THOUGHTS ON THE KWA LM4 (GBB Airsoft Rifle)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ค. 2019
- Recently I purchased myself a brand new Airsoft rifle. The KWA LM4 gas blowback rifle. So in this video I have decided to give my first initial unboxing thoughts on this airsoft gun based on the negative feedback I have heard from multiple sources both in person, and floating around the internet. Lately I have been attempting to switch from electric airsoft guns to gas blowback airsoft guns just to change up my own personal playing style. I've also been trying to stick to KWA products in terms of a reliable gas blowback airsoft manufacture, because parts are easily accessible, and because they fall within most airsoft starter price ranges. So I hope you enjoy my thoughts on the KWA LM4. Feel free to leave comments or thoughts below. And please like and subscribe.
This product can be found @
www.evike.com/products/57260/
I really don't understand why so many people in the US seem to have problems with the lm4. When the lm4 was released in germany, it was a big thing, because we only had WE m4 gbbs until then (thanks to our gun laws). Now we can choose between we, KWA, VFC and GHK.
The thing is: no one gbbr is perfect right out of the box, you do need some knowledge with each one of them to remedy the most problems. Especially at these prices - its complex systems and they need to be set up properly, for which there is no time in the factory.
I owned several dozen different gbbs over the last 10 years and I offer a repair service for gbbs, so many gas guns went through my hands. Heres my point: of all the guns I had, I have to say the KWA is my favourite system, because it has the best magazines and the best long term reliability. My personal primary gun is a kwa lm4 which I play since the german release - and I am surely no brand fanboy, I have to drive 2 hours to the games and I seriously don't want a gun thats not working correctly, so I choose what works.
From my experience you have to put some work into every GBBr, at least to understand its function. That means:
- get the vfc: there are many iterations and each generation had problems, but theres constant improvement. The problems are mostly due to bad design choices or cheap material. Examples: trash material for the hammer or hop up, causing break failure and so on. Very nice finish and quite compatibel with the real gun.
- get the GHK: over all very robust, but the finish on most parts is horrendous and the hop up chamber keeps breaking after a while, causing catastrophic faillure. Also the gray GHK hu bucking has a tendency to warp its lip and causing a double feed, which can, again, kill the complete plastic chamber. Although GHK has nice magazines.
- get the WE: don't know where to start? trash material all over, everything breaking and the pricing is redicoulus. Performance is sub par, because the hop up is trash and the magazines suck big time. Don't know anything good to say about it, apart from being the first GBBR and opening up the market.
- get the KWA: the KWA has an OK finish, nothing to write home about, the flashhider and so on out of the box are trash, often looking like being chewed on by a stray dog. there are problems with ootb misaligned hop up tensioners. Sometimes the o rings in the bolts need a little bit bigger diameter. Short intermission: the version 1 had some problems I will not get into right now, but those things were remedied by kwa with the version 2.
But the system has the most reliable magazines, which even work when the gun is held at an angle. You jsut have to buy the STANAG magazines, die PMags are not as good and have problems due to another feed lip design. Yes, the hop up has its limitations, but I works very well at low temperatures, so does the magazines and subsequently the whole gun.
What you have to do when you get the gun is: disasemble the hop up, bend the tip of the tensioner a little bit upwards and assemble it thouroughly with patience. Put a little teflon tape under the o ring on the nozzle, it should slide easily but when you hold the bottom gas port and forward gasport closed with your fingers it should have resistance because of the seal/pressure build up.
Use quality bbs of 0,28 or 0,3g. Clean your inner barrel. Don't lube the gun excessively and use propane if you can.
The internals are all quite high quality and last endlessly, you just have to change the hop up bucking regularily (depending on how much you play). It has not the most potent hop up system but it works quite well, the only thing wrong with it I can see is the fact that its not as upgradeable as the one in the VFC oder GHK, because of these using VSR buckings.
And now the most important part: look after your fill valve seals!
