GR300 - ArniesAirsoft - Review Archive

Author

FarEast

Staff Writer

Registered: May 2005
Location: Yokohama Japan
Posts: 2,907

Review Date: 5/10/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	High Quality, Skirmishable straight from the box, Good Price
Cons:	Not Liscenced Logos, Non-adjustable stock.

Well I have been awaiting this weapon for so long now and I wasn't prepared to pay the amount for the ZIMA kit by Prime so when G&G announced the for coming release of it's GR300 range I started to track it's release dates with keen interest.

Recently one of the members here Peter Stok went to Honk Kong and paid RedWolf Airsoft a visit and purchased as well as a S.O.C. 16 some odds and bobs for me (He's a kind chap like that!) Once he released that I was lusting after the GR300 he put me in contact with Paul Chu at RedWolf.

Now needless to say I have never dealt with any supplier outside of Japan and quite honestly I'm very sceptical of buying over the internet. But what with the situation with my need for this weapon I decided to order from RedWolf. Paul gave me a very good rate for the GR300 and once the order had been confirmed arrived two days later very well wrapped.

Now this is where I would like to put to rest a rumour about full metal weapons in Japan. The GR300 is full metal and spent a whole day in customs it was checked tagged and shipped. If full metal was illegal I would not be holding it in my hands now. Also as Ren Chi over at RedWolf pointed out Systema makes a full metal weapon which is perfectly legal!

Now on to the real reason for this post,

Packaging

The packaging that the GR300 came in was excellent; the box gets you excited from the start in a vivid orange and black box with burnt logos for the name of the Gun. The photo of the actual replica is very well done with the model type clearly marked. Excellent stuff me hands are trembling as I open it up!

The internal packaging is also very good with vacuumed formed polystyrene to hold the gun in place with some very nifty polystyrene pieces holding the gun down to prevent rattling or movement when in transit. The manual and catalogue that come with it are also very well made and come across more tantalising than the Tokyo Marui ones.

Gun
Straight from the onset I knew G&G had produced another winner with this model, full metal solid feel and oozing sex appeal the GR300 is amazing. Now this is my 1st non Tokyo Marui AEG and I have to say my jaw dropped when I man handled this replica out of the box. The first thing that took my notice was how slim and light it was compared to the TM M4-S but laying them side by side I realised that they are in fact the same size in body.

The detail on this gun is excellent and G&G haven�t missed a trick when it comes to the GR300. One of the things that catches thee eye is the huge rear site midway down the weapon, the reason for this seems that you can sight the weapon without closing one of your eyes, the same as the red dot principle and I had no problem using the iron sights in that fashion until I moved to the precision sights and then I felt a little sick.

Sights

The rear scope is adjusted by two dials that move the sight either through the vertical or the horizontal which makes sighting this weapon very quick while also requiring no tools do it. The front sight is adjusted in the same manners as the TM M-4 via an adjuster key. (Supplied with the gun) Now the detail on the sights is again awesome with all the dials labelled and marked making it much easier to adjust and remember the settings for the weapon, I�ll be making a not of how many clicks left, right, up and down to get the weapon zeroed to 35 meters.

Receiver

The receiver is very high quality and although it lacks the real steal trade badges and logos the G&G ones do make up for this and don�t look out of place. Although the real ones would be a dream! (But the dent in my wallet would not justify it!)

The mag well takes the TM magazines perfectly and the gun is supplied with a G&G mag that at first I thought WAS a TM high-cap, The G&G mag was a little tight fitting and was hard to engage at first but working it in and out for a while solved the problem but not 100%, the other thing is that the mag is a lighter shade of grey and looks a bit odd. I have a few G&P Canadian style mags that fitted perfectly as well but whether they feed properly in the G&G is another matter.

My main concern with the G&G�s was the heavy triggers and the tappet plates but pulling the trigger alleviated the worry�..sheer perfection! I was hoping for a more hair trigger but this isn�t such a good idea with toys especially when they are marketed to all levels of player.

The charging handle on the G&G is like the TM only in this case it doesn�t spring the cover to the ejection port, its 100% pure aesthetics again same with the forward assist button. Both of these were a little stiff as it seemed that they hadn�t been greased even though they were moving parts so a small amount of grease got them moving fluidly in no time at all.

The hop-up unit is accessed in exactly the same way is the TM M4 series through the side ejection port, although unlike the TM you don�t need to pull the charging handle back to gain access to the unit, but saying that it�s just as tricky as you need to keep the spring loaded dust cover open while adjusting the hop-up unit.

Moving down to the grip you can see the high quality of the mould straight away, It reminds me of my Glock 19 hand grip and when held feels very comfortable and fits ergonomically to the hand, the fore grip is also nice with it�s non-slip finish, needless to say this will be tested to full effect during the Japanese winter. Above the fore grip is the heat shield which is beautifully finished and again makes this weapon high in the eye-candy department.

