Advice needed for purchasing a Skirmishing gun.

[AgentGB]

Situation - New to airsoft, requesting advice from seasoned members with experience, me and some friends have decided to start airsoft quite late in our age, being 26, but quite surprised & overwhelmed about the sheer number of brands and guns to choose from at the moment. I understand it comes down to personnal preference in brand and model, but since i would like to make a decent purchase which will keep me skirmishing until i start to look at another model or attempt to get upgrades, or atleast cover the would be renting cost of such equipment from sites. Since purchasing a gun for £200 would take me 10 months(or 10 events) to break even if i went to my local airsoft venue (renting charge for equipment £20)

Budget £200 - £300 (if possible, with a smart charger and battery inclusive in the price)

Type of gun - Professional use for skirmishing. m16/M1A2 types, athough if another model of gun is proven to be much more reliable, i would very much like advice on which.

Preformance needed - Highly reliable, good internals, easy maintenance, atleast a life expectancy of two years if possible?, without having to preform dramatic changes such as fiddling with the gearbox. Although i have a feeling thats hoping for to much from my current research into airsoft guns. Im looking to shoot of atleast 5000 BB every skirmish game.

Request a link to any suggested models please! just so i know im looking at the one you suggested! Thanks in advance!

Current Gun Owned: M805A (details in the link below)

http://bbguns4less.co.uk/products/-M805A-E...oft--Rifle.html

I bought this gun thinking it was a pro gun, but after purchasing it, and realising the gear box isn't metal, and i highly doubt the gears are too, i doubt the lifespan off this will last very long. It currently would do the job at the moment, but i think i should have just been a bit patient before buying, since the orignal idea was for me and my friends to pick up a pretty cheap BB gun and that would do the job. I now understand you sorta get what you pay for within reason, since ive tried to look into the many types of airsoft brands to see which provides a good reliable starter gun for a novice, but at that the same time, somthing that will probably last

A couple of guns i was looking at, was this bargin buy from G&G, and this Gun from ICS

G&G M4A1 (GR16) Carbine Blowback AEG Two Tone Bundle

http://www.geniestuff.co.uk/gandg-armament...4a1-bundle.htm#

M4A1 Retractable Stock AEG ICS

http://www.wolfarmouries.co.uk/airsoft/bb/...ct&id=ICS20

I would prefer to go for the GG version, since i can purchase extra batterys and clips, but if its gonna cost preformances or reliability in the actual gun, ill probably rather fork out a extra £50 for piece of minds.

Thanks you! any help would be much appreciated, im looking to purchase a gun in next couple of days or so, especially if its the GG, since they have limited stock.

Cheers

 

[bigshep]

1: You are 26, rent for 3 games and then get your site membership (which if the site is registered means you have UKARA) which opens up a plethora of other gun options apart from 2 tones.

2: Ok for £200 including couple of mags and batteries you are really looking at entry level guns

http://www.zerooneairsoft.com/product_info...roducts_id=5774

great entry level guns, reliable and will work well. m4 type with ris

If you are going to shoot a ton of bb's then you want a cyma, but they pretty much only make AK varients, but some of those have been going for 200,000 rounds with no problems. Pretty much anything from the 039 range onwards are full metal and bullet proof

http://www.taiwangun.com/electric-air-soft-guns.html?filter[producer_id]=596&sort_by=name (Polish shop, but reliable and has all options to look at in 1 place)

For other M4 style ones the ICS range are quite good, but you may struggle for under £200

http://www.zerooneairsoft.com/product_info...roducts_id=4894 sportline has a plastic ABS body instead of metal, internals are the same as the £300 ones

http://www.zerooneairsoft.com/index.php?so...ath=268_318_391 is a more complete selection

Most ICS, cyma, G&G and SRC ver3 are fine out of the box, fiddling with them and fitting a tightbore and different hop rubber will add a few yards extra distance and maybe a tad more accuracy, but that's if you really want to mess around with them. You may have wear issues with pistons and gears going, as well as hop rubbers after a lot of rounds going through them, but out of the box you should be ok for a while.

http://www.component-shop.co.uk/ for all you battery and charger needs, will be cheaper then ones at airsoft shops or those included in bundles.

magazines can be had from either ebay, second hand sales or http://www.socomtactical.net/ quite cheaply, again paying through the nose for mags is daft.

hope those give you a few more options

 

[bullterrier]

hi if you want a highly reliable gun then by a ak47 mine isjust amaizing shoots about 340fps shoots straight all the time never breaks, and only cost about £150 that is the cyma ak47 tatical as its a tatical you can still add lasers, flaslights, grenade launcher and much more all metal internals.

and very easy to upgrade and very easy to maintain my brothers ak is about 3years old and has never broke on him after alot of use skirmishing. and still shoots at about 330fps. and battery and battery charger is included in the price.

