My Javelin experience

[Fenix031882]

As some of you know I had gotten a Javelin M4 Warrior series gun in a recent box of mystery, and as some of you know Reverend (AKA Travis) had it basically explode in his hands during the first CQB outing it ever had.  Upon sending it back to the company I got it from (Spartan Imports wanted to charge me a $50 bench fee as well as shipping to and from) they offered to fix the whole thing for me and they are opening an investigation into Spartan Imports/Javelin as far as future purchases go.

Here is the email I got from them today (edited of course)

Product: Javelin Airsoft Works M933 Warrior ABS Series

Customers Issues: Customer (David) called in and stated that the airsoft gun started to make a grinding sound and it sounded as if there were pieces moving around inside, customer then had the upper receiver taken off to take a closer look at the airsoft gun and reported that it looked like the piston had ripped off, customer stated that he was using .20 G&G bb\'s,

Diagnosis: Gearbox broken into pieces. Motor damaged. Hop-up unit and bucking damaged. Bolt release missing.

Fixes: Replaced gearbox. Replaced motor. Replaced hop-up unit and bucking. Replaced bolt release. Gun fires 355-365 fps. Fired 4 full mags with no issues.



I actually got to speak to the technician today that was working on my gun and he said he's been an "Airsmith" for about 10 years now and he's never seen such a poorly made and put together piece of equipment.  He told me that they would replace the parts with all brand new, current gen parts and that they tried to break it a second time with no issues.  I just wanted to put this out there so that everyone could see and avoid the mistake I made.

David "Fenix" Edwards

[det. mcclane]

Wow, that's pretty bad when a gearbox just shreds itself as soon as you take it out to play. I had kinda looked at Javelins for a bit before I came across my current primary, but I think I shall avoid them like the plague now.
Thanks for letting all of us know about this, this was a really informative well thought out post.

[Reverandff7]

Javlin is the most disapointing company yet

[Supercell]

Just ask us about Javelin.  I could have told you this stuff over a year ago.  In fact I thought we told everybody. lol

I bought a bunch of them and we got about 98% of them back.  And I believe we lost a lot of customers and people who bought them as their first Airsoft gun that won't be back for awhile.  If at all.  It was a really bad experience.  Of course they tried to tell us at the Shot Show that they fixed all those problems and we told them absolutely not.
I warned them the first time that if I had a bad experience I would never forget it.  And that is what I told them this year.  They sent me home with 2 Javelins for free to try out.  Opened the M4 and it had issues immediately so we just put it back in the box.  The AK we fired a couple of time in the range and was just to afraid to buy it.  So we boxed it up to send out and a customer that wouldn't listen to us about Javelins really wanted to buy it.  And we tried to tell him not to do it.  But he did.  I now believe it is in the shop for a repair.  DANG JAVELINS.

I have more I can say but it is all the same.  Javelin, very bad.

Jon

[Fenix031882]

@ Supercell

Unfortunately I didn't know you at the time and I didn't actually order the gun, I purchased a box of mystery and it came in it .

I am a marketing director for a mechanical company up here in central Missouri and if any one of my depts. put a product out or did a shoddy repair of this magnitude I would petition for immediate termination.  The same goes for our vendors, we would have this experience 1x and they would find themselves without a distribution contact.  I cannot believe that a company would let this off their factory floor and I cannot believe that the company I bought it from (cant tell you who, but its a very large airsoft distributor) would allow this to pass through their company.  Thankfully the tech whom I spoke to said that they are replacing everything with current gen parts and that they gave it hell before shipping it back to me (I'll review it upon arrival).  They even told me that if I have any future problems with the gun then they would simply replace it with a different gun of equal value (roughly $165).

