What do you think of this new AEA M50 Pistol

I'm probably about to pre-order one. They have .50 (.495) shipping first, then .510 and .457. I'm thinking .457 because I already have that ammo, and like Hillary Clinton says "at this point, what difference does it make?!"

13" in total length. $639.00 ... about 200 fpe and you get 1 magazine (6 shots) shooting hot, then another magazine at well over 100 fpe if you for some reason needed it.


So yes we know the HP Max platform has some issues like, #1 you need to get the right size slugs. Not a hard one. And you shouldn't need that many because this isn't a target shooting gun. #2, the valve pins can sometimes break. Myself, having replaced an HP valve pin before, it takes 10 minutes and the replacement costs $30 so I'll just keep an extra on hand.

Like I said I'm just thinking about preordering right now even though I said I wouldn't buy any more airguns. I might have to sell a couple shiny rocks to make up for it and keep my wife happy. She's gonna like this though ;)

I've owned a bunch of AEAs and still hold onto two of them (Challenger Pro .30 and HP SS+ .30) so I pretty much know what to expect. This is kind of a game changer though in the compact arena. What do you think?

No I don't work for AEA or Bintac I just really like what they come out with especially on my budget. Bin Lu and his guys like Jason and Pete have always been 100% on top of any issues I have, very helpful and because of all that I prefer dealing with AEA now.
 
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Airgun Nation does not condone air powered self or home defense.
Going Moose hunting?

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If I did want to "moose hunt" I guess I'd have to grab my 30 cal AEA Challenger or 30 cal Guantlet. Maybe not a moose, but either one of those would kill a whitetail, within target range, without a lot of drama. I sold my 357 Challenger on the marketplace here, but I'm sure the 30 cals would have basically the same effect with a slightly smaller bore hole.
 
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well, the price is not out of line and might sell very well and why would you want one, why wouldn't you want one

ADDED
so, 40 odd years ago when i shot PB and Competed with .45acp, we shoot anything and everything at the range
there is one pistol that i shot but did not own, it was Thompson Center Contender in .444 Marlin, a .44 mag that was reamed out and no matter how impractical to the average shooter it was, you always walked away with a huge smile
i had a 375 HH that did the same thing to me and anyone that shot it, i was not a hunter but damn that rifle was fun and painful to shoot and i always planned to make a 375 HH Encore but at 73 that ship has sailed
my point is if it put a smile on your face or others is has a purpose
 
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I had bad luck with the Max platform and I wouldn’t go near this myself. I tried to get two .357’s to work and both had to go back due to multiple issues. Also at least the one I had had a solid metal valve stem unlike the fragile plastic ones used in the Hp series. My experience is that the valve seat is what fails / deforms regularly.

I would be very surprised if you can get 200 shots out of one of these without needing to fix something.

As I said, before, any one of the three aea’s I have tried to enjoy had more issues in the first month than my three AF guns, webley, hatsan, gamo, and Artemis combined over the time i have owned them. I could have just been very unlucky, but valve seat repeatedly cracked / deforms, check valves for fill port leaked and mechanism to adjust was not functional, magazines constantly jam on the .25 semi auto I ended up with, some screws on new guns were stripped, making me wonder how new these lemons actually were.


I know some people love these things, so maybe you’ll have good luck.
 
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I had bad luck with the Max platform and I wouldn’t go near this myself. I tried to get two .357’s to work and both had to go back due to multiple issues. Also at least the one I had had a solid metal valve stem unlike the fragile plastic ones used in the Hp series. My experience is that the valve seat is what fails / deforms regularly.

I would be very surprised if you can get 200 shots out of one of these without needing to fix something.

As I said, before, any one of the three aea’s I have tried to enjoy had more issues in the first month than my three AF guns, webley, hatsan, gamo, and Artemis combined over the time i have owned them. I could have just been very unlucky, but valve seat repeatedly cracked / deforms, check valves for fill port leaked and mechanism to adjust was not functional, magazines constantly jam on the .25 semi auto I ended up with, some screws on new guns were stripped, making me wonder how new these lemons actually were.

Hopefully this M50 / Max pistol has a metal valve stem. Yeah, if I went through your experience I'd be pretty put off as well. Maybe I have been very lucky with my AEAs. I've also taken them apart plenty of times (several of their different platforms) just to clean and sometimes fix things... never really noticed major defects. But I have noticed a little sloppy machining here and there -- nothing that would directly affect functionality.

The semi-auto SS did have some jam issues, mainly because the magazines are very picky about rotational mass. So when they say you need to use a certain grain pellet, that's pretty important. Also an issue with the Terminator series-- you can't use real heavy slugs in that. The semi-auto action relies on a certain rotational mass to cycle properly.

