Review - Boyi/Dboys/Kalash Full Steel AK-105 (RK-08S)
3 replies, posted
I'm bored. So I'll do a short review of my AK, because why not.
Bought the gun from taiwangun. The gun itself costed me an equivalent of around 200 bucks, added two Cyma 5,45 style metal midcaps and a cheap bag of BB's to hit free shipping = 230 bucks. That hurt my poor allowance pocket, hooray no job. But for a person with a regular job, this is a fine price to pay I guess. Half of the price for a "quality gun" too. (all prices converted from pln)
[img]http://i.imgur.com/OiHNHKc.jpg[/img]
For me the gun came in a boring box with no distinguishable marking on logos on it. Just this BY-008B thing. I'm pretty sure you'd get a different box somewhere else.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/VVuJGVt.jpg[/img]
Upon opening, I see two papers - a manual and some info and test things from taiwangun. Now let's focus on the latter. It shows chrono results in initial testing.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/8TkFeoD.jpg[/img]
Holy consistency Batman. I honestly find it hard to believe these results. Not even high end guns get this sort of consistency. Taiwangun isn't very reputable when it comes to service, so this wouldn't be a surprise if they decided to just put some random 380-something numbers in there.
Aaanyway, let's move on. The manual is your typical chinglish.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/G7YpBdD.jpg[/img]
Cooking lever and Rear Sling Hockl? Okay. Guess I need to update my weapons vocab.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/ZPoPZZ3.jpg[/img]
...yeah, bad grammar fest. But it isn't actually that bad. The manual covers all the important bits, has exploded parts lists and covers disassembly. That's a plus.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/CjzLaLA.jpg[/img]
Getting to the good stuffs.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/TNjhVdP.jpg[/img]
Aside from the manual we get:
- The gun (doh)
- A hicap magazine (500 rounds I think, whatever)
- A 9,6v stick type NiMH battery
- A commie kinda sling
- A charger (what gives)
Let's focus on that stuff before getting to the gun itself.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/fiBPuge.jpg[/img]
The sling looks pretty nice and has these kewl ass markings. I'm sure the material itself is solid and nigh-indestructible.
Too bad that the hook itself sucks. It was super hard to depress, I actually had to use pliers to get it off...
[img]http://i.imgur.com/QMxaQcs.jpg[/img]
...and it cracked. Welp. Guess I'm not using that sling until I find a replacement hook for it.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/sRW29ef.jpg[/img]
The battery was a bit of a surprise to me. All chinaguns come with 8.4 batteries standard, but Dboys decided to go all generous and actually give us a 9,6 which is capable of making the gun perform pretty well. Awesome.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/3aJUIJT.jpg[/img]
Not much to say about the magazine. The plastic feels okay, it's not creaky and doesn't seem like it would crack from a single drop.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/MtzmreW.jpg[/img]
It even sports Izmash markings. Not exactly correct but hey - B for effort.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Ut5FsdV.jpg[/img]
The hatch is fucking annoying. It doesn't close completely, so it tends to open itself when removing the magazine. Something to be careful about.
As I haven't had a chance to fire the gun yet, I don't know how it feeds at that moment.
I don't need to tell why I'm not going to mention the charger. It's already deep inside my parts bin.
Aaaand now for the gun itself. Yay.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/gkVKdua.jpg[/img]
The first impression when picking it up is massive. The full steel construction really gives it some serious weight. It feels as if it was made out of a single piece of a fucking rock, there's no wobble anywhere. Maybe with a tiny exception of the reciever cover, but it's typical even for a real steel AK. Also, the wobble pretty much goes away when you install the battery. The metal parts have this funny texture to it, I believe people refer to it as a "pebbled finish". It looks alright I guess, but I'm kinda afraid of it scratching up in an ugly way.
And now I'm gonna plaster it with neomag balls, because I'm bored.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/k1Ap5IG.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/oLhtSI1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/EknoJ48.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/XUrW7NS.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/iGYTu7A.jpg[/img]
(collecting these back was a bitch).
Anyway, this is why the cool kids go with S series. Nearly all outside parts are made of steel, either stamped sheets or casted. As you can see only parts which aren't steel are:
- The furniture (doh)
- Outer barrel (possibly an easy way of getting over the whole "can not be converted to real firearm" shit. Or just to save weight)
- Trigger (Doesn't feel like it'd break anytime soon, tho)
- The latch that keeps the stock folded.
Now, that last part is propably going to cause problems. I'm kinda afraid of breaking the latch, so I learned to lock the stock gently. We all love to just press the button and swing the stock around, slamming it onto the latch. Well, better not.
Seriously Dboys, you made the entire fucking gun out of steel and you had to mess up on such a tiny, yet important detail. Shame on you.
