Elite Force Elite Tavor Intial reactions/Q&A
Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 3:52 am
Hello all,
I recently received an Elite Force Tavor-21 Elite level rifle. Being the person that I am, the same day I broke it down and basically disassembled every single system down to the screws and springs. This overview of the internals and functions of the rifle is not out there yet, and many people are nervous dropping $300 on a gun with mystery guts. This overview and internals report will answer some questions about the gun, and allow some people the peace of mind to buy it.
Starting with the externals, which can be found in any YouTube “review”, I’ll go over some of the big highlights.
•The Body feels like extremely tough plastic, meaning it’s not the Wal-Mart ABS kind. It is a two piece body, and has 5 screws, along with the rest of the guts, to hold it together. I did not manage to actually separate the halves, because at no point was that necessary. EDIT FROM ORGINAL POST TO AS: I did in fact separate the halves for painting purposes. They were super glued together in some places.
•The furniture (meaning the piece where the charging handle and rail are, the fore grip, and the upper portion of the receiver) are all made of the same plastic, but are smooth. The body is textured.
•Speaking to the fore grip, it is fairly comfortable to hold, however they did drill a small hole in the underside, possibly for a rail. Whether this rail is available, coming, or compatible with other rails, I do not know.
•There is no front sling mount, unlike the Ares version, and the rear is NOT a QD mount. Para cord will most likely be used to take advantage of that mount.
•The bolt release/ARL release is plastic, but sturdy
•The butt plate is either extremely thin and non moving rubber, or plastic. I believe its rubber. It does not move a whole lot, but does stay in your shoulder alright.
•The charging handle and upper rail can switch sides pretty easily, as can the brass deflector and ejection cover. The bolt is double sided, so simply switching the external pieces is all you have to do. The fire selector can be switched from what I've seen and how it operates. The right side doesn't not have the indentations for the spring loaded pin, but those can be added relatively easy with a Dremal. In this regard, this gun is fully ambidextrous. Every vital function is swappable or in the middle already.
•Here’s a list of what’s metal:
oTrigger
oSelector
oRails
oOuter and inner barrel
oAll pins and screws
oSling mount
oThere are other little parts obviously, but that would be a long list.
Another thing to note is that the flash hider appears to be threaded, and visible glue is present. A word on the barrel, it is proprietary. Until someone produces outer barrels, the one you buy is the one you get.
In conclusion, while the body seams could have been done better, and rail support been better, but the construction is very pleasing. The gun weighs around 7lbs unloaded, and with a nunchuck battery installed, the weight balances in the area between the grip and mag release.
Disassembly:
This is not a guide. These are mainly notes that I have about the disassembly. Star_Folder’s Ares guide on Airsoft Forum is very accurate, up to the point where the trigger and selector linkage parts come in.
This is one of the most complicated and intricate guns I've taken apart, and care must be taken while doing so. While I was able to recall by memory how to do most of this, you may want to take pictures if you decide to take it apart. Here are some numbers for getting the gearbox out:
•There are 5 body pins
•There are 10 hex screws in various sizes, and some grub screws as well
The pile of small parts is also large, so this gun will take more space than your average M4/AK on your workbench.
The trigger is not necessary to take out, however that is an additional pin and spring, which I’ll talk about later.
Gearbox: The gearbox is reminiscent of an V7, there are 4 external plates on the outside, each with 2 small screws and some with small springs. However, the shape itself is more like a hybrid V6. I took some pictures of these assemblies because of just how complicated it is to put back together correctly.
This is literally the gearbox slid out of the receivers. The mock bolt is large. The silver bars you see are the linkage from the trigger and selector.
