I like collecting guns - or more correctly, realistic imitation firearms.
I've bought one or two over the years with the current collection numbering just over sixty. Of these, four are inoperable; not because they are broken but either because they have been disassembled and I haven't yet worked up the enthusiasm to put them back together - TM IMI Desert Eagle and HK MP7 I'm looking at you - or, I've cannibalised it for parts, that would be the TM GSPEC with no PDI barrel since it's now in the Tanaka M700 AWS, which is still shit - or the TM MP5K, which at this moment lies on the work top just waiting to be put back together once I've figured how to wire a mosfet into a gun with no space. Or at least no space where I need the mosfet to go.
Anyhoo.
Of the sixty(ish), roughly half of them are pistols and roughly one third are 'clones'. I've nothing against clones at all but while, in general, they are inferior copies in some cases you'd need to be looking real close. The real reason I buy clones is probably the same as everybody else; they're cheaper. In some cases much cheaper. I can justify £150 on an AEG that I like the look of; £300 not so much. If it turns out to be not so nice as anticipated well, no great loss. However, most clone guns get 'detailed'. Screws get tightened, rough edges get polished, actions get smoothed, mosfets get fitted (sometimes) and other small niggly problems get ironed out. By the time I've finished the guns work flawlessly. My Double Eagle UMG has been my go to skirmish gun - it's seriously accurate and actually better than the G&G one I have - despite costing all of £99. On the other hand some of my first guns are still able to hold their own albeit with some fiddling. My Marui SIG552 has had the gearbox upgraded, rewired, mosfetted, fitted with a PDI 6.01 barrel, runs around 340fps and is deadly accurate. The G&G G300S has had the benefit of a trigger mosfet board and a new motor and puts out a satisfying rate of fire on a 1,600mAh NiMH.
However, these were not partucularly cheap guns to start with and with the various bits both guns would probably be pushing the £450/£500 mark. My Cyma M14 SOCOM on the other hand is around that sort of money in total but that's with a mosfet, a Visionking short dot scope, real steel Bradley cheek rest and a decent leather sling as well as the bits and bobs required to fit these. Most clone guns are, with added sights and the like around half of that. If I'd bought the TM version I could add at least £200 on to that for the base gun and then have to upgrade it to shoot as well as the Cyma which, incidentally, also has a TM hop unit.
Sure, I could buy less guns but what's the point in that. 😀
