Ares m14 ebr sopmod

[S3V3R]

Intro
I have a ARES M14 EBR SOPMOD which i bought from actionhobbies. It cost just under £330 (which is a bit more than i planned on spending). Its is made of CNC'd aluminium and fibreglass, the fibreglass has a cool carbonfibre effect on it. The charging handle is static and the majority of this area is metal. ARES have done a good job and have fitted an ergonomic pistol grip. There is a 6 point sketeton stock with adjustable cheek rest. There is a upper, lower, left and right RIS rail on the front of the gun aswell as an asthetically placed rear sight. The barrel guide removes so that a 9.6V 1500mAh crane stock battery quite well. It has a metal gearbox.

Pros
This rifle has a brilliant weight to it and it incredibly sturdy! The 6 point skeleton stock has a relatively comfortable butt on the end and the cheek rest is fairly comfortable, nothing special but equally better than a lot of the stocks i've had. The pistol grip is very comfortable and as expected fits well with the rifle and more importantly is comfortable to grip for any length of time.
There are so many RIS rails that you'd have to go over the top to run out of RIS space on this gun which makes it incredibly versatile for game types. the ris rails are very well anchored and once you make sure all the fixtures are tight, there will be no wobble on any RIS attachment!
The rifle is very consistent in firing! I did 3 chrono shots and all 3 came up with 340.2 fps. I have never had a rifle that fires so consistently on single shot AND full auto. The range without the hop being adjusted! With the hop adjusted the range is very impressive!
Because of the metal gear box, you could potentially fit anything up to a 11 volt battery without the gearbox getting destoryed instantly.
The gun makes a very rewarding noise when fired, doesnt make the typical wining or stressed noises that some of my old rifles have made!
The magazines for this rifle are relatively weighty but solid and fit very well, you know when the mag is in properly because the gun makes a unmistakable click that you could only miss if a pyro went of next to you at the same time!
The mags feed well and whilst running on a 9.6V the mags didnt miss a beat and feed right up to the last BB, so - if you fill the mag with 160bb's expect to fire 160bbs exactly!

Cons
there are only a couple of things that i didnt like when i first used the rifle, but its all stuff that can be fixed esily or just replaced!
firstly the pistol grip is a bit wobbly. this can be fixed temporarily by tightening the bolt that attaches the grip.
The second thing that annoyed me was that the hop can only be adjusted using an allen key and typically it is under the area of this RIS rail that you would mount a scope, so no mid game hop adjustments for me!
the rail guide that is removed to fit the battery in is slightly wobbly, ideally i would want this guide to be sturdy and tight fitting but it is only sturdy.
Another problem is that the mags have to be very specific, although i havent personally tried out any of the star or G&P mags, i know as a fact that CYMA and KA mags dont work but i have been told that star & G&P mags work great!
The final niggle i had the with rifle was that due to the default hop settings, the round climbs after about 30m which means if someone is standing 31m away from you, they would have to be a man mountain to be hit by the rapidly climbing round. Again, this can be fixed by using a 1.5mm allen key to adjust the hop.

Conclussion

Overall, I definately think this rifle is worth the money, once RIS accessories are mounted this gun looks the nuts! seriously intimidating! the odd problems with the rifle can be fixed easily or with a little bit of money spent. The metal gearbox means that most voltage batteries can be used however, anything less than an 8.4V and the gun doesnt perform to its best. Although the batteries are a bit tricky to fit in, once you find a good battery then the gun is a dream to work with, currently I am using a 8.4V 1500mAH mini which is a VERY tight fit however, i am planning on moving onto nunchucks which should be easier to fit in, the problem getting them in is not the internal space, the the opening space. There is more than enough RIS space for anything you want to put on and the skeleton stock along with the hard to adjust hop means that this rifle is potentially very versatile. For me, the rifle would need a supressor or insulation inside the rifle to make the it a little quieter and a new grip to make it perfect! All the sites i've checked for FPS limit has said 380 fps max however, as previouesly stated, with default hop settings, mine does 340.2 fps, i have no chrono'd it with the new hop settings.

[f92]

Re: Ares m14 ebr sopmod

how much

[ThePope]

Re: Ares m14 ebr sopmod

how much

"It cost just under £330 (which is a bit more than i planned on spending)."

[marcus688]

Re: Ares m14 ebr sopmod

i have heard this can only fire in full auto... is it true?

thanks
Marcus

[013753]

Re: Ares m14 ebr sopmod

It will have a fire selector switch so it should be able to do semi and full

[Wingmann]

Re: Ares m14 ebr sopmod

i have heard this can only fire in full auto... is it true?

I have never had a rifle that fires so consistently on single shot AND full auto.

Do you guys read the posts?

[marcus688]

Re: Ares m14 ebr sopmod

My bad sorry i quickly flicked through but must have missed it.. I did look though
thanks
Marcus

[S3V3R]

Re: Ares m14 ebr sopmod

just to update this review,
after having this rifle for 4 months or so, three problems have occured (none serious, but none the less problems)
first of all, it must have some insane tightbore in or a stubby spring chamber, because my M95 is putting out 349.2 on the dot... a system M95 should put out 330(ish) I am going to buy an M80 or something and see if i can drop the FPS to less than 330 for CQB.
second problem is the gun is so heavy that when your not holding it with two hands, the weight loosens the pistol grip! this is again nothing serious as it can be tighten with a hex key however its still a little pain to do after every skirmish!
third and final problem is the lack of spare parts. I dismantled my EBR in my garage and dropped the small screw that hold the first selector solidly in place.
I have contacted ARES but they have the single worst customer service i have experienced and did not help me. my EBR did not come with an instruction manaul either, so a part number will be hard to aquire.

Other than that, its brilliant, had the pleasure of outranging my friends L96 so hes been accusing me of "stealing" his kills =']

[S3V3R]

Re: Ares m14 ebr sopmod

Im also now using a 9.6v 1500mAH nun-chuck, which gives this thing the ROF close to the new A&K m60

[Skirmisher1]

Re: Ares m14 ebr sopmod

Let me know when you want to sell it, currently looking with money to burn...lol

[CLS]

Re: Ares m14 ebr sopmod

Love that gun I want! Good review

[simonmoore1986]

Re: Ares m14 ebr sopmod

Quick one on the pistol grip, have you tried using thread lock on it.
We use it at work, If you search for a brand called loctite. Get a broacher and you will see they do it different strengths for different sizes. I pretty sure they do one for allen head bolts. Supposedly with a clean (not rusted/seized) screw the loctite breaks before the head will strip. Never had to use it on a aeg yet (not got many) but i would not hesitate, loctite is a very professional product. Also the products are heat and water proof, more then the gun will be at least! Also a quick note on application, put a small line on one side of the thread. This is more then enough, the thread turning will ensure an even application also if have excess loctite from the head of the screw you have probably used to much. its better to use to little and try a little more next time then to cover it and struggle later.
(did a bit of leg work for you)

http://www.loctite.co.uk/cps/rde/xch...heets-5361.htm

and

http://65.213.72.112/tds5/docs/425-EN.PDF

This is the one i would recommend, i use it at work and i use it on my downhill bike.(gear shifters and stuff)
Hope this is a little helpful.

[S3V3R]

Re: Ares m14 ebr sopmod

Simon! Fantastic!
I did think of threadlock however I never got around to using it.
My main concern was using anything that wouldnt allow me to replace the pistol grip.

Will give it a look though! Thanks again!