Sitting Duck

Thing to remember they are both

or the 516 is a very basic cheap starter gun

and nothing really will change that

 

YES you can fit fancy mosfets & upgrades to it

(your gun - your choice)

but though you can tweak it quite a bit

and take it quite a way

be careful you don't end up fitting a £1,000 ICE

into a £600 Fiat Punto

or a stfu cruise control system into a Mini Metro

(showing my age)

 

get gun running, tweak on a budget

and save the money perhaps for a slightly better gun

 

that said plenty also like to go nutz making insane sleeper guns

but I'd just do stuff in stages as & when required

reckon new piston & good compression you'll be golden for a while

But if you get the 621 sorted - that's a QC box

 

Meaning it can be a "spring tester" gun

if/when you rebuild the 516 gun

 

Drop the ol' 516 spring in, test out the fps

then see what you might need/get on a new spring

before reassembling the std 516 box

 

Springs are funny bastid's

so many factors come into play to get 349.99fps

a short gun tends to have say a m115 spring

& longer guns say m95 spring

 

then it depends if there are any spacers & crap inside piston

includes bearings inside adding 5mm extra compression

or spacers - 5mm plastic in G&G cheapies

to 9mm alloy spacers in basic cheapy Chinese guns

 

A piston's tooth is 3mm pitch

so 9mm alloy spacer in say Cyma piston

can add up to say 3 x extra teeth compression/power/energy

(but with shit seals you'll lose a fair bit of this)

However factors like above with chunky spacers

plus bearing spring guide - or std non-bearing spring guide

all this throws a bit into the mixture when testing spring/fps

(plus poor seals and joule creep on longer barrels etc...)

 

LUCKILY - the 621 & 516 seem to be similar length barrels

so you could use the 621 to roughly test the old 516 spring

and guesstimate what you might expect with decent good seals

and the appropriate spring (of a sort) with a chrono etc...

 

As the 621 with stock tube off takes like 30 secs to change spring

= a half decent gun to test out any springs you might buy

 

some springs have tighter coils at one end

and usually the tighter coils go at the back on spring guide

however if you flip the spring (tight coils up front)

you "may" see a slight increase of say 10fps

 

other springs you may see no difference if you flip

them, but on the "irregular" springs with tight coils one end

you might be able to very slight boost/reduce fps by flipping it

 

Still handy to have a QC gun to test/compare springs

even if you are experienced in guessing the springs power

(it is still a guess - no matter how experienced you are)

even the spring test is ONLY a ROUGH EXPECTATION

 

as you fit the same m100 spring into 3 different/length guns

and you could easily get:

300fps in a MP5k (141 barrel)

328fps in a M4 Carbine (expected on 363 barrel)

356fps in a AK47 (455 barrel)

or anything around these very very rough estimates

depending on spacers & quality of compression/seals

 

So at times - trying to gauge what the fps might end up being

can be a bit of guesswork to say the least

SHS gears are chunkier than KitKat Chunky

or Yorkie bars - there is next little shim room

(on bushings especially), bearings maybe a smidge more

 

 

 

now if chunky Yorkie "not for girls" bar ad offends anybody

then i would like to apologise...

 

 

 

nah - fuck it, get over it ya triggered tarts 

Ahhh - the art of ultra fine shimming & shit...

 

A very slightly extra nip of the screws when tightening

Fitting a slightly too snug pistol grip

(or motor cage on v3/AK)

& your ultra fine hairline shimming is no more

 

When people say they shimmed to 0.10mm or even 0.05mm

Oh fuck off, do you know just how fine that tolerance is ???

 

I probably shim to somewhere near 0.15mm

The issue is that airsoft dimensions are very vague

(like airsoft meters)

 

Shimming & shit has been discussed many times

But at least you had a chance to check & correct it

when you SS'd it

 

 

 

ATB  btw

Same ol' issue...

At what point is something...

 

GOOD Value

GREAT Value

FANTASTIC Value etc...

