This is a work in progress, and will be updated often...
Table of Contents:History
Ordering
Basic Information
First Impressions
Included
Rifle Specifications
Externals
Magazines
Performance
Internals
Modifications
Pros/Cons
Overall
HistoryIntroduced in 1988 as the Army's designated sniper weapon system, the M24 SWS the first bolt action rifle to see dedicated service with the US Army since the .30-06 caliber Springfield Model 1903. Chambered for 7.62mm NATO (.308 Winchester) the M24 is based on the Remington Arms 700 action and is very similar to the civilian 40X target rifle and the Marine Corp's M40 series rifle.
As with the M40, the M24 utilizes a custom-built fiberglass stock but with an adjustable cheek pad as well as an adjustable pad on the butt stock to adjust length of pull. Both utilize an internal 5 round magazine, are scoped, and are adaptable to the use of night vision devices and weapon scopes. The greatest difference between the two is the fact that the M40 is a "short" action and the M24 is a "long" action. The reason for this difference is the Army ultimately wanted to adopt a more powerful .30 caliber cartridge (such as the .300 Winchester Magnum) which would require the "long" action to extract the larger cartridges in its re-chambered sniper rifles.
The M24 Sniper Weapon System is a bolt-action rifle chambered to fire 7.62mm NATO. The Kevlar-reinforced fiberglass stock is custom built and incorporates an adjustable cheek pad and as well as an adjustable pad on the butt stock to adjust length of pull. The 24" barrel is bolted to the full-length aluminum bedding block in the stock to reduce vibration and loss of zero. The scope is a Leupold & Stevens Mk. IV M3A day telescope and is mounted on the rifle using Mk. IV rings and base.
Paraphrased from the following source:
http://tech.military.com/equipment/view ... rifle.htmlOrdering The rifle in this review was obtained from Airsoft GI, taking advantage of a holiday sale of 15% off total order plus free shipping, Airsoft GI provided acceptable customer service for the sale. The retail price of the ECHO 1 M28 is $175.00. This appears to be right in line as a direct competition with the UTG and WELL L96 rifles, to include the WELL MB04 and MB05 platforms. The ECHO 1 M28 price also comes in far under the price range of well established Tokyo Marui VSR-10 platforms. Although comparing Tokyo Marui to ECHO 1 is like comparing apples to oranges, the platform rifles are similar in size and appearance, and this was deemed appropriate for the comparison.
http://www.airsoftgi.com/product_info.p ... ts_id=7404Basic InformationThe ECHO 1 M28 is a bolt action sniperās rifle. The rifle has adjustable hop-up, accessed by a slide lever on the left side of the barrel. The rifle is equipped with a functioning safety switch, which can be engaged at any point of rifle usage. This rifle can, in NO-WAY, accept real steel components, and therefore cannot be made to fire real rounds. It is a simple spring piston design.
First ImpressionsThe M28 is packaged in a half Styrofoam, half cardboard container, with each rifle component having its own separate compartment for storage and shipment. Out of the box, the M28 grabs your attention as the weight is impressive, and the gun feels quite solid. The stock makes up much of the weight and is nicely balanced. The exterior is textured nicely for a comfortable grip. The barrel, trigger group and bolt assembly groups are pre-assembled and also feel quite solid. The barrel assembly and stock assembled with three screws, two of which are socket head cap screws for mounting at the rear and middle of the assembly, and the third is the screw mount for the bipod. There are no creaks shakes or wiggles, and the build quality seems to me to be the best I have seen yet, for the price range. I say this as I only have two other Sniperās rifle platforms to compare this rifle to; and these are the WELL and TSD VSR-10ās, and the WELL, UTG and Tokyo Marui L96ās. The biggest short-fall of this rifle lies with the two supplied magazines, which I cover in-depth further down in this review. The M28 brings back very nice military styling with this new rifle. This rifle is completely void of trades.
IncludedIncluded in the box is a two 18-round mid capacity magazines, a small speed loader, an Allen wrench, bipod, barrel extension adapter, un-jamming rod which also doubles as a cleaning rod (see picture). There are no manuals supplied with this product.
External Fit and Finish
The gun uses a solid stock, which closely mimics the real m24 in shape size and weight. The stock has a texture to it that can only be described as āRhino-Liner.ā The stock is also ambidextrous and seems to fit comfortably deep into the palm of the shooters hand, as seen by the width in the palm area in the picture below. The barrel assembly is fluted, and appears to be of very nice quality. The paint on the barrel is easily chipped. The barrel assembly mounts solid to the stock, with the afore mentioned screws.
The bipod, when mounted seems a little loose, but works as designed. It remains to be decided whether I will run with the bipod attached, as the rifle is hefty without it. It should be noted, that the rifle balanced nicely just in front of the trigger guard, with the bipod attached. This is due in part to the nice adjustable shoulder pad at the rear of the stock. With the bulk of the weight aft, and balance at or near the leading hand, the rifle is not front heavy. This should keep the player from getting fatigued from aiming for long lengths of time, since the rifle is not overly front heavy. With the supplied bipod and without bbās, the ECHO 1 M28 weighs in at a hefty 9 lbs.
The bolt handle seems a little small, but appears to be quality made. It has a much more comfortable feel than the VSR-10 handle. The only wobble noted is in the bolt assembly, as it would seem that the bushings surrounding the bolt are a little loose in tolerance. The bolt also makes noises that I find hard to describe; but the sounds are related to the spring, as it gets bound during the charging operation.
