The Great Brand Debate

[Jester316]

Here is a thread to post all your pros and cons and hates and loves of every brand of AEG out there. Post about KWA/CA/TM/G&P/Dboys/G&G/AGM/CYMA/Double Eagle/...


RULES FOR THIS THREAD:
-Posts must have evidence to back up opinion. Saying "KWA is teh suckz" will not work. I implore the mods to delete posts that break this rule.

-Always remember, opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one, and they all stink. Don't get pissed at others for saying they hate your favorite manufacturer.

-Give reasons behind why you love/hate something. If you've had bad experience with something, give us details.

-If you hate a gun and are posting about it, tell us if you were the original owner or not. Unless you got it new, your views of the gun need to be taken with a grain of salt. You can never know what the person before you did.

[Blitzkreig]

KWA M4 2GX has nice internals, externals. However, this does not make up for the frustration and difficulty of finding magazines that will work with it.

[Mongrol]

ICS M4s

All IMO

Pros:
Split gear box. Such a perfect design. Dont have to worry about taking the whole gun apart.

decent quality body.

working forward assist to release spring tension

Cons: sadly wobbly in places
internals dont seem to be too solid. I replaced them with other stuff.
Front end isnt easy to replace/change.

[Minerva]

KWA: Decent AEG but not really worth the money. I had a G36 for a short bit and found out the hard way why not having a shimmed gearbox is a terrible idea. The thing ate 2 pistons and a pinion gear in the maybe 6000 rounds I put through it. Will never buy a KWA again until they change their gearbox design (and make it to spec). I do love KWA gas pistols to death though and I will always run them.

ARES: Love the gun, very well designed and very nicely put together. Quick change spring system is nice but hard to handle. The gearbox itself was pretty well put together and shimmed decently but there was a little to much slop. Piston head was cheap and broke in the first 10000 rounds but I replaced it and it's shooting very well. Gears show no wear and neither does the polycarb piston. Externally its a beautiful gun except for the "Made in china" ink stamp and the small wobble in the hand guard. Easily fixed by fiddling with the pins on the sight and tightening up the D-Ring. Wish it took airsoft stocks though..

CA: My first M4 was a CA. I got it second hand yes, but it's given me a lot of troubles. I wouldn't attribute this to the gun, its more likely my shoddy work when I was first getting into the sport. It still shoots decently but I'm getting some compression issues so I made need to take the very last stock parts out of the gun. Not bad for a gun I've ran for 4 years but also not the greatest choice.

[Octose]

MY First KWA (M4a1 1gx) was an amazing rifle and lasted my quite a while and is still lasting my buddy nearly a year later. MY KWA SR10 has had the worst issues I could have ever thought of, I have had Tappet plates crack, piston stripped (twice [6 months apart]), my gear set stripped completely, hopup nubs have cracked nearly 4 times from unknown causes (according to KWA) and now my hopup unit gears wont turn when put into the receiver.

[Toan]

KWA: My first SR12 was a complete....BEAST of a DMR. Had awesome groupings from almost 200 ft away at a stock setup @ ~400 or so fps. Want a bit more out of the thing so I threw in some upgrades, an sp150 and an AMP torque motor, other than those 2 upgrades I left everything else stock. After the all the work it chrono'd at ~550 fps with .2g bbs and some air seal work.

Only one con and that would be mags. Only 3 mags out of my m4 mag collection fed without any hiccups, which was really annoying but not annoying enough to make me spend money to get mags that worked.

G&G: I have an ASGI "custom", we all know they are just the combat machines from G&G. When I first got it, it was shooting HOT HOT HOT @ ~425 with .25g bbs. It has now settled at a good ~380 with the same weight bb. 100% stock other than the external cosmetic upgrades. Shot over 20k bbs through this thing and it shoots just like the first day I got it.

No cons for me when it comes to G&G, they've been good to me, would definitely purchase another from them if I were to pick up another AEG

[Darius137]

I like Maruzen.

