There comes a time in an airsofter's career that he wants to spread his wings and see beyond the normal AEG experience and witness the dark side that is a Gas Blow Back Rifle (no, I wasn’t talking about paintball). For many of us (me included) our first experience of gas is with your humble GBB pistol, of which many abound. GBB rifles to me seemed a completely different and daunting proposition. After all, as I once heard and I think it rings pretty true, “Gas is where airsofters turn, when they want to challenge themselves”. So with some trepidation, limited magazine capacities, realistic action and recoil, “challenge” here I come.

ASG Special Teams Carbine in ACTION:

Onto the ASG Special Teams Carbine itself; the box I found wholly unremarkable although the polystyrene container carried the KJWorks stamp from the original manufacturer of this gun – so it’s a quality product, after all it’s based on their original KJW Kc-02, which in turn is an airsoft tactical version of the old Ruger 10/22. Apart from the Special teams carbine the box also housed a speed loader and a standard Gas magazine.

The weapon itself has a quality CNC’d barrel and assembly along with top rail and RIS front end, no cheap pot metal used here, that fits in snugly into the Nylon Fibre main body. The STC comes complete with rail covers (ASG do a great job of adding in these extra value parts) and it uses standard M4 parts such as Stock Tube and Stock, in this case it’s the licensed LMT stock in use. The use of these standard M4 parts means that it can ALL be replaced with aftermarket upgrade parts, whatever takes your fancy from stocks to grips, it offers a really easy customisation route, if you should wish to go down that road. The included front and rear flip up sights are detachable, so you can mount scopes of any variety should you want. The front sight even incorporates a luminous fiber optic illumination system which aids with quick target acquisition, whilst the barrel if you unscrew the tip has a anti-clockwise thread (ccw) which allows for the fitting of a suppressor and gives the user an opportunity to extend the inner barrel easily if required . Markings wise all the STC shows on the LHS is a removable sticker showing ‘Max 2 Joules’ and on the other the usual ASG logo and Cal. 6mm BB.


Features:
• LMT generation II collapsible stock
• 14mm anticlockwise thread for mounting flash-hider or suppressor
• Integrated quad rails – rail covers included
• Easy accessible hop-up
• Detachable flip-up sights with fibre optic illumination
• M4 style handling

ASG’s Special Teams Carbine, features a semi-automatic GBB system, with a realistic action that promises to mimic closely the action of the real steel equivalent. Having never shot a real deal version of the STC I’m not qualified to comment, but after a long time using AEG’s it took a bit of getting used to cocking the weapon before use, while the semi only firing made you think a lot more about picking your shots, which strangely I found to be a game improving experience for me. The recoil I felt was sadly lacking but ultimately it’s not the be all and end all for a GBB and would probably reduce the FPS of this otherwise well made GBB STCarbine.

One of the options for the ASG STC is a CO2 magazine which ups the fps, although I didn’t think the difference was considerable the recoil and sound was more satisfying I felt and should be considered when buying this gbb rifle. Temperature affects performance for gbb and the CO2 option is less prone to the colder temperatures, although not immune. On a mildish day I got a high reading of 446FPS and a low of 390FPS from the CO2 magazine whilst the Abbey Predator gas magazine gave a high of 415FPS with a low of 400FPS, which is fine on my site whilst observing the minimum engagement distances for a semi-auto rifle, but you might want to check this for your site before purchasing.



Yosser says: I must admit firing this weapon does bring a smile to the face. The range is good although not outstanding by some sniper rifle standards and with the plethora of upgrade parts and accessories by Falcon & RA-Tech (incl. full wood bodies), plus the M4 standard accessories this would make a great first gbb for those wanting to try out a gbb before paying big money for some of the more established and bigger gbb rifles. Its definitely entry level but has a great potential for upgrades and could be a cheaper way of getting into a gbb sniper rifle with just a few simple additions. I did have some leaky magazine issues, but nothing that tightening the base plates and valves couldn’t sort out. The hop-up is amongst the easiest I’ve adjusted by a simple dial on the top of the rifle itself, although I have read that’s probably one of the first things I should consider upgrading.

General Stats:
Length: 782-863 mm
Mag Capacity: 22 rounds
Adjustable Hop-up
Velocity: 130 mps (427 fps)
Weight: 2625 grams
Energy: 1.7 Joules


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