Post by joker23 on Nov 13, 2015 2:51:30 GMT -5
Hello Everyone,
It has been awhile since my last post. Life has had me "taking grenades in the trenches" school and work have been beyond crazy.....now down to business. Like most world war 2 enthusiast I have been waiting for a suitable m1 carbine to hit the market. I posted a thread before about a m1 carbine I built from a KJW KC02 and a Springer m1 carbine. However King Arms has answered our prayers and delivered a a pretty great replica. I am going to give my 2 cents on this gun because I have personally been waiting for it for over 2 years. My 101st Airborne kit was created with a m1 carbine in mind and now that it has been released I can proudly say it was worth the money and wait. (Again forgive me if there are any spelling/grammatical eras...I am a history/weaponology major not an English major)
I purchased the King Arms m1a1 para from evike a few weeks ago. Upon opening the package I was impressed with the quality of the carbine (I have become a big King arms fan over the decade, and then some, I have detected to airsoft). Although the obvious details were not WW2 accurate (rear sight, bayonet lug, vent holes in the hand guard, etc.) all issues I had can be fixed relatively easy. The bayonet lug was my first obstacle. I used a simple back saw to remove the lug right above the collar which holds the top hand guard in place. After some very light matte black "camouflage" krylon paint it looks as if the rifle was made to come that way. The vent holes can be plugged with wood filler so it matches the correct era gun. Finally the last big hick-up I have is the rear sight. RA-Tech makes a m1 carbine conversion kit for the KJW KC02, the rear sight of said conversion kit will fit the King Arms M1 Carbine with some modifications. I personally have not done the mod yet due to sight being out of stock at the few sites that I know cares the conversion kit parts, but a good friend of mine did the modification within minutes.
Perfromance wise the carbine is a nail driver. On the bottom end of the CO2 of the first mag I was still chonoing at 385-390s with .30 gram bbs using a Xcrotech choro. On a full CO2 cartridge with .30s I was achieving 450+ fps. I do not remember exactly what I was chronoing at but I will re-chrono at another time. Accuracy wise I was shooting a 1 1/2 inch- 2 inch grouping at 150 feet with ease. Manipulation of the rifle is very accurate to the real deal. The magazine release is easy to press and the magazines slide in and out with ease, however, like the real m1 carbines, you may have to give the mag a good tap into place when inserting a new mag to make sure it is seated correct otherwise the magazine catch will not engage and your magazine will drop out of the gun. I was able to load 14 rounds into the magazine with 1 in the chamber. The magazine spring only allowed 14 rounds although the evike review says it holds 10 it does fit 14 which is accurate enough in my book. The sights, when adjusted correctly, as well as your hop-up, work outstandingly well although I prefer the L style aperture sight which I will change when the part is back in stock. The bolt catch and release is functioning in accordance with the ww2 style, all manual. You must push down on the small bolt pin in order to secure the bolt in the locked position which is accurate for early to mid war m1 carbines. On the real steal model the bolt would only lock back in the empty position in the late war/Korean war models due to a magazine design change which should be present due to the external configuration of this replica but is good for us ww2 fans. The folding stock is comfortable and stiff at the start. If you fold your wire stock a lot you may have to tighten the screw located behind the rear sight. In all I am very impressed with the performance of this replica.
I have acquired extra magazines for the carbine from Airsoft global (they are a pretty penny but a defiant necessity) and am going to field the weapon this weekend. I will write up a "after action" report after fielding the carbine on 15 November 2015. If there are any questions or comments I missed or didn't cover feel free to ask or let me know. I am basing my knowledge of the M1 carbine off of personal use of the real steal model as well as the information I have studied to earn my degree in said areas. In closing I hope this brief review helps out those intrested in the King Arms replica and look forward to a field test follow up.
sincerely,
Joker23
It has been awhile since my last post. Life has had me "taking grenades in the trenches" school and work have been beyond crazy.....now down to business. Like most world war 2 enthusiast I have been waiting for a suitable m1 carbine to hit the market. I posted a thread before about a m1 carbine I built from a KJW KC02 and a Springer m1 carbine. However King Arms has answered our prayers and delivered a a pretty great replica. I am going to give my 2 cents on this gun because I have personally been waiting for it for over 2 years. My 101st Airborne kit was created with a m1 carbine in mind and now that it has been released I can proudly say it was worth the money and wait. (Again forgive me if there are any spelling/grammatical eras...I am a history/weaponology major not an English major)
I purchased the King Arms m1a1 para from evike a few weeks ago. Upon opening the package I was impressed with the quality of the carbine (I have become a big King arms fan over the decade, and then some, I have detected to airsoft). Although the obvious details were not WW2 accurate (rear sight, bayonet lug, vent holes in the hand guard, etc.) all issues I had can be fixed relatively easy. The bayonet lug was my first obstacle. I used a simple back saw to remove the lug right above the collar which holds the top hand guard in place. After some very light matte black "camouflage" krylon paint it looks as if the rifle was made to come that way. The vent holes can be plugged with wood filler so it matches the correct era gun. Finally the last big hick-up I have is the rear sight. RA-Tech makes a m1 carbine conversion kit for the KJW KC02, the rear sight of said conversion kit will fit the King Arms M1 Carbine with some modifications. I personally have not done the mod yet due to sight being out of stock at the few sites that I know cares the conversion kit parts, but a good friend of mine did the modification within minutes.
Perfromance wise the carbine is a nail driver. On the bottom end of the CO2 of the first mag I was still chonoing at 385-390s with .30 gram bbs using a Xcrotech choro. On a full CO2 cartridge with .30s I was achieving 450+ fps. I do not remember exactly what I was chronoing at but I will re-chrono at another time. Accuracy wise I was shooting a 1 1/2 inch- 2 inch grouping at 150 feet with ease. Manipulation of the rifle is very accurate to the real deal. The magazine release is easy to press and the magazines slide in and out with ease, however, like the real m1 carbines, you may have to give the mag a good tap into place when inserting a new mag to make sure it is seated correct otherwise the magazine catch will not engage and your magazine will drop out of the gun. I was able to load 14 rounds into the magazine with 1 in the chamber. The magazine spring only allowed 14 rounds although the evike review says it holds 10 it does fit 14 which is accurate enough in my book. The sights, when adjusted correctly, as well as your hop-up, work outstandingly well although I prefer the L style aperture sight which I will change when the part is back in stock. The bolt catch and release is functioning in accordance with the ww2 style, all manual. You must push down on the small bolt pin in order to secure the bolt in the locked position which is accurate for early to mid war m1 carbines. On the real steal model the bolt would only lock back in the empty position in the late war/Korean war models due to a magazine design change which should be present due to the external configuration of this replica but is good for us ww2 fans. The folding stock is comfortable and stiff at the start. If you fold your wire stock a lot you may have to tighten the screw located behind the rear sight. In all I am very impressed with the performance of this replica.
I have acquired extra magazines for the carbine from Airsoft global (they are a pretty penny but a defiant necessity) and am going to field the weapon this weekend. I will write up a "after action" report after fielding the carbine on 15 November 2015. If there are any questions or comments I missed or didn't cover feel free to ask or let me know. I am basing my knowledge of the M1 carbine off of personal use of the real steal model as well as the information I have studied to earn my degree in said areas. In closing I hope this brief review helps out those intrested in the King Arms replica and look forward to a field test follow up.
sincerely,
Joker23