[Juicemachine]

Dboys. I've had experience with their M4s and AK. The M4 metal bodies are slightly cheap feeling, and the original finish is shiny, but a can of spray paint fixes that, and they're still metal. Mine shot pretty nice, for being a CQC gun, and it always worked for me, even being second hand.

My AK is even better. The metal and wood construction is amazing. It feels solid as hell, and looks even better. It shoots fantastically, too.

In short, Dboys=win.

[Archangel 06]

*shudder*

Aftermath. Yes, those retard-o Big 5 guns. I bought one almost four years ago, an M14, because it was cheap and I didn't know any better. I have to say, though, for being a Big 5 gun, that thing has just kept going and going. Never had ANY gearbox issues with it. Externals leave much to be desired, but for what it is, it works.

Now I have a G&P M4. Yes, I bought this thing second-hand, but I was there for pretty much all tech work that was done to it. It has a lighter spring, to get it in FPS limits for the CAGE (May it rest in peace.), a tightbore, and a new hopup. Of those things, the only ESSENTIAL upgrade was the new hopup, as the stock one was just terrible. Externals make me want to get a conversion kit somehow to let it fire 5.56, just because they are that amazing.

And, just for Jester: "CA was teh suckz". But, this was when I first got into airsoft (even before I had my own AEG) almost...geez...seven years ago? They were sorta pretty on the outside, but I remember almost every one of them just falling apart.

[Variable]

I've owned just about every brand, but I'm far too lazy to give a rundown of them all.

[Miracle]

The only brand I have ever had a problem with is Echo1 and even then it was really the distributor's fault and not the manufacturer. My Mp5 master series came out of the box with rear body pins snapped and glued back into place and my red cylinder head was also somehow glued into the compressed position. The problem with the body pin is that while it was locked into place and the body didn't wobble, the whole point of the master series is the two swappable lowers/gearboxes to go from field to cqb, and I couldn't swap them with my body pin glued in.

This lemon was completely Airsoft GI's fault, I think they repaired a broken weapon and reboxed it and shipped it out to me. The bastards made me pay for shipping there and back for repairs and they swapped out the cylinder for a shitty SRC one, then made me pay for the replacement part. They would not give me my money back because I let them know I used it one time in the field and thats when I noticed the body pin issue, I wanted to change from blue lower to red. They said I used it and therefore it was no longer in proper condition.

End of rant. I've owned CA, TM, KWA, JG, GG, ARES, VFC, and pretty much everything. I haven't had any factory-made issues yet. This may be because I'm extremey lucky or because I baby my replicas, but bottom line I prefer KWA however that doesn't mean that I would only own KWAs, I had a classic army for a year and I beat the crap out of that thing and it still cycled ridiculously quick when I squeezed the trigger. They all have their quirks. And the other lesson is that after that experience, and several other screw-ups, I completely stopped shopping at Airsoft GI and I encourage others to take their business elsewhere. To me, they have terrible QC, a limited selection of gear, they like to nickel and dime you and they really try and push crappy clone hardware (especially the new KA GBBRs, which they seem to think are the most amazing pieces of thin aluminum crap since sliced bread. O wait, its the only gas rifle you can import Airsoft GI.... L2Not-Sell-Me-Overexaggerated-Crap....)

[CommieHunter]

On person's experience = that person's 'fact'. This thread can't work because very few people have a large enough experience base to make their assessments statistically valid.

[Jester316]

Adam, just because people don't have experience with every brand doesn't mean they don't have stories to tell. The smart ones will be able to separate good advice from bad.

[Beran]

ill just give a rundown of the more notable guns i have.

G&G - LOVE the M14s. never had a sizable problem with one that wasnt due to normal wear and tear. I have an M16 as well that started off shitty but got a lot better once i installed a new motor. the SG550 is one of the most accurate stock guns ive ever owned.