The KWA guns need those! Most KWA guns have great gas efficiency and temperature resistance, but you need those damned seals. If you are somewhat careful and use idealy plastic fill dapters on you metal gas valves, its no problem. but if the seals are gone or defect, you cannot fill the magazines properly. I dont know exactly what the problem is, I think its partly due to lack of pressure and eventually so that there is air going into the magazine as well - just speculation - fact is: it causes double feeds, low fps, and so on. Properly gassed up magazines are fabolous.
I'am speaking from experience and ca recommend anyone wanting a gbbr to take a look at GHL oder KWA. The KWA has more quality internals and slighlty better gasconsumption/temperatureresistance, the GHK has more potential regarding the hop up. For me the kwa hop is sufficient, but thats up to you. But the bottom line is:
GBBRs need practice and an experienced operator, in my eyes most problems with the lm4 are user error or misaligned and easy to remedy parts from factory.
I own an LM4 and it lasted me YEEEAARS, today I made the choice of buying another only bc OEM parts are hard to find. I remember when it first came as well it was the SHIT, I owned a WE M4 and it broke not even a week into owning it
@@Andygr_ There are plenty parts in the official kwa shop, most german users getting their parts from rainbow8.com, they are ultra reliable and exceptionally fast - on average 2 weeks of shipping time
Marcel Schultz I was checking there but couldn’t find the parts I was looking for, at this point I’m looking for a complete lower but can’t find any of those either, I’ll look again tho! Thanks for the quick reply I almost just bought a whole new gun lol 😂
@@Andygr_ I once needed an upper receiver, because I wanted to change from the 3 piece design to the one piece. I ordered from firesupport uk, eventually you can find something there. Don't know their recent inventory , but back in the day they had plenty
@@Andygr_ Rainbow has a ksc one, butI think the ksc m4 gbb is a little bitlonger dimension wise, if I am correct. You could eventually verify that, but if its not the case it could be an alternative
A lot of people complain about various things on the LM4. I've had an LM4-C for about 4 years now I think, it has honestly been great. Never had any issues with it and it has consistently been my favorite airsoft gun that I own.
I have also done 0 upgrades to the internals, with only minor exterior mods. 10/10 would recommend.
I own this gun and the first game with it was phenomenal. 1000 rounds the first game, and no jams, or double feeds. mostly on full auto too! great gun overall so far.
To fix the jamming issue, the LM4 needs a heavier buffer.
The stock buffer is a 44 gram solid plastic buffer. Being solid plastic, it's not good because it doesn't have enough mass, or sliding weights (like the real steel) to prevent the bolt from bouncing, loading 2 BBs, causing the jam. The real steel AR-15 suffers from similar problems if the buffer is not massive enough, or does not have the sliding weights. It will jam or light strike in semi and very much so on auto.
I suggest getting a real steel AR carbine sized buffer ($20-$30), and grinding down the diameter of the head by a 3mm to fit all the down the stock buffer tube. Then cutting off the "cap" or head of the stock buffer, then put them both inside the buffer tube, using the stock spring.
I did this exact same thing I described. I am using an 88 gram AR buffer, and the cap from the stock buffer which is about 16 grams. About 106 grams total, which is about 2.5x more than stock After doing this, I have had ZERO JAMS. ZERO. I say again, ZeRo. I'd say its been about 5000 rounds so far with no jams. Not to mention, the recoil feels even better and more realistic, almost close to the real thing. Oddly, I also get 3 mag loads of BBs from 1 Gas fill, when I used to only get 2 before the mod, not sure why yet.
Here is a reddit post that I made kinda talking about this and it has a diagram of how I made the cap from the stock KWA buffer. Hope this help anyone else with LM4, because I wanted to pull my hair out on the field, after spending so much it being basically non-functional. But the mod has really helped me to be able to enjoy this gun, cause its it awesome when it works well.
www.reddit.com/r/airsoft/comments/ekqfhi/stepped_into_the_gbbr_game_with_the_kwa_lm4c_ptr/
Thank you so much for this insanely helpful information I would have never guessed that to be the cause of double feeds. I'll make sure to look into this modification with my own LM4. Thank you!
