Pearl's WA CQB-R review!

I decided to go with this instead of the Systema PTW CQB-R simply because I love GBB guns (and I could afford it being half the price of a PTW)

At 9:14am this morning the Post man delivered a good sized express package in my name. I knew exactly what it was, it was my long awaited Western Arms CQB-R gas blowback rifle. After I signed for the package I immediately brought it to my kitchen table, opened my knife, and began opening the package. I opened the box to reveal another plain cardboard box with a product code written in Sharpie. This box was the replica's box and because it was from overseas(WGCshop.com) it was turned inside out.



Once I opened up that box, I noticed a beautiful Western Arms replica with a WGCshop.com hat stuffed inside. When I moved the styrofoam block protecting the receiver of the replica, I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that there were no trademarks. I then noticed that part of the "dremmeled off trademarks" was starting to come off? I took my knife out again and I realized that the Colt trademarks were actually covered up by a textured black tape!






I took the replica out of its packaging and immediately got rid of the orange flash hider and replaced it with the original black flash hider (plastic)






I don't have any gas for this rifle right now so I'm going to have to bum some off of a buddy of mine for performance testing. BUT the WGC guys must have tested it or something because it did have some gas inside the mag. I pulled the trigger and there was a MASSIVE jolt as the bolt assembly flew back and forth. I would honestly say that the recoil easily matches three-fifths of the recoil produced by my real AR-15.

Even though the bolt and receiver are plastic, they are extremely durable. The plastic is a lot tougher than that of a Tokyo Mauri M4. The pistol grip is made out of the same material as the Systema PTW and appears to be compatible with RS grips. I have a Hogue grip waiting to be installed on it but I don't have a hex wrench long enough to reach inside to swap them out.

When I get the chance, I will rip the gun apart and let all you know if the inner barrel are AEG compatible and I will get some more pics of the internals of this beauty.




The mags for this little beast are roughly the same length, width, and weight as a loaded RS mag. From left to right, the mags are: WA M4, real AR-15 mag (loaded), and a CA highcap.






Disassembly is identical to the real thing, pop out the rear receiver pin, take the bolt and charging handle out, take the front pin out (if you decide to take it that far). The pin to take the recoil buffer (plastic) and spring out is slightly different than that of the real thing. On the real one, it is a pin looking thing but on this one, it is more of a lip than a pin but that doesn't really matter...






The bolt is a super hard plastic and even has a mock firing pin, I'm sure someone will make a metal bolt eventually, but I think the plastic one will just about last forever, I have no worries about it breaking.




The charging handle is a bit different than the real thing (again, not a problem, just an observation). On the real one, there is a hole where the gas tube runs through to reach the bolt, but on this one, where the hole is supposed to be, there is a little divot and the little rails on the RS charging handle are not on the WA, making it much easier to install.




The hopup adjustment is a little annoying to get to because you need to take the bottom forearm rail off to reveal the little adjustment dial. Once the hopup unit is set, it doesn't really need to be adjusted so I don't really see this as being a problem, just a tad annoying getting it set the first time.



In order to use a RS gas block, I had to slightly modify the ring that holds the fore grips together by re-boring the gas tube hole an eighth of an inch more (5 second fix with a drill press). I decided to temporarily go with a three rail gas block until I can get a hold of a decent flip up sight. Plus I can now use a rifle scope without it looking funky with a front sight post :P (I will be getting either a G&P ACOG or the KA "Leupold" CQB 1-3x scope thing to put on this thing once I recover some cash.)






This is a great little addition to ANY airsofter's collection and even RS enthusiast could look into this for training for their real AR-15s


More info will be added throughout the day so stay tuned for updates!