Airsoft Action July 2020 | Page 22

armoury DOUBLE EAGLE M904A FCS DE FIRE In Collaboration with CONTROL SYSTEM WHEN BUYING AN AEG, PLAYERS CAN EXPECT A LOT FOR THEIR MONEY WHEN IT COMES TO THE TECHNICALITY AND FUNCTION OF INTERNAL COMPONENTS AND OPERATING SYSTEMS, WITH ETUS, MOSFETS, AND FCUS NOW THE NORM FOR MANY MANUFACTURERS. BILL HAS FOUND A LITTLE GEM FROM UNEXPECTED QUARTERS THAT OFFERS COOL PERFORMANCE AT A COOL PRICE! If you’d said to me that I’d be looking at a neat little AR AEG with a host of up-to-the-minute features from Chinese manufacturer Double Eagle, even a couple of years back, I’d have probably nodded sagely and said “Oh yes, I’m sure it will be fine” as, let’s face it, Double Eagle (or DE Airsoft these days) have been pretty much known for their well-priced spring models and, apart from a delve into the AEG market with their M89A “UMP” (which is fairness was cheap as chips!), it’s not a brand I would associate with complex electric models. I have owned a number of Double Eagle shotguns, both regular springers and shell-fed tri-shot beasties, over the years and I have to say that when it comes to “gas and spring” games their M58A shottie is a vastly underrated model. I bought my first one for next to nothing when I lived in the USA as I wanted something that looked in keeping for Nam games and with a bit of judicious paintwork to give the stock and pump handle a “wood effect” finish, I was well pleased with it! You can still pick these little beauties up for under £30 in the UK and for that you’ll get a pretty cool mag-fed, pump action shotgun that bangs out a .20g BB at 300+fps that, with the little slider hop set properly, will give you great range and great accuracy! In an airsoft world where we all seem to want the very latest full-metal, fully-tricked “uber gnu” going back to a humble spring shotgun can really sort out the “vets from the rest” and it’s something that everyone should do from time to time to remember where we all started not so many years ago. I still love my M58A springer and after many years of use it is still popping away just as well as it did when it came out of the box. But as I said, as good as that little plastic springer has proved to be, it was something of a surprise to say the least when I first clapped eyes on the new DE Airsoft ARs with the new “FALCON” Electronic Fire Control System (EFCS), which I’ll return to later in this review! After watching a video of this EFCS online though, I was properly taken aback and thought immediately that I needed to get my hands on one of the new AEGs to really check it out. As luck would have it, when I spoke to my contacts at Taiwangun they had just begun to stock a number of new DE Airsoft models. Whilst a number of them look like “standard modern ARs” there are also a couple of models that look surprisingly like “Honey Badgers” but there was one model that stood out from the crowd for me and that was the M904A. “IN AN AIRSOFT WORLD WHERE WE ALL SEEM TO WANT THE VERY LATEST FULL- METAL, FULLY-TRICKED “UBER GNU” GOING BACK TO A HUMBLE SPRING SHOTGUN CAN REALLY SORT OUT THE “VETS FROM THE REST”…” 22 JULY 2020