G&G L85A2 Review after a year of use

[Davidious]

Hi-res attachments and nicer layout on Imgur: http://imgur.com/a/m1o5u/layout/horizontal#0



The SA80 (Small Arms for the 1980s) is a British family of 5.56×45mm NATO small arms. It is a selective fire, gas-operated assault rifle. Mechanically, it has been derived from the Armalite AR-18, which had been manufactured under license in the UK by Sterling Armaments Company. Elements of its design, in particular the bullpup configuration, were inspired by the earlier EM-2 rifle. The first prototypes were tried in 1976, and production ended in 1994. It is due to remain in service until 2025. The L85 rifle variant of the SA80 family has been the standard issue service rifle of the British Armed Forces since 1987, replacing the L1A1 variant of the FN FAL. The improved L85A2 remains in service today. The remainder of the family comprises the L86 Light Support Weapon, the short-barrelled L22 carbine and the L98 Cadet rifle. The SA80 was the last in a long line of British weapons (including the Lee–Enfield family) to come from the Royal Small Arms Factory, the national arms development and production facility at Enfield Lock. -Wikipedia



I purchased this my G&G L85A2 from Flagswipe which is a local retailer for airsoft and paintball. Being a more unique item they had to order it in, however I had the gun within a surprising 2 days of ordering it. The gun comes standard (like most G&G Top-Tech guns) with a large style Tamiya connector so you need an adapter to fit regular batteries. Luckily the guys at Flagswipe are great to deal with and threw an adapter in with the gun. This has since been changed to Deans connectors.



In the box we find the gun, carry handle iron sights, a barrel cover, and G&G High-cap magazine. These are all fitted into folded plastic packaging. NOTE- The sling does not come with the gun.



The gun comes with a “God Save the Queen” reminiscent manual, which shows you how to field strip the gun and how not to shoot people in the face. (Good tips) Also comes with a catalogue of G&G’s lineup.



G&G L85A2 AEG Price at time of purchase: $415 +taxes Weight: 3780 grams (8.3 lbs) Length: 78 cm My first impression of this rifle a year ago was that it was completely unorthodox, but surprisingly balanced. Weighing it at 8.3 pounds, it is heavier than most, however it has the weight distributed above the magazine well which makes it quite wieldy and easy to maneuver.



The receivers are made out of stamped steel and are painted black. They include the correct trades that are stamped in. The magazine release is full steel and has no wobble. The selector switch is also made of steel and is nice and crisp, however you’ll occasionally find that the switch moves from full-auto to semi-auto due to placement of the switch when shouldering the rifle. The safety is a trigger lock located above the pistol grip, and is quite crisp. The sight rail is a proprietary rail system designed for the carry handle iron sights, or for the SUSAT L85 sight. It should be noted that this rail is a proprietary width to G&G. The G&G SUSAT is the only one that will work on this gun, so DO NOT buy a third party SUSAT and expect it to work out of the box. The carry-handle iron sights are made of cast metal and mount to the gun snuggly.



The sling mounts are secure to the main body of the gun and are located on the left or right side, which is very odd considering the gun is not leftie friendly for anything else. I highly recommend buying a specific L85 3 point sling. They are the most unique, yet easiest to use and most convenient sling I have ever used on a rifle. When carrying the gun you have it as the 2 point setup for ease of carry, and once in an engagement you simply unclip it and it becomes a 1 point sling for ease of shouldering and firing.



The shoulder pad is tough rubber and after a year of use, shows no signs of wear. The mock charging handle is made of polymer and locks back so that you can easily adjust the hop up. The hand guard is made of polymer and splits apart by taking out the screw holding the front sling mount on. If you choose to store your battery in the hand guard it is a bit of a pain to insert or remove the battery because you have to remove the screw each time. If your battery was small enough, you could hinge the top cover open and put it in that way. It is important to note that the G&G sports the correct-to-real-steel hand guard unlike the WE and ICS versions which sport a modified hand guard much like the training variant of the real steel. The G&G does not require an adapter to fit the Madbull railed hand guard, unlike the WE and ICS versions. The flash hider is made of steel and is correct to the real-steel. Overall this is a faithful replica and it built like a tank.



