Less Scope Is More

Having never even fielded it, I came to the conclusion that the scope I had on the AUG was just overkill, plain and simple. 3-9X zoom and over 30 cm of length was too much for what is simply a DMR, not a dedicated sniper rifle. So I shopped around for a smaller one.

The old scope setup, for reference

Quite soon I found a short scope with the specs 4X32. The ocular is a bit smaller which possibly isn't ideal, but the whole thing is about half the length, which is great for handling.

Here we go, looking better already

The new scope came with high scope rings, and I after mounting I noticed that they were too high to use effectively. Luckily the larger scope originally came with lower rings, and since they have the same diameter, I went back to the allen wrench.

Better still

Today I also got word that the one part I'm still missing, and had already ordered and paid for, isn't available even from the manufacturer. So the wait continues. I though why not play around a bit while someone gets around to making that part, and so I slapped on the long suppressor I got for Christmas.

I'm definitely digging that look

The long suppressor does give it some more authority, even though it's simply a mock piece and does next to nothing. There's not even a longer inner barrel to hide. At least now it's noticeably longer than the G36C; there used to be only few centimetres of difference, which  I found rather amusing.

While digging around my toolbox, I also came across some interesting plastic-headed screws. I have no idea where they are from, but they fit the holes in the RIS assembly exactly, and since the holes are all the way through, I can use them to tighten the barrel into place. There are similar screws on the other side as well. Since I'm not using the rails that were there originally I thought I'd try something different. Maybe there's a bit of extra accuracy to be found there by eliminating some wobble.

Next up on my list, I got a new nozzle for this baby, this time made by Core. Unlike the SHS one in there now, it's completely smooth all the way through and seems to actually be longer than the SHS. I'm hoping that it'll fix the last of the compression issues I'm having. Stay tuned!

G36C Transformation

As I mentioned in my previous post, I got a new stock and foregrip for the G36C for Christmas. Installation of both pieces was rather straightforward.

The foregrip is simply installed by loosening two flat-headed screws on one side of the grip, placing the grip on the rail and re-tightening the screws. The top of the grip actually separates into two individual pieces to allow installation even on a rail where you could not slide it on, which is a pretty handy feature in my opinion.

The stock installation is almost as straightforward. To remove the old stock, you simply push out the axle pin inside the hinge. I used a large allen wrench to do the job. Once the pin is removed, the stock can be pulled off, and the new stock put in its place. I found it easiest install the new one with the gun lying on its side and the stock folded about halfway. That way it's simple to line up the holes of the stock with the ones on the gun in order to reinsert the pin.

The new stock is manufactured by DBoys, so it's not an entirely solid fit on the JG made G36C. There are two things which require attention.

First, the pin holes on the stock are large enough for the pin to actually fall straight through it, so I wrapped some electrical tape around the pin to enlarge the diameter slightly. This also helped with the issue of the stock swinging back and forth completely freely once unlocked. With a tighter pin, there's some friction and the stock wont' flail around if you accidentally let go of it.

Second, the stock will not lock in the folded forward position, because the hole on the side of the stock is too high up compared to the claw protruding from the side of the receiver. This will take some more work to fix. I don't usually run the gun with the stock folded, but being something of a perfectionist, I must make this work, even if only to know it works the way it should.

The stock can be extended through four different settings, the shortest of which actually makes it shorter than the standard stock. The inside is completely hollow, so it could house a huge battery or other items if needed. The hollowness does have a downside, though. Since the material is not exactly heavy duty plastic, the stock also sounds quite, well, hollow. It was also a bit wobbly, but that was easily fixed by applying a few layers of electrical tape on the inside surfaces.

If there was once a problem with the sight picture when using a proper cheek weld with the old stock, that is now completely gone with the new one. The iron sights line up just so when I bring the gun up.

Then again, with the reflex sight on, the problem returns, although with much less severity. Perhaps a lower, tube style red dot sight would work better here. I see a future investment already.

All in all, despite the few issues, I'm more than happy with the new accessories. The grip feels much sturdier and the ability to extend the stock makes for nicer ergonomics all around. Definitely looking forward to fielding this baby as soon as possible.

The Compulsory Gift Season Post

I got a load of airsoft stuff for Christmas, and I can hardly wait to put it all into use. I got all of these from my SO, which makes her pretty awesome in my book! I did give her a few (ok, a lot) of pointers on what to get, but who cares. I'm over 30 already, it's not like I'm expecting surprise gifts the way I was as a kid. I get what I like and she doesn't need to worry if she's bought the right thing. Everybody wins.

