[MaciekA]

Originally Posted by DavidoftheDoell

Is there a gun that works for both indoor and outdoor games without too much conversion hassle? Since it's winter I'm currently playing indoor games but come summer I'll want to do outdoor as well. I looked at the ICS M4 CQB "pistol" as a possibility because of it's split gear box allowing easier spring change. Then I would just add a longer barrel and a stock. I don't have enough experience to know if it would be more of a frustration than convenience to do each time I change between indoor/outdoor.

I have observed that noobs who ask this question tend to vastly overvalue spring change ability and also hugely overestimate the difference that an extra 40-50fps makes on "outdoor viability". Distance and accuracy are more affected by BB weight and hopup quality than anything else.

I have a couple AEGs that fire in the mid 350s and are 100% fine for outdoor games due to their excellent hopups and me using heavier BBs. You can do both with 350fps, EASILY. My advice is don't limit your selection to ICS just because of the quick change upper mechbox capability. It'll seem important at first but a year or two from now when you're Mr Airsoft, you'll probably never change the spring and other things will be far more important.

My friend tells me internals aren't meant to be messed with on a regular basis. I have seen quick change barrels, I have heard of barrels with holes to lower fps for indoor.

Your friend has his heart in the right place in terms of not messing with not messing with a working gun. What he says isn't strictly true though.

A lot of guys on this forum open their guns up very regularly (I have one or two mechboxes open every week, two at the moment) and some gun doctors I've talked to advocate going into your mechbox every several games (5000 - 10000 rounds, depending on your habits) to keep everything in tip-top shape. Once you have opened up your gun two or three times, this becomes second nature, and also something you'll enjoy doing, so don't fear it.

A well-shimmed gun with quality components isn't going to explode just because you open it frequently, and opening your mechbox every few games is a great way to watch for wear and tear patterns or signs of trouble. You can easily intercept catastrophic failures before they happen just by observing and listening to your mechbox.

The other solution is to buy a gas pistol for indoors and an AEG for outdoors, is that a better idea? Is it feasable to do both indoor and outdoor with the same gun?

You can honestly do both, and on a budget.

Get something like a King Arms M4 (going rate at several sources is $350) and throw a lighter spring in it. You'll have a great full metal AEG that you can upgrade and tweak the living daylights out of. A gas pistol is one of the best ways to bring an uncontrollable grin to your face, but it should be your side arm, not your primary. In general a pistol user will get smoked by AEG users, but you will love having one as your backup in a tight situation.

Keep the questions coming and welcome