“I, I don’t like AEG’s, I don’t like the sound of them. I think they sound like sewing machines” said Kicking Mustang on a recent Defrowe podcast, making the age-old airsoft comparison with sewing equipment. I caught the advert for it while scrolling. Every airsoft player at some point will get their hands on a gas blowback (GBB) rifle (GBBR if you prefer), and will all ask the question…

AEG or GBB?

It’s a big decision. Most players start with the much cheaper electric AEG guns, so we’ve pretty much all got them. Upgrading to GBB kit is expensive for some. Is it worth it? I think for most players the GBB is seen as a step up. Pro kit to the AEG toys; a much more realistic shooting experience and a beautiful thing to show off with in front of the battery-powered peasants. It might be that elitism thing cropping up again, but AEG’s will always be seen as the budget or starter platform.

Unpopular opinion though – I actually think GBB is a step backwards, and in this article I’ll explain why.

First of all, if you’ve seen players parading GBBR’s around on site they can be a bit;

• Look at me
• Look at my brand new toy
• Look how much better it is than yours
• Give me attention
• Please look at me

That sort of player. It suits the YouTuber down to the ground. A GBB is an impressive thing to see, hold and shoot, and everyone loves it. It demands attention. It’s as close as you can get to the real thing and it will draw a crowd even when testing on the range. And I do like realism in airsoft. I love a good milsim, I like issued kit, and I absolutely applaud the guys who go all out to game days in perfectly accurate loadouts. However, if I wanted to rock up at a site and play well, I’m going to take an AEG every single time.

Why?

Firstly, the lack of recoil. Yes, recoil feels great and you can imagine yourself firing a real gun. But we spend a lot of time, money and effort getting these guns shooting well, ie accurately, while we blow a bit of white plastic down a polished tube. If you want recoil while it shoots, it’s like throwing a brick in a washing machine and sitting on it while you shoot. Although a bit less dramatic, but everyone loves bricks in washing machines – it’s a great image. It’s going to bounce all over the place and throw your shots off target, which is a pain when you’re trying to thread one through a window at 60m. I’d rather have a more stable platform to shoot with, as fun as the recoil is.

That true GBB experience

Secondly, if we’re talking gas power, the UK weather will play havoc with your consistency (and this isn’t limited to just one country, although there are places where it does work) because of temperature. In the UK as an example, you can be playing in anything from -10° to +35° (I did play once in 36° and it was nope – back to safe zone for cold drinks and teaching. There are limits to how much sweat my underwear can hold, because they’re not Goretex lined).

The gas expands in warmer weather and contracts in cooler weather, so you’ll always be running different fps which means the accuracy will be all over the place from one week to the next. Even within a day, a frosty early morning can give way to glorious sunshine in the afternoon. Personally, if I’ve spent ages setting a gun up and zeroing the scope, I don’t want to have to go back and constantly adjust it in between games. Especially sniper platforms, where accuracy is so important. Ever seen a Tanaka m700 gas sniper? Beautiful weapon, works extremely well but they only appear in the summer months, and with good reason. M700 owners tend to switch back to spring for the cooler months.

Beyond that, there’s a power requirement involved. Not an issue at your basic Sunday skirmish, but for longer games a big can of gas isn’t the easiest of things to carry around. I’m not a spray-and-pray type player myself, I hardly ever switch to full auto for any situation, so I get by on a battery a day. It wouldn’t be much to carry a couple of spare batteries in a case (waterproof, solid for impact protection) in a pouch, as they don’t take up much room. And that’s it sorted for multiple days. And once you’ve got batteries you don’t have to keep buying more cans of gas either. Reliability wise, I know guys who will point out that GBB’s have less moving parts and it’s a much simpler system, but AEG’s only tend to have major issues when people try to demand too much of them or start shoving parts in when they don’t understand how to.

I know the Internet is full of “buy GBB, you won’t regret it” posts but I just thought I’d shine a light the other way because all too often in airsoft, popular opinion is rarely challenged. And if the noise does bother you, there’s a pic above of my battered M15A4 project gun, and it doesn’t sound like a sewing machine at all – it sounds like a GBB. I have no idea why, but it shows it’s possible.

I might showcase it in a later article as it evolves into an M727. Battery powered, of course.

No I didn’t watch the podcast.