@@d-rzairsoft296 No problem! I definitely wanna spread this info, because I myself was having a hard time finding a solution for this problem. At first I thought it was hop-up thing, like alot will say causes it, but the updated lm4s have a clipped hop up so it wont move. It wasnt until my GF filmed me in slow mo with her iPhone, I could see the bounce and jam happening. Then buffers came into question. RA-Tech sells an 83g buffer and spring kit to fix this jamming issue, but its like $50 if dremeling and sanding is not your thing. I like being able to say I got a RS buffer in the gun though lol.
@@d-rzairsoft296 If you get it to work make a tutorial video on how to do this!
Dang, can you make a tutorial video on how to do it? Because im really worried I'll mess it up
Good video - thanks for your honesty. Thanks for sharing. My favorite gun is a spear gun.
This is more meant for cqb airsoft scenario. Thanks for the review!
This is why hat I’ve been wanting, def gonna cop
I have a LM4 PTR KR9 the first two magazines I had jamming. After that I haven't had any jamming. I haven't had any Accuracy problems I've only had to make small adjustments to my real steel Eotech sights. I think the jamming on my rifle was do to over oiling from the factory because I cleaned it like I would a real AR then lightly oiled it.
Bro. I have this gun and I love it. The wobble is the screws on the hand rail, they need to be tightened.
P.S. I got the short barrel version.
8:30 upper and lower receiver wobbling are you experiencing this with the short version?
Is it worth $340?
I think the reason any GBBR in this price range gets a bad rep is because a lot of noobs that drool over GBB are wrongfully expecting the reliability and function of a $350 AEG and get upset when propane expansion and cheap materials prevents the gun from working properly. Similar to WE GBBRs, but those at least have a lot of aftermarket support. These are low end GBBRs. Definitely a shame that the manufacturers and retailers hype them up, but the platforms need monetary support in order to improve. It's a niche thing right now. Don't go GBB primary unless you're deep into milsim and have the cash to support it, or you like it just for target shooting and tinkering. I bought a used WE SCAR open bolt in 2013 and I loved that thing to death. I don't think I ever fielded it, but it was by far my favorite thing to shoot, and I did all the proper mods to get it running great. I would take it apart and clean it and lube it religiously , though. It was a more relaxing thing to do with my time since I had other rifles to use on the field. I didn't expect to use it on the field reliably and so I wasn't upset with the performance. When I decide to get back into GBBRs, I'll definitely be looking at higher end rifles, though. Most likely GHK. Could potentially pony up for the newer Tokyo Marui GBBRs. They seem pretty solid. Hopefully by then the technology will get better/cheaper, though, which happens when people buy into the platforms and heighten the demand for improvements :)
Supply is relatively low, demand is low, meaning its a niche market, which means companies can charge more and the people that seriously want a GBBR will buy them. If demand goes up, supply will go up, and price should come down. I think the demand was very serious about 5 years ago, but it has since AEGs have been so solid out of the box lately. Krytac started a trend with mosfets, good quality metal, modern external designs, and internals that dont require any attention or upgrades for a while.
Evan Johnston kwa lm4s are fucking awful I own 15+ gbbrs and if I could kill the man who decided it was ok for release I would
If you don’t experience any double feeding you’re golden from my experience. The hop issues can be resolved to shoot good enough for a gas rifle. But my original 2012 LM4 double feeds and subsequently vents all the gas enough to be almost unplayable...
I think they’ve improved the newer models tho since they’re still popular.
How did you get the orange tip off?
I like the Gun for more Realism with Airsoft like alot of reloading after alot of shots. But aeg will always beat these types of rifles
Hey so I got this gun from a friend for a family member for $100 did I make a good choice?
I bought the magpul pts lm4 the day it was released and many years later it still runs very well. I guess if you have a good maintenance regime then it will last a long time.
be ready to buy its own price in parts to keep it maintained, expect little things like valves and catches to wear out and break. otherwise I don't regret the purchase.
