ICS Reliability

[Messy]

I was recently planing on getting an ICS MP5a4 but after doing a little more research of the gun, i found some really bad reviews of the guns. They say ICS will break the day after you open the box but also they might be reviews for the older model of the MP5a4. The reviews for the current version of the gun seems to be better but I still wanted to post here for an unbiased opinion.

Edit: Also planing on buying some new metal bushings with the gun if i get.

[spike 01]

I hear that it is harder to get parts for the ICS

[toadhound]

One of the guys on our team has an ICS MP5 that is close to three years old. He has done everything to try and brake it. He has had to have put well over 20,000 rounds through it and and has dryfired it to death. In that time he has only had to replace the motor.

[mcguyver]

ICS guns have come with metal bushings since 2006.

[Drache]

Originally Posted by spike 01

I hear that it is harder to get parts for the ICS

That can be true especially for the ICS Armalites!

[mcguyver]

The OP is in Texas. He can get parts (and lots of them) from dozens of places in the U.S., so no worries there.

[twsmith]

Parts can be hard to find in Canada but I've ordered ICS M4 parts from the states with little problem. I dealt with Blazing Toys and they had several shipping options.

UPS Ground
US First Class Mail (no extra charge), but there's no Tracking or Delivery Confirmation or estimated time of delivery.
International Priority Mail (6-10 Days) with an additional charge had Delivery Confirmation.

[CuppoJava]

No experience with any of ICS's other guns.

But I own an ICS AK74. The thing is rock solid, accurate, and has gone through more than 20 bags of 4000 bb's without a hitch.

I would have absolutely no hesitation over recommending ICS to anyone.

[LUTNIT]

Hard to find parts? What the hell? I have 2 ICS M4's and am building a third and have found it easier to get parts for than my TM M14. It takes all manner of normal ver.2 parts internally (only the anti-reversal is ICS specific) and normal nozzles work with the ICS hopup units no problem for me even though many have told me they wont. Hopups, bodies, upper mechboxes, etc. can all be ordered from blazingtoys.com or speedytoys.com, both are slower on shipping than say Redwolf or WGC but they have everything you need to build a gun from the ground up, trust me, that how I'm building my third ICS (had a spare receiver so I ordered everything else.)

I bought a PTW and sold it because it just didn't impress me enough to warrant the price. Since I switched to ICS armalites I have had nothing but good experiences. Beats the pants off a PTW in my books.

[jameskersten]

I have an ICS m4 and I have nothing but good things to say about it, the worst thing to happen to me was I broke the hopup, but a quick order from blazing toys and it was good to go again. I haven't used it much in the past year since I got my PTW (maybe twice in the past year, and that was loaning it out to someone to use, I personnaly haven't used it at all since I got my PTW but that is besides the point.) but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend an ICS to someone.

[mcguyver]

I've owned ICS guns from 2004-2007, and I had nothing but good things to say about them. I never really upgraded any of mine, never needed to, I bought just about all the potential parts I would ever need, and maintained 3 spare upper kits at one point.

It's funny though, I went from ICS (at least 6 AR variants) to Systema. I would not go back to ICS though, as they're a little too difficult to get new in Canada these days. But in the U.S., whole different story.

I'll bet (minus the body), I had enough spare parts to build 2 ARs, and many spare parts left over when I sold the last of my ICS guns. The last one I had I sold for $1400, and it was a steal of a deal, considering the money put into it (with minimal internal upgrades). I spent an extra $350 for another PTW.

[Kos-Mos]

I had an old (very first runs) M4A1.

To give you an idea, it is the first version, with copyright to TDS (Yes, the crappy brand). They where the guys selling the ICS rifles on the US market at that time.

I outraged some 400 fps guns when it was at 360 fps, and using .20.

I sold it to a friend and worked on it yesterday.

Part are quite easy to get, you can swap the whole upper (like he does) for changes in barrel lenght and FPS and the hop-up is similar in design to the ones used in G36s.

Always full metal.

In this particula case, we had to modify a KA bullbarrel to fit the hop-up properly, but nothing extreme.

Also had issue fitting a KA Knigth Armaments RIS, but for some reason it fitted perfectly on a KA Troy CQB receiver. Installed the KA Troy RIS on the ICS instead.

If I ever buy an AR again, it will be an ICS.

People complain about the split mechbox because they think that the alignment is not good.

I can tell you, if you assemble the gunproperly, the assembled mechbox is rock solid.

[Skladfin]

id take the split mech box anyday.

disassembling the enitre gun to get to the mechbox is a pain in the arse

[arnold869]

Originally Posted by LUTNIT

Hard to find parts? What the hell? I have 2 ICS M4's and am building a third and have found it easier to get parts for than my TM M14. It takes all manner of normal ver.2 parts internally (only the anti-reversal is ICS specific) and normal nozzles work with the ICS hopup units no problem for me even though many have told me they wont. Hopups, bodies, upper mechboxes, etc. can all be ordered from blazingtoys.com or speedytoys.com, both are slower on shipping than say Redwolf or WGC but they have everything you need to build a gun from the ground up, trust me, that how I'm building my third ICS (had a spare receiver so I ordered everything else.)

I second you on the easy of available parts and reliaibility. but I have had issues with the guarder hop-up nozzles double feeding in my ICS.

[Crunchmeister]

Originally Posted by Skladfin

id take the split mech box anyday.

disassembling the enitre gun to get to the mechbox is a pain in the arse

+1 one to that. Plus having the spring in the separate upper makes the lower SO much easier. Closing up a mechbox, especially wiht a stiff spring, is always a challenge.

And of course, there's the versatility of being able to swap to different uppers and upper mechboxes for outdoor and CQB. You can switch over a full-lenth 400 fps M16 to a sub-350 fps carbine in a matter of a couple of minutes with an ICS.

Only got to ever try out 1 ICS (Arnold's) and I was most impressed by it all around. I wouldn't hesitate to get one if I wanted another Armalite.

I've never tried an ICS MP5. It doesn't have the same split mechbox design, but still built to the same level of quality, so I wouldn't hesitate to get one of those either.