First Gun Purchase :)

[AirsoftChewy]

From what I can gather its the best bang for the buck and given its v3 and the M4 platform I can turn it into whatever I want to as I grow with the sport

[MaciekA]

AirsoftChewy PM'd me to ask me about this gun but I figured others might be interested in my response as well, so I'm posting it here.

Originally Posted by AirsoftChewy

Hi MacieKA

Can you tell me what you had to do to your Diablo? You posted in a thread regarding it needing some work.

Im no novice to stripping guns - just not airsoft guns

I got my Diablo about a year ago. It has gone through many revisions and*I have essentially turned over every part in the gun to the point where the only things left from the original are the Diablo RIS, the outer barrel, and the gearbox shell. I've gone through a couple trigger sets, swapped the gears, bushings, the entire compression system, gone through several pistons, inner barrel, hopup, motor, pistol grip, buffer tube, and stock. I've also swapped out the stock nylon body for a G&P Magpul body. For anyone wondering, the Diablo's G&G GR16 gearbox fits in the G&P body like a glove. One of the snuggest and "correct" fits (in terms of the pins) that I've personally seen.

This isn't to say that the gun is a lemon, but once I got around to fixing the stock gun's quirks I simply decided to keep going with upgrades and improvements. The gun eventually morphed into my personal lightweight "high speed" setup, and now fires somewhere between 36-40rps at 400fps.

That said, there are a couple things you need to know about this series and why I don't recommend it as a first purchase.

- Something about the trigger action on this particular gearbox is defective. It's a known issue and SOCOM Gear / G&G actually did some kind of recall, possibly only valid in the USA/Asia/Europe. I'm not sure whether this issue has been fixed on the models currently on sale in Canada. The actual defect manifests itself as a sticky trigger where your gun fires on auto continuously and you cannot stop the gun from firing. This issue took me a long time to figure out on my own, and is not something I would expect a typical airsoft shop to consider worthwhile to fix -- you are almost certainly going to get "the runaround" if you try to fix this at the shop that is selling these Diablos. It's just not worth their time.
- The spring on the charging handle on this gun is quite loose. It was the first part I replaced.
- The stock G&G motor on this gun is very weak and slow. The KA M4's motor is comparatively snappy.
- My Diablo came with a hopup unit that was missing the tension spring that secures the hopup against the gearbox. Watch out for this!
- The stock brass-colored bushings in the Diablo, and some of the other G&G-built SOCOM Gear guns, right out of the box look like they've been hit by a sledgehammer or run over by a truck.
- The feeding on the stock gun is terrible. You will not be able to use most mags other than the one that came with the gun. That said, this is a cheap fix. I replaced the G&G hopup unit with a Modify one and feeding was fantastic well into the previously-mentioned 36-40 of rounds per second range.
- The Nylon body, though superbly light and extremely strong (I have abused the daylights out of mine and have not been able to crack it or cause any significant damage), has unsatisfying acoustics compared to the all-metal King Arms M4.
- The crane stock rear plate has pinch-tabs for opening it that are prone to snapping --- especially in cold weather, when it is very difficult to pinch them open for battery swap.
- The gun comes with no stock sights. Note that eventually when you get heavy into airsoft you will come to understand The Truth Of Aiming In Airsoft, which is that you can get stupidly tight groupings even at great distances just firing from the hip with no sights at all, however, that hilariousness aside, you are going to want sights, and the gun doesn't come with any. The KA M4 comes with some great ones.

So these are most of the major cons against the Diablo.

At the end of the day what you need to understand about this gun is that it is essentially a budget G&G Combat machine with a plastic body and some Madbull upgrade parts (front RIS, inner barrel) and rebranding. Meanwhile, this forum is full of people who have built amazing guns using the King Arms M4 as a base. In fact, you yourself could go and build a MUCH better Diablo than SOCOM Gear has cobbled together in this package.

Check out Madbull's page for PWS parts:

http://madbull.com/catalog/index.php...facturers_id=5

As you can see, building your own superior Diablo could be easy, and starting with a King Arms full metal rifle is going to be put you on a much more reliable and sturdy base.

Hope that helps.

[AirsoftChewy]

Thanks for this educational and thoughtful reply!

You have essentially built a new gun and now that ive read this and read around some more i realize that the full metal M4 really is the way to start in on this game.

Out if the box the M4 is going at 13rps at 385 very consistently using .2 bbs - Great starting gun no doubt and from what i can see as accurate as one could hope for

[Styrak]

Originally Posted by AirsoftChewy

From what I can gather its the best bang for the buck and given its v3 and the M4 platform I can turn it into whatever I want to as I grow with the sport

AR's are V2 mechbox, not V3.

[Ricochet]

Plus 1, it's V2.

Think about getting age verified anyways, especially if you want to be taken seriously within the community. You will get access to more information beyond just the classifieds as well. Age verification is an important part of all of us collectively protecting our sport in Canada. It gives us all good control points as well, while dealing with individuals online, that we can't meet personally.

As far as your loadout goes. The King Arms is by far my recommendation for a starter. But as stated before, "expect" to dump more Money into it soon. Unfortunately Airsoft is a never ending whirlwind of products and upgrades. Depending on whom you play with will inevitably determine what you will buy. That's just a fact, and something all new airsofters will go through.

A well, properlly tuned gun is essential. And if you want to run a heavier BB for stability, you'll need the extra FPS boost. Not for accuracy, just to make sure your BB arrives on time. Remember, a working reliable gun that doesn't stack up against your competition may inevitably turn you away from airsoft. Accuracy, range, reliability will all play factors.

