CYMA Standard Stamped Metal AK74U Airsoft AEG Rifle w/ Steel Folding Stock and Wood Furniture (Package: Add 7.4v LiPo Battery + Charger)

"It's been a long time since I've purchased this, two or three years, and this thing is still my main gun. I would really recommend this gun for people either starting out, or someone that just wants a good gun. Really, I love this gun, I'm going to probably retire it here soon as I'm looking into more high end guns but this gun has never failed me, not once.

"First the bad yet easily fixed issues:
1. The iron sights are canted to the left. I think they pretty much leave the factory like this. You can easily put a side scope mount and apply a red dot.

2. The stock magazine doesnt like to feed .25+ weighted BBs very consistently. Just bought new mags from Lancer Tactical and they work real well.

3. Power is pretty hot for most fields. Mine was shooting 388fps with .25 BBs and shoots 345fps with .30 BBs.

The awesome:
1. With .25 BBs I think the spring is a bit too powerful and the hop-up a bit sensitive. The .25s would just fly right or left after about 90 feet. I used .30 BBs and it shoots spot on. I dont even use a scope and I am getting some decent range and accuracy. I am able to reach out and touch opponents at 120 feet with precision.

2. Its an AK. The battery is loaded in the top receiver and can easily install/remove battery.

This is my go to AEG. Its affordable and performs great. I have only used it twice in the field but the performance on game day is spectacular. I have no complaints, other than the iron sights, of the build quality. Everything seems to function flawlessly for a $150 AEG.

"CYMA has really stepped up their game.

Handguards are real Oak, finish from the factory is meh but i refinished them with stain and oil finish and it looks beautiful now.

Steel Parts:
Almost everything is steel except the outer barrel, front sight post, rear sight trunnion, bolt assembly.
YES, THE RECEIVER IS STEEL, but evike will not label as such.
Gives the gun some decent heft and weight.

Gun comes with neodymium motor which is a nice touch, shoots a little faster on a 7.4 lipo but not a huge noticeable increase from a regular motor. Metal hop up further increases the gun's value.

With .3 Goldenball BB's, I had relatively small groupings at a decent range (keep in mind that this is a more compact rifle, shorter barrel.)

Overall, very nice build quality and performance for the price. Cannot beat CYMA for their value.

"Best gun I own right now. Super accurate, long range, well built. It comes with a 1200 8.4 but i recommend getting something higher like a 9.6. Battery space could probably accommodate a 2200 mah battery. Metal hop that is easy to adjust. Working slide that does not lock. Magazine feeds well so far and can hold a lot. Accurate up to about 100 feet or more. It is heavy with a full mag and I recommend getting a strap. Durable build. Overall, just get this gun.

"Just got this gun and its a beast..ran it with a 11.1v lipo cuz cyma aks are truly tanks

Pros:cherry wood finish, full metal, accurate, metal hopup, accurate, its a tank so run a lipo if u want

Cons: shoots at 430fps to hot for even field use

Definitely getting more than what u pay for

"Got this during the memorial day flash sale for $159. Ive been eyeing an aks74u for a long time and its hard to find a used one thats not a crappy tm based one. Mine shoots 330 fps and pretty fast with a 3s lipo. Internals are what I expected, standard piston and concave style piston head helps with the sound. 8mm cross slotted bushings, aluminum 3/4 cylinder. Cylinder head o ring a little too loose for comfort. Standard 19.6mm nozzle no o ring. Split style bucking. Best part was the neodymium motor so that automatically saves $30. I know going in theres always something to upgrade Internally so no surprise there. Externally it is very solid. Cyma midcaps wiggle a bit but wont fall out and feed well. Very sturdy and sleek wood handguard and pistol grip doesnt wiggle. Stock has a tiny amount of wiggle not enough worry me as this was my #1 concern for this replica. Orange tip came off with some wire cutters after splitting it down on both sides revealing the black flash hider. Selector switch is solid no issues there. The one thing common with cyma iron sights (idk about lct, e&l) is that on all aks74u they are hot garbage. Extremely useless as the front sight needs to come up like an inch or 2 for it to be align with the rear. I plan to remedy this with a red dot mounted at all times. NOTE if you plan to replace the bushings dont get the low profile ones unless you have other gears with longer shafts. I tried to install some shs low profile bushings and the spur gear needed so many shims the shaft barely entered the top bushing. The solution is the standard shs bushings, the thick flange metal gray ones not the black low profile ones. Here is my proposed upgrade list that I have ordered:
- Lonex ak 19.6mm nozzle
- Shs m120 spring (i use for outdoor)
- Shs 14 steel tooth piston w/ aluminum piston head
- standard shs 8mm bushings and reshim (they say cross slotted wears the gear shafts)
- shs double o ring v3 cylinder head
- maple leaf 60 degree mr. Hop with omega nub, clean the barrel
- kestrel v3 etu mosfet

Overall 4/5, would recommend at discount price wouldn't pay full $200 for it.

