M203 Military Jungle Type (Long) - ArniesAirsoft

Author

mig_eater

GR16-A2 Firesupport the Devonshire way

Registered: January 2005
Location: Mid-Devon
Posts: 743

Review Date: 14/7/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �120.00 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Heavy, full metal, great looks, some aftermarkets, real trades
Cons:	can be a bugger to install, possible barrel issues, heavy

Ok where to start...

The AEG I attached this to is a G&G GR16A2 and therefore it wasn't a perfect fit therfore my mounting experience may differ from yours.

I bought this about 6 months ago, and have decide to wait this time to see how it performs rather than just giving you the simple looks good feels good review.

It comes in a sturdy double thickness cardboard box with an attractive holographic(ish) and plain label on the front, the first thing I was struck by was the weight of the box, it's not light, has no rattle and after picking it up from the sorting office it got heavier through-out the day. When I finally got it home that evening it was with some relish that I opened the box which had been taunting me all day. I was wasn't disappointed, the launcher is well protected for transport inside a good wrapping of bubble wrap, I had concerns about it's magical mystery tour with Royal Mail after a G&P P90 reciever I bought previously was less than well protected in the box for transport, but it was unscathed thanks to it wrapping.

After removing the wrap the M203 was in my hands, and it's weight was fair not as light as a SP M203, but not as heavy as it had felt on my back all day. The finish is excellent the silky black paint on the barrel is tough (still not a mark 6 months on), the best way to describe it would be the texture of Teflon and it has 6 internal riflings for effect. The reciever is a flat medium grey, coarser than the barrel but still tough as nails. The barrel furniture is black but rather shiny, although the camera flash accentuates this. I'm not entirely sure what it is made of but feels ok and tough although it has a few minor scratches now. Internal gubbins seem to be aluminium with a few bits of steel (trigger guard and possibly the striking pin).

The loading cycle is easy enough in principle but shells can be quarrelsome especially in the heat of a firefight. Depress the barrel latch and slide it forward, this is where you can encounter your first problem, occassionally if you are too vigourious in sliding the barrel forward it will bounce the retaining bar and the barrel will come away in your hand which is less than good when your in a hurry. Rectifying this simply requires lining up the barrel and sliding it back onto it's rail (make sure your sling loop is forward otherwise it catches the barrel mount stopping it from openning fully next time). When loading a round occassionally the side spring panels will catch on the disassembly groove of the round and stop it from going any further, however this problem subsides with use.

With the round inserted into the breach, closing the barrel can also be a problem, the barrel has 1-2mm side to side give in it meaning that occassionally the reciever and barrel don't marry up and the slide doesn't lock into place. this is easily remedied by apply pressure to the right until you hear it click in. I've made it sound worse than it is because this shows all problems happening on the same cycle, realistically i may expect one of these problems to occur in every 30 loads, so thats probably about one minor malfunction in every 15games.

The safety is a nice piece of kit, it is positioned at the front of the trigger guard and has two settings. To activate it just pull it back with a nail, but this doesn't pose a problem when wearing gloves. The first setting moves it about 7mm from it's off position and prevents accidental discharge if the trigger gets a bang or caught in bushes, but with a consistant pull of the trigger releases allowing the shell to be fired. The second setting moves it back about 60deg and prevents the shell from being fired until it is manually released.

Installing it should be simple on a marui (for which it was designed), and there is a CA version too. However to mount it onto my GR16 required a cool beer, head scratching, a few expletives, duct tape and some zip ties (I intially used the wire provided for this purpose but found it insufficient and brittle). To attach it to my baby I had to remove the dummy gas tube and remove the front sight set then slide it down the barrel seating the rear on some duct tape around the barrel to make a firm base and passing the Zip tie through the front mount and screw holes. it is now perfectly secure, the operation took me a couple of hours of frustration but being forewarned it shouldn't take much more than 20-30 mins.

After markets are made such as a M203 style heat sheild and differing colours of furniture and sextant sight. also I believe a mount exists for attaching it to an AUG.

In conclusion this has it's niggles and another week of R&D would have been useful, but as it stands it is still the best M203 out there. Had I had prior knowledge of these niggles I would have bought it just the same so I really wouldn't worry about them.

AAR: It adds a good chunk of weight when you are running around all day but dramatically improves the look and feel of your AEG, after 6 months it still doesn't have a scratch on the paint and only the most minor of scratches to the funiture, it has never let me down when I needed it and has a great deal of intimidation factor.