Honey Badger - Only use Ares mags? Or BBs issue?

[Bermanator98]

So I bought a used honey badger the other day, but the guy said it was never used. I talked to a local retailer about it the gun and he said a common issue with M4 mags in the gun is sometimes it doesn't feed the BBs, and a simple fix is a new hop up. I bought a second mag, a G&G plastic mid cap, since my gun can take standard M4 mags. I tried it at home using several year old bio BBs as those were the only bios I had, and for the backyard, that's preferred. I noticed that the BBs jammed up a couple times in the mag, and when it did feed the BBs in, it would not shoot.

Then tonight, using my gun for the first time indoors, I tried the new mag with Valken .25 BBs and it would not fire. Brought it to the store and bought a new hop up, as the guy said it's a common issue. He installed it on the spot and I went on my way. The BBs still wouldn't fire. A guy there overheard my problem and said that the gun will only fire with Ares magazines, and the BBs don't matter. Another guy there confirmed it and also said that Ares guns only work with Ares mags. But then another guy said that it was because I was using cheap BBs, those being the Valken .25s. I tried some of his BBs (forget brand) and the new mag worked like a charm with them. So I think from now on I'm just gonna buy better BBs (figured Valken's weren't that bad...), but I'm curious, has anyone else had a similar issue with their Honey Badger or any other gun where it would not shoot based on the BBs or the mag, even tho it was feeding into the hop up?

[Red Dot]

First off your hop-up was probably fine so the dude ripped you off there, remember your upgrades thread? Listen to that advice.

Second Valken BB's are pretty soft in my opinion which can cause issues. As you found out high quality BBs are worth the extra few bucks. Madbull/Elite Force have been steady for me for years.

In regards to magazines yes, their can be compatibility issues between them and rifles. The G&G should work fine overall. Sometimes they need some extra material in the rear of the magazine or mag-well to seat properly, you can search for that as the fix is out there and pretty well-known/used.

[dpvu]

AEGs have such a wide variety of tolerances now you really just have to find a brand of mags that work and you like. With the BBs that don't work if when you release the mag no BBs fall out and there's not one in the hop up then the issue is the hop up was not pushing the retention piece back far enough or the mag is not seating high enough. This can be fixed by filing the retention piece on the mag a little sometimes but if you go too far it won't hold BBs at all.

Since you did get it to work with other BBs I would guess the mag seats high enough but the dimensions of the Valkens were just causing them not to be able to feed possibly due to being ever so slightly bigger or small enough that they're binding on each other in the hop.

[Tuzi]

Hope you have other places to shop for your supplies.
Like the others have suggested, to have such a blanket statement about other mags not working is pretty ignorant and obviously wrong.
I hope you still have the original hop up unit, keep it as a spare.
Avoid using "old" bio bb's as they have a shelf life, which is shortened by introducing air, light, and moisture. Depending on brand and conditions, you'll end up at the very least contaminating your internals with powder residue, or suffer from jams as they break from impact(not target impact).

[p0nch3]

I have a AM014 (short outer) and from my experience, the mags I've used have worked just fine. Between the ares hicap, a classic army hicap(at least i think it is), and elite force mid caps, all have worked pretty much flawlessly in the rifle. certain mags just have quirks to them that mess with the fitment in the different brands