CYMA AKS74U (CM.035) Review

[Liquid_snake]

My first review so please pardon any errors or missed bits

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Pro's:

-Reliable
-Full metal and wood
-Relatively cheap
-Compact, and can be made even smaller by folding stock
-Large Battery Compartment


Con's:

-Short barrel so not so great accuracy (290mm to be exact)
-Over 1J out of the box


Included with the gun:

-Box
-1100mAh Stick Battery
-Sight adjustment key
-Charger
-200x.2 BBs
-Cleaning Rod
-Various instructions



Ignoring the box and its contents for the time being we'll go straight to the gun. Now the gun itself is full metal and wood, a fair bit of it is of course monkey metal but there is some steel there to which includes the stock, receiver and upper receiver. Monkey metal parts include the front sights, flashhider and rear sight.

So beginning from the front of the gun at the flash hider. As I just mentioned this is made of monkey metal, however its thick. Really thick. And its held on via a nic long thread with spring loaded locking pin that stops it from un-screwing, a nice touch and pretty handy. I believe the thread is 14mm CW but dont quote me on that one. If you do want to fit a silencer, your best to stick with either a PBS1 or PBS4-if your an authenticity kind of person PBS4 is the way to go.


Moving down to the front sight this is once again monkey metal but as was the case with the flash hider pretty thick and tough. The front sight is held on with a single screw in the bottom so youll want to tighten it up before you start skirmishing, its a pretty important screw. The sight system itsef is typical AK notch and post, however the gun comes as standard with the front sight turned 180 degrees, if this annoys you you can use the sight adjustment key to turn it round to create any thickness of post you like-you can also remove it if you want.

NOTE: DO NOT glue over the front sight screw/seal it/make it impossible to get out, if you want to get a nosy at internals youll need to remove it.


The handgaurds next, and they are quite happily real wood! Hoorah! OK well the grips themselves arnt exactly made out of Oak but then again they arnt indian balsa wood either. The standard varnish on them is pretty good, nice and smooth however the colour is a bit off so you can sand them down and restain to your liking. The upper grip is held on via the front sight, removing the sight lets the upper handgrip slide out freely revealing the inside of the lower grip. Now the lower grip is held on via a pin with a lever that fits into a groove in the barrel. Rotating this lever releases the pin and allows you to slide the lower grip off the end of the barrel.

Next part we'll look at is the barrel assembly which is made of a mix of monkey metal and steel. The outer barrel appears to be made from Steel however the rear part that holds the hop-unit is monkey metal. Basically the whole gun splits into two parts, the front and reciever. This front section is secured via 2 screws just in front of the mag and is easily slide away from the rest of the body as one whole piece once the screws are removed. This makes it insanely easy to tinker with hop and barrel settings, switching out a barrel should be a breeze for anyone.

Right into the main reciever, this is made of steel and is pretty darn tough as youd expect. The main reciever houses the v3 gearbox and pretty much is the centre peice for holding everything together. The upper reciever is attached via a hinge to the lower reciever, this isnt removable for a good reason as Ill explain in the next section. The lower reciever also has a small hook on the left side to catch the stock when it folds so it doesnt go flailing about on you. This is spring loaded as well so when the stock is realeased via pulling the catch back it snaps back into place. Also, there is a sling hook on the right side of the gun which tends to rattle, so if you dont use it I recommend covering it in electrical tape.

The upper reciever is a great piece of design, instead of having to remove it like most AK's you simply push the button/reciever release at the back of the gun and it will pivot up about 65 degrees to allow you to change the battery-very handy indeed when a mid skirmish battery change comes around. Simply snap the reciever back down when your finished and your ready to go. Another helpful feature of the upper reciever is that its hollowed out the whole way along the gun, ala there is a battery compartment that stretches the whole way into the front handgaurd. This more or less allows you to stick in any size of stick battery ( I believe its up to something like 20 cells) without worrying that it wont fit. Definitely a huge plus.

Next is the cocking handle, now this is steel however some of the other bits on it arnt which is worth noting. The handle itself moves about half way back to reveal the hop adjuster (which is a slider) and also reveals your battery, really only useful if you cant remember whether its in or not! Of course cocking the gun has no effects but makes a great clunk noise. An interesting mod if your bored involves opening the upper reciever and breaking off the small pot metal restrictor, this allows the cocking handle to go the whole way back and doesnt affect the performance in anyway, except make it 5x more awesome!

Right onto the Stock, this is steel and and folds via a hinge and a small button located on the reciever. Now, this feature is actually far more useful than you could ever believe, the button stops the stock from collapsing in at any stage which is brilliant, but having a folding stock is unbelievably useful in itself mainly because you can lop 40% of your gun away in a tight squeeze. The stock can be removed via knocking out the hinge out so if you prefer no stock all the time then its perfect.

So that leaves only internals to do. Basically you get a steel gear V3 gearbox, standard hop up and a 6.03mm tightbore (290mm). Its not much to scream about but its tough, it works and it wont let you down. I replaced the stock spring with a Guarder SP110 spring which is now putting out at around 300-310FPS. I reckon its a pretty common issue to have to change the spring for this gun as it has that clone habit of having a spring which is way to powerful.

So inside the actual gearbox youll find metal gears, metal bushings and an all over relatively simple gearbox to work with. Im no genius when it comes to working with these so if you decide to change the spring yourself there is a helpful guide available on mechbox.com

Oh also the mag supplied, this is a 500rnd hi-cap and the most horribly orange colour youve ever seen, highly recommend you either psint it straight away or put in decent mags.

NOTE: The gun's mag cavity varys from gun to gun, I myself have one of the guns with an oversized mag cavity, therefore meaning each mag has to be taped to avoid wobble. However this is not always the case, really its luck of the draw.

Okies well to quickly sum this up, Ive had the gun for about 18 months now and have skirmished it a fair few times including once in the snow and so far no problems whatsoever. I gotta say Id recommend the gun to all, not because I bought it and wish to spread sh*te about it to make myself feel better but because it truly is a workhorse of a gun and wont let you down.


Well cheers for reading folks, If Ive ommitted anything or if youd like anything gone over again Ill post it up with some pics

[Liquid_snake]

Re: CYMA AKS74U (CM.035) Review

Some pictures for y'all (couldnt edit original post in time)










And now 11-18 months later:



(For anyone who wishes to re-stain your handgaurd this is how mine turned out:





Once again folks thanks for reading

[Blenkinsop]

Re: CYMA AKS74U (CM.035) Review

nice review, lovely weathing pattern on the wood, If i was you. Id use it to shoot the guy who put your laminate together :O

[jockjay]

Re: CYMA AKS74U (CM.035) Review

I too have one of these and feed it on STAR AK 74 mids, ive used it extensively and its still going strong, the hop is getting a bit erratic but other than that its taken a shed load of beatings and is out lasting mine and mates more up market guns, if you are on a budget and like ak's you can do alot worse than this gun, great review!!