Fatboy40

I've been running 11.1v Li-Po's and Li-Io's in mine for over a year, and it's been faultless (the same with my DE rifle built to be a DMR, and my sons). There are some on Reddit who really twist the knife into the Falcon controller and its reliability, however I'm betting (based on what I've read) that they've run them ragged on full auto and you really can get the cheap stock Chaoli motor very hot if you're a numpty / newbie and this is also negatively effecting the controller.

I'm deferring to more knowledgeable people, however trying to effectively hop double the weight of BB you acknowledge that you'll lose power, and it can be quite a bit. For myself and my DMR build I've also used the blunt instrument that is a stronger spring to increase power, but I know that this is like pushing a car to the red line in that it will put substantially more strain on the gearbox and motor. My goal now is to hop the BB as effectively as possible, and by doing this I don't have to use crazy springs etc. I'm using a Maple Leaf AEG inner barrel and MR / Maximum Range bucking in both my DMR and AEG (one with a Omega nub), effectively giving me an off the shelf r-hop as with a Macaron you have to apply too much pressure on the patch and lose all that power. I'd say move away from the Macaron and go to an MR or similar, but this may mean a new inner barrel otherwise the bucking's patch may not sit well in the cut-out. A recent revelation to me those has been a Maxx Model M4A-PRO hop unit and their 21.25mm nozzle. I know it's not cheap but I just fitted these to my AEG where I was running a ZCI rotary plastic hop unit, where I could never get the amount of hop spot on and was losing too much power. The Maxx unit and nozzle magically gave me an extra 15 FPS on 0.28g BBs, Maxx say there may be an increase but this was brilliant and I've gone down now as well from an M110 spring back to an M100. Testing it in a big open space last night though the change to the hoppping was stunning, where I'm using their solid metal concave nub, and I could apply more than enough hop with only a light pressure. If on my AEG, shooting 0.28g BBs with the ML barrel and ML MR bucking, the Maxx hop unit + nub + nozzle can make that much difference I can't wait to have the money to buy one for my DMR (I shoot 0.40g BBs with an M130 spring, 4/5 cylinder and 410mm inner barrel).

@RostokMcSpoons I'm trying to get my DE M904E to be a bit of a rifle that does it all, in that it's quick enough to get a shot off for a surprise player hiding round a corner but can lob a 0.28 / 0.30 much further than you'd expect and catch people off guard. I'm getting there with the Maple Leaf inner barrel and MR bucking, an out of the box r-hop, but the hop unit is letting me down. They've improved the latch on the bottom of them with the M4A-PRO, it's a different design, and even trying a John Wick style mag change it's retaining 4x BB's in the hop unit for me with no problems 😃

Nope, 100% Maple Leaf.

That's the plan. I'm playing this Sunday at the same site that I last played at, Ironsight, which I could walk around in my sleep. There's a particular outdoors rat run that's around 50m in length with some fixed points of cover, and I use this to judge range and accuracy, and last time with 0.28g + ZCI hop unit + Maple Leaf AEG inner barrel + Maple Leaf MR 60 degree bucking + Omega nub I wasn't happy with the range I was getting. I've gone from the stock hop unit to the ZCI, however for me I couldn't get a sweet spot, it was either too much or not enough hop, plus the Omega nub never sat perfectly (maybe something to do with the ZCI or its arm). After talking to Maxx Model, telling them my setup, I'm using their solid metal concave nub which they recommended and which is one of the reasons I bought the M4A-PRO in the first place (a perfectly cantered nub that's also a little wider than the Omega). Also fine hop adjustment feels like it should be substantially better, turning the wheel with your thumb it feels somehow tight to move but at the same time buttery smooth.