How do you maintain it very good? I use murder oil for gbb with propane, elite force .28bbs
I had the lm4 ptr from 2014 to 2018. Everything was great except the hop up didn’t like me very much
I personally own an LM4, specifically the Magpul version. Donno what you're talking about, the gun performs flawlessly out of the box on stock. Shoots straight, pretty efficient with gas (On a near-full topup, I had about 64ish shots on one magazine before the gas started winding down), nice feel to it, minimal to no wobble on critical parts, easy to adjust and decent hopup (able to carry .28s without any problems) and cycles smoothly.
You either got a dud, using substandard ammo, or you did something wrong.
KWA hop ups are overbuilt and function on the worst rotary style adjustment system ever invented for a hop up unit. All the the hop up relies on is a thin plate of copper that bends down to adjust the hop up nub. Its finiky and poorly deaigned. This gun was chronoed with .30 gram high quality BBs and completely stock out of the box with high quality gas as well. Like listed in other comments bellow KWAs are know to have a very weak buffer spring and overweight bolt which causes jams and poor gas efficiency. On top of this the mags which I paid $55 for each, all started having valve and gasket leaks within 3 months of purchase and I had to completely replace the stock valves and gaskets. I also replaced the bucking with a maple leaf bucking later on and it solved alot of the accuracy and jaming issues. I still like this gun for looks and functionality. It's nice show piece. But I strongly believe WE tech or VFC GBB function better and have better systems with more available parts. VFC GBB would be my go to but they are impossible to find cause reciver specs are too close to real steel. My final opinions on the KWA is it's a great gun for impressions and "feel" but in a game my KWA Masada has been 3x as reliable. I would like to do an update video on my KWA lm4 cause I have done alot of work to it which made it way nicer now and people always comment thinking I got a bad batch but other friends of mine (way more experienced in GBB then me) had the same issues with theirs.
Apart from the old "I didn't experience those" types of things, that I can't explain because I'm just going to guess KWA USA isn't as strict with QC as KWA Asia, I'm going to hard disagree you on the WE-Tech part. I'd weigh in on VFC, but they're too rare and I've yet to use one in-person.
WE is single-handedly responsible for nearly forcing me back to AEGs because of how it destroyed my confidence in GBBRs, up until someone took my WE M16 and traded it for the KWA M4 and showed me I don't need to have an anxiety attack everytime I bring a gas gun to the field.
Trigger group damaged itself within the first week, BCG got shredded in the first week because of the misaligned bolt catch, the nozzle destroyed itself in-field for no reason (twice, and I predominantly fire in singles), improperly-fitted barrel and hop that led to substandard performance and hop-up chamber rekt itself to the point of becoming unusable. And dear lord the barrel wobble, no matter how many times I had locklite applied to it, the barrel find SOME way to loosen itself after a few months.
Heck, even stuffing RA-Tech and Angry gun parts into it didn't fix it, those parts had their own problems. I think the only parts that didn't give me any problems were the buffer set and magazines.
Just came across your channel. Havent played airsoft in probably 4 years. How old are you?
22 but I've been playing since I was 13.
There are some options to fix the double feed and the hop up.
Can you give the solution cause my 416 from KWA is keep having trouble with double feed and it runs the LM4 system
@@ibni_farrel I’m not sure about the 416. So I don’t want to point you somewhere not knowing.
Where dud you get your sight from?
Believe it or not, Amazon for $135. And it's 4x32 magnified with an actual fiber optic chevron cross hair just like a real one. Eye relief isint terrible but even the real trijicons have not so great eye relief.
Hey y'all, don't know if this is a dumb question, but much like the real thing, would I be able to perform a functions check (holding down the trigger and pulling the charging handle at the same time) or would that damage the inside of the gun? Obviously without a mag in the gun.
I believe you can actually do a full functions check with this gun as it operates exactly like a real m4. For example, I can rack the bolt back and lock it with the holt release, and if I hit the but stock with my palm the bolt will actually rack forward just like a real AR. James on our channel is a 4 year cadet in Army ROTC about to go for OTC and he said they actually use KWA gas blow back m4s for training purposes because of how closely similar all the actions are to a real military M4 (without using real M4s on a school property/gymnasium)
In short, although they are very inaccurate and have hop up issues, they are the most closely related Airsoft GBB m4 to the real thing besides VFC. But gbb VFC m4s you can't get in the states because they are "too similar" in dimensions to a real steel receiver.
