SRC XM8 - Review & Guide

[Raygis LasVegas]

H&K XM8
SRC

External Inspection:

1.

- The body reminds me of Marui P90 plastic. The finish is a bit shiney and no where as good as CA's polymer construction found in the CA36 series. The magazine picture here is a TM G36 one. The original SRC XM8 hi-cap mag has fake bullets printed on a piece of paper and inserted inside the transparent mag.

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- The handguard is plastic but is rubber coated to give a nice feel.

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The magazine catch is H&K's newer type where you can either use you one or two hands to release the mag. ie: You can use your trigger hand's index finger to push down on the lever to drop the mag from the mag well. The mag-release lever is made from metal.

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8.

- 8 position stock. The stock's recoil pad is just a moulded part of the plastic stock that has a rubber coating. I find the XM8's stock adjustment configuration is difficult to change compared to the M4. When the stock is extended and the weapon shouldered, there is a bit of sqeeking sound from the plastic rubbing inside the stock. This is annoying and makes the gun sound like a toy. To fix this problem I never extend the stock when shouldering the XM8.

9.

- The front sight is made from metal. It can be adjusted for elevation where the blade is raised higher or lower... just like the front sight of armalites. The is a bit of side wobble on this sight. However, since the weapon is scoped, there is no used for a front sight on this XM8. When view through the scope, the front sight can not be seen when it's deployed.

10.

- Press on the textured button to flip open the front sight.

11.

- When the rear sight is up, there's an audible click to let you know it's at the 90 degrees position. There is also a slight resistance to stop you from folding the sight past it's functional position.

12.

- Here's the rear sight opened past it's functional position. At this point, the rear sight still can not touch the lens of the scope.

13.

- Standard scope reticle of the scope. The scope does have windage and elevation adjustments. However, I found it difficult to adjust the scope. The adjustment screws are not too responsive.

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Disassembly:

16.

- To remove the handguard, push out this pin.

17.

- The pin has a ball bearing locking device... good job SRC!

18.

- Rotate the rubberized handguard downwards.

19.

- Slide the handguard forward away from the receiver.

20.

- Punch out the stock retaining pin.

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22.

- Unscrew the mechbox retaining screw. The pistol grip pad is made from solid rubber. However I find this piece annoying and stupid looking.

23.

- Unscrew this screw to remove the lower receiver from the upper.

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- Punch out the barrel retaining roll pin to free the barrel assembly from the upper.

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32.

- Unscrew this grub screw before you unscrew the flashider.

33.

- The threads are 14mm negative.

34.

- Unscrew this grub screw before unscrew the front outer barrel extension.

35.

- The front outer barrel extension has 14mm negative threads. This piece can be used on other AEGs with the same thread pitch.

36.

- Unscrew this grub screw to release the front sight assembly.

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38.

- I shimmed this "G36C" gas tube so that the front sight sits on the barrel assembly more firmly. This eliminates some of the front sight wobble. However the front sight will still wobble a bit on it's pivoting folding point.

39.

- Unscrew these screws before you attempt to remove the plastic sleeve of the outer barrel.

40.

- To remove the inner barrel assembly from the outer barrel, push the hop assembly inwards and then rotate as pictured.

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- Separate both halves of the plastic sleeve.

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- Top: metal outer barrel back bone
- Below: plastic outer barrel sleeve.

45.

- Here's how the outer barrel assembly sits inside the hanguard.

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- XM8 Upper receiver. The cocking handle and bolt assembly is made from metal. The bolt section viewed through the ejection port is also metal.

49.

- There is also a metal back bone along the upper receiver. This is also found in the TM G36 and CA36 series.

50.

- I completely disassembled the upper receiver and glued the two halves together along with the scope. This really improved the structural strength of the SRC XM8. With this mod, I reduced the squeeking of the body and carry handle by 90%. The scope also no longer wobbles from the upper receiver and is fully functional.


Gearbox:

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52.

- SRC's V3 gearbox has motor connections instead of soldered wires of TM, CA, ICS, etc.

53.

- The bushings are metal and looks of high quality.

54.

- The gearbox was the most impressive part of the SRC XM8. The plastic parts are of high quality. Although the air nozzle doesn't have an o-ring, the nozzle was manufactured perfectly to form an air tight seal on the cylinder head nozzle. With this air tight seal, it still slides with ease. I found only one gear to be requiring an extra shim to form a perfect shim job... not bad for SRC. The motor functions very well for the velocity the XM8 is shooting. It doesn't whine like my Star UMP. At stock, the gun shoots at 310fps. I upgraded the Xm8 to 350fps by just adding an extra length of spring with the stock spring. With some test firing, the weapon still cycles smoothly with minimal noise at the increased velocity.

The tappet plate, piston head, trigger unit and gears are very nicely made. I would not change these parts. The piston head o-ring forms a nice seal around the cylinder. The spring guide is constructed of the same quality polymer as the tappet plate. I would prefer if the spring guide had a bearing but I won't change it unless it breaks.

The wiring job is not bad. However I still like CA's thick guage wiring compared to SRC's.

Overall, I would not suggest this gun unless you're an XM8 fan. There aren't too many modifications that can be done to make this weapon platform truely custom. With all mods that I've done, the weapon still squeeks a bit on the carry handle and retractable stock... actually I wasn't able to think of a cure for the stock's squeeking.

The front end section does have some flex. The SRC XM8 is not as ruggid as the CA36 series.

I give this weapon a rating of 6/10 if you pitch it against other AEGs such as the CA36 series, AK, and armalites.

Compared to other XM8s, the SRC XM8 does have it's advantages such as the impressive gearbox, useless but thoughtful flip-up iron sights, functional metal scope, green plastic construction, and affordable price. My rating of this gun compare to other XM8s is 7.5/10. To set the record straight, no other airsoft XM8 have gotten a 10 rating from me. There's still a lot of room for improvement!


Final Pics:

Under Construction

More Pictures:

http://www.pbase.com/srcxm801/inbox&page=5

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Click on the song below:

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-Ray

[gamz]

Nice write up

[swatt13]

wow src did some pretty well thought out upgrades o the xm8 platform. raygis is there a way i can get the front sight and carry handle... even the scope for my egsisting xm8, that foregrip wit hthe removable grip is a very nice feature as well.

[thephenom]

Nice write up, but the pictures look really really plastic.

[Raygis LasVegas]

Yeah, the plastic is similar to the ones found in the TM P90. It's as if SRC didn't bother to make the finish matte.

I'm only happy with it because it's the best complete AEG XM8 that's available right now... also, the price wasn't too bad!

[malachite]

that has to be 1 of the best write ups for a gun ive seen yet
i was wanting that gun but know i definatly think im going to get it

[The Saint]

Thanks for the review, Ray. If there's enough room between the stock and rear receiver, have you considered shimming it with some sort of tape to reduce the plastic-on-plastic contact?

And kudos to SRC. I'm not a big fan of the XM8 at all, but now I know what to expect internally of their new G36s.

[Raygis LasVegas]

I've shimmed the area where the stock contacts the receiver. However all the noise made is from the exterior walls of the stock rubbing against the interior walls of the stock housing.

[kalnaren]

Dude, I wish all AEG's had a review like this. Great job.