9 minute read
ARMOURY: CYMA 096 PLATINUM
CYMA CM.096 PLATINUM CYMA
WHEN IS AN AR NOT AN AR? WHEN ITS AN AR/AK HYBRID OF COURSE! HAVING LOOKED CLOSELY AT THE SR-47 IN ISSUE 111, THIS MONTH BILL GETS HIS HANDS ON A MORE PRICE-FRIENDLY AEG ALTERNATIVE THAT’S APPEARED IN THE LATEST CYMA 09 SERIES - AND FINDS IT VERY MUCH TO HIS LIKING!
Ihave to admit that (like many of you) I am fascinated by all aspects of firearms development and having spent some quality time now with the BOLT SR-47, I have to say that the familiar feel of the AR design but with AK magazines and loading/unloading drills has really endeared it to me. Although, in my opinion, the BOLT is a super AEG, the fact is that you’re going to need to drop iro £400 for the URX 3.1 version and I have found that it’s a little picky on what magazines it likes to devour.
As regular readers will know though, I’ve been following the rollout of the latest CYMA 09 series of AEGs and been mightily impressed at what they offer for the money. I do honestly believe that this series offers tremendous value without any compromise in performance, and longer duration testing has proved to me that they are going to give continued great service as they bed in.
I’m lucky enough to have a range, albeit only a 30m one, at home, so even during the lockdown period I have been able to continue testing. With a longer-term goal in mind, I’ve been testing a whole bunch of AEGs and GBBs during the last few weeks and I’m soon going to need to order another case of BBs! I’ll be feeding back my findings on all of them in the coming months, not simply as a review of a new gun (we can only report on how the gun is, and performs, as new from the box in this format) but as a model that’s been used hard. Personally, I find this more valid and more useful to you as players that will want to use your chosen rifle, carbine, or pistol again and again!
With that said, I’ve been blowing the heck out of the 097A and 098A (this has now been physically restricted to semi-only as a DMR) and both have had upwards of 15K BBs through them …and more in the case of the 097A! Both AEGs are operating and shooting just fine and, as the hops have now bedded, I’m more than happy with accuracy. I want to get the 098A onto a longer-distance range again to see what it’s “legs” are like now but that will still have to wait a while longer.
So, with both of these models performing well there was one other model in the 09 series that I really wanted to try and that was the CM.096. CYMA already do a passable SR-47 replica, the 093, but what caught my eye in the new series was the 096 and this is because it replicates another A/AK hybrid, namely the CMMG Mk47 “Mutant”!
MUTATED TO PERFORM
Launched back in 2015, Central Missouri Machine Gun, or CMMG as we best know them, wanted to create a shooter’s rifle that took the best attributes of the AR
platform and married those up seamlessly with the utility and proven effectiveness of the 7.62x39mm AK cartridge. In the words of CMMG Production Manager Tyson Bradshaw at the time: “(We wanted) consumers to have a reliable, USmade rifle that could properly handle the dimensions of the 7.62x39 mm cartridge. To do this properly, it required CMMG to build the rifle around the caliber. Using AK
magazines was an easy decision to make, because they are known to be some of the most reliable magazines available that work properly with the tapered cartridge”
CMMG decided to call their hybrid “The Mutant” and whilst this description may fill your head with thoughts of malformed and mismatched horrors from the void, what they did was to create a rifle where each part was carefully selected to provide the standards of performance that modern shooters expect.
When you first look at the “Mutant”, or Mk47, you might be rightly mistaken that it’s just another AR; the railed upper receiver, buffer tube, charging handle, fire selector, stock, pistol grip and rail scream out “.308 AR” but the lower - and especially the flattened-out “industrial style” magwell with a paddle magazine release - begins to tell quite another story! Of course, when you seat that big old AK “banana mag” into the magwell all becomes clear. The CMMG receivers for the Mk47, uppers, and lowers are actually a hybrid AR platform though and they are not compatible with standard AR-15 or .308 WIN platforms. featuring the RML6 M-LOK rail. This is a super-neat package but frankly must be a real handful to use, just like the short AKSU variants!