 

Cyma for example

make the absolute shite CM.022 plinker (don't bother)

ultra budget CM.520 AK - not bad but cheap 028

std budget CM.028 - best of the cheapo AK's £ for £ imho

before going upwards to the higher end AK's

 

same as G&G - good basic Raider Vs mid range Vs Top Tech

 

Fair to say you take a good value gun

then add say £40~£50 for metal receiver

and/or £25 for a bit better internals

and then some for flashy modern looks/styling

 

Then you have to look at which of those guns are the best value

and at what point you think...

 

Hang on a sec - just WTF am I getting for my extra money ???

 

China guns are still a bit of lottery with craftsmanship

(depends which 5 year old slapped it together)

 

The DE 904G is FANTASTIC value for money

BUT other models - even the plastic ones run £40 more

There are some models that have a plastic stock tube adapter

like the 904A

https://www.taiwangun.com/assault-rifle-aeg/m904a-fire-control-system-edition-de?from=listing&campaign-id=19

 

but out of stock, but I'd like the stock tube adapter if poss

to allow me option to drop on a fixed stubby for better battery space

Before going to the light alloy receivers (I think) 907 versions

at £155 plus (£50 more than the 904G)

 

The 904G they are selling at little profit to push this DE range

("They" being both TWG & DE I mean)

Remember this is Double Eagle that make the M900 Krinkov AK

& the crappy M805A BullDog pile of dog shit plinker

 

All that being said - I was tempted to grab a "High Speed" G36

The Cyma CM.011 HS version at about the same price of the 904G

Looked tempting, the 13:1 gears, metal rack piston and perhaps better motor etc...

I could see where the extra £25 or so was spent

BUT in the end I went for the 904G instead

(plus a 517 coz they are still the nutz @ £63 aprox

they have minor flaws but what hasn't at that price ffs)

 

The question as always is

 

WHAT ARE YOU GETTING FOR THE EXTRA MONEY

 

often it is less~slightly less value than the cheaper models

mostly coz like the 904G example they are pushed with a reduced markup to sell in volume/bulk

Than the more realistic markup of the mid range models

(That is my theory)

 

The mid range models are more priced "correctly"

than the budget/cheaper but still good models priced to sell

 

As for craftsmanship - the mid range stuff

is simply assembled by the cheapo stuff's big brother

who has say 18 months experience in the sweat shop

 

so one model on the cheap is assembled by a 5 year old

& other models are assembled by his 7 year old brother

 

One gets 50c a day for the budget guns

&

one gets a whopping $1 a day for the Pro-line guns

 

in this case the 7 year old brother was off with COVID-19

so his younger brother was dragged off to build the hi end model

 

Off topic slightly...

 

GunFire have gone to shit imho...

Their points system has ended - you no longer earn them

spend them before Chrimbo btw

and they stopped doing decent stuff for points ages ago

as well as using say 150 points for delivery - a fucking shame

 

what stock GF have of low end guns at least is shit

they charge for PayPal, they really have gone down a bit

 

Parts & stuff are still cheap with their offers

but shipping, PP charges and stuff means they have lost ground

 

the situation in China/COVID, low confidence the world over

plus loads of uncertainty means the whole confidence in global economy is at its lowest point since 2008 and maybe more than that

 

People are hanging on to their money, with all the uncertain future - so good luck to all consumers with their own jobs

Plus also any retailer/manufacturer the world over

 

coz it doesn't look to bright for everyone

some are coining it in & others are up shit creek

 

so choose wisely how you spend your money/savings

 

I like the "decent" cheaper stuff (always have)

often saw the mid or higher end stuff as over rated/priced

but there are some good & some not so good higher end models

(usually I break them just as much as the cheaper ones so I stick with the budget stuff as my mistakes cost me less :D)

 

I'm sure with a few tweaks the issues will get resolved

and perhaps you just got a higher end gun assembled by the younger kid brother

 

best of luck - my rant is over

(for now)