This picture reveals two things, and we’ll take a break to discuss the hop up. The hop up is not the stupid design Ares has, but rather a unique and modified V2/AR style. The bucking is rather odd, and I did not take this assembly apart, however I have a picture of the bucking, here:
A friend of mine told me this looked like batman, I chuckled and agreed. Its very weird and wasn't that effective in the 2 or 3 mags I’ve run through the gun so far. When it actually engages the BB, it send them up and to the right, when not engaging, the bbs fall at 90-100 feet. This is not that great, and I am going to be looking at flat hopping this sucker for field range and accuracy. Speaking to that, the outer barrel is 22 inches long, or 558.8mm, and the brass inner is closer to 520. Freaking long barrel.
Back to the gearbox, refer to the image above the hop up section.
If you were to hold the gun in a shooting position:
•The forward right side plate controls firing, this is directly hooked up to the trigger.
•The rearward right side plate is the bolt catch, which the bolt release interacts with.
•The forward left side is fire selection; this linkage is unfortunately not removable.
•The rearward left side is ARL release, also tied to the bolt release.
On to the guts.
•The gun uses a micro switch.
•The gears appear to be extremely similar to SHS 3rd gens except for the sector gear, I will assume these are strong gears.
•Piston is normal stock, one metal release tooth
•PH is nothing special, stock o-ring had bad airseal, replaced with a #14 it works fine.
•CH is normal
•Air nozzle is average stock
•ARL average
•Motor has the appearance of a jg blue but has ferrous magnets. On a 9.6v does near 15 rps @400fps*
•Spring is weird, very short, but supposedly does 400 fps*
•Spring guide is QD, but seems solid enough
•Wiring is 18 AWG
Now, EBB’s usually have some sort of modified or proprietary piston to run the feature. Not true in this gearbox. A metal sear in the top of the shell rides on the top of the piston, and does not have any special ridge/cut/holder.
The bolt itself is not the best design. It rides on the sides of the gearbox and the cylinder. With some lube I guess this is ok, but it seems like it would get caught up at some point. The actual driving system is on top, as said, and a slot for the metal sear is present on the bolt. The charging handle is literally a piece of linkage similar to the trigger that simply pushes the bolt back, this is why it can be switched to either side.
Shimming is insanely easy on this gearbox. Bevel to pinion has never been easier. An example:
While the motor cage is part of the gearbox shell, the spring and such are not a hassle and hold their position well enough.
One thing I really dislike is the wire routing. I don’t have a picture but Star’s guide does. It runs directly over the spur gear, with no real holders. This will make rewiring at all a considerable challenge, let alone going up wire sizes.
Now, an important table of part compatibility to the best of my knowledge and eyesight:
Gears: V2/3
Piston: All
PH: All
Cylinder: All
CH: V2/3
Air nozzle: MP5
Bushings/bearings:8mm
Motor: Short type
Spring: All
Spring guide:Proprietary
Contacts: Microswitch
Shell: Proprietary
Cutoff: proprietary
A note on the bushings, the bevel has bearings, the other two gears have steel bushings. 8mm replacements can be used, these are fine IMO.
The gearbox is very well put together, and except for the wiring, well thought out. A welcome sigh of relief on such a ‘rare’ gun.
Reassembly:
Putting this thing back together is pretty easy if you kept track of the screws and parts. The only hiccup I had was the trigger. The trigger pull is fairly heavy, and a large double spring must be compressed a fair bit for the trigger and spring to line up with the body pin. My dad and I had to use a short pin to hold the place of the axle pin to install it, then used the axle pin to push the placeholder out. Other than that, its as simple as putting it all back. Most of the assemblies have body pins/easy screws.
Conclusion:
This gun is fairly solid. If it were a M4 or M16, the build quality on the externals would be on par with the likes of G&G top techs. The gearbox is average, but it is much better than expected considering the usual insides of ‘rare’ guns. Overall I give the gun a 8/10. Despite its solid build, wicked cool blowback, and downright sexiness, the mircoswitch, wiring, and lack of replacement proprietary parts bring its score down.
The gun is pretty solid, and despite its downfalls in some areas, I’m comfortable ‘OK-ing’ this gun for purchasing. $300 is a lot of money, but I feel the gun is well worth it for such a nice replica of a great weapon.
