The quality of the material airsoft guns is made of contributes to their effectiveness, durability, and price. The airsoft market is huge, and there are many materials used for designs from low grades to high grades.
The point of this article is to explain what materials are usually used on different tiers of airsoft guns, including the budget picks that can be found under $100 and high-end guns that can cost $1000.
It is important to understand why material matters, and what you can expect from each type of material, especially if you are just starting with airsoft because this will impact how long will your airsoft gun last.
Airsoft guns are either full plastic, full metal, or a combination of both and can have parts made from wood. The materials used for airsoft replicas always depend on the material used on real guns. Thus, if the real gun is made from ABS, you won’t find a metal airsoft replica. However, if the real gun is metal, you will find both metal and plastic replicas of airsoft guns depending on your budget.
The quality of plastics, metal, and wood also varies, so there are high-quality plastics such as ABS or nylon fibers, and alloy metal but there are also cheap ABS or even PLA plastics and pot metal.
The usual materials used in airsoft replicas are:
| Material | Quality | Found on |
| Pot metal (lower quality casting metal) | Low tier | Budget metal airsoft guns |
| Zamak-4 (Zinc based metal alloy, usually higher quality pot metal) | Medium tier | Majority of airsoft guns (Most common) |
| Aluminum | High Tier | High-tier airsoft guns |
| Steel | High Tier | High-tier airsoft guns |
| ABS | Mid-high Tier | From budget to high-tier airsoft guns and accessories |
| PLA | Low Tier | Lower-tier airsoft guns and accessories |
| Nylon fiber | Mid-high tier | From budget to high-tier airsoft guns and accessories |
| Wood | High Tier | Usually found on mid-high tier AK and WW2 airsoft replicas |
Pot metal can include zinc, lead, copper, tin, magnesium, aluminum (really small amounts), iron, and cadmium. It is easy to cast and takes minimal time for manufacturers to produce airsoft guns out of it.
Pot metal is a low tier of metal, but if non-important parts are made of it, it can be fine.
Zamak-4 is decent, not great not terrible. It is a kind of metal that won’t disappoint you and will give sturdiness to the gun. However, it will always be a tier below aluminum and two tiers below steel.
Steel is simply the best, but only really expensive guns contain a significant amount of it.
ABS is a great polymer that is sturdy and can sustain heat, PLA is good but not for important airsoft gun parts, it melts at 338°F (170°C ) so it is more prone to breaks and can melt if left in the sun. Nylon fiber can be used to enhance important parts and overall is a strong, high tier of plastics.
Wood can be strong and beautiful and can be no more than decent. The quality of manufacturers means a lot.
How to know what metal your airsoft gun is made of
Weigh
For instance, zinc or pot metal is lighter than aluminum, so a lot can be told just by weighing a gun.
Burn
Zinc melts at 787.1°F (419.5 °C), while aluminum melts at 1220.54°F (660.3 °C). By melting each one of them you can spot a difference. Zinc also produces more smoke.
However, I understand that it is not recommended to set your gun on fire just to prove that you were right.
Use magnet
This is the best method to check whether the parts are metal or not. Further, if the tested part gives magnetic properties, it is steel and in its absence, it is probably pot metal, Zamak-4, or aluminum.
When we talk about the quality of airsoft guns, we need to pay attention to both the internal and external build of a gun. This is why I am going to explain when material really matters and when you should not buy a gun made from inefficient material.
What should internals be made of?
Internally, airsoft guns are built from plastic/metal hop-up chambers and rubbers to aluminum barrels, hardened steel springs, steel gears, and nylon fiber pistons.
Internals should not necessarily be built from strong materials like metal but should be still of good quality materials because the gun’s performance depends on them.
Although there are many inner builds from a variety of materials, this is an example.
For instance, a piston is preferred to be made from polymer or nylon fiber because it needs to absorb energy, the hop-up chamber is ideally built from aluminum, and the inner barrel should be smooth, so stainless steel is a good and better option than an aluminum one.
It is not important data for beginners who are buying a stock gun, but rather a welcomed knowledge once you start picking upgrades.
In that case, you will want to individually check each part and see not only which material is best for it, but also the brand and the build for what you want to achieve.
Gearbox quality is super important
Many inner parts can be built with plastics, but the gearbox should not!
The gearbox is precious, and if it is not strong it will break after a few months of cycling your gun or even sooner.
That’s why I avoid plastic gearboxes and only recommend metal ones.
Another thing is the upgrade friendliness, quality matters a lot if you plan to upgrade your gun internally in the future.
What should externals be made of?
Externals should be sturdy and resilient because there are no gentle games in airsoft. Even the simple game style with the least amount of movement and acrobatics can lead to a broken gun if it’s made from cheap plastics.
Weak plastic builds can damage from changing magazines and hard gripping, imagine what happens if you hit the concrete with it.
For this reason, cheap plastic builds are not recommended for fields and are used as cosmetics or backyard fun toys.
Quality plastics
Most budget airsoft guns are made from ABS and they are really fine even in the harsh field environment. However, the quality of the build does not only depend on the primary material but also on secondary materials which may be a worse grade of plastics.
Another big issue is how was the gun manufactured, are the parts loose and stiff, are they made from bigger pieces or connected to smaller ones, and so on. Some manufacturers use plastic screws, some use steel quality screws, cheap or strong glue, you get it.
If a manufacturer is good, plastic guns can last for quite some time and be used in the field quite competitively.
However, the issue with most plastic guns is that they will rarely be as resilient against the impact as the metal build would be.
Therefore, plastic guns sometimes break from a fall or accidental bump into a concrete wall in the rush of a game, while a metal version or a real wood one could sustain the damage much better.
Although, enhanced high-tier plastics do not have this problem. (I still prefer metal If I can)!
Metal build
Not all metals are equal, but generally speaking, any metal build is a good choice for beginners who want a sturdy gun that will last at least a couple of years through harsh conditions with minimal damage.
Metal builds are everlasting, which was one of the factors that affected my decision to get an AK as a beginner.
The more metal parts, the better, and simple it is.
Although you can rarely expect to see a real steel airsoft gun, even on standard-tier guns, small parts such as trigger and mag release bolts are made of steel.
Wood build
Wood is an expensive material, so it is usually found in combination with metal airsoft guns because it does not make sense to combine wood with less resilient plastics.
Wood is excellent, comfortable, and looks phenomenal, but there are not many airsoft guns that are built from wood because naturally most guns in real life are neither built from it.
WWII replicas usually contain wood and AK platform contains wood (except the tactical series).
You might find some sawed-off shotguns and snipers also built from wood, but usually, the majority of the gun is still metal.
Wood imitation plastics
Guns that are built from plastics that imitate wood are actually of really good quality from my experience.
It is not real wood, but its appearance can look almost identical with the absence of touch.
If the quality of plastics is good and the rest of the gun is also built well, this material is not a bad choice for an airsoft gun.
Final take on
Some manufacturers combine plastic parts with metal parts, so they cover the majority of vulnerable parts with metal and substitute the less important parts with plastics. This is a good solution and usually makes guns pretty resilient, and although you do not necessarily need a full metal build, if you are buying an airsoft gun, prioritize the less plastic-based builds. (Or assure the brand makes good plastic builds).
Another problem is that you do not always know the exact quality of the materials on your gun because you do get to always know what manufacturers use and advertise as such.
Thus, always go for proven brands and spend a few bucks more for something of a better build if you do not want to risk with cheap builds!