AK74M - ArniesAirsoft - Review Archive

Author

Soloman

Probably back from the dead.

Registered: December 2004
Location: Herts
Posts: 2,485

Review Date: 15/2/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �250.00 | Rating: 10

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Solid, slick, heavy, two mags, cheap
Cons:	Some people don't like the look of the Pistol Grip and the stock

Greetz,

This is the gun i have been waiting for, for a loooong time, mainly due to ICS messing about with gearboxes (more on that later) but at last, i have the precious, AK74M assault rifle Smile

Much debate has sprouted about the trueness of this gun over the past months, and many bent to pressure and bought a Classic Army SLR105a1 instead, with its very sexy, 'Made in Las Vegas' Arsenal Trademarks. The ICS AK74M is Full licenced with the Kalashnikov trades Smile

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/2572/trades4wd.jpg

I'm not going to bore you with it's history, as noboody reads these bits anyhow :P The AK74m is in use at the moment in the Russian army, it is a fully modernised version of the AKM, which in turn is a moderised version of the original AK47 Smile

Okays, on with the review!

First impressions:

http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/9033/akbox9ku.jpg

Opon seeing the box, i was wetting my self with anticipation, in the middle of this, i happened to notice some little boxes on the box, which say:

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/2383/omg1zl.jpg

As you can see from the pictures, it is obvious that ICS intend to release more varients, lets just hope that the AKS74, is a side folder!

Moving on, opening the box, i am greeted with much sex! And a speedloader containing 1000 bbs, a cleaning rod, two mags, site adjustment tool, barrel plug and instruction leaflet. The whole gun seems far better packaged than the other iCS guns.

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/7711/sglory0bd.jpg

I must confess that my first impression was: ZOMG!

The Gun:

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/6440/ak74m20ix.jpg

Picking up the gun, i was quite suprised at the weight, 3.5kg! It is nicely distributed Not too heavy at either end Smile

The finish is supurb! I cannot tell it from the real thing! Slotting the mag in, there is a little click, and absolutely no wobble to be seen, or creaks to be heard, anywhere.

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/1431/ak74m15qz.jpg

To Adjust the hopup you must pull the bolt back, and it goes back, all the way, unlike the Classic Army version ^_^ The Hopup is extremely easy to use, and is adjusted by pushing the slider back or forth. The bolt makes a very satisfying sound when racked

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/6730/rightside5qe.jpg

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/549/hopup9zb.jpg

Everything on this gun strips like the real thing, the handguards come off by pushing the dissembly latch and pulling them off, and the dust cover comes off very easily to expose the full bolt, which you take out (simply) to get to the gearbox, which i presume, by looking at the manual, is very easily done.

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/7007/frontend7qu.jpg

On the left hand side of the gun, there is a sight mount, which on every other AK model on the market at the moment, isn't present, an you would have to buy one, and drill into the body to fit it, to be able to mount any sort of scope or sight. THis, in my books, is a biiiiiiig plus.

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/2776/leftside20hy.jpg

The flashider, can be taken off very simply, to reveal a 14mm thread, of which direction, i don't know.

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/6433/thread9ml.jpg

Many people have critised the handgrip, saying it is too big; i find it to be extremely comfortable, and the right size for my hands (for the record, i have 'normal' sized hands :P) Another point of complaint was the stock, in the flesh it is fine, looks good too ^_^

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/6030/stock9zu.jpg

The battery is still charging at the moment, but when it finishes i will do a breif technical overview.

Overall, i am very impressed with this gun, if it fires as good as it looks, we have a surefire winner! The only cons, being the 'big' pistol grip, and the cleaning rod rattles about a bit, but, nothing a bit of 'leccy tape can't fix!

