Outdoor AEG'S

[lynx89]

What is the NORM of gun types used for outdoor games? And also the brand used by many when playing?

Also is there anyone here that uses a src m16 a3?? is it worth it?

[ratnest]

aks and armalites, seam to be the most popular, with any assault rifle and most smgs being a good choice. aim for a gun with 350 fps upper limit is 400 fps. avoid bolt actions and other sniper rifles like the plague.

tm and classic army, are good, so is g&p, and some china guns arn't bad for starters like a jg. arguably best aks are realsword and best ar would be a systema ptw

[ThunderCactus]

Funny, I didn't know Realsword made AK's, I thought they made chinese type 56's...

Things to remember:
400fps is a limit, not a goal
All veterans don't own 399fps guns, infact most of us shoot anywhere from 340-380 outdoors
FPS does NOT equal range
quality mechbox parts, barrel, and hopup rubber = range and accuracy
AEG's are the best starter guns
TM's are good cheap starter guns, they're the staple of performance and HIGHLY reliable without modification
CA's are your staple metal guns, if you have a TM and want a metal gun, buy a CA or G&P, it's cheaper than converting your TM to metal
Both CA and G&Ps are questionably reliable, some are tanks, some are not, bu if your replacing all your internals, then it's the body of the gun that matters
G&Ps need their gears shimmed before they're used in a game.

I don't know anything about SRC yet lol

[GMGrimace]

Best thing would be to get out to an event or two in your area, see what people are running and what people are comfortable fixing/troubleshooting. all AEG's are basically the same internally, with specfic quirks depending on what you are working on.

the best advice is find a gun that you like the look and feel of, if you dont like it, you wont play with it. I am also sure it would be long before you start looking for a second gun.

Thundercactus makes some goodpoints also.

[Shooting Addict]

The gun used depends on the players style but the most common are M4, M16 and Ak's. I go with an SD5 it's a good all-round gun for CQB and outdoor IMO. SRC are decent guns but i prefer G&G's because with the extra cash you can put it to tweaking the gun ie tightbore or shim job.

[L473ncy]

I'm running around 380 FPS on my M4 and don't see or feel the need to upgrade to 400, that 10-15 FPS gain doesn't really matter too much in my eyes and I'm 100% safe in regards to not hitting the upper limit.

As far as style goes, AR15 and AK are your best bets, try going full size if you're a larger guy or maybe a slightly shorter size if you're smaller or a medium size. ie. if you're 4'9" don't get a full size M16 and if you're 6'11" having a puny MP5 probably won't work for you.

As far as brands go, TM is your standard. However you can go with ones like CA, G&P, VFC, KA, Real Sword, etc.

As far as the SRC goes, and what I've read, it's on par with your higher tier brands however since you have access to the classifieds anyways it doesn't hurt to take a peruse through the classifieds and shop around, see something you like and maybe buy full metal goodness if that takes your fancy.

[Kuro_Neko]

Manufacturer is generally more important then the style. Generally all airsoft aeg's work the same so how it looks like outside is up to you. Though the advice in the Airsoft Newbie Buying Guide about styles is good. Generally ak47, m16/m4 or mp5 are good starter gun styles due to the availability of accessories and upgrades.

For $200, the best you could manage is Aftermath stuff. Both the Broxa (full stock MP5) and the Kraken (AK47) are decent bargain basement guns, about $160 or so each. Stay away from Aftermath's Kirenex or Knight (both M4 variants) and the Lycaon (collapsible stock MP5) though, not a good rep.

If you're willing to go up to $300 you could get a JG. Yeah JG's are China clones but they're getting quite respectable nowadays. JG's M4 runs about $290. You could get one of the G&G cansoft (clear receiver) M4's for about $340. G&G is the cheapest of the midgrade guns. $400-$450 would get you an ICS which is a higher end midgrade gun. $500-$600 would get you a G&P, there's some debate on whether this is the lowest of the higrade guns or if it should rank higher. Either way they make nice guns.

If you can afford it, highgrade guns such as Tokyo Marui or Classic Army are the way to go. They're going to run you $600-$700. Though if the M4/M16 style is what you want then I'd recommend staying away from stock TM's, the barrel wobble and creaking are pretty bad on the stock TM M4/M16's (yes the new TM M4/M16's have fixed this problem, but the bulk of the ones in country are the old ones so best to just avoid them for now).

