This week, We're taking a closer look at the Ares AM-013 BB Gun . Better known as not the honey badger,

I'd be lying if I didn't say I was super excited about getting a hold of probably one of my favourite AR builds in the world in this gun, it's based on the AAC Honey Badger. But they don't call it the Honey Badger. This is actually the Ares AM-013 in their Amoeba line up.

Now, if you guys aren't familiar with the Amoeba bb guns line up, it's their new, kind of, mid to high tier gun with a blend of polymer bodies, but intelligent trigger systems under the hood that allow you to have features that usually you only get in a top-tier Airsoft gun. So let's get right to it and look at the externals of the AM-013 before we get to the inside.

So with the AM-013, you actually get four different variations of this. They're kind of in that AM family. There are two that have the longer rail. And then another set of two in with a shorter metal rail with all the other features the same, including the stock.

So starting at the front. You get this integrated suppressor inside the rail system. Now the suppressor itself is moulded to the barrel where it's glued on. So you're not going to be able to take the suppressor off. It's actually one piece. It's part of the barrel. But that's no big deal; it still looks awesome. I don't see why you'd want to change it anyway. Moving on across the front, of course, you do have a metal rail with all the different attachment points so you can move the included rail pieces around.

But, I wish they did give you a few more rail pieces. They only give you one small one and one long one on the bottom. So it does limit what you can do about adding accessories to the side considering the one here on the top is going to be reserved for the flip up sides. And that only leaves you a space for this bottom one to move around if you want to add accessories. But, no worries, they also give you pair of hand stops in the trusted Honey Badger style fashion, I do like this because the way they have it set up, if you're playing CQB and you're not running a vertical fore-grip, this will prevent you from accidentally running your hands to end of the barrel and shooting your hand. Which we all know is extremely painful.

Moving on down, we're actually gonna take a look at these sides. And you know the flip up front, rear sides, they're kind of a very familiar style. They're the troy-style sides. And I did like them. Unfortunately, when you get to the back side, the aperture here is not adjustable. You can flip it over, so you're only stuck with the really small aperture. And I really wanted to have a little bit bigger aperture, considering this is a personal defence weapon. And I'd rather have that CQB holder module larger or rather than trying to look through a tiny precision optic sight to make those fine-tune shots. It's really not a big deal; you can always drill it out, make it a little bit bigger or swap these sides out. But it's just one of those minor little touches that I wish they would have changed on these plastic flip up sides.

Now, of course, we all know the rail is metal, but the rest of the body is polymer with the exception of this top rail on the back portion of the upper receiver. So you're not going to get any issues adding optics and having them kind of bend the polymer. They really did a good job reinforcing areas that needed it with those metal components while still keeping this unique and cool design of the receiver polymer to keep the whole overall weight down. But don't let it fool you. This is a very nice polymer. I did not have any trouble at all, like with the build and the quality and actually running this at a MilSim game. I actually ran this at Operation Ironclad, American MilSim's game, for most of the whole event and it performed perfectly.

So moving on down the side, you get this oversized magazine release, which I do like. It's a way larger than the other one. Makes it really easy to drop that magazine out and the custom grip with the Ares logos all over it. It's kind of a mag pole inspired grip. But I like what they've done to trim it down and make it really comfortable in your hands. And the two-tone, of course, is a fantastic touch.

And then, of course, the back. This is what makes this gun so freaking cool. I love the stock. That PDW kind of MP5-ish type stock on it. Two buttons here on the side you press them together. And it is spring loaded, so it pops out a little bit. Pull it to the end, and you've got a fully extended stock.

Now it does only go to one length, but it's not a big deal. The actual length to pull on the stock is excellent, especially for CQB. I didn't feel like it was too far out like some guns can be. Especially like for example the MP7. It seems like you're holding it a little too far away from your body. This one they did an excellent job of setting that length correctly, so you don't feel like your gun's way a mile ahead of you when you're playing CQB.

The stock itself, the rails are metal in itself, and they recess inside of this back area which is where your battery goes. Now inside here is a very tight fit. And you're gonna have to probably order a custom battery to fit in this stock area, if that's what you guys are wanting to do. So, it's really simple, you pop it, you squeeze these, pop it off and you can get right inside. But keep in mind you're very limited to the space to fit a battery in here. In fact, the largest battery you're going to be able to fit, and even it is a tight squeeze, is 76 millimetres by 33 millimetres by 21 millimetres. So, plan on custom order, good news is they're not expensive at all. You can find them on some sites for around 8 or 10 pounds. And again, you're gonna need to probably change the ends on it, because most of those custom batteries are gonna come with like an XT or a DNS[SP].

