How Much Dors It Cost to Fix Your Spring on an Airsoft Gun

Beginners Guide to Buying your First Airsoft Gun

By u/Houseofcards32

This guide literally has everything you need when it comes to buying your first airsoft gun. If you have 15-20 minutes to read it, I highly recommend reading. This guide was created on the 1st of 2020, and then this data is up to date, and sources will be cited. I have been playing airsoft since 2010, then I personally take made plenty of mistakes along the way. Read this guide and y'all volition not make the same mistakes I did.

Table of contents:

All-time Blindside for your cadet Starting AEG'due south
Things to consider
Choosing a Weapons Platform
Unlike Types of Airsoft guns
Brand Overview
Do YOUR Inquiry
Understanding the Basics
You get what you pay for
Do Non purchase a sniper equally your first gun
Buying your gun
Buying used airsoft guns
Using Paypal
Conclusion

Best Bang for your buck starting AEG'southward

Archetype Army Skirmish Line- $169 (M4 platform)

ICS M4A1-$150 (M4 platform)

CYMA Full Metal AK47- 150$ (AK platform)

The guns listed above are some of the best contenders when information technology comes to beginner airsoft AEG's. These take been tested past thousands of people across the world, and are all reliable and will last yous a lifetime, if you maintain them properly. There are a massive amount of Classic Army beginner rifles bachelor, in all sorts of configurations and lengths. If you're looking for something different than the one pictured above, cheque out these here. The 1 I have pictured in a higher place though is the most popular, as it has its ain mosfet, the Classic Regular army ECS. It allows y'all to change between firing modes, and accept things like three circular burst, and even 5 round flare-up. The ICS pictured is the 2d biggest recommendation I give to new players. The ICS sportline serial is robust, and is also used by many. The 150$ dollar price tag is peachy for about, as its cheaper than the CA, but offers no mosfet. Lastly we have an AK from CYMA, who is regarded every bit the best company to make beginner-intermediate AK's. This CYMA pictured currently has the highest amount of reviews on Evike, as it has too been used past many. Yous want to beginning small when ownership your first gun, because if you buy a long or heavy gun and you are scrawny, y'all volition regret information technology almost immediately. The last note in this function is to not buy a sniper burglarize every bit your first airsoft gun. Read the section regarding snipers, I will explicate at that place.

Things to Consider

As you keep to read through this guide, I will remind you of the gold iii rules when it comes to starting airsoft:

Do NOT buy a sniper as your first airsoft gun.
Inquiry your airsoft gun
What you pay for is what you will get.

Choosing a Weapons Platform

Before even thinking nigh which specific airsoft gun you desire to buy, yous need to figure out which blazon of gun you want to become. You lot want to get one that fits your way all-time. If y'all have a local shop in your area, get at that place and get a feel for the weapons platform y'all are wanting to get. M4's and AK's have the most upgrade/replacement parts available, and that is why they are recommended the most. Do note that a stock gun is going to be outperformed past people who have upgraded their rifles to their maximum capability. I would not let this discourage you, equally you lot are going to have fun either way. If you lot like airsoft and desire to continue playing, then I would worry about upgrading. As mentioned before, exercise NOT become a sniper burglarize equally your get-go airsoft gun.

Different Types of Airsoft Guns

There are 5 different major types of how your airsoft gun fires bb's. I will give a overglorified overview of each blazon, but I HIGHLY recommend starting with an AEG.

Automatic Electric Gun -AEG for curt, this uses an electric motor to drive a piston, which is then compressed past a spring, which compresses air to fire the gun. This is patently overglorified and is much more complicated than this, merely AEG's are powered by NiMh or LiPo batteries. I highly recommend NiMh batteries to beginners.

Gas Blowback-GBB for short, these are realistic airsoft guns that tin can often be rewarding whist playing with them. These are powered by either light-green gas, or propane, and these power the slide or bolt which fires the bb, and so cycles another round in the chamber. They role identical to their real steel analogue, but practice come with some slight drawbacks. These do non work in cold weather (normally below 50 degrees) and need to exist cleaned often to prevent jamming. Some GBB'due south employ co2, but co2 normally wears the gun down more than depending on the specific model.

Electric Blow Dorsum- These are basically AEG's that imitate a commodities going dorsum and forth on a real steel firearm. This adds another circuitous layer to AEG's and frequently break after a few uses. The EBB function unremarkably puts a lot of stress on the gearbox, and tin can ofttimes lead to a cracked gearbox. The only reliable EBB at this current time is Tokyo Marui'south Recoil shock line. These are unremarkably 500-600$ and require a lot of upgrades to perform well. Bolt has recently released a new EBB line that is plain skilful, but time will tell if this line is a better alternative to Tokyo Marui.

