Elite Force H&K Licensed MG4 Airsoft AEG Light Machine Gun by Umarex / VFC

"I won this beast in a raffle, tbh always wanted a LMG but never fully committed to the purchase. Winning this MG4 has upped my experience with airsoft 10 fold! The gun (to me) looks flawless, every little detail is on point and looks amazing. Here my pros and cons .

Pros:
Lightweight
Internal magazine
5000 round box mag
Lipo ready and deans
Solid rate of fire
Has not miss fed in 5000+ rounds
Solidly built
Folding stock
Bi pod

Cons:
Price point, I don't agree with $1350
Feed tube wasn't secured in the box so when I went to use the box mag it knocked the spring out but fixed it with glue
You have to practically slam the stock to get the lock to engage
The tip was a royal pain to get off but I persevered
You can't find instructions anywhere to open it up
So expensive I almost don't want to use it

Summery: Very solid gun and a blast to run, definitely more a collectors item then a skirmish gun. If you want something rare and pretty bad a$$ this is the gun for you or if you want to be the talk of your field this gun will make you popular (results may very). 10/10 would recommend to you and all your friends. 😉

"I'm reviewing this mG4 because there isn't many reviews out there. I have owned well over 500 replicas and actively use them at milsim events, local events, pickup games, ext. As far as MG's I own and use: M240B AEG, M240B HPA, RPK, PKM, PKP, several M249's, MG42, M1919 Browning, 1917 BAR, and MK46. My MG4 went through Deliverance 2022 and one pickup game prior to this review. Total round count about 7,500.

Overall the MG4 is incredibly well constructed and light weight. I love the strong polymer and there is no play and no wobble. The barrel assembly is held in by one screw and does not wobble. Many replicas have this as a weak point because the "carry handle" is attached to nearly every barrel assembly. For example, my M240 barrels fall out all the time when carrying the weapon as it rotates and the QD feature lets it go. Very frustrating. The MG4 has a crisp, locking 2 position carry handle. Prewired to deans! Includes adaptor to tamyia. Bipod is great, quickly locks in the handguard and does not rattle. Excellent quality and crisp locking - great amount of rotation and flexibility. Not cheap like every other replica. Trades are awesome and fire selector is crisp.

Why spend close to $1400 on this replica? Trades, yes- but the best technological advancement in the MG4 is the internal box magazine. It is a game changer. 900 round capacity and feeds every single shot very reliably even in dusty and sandy conditions. Not a single jam after 7500 rounds. I was able to use this MG with the handling of a rifle and maneuver incredibly easy. Switching shooting hands isn't a problem with no magazine on the side or under the weapon. The weight savings also pay dividends to the operator of the entire weapon loaded. Maybe 10lb - but still can beat it against a tree or concrete no problem. Solid as a rock. Downside is the gun sounds like a maraca and you have to shake the 300 rounds on top into the lower 400 round chamber and it takes a good number of tilts and shakes to get it all in there.

Internals. Solid. ROF is bout 20rps with an 11.1v which isn't much and FPS comes at 1.3J but upgraded this was pushing 1.88J at 25rps with an 11.1v lipo and still kept up with feeding every shot. TDC Hop up unit and hardware is very solid. Piston, gears, pinion, et. all had little to no wear after 5000 rounds of use. The gearbox is not pot metal, it's lightweight aluminum which also counts toward weight savings substantially. However, the motor cage area is very weak and for some reason Umarex uses red Loctite on the motor adjustment screw. Be careful -the motor cage area is very fragile and will break the gearbox by adjusting the motor height adjustment screw.

Notice how I've been saying "was" though. At the end of the second outing (been using a 7.4v 3000mAh Titan battery), I was test firing and all of a sudden the gun fired non stop without touching the trigger. Doing some investigation - the contacts of the micro switch were operating is they should. The MOSFET unit fried and the gun was basically useless. There are NO parts avaible and many are proprietary. There was nothing I could do but send it back for repair. Umarex replaced the MG4 at no cost to me within a few days of receiving my broken MG4. Very pleased! Looking forward to running it as my primary MG for decades to come. Hopefully parts become avaible for sale in time as the product ages.

Would I buy it again? Hell yes! The weight, internal magazine, solid build, and trademarks make it a winner on the wall and on the field.

