SMALL GUN, BIG FUN!

HAVING ONLY JUST FINISHED OFF HIS LONGER TERM ASSESSMENT OF THE LCT AIRSOFT LCK74MN AND ZENITCO-THEMED Z-SERIES RANGE OF ACCESSORIES IN ISSUE 165, STEWBACCA WASN’T GIVEN ANY ROOM TO REST ON HIS LAURELS BEFORE OUR FRIENDS AT LCT INFORMED HIM OF THEIR LATEST RELEASE IN THEIR GROWING AK FAMILY, THE SMALL BUT BEAUTIFULLY FORMED ‘MOE’, AND SOON ONE WAS IN HIS HANDS IN TAIPEI! SO WHAT DID ONE OF THE BIGGEST GUYS IN THE AA CREW MAKE OF ONE OF THE SMALLEST AKS IN LCT’S EVER-EXPANDING LINEUP? AS THE MAN HIMSELF WOULD SAY “READ ON FELLOW SHOOTERS”!

MOE, so I’m told, is a Japanese name which implies something cute and petite; I’m inclined to agree given that one of the many Japanese lady friends I made at university bore the same name, and having joined me airsofting way back then she was also adorable and formidable, wielding submachine guns with a maniacal grin of pure joy that was infectious!

Thus, LCT’s newest addition to their AK range bears the same name - because it’s an ultra-short SMG or PDW style platform that the US’ ATF would likely term a ‘pistol’ because of their largely incomprehensible anti-fun rules!

bunch of additional goodies in the main box along with the PK403 LCK-16 electric drum magazine which adds another 670g of weight empty; a standard magazine release and trigger guard which are included within the main package as the MOE ships with the PP-19 magazine adaptor installed as standard and a PK275 50 round midcap, but can easily be changed out modularly to feed from 5.45mm style magazines like the LCK74MN I already have on hand; most handy to give you great versatility off the bat.

only being 366mm long in its stock format, the ultrastubby wood fore-end gives you somewhere to grab the front assuming you use either the standard 9mm PP-19 or 5.45mm AK74 style magazines; however fitting the drum mag to such a small platform makes it a bit of a handful to get to grips with!

This wooden fore-end can also be removed easily by unthreading the large diameter twin chambered muzzle brake, revealing a 24mm threaded section beneath which allows for the attachment of muzzle devices such as suppressors; Bella at LCT was also good enough to include the PP19 Silencer with already racks up a 2.2kg heft despite which allowed me to immediately install the ZPT3 stanchion stock which matches the receiver’s overall length nicely when fully extended and tightened, giving me a great-feeling setup that is compact but comfortable to shoulder and run around with. The stock also includes a sling point on its rear underside that allowed me to put my typical Fastex QD buckle to easily attach it to my plate carriers or chest rigs.

TANK-LIKE INSIDE AND OUT!

Internally you get the same ‘built like a tank’ gearbox with 9mm bearings, featuring a polycarbonate and steel piston, a QD spring change system, all coupled with a 22,000 RPM motor that is also compatible with ETUs of your choice should you wish to increase the responsiveness.

The battery storage is of course above the gearbox under the folding top cover; this is riveted to the front trunnion permanently making it easier to manipulate it and not have some of the same looseness of the typical AK top covers; my example came with a Dean’s / ‘T-plug’ connector on the wire loom out of the box… everyone is moving with the times on that front at least.

The barrel is a very short brass 143mm affair that still delivers surprisingly good output and ballistics, allowing me to easily reach out across rooms in the various CQB places I employed it, easily putting BBs out to the 40-50m range without much issue. The only drawback I found in this respect is the iron sights, the front one of course being part of the front trunnion and faux gas block, while the rear one is permanently affixed to the folding top cover; said cover does have some ‘play’ in it in terms of seating and latching at the rear with the usual sprung loaded button, so once a battery is fitted it tends to push the cover up and thereby ‘nose-down’ the rear sight meaning that you always end up shooting a bit high compared to your sight picture in my experience. Having the tracer fitted certainly helps alleviate those issues at least, and using it at close range allows some level of simple ‘point shooting’ capability anyway; however lacking the typical left side receiver ‘shoe’ mounted rail for cantilever attachments you can’t readily add a red dot to improve matters on that front.

My teammate also runs a cut down customised LCT AK74MN which features the same rear sight block welded to the top cover of his variant, and has a customised picatinny rail installed to allow a red dot or similar, so there are potential opportunities to install something if you feel the need; thus far I’ve been happily blatting away without much worry given the close quarters nature of the games I played with it, and clearly it’s the main intent for such a short package.

My own example was very consistently putting out 0.78 Joule/290 fps/88m/s on 0.2g BLS BBs with almost no variance, and this was more than ample for using 0.25g and 0.28g tracer BBs fed from either the electric drum mag, or the standard 140 round mid cap magazines. I took to loading these with ten BBs of red at the bottom and the rest green on top, a system which easily allowed me to predict when my ammunition was about to run out and prevent me running dry! Being used to gas blowback guns for most of my time here in Taiwan, a lack of a last round bolt-hold-open can take you unawares with an AEG!

Into The Wild

Our first outing that I took the ‘Moe’ along with me for also happened to be the first time we visited an old hotel site south of Taipei overlooking one of the local reservoirs, and we got to work in our usual fashion moving tactically down corridors and storming stairways.

