RELOADED: CYMA CM.098A

TACTICAL TACK DRIVER

CYMA HAVE BEEN INVOLVED WITH AIRSOFT FOR ALMOST AS LONG AS ANYONE, AND HAVE RIGHTFULLY MOVED UP FROM THEIR POSITION AS THE “MOST LIKELY TO BE A RENTAL GUN” TO CREATING AEGS THAT ANYONE SHOULD BE PLEASED TO HAVE IN THEIR ARMOURY! AFTER OVER A YEAR OF OWNERSHIP BILL REFLECTS ON HIS “BIG BOY” DMR, THE CM.098A, AND HOW IT’S STOOD UP TO SOME HARD USE DURING LOCKDOWN!

This year I’ve really been working on my “distance game”, so I’ve been looking at longer range airsoft options; I wanted something with a little extra power and range, but preferably semi-auto rather than bolt-action, and there’s actually a lot to go at when it comes to this type of rifle these days to fulfil the role of “Designated Marksman” (DM)! Now this is, of course, a very different role from that of the true sniper, as the DM will usually be embedded within the usual section or fire-team order of battle for any unit, so what they will carry will not obviously look very different from the rifle of carbine carried by other members of their squad.

The main difference between a DM and a sniper is that “marksmen are usually considered an organic part of a unit and are never expected to operate independently away from the main force, whereas snipers usually work alone or in very small teams with “independent mission objectives””. In recent conflicts it was found that the infantryman with a 5.56mm carbine or rifle was often outranged by enemies still using older, large calibre battle rifles, so the DM became a solution for helping them dominate the “middle ground”, ranges deemed beyond effective for a standard infantry platform, but well inside that of a dedicated sniper rifle. The role of the DM in airsoft has likewise matured.

There are many dedicated airsoft rifles, both AEGs and GBBs that you can buy “off the rack” to act as a DMR, and I for one love this! You can buy a decent SVD (I love my SVD GBBR for MilSim OPFOR shenanigans as I’ve said before!) or M14 EBR just about anywhere, and the sheer choice for Mod 12 SPRs and SR-25s in now somewhat mindboggling! Many of the so-called DMRs though still come as regular, full-auto AEGs so to create a “precision marksman platform” you’ll have needed in the past to do a fair bit of internal work, but of course programmeable systems are now making this far easier! There are a number of AEGs that I return to time and again to fine tune and tweak, and foremost among them has been a CYMA, namely their CM.098A “.308” AR DMR, and it’s a rifle that I have truly come to adore!

CYMA have been producing AEGs for as long as I can remember, and could be rightly classed as one

“EXTERNALLY THE 098A IS A PEACH, AND IT LOOKS DROP-DEAD GORGEOUS IMO! THE ENTIRE RIFLE IS MADE OF HIGH-GRADE ALLOY, AND FINISHED IN A SUPER SATINBLACK THROUGHOUT, AND THE FINISH HAS STOOD UP WELL TO THE RAVAGES OF BOTH SITE AND RANGE.”

of the industry “veterans”. CYMA have been around it seems to me... forever! If I go back to earlier days a CYMA was probably the most common “rental” AEG that you’d find, certainly throughout the UK and even farther afield, especially their plastic AK models. Okay, the originals were unashamed clones, they did have a habit of snapping regularly where the butt meets the body, they had some problems with the quality control, and some models arrived as new in simply laughable packaging! Although the quality of the old CYMA AEGs could not be compared to more expensive brands the fact of the matter was that they ran like trains (even without the butt!), were easy to work on and upgrade, and above all they were cheap, and I mean DIRT CHEAP!

Over the past few years my personal view on CYMA has changed quite dramatically, and I’ve been hugely impressed with their AK AEGs since they released the 040 series; yes, they still make the original 028 series of AKs and they are still cheap as chips (under 80 quid for an AEG!), but for me the 040 series really put them with CYMA on the 0.98 AR DMR model and asked me if I would be interested in trying one I thought to myself “why the hell not” as although I hadn’t bothered at the time putting my hands on a CYMA “AR” in years, the AKs had really opened my mind to what the brand was producing so I thought it was time to get behind a CYMA AR and find out what it was truly capable of.

And oh boy, am I glad I said “yes”, or what?

NEW AND VERY MUCH IMPROVED!

I asked the guys in Poland at the time about the collaboration between TWG and CYMA, as in my mind nobody seems to talk to CYMA directly, and I was told:

“The new 09 series of AEGs has been created as the result of a long cooperation and mutual trust between companies which have significant experience in this domain, CYMA and TAIWANGUN.COM. These carbines have produced to a different specification; the lower receiver, the upper receiver, the stock tube, the external barrel, the fire selector, the magazine release button, the trigger, the charging handle, and the front and rear sight are made in aluminium, which has made the replica more realistic. Each model even has on the lower receiver a unique serial number.” The 098A I received was the then-new

“E-EDITION” configuration with a stock velocity of around 410fps and the claim was that in combination with a LiPo battery you’d be getting a ROF around 25rps and a really good trigger response. After testing I have to agree with this claim, and this seems to be largely down to new gearbox parts with increased durability, such as a

in a very different I’ve been using on externally upgraded AK for a while place. and off an 070 series now, and

it’s a super little AEG that

often gives rise to as it performs

comment beautifully. On the strength of this I got myself an 077A AK (the Magpully one, now at a new home with Jon), and then a 040I Tactical model to use as a project base, and these too have been wonderful.

