What IS the best AEG?

[Greylocks]

Criteria for the answers.

You must own the gun, not have simply read or heard about it. That way your comments are based on real facts. It should be a production model, not something completely exotic or rare.

The gun must be an AEG (for now, to simply narrow the field and keep this manageable).

The gun must be reviewed in it's "stock" form; non-upgraded, from the factory.

The attempt is to find the most bullet-proof recommended AEG that has the least amount of problems, or none.

It must be easy to maintain without headaches.

It must work perfectly as it is right out of the box.

The parts needed for it to operate (magazines) and other factory-attached parts (like red-dot sights and such) must also be problem-free.

Again, you must OWN this gun, not give internet review links or use hearsay.
If this works, there will be another thread for handguns and spring/sniper rifles.

[Greylocks]

I will start with the AK47 (Marui).
-excellent mechbox design, extremely easy to maintain, smart setup.
-very good performance straight from the box; good range, rate of fire.
-decent physical build, fair amount of metal, no problems with the body.
-simple gun to use.

Drawback; external upgrades are few and far between.

This information applies to the AK SPetznatz from Marui; it's the same gun with a shorter front end.

[Fly 9]

I'm assuming this thread is to solve the problem of the new folk askin this exact question.

Personally, if they're new to airsoft, I would highly recommend the TM Sig 552.
Out of the box this gun is solid, looks nice, small enough to get used to a shoulder fired rifle and still easy enough to run around the bushes with due to the folding stock. It's not quite as light as something like an mp5 a5, but it's light enough. It's also got a great rate of fire along with accuracy.

The right and bottom front rails make it easy to throw on a vert grip, flashlight, laser, or whatever else you would want to put up there. But additional rails must be purchased if you wish to affix a scope or red dot sight.

The mags are the replicas of the 25 round mags, so their not quite as big as say an M4 mag, but beats having an 9mm smg mag while keeping the smg/carbine size.

Personally I think it's an all-round good beginners gun, easy to use, and if you decide to move on to something larger, you can always keep it near by as a secondary.

[Ghost Snake]

I think the TM G36C is a great CQB gun. I dont think stock Marui's have the range for outdoor games, IMO. I've found the gun to be very solid, and have yet to break a part. Due to its compactness, as well as making it strong, it also eliminates creaking entirely. I also like the fact that the real gun is polymer. Makes having a plastic gun not so bad.

IMHO a solid gun and reliable internals are very important.

Sorry greylocks, I wrote all that but I miss the "must own" part

I recommend, as the best starter gun the ICS AK74
ICS AK74M
Full metal
Incredibly solid
large battery
V3 internals
excellent gears, nicest stock gears I have seen
metal bushings
motor fixes right to the mechbox, making it a single section.

guns I own(or owned), but dont really recommend
TMSR16
large battery
RAS
V2 internals
busted body tabs
so much barrel wobble it was scary
multi-section front end(boo)
getting the motor to seat into the mechbox properly has been problems

TM MP5K PDW
V3
heavy for size
large battery needs to be modded in, using a stick battery just sucks ass
way to innaccurate to be of any use.

IMHO, if your looking for the most solid, most reliable, most part avaliable, good performing gun out of the box, lets say, in the $600 range
I have to recommend the ICS AK74m or the TM/CA G36

The fallowing is a collection of oppinions I have on guns

I often get asked what guns I recommend for new people.
In the past it was a matter of whatever one you thought looked the best, but in the end, thats not the case anymore.

Armalites
I never recommend armalites, sorry, but armalites run possibly the worst plastic body. TM especially, busted body tabs and money missing due to barrel wobble. TM M4/SR16 RIS system, with its multisection barrel is yuck. V2 problems and troublesome motor placment.
The only way I see an armalite worth the money is if it comes full metal right out of the box.

