Classic Army M15A4 Sportline

[cheesenibbler]

Due to my extensive knowledge of AEG's breaking on me in every imaginable way (one day I managed to break a total of 4 guns) I have decided to just try giving reviews on weapons I have had in the past and still have. So this will be my first please be gentle with me!
I will be reviewing one of my surprisingly durable and decent assault rifles that I have recently got working again after a period of about 6 months of being lazy.

Classic Army M15A4.jpg

Background:
The sportline M15/M4 is based off the very popular M4 series of AEG's why this is so popular I couldnt say I find them awkward being left handed and a variety of things always seems to go wrong with them, barrel wobble, mis feeding not being able to fire on semi but they are a suitable start up AEG as most people who do airsofting have some experience at some point with M4s whether it be the pistol grip melting from the heat of the motor or the barrel falling out not to say every m4 is like that but in my experience something always seems to go wrong with them.
Anyway the sportline versions were created because clones of original marui, Classic Army, ICS and other brands where getting undercut quite a lot, so classic army introduced there sportline range to counter this and to open up into another area of the airsoft market which is the people who are new to airsoft. The sportline range covers a variety of different airsoft guns from the AUG, MP5 series, AK's and finally the M4's.
From Classic Army producing these ABS bodied AEG's other companies started following suit with the ICS sportlines and the rugged G an G combat machine series.

The gun itself:
The sportline version I chose had the retractable 5 position stock which was also front wired I chose this one as I did not like the feel of an M4 with a strangly long stock to me, thats personal preference though. The front wired part means that the battery space is limited to an extent although CA did actually do something clever and made a oversized front hand grip to fit larger mini type batteries a crane battery would fit well in this and a 9.6v mini will fit easily which is what I use in mine the parts of the gun that are metal are outer barrel, flash-hider (negative thread), front sight and sling mount, dust cover, buffer tube (the thing which the stock slides over), D-Ring and trigger, the metal itself is not of poor quality an this gun can take a serious beating I have dropped this gun on pretty much every surface imaginable and it has continued to work the only things that have broken are the stock retractor so now you have to pull a little pin to change the length of the stock and parts of the front hand guard which was due to being in a full auto environment firing from distances that you might as well have been using mallets from plus all the weapons on that day were firing about 350+ it was a good day. The plastic is very durable and will last a long time even with abuse unlike the ridiculous clown plastic that is the ICS sportline range those guns have so much barrel wobble they put the corner gun to shame and the plastic flash hider would be used for a hamsters bedding its so damn weak. Just a note this gun fires around 320FPS which is pretty average.

Internals:
The internals on this M4 work surprisingly well together as you would hope they would, Classic army use aluminum for the inner barrel and cylinder to keep the weight down while still being strong the inner barrel is only a 6.08mm and is 363mm long and although pretty standard it is surprisingly accurate and pretty rangy. The hop chamber is of course plastic and I honestly wouldnt change it as the seal has lasted me over 3 years of abuse and still is working strong, the original gears are standard classic army and the tappet plate and bushings seem fine the bushings are these little 6mm plastic looking things which would eventually need replacement though just to bear in mind. The motor that comes with the gun is very good, not the strongest but can work very well in high speed set ups probably not so well in high torque for all of you that would either want a DMR or something that can pull a over 9000 spring. Lastly the spring guide well it oes what its suppose to do it guides the spring not the best one Ive seen but it does its job well enough.
Overall internally this one is built solid and if not for the bushings would be absulutely fine if not for the bushings and lack of shims.

Overall:

I would recommend this for anyone looking to start in the airsoft community as this one comes in a package with a battery and charger on most occasions, or for someone who is looking for a project to see what works and what doesnt you can really experiment without feeling bad which is what I generally find with other more expensive brands, as if what you do does not work well you aint spent that much on it.
My m4 personally at the moment has a high speed gear set up a slightly shorter spring new cylinder and cylinder head, metal bushings a good shim job and a reinforced tappet plate and the speed this gun is shooting at is perfect, its not too fast that you waste your ammo but it fires a stream of BB's at the perfect speed to repeatedly hit someone enough times to let them know theyre hit. Plus this is the first time I have heard an airsoft guns motor not sound like megatron taking a dump. This gun is great as it really does show you the ins an outs of airsoft guns without the massive price tag.