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Reviews
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Date of last review
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1
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7449
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12/7/09
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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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£10.00
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9.0
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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: 12/7/09
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: £10.00
| Rating: 9
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Positive aspects of the product (pros):
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Large Capacity, Flawless Feeding, Ease of Operation and loading, Realistic look, Cheap, Light weight but decent build
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Cons:
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Wiring is very poor, Paint chips off of metal part of the mag, Bullet heads are loose without glue, Lacks the “auto” winding sound system and needs a push button
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Battle Axe M-Type Double Auto Winding Magazine
Introduction
One of the great things about airsoft over our infamous rival paintball and even firing of real firearms is the cheapness of our ammunition and our ability to conveniently carry vast amounts of it in the appropriately shaped magazines. Be it 600 round high caps of 30 round real caps, there’s a vast array of magazines out there to fit any play style.
Now I generally fall into line with the milsim crowd, using real caps, rather midcaps loaded with 30 or whatever the appropriate ammunition count is, but sometimes there are days where I feel like being as light as possible or reloading isn’t something I want to deal with and on those days it’s nice to grab a high cap that I know should last me a whole match. But what of winding? That can be just as annoying as reloading and quite frankly you can get more rounds out of a good midcap than a single wind on most high caps.
In steps the auto winding megacaps. Usually taking the forms of drum mags or C mags, auto winding magazines in anything but a support weapon is usually frowned on but sometimes it’s nice to let loose with an M4 and not need to reload or do anything but fire the whole match.
As mentioned I usually side on the milsim spectrum of things so I had only owned auto winders for my support guns like my M249 and M60 way back when. However given that most of my equipment is now split between locations, including magazines, I figured it would be a good, cheap solution to have one big auto winder for my M-Types. Thus I got the new Battle Axe M-Type Double auto winding magazine, basically a cheaper copy of the old Hero Arms double auto-winder.
Real Steel History
What little real steel info on magazines is that very commonly, both the elite special operations soldier and the regular GI has always strove for a quicker way to reload and to have more ammunition at the ready. Over the years many ways of doing this have been developed; most notably being jungle taping magazines, meaning you tape two magazines together, usually with one upside down and reversed, so the user just flips the magazine upside down to reload. This method is quick and simple and even some firearms manufactures such as SIG and H&K have taken the hint and on certain weapons like the G36 series there are clips on the magazines to allow for jungle clipping with no tape involved.
Additionally there have been various weapons throughout history that allow for large capacity carry of ammunition on more standard infantry weapons, most notably being Thompson drum mags, later AK drum magazines, and M-type C-Magazines which allow for 100 rounds to be held at once. Generally speaking though militaries tend not to use these options as drum magazines have a tendency to be unreliable under combat conditions and with normal magazines being testy at best usually, taking something that will likely fail will you into battle is not a good idea. Anyway, on to the Battle Axe.
First Impressions
I bought this magazine off of RSOV along with my DBoys HK416.and when they arrived believe it or not this was the first thing I opened (it feel out first  ). It comes in a simple padded box with no information on how to operate or load it. On the outside of the box there’s a simple sticker with a checkmark for what type of gun this magazine is for.
Apparently Battle Axe makes these for the M14, G36, and AK as well.
Coming out of the box and giving it a once over the magazine looks very nice. Sporting faux bullets as well as real fabric on the fake magazine coupling this double mag definitely has a good look for it.
Appearance
I like the style of this auto winder over most other M-types as it keeps the rough appearance of a normal magazine, albeit two, and yet has almost double the capacity of a single high cap plus the auto winding ability.
The magazine is designed so that the “mag” on the right has the feed tube and main loading door on it.
On the left there’s the secondary door as well as the battery compartment. On top of the left side door there’s a pair of faux bullets which the heads come unscrewed. I suggest using some lock tight when you affix them as they don’t like to stay in place.
The fake mag clamps have “U.S.” printed on them and from a distance they look more like two regular mags clipped together rather than a single bolted set.
On the base of the right mag there’s the hallmark of an airsoft high cap, a wheel, but above it on the face of the magazine is a small black button which is used to automatically wind the magazine.
The right side is metal while the left is plastic. I’ve found that the paint strips off of the metal one relatively easily while the left one might have been molded in the gray color of the magazine.
One final note on looks is that the left side magazine perfectly replicates the size and shape of a real M-Type magazine, which is a nice feature that despite being a super high cap gives this magazine a very realistic look.
Look Grade: 9/10
The only reason I don’t say this is “perfect” looking is the difference in color between the two magazines and the fact that the paint seems to strip easily off of the metal one.
Use
Using this magazine is fairly easy although there are some down points. To begin you remove the magazine plate off the bottom of the left magazine.
Underneath you find the battery compartment. The magazine comes with 4 AAA batteries. Simply clip them in and you’re good to go, except the fact that you need to put the compartment back in, which is a bit of a chore.
First of all the wiring needs to be reattached straight from the get go. Battle Axe barely sodered them in place and hence by the first or second time of replacing the batteries they’ll snap off.
Once you get past that you load up the BB’s. You can do this through two doors, the normal one on the right side and by pushing the faux bullets back on the left side and loading them through there.
Once loaded up, push the magazine in and hold the button on the front of the right side in to wind the magazine and load bb’s into the gun. I’ve found that this magazine feeds fine into every gun I’ve tried it in: CA M15A4 (Old proline), Star M4A1, DBoys HK416, TM M4A1 (old type), and a G&P M4A1. All feed flawlessly and continuously for the duration of the mag.
Use Grade: 10/10
I’ve got no complaints about the use of the magazine itself as it functions flawlessly and feeds with a simple press of the button. Plus, since the left side of the magazine features a door as well a player is able to reload the magazine with bb’s even with the magazine loaded into the gun.
Conclusion
Pros:
Large Capacity
Flawless Feeding
Ease of Operation and loading
Realistic look
Cheap
Light weight but decent build
Cons:
Wiring is very poor
Paint chips off of metal part of the mag
Bullet heads are loose without glue
Lacks the “auto” winding sound system and needs a push button
Overall Grade: 9/10
I give this a nine on the basis it has a few quirks that need fixing out of the box but once alleviated it works flawlessly.
The Battle Axe winder might be a tough sell for some airsofters due to a seemingly universal distaste for high caps off of Support weapons but for those days you want to just poor bb’s from your favorite M4 without reloading, this is a step away from the norm and will serve you just fine.
Credits:
http://www.rsov.com/index.php
------------------------------
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