Spring Powered- These are single shot/pump/pull everytime you want to shoot. These are normally sniper rifles or spring powered shotguns, considering they mimic their real steel counterparts. The firepower of spring airsoft guns is extremely express when going upwards against AEG'southward, GBB's, and HPA users.

HPA- or High Pressure Air, is an extremely popular alternative to AEG's. These allow yous to change the FPS/ROF relatively easily for different regulators. The massive downside to these is the external air tank you have to carry, likewise equally that HPA ofttimes costs a lot more than AEG'south.

Brand Overview

Hither is a list of brands and their general qualities. Due annotation that non all of these brands are recommended due to the elementary fact that they do not make practiced products. You should use this equally a reference indicate to give yourself an thought of where to go and afterward practice private enquiry on whichever airsoft gun yous choose. This list will include companies that make and produce AEG'due south.

ASG- Makes more often than not intermediate to college cease AEG's. Very few beginner rifles to expect at, and most of the internals on their beginner lineup is outdated.

Repeat one- Mostly outdated and better options are out there. Internals are pretty outdated in today's airsoft earth.

Elite Force- Owned by Umerex, produces very skilful intermediate to higher end rifles. Their beginner lineup is about vi years and I would avert this brand for beginners.

EMG- Uses APS/G&P/ARES as the oem for most of their rifles, produces meh rifles. Not recommended for beginners.

KWA- One of the oldest brands that is still producing solid beginner rifles that can argue with newer companies today. Has solid high end guns as well. Only con is that someparts internally are proprietary and cannot be upgraded.

G&G- The Combat Car lineup in one case was the best line of airsoft guns offered to beginners, but these are vii-8 years old and fifty-fifty their G2 lineup is not equally expert as other brands. Makes meh intermediate to loftier end guns, with their G2 mosfet existence a horrible choice.

Krytac- Solid internals, but also kind of proprietary in their trident lineup and slightly outdated. Makers of the newer Vector, which is too had its fair share of issues as well.

Archetype Army - 1 of the best beginner lineups every bit of 2020. Has a lot of choices to choose from, and also makes solid choices for loftier cease guns. They try and compete with the VFC avalon series.

Vegaforcecompany- VFC makes the Avalon serial, which as of this moment is the best higher terminate AEG on the market place. They also oem the Elite force mp5, which has the avalon gearbox inside. They do not make beginner guns.

King Arms- Pretty decent, they do not produce a lot of rifles anymore, simply they are partnered with EMG.

Lancer Tactical- 1 of the worst brands in airsoft, sporting bad internals, and a company that falsified rubber ratings on their goggles. Users have reporting nothing but bad things about this make, and rifles often break in the bridge of 1-2 months.

Tippmann- Produces solid beginner rifles, has not really made anything "new" for a few years. Their Commando lineup is the almost popular.

PTS- The subdivision of Magpul that produces a lot of preparation gear for airsoft. They likewise make loftier finish AEG'due south that have slowly gotten better, as they have partnered with KWA, G&P, etc.

JG- Entry level visitor that produces "decent" AK'due south, avert their M4'southward like the plague. Externals are normally not that great, only makes for a good learning gun if you're learning how to tech.

CYMA- Produces some of the best entry level AK'due south bachelor. Externals and internals are pretty adept, although their m4's are not very skillful.

Crossman- A brand that you should avoid completely, does not produce anything practiced.

ICS- Makes solid beginner rifles and intermediate- high end rifles. Internals are very good on beginner rifles, externals are decent too.

Tokyo Marui- Used to exist the nigh pop brand in airsoft, often referred as the pioneers of airsoft, articles ordinarily tend to copy ™ designs at a much lower quality. All of Tokyo Marui's guns are fabricated out of plastic and accept very depression fps laws due to Japan.

APS- Produces nothing skilful, has the worst QC(quality control) in all of airsoft other than Lancer Tactical. Their internals are utter garbage but their externals are quite unique.

Umbrella Armory- The virtually expensive brand in airsoft, specializes in high end gun builds. Known for their OCAW line and their Krytac line.

