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A&K M24, the SSG24 contender? : Initial Thoughts and Mods
So after seeing the recent surge in people asking about the SSG24 (Modify Mod24) and the ongoing debate on how good it is, cost, is it better than a VSR, it being the "bestest" rifle etc I decided to build an M24 myself…
Now, this isn’t a rant about the SSG24 nor is it aimed at anyone who has purchased one. This is simply some insight on another rifle which people can consider when making their next purchase or when looking into another project.
I ask that people read this with an open mind and as the post that it’s meant to, an informative look at two separate rifles and the pro’s cons of each.
Initial Thoughts:
For my base gun I decided on A&K M24, which I sourced through Bespoke Airsoft. I’d done a bit of research beforehand to find out what I could in terms of parts, so based on that I took the plunge and ordered one.
Upon opening and assembling the rifle, I was pleasantly surprised at the weight and construction on if. It’s significantly heavier than a VSR, but certainly solid. The magazines are single stack and are a VSR type magazine but with some external changes, they work well.
The gun feels nice to shoulder, cocking was a bit rough, but we’ll get to that later…
Performance Stock:
Straight out the box the rifle was shooting at 418 on .2’s, consistency wasn’t great, neither was the seal…I assumed something was either loose, torn or the usual lathering of grease that some of the cheaper rifles have was causing issues.
I took a few test shots with the rifle on .4’s and I was getting circa 1.8J, range was terrible though…Again, I thought this was due to something misaligned, which I’ll cover further down.
Disassembly/Internals:
Stripping down the rifle is the same as most Bolt Action Sniper Rifles, you’ll need to remove the two stock screws and the bipod lug.
Once you’ve done this, you can take the receiver out of the stock to access the internals.
The trigger box is very good quality and comes with a steel spring guide and sear, which is extremely good for a stock rifle. To get to the cylinder you’ll need to remove the trigger unit or at least the spring guide stopper, which is done by removed the screw below taking care to keep hold of the spacers and other pieces.
The trigger uses a 90 degree setup which is ideal, again this is rare in a stock rifle but is a huge bonus, especially considering it’s steel! Another benefit is the incredibly smooth bolt pull that you can get.
With the trigger removed you can access the cylinder….which is also steel….on a stock rifle…..Awesome!!
Stripping the cylinder reveals a Steel spring guide (again, I can’t emphasise enough how good this is), spring and an aluminium piston. The internals are actually quite good and once modded, they work very very well.
The cylinder head is brass and is reminiscent of a VSR cylinder head, it does fit on a VSR cylinder and vice versa.
To get to the hop chamber and barrel assembly, you first need to remove the screw on the bottom of the receiver and the first screw on the scope rail, then the outer barrel slides out.
After this you need to remove the 2 screws on the bottom of the outer barrel, then slide the hop unit assembly out.
With the chamber removed you can see how it resembles a VSR chamber, albeit it’s actually got a smaller outer diameter. The hop arm itself is the same as a standard VSR, oddly enough though A&K decided on doing the bic mod to the arm…not that it worked.
Due to the hop arm being the same as normal VSR’s you can use other hop arms such as Sniper One, Airsoft Pro, Maple Leaf, FireFly. To me this is a huge bonus and adds some flexibility.
When I took my chamber apart the bucking inside was coated on grease/dirt and misaligned which was causing a poor seal, consistency and hooking. I rectified this during the mods section of this post.
One thing to note is that the hop chamber has these 2 alignment nubs which need to be removed in order to fit VSR barrels.
The inner barrel is about 510mm, standard stock brass barrel with a bridged window, it accepts VSR buckings but the barrel alignment grooves are in a different position.
Mods:
After striping the rifle down and checking the components over, a clean was needed as there was some dirt/grease over a lot of the parts. Following a clean, everything was lubricated with silicon oil.
The main mods that were done:
Replaced Piston O-ring with a spare VSR one, original was too small/dried up
Original Bucking was swapped out for a Nineball
PTFE Cylinder head threads and bucking to barrel
TDC added as stock hop adjustment isn’t huge, will aslo be adding a new metal hop arm
Electrical Tape Barrel Spacers
Stock barrel was polished, I’ll be swapping this out for another barrel
Some general tinkering of parts
Following these small mods and some time spent testing/tinkering, I was able to get the rifle shooting 2.6J on .5’s. (I’ll leave it cocked overnight to drop this down to sub 2.5J)
The bolt pull is incredibly smooth and the airseal is perfect, which you can view on this video:
Final Thoughts and Next Steps:
After doing the mods above, the rifle was vastly improved and the bolt pull was incredibly nice, as good as some of the VSR’s that I’ve built. The rifle itself feels great to hold, very sturdy.
Overall I’m impressed with the rifle, the consistency is great, airseal is perfect, the action is smooth and easy. Considering this has cost me about £150 in total, I’m genuinely amazed at how it’s progressing.
The rifle could still benefit from some additional parts, such as a new barrel and an after market hop arm.
But my thoughts so far is that this is an outstanding base rifle, easy to work on and cost a fraction of the price of the SSG24. How does it fare internally to the SSG24?
I think there is great potential in this rifle and I’m excited to keep working on it and see how well it can shoot and for what cost.
Sure this isn’t the Modify Mod24/SSG24 and it’s not ready to go out of the box, it does need some work and could benefit from a few upgrades.
The SSG24 is sold as an out of the box ready to go rifle, the A&K M24 is not. However the SSG24 is £500+, the A&K M24 even with upgrades is much less.
That being said for the minor inconvenience of a few hours and a few choice modifications, I firmly believe the A&K M24 is a solid investment and can/will perform on par if not better than the SSG24/Mod24.
Everyone who invests in an Airsoft Sniper Rifle should know it inside and out, be comfortable stripping the rifle down for maintenance and diagnosing issues.
I still stand by my usual saying that a great sniper cannot be bought, it is built.
My next few upgrades for this rifle will be a new barrel and hop arm, once I’ve got these I’ll do another follow up post.