Firing!:

After the battery had now fully charged, i could take her out for a nice bit of target practice in the garden :D

My first impression when i shot, was: Christ, this is loud! It has a very distinctive sound, very loud and intimidating; like no other AEG i've used :D

The RoF is decent, had no trouble emptying the 550 round hicap Smile

It is very accurate; the bbs seems to go, wherever you want them to go Smile

Though, the sights don't seems to be quite dead on...But that could just be because of the wind outside Smile

The range this has is moderate, i'd say around the same as most guns of this price, like an ICS m4 for example. I must say, i will be upgrading it to bang on 330, even with the hop full up, it seems to drop quite quickly, but i suppose i have been spoilt by the long range advantage of my APS2 which is firing well over forum limits :P

I shot at one of the little (4x6") TM targets that came with my MP7, at 10m, it was quite windy:

http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/3545/target9aw.jpg

Then again, at 20m, still fairly windy, starting to rain Sad

http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/1671/target22qk.jpg

The grouping is very satisfactory :D

In conclusion i can say that this is 100% worth the money i paid for it, it looks stunning, and doesn't shoot half bad either :D

I am in love with this gun, and i hope you enjoyed reading my review :D

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http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5716/haze7.png

RESpecht1621

Registered: April 2006
Posts: 34

Review Date: 11/8/06

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

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Steel, YES Steel.
Cons:	ArmoryUSA Trades...

Its a great gun, also its steel, i tested with a magnet.

I agree with everything above.

Thing is mine has ArmoryUSA trades, but they are very cool.

Love the gun, shoots great, only needs to be shimmed and new spring to shoot any better.

sonshadowcat

Registered: April 2005
Posts: 178

Review Date: 4/10/06

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

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Hefty, full metal( steel as was pointed out), no creaks of wobbling of any kind, easy to take apart
Cons:	Can be too heavy for puny people, pistol grip a little uncomfortable( smaller than Mp5 grip)

This truly is a beautiful gun, the black finish really sets it apart. Shoots as hard as the ICS Mp5( so around 300-320fps) and very accurate. Pop in a precision inner barrel and RDS( as I did) and you have a monster of a woodland rifle.

It's also very easy to disassemble so that's a plus if you plan on upgrading the internals. I recommend anyone who wants a different gun to buy this, you won't be dissapointed.

FireKnife

Tap, rack, bang? The missus or your gun?

Registered: October 2006
Location: Aberdeen, not for long though.
Posts: 8,501

Review Date: 29/12/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �200.00 | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	FULL METAL, Good accuracy, High ROF and a Good alternative
Cons:	Handgrip is a little to small. Hi-caps aren't that good.

It is an excellent gun with a nice feel, no creaking and a long lasting battery capacity.

Personally it is just hard to explain how good it is so all i say is pick up the gun and try it out. I just personally love it to bits.

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57 Pistols owned and still counting, hopefully more to come soon.
They are (best at the top working down): 2x TM Colt Mark IV Series 70 (they are mde of win), 2x TM Night Warrior Custom, TM Foliage Warrior, 4x TM 1911A1, 5x TM Detonics, 2x TM MEU, TM PX4, 4x KSC USPc, 4x TM P226, 3x TM M9, TM Glock 17,TM 5.1 Hi-Capa, KSC SP2022, 2x TK VP70M, 2x KSC USP .45, KWA USPCT, Army Detonics, KJ Glock 27, KSC SP2340, Maruzen PPK/s, Maruzen P99, KSC M8000, HFC M190, KJ P14-.45, KJ Ruger Mk.1, 2x KSC Glock 18c, HFC Desert Eagle, KJ M9 Vertec ABS,2x KSC Glock 26, ACM Beretta 1934, Marushin PPK SAS, Unknown M93R, WE 3.8 1911, 2x KWC Colt Python.

Got a TM pistol for sale in good condition and still stock plastic bodied? Give me a PM.

If you see a :P in my post don't take it seriously. Wink

fluffy.the.airsofter

Registered: March 2007
Location: 29078
Posts: 2

Review Date: 1/7/07

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �250.00 | Rating: 6

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Metal, Price
Cons:	Many things are only available by ICS, I got a lemon

I have owned this gun for 7 months now, and it has crapped out about 5 times. From what I hear, its just bad luck. My guns internals are now only like 20% ICS, and its currently gathering dust while I attempt to figure out whats wrong. I would recommend this gun, but be careful, ICS has not worked out every bug yet.

