Maximizing BASR Sniper rifle before upgrading

Finally, i can get back on posting, this week was kind of busy one for me.

By the way, I have a short story as background for my topic today.
There was one of my skirmish friend whose began building his BASR plattform around year ago.
I can say this guy capable of throwing some serious cash to on his project gun.
So, he was building a APS96 / Well MB01, and unfortunately ended up spending over 8 mil Rupiah  (around US$ 700 at that time), and in my opinion it`s a bit too much.
There`s a day when we gather together before skirmishing for a "field-zero". In short i ask this friend to lend me his rifle for a couple shots (i was curios of what 700$ gun can do). After shooting last shot from it`s mag, nothing impressed me, yes maybe fps was HOT, but accuracy are lame, even on par with my cheap Chinese clone VSR. Yes, he also tried my rifle as well.

Even though he didn`t said it directly, i can tell he agreed also that the setup didn`t work as effective as amount of cash he boasted he threw on the rifle. Branded parts and expensive rifle DOES NOT guarantee maximum performance if you don`t know how to set up your rifle.

So, let`s find out what to do to maximize your rifle.

1. CLEANING UP & REGREASING
(If your working with Japan rifle, just skip, and go to no.2). Chinese manufacturer, usually overdo lubing their guns, most of ACM guns i purchased got it`s internal soaked with unknown lube.
So, for me it`s a must to disassemble the whole gun, degrease ( you can use alcohol or other degreaser), clean up, and finally regreasing all of parts. I use silicone oil for cylinder assembly, lithium grease on trigger box, receiver,and screw holes. Use a VERY THIN coat of lube in cylinder area to prevent fps inconsistency, then you can go crazy and put as many as you wish on trigger assembly.
Please make sure NOT to lube nozzle tip, hop up & barrel area even a bit to (again) prevent shot inconsistency and  slipping bb`s.

2. CHECK HOP UP SYSTEM
This part determine your rifle`s accuracy and consistency, so while doing maintenance, cleaning hop system can be put on priority list. Regularly check hop up bucking, make sure its not torn, not oily, not dirty (you  can soap wash it if necessary).
Peek inside your inner barrel, make sure its clean and shiny (ram it with cleaning rod if not).
Check your hop arm, make sure it`s working properly.
And lastly do multiple check on barrel-chamber-hop-up alignment while reassembling

3. CHECK ON COMPRESSION
Often ignored, but compression problem can cause rifle to perform poorly even with expensive upgrade parts. For you guys who doesn`t know, you can do compression test on cylinder by just pushing the piston forward while closing nozzle tip with your finger (doing this without main spring is easier), if piston can be pushed forward easily, then you have a leak. To fix this, you can either replace o-rings on piston or/and cylinder head. You can experiment with different size of o-rings for best result. Lubing also improves smoothness of operation and airseal on cylinder, personally i use 100% silicone oil with a very light amount (can also experiment with different viscosity).

4. DIY MODS
There are so many DIY upgrade that you can do for very cheap cost, such as Inner barrel polishing, Cylinder head polishing, Custom hop-up nub, Spring guide ring, Custom barrel spacer, etc. Details and guide can be found also on this blog (some are still on progress)

Well, thats all for this post, so if you are just started with your rifle, do these things to maximize it, before throwing cash on it.
Hope it`s useful, see again on next post!

Spring BASR Slam-Firing

When you pull your spring rifle bolt back, normally piston with catched by trigger assembly sear, and will only release when you push the trigger.
But sometimes after you pull the bolt back, piston fail to catch and the spring pushing the whole cylinder to the front, thus you can`t shoot normally.

Here are checklist of possible problem and it`s solution, (sorted from the most common).

1.
Problem:
Piston end wear out (happens on stock piston), this usually after prolonged use of the rifle, moreover with higher powered springs.

Solution:
Get replacement/ aftermarket piston.


2.
Problem : 
Loose screw between receiver and trigger box.

Solution: 
Tighten all screw.


3.
 Problem : 
Worn out trigger sear.

Solution: 
Replace Trigger sear/ the whole trigger system if possible.


4.
Problem :
Missing cylinder ring (on VSR there are 2 white plastic rings located inside receiver, 1 ring on TYPE96 model) the ring serve as spacer between receiver and cylinder, without these ring, cylinder will wobble inside the receiver.

Solution: 
Try to find it, they are rarely can be found anywhere!. Or you can make one with delrin rings.

