First Airsoft gun

[BritishFatMan]

So I’ve played a few games and got the bug, so I’m now looking for my first gun.

 

Ive been told to look at the Krytac range of AR-15 type guns. 
 

I have about £500 to spend on a first gun, what would everyone be recommending? 
 

Eventually I would like to convert over to gas but to start with batt is the way I have been recommended to go until I become a better player and more familiar with the gun, so future conversion would be an option I am looking at. 
 

So far I have looked at the KRYTAC MK II Trident SPR and the KRYTAC Trident MK-II SPR-M.

 

Any other ideas would be appreciated.
 

Iain 

 

[sp00n]

Try as many guns as you can, see how they feel

 

get a light weight gun, they get real heavy during a days play

 

dont skimp on goggles/boots/etc

[Jez_Armstrong]

I wouldn't recommend a Krytac, i would recommend a G&G

[Enid_Puceflange]

I had the Krytac crb trident 2 as my first gun

bought it used, it had an upgraded hop rubber and barrel

other than that it was standard 

It was picky with aftermarket magazines, but shot flawlessly 

 

If I was starting out, with your budget (and a Ukara to avoid two toning an expensive pew) 

Id be looking at Tokyo Marui models

As they need nothing done until you break them, which if left standard and untampered with, never happens 🤞

 

[GenuineGerman]

4 minutes ago, Enid_Puceflange said:

Id be looking at Tokyo Marui models

As they need nothing done until you break them, which if left standard and untampered with, never happens 🤞

This absolutely 👍🏻

[gavinkempsell]

Wait till you get your UKARA & buy a rif knowing you've tried others & have a better idea of what you want.

[Leo Greer]

If available...

 

Arcturus ME models would be my top pick for affordability, utility, and performance. Availability over there in the UK might be an issue.

 

Second to that would be a G&G somewhere in the midrange. They just work and probably won't break the bank.

 

IMO, Krytacs are very good, but they're simply expensive for what you're getting. Slick factor? Yes. Price vs. performance ratio? No. Reliability? Pretty good.

 

The other issue I'll bring up is that they tend to have overspin at UK power limits (they're really designed to work with an M120 for USA power limits).

[Rogerborg]

Ahoy and welcome.

 

Just to check, do you want an M4 / AR-15 platform?  Nothing wrong with that, most of us have one (or two (or three)), but there are few really bad choices in the current market. AK, G36, MP5, P90,  M14, pistol-calibre-carbines, they all work.  Airsoft is a heart-over-head hobby, the only real regret is being too sensible.

[Krisz]

Krytac is a tad expensive as a first gun. G&G isn't the best value anymore when you can get better internals for less money.

 

Many good M4's out there nowadays like Arcturus, Specna and Double Eagle just to name a few.

Edited April 10 by Krisz

[The_Lord_Poncho]

I bought a Krytac CRB as my first gun after a fair bit of research. I now have a bit of a collection and rotate my guns so they all get a go every now and then.

 

I've never opened it up, and the range and reliability stock has been superb. It just keeps soldiering on. I think the overspin problem that people talk about is when they put a high speed/torque motor in- never had an issue with the stock (UK spec) Krytac motor.

 

As above though, whilst I can't fault the Krytac, these days there are plenty of great options that are a touch cheaper- specna, cyma platinum (but run on a 7.4 lipo to be gentle to the MOSFET), double eagle etc.

Edited April 11 by The_Lord_Poncho

[BritishFatMan]

This is the type of build I had in mind. Obviously it will take some time before I go gas, but this would be my eventual build. 

 

I’ll check out the other guns everyone has mentioned I am always open to suggestions. 
 

 

[DanBow]

just out of interest, why are you set on going HPA?

[BritishFatMan]

@DanBow A few of my friends run hpa and they swear by it. 
 

what’s tempting for me is the more consistent fps. Plus I play around a lot of hpa players and therefore it’s inevitable that I am going to lean more towards hpa over elec. 

 

There is an argument that once set up properly hpa will be more consistant and reliable due to less moving parts. Although seeing some people on the fields this is definitely not always the case. 

[Enid_Puceflange]

Gunbilical cord 🤢

 

Sorry

[Lozart]

21 minutes ago, BritishFatMan said:

@DanBow A few of my friends run hpa and they swear by it. 
 

what’s tempting for me is the more consistent fps. Plus I play around a lot of hpa players and therefore it’s inevitable that I am going to lean more towards hpa over elec. 

 

There is an argument that once set up properly hpa will be more consistant and reliable due to less moving parts. Although seeing some people on the fields this is definitely not always the case. 

 

HPA is only more reliable if (like gas) you're happy to do the maintenance. A well set up AEG can be consistent enough for a game where the slightest whiff of a breeze can make a mockery of the money you've spent on making your gun super accurate and consistent!

 

Thing is, social circles (like many corners of the interwebs) are basically echo chambers. All your friends think HPA is great, therefore you are more likely to go HPA because that's all you've heard about. 

[Rogerborg]

And people outside the Church of HPA will decry it as heresy.

 

(Because it is).

[Leo Greer]

I will point out that, in practice, HPA can often be less FPS consistent than a properly set up AEG. This is because HPA guns typically have more seals inside the engine than an AEG, which has two major seals.

 

I typically tune my AEGs to either ~1 FPS variance or ~0.5 FPS variance. And even better can be done, I'm just not quite picky enough. The true mad lads will be sorting their BBs by the hundredth of a gram to get even better consistency.

 

In THIS thread, scroll down and I have a pic of my primary (AEG) shooting at 27 RPS with an FPS consistency of about +-0.8 FPS.

