ARES Otto Repa SOC AR Airsoft AEG Rifle

"Have owned the big brother Soc SLR for awhile and love it, so I had to have this one as well.
I love the feel and heft to it. Very solid. Straight out of the box I think it's great. I changed out the hop up, bucking and nub though. I despise the stock hop ups. Other than that it shoots fantastic.
I use .32s and I can get them out to 200 feet plus easily. Rate of fire isn't crazy high but certainly performs well enough.
Overall I give this gun a 9/10. If it came wired to deans and didn't have the subpar hop up it would easily be a 10/10.

"Just got this Bad boy to go with my SOC SLR.
Out of the box it is a very accurate gun, don’t feel like I need a tight bore or new hop up immediately (unlike the SLR.)

Pros
Sleek and sexy design
Very accurate
Good rate of fire- 2 round burst is sweet.
You can add rails for a fore grip
Good FPS for longer ranges fields.
Quick change spring.
Feeds very well
I like the weight
Easy to take apart.

Cons
Did not come with QR sling mounts like my SLR did
For some the weight maybe an issue.
Mags wobble pretty good even with the stock mag.
Mag release is odd but is easy to get use to.
The bolt of the gun sits right where your hand rests,
A fore grip will help with this.

5 star gun so far for me. The cons really are not that bad and can be easily taken care of, minus the mag release part.

"Alrighty then, so this is built like a tank. I don't see it ever breaking from anything short of being run over by a 3/2 ton. I'll save some time by not saying the same thing everyone else says and I'll just include some possibly helpful info.

-threads are 14mm positive
-the pistol grip is milspec but also holds the battery box for the laser (2xAAA)
-laser is adjustable
-the orange tip is plastic now and is glued on with possibly the best glue I've ever encountered. You will need to melt that bastard off.
-there is mag wobble, but so far any pts or pts style mags (like the skull frog mags) work great.
-the mag release isn't as bad as people say. And it's m4 compatible so you can put a paddle button on it if you so wish.

"WoW!
This gun is amazing probably the best bull pup there is and I don’t normally like bull pups so that’s saying something. I bought it for its uniqueness but found out it’s a all around great gun.

Pros
Well built very sturdy feeling
Extremely accurate right out of the box
Great trigger response
Well balanced
High ROF
Works well with 11v
Compact “it’s a bull pup duh”
Good rail space
High FPS “it’s easier to take the FPS down with a spring then have to add all new internals that can handle a heavier spring”
It’s heavy “this is a pro for me but probably a con for others”

Cons
The rail to get to the battery compartment is a pain to get off and putt back on.
The mag release is in a weird location.

The 2 cons don’t put a dent in my rating nothing can be perfect but this gun is pretty darn close.

"Got this in recently and oh my. What a wonderful rifle. Shot great out of the box and is going to be a great candidate for a upgrade to make it a force to be reckoned with. Love this gun even though a LOT of people dislike bullpups.

Just so EVERYONE knows for sure...

This gun is equipped with the EFCS gearbox that makes ARES and Amoebas such a blast. And with this gearbox the ARES Airsoft Electronic Gearbox Programmer DOES work for it!

Item #48608
https://www.evike.com/products/48608/

Pros:
Great short over all length
Long inner barrel
Gearbox compatibility (Upgrades by the tons)
Simple to use controls
Can use ARES programmer

Cons:
8.82 pounds
temper mental factory hopup
restrictive battery options (Easily figured out)

"Canadian here! I had this gun imported to me through a proxy.

I just want to start with how this gun is probably the best bullpup out there. The features this gun brings to the table and the potential for upgrades are pretty good when comparing to other aeg bullpups. The reason why it lost a star was due more to external quality which I will get in to.

Pros:
+ Trigger board and microswitch located directly over the trigger. There is no trigger bar so trigger pull is incredibly light and clicky. This already throws MANY bullpups out the window.
+ Performs very well right out the box. As it should for that price tag
+ Mlok sections keeping it up to date with modern attachments
+ QCS system that isn't too hard to get to
+ Incredibly hard to accidently switch fire modes compared to other models. It was a problem for me on platforms like the AK and M4.
+ M4-style hop up

Cons:
- Charging handle. It's in the way when gripping the gun and stopped functioning properly after a short amount of time. Had to do my own modifications to it to help it push back to mock bolt for hop adjustment.
- Screws near the butt end are too close to the edge, making a decent chunk of metal crack and fall off days within receiving.
- Laser never worked even with batteries (Triple A). I play indoors where lasers are banned so I'm not affected
- Awkward mag release position, especially for right handers like me. Also, you can swap out the mag release for m4 style ambi releases but the "bar" that connects the release and the button is longer on the SOC AR. This will cause the main button on the aftermarket release to be sunken in on the body making it completely unfunctional. At least the "left hand" button release would work.
- 14mm POSITIVE threads. Come on, Ares, I thought you learned already.
- Proprietary gearbox. Most internals are compatible but a couple internals are also proprietary.

