The new JG AK74 with blowback gets a 4 out of 5 star review from me. It would have been higher, but that was before I opened the gearbox. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this
weapon, but they could have done a few cheap internal upgrades and made it LOTS better. It initially shot 343 FPS with .25 bbs. I figure that's about 380 with .20s. That's about 60 fps lower than where I want it to be. That being said, I played one game with the gun in stock form and I loved everything about it, but I needed more range for our local field, so I plunged into the gearbox.
WHOA!! what were they thinking? A PLASTIC spring guide??? And it had one tab already broken off for me!! The shimming was decent with it's 7mm metal bushings, but as usual, it was SEVERELY over greased. No surprise there. My intention was to put an old KWA M130 spring in there, but one look at the piston told me that was a bad idea. It had ONE metal tooth and the rest were plastic. Bummer. Also, the spring has a hook on the end (pic below). Oh well. I will go back in with a polycarb piston
with steel teeth, a PDI 210% spring, and a metal spring guide. That will bring this weapon back to "my favorite gun ever" status.
It comes with an 8.4v small type battery that fits inside the stock. The ROF was kinda slow, but combined with the blowback feature, it felt pretty cool! A 9.6v would probably help quite a bit though. The hop-up is plastic and it works pretty well.
Externally, it rocks. Except for the real wood that even a fingernail can scratch. The metal parts are just plain awesome! The receiver cover is actually made of steel, and they include a metal flashider. By the way, a 509mm tightbore will fit without sticking out past the flashhider!
The included magazine is metal and holds 600 rounds. I put about 1800 rds thru it with ZERO misfeeds.
All said and done, I would buy it again. At the price of $175, I know that for under $350 (including a better wood kit), I'm gonna have myself one AWESOME AK that will hold it's own against the best AKs in the industry!
The weird spring:
The butter soft wood:
With top cover removed showing the plastic hopup and blowback mechanism
with a little distressing, it looks like a well-worn battle companion:
with 509mm tightbore installed:
