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ASG Ashbury ASW338LM Review & Video
by Oliver P

Ashbury International Group is an American defense company based in Virginia, USA. Started in 1995 by former defense professionals, they provide law enforcement, military and special operations forces with state of the art equipment and technical support. Within the Ashbury Group, they have their Precision Ordnance branch, affectionately called APO (Ashbury Precision Ordnance).

APO created the ASW338LM Precision Tactical Rifle (Asymmetric Warrior .338 Lapua Magnum) enabling shooters to accurately engage soft targets out to 1,500m and beyond. The Asymmetric Warrior is designed with modern day shooters in mind, with a full length, uninterrupted picatinny rail on the top, with addition rails on the front of the weapon. The fully adjustable stock features a moveable vertical recoil pad, length of pull, cheek riser and adjustable monopod to ensure that every shooter can use the weapon to the best of their abilities, and all can be adjusted without tools with the notable exception of the cheek rest, which can be hex locked into position. The pistol grip can be changed for a Magpul MIAD or MOE grip, and also features adjustable grip angle and grip-to-trigger distance.


Action Sports Games contacted Ashbury International Group and requested to make an airsoft version of this great sniper rifle. Ashbury agreed, and provided ASG with the actual 3D CAD drawings of the actual rifle, ensuring that the airsoft version you pick up is as realistic as the real thing. Ashbury Precision Ordnance trademarks on the receiver add the finishing touches to a truly authentic rifle.

The rifle comes with its own custom hard case, with foam cut outs to protect your rifle in transit. Space is left for the bipod and silencer (each sold separately) but sadly not the scope. Out of the box, and once constructed, the ASW looks the part. Its solid CNC aluminum and carbon fibre make for a surprisingly light yet sturdy rifle. (Main body is much lighter than it looks!) With all the accessories on, it weighs in around the 6/7KG mark, depending on what you add to it. Internally, its is all Tokyo Marui VSR 10 compatible, meaning that there are already a multitude of upgrade parts ready to go. Out of the box, it shoots a .20g BB at just under 400 FPS, (1.4 Joules) from the 420mm, 6.04mm inner barrel. It comes with an M120 spring installed, but there is a M90 spring included in the box if you need to downgrade right away for site limits (thoughtful!!). Some people have criticized the internals arguing that the ASW is just a VSR 10 in a, rather expensive, body kit. Depending on your view point, this is either good or bad. Bad – expensive for just a VSR 10 which you could get for less. Good – you have a rifle that looks nothing like the very popular L96s, VSRs (Which look like M24 or M40) or Dragunov’s that are so common place in airsoft. In addition, you have enough rail space to add anything, and with this build quality, nothing is going to break any time soon. The looks alone will set you apart at your site and will raise a few eyebrows!

There are already zero trigger systems (needed for anything over the M120 spring system installed) and M150 and M170 kits out there to take this to 500 FPS+. There are also other upgrade/replacement parts, such as a steel bolt assembly that is recommended to upgrade to from the plastic one if pulling a M150/M170 spring. The bipod and silencer that go with the gun are sold separately, but are, from what I have seen/read are well worth their hefty £50 price tag (each!). Spare magazines are around £29, but given their size, finding a magazine pouch maybe hard. It may be better to just take a speed loader with you and reload your single magazine in game. Between a sniper and spotter team, this would be easy to do!
With the silencer on (goes onto the 28mm flash hider in a quick attach/detach form) one can run a longer inner barrel out, but doing this will mean the rifle doesn’t fit into the case anymore. The flash hider can be removed to reveal a standard 14mm thread, but the flash hider does add to the look.

Performance wise, this is a very good stock rifle. After some hop adjustments, myself and Tommy loaded the magazine with some Swat .30g BBs and set about testing. We were consistently hitting a man sized chest target at 34m, (rounds were hitting with enough force to let you know you’d been hit, could have gone a bit further) and in game I scored 3 kills at 40m+, although I was aiming high and the wind did maybe help. A upgraded spring kit, tightbore barrel and some heavier rounds and I am sure the ASW will be nailing targets at 50m+. The hop adjustment is done via hex key through a small hole on the top rail. Seems solid enough and hop had a nice sturdy movement when adjusting. Due to the large front scope shroud covering a large objective lens, I am unable to adjust hop when the scope is on. Depends where you set the scope, and what scope you use. Higher mounts might alleviate problem.

The spring pull is light, but then we are only pulling a M120 at the moment, and the trigger feels very good. No wobble, and a decent pull force to fire the gun. Safety catch is simple and effective, and is very hard to accidently knock of safe, which in my eyes is a massive plus. Magazines advertised as holding 40 rounds, but I could only fill it with around 35 rounds, which seem to go quite quick in game. Considering the size of the magazine, (.338 Lapua Magnum is a large round) you might have thought they could have re designed the BB holding tube to accommodate far more rounds. Rifle definitely benefits from being fired prone, with the monopod and bipod deployed. That said, I did manage to manipulate the weapon system from a crouch position with relative ease and achieved good results. Given the weight and potential from end weight from a bipod, this weapon is not for the faint hearted or smaller framed person!

One thing of note is that due to one of Ashbury’s requests for the airsoft version to be as authentic as possible, the magazine placement is truthful to the real weapon. This is great, as in most spring snipers, the magazine is placed very far forward to accommodate the cylinder, resulting in a large amount of, in my opinion, wasted stock space. This means that this weapon is comparatively short. Cam had a new Maruzen L96 the day I was there, and we compared the two guns. While the inner barrels are not much different, his overall weapon length is much longer, solely down to the stock and far forward magazine placement!

This is my first venture into airsoft sniping, and I have to say I’m hooked. To have a truly effective airsoft sniper you have to be prepared to put time, effort and money into your weapons system or your going to get beaten by an AEG every time, but there is nothing more satisfying than hitting your target at range. Swat Area 51 doesn’t lend itself well to sniping either, as the outdoor areas are small in comparison to some other full woodland sites. Overall, the weapon system was easy to assemble (instruction manual is super clear, no engrish translations here!, and comes with a full list of upgrade parts and part numbers) and to manipulate in game. Bolt pull is light ish, construction is fantastic, ASG have done Ashbury proud and the potential for upgrading is great.

The Scope that is recommended to go with the weapon (usually sold separately, but I got mine with it as I pre ordered from Land Warrior) is a Strike Systems 3.5-10x50 red/green illuminated Mil Dot. Adjustments included Parallax, vertical height, windage, zoom, illumiation level. Comes with scope covers and two 30mm mounts as standard. In time I intend to swap the scope mounts for more sturdy ones as the current ones are only single ring/single hex screws.

In Box:
- Instruction manual.
- Gun (stock detached).
- Speed loader.
- M90 spring.
- One magazine.
- Hex keys for hop adjustment and stock assembly.

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•For ASW338LM by ASG

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This review is copyright 2012 by Yosser's Airsoft Odyssey © and may not be copied or reproduced without permission. Pictures courtesy OliverP APO is Copyright of Ashbury International Group. You may link to this page