M249 Opinions

spicymchaggis

right though i'd get a little thread going on this. basically i want your views on which brand m249 you would go for with a given reason such as build quality, rate of fire, known faults and general feel and because i wanna get one after xmas a para one. im aware of a&k, CA, G&P and STAR

NakedDex

You could always get a Top one. Y'know, if you're loaded and silly.

The A&K one is actually the best value of the lot. One of those with a bit of tweaking is as good, if not better, than it's heavily overpriced competitors. A new hop rubber and a bit of gearbox fiddling will result in a cracking bit of kit.

Hivemind187

A&K hands down.

Stronger internally than the other two, externals are as good as both. Cross compatable externally with btoh and internally with CA.

spicymchaggis

hmm what kind of gearbox fiddling? same rate of fire as the other brands? someone also just mention a star m60 to me so i guess i might aswell throw that into the fray

MacAonghusa

Just read some reviews on the A&K, seems pretty good alright. The para looks manky but the Mk1 & Mk2 with fixed stock look the biz.

NakedDex

Horses for courses, I don't like the Mk1. I like the Mk2 but find it too long for practical use in airsoft. I own a para for that reason.

The tweaks aren't major, swap the hop rubber for a Guarder Silicon, install bearings and reshim the gearbox. All in that's only 30/40 parts, and it's something you'd do on the ones twice the price anyway. The rate of fire is ok, but not massive. It'd benefit from a higher speed motor. The G&P M120 is only about 30 bucks on eHobby and gives a heck of a boost, or a Systema Turbo if you're willing to splash the cash.

Lemming

NakedDex wrote: »

You could always get a Top one. Y'know, if you're loaded and silly.

TOP have a terrible reputation for reliability, no? Certainly their M60 series does at any rate, and anecdotal googling would suggest their bellows system sucks (no punintended) balls.

NakedDex

I meant it as a joke, hence the silly part. Top make rubbish and charge extortionate prices for them. A Top M249 is over a grand and performs worse than a stock A&K worth 300. They're a great big white elephant in support guns. Their M60, as you said, is also woeful.

spicymchaggis

hmmm looks like i may be tweaking the a&k, its the non stop what looks like a rope of bb's i want for that rate of fire but may have a go with what dex is saying, throw the parts on my ehobby order next week. also nice to see the boards movin and see people are awake

horgan_p

get the a&k and order the CA M249 hop unit.

the a&k one is a little ..... tempermental shall we say

Lemming

NakedDex wrote: »

I meant it as a joke, hence the silly part.

Ah, my bad. It hadn't registered. Move along now folks, nothing to see here

NakedDex

I'm in work, thanks to the iPhone I can access boards for an unhealthy amount if time rather than actually repair these parts in front of me.

If you're in a splash-the-cash mood on ehobby, grab a barrel for it too. The one that's in it is ok, but a tightbore will give you better groupings. M249s aren't known for accuracy, but a good rubber and barrel would go a long way to alaying that.

Bearings: ~15
Hop rubber: ~10
Barrel (optional): ~25
CA Hop (optional): ~25
G&P M120 motor: ~30

That'd be your shopping list I reckon.

spicymchaggis

horgan_p wrote: »

get the a&k and order the CA M249 hop unit.

the a&k one is a little ..... tempermental shall we say

dex says guarder silicon, which would be the better and why? :rolleyes:

horgan_p

sorry , i meant just replace the hop unit - any after market part will do it.
i picked the CA one cause is what ive seen used.

spicymchaggis

ah cool cool, much difference between the g&p 120 and the systema?
also can u get the bearings and whatnot on ehobby?

cheers

NakedDex

I edited above with the list I recommend. The Systema Turbo is about 60.

Irishmaster

Going a bit off topic but what gives a machine guns(in general) its reliability and rate of fire. Do gunners generally have better upgraded internals then most normal aegs or do they need to be altered to be able to hold down the trigger for longer?

spicymchaggis

nice, very nice dex you would buy a g&g gun with the money saved, i take it the barrel would be a 6.04 tight bore one, you cant fit a longer one in can you?

spicymchaggis

Irishmaster wrote: »

Going a bit off topic but what gives a machine guns(in general) its reliability and rate of fire. Do gunners generally have better upgraded internals then most normal aegs or do they need to be altered to be able to hold down the trigger for longer?

the motor changes the rate of fire

kdouglas

The A&K 249 already has bearings, so no need to upgrade that.