Pinkfloyd

Registered: April 2007
Posts: 1,647

Review Date: 4/9/07

Would you recommend the product? No | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 6

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Weight, heft, solid construction (It got run over by a go-kart LSV and is still in good repair), good pointability.
Cons:	Plastic hopup, unrelyable hopup, inconsistant hopup, hopup causes jams, hopup has very little effect, hopup, gearbox is not properly shimmed, gears sound "grindy", hopup.

I borrowed this gun from a teammate for a couple of skirmishes and then a technical inspection afterwards, swaping him for my beloved VFC 416C. I was looking for a replacement mid range weapon to complement my new Marushin M1 Garand, which has replaced my old sniper rifle. Needless to say, an AK was a good place to start looking.

The ICS offering is nice and hefty, a good pound or two MORE than my VFC 416C. Unfourtunatly, this translates to a pain on the battlefield, as the gun i smore difficult to lug around for extended periods. I'm getting to the point where my 416 is getting easy to "one-hand", but this gun tips the scales rendering such willy-nillying impossible. You'll need two hand to shoot this in other words.

The accuracy at medium range is decent, only slightly better than a M4, which is to be expected. However, range is on the poor side of terrible because of a poor hopup unit, which is constructed of plastic and really has no effect of the BB. The sights are crude, although these are just AK sights, not the nice Peep-hole sights I know and love, and not HK sights which are increadably easy to use. Still, target accuisition is not too bad.

The hicaps supplied with the gun are rubish, toss them when you get the gun.

The gun rattles a bit under the gas tube and block, and the reciever cover is slightly loose. However, the gun does not feel like it will come apart any time soon. I was run over by a Go-Kart during the skirmish I borrowed the gun on, and the gun survived better than I expected it would.

The stock is uncomfortable because of moulding tabs that bite into your arm. Get a knife and shave down the stock texture, lest your arm be molested by these little plastic fiends.

The gearbox was an utter dissapointment. I've heard great things about ICS M4's and their cool 2 piece deals, but the ICS is a standard V3, and a poorly made one at that. It grinds, and the shims are done poorly so that the ROF is inconsistant. I offered to reshim it for my teammate, but he didn't want to open the internals unduely.

The gun jammed once during my time with it. Because we didn't have a unjamming rod long enough to get the BB out, I got to dissasemble the gun, which has been my first time working on an AK. I found is extremely straightforward to take down and put back together, much more so than M4's and HK guns, which have lots of little pins and body panels. This gun would be easy for a newbie to take down.

The pistol grip wobbled on the gun. This may have been due to use, but my guess is it came from the factory like this.

Teh fire selector was the worst selector I've ever used on an Airsfot gun. Period. No positive click into full auto, and if you didn't get it in exactly the right position the gun would misfire. Also, the spring that tensions the selector switch would give way and the selector would fall out of Auto into Semi at the worst possible times.

Overall, the gun has decent potential provided you are willing to work with it. Still, glaring flaws and unseemly preformance hinder this gun from acheiving its true pottential without a complete overhaul. While I love the AK style, I can't help but think that ICS has released an unfinished product that could have used another month or two in development. They miss the bar set by other companies like TM, CA and VFC because of their disregard for what the costomer needs, rather than what they think the customer needs, luxeries like an extra hicap mag, or a lower price. I would have gladly paid more money to get a better gun were I my teammate, and I believe that ICS should start working towards a more refined product, even if it means a 20-50$ increase in price.

Confederate842

Registered: March 2007
Location: United States of America
Posts: 24

Review Date: 13/12/08

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Solid Externals, 2 Good High-caps, "Pre-upgraded" Mechbox
Cons:	Weak initial spring, Safe-Semi-Auto Selector, Cheap Feeling Buttstock

Was my first AEG, have since bought an ICS m4, CA AK74, and a CA G36c.