Pros:
- trades
- lightweight
- internal mag or box mag
- barrel assembly construction and design
- integrated RIS on feed cover
- feed cover stays open!!
- crisp fire selector
- wired to deans out o the box
- huge battery space
-folding stock
- bipod is great and stays out of the way when not in use
- fire indicator is neat
- easy disassembly
- excellent customer service and support
- very good performance out of the box (180' with .25's at 1.3J and 17rps with 11.1v)

Cons:
- no extra parts avaible yet
- MOSFET broke on mine
- Gearbox has non-structural fragile motor cage
- buttplate on the first was was always falling off- the new one seems to stay on very very well.
- price point

"Definitely not worth the old $1300 price. The current $1109 price is better, but not great. You can get a full-steel PKP from LCT for cheaper, to put into perspective cost of materials.
Is the weight nice? Yes. However, I’m not the biggest fan of a machine gun being light. It’s big, it’s okay that it’s a little heavy. With this particular model, I would concede that it’s fine for the receiver to be aluminum. However, there’s a lot of places where steel should be, but isn’t. The carry handle part is steel, but the part it is mounting to isn’t and the latch that locks it is also not (which is where mine broke).
The bipod and magazine mount are steel, which is nice.
It seems that the sling mounts are steel, but only the small rings, and I’m also not sure about the quality OF steel that is used. The rest of the area near the mounts aren’t and I would NOT trust hanging this expensive gun by the mounts.
The, what I assume, vehicle/tripod mount up front is also steel.
Stock latch? Any major part of the receiver? All non-steel. Just little bits like shoulder bar, pins, and screws.

If it was priced like an M249, I wouldn’t care as much, but with the unique gun, you’re getting limited parts support. Currently, the only option for parts is ordering directly through VFC and they don’t even have any diagrams available.

Internally, it seems fine. The mechanism for box mag winding is cool but limiting. I don’t really feel the strong need for upgrading, but I’m glad the tappet, gears, and motor are standard. So is compression, but those seem to be doing fine for me. The gears should stay the same ratio, but if I swap the motor, it’d be for brushless and I would try to step down in speed slightly, if possible, to match the running speed of the brushed motor.

Again, everything feels good. It seems to still be running good for me. I just with some more areas around high-risk spots were steel. I hope to see a bit more parts support from retailers as well, in case anything, like my carry handle, break.

"Its alright. this gun arrived last night (10/15/22) to my surprise and excitement, says the eta would be december! Either way when I opened it up was not too terribly impressed, the gun is in a plastic bag and protected by cardboard. Comes with the manual and a box mag as well as two tags on the gun with some tips. zThat was it, nothing else, though maybe I have been spoiled by TM's packaging. Anyway took it to play today and came away with fairly mixed feelings, will list them here:

PROS
- shoots pretty well with no upgrades
- decent rof with an 11.1 lipo (7.4 is far far too slow)
- looks pretty much 100% like an mg4 aside from the finish, the bipod is incredible movement wise
- feeds pretty well from the box, have not tried the internal mag
- wired to deans!
- very light. much lighter than my m240
- comfy to shoulder, the rails are nice as well

CONS
- mock bullet indicator does not pop up when the box mag is being used, no clue how to engage it, it is also plastic
- sapped my 1600 mah lipo in the span of two games, dont know if this is the battery or not but a little concerning regardless considering the battery is new and charged this morning.
- spread is pretty bad with .28s. need to upgrade the hop and barrel more than likely but cannot figure out how to take it out, not in the manual
- flash hider is a pain to remove and was not able to remove it
- If I am honest this thing is built externally like one of those 600 dollar m240s by echo 1 or matrix, do not trust the sling points and did not want to try. The metal feels grainy and every metal piece on the gun has that similar grainy finish, feels like there is no steel on the gun whatsoever. the feed tray is PLASTIC, the bipod is made out of the same shitty vfc metal. if you have the vfc g18 is is the same metal as that gun's slide...which is honestly pathetic, this thing is going to scratch with a strong wind.
- 11.1 and the rof still isnt all that great, going to be an absolute pain to open it up when it breaks.
- mock bullets cannot be installed, which is a shame imo.

All in all the gun is ok, surely not worth 1300, more around 6-8 hundred, typical umarex externals and internals, you're paying for the licensing. The trigger happy 240 I own retailed 1500 about ten years ago and runs much better. Yeah it is like ten pounds heavier but is built and feeds damn well, it feels rugged, it feels like a machine gun. The umarex mg4 feels very fragile, the price does not match the quality in my opinion, it shoots fine enough and it's awesome to have an mg4 but cannot help being a tad disappointed in the end product.