven't had any issues with my Cm.028 (knock on wood) so it has still been an awesome bargain for me. What I really like about these new chinese guns is that they are fairly inexpensive and allow me to have various models of guns for a relatively low price. I will agree however that if someone plans on upgrading or using their gun in lots of skirmishes, they should definitely go with a TM or the like. Not to slam CYMA's quality in any way but as of right now TM still stands as the most reliable and upgradeable option for all airsofters. Although it may not be too long before CYMA begins to encroach upon TM's realm of quality and the Cm.031 is definitely a huge step in the right direction.

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Hi, I have also justed purchased this gun and I thought I would leave some feedback about what I think about it.

 

I order this gun because I was curious about the reports I been hearing that Cyma were making decent guns. This looked decent and was cheap. This is just my initial impression of the gun and handling it at lunch time today (when it was delivered).

 

First off the externals where much better than I was expecting, they looked great and easily as good as TM. The whole thing was solid and felt good to touch. The metal was OK, the outer barrel and flash hinder are good, but the upper receiver is fairly thin. The lower receiver is plastic and is off good quality. The stock is also of plastic, also feels OK quality and I think will hold up while skirmishing.

 

The mag is all plastic, and while looks like it is of OK quality, I think is a little disappointing, I would not be surprised if it shattered after a few games (I might be wrong and will let you know). The battery looks cheap, it is a large type battery but comes with small type connectors, and the wiring inside the gun looks ######, it is really tiny wire. I think I will end up rewiring the whole thing.

 

I put the battery in to check balance, I think it is a little front heavy, just a touch so a heavier battery would help there, a team mates ICS version also felt this was the case too. I did not charge the battery, but there was enough charge to fire a couple of shots. Everything felt OK, I did not chrono it, but I will soon. Also I hope to have a few pictures up soon too. I will not be able to play with it until next Sunday (sod’s law says it’ll be delivered just after a game), so I’ll report on how it performs after that.

 

So far I’m very happy with this Cyma, it feels and looks like a proper AEG, I get the feeling it’s going to shoot fine but I’ll have to tinker with it to get it perfect. For the price of purchase I’m happy.

 

I’ll post more about the performance and other bits when I get a chance to play a bit more with the gun.

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Yes, I also found the balance to be a little front-heavy... I don't find that to be the case with my 028 nearly as much, but I hesitate to blame that entirely on the large flash hider. The wiring is ######, that is true. I wonder how much of a gain can be had by changing it though... sometimes none is shown with such a modification.

 

Steve

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I'm curious, where did you get this gun? I cant find it anywhere in the USA.

 

Owner got it from gunnerairsoft. His on-site price is cheap, but shipping adds up the total quickly.

 

Hopefully the same ebay retailers that offer CM028's for 80 bucks shipped will get their hands on this soon enough... just a matter of time.

 

Steve

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I chrono'd my gun last night and got a consitant 290 fps, this is a touch lower that I was expecting. I charged the battery too, and ROF is about normal for a TM gun.

 

I will take it apart this weekend for photo's, to change the wiring, change the connector type and also to apply teflon tape to try to increase fps slightly.

 

I'm thinking about upgrade parts, but not sure if it's worth it, it's only going to be a backup and everything seems fine as it is, not sure it's worth messing about until something breaks. What is everyone else going to do?

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The front heaviness is from the judicious use of metal except in the gas block and handguards of the front assembly. I would have preferred that they be plastic as well due to the balance. I'm not a big fan of all the metal used in replica guns as these are for fun and certainly do not miss the weight of my issue M16A2 when carrying it in an all day skirmish with respawn point 1/4 mile away. If my life depended on it, the weight would matter less but I'd rather enjoy my fun without having my arms and neck feel like jello. I'm not in the shape while I was in the Service anymore.

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@ happy al:

Ive been reading about changing the wiring on these guns, and even TM guns, and apparently, when using hi-qual 14 ga. wire, (i think 14 is the biggest you can use, it might be 16, I cant for the life of me remember on this particular one) I believe a combination of the new wiring and Deans connectors make the system hugely more efficient

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Well, the owner has agreed to go a different route with this AEG then we originally were thinking, he has a TM doner V3 gearbox that I will be swapping in today. So, I won't be able to give owners a decent assesment of how good these can get upgraded. However, I still am conventionally upgrading my CM028, and will write up how that works. The internals are the same, so it should still be a decent evaluation of how good (or bad) you can make these things!

 

Steve

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  • 2 weeks later...

So, even though we went a different route on the CM031, with installing a TM V3 box from a donor MP5k into the gun, I have stuff to report on my own CM028, which has identical internals and should give a good approximation of what you can do with these.

 

With a better 8.4v stick batter from cheapbatterypacks.com, a CA spring (usually you can find these for free at your local airsoft shop), bushings and a good shim job, element hop and stock TM AK barrel (also sourced for free), the gun is shooting great. The ROF has improved with the better quality battery, the accuracy is much improved from the stock gun, and it did great in a woodland skirmish this weekend, getting some honestly long-range hits.

 

What I suggest you do with these guns is what I've done above--you can replace any of the freebie parts I got with appropriate upgrade parts, but these have been working good.

 

Motor might also be replaced at a future time, just because the torque characteristics of the CYMA motor seem to be lacking. What do I mean? With my friends CM031, running a pretty stiff spring through the TM gearbox and a 2500mah 9.6v, the ROF in full auto is pretty great, but semi auto suffers because of the associated torque-rampup with the CYMA motor. So, its a progressive torque gain with RPM, whereas the higher-end motors deliver most of their torque from a standstill, making for crisp semi-auto fire. I'm pretty sensitive to this effect I've found, so if I was the owner of the gun, I would look for a stock TM motor... Ehobby Asia has the best price on TM EG1000 Long-types.

 

I may eventually get one for my own AK, but only if I decide to build it further. Right now its a fantastic loaner, and the people who borrow it seem to love it. But for me to find myself using it *instead* of my current primary, I'm gonna have to build it a little further--probably motor, spring, wood kit (with stock so I can fit a big ol' battery), etc.

 

If I do that, I'll let everyone know how it turned out, and put down an accurate 'total build cost' layout, so we can see how foolish I was in this endeavor. I realistically think its possible to build a CM028 into a decent metal/wood AK for under 300 dollars. We shall see!

 

Steve

Edited by NegativeCambre
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Where was this purchased from? (Looking at one to be sent to the UK)

At what cost?

 

Q - Is it time that some uk site start to sell these Chinese guns? Im sure one or two do already - more likely they are 'hobby specialists' as opposed to 'airsoft dealers'.

 

Cheers!

 

PS Nice review.

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This CM031 was purchased through gunner airsoft, who posts here and is generally very helpful, although my friend is having a hard time getting ahold of him at the moment.

 

Its only a matter of time before these start to show up in more local vendors for both the US and the UK--there are more then a few ebaymembers that seem to buy the CM028 and 027 in bulk and sell them at great prices under 'buyitnow' banners.

 

Steve

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