The original Mutant shipped from CMMG with a single Magpul AK-type 30-round P-Mag. Externally it featured the CMMG RKM KeyMod front rail, with an upper and lower receiver manufactured from 7075-T6 billet aluminium. Now referred to as the RESOLUTE 100, 200 and 300 by CMMG, the MK47 lineup is engineered without any compromise on quality. The “basic” RESOLUTE 100 rifle comes with a 16-inch barrel and is designed for balance, accuracy and manoeuvrability. The latest models feature a CMMG A2 Muzzle Comp, Billet 7075-T6 AL Mid-Size upper, Billet 7075-T6 AL Lower, and an RML15 M-LOK rail. You also get (as standard) an A2 style pistol grip and “LE” style six position stock. The RESOLUTE has a Hard Coat Anodized finish for the receivers and rail.
CMMG also offer a “Mk47” in their dedicated SBR/AR Pistol range these days in the form of the “BANSHEE 300”, which benefits from all the plus-points of the full-length rifles whilst cutting down barrel length and
Although Mk47s ship from CMMG with that single Magpul P-Mag , they state that the rifle should also work with any standard AK magazine and of course good quality AK magazines, both new and surplus, are easily found these days.
ELECTRIFIED!
So, this is quite the story as far as I’m concerned… A rifle that has moved on from the original and incredibly rare “military” KAC hybrid, to something that is a bit more mainstream “shooter and looter” and is available for sale in the USA right now! If you want something that, like the real deal, has all the modern ergonomics and familiar control functions of an AR but is a bit different, then you’re
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AWARD WINNER
going to like the CYMA CM.096 …a lot!
As part of the CYMA “Platinum” series, these AEGs are produced to a different specification from some of their cheaper models, with the receivers, stock tube, outer barrel, fire selector, magazine release, trigger, charging handle and the front and rear sight all manufactured in top-grade alloy. Each model also has a unique serial number.
What you get with the 096 is a rifle-length AEG with
the “correct” 16-inch external barrel (with a precision 6.03mm inner barrel), 14.5-inch M-LOK rail, A3 flat top upper receiver and a dedicated lower receiver that will accommodate most AK magazines and even drums! From the box you also get a polymer 6-position sliding stock with easy battery compartment access, an ergonomic polymer pistol grip, folding sight set, the new CYMA three-prong
flash-hider (which looks uncannily like the new SIG model!) with a 14mm CCW thread, an ambidextrous sling plate, and a great-looking, almost “casket-style”, 160BB polymer magazine.
The 096 comes in the new CYMA E-EDITION & HIGHSPEED configuration and, as standard, has a velocity of around 1.48 Joule/400fps on a .20g BB which, in combination with a LiPo battery, gives a ROF around 25rps and a super trigger response. Internally things are as tidy as
on the outside, as you get a reinforced dedicated gearbox frame with quick spring change system, processor unit with built-in MOSFET, a steel tooth polycarbonate piston, CNC machined steel gear set (ratio: 13:1), CNC machined aluminium silent cylinder and piston head set, and 8mm bearings. There is also a high-speed motor as standard to rock things along nicely!
Weighing in at 2990g and at 865mm long (950 mm with the stock at full extension), the 096 feels great and shoulders well; it’s an AEG you could carry all day long and over the last month I have really warmed to it! I’ve found that, unlike some AEG “hybrids”, the 096 will happily work with every single brand of AK magazine I have in the armoury, which of course was part of the “design brief” for the real thing!
As per my request, the 096 I received from Taiwangun had been set to 1.13 Joule/350fps on a .20g BB at source and this remained pretty constant through the chrono. As I’m a “midcap player” I was delighted with the polymer 160BB model as standard and this fed flawlessly throughout testing. In terms of hitting the target at 30m, this was not a problem and once the hop settled in POA/ POI were pretty darn spot on! Like the 097 and 098 I’m certain this will improve further once the 096 has had time to fully bed in fully.
So, another winner from CYMA/Taiwangun? Yup, I’d say so and with a price of just over £200 at the time of writing this review, as far as AR/AK hybrids go this is a real bargain! As usual, time will tell if the initial performance continues as it should but if the other 09 series AEGs are anything to go by, then the 096 should steam along nicely and will be another superb, yet relatively inexpensive AEG to buy and own.
As Taiwangun have kindly agreed to allow us to place these new models into the “Airsoft Action Long Term Test Pool” once I can get back on the range more often I’ll start to run all the models through some extended “torture testing! And report back in full.
For now though, if you do fancy something different from the average AR, something a bit “Red Cell”, then the CYMA CM.096 Platinum AEG could be the very thing you’ve been searching for and you can check it out by visiting www.taiwangun.com. AA
