Full metal AEG type replica by Action Sport games/KWA, one of their proline series: M16 Defender Patrol RIS with licensed Lewis Machine & Tool Co. marks.

INTRODUCTION

Lewis Machine & Tool Co. located in Milan, Illinois was founded in 1980 and for last 30 years has been providing American armed forces, police and government agencies with high quality weapons and accessories with speciality in modular equipment. They are acting also as an exporter and as well on the civil market.

In 2005, LMT was qualified as an official supplier for US government agencies and their products became officially available to more than 300 thousand federal officers all over the world.

LMT firearms are based on M16 and AR15 carbine. One of the series in their offer is Defender based on M16 carbine, with two models currently available: Patrol and CQB MRP.

WRAPPING

Replica is delivered in standard styrofoam and solid cardboard front. Box itself bears necessary information. Cardboard is solid, there should be no risk that replica itself gets damaged in transport. Replica and all accessories are well fixed and nothing should freely move inside the box.

Box is aesthetic but in our opinion a bit too rich in graphic design. Except for picture of Defender Patrol RIS replica, there are also some promo pictures of other models of AEG Defender series, produced by KWA for ASG AS. There is also some basic data for those series and both producer and licensed trade-marks.

In the box, except for the replica you get one magazine, manual, ramrod, red muzzle safety cover and a simple set of tools for maintenance and adjustments.

FIRST IMPRESSION

Out of the box impression is very good, not to say - outstanding. The look and all the details are just excellent. Quality of outer finishing is comparable to G&P or King Arms products. Good job KWA!

Weight is not excessive, but because of the length it feels heavier than it really is. Parts are well matched, no loose parts or squeaky sound anywhere.

Fire mode selector switch is smooth with slight "click" on each setting. Reload lever slides smoothly with nice metallic sound.

Dummy breech looks really nice. Plate is made of steel and is oxidized. Dust cover is an aluminum cast.

OUTER LOOK

Dimensions:

Length - 1000mm

Weight - 3000 g

Metal parts of a replica are in mat black color. Some parts including dust cover, breech release lever, fire mode selector, bolt catch and magazine notch are grey.

Gas tube basis is in dark grey, metallic colour (almost graphite). Even though it is not made of steel, at the first glance it gives such an impression. Same is for flash hider and the trigger.

Flash hider is fixed with 14mm left-handed rifling and secured in position with pressing screw.

Pistol grip and stock are made of black ABS. Both parts looks very well. Stock foot is also made of ABS.

Defender Patrol RIS is a full metal type replica. There are only a few steel elements: pins, screws, dummy breech and bolt catch button. Foresight (excluding its base) is also made of steel. Metal flip-up type sights are black. Finishing and care for details is excellent. Unfolding is smooth and there is no unwanted play on sides - everything is perfectly matched.

Rear-sight has enprinted marks of A.R.M.S. Inc. (Atlantic Research Marketing Systems).

MAGAZINE

Replica goes with 350BB hi-cap magazine. Its body is made of steel, in dark grey (photo came out a bit overexposed, it is a bit darker in real). Plastic parts are black.

While placed in the socket, magazine has some play on sides, which might get some rattle sound on rapid movement. But it stays in its place, notch is solid and when released - magazine comes out easily. It feeds pellets without any failure.

Replica works well with following type of magazines (type, capacity, producer / material it is made of):

- real cap, 30BB, A&K / plastic

- short real cap, 25BB, P&J / abs

- mid cap, 100BB, MAG / plastic

- mid cap, PMAG 80BB, STAR / plastic

- mid cap, 130BB, G&P / metal (it is a bit tight, but it works well)

- hi cap, 450BB, ICS / metal

- short hi cap, 190BB, A&K / metall

LICENSED MARKS

Each replica has its individual serial number. Marks are licensed by producer of real firearm: Lewis Machine & Tool from USA. Action Sport Games from Denmark, has rights to use those marks in the airsoft market. On the left, lower side of the body, except for serial number, there is a producer information, model name and caliber (unfortunately only airsoft 6mm). A bit above, next to upper rail, there is the LMT logo.

Fortunately inscription made in Taiwan is just a sticker - which is easy to remove. On the outer barrel there is also MAX 1.5 JOULE sticker. On the right side of the body, there is a name of producer and ASG logo and again caliber 6mm.

The only KWA mark is on the left side of the front RIS.

BATTERY

Thanks to solid stock, it can work with any large type battery pack. But KWA prepares their replicas to work with LiPo batteries. We have tested it with LiPo: 11.1V / 1050mAh / 20C and 7.4V / 2200mAh / 25C.

DISMANTLE

This replica dismantle process is similar to other AEG type M4 models. There is some difference right at the beginning: pins which keep the body together have Allen key type screw heads. So to remove the rear pin you need two Allen keys, to remove the front one, just unscrew it from the left side. Dismantling a stock is pretty inconvenient as you have to reach very deep, to get to mounting screw, and most standard cross keys would be too short. Upper and lower part of the body are tightly fixed together - you have to use some force to dismantle those.

