mG36 is alive

On monday I brought my mG36 home after it was repaired. It had replaced piston, gears and power spring. I paid 304 PLN for repairs and new parts, equivallent to $106.



The guys from the Asgshop who tuned my replica say that I was supposed to know that using 9.6 volt battery that causes high rate of fire might damage it. And that I should contact them when I bought the 4,000 mAh battery I used at that game. It didn't matter that this voltage was suggested by them without any other information, like "use 9.6 volt batteries but with capacity below 2,000 mAh" or similar.

One conclusion: guys from Asgshop screw up your replica.

Oh, and since the replica received more powerful power spring, it now does have 400 fps muzzle velocity. :)

mG36 has broken gears and piston

My mG36 that I broke on Hurtgen reenactment game and left for repairs couple of days ago was diagnosed today by a friend of mine. He said that all the gears in the mechbox and the piston are broken (literally into pieces). He also said that it was because the spring was too weak for the battery voltage I used (9.6 V 4,000 mAh capacity NiMH battery). The rate of fire was so high that the mechbox malfunctioned and it caused all the damage.

The spring will be replaced with a more powerful one.

I wonder how much will I pay for the repairs and for the replaced parts...

Airsoft replicas vs frost

It's winter on the northern hemisphere and in many regions we have temperatures below the freezing point of water (0°C → 32F). You might begin wondering if it's safe for you and your replica to attend airsoft games in such conditions.

Low temperatures

Airsoft electric guns - AEGs

AEGs are powered by batteries, mostly NiCd or NiMH rechargeables. Those batteries work best in room temperatures. If it's colder, their capacity drops. If it's very cold they won't supply enough power for the electric motor to pull the power spring in the mechbox. Low temperature also makes all greases and oils a lot more viscid -- it makes it even more difficult for the motor to move.

Read the rest of the "Airsoft replicas vs frost" article.

New replica and other stuff

So I bought a new replica. Some time ago I wrote that I earned some extra money I wanted to spend on airsoft and decided to buy a sniper rifle. So I did, the replica arrived on monday.

From Airsoft from Poland photos

This is the package I bought for PLN 870, which is very close to $300. I got this Classic Army M24 with installed 300% spring tuning set (the original set was also included) and Systema hop-up bucking (the original was also included).

The replica came along with a very nice scope -- with variable zoom and illuminated (red and green) reticle.

The replica had no magazine, so I had to purchase it separately. I found those magazines in several shops, but with different prices -- from $12 to $17. Of course I bought in the cheapest shop. ;)

On last thursday I also got another package with three M24 magazines and BBs. I bought two packages (total 2,000 BBs) of 0,36g BBs and one of 0,25g BBs. I also bought two batteries for my dot sight.



I didn't test the M24 yet, because when I come home it's already after dusk and when I leave to work, it's also dark. I will see how it works on saturday. :)

mG36 is ready

On thursday a guy from my favorite airsoft shop called me and we spoke for a while about my mG36 replica I sent for repairs and tuning.

He said that he installed the parts I asked for (precise inner barrel, 6.04 mm by Systema, and sealed air nozzle) and tested the replica on the chronograph. I wanted the replica to have around 350 fps -- enough for playing with guys that have 400 fps installed, but not very much). And I thought that after this barrel and nozzle installed it’ll have something close to that (330...340 fps maybe), since the G36 from Classic Army has 315 fps in stock!

Do you want to know what were the results from chronograph? A shitty 290 fps! I was stunned when I heard that.

It seemed that there was no other choice than to change the power spring. I asked the guy what caused such poor results. He said that the cylinder - cylinder head - piston head set is not very airtight and the spring looks weak. He suggested to change the spring go M100 and new cylinder with both heads made from aluminum. When I approved those parts to be installed, he asked me if I didn’t want to have the M110 instead as it’ll give me something close to 400 fps. Of course I agreed...

On friday he called me again. He installed the M110 and the other parts I mentioned above. He checked the replica on chronograph again and had result of 390 fps. That’s more than enough, I think...

Would you guess how much I’ll be charged for this tuning? PLN 460, amount equivalent to $170.

But hey, if the mG36 is supposed to be an light support weapon (as it’s real steel MG36 counterpart), it must have better range and accuracy than typical ASG replica...

Junk tuning

Long time, no see, huh? I didn’t attend any airsoft game for two months, so there’s nothing to write about. But when I’m not playing airsoft, I am thinking about it. So this is what I found out lately.

I mentioned here, that I have my AUG tuned. It has Guarder M110 / SP110 spring, helical gear set, full set of cylinder / cylinder head / piston head (bore-up) and some other stuff. This left me stock Classic Army spring and stock cylinder with two heads.

I am curious if I can use the spring to tune my AK-47S. If this Cyma replica is an exact copy of Tokyo Marui’s one, then I guess there’ll be some trouble with the piston / piston head / spring. As far as I remember, the TM’s piston is permanently connected to it’s head, so to change the spring you have to do something with piston / piston head. I don’t know exacly what needs to be done, i.e. if I need to have spare piston or not.