Feel free to post any and all questions below, as well as comments.
I recently received an Elite Force Tavor-21 Elite level rifle. Being the person that I am, the same day I broke it down and basically disassembled every single system down to the screws and springs. This overview of the internals and functions of the rifle is not out there yet, and many people are nervous dropping $300 on a gun with mystery guts. This overview and internals report will answer some questions about the gun, and allow some people the peace of mind to buy it.
Starting with the externals, which can be found in any YouTube “review”, I’ll go over some of the big highlights.
•The Body feels like extremely tough plastic, meaning it’s not the Wal-Mart ABS kind. It is a two piece body, and has 5 screws, along with the rest of the guts, to hold it together. I did not manage to actually separate the halves, because at no point was that necessary. EDIT FROM ORGINAL POST TO AS: I did in fact separate the halves for painting purposes. They were super glued together in some places.
•The furniture (meaning the piece where the charging handle and rail are, the fore grip, and the upper portion of the receiver) are all made of the same plastic, but are smooth. The body is textured.
•Speaking to the fore grip, it is fairly comfortable to hold, however they did drill a small hole in the underside, possibly for a rail. Whether this rail is available, coming, or compatible with other rails, I do not know.
•There is no front sling mount, unlike the Ares version, and the rear is NOT a QD mount. Para cord will most likely be used to take advantage of that mount.
•The bolt release/ARL release is plastic, but sturdy
•The butt plate is either extremely thin and non moving rubber, or plastic. I believe its rubber. It does not move a whole lot, but does stay in your shoulder alright.
•The charging handle and upper rail can switch sides pretty easily, as can the brass deflector and ejection cover. The bolt is double sided, so simply switching the external pieces is all you have to do. The fire selector can be switched from what I've seen and how it operates. The right side doesn't not have the indentations for the spring loaded pin, but those can be added relatively easy with a Dremal. In this regard, this gun is fully ambidextrous. Every vital function is swappable or in the middle already.
•Here’s a list of what’s metal:
oTrigger
oSelector
oRails
oOuter and inner barrel
oAll pins and screws
oSling mount
oThere are other little parts obviously, but that would be a long list.
Another thing to note is that the flash hider appears to be threaded, and visible glue is present. A word on the barrel, it is proprietary. Until someone produces outer barrels, the one you buy is the one you get.
In conclusion, while the body seams could have been done better, and rail support been better, but the construction is very pleasing. The gun weighs around 7lbs unloaded, and with a nunchuck battery installed, the weight balances in the area between the grip and mag release.
Disassembly:
This is not a guide. These are mainly notes that I have about the disassembly. Star_Folder’s Ares guide on Airsoft Forum is very accurate, up to the point where the trigger and selector linkage parts come in.
This is one of the most complicated and intricate guns I've taken apart, and care must be taken while doing so. While I was able to recall by memory how to do most of this, you may want to take pictures if you decide to take it apart. Here are some numbers for getting the gearbox out:
•There are 5 body pins
•There are 10 hex screws in various sizes, and some grub screws as well
The pile of small parts is also large, so this gun will take more space than your average M4/AK on your workbench.
The trigger is not necessary to take out, however that is an additional pin and spring, which I’ll talk about later.
Gearbox: The gearbox is reminiscent of an V7, there are 4 external plates on the outside, each with 2 small screws and some with small springs. However, the shape itself is more like a hybrid V6. I took some pictures of these assemblies because of just how complicated it is to put back together correctly.
This is literally the gearbox slid out of the receivers. The mock bolt is large. The silver bars you see are the linkage from the trigger and selector.
This picture reveals two things, and we’ll take a break to discuss the hop up. The hop up is not the stupid design Ares has, but rather a unique and modified V2/AR style. The bucking is rather odd, and I did not take this assembly apart, however I have a picture of the bucking, here:
A friend of mine told me this looked like batman, I chuckled and agreed. Its very weird and wasn't that effective in the 2 or 3 mags I’ve run through the gun so far. When it actually engages the BB, it send them up and to the right, when not engaging, the bbs fall at 90-100 feet. This is not that great, and I am going to be looking at flat hopping this sucker for field range and accuracy. Speaking to that, the outer barrel is 22 inches long, or 558.8mm, and the brass inner is closer to 520. Freaking long barrel.
