M249 advice

I’ve mess with my buddies quite a bit but his was hpa and one of the engines we put in was a Fusion. Box mags ended up being a pain but for hopup, definitely get a Bull Gear!

It depends on the model. I think the featherweight and G&P ones have a V2 gearbox and can therefore accept a wider variety of MOSFETs, but the A&K ones have a tanky, more unique gearbox. I had a Featherweight but hardly even fired it and ended up trading it. But I thought the V2 gearbox would have been nice to work on.

As others mentioned, it depends on which M249 you got...but since it's you... my guess is it's not the version 2 gearbox or you won't be asking for advice?

I was considering a m249 too and through my research, it appears the box mag is the part that most people have trouble with

Secondary to this is battery size compartment and if you want a 11.1v...you sometimes have to do some sort of janky rework

That's a beefy gearbox. My personal choice would be a Warfet or Perun AB++ so you could use some precock, but not sure if that's a priority for you.

Yeah, that gearbox is pretty chonk. Precock I don't think would be all that beneficial on an LMG. I think I will just install a more basic FET like a NanoASR.

So what tappet plate does it use? have not opened it, but from videos it looks like a V2. Same with the cylinder head.

On an unrelated note, apparently that black dot on my palm was a pretty big splinter from yesterday's game. Didn't hurt till I pulled it out.

@Plazmaburn I can't imagine a quick Google search of various forums and reddit would hurt.

Already well on that. Still reading some of the forums on them. Some are 20+ pages.....

If I recall correctly, A&K use the same gearbox in their M249 and their PKM.
Army Force makes a replacement gearbox (with all internals), as do Airsoft Pro and Bullgear (though the latter two do not have internals installed).
I'm pretty sure gearbox internals are standard v2 with v2 length nozzle.
Bullgear and Airsoft Pro make hopup units for it:

BlackDogAirsoft said:

If I recall correctly, A&K use the same gearbox in their M249 and their PKM.
Army Force make a replacement gearbox (with all internals), as do Airsoft Pro and Bullgear (though the latter two do not have internals installed).
I'm pretty sure gearbox internals are standard v2 with v2 length nozzle.
Bullgear and Airsoft Pro make hopup units for it:

CNC Hop Up for A&K / Cybergun / Classic Army M249 & M60 Series BULLGEAR - Airsoft Zone UK

Description

www.airsoftzone.co.uk

AirsoftPro CNC M249 Hop-Up Chamber Unit Gen 2

AirsoftPro CNC M249 Hop-Up Chamber Unit Gen.2 The second generation of AirsoftPro Hop-Up chamber for M249 machine guns. It's made entirely from

www.bullseyecountrysport.co.uk

Click to expand...

^ Probably the best post of the thread.

Well after reading a bunch, seems like the biggest problem is not really the gun, but the mags. Seeing as I need a mag as it did not come with one, I am going to get the Bullgear one. Seems like the best one available aside from the MAG nutsack. Internals look pretty standard affair, with the exception of the bearings. Just need to make sure they are properly seated and aligned. Apparently, some of the A&K gearboxes are not made quite right and the bearings are not pressed in right. Correcting requires some light milling.

Looks like I am ordering a bit of stuff from Bullgear.
m249 hop-up GEN2 (bullgear.net)
Kit-Box-M249-B (bullgear.net)
Tappet Plate (bullgear.net)

@Plazmaburn

Let us know how the bullgear mag works out (never actually heard of that one before). My research was leaning me on the MAG one (if I were to bite on the M249), but even that one sometimes had a couple of poor reviews (however, WAY better than the A&K one)

AsianGuy said:

@Plazmaburn

Let us know how the bullgear mag works out (never actually heard of that one before). My research was leaning me on the MAG one (if I were to bite on the M249), but even that one sometimes had a couple of poor reviews (however, WAY better than the A&K one)

Click to expand...

Will do. Evike carries them too, but like everything good on Evike, its sold out. There is one piece that is a mission critical piece.
A&K Replacement M249 Feeding Unit, Accessories & Parts, Airsoft Gun Magazines, Magazine Accessories - Evike.com Airsoft Superstore

I need that as the one in mine is missing. If any of you know where I can find one let me know.

@Plazmaburn


it's canada ... so I don't know if the prices are in USD or canadian, also not sure about their shipping cost. I think a couple of years back House Gamers might of done promos for them? So they aren't a totally nobody vendor... but I can't vouch for them myself, only hearsay

As an aside, it seems like a really odd thing to be missing

BlackDogAirsoft said:

View attachment 20016
Currency is in the top right hand corner, in a drop down menu.
For me it came with CAD first.
Their shipping policy sucks balls- no returns on online orders and this:
View attachment 20017

They are rated 1.8 on trustpilot which is not good.

According to this reddit thread, shipping puts the snail in snail mail and much of their stock comes from Evike anyway.


Too Long Didn't Read: NO.

Maybe something to 3D print?

You can also get it from Israel if you really want???

View attachment 20018 I too enjoy having cat hair in my gearbox.

On a final note, the Bullgear tappet plate is metal. I remember reading that that might not be such a good idea, though I am not 100% sure.

Click to expand...

Well fuck... I actually placed the order there already, should have looked here first.

So far, Thangs and Cults do not have it, and shapeways has nothing either. Hmm maybe i can find someone with one to CAD out?

@Plazmaburn

Email evike, there is a chance they would try to stock it for you if it's an item they normally carry (however if they are trying to phase it out...might not work out)
they did it for me with some maple leaf parts when I couldn't find it anywhere else...however it took nearly 2 or 3 months before I saw it show up on their site

As an aside I figured you might be able to design it yourself? with the complimentary part in hand...the images I've already seen you post...that shouldn't be too hard? The only sketchy thing I would worry about is if the part did more than feeding and will have stress on it.

Well Evike might have some from a boneyard gun just need to shoot them an email to find out. I called them and that is what he told me to do.

Or I say fuck it and go ultra nerd and borrow my friends 249 and cast the parts to CAD out.

Apparently Bullgear is releasing a gen 3 hopup unit at the end of the month. Think I will wait for it to order. (plus I will have another paycheck by then... light money on fire....)

@Plazmaburn

We all burn money on this hobby, I certainly didn't think I'd spend as much as I did.


If your friends m249 is of the same model, I'd say just do the measurements and CAD it yourself. I found the design process very zen, but maybe it's cause I did alot of drafting when I was younger. If it's a situation you don't want to learn fusion360 and such, you can always use stuff like tinkercad.com the part I saw seems like it's simple enough to just design it on that.