I also have one 170% CA spring, which is similar to M110. I think I’ll put this spring to the mG36, ’cause it lacks good range for being a support weapon. I’ll put it inside along with sealed air nozzle I bought a year or two ago and didn’t have time to install. ;)

mG36 corrections

As I witnessed during our last game (it was not mentioned here, yet!), my mG36 is not working as good as it could. I believe I broke something when I tried to install the precise barrel.

I need to disassembly the replica, remove the gearbox and correct what was broken. I will also install the G36 Guarder's sealed nozzle I bought some time ago... I might also put inside slightly stronger power spring than the stock one.

But to do so I need first to purchase a good set of hex keys, since the smallest hex key I own at the moment is too big to use. I need 3mm hex key to open the replica up.

Tuning questions

About two weeks ago I started thinking about getting one of my replicas tuned. At this moment the MP5K and mG36 are full-stock (I mean the gearbox, not the body, bipod, battery and other stuff). AUG has the "silent" set installed, more info can be found in the post about the silenced AUG. But it does have significantly better muzzle velocity than stock replicas, I believe it's got something aroung 350 fps. (Mamut's CA870 after his tuning has 410 fps on 0,2g BBs and 380 fps on 0,3g -- meaning that the light BBs don't gain all the energy the power spring can give).

So I decided to put some money in my airsoft replica tuning.

Since MP5K cannot be used with battery larger than 1200mAh 9.6V (after small modification of some kind), I decided that MP5K will remain as it is now.

So the decision is to choose between tuning AUG and mG36. I wanted to get muzzle velocity around 420-430 fps. Tunned by ASGShop.pl both replicas are upgraded to this level by installing:

• M120 power spring
  
• super torque up gear set (Classic Army)
  
• reinforced bearing guide with bearing (Deep Fire)
  
• reinforced cylinder, cylinder and piston heads (the latter with bearing) and nozzle (Deep Fire).

Since AUG has already got both bearing guide, gear set and the bore-up cylinder set installed the tuning will eventually be only to put power spring inside. I have the Classic Army 170% power spring (I got it free of charge when buying G36) so it seems that this entire tuning will be for free (only the costs of installing all the parts...).

Later I decided that I will not put money in AUG. Why? I am afraid that the battery I have (8,4V 1200mAh) will not be enough to "fuel" this replica.

So I decided that I'll send my mG36 to ASGShop and order the 420-430 tuning. But instead ot all the reinforced cylinder-piston parts, I'll install the bore-up. It should cost similar amount of money but I believe I'll gain few more fps. Addiotionally I'll send them back the barrel I ordered and ask them to send me the one that'll fit (more about barrel troubles is written in mG36 phase III upgrade - day one.

MP5K tuning to 350 fps?

Today I saw in one of the local ASG shops the replica of MP5K PDW tuned to 350 fps. It has installed: 170% CA equivalence (I say equivalence not equivalent spring, because I heard that this shop instead of installing the stronger power spring just adds muff to compress the original spring), metal bushings, metal gears and metal spring guide. I am surprised that this shop doesn't replace the piston and cylinder heads with stronger ones... They give 12 month warranty so this meand they expect the original heads to be strong enough. That's good news for any replica tuner.

I'll try to upgrade my MP5K PDW with the parts I got from CA's AUG - stock power spring (130%?), metal gears and ball bearings I bought for AUG but didn't install because they didn't fit the replica. For sure this will not give me 350 fps but but I hope for something near 310-320 fps.

mG36 phase III upgrade - day one

Today I decided that I'll install the parts I receieved yesterday, ordered earlier this week (stock, barrel), the sealed nozzle I bought few months ago and a 170% Classic Army spring I got with my replica.

I decided that the first thing to replace will be the stock because that was my main purchase. I tried to remove the original stock in order to attach my new purchase. I didn't have the proper hex key to remove the hinge. So the stock will have to wait for it's turn.

This was not a good day for the G36 tuning. First of all I didn't have all the tools required for such a work and I ordered parts that didn't fit my replica well. ;)

Since I removed the gearbox and magazine socket to see how to attach the stock wiring to the gearbox (I still have no f--king idea!) I had an opportunity to remove the inner barrel and install the precise one. So I removed the outer and inner barrel and the entire metal part that holds the hopup together. I dismantled that part and the hopup itself. When I got my hands on the barrel and compared it to the one I bought (designed for M14, not G36!) I saw that it has the vertical incision (that holds the barrel in place and doesn't allow any motion in axial direction) was in different place. This means that the barrel is not properly connected to the rest of the replica.

Without having the stock installed I didn't want to replace the inner parts of the gearbox - i.e. nozzle and power spring. This is because I wanted to have first the 9.6V battery installed which I can't install without the stock.