Fatboy40

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)

If none of the wires internally are damaged, so it may be the mechanical trigger unit at fault, you're welcome to have the one out of my son's gun for the price of the postage (I'm 99.9% certain I put it away safely with my other airsoft spare parts).

... and pop in a GATE Titan whilst you're at it ? (Best upgrade I ever made to my son's Firehawk, along with a MAXX trigger, it totally transformed it (no more jams on semi with cycle detection, really quick trigger response, so good with a little pre-cocking but in the end I disabled it as the stock motor got a bit toasty)

I play quite often at Alton with the Green Ranger so I can ask them a few questions if you want?... https://www.instagram.com/p/CV0-QAMMtCS/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Mine loves me playing airsoft... she knows she's got rid of her husband and one teenage son for the day ?

It was my youngest son that got me into airsoft as well, we both played a rental game in 2020 and were hooked ever since (young teenager and me an overweight old fart). Every man and his dog can give advice about what to buy, but all I'd say is both get the same rifle, having the exact same stuff makes life so much easier ? (same mags, same stocks so you know what batteries fit, if you fix a problem with one rifle you know that you can do the same to the other etc.). Looking back to my start in airsoft I think there are only two things I'd change, and that's drink way more water (you lose more than you think), and goggles fogging up is a right pain in the arse so get some "Revision" wipes for them.

I know others have commented, with better advice than I could ever give, but is this not what the Maple Leaf MR was invented for? A consistent and better hop of heavier BB's without having to apply masses of pressure on the patch? I run MR's in two AEG's and one DMR now, the AEG's using 0.28g and the DMR 0.40g, and I don't need to have crazy amounts of hop applied to lift them (and can substantially over hop them very easily).

I wonder what sort of cylinder that ships with as stock ? And like others have said maybe going to a 509mm would be a easier? (and if you've got mega buck you could go with a PDI one, and get the benefit of a Maple Leaf MR bucking fitting nicely in the cut out).

Not a single Double Eagle M900 on their site... Taiwan Gun the are not ?

You're missing important points out of your message... # What's the mAh of the battery? # How many BBs do you believe you've shot when using it for a morning? # Exactly what voltage is the battery at at the end of the morning? # Is your DE M90X rifle stock? (have you made any changes to it). ... otherwise others can't reply with accurate comments. Personally I've had no problems at all with batteries and the Falcon controller, but people must understand that it IS NOT a GATE Titan, it's battery management is crap compared to the real deal where you can set custom values. Double Eagle have directly told me that the battery protection will let a LiPo batteries cells go below 3.2 volts, and this will more than likely cause permanent damage to them, before the low cell voltage protection kicks in. On Reddit I've argued with people claiming that the Falcon kills batteries, but in and of itself it does not, it's the player not using a battery with an high enough mAh and expecting the gun to cover their arse with it "magic fairy dust". For me, when running a DE M904E as an AEG in skirmishes (I don't play milsim), I'll often get through 1,500 or more BBs, and I'll take a 3,000 mAh Titan LiIo down to around 3.4v per cell. I'd say that if you're maybe shooting 1,000 BBs a morning you'd want a minimum of 1,450 mAh on an 11.2v otherwise you'll run dry and potentially cause permanent battery damage.

Well, I played at Camouflage Airsoft at Alton at the weekend which is a nice wood set venue (all of the greenery hasn't quite grown back yet to its tallest), with both my DMR and AEG, and the results were interesting (and it was a bloody good day out with my son and his cousin). I ran my DMR with 0.40g BBs, and it was probably shooting the best it has yet for accuracy, but it's still not quite where I want it to be. I was getting bucket loads of hits, and was certainly not playing like a "toxic DMR player", but I think for me at least on that day there was another reason for getting so many hits when I was using it for the morning (and the afternoon was it's own "heavy weight" story). Players on the other team, even those with obviously bank brakingly expensive guns and kit, seemed to forget that the right rifle, whether a DMR or sniper, could have a substantially better range over an AEG so were leaving themselves exposed. With a DMR and a 3x flip to side I could see them leaving half their body exposed, an arm hanging out from a tree, a head fully exposed, so I just took the shot. To be honest at some of the distances the BB by the time it was approaching them could have been seen by them if the were more observant and dodged. I myself dodged a few incoming shot that were from DMR's and snipers. What I found most interesting though, from a technical perspective, was the afternoon where I switched to my AEG using 0.28g BBs (normally 0.25g), and what made a big difference was I decided to put the 3x flip to side on the AEG. I could pick a good spot to hide in and the slightly heavier BBs along with the flip to side allowed me to pick off players at a range they just never expected, plus as a site that allowed burst's of auto on AEG's I could pin down an area. I ended up getting massively more kills than I did with my DMR, the 0.28g's helped, however it was the 3x zoom that made all the difference spotting approaching or hiding players. Long story short, it's the DMR combined with the magnification that's helping me out.

For me that's not its real downside, it's the marmite "honey badger" stock itself, which has bugger all battery space, and of course as there's no real buffer tube you can't swap over to a PTS EPS stock ?

No where near as good unfortunately, construction / internal space / fiddly to remove the end cap, it's just a typical "crane" stock that they'll have bought from another Chinese manufacturer I expected (having said all that though it's "good enough"). For reference I paid £175 Autumn 2021 for a M906C, so that a £15 increase

I've two DE's and look after a third (my sons), all three have been fully disassembled multiple times to the level of the gearbox having been in pieces (M904E, M906C and an M908A). Really it's not a MOSFET or an ETU, it's a "controller" like a GATE Titan or Perun Hybrid with optical sensors, however it's a much cheaper "knock off" so you've no pre-cocking and active-braking etc. (also the "battery protection" isn't as sophisticated as say the GATE Titan). Having said all that though, for what can be a £160 rifle depending upon the model, they're bloody amazing (trigger response and rate of fire). Regarding which material is "stronger" it's finely balanced, but for the best long term strength I'd have to say the polymer. The metal bodies on the M900's are not all that thick, and I'm as certain as I can be that they're of a cheap alloy to keep costs low (it was so easy using just a manual hand drill to modify my M908A to create a hole in the lower receiver to fit a nut and bolt to lock it to semi-only for a DMR), but the polymer is very rigid and can take a good hard knock.

My 13 year old son wears a Delta Mike, fits him perfectly (and over say the past year it's me that's been shot twice in the nose, he's been fine).