Questions for anyone living up North
 

I live around 7 hours North of Toronto and winter is soon upon my small town. A few friends and I just got into airsoft this summer. We've purchased mid price guns anywhere from $100 to $250. My question is (and please only answer if you've tryed) do AEGs function and fair well in cold weather (0 to -30) ? Or would it be better to invest in some spring guns for the time being?

**Edit**

Here is a list of the guns we are worried about breaking (I did not include the super cheap stuff we don't mind replacing).

Aftermath Broxa Evolution
Sig Sauer S-552 Clear (unknown make)
TM Desert Eagle CO2 power with blowback (btw will that be a problem with BB?)

typically, most guns do not function well in the winter, even high end guns. rule of thumb:
-more metal= less likely to snap, but will frost up
-gas guns are useless
-Version 3 mechboxes seems to hold up better than v2 boxes

judging on the price you spent, your guns will have mostly plastic bodies, so id worry about breaking a critical external part. internal parts are also at risk.
here in manitoba, i dont think we game when its colder than -5 (confirmation?)

Your batteries will also drain in almost no time.

Dunno about you, but I've played in -15 indoors at a facility here once (Melville). Good/plastic gas guns are still useful (TM, etc), but my KJ P229 (full metal) did not work.
AEG's worked fine.

Stock AEGS work quite well in the cold, but only to a certain degree, upgraded aegs(high fps), preform very poorly. I wouldn't use an upgraded aeg in the minus anything. If you plan on playing outdoors in the cold, stock fps and stock rof should be fine in the low negatives, by low i mean single digits. I used my upgraded rifles in barrie during the winter and they don't preform that great, gun fires like its low on juice all the time, semi works so long as you don't shoot fast, but full auto is out of the question.

I think this has alot more to do with your battery and not your gun.
I can't imagine this happening with a high quality large battery (8.4 3300 and up).

some of the lower end brands like Double Eagle, use a very thick type of oil to lube their gearboxes, in sub-zero climates, this goop hardens and the gearbox will seize up, now i dont know what's in ur guns but if the lube is similar, you will not likely be able to use the guns.

also, please don't use your airsofts in view of the public, as Im sure you dont want a visit from your local PD

I was using 8.4v-9.6v 3000+ Intellect batteries. One was a Tm m14 shooting around 380 fps, it was pretty good, but I noticed full auto didn't really work that well(Intellect 8.4b 3600). A friend of mine was using a m4 with minis, shooting about the same, and it died in no time. I guess your right it depends on the battery, but I mean unless its skirmishes, Its probably not worth playing.

I guess the short of the answer is: Yes they work in cold weather, but depending on what your using expect, sub par performance to poor performance. If your using the stock battery on the Broxa expect shit performance, because that battery is a POS. No GBB's will work effectively in cold weather unless your using compressed air.

I used a stock P90 with an 8.4v 1500mAh mini in the -15 game I was talking about and it lasted the whole time. This was indoor mind you, so maybe not the same volume of BB's.