 INTERIOR

First thing to notice is that inner parts are well finished with care for details. On the gearbox's body there is a sizable KWA logo.

1. Gearbox.

GB is reinforced. Stock replica goes with M120 spring.

To take out gearbox from lower body, start with dismantling lower part of the HU chamber.

Additional gearbox reinforcements are in the front part of the GB body frame.

Engine in black casing, has no marks at all.

As we were meant to test this replica thoroughly, this sticker had to go.

Gearbox parts are very well matched, that we didn't have to secure the spring slide while taking both body sides apart. After dismantling both parts of the GB's body, all of the items stayed in place - nothing jumped out as it happened once or twice while reviewing other replicas. Other way round - to put it back together - it was not a problem at all neither. Also it is worth to mention: there is a proper amount of grease inside the GB.

9mm ball bearing.

Steel racks look like they were indestructible. Engine rack has four anti-reversal notches. On the parallel rack you may see brass sector clip.

Steel reinforced spring slide with ball bearing. Spring is a type of an irregular jump.

Piston head is made of aluminum (not ventilated). Piston head bearing is not standard: there are three washers which function as a bearing (slide). Piston's first notch is reinforced.

Nozzle is also not standard. It is not sealed, but it seems that it is not affecting the performance. On one side there is a projection while on the piston's side it's flat.

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Brass cylinder's aperture is very close to the edge. Cylinder head is made of ABS-like material. Tightness of piston set with cylinder is just perfect.

2. Outer barrel and HU chamber.

Stock barrel is 510mm long. Hop-up chamber is dual and it's made of ABS. Hop-up rubber protruding part is made in the shape of three protruding notches.

Lower part of the chamber is fixed to lower part of the body with cross type screws.

While it is true that pulling back the reload lever is opening cartridge case ejector cover, but it won't lock in this position, so it is not that convenient to to adjust HU.

PRACTICAL SHOOTING

Sound of this replica is nice. You can't hear racks working, only the piston hits. Work of whole set is typical for high quality replicas. But performance while shooting was strongly affected by large amount of silicon in HU chamber set. It was necessary to take a large number of shots to get decent performance. In our opinion its effectiveness would be much better after replacing inner barrel with the precise series.

TESTS

As we have mentioned above, shooting performance was strongly affected by large amount of silicon grease in HU chamber. The more shots were taken, the better results we got. Since we test all of the replicas as "out of the box" performance, results listed below are measured just after initial shots and proper HU adjustment. Large amount of silicon required to take couple hundreds more of pellets to get better performance. Performance was getting better with each series.

1. Muzzle velocity and energy.

Muzzle velocity was measured with Blaster Devil 0.2g BB.

Measured muzzle velocity with 0.2g BB is 390fps, while energy was at 1.4J.

Results are listed as an average of series of tests. Difference between highest and lowest number was ~19fps.

2. Rate of fire

7.4V 25C battery: 12.7BB per second (760BB per minute)

11.1V 20C battery: 18BB per second (1080BB per minute)

3. Accuracy and convergence - 30m and 40m.

Shots were taken on the silhouette target with centrally placed A4 size paper target. Shots were taken in series of ten with G&G 0.25g BBs.

In the distance of 30m, 10 of 10 shots reached the silhouette target, 8 of 10 shots reached A4 target.

In the distance of 40m, eight of ten shots hit silhouette target, while two of ten shots found its way to A4 target.

4. Effective and maximum range

Effective range which means almost all of the shots hit silhouette target is a bit above 40 meters.

Maximum range which means some single shots could hit silhouette target is about 50 meters.

SUMMARY

LMT Defender Patrol RIS, produced by ASG AS/KWA should satisfy even the choosy players. Attractive look, flawless matching of all parts and original firearm licensed marks altogether results in a very good impression.

Reinforced parts of gearbox, safe to work with LiPo batteries and smooth overall work are just hard to overlook - and those also make LMT Defender just perfect to easy upgrades and even building base for the marksman rifle.

It is made with high quality and with a big care for details, both outer look and interior. Not many replicas of M16 series, could compete with LMT Defender, at least as far as those we had in our hands are concerned. In our opinion: it is first class replica.

First out of the box test was not impressing but it is comparable to most of the stock AEG replicas. After taking more shots, and therefore getting rid of excessive silicon, performance was much better. It would be advisable to use precise type of inner barrel to get even better performance.

To summarize: it is an example of a very well made high quality product. We might recommend it to any airsoft player. It sets standards, which we would like to see in every reviewed AEG.

Pros:

+ full metal type

+ flawless finishing, both outer as inner parts

+ perfect matching of all outer parts and gearbox.

+ reinforced gearbox

+ tightness of piston/cylinder set

+ good weight balance

+ licensed marks

Cons: 

- marks different to real firearm

Replica was tested thanks to courtesy of Action Sport Games AS:

Real firearm photos:

www.lewismachine.net

translated by Bukhart