King Arms – Galil SAR

King Arms – Galil SAR

(all pictures are clickable)

The Israel Military Industries Galil, like many weapons on the battlefield today, was born out of necessity – a necessity driven by war. During the ‘Six-Days’ war of 1967, the Israeli forces noted problems with their current service weapons of the time, the FN FAL series of rifles (funnily enough, King Arms made one of them too!) and searched for a new breed of assault rifles built to cope with the harsh demands of desert fighting. It was the AK-47 (or more accurately the Valmet RK.62, an AK-47 clone) that they turned to for inspiration, being possibly one of the most reliable and robust automatic rifles ever conceived.

Whilst remaining similar in appearance, there are some fundamental differences between the Galil and the AK, most notably the calibre. Pretty much all AK-47’s fire a very high powered 7.62mm round, whereas the Galil SAR fires a NATO 5.56mm round, this leads towards greater accuracy during automatic fire, plus a greater ammunition capacity in the magazine whilst remaining at a similar length to it’s AK cousin. Other differences include efforts to make the rifle ambidextrous by adding an additional fire-select lever near the thumb on the left hand side of the receiver, as well as angling the charging handle upwards so that it can be operated by either hand. Another important change covered the sighting system – where the AK-47 had a standard notch and post style arrangement, the Galil has a ‘peep-hole’ sighting system, with additional flip-up sights for night time use. The most important change was the positioning of the rear sight, and by moving it back towards the end of the receiver, compared with the position of the rear sight on the AK, it allows for greater accuracy. The reason is very simple, small changes in movement at the gun, translates to a much further movement down range, the closer the rear sight is positioned to the operator on a gun, the less sensitive to movement the sighting picture becomes.

King Arms – Galil SAR – Some Specs

• 7mm reinforced modified V3 Gearbox with bolt blowback mechanism (patent pending)

• Full metal AEG (Steel and Aluminium)

• Accepts 9.6v – 12v battery

• 130 Round steel magazine

• Official licensed product with trademarks

• Limited edition – only 500 released!

• Dummy left hand side selector

• Steel folding skeleton stock

• Flip-up night sights, ready for tritium inserts

• High quality 6.04mm barrel (as per the Troy)

The Galil is the third in a successful line-up of AEG series from King Arms, who are best known for their range of accessories and related Airsoft products – but now seem to be making quite name for themselves on the Airsoft gun front too. It may be true that unlike their immediate competition, such as Classic Army and ICS, they bring far fewer models onto the market, but for this they most certainly make up for it with quality control. We have reviewed their FN Fal, and more recently their Troy series of rifles and now with this, the Galil, they have proven that although they take their time releasing new models, it’s certainly worth the wait.

Now normally when I review a new Airsoft model, I start at the box and work my way through from there. In this case, I was unable to, the reason being I was lucky enough to have one of the few sample AEGs released for review purposes, almost a month before they are available in the shops. At this stage, the box was a non-descript King Arms foam lined box, and I wasn’t provided with any instructions <edit: We have now received an electronic copy of the instruction manual> – possibly because they hadn’t even been printed yet – that is how new this AEG is! At the time of writing this, the AEG will still not be released until the end of September, a further two weeks, and what’s more, it’s a limited edition production run also with only 500 models being produced. That is certainly going to make it a sought after AEG, and with few Galil models available out of the box (apart from the many kits, such as the likes from Inokatsu) it’s certainly the cheapest and most practical option to go for.

Weighing in at a hefty 3.20kg (the real steel ways 3.75kg), the Galil is one extremely robust and well engineered AEG. Like all their AEGs, the Galil is manufactured mainly of metal components, and good quality components they are too. Steel, Aluminium and Nylon Fibre (plastic to you and me…) are the materials of choice here, and the finish is such that you’d be forgiven if you mistook this AEG for the real thing. So lets take a closer look at the externals, starting from the muzzle end of things:

The flash-hider, which is A3 ‘birdcage’ in style and steel in construction, is removable with a standard 14mm counter-clockwise thread – a great start because this allows for each attachment of a silencer or tracer unit, and personally I think the Galil would look rather good with a small sized silencer on the front of it, adding to that tactical look.

