[wildcard]

Originally Posted by Crunchmeister

First off, this is just a bit of a rant on my part. I'm not usually one to post rants. And even less likely to start threads. But I've come close to being bitten by this a couple of times by the misuse of this term and I find it almost borders on advertising a painted clear / cansoft as "full black gun" for sales purposes. I think the term needs clarification.

First the terminology - FMU = FULL METAL UPGRADE. This means that the gun is NOT stock and was FULLY upgraded to metal where metal should be. And the 2 key words are FULL and UPGRADE.

The term FMU should NOT be used for:

1. stock guns that come full metal (KJW, WE for example) out of the box. Those are NOT FMU. Those are stock, pot metal guns that come that way. FMU suggests the gun has been UPGRADED with aftermarket metal parts, not stock with factory parts. This also applies to stock high quality metal guns like G&P AEGs. Advertising them as FMU suggests stock parts (even though they're high quality) have been replaced with aftermarket, which is not the case. If one of these guns was fully upgraded with an aftermarket body / slide kit, then sure, call it FMU. Otherwise, it isn't.
   
   
2. stock plastic guns that have had a slide replaced with metal. Such a gun is NOT FMU. You put on a metal slide to replace the plastic one. FMU is to be used if both the slide AND frame have been replaced with aftermarket parts. I'm a bit on the fence about using the term FMU on Glocks or other guns that are part plastic on the real steel (P90, 5-7, etc). Technically, FMU can apply to those if all parts that are metal on the real thing are metal on the gun. I'm ok with that, although I'm sure that will get some noobs who don't know better and expect a full metal Glock with metal frame too, even though there is no such thing in the real steel world.
   
   
3. lower end metal guns that have had their slide replaced with a quality aftermarket slide. One example I remember was a KJW P226 that had an aftermarket metal slide installed. This is not FMU. This is a stock metal frame with a metal slide. Yes, the gun is FULL METAL with aftermarket slide, but not FMU.
   

So yeah, to me, FMU is the wrong term in these circumstances and it's misleading, even though it may not be intentional deception. I see this more and more in the classifieds as of late. A few times I've inquired about such guns. Once it was a TM P226 advertised as FMU and had "guarder kit" advertised, but still had its plastic frame. All it had installed was a Guarder metal slide. Other times, I've inquired and found it was a stock gun with no upgrades, and still incorrectly advertised as FMU because it's full metal out of the box. I'm sure the people posting this don't intend to mislead. They just don't truly understand the true meaning of the term. But it's still misleading nonetheless.

Anyway, that's my rant for the day. I just figured I'd put this out there because I saw it again in the classifieds today and it just irks me. Just had to vent on this issue to a crowd that would understand, and perhaps people will read this and stop using that term (ok, not likely, but worth a shot).

If you think that's bad Crunchy try answering multiple PM's on what battery does the GBBR take? from my sales thread or the epic fail question of "will your GBBR take a Lipo??"