by B.B. Pelletier
Let’s look at the field performance of this airsoft gun.
Magazine
The gun comes with two high-capacity magazines that hold 350 shots each. They are very conventional airsoft magazines, so anyone who’s ever loaded an M16 or M4 AEG will be familiar with them. The top has a loading door that slides open and the BBs are just poured in. A BB bottle with a pouring spout is real handy for this and nothing gets spilled.
Pour BBs in the loading door.
Close the door and load the magazine into the gun just like you would a real M14 magazine. For the majority of you who have never done that, the M14 mag goes in with a slightly forward slant at the bottom. It looks and feels misaligned until you get use to it, and then you never forget it. It’s been 40 years since I last loaded an M14, and I did it right the first time with the UTG. This must be the right way to load mags into rifles!
The windup!
High-capacity AEG magazines have a small toothed wheel at their base. It’s for winding up the feed spring inside the magazine. Wind it until you hear or feel a distinctive change in how the wheel winds. At that point, you have about 30-35 good shots, at which point you wind the wheel again. Although there are over 300 BBs in the magazine, they don’t all shoot without winding this spring. Think of the magazine as more of a reservoir, and you have about 35 ready shots per windup.
Wind the wheel at the bottom of the magazine to tension each set of BBs. When the gun stops shooting BBs, it’s time to wind again.
Shooting
This gun is rated to shoot both 0.20-gram and 0.25-gram BBs. When I loaded it with 0.20-gram BBs, it often spit out two and three BBs per shot. Obviously, the accuracy went south in a hurry. This was when I shot it on semiautomatic, which is how a sniper rifle is supposed to be used. On full-auto, things happen too fast to see this phenomenon.
Hop Up
On the other hand, 0.25-gram BBs were very good in both semi- and full-auto. The Hop Up adjustment requires that the magazine be removed, which is a pain because there will be three or four BBs sitting between the magazine and the breech. Prepare to catch them when you remove the magazine. I adjusted the gun in the field at 50 yards. By using white BBs, I could watch the trajectory all the way to and through the target. The Hop Up was grossly adjusted at first, then finely adjusted the closer I came to zero. The UTG Tactedge 4×40 long eye relief scope has a huge field of vision that made watching the BBs in flight like watching television.
I got the BB’s curve down to about 3″-5″ at 50 yards, but it was impossible to remove all of it. Every tenth BB or so curved wildly in another direction. That’s caused by voids in the BBs.
Velocity
The 0.20-gram BBs that didn’t work well shot an average of 330 f.p.s.. The better-shooting 0.25-gram BBs shot 295 f.p.s. That’s good speed for a gun in this price range.
Accuracy
The day was windy, with gusts at 5-20 mph. They were coming mostly from the back, which helped immensely, but no wind is good for airsoft. Especially not when the target is 50 yards away! Even so, the gun did quite well. I’ll show you the target because this is not a minute-of-angle airgun. It’s an airsoft sniper rifle and hitting the target is all that matters. Yes, there were complete misses. Most of them were wild shots from errant BBs. Once I got on target, it was easy to hit if the BBs were good – even with the wind.
50 yards with an airsoft gun on a windy day is nothing to laugh at. The M14 Sniper handled it well once it was sighted in.
Bottom line
If you want to get an AEG, this one is pretty good for the money. I cannot say it is in the same class as a $300 Marui M16, but it costs only half as much. I found the battery options limited and the battery door breakage was inconvenient. That aside, where are you going the get an AEG M14 for anywhere near this kind of money?
i occasionally play air soft with my friends with cheap guns, but how hard does that gun hit at 50 yards. would it even leave a mark?
No, it probably wouldn’t leave a mark, which, of course, is the point.
In airsoft wargames, snipers sometimes shoot 100 yards, so I was making the comparison of this gun to them.
B.B.
hi bb
sorry im not posting this on a barrell harmonics article. how are pnumatic guns effected by barrel harmonics?
Field Targetier
Field Targetier,
Well they are affected, and in the same way as spring piston rifles. The thing is, they don’t have anywhere near as much vibration, so there isn’t as much vibration to deal with.
I suppose a harmonic tuner would work on them as well, but I don’t know if the improvement would be very significant.
B.B.
any plans for a review of the new utg shadow ops sniper rifle? ive heard good things.
Field Targetier
Ditto on the shadow ops gun. Looks a lot like the Accuracy international guns. Be cool to see a review on that one.
Lama and Field Targetier,
The Shadow Ops does look cool, but I am working on a different UTG sniper rifle test right now.
