Well, here is a review of the much-awaited (by me, it’s been out for quite a while) JG AUG. My thanks to Allizard for getting me the AUG with his usual awesomeness.


HISTORY

Who cares? If you want to know, go to Wikipedia. This review is for an airsoft gun.


STOCK SPECS

~350 FPS, ~14 RPS with 8.4v intellect battery
509mm 6.08 ID barrel
Plastic hop-up chamber
Metal v.3 Gearbox
Plastic 6mm bushings
Steel gears
Nylon (?) Piston, Piston head, Spring guide, Cylinder head, Selector plate
Plastic Air Nozzle
Clone Motor
Corresponding Metal parts to real-steel
14mm CCW threaded outer barrel
20mm top rail for mounting accessories


IN THE BOX





JG AUG
300 mAh Wall Trickle Charger
Shuang Bao 8.4v 1100 mAh NiMh battery
200 .20g BBs
Cleaning Rod
Iron Sights
Manual


SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS

-The AUG is a bullpup, which means that the BBs load behind the trigger, allowing for a longer barrel to be used in a shorter gun. While some may initially find this method of reloading behind their trigger hand uncomfortable, it becomes much easier over time. For those of you who think that the AUG is a large gun, this picture shows how the bullpup design results in an AEG about as long as a g36c, but with a barrel over twice as long.






OUTER APPEARANCES AND USAGE

I will be reviewing the AUG from the flash-hider to the buttstock.

The flash-hider that comes with the AUG is…orange. And metal. There is a set screw in the bottom of the flash-hider that must be taken out with a metric hex wrench before the flash-hider can be removed. The threads are 14mm CCW.



The outer barrel is a very nice metal. The front 4.5 inches or so has rings, which have a very nice feel. They are well made.



Moving down the gun, on the right side of the barrel, there is a gas tube (just for realism, the real steel has one). This is made of metal and is very solid. However, there are some molding lines on the gas tube and on the barrel opposite it.



Ahhh, the foldable foregrip. Although the real steel has a bit, the foregrip wobble of replicas is the killing point of every AUG that has hit the market, including the JG. However, the foregrip does not feel like it will snap off, it simply has about 1 cm of play in each direction. The foregrip can be placed in the vertical, 45 degree, and horizontal positions.







To switch positions, simply pull the foregrip outwards, and move it. There is a slight problem with the JG AUG, (I do not know if the TMs and CAs also have this problem). When the grip is in the horizontal position, it can easily slide down into the 45 degree position, without being pulled out. It can also slide back up into the horizontal position without being pulled out. If you push hard enough, the foregrip can be pushed into the vertical position. However, the vertical position is solid. The foregrip is also deceptively wide, I was surprised by how thick it was. While this could be labeled as both a pro and con, I feel it allows me to maneuver the AUG more securely.




The front sling mount could use some work. It has poor craftsmanship, and is made out of a shinier metal than the rest of the gun. There are rough edges on the seam lines.



The cocking handle of the AUG looks nice (from a distance) and does its job (reveals the hop up mechanism for adjusting), but is loud, clacky, and does not cock smoothly. The reason for this, besides a loud spring, is that when it is pulled, the rod actually comes out of its hole, and it is able to shake around. The handle is made of mostly plastic, and has poor craftsmanship. The seam lines are clearly visible, and are runny.





The upper rail of the AUG is very nice. Solid metal, no wobble, and looks good. 20mm rails

.

This post has been edited by hydralover: Jan 6 2010, 10:57 PM

Moving away from the upper receiver, the lower receiver is almost completely plastic, like the real-steel. However, this plastic is of a good quality, and has a slightly rough texture, resulting in a very good feel.

Now we go down to the trigger mechanism. The AUG has a pressure-sensitive selector switch; pulling the trigger halfway will fire in semi, while pulling the trigger all the way will fire in full auto. The trigger pull is a decent weight, and transitions smoothly from semi to full auto. However, when the trigger is released from full auto, it makes a strange springing noise, which quickly gets annoying. The trigger is made from plastic, but looks and feels more like metal.





The safety is above the trigger, and is easily accessible by both thumb and pointer finger. When the safety sticks out on the right side of the gun, the safety is on. A white dot is visible from the right side.



To take the gun off the safety, push the rectangle to the left. A red dot should be visible from the left side, indicating that the gun is ready to fire.



This piece is for disassembly, more on this later.



The magazine of the AUG is a good quality plastic, and is a hi-cap, holding 330 rounds, and needs to be wound in order to feed. Like all hi-caps, this magazine will not be able to feed the last 20 or so BBs.







The magazine fits nicely into the magazine well, with minimal wobble.





The magazine release could be a bit easier to release the magazine (you have to push it up more than you think), but it’s not a big problem. It works spectacularly.

The hop-up of the AUG can be located when the cocking handle is pulled back. When the handle is cocked, the ejection port(s) on the lower receiver pull back, revealing the hop-up.



The nice thing about the AUG is that the hop-up is ambidextrous, and can be adjusted from either the left or right side, depending on the preference of the user. The rubber pad the comes on the left ejection port can be pried off and put on the right ejection port.







This post has been edited by hydralover: Jan 6 2010, 05:57 AM

The rear sling mount, like the front sling mount, is a disappointment. It has a lot of wobble, and flips back and forth VERY easily, causing clacking noises as the mount hits the side of the receiver. This is very annoying, and if removing the rear sling mount didn’t result in a hole in the side of the lower receiver, I would remove it.



