Daytonagun M249 drop-in kit

[airsoftshak]

This past weekend, I had the extreme pleasure of unleashing this newest addition to my ever-growing GBB family upon the fields of Tactical Paintball in Harwood, TX.

Classic Army M249 MkII donor gun - $300. Daytonagun M249 drop-in GBB kit - $500. The thrill of taking out targets at 200+ feet away with a high rate of sustained fire - priceless!



In all seriousness, this thing is entirely too much fun to shoot. With an unloaded box mag, it weighs in at a nice 15 pounds, but it doesn't feel that heavy. The weight is evenly distributed, and the sling does an excellent job of spreading the load. The rate-of-fire is on-par with a real-steel M249 at around 750RPM. It's a bit fast for my tastes, but it does also add to the realism. The blowback/recoil is very crisp and sharp; again, on-par with it's real-steel counterpart.

Now, some test results....

Now that the hop rubber is broken in, I just did some chrono testing on it. Using G&G .25g bio BB's and an xCortech x3200 chronograph, I got the following results @ 135psi for 6 shots:

1. 355fps
2. 358fps
3. 356 fps
4. 356fps
5. 359fps
6. 358fps

Not bad at all. Very consistent and unlike my other GBB replicas that tend to vary as much as 30fps shot-to-shot.

From the skirmish, I knew that the range was outstanding on this replica, but I didn't exactly know its range until just today. In my backyard, I have a large oak tree (about as big around as a standard-sized airsoft player) that is 247 feet away from my "test spot" on the back patio. I can consistently place shots onto that tree with no problem. Admittedly, that's the extreme range of the gun, but 200' shots are very much in-play for this support weapon. Not bad for a non-LRB replica. I'm sure the Prometheus 509mm inner barrel has something to do with that.

As with most GBB replicas that use the Escort-style blowback system, changing the input gas pressure has little effect on the muzzle velocity. This is even more true for this replica. Reducing the input pressure to 110psi rendered the engine unable to feed reliably. It seems to require at least 120psi for proper function. At 120psi, the muzzle velocity only dropped approximately 5fps. Upping the pressure to 145psi yielded only a slight increase of 1-2fps. That's fine by me, as I rarely remember to change the pressure on my subreg when switching replicas. This way, the M249 will run at whatever pressure I happen to have setup and I don't have to worry about messing with it.

As with everything else I've received from Daytonagun over the past year or so, the kit is extremely well made. The fit/finish is outstanding. There are very few discernible machining marks and zero burrs on the edges. All the threads are smooth and the fittings are also top-quality. Installing the kit into the CA M249 body presented it's own set of unique challenges which I've outlined in other threads, so I won't go into those details here.

So far, the only real downside I've found is that the set screws that secure the collar to the airshaft were not properly secured with Loctite. During my initial break-in and testing, the collar slipped out of position rendering the engine unable to feed BB's into the chamber. Upon inspection, I noticed one of the screws had completely backed out and was missing. Fortunately, I had recently swept the patio, so I found it. Removing the collar revealed the slightest dab of blue loctite at the base of one of the screws. The rest had nothing. Unfortunately, this seems to be a common problem with Daytonagun GBB engines as I had the same problem with both my AK's. It's an easy fix, but it shouldn't be happening in the first place. A little Loctite 271 on each set screw, 24 hours of cure time, and I was back in business.

This replica is very fast becoming my new favorite. I highly suspect my trusty SP might start playing second fiddle more often depending on the AO. If I had to give it a grade, it would be a 92% with points taken off for lack of proper airshaft collar securing and requiring extra Dremel work for the CA body. Hey, that's still an A in my book!

[gadgetguycebu]

Nice review...Makes my mouth water just hearing about its performance.....Now do I need to get one....

[sushi137]

i am so close to getting one of these, this review is just what i needed to read.
what kind of air rig/tank do you use? size? and how long does it last you?

[airsoftshak]

Generally, I use 20oz co2 tanks with a standard palmers/subreg setup such as what AustinWolv sells. To be honest, I can't say how long the tank lasted me the first time I fielded it. I'm not convinced the guy who filled it did it properly. It seemed light when he handed it back to me.

Once I get a chance to field it again, I'll get a proper 20oz fill and keep track of how much ammo I expended until it ran dry. I would expect 2500-3000 shots before that happens. Maybe more.

[sushi137]

the one i will likely be getting is built on a GP 249.
apparently it was built/assembled by justin himself and not a kit he sold to the end user.

What, if any problems have you had with it?
what is the hop up like? since you have a promy tb in there, im assuming it fits any standard AEG type barrels and buckings?
is the hop up the original form the aeg or a grub screw type of deal?
im very excited to get this. thanks.

[airsoftshak]

Only problem I've had was self-inflicted, so I can't really count that.

The bucking is not an AEG bucking. Neither these kits nor anything else that Daytonagun produces use AEG buckings. Don't let the AEG-type hop rubber nomenclature fool you. They are AEG-type in that they fit on standard AEG barrels, and that's where it ends.

Yes, the hop adjustment is a grub-screw adjustment type like the Escort hop adjustment on the SP M16. The difference is that DG puts in a small rubber ball below the grub screw so that the screw is never directly touching the hop rubber. Seems to be very effective as I get excellent hop results from both the DG249 and my AK which both have the same design hop adjustment.

[Robbyem]

Great review! How loud is the gun with the drop in kit?

[airsoftshak]

I can't really give you an answer as I don't have a proper decibel meter to measure the sound output. When compared to an SP or a DG AK, I'd say it's not quite as loud as the AK, and maybe slightly louder than an SP. Again, that's completely subjective, and not really good data, so take it as such.