L119A1 Project

It's been a while since I posted anything about thie project, mainly down to the difficulty in getting a barrel. I thought this sticking point had been resolved when I saw that DragonRed and AFS Airsoft both had an L119 barrel for retail, and in decent numbers (as opposed to the joke that Army Code's production runs were).

With a barrel on order at a slightly elevated price, of £62 thanks to the appalling rate of exchange against the dollar, I waited with baited breath.

The barrel arrived last Friday. and appeared to be of excellent quality, arriving as a 3-part set consisting of the main section, an extention that screwed on in front of the foresight, and a sleeve that slid over the end and replaced the washer at the end of the Marui barrel. The barrel had a nice weighty feel, and the parts all fitted together nicely with no play or wobble.

I was away at the weekend, so I had to wait until Sunday night to install it on my almost finished L119. Off came all the old Marui M4 front end with very little effort and on went the main section of the new barrel, fitting perfectly and snugly into the Guarder metal body.

Fitting the Delta ring, foresight and the cup at the front all went well, until I went to install the two halves of the Marui RIS unit, where I encountered two issues.

The section of the barrel at the end that attaches to the receiver is much thicker than the stock Marui barrel and the RIS does not fit around it. No problem there, out with the files and the Dremel to grind a bit away. The second issue is much more of a problem. The Marui RIS is not long enough to be held in place between the delta ring and the cup, there is about a 5mm defecit.

I havee no idea how I'm going to solve this at the moment. I have emailed DragonRed to ask their advice. I have posted on the DragonRed forum for advice. I have also emailed AFSAirsoft to ask them and they claim that they do not supply DragonRed with these items even though someone on the ASCUK forum said he bought a barrel from DragonRed and showed pictures of it complete with the AFSAirsoft label still attached to the packaging.

I now have two possible solutions to my problem.

1. Buy a new RIS unit. Simple enough, but how do I know that the unit I buy will be long enough to fit the barrel?

2. Buy an Element CQB barrel to replace the main section of the DragonRed barrel. Another suitable resolution, but makes me feel like I have wasted a lot of money.

I haven't taken any pics of the gun as it stands, but I feel like I needed to have a moan and to warn other prospective buyers of this barrel.

More to come, undoubtedly.