Anybody have experience with the ARES G36 line?
 

So over two months ago back in April I placed an order at my local store for an ARES G36K. I was told 2 months but now apparently it'll take longer and I should expect arrival in July. I know it's quite late but I was wondering if anybody had some experience with any of the G36s made by Ares. Anything to note, stay away from, etc?.... I'm trying to read up on it as much as I can to sort of tide myself over until it arrives. Dunno why since I've already placed the order but still.

I have one. it's a piece of shit. it lies to me about working. It feeds in my basement when I chrono it. I bring it to the field, it jams up and refuses to shoot. I hate it. Every time I've needed it as a loaner, it's failed, so it sits on my table, all it does is test springs so I can label the box of used springs that people leave me when they have guns upgraded.

It would be my 5th g36. I have had 3 CAs, I still have 2 which are all sort of not CA anymore except in skeletal and skin remains. The other was returned to stock and sold. I have a jg sl9 in the basement that has been more reliable than the ares at half the price.

I have an Ares G36C and it's performed well for me so far. I'm new to airsoft so I've only been using it for about 3 months but it has not failed me so far and shoots reliably for a stock gun. I think a few compression upgrades would make it more consistent. I have not disabled the electronic blowback although many people recommend it. So yeah my experience is way different than lurkingknight's.

I am using CYMA midcap magazines. I had to slightly file the locking tabs to get them to fit (less than 1mm removal) but they feed fine.

My one complaint is that I can't get the rear peep sight low enough to zero properly. Flipping to the rear open sight is fine. Airsoft iron sights are never great to begin with though. So I use a Bushnell TRS-25 red dot, cowitnessed with my open irons and it works very well.


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I own a Ares g36 that has almost everything replaced/upgraded. It belonged to a friend of mine who always had bad luck with it, after he dumped hundreds into the gun it seems to finally shoot nice. Right now I am running it with a warfet and is pretty fun with the burst modes. But the original owner had nothing but problems with the gun when it was stock.

I've got all three lengths and I have had them for years! They work great and I have yet to do any upgrades!

Rule of thumb; avoid Ares.

Aren't the brand new, latest ones supposed to be pretty reliable now? I had the impression that you avoided used ones like the plague, but that the latest batches were actually pretty good.

I have a Umarex (Ares) G36CV, purchased second-hand. It has been eminently reliable, shoots straight and fast.

As another poster mentioned, you cannot use standard CYMA G36 mags without modification. You can insert them and they will feed, but they will not remain seated in the magazine well and will fall out. I since have bought Ares-brand magazines and they have fed and seated reliably. We have used the Ares high-caps and mid-caps without difficulty. It is actually probably the only gun that I own that has not (yet) had a misfeed/jam at some point.

The gun is stock except the battery connector was modified to Deans and the electric blow-back option was disabled by the previous owner. I have left it disabled as some have commented that it will eventually degrade performance in the internals to leave it on.

For those that say ARES is a bad brand... Do those experiences come from recent or old interactions with the brand? And if you consider ARES bad, why? Is it reliability or performance or replacement parts/upgrade options? I've seen one real bad report of an ARES G36C where the hop up 'fell apart in owners hand' and another where there was an apparent gearbox problem but no details on the diagnosis. Just want to know what to expect down the line during ownership.


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Ares is notorious for a few problems. That doesn't mean that every model of every gun they've ever made is necessarily bad, but it's a consistent mess. Ares is known for proprietary parts, spec issues and horrid customer service and product support, among other things. Couple that with the fact that there are always reliable companies that make the gun you want and that Area prices are typically high end for their train-wreck of a reputation and it plops them right in the middle of the DNB list. Why take the risk when there isn't a reason to? If you want a G36, then there are several companies that make them, in several variants, many of which have good reputations. What else is there to consider?

So for my Ares G36C, I got one of the newer models. One of the ones with the electronic trigger unit and electric blowback. Shot half of one mag the very first game I brought it out. Completely stripped all the teeth on the bevel gear. Whatever, got a lemon. Replaced with another stock Ares gear and have had no gearbox problems since (I also shimmed the gearbox properly, which was NOT done from the factory).