DO YOUR RESEARCH

Before ownership a model, do proper enquiry on the brand and gun yous are ownership. I find that this site has a massive database when information technology comes to airsoft gun reviews. Only apply your fingers and blazon in the gun and the brand you are looking for, and y'all will get enough of reviews. Just note that if you lot look up a YouTube review, most of them are sponsored and the company paid to say good things about the gun they received. In that location are a few skilful ones, only most of them are either kids who nothing nigh the gun they bought, or a paid shill that says zip simply skilful things near the production they got. Both of these 2 oft exaggerate how the gun performs, considering i is paid to sell them, and ii knows very piddling most airsoft internals. Therefore if you make a decision to purchase an airsoft gun based on a YT video, yous have fabricated an irrational decision. Instead of watching a YT video on a gun, do proper research using the site I provided above. Past not doing enquiry, you volition end upward with a shit gun that will not terminal more than 1000 rounds. The market is littered with garbage guns, and if you don't do proper enquiry, you will end upwards with one. Every bit quoted by u/thetboneguy, you will be shooting yourself in the human foot if you lot practise not research your gun. Having a good gun is better than having a broken gun at an event, I promise y'all.

Understanding the Basics

A fairly common mistake that new players brand is confusing the FPS(Feet Per Second) of a gun with how practiced information technology is. If y'all live in an area with a field, almost fields do not allow guns shooting over 420 fps with a .2, where every bit indoor arenas normally don't allow anything higher than 330 fps on a .2. By choosing an airsoft gun over the limit, you are limiting where y'all can play in your country/land. But because it has high FPS does not mean it shoots farther than a gun that shoots 350. Due to bb's being then light, hopup is used to requite it backspin to keep it in the air longer. To simplify, the use of this hopup, the speed of a bb no longer affects the distance. In Japan, they have a -1 Joule limit, hence why all Tokyo Marui guns shoot less than 300 fps.

You should understand basic airsoft gun matientience. If your gun breaks and needs a new role, it's better that y'all exercise not have to transport it to a store to go it fixed. I will requite an example. If you strip a piston, it is about a 25$ part. If you do non know or understand how to alter information technology yourself, yous have to transport it into a shop where they will usually accuse a 15-xx fee merely to get it on their workbench. So a twenty$ set up at present costs you double that, and if you knew how to fix it, you would have just saved 20$. Airsoft Forum and r/airsoft are two places that I would recommend you start. This thread on airsoft forum is nearly nine years old at present, but nevertheless contains very useful information on how to take autonomously a gearbox. Use the search bar on both sites to find what you are looking for.

You lot get What you Pay For

If you accept not discovered this in real life, if you pay cypher for a product, it is more than probable shit. Airsoft is no different. If you are not willing to spend a minimum of 150$ for an AEG, charger, BB's etc, than airsoft is probably not the correct hobby for you. I often recommend renting or borrowing an airsoft gun before you buy, so you can actually run into if you enjoy airsoft. If yous are stupid plenty to spend 50$ on a Walmart LPAEG, congradulations for non listening and you lot just wasted yout coin. Now that yous are out 50$, you tin't open up it up and set it because they are not made to opened upwardly. Yous are probably thinking to yourself that those 500$ Tokyo Marui guns are expensive, just they exist for a reason. People are willing to pay a loftier price for a reliable gun, what makes y'all recollect you will find a 50$ i at Walmart? If you are not willing to buy, like I said, rent or borrow.

In that location are instances where airsoft guns have a loftier cost tag take very poor performance, examples of this would exist APS, Lancer Tactical, EMG, etc. These are fairly common in today's airsoft marketplace equally companies QC seems to accept gone off a cliff. The externals may be nice, merely the internals are utter shit.

Exercise NOT buy a Sniper as your first Airsoft gun

If you are just getting into airsoft, please allow me to explain why getting a sniper rifle as a beginner is a dumb and stupid idea. Before you call me a novritsch hater, read on and observe why.

With your budget, you volition Not be able to get into airsoft sniping. You may wait online and meet bolt activity snipers inside your budget, only not realize that stock sniper rifles are utter garbage and fifty-fifty some GBB's tin outrange a stock sniper. Yous may picket Novritsch and Silo take good action in their videos, only do you ever wonder why their videos are so brusk? You do the math. Yous are wanting to be like them, but yous don't seem to realize that sniping is non a inexpensive virute. Airsoft snipers are BUILT not bought. You can beget a 120$ JG Bar10, but can you lot afford putting 600-700$ worth of upgrades in information technology to go far perform similar an actual sniper? Yeah I didn't think so. You have to build an airsoft sniper for it to perform well enough to authorize as a good sniper. Novsitsch sells a rebranded Modify M24, but y'all can build a sniper far ameliorate than his for cheaper.

