G&G L85 A2 Review - General

This is a Gen 2 G&G L85 A2 I have had for about 6 months, I am a bit of a scrub at reviews so I will not be as thorough as possible. [t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64154701/L85 Right Side.jpg[/t] [t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64154701/left side l85.jpg[/t] This is the Canadian model so it clocked about 410-420 out of the box, so I threw a m100 spring in which brought it to the 380-390 fps range. [B]The Good [/B]-The Construction is ludicrous, solid stamped steel all over the place. You could beat someone to death with the thing! -The accuracy of the thing is insane, particularly given it is nigh on stock. -Well done split gearbox, changing springs is relatively easy: Pop the back pin off, pull the upper off, remove a pin and off comes the top of the gearbox, and then just change the spring by unscrewing the two halves. -Mechanically the thing has yet to jam or misfeed in the last 5-6 most of a day games I have been to, so yay I guess? [B]The Bad[/B] Out of the box it had a handful of design problems, notably: -The magazine catch is diabolically badly designed: [t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64154701/Magazine Catch.jpg[/t] there is a small pin used to hold the catch in place, which has a grand desire to escape at the earliest opportunity. fortunately this is the A2 model which means a metal guard is close to the pin, so I inserted a piece of zip-tie held in by friction to prevent the pin from escaping. -The catch is basically a square piece which slots into the side of the STANAG, which means that it can prevent the magazine from being smoothly inserted. The main part of the gearbox is well entombed within the body of the gun, good thing the factory shimming seems fine otherwise it would be a nightmare to pull the bottom out. [B]The Ugly -[/B]The gun comes with a mechanical blow back, which I disabled almost out of the box mostly out of paranoia then anything. -The magazine well has divots in the sides to replicate the look of a real L85, but creates the problem of magazines rattling side to side a bit, they evidently knew of this and placed plastic "shims" on the walls to hold the magazine. unfortunately, they only used cheap glue on a pair of smooth surfaces, so the shims fell off before I had even gotten a chance to game it. the problem does not really affect the use of the gun, the mags don't move to cause misfeeds or anything, but it is annoying. -Out of the box the motor was set to a bad height, preventing reliable semiauto, not really a fault of the gun more of a annoyance. -The Charging Handle is garbage too, the charging handle is a piece of plastic that is supposed to be held on by a screw through handle into the metal of the dust cover, but handle does not go on all the way. - Came wired to large tamiyas, not too much of problem if you are just gonna swap to deans. - you have to unscrew the front sling mount to open the battery compartment, not too too bad just a bit odd. I cannot really say much about the actual contents of the main gearbox, due to my reluctance to dig it out the lower receiver, but what I can see seems well done and without too much elephant snot. [B]The Real Steel Issues[/B] -The top rail is funny half height smooth top thing, so in order to mout optics I would either try to find a G&G rail mount (good luck on that) or use a ghetto thing like I did: [t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64154701/EoTech Mounting L85.png[/t] Basically it is a paintball raiser with a piece of ziptie to hold it level. As a whole I can say that the gun is largely positive, the issues are mostly cosmetic or easily fixed. I would rate it 8/10 with losses on weird design stuff. feel free to ask anything about it.

Great review, really informative, Where did you pick one up if I may ask?

[QUOTE=3bwii;46443985]Great review, really informative, Where did you pick one up if I may ask?[/QUOTE] I got it at a local store, Grim Tac. Not the worst place, but the dude running it is a bit odd, also ares obsessed.

one thing i've noticed with my coworkers l85, which is the same make, model, and country, If you don't remove the blowback, the fake bolt actually can ram into the hop up gears when firing, which is probably a bad thing.

[QUOTE=7 Layer Dip;46444443]one thing i've noticed with my coworkers l85, which is the same make, model, and country, If you don't remove the blowback, the fake bolt actually can ram into the hop up gears when firing, which is probably a bad thing.[/QUOTE] either break the hop or while firing you either notice your bb's slowly over hopping till the gun jams or your range drastically decreasing.

[QUOTE=CubeManv2;46444452]either break the hop or while firing you either notice your bb's slowly over hopping till the gun jams or your range drastically decreasing.[/QUOTE] which is why you remove the blowback

[QUOTE=7 Layer Dip;46444496]which is why you remove the blowback[/QUOTE] milsim bro, [i]milsim[/i].

[QUOTE=7 Layer Dip;46444443]one thing i've noticed with my coworkers l85, which is the same make, model, and country, If you don't remove the blowback, the fake bolt actually can ram into the hop up gears when firing, which is probably a bad thing.[/QUOTE] Wow talk about a massive design flaw.

[QUOTE=CottonTM;46444545]Wow talk about a massive design flaw.[/QUOTE] could have been with his particular gun

[QUOTE=7 Layer Dip;46444595]could have been with his particular gun[/QUOTE] I had a look at mine, I don't think it could happen for me. It might have been theirs in particular?