Moving further down the gun we have the bayonet mounting point (you’re probably not going to be using this… I hope!), a fairly wide and sturdy front sling mounting point, and the faithfully reproduced front sighting system, and exact replica of what you’d find on the real steel. Adjustment for windage is dealt with here, rather than adjustment of the rear sight, and this is achieved by using a flat headed screw driver to adjust the hooded fore-sight left and right. Also reproduced are the flip-up night sights, which on the real Galil would include tritium inserts which would provide a steady glow for aiming in low light level conditions. Tritium inserts are available from companies such as fire-support.co.uk who offer a fitting service. On the Galil, all one would need to do is drill the holes marked out on the fore and rear sights and you’ve got yourself an AEG that glows in the dark.

We then have the gas-tube, made from anodised aluminium, which accommodates the battery running inside its length. King Arms suggest that this gun is capable of storing up to a 12v stick type battery, albeit a slightly snug fit. You do need to make sure you battery is constructed from standard 2/3AF cells as used in a mini-battery, anything longer and you’ll struggle. We suggest sticking to an 9.6v or perhaps even an 8.4v (more on this later), as that provides more than ample rate of fire and will ensure the gearbox lasts a little bit longer! King Arms have incorporated a nice little feature to aid in battery installation, which can be better seen in the video clip posted at the bottom of this review. Basically, whilst pulling back on the cocking handle, giving the gas tube a gentle tug will cause it to separate from the gun, allowing you to insert the battery easily, and then refit the tube back onto the receiver. Nice in practise, although on the sample AEG I had, this was a little more difficult to remove as indicated in the video clip and required some force to get it moving. Still, a drop of oil here should assist and I’m sure these parts would loosen up somewhat after continued use.

Underneath this is the front fore-grip, and being a reproduction of the SAR 5.56 model, this is plastic. In fact, it’s one of the very very few plastic parts on this gun and is of two part construction and adds to the tactical look the Galil is trying to achieve. The front hand-guard is the only ‘creaky’ part of the gun, and that in itself is a very minor annoyance. It’s certainly not going to come off easily and is very comfortable to hold onto with raised groves along the side panels to aid grip. I’m sure aftermarket accessories will appear in time such as front hand-guards which comprise RAS rails for attaching accessories such as flash-lights etc.

Moving on from here we have the magazine well, and magazine locking mechanism, which operates very much like it’s AK counterpart. The magazine itself supplied with the gun is manufactured from steel and holds 130 rounds, so it’s about mid-cap capacity. It looks very much like an extended and curved M16 magazine, which it would do seeing how the SAR model is 5.56mm calibre.

The grip houses the hi-torque motor, and is styled very much like King Arms SAW AK grip, in fact you could probably get this to fit without too much trouble. Removed by a single screw at the bottom, the grip slides off to reveal the motor caddy similar to that found on all V3 gearboxes. It does have a recessed part on the left hand side to allow movement of the dummy left hand side selector, which unfortunately is just that, it does not function at all. A shame as it would have been nice to see this faithfully reproduced on the Airsoft model as a working feature and certainly useful too.

The folding skeleton stock, constructed from steel, is very sturdy indeed with no indication of any ‘wobble’ at all. On left hand side is a robust rear sling mounting point, and on the right hand side is the hinge which allows the stock to fold up against the right hand side of the receiver, making the Galil overall more compact. Out of the box the stock was a little stiff to fold, but subsequent attempts have been much easier as the parts have loosened over time. The easiest way to fold the stock is by holding onto it with your thumb on the bottom of the hinge, pulling your hand-down with a lever type motion will cause the latch to disengage and you can now fold the stock – with a bit of practise easy to do with one hand in under two seconds.