Based on experience, the Systema Turbo motors are far too sensitive, I've heard great things about the G&P 120 motor, haven't tried it yet, but I will be ordering one next week to replace the Systema Turbo in my 249.

This thread has actually revived my interesting in 249's, my one has been sitting in it's box for the past few months waiting to be finished, but I think I'll actually go and order the parts I want to finish it off now

kdouglas

Irishmaster wrote: »

Going a bit off topic but what gives a machine guns(in general) its reliability and rate of fire. Do gunners generally have better upgraded internals then most normal aegs or do they need to be altered to be able to hold down the trigger for longer?

The gearbox in 249s is built to withstand prolong periods of fire, plus the fact that they come with box mags, granted you could put a box mag on an m4 and call it a support gun, but that's rather frowned upon by most players.

Bigger guns such as 249 and m60 etc... also have much more space to fit a bigger battery, bigger battery has more capacity.
A standard v2 gearbox (as is found in alot of popular AEGs) will eventually crack with the amount of fire a 249 would be putting out.

spicymchaggis

kdouglas wrote: »

The A&K 249 already has bearings, so no need to upgrade that.

Based on experience, the Systema Turbo motors are far too sensitive, I've heard great things about the G&P 120 motor, haven't tried it yet, but I will be ordering one next week to replace the Systema Turbo in my 249.

This thread has actually revived my interesting in 249's, my one has been sitting in it's box for the past few months waiting to be finished, but I think I'll actually go and order the parts I want to finish it off now

let me know which motor works out better, what do you mean by far too sensitive?

NakedDex

Well 6.04 is the internal diameter, or the bore, of the barrel. You can fit any bore you want, but you'll need to match the length to the existing one. I think it's 279mm, but you'd want to check that before ordering, I'm working off memory here. The tighter the bore, the better the grouping, but I wouldn't go tighter than 6.04/.03 for an M249. 6.04mm is the most common anyway, so you'll pick one up fairly cheap. I think the stock A&K version comes with a 6.08mm barrel, where the CA ones come with a 6.07mm.

spicymchaggis

NakedDex wrote: »

Well 6.04 is the internal diameter, or the bore, of the barrel. You can fit any bore you want, but you'll need to match the length to the existing one. I think it's 279mm, but you'd want to check that before ordering, I'm working off memory here. The tighter the bore, the better the grouping, but I wouldn't go tighter than 6.04/.03 for an M249. 6.04mm is the most common anyway, so you'll pick one up fairly cheap. I think the stock A&K version comes with a 6.08mm barrel, where the CA ones come with a 6.07mm.

does the 0.04 of a mm make all the difference?

NakedDex

Pretty much, remember, bbs aren't actually 6mm, they're about 5.95mm, give or take .03mm. Between the 5.95mm bb and the 6.04mm barrel, it's the guts of a full 1mm in the difference. The the tighter you can make that gap, the better your accuracy. The standard 6.08mm leaves almost 1.5mm gap between bb and barrel, which is why they have that spray effect over any reasonable range.

spicymchaggis

cheers will make shopping list next week along with marpat bdu

Tigger

NakedDex wrote: »

Pretty much, remember, bbs aren't actually 6mm, they're about 5.95mm, give or take .03mm. Between the 5.95mm bb and the 6.04mm barrel, it's the guts of a full 1mm in the difference. The the tighter you can make that gap, the better your accuracy. The standard 6.08mm leaves almost 1.5mm gap between bb and barrel, which is why they have that spray effect over any reasonable range.

6.08-5.92=0.16 ?

1.5mm seems huge

kdouglas

Was just about to say the same, think Dex forgot about a decimal point.


spicymchaggis: When I say the Systema turbo motors are too sensitive, I basically mean they are crap, they break far too easily to be honest and the original pinion gear they come with is far too soft.

spicymchaggis

Tigger wrote: »

6.08-5.92=0.16 ?

1.5mm seems huge

ah he's only human, prob posting inbetween work like meself

NakedDex

Apologies for misleading there. Obviously I meant .15mm, not 1.5mm. I'm juggling the questions here with $34k worth aircraft EGT sensors that have a 1.5mm deflection tolerance, I got the numbers crossed since I'm concentrating a little harder on the expensive, life preserving stuff.