I wish I lived closer to SoGo so that I could tap their depth of knowledge and just plain be more involved, but I can't.  Hopefully one day they make a CQB place up here

David "Fenix" Edwards

[porkchop]

Ahh, yes, Javelin. Comes from the latin word, meaning: "Throw as far away from you as you can". lol. Seriously, though, been one of the more problematic brands I've seen, lately. We got one of the metal bodied m4 versions from the shop, last year. I was hesitant, having never heard ot them. However, externals were really nice, and Jon gave me a price well under the MSRP, so I got one for one of my sons. He loved it. Two things I didn't like were the velocity, (too high) and the ROF, (too low). We had the spring clipped to cgc legal, and added CA 7mm ballbearing bushings. This, along with a 9.6v battery, brought the ROF much higher where we wanted it, and the hop up responded to .20's at this velociy. Then, trigger issues began to arise. After a few times in and out of the mechbox, Chris finally managed to resolve the problem by, what he called, "building up the trigger". (I have no idea) Whatever he did worked, however, it now fires full auto in semi auto mode. No problem for us, though. My boy likes to fire full auto all the time, anyway, and he gets semi auto fire by simply tapping the trigger. Also, Jon was able to get us a spare complete gearbox as a back-up if there's any issues in the future. While Chris had it open, i looked around the gearbox to see what else I might upgrade later on. The cylinder set looked very good, especially the chrome air nozzle, silver plated wiring, and stainless inner barrel. The spring guide and motor, on the other hand, looked to be very low-end. The spring guide not only was plastic, but appears to be a ver.III, with the wider feet. Strange to see in a ver.II mechbox. The motor was your basic, cheap, chinese motor.  Eventually, I intend to replace both of these with something better, Marui or Systema maybe, but in the mean time, A.J.'s Javelin is working very well, and he loves it. After all, he's only 8, but he had no trouble chopping his way through an ocean of brain-eating scumbags at last years' zombie hunt event with it. It's his pride and joy, and will still blow the doors off anything his friends have, airsoft wise. (remember, they're 8, too.) If you have one of these guns, I wouldn't give up on it. Once you work the bugs out, they do hold their own. Then again, we might just be lucky it still works at all. lol. 

[Fenix031882]

Well Porkchop I will be getting my Javelin back on Thursday, so I'll give it hell when it comes in to determine rather I even want to consider keeping it.  The tech's told me that it was the worst case scenario they had ever seen in a gun, and they re-assured me that they where replacing all the broke parts with all brand new, current gen, components.  To be honest I'm terrified of the gun, I fear that the gun is going to just fall apart in my hands. 

[Fenix031882]

Alrighty, the time I was waiting for has arrived.

I got my Javelin M4 warrior back and here's the review.   ( I dont have pictures right now, I'll try this weekend)

Javelin Gun Works M4-A1 Warrior ABS series.
FPS: 350ish
Electronic blow back

Upon taking the gun out of the box I was nervous, the last time this gun was shot it literally blew apart in someone's hand.  I immediately grabbed a battery and a midcap and stepped outside, the gun didn't blow up when I plugged the battery in.  The gun shoots pretty accurately, and the blow back action is unique.  I had no problems firing in full auto but once I put it in single fire mode I had an issue.  It may be my inexperience, but if you dont hold the trigger for the full cycle time then it jams.  I did put 2 midcaps and a hi-cap through it on auto with no issues.

I will be taking this gun with me to black cloud as a back up gun (and maybe a primary if I can't get the bucking on my JG replaced).  I wont lie to you and say that all my fears have been alleviated, Im still terrified that this gun is going to shatter in my hands.  I want to disable the blow back because it seems like just something else to break, and I'd like to find out whats up with the single fire loading issue.

questions/comments/un-restrained fury?

Thanks for reading,

David "Fenix" Edwards

[porkchop]

Glad to hear it had a "mostly" clean bill of health. Another thing I forgot to mention was ours is very picky about what mags work will work in it. Jon has some Javelin hi-caps at the shop, so that's your best bet. Otherwise, I wouldn't order any you haven't already tested first. They're magwell appears to be bigger than most, so slim bodied mags fit too loose, and don't feed properly. Good luck!!