DIY Spring BASR Upgrade Head Cylinder Head

Picture above tell us everything about "upgraded" cylinder head made by PDI.

The product itself has a pricetag of around $50. Hardly Affordable (for me). It`s a nice upgrade to have on your rifle, but if you are short on cash (like me), there is a way to achieve similiar performance, just by using stock ones. It takes some work, but the result are worth it. So, let`s begin.

Basic Idea:

We are going to make our stock cylinder to produce better airflow (as previous picture said :D).

I often call this mod "Port &Polish". If you are an automotive fan, you might know this term, for those who doesn`t, Port &polish is a method of increasing engine`s performance by enlarging and smoothing  both of intake and exhaust port for better airflow. It`s the same method we will be using.

Tools Needed:

Dremel/ Drill

Sandpapers ( Coarse one for removing material, Fine one for smoothing)

Polishing compound ( ex:Brasso)

Piece of cloth

How to:

1. Disassemble your rifle, until you can take out cylinder head, then remove O-ring on cylinder head.

2. Put your cylinder head nozzle on dremel/drill head and lock it.

3. Your cylinder head will turn as you start your dremel/ drill, start sanding the edge of cylinder head until no sharp edges left on it, but don`t take too much material away, or fps will drop!

4. When the you are satisfied with the shape, dip piece of cloth to polishing compund, and polish   cylinder head

5. Clean up the whole thing, install O-ring back, and assemble the rifle, and we`re done. :D

Doing this mod will give you +5-15 fps, and more consistent fps which means better accuracy &grouping.

Secondary/Sidearm for Sniper

While playing Sniper role, especially with long-barreled, heavier, slower fire-rate, lesser ammo gun, sometimes we might  want to have an additional weapon to fill the role that our primary weapon can`t do. There are some aspects we have to consider whether to have secondary or not.

Lets go further about secondary/sidearm with FAQ.

Q: What secondary/sidearm stands for?
A: Additional weapons system aside from your primary, which, serve as backup/situational gun.

Q: What can be used as secondary?
A: Short-barreled AEG (MP5, shorty M4, P90), GBB pistols, NBB pistols, AEPs, or even Spring Shotguns! (last one is not recommended), usually with lower fps ( under 350 fps).

Q: Why we need secondary? When will it comes in handy?
A: Usually when clearing CQB areas (doing so with long-barreled rifle sucks, i did it before), providing quick counter-fire when flanked/ spotted while moving, engaging target at closer range (lower fps reduce injury).

Q: Which platform to choose?
A: Anything that you are comfortable with. For me, personally, i will take either AEPs/ NBB/ GBB pistol.

Q: When to use/ not to use?
A: You DO NOT want to use secondary when you CAN engange target with primary weapon (Sniper rifle have better hit chance than a pistol or even an AEG!), except your target are really close to you, that using primary can cause injuries. I usually pull out my pistol on EMERGENCY situation, where i have no choice except face to face shootout, or when roaming around CQB or clearing rooms.

Q: What aspects to be considered while choosing secondary?
A: You want something that can shoot continiously (high fire rate if possible), easy to carry/ portable, lightweight, easy to operate, having decent magazine capacity.

Q: How many mag to carry for secondary?
A: For me, just 1 mag is enough. If you have more budget having 2 are still ok, more than 2 are useless (you are a Sniper, not Pistolier :D)

Q: Is it necessary to upgrade secondary?
A: Absolutely NOT, better invest your money on primary weapons and good Sniper bb`s for it.

Q: Why Spring Shotguns are not recommended?
A: It`s simply doesnt fit some requirements. Fire rate are slow, dimension are quite large making it harder lug around along with primary rifle. Rather than relying on shotgun, i prefer carrying no secondary (stay around friend with AEG is a better idea).

Q: How about AEG as secondary?
A: Go ahead if you find yourself comfortable with it. P90, MP5k, MP7 are potential candidates.As for me, GBB pistol/AEP doing just fine and more compact than AEG.

Q: If i`m taking pistols, which are best??
A: Hmm, this one can be a bit too long to be answered here. I will give more in depth experience+reviews about pistols on another post...So, stay tuned! :)

Ideal Inner Barrel Length (Spring BASR)

As i promised before, here are another post about Ideal Inner Barrel Length for Spring BASR.
Being different in design, tuning Spring BASR are slightly more tricky than AEGs. (Check out Ideal Inner Barrel Length (AEGs))

As for maximizing inner length to achieve optimum FPS, longer range, better grouping, and less noise when shooting, we need to set up our cylinder to be having 2.4 x more volume than inner barrel. Many senior airsofters has proven this to be the best ratio for high performance Spring BASR. (i worked all BASR my guns based on this too, and it works ! :D)

Basically, we need to work our compression parts to achieve the "Perfect Cylinder-Barrel Ratio" of 2.4. Don`t worry, i`m not a mathematician either, so i will explain these calculations in simple yet understandable manner. To make it easier, i have prepared some picture,

Still confusing?? 