I did extensive research and settled on the Tactical Carbine version of the Classic Army M15A4 (basically a full stock m4) as my first gun. If an Armalite is what you're looking for then I think it's the best of all possible versions. You have the shortened M4 carbine barrel, which makes you less likely to smack your barrel off something when turning quickly, combined with the full stock which houses a large battery. Small batteries don't have near the run time of a large battery, not to mention that the reinforced slip ring (the ring that keeps the fore-grip on) is really stong. While this is mostly a good thing and a big step up over CA's previous M15 versions, it makes changing small batteries in the field very difficult if not impossible.

CA's M15A4 series in general is a big step up over their previous versions and as far as stock armalites go they're probably the best. All metal where the real steel version is, the plastic parts where the real steal version is plastic are made of high quality enhanced nylon fiber rather then abs for great texture and feel. Classic Army has a deal with Armalite so you get all the proper markings. Plus that deal also goes to show the quality of the manufacture, Armalite wouldn't put their name on a shoddy product.

Internally the gearbox is reinforced metal and all the gears are metal as well. It fires hotter stock then Tokyo Marui's as well, firing at 300-320 fps where your average TM only fires 280-300 fps.

All in all this is a great starter gun if you can afford it. Because it's all metal you don't have to worry nearly as much about breaking it and you won't get any of the wobble or creaking that is infamous in stock TM M4/M16's. Unfortunately affording it is the biggest problem, they're not cheap. For reference I got my CA M15A4 from the classifieds, upgraded with a bunch of Systema internals to fire 390fps, for $600 shipped which was a great price.

As you can probably tell, I'm a big fan of Classic Army. One thing to keep in mind about Classic Army is they now have two lines, a proline and a sportline. Originally they were easy to tell apart because the proline had the metal body and the sportline had a plastic body but recently CA has been releasing their sportlines with metal bodies. The price tag should still allow you to easily tell the difference, the sportline being $300-400ish and the proline never being cheaper then $500, usually more like $600 or more but it's still something to keep in mind. All the pros that I went over above were regarding the proline model. The sportline model has cheaper everything internally and externally.

There's alot of people that will expound the virtues of G&P as well. And I'll admit the externals of G&P are very nice, easily on par with CA, in some cases better. The reason why I don't say G&P over CA though is much the same reason why people weren't big fans of CA up until a few years ago: their quality control for the internals is not the greatest. That means a fair number of lemons. CA got a handle on this a few years ago and they've been making great strides in terms of their rep ever since, but G&P isn't quite there yet. This is simply my personal opinion and there are many people that would likely disagree with me, but it's something to keep in mind. ICS is about a cheap a gun as you can go and still get full metal out of the box, I haven't read alot about this manufacturer but needless to say it's not in the same league as CA or G&P. It's what someone on a budget but determined to get full metal would aim for. TM, due to Japanese law, are almost all abs plastic and fire alittle cooler then many guns but their internal reliablity is incredible. They will literally last for decades if left stock.

One of the perks of going with an M16/M4 variant is that mags are dead easy to come by and dirt cheap. You can get Star brand mags for like $5 a mag or less, plastic yeah but sturdy none the less (Star is also the only brand that makes realcaps too). Metal mags will run you a fair bit more, $15 to $30 a mag. There's no real reason to go with metal over plastic for mags except looks/realism. Though of course if you're going to go hicap then you might as well get metal ones. As to Brands, TM and CA make good mags. I've heard pretty good stuff about MAG brand mags as well. King Arms not so much, especially for M4/M16 mags. Star is always a good affordable fallback too.

[Zaphod]

Ive got a SRC m16a3 gen3 and its been really good. The thing i like about it is the large battery space in the stock. with an m120 its doing 390 and ive found that to be really good range and fire power wise.

[THEMAKKER13]

Originally Posted by ThunderCactus

Funny, I didn't know Realsword made AK's, I thought they made chinese type 56's...

Things to remember:
400fps is a limit, not a goal
All veterans don't own 399fps guns, infact most of us shoot anywhere from 340-380 outdoors
FPS does NOT equal range
quality mechbox parts, barrel, and hopup rubber = range and accuracy
AEG's are the best starter guns
TM's are good cheap starter guns, they're the staple of performance and HIGHLY reliable without modification
CA's are your staple metal guns, if you have a TM and want a metal gun, buy a CA or G&P, it's cheaper than converting your TM to metal
Both CA and G&Ps are questionably reliable, some are tanks, some are not, bu if your replacing all your internals, then it's the body of the gun that matters
G&Ps need their gears shimmed before they're used in a game.

I don't know anything about SRC yet lol

Thundercactus,i have a G&G m4 combat machine which has a tightbore and i put in a prometheus hop up, so what mechbox parts do you recommend?

[Short Round]

Any gun over $300+ is suitable in my books, atleast for begineers