SPORTLINE M15A4 - ArniesAirsoft

Author

jonny2400

Registered: August 2007
Location: Lisburn
Posts: 245

Review Date: 23/11/07

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �85.00 | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Value, Build Quaility, Power & Range
Cons:	Motor

Review of Classic Army Sportline M15A4 AEG

This is the new Classic Army Sportline Version of the M14A4.

Delivery and Packaging

I purchased this Model from Airsoft Armory, whom have all ways been friendly and knowledge,
It arrived quickly and well Packaged. As I purchased two, I was given free delivery, resulting in the total cost of �99.99 each.

Classic Army decided, to release this model to try and combat the growin number of clone manufactures.

First Impressions.

It arrived well packaged in the below box, It came complete with one Standard Grey metal 300 round High Cap, cleaning rod, small bag of 500 .20g BB and CA latest Catalogue. (The other mag was mine already)

Construction

The major different with the Sportline range over CA standard range, is that the body is made from High Quality ABS. However it does not greatly affect the overall; weight with the metal version only coming in � kg heavier.

On removing the AEG from the supplied package, I can see the quality of the finish, although its ABS, on first touch the bulk of the body, feels similar to any other metal AEG, CA have achieve this by wrapping the plastic body tightly around the all metal Gearbox.

One thing to point out is the whole AEG required a clean, as CA choice of box internals mean, the body was covered in a fine layer of dust and fibres. I wouldn�t recommend using any household cleaning products on the body of your AEG, as this will destroy the matt finish. The AEG has a grey finish, if any of you have ever come across Classic Army�s High Cap Mags, it�s the dull grey. It carriers all the usually markings found on CA M15�s, with a small Classic army marked on the far side.

Looking at the above picture, you can clearly see the quality of the ABS finish, the trigger, selector, mag release and delta ring are all metal. The fit and finish is excellent with no undue movement and barrel wobble is no where to be found. When held it certainly feels a solid and usable.

The supplied High cap is the Normal CA affair and is a prefect fit, again with no undue movement and when in used it ran reliability. Moving towards the front of the AEG, we can now examine the fore grip.

It�s well made and fits tightly; there is plenty of space for two Mini 8.4 Packs. The wiring is very high quality. Note the barrel is one piece; you can screw the flash hider off and fit a silencer. However unlike many other M4, only the flash finder comes off, so when you fit a Silencer, it makes this one damn long and ackward AEG to use

The stock is also well put together, it moves nicely again with no undue movement. The stock it�s self is made from ABS Plastic, however as expected the runner is one piece steel. It is fully adjustable.

Performance

Classic Army claim this shoots at 320fps and has a range of 160 feet. This range has been achieved by using both a high quality metal one piece Hop up and a new Precision Barrel. CA also claims to have completely redesigned the gear box, to offer the highest level of reliability. I have not opened the gear box to examine what the changes are. I would suggest you do the same.

However in the below photos we can examine the hop up adjustment.

Notice how tight the gear box sits in the shell, this gives the whole body a level of stiffness, the hop up unit is a plastic affair and the internal wiring is tidy.

The shot on the far right shows the new 6.08mm Blue all metal inner barrel. I am not sure why Classic army have when with the blue version or if any benefits are to be achieved by such choices

I was able to take my own model outside to compare range and power, the first few shoots suffered badly from miss feeds, however a small amount of silicone was placed in the mag well and this cured the problem. I was unable to test the power out put.

However I did shoot a coke can, with 0.2g BB a clean hole was punched in the base of a Coke can, it also was able to go clean through a coke can, both sides. This would lead me to think, that it maybe slightly over 320fps. However I suspect this will settle down in time.

I was able to adjust the Hop up and again using 0.20g I was able to achieve a range of 43- 45 meters, this was carefully measured. When compared to my other AEG this is a similar range. I was able to put almost 2000 BB through my AEG today, it performed well and I was impressed. I have the feeling this will be a reliable piece of kit if left alone.

Rate of fire is what I expected, again this is difficult to measure, however it wasn�t mind blowing quickly. It compares to most M4 versions including the D Boys.

Throughout the day I had the use of a D Boys M4 clone, The CA Sportline for a similar price, preformed slightly better and offer a much better finish out of the box.
The unit requires no attention on arrival. It is ready to use straightway. For someone new to airsoft it�s a great starting point, or for people like myself whom are not really M4/16 fans, but feel the need for one in our collection. This is a serious piece of kit for a low price. Give it a go, you might just impress yourself

I hope you find this review useful; it is my first review and I hope I have not missed too much.