Stock

Now this is the only part of the gun I didn�t really like as I prefer the 5 point folding stock that the military version comes with. (These can be bought separately) The bone stock keeps the GR300 very light and even with the battery in the fore grip it�s well balanced, but saying that this is a 9.6v mini and if I was to go with the recommended 9.6 or 12v battery it would become very front heavy thus requiring a more heavy stock. The bone stock it�s self is very solid and I was expecting some flex in it but to my surprise it�s a very solid fixture. The gate once closed and placed in the locked position is just as ridged as a solid stock and like wise once it�s folded round for CQB action.

Conclusion

Right now I�m very impressed with the G&G GR300 and what with it being my 1st G&G I�m not disappointed in any way of form. I would still probably change the stock over for the ML version, but saying that as a stock weapon it�s excellent and I would give it a 9/10 for build, looks and quality. Tomorrow it will spend a day on the Skirmish field getting put through its paces, hopefully I will have a team mate take some photos of her in action but as we are all selfish I can�t promise�.maybe I can convince a dead man walking to assist.

Battle Field Performance Review

Well having done a review on the cosmetic, ergonomic and quality of the G&G GR300 I�m now going to review the actual performance of the weapon. Before I do I would like to apologies for the quality of some of the shoots take actually in game due to the nature of the sport it can be hard to get some action shots while maintaining the quality.

Specs

Weight 2,950 g
Length 805.0 mm
Capacity 450 rds
Power 330.0 fps / 1 Joule
Motor
Battery Size 9.6V 1100mAh

Now as you can see this weapon is 330.0fps / 1 J straight from the box and the rate of fire is a lot higher than that of my standard TM M4-S system. The manual recommends that you either use a 9.6v or a 12v battery with the gun which in my opinion is amazing!

Sighting and Zeroing

Once at the skirmish site I set about zeroing the iron sights on the weapon, as I mentioned earlier the simplicity of adjusting the sights really did make a difference and within no time I have the weapon zeroed in at around 30 meters. After this it was child�s play zeroing in the red dot sight to that of the iron sights although this proved a little annoying later on during my 1st few skirmishes.

I will have to say that when I first shot the weapon the BB�s went erratically in all direction but this was due to the amount of lubricant in the barrel and hop-up chamber of the weapon and it took around 1,000 BB�s to clear the excessive amount of lubricant and to stabilise the flight path of the BB�s, needless to say it�s better to have to much of lubricant than too little! (It�s a shame they didn�t lubricate other areas of the weapon!)

In game

In game the weapon was a joy to field and was very easy to handle throughout the game, the weight of the weapon being only 2,950 grams enabled me to keep the weapon in the ready firing position through long periods of time, also giving the added benefit of being able to flick the rifle into the ready position when needed. (This is where the lump in the grip comes into effect) The standard G&G magazine was great and feed perfectly throughout the day although a lot of the time I was using the standard TM mags for the M16 as I have a lot f these for my M4.

The trigger on the GR300 is not heavy at all but a little heavy than that of the Tokyo Marui AEG and to be honest it�s very hard to say which one I prefer, needless to say G&G has learnt from their mistakes with the M14 and also the UMG. Now the annoying thing I mentioned earlier is that the Iron sights are very obvious when looking through a red dot and although this is great if your batteries run down or the brightness of the rising/setting sun makes it hard to see the red dot it still is very prominent in the scope view, after a few games though I got used to it, players with M16�s and the likes might not feel the same as you�ll be used to the large iron sight.

I was very pleased with the performance of the weapon in the first game and not only bagging 3 kills managed to capture the enemy team�s flag. The folding stock, high rate of fire and weight is a great benefit for storming as you can basically spray and pray one handed while charging into a hot area. Although saying that the GR300 is not a stealth weapon straight from the box and when shooting it�s a very loud weapon, so loud in fact that it kept opening the VOX on my radio when I was firing.

One thing I found a problem with is the �Bone Stock� as its non adjustable and I found that if it was just a little shorter it would be a very nice fit but alas the stock can�t be adjusted.

Conclusion

I would have to say that I have no idea where the �G&G guns don�t work� phrases come from? I was a little worried when buying the GR300 at first but I�m glad I did some research and found just how good G&G are in their customer service department because otherwise I don�t think I would have made the purchase. Needless to say I�m very, very happy with the GR300, its full metal, 1 J and High rate of Fire straight from the box, which means I have already saved a lot of cash in modifications that I would otherwise perform on a TM weapon. The accuracy of the weapon suggest that the G&G barrel is also tight bore as well and the price they cost out here in Asia I wouldn�t be surprised! So at the end of the day the GR300 is a full thumb's up for veterans of the Airsoft arena.

PROS:

Full metal
Accurate barrel
High rate of Fire
High quality parts
Affordable price (If bought from reputable supplier)

CONS

Stock is non-adjustable (The ML stock would have been better)
Very loud (But not tried with silencer)

Parting Thoughts

Having owned this weapon for almost a week I�m already looking at what I can change on it like the true Geardo that I am and you know what it�s hard! Very hard this weapon is near damn perfect in looks and the only thing I can think of to change is the stock to the ML version, I�m not even tempted to put the fore vertical grip on it as I don�t like the look of them. The only other thing would be to get a raised Reflex Extension Mount for the red dot to get it a little higher and out of the way of the iron sights.

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S.T.O.R.M: Bringing the Honor back to Airsoft