Oh well. Off to some more crap photos.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/b8vvNPC.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/bz65Dmy.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/gjIRENR.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/IRPaipa.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/ZgrL4Dh.jpg[/img]
The plastic parts feel solid and well made. They are made from actual polymer, not ABS plastic. Nothing creaks, nothing wobbles. At least on my gun, because I've heard of the upper handguard moving about a lot. Even the folding stock lacks noticable play. It locks solidly into place, up to a point where you need to give it a bit of a whack to fold it. As I mentioned before, the forward latch is pot metal and one has to be careful with it.
Now for a bit of a sad surprise.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/VUMzom1.jpg[/img]
The fuckass threading. Dboys decided to go SO REAL, and the entire front sight/gas block/threading shit is one part. No hidden grub screws that would allow you to remove the huge threads in order to reveal your standard 14mm threading. Nope. You have to deal with that fuckass huge thing and it doesn't seem that any aftermarket muzzle devices are available on the airsoft market. Gay. If you want anything else than your standard krink flash hider - sucks to be you, because apparently you'll have to look for real steel parts.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/xsBnWnY.jpg[/img]
Bam. Unfortunately the trunnion pin wouldn't budge so I couldn't remove the barrel. I need to get something better to knock the bastard out.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/J5gt7NG.jpg[/img]
The gearbox looks pretty nice, to be honest. The shell is molded well, no defects, no cracks. The steel silver cyllinder is a nice surprise, most of the time you'd see the typical brass one. Not there. We also have steel 7mm ball bearings.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/EOpKgdV.jpg[/img]
I'm not going to disassemble the gearbox anytime soon, therefore I can't tell anything about the stuff inside. The nozzle is clear plastic, that's all I have to say about it... welp.
I'm a dumbass and forgot to take pictures of the hopup unit (at least as much of it as I could without taking it out). It's also made of clear plastic, a bit of a disadvantage when compared to Cyma AK's. The rubber is said to be crap and should be the first thing to be replaced, I'll see how it does once I have an opportunity to fire the gun.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/ucuCq4v.jpg[/img]
The battery goes in your usual folding stock AK place - into the gas tube. You can easily fit an AR buffer tube lipo under the receiver cover.
And moar photos, this time with a Cyma metal 5,45-style midcap magazine I'm also going to say a couple of words about.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/h9cBtyb.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/9xq3Lp1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/GDIsR4y.jpg[/img]
...just a couple, because I haven't tested it yet.
It feels tough and solid, with some nice heft to it. It's free of markings of any sort and its finish kinda matches the one of the gun. In order to fit into it, I had to file down the locking tab a bit. That's what you'll have to do with any non-dboys magazines in order to make them fit.
Once you get it in, it merges with the gun. Seriously, it fits so snuggly there's no wobble what-so-e-ver. Feels and looks great.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/dYojeIb.jpg[/img]
This part is actually metal. Which is great, since I've seen quite a bit of these breaking.
Okay, so that concludes this little review I think. Hope I covered as much as I remembered, for something I'm doing out of pure boredom.
I'll be adding shit to this post once I do a shooting test, then I'll be able to tell more about the mags, also the rate of fire, accuracy and range. Maybe I'll even have a chance to chrono it.
I'll also try to replace the photos with higher quality ones, if I get a better camera into my hands and possibly with some natural lighting. Maybe even take the stuff outside. Whatebs.
If you have any questions, go ahead and ask.
Like those mags. They look sexy.
I've got an RK-02 which is kind of similar and I really like mine, and I actually prefer the finish on the metal instead of smoother finishes. It's not shiny or anything which is good too. The only scratches I've got on mine are where the fire selector and handguard latch are, it's the metal on metal that'll do it.
Also I don't know about you but the battery that came with mine wasn't very good at all, it'd die really quickly and the gearbox would lock up because of that. I went and rewired it to deans and got a lipo and haven't had any problems, rest of it is still stock but it works beautifully and is pretty damn accurate with .28's.
Do you mind taking a picture of the screw (against a ruler if you can) that holds the pistol grip in though? I got mine boneyard and the only problem was that the pistol grip was chipped where the screw goes in. My screw got lost somewhere and I haven't been able to find a replacement yet so I can get a new grip. It's been held on with duct tape for a while now (which works swell) but it'd be nice to fix up. I'd appreciate it.
[QUOTE=Ninja Duck;44086305]Do you mind taking a picture of the screw (against a ruler if you can) that holds the pistol grip in though? I got mine boneyard and the only problem was that the pistol grip was chipped where the screw goes in. My screw got lost somewhere and I haven't been able to find a replacement yet so I can get a new grip. It's been held on with duct tape for a while now (which works swell) but it'd be nice to fix up. I'd appreciate it.[/QUOTE]
Will do, once I get back. I'll look for my calipers.
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