My ICS M4A1 RIS ... and my newbie review

As i said i'll post a picture of my AEG. So here ... its the ICS M4A1 RIS model. And so far it has served me well. Although i have only played at the CQB gamesite within the EVSU (Eastern Visayas State University) campus. But last Sunday, 27 May 2007, i brought it to Ormoc City to play in my first ever competition.

So, what do i think of it?

Well, for starters, it cost me a lot of money - 21,000 Philippine Pesos. That's plenty of dough for a gun. Thankfully, i didn't have to spend for a lot of upgrades to bring my gun to its present level of 410 fps (feet per second) muzzle velocity. All i needed was to replace the hop packing and the air seal nozzle. My rough computations yielded about that same amount if i bought a cheaper gun and had it upgraded.

It's heavy compared to other AEGs that i have held or have used. A lot heavier than the Tokyo Marui M4A1 and the JG M4 series. About the latter, i've only been able to handle the JG M733 CQB version. That one was lighter because of its plastic parts compared to the amount of metal on the ICS. I think the butt stock is the only plastic part of my ICS.

Another thing that adds to the weight of the gun is the ANPEQ (?), which holds my battery. So my gun is actually front-heavy, making me tire quickly when i'm holding the front guards with my forearm extended. You really have to clip your left arm to your chest to sort of hold up the gun so you don't tire easily holding it up. But i'm not complaining. I have handled real steel M4A1s before ... those things feel heavier than my ICS. It's just that in the case of my gun, there is more weight in the front, while the real steel has a more balanced feel.

Then there's that small metal latch that covers the hop-up chamber. Jeez! It kept bothering me. It kept opening at the slightest jarring movement. I didn't want dust getting into the internals of my gun so i decided to remove the spring from that small metal cover. Now it doesn't swing open until i pry it open with my finger.

I also had problems with the sling adapter - the one that resembles a butterfly (at least that's what it looks like to me). I removed the plastic butt stock and the rod then i tried putting on the metal rod that covers the rear of the gun. I had to sand the two notches at the side to make it slide down to the bottom. And then, when i reattached the metal rod that connects the butt stock to the gun ... the bolt inside it was a little short. This meant that the bolt only got a tiny foothold and eventually my whole butt stock fell off.

I addressed this by widening the hole at the bottom of the sling adapter using a round metal file. I made the hole wide enough so that it could fit behind the butt cover instead of in front. No more problems now.

Interestingly, these are the only minor irritations i have experienced with this gun (for now?). I didn't need to bring it to the gun smith or anything.

I had problems putting my battery in place since you really have to squeeze and angle the hand guard with the ANPEQ to get everything to lock into place. With practice, it became easier. I'm still looking for an easier way to do this, thinking forward to the time that i have to replace my battery in the field.

But at least my battery lasts a pretty long time. I don't fire a lot because most of the time i'm not expected to give suppressing fire. So i fire in short bursts of two to three seconds conserving both my BBs and battery. Even during last sunday's airsoft competition in Ormoc City, i did not have to replace my battery.

I tried using my son's Lithium Polymer battery once, but the rate of fire bothered me. It was so fast for my own taste. A slower rate of fire could achieve the same effect with less BBs. Again, i'm a newbie so i wouldn't really know which would be more useful.

My next project is to find out how i can make the motor (and internals) a little quieter. The noise of the gun while i'm firing makes it difficult to hear anything else. This is the issue that i had during last sunday's competition. I didn't hear what my other team mates were shouting so i got hit when we were supposed to extract.