Avoid unregulated CO2 for airsoft - it's not theoretically [read insurance/certainty] safe.
Hi, I'm new to all this so sorry if I'm asking something obvious. I have spent a lot of time researching the websites that sell all the guns and all of them seem to have complaints about faulty products. Some say not to buy from anywhere with 'BB' in their site name, but others all have a bit of bad rep here and there somewhere online about faulty products and/or bad customer service. So basically with buying airguns is the nature of it just 'hit n miss' pretty much? It makes sense to me that you can't expect all guns to work really well for a long time because of what they are like finicky things. Or do some of them really just con to some degree?
A lot of the time it depends on the gun brands, many stores, even the good ones, try to fob you off on different warranties based on the manufacturer.
Some have a good reputation for light use, some for running forever, some for breaking after 1-5k rounds, some for breaking randomly, some for high maintenance etc, but rarely does it come down to the store, but rather the brand of gun and expectations of the user.
Pick a budget, pick a power source (for newbies that's spring, electric or (for pistols only) gas blowback.
Then, once you have a these, pick a type of gun you LIKE.
Then, research that gun, not the places that sell it.
Generally speaking for new players a G&G combat machine M4 (plastic bodied) at under £130 is a good starting point, cheap enough that two tone is irrelevant, disposable if it breaks and with a reputation for functionality in that price range.
The biggest cons are the guns which are purchased from other manufacturers and modified in some way for rebranding - sometimes it's okay, but really why bother, most electric guns are functional copies of Tokyo Marui and a few others anyway.
So, what type of real world guns takes your fancy, honestly that's the best starting point, then look at budget and weight(of the guns) and other stuff like that.
A well looked after under £200 gun is just as effective as a gun costing more at the common engagement distances (under 35m). It's not hit and miss, its just that there's a lot of crap out there, not researching brands and buying brand-blind
would be hit and miss.
To reiterate, the most important thing is to buy a formfactor (real world model) of gun which you like, it's rare that a real gun model only exists in bad airsoft versions.
Model, Budget, then brand. Amusingly, on all of my guns, I started with brand (TM first, then G&G then CYMAx2 and then ASG), followed by model and then budget.
You can't go wrong with a plastic G&G, an under £150 CYMA(gunfire.pl/taiwangun prices) or any tokyo marui/krytac guns. Lots and lots of other good brands out there, this is an inadequately qualified blanket statement.
