Rogerborg

The CM.5xx range is made of nasty feeling plastic. They work fine, and I see they come with rotary hops now, but they're no-frills basic guns. The Specnas have much nicer plastic bodies, quick change springs (handy for tuning the power) and well featured fire control systems with burst fire and pre-cocking, which are fun and useful. 0.2g is fine for indoors, but outdoors you'll want to use the heaviest BBs that your budget can stand and your hop unit can lift. I tend to run 0.28g, some go heavier. Just checking: have you played yet? I'd rent at least once before committing to any purchases, and wait for the adrenaline rush to die off and the bruises to show before you break out the credit card. (I mean, I say that, I didn't do it, but... )

Skyler from Reddit? 🤔

Dying for for Emperor at Biohazard 2. It went great after I gave up on trying to defog my eyepro and just switched to mesh. The most remarkable thing was the countdown timer to the next game, which meant actual 10 minute breaks and a 45 minute lunch (plus wrangling time). Klaxons and everything. All sites should have this, no exceptions, no excuses.

Ahoy and welcome. And... why an Arcturus? There are loads of brands of M4 in your budget, and only a few Arcturus guns are down there. The Specna Arms FLEX and CORE HAL ETU guns, just for example, are in your price range, and come with a fully featured fire control system, rotary hop, and quick change spring.

Even if you run it on higher pressure gas?

Well, you can start with the easy stuff: check the hop rubber and hop arm, clean the barrel, make up some tape spacers (which really do work). And a TDC mod really is just a hole drilled and tapped right above the hop arm, with a fine thread grub / machine screw added to press down on the arm. Sticking a thickening saddle on top helps to give the screw more purchase. Regreasing the piston ring can help with compression. It's when you start throwing new parts at it, like an aftermarket hop, that the price starts ramping up, and you still need to put in the time to tinker and tune with it anyway. The trigger sears and stopper are a weak point on the Wells, and you might find that up-springing results in problems pulling the bolt of firing (or not firing, if it slam fires). It's a fun process, but with decent out-of-the-box guns from Silverback and Novritsch on the market now, I don't think it makes economic sense.

It's easy, all you need is the Action Army type 96 hop chamber, which means you'll need a ZCI, XT or Crazy Jet AEG barrel and Macaron or MR bucking, unless you decide to stick with a GBB barrel in which case you need the Maple Leaf Hotshot bucking, then of course you'll need to do a TDC mod, add barrel spacers, upgrade the spring, which means you'll need to upgrade to an alloy piston and spring guide, which means you'll need a 90 degree trigger unit then you'll realise that you've spent more than the cost of a Silverback TAC-41 Sport to get worse performance and longevity. There are some actual suggestions in there among the "don't do it" conclusion, if you want to start with the cheap stuff like DIY barrel spacers made out of masking or electrical tape, and a bucking like an Maple Leaf Autobot if you're sticking with the stock GBB style barrel and hop chamber. You can also do a DIY TDC hop for the price of a grub screw. However, once you start spending, the costs can ramp up quickly, and it's a labour of love. I sunk a load of time into my MB-03 before giving up chasing one sub-optimal or failing part after another, and just going Silverback.

Get the hops dialled in right and...

Ahoy @ricksanchez73and welcome. What they all said. Have you played at least once, with rental gear? It's a heck of a lot cheaper than trying to flip on the "airsoft regrets starter set" bundles that tend to be cluttering up the Classifieds. I'd echo the advice to prioritise eye/face protection, and footwear, instead of guns. For full-face, I use a Valken MI-7 mask with a "thermal", i.e. dual pane lens. This really helps with fogging issues. You'll also have to budget for batteries and a charger, and I wouldn't cheap out on a Nuprol burn-your-house-down one. SkyRC chargers offer a lot more features and assurance that you're not cooking your batteries. If you're dead set on buying sooner rather than later, the Specna Arms FLEX and CORE guns with the HAL fire control system offer phenomenal features for the price. They have plastic receivers, which isn't necessarily any worse than cheap pot metal ones, but it may be a consideration for you. I'd recommend looking for guns that are wired for Deans ("T" connectors) rather than mini-Tamiya, unless you're minded to solder on new connectors yourself. https://www.patrolbase.co.uk/airsoft-m4-ar15-m16-variant-assault-rifles?*brand=302 But you won't go far wrong with anything from the current range of Specna Arms, Jing Gong, CYMA, Lancer Tactical, Double Eagle, or pretty much anything sold by reputable dealers like Patrol Base. Aesthetics do count, your guns will spend more time being stared at than shooting, so don't hesitate to go with the heart over the head.

