BO Manufacture is a company based in France and not really known outside of its country’s borders – at least here in Austria, hardly anyone has ever heard of the company or has ever seen a gun they make. This is actually the first AEG I have had from BO and had no idea what to expect. I knew that Lonex is producing the guns and I held it once at IWA this year and it is the first polymer AEG I have had in a very, very long time.
INTRO
Usually, product descriptions that contain the word “polymer body” make me wrinkle my nose. Polymer … a word that instantly reminds me of things like “sportsline” series and crappy china guns from the early 2000’s. The LT595 polymer AEG is different. It features a high quality polymer body with a lifetime warranty!
Not every polymer guns is a bad gun. Marui, for example, produced a whole lot of polymer AEGs and they work damn well. I’ve never ever heard someone complain about Marui guns, have you?
The LT595 also features a free-floating railed handguard (yes, polymer too), a super ergonomic pistol grip (one of the most comfortable grips on an AR I’ve touched in a while), polymer flip-up sights, an 14.5 inch metal outer barrel, a blowback mechanism and a lot more features I’m going to show you in the review below.
BUILD QUALITY
The LT595 is built very well. I was kind of surprised that a polymer body could be that sturdy and solid. The polymer is of very high quality and and feels really great and trust me, I’m the last person to like/buy a polymer AEG when I could have a metal one (except for G36s, MP5s and all those guns that feature polymer receivers as a real firearm).
The receiver is solid, there’s no wobble, no gaps, nothing. It feels solid, almost as solid as an aluminum receiver. The only thing that flexes quite a bit is the polymer handguard. But that’s ok as it is a free-floating system.
The lower receiver features Lonex and BO trademarks on both sides. One thing that instantly pops out is the caliber marking: Cal. 5.93mm – huh? Did I miss something? The barrel has 6.03mm, the BB has 5.95mm … so 5.93mm makes no sense whatsoever and I think this is some sort of a typo. I think BO wanted to be cool and put an Airsoft related caliber marking on the body but screwed it up completely.
Nevertheless the markings are precise and look good. All additional body parts are metal and fit precisely.
The magazine that came with the gun is a 120rds polymer midcap and sits very, very tight in the magwell – way better than in any aluminum receiver I’ve tested so far. The magazine is solid. To be honest, I had quite some feeding issues with the magazine – especially when it was completely full. I also tested my ARES plastic lowcaps which ran fine without any feeding issues.
INTERNALS
Disassembling the LT595 is easy. Remove the front pin and slide the upper receiver forward. Don’t forget to slightly lift the receiver up and pull the charging handle back, otherwise the charging handle will catch the blowback mechanism.
The LT595 features a SOPMOD stock that is used to store the battery. The stock tube has a smaller diameter than your average battery stock has and a lot of batteries won’t fit into the tube itself. I was able to store an 11.1V 1200mAh, a 7.4V 1300mAh stick and a 7.4V 1450mAh nunchuk into the stock. The 7.4V 1200mAh was the only one to fit into the tube itself.
The stock tube features a quite uncommon cable route outside of the tube. I have never seen this method of routing the cables before. On the one hand it’s a clever idea to gain space inside the tube for the battery, on the other hand, you won’t be able to pull the cable trough the locking nut which means that you can’t fully remove the cables from the stock tube/lower receiver when taking out the gearbox.
The blowback mechanism reminds me a lot of the one used in the new Krytac AEG series. The gearbox looks also a lot like the Krytac ones (and I have a feeling that maybe Lonex is OEM-ing the Krytac guns), also the bolt stop and bolt release work.
The motor has no decals on it and looks like every other motor out there. It’s said to be a mixture between high speed and high torque. The magnets are not that strong so it’s certainly not a high torque type only.
The Hop-Up is made out of polymer and features a adjustment dial. Again, this Hop-Up reminds me of the Krytac ones. The inner barrel is made out of steel and has a diameter of 6,03mm.
The gearbox looks clean and well made. The shell has a little window which is perfect for releasing the the spring tension before opening the gearbox. You can easily release the spring tension and set the piston back to 0 through flipping the anti-reversal latch (ARL).
The inside of the gearbox is also quite clean and well greased.
The shimming is not really perfect which might explain the “screaming” sound of the gears while shooting. The gun is quite loud and you can clearly hear that either the shimming is wrong or the pinion gear needs to be adjusted. I tried adjusting the pinion gear but it didn’t help.
The internals are very well made and fit nicely. Tolerances are low, the compression of the cylinder is very good.
The gearbox features a steel spring guide with bearings, a polycarbonate piston with metal teeth, an air-seal nozzle, a polycarbonate piston head with went holes, a polycarbonate cylinder head and a steel cylinder.
The Gearset is made out of steel and has a 32:1 torque ratio. Change the motor to a high speed one and you will be able to get a fast trigger response and a high ROF even with stronger springs.
PERFORMANCE
The LT595 shoots around 700RPM with a 7.4V LiPo battery and delivers roughly 332FPS with good range and accuracy out of the box. The LT595 is actually quite heavy for a polymer AEG but handles very well.
The sound of the gearbox is very loud which might be due to the polymer body and the shimming. Another issue could be the 32:1 gearset or the pinion gear – sometimes the gears just sound awful, no matter how well you shim them and sometimes the pinion gear just doesn’t match the bevel gear even if it’s from the same manufacturer.
FINAL WORDS
Surprisingly I have to say that the LT595 changed the way I was thinking of polymer AEGs for the better. The gun performs well and the build quality is excellent.
The lack of battery space inside the stock tube is a bit of a downer and the cable routing is odd too.
Coming to the biggest downer: the price. in the US, the LT595 costs 189USD at Evike, here in Europe, believe it or not, you have to pay 319€ (358USD). Begadi even offers the Lonex L4 PC BAW with the recoil shock function for just 10€ more (BO charges you 479€ for the same model). The only difference – the shorter CQB barrel. The L4 PC without the BAW costs 250€
Nevertheless the BO Dynamics Combat LT595 Carbine is a well performing AEG that doesn’t break the bank.
Thanks to BO Manufacture for letting us test the LT595 AEG.
GALLERY