In standard G&G Top Tech style, this gun performs above average out of the box. Firing a consistent 390-400 fps this is a great outdoor field gun, however you wouldn’t be able to game this indoors until you lowered the FPS. The gun a decently accurate out of the box, but don’t expect to be hitting a target smaller than centre mass at a range further than 100ft. Expect to see a range of 150ft before you lose all semblance of accuracy. With an 11.1v LiPo battery, the gun shoots around 20RPS which isn’t fast, but is more than enough for the average shooter. Coincidentally similar to the real-steel, this gun has a tendency of jamming if you go ham in semi auto, however if you switch to full and fire a small burst, it sorts itself out. There are no out of place gearbox noises and everything seems to run tip-top.



The L85 uses a totally proprietary gearbox shell which houses mainly V2 parts. There are some discrepancies however: The cylinder is an SR25 length, and as such needs that length of piston and amount of teeth on gears. I have heard mixed stories of what G&G puts in their guns for these parts, with one option being that it came out of the box with SR25 gears and piston. Mine came out of the box with a standard V2 piston, standard V2 gears, and a spacer between the piston and piston head. This allows me to use a great variety of upgrade gears and pistons without having to search for SR25 compatible parts. The gun also come with a proprietary cylinder head, which is not a standard version part, and has to be sourced from G&G if it breaks. The compression set out of the box was extremely lacking, hardly being able to hold any kind of seal in compression tests. The gears seem to be made of decent material and look like they would be fairly durable. I have run an 11.1v LiPo solely in this gun with no issues. The trigger uses a long bar to connect it to the gearbox, and is made of steel as this is a high stress part. The motor is nothing to write home about but it does its job. The gun comes as an Electric Blow Back AEG, however the EBB portion is very cheesy: not accurately recreating real-steel bolt travel and potentially malfunctioning and dropping parts into your gearbox (very bad). It IS however easy to remove, simply by taking out one screw and taking it off the gearbox, you have a standard non-blowback reliable AEG.



It is important to note that since purchasing this gun I have done a few upgrades to it. I have wired the gun to deans and left a connector in the main body of the gun, in case I wish to fit a battery in the receiver. I have swapped out the piston for an SHS lightweight piston to improve trigger response. The G&G motor had inevitable failed so I have replaced it with an SHS High Torque motor, which solved the issue of the gun jamming in semi-auto. The gears were going to have been replaced with SHS 13:1 ratio high speed gears, however G&G used a V7 spur gear instead of V2, so I have to source a 13:1 V7 gear to put in it. The inner barrel has been replaced by a 509mm Prometheus barrel, and the hop up has been changed to an R-Hop setup. This has greatly increased range to be accurate to about 150ft but still push bbs out close to 200ft with .25g bbs.



After using this gun for around a year, I have very little in the complaint department. The motor has since died and been replaced, which is to be expected. The polymer hand guard, pistol grip and cheek rest all show signs of cosmetic wear, but the rubber butt pad looks new. The receiver shows some wear in certain spots, but still holds strong. Every other airsofter I have lent the gun to was initially turned off of it due to the nature of the bullpup layout, however after about 5-10 minutes of them using it they fall in love with the balance and performance. Internally I’ve put a few parts into this gun: -Prometheus 509mm inner barrel -SHS piston -SHS High Torque motor Externally I’ve added the G&G SUSAT, and a L85 style 3 point sling. I’ve also been toying with the idea of adding the Madbull rail system for increased tactical value.



The G&G SUSAT is a 4x illuminated sight and is easily the largest external upgrade for mid-long range outdoor field games. I got this sight shortly after the original rifle and have been primarily using it since. The sight sits nice and high which meets your eye perfectly when shouldered. The nature of the rifle causes your eye to be an inch or less from the sight consistently, and the eye relief suits that distance perfectly.



The sight and mount are constructed of decent quality materials, and the illumination is nice and bright. The sight features the signature “Obelisk” which is very prominent and easy to target with.



My specific sight has a barely noticeable fingerprint on the obelisk (since it is a physical obelisk inside the sight casing) from factory.



When I bought this gun I wanted a unique rifle that had the convenience of using STANAG magazines. This has fit that spot absolutely and has been an excellent base to upgrade. I get looks on the field all the time, and have the range to get closer to a designated marksman rifle versus a standard assault rifle. Overall the rifle exemplifies the “Plucky Brit” mentality and has treated me to tea and crumpets for the last year. God Save the Queen.

[jordan7831]

nice review.

[Davidious]

Thanks!

[Kartoffel]

I'm gonna get a L85a2 in a trade soon and i was wondering if it was possible to add a standard width rail on the carry handle in a similar fashion to the one you can put on an M4/M16 carry handle. I love the look of the gun and the susat but i'm on a budget so i would like to be able to reuse my red dot on it. nice review and nice gun btw