 

edit

 

And just to speak to general reliability, a properly set up HPA RIF will be more "reliable" than an AEG simply due to needing less maintenance (you really only have the seal to maintain occasionally), however a correctly set up AEG (SSG, DSG, DMR...) should only need gearbox maintenance maybe every 100K cycles, or even more. I try to do maintenance on my rifleman style builds around every 200K rounds, and stock guns are simply run until they break, which for some might mean something like 500K cycles.

 

Heck, some TMs are known to last past 1 million cycles with no work done on them.

Edited April 11 by Leo Greer

[Krisz]

8 hours ago, BritishFatMan said:

@DanBow A few of my friends run hpa and they swear by it. 
 

what’s tempting for me is the more consistent fps. Plus I play around a lot of hpa players and therefore it’s inevitable that I am going to lean more towards hpa over elec. 

 

There is an argument that once set up properly hpa will be more consistant and reliable due to less moving parts. Although seeing some people on the fields this is definitely not always the case. 

HPA is extremely consistent indeed but a well tuned AEG does the same job (people "forget" to mention how much money they spent on it to make it happen though).

 

HPA is easier to maintain and fix it though compared to an AEG because HPA engines don't look like a clock internally. Especially for a beginner who never took apart a gearbox before.

Try out as many different platforms as possible and choose what you prefer. This forum is a very small echo chamber and people parrot the same thing over and over again. ☠️

Edited April 11 by Krisz

[Pseudotectonic]

@Leo Greer 1 FPS variance is really impressive, very curious does it change at all based on your environment e.g. workshop vs the site? And weather and so on?

[Leo Greer]

1 hour ago, Pseudotectonic said:

@Leo Greer 1 FPS variance is really impressive, very curious does it change at all based on your environment e.g. workshop vs the site? And weather and so on?

 

The FPS itself will change by a margin of maybe 1-1.5% depending on humidity, altitude, and temperature, but by and large the consistency I can achieve is the same. That build was built and chronoed at ~800 feet above sea level, 75 degrees F, 50% humidity. I recently put together a new DMR build shooting 300 FPS on .48g w/ ~1 FPS variance, and tested at ~8,000 above, 20 deg. F, and 75% humidity.

 

I do a rigorous set of stabilization mods designed to create an extremely consistent hop rubber to nozzle seal, and I think that really makes the difference. Basically, I make sure the barrel and hop unit can't move whatsoever, and that the hop unit is pressed solidly to the gearbox. Hop unit springs are the enemy, cork and plastic shims are the best.

 

I'll see if I can try some "varied environment" testing with the same build and report back. I'll make it into a separate thread though!

[Lozart]

On 11/04/2024 at 18:41, Krisz said:

 

HPA is easier to maintain and fix it though compared to an AEG because HPA engines don't look like a clock 

 

Three gears looks like a clock? What kind of clocks did you take apart as a kid?

 

HPA engines don't have gears but they do have a significant amount of pingfuckits and Jesus clips, not to mention the seals that need more regular maintenance than a greasy rack.

 

As for how much money people have spent on upgrading an AEG, the components in a gearbox would only cost as much as a P* F2 if you had them plated in gold first! 😄 

[Impulse]

Ah, the classic HPA vs AEG debate...

 

Personally, especially for a first gun, I'd just go with an AEG. HPA setups are really expensive as you're either paying £800 for an MTW, or you're paying £400+ for a HPA engine to stick into an AEG, so it's probably going to end up about £600 there with no guarantee it will work amazingly well. Then you need a tank, line and regulator so that's another £100+ to add in. I'd much rather pick up an AEG plus a ML hop rubber and nub for a fraction of the price. When people say that they have a 1fps variance on their HPA setups, firstly it's more than possible to do that with AEGs (probably for cheaper), and secondly that level of consistency is entirely unnecessary; not saying people are wrong for chasing it, but you absolutely don't need it to be competitive and hit consistent, accurate shots. At the end of the day, we're shooting plastic balls at each other that weigh less than half a gram and all the consistency in the world won't stop Mother Nature from deciding that your shots shouldn't hit at times. Trust me, as a long time bolt action rifle user I've seen more than a few shots veer off target because of a rogue twig or gust of wind 

 

£500 for a first gun is a lot, so you should be able to get something really nice. If you're interested in AR-15 SPR style rifles, I'd advise looking at the Cyma Platinum range. My friend has a cm097, which is an AR-15 SPR style rifle, and it's really good out of the box. Makes a fantastic platform to work on, but doesn't actually need that much to make it shoot really well. A Maple Leaf macaron hop rubber and an omega nub is all it really needs, but a nice 6.02 ZCI barrel can help with voluming and would easily fit into your budget. I'd spend the rest on load bearing gear, a nice sling, an optic, mags, an Odin speedloader, batteries, BBs etc. There's plenty of other things that you could get to make your life easier beyond just the gun, and this is all assuming you already have spent out on good eye protection and a good set of boots.

 

If you do eventually go down the GBBR route (a great route to go down, but definitely not for everyone), it'll still be great to have a solid AEG as a backup rifle, just in case of issues or cold winter temperatures making gas far less efficient.

[Egon_247]

It doesn't matter. As long as you like it, it's all good 👍

 

And inside a year you'll have one of each anyway.....😁😂😂

[JuggyUK]

My first was a KWA Eve-9, I chucked a Gate Titan BT in it, apart from that it's stock. Very happy with it.

 

Recently I bought a Specna Arms Edge 2.0 SA-X02 which I also really like.

 

Both really good guns at what I consider fair prices.

 

The KWA has a v2.5 gearbox specific to the gun so upgrading the gearbox with an Eon from Gate or similar cannot be done (as far as I know).

Edited April 29 by JuggyUK