I've been trying to get my max 1.14J Double Eagle M904E to be the best it can be on 0.28g BBs, still have a snappy'ish trigger but try and surprise people with its range, and I was disappointed with the consistency / range from a ZCI plastic rotary hop unit so I've sold my soul to the devil... ... to try and get as consistent and light a hop as possible. The stock trigger spring snapped right at the end of my last game so I thought sod it, get a Maxx speed trigger and an M4A-PRO. I've already got a few Maxx nozzles so used a 21.25 with it, and Maxx do warn that your FPS may be a little higher, and I gained a good 15 or so FPS from it (going from around 290 to 305) so will go from the current M110 spring to an M105 which should make the gearbox and motor happy. So I'm happy, but know that probably 50% of other players think I'm now a twat 😆

@RandomM_YT My nephew has the G&G Armament Combat Machine CM16 FFR A2 and I'd say for the year and half or so he's had it, and with it costing around £230 currently, I'd not buy one. It's been back to Patrol Base once, for either a faulty ETU or MOSFET, however they never said what the fault was but it came back working again. Generally considering the cost of one the weak points for me are the bang average geared hop unit, the fuse takes up masses of room in the buffer tube restricting battery space, the hand guard has unusually sized screws for mounting rails (no M-LOK etc.), and in general there are much better rifles from other brands for at least £50 less.

If V2, and I had the cash, I'd buy one of these for myself... https://www.ak2m4.co.uk/internal-parts/gearbox-shells/xt-cnc-v2-split-gearbox-shell ... as they're back in stock (but now they're back in stock I'm brassic).

DE hit a sweet spot with their M900's, they found a cost effective optical controller + piston + head (as soon as you see the light blue you know what it is) + V2 shell + gears and it's all put together very well, and they've milked it for all its worth and probably made good money from it (they've used their core gearbox build and put in every type of receiver / platform possible). However, under all this they're still a bargain basement Chinese toy manufacturer selling cheap things and fake Lego etc. Someone else can buy this first and be the guinea pig 😉

Surprised no one's mentioned an AAP-01 as a sidearm, it matches the OP's criteria... # Good internals/externals: Over all yes, however regular full auto will shorted the hammers lifespan. # overall good pew: Yes # good fire rate: Yes # not too expensive: The price is great for such a good pistol ... and I run mine as a sidearm with a CTM holster and can't fault it at all (using 0.28g with an ML Autobot 60 degree).

I don't know what I'd do without the great parts on ak2m4 but, hmmm, not sure about this one 🤔 I'd rather have one less take-away and get a GATE Titan, and there are things like this... https://eshooter-world.com/products/kestrel-v2 ... which Double Eagle are slapping into some of their AEG's.

More importantly how can you charge them considering the charger in the photos has a two pin EU plug 😆

I've intentionally made some of your post bold, you're already running a pistol that will leave the WE Glock in the shade for accuracy and gas efficiency. Like you I run a 60 degree Autobot in my AAP-01 and it happily hops 0.28's and is more than good enough a side arm to my DMR and get hits when I need to get up close and can be accurate to 30m or so. My son has both an AAP-01 and WE EU17 G4, and yes the kick from the EU17 is lovely (although I've had to replace the blow back unit recently as it cracked, running Nuprol 3.0 probably doesn't help), but as a tool for flinging plastic balls at people the AAP-01 in my opinion leaves it in the dust. Personally I'd rather buy the CNC hop-up unit for the AAP-01 and be flinging heavier balls of plastic and giving people nasty surprises 😈

I spent far too long evening after evening looking at all the various options, and finally decided on this and don't regret the purchase one bit, especially at only £60 (if they did a 5x one, if that would be possible, I'd snap that up as well).

So far they've been identical in performance for me. Before then my Li-Po's we're 20c, and I don't run anything crazy and only play now and again at full auto sites, but trigger response and RPS on a chrono has remained exactly the same. Personally I run Li-Io's now more as an insurance policy, to lessen the risk of damage and to cover my potential stupidity, and the split 3,000 11.1v just sits so well in my PTS EPS stocks.

I run one of these and swap it between my DMR and AEG... https://www.combatsouth.co.uk/element-aim-o-g33-magnifier-x3-black/ ... and went for this one as it's an EOTECH rip-off using the better mount that has less wobble, and it's been a magic bullet for me. My biggest ever kill streak, easily 20 plus, was using it on my AEG in a forest when I was in a nice spot where people wouldn't expect anyone to be. I could spot shapes moving behind bushes well before they got in range, and could then lob a few BB's in their path and they just walked into them, which I couldn't have done with the flip to side to spot them. And maybe I'm a little lucky but it's worked perfectly with my EOTECH clone red dot and dirt cheap £30 smaller red dot, I've not had to make any adjustments at all.

