King Arms Galil ARM is an AEG replica of 5.56mm carbine, with black ABS hand guard.
BACKGROUND
In 1967 there was a decision taken to begin development of a new assault-rifle, which afterwards was named Galil by name of one of the designing engineers. On that time, Israeli Army's FN FAL was not working well in tough desert environment and were just pretty much outdated. There was a big need for a new generation rifle. The base for Galil was the Finnish Valmet M62 carbine, which was modified in Israel by Yaacov Lior and Israel Galili.
Works were conducted in accordance to Finnish technical specification and first series of the body main frame, were produced in the Finnish armaments factory. Carbine was being produced in two versions: 5.56mm and 7.62mm with different lenght barrels. Apart from Israel, carbine was being produced in South America region countries and as well in Republic of South Africa. Galil is also weapon of choice of Estonian Army.
Galil ARM equipped with bipod, is an universal assault rifle, which may serve as light machine-gun if necessary. There were versions with hand guards made of wood and black ABS.
WRAPPING
Replica is packed in a solid, full cardboard box, with King Arms graphic design similar to their other products. There is a big centrally located brand logo and the black background. Inside there is a high quality box filling, made of some kind of protective foam. It ensures replica would not move, keeps accessories in place and there is no way that filling would be damaged like it may happen with styrofoam. To protect the replica from the top, same foam quality cover - 15mm thick.
In the box: apart from replica, a mid cap magazine, transparent quick loading tool and user's manual. English manual is pretty well illustrated, clearly explaining any step of maintanance.
FIRST IMPRESSION
Replica looks very solidly built. It is well weight balanced and parts are tightly put together. There are no ratling elements and there are no squicky or unwanted sounds.
Stock is folding and unfolding pretty heavy, so there is no loose at this part. Folded position catch is mounted on the body by a peg, which seems like indestructible.
Stock in both folded and unfolded position feels very firm.
Replica is pretty heavy. It is operated similarly to AK series, though pistol grip is a bit bigger. Thanks to a hand guard and pistol grip design it gives a handy and firm feeling. Hand guard is massive, with a cut in, where bipod is folded in.
OUTER LOOK
As for a look, it makes a really good impression. It resembles the real one very well. Almost every element is oxidized or anodized. Some parts are kept in black: body, outer barrel and stock. Small parts like muzzle sight base, hand guard yoke, stock folding catch, pins and so on, are in lead and grey.
Producer statement says that replica is built of steel, aluminium and nylon. Nylon made is obviously hand guard, pistol grip and transport handle bar grip. Wooden handle guard is available as an optional part. Test with small magnets prooved which parts are actually made of steel.
Steel parts: flash hider, muzzle sight base and sight itself, hand guard base, transport handle along with hinge, breech chamber cover, piston cover, all the pins and screws, stock mounting and magazine cover.
Body, outer barrel, dummy gas exhaust, hand guard yoke, bipod, slider, see-through sight and stock was made of aluminium. Parts are well made. Aluminium parts like body or outer barrel seems very durable - they are made of thick aluminium. Flash hider goes with classic 14mm thread, which is common for most of replicas.
Adjustable sights resemble original ones very well: they have a night setting, though they do not have tritium dots.
What is a bit strange, both settings of a daylight see-trough sight are almost of the same diameter.
Transport handle bar seems durable. Even though we have been assured by King Arms manager (during IWA) that it may be used to carry a gun without any doubts, we would say that its durability would be confirmed only after longer time usage.
Replica has movable dummy left side fire selector.
LICENSED MARKS
Replica has licensed marks of real Galil producer: Israel Military Industries LTD. (I.M.I.) on the left side of the body.
Also on the left side a bit to the back, there are model and bullet type marks of a real rifle.
Over dummy left side fire selector, over pistol grip there are fire mode marks.
Right side body has only fire selector marks. It is an advantage that there are no additional marks which are not present on the real Galil.
