Classic Army AR10

[cheesenibbler]

Time for another review this time on a little rarity item...the AR10! The granddaddy of the AR15 that would end up being the M16/M4 that everyone knows and people have a marmite relationship with.

The gun uses a 7.62 sized magazine as well as receiver and gearbox so there are a few differences from the regular M16 types that we are every so used to.

Externals:
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Thats a picture of it with a few parts attached to make it super awesome because we love attachments
Anyway the flash hider is an elongated version of the regular m16 type flash hider you wont be able to attach the KAC style silencer to it, it unthreads to a -14mm thread nice and easy to attach other flash hiders or silencers too the thread seems strong.
The outer barrel is a one piece and rather thick too, the paintwork on it is exceptional, attached to this is the gas block, this gas block is not the same as the SR25 unfortunately so you wont be able to attach the SR25 style silencer that slots over the barrel , the barrel has ZERO wobble on it it is extremely solid.
The quad rail handguard again is extremely solid and the paintwork is nice on it too shouldnt see it come off easily, it is rather sharp too so use the included rail covers if you are to be holding these.
The d ring? I believe it is called is very solid and has very thick solid threads which go on each other positively so no chance of stripping these anytime soon!
The top receiver is solid again and quite beefy it does not have a forward assist like what you would see on regular m4/m16 models I believe this is a normal trait of this type, the receiver is somewhat rounded, the paintwork here is prone to coming off over time.
The bottom receiver is solid and suffers the same problem of the top receiver paintwork can come off, it does have some nice trades on it as well as a unique serial number if your into that sort of thing.
The magazine release is solid as is the selector switch so no worries there.
The pistol grip feels small on this style of gun but that is because everything else is scaled up its nice its simple and it works its a regular m16 style grip, also the threads on the screws here seem solid too.
The bolt catch did I mention this has a working bolt catch that is so goddamn satisfying serves no purpose and gets gunked up like the real thing too
The stock is a thick solid plastic kind of what you would expect from classic army its very solid again no creaking and absolutely no wobble either I expect this to last a very long time.
Overall the body of the gun is seriously solid, the one I have is an ex rental too so bear this in mind it was suitably worn down by the time I got ahold of it and it was still something that to me you cannot break unless you swing it into a tree, saying that it is also rather heavy.


Internals:
Internally this is a V2.5 gearbox or an elongated version 2 gearbox I will now proceed to name the parts which are regular V2/3 and which parts are not

V2 parts:
Anti Reversal Latch
Motor (long type)
Bevel gear
Spur Gear
Nozzle (M4 length)
Cylinder head V2
Bushings 7mm
Trigger mech
Piston Head
Hop Unit (m4)
Selector Plate
Spring Guide (V2)

V2.5/Elongated V2:
Cylinder
Piston (19 tooth piston compatible with L85 piston and PSG1)
Tappet Plate
Sector Gear (19 tooth compatible with L85 and PSG1)
Spring (right this does take ordinary AEG style springs but due to the longer gearbox you need a stronger spring to compensate I have put an Guarder M140 in it and brought the FPS up to 400FPS on a 0.20g BB with minimal hop on it so for everyone looking to turn it into a DMR bear this in mind!)

Here are some pictures of the internals
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As you can see this gun has seen some serious abuse, when I first got it it had sand everywhere in the internals...god knows how but whatever, I cleaned it all out and noticed some serious damage to the piston head as well as to the cylinder cushion which mustve been from the sand, the piston was not in good shape either so there was that.
The internals are not bad at all in fact they are very good but with any airsoft gun it needs to be looked after and this one had clearly been abused and managed to still shoot somewhat (it was firing about 250fps when i cleaned it all out and this was without a o ring on the nozzle)
These internals are strong enough to do some upgrades too for example push up to 420fps but you do need to put some work into it, radius the corners of the gearbox housing for a start is good and get the angle of engagement right, it is doable to push it up to that however.
The motor to me is the big let down it is not strong by todays standard for high torque its got plenty of speed however so use it for a high speed set up if you have one, swap the motor out for a decent one e.g. ICS 3000, SRC high torque, Lonex A2 probably dont go for a G and P or a systema one, you dont wanna destroy the piston but thats my opinion!
The inner barrel is okay at best I can image this if bought unused is probably better than average but in its current state it definately requires a tightbore, barrel length is 509mm FYI.
The internals are good but do need some work to it to get it to an acceptable level in my opinion my gearbox showed some surface fractures on the front of the cylinder housing so will be getting a new gearbox due to that I dont wanna have to deal with getting everything new internally because I carried on using a gearbox that was eventually going to break. One last thing the cylinder head as well as the piston head where both metal, this is not a bad thing in V3 gearboxes but not good in V2 its got so much more chance of causing damage especially in a high FPS build, you want to at least have a plastic cylinder head a metal piston head is alright as you will probably have a little more weight to force the heavier bbs down the barrel!


Overall:
A solid and heavy weapon that is a good platform for DMR builds, not the best for regular AR, it is unique however which is what I like the most about this and the fact it is the most solid M16/M4 type weapon I have used (bar systema because seriously I am not paying close to £1000 for something with proprietary parts). This gun is an upgrade platform in my opinion but for around £300 you would expect better, but for all those shortcomings once you get it to a point where it is a DMR it is a real force to be reckoned with.

Problems:
Its heavy as hell, the internals need some work to get it to DMR standard it uses some none standard gearbox parts, and the magazine compatibility is a pain.
If you want spare magazines go for the Classic Army ones or the G and P ones the G and P ones are a tight fit and the classic army ones are fine, the G and G ones I have no idea if they will fit and ARES just dont even bother, as for SCAR magazines these will not fit at all they are not compatible so dont even try.

Usefulness:
Reasonable in range and accuracy, rof and trigger response on the stock motor and a 7.4v 25c battery is sluggish at best. UPGRADE!!!


Ratings:
Range 3/5 (5/5 is a sniper, 1/5 is a springer pistol)
Accuracy 3/5 (5/5 is a sniper, 1/5 is a springer pistol)
Rate of Fire 2/5 (5/5 is a suppression based weapon 1/5 is a sniper)
Mobility 2/5
CQB usage 1/5
Woodland usage 4/5
Upgradability (external and internal) 4/5 Externally this is great for upgrades internally it is good but there are a few specific parts which let it down

As usual feel free to add what you want to this let me know if I have missed anything

[cheesenibbler]

Re: Classic Army AR10

Finally got a chance to use this properly with several upgrade parts which I will list below I used this at the Ground Zero weekender and proved to be most useful.

Upgrades as follows:

Madbull Steel Bull Barrel 509mm
Madbull Hop Unit
Madbull blue rubber
Silent piston with silent piston head

Accuracy on this was impressive, only needed a single shot on most occasions when people took there hits, shooting wise I would have said (as long as the parralex was correct) shooting between 40m-80m on most occasions, the shorter shots only requiring one or two shots and the longer shots requiring up to 3-5 shots to hit, I will experiment with different hop rubbers to see which ones give best results for range, as accuracy on this is currently very good. The extra volume in the cylinder should be suitable for heavier weight BBs with a decent hop rubber.