There are no iron sights on the rifle, but the rifle is outfitted with a small top mount weaver rail that will accept most any rifle scope. The scope and rings selected should allow for use with larger goggles such as Arena Flak Jakās or a paintball masks.
The safety selector lever sits on top of the rifle, at the back of the charging handle, and is activated by the shooters thumb. Although not ambidextrous, as I am a righty who shoots lefty, the selector lever works very crisply into each position.
The orange safety tip is removable, with a little force, so that the player can install barrel extensions and mock silencers using the supplied adapter. But once the orange tip is removed, the player also has a very nice ābullā barrel sniper rifle, should the use of a barrel extension or silencer not be employed. It should be noted, that the orange tip appeared to be mounted to the rifle tip while the paint on the barrel was still wet. I mention this because the tip was removed with little or no effort, and the process removed some of the paint exposing some of the raw metal surface underneath. I will also mention here, that when you unscrew the barrel tip from the rifle, you will see that the exposed inner barrel is full length and fits flush with the outer barrel.
The fit and finish of all components are, are quite acceptable in quality. There are no gaps between any components, and everything is held together very securely. Color wise, all painted parts are a flat black, and the plastic components are a very, very dark black. The finish applied to the metal components does not hold up well, and has so far not resisted scratching.
Trademarks The ECHO 1 M28 is utterly naked of trademarks or text, save for the small sticker over the hop adjust slide lever on the receiver.
MagazinesThere are two magazines included in the ECHO 1 M28 package. Sadly, the magazines are by and far the short-fall of the ECHO 1 M28. The magazines are a stark contrast to the rest of the rifle, as they do not share the care and quality that was put into the rifle platform over all. The magazines are made of the cheapest light weight materials, that require some care in handling. The magazine operation appears to jam in the spring release operation, so installation into the rifle is not straight forward, the player will need to take some time when installing so as not to damage the magazine. I have made two videos that can better communicate the issues with these magazines. Should the magazines fail, I will produce a third that will document the fallout. Once installed, the magazines appear to work as designed, but time will tell.
The magazines have are a design that was attempted to merge two well know designs into one; The VSR-10 and the WELL/UTG L96 magazines. See the pics and video below for more detail.
UTG mag on the left, and a VSR-10 mag on the right of the M28 magazine
The loading nozzle of the UTG magazine
The loading nozzle of the VSR-10 magazine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZOJkDTyzx4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jlwwncN_XUPerformanceThe ECHO 1 M28 is advertised as the hottest shooting rifle out of the box, firing a hot 500+ (plus) fps using .20 bbās!! I just received a new Chrony, so I will be testing the performance of the rifle over time with various weight bbās. As I continue to evaluate this rifle, I will update this section with performance results
Pics of performance review to follow testingā¦Internal BuildI will not open the rifle until the warranty has expired (30-days). Until then, I can report that the rifle is sporting a measured 6.03 tight bore barrel. Although measuring the internal diameter of the barrel at one end with a digital caliper is not conclusive, it is encouraging.
The trigger box is very familiar, as it is the 45 degree trigger borrowed from the VSR-10 family. The trigger box and components are all metal, and lends itself to all kinds of trigger tuning. Although not necessary, the trigger could really benefit from a two stage configuration. This would have been a nice compliment to the all metal construction.
Firing the gun is a nominal!! The pull on the bolt is quite strong, and the pull on the trigger is extremely light. I like that; no resistance on the trigger will allow the player to make more consistent shots on target.
ModificationsCurrently I have no modifications planned for this rifle. Not to mention, that the platform is so new, that non exist for much of the rifle, although Airsoft GI reports that their upgraded trigger components will fit with little or no modifications. Any do it yourself (DIY) mods that I perform will be added here, but other than a thorough cleaning, there is little DIY mods to do. I will point out that the ECHO 1 M28 comes with barrel spacers pre-installed, so there will be no need for DIY electrical tape spacers to be added.
Pros/ConsPros
Strong external build
Solid design
The rifle is well balanced
Adjustable stock
Spare magazine
Addition of barrel extension adapter
Cocking handle is strong
Hits hard at 500+ stock fps (not yet chronoād)
Lower MSRP than established bolt action rifles with expensive upgrades
Comes with rail mount
Can take abuse and keep rockān
ConsMagazines are sub-standard
No manual supplied with the rifle
No trades (does not really matter to me that muchā¦)
500 fps stock velocity is a bit high for stock components. There is a concern of part durability with the strong spring
Possibly no replacement parts available so early in the release
The rifle is heavy at 9 lbs
OverallThe ECHO 1M28 is a solid choice for anyone in the market for a hard hitting sniperās rifle! The build quality is very nice, although quite plain, and the rifles performance is quite exceptional. The M28 also looks to be a solid upgrading platform, especially as the rifle gains in popularity. Hopefully, someone will pick up on the platform and start pumping out some nice durability upgrades. I personally feel that this platform would be a better choice for upgrading, as it is such a solid and sharp looking design. Future purchasers of this rifle will not be disappointed in their investment.
My PlatformPictured below are some of the external modifications, if you can all it that; they included the inclusion of a Madbull āBlacksideā mock silencer, and a UTG 4X40 illuminated reticule scope. For the near future I will add a nice M700 style sling, and that will be all that this rifle needs.
I will update the thread as I get additional helpful information, my goal is to shoot this rifle in stock form until it breaks, however long that may be. With any luck, when and if I do need a replacement part, the rifle will have lasted long enough that replacement components will be availableā¦ thus the dark side of Beta testing a virgin product.