By West
The XM is one of the oldest weapons made by Marui. It is a compact carbine with a very appealing special operations look. There has been quite a lot of debate about whether or not the fact that it is mostly made of plastic, is a good thing or a bad thing. For me, as more of a player than a collector, the plastic construction is a good thing.
Old school
Being such an old model, my XM had the 560 motor. (however Marui is now making the XMs with EG700 motors) Now I had expected the rate of fire to quite low because of this, especially since it was powered by a mini battery. But I was again surprised by the old stuff!
When I first fired it on full auto I thought it had a powerful ROF, and when used in a skirmish next to other guns, I realized that it in fact shooting faster then many other guns.
For some reason Marui made this gun in a much higher percentage of plastic than on any AEG Iīve seen. And now days everything has to have more and more metal, so it really curious why they did this. The main metal part on the XM177E2 is the adjustable stock, or rather, the spine of the stock. The barrel is plastic, and hence very light, and a blessing in disguise. The other M16 variants, most notably M16A2 and M4A1 have the barrel wobble problem, which is due to fact that the barrel is too heavy for the plastic receiver. The XM does not have this problem at all. In fact it even feel more solid than the M16A2, which has extremely much metal on it.
Let it rip!
Using the XM in games is very satisfying. It has a decent range and powerful rate of fire. Magazine capacity is good at 68 rounds in standard mags, 190/300 in the two different hicaps available. Unfortunately the magazines sit a bit loose in the well, but I understand this is not the case in most guns of this type. Eventhough they are not rock solid, they are still more stable than the Sigs e.g..
The gun is not heavy at all, and very comfortable to carry in a ready position, as it very well balanced. The adjustable sliding stock is great. It locks at three lengths, and the longest makes the weapon more than 80cm long. This is also the most useable length of pull, as the others are simply too short to be useful, other than hipshooting I guess. But the stock should really only be collapsed when being transported, and not when in combat. This is something that bugs me a bit. Why donīt they make the carbines with folding stocks instead?
The sights are adjustable, although I never really bothered, they seemed good enough as they were. Hitting man sized targets at 30 meters is good enough for me, and that was not a problem with the XM.
The weapon is small, light and feels very solid, so it never interferes with your movement. This is really something I like in an airsoft gun. Since we have lots of bush and heavy undergrowth in our regular gaming spots, being able to move without having you weapon hinder you in any way is a real help.
Problems
One day after a skirmish, I was setting the hopup, when all of a sudden the gun stopped firing, and instead let out this loud shrieking sound. Well I opened the gun up, and discovered that one of the gears had been ripped to shreds. This had happened when a blocker that makes sure the gears donīt turn backwards, had come lose from its position.
Nothing more to do than replace the gears.
This is not really a difficult thing to do, but itīs not something I enjoy doing, since well, itīs a pain in the ass.
After the gears were replaced the XM functioned flawlessly again.
I donīt believe this is something that happens often or to any specific model, and Iīve never heard of it happening to any other XM.
(If your gun does the same thing, i.e. not shooting and sounding like a blender, stop firing immediately and then deal with the problem. If you donīt feel like your capable of opening the gun up, let the place where you bought the gun do it. In fact this is what Iīd recommend, but since I bought the XM from Hong Kong that was really not an option!)