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Reviews
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Date of last review
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1
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11748
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19/6/08
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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Average Rating
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100% of reviewers
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None indicated
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8.0
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Pissin' people off one post at a time
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Ranger_Captain
Pissin' people off one post at a time
Registered: July 2005
Location: West Point, New York
Posts: 1,229
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Review Date: 19/6/08
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
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Positive aspects of the product (pros):
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Great Range Good Medium Range Groupings Impressive stock hopup Reliable (Zero Double feeds, no blank firings) Feels Great All Marui Compatible parts for easy platform upgrade Cheap
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Cons:
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Magazines are very cheaply made Sling Points fall off easily Weight (too light in my opinion although this is more of a personal con to me)
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TSD M700 LB
Introduction
Cheaper airsoft guns are rampant now. It started way back when with WELL and Cyberguns, and while… interesting guns, they were almost always of the lowest quality that to be “match approved” required essentially a complete rip out and redo of the gearbox but now companies like Echo 1, JG, JLS, A&K, and TSD are taking point in providing truly usable, more economically accessible AEG’s. This is true with sniper rifles as well, starting with the bargain bin UHC Super 9 to the new JG BAR-10, great strides have been made in at least providing a cheaper platform to build an effective SWS. Now up for the plate, batting for budget sniper rifles, is the new TSD M700 Long Barrel.
Real Steel History
*Taken from Modern Firearms a.k.a. world.guns.ru
“Remington manufactured its famous model 700 since 1962. This rifle is perhaps one most widely used across the USA as a bolt-action tactical rifle. This rifle traces its ancestry back to the British P14/US model 1917 Enfield. Starting with model 700BDL action, Remington adds a stainless-steel barrel and a carbon-fiber stock, then tunes the rifle for one-minute-of-angle accuracy using match grade ammo. This rifle design was (and is) a basis for many custom build tactical sniper rifles. The USMC (Marine Corps) was among the first to make model 700 action the basis for a precision sniper rifle. The original USMC M40 bolt-action sniper rifle used in Vietnam and into the late 1970s was built on a Remington Model 700BDL action. In fact, today's M40A1s are still being rebuilt on these same actions. Lather, when the US Army decided to switch from a semi-automatic to a bolt-action rifle, the Remington Model 700 action was chosen for the M24.”
I have a personal love for the M700 series, having owned a Stainless Steel .300 Win Mag in the past which was one of my favorites. I’ve owned a Tanaka (Preban) M40A1 which for a time was my only way to have an airsoft version of one of my favorite guns, but when this $70.00 platform came out I couldn’t refuse.
First Impressions
I picked this up off of Hot Spot Airsoft’s website and got it a few days later. All said and totaled was about $80.00 shipped. It came in a stereotypical TSD bargain airsoft bock, very colorful with pictures of SFO’s holding and using the gun.
Along with the gun, which comes disassembled, are two hex screws, a hex key, bag of bb’s that I wouldn’t put in a $2 springer, a cheapo (useless) sling, an extra magazine, and instructions which were fairly limited, mainly to operation of the gun with no mentioning of assembly. That isn’t much of a problem though as assembly is pretty self explanatory by examining the two pieces: hook the barrel/receiver assembly into the stock and tighten the two screws in their respected places. As simple as that.
A little pro-tip though, don’t tighten the screws too tight, they may strip the plastic, but the screw just behind the trigger guard (Philips head) should be tightened a little bit more than the factory left it, as without doing so the receiver sits just a bit high out of the stock.
Appearance
Looking over the gun it’s pretty much dead on to the real steel. I went for the synthetic black stock version given that I plan to paint the barrel silver to make it as close to my old M700 as possible.
The bolt is modeled after the G-Spec paddle type. Now this comes down to personal preference but I prefer the Muaser, ball type bolt, but then in airsoft this is rarely a concern, much less a replaceable option and really is just aesthetics.
The looks of the synthetic stock is a bit on the shinny side but has the look that heavy use will eventually buff that off and if your in a rush you can run a rough rag over the whole gun for a little while to fix the shininess.
As far as the outer barrel is concerned it looks just perfect. The added texturing gives it a perfect flat black appearance.
Overall I’d have to say they got it just about right. You can tell it is a toy gun and not a real steel easily, but at the same time it doesn’t look too different from a more high end replica.
Look Grade: 8/10
Feel/Aesthetic
Aesthetics wise this gun is pretty limited, but by no fault of its own. The there really isn’t all that much to a M700. It has two picatinny rails, one on top of the bolt for scope attachment and one underneath the end of the stock assembly for attachment of a rail bipod.
As mentioned the bolt is a paddle type and is fairly smooth, yet hard plastic. The barrel is textured like medium grade sandpaper which aids in making it feel a tad more realistic. As far as looks go, as mentioned, its pretty spot on for an M700, but as far as weight goes… not so much. The real M700, while varying in weight with the different calibers, has an “advertised” weight of roughly 9 lb’s. This replica only manages about five and a half and feels very barrel heavy, although that would be true of any high caliber/synthetic stock real steel.
Shouldering it standing up feels just as awkward as you’d expect, it being a little over 45 inches long (nearly 4 feet), but when prone or in a bench rest it feels just right. I found that a cheek rest might be a wise investment if you’re a smaller frame or have a high mounted scope.
