Home Reviews Ics Anpeq2
by Arnie

ICS
AN/PEQ-2 review by DumboRAT


I.C.S.


I
ordered the MA-15 AN/PEQ-2 replica and a matching MC-74B ICS
laser sight unit together from WGC.

The
MC-74B laser module (a separate Weaver/Picatinny rail adaptor
unit is
available and is termed the MC-74A, with the full unit being
the MC74) is a
typically commercial powered unit, less than 5mW, with an output
wavelength
between 630 to 670 nm. Nothing special, but not too shabby either,
matching
the output of other commercial mid-range units such as those
by BeamShot
and AimShot. From its internal construction, however, I would
suspect that
this item would not stand up to the rigors of real-steel firearms
recoil;
my BeamShot and AimShot are both much more “solid”
internally, with visibly
better connections. I don’t even want to venture into the depth
of my
Insight Technologies M6, however…..

With
the MC-74B, it utilizes 3 small watch batteries stacked in-line

through the length of its rear main body. To access the battery

compartment, first you have to un-screw the larger exterior
shell of the
casing — this is why in the WGCS pictures on this unit you
will see it as
being fairly uniform in diameter throughout, but once you unscrew
this
outer shell, the actual concentric battery compartment (accessed
by yet
again unscrewing a rear endplate) is quite slim and small, which
is what
you see on the “open shelf” picture of the ICS AN/PEQ-2
replica unit on the
WGCS retail page.

The
battery for the MC-74B unit are already in the unit itself —
just
gently shake the unit to dislodge the batteries, which are packed
with
layers of paper cut-out so as to prevent shipping energy losses
from
accidental activation.

This
is also the laser unit that fits directly into the latest-generation

ICS MP5 AEGs’ front sight post — and again, to do so requires
removal of
the larger exterior body, which is in turn only used for the
MC-74A rail
adaptor unit.

Adjustments
are typical for mid-grade lasersights. There are two main
adjustment screws and one lock screw. They occupy the 12, 4,
and 8-o’clock
positions. For those of us who’ve adjusted and sighted-in such
units in the
past, you’ll know that it is just easier to treat all three
as adjustment
screws; since the motions are non-linear and can also cause
displacement
during adjustment/sight-in. With that in-mind, sighting-in was
easily
achieved, and is no more difficult than any other device of
its type.

But,
of course, before you sight-in the unit, you’ll have to pop
it into
the AN/PEQ-2 replica unit!

=)


The
ICS unit rides atop a set of nice hard metal attachment points;
two screws with knurled finger-adjustable heads as well as single-slot
screw cut-out easily allows you to latch this piece onto any
RIS/RAS Picatinny or Weaver rail. IMHO, it is not likely that
you’d be able to snap off this unit unless you really abused
it…. The fit was perfect on the RIS rail of my TM SR-16, BTW.
[ Note here is that my friend, “The_Edge,” who is
a well-known airsoft nutcase and absolute gear/accessory junkie,
had a distinctly different impression of the solidity/rigidity/durability
of the mounting apparatus than I did — being that I typically
am more accommodating in my reviews and that The_Edge typically
takes a very hard line at assessments, you, the reader, can
try to reach your own judgement of the severity of this potential
problem by simply reading both of our reviews — The_Edge’s
assessment is located here]

While
the unit is decidedly wider than the TM stock AN/PEQ-4 unit,
it is
aobut the same height with the mounting rail included (the ICS
unit is
thiner than the TM unit in terms of just its actual body) —
this means
that for those of you who like to co-sight your front sight
post, you will
not encounter any problems. My Trijicon Reflex II on its NSN
RX-14 mount
was easily able to clear the top of the ICS mock AN/PEQ-2 unit,
and
co-sight the front sight post as with what the real-deal operators
used in
the later half of the 1990’s.

Before
you try to open the unit, you should think about carefully removing

the laser devices warning located on the side where you can
install the
aftermarket laser unit — if you bought your unit new, it should
peel off
rather easily and should also easily be able to be saved for
replacement
once you’ve finished your modification.

Opening
the casing simply requires you to go around and “twist
off” all of
the locking lugs at each corner. Basically, these are the replica
battery
and laser module hard points/caps on each end. The two at the
rear and the
non-laser housing on the front carries you through a quarter-turn

counter-clockwise — and then you just literally pull them off.
The laser
unit’s more “flush” cover is a bit harder to handle,
but it’s the same idea.

After
you’ve removed the locking lugs, you can easily pull apart the

clamshell.

Be
careful at the forward edge by the laser unit’s storage compartment.
There’s actually a hexagonal insert lug which works to further
stabalize the assembly. As you pull the casing apart, this lug
should fall free.

Now,
for the battery part, I’m going to have to let someone else
write
about this later — I do not use such small batter packs in
my replicas;
well, actually, I do, but they’re all specially configured/shaped
and are
“no go” for this case (and no, this unit will *_NOT_*
fit the “large” Sub-C
cells).

For
the laser, once you’ve removed the locking lug up front, you
should
examine the collar of the MC-74B laser unit — you’ll actually
find that in
front of the small rubber o-ring on its body, there exists the
very same
locking lug on your laser.

Twist
the hexagonal lug through its length of threading on the laser
unit
until it comes off. Now, place this lug into one half of the
laser module,
where its original lug was displaced. Once you’ve done this,
you can easily
insert and then screw-in the laser sight unit. Work the unit
and its
locking lugs until you get the 12, 4, and 8-o’clock positioning
of the set
screws (this is something that ICS suggests that you do — they
even
provide a small hash-mark on the 12-o’clock section of the laser
lens cover
so that you can even more easily align the product by sight).
Make sure
that you also, of course, tightly lock the body of the sight
to the mock
module’s cut-out for it.

Once
everything is in-place and you’ve replaced the locking lugs
and made
sure that the unit is tight on your RIS/RAS rail, you’re ready
to sight-in. =)

The
pressure-remote cord is about 12 inches long, and should give
you ample
working room for whatever configuration you wish to maintain.

I
easily doubled-up my extra wiring length and stashed it behind
the left-side RIS panel on my SR-16. The pressure pad was easily
mounted to my SureFire T100 unit’s side panel with the enclosed
Velcro set. =)

Overall,
not a bad $100 spent (shipping included), considering that even

the purchase of a mid-grade laser sight unit here, stateside,
plus a proper
mount, will run you in the $60 range quite easily.

This
is a much, much more cosmetically attractive alternative to
such
units, and also much more financially viable than trying to
purchase any
type of “real” LAM unit from either available civilian
sources (which then
you’d have the problem that the unit will not be authentic to
that used by
the real-deal operators), or through back-market government/arms
sources. =)

Allen
aka DumboRAT


PS: Neither the BeamShot 1000 unit nor the AimShot LS 6200 will
fit witout
modifications to cut into the attachment end-point of the unit.
This
trouble, combined with the trouble of finding a suitable locking
procedure
for the sight once you have it situated — as well as the expense
of
getting one of these mid-grade designator units — all make
a clear case
for anyone desiring this particular upgrade to just cough up
the extra
dough and purchase the MC-74B as an accessory to the MA-15.

PPS:
For those interested, that’s a TM KAC SR16 with a Guarder/IS
2-piece
SMG/carbine outer barrel topped off by a GB-Tech KAC M4 Q/D
mock
suppressor; other accessories include a Trijicon Reflex II,
SureFire T100,
and of course, the ICS AN/PEQ-2 mock LAM with ICS MC-74B lasersight.

Comment
on this review in the forums


Last
modified:Wednesday, December 11, 2002 10:02 PM Copyright 2001 ArniesAirsoft




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