G&P - looks/feels awesome. internals sucked balls. blew a piston twice inside 10,000 rounds and gears once. hasnt had issues since having the piston/gears replaced.

CA - all the CA guns i have are good and solid. the HK53 doesnt feed so great off the hicaps, but works fine on mids. they only make hicaps for the SA58, and it needed bearings instead of bushings to make it great. the M15 i have has been going strong for years.

ARES - hit and miss. once ive made adjustments and upgrades to certain guns, they are great. mk43 needed a new bucking and magazine, L1A1 needed some shimming on the hopup unit to keep it from wobbling, and the L85 needed a new spring and barrel. the DSR1 and AW338 i have both feel amazing and function adequately, but you can get a gas bolt rifle that performs just as well for less than half the price. the 338 is going to be a base for a aproject to convert it to 8mm.

Echo 1 - not bad, but too expensive for what you are getting these days. most of what ive had from them has been AKs. thier little AKSU is awesome, i loved that gun.

dboys - usually not bad, decent construction. internals arent always the best but its acceptable.

KJW - i am retarded for my M700. after upgrades, best bolt gun ive ever owned.

WE - cheap pistols. decent sidearm if you are on a budget and willing to do some mods.

KWA - the cadillac of AEGs. very tempermental about mags, but fantastic guns. gas guns are also very high quality. good parts support, but on the AEGs its HIGHLY recommended that you use KWA gearbox parts if something needs to be replaced. they can be on the expensive side, but are well worth it.

TSD - ive got one of those spring L96s, but the same gun is marketed under three or four different companies. its a surprisingly solid little sniper rifle with the addition of a tightbore and the upgrade kit that E1 sells.

ICS - had one of the first couple hundred split gearbox M4s that were brought into the US. was a novel idea, but didnt like it. broke a tappet plate in under 5,000 rounds and the overall sound of the gearbox was very screechy. after replacing the tappet it worked ok.

TM - acceptable, so long as you dont upgrade it. too expensive for what you get these days. i hear the newer blowback M4s are pretty nice though.

CYMA - a couple of thier AKs are actually pretty nice. they have definately come up in the world of quality in the last three or four years.

Aftermath/crossman/bell/BE/other LPEG - dont even bother. just dont. you'll thank me later.

JG - similar to TM, but tougher internals and lower price. shoddy QC though, sometimes they need some work right out of the box to make them function properly.

maruzen - expensive, but pretty nice. can be hard to find parts and upgrades for some of the older systems.

im sure there are more that im not thinking of, but those are what comes to mind. ive owned stuff by almost every manufacturer so ive got experience with a lot of gear, and opinions on most of it.

[Cap n pickles]

Dboys. I've had experience with their M4s and AK. The M4 metal bodies are slightly cheap feeling, and the original finish is shiny, but a can of spray paint fixes that, and they're still metal. Mine shot pretty nice, for being a CQC gun, and it always worked for me, even being second hand.

My AK is even better. The metal and wood construction is amazing. It feels solid as hell, and looks even better. It shoots fantastically, too.

In short, Dboys=win.

+1

I own both Dboys AK and M4 model.

All the Dboys AKs i have and had are great, solid gear box, never stripped a piston, never broke a gear, easy to work on and tune up the Gear box.

My only complaint is the M4. I hate the V2 and how it sits in the gun. Not user friendly when i can change out my Gearbox in my AK in less than 2 mins.

Plus the AK is full steel, with nice laminated wood. SEXY

Its the only brand I have bought new, and the only I really need unless I get something they don't make. For the price its perfect, these are very hard times that are only getting worse with gas/political problems so the cost difference be it $10 or $200 is saving me money.

Plus they are pretty Durable, i have heard of people having problems with Dboys AK durability, but i have never had problems, even with my older models. I throw them (yes, 10 feet plus) I drop them, they get scratched, but they all shoot!

GET SOME.