The Israeli Tar21

The Israeli Tar 21 is really a thing of beauty, if bullpups are your thing. It gives a new meaning to the term 'Full Stock', the bullpup design positions the your firing hand in front of the magazine; Making an extremely small, and balanced battle rifle.

The Israelites have been fighting for their freedom for a long time, since the beginning of their existence really. They have gone through the IWI Uzi, the IWI Galil, and now, The Tar-21. I trust their judgment wholeheartedly. The real one being chambered in the 5.56 nato round, and using standard STANAG type magazines, it is a popular civilian owned weapon as well.

One of the main selling points of the Tavor is the extremely short profile for having a standard 16, or 18 inch barrels. Giving the 5.56 cartridge an optimal velocity. The overall length with the 18 inch barrel is just over 26 inches. Which, thankfully, is the minimal NFA length.

When you pick up the Tar, you breathe a sigh of relief, a LARGE majority of the weight is centered right at your shoulder, behind your firing hand. It makes the weight much more manageable, especially for CQB encounters.

The IWI TAVOR really does give the term 'full stock' a new meaning, but you really come to enjoy the look and feel of the TAR21. The IWI TAVOR is not a very popular gun on the airsoft market, if you are lucky enough to own the TAVOR, then you will definitely stand out amongst the epidemic of AR platformed guns. If you have used nothing but an AR and then switch to the Tar, you may be a little out of your element,but it is a breath of fresh air when you feel the weight and speed at which you can fling the gun around.

Another huge selling point is the ambidextrous controls, the magazine release and bolt release can easily be actuated with both hands. On the real firearm, you can change the bolt moving the brass ejection port to the other side, to provide true ambidexterity. The charging handle and fire selector is non ambidextrous being only located on the left side of the weapon. (Though, you can see the position of the fire selector, and actually actuate inconveniently on the right side of the weapon.)

You can easily transition the gun from right to left shoulder, so easy in fact I find myself doing it instinctively. This is awesome for CQB as to expose as little of your body as you can while engaging from a corner. Real firearm wise, you probably wouldn't be doing that, but I guess in some circumstances you could.

My only grief with the Tar's design is the fact that the magazine release is non isolated, and is a large catch that you may accidently actuate if you are changing your firing hand. This has happened in a game and is quite embarrassing, your magazine falling out in a firefight is also not an optimal thing to happen.

Overall, the Ares Tavor is a beautiful representation of the real IWI Tar21, and its external quality is hard to believe you are holding a replica. The internal performance is adequate, getting range that usually comes out of a modified hop up unit. The quick change spring feature makes it a great all around weapon, having a long enough barrel for field play, but at the same time having a small enough profile that you will be it an advantage to a full size M4. It shoots around 400FPS out of the box, but with one screw and a new spring you can lower it to any FPS you want.
Overall I would give the Ares Tavor a 9/10, with the distinct advantages you would find on the real IWI in the airsoft world. It is a thing of beauty really.