"Had mine for a few months now. Shoots well and is built sturdy but there are a few annoying problems.

Pros:
- Great range, got to around 170ft with .25s
- Wooden handguard looks great
- Stock wobble is unnoticeable
- Used in snow, rain and dirt without problems
- Hopup is very easily accessible
- Sturdy construction - metal feels hard to dent and hasn't scratched yet

Cons:
- Mag that came with the gun broke

- Sight came slanted to left

- Charging handle sounds awful (not a gbb though so not really a problem

- Muzzle break doesn't come off, even if you take the pin out like it says to in the instructions. Apparently there is a secondary pin inside the muzzle break that is inaccessible that the instructions don't mention? I stripped my threads trying to get it off

- If the charging handle is pushed inward into the gun, it will press against the lever used to adjust the hopup and snap it so be careful not to put any pressure on the charging handle

- The mechanism that keeps the dust cover spring loaded randomly shot out of the gun while the dust cover was open and I haven't found it since. Unfortunately this is also what keeps the upper handguard in place so now mine can just be pulled off

- If the button used to open the dust cover is pushed in too far it will also shoot out of your gun as you open the dust cover so be careful


I know I listed a lot of cons, and even though the gun does have a few problems none of them actually stop the gun from working. This gun feels really well built and I think it will last for years to come so I am still pleased with this purchase

"Solid gun. Full metal is nice, the wood is great, everything fees comfy. My only issue is that the mock charging handle can fall inward and put pressure on the hop adjustment, causing it to bend and potentially snap. The gun still functions with this issue just be aware of it.

"If externals are not a concern, it would be 5/5.

Overall I am happy with the purchase/ glad to have it be apart of my collection. There were no glaring problems, or red flags.

Internally it is a fantastic replica. The only internal upgrades I could see myself doing is installing a Mosfet like the V3 Perun Hybrid, installing a stainless steel barrel/ flat hop rubber & bucking. None of these upgrades are necessary for the gun to perform.

If you wanted to use this indoors; the upgrade priority would be changing the spring so that the FPS is under 350.

ISSUES:

-wobbly stock

-sights are slightly crooked (left leaning)

-upper wooden handguard was not fitted properly, but was easy enough to fix.

-my fault; but a 1800mah 7.4 volt stick type battery barely fits inside of the dust cover. It can be stuffed into the compartment; but blocks the charging handle from being used.

My 1100mah 11.1 volt stick type batteries fit significantly better; and allows the charging handle to be functional.

I dislike Hi-cap mags like the one that came with the gun; and would recommend that you purchase a cheap midcap option like the Blue Box AK mid caps. This is not enough of a reason to dock any rating, but prospective buyers should be aware.

My FPS OOB was 411-425 with .20 bb's. I used the Hi-cap to chrono.

"This is my first gun. I had no issues with it except the stock brike because the spot welds were weak. Luckily the hing is still incact but i have a replacement on the way. Im just chalking that up as a lemon. Unfortunately i had it downgraded for cqb which waived any manufacturer warranty and the 45 day warranty already expired. The wood doesn't look half bad. Its a good gun ti get you into the sport. I want to give it 5 stars but the broken stock is why i give it 4

"Love the gun shoots great!! Only thing I have to say is fps numbers are way off I was shooting around 240 with .32 with a 9.6 1600mah stick type battery. So more like 330 with .20s outta box

"I'm gonna keep it pretty simple, this thing is built like a Toyota Hilux. The steel construction is extremely sturdy, and the wood looks amazing! It performs great with stock internals, but it's an AK so it's gonna be pretty easy to upgrade if you want to.