When the guys at Taiwangun (TWG) contacted me a year or so ago to say that they were working directly reinforced V2 long gearbox frame with quick spring change system, a polycarbonate piston with steel teeth, a CNC machined steel

gear set (ratio: 13:1), 8mm bearings, a CNC machined aluminium silent cylinder and piston head set (ball bearing piston head, double o-ring cylinder head), and a high-speed motor. There’s even a processor unit with built-in MOSFET system although I’ve largely left that alone.

Externally the 098A is a peach, and it looks dropdead gorgeous IMO! The entire rifle is made of high-grade alloy, and finished in a super satin-black throughout, and the finish has stood up well to the ravages of both site and range. The free-float outer barrel (16” external barrel, with a precision 6.03mm inner barrel) can also be unscrewed to reveal a 14mm CCW thread for suppressors and tracer units should you desire to fit one, although I replaced the AACstyle flash hider with a Madbull “Lantac Dragon”. The 14.5” M-Lok handguard is slick and beautifully formed, and it can take M-Lok compatible accessories such as the BCMGUNFIGHTER-style lo-profile rail covers and bipod rail section I’ve fitted; it also has a QD socket for a sling. The 20mm top rail runs contiguous to the rear of the upper, and the 098A comes with some great Flip Up sights as part of the deal.

Both the upper and lower are of a modern “billet” style, with the lower being sized to accommodate “.308/7.62” mags, and the selector is fully ambidextrous. Behind the receiver set is an ambi sling plate, but the stock also has a QD sling point to be used in conjunction with the front one so that you can fit a nice two-point to distribute weight easily. The stock is also where the battery goes, and the connection is Deans. One thi9ng I love is that the battery can be simply changed by popping down a latch which in turn releases the entire butt pad.

STOCK PERFORMANCE

In terms of performance I wasn’t sure what to expect straight from the box, but I was genuinely pleased when I first set up on the range. The model I received came in at 1.57 Joule/412fps and this has remained pretty constant so far. One thing here though… the 098A is clearly marked as “Safe/Semi” only, but I was with a little effort able to move the selector all the way onto “Full”, which was a problem as this put me into “over the limit” and “on the edge of UK Illegal” territory, so once I’d carried out my initial shoot test it was off to the workshop where Marcus placed a pin into the lower for me, to ensure that there was physically no way that this AEG could be used in anything other than “Safe/Semi”! It’s a simple fix for any good airsoft tech to carry out, and makes it very obvious on site that the 098A is a semi-only DMR.

As I’m a midcap player I was a little bemused with the “non-DMR” polymer 500BB model that came as standard, although this fed flawlessly throughout testing; a quick search though led me to some awesome 110BB Battleaxe middies that have proved ideal for the “DMR life”. Initially groupings at 30m prone were great, and over time this has improved greatly, with the 098A having had time to bed in properly; now I’m happily hitting the small steels out to 75m-plus consistently on .30g. As I prefer to shoot on semi-auto the ROF, although exactly where claimed, was of little interest to me and indeed was lost when the selector was pinned, but the trigger response is indeed crisp… SUPER crisp!

Every so often now I take the 098A down to the local shop and have at it on the indoor range on the iron sights (I have an NUPROL 1.25-5x26 optic fitted usually, along with one of their Harris-style bipods) and I hand it around to the guys to try. Probably just like you these are dedicated airsofters that play nearly every weekend somewhere or other, and they are constantly tweaking their own RIFs to get better range, more consistency, and more performance from them. These, I find, are the harshest critics of any new AEG I show them, and all of them LOVE the 098A!

It must be said that many retailers are getting directly involved in producing AEGs in collaboration with an established OEM, and from what I’m seeing this is a very good thing as the player is getting exactly what they are asking the frontline retailers for. At the end of the day the 098A is a rifle that you can currently buy for well under UK£250 that looks utterly superb, feels as solid as a really solid, solid thing, and is more (way more!) than adequate in terms of performance. Without any real modification the 098A is well into DMR territory, and with a little more work I’m hoping that I can finally crack the elusive 100m mark with a tacticool AR!

My thanks go to www.taiwangun.com for initially providing the CM.098A, and please do go and check out what they have available, which is A LOT! AA

“AT THE END OF THE DAY THE 098A IS A RIFLE THAT YOU CAN CURRENTLY BUY FOR WELL UNDER UK£250 THAT LOOKS UTTERLY SUPERB, FEELS AS SOLID AS A REALLY SOLID, SOLID THING, AND IS MORE (WAY MORE!) THAN ADEQUATE IN TERMS OF PERFORMANCE. ”