Cyma CM-032A M14 SOCOM Review

Fallschirmjager

Introduction
I have always liked m14's. Its a real rifle and that from someone who loves m4's. Now before you worry this isnt a history lesson, oh no, you can use google for that. I have an AGM m14 and if you have held the full length m14 you will know its more like a lance from the dark ages rather then a rifle. It might be unfair but any time i used the full length m14 from AGM i was never that comfortable with it. I am not talking about the weight or length, maybe it was the polarity issues that it just felt not quite right. Unfair i know, but there you go. The other issue was mags. I have a long standing dislike of hicaps but the AGM would never accept or intermittently accept non AGM makes. It fed flawlessly with the AGM ones but i shaved and shaved and shaved the mid caps but i could never get them to feed properly. Eventually it went to the end storage bag and was used less and less. I recently decided i wanted to do a merc/blackwater loadout and i then decidied a socom or shortened m14 was back on the cards, since it was used by some of those guys in iraq. I was close to dropping a lot on a TM but i honestly could not justify that amount for something i will use only now and again. And up rose the Cyma option.

Requirements
Okey dokie, here is the requirements. A shortened M14, one that is TM compatible for parts, mags etc, have a fairly good to good reputation. Had to be well made , had to have a good single fire, preferably accurate to very accurate and had to be legal (more on this later). I searched but the number of companies offering Cyma m14's this side of the globe is fairly thin on the ground. The Cyma is 340fps as standard which is incredibly annoying as it is over but tantalisingly close to our legal 1J. What is 12fps among friends, well as we all know its a helluva lot over for the Gardai. SO i was in a difficult situation, how do i get a legal socom?

Where to buy?
The only people i could find doing it cheap was good ole Gunner. Now you may not know this but gunner offer downgrades to 1J if you ask and i am not talking about the plans they have. Me, i decided a good bit of begging, pleading would be the order of the day. Gunner kindly agreed to downgrade for free (something they said they offer for the 1J countries like us) but i was a little hesitant to be honest. Dont get me wrong i like Gunner but they are more into shifting stock and to be fair, we all know that. Every email i got i reminded them that it needed to be at maximum 290 to 310 fps and no higher. I suspect they got a bit annoyed because i ordered this early september and received it today. It took just under a month.

here is the result



yep its .37 of a Joule, well below 1J but sweet jesus i could throw harder then that LOL. Actually 240fps was as good as it got after a good barrel clean, yes it had that green gunk in it (see the photo below)and i guess i will eek out another 5 or 10 from the hopup adjustment and tweeks. I think what Gunner did is cut the spring and i was i suppose with hindsight it was a bit much to expect a new p90 spring. It is a double shame as i would have paid for it. But the good news is they will downgrade but its a bit of a gamble as to what you will get BUT and its a really good BUT it means the Customs/Gardai will let it in. Of course you will probably have to redo it yourself afterwards.

Whats it like
I will be honest, the cyma kicks ass. I have held the real TM one and this is incredibly close in quality to it at least on the outside. the grip is like the TM is a rough textured good quality abs material. Its a non slip type surface. I tried to photo it here but i am no vtec in skill so , this is as good as it gets:



here is a photo of the box for you pervs out there that get off on the boxes:



and here is a few more







There is no squeaks, a good clank off the fake bolt, It feels very well made, no seam lines as far as i can see worth mentioning, the wiring seems good quality as well, the battery however sucks but there seems a good quality fuse holder which would point to me that they didnt cut corners on what you cant see.. The rof is good, i expect with a good 8.4 or 9.6 battery in there it would be very good but i will be using this predominately in single or small bursts so it doesnt matter to me. There is a small rail on the top for a small scope but again, that isnt me so i am not bothered.

This is my first cyma and i have to say, i am way impressed. I was a bit of a dboys slapper until today but this has caused me to reassess this. I will do some accuracy tests tomorrow and repost the results.Apparently it has a tight barrel in it so i am expecting it to be good. I will also check the hopup to see what the rubber is like but again i will probably change that either way.

If i compare it to the AGM, here is the differences

creaks (might be due to the length of the AGM m14)
fire selector, great feedback (it clicks on the cyma) is more of a sweeping motion on the AGM
safety for some reason the safety on the AGM is quite stiff, its a one finger push on the cyma (if that is a positive or negative is up to your self).
mags totally compatible on cyma (a biggie for me at least)

Personally, looking at the 2 of them side by side, the cyma wins in my view anyways, i guess time will tell. I have put quite a few rounds throught the AGM and it is very accurate so it will be interesting to see how the cyma does.

I would honestly recommend them on the build quality i have seen so far.

Looks: 8/10
Reliability: not fair to mark yet as i have fired maybe 50 rounds
feel : 9/10 very impressed and i mean very

if i come across anything else i will add to this.