The receiver, based on the Valmet, a licensed AK-47 clone is again constructed of high grade alumunium and like it’s AK counterpart is pretty basic in appearance. No bells and whistles, just a functional and sturdy design which comprises a top removable cover (just like the real thing) and a left and right hand fire selector switch. On the real Galil, the left hand switch is functional and is designed to complement the right hand selector, making the gun truly ambidextrous. Unfortunately on the airsoft model, this is purely for show and serves no purposes – a shame really as it would have been quite a useful feature to include. I’m sure someone will bring out some aftermarket modification to get this working, I see no reason why it couldn’t, after all, most V3 gearbox designs include a selector on the left hand side. The King Arms model is fully licensed and trademarks have been faithfully reproduced with permission from Cybergun. These include the markings ‘S.AUTO GALIL, CAL .223 REM, MODEL 392, IMI-ISRAEL’ and ‘ISRAEL MILITARY INDUSTRIES LTD. (I.M.I) on the right hand side of the receiver. No-where does it state on the gun that it is indeed an Airsoft model, apart from the magazine which reads ‘FOR AIRSOFT USE ONLY, KINGARMS’ on its base.

On the top of the receiver is the rear sighting system, which as discussed earlier gains advantage from it’s position towards the end as opposed to the positioning on the AK-47 which the Galil is based upon. The sighting system has two modes of operation, an adjustable ‘peep hole’ sight, which would be set for 30 or 50m on the real steel, and flip-up ‘night time’ sights which coupled with tritium inserts give a gentle permanent glow for low light level conditions. There is no windage or further elevation adjustment on the rear sight other than the preset positions, so adjustment has to be made at the foresight, which is achieved by turning a flat headed screw on either side of the hooded post sight for windage, and using the supplied tool for elevation adjustment of the post. Out of the box I found my Galil to be shooting a little to the left, so adjustment had to be made here to counteract this – but more on that later.

Pressing the release catch on the upper allows the top cover to be removed, exactly like any AK variant, which allows us access to the battery compartment, and we can see a little better how the ‘blowback’ mechanism which cycles the bolt functions. The system is mechanically connected to the top of the piston, via a modified V3 gearbox, therefore it is the backwards and forwards movement on the piston in operation which cycles the bolt. You can see this working in the video clip we have taken, available at the bottom of the page, but in essence it is a robust and simple way to do it. Now, it’s not got some fancy mosfet breaking system on it, so as when firing an AEG on the full auto the piston doesn’t always return to the rest position, so does the bolt not always return to the fully closed position. The purists amongst you might not find this acceptable, but I can assure you compared to some other ‘blowback’ offerings on other AEG’s, this version is far simpler and much better constructed. Using a double spring arrangement, if the bolt’s movement is restricted, lets say by a stray finger, the AEG will continue to operate as normal, and the steel guide-rod which the bolt is mounted upon look as if it’s up for the job. A squirt of silicone spray on these moving parts during your routine AEG maintenance will help keep the whole mechanism running smoothly.

The Galil is a very nicely weighted AEG and shoulders almost instinctively. This is part helped by design but also by the battery position being in the top of the AEG, thus maintaining a neutral centre of gravity and although the stock is steel in construction, the balance remains perfect whether it is folded or in the extended position. In practise I’ve always found peep-hole sights a little bit difficult to see through, so I usually drill the hole out a little bit larger to make for a better sighting picture. On this AEG, I found the perfect combination to be using the rear flip-up notch sight, in conjunction with the standard front post sight which makes it far easier to see what you’re looking at.

So, now for the fun bit, shooting the Galil! The 130 round magazine is easy to load by hand, although one would say a little time consuming, so a speed loader was the order of the day here. Fully loaded and a freshly charged battery, it’s time to see what this beauty can do. The first thing we decided to do was put the Galil through the chronograph to see if King Arms claim of 300fps was accurate, and it was. With the hop-up set the off position, over 10 shots using Excel 0.2g ammo, these were the results:

316
313
316
317
317
314
319
315
317
317

Average: 316.2fps

Therefore with the hop-up in the optimum position for range at level flight, 300fps is pretty much what you’ll get – and pretty consistent readings too.

