Good Day
I owned and ran my own Airsoft shop for 8 years as well as a 160 acre gaming property. I still continue to do tech work for customers/players to this day. I have seen a massive amount of weapons as well as performed a lot of repairs.
I'm not going to go into details about what upgrades you should buy or choose and the such.
That conversation could get lengthy as well lol.
I will say, I have owned both G&G & VFC and also sent thousands of rounds down rage with both models.
All games were outdoors exposed to the elements with both rifles.
They are both dependable. Some fellow players like their VFC's and some players like their G&G's.
Now for My personal experience:
VFC: I ran a VFC 416 I believe in 2012 for 1.5 years. The Game time was every Sunday for a minimum of 6hrs. I also ran it in 2day events and a NSA event. In that time frame I replaced all of the internals. some were upgrades and a few were repairs. It literally broke down within the first month of operation (4 Games). Near the end of it's term the gearbox cracked up around the front of the cylinder. replaced gearbox and sold it.
G&G: I ran the G&G TR4-18 Short for 2.5 years. I ran it hard,after a year of use I had to open it up and clean/shim and replace a piston.
I ran it for the rest of the time trouble free except for the shitty part.
After about 2 years I had a catastrophic failure. In mid game the nose of the gearbox snapped completely around the end of the cylinder only being held in place by the hop-up unit . This failure was due to a poor design in the EBB gearbox design. I replaced the shell and sold it. G&G's "non" EBB gearboxes are far superior than the EBB boxes.
In my onion they all have their quirks and they will all eventually need tech work.
I suggest go with the model that you personally like best and suits your needs and your wallet.
There was my non biased 2 cents worth
Cheers Brother
Rippin out....