The G36 is an extremely popular rifle manufactured by HK since 1997. The popularity of the actual rifle has spawned numerous airsoft replicas. Manufacturers such as Classic Army, Echo1, and Jing Gong have followed suit and are putting out high quality airsoft G36 rifles. These rifles vary in quality and realism but at the highest end of the scale they are hard to tell apart from the real steel deals. Popular venders such as airsplat and evike now sell these airsoft guns, but this could all be troubled by recent HK lawsuits claiming copyright and trademark infringement.
There is little to nothing that the HK Company can do about the manufacture of the weapons in other countries because they do not share common copyright laws and HK cannot impose German law onto non German countries. These are not sniper rifles but some do still come with rails for scopes and other types of optics or accessories and that makes for a versatile rifle. This is important to remember because you will find yourself in different matches where your specific need might change and it’s always nice to know that you can change your gun to suit your surroundings.
I personally like the faithful recreation of the G36 in the airsoft world because I happen to like how it looks in the real steel world as well. AEG would be my preferred choice in a G36 airsoft model and thankfully there are plenty to choose from. This range has also served to drive prices somewhat lower and put these guns into more and more hands. I think it’s important to have a wide variety of airsoft guns available because sometimes it’s nice to pick sides and use the guns that you would actually have if you were to go to war representing the nation of origin.
Most of the reviews I’ve read about all but the absolute worst of the G36 clones have been generally positive with just the occasional hiccup with either feeding or reliability issues. I can ignore this because I know that many of these issues come from the accessories you choose, such as the magazines, and thus can be very easily remedied should they ever become a real problem. Now I’m not nearly as big a fan of the G36 as I am of the M4 or M14 but they are still very good guns and the replicas should satisfy your urge to carry a little bit of German firepower for years to come.