B.B.
is this a new rifle we know nothing about? utg dosnt have any other sniper rifles currently. you probly cant tell me the name or model if it hasnt come out yet but tell me this- is it worth waiting for? ive been needing a new airsoft gun thanxs for your help
Field Targetier
Field Targetier,
It’s not a rifle YOU don’t know about. It’s one I didn’t know about. Puzzle on that!
B.B.
wich is the name of the new utg sniper?
Patience!
B.B.
hello b.b. alot of great stuff on your blog. ijust bought a hw45 pistol here in canada. i was asking about a scope or red dot the other day but my blog did not get posted for some reason.i did go for a bushnell red dot which i like very much ah!. my question is can my pistol be tuned alittle for muzzle energy. thx
HW 45,
Actually I have done a lot of investigation on the subject of souping up an HW 45. In my opinion, it can’t be done. Every time I tried to get more power from the gun it decreased a little.
The one modification I saw that did go faster was a pistol converted to shoot 1/8″ ball bearings. The maker claimed 800 f.p.s.When I tested it, it got about 650 f.p.s.
I like your question and I will blog it for you.
B.B.
Hey B.B.,
I would like to know if the windup spikes could hurt my fingers after winding the UTG M14’s magazine? Did you try shooting when it was calm? If so, how accurate was it then? Thanks!
J.B.
J.B.,
The magazine is very easy to wind. Does it hurt to wind a watch or remove the top from a bottle of soda? That’s about what it feels like.
I shot the gun indoors and it held groups almost as good as a sniper rifle. That is 1.5 inches at 10 yards, or so. As long as you use the 0.25-gram BBs, this gun is pretty accurate, though I think a bolt-action sniper rifle is a little more accurate at long range.
B.B.
Is the battery type that the UTG M14 AEG comes with a Nickel Metal Hydride type or is it the old Nicad type? Thanks!
J.B.
Also as an addition to my request above, how long will the battery last (approx. how many rounds)? Thanks!
J.B.
Hey B.B.,
On the UTG M14 AEG is the battery that is included a Nimh type or is it Nicad? How long did your battery last (about how many rounds)? Thanks!
J.B.
J.B.
The battery I received was nickel metal hydride, but that was two years ago.
It lasted at least 8 300-shot magazines, but it was a medium rated battery. The problem is, the battery compartment cannot accept larger batteries.
B.B.
Hey B.B.,
Is the scope rail a Weaver type, the 3/8″ Dovetail, or 11mm Dovetail? Thanks!
J.B.
B.B.,
Also, do you think an 1800mah battery might fit in the UTG M14 AEG even if it might be tight? Thanks!
J.B.
J.B.,
The rail was given in part 1 of the report. It’s a Picatinny, so a Weaver dovetail mount will work.
3/8″ and 11mm are interchangeable.
I DO NOT think a larger battery will fit. The battery in the gun is maxed out.
B.B.
With regard to your March 29, 2007 2:28 PM posting about a HW45 modification to shoot 1/8″ ball bearings, where would I get information on how to do that/who to contact?
Thanks, Brent
Brent,
That was something one hobbiest did. It was never a service offered to the public.
If you like, and if you ask me on the current day’s blog, I will report on that mod, because I tested it.
B.B.
hey um I have the utg m14 and it's not what I thot it was. First of all I agree with the inconvienient battery space comment you said. Second when I dropped it acidentally one time the part holding the barrel in place cracked all the way around. Third I was just shootig around when the plate type thing that the lever pulls back broke into pieces. And finally when I was on vacation I was shooting a pop can and it started smoking and quit working. I don't know what to do or who to go to to have some of the problems fixed. What do you think? Can you email me what you think I should do my email is
monte.dmonchamp@yahoo.com
Monte,
You need to contact the Leapers company. They are the company that imports and distributes all UTG products.
http://www.leapers.com
B.B.
well, we already contacted them and they told me that they would not give us my 115 dollars bac or send me a new one. So I guess I have to find out what's wrong and buy the right parts. I'm not familiar with how airsoft guns work or are put together so I will need help with that…. Somehow.
monte,
Where did you buy the gun? Is it still under warranty? Does your retailer have a service department that can either help you fix the gun or help you source parts? As a last resort contact leapers for parts and view an exploded diagram of the gun as a reference for the part numbers you need and a blueprint for disassembly/reassembly.
kevin
thank you for ur help kevin, I will do what you said. No my gun is not under warrenty and I bought it at trinity airsoft.com and they didn't want to help so they referred us to leapers. I'll will find a way to fix it.
Monte,
Sometimes adversity like this turns out for the best. You have nothing to lose by trying to fix your gun. But you might want to find a good airsoft forum and see if one of the folks there will help guide you.
I have rebuilt AEG powerplants with upgraded components and if I can do it anyone can.
B.B.
I see your point and think well of it. Things like this may turn out for the better.
once again thanks for the help guys.