D-boys BIM4

[GuzziHero]

Forget my troubles with getting the gun...down to the gun!

 

Please dont ask for pics. My camera is dead and I aint buying a new one.

 

So, I get the parcel. Open it. Hmm, now Im confused. Theres a pic of a tac sling on an otherwise all black box marked SOC. Ahh, the D-boys name is on the end tab.

 

Says 7mm bearings on the box. Interesting.

 

So, I open it up. I knew this gun wouldnt be anything like the quality of the CA's I have, but its not bad at all. Only bad part I can tell right now is the stock. It is VERY flimsy and ikky. Not a problem for me, Im chop-shopping this thing so Ill be throwing that away anyway. This particular stock will NOT lock in the most closed position.

 

The barrel is metal, the front sight is metal. One nice touch - it includes a metal sling point for the front, the type that fits round the barrel underneath the sight. It has a pretty decent quality tactical sling, albeit with plastic fastenings, the sort where you can clip the gun close to you, or unclip it for use.

 

Right, as I say, Im chopping this...so lets see whats under the hood.

 

Stock off, metal stock tube endplate off, metal stock tube off. And I notice something that will become a trend...loose screws. Bad quality ones that seem to be begging to strip their little slots. Heck, its a cheap gun...not a problem. But its not something you want to be stripping and rebuilding frequently.

 

Foregrip off and here I find my first sticking point. The bottom of the outer barrel has a long cut-out, obviously to house the battery. Thatll look pants when I saw the barrel off (not a problem for long, I found a solution). Unlike my friend's AIM/TOP foregrip, this one is held secure by a delta ring and there is no slippage in the front sight/front foregrip housing. And then I notice - no barrel wobble. None at all.

 

This gun uses the older 2-piece outer barrel design, ideal for my purposes. Foresight comes off using a screw on either side, but the barrel also features the 2 pin-grooves underneath where you could attach a CA-style sight, or in my case a PRI flip-up. Thatll be handy later. Front barrel (yep, you can shorten the outer barrel) screws off fine...no grating in the white-metal thread. Its -14mm as youd expect.

 

Getting to the flash hider brings up another point...the painting on this gun isnt any Mozart. You can tell the fire selector was set to auto when it was sprayed as there is less pain over the word 'safe', the position the lever would cover when set to auto. But its do-able.

 

So far, Im pretty impressed but...

 

I go to break it down because Im going to be cutting barrel length, inner and outer. So I remove the front body pin as I do with my CAs and...nothing moves. OK, its a TM clone, I think. Put the front pin in, undo the rear pin and...nothing moves. So how the heck do you get the upper receiver from the lower?

 

I take out both pins and pull the same way I seperate my CAs and now I have a dilemma. The inner barrel is still in the outer barrel on the top receiver but I cant remove the barrel from the lower because the nozzle is deep inside the hop! Once the gearbox is in the lower receiver, there is NO WAY to put the barrel/hop in place. As another Arnies user kindly explained, you have to remove the grip baseplate, motor, grip, mag eject button and body pin in order to take the upper receiver off With The Gearbox In The Upper Receiver What a dumb design!

 

For this reason alone, I would not recommend this gun as a hire gun or main use gun. Maybe for a custom or something, thats all. Anyway, I pull harder and the nozzle pulls off the tappet plate allowing me to seperate the gun. I have to open the box to put it back in.

 

Here, the loose screw syndrome continues. All the GB screws are JUST nipped. The gearbox comes apart easily and I look inside. Actually its pretty damn nice. Yes, the box itself is obviously cheap white-metal but the gears are a nice dark silver colour and look quality. The main gear says XYT on it (I presume the others are the same, I didnt take all the gears out). The bushes are nylon, and on one, the casting it fits into is a little mis-shapen and the bush has shaped to the form. Ah well, this is only going to be a pistol...Ill cope with that.

 

The piston is a black plastic unit but the spring guide looks pretty good quality. I considered changing the spring out for an old CA I have but the D-Boys one has more coils per inch. I use a set of digital calipers and find the gauge of the spring wire is identical to the CA - 1.39mm. The cylinder is not vented, the piston is. I was worried that it had no compression because I put my finger over the nozzle and pressed the piston in...no pressure. But the faster I pushed the piston in, the harder the compression. Sure enough, then I notice the vents in the piston head. D'oh!. I fit the nozzle to the tappet plate (it is very loose over the cylinder head nozzle) and reassemble.

 

Here is a good part...the gearbox is VERY easy to work on. Reassembly was a doddle. This would work out useful later.

 

So I reassemble up to putting the receiver together. Test fire and...the nozzle shoots across the room. Its not damaged by my manhandling, just that the groove in it for the tappet plate isnt very deep. Gearbox apart, refit nozzle, rebuild, test fire...and nozzle shoots across the room. Luckily I have an old CA one with deeper grooves. I fit that instead and it is a VERY snug fit onto the cylinder head so it should hopefully improve compression. Id recommend this to be something any buyer changes immediately, as well as fitting metal bushes if you intend this to be a serious skirmish gun.

 

So I rebuild the gearbox into the reciever, motor, grip etc. And find I cannot fit the inner barrel. The gearbox sits very forward and the nozzle goes so deep into the hop that I cannot get the BB in-feed part into the magwell. I ask on here and get the advice I gave above.

 

Yes...you have to put the barrel into the outer barrel, put the gearbox in place in the upper receiver, place the receiver parts together and THEN rebuild the G/B into the lower part! Cretinous!

 

I havent tested it yet, so I dont know how the mag feeds etc. Ill give a game review when I get chance to use it.

[Raptor3388]

Nice review, it doesn't seem as promising as I expected. I hope you'll add pictures later.

[GuzziHero]

As a gun, it seems solid. Just that the gearbox removal thing is little less than IQ-reducing.

 

Its not TM quality. But for £67 shipped, Im not shocked!