TM sigs
hard to find body upgrades
no way in hell to use a large battery
expensive and hard to fing/get mags

TM G3 guns
long
loads of plastic
gets very creeky
again, metal upgrades are not very avaliable

PSG1
looks neat
long
complicated gearbox
underpowered
plastic
parts are hard to come buy
costs alot
not really any advantages over any ofther AEG

TM AK
considerably solid
V3 internals
considerable amount of metal
mega simple design
excellent motor to gearbox setup

P90
small
solid
excellent gearbox
bad hicaps
mags expensive and not as easy to get(fake bullets = no WGC bulk order)
mags dont really fit in vests
needs mods to take a large battery

Famas
cheap price
V1 internals
creeky body(fixable easily)

AUG
relativly solid
V3 internals
rare/expensive mags

Mp5
V2 internals
wide selection of versions

MP5k
cheap
small
lrage battery = mods
V3 internals
worst range and accuracy then any AEG

M14
new
new mechbox
solid
lots of metal
large battery
good range and accuracy
expensive

G36
V3 internals
solid
not to hard to run a lrage battery

G&P armalites
solid
fantastic metal recievers
not half bad internals
I belive it comes with a reinforced mechbox
expensive, but metal body is worth it

ICS
same as above, but I like the G&P reciever better and I have heard ICS M4 internals can be troublesome.

ICS AK
solid
full metal
nicer gears, metal bushings, nice internals.

Note: I dont mean to knock anyones gun, Im just trying to pro/con them on a level field. Any guns can be made excellent.

BTW, I dont own all the guns
I own or have heavily used
TMSR16
TM MP5k
ICS AK74M
TM G36
TM MP5RAS

all my other commends on other guns come from what I have read here and seen on the field.

As an addition, the recent Classic Army guns have been very nice. Quality metal guns for decent prices.

[Bob the Angry Potato]

Just another opinion on the FA-MAS...
FA-MAS F1/SV
-Upgradeable with V2 mechbox parts. Can be upgraded heavily, simply replace high-speed gears. The EG560 can power an M120 without any problems, providing you reinforce the internals with readily available parts.
-Almost indestructible, ask most FAMAS owners out there
-Cheap. You're right.
-Great ROF
-CQB'able
-In stock form, massive inner barrel = great accuracy
-Creaky, but can be fixed with 10 minutes and no effort/parts

Not saying it's the best, just giving an elaboration on it. For a stock gun, it's pretty damn good.

edit

[Tarkus]

In the optic of an out-of-the-box rating, and specifically for the newcomer, I'd say a tie between TM AK-47 and TM G36c, with a possible edge for the later.

AK-47
- Ver 3 mechbox
- Holds a large battery
- Very good performances out of the box (IMHO)
- Good aftermarket offerings

Cons:

- Size might not appeal to all
- Poor ergonomy (again, IMHO)
- Hard to set as a rail interface platform

G36c
- Ver 3 mechbox
- Good overall ergonomy (ambidextreous selector switch for a start)
- Rail interface provided on stock gun
- Light weight and good balance + folding stock
- Easy battery install/swap

Cons:

- Some may find it too short
- Some mag reliability issues (?)
- Battery size
- Where in hell's the handguard pin ?

more to add(not writen by me)

Classic Army M15A4 CQB

- Incredibly solid. Could bolt the barrel to a table and stand on the stock.
- Metal as stock.
- Metal RIS. Incredibly solid.
- Crane stock that fits up to a 3300mah 8.4v/9.6v

- Great ROF and between 330 and 360 stock FPS.
- Far above Marui Quality motor and internals.
- Reinforced gearbox and 7mm metal bearings.
- Bearing spring guide and ported metal piston head.
- Comes with a great 300rnd high-cap as stock.
- 100% Marui compatable, unlike ICS.
- Compact but a accurate enough and enough FPS for woodland as well as CQB.

[PoFF]

From ALL the AEGs I've owned and tested through the years, the most solid would have been the TOP M249, but this one also proved to be the most unreliable too, alot of mechanical problems with this gun due to poor internal conception thing (the damned soufflet system) and many conversions required to get it to work correctly.

