EcoBB

My brother bought some of these to try to limit the amount of airsoft BBs laying around the yard at various locations he plays airsoft. Thinking that the biodegradable BBs would be better for the environment and better for the look of the property (they disintegrate in a few days...kind of like a medicine capsule) he started using them... but not for long. They ended up jamming up in the barrel and providing hours of work trying to get them unjammed and the barrel cleaned out.

He had been using them in an electronic airsoft gun (AEG), and thinking that maybe it was too powerful and was breaking the BBs apart, he let my other brother use them in a lower powered spring gun. Same issues as the AEG.

When my son got old enough to want an airsoft gun I got him a very low powered spring gun. Thinking that there was no way these BBs could break open in this gun we gave them a try. No dice, they jammed up in this gun too.

All in all, the idea of the biodegradable BB is great, but for this particular brand I would say steer clear... I haven't had experience with any other brand because we're nervous about having the same problems again.

JG M4 Airsoft Rifle

Whether for recreation or for military/law enforcement force-on-force training, air soft firearms have become very popular in the past years. There are many makers out there, some good, some bad, and some in the middle. Many manufacturers have different levels of air soft gun, from beginner (lower quality) to higher level guns (better quality). Many of the manufacturers are still overseas manufacturers while more US companies have come into the picture lately.

One of the overseas companies is JG (Jing Gong). When my younger brother decided to start playing air soft for recreational purposes he decided to start a team among his friends. He asked me if I’d play along as well to try to teach the team a few things. I decided to get a JG M4 for this purpose. I saw the quality of some of the lower end models so I decided with a mid level rifle from Airsplat. Airsplat has excellent prices that are hard to beat.

When I got the rifle the first thing I noticed was the weight. Although not quite the weight of a real rifle, it’s pretty darn close. One thing to do when you first get an air soft rifle is to read online about the proper times and ways to charge your battery. I charged the battery overnight and continued this practice for the next few times that I used the rifle and have since realized that this has ruined the battery. The battery had to be replaced because at times you wouldn’t even get a shot off before the battery would die.

This being a mid level gun it’s functioned pretty well, but has not held up to rugged use very well. My younger brother got the same gun except his is a folding stock instead of a collapsible stock and his has had issues as well. I will get to these issues later.

First I’d like to hit the key features of this rifle as it pertains to it being an air soft rifle:
~ Adjustable hop-up - This feature allows you to adjust the spin of the BB to make the rifle shoot straighter and more accurate. The adjustment wheel is hidden under the mock bolt. Pulling back on the charging handle reveals the hop up wheel.
~ Uses .20gr BBs. Anything less than that will drift and not maintain a zero.
~ Like a real AR15, the trigger guard can be dropped for gloved use in cold weather.
~ Side mount sling attachment.
~ Removable carry handle.
~ Metal barrel with removable inner barrel for cleaning.
~ Metal gear box.
~ Select fire - safe/semi-auto/full auto
~ Includes a high capacity magazine which holds 300 BBs.
~These are not a good choice for realistic training due to the fact that you won’t be making mag changes after 30 rounds. Star brand real capacity (30 round) magazines work well with this rifle.
~After a certain number of rounds you must wind the small wheel at the bottom of the magazine or the BBs stop feeding into the rifle.
~The BBs that aren’t held in place by the spring are loose in the magazine and rattle and shake when moving. This is horrible for sound discipline.
~Bottom line… get real capacity magazines.
~ 360 fps fire (0.20g BBs)
~ 8.4v 1500 mAH NiCad small battery and standard wall charger included.
~ Included cleaning/ram rod.
~ Orange safety muzzle cap included.

OK, now for the cons. This is going to seem like I’m bashing this rifle a little, but I’m not. It’s a decent gun and has been impressive, but myself and my brother are both hard on our gear (not to say we don’t try to take good care of our gear). This rifle has taken a beating, and it shows a bit…but as a first air soft weapon it has been pretty decent despite some of it’s shortcomings in the durability area…
~ Adjusting the sights… get them on as best you can but don’t expect pin point accuracy. In fact, I couldn’t even get the front sight to move for adjustment. My brother’s would only turn ¼ of a turn with the aid of pliers.
~ Rounds start to drop off around 100yards.
~ The shot accuracy was more consistent on full auto. On semi-auto the rounds impact more erratically than on full auto…full auto the rounds tend to stay in a tighter pattern.
~ The receiver is plastic. This hasn’t caused any problems but it’s a potential weakness.
~ The selector switch easily moves. This could be a bit of a problem if it accidentally has gotten put on safe when you want to fire, or could be a safety issue if it’s placed on fire when it should be on safe.
~ My brother’s rifle stared shooting on full auto even when the selector switch was on semi.
~ The instructions could be better translated. They’re originally in Japanese and translated to English, but the translation could be a bit better.
~ The safety fell off. I attribute this to the fact that when the rifle is held with my sling the selector switch is against my body and gear. The selector is screwed on from the inside and it loosens up and falls off. In order to put it back on you have to take it apart. I did this and I should have had a professional do it because the rifle lost some power by doing this myself. But either way, I reattached the selector switch and used red loctite. A few uses later the selector switch fell off again. It fell off while in the full auto mode and I haven’t attempted to reattach it again. It was not easy at all to take it apart and do this, so I think I’ll send it to a professional if I decide to have it done again.
~ My brother’s didn’t come with all the proper nuts and bolts to attach the butt stock. So after some machine work and finding a close enough fit bolt we were able to attach the butt stock.
~ My brother’s barrel got so loose it almost fell off. He was able to tighten it down.