Ahoy and welcome. Sure, and I really with they wouldn't, but it's entirely on them. It's never been an offence to obtain or attempt to obtain a RIF. It's a fascinating ontological question: is the person that you might be in 8 weeks and 3 games more trustworthy to you than the person you are today? 🤔

Hmm. Did you resolve the hop issues with your TM? I'm asking to try and determine whether (and how much) you really want to be tinkering. Most modern M4s are pretty decent, and rotary hops and well-featured fire control systems are becoming common. The only "upgrades" I'd suggest are a Maple Leaf hop rubber and nub, clean the barrel, and run the heaviest BBs that your budget and hop unit can stand - not 0.2g! Are there any must-haves for you that would help to narrow it down? Metal receiver, fire control system, rotary hop, quick-change spring? Are you sure you want to give up the NGRS blowback?

Oh, sorry, yes, I blanked on that. If you've bought an AEG spring, and it's the same diameter as the stock spring, sling it in and you should be good. Longer springs can reduce twanginess. Do you have the link to the eBay listing?

Agreed, this will be fine: https://www.ak2m4.co.uk/internal-parts/springs/xt-aeg-spring-m100 It looks like you've got a 150mm barrel, so while you can probably get up to 1.1J, you might need to go a little hotter to get there. Do you have a chronograph? If so, you could try an M105 or even M110, then cut a coil or two, or just heat-and-squish them, in order to fine tune it down. If not, an XT M100 should be fine, you're always better coming out a little under than over.

Yup. Specna Arms CORE HAL gets you a well featured fire control system, rotary hop and QC spring and an aluminium handguard, starting at just £130. I'd suggest analysing the reasons why you'd need or want to spend more than that, e.g. to get a pot-metal receiver, or a stainless barrel, or spinnier motor (both of which are simple swaps). You can drag a gun through the SHS parts catalogue, but the extra performance you'll get over a modern stock gun starts to tail off pretty rapidly.

All sites that I play at require that. Well "require" it as much as they "enforce" MED. As above, it's a cretinous rule that's guaranteed to result in more arguments. "He shot me while I was retreating!" / "He was out but didn't go back to respawn!" / "He shot me while I was still within 20m!" (shouted both ways) About what I'd expect from a site that's still thinking and talking in terms of 0.2g rather than Joules, and which only limits DMRs to "single shot", not "2 second delay" / "1 in the air". Not that those are ever respected anyway, but they're essentially saying "trigger spam at 1.8J, it's cool."

Er... yes. Yes, that's my point. That if you buy a "just tried in garden once" used gun, it could have had 30 rounds through it, or 30,000. It might work without trouble for another 30,000, or fail after 30. Not a problem for those of us who accrue more than we use, rotate through them, and/or tinker. But for someone looking get a first gun, my assumption is that they'd want to maximise the chances of it lasting long enough to break it themselves while uPgRaDiNg it.

If you're paying 60-70% of new for an unmeddled with example, go for it. That's a rational risk. Paying a premium for someone else's time to put in parts that may or may not work together (or even be present as promised), that's a bit different. At 40+ per year, how many have been used for more than (or even as much as) a day's play? 🤔

Counterpoint: I currently run 0.32g in a 1.8J gun because while 0.4g+ would go further for the same muzzle energy, I don't believe I'd get significantly more hits within that extra range due to the shot-to-shot inconsistency in my fully-semi-auto electric gun. Conversely I do run 0.43g in my 2.3J boltie because it's more consistent at the extremes of its range and the BB is the limiting factor. Of course, it's all subjective, situational, and subject to the if-you're-grinning-you're-winning rule: there's no right or wrong answer.

He sure does put a high value on his time, but I'd consider it an anti-recommendation that a gun has been through his hands. The thread basically ended with @Adolf Hamster's post. If you have to ask, then don't buy 2nd hand. It's a big risk, and you're not exactly getting bargains there, given that fire control systems are now becoming the default on new guns at less than those prices.

Ahoy and welco- wait, what, in pink? It's not a P90! That's a fair whack to pay for what I assume is a first gun, but it does claim a decent spec. Have you had a chance to try it out yet?

True. I have been on the incoming side of an AA-12, set to 6 shot and trigger spammed. It's a visually impressive experience, but less ouchier than a typical HPA wankergun that's "not" Joule-creeping to the moon.

Don't you dare bring context into our ignorant rants. 😠 On topic, I run everything on 11.1V now, if I can physically fit one. If you're into buying 3-figure toys that are guaranteed to hang on a wall for almost all of the time, why fret over the possibility that one component might fail? Especially when you can replace anything, or bypass it with 20p of wire and solder.

I've never played at a site that blanket-bans multi-shot shotguns. I've never heard of a site that banket-bans multi-shot shotguns. Not even gas or AA-12s (in semi-mode). Maybe CQB sites should, but here we are.

If you got caught doing that.

Nice eclectic collection of guns, rather than the usual 6 x M4 variants. I'm guessing... motorcycles and... uh... My Little Ponies?