IMO, the BEST AEG I had was the Classis Army MP5A2, it was solid as a rock as it was full metal. It took a gigantic battery in the stock (9.6V 3000 mAh Ni-Cd made of 'C' cells), and never malfunctionned in the two years I had it. In fact that's the only AEG that I never had to open ever for repairs or preventive part replacement. That's the only airsoft gun that I truly regret selling too.

[DelTASteve]

It would have to be a tie between the TM AK-47, and the TM G36C.

The TM AK-47 is about two years old, and has needed absolutely NOTHING. All I do is clean it out on a regular basis with a towel when it gets wet, and grease it up. The mags I own have also taken a beating, and I have never had to do anything to them except for bend the bottom plate back into shape. The only con to this gun is the pistol grip (IMHO), it is very akward in my large hands (I am 6'3"), and I am currently looking for a replacement.

The TM G36C is beyond solid. After 2 years it has yet to develop a creak in it. Again, with a little regular cleaning/greasing, it has needed NOTHING. The mag's already clamp together (a bonus for me) and I have had no problems with relibality with it.

Either one of these guns would make a GREAT starter gun, and are also great for veterans.

[CDN_Stalker]

Originally Posted by Droc

G&P armalites
solid
fantastic metal recievers
not half bad internals
I belive it comes with a reinforced mechbox
expensive, but metal body is worth it

Reinforced mechbox, yes, and all parts are heavy duty upgraded as well. Add in the fact the weakest link is the tappet plate used, pretty much MOST issues concerning the G&P Armalites I've read on here (and my own experience) is the tappet plate breaks/snaps in half within a few thousand cycles of the gun. Cause being quality of tappet plate used, or a combination of that and an overly heavy tappet plate spring used.

Also found the G&P gears to not be that great, but can only comment on the one SPR I've worked on. At one point a gear tooth snapped off the bevel gear where it meshes with the spur gear, wedged in the spur gear teeth, proceded to shear off every tooth on the bevel gear and fragged the mechbox with shrapnel. Luckily nothing else broke because of it (because after the teeth sheared, the motor spun only the bevel gear, nothing else.)

[six4]

own an ics m16-a3 and stock out of the box she shoots 305 fps with.20 bb.i was avoiding the "m series" weapon because in my opinion there are to many varients already.what appealed to me on this version was the two piece mechbox idea.one body pin removed and the weapon splits open to reaveal the mechbox and removable spring cartridge(dont know the tech name of this component)incredibly simple to maintain and if you desire upgrades there's a drop in spring cartridge that makes the weapon shoot 400 fps.this swap takes exactly 22 seconds(timed)55 seconds if you include a barell swap.cool weapon.

[ToRN]

P90, solid as a rock, easy to dissassemble/reassemble, everything fits where it's supposed to, very good ROF, accuracy is good, and it's compact, allowing for use in any situation. Hicaps get a lot of greif, because the feed gear breaks, but that's not a problem if (like me) you only use lows anyway.
Mags have a large capacity too. Anyone who buys their own custom gear anyway won't complain about the size and shape of the mags, because you can find mag pouches for the P90, and use them instead of 5.56 or 7.62 pouches, just gotta look a little harder.

IMO, that's all the things right there that make a great gun.

[Kanyon]

Well I've owned a TM AK-47, and I can say that it probably is one of the most solid guns out of the box that I've seen.

I currently own a TM G3-SG1 and I love it, but I've had to invest at least once more the value of the gun to get it to be a competitive field gun. ~$200-250 for a FMU upgrade, metal body and metal cocking tube to get rid of the horrible squeaking sounds and just reinforce the gun. ~$150-200 for a plethora of internal upgrades, and ~$150-200 more for a decent scope with mounts and stuff.
So I guess as far as out of the box criteria, it's not that great, but this and any other gun can be fixed with more money put into it
Also, it's quite big, so it's much better for larger outdoor games, not very good at all for CQB.
Conclusion: Probably not the best newbie gun.

I have to say I'm kind of skeptical about this thread, I think what will end up happening is people coming in here, seeing their gun be trashed by someone, and write their own review to defend it. Greylocks or someone should possibly incorporate important posts and stuff into the main post to make it a little more official.