tyru
11-26-2003, 07:10 AM
Just got in a new TES and just had to tear it apart to see how everything was put together. Here are my thoughts so far.
Anodizing on mine was a matt black finish on the main body that looked very uniform and good. The polished anodized finish on the regulator, barrel, drop and other misc. parts was good but easily scratched. This is typical on guns of this price range.
The gage is useless. Using a 0-1500 psi gage on a gun meant to operate at 450 psi with a green zone in 700-800 range does not seem to make any sence. I put a regulator I knew to be set at 300 on the gun, gassed her up and the gage read 200. Repalce this gage with a good 0-1200 or 0-600 psi guage.
The gun I received was unlubricated, so make sure if you get a new one to take it apart and lube it up. By the way, there are no instructions in the maunual as to how to take the marker apart and what to do for regular maintenance.
Manual and documentation on the Drugun web site are very poor but if you have previous blowback experience, you'll know how to disassemble.
The drop is only adaquate for small CO2 bottles, as anything larger will hit the frame. The drop looks to be a standard dove tail and the screws are standard inline, so any standard drop should work. You will likley need to visit your local hardware store for longer bolts (4mm) for any other drop.
The regulator appears to be pretty good, It is a bottom inlet regulator with a hex screw adjustment on the side. Any standard regulator (bob long torperdo, palmers male, etc) will also screw into the VA. I have not verified if the steel braided hose is metric (which many people claim) or english 1/8".
The VA is a high flowing VA with a single large outlet hole to the valve. A spyder 15 deg Assault Block (15AB) will fit in the frame, however, the 15AB wobbles and leaks without having the third o-ring like the stock VA has. The only reason to go to the 15AB, is just for the 15 degree grip angle.
The valve is a high flowing valve (inlet oriface is about twice the diameter as a stock spyder valve) with a short cone shaped valve spring, likley to keep the valve pin more centered.
The striker appears to be the same as the thin striker on the spyders, but I have not confirmed. The striker has a cup seal on the end instead of standard orings. This will make it harder to service if the cup seal rips but likley provide a better seal and lower recocking pressure.
The bolt is an aluminum top cocking with a removable pin held in by a spring and a ball bearing. Turning the allen screw at the back of the bolt loosens/tightens the pin. It is not neccessary to pull the bolt pin when disassembling the marker. The "guts" of the marker are held in by a pin at the back. Removing this pin allows you pull the bolt, striker ..... from the body. Pulling the top cocking bolt pin allows you to quickly pull the bolt without all the other stuff to clean out any material.
Dragun added some decorative ridges to the back fo the stock bolt. These tend to be sharp and rubbed off the anodizing after the first couple of dry firing. The decorative touch is nice, but why not make them slightly smaller diameter so that they don't rub.
The maker takes spyder threaded barrels, which allows you to use a lot of aftermarket barrels.
Taking the grip off, there are three wires to the anti chop eye (ACE) opposite the ball detent in the barrel. I took off the grips thinking that the company would have provided a means to quick disconnect these wires, however, there appears to be no disconnect. It looks like you will need to remove the eye in order to separate the grip frame from the body.
Grips are plastic, large and do not fit your hand well. They need to replace these. The electronnics are nice and fairly easy to operate. The marker is a semi only, even though the display allows you to switch to a AUTO setting. This setting should have been labled "Turbo" instead. Also, I could not find a way to place the marker back into safe mode without shutting the triggger system off.
I dry fired the marker several times using HPA. The marker was not as loud as a stock spyder but not as quiet as other LP guns. The recoil is a bit heavy, but I have not adjusted the marker for FPS yet and may be firing a little hot.
Conclusion (so far): I like the marker but it has a few nagging issues that IMO should ahve been addressed by dragun. These generally include the pressure gauge, the operation manual, programming the LCD display correctly, drop forward and the grips.
I will be tweeking the gun in the next week and trying different after market parts like the rocket valve, drop forwards, new striker, and regulators plus some new bolts to see what works well.