And then next time I took it out was to a milsim for 12 hours. Nearing the end of all day fighting (I went through minimum 1000 shots that day) it wouldn't feed and fire. Turns out the hopup rubber fell apart. Replaced it with a Lonex 70o bucking and since then the gun has worked like a charm.

I also have the M4 magwell adapter, and that works amazingly well. I would say that the gun is not a bad gun (after these issues were fixed). It's great if you want to be forced to learn how to take an aeg apart (which really isn't a bad thing).

Hey DarkAura what brand of m4 adapter are you using? I know not all of them work well. But since I have the exact same model I'd like to know what my options are.


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Can't remember the brand and the gun is tucked away somewhere. Are you age verified? I have no idea how to check and I don't want to break any rules by telling you the shop I got it at.

If you look closely you will see a badge that says, AGE VERIFIED

Yes I'm age verified. PM me the details of the brand or the shop, that would be very helpful. Thanks!


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OP, did you receive your g36c over the summer and if so, how has it performed so far?

Notes on my recent experience: I've recently installed a PDI W-Hold hop up bucking to replace the stock one, which is really flimsy and is known to be so. When I took the stock one out it was torn right at the mound. Not sure if it was torn during use or during removal. Either way it's not something that should happen.

During this process the barrel clip on the hop up broke right in half...must be due to repeated stress as I took the barrel in and out over a half dozen times during fitment and alignment of the bucking.

I contacted ARES through their website contact form and got a response within 36 hours. They put me in touch with their distributor in Hong Kong and for $20 usd including shipping I have a new barrel clip (and hop up nub for good measure) in airmail enroute. Pretty happy with their service so far. Eager to see how it will fire with the PDI W-Hold.


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Used to have one from a trade. Sold it later. Recently brought another used one.
They are super easy to change spring. I use both I had primary as spring testers so I can't really tell for long term performance as spring testers don't need many rounds.
Their microswitch trigger is very annoying to me. I think this topic was heavily covered in ASC before. Basically the switches are meant for lower current they experience in typical AEG setup, and they are also not MOSFET (especally active braking MOSFET) friendly due to switch bouncing. Change to a different, low current and low bouncing switch and use a MOSFET seems to help.
Everyone I know disables the blowback the first thing when they get the gun.

Thanks, so main issue here is using an 11.1v lipo is made difficult by the microswitch trigger. I read about that before as well. That's good to know, although I don't plan to go that route with the rifle. If I do make a switch over to lipo I would do 7.4v.


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I don't think 7.4V would be issue free. I don't even think the microswitch issue is "lipo-only".
I think the working current with everything stock and a 9.6V (maybe even 8.4V) NiMH battery would still be too big for the stock microswitch, and the switch bouncing causes more spark and more erosion on the contact points. As the contact points being "wear" with sparks the resistance increases and cause it able to pass even less current and it just keeping get worse... That's why I decided to switch to the combination of a bouncing free low current microswitch and a MOSFET. I don't even run 11.1V lipo on my G36C.

Thanks for the insight. Ok a 9.6v NiMH should be fine - it's what the official manual recommends and I'm happy with its current ROF.


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In this case, make sure you have spare microswitches.
Even in AEGs with standard V2/V3 switch, the contact point will wear or oxidize over time, and need to be polished or replaced once in a while. Microswitch contacts can not be polished easily so replace the entire switch is the way.

I bought an Ares G36 with a bipod from Toronto Airsoft about 3 years ago, it shot like a laser for about 30 bbs, and has not worked properly ever since. Absolute POS gearbox/airseal/hopup; there was so much work to do on the inside I just cut my losses and used it for parts.
My KWA g36 that I bought in 2008 is 100x the gun, for about the same price. Almost ten years on stock internals....KWA G36 = bb hose.

Hey there - revisiting this thread to ask more about microswitches. Can you give me an example of the microswitch you swapped in your G36? Once I know what I'm looking for I'm pretty sure I can find something similar.

I don't remember, I found the model of the microswitch from a thread here on ASC. Try search for "microswitch" in older posts. I am not home now so I can't go find the model number on my switch.
Just be aware: The low bouncing switch is for very low current. Do not use it without MOSFET on any gun. The switch will be burnt instantly.
The low current switch is meant to control the small current to the MOSFET to let MOSFET to control the large current.
There are other ways to deal with switch bouncing, too, like adding a capacitor to the stock circuit.