Anyway, here we go:

Pictured above are

• GFC MOLLE leg panel
• GFC PASGT replica helmet
• GFC Hard knee pads
• AE 30x200mm silencer
• Bollé Tracker II goggles, smoke lens
• FMA RIS Vertical Grip
• GFC Three point sling
• DBoys G36 collapsible stock
• APS Bird Cage Flash Hider
• VB Li-Po Battery 7.4V 2200mAh 20C

I have no real idea what to do with the helmet or the leg panel, but they look pretty cool. The helmet is very light and thin, so it's not exactly a realistic replica, but it looks good enough and I'm sure it will keep my head from bumping into hard things well enough. The leg panel hangs from a belt and wraps around your upper leg with a band just like a drop leg holster. I have no clue what the bungee cord is for, though. You can basically slap anything with Molle straps on there. One possibility could be to use it as a very light loadout base, so a few mag pouches and a utility pouch might be good. We'll see.

The knee pads with the hard outer shell will definitely be an upgrade when compared to the soft ones I currently have. The soft ones are light to wear and easy to use, but rocky ground, for example, feels a bit nasty through the fabric.

The stock and the grip are going on the G36C. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the default stock is rather low so you don't really get a good sight picture with a cheek weld. The raised cheek piece on the new one should help with that. I also like the fact that this one is extensible so I can alter the ergonomics. The current front grip also feels too thin and long, so I'm hoping this shorter and stockier one will be a big improvement. A separate post concerning their installation is forthcoming so we can get back to the actual tech side of things.

The Li-Po will be going into the AUG to make sure the motor gets enough amperage. The silencer is also going on the AUG, once I get one more piece that I'm still waiting for.

I have been so happy with my clear Bollé goggles that I thought a pair with darker lenses would be amazing for those brighter days. Plus they look way cooler than the clear ones which is, naturally, the most important thing when you're out in the field.

The flash hider? I don't really know what to do with that, but it was cheap so I thought I'd get it anyway. I might slap that on the G36C as well just to alter the look a bit.

There were a few more things that I got but didn't take a photo of. There's a load of G&G bio pellets, a medical and an admin pouch for my vest and last but not least, an M4 magazine adapter for the G36C. That rifle will be the most specialest little gun soon, just you wait.

I'm off to play with my new toys now. I wish you happy holidays as well!

ASG/JG AUG A3 disassembly

The following describes the disassembly of the ASG AUG A3 automatic electric airsoft gun. The ASG AUG is a Jing Gong manufactured rebrand, so this guide holds true for the JG AUG RIS as well. Should be useful for other AUG models as well, excepting the parts referring to the rail assembly.

You will need the following tools:

• allen wrench, 3 mm
• allen wrench, 2 mm
• flat-headed screwdriver
• small phillips-head screwdriver

Disassembly

Begin by removing the magazine and battery if present.

Press the button on the side of the buttstock assembly halfway down. You will notice when the two halves of the gun become separated. Be careful when pushing the button, as it can exit the gun's frame completely if you push it far enough. It can be put back with some effort, but it's much easier to avoid the hassle altogether.

Slide the front assembly and the buttstock apart and place the buttstock half aside.

Unscrew the two allen screws on top of the rail and place them aside.

Flip the front assembly around, and you will see a hole in the rail with a set screw inside. Unscrew it about halfway to release the rail assembly.

The rail assembly should now slide free of the gun. If it is a tight fit, you can place a flat-headed screwdriver in the slot between the barrel and the rail assembly. Wrap the head with masking tape if you are worried you might scratch the metal surface.

Slide the rail assembly off and place aside. As you can see, I did not unscrew the rail assembly set screw out when I took the gun apart, so I scratched the underside of the barrel housing. Luckily it is only a cosmetic fault that will not show when the gun is assembled.

Unscrew the set screw in the barrel housing to remove the front outer barrel.

The barrel is no free to slide out, revealing the inner barrel sleeve (aluminium) and the inner barrel (brass). I've added masking tape on the sleeve to make it fit more snugly, thus reducing vibration.

There is a small tab on the decorative gas selector which can fall out and be misplaced. I have yet to find a real purpose for it, as it has no effect on the function of the gun, but I've chosen to keep it in.

Pull back the charging handle and lock it in the groove on the frame.

Twist the knob and rotate the barrel housing anticlockwise. The barrel housing is now free to slide out of the frame.

Slide out the barrel assembly and place the frame aside.

Unscrew the screws on the top and bottom of the barrel housing to release the barrel.

Slide the barrel out of the housing and place the housing aside.