Pros:
- Built like a tank
- Great stock performance (with potential for upgrades)
- Wood is lighter in color than the photograph (might be a con for some)
- Plastic blaze orange cover is real easy to get off of the black metal muzzle device
- Most AK parts will fit this thing.
- Still functions on par with regular assault rifles at medium range.
- It's a Cyma.

Cons:
- Muzzle device is a bit difficult to unscrew (I still haven't got mine all the way off yet)
- You have to break the blaze orange plastic to get it off the metal muzzle device.
- Lower handguard is a slight pain to remove.
- Folding stock has the tiniest bit of wobble (It's barely noticeable, and it could just be mine.)
- The Cyma magazine it comes with wobbles a bit in the magwell, can be fixed easily with electrical tape.
- You don't have one yet!

"When i got this gun the sights were of to left quite a bit shoots pretty fast but the grip is loose other than that works pretty good

"This is mostly going to be an external review of the gun because I've yet to test it's performance, but I must say, CYMA did a decent job on this one - As it's known, the gun is mostly stamped steel. every external metal part except the rear sight trunnion, top receiver release button, charging handle, stock clip (for retaining in folded position), scope mount, trigger, and front sight assembly is a durable steel alloy. The aforementioned parts are pot metal, but a seemingly decent quality pot metal that is mostly aluminum by the feel of it.

The handgrips are real wood (and decent quallity wood, not rubberwood or particleboard) and the finish on them is actually decent, not bright orange, not plastic-y brown, just an overall decent finish on it. The handgrip is the only polymer part externally and what's interesting about it is that it is a slight purple-ish color, designed to imitate plum furniture, which I thought was a beautiful touch.

The magazine leaves a bit to be desired, as it has a texture on it that will make it difficult to sand and stain to resemble real bakelite (not to mention the ribs along the side get in the way if you wanted to do that as well), so I'd say just pick up some different mags for it. The only issue I have with this gun is it's flash hider - unlike most people where out of the box, you can unscrew it from the adapter in order to fit a mock suppressor, the flash hider was glued onto the adapter, and a small allen set screw gouged the barrel underneath when I tried to unscrew it.

The flash hider locking pin also has glue in it for some rediculous reason, so you will have to work that back and fourth and use a generous amount of WD-40 on both ends in order to get it to not stick. The allen screw on the flash hider takes about a 1.5mm key to remove, and once you do, you will find it impossible to free the adapter inside the flash hider. I tried boiling it, I tried a hair dryer, the thing would not come loose, so long story short, get that allen screw out immidiately before trying to unscrew the barrel and you'll need to pick up another adapter or find a 14mm negative threaded suppressor or ak-74-compliant flash hider if you want to swap out the ugly blaze orange flash hider with something else.

Other than that, I absolutely love this gun's externals - everything feels rock solid and able to take abuse. I can't wait to get use out of it!

Pros:
- Almost all metal parts are a durable steel alloy
- The 'real wood' grips are actually real wood
- Aesthetic plum handgrip
- Rock solid externals that you'd have to be trying hard to break
- Hefty gun! (Could be a con for some)
- Little to no wobble in any removable parts
- Externally Upgradable
- Comfy to hold

Cons:
- Flash Hider is glued onto adapter, cannot be reed without taking the adapter off with it
- Adapter fixed in place with smallest possible allen screw, gouging the barrel is a risk if you don't notice it
- Flash Hider locking pin is seized up with glue for no good reason, will stay locked back until you work it enough to grind away the glue
- Blaze orange tip is impossible to remove without gouging metal - just buy a different flash hider or suppressor
- Magazine does not seem durable and is designed to be near-impossible to convert into a 'fakelite'
- Serial code on side stands out a bit and looks ugly

"Gun has solid body construction. Great finish, it's sturdy and everything is tight on the gun. The wood stock feels nice in the hand and is of great quality. It doesn't feel like a toy in anyway when you pick it up.
The gun was accurate and worked great for about 1000 rounds, I was running a 9.6v 1600 mah nimh. After about 1000 rounds it started having feed issues to the point it isn't useable tried multiple magazines results were the same. Bbs won't come out the barrel then 5 will come out at once. Some will roll out the barrel. Tried replacing hop up bucking this did not solve the issue. May have to pull apart the gear box.
Motor and compression is working fine. Not sure what is causing the issue.
Great quality body on the gun but disappointed I didn't get through even the first game with it.