Let me start of this review by saying that I’m not a big AK fan.
Why? It has nothing to do with looks, but rather with the fact that they’re not very customizable:
For instance it’s not easy to replace the stock on most AK’s, let alone the handguard, say you would like to have quad rail…
This is especially true if you go for a classic AK. Then good luck on getting all those nice attachments you have in a stock AK47 without having to getting a specific mount which will always look awkward since the guns design never really anticipated this:
Accessorizing an AK is difficult due to its design philosophy since this platform was developed mainly with concerns about durability, low production cost, availability, and ease of use.
Many would say that this is the bestselling and most widely used AR in the world, and I won’t argue with that, however in these days the edge will be on platforms which allow you to easily and seamlessly adapt your AR to the wide variety of scenarios that the operators (you) are going to find on each particular mission.
So even though the AK’s popularity and number is ahead (9 Million) of other platforms such as the M4 (2 Million) platform (in real steel of course), the accessory market for this gun isn’t has rich has the latter.
But the story doesn’t end here and as you might have seen there are several tactical AK’s being developed out there and some really do stand out of the crowd.
Some so interesting I found myself thinking that with one of those I wouldn’t mind “converting” into an AK user.
For instance, one is the Travis Hayley’s MAG-K, also used by Chris Costa which is actually is “a Saiga cut to 12″ and threaded 1/2 28 right in front of the Russian threads and SBRed with a AAC M42000”.
And as it would be expected, Airsoft manufacturers were swift to follow this trend and some very interesting models appeared ever since.
One of those models is from Gunfire and its dubbed the GFG18, except the GFG18 doesn’t feature the Magpul furniture.
So when it came time to choose my very first AK, I had no doubts that I wanted the GFG18!
Design and construction
As mentioned earlier this AEG is the spitting image of the MAG-K with the exception of the Magpul furniture.
The nice Dark Earth riveted body, the protruding ambidextrous charging handle also in DE, the generous and spacious black quad-rail system that unlike most tactical AK models seems to a perfect extension of the body, and the M4 buffer tube with the SOPMOD stock make it unique AK in Airsoft these days and a pleasure to look at no matter if you are an AK fanatic or an M4 diehard fan.
Plus if you look at the magazine, it also reflects the MAG-K design, being straighter than most AK mags and transparent with a Dark Earth base plate. This mag is a 300 rounds high capacity mag and allows you to see the bb’s inside which is quite useful. But unlike other mags with a see through port this one still looks realistic with the bb’s thanks to the brown hue.
Yes, the Magpul parts are missing, but the guns looks awesome anyway. Of course you can just go ahead later and add them since it will be compatible with any gearbox Version 3 grips and M4 stocks.
By the way, the outer barrel threads are also CCW which make them compatible with most flash hiders and suppressors. In fact I even tried the Madbull Wolverine I have reviewed here and it worked like a charm. Only thing I had to do was to remove the small spring loaded pin which holds the stock flash hider and I was set to go!
Construction wise this is a full metal AK with a metal body and hanguard. In fact once you pick it up you’ll notice immediately it’s all metal construction since it’s a quite heavy gun.
According to Gunfire, they’ve used several different materials on the different components of the gun such as steel, zync alloy and aluminium and of course abs plastic mainly on the grip and stock.
It’s hard to understand where they’ve applied these materials, but if I would have to guess I would say that the buffer tube and flash hider are aluminium, the body is steel and the handguard is zync alloy.
Anyway, all the components are very well assembled and present absolutely no wobble, making the whole gun feel very solid and reliable, and heavy as well.
At first view, the two tone colours, the stock and the nice quad rail handguard, are what set this AK apart.
You can go crazy and just use all your attachments on it and it will look awesome, just like the photo you have below where my good friend Killa is showing us some bling bling on the GFG18, or you can leave it stock and it will still look highly tactical.
Having a retractable stock is a huge plus on an AK since it will not only multiplies the number of different stocks you can use on it, but more important than that, you can set to your liking the length of the gun from the trigger to your shoulder.
But the nice things about this gun are not all visible and in terms of performance there is also a lot to be said.
Chrono and performance
Chronoing at around 394-400ifps, this is a very pleasurable AEG to fire.
In terms of accuracy the GFG18 really surprised me as it was accurate and consistent when firing at targets up to 15-20 meters away.
Even with just the stock metal sights, it was amazing how I could just look through the sights and hit each target without any difficulties or worries about getting some deviation on the occasional off shots.
So shooting it in games and in the range was a great experience, and even more fun when I went into full auto and I could hear the bb’s impacting on the targets at 14 rounds per second using the stock 9.6v NIHM battery.
I also enjoyed using the trigger which is smooth, responsive and very precise, so you always know that sweet spot when for instance you are going single fire.
Accessories and operation
Now this gun arrived in a cardboard box with the charging handle disassembled. I had never owned an AK so I had no idea how to assemble it. So I turned to the manual which wasn’t very helpful since it mainly had very generic AEG operation and safety advices.
It really took me a quite a few minutes to understand how to assemble the charging handle and the spring that includes the battery cover release button.
After finding this I had some difficulties understanding why wouldn’t the battery cover stay in place and was constantly falling. Well it seems that instead of being placed on the outside of the body on the extremity close to the stock I had to push it inside the body. In order to achieve this I have to give it a small blow so it would slip into place.
Just what you would come to expect on an AK, right?
But nevertheless, it would have been nice to see a more complete manual from Gunfire.
They might not have included a very complete manual, but they did include both a charger and a stick battery.
Of course you can use a lipo, since most lipos will fit the battery compartment easily.
The gun also comes fitted with a fuse located in the same compartment where the battery sits, making it a bit harder to insert stick batteries, but once you get the hang of it, there’s nothing to worry about.
Finally, Gunfire have included some paper targets and a bag of standard 0.20 gram bb’s.
Battery installation is quite simple and using the fire selector is quite a kick, first of all because it’s different from what I was used to and second because it’s very reliable and you can hear clearly the clicks between safe, semi and auto modes. It does take some time to get used to this since single fire is not next to safe, so the position just after safe is going to be full auto, which is kind of weird but heck, again it’s an AK!
As for the hop-up unit, they’ve relied on a metal hop-up, which as a plastic adjustment slider that can be reached by pulling one of the charging handles which will reveal the unit on the right hand side of the gun, just beneath the grey dust cover.
The hop-up is very easy to adjust and I found it better than the traditional dials which tend to be awkward and a bit confusing.
Conclusion
Being this my first contact with an AK and with a gun from Gunfire, I can say I was positively surprised.
Not only is this gun well-built, it also performs very well. It offers a great value with charger and battery included with a very affordable price of around 160€.
So in the end this gun didn’t make me a fan of AK’s, it made me a fan of the GFG18!
Pros
- Built construction
- Performance and accuracy
- Great looks!
- Quad rail for all our attachment needs
Cons
- Heavy
- Included instruction manual
Picture Gallery:
Video review:
Product link: http://gunfire.pl/product-eng-1152200283-GFG17-carbine-replica.html
We wanna say thank you to Gunfire for sending over this gun for a test. Also a big thanks to Operator7 for taking this one into the test for us.
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