Post by deeno on Jan 31, 2008 22:49:06 GMT -8
I couldn't resist when I saw this on milsim empire. I'm surprised there aren't more opfor offerings out there. My camera has taken one paintball too many, but here's the beginning of what's to come:
Barrel Shroud
I'll just start this off with the "bad" as there's enough "good" info out there. All of the hardware is metric. Perhaps it's just me, but if I wanted to have to use 2 sets of tools to work on my rig, I would have bought a Ford . Tacamo decided to use a flathead screw in the bottom most mount of the barrel shroud also so -2 points for the hardware that was included.
The furniture on the top half of the shroud is different than the bottom. The top half even feels more slick and the bottom feels like wood that has had it's first coat of Thompson put on it. It's not enough to see in the pictures, but you can see it in person as the grain on the wood is totally different on each piece and the color is different as well.
The space cut for the barrel to fit through is a nice tight fit around the stock A-5 barrel. I put 1 wrap of electrical tape on the barrel and that part wouldn't pass through the sight post so the clearance is quite good. This can be a bit problematic though as none of the after market barrels I have access to will fit without some modding.
The shroud is a free float. The top is anchored to the spot where the stock front sight post is. You have to remove the stock sight post and put an included piece in there. It's a good mounting idea and is sturdy. The bottom part of the shroud is anchored to one of the standard A-5 holes. With the barrel in place, it's extremely solid with no movement or squeaks. I would be confident that if I took a nose dive, this thing would come out in one piece. The front sight post is a bit higher than the standard one. Perhaps a cm or two.
Weaver top rail
The long weaver rail is a little weird, perhaps it's a metric standard? The spacing between ribs are different from both the weaver and pic rails that I have sitting here and it seems to be slightly wider as a flip sight that I have is an extremely tight fit. Oddly enough the rail on the foreshroud itself (from the sight post mount forward) is the correct spacing so if you have some optics you want to put on here, bear that in mind if the base of your scope cannot adjust for this.
If you look closely you'll see that the rail does not sit flat like I assume it should. The rear hits the backmost part of the A-5 reciever halves. This could be cut away easily, but I thought I should point it out. Depending on which stock you have also, it may need a hack job to fit. I've always had a problem with my BSA red dot that I could not adjust it low enough to get a good sight picture. I guess this fixes that problem.
The rail is held on by 6 set screws and feels solid and joins with the barrel shroud well. If you don't want to mess up the finish on your A-5, don't buy one of these rails. You have you remove the shroud in order to get this rail off though. The anno job on the weaver rail seems pretty good so far
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I'll probably pick up a longer AK mag as that would really make this thing come to life. I already dropped a hint to a couple manufacturers that there is a hole in the market for an air through AK mag right now, but worst case it would be easy enough to fit a steel one to the current mag well that I have. Perhaps a dishka to replace the intimidator and it will be complete. I'm still up in the air on whether or not to camo the furniture.
All in all it's a nice piece and a good replacement for the PVC special I had on there before.
Barrel Shroud
I'll just start this off with the "bad" as there's enough "good" info out there. All of the hardware is metric. Perhaps it's just me, but if I wanted to have to use 2 sets of tools to work on my rig, I would have bought a Ford . Tacamo decided to use a flathead screw in the bottom most mount of the barrel shroud also so -2 points for the hardware that was included.
The furniture on the top half of the shroud is different than the bottom. The top half even feels more slick and the bottom feels like wood that has had it's first coat of Thompson put on it. It's not enough to see in the pictures, but you can see it in person as the grain on the wood is totally different on each piece and the color is different as well.
The space cut for the barrel to fit through is a nice tight fit around the stock A-5 barrel. I put 1 wrap of electrical tape on the barrel and that part wouldn't pass through the sight post so the clearance is quite good. This can be a bit problematic though as none of the after market barrels I have access to will fit without some modding.
The shroud is a free float. The top is anchored to the spot where the stock front sight post is. You have to remove the stock sight post and put an included piece in there. It's a good mounting idea and is sturdy. The bottom part of the shroud is anchored to one of the standard A-5 holes. With the barrel in place, it's extremely solid with no movement or squeaks. I would be confident that if I took a nose dive, this thing would come out in one piece. The front sight post is a bit higher than the standard one. Perhaps a cm or two.
Weaver top rail
The long weaver rail is a little weird, perhaps it's a metric standard? The spacing between ribs are different from both the weaver and pic rails that I have sitting here and it seems to be slightly wider as a flip sight that I have is an extremely tight fit. Oddly enough the rail on the foreshroud itself (from the sight post mount forward) is the correct spacing so if you have some optics you want to put on here, bear that in mind if the base of your scope cannot adjust for this.
If you look closely you'll see that the rail does not sit flat like I assume it should. The rear hits the backmost part of the A-5 reciever halves. This could be cut away easily, but I thought I should point it out. Depending on which stock you have also, it may need a hack job to fit. I've always had a problem with my BSA red dot that I could not adjust it low enough to get a good sight picture. I guess this fixes that problem.
The rail is held on by 6 set screws and feels solid and joins with the barrel shroud well. If you don't want to mess up the finish on your A-5, don't buy one of these rails. You have you remove the shroud in order to get this rail off though. The anno job on the weaver rail seems pretty good so far
----
I'll probably pick up a longer AK mag as that would really make this thing come to life. I already dropped a hint to a couple manufacturers that there is a hole in the market for an air through AK mag right now, but worst case it would be easy enough to fit a steel one to the current mag well that I have. Perhaps a dishka to replace the intimidator and it will be complete. I'm still up in the air on whether or not to camo the furniture.
All in all it's a nice piece and a good replacement for the PVC special I had on there before.