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3PSA AK47

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Packaging:

There's nothing terribly impressive about the way they box the gun. The box is pretty cool with pictures of Mikhail Kalashnikov and his signature enodorsing it, but compared to the last rifle Cybergun brought up (AR-15), it looks like they've gotten cheap. Its just folded paper to give the illusion its been molded for the AK, and there was no buffer material with mine, so concerns over shipping damage came to mind.

Appearance:

This is one light rifle! I actually think the AR-15 weighs more than it, but it's pretty big. From about 5 feet, you can tell its an AK, and it looks like parts are removable (such as parts of the receiver) but on closer inspection it's two large halves of plastic molded together. Oddly enough they even molded the stampings that the real steel AKs had after they switched production to a stamped sheet metal design rather than the milled metal. There are a lot of screws present, but you stop paying attention to that since its on the left side of the rifle. All in all its not a bad AK. Even the simulated wood parts aren't too bad. They dont look like wood, but at least they're the right color and do have a light design of wood grain.

Function:

You load up the clip, which uses the HORRIBLE mag well system (nothing like hearing 450 bbs bounce around as you try to sneak about) which can hold around 24 primary shots, plug it into the gun, cock it and fire. Placing the mag into the gun can be a little tricky at first since there is no real "click" it's in place, but if the release catch of the magazine is working you can use that as an indicator; release catch prevents you from removing the clip, it's in all the way.

The charging bolt is on the right side of the gun, an ouchie to all the right handers out there. It's actually really study, and it feels a lot more study than the AR-15 t-handle. Assuming that I'm not cocking it and letting it slam into place CONSTANTLY, I'm sure that it will never break. Oh yes, if you cock springer rifles like I do (not letting the charging handle slam into place), remember to push it all the way back: the resistance of a bb will displace a little if you're being gentle.

The speed of the gun appears to be slower than the AR-15, but it's a spring rifle. As long as it shoots about 225fps, it does its job in a springer fight. The box states its FPS as 230 with .2 grams.

Accuracy....I can't really say since I believe that it's the shooter and not the weapon. But it is able to hit a man sized target from 30 ft (any further I couldn't say.....I live in a duplex area surrounded by old people who hate noise and youth and anyone who isn't over 40)

Final thoughts:
It's not a BAD gun, and it certain would be able to hold its own in a springer fight, if for nothing more than something other than a MP5, AR variation. But expect either damaging it, or feeling the want to mod it if you do anything other than just display with it. There is a flex issue around the foregrip since the gun appears to branch into a top half and a bottom half, the orange flashhinder will bug a fair number of people.

Final thoughts v2
In fact, just right now I have decided to mod mine to have a shorter barrel, hopefully getting rid of the very troublesome flex around the foregrip....or at least figure out why it flexes so easily.


//edit:: 3/22/2004
Disassembly: It shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to take it apart, but there are some things to be aware of. One, the stock is secured by the backmost screw on the receiver side, so be sure to take that out before attempting to remove the stock (which also attempts to lock into the recieved with a wedge similiar to this shape: ____\ It didn't seem to pose a problem for me though)

Second, the top of the reciever locks/clicks into place, so it appears you have to remove all the screws, to open it like a briefcase. (Be sure when putting it back together you click it into place, otherwise the displaced bit of plastic wont let you pull the bolt back the last 1inch to cock it)

Third, there is a lot of empty space in the stock to put weights in. But to make this even, you can add some small weights in "top" wood part of the foregrip.

I have also discovered why the foregrip is so wobbly: its because the barrel only extends into the main body about 1.5, 2 inches, so the overall length of the barrel puts a lot of stress on that one part.

~fauxprophet

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