Out of the box I found the accuracy to be a little off, with the shots straying a little to the left, however at 10m all of the shots were falling within a 4-6 inch diameter circle, which is more than acceptable. Even on full auto, the groupings remain tight which shows good consistency from an excellent hop-up and barrel unit, which as I’ve said with previous King Arms reviews is very good, considering the first thing I do with a new Classic Army gun is ditch the barrel for a Systema one and replace the hop-up rubber for Marui. One minor criticism is that usually an AEG will not fire the remaining 3 or 4 BB’s as there is nothing left in the magazine to feed these through the hop-up unit, so they simply fall out when you remove the mag – the Galil didn’t feed the last 10 or so! Now, we’re putting this down to possibly a slightly weaker magazine spring not having the ‘umph’ to push up those remaining rounds when it’s not under load. This could probably be solved by disassembling the magazine and stretching the spring slightly, or by putting some packing at the bottom of the spring, much like a spring guide with a bearing to give it an extra bit of, well… springyness?

The rate of fire using the recommended 9.6v battery is extremely quick, with the bolt cycling at a fair old speed, in fact, you can see the camera struggled to catch it properly in our little video clip. Don’t worry though if you’ve got a load of 8.4v stick batteries laying around, you can put them to good use in the Galil albeit with the rate of fire being slightly lower.

Maximum range is yet to be established, due to the limited distances on our ‘shooting’ range, but I would imagine it’s going to be on par with any gun with a similar barrel length and fps set-up. At 55m you could see it’d had still got some give in it, so this is going to be equally at home in woodland or CQB environments, and of course with the folding stock, the latter is going to be a breeze! Although the muzzle has a 14mm counter clockwise thread for a silencer, I don’t see it helping to reduce the sound of the Galil in operation, as a lot of the noise is coming from the moving parts which operate the bolt, and the bolt itself. Still, it’d look quite nice with a stubby silencer on the end for that added ‘tactical look’.

Conclusion

The Galil is yet another excellent offering from King Arms who are fast making a name for themselves for producing high-quality, all metal AEG’s that work out of the box with no further tinkering or modification, which is more than can be said for some of their direct competition. The prices are usually equal to their competitors too, so if I had the choice between a King Arms brand and another of the same model, I’d choose the King Arms every time. King Arms are also an extremely friendly company to work with too, with excellent support and always quick to answer questions send via email – not to mention they carry such a large range of aftermarket accessories too!

My mind is not completely made up on the idea of a moving bolt on an AEG though, I just don’t see it as a huge selling point for any brand. Yes it might add a touch of realism, but if that is what Airsoft manufacturers are trying to achieve, then someone needs to come up with an affordable alternative to the Systema PTW brand and produce an AEG that stops firing when the magazine is empty, and requires you to cock the action when a fresh magazine is inserted – now that would be realism I’m sure we’d all like to see, without paying the £1000 price tag! That isn’t a criticism of King Arms, that is a criticism of the Airsoft industry as a whole.

Overall, as we expected, we’re very pleased with the Galil. No-one more than me as I love to see fresh ideas and I positively cringe when someone releases yet another M4 or AK clone, the Galil however was a pleasant surprise. The tactical looks with a slightly more modern touch, especially without the wooden furniture made it right up my street and it’s certainly something I would consider buying. My most recent purchase was a CA SA58, and for the very reason that it wasn’t just another M4 or AK, so personally, I can’t wait to see with what King Arms come up with next.

A special thanks go yet again to King Arms for allowing dEFCONAirsoft to be one of the first to review their latest product. At the time of writing this (13th Sept) the Galil is not yet available in the shops, but should be in the next few weeks. Expect to see hi-capacity magazines, scope rails and other accessories following shortly.