The ‘Moe’ acquitted itself excellently given its very short and pointable profile, the standard AK74 magazines allowed me to grip the fore-end fairly easily and manoeuvre through the myriad doorways and tight spaces we had to deal with, putting BBs down readily and ‘following the tracers’ in to targets merrily, and giving my teammates the exciting ‘STAR WARS’ treatment and allowing me to point out targets with the old ‘follow my tracer’ trick… although of course they do work both ways… so I nonetheless got eliminated at times.

Using the drum mag lead to me supporting it with my hand splayed across the front face to pull the whole setup into my shoulder, and to also actuate the

MOE SHIPS WITH THE PP-19 MAGAZINE ADAPTOR INSTALLED AS STANDARD AND A PK-275 50 ROUND MIDCAP, BUT CAN EASILY BE CHANGED OUT MODULARLY TO FEED FROM 5.45MM STYLE MAGAZINES LIKE THE LCK74MN I ALREADY HAVE ON HAND; MOST HANDY TO GIVE YOU GREAT VERSATILITY OFF THE BAT”

“OUR FIRST OUTING THAT I TOOK THE ‘MOE’ ALONG WITH ME FOR ALSO HAPPENED TO BE THE FIRST TIME WE VISITED AN OLD HOTEL SITE SOUTH OF TAIPEI OVERLOOKING ONE OF THE LOCAL RESERVOIRS, AND WE GOT TO WORK IN OUR USUAL FASHION MOVING TACTICALLY DOWN CORRIDORS AND STORMING STAIRWAYS. THE ‘MOE’ ACQUITTED ITSELF EXCELLENTLY…” winding mechanism; one thing I really like about the LCT drum mags compared to some of the alternatives I’ve used in the past back in the UK for AR and G36 series guns is the lack of obvious electronic controls. Instead of just ‘copping out’ and slapping an exposed push button on the rear face of the drum like so many others, theirs is hidden within the drum itself, and actuated by rotating the real drum winding control lever on the front face, thus it makes sense to lift and retain the drum with your support hand which allows you to push up on the lever as and when required.

The first outing also saw us allowed to use full auto fire, something we don’t often see at sites in Taiwan, and of course this allowed me to really stretch the legs of the drum mag and tracer unit combination, redecorating and dropping the red-green disco on the OpFor with understandable glee.

Throughout the first day I had no issues throwing down BBs and getting the ‘Moe’ itself with all the trimmings in and out of rooms and managed to eliminate a decent number of opponents throughout the various game rounds.

The HOP up unit is the usual longitudinal slider hidden behind the faux bolt which can be retracted against its return spring to allow adjustment, and once I had mine dialled in the consistent trajectory made the BB paths predictable enough even with the limitations of the stock sighting set up.

On its next outing we were once again visiting a new site to us for the first time, actually one surprisingly close to my home which makes it a tempting prospect for future games as well! It’s a vast disused hotel or club house of some description with multiple floors, sports facilities, swimming pools (which you definitely do not want to end up in, to be sure!) and other ballrooms or hallways and grand staircases to navigate and fight your way through.

Again, the ‘Moe’ seamlessly threw tracers downrange and allowed me to get really tight in against the walls and cubby holes to maximise my cover…I’m a pretty big target to be fair, but as such I managed to eliminate a large proportion of the opposing team in one of the game rounds. The only issue I had that day was the drum mag misfeeding slightly for some reason; it seems the coiled spring ‘hose’ which is fairly typical of electric feed drum mags actually travels up through the main ammunition storage compartment, so I’m not sure if I overfilled the main chamber and caused it to deflect and jam up the BBs inside it, but emptying the drum mag out and resetting the winding mechanism seemed to resolve the issue.

It’s maybe worth adding further wrapping or protection to the coil spring hose yourself; I would also be tempted to line the ammunition chamber with a thin layer of self-adhesive foam of some description to lessen the ‘battle rattle’ noise of the BBs shaking against the drum body, sacrificing a little capacity is probably worth it for improved stealth… at least prior to the point you open fire with the drum mag itself, I suppose.

This was the only issue I encountered in quite a few rounds of play dedicated to fielding the AK ‘Moe’, and the drum mag itself has an excellent mechanism in its bottom half and a triple AA battery mounting unit that can be restrained within the chamber beneath the motor and winding system. The insides can easily be accessed by unscrewing the big rear central knurled knob allowing you to entirely remove the back cover for rapid loading, changing the batteries or otherwise dealing with the internals. However, you can also flip up the small access hatch at the front of the main magazine ‘tower’ in front of the main ammunition feed chute and pour BBs in from the top front with the rear panel installed.

Final Thoughts

The overall short receiver does make it a bit difficult to get a hand hold if you have the drum mag installed, but with standard 5.45 or 9mm magazines fitted you can get more purchase or use the magazine body as somewhat of an improvised vertical grip. Otherwise there isn’t much opportunity for adding furniture or vertical grips, but hopefully that isn’t such a drawback given the performance despite the ultra-compact footprint.

I could certainly see this being an excellent backup platform for a sniper or other specialist player or command element player, you could easily sling it across your back with not much sticking out assuming you eschew the drum mag which you wouldn’t really want for a PDW style setup anyway, you would likely argue.

It’s easy to throw around in tight spaces but still gets the job done out to decent distances, so if you’re in the market for something a little smaller, and a little different, it’s definitely worth considering getting your hands on an AK ‘Moe’ of your own, fellow shooters, and I know from comments in our AA Crew chat that a few of the team are seriously looking to add one to their personal armouries already!

Many thanks as always to Bella and the LCT Airsoft (www.lctairsoft.com) team for facilitating the review and their ongoing support of our efforts here; dare I wonder aloud what they’ll send my way next? Watch this space, I suppose… AA