BATTERY
Replica uses stick type battery located in a dummy gas exhaust pipe, which is dismantled by pulling it to the breech, after previously pulling a breech cover slider.
Battery fits there really thick, you have to keep that in mind to put a battery with wire placed right in the cut (on the bottom). Good news: 10.8V fits, even though producer statement said that only 9.6V would fit. We hadn't had a chance to check if 12V would fit as well, but with 10.8V stick, beneath the breech cover, there was still some space. Warning: it is important to put the battery in a way which would not interfere electric blow back system.
DISMANTLED REPLICA
HOW TO DISMANTLE
Taking it to pieces is similar to original one. Muzzle sight base is pinned on the barrel.
Hand guard yoke is blocked same as the orignal one.
Outer barrel is mounted in body yoke with two allen screws. After removing exhaust pipe and taking off yoke, unscrew back fitting, which is one part with a transport handle hinge. Further it is similar to AK-series.
WHAT'S INSIDE
1. Gearbox
GB is non-standard, based on V.3 with EBB module responsible for breech movement, which is generated from piston movement.
Inside gearbox it is all standard for V.3, except for piston which has a small cut for EBB system.
Thanks to 7mm ball bearings its work is quiet and reliable.
It is hard to define potential durability of gearbox body, but racks are made of steel and seem very durable. Racks have proper washers without loose parts, and after removing piston set they rotate smoothly.
Irregular leap spring is put into plastic slide. Cylinder is "0 type" which along with plastic piston head and cylinder and nozzle - leakproof standard is very good (syringe effect).
In general, gearbox is nothing extraordinary, so if one would decide to tune up replica, it would be recommended to replace piston set, cylinder and slide. Because of unknown durability of non-standard gearbox body, you should be prepared for some difficulties to replace it when broken. It might be of course replaced with standard V.3 which would eliminate EBB.
2. Inner barrel and HU chamber
Inner barrel is 490mm long. It fits loose in HU chamber. HU chamber itself is typical for AK-series. Unfortunately HU rubber and distancer are of a bad quality. Rubber had some protruding pieces, distancer was a bit askew and as well had some protruding pieces. Probably it was the main reason to bad shooting test, which is presented below.
MAGAZINE
130 BB capacity mid cap mag is made of steel and plastic. It fits into the socket tightly without any sideways play. During our tests we have encountered some blank shots and jamming, which might mean it requires really careful maintanance.
Unfortunately, cheap Galil mags like those made by Cybergun, are not replecable with King Arms. CG replica has different body with bigger socket, therefore CG mag is broader than one by KA. There is also some difference in mag-catch size.
SHOOTING
Replica is equipped with breech movement simulation: Electric Blow Back, which is an interesting addition, though almost not felt while shooting. Of course breech movement is adding some taste, but it is pretty vulnerable system which might result in breaking of a gearbox if blocked while shooting. It is because breech lever is directly connected to the piston. While it is true that the producer has implemented a spring which should prevent such a thing happen, but in our opinion it might be not enough.
In contradiction to AK series, Galil has see-through aiming sights, which helps to quickly acquire a target. Thanks to the very stable stock, aiming is much more convenient than other replicas with folding-on-side stocks. No stock lenght adjustments possibility, might be seen as a drawback. Transport handle bar might be also seen as a part decreasing comfort of shooting.
High but not excessive weight is helpful to stabilize aiming. Sound of taking a shot is good, there is no sound of racks work, only piston tap.
TESTS
1. Muzzle velocity and energy
Tests of muzzle velocity and energy were taken with 0.2g BB and for comparison 0.25g BB.
Muzzle velocity on 0.2g BB - 340 fps and energy of 1.1J
Measurment's values are rounded. Range difference was only 9fps.
BB weight | fps | m/s | energy
0.2 g | 340 | 105 | 1.1 J
0.25 g | 277 | 84 | 0.88 J
2. Rate of fire
RoF tests were taken with 10.8V battery for 0.2g and 0.25g BBs.