Back to the gearbox, refer to the image above the hop up section.
If you were to hold the gun in a shooting position:
•The forward right side plate controls firing, this is directly hooked up to the trigger.
•The rearward right side plate is the bolt catch, which the bolt release interacts with.
•The forward left side is fire selection; this linkage is unfortunately not removable.
•The rearward left side is ARL release, also tied to the bolt release.
On to the guts.
•The gun uses a micro switch.
•The gears appear to be extremely similar to SHS 3rd gens except for the sector gear, I will assume these are strong gears.
•Piston is normal stock, one metal release tooth
•PH is nothing special, stock o-ring had bad airseal, replaced with a #14 it works fine.
•CH is normal
•Air nozzle is average stock
•ARL average
•Motor has the appearance of a jg blue but has ferrous magnets. On a 9.6v does near 15 rps @400fps*
•Spring is weird, very short, but supposedly does 400 fps*
•Spring guide is QD, but seems solid enough
•Wiring is 18 AWG
Now, EBB’s usually have some sort of modified or proprietary piston to run the feature. Not true in this gearbox. A metal sear in the top of the shell rides on the top of the piston, and does not have any special ridge/cut/holder.
The bolt itself is not the best design. It rides on the sides of the gearbox and the cylinder. With some lube I guess this is ok, but it seems like it would get caught up at some point. The actual driving system is on top, as said, and a slot for the metal sear is present on the bolt. The charging handle is literally a piece of linkage similar to the trigger that simply pushes the bolt back, this is why it can be switched to either side.
Shimming is insanely easy on this gearbox. Bevel to pinion has never been easier. An example:
While the motor cage is part of the gearbox shell, the spring and such are not a hassle and hold their position well enough.
One thing I really dislike is the wire routing. I don’t have a picture but Star’s guide does. It runs directly over the spur gear, with no real holders. This will make rewiring at all a considerable challenge, let alone going up wire sizes.
Now, an important table of part compatibility to the best of my knowledge and eyesight:
Gears: V2/3
Piston: All
PH: All
Cylinder: All
CH: V2/3
Air nozzle: MP5
Bushings/bearings:8mm
Motor: Short type
Spring: All
Spring guide:Proprietary
Contacts: Microswitch
Shell: Proprietary
Cutoff: proprietary
A note on the bushings, the bevel has bearings, the other two gears have steel bushings. 8mm replacements can be used, these are fine IMO.
The gearbox is very well put together, and except for the wiring, well thought out. A welcome sigh of relief on such a ‘rare’ gun.
Reassembly:
Putting this thing back together is pretty easy if you kept track of the screws and parts. The only hiccup I had was the trigger. The trigger pull is fairly heavy, and a large double spring must be compressed a fair bit for the trigger and spring to line up with the body pin. My dad and I had to use a short pin to hold the place of the axle pin to install it, then used the axle pin to push the placeholder out. Other than that, its as simple as putting it all back. Most of the assemblies have body pins/easy screws.
Conclusion:
This gun is fairly solid. If it were a M4 or M16, the build quality on the externals would be on par with the likes of G&G top techs. The gearbox is average, but it is much better than expected considering the usual insides of ‘rare’ guns. Overall I give the gun a 8/10. Despite its solid build, wicked cool blowback, and downright sexiness, the mircoswitch, wiring, and lack of replacement proprietary parts bring its score down.
The gun is pretty solid, and despite its downfalls in some areas, I’m comfortable ‘OK-ing’ this gun for purchasing. $300 is a lot of money, but I feel the gun is well worth it for such a nice replica of a great weapon.
Feel free to post any and all questions below, as well as comments.