XM177-e2 Car15 - ArniesAirsoft

Author

The Bushman

6mm HUNTER

Registered: June 2005
Location: in your shadow
Posts: 2,169

Review Date: 15/1/06

Would you recommend the product? No | Price you paid?: �200.00 | Rating: 6

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	VERY lightweight. Short It's an M16 carbine.
Cons:	replaced by M4A1. Lots of plastic. small battery. durablilty

Well I bought this way back when it was first released in 1993. It was my second AEG and I was the first person on the block with one. It was before HOP UP AEG's existed. I used it for just under 2 years until replaced by my VN M16A1 (Hop).

At the time it was the only Armalite available other than the M16A1. I bought it and had a 190 mag and built upto 5 low caps.

I found the gun was much lighter than first expected and this is certainly due to the high plastic content. The front section is very much plastic with only the thin outer barrel and a support rod being metal. All of the front sight post and muzzle is grey plastic.

The muzzle is a nice feature even though it is plastic. If you tape up the holes in it, it really dampens the sound of the muzzle. Although not as good as a silencer. It is very long and keeps the mud well clear of the inner barrel.

The fire select and magazine catch are also plastic. With only the trigger being metal on this early AEG. The cocking handle is plastic, the list goes on.

TM learnt the basics of the armalite AEG here and the M4A1 is an obvious improvement on this design. The front section is not particularly strong and can easily be damaged if you are not careful. The gun doesn't field strip and is a pain to get it in pieces like the rest of the A1 series AEG's.

The model is cheaper than the M4A1 and so it should be. The durability is certainly an issue when it comes to the front sights, as I saw several of these snap off other players. The stock is very similar although only has 3 positions compared to the M4A1 which has 4 positions.

The carry handle is built onto the chassis unlike the M4 which can have it removed to reveal a lovely weaver rail. This means that any scope mounted on the XM will be a tiny bit too high for my tastes.

I had a scope mount made (as TM did not make rails at that stage). I fitted a russian military inverted red vee optical sight. It was very similar to a C-MORE design and super accurate. This was a big shock to the sytem when it came to batteries. I had owned a FAMAS before and now discovered that I hated 600mah battery packs.

I got hold of an M203 that had been originally fitted to an L+S AK74 spring rifle. It was scrap and free to me. I got a car sill and proceeded to chop it up and drill a series of holes in it. Giving it to a friend who was a machine shop expert he squared it all up and recessed the holes. He also got it black anodised.

It fitted the m203 to reproduce the classic heatshield normally seen on an A1 with 203. Inside the 203 I fitted a full size 8.4v 1700mah nicad. Hey presto.

I had an electric rifle with M203 before there was a single one on the market. It now had the staying power of a large battery which was great as my games lasted several days.

This rifle went on to great things and had a fearsome reputation. It got many many TAGS in tough games. It's best feature was it's lightweight allowed you to crawl easily. However, it's lack of HOP UP meant it's days were numbered and to top it off, some cheap KHC 0.20g caused a very nasty jam. With the Tee section shattered into over 10 parts, this gun had to have major surgery to get it to still be usable.

My original XM had a 560 motor but these days it comes with an EG700, which may ever so slightly help it's inability to fit a large battery pack.

I sold it off for 120 pounds with 2 low caps a large battery and the complete scratch built M203. I bought my VN and didn't look back.

Overall:

I saw other versions later with HOP UP and think the guns best features are price and weight. Other than that, the gun is now obsolete and bettered in the modern M4A1 offering from TM. Push the boat out and get a better AEG with 1000 motor and ability to field strip. The only reason I didn't was that the Airsoft M4 was not invented back then.... although personally, I think the SR16 is the best armalite.

Guess only NAM players will be interested in this these days.

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