That said I have run 2 (two) AEA HP SS 30+ now without any issues... the trick being I stick to 44.75 JSB/FX or Hades/Atomic. Hatsan Vortex 48 grain work too, but you bump it up to 50.15 grain JSBs and expect it to hang up about once a mag. But for that gun the lighter the pellet the better anyway, it's only hitting just over 700 fps in .30 cal

So, long story long, I've been able to dial in every AEA product I've owned, including the notorious AEA Defender 2.0 ... guess what, mine *never* leaks and holds air for several months in a row. Unlike the YouTuber crowd. Why? Genius I am, I put a tiny drop of silicone oil on the burst disc where it touches the o-ring each time. Who would have thought? ;) I literally get duplicated FPS readings over the chrony after letting it sit for 3 months. I understand, though, the Defender aka "Scuba Ringer", was not designed by AEA but by a creative maniac in Germany.

So, I hope this pistol does go 200 shots before I need to fix something. I'm pretty much going to zero this in and keep it at my bedside, so to speak. I have a bunch of 155 grain .456 sized slugs from Texoma that I bought for my Defender 2.0 ... if they are getting 620 fps with 225 grain slugs from the test they showed on YouTube with this, I ought to be getting close to a sweet 800 fps with the much lighter ammo. That's why I went with the .457

Regardless of possible (probable) maintenance issues you may encounter... 6 shot magazine fed 13" big bore pistol ... at a not insane price .. is the game changer I would think a lot of people have been waiting for. Definitely me. I'm looking forward to what Bin says they have next year that will be even more compact and semi-auto. And if they ever make a revolver based on the Element Max platform I'll sell the clothes off my back to buy one.
 
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“ 6 shot magazine fed 13" big bore pistol ... at a not insane price .. is the game changer I would think a lot of people have been waiting for”

That’s me. I would love a reliable, high-powered, magazine fed air pistol. for a handful of reasons I’m not comfortable spending $1200 on one. Very very tempted by the huben. the rifle has been on my dream gun list ever since I started the hobby and now the pistol is there as well.


I think if stripping down and reassembling the AEA air gun is something you don’t mind doing, then the parts that break can just be seen as consumables, and in that scenario, it might be worth the hassle. Replacing a valve seat every 200 shots isn’t fun, but it isn’t the end of the world either if you know it’s going to happen and are provided with instructions, a handful when you buy the gun, and a warranty that isn’t voided when you open it up.
 
well, the price is not out of line and might sell very well and why would you want one, why wouldn't you want one

ADDED
so, 40 odd years ago when i shot PB and Competed with .45acp, we shoot anything and everything at the range
there is one pistol that i shot but did not own, it was Thompson Center Contender in .444 Marlin, a .44 mag that was reamed out and no matter how impractical to the average shooter it was, you always walked away with a huge smile
i had a 375 HH that did the same thing to me and anyone that shot it, i was not a hunter but damn that rifle was fun and painful to shoot and i always planned to make a 375 HH Encore but at 73 that ship has sailed
my point is if it put a smile on your face or others is has a purpose
I have one of these in .45-70. Don't see myself ever parting with it. Just too much fun.
 
Got mine in today.

It's actually shorter than the photo shown in my original post. 5" barrel (with muzzle break attached) and a pretty short tank.

I will follow up soon, but I did take a few shots today. This is louder than most handguns. I will never shoot this again without hearing protection (unless I have to). What a brilliant way to piss of my very nice gun friendly neighbors too.

One thing I will say. I shot this down to 500 psi and it still kicked hard. So yeah you will have a pretty quick power curve, but you can still get some serious shots at the ultra low end if you needed to.

Also I didn't have any issue feeding ammo or having to "slam the bolt" as some M50 owners complained about. I don't know if it's my choice of ammo or the issue is otherwise resolved. I have 5 types of "lightweight" .457 ammo and started with some Texoma Precision 155 grain-ish. I think they're sized in .456 in this particular case. Either way, they loaded like butter.

I like the trigger very well for this application. Different than the other 7 AEA's I've owned. Lighter but more precise than the HP SS semi autos. About the same weight but more travel compared to the Challenger Pro. Maybe closest would be the Terminator trigger but less initial force to start pulling it back. It has a nice feel to it and certainly won't hinder you.

Quite a thing. I will try to follow up with more, but as I said, this isn't exactly neighbor friendly so I need to find the time and space.

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No silencer, just a big muzzle brake. It’s very loud, it will make your ears ring. In the garden I shoot trough a big plastic barrel filled whit foam, keeping the muzzle in the barrel. Works better than a silencer and the sound is like a bass drum. The HP Max is standard about just as long as a Benjamin Marauder pistol only 23 times more powerful.
 
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No silencer, just a big muzzle brake. It’s very loud, it will make your ears ring. In the garden I shoot trough a big plastic barrel filled whit foam, keeping the muzzle in the barrel. Works better than a silencer and the sound is like a bass drum. The HP Max is standard about just as long as a Benjamin Marauder pistol only 23 times more powerful.

and 23 times more damaging to your hearing