[QUOTE=LurkietheLurker;46444828]I had a look at mine, I don't think it could happen for me. It might have been theirs in particular?[/QUOTE] It's a common occurrence on G&G L85s. I recommend taking a look at this: [url]http://www.scribd.com/doc/10160989/G-G-L85A1[/url] It walks you through complete removal of the blowback AND replacement of the poorly designed piston and sector gear. You kind of REALLY need to replace at least the sector gear. The reason that reliable semi-auto is impossible on your gun is because the gun fires with a PSG1-style 18 tooth sector gear, which fires from a pre-cocked position. This gives near-instantaneous trigger response, but as a result, when you switch from full-auto to semi-auto, you get a single shot off before the whole thing jams up. Semi-auto fire is unreliable on ALL G&G L85s, especially ones with low-power springs installed. It is absolutely critical you replace those parts ASAP.

BTW, dunno if this would fit on a G&G, but it might be worth a shot to not have to jury rig your optic [url]http://www.evike.com/products/31861/[/url]

[QUOTE=ossumsauce;46448307]It's a common occurrence on G&G L85s. I recommend taking a look at this: [URL]http://www.scribd.com/doc/10160989/G-G-L85A1[/URL] It walks you through complete removal of the blowback AND replacement of the poorly designed piston and sector gear. You kind of REALLY need to replace at least the sector gear. The reason that reliable semi-auto is impossible on your gun is because the gun fires with a PSG1-style 18 tooth sector gear, which fires from a pre-cocked position. This gives near-instantaneous trigger response, but as a result, when you switch from full-auto to semi-auto, you get a single shot off before the whole thing jams up. Semi-auto fire is unreliable on ALL G&G L85s, especially ones with low-power springs installed. It is absolutely critical you replace those parts ASAP.[/QUOTE] Note this is a major misconception, as of 2012 they have replaced the piston of the gun with a 14 tooth piston with a added spacer. They also appear to have changed the sector to have 15 teeth, this seems to give significantly less semi problems. [t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64154701/modernized piston.jpg[/t] Edit: To extend comments on this problem, the gun can no longer be harmed by semi jamming up but it can still happen. If you use semi by pulling the trigger for the entire travel, it will work reliably everytime, but if you try to "flick" the trigger to fire, you will be disappointed in a shot or two. They have also moved the position of the dials on the hop up, preventing impact of the blowback. [t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64154701/hop.jpg[/t]

[QUOTE=LurkietheLurker;46448648]G&G stuff[/QUOTE] oh, fucking nice Still going to get a WE L85 but thats good improvements

[QUOTE=ossumsauce;46448947]but thats good improvements[/QUOTE] What I still don't get is why G&G never seem to have gone out of their way to mention it. I only found out after googling model numbers, and even then it was a 2-3 line thing stating that they had changed the gearbox internals.

[QUOTE=LurkietheLurker;46449421]What I still don't get is why G&G never seem to have gone out of their way to mention it. I only found out after googling model numbers, and even then it was a 2-3 line thing stating that they had changed the gearbox internals.[/QUOTE] I feel like that's the problem with a lot of airsoft manufacturers. I read a ton of stuff about Gen 1,2, and 3 mags with WE GBBRs and then random other things like this 2012 model of the G&G L85 or the Gen 3 WE MP7. None of it makes any sense to me since I have no idea where this news comes from because the companies sure aren't the ones announcing changes. It almost leads me to wonder how many of these 'updated models' are just based on hearsay. I wish there was a solid news source for this sort of thing.

[QUOTE=Dark Descent;46451367]I feel like that's the problem with a lot of airsoft manufacturers. I read a ton of stuff about Gen 1,2, and 3 mags with WE GBBRs and then random other things like this 2012 model of the G&G L85 or the Gen 3 WE MP7. None of it makes any sense to me since I have no idea where this news comes from because the companies sure aren't the ones announcing changes. It almost leads me to wonder how many of these 'updated models' are just based on hearsay. I wish there was a solid news source for this sort of thing.[/QUOTE] Honestly part of the problem is gonna be that retailers hold onto their current stock, so even if there is an updated model it may not be available. I was willing to order this one as I knew the retailer holds basically no stock so it would be ordered from the manufacturer by the model number. Worse yet, when the stores don't list the model number, last year a friend of mine was looking for a King Arms P90 but there are two Canadian models the version with the quickswap spring or without. We "lucked" out by reading the description and examining a picture of the box in a random online review. The different model thing is probably even worse in Canada (or the same, no experience with other places) in that we only get the versions that are "upgraded" to shoot at a high enough FPS to get in. so there is this thing where the model number is different without actual indicator for what it is, I got screwed on my AK74M by this, Echo One normally re brands DBoys Steel models for the 74m but on the Canadian version it (is/was) an old unknown Cyma.