While holding the hop-up unit and the barrel together, unscrew the two screws on either side of the hop up unit. The hop-up unit is spring-loaded and will jump out a bit if you don't hold on to it.

Slide the outer barrel and the barrel sleeve off and place aside.

This concludes the major disassembly of the ASG AUG A3. The hop-up unit disassembly is described in a separate post.

It's Alive!

The new motor arrived today. It's an SHS High Torque and it is great. I also got a new SHS polycarbonate piston so I would not need to use the aluminium one which gave me so much trouble already.

I wasted no time in installing the new motor, even though it took me a while to figure out how exactly the motor cage is opened. Before that, however, the wires had to come off.

I began by taking a picture of the wires connecting to the motor so that I'd know which wire goes to which terminal when I was putting them back on the new motor. I then soldered the wires off (again there was the mystical Chinese nuclear waste solder which took forever to melt).

Now I know what goes where

The next step was to unscrew the screws holding the cage together. The cage was still held together by an L-shaped bracket on the side. The motor has a spring on the top which forces the motor towards the bottom of the motor cage but also holds the cage parts from separating. After a bit of fiddling, I figured out how to pull the the cage parts in different directions so as to disengage the two pieces.

There is a small metal plate on the bottom of the motor cage which connects with the motor base to raise or lower the motor height according to how the height adjustment screw on the bottom is turned. The plate naturally flew away as the cage parts separated and I lifted out the old motor. It took a bit of time to actually find the plate from the floor since it (naturally) rolled away as if running for its life.

Putting the motor plate back in, I took the new motor and started fitting it into the cage. It was pretty intuitive how to now reattach the cage pieces, but the motor spring didn't want to co-operate and jumped out of its place a couple of times. After a while it was over and the motor sat where it should and the screw was back on.

Then I simply soldered the wires onto their new terminals. The motor terminals on the SHS High Torque are nicely marked with a + and - and the positive terminal is also coloured red, which is a very nice addition. Then it was time to work on the gearbox itself.

Since I had a new motor in, and also because my previous attempt was obviously not up to spec, I decided to re-shim the whole gearbox. Shimming is time consuming, but really only takes patience. I first took out all the gears and shimmed each one separately to see how many shims I needed on each gear. Then I shimmed starting from the bevel gear and moved shims from top to bottom or vice versa depending on which way the gear should be moved. Then the spur gear followed, adjusted based on the bevel, and finally the sector adjusted based on the spur. It was all pretty intuitive once I knew what I was doing.

The new piston fit in without a problem, and the only issue I had was (again) the trigger pieces. I cannot for the life of me figure out why they are made the way they are. If they just were somehow connected, it would make it all so much easier. Perhaps I can in the future modify them to be somehow at least a bit more sensible. The annoyance of trying to get these small parts into place while a strong spring is trying to wrest the gearbox shell open and the gears are not quite fitting into their holes is just simply infuriating. I did finally get it all back together, though.

Since I still had the chronograph on loan, I set it up like last time, loaded up with 0.20g BBs and fired away. What a joy it was to see the AUG finally shooting so much better. I averaged 126 m/s (413 fps) across around 20 shots. Everything seems to work great, although I should maybe be getting a bit more power out of it still. Most likely the air nozzle is not mating properly with hop-up. But that's a small issue to fix compared to all of what I've done up until this point.

The AUG is mostly finished at this point, although I have some visual modification still in mind.

If there is one thing to learn from my trials and tribulations regarding this particular gun, it would be to upgrade as many parts in one go as you can. I've been working on this thing for over two months now and it has been incredibly frustrating to have to order one piece after another and then wait for them to arrive before I can get back to the project. Had I bought the air nozzle, cylinder, cylinder head, piston, piston head, spring, spring guide and motor all in one go, this whole project would have been done in a week or so. Instead I've done battle with it for so long and never managed to field it in all that time. I'm now definitely looking forward to taking this gun out and actually playing a proper game.

No More No Scope

Few days ago the scope and bipod I ordered a while back arrived. The scope came with scope rings, but they were much too low. As I mounted it on the AUG, I had to tilt my head sideways to be able to see through the scope. In no way was that ergonomic or natural. Today I bought new, higher scope rings and now it is perfect, the scope lines up with my eye instinctively.

I am loving the look of the AUG with the scope and bipod on

The bipod is a spring-loaded one with extending legs

The scope has variable (3-9X) magnification and a 40 mm eyepiece

The eye relief is around 7-8 centimetres

As soon as I get the new motor, I'm definitely putting the gearbox back together so I can finally start fielding this rifle alongside the G36C. It has been a long long project, but I think it will soon be finished.