Think of your Airsoft guns/gear like this. Your new; and entering a world of airsoft at the beginner level. The guys you'll be playing with have experience. Some have bought gear/guns at the Ferrari level, and have payed or spent time to have them tuned up properly. Others spent some cash on a Honda Civic, and threw $50,000 under the hood, and another $20,000 on the outside. Your standing there saying "I bought the Civic, and some stickers for the outside, because it's reliable". It won't however keep you up in the race.

Although Airsoft comes down to the players ability mostly, the tools they use have a direct impact. Their guns hit their mark, and their camo hides them. Your equipment must do the same, not just "work". Getting AV'ed will give you access to endless info on this sport, so you know what your looking for in greater detail.

Welcome to Airsoft, have fun.

[Curo]

Except even with 50,000 under the hood that ity bity 4cyl really should have been something like a V6 or V8 to even hope of being Ferrari ish.


Notably this is the King Arms M4 is a top line airsoft gun, comparable to Classic Army, G&P and VFC M4s

So this is like a Corvette, V.s. a Ferrari. Both are reknowned automobiles on the race track, yet the price tag is remarkably different.

[Ricochet]

I'm not trying to start a debate.

My point was, that out of the box it's well made, it's reliable; but it's just a good start. To make it something your going to game often it'll need some work. A better bucking and rubber (Or even a better hop-up), to give it a good spin and air seal. Now you need an experienced AEG tech to properly grease, shim, and upgrade the mechbox to handle thousands of rounds going through it. You may need to change the spring out to compensate for local FPS rules, or to give it more FPS so your heavier weight BBs travel at a desired speed. If you do that, you may need reinforced gears, piston assembly, tappit plate, and of course a "very" reliable motor capable of properly cycling it all. Now that that's done, you'll have to get a couple if batteries with enough torque to power the motor, and enough milleamps to play all day. If you want to go with lipos, you may need a MOSFET. Etc, etc, etc.

Then there is gear. Will it hide you properly? Will it tear or fade right away? Etc, etc, etc.

I'm not trying to discourage, or say it'll cost thousands upon thousands to
play. But Airsoft is "never" what new players imagine, and you can never do it for as cheap as expected either. It's just prep and realistic goals. So they don't come in too low, and then quit after wasting money and time. Any experienced player has seen that a hundred times.

Bottom line: your gear, guns, parts, will need constant upgrading, fixing, and replacement. And it all costs money. If your gun doesn't shoot straight, and your gear makes you stick out; you won't enjoy yourself.

[AirsoftChewy]

Some great advice here . Thanks for all the info and encouragement to get out and enjoy the sport. Played my first game, a CQB match. It was smaller than i hoped for and there wasn't a great deal of options in terms of places to go. It really only gave us a gallery to shoot in and not a lot else.

Got tagged a number of times and it left bee sting size welts on my skin. They don't feel too good going off your hands either but this was all expected

I couldn't aim down my sites with the full face protection so my M4 was really only good for covering fire as i couldn't trace my shots and aim accurately at all.

My pistol work scored me some hits and overall i only tagged 3 players that called it in at least lol.

So though my ego was slightly bruised and my M4 was limited use i got to experience some fast paced close quarters rounds.

I am posting all this in this thread because i ran out today and got the diablo as well

Im thinking of mixing the parts on the two of them up

[Grizzly0679]

Hey Chewy,

from one newb-in-progress to another: just give it some time. You'll work out all the kinks and each game will steadily get more fun. Just pay attention to what went wrong and learn from the vets about how to make life easier.

My first game was a disaster. Had a problem with my gun, goggles kept fogging, my sights were off majorly...anyway, by my second game I was actually able to lend support to my team and scored a few hits.

welcome to the sport! This is a great community of people.

[AirsoftChewy]

Originally Posted by Styrak

AR's are V2 mechbox, not V3.

Thanks for the correction. Does that mean that the newer gear boxes will not fit, or will it simply limit me to a version of the gear box?

[Taxt]

Originally Posted by AirsoftChewy

Thanks for the correction. Does that mean that the newer gear boxes will not fit, or will it simply limit me to a version of the gear box?

Gearbox version numbers describe their type.
http://www.arniesairsoft.co.uk/?filn.../gearboxes.htm

[AirsoftChewy]

Originally Posted by Taxt

Gearbox version numbers describe their type.
http://www.arniesairsoft.co.uk/?filn.../gearboxes.htm

Thanks!

I'm now wondering if the pistons in my mech boxes are plastic or what not. I would really prefer aluminum or the like as they should be much more resilient to the stresses put on them.

Another thing I've been wondering about is what they are lubed with, and how often they should have regular maintenance and what that maintenance is.

[Taxt]

Originally Posted by AirsoftChewy

Thanks!

I'm now wondering if the pistons in my mech boxes are plastic or what not. I would really prefer aluminum or the like as they should be much more resilient to the stresses put on them.

Another thing I've been wondering about is what they are lubed with, and how often they should have regular maintenance and what that maintenance is.

Polycarb is better than aluminum for your stuff.


btw, You said you know everything already..

Originally Posted by AirsoftChewy

I've already learned how to swap springs, change hop ups and barrels, modify the guns in general and proper care.

I really recommend you to research as much as you can about AEGs, internals, operation etc. There is tonnes of material on this forums and elsewhere on the interwebs. Watch mechbox disassembly videos, read about parts.. Will definitely save you lot of time asking simple questions here and then waiting for somebody to reply.