Another vote for Guard Dog Evader 2's here 👍

I've both Titan and Valken 3,000 mAh 11.1v Li-Io's, Deans connector, used in rifles either with GATE Titan's v2's or Double Eagle's knock off of a Titan, and so far I can overall fault neither and I'm very happy with them (used Li-Po's all the time before I made the change, and the last time I had any NiMH's was back when I raced RC cars). I'd say though that the Titan's has a better overall build quality, the cabling thicker and more flexible, plus the casing / heat-shrink is better applied (with Valken's looking a little rough around the edges). It was mine and my son's Double Eagle M900's that pushed me to Li-Io's, in that the controllers in them will let a batteries cells get down to almost 3.2v per cell before the battery protection kicks in which is far to low, and this caused one 1,450 Li-Po to get too low at one game and it puffed ever so slightly and has not been the same since (it's in my emergency battery pile now). The Li-Io's can safely handle going down to a much lower cell voltage, 3.0v or a little lower, with zero negative effects, who know if this is down to their construction or the 18650 cells they use (different from the flat Li-Po cells and how their conductors are layered?). I've accidentally left a Li-Io in a rifle for close to a week, I totally forgot about it which is not like me at all, and it went to under 3.0v per cell, but charged back perfectly (but took a while) and has shown no negative effects at all.

Just a little short list 😉 It makes sense though, and it does sound like things could potentially end up being a bit aimless and unfulfilling there. I do fancy playing a BIG game though one day, and I think one at RIFT may be better for me and my son. Ironsight is my local site, literally a five minute drive from home, and I'm there this weekend (it's nearly sold out so lots of targets for me and my 0.28g's 😆 ). I suppose the polar opposite of GZ being a compact'ish site with plenty of marshals for it's size and quick turnarounds of games.

It's an hours drive from me and I've always fancied at least playing on a normal Sunday, is it really that bad? What didn't you like about it?

If something that's effectively an M4, but looks a little different with its front end / cosmetics then how about... https://www.patrolbase.co.uk/double-eagle-m916g-utr556?pv=17878 ... at only £170? Everything about its internals is M4 / AR15, but it looks a little different from everything else for a bit of variety, and you get the Falcon controller with it's optical trigger + cycle control etc.. As long as the OP already has batteries with deans connectors, or has an adapter, all it needs is an ML Macaron 60 degree swopped in and it's ready for anything.

For me it's like others have said, finding that sweet spot that suits the DMR you've built, and for me that's been 0.40g after trying a few other weights (however, I only use my DMR for the first half of a days skirmish as I can't afford it for a whole day).

People here now and again post the most relevant comment / meme, that what we're running around with is just a toy, and really that £600 toy won't do much at all that the £300 one won't, and it certainly won't turn a novice into John Wick 😆 I'd be buying a "good" rifle and spending the remaining £300 on giving myself a competitive over everyone else. For example on my AEG I've just moved from 0.25g to 0.28g along with a good inner barrel supporting an ML MR bucking, that extra 8 to 10 meters of accuracy can hold off others quite easily, when running it I put onto it my DMR's flip to side 3x magnifier and can spot approaches and pick people off. You say some of your time is in woodland, so maybe spend some of the money on great camouflage? (I desperately wish I had the money for one of these... https://sc-ghillie.pl/en/shop/produkt/nextgen-viper-hood-long-sleeve/ )

For £600 I'd want more than a MOSFET, I'd expect a full on optical controller with cycle control and pre-cocking etc. You could potentially spend say £300 on a platform you like and then it to Negative Airsoft for him to work his magic?

If you're interested feel free to PM me, but only if you're sure you need it as I like building up a supply of spare parts. Also regarding swapping in another gearbox please be aware that Firehawk is somewhat special as it uses a closed / full cylinder, this is what give it the "crack" noise and also as it uses a very short inner barrel so needs the air volume, also it uses as stock a very strong M130 spring. If you do a full gearbox swap, and it has in it say a 3/4 cylinder and a standard AEG spring, you may lose a huge amount of FPS (taking you well below 300 FPS on 0.20g BBs)