Jonathan

Update 16/12/2007

It died today in the first few mins of the first game. Think the motor went. Was running 8.4v 1400ahm pack.

I have now fixed the problem. However I have not found out what caused the jam. Firstly I had suggested that the motor had failed. I removed the motor and tested it, it was working fine. I removed the upper receiver, which is a simple enought process of popping out two pins. However be warned the pins are tight, and you will have to use a screw driver ect to pop them thought. This is little to damage the finsh of the pins. So i would only do it if you have to.

Few things I noticed about the gear box,
1. It does not use the normal yellow CA piston, it is basic and fairly simlar to the systema Area 1000.
2.The Piston has a standard fixed head, simlar to that of ICS.
3. It used blue PLASTIC 6 mm brushing, not metal 7mm that most CA use.

The piston was held to the rear, this makes me thing something has caused the jam. Unwilling to open the gear box on less I had to, I refitted the CA motor, still nothing!

So I tired my ICS Tubro 3000 Motor, which for any of you that don't know is a really powerful motor, They claim it can run a M180 spring set up with no decrease in ROF.

Well the ICS Motor, had the power to free the gear box and It started working again. I refitted the CA motor and it's working fine once more. However I have not had the time to give it a really good going over, so the problem may reappear

Update 22/12/2007.

Another game played. This time with no problems on my part, however my friend who ordered the same model, started to suffer the same problems as I did previously, after using Full Auto for a bit, the motor seems to over heat. From speaking with our members, it seems that CA have saved them self a bit of money on the new motor. This seems to be the major down fall with this unit. I am going to replace the sportline Motor with a normal CA motor today, to see if that solves this problem.

Other than that no major problems.

A few points to note is the range. The range is not great, I have tried both 0.25g & 0.20g BB, when compared with a few of my other AEG's.The range seems to have dropped since new, I supect this was the spring settling and the power droping.
The second point to be aware of is the sound. Its not a quiet AEG. When compared to a standard CA M4, ICS M4. This is more than likely due to the plastic shell.

27/12/2007 Update on the motor. Ok the Standard Sportline motor is rubbish, I purhased a Normal CA motor and when comparing the two, it is clear to see where CA reduced production costs. The standard CA motor is much better quaility even in its finsh and the materials used. I was able to fit the standard CA motor which is approx 3-4mm Bigger in lenght. This means a little bit of adjustment to correct the motor height was required. However it now preforms much better, the ROF has also been vastly improved.

13/01/2007

Completed another game, used this gun for the full day 10 hours as it was very windy I must have put 6000 BB through it. Not one problem, Worked flawlessly the new motor has made this one decent AEG.

28/04/2008

Update had a few issues, since last post. Only cause I used a 9.6v mini battery. It stripped a two gears. I changed the plastic bushings to systema metal 6mm, fitted two new gears, a metal systema spring guide and systema piston head, CA yellow poly piston. Now giving 345fps and 1245 rpm. Tested

cgyarring

Registered: May 2007
Location: Michigan, USA
Posts: 256

Review Date: 28/12/07

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

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Affordable, Accurate, Solid Build, Great Performance
Cons:	Blemishes on Metal Parts, Clone Gearbox Shell, Not CA Standard Internals

Video!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jbPU4z1y3Zo

First Impression/ Aesthetics:

Nicely boxed in it's own unique CA box. Upon opening the box came a very dusty replica as if it had just left the warehouse. I dusted it off and immediately was disappointed. There are alot of blemishes on the metal parts of the gun, especially the dust cover, mag release and rear site. It looks as if they used parts from the original CA guns that had been cast aside for aesthetic blemishes. They were... horrible, reminiscent of rust. Also, the 3 other Sportline's that we ordered had these same blemishes, was not just this one gun.

The plastic body however, is very solid, and looks alot nice than the ABS which Marui uses. There is no flex in the body whatsoever. The fore grips are the full size that you find on the other CA, and there is NO gas tube, this means more battery room. The barrel is indeed 3 piece, and shows VERY little wobble and only when put under extreme stress.

The butt stock is nothing to write home to mom about, it's a simple telescoping stock on a metal buffer tube. The carrying handle is ABS but the knobs which tighten it down, as well as the rear site are metal, both blemished. The rear site is adjustable for both wind and elevation.

It comes stock with a bright orange flash hider and comes with a black flash hider to replace it. Comes with a normal CA Hi-Cap magazine and unjamming rod.

For looks I give it a 6/10, really disappointed in the blemishes.

Trademarks:

These have the full CA trades with Armalite and M15A4 stamped into the body. Not nearly as nice as they are on the metal ones since these do not stick out at all. I presume a white crayon would do the trick.

Disassembly:

This comes apart just like a normal CA, pull out the two body pins and then push the upper receiver forward. It does not have any body tabs, so no worries about breaking those. The body pins are VERY hard to get in and out, a good thing since Marui's and their clones are known for losing body pins. I literally had to use a hammer to get these pins out.

Also, BUY A 1.3mm ALLEN WRENCH or you will not be able to remove the mag release. This size is not typically found in hardware stores since it is so small.

Internals:

First glance shows that this is NOT a CA shell. They instead use a clone shell. You can tell this due to to factors. First they have the cutout in the shell in the rear for where the body tabs of a Marui would go, and 2, at the bottom of the shell where the motor sits inside of it, there is just 1 screw, whereas a CA has 2. Also, they used blue nylon bushings... which is sad, those will most likely be the first things to break.

They have a new motor which they have labeled High Torque, which is similar to their Torque Up motor, however, the rate of fire is a little bit less than the normal with an 8.4v battery.

The gears themselves are NOT CA standard gears. Each gear has a stamping, 2 with "CLASSIC ARMY" and the Sector with "CA-SL". These look very much like Marui gears.

The tappet plate is a new one, it has somewhat of a half moon shape where it contacts the sector gear, most likely to help with the double feeding issues some AEG's have. The cylinder is made of a blue Aluminum which is extremely light and precisely machined. The piston and piston head are new for the Sportline, they are a black polycarbonate material, and the piston head has 4 ports on it. The cylinder head is also a silent damper cylinder head.

The hop up is plastic, and is a replica of the CA metal one piece hop up unit, it is of good construction and has a great air seal. The barrel is made out of a blue Aluminum that is very light weight and has a very nice crown at the tip.

All in all I am VERY impressed with the internals. Perfectly shimmed and not an ounce too much grease in the gear box and not an ounce too little. The wiring is also excellent, featuring heavier gage wires and a quick detach in the fore grip for easy disassembly.

For internal quality, I would give it a 7/10 for the use of clone parts. If these turn out to be of good quality, an 9/10 is justifiable.

Field Test:

I tested this with the provided CA Hi-Cap and the precision CA .2g bb's provided. I also used a 9.6v 3000mah battery (did not fit in hand guard, used a battery bag so that I would not have to change batteries). This rifle shot amazingly well. Great ROF with a 9.6V and superb accuracy. Able to hit a man sized target with 4 out of 5 shots at 40 yards, and still accurate at 50 yard. This replica did NOT double feed once on semi-auto.

I also used a 3000rnd box mag made by A&K. With continuous fire, with short breaks to wind the magazine, this rifle only jammed one time after 1500 round. A simple unjamming and a little silicone down the barrel and it fired the remaining 2000 without an issue. It shoots straight and accurate, the hop up works quite well. I am VERY impressed with the performance of this replica!

The chrono puts it between 330FPS and 340FPS, an absolutely perfect range, low enough for CQB, and high enough to reach to 50yards accurately.

This gun is about the same weight as it's Marui and clone counterparts, but a large battery is suggested to add a little more weight to it.

For performance I rate the CA Sportline a 10/10

Overall: 8/10

Amazing rifle for the price. Not for the veteran airsofter who love's their trademarks and pristine replicas. Great for the beginner airsofter who wants a nice rifle out of the box that is going to be reliable. But it does have a place for the veteran airsofter who is looking for a back up that they aren't afraid to paint. Any camo can hide those little blemishes. Lets face it, at $120, if these guns stay reliable and last, one would be crazy not to pick one up.

This rifle will be used constantly and I will keep records of the a mount of rounds through it to give everyone a better idea for the first actual breakdown of the replica.

Any questions/comments or other things you would like me to cover, please, PLEASE say away. I would like to cover everything that everyone is curious about.

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