This rifle is an exact copy of the Maruzen Type96. It operates and disassembles identically. It is also very similar to the AGM version of the rifle we hear. With a price tag of sub $100 and claims of it shooting close to 500fps out of the box there is no wonder why so many people are talking about the rifle. Are the rumors true? Well here is where you find out.

In the box came the rifle itself (two parts), two allen wrenches (one for hop-up adjustment, one for rifle construction), a sling, barrel cleaning rod, package of bb's and scope (if you bought the scoped version).

The rifle comes in its box in two parts. Bolt/Barrel assembly and the stock. Very simple to put together. Slide the Bolt/Barrel assembly vertically into the rifle stock. There are 2 allen (hex head) bolts in the stock (they don't come out of the stock). Line the bolts up with the holes on the Bolt/Barrel assembly and use the supplied allen wrench to tighten. Do not over tighten but make them snug. Your rifle is then together. Depending on whether you bought the scoped version you will then want to attach the scope to the rail. If you did not get the scoped version then I highly suggest you get a scope (or some kind of sight) soon due to the fact that there are no iron sights on the rifle what-so-ever.

The Bolt/Barrel assembly is almost 100% metal.

The sling that was included seems kind of flimsy. I am not sure how much abuse it will hold up to although it hasn't failed me yet through one full game and several target practice sessions.

The barrel cleaning rod was a bit of a disappointment. It is simply a long piece of plastic. Correct diameter but it has no cuts or slits to hold a piece of cloth to swab the barrel. Not really sure how the manufacturer meant for this to be used. I ended up using my M4 cleaning rod, which was not long enough so I had to disassemble the weapon and clean the barrel from both sides.

The included bb's were not marked. So enough said about that ...I threw them away.

The only word to describe it is "Excellent". I have never held the Maruzen Type96 but I don't see how it could feel any better than this rifle. The bolt is as smooth as silk (although I would keep it lubbed so it doesn't loose that glide) and easy to pull. The attachment of the Bolt/Barrel assembly to the Stock is rock solid. No movement in any way, shape or form.

The trigger is another great aspect of this rifle. Not only is it solid and all metal but I was pleasantly surprised to find it equipped with an AccuTrigger (like the device developed by Savage Arms for their rifles). And even better...it works! After the rifle has been cocked with the bolt simply pull the AccuTriggers first trigger flush with the second trigger. Then your next millimeter (guessing on the distance) of pull sends your round downrange.

The magazine holds 35 rounds. When you put the magazine into the rifle make sure you get the solid "click". If not your bb's never make it into the receiver. The mag will stay put even if it isn't all the way in so again listen for that solid "click". The magazine is also spring ejected when you hit the release, unlike the BE version of this rifle which I am told you kind of have to pry out (although don't quote me on that because I have never personally used the BE version), this is great for those quick battlefield reloads.

There is also a receiving port on the very front of the stock for a quick detach bi-pod. My L96 did not come with this accessory however i do know that some sites are packaging it with the rifle.

Before testing velocity with the Chrono I always clean out the barrel, and a good thing I did. Most barrels, when new, arrive to you with junk in them. However this on takes the cake. I spent close to half an hour cleaning this barrel, inside was some thick black almost axle greece like substance. I am sure it was left over from the machining process. Anyway that is probably not something you would want your bb's to encounter while traveling down your barrel. So make sure you clean the barrel first. After this it was time to hit the chrono.

So this is it, the part we've been waiting for.

Stock out of the box the Warrior I: L96 comes fire 440fps with .20g bb's. 403fps with .25g bb's.

Not quite the 500 that many people were claiming but hey they rifle cost under $100...i'll take it.

Oh and its REALLY quiet too. Like really really really quiet. Did I mention it was quiet?

Now off to the range. Being that the L96 is a Sniper Rifle we aren't going to bother with the sub 100 ft testing. I used a stable mount and in the prone position while testing accuracy to eliminate, as much as possible, my shooting ability (no matter how good or bad) from the equation. After dialing in the hop-up to my preferred setting the rifle performed as stated below:

100 ft - target: pie pan, hit nearly 100% of the time.

150 ft - target: human size, hit 8 out of 10 shots.

175 ft - target: human size, hit 6 out of 10 shots.

Sadly 175ft is the limit of our current firing range. Now you might be thinking, "175ft isn't very far." It is a lot farther than you think, go measure it out.

Oh and let me reiterate again just how smooth the bolt action is. VERY SMOOTH!...and quite.

The hop-up is kind of strange. It can only be adjusted by an allen wrench (supplied with rifle) and is on the underside of the barrel in front of the mag release lever. You can't really see in the area where you adjust the hop-up so if you don't have a flashlight then you are stuck with feeling around until you get the allen wrench in the proper place. That aside it does work very well. You just got to get it right where you want it, plan on spending some time zeroing this one in. Adjust, fire, repeat.

The barrel we have determined is a standard 520mm barrel. Which is great news, a tight bore will probably be my first upgrade. Unfortunately though I have no real way to measure the inner diameter of the stock barrel to tell you the bore size.

The Disassembly of the rifle is fairly easy. Take a look at this tutorial for the take apart guide in the Tutorials section.

I have not found any spare parts for this rifle as of the time of this review. However if you are rough enough to damage this rifle then you might want to consider cooling it a little bit.

Pointact has extra magazines for $7.75 at the time of this review. However these mags are advertised to only hold 25 rounds, not 35 like the mag the rifle ships with.

The first upgrade part I have found is this spring (UPDATE: THIS SPRING DOES NOT WORK [read why here]) which claims to give you 500+ fps (careful, most fields I know of allow a max fps of 500 on bolt action rifles) for $19.99.

The rifle is great, no way around it. For under $100 you are shooting above 400fps, you have a working hop-up and a great grouping too. Don't plan on taking this rifle alone into an Op, you will need a sidearm. If you have ever tried to assault with a sniper rifle then you already know what I mean. I have notices a lot of people like to talk about getting some "sweet sniper scope" for their L96. Please remember this is an airsoft rifle with a max range of ~175 feet. The lowest power scope possible is the way to go. If you didn't get the scope with your rifle then I would suggest the PowerLINE by Daisy (I got mine from Wal-Mart, ~$30.00) which is a 3x-9x variable zoom, just leave it on 3x. But beware, the rail mounts that came with the PowerLINE do not fit the Warrior I: L96. You will need to pick some new ones up there in the sporting goods section of Wal-Mart also.

So, if you are looking for a good marksman platform I do believe this could be the rifle for you. Currently on PointAct.com the non-scoped version is running $83.00 while the scoped version is $103.00.