 

[Saltyyy]

If you're putting 5000 BB's through it each game, I'd suggest a support weapon...

Realistically you're getting through 1000-1500 a game with mid caps etc

 

[paperpirate]

If you're putting 5000 BB's through it each game, I'd suggest a support weapon...
Realistically you're getting through 1000-1500 a game with mid caps etc

5,000! blimey sir you must have some money for ammo! buy some mid caps and learn to controll yourself!

 

[headshot10]

Hi

I would recommend a ics m4 141 is compact and very reliable also with upgrades a very effective range, good gun for good day out on site

best of luck

 

[crazyairsoft]

I agree, ics m4 141 is a brilliant gun, has good range, brilliant rate of fire, highly upgradable and can last alot of bb's, i can say from expiriance! Although u might want a full metal, i started off with a plastic version and both of the recievers broke with the slightist touch! Dont get a blowback all it does is make the range and fps decrease.

Fyi i have m1a1 tommy for sale £40, all plastic but it survived for way longer than i thought and has widthstood alot of bb's, great potential for a secondary weapon, all i use it for, if ur interested send pm

 

[psion]

the moto i tend to live by with this sort of thing is always You get what you pay for! if you go cheap then dont expect it to last. ICS, TM, G&G are all good brands, the guns themselves are all pretty much the same on the inside, your best bet would be to get to a shop and have a feel of what you like, ask players if you can have a go when you are at skirmishes, i have not met a person that doesn't like to brag about what they got.

definitely get your UKARA sorted first though, 2-tone guns just dont have the same appeal as a RIF. upgrading is addictive to so get something you can mess with.

 

[AgentGB]

Thank you very much for all your help, especially "bigshep" sorry for the late reply, was trying to make my mind up, but i actually had my eye on that M4 you posted too.

I actually ordered my gun a few days ago from ZeroOne, and received it today, im a bit to impatient atm to wait to get UKARA registered, so got my gun two toned, which Zero One do for free, also picked up some woodland camo tape that can be used over and over again to hide the two tone a bit.

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/5221/007sjn.jpg

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/9315/009tz.jpg

Also picked up a vest, which could have done with being a couple inches longer, since it sits just above my waist, have a feeling it was made for younger participates, but it should do the job for now. Could send it back, but can't be arsed atm

Also picked up two 8.4 Volt batterys and a smart charger from the site you gave, dirt cheap! compared to many other sites.

And got my self a nice pair of woodland combat to go with it all

http://www.military1st.co.uk/combat-unifor...p-woodland.html

Thanks again for all your help, gonna pick up extra mags and batterys in due time, currently got two M4 mags which shud do me for now, and hopefully two 8.4 volt batterys should last me the whole day? lol

I was over exaggerating with shooting 5000 bb per game, i meant for the day, but just wanted to get a feel for what i can expect.

Thank you all for your feedback, and your speedy reply bigshep, since you helped save me from making some rash decisions, and saved me quite a huge deal of money. Thanks again, and sorry for the late reply and thank you.

Very happy with the gun, far better then the M805A,

Thank again to all! Me and my friend fount the links and advice very useful and reassuring, so looking forward to the 30th now, which should be our first game.

Again thanks guys!

 

[bigshep]

no worries, glad to have helped.

The vest should be adjustable for length. Stupid question but is there not velcro adjusters on the shoulder, which will lengthen the body.

Either that or return it and pick up a set of PLCE (british army webbing) or Alice (US webbing) from ebay which will sit on your waist nicely

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

You seem to have a very good grasp of the ins and outs of airsoft for someone just starting, the ICS and G&G guns you've linked will both outperform your expectations, you'll be happy with either.

In fact ICS and G&G are the two best companies in my opinion, you couldn't have chosen two better guns to start with if you tried.

I have 2 G&G guns that are flawless, out of the box performance is so good I haven't even touched them.

My ICS L85 is my favourite gun, with upgrades it's everything I could ask for in an airsoft gun.

If you want an idea of the life span of ICS M4s, the site I used to skirmish at used the sportsline solid stock M4s as hire guns and they must have all had upwards of half a million shots through them over the course of at least 5 years and all were still performing very, very well, they had broken semi fire modes, snapped flash hiders and scratches galore, but they were still perfectly functional.

They even outshot the first two guns I bought after I got my UKARA registration.

If you can afford either of the guns you originally linked, go for it, they were very good choices.

 

[bigshep]

um he has already bough the gun...see his reply two above yours.

 

[Finius]

It's a little irrelevant, but I like the Op, they're going to fit in well with this sport.