You do realize that WE guns very likely don't have hand fitted parts. I mean if they are cheap enough to have cast parts then the probability of them having a team of people hand fitting every part is very low.

Ask any gun doc how long it can take to fit custom parts. It take a lonngggg time my friend.

Yes, you could be correct on no fitting of the cast parts.

So why do people need to hand fit CNC parts?

1. Every cut and setup on a CNC machine takes time...time = money. Hard to sell a part for $10 if it takes 2 hours to set it up and make it to be uber finished and tolerable in all sorts of builds.

2. The CNC part might be "perfect"...but what it's going into isn't.

A great example was the RATech part #66 for WE guns. The stock piece had a rounded edge that rod on the hammer and got knocked by the hammer bump. Worked great but the stock piece was weak as it was a cast piece. The CNC TSC/RATech piece was really nicely made...but had that sharp edge. So what happened? Guys dropped in the part without looking at what it was doing and promptly had the sharp edge eat the hammer. Then they tried a CNC steel hammer...had finky action (since the sharp edge was still riding on the not so smooth edge of the hammer) and proceeded to smush their knockers...etc...

Rewind back to swapping out the first part...and with about 5 light strokes of a file in the right spot, zero issues for many, many shots.

Anyone...AEG/GBBR/etc...who just drops in this part or that without understanding what does what is just fingers-crossed hoping for the best.

Well I guess if the aftermarket maker had those sharp edges rounded during the machining operations, then it would be a drop for sure without fitting.

Many many people expect out of the box perfection.. it just ain't there..

Every one of my new guns get a thorough inspection.. and I look to see how it works before rounds go down range..

I am not a "tech" kind of guy.. but I want to know how it works before I field it..

This is why I never really got into AEGs.. too much "black box" going on..

the GBBRs are mechanical.. and I can understand what is going on every time I pull the trigger.. Fail to fire incidents have all pretty much been sorted on the field.. and when I had a critical failure.. I know what happened.

Real guns go down as well .. the good thing for us is such events never result in anything but monetary ramifications.

I don't expect perfection. But I do expect the hammer in my AK to last more than 500 cycles. Had I known this weakness, I would never have purchased this gun until the RaTech upgrade was available.

mighty putty, problem solved

Well, thats why you dont buy guns when they are first released (especially from WE considering they use all pot metal for its internals), and you wait for reviews/other ppls' issues.

EDIT: http://www.youtube.com/user/ratech59.../2/fQjLCZ207Q4

What is the best AK to get if this is a known weakness and it seems you have to rely on ra tech to supply the aftermarket parts?

I still think the WE AK-74U is the best AK in the market... once this shortcoming (and perhaps others) get rectified (which it will by more-than-willing third party manufacturers).

Yes, most of us have to rely on these aftermarket parts, but that's all part of the fun. You don't get into GBBR if you don't enjoy mechanical tinkering and modding.

I think I was just venting because WE could have come out of the gate really strong and use the opportunity to prove that their new line of stock guns are much better than before. But now it seems even their AK line suffer the same stigma in that their guns must rely on third party help to become truly great. Also venting in part because I dropped a lot of cash expecting to use this a lot over the winter, but likely won't be able to until the spring.

This is certainly welcome news. Thanks for the link. RA-tech pulls thru once again. Awesome!

This is the reason why people recommend noobs get AEGs as their first gun. They're far more reliable and require a lot less maintenance and repairs than a GBBR.

I would rather tinker with a GBBR than a AEG period.

Is WE also considered the best for the GBBR G36 and M4?

That's true to a certain extent. However, when something does go wrong (and it always does in this hobby), it is generally far easier to diagnose and fix on a GBBR than an AEG due to less moving parts and the simpler operating design of the GBBR. I've fixed my GBBRs in the field and got them up and running in less than 10 minutes with the handful of spare parts I always carry with me. But when my AEG goes down, more often then not, it's down for the day.

what an impressive 7 rounds a second, at least while it could still cycle.. talk about cool down.. wow

i don't agree with that mind set. noob or not, the problem is the gun and not the user. GBBRs are far simpler systems when compared with AEGs, so putting the blame on the owner for the GBBR performing badly or braking when no alterations have been made to it out of the box is not right.

when these guns are used as they are designed to and break, it is not a user issue, it is a manufacturer issue and the fault of their engineers. improper use of materials and poor engineering of the parts is the cause of most issues associated with GBBRs.