TM L96 AWS - To buy or not to buy??

[Druico]

Hey all, well basically title says it all. Been looking at an l96, honestly because its not the usual VSR, etc. Now i know all about TM reliability etc and thats what made me choose the TM L96, however apparently ive been told its difficult to get parts and hard to upgrade to get its fps to skirmish levels.

The sniper rifle limit at my local site is 450 and ive seen these are around the 230-250 level as with all TM guns, which come lower. So just wondered if anyone had one of these and has manged to upgrade it to a higher fps, and just how avaliable are the parts. Or should i go cheap and just get a Well/Warrior version of it??

Decisions, Decisions

[Jelliffe99]

Re: TM L96 AWS - To buy or not to buy??

Mine is fantastic, a warrior of land sell most upgrade parts. mine shoots 400fps and it cost me 70 quid to do so reliably. :D

[Druico]

Re: TM L96 AWS - To buy or not to buy??

Ah thanks mate ill check it out, what parts did you use to upgrade it?

[JoshL]

Re: TM L96 AWS - To buy or not to buy??

Hi dude,

First of all, I would say whenever buying a sniper you are really only going to pay for the outside. As, generally, 90% of people who buy a sniper seriously, are going to want to upgrade it. Either straight away or when they miss the crucial shot as their BB falls 10foot too short, which we all know is a bummer.

I would go into more detail about buying a sniper, as I have thousands of thoughts in my head ready to be processed to make some degree of sense. Which I probably will make some kind of 'guide' in the future. But not now.

Anyway, if you think you're going to be wanting to upgrade, don't go shedding out £400+ on what essentially, is the body of the gun. Just find a cheap L96 which shoots at '500 fps' (yes, we have all seen how they are advertised) and gut it, replace all the parts and voila, you haven't spent too much money on the body of the gun.

Consider buying a cheap clone, a Warrior or UTG. Then really go and look for the parts to upgrade you gun with. Remember, if you want to upgrade it to the standard of something that could be in the class of an airsoft 'sniper' then you are going to need a long list of things.

I told myself I wouldn't list them, but here is what I have put inside my £50 warrior L96 body with no internals, but included was the stock cylinder and bolt assembly, just nothing in it... Weird!
Anyway, here's what's in it:

- Mad Bull 6.01mm tight-bore PSG-1 650mm tight-bore barrel
- PDI Hop-Up unit
- Mad Bull hop-up bucking
- Laylax Teflon cylinder
- Laylax M170 spring
- Laylax thick spring guide
- Laylax piston
- Laylax piston head
- Laylax Damper cylinder head
- Zero trigger (This was the cash guzzler)
- Silencer adapter
- Silencer
- Paint job
- Scope
- All the proper scope mounts
- Ghillie wrap (home made but still costs a bit)
- Extra magazines
- Mad Bull .43 BB's
- Silicone spray and gun grease
- Foam to fill stock to damper
- Extra bits & bobs (screws that I've lost etc.)
- Time

So, as you can tell I've spent quite a bit on sheila, but she is a beauty and has done me well, obviously I clean and re-lube all the parts, cylinder, spring etc. after every match to keep it in tip-top condition. Which comes back to my first point, I wouldn't have had the money to do that had I bought a £400 L96 in the first place. So really, if you're going to want to upgrade straight away, don't go buying the best TM or Maruzen L96, you'll regret it later and, to be honest, nobody will ever really know the difference.

Sorry for going on, I do like to natter.
Hope this helps!

Regards,
Josh.

[Jelliffe99]

Re: TM L96 AWS - To buy or not to buy??

Ah thanks mate ill check it out, what parts did you use to upgrade it?

Laylax spring guide
Laylax cylinder head
Laylax piston
PDI 130 spring

[Druico]

Re: TM L96 AWS - To buy or not to buy??

Ahhhhh thanks a lot mate, does make a lot of sense (after i managed to carry on reading after the 'sheila' bit) but i may just wait for a used one to wound its way up on the forums. Though i can get a tm for literally 30 odd quid more than a well/warrior

[Cerbo Knight]

Re: TM L96 AWS - To buy or not to buy??

Not to purposefully contradict Josh - his advice is definitely valid - but I'd personally stay away from Warrior/Well/UTG's because you often get lemons and their dimensions can be way off, the materials used are also not up to the same standards as TM/Maruzen etc..

No matter how much you polish a turd, it's still a turd... and the Warrior is definitely a turd.

[Druico]

Re: TM L96 AWS - To buy or not to buy??

I think i may just go with the TM if im honest, its not badly over priced and at least i know im getting something i know will perform, even at a lower fps

[private parts]

Re: TM L96 AWS - To buy or not to buy??

- Mad Bull 6.01mm tight-bore PSG-1 650mm tight-bore barrel
- PDI Hop-Up unit
- Mad Bull hop-up bucking
- Laylax Teflon cylinder
- Laylax M170 spring
- Laylax thick spring guide
- Laylax piston
- Laylax piston head
- Laylax Damper cylinder head
- Zero trigger (This was the cash guzzler)
- Silencer adapter
- Silencer
- Paint job
- Scope
- All the proper scope mounts
- Ghillie wrap (home made but still costs a bit)
- Extra magazines
- Mad Bull .43 BB's
- Silicone spray and gun grease
- Foam to fill stock to damper
- Extra bits & bobs (screws that I've lost etc.)
- Time
Josh.

Whats the fps on that on .2s? must be crazy??

[JoshL]

Re: TM L96 AWS - To buy or not to buy??

I do believe it's about 550 - 650ish, I know it probably shouldn't vary that much but that's really being general, I mean it's been 2 years since I last chrono-ed it. Eight months since I last really took it out for a 'battle' so the parts could well have turned to dust, haha.

I generally take it to the gun club and out-shoot people with 22 Rim fires who think they're amazing! Haha, the look on their face when I get a grouping of a 10p coin at 30 yards!