Ижмаш страйкбол АК-74М

[Ian_Gere]

Yeah, that really is Russian. In real cyrillic letters it starts with Izhmash, AKA Concern Kalashnikova, who make real steel АК-74М's. By now the penny may have dropped, but if not, the middle word is 'strikeball' - what real Russians call airsoft.

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That's not news you pillock, you may be thinking. You'd be right. It's been in the pipeline since 2012. Still, always worth a look at that vid again :wub: What is news however is that Mariya Vyacheslavovna Petrova, Head of Export Destinations @ Concern Kalashnikova, with whom I am now on first name terms doncha know*, said:

"Please be advised that mass production of airsoft version of AK will be launched by mid of 2014.

[N]one of the UK dealers has placed POs [pre-orders] yet and at the moment we are not excepting[sic] PO for this model (until the production is launched)"

It may be that this is a reflection of their lack of confidence that the mass produced model will actually roll out within 6 months, but it's not as if airsoft is the billion dollar industry that real steel is, so it may be that pre-orders would not be the norm until closer to the projected release date: perhaps RCDave can tell us? I have to say I'm worried that they will cost more than the real steel whenever they are rolled out, but then again, unlike Systema for eg, they will probably be worth it.

*It's a horrendous cliche but I can't help imagining her as a Bond Girl...

 

[NickM]

You realise she probably looks like a member of the female Olympic shot put team though right?!

They will probably look amazing, just hope they shoot as good as they look. Better get saving now!

 

[M_P]

There was a picture of their model and box I saw a while ago- came with a real sling and 3? mags of different variations. Not sure if it'll actually ship with it all though.

 

[Unrustle_Thine_Jimmies]

Cool,nice to see these are back from the dead. Guess the rumors I've heard in Ukraine were true. If these do come out,I hope they will move on to a GBB version, Or for somebody to make a recoil(a la the Marui ones) gearbox or something.

Getting these may be a pain,as Russian Customs are very strict,but if they do manage to release it world wide...

Real Sword,LCT,VFC and E&L have some tough competition with this puppy. CYMA and the other lads probs won't care,and may end up cloning it even,but you can't get better than the actual thing.

 

[Zak Da Mack]

Strikeball? That sounds awesome!! Why can't we have strikeball instead of "airSOFT" People would be like "omg, do you do strikeball!? Coollll"

 

[M_P]

Pretty sure these are going to have cyma internals by the way. Can't remember where I read it though- popular airsoft maybe.

 

[Unrustle_Thine_Jimmies]

According to a few Russian sources they will have '''Gearboxes made by special order by King Arms and other companies such as G&G''***,I think LCT gearboxes were used on some prototypes. But Izh,being on the verge of bankruptcy,will probably go to the Chinese for gearboxes. Not a fan of that,I'm bloody sick of regreasing,reshimming and correcting AOE on the bloody things.

Hopefully they will release these as kits,so you can jam in your own Gearbox or something or jam in GBB internals if you're a mad yolk with a lathe. If I somehow got one,I'd probably dump in a Polarstar or Daytona gun kit. AEGs are boring

***This was news when the prototypes were released,may have changed now due to Izhmash having no monies.

 

[Ian_Gere]

I wouldn't mind CYMA internals. I'm not a fan of the manky looking grease but there's nothing actually wrong with it performance wise and, all things being equal, more grease is better than less on moving metal parts. Shimming is an issue for sure, but at the same time the whole GB is made to pretty loose tolerances so it doesn't actually matter unless you're trying to make the GB quieter. I've found that AOE is only ever an issue when you start putting upgrade parts in there: as they arrive the plastic piston absorbs whatever play there is due to loose tolerances.

It goes against all my instincts, because a machine should be as efficient as possible, use the best parts available, right? But I'm going to buy a new CM.048 pre-tuned to 365FPS soon and I'm not going to fuck with the GB unless/until it fucks with me.