Ranking the various gun manufacturer's

[a_user]

Im relatively new to the sport of airsoft coming from six years playing paintball and six years coincidentally, in the CAF.

I am looking at making some purchses in the near future but am a little confused with the five primary manufactures out there. It appears to me that Tokyo Marui and Classic Army are the most popular with TM leading. However there are a number of others, ICS, TOP(which seems more specialized/niche in what they sell) and G&G seem to be fairly popular as well.

From what I understand TM and CA appear to be the better as cost, accessories, after market support and availability are concerned for Canadian consumers.

Now my one question, it appears that many vendors do not stock Classic Army and of those that do many of their stock are outdated or no stock remaining at all, but their prices seem quite competitive with that of TM? What attracted my attention to CA initially was their all steel bodies for the larger rifles, but they appear to be hard to find in anything but armalite. specifically the ca33. Im not sure if thats because of the season and many vendors will start stocking up come spring or if the CA has started to die off in comparison with other manufactures. Not being around the sport for a length of time makes these types of questions difficult to find the answers even searching through past threads.

So how do these different makers stand up to each other and why would someone be more inclinded to pick one of the over?

Thank you.

[DEA]

You will find 100's of different opinions here on that subject. There are loyal CA supporters out there, ICS supporters and TM supporters. They will all swear by their brands, while others will curse them. Speaking as one of those retailers you mentioned above.. We have not really carried CA for years. When CA first came out, we did buy them, but ran into problems on almost every single one we sold, which caused us to give up the CA. Now, that was a very long time ago, and I can gaurentee that the quality has been greatly imporved since that time, however, we have already found our other suppliers, are happy with guys like ICS, and just have not had the time to really take a second look at bringing in some CA.

I would like to THINK that someone like ICS and CA are comparable, but now it's just my opinion. I think you really need to find first, what type of AEG you want, and then go from there based on weather you want metal bodies, and of course price point.

Or, you can wait until the guys like mcguyver who has I'm sure ripped apart and done alot of reviews can respond to this thread in a straight factual basis.

[Rumpel Felt]

If you want the most realistic experience, want to save yourself the most money, get the best value and generally make a smart buy, do not buy TM. It seems the only reason TM is still popular here is because they were the best a while back, they have a few die hard followers that tell anyone new to buy TM. So the new players do but end up spending tons of money on upgrades which you get out of the box with CA.

When you decide on a gun, read reviews on it and if they all say good things, it's pretty same to say it's a good gun. I've heard of a few people here who are very happy with there CA33's and I am very happy with my CA MP5. Pretty much all of the popular makers (CA, ICS, G&P, G&G, STAR) make every gun TM does except........better. Do more reading to find out why.

[mcguyver]

Buying an airsoft gun is not unlike buying a car. You can't say that ALL Honda's are good while ALL Nissan's are bad. Get my point. There are good and bad in all brands and some models, unfortunately, are only made by 1 or 2 manufacturers, so your choices may be somewhat limited. If you pick a specific gun, like an MP5 or an Armalite variant, there will be lots of choices and lots of info on problems, reliabilty, performance, etc. If you go for a unique gun, like an AUG or a SIG552, your choices currently are limited to 1 manufacturer and you have to deal with their specific issues. Some companies have generally poor track records and some have good track records, but I assure you NO AIRSOFT MANUFACTURER IS FLAWLESS AND ALL AIRSOFT GUNS WILL FAIL AT SOME POINT. I can't stress that enough. Some manufacturers may have issues in a whole batch of guns, and some will not.

Like I've said previously, pick a specific gun and you'll be able to find enough info, good or bad, to help you make a decision. Good luck!!!

[Greylocks]

I'd simply go to a game/meet, see wat folks use, ask nicely to try a few models. Then pick what rocks your boat.