I'm going DMR and have questions about it.

[Bigfoob]

I'm new to airsoft and I've seen so many posts about people wanting to get a sniper and I wanted one at first but as you don't have a significant range advantage I am no longer inclined to play as a sniper and instead switched to DMR. I like how I can upgrade the gun and gain a range and accuracy advantage while maintaining a good rate of fire.

Now my main question is what should I get as my starter primary. As this is my first gun I would prefer to avoid difficult upgrades so I'm interested in guns with good out of the box accuracy. I've heard really good things about the TM M14 and I'm a fan of the look of the SOCOM M14 but not too thrilled with the plastic body. I've also heard that the M4 and M16 have a lot of internal upgrades available. As I'm not age verified yet I'm not looking for any specific places to buy them yet just makes and models of quality starters.

[Hectic]

In all honesty most airsoft guns have the same sort of range/accuracy out of the box, pic a gun you like, buy a good quality inner barrel, and a flat, bridge or rhop type of hope up rubber and some good bb's in .28-.32g and thatll be about the best range youll get. Regardless of.if you buy an mp5k or an m14.
a bolt action (once fully upgraded and once you have a lvl2 certification so u can run 500fps) will have beter range and accuracy but you will be limited by rate of fire and engagement distances.
but any gun in the 350-400fps range with a simaler quality barrel, hop up and bb's will have about the same range and accuracy.
a TM is a quality gun and the plastic bodies on them are about the best u can get, but it will need a bunch of internal upgrades right out of the box. (spring, bushings (most likely), piston, then while yer in there u may as well do gears too) to bring it up to 350-400fps plus a good inner and hop up. Omce u go full metal the m14 is a prety heavy gun to lug around. An m4/m16 type gun can shoot just as well and be alot easier to lug around. Echo1 and JG are decent cheaper brands, can get plastic and metal bodies on em. even cyma is decent (at least i know their mp5's are) vfc makes a really mice 416 (its like an m4 sort of) but its a lil more money then yer average aeg. No matter whatcha buy youll need to do a lil work, some more than others and yer luck may vary but opening it up, checking the lube and shimming and aoe are always a good idea, throwin in a sorbo pad, a good piston (if the stock one sucks) same with the piston head, and the barrel and hop up and youll be good. Ive got jg/echo1 m4 style guns that soot as good as high end guns, and can even keep up with ptw's, even my.mp5k shooting 310fps has great range and accuracy, all have good hop ups, good barrels and good airseal for consistancey.

[lurkingknight]

you don't stick an Rhop on a stock gun. it's the last thing you do... as should any hop up mod/replacement.

Fix your air seal from the piston head, cylinderhead/cylinder, cylinderhead/nozzle and then address the hop up.

Any bucking or heavier weight bb isn't going to to fuck all for you when your FPS is jumping 20 or more fps from shot to shot.

[Hectic]

ive had good results with flat and bridge hops on stock guns, obviously tue consistancy isnt there as it would be on a fully tuned gun but most stock inners and hop ups ive come across have sucked and changing those two easy to change bits (as most folks arent gonna want to dig around in a gearbox right away) makes a big impact on range and somewhat on accuracy (the accuracy results will obviously varry do to incosistant fps)

[lurkingknight]

it's pointless to spend the money and time on the r-hop install when you can spend the money on compression sealing and get greater initial results. It's like putting up the drywall and painting the house before you finish installing the plumbing.

[Hectic]

i just put the rhop there cause its popular, i personally have gone 100% over to the promy smooth rubber and bridge bucking, way simpler to install and simaler results

[Bigfoob]

Ok so far I think I'm going to go with a CYMA M14 SOCOM as I like the external look of it, don't mind a little extra weight for the Full Metal and it looks like regardless of what I'm getting I'm going to be upgrading the internals.

What are the major upgrades to increase range and accuracy that I should start with? It looks like fixing (or replacing?) the seals (I'm assuming to increase gas efficiency and power) should be done first and then the gearbox and barrel. I left out upgrading the hop up as there are differing viewpoints and I don't know enough about upgrading to make a judgement call myself.

Also what is the part availability (and compatibility with other brands) for the CYMA M14's they seem to be popular but I've also heard they are a Chinese knockoff brand and that some knockoffs are hard to find parts for.

[L473ncy]

^^^

Well TBH the hop up and barrel are probably easier to upgrade than anything else. Once you get into compression parts you're talking about getting into the gearbox and it's something I wouldn't recommend a newbie do especially with a V7 gearbox.

As for parts, they're totally TM compatible (supposedly even moreso than G&P) and yes they are a "knockoff brand" or in the airsoft world as we call it ACM (All China Made) or a "clone", not technically a knockoff because they're not purporting to be TM or whatever (if CYMA is a knockoff then technically VFC, G&P, CA, KA, etc. are also knockoffs too). BTW Echo1 rebrands CYMA (some say with an extra QC check or possibly higher "binned" parts but I'm not sure if it's a rumour or true or if someone just made that up to feel good about their purchase).

[Hectic]

not sure about the m14 as far as echo1 is concerned. But they do not mfg any guns, they simply rebrand from companies like JG, often ading trades, in the past they would swap out (or have them swapped out) bushings and othet lil bits as they do their QC check in the usa, chances are that by now all that is done at the manufacturing lvl, i had a jg m4 and an echo1 stag 15, aside from the echo1 trades on the gearbox all the innards were the same, externals (aside from the stock and front set) seemed to be the same plastic/polymer.
Edit before even posting lol: i did a quick search and the echo1 m14 is a cyma rebrand, also their aks are cyma as well lol
at any rate the reasom behind upgraring airseal is to get shot to shot consistancy. The gun is electric so gas is not used just air compressed by the cycle of the piston.
so piston head, cylender head, nozzle, hop up are going to be leak points.
and i normally wouldnt argue with lurking (or anyone for that mater) but the hop up rubber is going to be the single most important thing in giving you range and accuracy, followed by a good bb, and good barrel. Yes airseal is important, but lets say for arguments sake that the airseal sucks and u get a 40fps varriance lets say 380-420fps with most shots landing in the middle around 400, with a good hop up and good heavy bbs yoi will get good range and with a good barrel will improve accuracy, now yes u will get some varriance due to the inconsistantfs, but overall the biggest bang for buck and easiest to install upgrade will be a hop rubber and inner barrel, anything else will require opening of the gearbox. a modify baton (whatever its called) or a prometheus smooth rubber and bridge tenssioner and an inner barrel (mad bull, prommy those are two extreem ends of the price point for decent barrels) will give u good results without opening anything up. And run .28-.32 bb's (if yer around 400fps on a .20) either of those hop ups will provide enough hop for those weights