Geez, doesn't sound like a good time. To be honest, I've never owned a CA, but a lot of people seem to be satisfied with them. I have heard of some stories similar to yours of people owning CAs plagued with problems. Supposedly, the problems CA has had have been fixed. They offer a 60 day warranty now through Spartan Imports. The new CAs seem to be pretty solid guns. (haven't purchased one myself) My point was mainly that high end companies offer a lot better quality control (every company is going to have lemons obviously) and what not. I wouldn't want a CA if I went through those problems you have had. I do argee that a lot of companies offer better guns for the price CA charges. (comparing brands on paper at least) The new KWA series seems to be fantastic, but they do have some proprietary parts.
No gun is perfect, but from my experience, an upgraded clone usually won't shoot as well as an upgraded high end. Clones can give people some pretty good headaches when upgrading. However, sometimes you get those "magical" clones that were made really well. For me, I usually end up dumping a lot more money into a clone to get it shooting well than I would if I started with a better base gun.
Trust me, it's not something I was expecting or really wanting to deal with. There are some guns I buy full well knowing they will need tweaking out of the box (My SRC G36K, G&P M16A4, etc etc) to run reliably let alone at the FPS I want, but there are some guns you dont expect to have to do excessive work to get running reliably. I was told, by more than a few people both here, my local forums in Nebraska after I moved back home, and on various other forums that said "M120 and go in the CA's" and thats exactly what I did. Wrong move... I should have taken the time to reshim, relube, and double check all the crap that CA should have done at the factory.
The new X series guns looked decent enough, I have not seen one in person, but they still sound horrid. CA has always had a distinct sound (much like ICS), but to me it's one of a gun that is struggling, not one that is screaming from the brute force the gun exudes. CA just doesnt seem like as refined a gun as an ICS (which is sad
) or the G&G guns, or any other various brands of guns. They kind of always have been and always will be a "cheap" way to get a metal bodied AR platform.
You are definetly correct, no guns are perfect, there is a laundry list of minor tweaks that companies could do to seriously improve their guns at little cost to them and would up the quality of their guns tremendously... like G&G ditching 18AWG and 20 AWG wire for 16AWG wire... Even TM is on the 16AWG bandwagon... cmon now
Or KWA M4's not losing their barrels because of a really really bad design flaw. Of all the gun brands out there, I find myself recommending two... ICS and G&G... ICS because their M# series guns just plain rock performance wise... externally, their barrels are meh, but thats a quick and dirty fix. Internally, great guns... G&G because they are rock solid, quality and peform well above their price bracket... Case and Point, G&G M14 Veteran... for cheaper than the cost of a stock TM M14, full metal, full wood, 383 FPS w/ .25's, tightbore, and a rocking gun... thats awesome
Most of their guns punch at or well above their price tag.