Stay tuned
Anodizing on mine was a matt black finish on the main body that looked very uniform and good. The polished anodized finish on the regulator, barrel, drop and other misc. parts was good but easily scratched. This is typical on guns of this price range.
The gage is useless. Using a 0-1500 psi gage on a gun meant to operate at 450 psi with a green zone in 700-800 range does not seem to make any sence. I put a regulator I knew to be set at 300 on the gun, gassed her up and the gage read 200. Repalce this gage with a good 0-1200 or 0-600 psi guage.
The gun I received was unlubricated, so make sure if you get a new one to take it apart and lube it up. By the way, there are no instructions in the maunual as to how to take the marker apart and what to do for regular maintenance.
Manual and documentation on the Drugun web site are very poor but if you have previous blowback experience, you'll know how to disassemble.
The drop is only adaquate for small CO2 bottles, as anything larger will hit the frame. The drop looks to be a standard dove tail and the screws are standard inline, so any standard drop should work. You will likley need to visit your local hardware store for longer bolts (4mm) for any other drop.
The regulator appears to be pretty good, It is a bottom inlet regulator with a hex screw adjustment on the side. Any standard regulator (bob long torperdo, palmers male, etc) will also screw into the VA. I have not verified if the steel braided hose is metric (which many people claim) or english 1/8".
The VA is a high flowing VA with a single large outlet hole to the valve. A spyder 15 deg Assault Block (15AB) will fit in the frame, however, the 15AB wobbles and leaks without having the third o-ring like the stock VA has. The only reason to go to the 15AB, is just for the 15 degree grip angle.
The valve is a high flowing valve (inlet oriface is about twice the diameter as a stock spyder valve) with a short cone shaped valve spring, likley to keep the valve pin more centered.
The striker appears to be the same as the thin striker on the spyders, but I have not confirmed. The striker has a cup seal on the end instead of standard orings. This will make it harder to service if the cup seal rips but likley provide a better seal and lower recocking pressure.
The bolt is an aluminum top cocking with a removable pin held in by a spring and a ball bearing. Turning the allen screw at the back of the bolt loosens/tightens the pin. It is not neccessary to pull the bolt pin when disassembling the marker. The "guts" of the marker are held in by a pin at the back. Removing this pin allows you pull the bolt, striker ..... from the body. Pulling the top cocking bolt pin allows you to quickly pull the bolt without all the other stuff to clean out any material.
Dragun added some decorative ridges to the back fo the stock bolt. These tend to be sharp and rubbed off the anodizing after the first couple of dry firing. The decorative touch is nice, but why not make them slightly smaller diameter so that they don't rub.
The maker takes spyder threaded barrels, which allows you to use a lot of aftermarket barrels.
Taking the grip off, there are three wires to the anti chop eye (ACE) opposite the ball detent in the barrel. I took off the grips thinking that the company would have provided a means to quick disconnect these wires, however, there appears to be no disconnect. It looks like you will need to remove the eye in order to separate the grip frame from the body.
Grips are plastic, large and do not fit your hand well. They need to replace these. The electronnics are nice and fairly easy to operate. The marker is a semi only, even though the display allows you to switch to a AUTO setting. This setting should have been labled "Turbo" instead. Also, I could not find a way to place the marker back into safe mode without shutting the triggger system off.
I dry fired the marker several times using HPA. The marker was not as loud as a stock spyder but not as quiet as other LP guns. The recoil is a bit heavy, but I have not adjusted the marker for FPS yet and may be firing a little hot.
Conclusion (so far): I like the marker but it has a few nagging issues that IMO should ahve been addressed by dragun. These generally include the pressure gauge, the operation manual, programming the LCD display correctly, drop forward and the grips.
I will be tweeking the gun in the next week and trying different after market parts like the rocket valve, drop forwards, new striker, and regulators plus some new bolts to see what works well.
Stay tuned