Today is another beautiful day in Kyoto. The sun is out and you can feel some oft he last bits of winter being shaken off. Last night my wife and I went out for dinner at Sushitetsu, overlooking the Kamogawa, and we were thrilled to see that it didn't get dark until after 6. It was a real treat having it stay light outside just that little bit longer.
This morning I got up and did my usual morning thing, writing emails and that sort of thing. Today my good friend Ted is coming over after work and we are going to spend the time talking guns and surfing all our favorite airsoft related websites. As I am leaving Japan in the very near future, I have been trying to sell some of my weapons. Over the last year I have accumulated about 6 AEG's and 1 AEP and 1 GBB rifle and 2 GBB pistols. Now, I am only taking my M4, MP5, and PX4 with me to America so I have been selling off my other weapons. Ted was gracious enough to pick up my M3 from me and Ryu seemed more than happy to obtain my WE SCAR GBB. Additionally, my new friend Damian also expressed interest in my AUG Steyr and Hi-Capa 4.3 All that is left is an old G3 SAS. I was originally planning on just giving this to Ted but he said I should try to sell it, maybe get 5,000¥ for it from someone. Makes sense, right? Well this got me thinking about it so I decided to give it a little inspection because I seem to remember it was mis-firing the other day. By mis-firing I mean of course that when the trigger was depressed, you could hear the motor turning and the piston pumping but only occasionally would bb's fly out. So I sat down with it this morning to get myself re-acquainted with its internals. I was thinking to myself that there was a problem with the hop bucking, that maybe it was ripped and all I would have to do would be to put new bucking in, spray it down with some silicon and call it a day. Before I did any of this, I did a few test fires on semi-auto with a 7.4 LiPo. 3 sets of 10 shots. In all 3 sets all 10 bb's fired. Huh. Well, I popped the magazine out, a high-cap, and emptied the load and reset the spring. Just as I was about to spray some silicon in I noticed that the front lip of the magazine was broken. That was why it didn't fire consistently. The magazine was moving out of place! This leads me to the whole point of this post. Obviously all magazines are different. In the world of real steel, most guns have different caliber bullets, hold different amounts, and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. I for one think this is pretty cool. Diversity in any field is always exciting and it is so much fun to pick up a new weapon system, something you have never used before and shoot it. Of course it can be tricky getting used to a new system, how it operates, where the balance is, etc. but I actually enjoy that a bit. In my short experience in airsoft, I have purchased and used all sort of guns. M4's, AUG's, MP5's, G3's, shotguns and sniper rifles. All of these weapons have different magazines and none of them are cross compatible(duh!). So today I went through them all and thought about what made one better than the other. So before I go any further, I know that I'm a total jerk using high-caps on my G3. This was only done as it is used 100% as a loaner for new players who don't own yet. My M4, MP5 and AUG all have mid-caps, although in the pictures I've uploaded you can plainly see that the MP5 is a high-cap.
OK, let's go over the designs:
M4. The M4 mag might just be my favorite due to it's versatility. You can easily double stack them in mag pouches, they are light-weight(I use a combination of PMAGS and King Arms although I am planning on making the switch to only PMAGS). But what really sells me on them is how they lock into the mag well. There is one little cut out on the top left that catches inside the well. Ingenious and simple. My biggest problem with it is that M4s are traditionally made for righties and being a lefty means that I had to buy an ambi mag release.
Aug. These mags have a great feel to them but owing to the fact that the Steyr is a Bullpup, you will never find yourself using the mag as a grab spot. These mags lock into the well very securely, though. In fact, the design is so clever. There are two little nubs on the front and back which securely connect the mags to the gun. The release is a button in the middle of the gun which is great(ambi!). My big problem with them is that you cannot double stack them in a pouch. When I play, I love the feel of changing magazines and with these mags, I find that my load out is a little more limited.
MP5. Super great mags. They are small enough to triple stack in a standard double M4 type pouch, light weight(again, using King Arms), and hold enough to last for a long time. They latch in well, having a cutout like the M4 and two small nubs on the back. MP5 is a very ambidextrous system so no complaints there.
G3. These mags like to break when forced in or out of the gun. This is the second high-cap I have lost to it's loading system. They are pretty large, almost as big as an M14's mags. The problem is that they connect in the mag well in two places. The first place is on the top front of the magazine. There is a little lip that needs to be inserted first before you can drive the magazine in. If this lip doesn't catch, the mag will just fall out. WTF. I think that when new players use this gun they don't really understand the theory behind its usage. The thing is, once the mag is in, it's totally in! This is one of the good points to this system Otherwise they are large and won't double stack resulting in less ammo on the field and they are temperamental as all heck! Again, WTF.
So, in conclusion, if there is one... mostly I feel that this is just me considering out loud the things that went through my mind this morning, I think that certain magazines are a little more likely to break due to design and maybe even user error. Of course certain brands have higher or lower production standards although the high-caps that broke were made by Tokyo Marui, a company famous for its high standards.
