By aznplayaflavah
Published: 21 November, 2003
TM G3A3 as it arrived off the Fed-Ex truck
After owning the TM M16 and XM177, I had the itch for something different. After seeing that everybody had a spring Armalite variant of his or her own, I got the urge to buy a TM G3. After finding a good deal on Ebay, $105 shipped, I took the plunge.
Appearance
Flawless trademarks adorn the rifle, after removing the putty, of course
The minute I saw the lovely brown box at my door, I proceeded to tear open the packaging and get to my new rifle. The box was no different than any other Marui springer rifle box, brown styrene with the brown cover. Now, I knew the rifle came with the stock off, so I expected the box to be somewhat small, but due to the size of the G3 series of rifles, the box was still a very generous size. Contained within the box were rifle, stock, and screws for the stock, 200 .25g bbs, cleaning/unjamming rod, and magazine.
After picking off the plastic-like putty with ease, the trademarks revealed were flawless, just like its real steel/AEG counterpart. Pleased with my initial once-over of the rifle, I continued to inspect it closer. As expected from TM, the build quality was excellent, very solid and rigid. There was only one problem with the whole rifle, the flash hider. The entire front sight/outer barrel assembly is molded from one piece of plastic. Perhaps this has only happened to me, but the front barrel appeared to be a bit crooked and leaning to the left when looked at vertically. It doesn’t seem to affect the performance, but it’s a problem I’ll address later in this review.
Not very many metal parts, but the rifle still has a good heft to it, especially in the stock. The only easily visible metal part would be the carry handle and mount. It took a bit getting used to, but the carry handle is a nice touch to an already superb rifle. This is another point that will be addressed later in this review.
The worst part of the appearance, for me at least, would have to be the shiny plastic on the magazine/receiver and the OD green furniture (foregrip, pistol grip, and stock). It just made the rifle quite unattractive to me, so I decided to take care of this the minute I got the rifle, yet another point addressed later in this review.
Performance
After taking this rifle out and plinking around my backyard for an hour or so, I am very impressed with its performance. I am taking very accurate shots from distances up to 60 ft. True, the HFC XM177 can take shots up to 90 or so feet, but this is with a 3-4 foot grouping. The G3 can also take shots from 90 feet with a grouping of 2-2.5 feet, depending on conditions, of course. At 40 ft., 4-shot groupings of 3 in. are easily achieved. At 60 ft., the area expands to 4-shot groupings of 4~5 in.
Keep in mind that the TM spring rifles use .25g bbs, and have better accuracy than the DPMS A-15, and others like it. Due to the much stronger spring, longer and tighter barrel, heavier bbs, and overall better build quality, the consistency is amazing compared to more “lower end” spring rifles. Unlike other, cheaper rifles, the quality of the plastic used in the replica is very solid. Despite the utter lack of metal parts, this rifle feels much more sold than an HFC M-16, for example. This is definitely a contributing factor in accuracy, since the rifle feels so stable when shouldered.
Since at the time of this review, I have no access to a chronograph, I will administer the “Coke Can Test”. The G3 appears to fire with the power of a stock AEG, having the ability to puncture the side of a coke can with only 1-2 shots.
Picture on left shows 4-shot groupings at 40 ft. Picture on right shows groupings at 60 ft.
Although the accuracy is superb, and the build is excellent, a gripe I have is about the magazine. It can hold ~40 bbs, but it needs to be wound, and there is no stopper, so carrying extra magazines would be difficult. Although covering the top with a piece of tape would work, I just feel it kills the realism of Airsoft. (Not to mention, extra mags for the G3 are near impossible to find.)
The sights are always a weak point in many rifles, replica or not. I honestly don’t like iron sights on any rifle, and I usually don’t like diopter sights either. This problem was easily remedied with a scope. However, if you choose to use the standard sights, the rear drum is adjustable for windage, but not elevation.
Modifications
I am not equipped to do some of the modifications like Hanzo does, but I always have my usual mods. First off, I hated the OD green furniture; it just makes the rifle so unattractive. Since I couldn’t simply replace the parts with black parts, I used a can of Dupli-Color flat black and gave the rifle a once over. Now, the rifle is a nice, non-glare, flat black. And of course, I painted in the S-E-F lettering afterwards.
Second, I added an NC-star 3-9x40mm silver scope. Now, mounting the scope to the rifle obviously requires a rail, and the G3 doesn’t have one. The problem with the G3 series in general is that the G3 rifles require the most expensive scope mounts. The Marui ones are $45 at the cheapest, and the ICS Hi-Lo mount was $49.99, so I opted for the Classic Army low profile mount for $19.99 from airsplat.com. Since I used the low profile mount, I needed high mount rings as well, but those came with the scope, so it was no real issue for me. Due to the nature of where the scope will have to be mounted, no matter how high the rings are the iron sights will not be able to be any use unless the scope is removed. Note that if you mount a scope, you cannot use the carry handle either, you must remove the carry handle mount and reverse the carry handle so that it does not collide with the scope when in use.
Scope mounted on rifle and reversed carry handle with scope.
The mod I always have to have on my rifles is a mock suppressor. Now making one for this rifle was a bit difficult seeing as how I could not remove the flash hider. Ok, I said there was a problem with the flash hider, and here it is. It appears that in molding the flash hider assembly, it was molded a bit crooked. Now, it doesn’t affect accuracy without a suppressor, when one is put on there, the mounting barrel on the suppressor is crooked as well, which might cause bbs to collide with the side of the suppressor. I fixed this problem by using a somewhat risky method. Using my trusty zippo, I heated the outer barrel and slowly bent it straight again. Problem solved, I no longer have that issue, and made a suppressor to mount. Now, the hole is rather large, but that is simply because of the fact that I cannot remove the flash hider to use a smaller diameter pipe to use as the inner mounting barrel. The suppressor is held on by a set screw.
Suppressor mounted onto flash hider.
In the future I plan to add a bi-pod as the rifle is currently VERY back heavy due to the stock and scope.
Completed G3A3 in all its glory!
Overall
Overall, this is a great rifle. Although I wish it could have the triangular foregrip and the pump like the ones on the Armalite versions, it has great range and a very solid feel. If you are a serous spring collector or a spring skirmisher, this would be a definite buy.
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