Army R85 review

bullets

The Army SA80/R85.

This is one Solid bit of Kit that looks like it will stand up to a lot of punishment.
One of the lads did warn me about a potential flaw in the
design more on that in a while.

This thing will eat cardboard boxes alive for breakfast dinner and tea.
Looking through the iron sights with Hop up at mid adjustment it
fires consistently at about 10m

This AEG has got a simulated blow back feature.
When you fire this AEG the bolt actually cycles!
making a very pleasant and weird noise as well as a visual
movement that is nice to watch. This feature can be turned off
by holding the bolt back and engaging the bolt holding switch.

On Mine this causes an issue though. When I turn the feature off
a strange thing happens. On single fire the first trigger pull winds the gears
a little but does not fire. The 2nd trigger pull fires two BB's out at once
at what feels like a higher speed. Turning the feature off on full auto
causes jams.

Leaving the cool feature on all of time the AEG appears to fire fine
so far for me after a spray of silicone oil.

The ABS on this almost feels like Nylon Fibre and tough.
The paintwork is flawless. some minor weld marks.



Here is a close up. The Carrying handle and front sight need to be put
on with a screwdriver. You get a screwdriver with this AEG too
which was thoughtful of the manufacture.

There is a reason for this. You can buy an
after market SUSAT Scope which replaces the Carrying handle.
This is pricey at about 130+ Euro!! And I also hear you need
to sand or make a light modification to the rail to allow you to
mount it.

In order to put on the carrying handle it helps if you open the handguard
cover which partially opens on a hinge. To take the handguard off alltogether
to access the battery you need the screwdriver to remove the front sling swivel.

Its worth pointing out that I found installing the battery to be an
utter nightmare trying to get it to fit. Its a Large type battery.
Also the battery would not charge with my charger until I adjusted it down
to charge at 0.5A. (This also comes with its own el-cheapo charger)



The Butt stock is a soft high quailty green rubber and is very comfortable:


Hop up:


The Trigger is great its a heavy pull and looks like the real thing.



Jay TLR told me on the boards trouble shooting section that
(I'm using his words here)
When you take the hand-guard off there's the barrel and another smaller above it. They're connected by the mount for the front site. That mount is connected to the main barrel by a little pin on the side. Very, very small and delicate. If there's any sort of lateral movement that's gonna shear. Then the handguard with slide off the front of the gun because it's not connected anymore. So be very careful when changing batteries

Thanks for the Warning Jay.




~B