OK, thanks for reading, if there is anyone actually reading, and if there are any topics that you would like to hear me babble about, please feel free to suggest something.
Stay Frosty!
This morning I got up and did my usual morning thing, writing emails and that sort of thing. Today my good friend Ted is coming over after work and we are going to spend the time talking guns and surfing all our favorite airsoft related websites. As I am leaving Japan in the very near future, I have been trying to sell some of my weapons. Over the last year I have accumulated about 6 AEG's and 1 AEP and 1 GBB rifle and 2 GBB pistols. Now, I am only taking my M4, MP5, and PX4 with me to America so I have been selling off my other weapons. Ted was gracious enough to pick up my M3 from me and Ryu seemed more than happy to obtain my WE SCAR GBB. Additionally, my new friend Damian also expressed interest in my AUG Steyr and Hi-Capa 4.3 All that is left is an old G3 SAS. I was originally planning on just giving this to Ted but he said I should try to sell it, maybe get 5,000¥ for it from someone. Makes sense, right? Well this got me thinking about it so I decided to give it a little inspection because I seem to remember it was mis-firing the other day. By mis-firing I mean of course that when the trigger was depressed, you could hear the motor turning and the piston pumping but only occasionally would bb's fly out. So I sat down with it this morning to get myself re-acquainted with its internals. I was thinking to myself that there was a problem with the hop bucking, that maybe it was ripped and all I would have to do would be to put new bucking in, spray it down with some silicon and call it a day. Before I did any of this, I did a few test fires on semi-auto with a 7.4 LiPo. 3 sets of 10 shots. In all 3 sets all 10 bb's fired. Huh. Well, I popped the magazine out, a high-cap, and emptied the load and reset the spring. Just as I was about to spray some silicon in I noticed that the front lip of the magazine was broken. That was why it didn't fire consistently. The magazine was moving out of place! This leads me to the whole point of this post. Obviously all magazines are different. In the world of real steel, most guns have different caliber bullets, hold different amounts, and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. I for one think this is pretty cool. Diversity in any field is always exciting and it is so much fun to pick up a new weapon system, something you have never used before and shoot it. Of course it can be tricky getting used to a new system, how it operates, where the balance is, etc. but I actually enjoy that a bit. In my short experience in airsoft, I have purchased and used all sort of guns. M4's, AUG's, MP5's, G3's, shotguns and sniper rifles. All of these weapons have different magazines and none of them are cross compatible(duh!). So today I went through them all and thought about what made one better than the other. So before I go any further, I know that I'm a total jerk using high-caps on my G3. This was only done as it is used 100% as a loaner for new players who don't own yet. My M4, MP5 and AUG all have mid-caps, although in the pictures I've uploaded you can plainly see that the MP5 is a high-cap.
OK, let's go over the designs:
M4. The M4 mag might just be my favorite due to it's versatility. You can easily double stack them in mag pouches, they are light-weight(I use a combination of PMAGS and King Arms although I am planning on making the switch to only PMAGS). But what really sells me on them is how they lock into the mag well. There is one little cut out on the top left that catches inside the well. Ingenious and simple. My biggest problem with it is that M4s are traditionally made for righties and being a lefty means that I had to buy an ambi mag release.
Aug. These mags have a great feel to them but owing to the fact that the Steyr is a Bullpup, you will never find yourself using the mag as a grab spot. These mags lock into the well very securely, though. In fact, the design is so clever. There are two little nubs on the front and back which securely connect the mags to the gun. The release is a button in the middle of the gun which is great(ambi!). My big problem with them is that you cannot double stack them in a pouch. When I play, I love the feel of changing magazines and with these mags, I find that my load out is a little more limited.
MP5. Super great mags. They are small enough to triple stack in a standard double M4 type pouch, light weight(again, using King Arms), and hold enough to last for a long time. They latch in well, having a cutout like the M4 and two small nubs on the back. MP5 is a very ambidextrous system so no complaints there.
G3. These mags like to break when forced in or out of the gun. This is the second high-cap I have lost to it's loading system. They are pretty large, almost as big as an M14's mags. The problem is that they connect in the mag well in two places. The first place is on the top front of the magazine. There is a little lip that needs to be inserted first before you can drive the magazine in. If this lip doesn't catch, the mag will just fall out. WTF. I think that when new players use this gun they don't really understand the theory behind its usage. The thing is, once the mag is in, it's totally in! This is one of the good points to this system Otherwise they are large and won't double stack resulting in less ammo on the field and they are temperamental as all heck! Again, WTF.
So, in conclusion, if there is one... mostly I feel that this is just me considering out loud the things that went through my mind this morning, I think that certain magazines are a little more likely to break due to design and maybe even user error. Of course certain brands have higher or lower production standards although the high-caps that broke were made by Tokyo Marui, a company famous for its high standards.
OK, thanks for reading, if there is anyone actually reading, and if there are any topics that you would like to hear me babble about, please feel free to suggest something.
Stay Frosty!
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