One the subject of scopes, and I know this is a very debatable subject, you NEED one, as there are no iron sights. Personally I mounted a cheap Tasco 3-9x50mm scope that I picked up at my local gun shop for about $30.00. You could go as expensive and fancy as you want, but personally I would advice against it. You’re never going to get less than 1 MOA (and that’s assuming you’re an upgrade God) at lets say 200 feet, and your probably never going to need a scope that goes much higher than 4x magnification either. That’s just my opinion on this matter, I’ve seen guys mounting $200.00 Zeiss scopes and do great, and I guess if you have access to one or are willing to buy something crazy, go for it, but for those that don’t want to spend that much, the cheaper end of scopes are usually adequate for all levels of airsoft snipers.
One last piece on aesthetics, the sling mounts are crap. Plain and simple. While I didn’t even try the include sling, which you wouldn’t expect to be great (and isn’t) I tried one of my Black Hawk rifle slings and carrying around just to take it outside I almost had a horrible accident. The lower sling ring fell out and the rifle tried to go ass-over-end on my but I caught it in time (knocked the scope around pretty well). Unfortunately there’s no way to get around this problem as the root is in the plastic treading that they attack into the stock with. The front one seems to be holding up okay but as I said the back one fell off the first day.
Feel Grade: 8/10
Aesthetics: 7/10
Shooting
How’s she shoot? In short: surprisingly well. Word of note from the beginning, putting .20g’s in this is like sticking .12g’s in a Marui, a total no go and I’ve found that even .25g’s have a tendency to over-hop after a certain distance. Using .28’s I found they were more consistent and .30 high grade sniper bb’s were the best, allowing for a much better use of the hopup and much smaller groupings. I don’t have anything heavier to try but with more room left on the hop-up adjustment I would guess you might be able to use one more step up before you see a decrease in performance.
Continuing on, the gun includes two magazines. They’re not the greatest quality (cheaper plastic used for them then the gun). I’ve found that once you load the mag completely, you need to knock the top bb off, as not doing so will make the magazine unable to be put in the gun.
Once loaded the gun has a very smooth bolt. I’ve read in other review’s/comments on this gun that it’s a heavy pull. Personally I don’t feel this at all. It is definitely heavier than a real steel or even my Tanaka M40A1’s, but it’s by no means “heavy” in stock form.
I for testing purposes I used .28 Airsoft Elites starting with no hop for the first test and then moved up to max hop before over hop. Shooting stance was always prone on flat even terrain with no bipod. First tests were always 100 feet, followed by increases of 50 feet until it was 250 feet.
With the scope zero’d in with no hop I found my groupings were pretty inconsistent at first but after cycling a full mag through they went down from lets say about 2 feet, to about 5 inches at 100 feet. While this doesn’t seem all that good keep in mind this is unupgraded and, very importantly, still with no hopup, I was easily reaching 150 feet with 7 inch groups. Only at 175-180 feet did I start seeing real drops in range and accuracy.
Using hopup I was able to achieve relatively similar groupings at 100 and 150 feet with slightly smaller groupings at 150 feet. At 200 feet the range was fine but the groupings grew to about 8 inches which is amazingly impressive for stock performance from an $80 sniper.
I found the max “grouping” range was indeed 200 feet. At that distance “groupings were just on the 12x12 paper (no shots missed but none actually hit the center). Maximum range I found was man sized target was just under the 215, which had shots hooking left and right too far off target. It is worthy to note that flat range trajectory was relatively okay at that range, not even requiring much adjustments on the scope to zero it, the only problem was bb’s being caught by the wind or simply just hooking after going too far.
My shooting experience thus far with the gun has shown me two things: a) the trigger pull on this gun is very nice and smooth and b) its very consistent.
Power wise I chrono’d it at 390 with .28’s and, for testing purposes only, 440(ish) with .20’s. The hopup I found was very impressive and TSD seemed to have either copied Marui’s very well or managed to get lucky with their design.
Shooting Grade 8/10
Accuracy Grade: 7/10
Ranger Grade: 9/10
Power Grade: 8/10
Use Grade: 8/10
Conclusion
All said and done I see the TSD M700 as a good gun. It can most definitely be a good, cheap platform to build a serious SWS on and it will definitely be, what I think it’s best for, a cheap rifle for those testing the dangerous waters of airsoft sniping. Any experienced player will tell you that no newbie should ever try sniping as their first airsoft specialty, and while I still agree with that, this rifle will allow someone whose testing the waters at any level of ability to have a cheap gun that can at least live up to DM standards if not limited “true blue” sniping.
I have to say I was very impressed with the 215 foot stock maximum range as I was expecting only around 175 on man sized. Also the groupings at the lower ranges were also impressive given the price tag.
That said there are things I didn’t like about the rifle, but I feel the sheer “bang for your buck” factor that this gun holds more than makes up for these minor peculiarities.
Pros:
Great Range
Good Medium Range Groupings
Impressive stock hopup
Reliable (Zero Double feeds, no blank firings)
Feels Great
All Marui Compatible parts for easy platform upgrade
Cheap
Cons:
Magazines are very cheaply made
Sling Points fall off easily
Weight (too light in my opinion although this is more of a personal con to me)
Overall I grade this gun in two ways. As an “airsoft gun” I give it 7/10, mainly because of the magazines, sling points, and cheaper plastics used. As a potential sniper though I give it an 8/10 with a possibility of a 9 the moment a tightbore is added to retain long range accuracy. I’d say that this is definitely a gun that should be on any new players list and something experienced airsofters who are yet to go into sniping should definitely check out.
Credits:
http://world.guns.ru/sniper/sn10-e.htm
http://www.remington.com/products/firearms/centerfire_rifles/model_700/
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Never argue with a gun, it may argue back...
United States Corps of Cadets, USMA
Cadet, United States Army
2012 "For More Than Ourselves"
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Registered: July 2005
Location: West Point, New York