airsofter.world

On the length of airsoft replicas.
What is the right length for a replica?
The first question to ask yourself is: What do I want to achieve? Or: Is there a problem I need to fix? For me a lot has to do with physiology. For the length of my arms, a 10.5” or 11” M4 replica or even shorter like an MP5 replica, are simply too short. I have orangutan length arms and I need to stretch ‘m out further than a traditional short barreled M4 can offer me.

How did I come to this conclusion?
I’ve started off with a G36K. Inner barrel and overall length are about the same as a traditional M4A1 with a 14.5” barrel. Next stop was the actual M4A1 with a 14.5” barrel, so no real changes in overall ergonomics. Just a collapsible stock and the joy of having the most widely adopted platform, which makes picking upgrades and accessories easier. Not to mention the ubiquity of the mags.

Of course I did what everyone else was doing at that point: shortened the barrel and slapped the MK18 rail in FDE on that thing. And then I played with that type of replica -first a modified Lonex M4 and later a Systema PTW- for five years.

What stood out to me, is that this was actually too short for me. One of the problems is that I can’t have my support hand as far out as I want to. An alternative was to make the length of pull longer, but that made it less comfortable for my main hand. Another problem is that you lose track of where your muzzle is pointing. Because of this, you might end up flagging people and creating unsafe situations, simply because it’s out of your field of view. It also causes you to hit the frames of doors etc quite a bit more often, simply because you can’t see the muzzle as well. My way of dealing with this last problem was adding a suppressor.

A last problem or issue was that I was sucking up to the cover; I was so close to the cover that I couldn’t maneuver as well, because the cover itself was in the way. This is also something that adding a suppressor to the setup fixes quite readily. Of course adding length then introduces new problems: you get stuck behind furniture, frames of all sorts, hit the ceiling more often, etc…

So two out of three are fixed by adding a suppressor.

One of the reasons not to go for a full size rail (like a M4A1 SOPMOD Blk2 for instance) is weight. Especially about ten years ago, it was all quad RIS rails. But then -luckily- keymod and MLOK came on the scene. Enter the Geissele MK16 rail and ye olde 14.5” length barrel. Beautiful, lightweight and nicely copied by HAO. Of course, when you do anything, you need to do it right and so all accessories were also changed over to the MLOK interface where needed. Otherwise you’re just adding bulk by adding RIS adapters, ruining the entire point.

It does add some difficulty when going through doors, but that’s nothing that some technique can’t fix.

So in short: The length of a replica doesn’t only have to do with the physical dimensions of the tool, but also with its application and the potential repercussions for tactics and techniques. When deciding on the length of a replica, don’t be afraid to experiment with different setups and lengths. But first and foremost: be critical and have a clear goal or problem you wish to solve in mind.