Positives:
-ICS's AK74 is sturdy and weighted great: Supposedly weighs more than an actual unloaded AK, which is great for me, I want my gun to feel real. I haven't notice any wobble.
-"Pre-upgraded" mechbox: enabled me to buy an 120M/S spring and put it in without worrying about other parts. It was cheap, and gave the gun a needed performance boost in order to be competitive. The tappet plate finally broke after ~50 thousand shots, but the gears and piston were in fine shape.
-Magazines: These work excellent for me. If you do purchase this gun, make sure you put some silicon (not from an aerosol can) wet-ed bb's through to lubricate and work the magazine in. The two ICS magazines were way better in feel and function than the similar hi-cap that came with Classic Army's version of the '74. The two of them hold enough ammo for me to skirmish comfortably (woods games, 3hrs straight), though I have had to hunker down and refill a mag before. The mags have a relatively large loading door though, and filling is easy (especially if you use a plastic water bottle!). My ONLY gripe with these is how the hatch can open and waste my ammo or make a mess.. Some tactical tape solves this problem. These are way easier to fill than m4/m16 and g36 mags. Also they seat great into the magwell, don't wobble around, and feed great (the Classic Army I have fails in all these aspects).
-Other Performance areas: Rate of fire is on par with the other AEGs I own. Besides a low initial velocity (270fps), the gun shoots about the same as all the others. It does sound a bit different though..

Negatives:
-Butt Stock: I hated this butt stock. It feels cheap and thin, and really sticks out in comparison to the rest of the externals. But I skirmished hard with it quite a few times, and through all the diving around it never so much as creaked. So apparently its plenty strong enough, just doesn't really feel it. Now I'm used to it and I don't notice it, but still it could be better.
-Spring: I found my gun to be underpowered, and considering I play in America with people (grown men with careers) who invest thousands of dollars into building insane AEGs, I needed to upgrade in order to have comparable range. When the spring was new it was shooting somewhere just under 450fps, which was pretty ridiculous.. Before the swap it chronoed at 270.
-After Skirmishing with twice, and tearing down the gearbox countless times (to swap the springs back and forth, depending on who i was playing with), my AK started to lock up. I *think* it had something to do with the fire selector, but I really don't know. It happened twice, I found nothing wrong with the internals either time, and it hasn't happened since. Probably was occurring ~15k rounds ago.
-Accuracy: While the gun shoots consistently, it seems to be sighted low and to the left, and I haven't figured out to correct the problem. Doesn't bother me much though. My personal opinion is the inner barrel is not lined up just right (its close, but the CA SLR shoots straighter). May even be due to the hope up, I have no real knowledge of hop-up stuff (other than that the hop-up on the ICS works just as well as any other gun I own).

Overall:
I think this is a great 1st guy, espeacially if you are into externals. ICS really improved the external design from the other brands out there. I recommend this gun to people who want more of a replica and less of a toy. It feels way better in your hands than the Classic Army version.
..However, if you are more concerned about how it shoots out of the box, and you are not going to upgrade, the CA shoots nicer. Nicer as in straighter (in my guns case) and the mechbox sounds a little smoother.
The AK74 was a good value for me, and I appreciated not having to spend money on strengthening my mechbox when I put a bigger spring in it. Also the externals are great.

-Marty3

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Gas_Guzzler

Registered: January 2012
Posts: 1

Review Date: 14/1/12

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �225.00 | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Accurate, FPS, Sturdy, Good gun
Cons:	High Caps are not great and the screw on pistol grip comes loose esily

Yeh my 1st gun, really well serving... range isnt a problem really and the accuracy is great. Got some ares mid caps and weirdly they feed better than the provided mags, weird i know :P also the screw on my pistol grips fell out during skirmish, so if anyone can help in regards to finding replacement screw or sumin would be helpfull.