Bare bones basic AEG's will outperform a stock sniper rifle, and they also have similar x20 more mag chapters than your sniper. Sniping requires a lot of patience and it might exist high reward, but yous are going to be sitting in the same position exposed to fully-automatic fire every bit you chose to be a sniper. Being a sniper is non frequently action packed, regardless of Novrtrisch's clickbaiting bullshit videos. The sniper rifle you Desire like mentioned earlier is really a custom tuned gun that requires a lot of work and fourth dimension. Sounds farthermost,but most airsoft snipers congenital their rifles and they perform as a sniper should. Instead of wanting to exist the side by side Nov, I want you lot become to ASGI or Evike, and buy a beginner burglarize and go out and take fun.

Buying Your Gun

Now that y'all accept decided on what gun you desire to buy, information technology is time for yous to detect a website to purchase it from(if you are not buying local). Evike and Airsoft Gi are the two biggest retailers in the US. Both of them are pretty reliable suppliers with a really big selection. Make sure to look around their websites when you lot are buying, both of them normally have expert deals going on. Pricing e'er varies from supplier to supplier, merely near prices are pretty consequent. Do call up that if you are buying online, yous will more than likely have to pay for shipping. Evike offers a coupon code that whatever order over 99$ gets complimentary basis (1/one/2020). Evike's website UI is a LOT ameliorate than GI'southward, but pushes their own brands similar Matrix and APS pretty difficult, and they have besides been known to accidentally postal service incorrect inventory online. GI is a flake more consequent but they are often more expensive and have brands that they have deals with (Lancer, and CA)

Buying Used Airsoft Guns

I take been buying/selling/trading airsoft guns for the past 5 years and so I know this section very well. I HEAVILY recommend that you DO NOT buy your start airsoft gun used. There are some pretty good deals out in that location is you know what you lot are doing. As a whole, buying used tin can oftentimes be a risky chance. Every bit a beginner, yous are more than than likely to not know the background of the gun. That is putting y'all into an uninformed decision where at that place is no warranty or company to send it back to. Not to mention that you tin can tin go a cleaved gun that the seller can either not tell you a role is broken or just apartment out lie to you. If you are buying from a private party (non a company), everything is sold as is, and at that place are no buy backs, trades etc.

You should never pay more than than 80% of the face up value of a gun or gear, and for some guns, 80% is pushing it even if it has non been used. The 2nd a gun walks out a retail shop, it usually loses anywhere from xx-25% of its value. Exercise remember that the seller is selling the gun for a reason. Maybe they are selling information technology because they need greenbacks, maybe they are selling it because it is "a ticking time bomb" of repairs. Either way, you lot demand to enquiry it as if it is a new gun. Ask how many rounds it has been through, any external issues, any internal issues? Tasteful modifications such as internal upgrades enhance the price of a used gun.

Using Paypal

Another section I am heavily knowledgeable in. If y'all are buying something from someone online, ALWAYS USE PAYPAL Goods AND SERVICES! Using sites similar Venmo, or Cashapp offer no protection against scammers. Another major scam is that someone volition send you lot a check for a gun, and as shortly as you lot greenbacks it, the check will bounce and you are out a gun When using Paypal, make sure to use goods and services equally mentioned above. By using G&South, y'all are covered by Paypal if something happens (seller does non send the item, seller sends the incorrect item, etc). Exercise NOT Employ FRIENDS AND Family unit! Why? Considering if you send it through friends and family, yous will non be protected if the seller scams you. Sellers that scam users often tell you lot to send information technology through f&f because Paypal does not accept a fee for using information technology. Practise not fall wary of this scam.

While buying used, Certificate everything. Should something become wrong, whether it exist the seller's error or your error, it is always better to play it safe. If y'all accept to open a Paypal case or ane is opened against you, yous will take all the information regarding the sale (screenshots, text messages, PM'southward etc). Like mentioned before, if you can play your cards right, yous can score some KILLER deals. I ain an Umbrella Armory OCAW, that retails for $2000, and I managed to get it for $950 Nib. Overall I exercise not recommend ownership used, as buying new is safer for new players.

Conclusion

All of this information that is on this thread is information and experience I accept had in my airsofting career. We play airsoft to have fun, that is the master reason we play. Do not settle for something that is non reliable, unless y'all want to have a cleaved gun at your first game. Please PM me if you have any other questions, I am a respected fellow member of the community and am more than willing to assist you.