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It’s universally connected to rental kits and beginning players, magazines that have knobs that get stuck on everything, getting sprayed full auto by some guy who hasn’t got a clue and weird attachment placing. But it is also a platform that is very easy to work on, the parts are easy to come by and the overall package is light and surprisingly ergonomic in some versions. We’re talking about the G36.

I want to guess that most of us have owned or rented a G36 at some point in our airsoft careers and for most of us, that would probably have been in the beginning of our careers. But the love for this type of replica tapers off the longer you play. There aren’t many long term players that use or even own a G36 type replica that I know of. And that is a shame really. On paper it’s got everything going for it: V3 gearbox, plenty of aftermarket parts, plenty of options for the basic configuration, lightweight, rotary style hop up, ambidextrous controls, not too many weird proprietary parts…

There is maybe one issue: there aren’t many brands to choose from. Off the top of my head you have: Cyma, JG, S&T and ICS. I might be forgetting some, but these are the ones that come to mind. As you’ve noticed, only one of those can be considered a ‘premium’ brand. And ICS only has one model: the G36C clone: G33, if I recall correctly. So you’re stuck with middle to lower end brands. But to be fair, this has another advantage: they’re cheap! I mean: for €125 you can get a replica with a V3 gearbox, a JG blue high torque motor (if you’re lucky), ambi controls and a rotary style hop up!

They also come apart quite easily: there’s seven screws and a pin that needs to be removed on top of the two body pins and voila! There’s the gearbox! Speaking of gearboxes, the g36 is also the perfect sleeper gun, especially because of its association with beginning players and rental kits. Now granted, if you run around with a nice replica AirFrame Helmet and Warrior chest rig, like I tend to do, the effect of a sleeper kind of goes to waste. BUT! It’s still fun to field what looks like a standard JG G36K, only to surprise yourself time and time again by the snappy response of a Perun Hybrid V3 combined with a Perun Clicker, 13:1 gears, a high torque motor and precocking. It makes this lovely mechanical ‘tsak, tsak, tsak, tsak’ clunking noise, which actually motivates people to move up as I keep firing to cover them.

I’ve built/upgraded many replicas for myself and others. Most of them are M4's and AK’s. Most of them were built for a (specific) purpose: CQB, SPR’s, DMR’s, Vehicle guns, … This G36K of mine, however, I’ve built -or actually: am still building- to have fun. Pure fun. The fun of having a light replica that is so cheap that I literally have a donor replica to strip if I break anything that I got for free. The fun of having a fully tuned up gearbox that surprises even me -the guy who built it- when I pull the trigger.

And the trigger, deary me! If you have a Perun mosfet and can install the Perun Clicker: Do it! I’ve got mine set up with the trigger spring, a little bit of take up, a little bit of overtravel and two extra magnets for a harder pull. This is by far the best trigger I’ve had in an AEG, ever. I’ve owned a Systema, I own replicas with Titans in them and one with a BTC Chimaera, all of those are microswitches or optical sensors. The Clicker is superior to all of them. Only my stock MWS trigger I like more, but that one is purely mechanical, so it has a massive edge there. That being said, the Clicker is one of the coolest innovations in AEG’s in a long while. It’s up there with brushless motors for me.

The only struggle is the magazines. On paper the couplers sound like a good idea, in practice: you don’t use them and they get stuck on everything. But hey, nothing a Dremel can’t fix. So what’s next for this G36K? Well, I still want to give it a more high speed look, so I’ve asked someone to print me the two short, flat top rails. This kinda foregoes the sleeper aspect (but the rest of me doesn’t look particularly ‘sleeper’, just sleepy…), but it’ll look real nice. I also need to figure out what to do with the magazines, spray paint it, and then probably change the barrel. Although, for a stock JG barrel with a nice clean, it’s surprisingly accurate. Granted: I’ve changed the rubber, but still, it shoots remarkably well.

I can’t wait to shoot this thing again.

Are there any types of replicas that have a special place in your heart? Let me know in the comments!