M4A1 - CA

I have heard that the CA are not very good. You should go with a TM M4 because mine has never let me down and I've never heard anything bad about them. ;D

i typed up this long thing on the differences and downfalls between [of] CA and TM on ASZ, so i'm gonna copy it here for a reference, and hopefully a little constructive criticism.


TM guns have a better track record. They tend to be more reliable in the long run. In the past, CA guns have had problem with the internals. with their recent armalite series release, there have been quite a few quality control issues. A lot of people have reported poor internals, fit & finish, etc. The same has happened in the past with their mp5's. CA seems to have pretty low quality control with some guns (not differences between modles i.e. A seies and sd series, but poor quality control for one gun to the next).

Where as TM guns, on a whole, have been reported to have the best long term durability and reliability. Most models have one or two minor problems with quick and easy remedies, such as teh barrel wobble in the m4's, or the hicaps with the p90. Aside from these minor problems, TM has very few flaws, and very high quality control. the exception is when a gun is first introduced and they need to see what flaws the public find, and then they address those in the next batch of guns. That can be expected from every manufacturer, in most buisnesses, not just airsoft.

CA guns come with the metal body, where as tm guns come stock with a plastic body. A common misconception is that the metal bodies add some sort of remarkable durability. They truely don't. ususally, and without withstanding abuse from the user, the internals are the first part to break in an aeg, so the metal body contributes very little. In addition to that, the metal CA uses in their stock metal bodies is rather cheap pot metal, thus not increasing external durability either. I had to use a friend's AE (not CA, but the same kind of goes for them too) mp5 while i was upgrading mine. I couldn't really tell the difference between the bodies too much. there was a little more weight in his, but only slightly.

CA guns come preupgraded, while TM guns come in what is considered stock form. When a gun is mentioned as stock, it is compared to the velocity of a stock TM aeg. Ca guns, while they come off of the line shooting higher than tm guns, are not considered stock, but are considered preupgraded. This part here is my opinion. A stock gun is better suited for a newbie (and i appologize if you're not a newbie to the aeg world, if i assumed wrong, i'm sorry). Why? Well, how, with out having at least a few game days in a skirmish, would you be able to determine what kind of upgrades you need? maybe you'll like to play cqb a lot, so you'll be willing to sacrafice FPS for ROF. Or maybe you'll like laying a ways back from the action and taking your time on your shots so you get the guy the first time, so you won't need a high ROF, but you need more distance and accuracy. you see my point? Also, with inexperience in the aeg maintainence world, if some problem were to arise (much more common among upgraded aegs due to the higher stress in the gearbox), you would have difficulty dealing with them. If this were your one and only aeg, that would put you out of the skirmish for a while, and possibly out for a few weeks while you find someone who can fix it.0

as for paying more for a lesser product, it depends on how you look at it. First, from what i've cited above, TM is clearly not a lesser product, thus invalidating the entire statement, but i'll keep going. Now, i you were to upgrade your internals to the velocity of a CA guns, and you were to put a metal body on, you would spend more than if you bought a CA gun. However, the quality of the metal body as well as the quality of the internals would be much better. You would have to replace the internals on the CA sooner than on the TM, causing it to then, cost just as much.

In my opinion, the TM is a much safer, more reliable buy. Stick with the tried and true. Don't cheat yourself because the cheap metal body appealed to you, or you thought you would like a velocity upgraded. anything on a CA gun can be had on a TM gun and with much higher quality.

SR-16, all the way. It's got the internals as the M4A1, true, but the extras you get more than make up for the price increase. A metal RIS rail and the larger battery capacity will have you singing the Stoner laurels when you decide to upgrade and accessorize. In it's stock form, the gun is rock solid, you won't be disappointed.