Again, the previous list of faults doesn’t make this a bad gun. For realistic hard use you’d want to spend a little more and go with something with all metal parts and a reinforced gear box. But for the beginner, the light or occasional user or as a backup rifle for when your is out getting upgraded or whatever, this is a decent choice.

Another thing I think is worth mentioning is that we used these rifles on a couple occasions during some pretty hard rain storms. We blew them off afterward with a compressor and applied lubricant to the barrel and rust prone parts and the rain seemed to have no negative effect on the rifle.

All in all a decent rifle. I’ve gotten a lot of use out of it in the year I’ve had it an despite some problems it’s proven reliable.

Condor 3 point sling

This is a sling I bought (from Tac Gear Store) for my airsoft training rifle. It took a few minutes once I got it to figure it out even after having used a couple different 3 point slings before. It comes with plenty of attachment options, some of which I'm not even sure what they are.

This is your basic 3 point sling that attaches to the butt stock and the forearm of an M16/M4 rifle and it is made of 1.5 in. nylon strap material. To be honest the cost of this item was under $7 and I didn't expect or require much from it as it was merely a sling to hold a fairly lightweight training rifle. What I got was quite unexpected. Not only was the quality above what I expected it also had a transition release on it to transfer from strong to weak side. This buckle can be undone and the sling tightens around your body making the sling longer so that you can transition to your weak side. The buckle releases very easily unlike some other side release buckles I've seen on gear. This is a feature that I didn't expect on a $7 sling.The sling is only available in black, which was a little disappointing, but a few quick sweeps with the rattle can and it broke up the black outline of the sling a little. This is a great sling for airsoft use, or even real rifle useif you don't plan on any hard use. You'll be impressed if you get this sling for your airsoft rifle.

M4 and M16 fixed or collapsible stock attachments.

Available through AFMO.

Well P90 AEG Airsoft Gun

This is an entry level airsoft gun, made by Well, that my younger brother got from Airsplat ( link to item). This is definitely a gun for someone that doesn't want anything to do with a serious game of airsoft. It's ok for plinking around the back yard shooting at soda cans, but when it comes to game play you might as well throw in the towel before it begins.
Here are the features of the gun:
1 - Electronic functioning
2 - 200fps with .12g BBs
3 - Integrated rail system
4 - Included a flashlight and red dot sight
5 - 400 rounds high cap mag

The first thing you notice is that this gun is made almost completely of plastic. It doesn't necessarily have a cheap fell, but it doesn't really feel all that solid either.
The magazine included is the main downfall of this gun. It is not spring loaded and the BBs are completely loose in the gun. Not only is this bad tactically (bad noise discipline as the BBs are loud when moving) but the lack of a spring loaded magazine means that the BBs don't reliably feed. You have to aim the gun in an upward direction to get the BBs to feed and even then it's not consistent. Plus, the opening for the BBs (in the magazine) tends to dump the BBs all over when the mag is not in the gun if you're not paying attention. I haven't found a spring loaded P90 mag for this gun, but if one was available it might remedy some of these problems.
This gun is only fully auto...no semi-auto.
The gun has a tendency to jam as well. We sprayed plenty of WD40 in the barrel and cleaned it to try to remedy this, but it only slightly helped.
We also tried biodegradable BBs in this gun but they broke in the barrel and caused all sorts of jamming issues. I looked into this and read that Bio-BBs are best used in spring loaded guns. So those issues were our own fault.
As for the Light and sight. The sight is adjustable and ok for airsoft play, but it is lower quality. The light is ok, again, for airsoft play if used in a small area for CQB, but it isn't very bright. It's made of plastic and appears to be an LED, but if it is in fact an LED it's of lower quality.
This gun basically gets no play time as it's very unreliable. It's an ok gun for beginners just getting into airsoft and need some backyard practice, but for actual game play I'd stay away from this gun.

Well G36 Airsoft rifle

This is a full sized replica of a G36C rifle that fires 6mm airsoft BBs. This can be bought at airsplat for a great price. This rifle fires on semi auto as well as full auto using 7.2v rechargeable battery at a approximate speed of 240 fps.
There is a feature called "hop-up" on this rifle. This causes backspin on the BB which helps improve accuracy. This is best used with .20gram or heavier BBs.
The magazine included holds 40 rounds and includes a "speed loader" which is just a tube which you put the BBs in and use the included rod to push the BBs into the spring loaded magazine. The magazines can be connected to each other side by side for faster reloading. The rifle comes with 2 barrel attachments as well...a simulated flash suppressor and a simulated silencer. The stock is collapsible as well and folds to the side. There is a vertical grip, charger, sling, safety glasses, flashlight, laser aiming device, and a battery operated scope included. The laser and scope are adjustable, however, the scope is somewhat difficult to adjust. I noticed a cant to the reticle in the scope. There are also rails on either side of the receiver for attaching the lights or any additional items.
At close distance these BBs do sting at the 240 fps, but they lose speed fairly quick and while noticeable when getting hit, will not leave a mark.
The gun has held up ok however some things have broken on it under light to moderate use. One of the rails broke after the gun was hit on the ground during play. The barrel itself is made of plastic and broke off. The gun is still usable though.
For a beginner gun and a gun to be used lightly this is a good gun. Once you progress out of beginner stages or for more aggressive use I would suggest upgrading.