Conclusion: This is probably the best bullpup you can ever get your hands on. It even looks really cool, but as you can see from the cons, good looks come with a price. As for the actual, literal price, I honestly do not think it was worth the price. Over time, this gun will grow on you and you will come to like it but you will need to put some thought into how you upgrade this gun both externally and internally.

"The gun looks sick, that's why I bought it. I always upgrade the guns that I buy and when I opened the gun I was really surprised to see a huge contrast in the components ARES used for this gun. There is a mosfet in it which is very good but the motor is very cheap and low quality, the spring guide is a piece of shit and the air nozzle is there for the sake of loading the BBs into the hop-up chamber, forget about the air seal. When I opened the gearbox the bushings and bearing just came off the shell! They were so well-greased that they would stick to the gears and not to the gearbox! Never seen this before... AOE is shit too, but that's the case in most out of the box guns. The bucking and inner barrel are just ok. So here is the list of what I swapped in the gun: ASG U22000 Infinity motor, SHS SP150 spring, Maple leaf 80-degree bucking, R-hop and 470mmx6.01mm Angel Customs inner barrel, SHS O-ring air nozzle, MAXX CNC aluminum double O-ring piston head, rail glued to the piston, 1st and second teeth cut on the piston rail, sorbo pad to correct the AOE and I added a few layers of teflon tape on the inner barrel so to tighten the connection between the inner barrel and the hop-up chamber to have the perfect air seal. Now the gun is a monster that shoots 550FPS and 16RPS! It is extremely accurate and very consistent and I can easily hit targets as far as 100 yards.
Last but not least the gun is very heavy. But now I love it!

"So the SOC AR. Its a fine gun that performs well out of the box but not well enough to warrant the nearly $500 price tag.

First let me say I did not buy it from Evike, I found mine on a steep sale and snapped it up at $350 bucks from another retailer.

Onto the actual review.
Some pros
1) Grade A Ares construction, the gun is solid in all aspects and no part of it feels cheap. I have no qualms on taking this through my usual bum rush woodsball and going through the really rocky, muddy, brushy parts.
2) Well balanced while still being heavy. This ensures a nice feel in the hands and helps provide a nice stable platform.
3) Everything on the inside is well thought out. Disassembly was easy and the wiring was managed well, for the most part at least.
4) ECS trigger pull is slight and crisp. Rof with 11.1 lipos is respectable and the built in double tap is even amd accurate.

Now some cons
1) Standard Ares hop-up. This should be the first thing you change if you don't already own a bunch of Ares mags. It worked great with the high cap it came with but as I only had one high cap I swapped it with a pro-win blue. Works great with my G&G and Elite Force mags now.
2) On the subject of mags the wiring runs through the mag well which is also entirely open to the interior of the gun. I've already had bbs moving inside my gun due to this, so be careful with mag changes.
3) There are three controls that ARE NOT AMBI! While thr safety is indeed ambi the fire selector, bolt release, and worst of all the mag release. The selector must be operated by the forward (left) hand due to its odd dial shape and distance from the trigger. The bolt releaee can be operated by the thumb, but it isn't easy. The mag release is inexplicably on the right side of the gun. This means you either have to drop from ready and use the forward hand while turning the gun or removing the trigger hand and use it. This presents a larger problem if all your mags are on the left of the gun along with your dump pouch. I'm designing a whole new rig to run this gun simply due to this godawful release.

The SOC AR is an interesting Fish gun. As fish gun guys like myself know they aren't always built for logical use, see P90 mags, Bizon mags, and F2000 hop ups. However the SOC AR will find use for players like myself that want the full rifle without the rifle length. It's ability to take M4 barrels and hops make it easy to upgrade. The ECS enabled gearbox is solid thus far and out of the box more than good enough to play with. The construction means you can get in the meat without worrying about harming your gear as you rush recklessly through dense growth and rocks. Its odd manipulations, lack of true ambi controls, and overblown price tag keep it from being a 5/5, but don't pass on it if its on sale. 4/5 is a solid score for a mostly solid gun.