ARES Airsoft Full Size L1A1 Battle Rifle Airsoft AEG
(Color: Synthetic Furniture)

"Purchased the ARES full size L1A1 AEG with synthetic stock on 6 November 2024 and finally bought a 9.6v, 1600 mAh nunchuck NiMH battery/charger. I like the way the spring loaded butt plate pulls out and rotates to expose the ample size battery chamber in the stock. I find this to be the easiest battery install of any AEG that I own.

Mag loading is easy with the supplied tube/rammer. It was too cold to shoot outside, so I only test fired it at a range of about 25 ft in the basement. It has a nice semi-auto trigger and good power; the shots cut a ragged hole, which impressed me greatly. The only thing missing is the .308 recoil. I look forward to testing the range and accuracy, which isn't really critical for my purposes. I have quality scoped springer pellet rifles in .177 and .22 for accurate distance shooting.

The beauty, weight, and feel of this rifle is as others described. The one letdown is the threaded orange plastic muzzle and lack of any available flash hider for it, which leaves an otherwise faithful example of the L1A1 look unfinished. The actual FN FAL or a variant has been on my list of actual firearms; however, my state bans the sale or transfer of the variant. Therefore, the airsoft model is as close as I will get to owning one of these iconic weapons. I'm totally satisfied with the purchase and service from Evike.

This rifle fills a niche in a collection of historically significant firearms ranging from revolvers, semi-auto pistols, submachineguns, semi-auto rifles, squad assault machine guns, that covers late 1800 through modern firearms. In addition to the collector value, the realistic functioning allows me to use them as training aids for instructing marksmanship, as well as to safely demonstrate of disarming and weapon retention techniques.

"Reviewing based on the wood version.

This gun is stupidly beautiful. It's ridiculous. Pictures do not do it justice. I wanted this gun for months before buying it, and I watched tons of videos and drooled over pictures the whole time.

But I was still not prepared for how gorgeous it is. The wood they chose is perfect - rustic and textured. I swear it even smells like an old firearm, the scent you find at a war museum. Slap a scope and flash hider on it and you'll be inundated with compliments. It also feels solid, from the mags to the stock to the weight balance.

If you want a really beautiful gun, it's hard to do better than this. The visuals alone are worth the price for me.

That said, the dirty rumors about the internals are mostly true. They're about what you'd expect in a $200 AEG. When I took it to my first game, my rounds weren't hopping, and I found that the barrel was seated sideways, so the nub was missing the barrel window. The hop up wheel also doesn't have a lot of friction, making it hard to hold its position if you're using lighter ammo. The nub itself was horribly cheap. The battery compartment is tiny (though slightly larger in the black version I hear). The selector switch got loose after two days. The trigger isn't as bad as some people say but also not great, and the gearbox isn't reinforced, despite the gun being a likely candidate for DMR builds.

But these have all been worth the hassle to fix. I even went further and HPA'd it with a PolarStar F2 - Rodd from PolarStar helped me take measurements and determined you can do it with the Ares M4 F2 kit, replacing the nozzle with an F2 #15. Now it shoots like a dream.

I realize that most people will want a high performing gun out of the box when spending north of $600, and that's fair. This isn't the gun for you in that case. But if you want a sexy L1A1/FAL that'll take your breath away, it's worth the extra work.

Side note: The FN FAL scope mount that Evike suggests does NOT fit correctly, and will wobble. You have to buy the one that Ares makes.

"It’s a beautiful gun, wondering if the gear box will be ok with a LiPo battery,