@@d-rzairsoft296 So that means it's safe to pull the trigger and the charging handle at the same time? Just making sure.
@@TylerTheSwimDude4387 it should be. I would have to double check when I get home from work but I'm more than confident you can.
What's a good choice for a m4 type for training with (instead of using my real guns)? I want something that I won't have to jack around with. $500+ is fine.
Actually this gun right here is pretty damn close to a real steel m4. It breaks down exactly the same only it shoots airsoft bbs. As a matter of fact my best friend who is an officer in the Army often used KWA Lm4s in his ROTC class for rifle drills because of how similar it is to the Army issued M4a1. They could do drills in the college gymnasium as a class without bringing real firearms onto campus. If you are looking for actual combative training/exposure then I highly recommend looking into Milsim or military simulation events. The majority of them are professionally run by ex military and special forces dudes, they get access to training facilities that real steel people would normally pay thousands to use. But yeah look into Gas Blow Back airsoft m4s if you want something good for training.
@@d-rzairsoft296
I mean what green gas airsoft rifle would you recommend? I'd rather spend more up front than have to replace a bunch of parts right out the gate. Which would be the case with this one by the sound of it.
@@robertd6925 belive it or not if you want something completely built like a tank for training purposes. Then your best bet would actually be a Co2 powered GHK m4a1. GHKs are like $600, sometimes up to $750. But they are built like absolute tanks and due to being co2 powered have a much stronger kicks and faster pop to them. But if you like your money, then this gun right here is pretty much the closest you will get to a real AR. Other green gas M4s that are "better" don't function the same and have way more moving parts.
@@d-rzairsoft296
Cool thanks
Do you paint over the orange tip or remove it?
Put a steel aftermarket tip on it
Thank you! Are there any tutorials on this ?
@DRZ Productions hey man can you tell me what tip that is?
@@Five7Delta just a standard steel m4 carbine rifle tip but in 14mm negative for airsoft.
@@d-rzairsoft296 thanks
Is the polymer handguard compatible?
The entire gun is metal. Nothing is polymer besides the stock and the grip. If you are referring to the hand grip by the trigger then yes. It is real steel spec and can be swapped out with real steel attachments. If you are referring to the handguard which is the 7" RIS rail then yes. It is full metal and can be removed. I removed mine and built this gun into a MK18 mod3 with a Giselle rail and swapped out the stock and grip to magpul.
You need at least 3.0g bbs cant use the 2.0bbs because it's to powerful for them they will hop up and down.
I only use .30s for everything besudes my vector AEG. I'm almost confident I used 3.0g BBs for this video. I should do an update video on the satus of this gun at some point since I've changed alot of stuff on it since I've had it.
put a TNT HOPUP/BARREL upgrade in mine and its AWESOME !! gas mags only shoot 25-30 rounds,,, wont shoot an entire loaded mag. .. thats EVERY mag.. new out of the box
For the price, the lm4 platform is meh. Ghk or mws easily beat it and WE beats it in price and parts
WE is straight up trash. When you fully upgrade the trigger group, bolt catch and BCG it's good but at that point why not just get a GHK?
too school for cool your clearly not familiar with gbbrs go away petty aeg user
@@blueridgewarden2838hey you take that back 😂
Preforms less than a combat machine? yes. 10 times cooler than a combat machine? Also yes
Just buy a Systema PTW and call it a day. Go big or go home
Y’all think $100 for it is a good deal ?
If someone offers you this gun for $100 take it. I paid $420 for it new. Also KWA in hard to get hands on at the moment, since covid it's been impossible to get restocks of their guns so demand is high.
Just get a mws, and spare yourself all those problems that should have never been there in the first place
Toby Maguire 2005 lookin ass