CA249P - ArniesAirsoft - Review Archive

Author

orca

The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla

Registered: September 2004
Location: Behind the Orange Kurtain, So. Kalifornia.
Posts: 1,263

Review Date: 5/10/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �570.00 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Metal in all the right places!
Cons:	Pieces fit very tightly together. This can be viewed as a Pro, but in this case it seems to be an engineering deal (i.e. you have to adjust the position of a few items to get an item like the top cover to close properly).

Picked up this baby on 10/03/05 from Airsoft Extreme, Torrance. Wanted to get some info out quickly, so this will be a quickie. There seems to be a nice trend where retailers are doing nice reviews of products now, so as not to duplicate info, checkout

http://www.airsoftextreme.com/store/index.php?main_page=infopages&pages_id=20

Pro's:

Metal in all the right places.

Well engineered metal top cover with rail (See Pic).

US Style Hand Guards and Heat Shield (Real M249 Paras don't have the upper Heat Shield).

Plastic parts have a matte finish.

PGC Style gearbox!!! Shoots hard and "easily" upgradeable. (Compared to TOP)

Classic Army Catalog Shows their AK :P Also, seems it was used for chrono testing LOL (Nice bb strike went through the whole catalog)

Con's:

Pieces fit very tightly together. This can be viewed as a Pro, but in this case it seems to be an engineering deal (i.e. you have to adjust the position of a few items to get an item like the top cover to close properly).

The outer and inner barrel removal to replace the battery take a little practice (http://www.airsoftextreme.com/ca249review.htm)

Very limited room in the handguard for battery. Only Mini batterys will fit. But Laylax Battery Sling works well in this situation.

[*]Heavy! Not for the 98lb weakling. At 14' lbs w/o battery or box mag, it'll give you a field workout. This is about 1 pound lighter then the unloaded real steel version

I may do the mod where you can fit the AEG Battery in the box mag and wire the box mag to the M249's trigger. At this point I still like the option of using M16 style low and mid caps.

Chrono Results (FPS)
20 BB's

Min: 319.43
Max: 327.22
Avg: 322.43

Update 01/15/06
While waiting for the CA249 RIS to be released, found out the G&G RIS will work as well. The nice part on the CA249 as opposed to the TOP, is no machining is needed to fit the RIS.

Update 02/10/06
Added Proud Vertical Grip/Bipod and ICS Peq Battery Box.

http://www.digitalwastelands.com/bbimages/airsoft/ca249p/ca249p-05a.jpg

Installed on CA249, Legs Retracted

http://www.digitalwastelands.com/bbimages/airsoft/ca249p/ca249p-04a.jpg

Installed on CA249, Legs Extended

The ICS PEQ enables me to use 9.6 batteries which run the motor much better then 8.4 mini bats. I opted against the boxmag battery mod, since i do like using m16 mags.

http://www.digitalwastelands.com/bbimages/airsoft/ca249p/ca249p-06a.jpg

ICS Peq

http://www.digitalwastelands.com/bbimages/airsoft/MAGm249/MAGm249-01a.jpg

MAG 2500 Rounds M249 Cartridge Pouch

------------------------------

http://www.digitalwastelands.com/random/sig-old/g36c-01a.jpg

Putting my money where my mouth is...
OMFG The A.I.C.S. is NOT an L96, AWP or AWM!!!

Budi H

Registered: December 2005
Posts: 7

Review Date: 2/2/06

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

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	very high quality airsoft gun
Cons:	very heavy

I am very happy to have this gun. I used to have the top minimi para once, but it was nothing comparing with the CA para.

The gun is very heavy, heavier than the MKII version. But have the same internal parts as the MKII. I can change the spring in 2-3 minutes. What you need are only push one pin out(at the rear upper side of receiver), open the top cover, and push the spring guide latch while push the spring guide with your thumb.

My chrono read 310fps out of the box. After changing the spring with systema M130, it read 425 fps. The gearbox's internal parts use version 2 internal parts.

I have trouble changing the inner barrel with the prometheus inner barrel. Velocity and accuracy became inconsistent. I can't solve the problem until now.