Tigger

everybodys got an excuse
my feet are cold
the dog et it
the aircraft i'm working on takes up a significant amount of my conccentration
i'm hungry

spicymchaggis

dont suppose anyone can throw up a link to the silicon guarder hop up on ehobby? cant seem to find it :rolleyes:

kdouglas

http://shop.ehobbyasia.com/default/other-aeg/parts-upgrade-aeg/hop-up-enhancements/guarder-aeg-part-hop-bucking.html

There you go

Lemming

alternatively, click here

spicymchaggis

dont suppose an owner of the a&k m249 could see what lenght barrel its possible to fit i know as standard it comes with a 315mm one

Tigger

spicymchaggis wrote: »

dont suppose an owner of the a&k m249 could see what lenght barrel its possible to fit i know as standard it comes with a 315mm one

my mark one one wopuldnt take more without extending the barrell but its good enough
its a support gun not a sniper

kdouglas

the para is only about 315mm I think, but I checked earlier and supposedly the mark2 is 510mm

Turncoat

Is there a difference in the performance of mk1, mk2 and the para model?
All this talk about the 249, maybe I should sell my xbox and buy it:rolleyes:

spicymchaggis

cool cool, will order the parts next week and buy myself one for xmas
no such thing as too many guns :rolleyes:

yeah sharad the mkII have slightly different body and the para has a retractable stock (my preference )

spicymchaggis

kdouglas wrote: »

the para is only about 315mm I think, but I checked earlier and supposedly the mark2 is 510mm

the para is 315mm, the MKII is 480mm and MKI is 480mm

spicymchaggis

hmm the para is 315mm and the closet 6.04 barrel is 300mm and 363mm, surely the 15mm wont make much of a difference. or alternatively is it possible to put a short silencer that dont look fugly to fit the 363mm?

Puding

just have to agree with what others have said, i love the m60 and really like my start m60 but it has been a pain the ass, saving for a vfc in the future to many other things come along first thought anyway as otehr have said i would go with...

A&k m249 (version of your choice )
ca hop up unit (stock is really bad, 30usd for the ca version bargain)
guarder hop up bucking (simple the best)
guarder high speed motor (the stock one is really made and more a high torque motor, when you downgrade the spring its weakness really starts to show)
tight bore barrel (of your choice)
high quality high mha battery 9.4v + (i see a lot of people go cheap on there battery's when upgrading a gearbox and it can really limit your performance, get the best you can)
mosfet

NakedDex

spicymchaggis wrote: »

hmm the para is 315mm and the closet 6.04 barrel is 300mm and 363mm, surely the 15mm wont make much of a difference. or alternatively is it possible to put a short silencer that dont look fugly to fit the 363mm?

300mm would be fine. It'll just finish a tad shy of the barrel. It'll perform the same and aesthetically look pretty much the same too.

spicymchaggis

NakedDex wrote: »

300mm would be fine. It'll just finish a tad shy of the barrel. It'll perform the same and aesthetically look pretty much the same too.

sweet, many thanks dex and others, thats me done on this thread. time to get shopping :P

spicymchaggis

NakedDex wrote: »

I'm in work, thanks to the iPhone I can access boards for an unhealthy amount if time rather than actually repair these parts in front of me.

If you're in a splash-the-cash mood on ehobby, grab a barrel for it too. The one that's in it is ok, but a tightbore will give you better groupings. M249s aren't known for accuracy, but a good rubber and barrel would go a long way to alaying that.

Bearings: ~15
Hop rubber: ~10
Barrel (optional): ~25
CA Hop (optional): ~25
G&P M120 motor: ~30

That'd be your shopping list I reckon.

:rolleyes::rolleyes: what bearings and shims would you recommend for it :P

A.T.F

Classic Army hands down :Dwe have CA and A&K M249's and the CA has never let us down great build quality great rate of fire great reliablity what more do you want ???:D:):D:):D

GlockMonkey

ive had a good look at both versions of the 249 A&K and the CA and honestly the CA is far superior in materials . the bulk of the CA is machined aluminium and the A&K seems to be made from recycled computers and old cars as most of the parts are cast .

having said that i suppose you could go buy the A&K and upgrade it to CA standard but then you loose what ever warranty you get with it if indeed you get one with it...........

Go the extra few quid and buy the CA atleast you will have some comeback if it does crap itself .....

after all its not where their made its how there made .................

Beast ASI

GlockMonkey wrote: »

having said that i suppose you could go buy the A&K and upgrade it to CA standard

Or you could buy the CA and upgrade it to A&K standard

GlockMonkey

Beast ASI wrote: »

Or you could buy the CA and upgrade it to A&K standard

hehehehehe shhhhhhhhh