Rounding out the externals is the magazine. And this is a really cool thing they've done here as well. It's their high cap. They also sell these individually as well as the mid-cap version of these. And they got this great styling tool. I love the fact they went with their own unique magazine. It's textured on the outside for an easy grip. It's got invisible bullets here on the side. But the best part is, it's got a built-in mag pul type. And it's rubber here on the bottom too. So this piece is rubber. The rest is hard plastic. And this is such a freaking cool high cap. And I've noticed, I've moved this around to a lot of different guns, and it fits and feeds in pretty much every gun I have in my line up. From KWAs to VFCs. So this is actually a really darn good high cap if you wanna use it across the board.

So, going for the internals, there are a few touches. I like what they've done with the hop up itself. It's a dial tide, which I like because you can dial in that hop up and not worry about it walking on you. And also they have the third version of their fire control systems. I know there are some concerns in the earlier versions about how well it held up. But with V3, they've really solved all the problems. Like I said, I ran this thing in a MilSim event and had zero problems wearing this thing out in semi-auto all day long.

So think of it like an upgraded relay system with the meets a MOSFET. It's kind of a hybrid design of their own and it's programmable. And if you're wondering if which version you have, the new version is notably marked with blue here on the inside. You can see kind of a blue component in there, in the mag well. And if that's it, you're running at least the Version 3 of their fire control system.

What makes it really cool with the fire control system is if you buy the accompanying control system, electronic programmer, you can actually put this between your battery and the gun and set your gun for let's say full auto lockout, so it only does semi and safe, three round burst or you can set it for a full auto, which is really cool. And I think it even has a safe burst in full auto mode. Also you can set it for the version of the battery you're running in here, so it'll actually watch those cells and cut the gun off if you're gonna over discharge your Lipo battery, which is a great touch so you don't actually ruin that battery and cause any damage to your gun or the battery itself.

So, taking this thing out to the Crono, I saw a respectable 388 on average FPS. In fact, it floated up into the low 390s a point. So this is going to be perfect for your outdoor gun. But fear not, if it is a little hot for your indoor field, just like all the other Ares guns out there, you have that quick adjustable spring. So, a couple of parts off here, pop the mech box out. You don't have to break the mech box down altogether. And you can swap that spring out for something with a little less oomph. Also, on our 11-1 Lipo, is a 20C discharge, we were seeing 18.5 rounds a second, which is still awesome. I love the rate of fire. It's not overly so to where you're really blazing and you've had the fear of over-shooting somebody. But if you're playing indoors and you play a lot of full auto, taking advantage of the high cap that's included, it's a great rate of fire to keep it balanced out on that Lipo battery.

Accuracy was also really good. I had no trouble hitting my targets out there on the field. All the opponents were scattering and scurrying and I was laying down some really great semi-auto fire. Again, I loved it. It performed so well and usually, it's hard to get a small CQB gun like this to perform very well when you're playing at a large MilSim op in a mil facility where a lot of the battles happen building to building and they aren't that much room clearing involved. But, again the Honey Badger is kind of the Swiss Army Knife of kind of the PDW line up of bb guns and it really held up well.

So overall I really like this gun. I love this beautiful metal rail. I love the way they built it. In fact, I don't even mind the polymer that much because it does keep the weight of the gun down which is important for a CQB gun. Again, my only real concerns on this are the battery compartment size and dealing with that area in there and having to order special batteries. It's not really a big deal. I really wish they would have changed these sides, but again it's not a big deal either. But overall, I love this gun to go out and have like a solid mid-tier gun with high-end functionality.

So, if you're in the market for a great step up to something super custom that can hang in CQB and in outdoor games like when I was playing the MilSim event, take a look at the Ares AM-013 part of their Amoeba line up. And you can pick these up anywhere Ares products are sold.

On bbguns4less we offer for sale the black version honey badger and the tan version of the honey badger for sale on the site and we also price match all other sites in the uk so you going to get the best price possable. 

So guys, what do you think of the AM-013, the not the Honey Badger gun. I love it. I think it's the coolest looking gun and it defiantly turns a lot of heads out there on the battlefield. Plus it performs just as good as it looks. So let me know what your thoughts are about this gun down there in the comments section below. Also, what are your thoughts on the move in the Airsoft industry? I see a lot of guns going to programmable triggers with mod stats. Do you think that is the way of future? Or do you think there's another route that Airsoft's headed other than the mod stat thing? Let me know also in the comment section below. Well, guys, that's it for this bb gun review