BB weight | BB/s | BB/min.
0.2g | 17 | 1020
0.25g | 17.6 | 1056
3. Accuracy and convergence on 20 m, 30 m and 40 m distance.
Test performed on silhouette target with A4 piece of paper (21 x 29,7 cm) placed in the centre. Shots were taken with 0.2g and 0.25g BB. Measured with tape measure. Each time 10 shots taken.
Admittedly we planned to shoot on longer distances, though it quickly came out to be impossible to properly regulate HU neither with 0.2g BB, nor with 0.25g BB. Hop-up was adding spin on random. Even if there we could achieve one series of proper shots, next rounds, were spoiling all the good effect. It all prooves the bad HU components quality. (Later dismantling HU chamber, prooved rubber and distancer failures).
In the end shooting tests went out very bad. Shooting with 0.2g BBs, except for a few shots in silhouette, we couldn't fit any in A4 piece of paper. On the distance of 20m, shooting in recumbent position, with 0.25g BBs, we managed to get 8/10 in silhouette from which 4/10 in A4 sector. Standing position has given 7/10 in silhouette from which 3/10 managed to hit A4.
On the distance of 30m hitting a silhouette was possible, but bad convergence practicaly made it impossible to hit A4. Testing it on the distance of 40m had no sense at all.
While shooting with short bursts you may frame the target, but it is not accurate at all.
4. Max and effective range
Due to mentioned above it was impossible to define effective and maximum range of Galil ARM.
TESTS REPEATED
We have run another round of tests after replacing HU rubber and distancer. Stock HU rubber came out to be defective and quickly damaged. Not only it had some protruding pieces, but it seemed to be squeezed before placed in HU chamber. On its surface there were some bendings and splits. Distancer was also askew and had some protruding pieces. In the effect inner barrel fitted loose in HU chamber. Therefore it was impossible to properly adjust HU and sustain its correct work.
We have replaced stock HU rubber (with silicon one) and distancer (both by Guarder). It improoved HU work noticeably.
Test performed on silhouette target with A4 piece of paper (21 x 29,7 cm) placed in the centre. Shots were taken with 0.2g and 0.25g BB. Measured with tape measure. Each time 10 shots taken.
Weather: No wind, 10'C
Lighter 0.2g BBs were spinned enough even on minimal HU setting. On 0.25g BBs we could use full range of adjustments.
Accuracy and convergence test on 20 m, 30 m and 40 m distance.
0.2 g BBs:
On 20m distance we had 10/10 hits in silhouette from which 9/10 in A4; margin hits in the range of 140mm; 4 closest points were converged in 70mm diameter circle.
On 30m distance 10/10 hits in silhouette from which 3/10 in A4. Margin points in range of 55cm.
On the distance of 40m: 10/10 hits in silhouette from which 1/10 in A4.
0.25g BBs:
On the distance of 20m, 10/10 hits in silhouette from which managed to hit A4. Margin hits in the range of 110mm. 4 closest hits converged in the circle of 50mm.
On the distance of 30m, 10/10 hits in silhouette from which 6/10 managed to hit A4. Margin hits in the range of 250mm. 3 closest hits in the circle of 100mm.
On the distance of 40m, 10/10 hits in silhouette from which one in A4.
Max and effective range.
Effective range should be around 40m. All taken shots hit silhouette. Maximum range is estimated 50m.
SUMMARY
King Arms sets high standards for good outer look and a very good quality of outer parts. Well detailed and high level of resemblance thanks to original marks, give even more attractive look. Even though replica is well made, producer should put more attention to carbine interiors.
In our opinion, Galil ARM replica by King Arms, even in stock version is very good, and should satisfy any fan of this carbine. There are no specification faults and HU problem which was present in tested piece, was easily eliminated after replacing HU rubber and distancer.
Replica was tested thanks to KING ARMS:
Real Galil photos:
(Translated by Bukhart)