When I first tried opening the battery compartment (take off the rubber buttpad to reveal the wiring), I thought it would be a pain.





However, there is a quick and painless way to remove the buttpad. Use your thumbs, and push up and in towards the center of the buttpad. The pad should come out fairly easily. Putting it back in, stick the point end in first, and then simply push the rest in. The battery compartment is small, barely fitting a 8.4v mini battery.



In order to fit a larger battery (I.e. 9.6v), the bottom portion of the back plate must be cut off, and preferably, the fuse removed. There are, however, some block and custom battery packs that will fit.




The iron sights that come with the JG AUG are, sadly, terrible.



They are made entirely of plastic, are non-adjustable, need a screwdriver to put on and take off, and are easily pushed out of position.



The only thing they have going for them is that the sights are interchangeable. Each sight has both front and rear sight on them, simply rotate the sights to change the positioning.



This post has been edited by hydralover: Jan 6 2010, 05:57 AM

DISASSEMBLY

The AUG’s takedown is ridiculously easy. To field strip, push the rectangular piece to the right, but NOT out of the gun. Just leave it half in and half out, like this:



Carefully slide the upper receiver forward, and detach it from the lower receiver.



Your AUG should look like this:



Now, press this pin down.





and holding it down, pull back the cocking handle slightly and rotate the outer barrel and foregrip so that the little notch behind the pin lines up with the notch on the outer barrel. Then simply slide the outer barrel and foregrip forward and away from the upper receiver.



Your AUG should look like this:



This post has been edited by hydralover: Jan 6 2010, 05:56 AM

PERFORMANCE

The performance of the AUG was mediocre. Using an 8.4v intellect battery, I achieved around 14 RPS, pretty average. The accuracy of the AUG was what surprised me. With my stock JG g36c, I was able to obtain around 3 inch groupings at 50 feet (the longest length available in my house). However, with the AUG, these grouping increases to around 6 inches. However, this poor accuracy can easily be fixed with a tightbore, which is highly recommended as a first upgrade. Both of these results were recorded using a leapers 4x32 scope and AE .25g BBs, with no changes to hop-up.

During firing, the transition from semi to full auto was nice and smooth. No complaints here. The trigger response is quick, and cuts off nicely.


HOP UP

With your outer barrel and foregrip separated from the upper receiver, take a look at the back end. You should see the hop up chamber. Remove the two screws on the left and right sides of the outer barrel.



Be careful, the hop up chamber is spring loaded and will pop out when the screws are taken out. I suggest pressing down on the chamber with your pinky or another finger while loosening the screws to avoid nasty surprises. With the hop up chamber and inner barrel separated from the outer barrel, take off the spring, and then the knob near the front.



They should slide forward off the front of the barrel. Take the barrel clip off



Pull the inner barrel out, taking care to treat the sleeve (the piece that goes on the end of the barrel) nicely



Pull out the brass ring and the sleeve off the barrel.



Use your fingers to turn the knob behind the adjustment knob counter-clockwise, and then take that off too.



Slide the adjustment knob off.



Use pliers to take the pin away from the hop up lever, pulled from the left. Take out the hop up lever, which should come out with the bucking stuck to it.



Follow these steps backwards to reassemble the hop up. When re-inserting the barrel, first make sure that the ridge in the sleeve lines up with the ridge on the bottom of the barrel, and then slide in the barrel, making sure that the ridges point down. The ridge in the inner barrel should line up exactly with the seam lines of the hop up chamber.

This post has been edited by hydralover: Jan 6 2010, 06:04 AM

GEARBOX

To get to the mechbox, remove these two screws in the stock, and then remove the butt plate.



The inside should look like this:



Then bang out the mechbox, hitting the stock against a hard surface. If you are having trouble, slightly loosen the three body screws in the stock and try again. Be careful not to pinch wires.



Be careful not to lose these two gold pieces. If you do, the butt plate will not be able to screw on.



Here is your gearbox.


Slide off the top portion, and from there, it’s just like any other v.3 gearbox (just be wary of the extra wiring)



The internals are regular stock JG internals, although the spring guide looks a bit weaker than the ones I’ve seen on the m4 and g36c. Everything else is pretty much the same. The steel gears are easily the best parts of the gearbox. As usual, the gearbox came much overgreased. I would recommend opening, cleaning, re-lubing, and re-shimming this and every other JG gun before firing too many shots.



Here is a link to a video of me taking apart the gearbox… You can see that it really is rather simple, and relatively easy to access:
http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/Aug-Vers...bl-t119500.html

Due to the different trigger design, the AUG requires a rather unique MOSFET wiring schematic. Here is a link to the proper wiring: http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/Aug-Mosf...ng-t122169.html



CONCLUSION

The JG is a great gun. Although it has some questionable accuracy and a few external imperfections, it feels solid (with the exception of the foregrip) and very nice. The gearbox is standard fare, pretty average, nothing special. Great gun for starters, or veterans looking for an upgrade platform. There have been some reports of the barrel simply coming out of the gun, as can be seen here:
http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/index.ph...c=75046&hl=

If you have any questions, feel free to IM me at hydralover (or just PM me).

Thanks again to Allizard for making this possible.

This post has been edited by hydralover: Jan 6 2010, 06:06 AM