We’ve been hammering the Arcturus AT-AK01 AK Carbine for some considerable time now, and it’s just been put on the range again as part of the Red Cell “tacticool AK” test in readiness for our report in Issue 127 (15th June Upload), and we can tell you that it’s standing up VERY well!
However, we saw that our good friends over at TAIWANGUN recently got a new series of CQB-ready AR carbines from Arcturus, so we were interested to see if these had the same “stuff” as the AK, so we’ll be getting hands-on the new “Karambit” to let you know what we think in due course…
The “Karambit”, along with the longer “Sword” and even shorter “Dwarf” variants, benefit from many shared features although the “Karambit” comes fitted with a PDW-style stock; the main parts such as receivers, handguard, outer barrel and receiver extension are made of aluminum and light alloys. Smaller parts, including the flash hider, ambi magazine catch, ambi bolt catch, assist assembly, extension nut, pins and ambi end plate sling mount, as in the case of real firearms are made of steel.
The reinforced gearbox with proven internal parts are also noteworthy features. A quick spring change system, bearing spring guide, bearing piston head, full steel teeth polycarbonate piston, steel gears mounted on 8mm steel bushing are able to withstand the highest loads. The motor gear is mounted on ball bearings to ensure it can rotate freely at high speeds. In addition, the gearbox is equipped with a microswitch trigger, which, in combination with low-resistance wiring, works great with Li-Po batteries. The use of an electric trigger eliminates also the problem of burned out contacts and improves the response to the trigger. The replica also features a sealed teflon nozzle that works great with a metal rotary hop-up chamber and with a precision 6.03mm hardened steel
barrel.
So, does the sum of the parts add up to making something a little special? Only thorough range-testing and time will tell, and we’ll let you know once our evaluation is complete!