Let`s make some simulation.

Say we`re building a VSR-10, we already replaced cylinder head, piston, etc, and now we need better barrel.

1.First of all, decide which inner barrel diameter we want, for example 6.02 mm

2.Next step, calculate our cylinder volume with first formula on picture where D stands for cylinder Diameter, and L stands for Length (please start to measure the length from end of port/hole on cylinder to top surface of cylinder head). On our VSR rifle we have cylinder diameter of 22.3mm, and compression length of 96mm, so (3.14 x (22.3/2)²) x 98  =  37.475

3.Then, use last formula to calculate best barrel length.

 (37.475/2.4)/3.14/((6.02/2)²) = 548.867

So using 548.867mm x 6.02 inner barrel would be the best for our current gun ! :D. But you can also improvise by rounding up to 550mm to make the ratio shrink to 2.395 (less ratio usually means lesser noise when shooting, but too low will drop fps too), or go with 500mm to make higher ratio (more power to use heavier bb`s, but more noisy). Ratio of 2.4 is not absolute, you can add up or  subtract a bit towards your preference.

Thats all for today`s post, read again from beginning if you dont get it, but if there`s any question, feel free to post, i will answer as soon possible. 

By the way, Happy Sunday! :D

FPS vs BB weight

Wondering which bb to use for maximum accuracy & range in your gun setup?
Here`s a post of proven guide of bb weight for certain fps.

Using suggested bb will result in maximum flat trajectory WITHOUT adjusting hop-up significantly.

FPS on left measured with 0.2

280 fps ~ 0.2g

300 fps ~ 0.2g

325 fps ~ 0.2g

350 fps ~ 0.2g

375 fps ~ 0.2g
                0.25g for longer range

400 fps ~ 0.25g for more impact
                0.2g for higher bb speed

425 fps ~ 0.25g for more impact
                0.2g for higher bb speed ( sometimes 0.2 fly up at over 400 fps)

450 fps ~ 0.25g for decent speed (400-410fps)
                0.28g for more impact but lower fps

475 fps ~ 0.3g balance between speed & impact
                0.36g reach longer range when applying hop-up

500 fps ~ 0.36g need to apply bit of hop up for flat trajectory
                0.4g longer range & impact but at lower speed

VSR/BAR-10 Schematic & Database

Here is VSR/BAR-10 Schematic diagram (click to zoom), soon i will update this post with technical datas and some database

Ideal Inner Barrel Length (AEGs)

"Longer are Better ?"
 This topic has been discussed over and over again, but to some newer Airsofters, this misconception still show up often.
So let me talk more in depth about inner barrel length in this post.

When it comes to upgrading a rifle (whether AEG/ Gas sniper/ Spring BASR),
most of time "replacing inner barrel" shown at the top of "to-do" list.
Replacing inner barrel with an aftermarket options supposed to improve Airsoft rifle`s overall performance. But in some cases things just go wrong after installment, FPS drops, shot inconsistency, bad accuracy, weak trajectory, etc.

Aside from faulty/ bad quality replacement barrel, improper installation, misalignment (which not covered in this post), there is also another reason for those performance degradation on upgraded rifles. I will call this "Inner Barrel Mismatch". This means the barrel is not suitable for the rifle without further adjustment.

AEG-DMR has been a really popular platform for all-around sniper rifle these days. So, i want to cover AEG-DMR in my first "Ideal Barrel Length" post.
Let`s say you are building a AEG-DMR with M733 as its base, and first thing u want to do is increasing barrel length, because it was said that longer barrel gives better range, higher fps, and more consistent accurate shots. Now, you need to specifically define HOW LONG  your barrel need to be to achieve mentioned improvement. Assume you have standard inner barrel length of  300mm, replacing stock one for 650mm  tightbore right away, will NOT always give you improved performance over stock one.

Why?

When you shoot, your cylinder would produce certain amount of air pressure to push bb out from the barrel, on stock configuration, amount of air pressure generated by cylinder unit are just enough to push bb out from it`s designated inner barrel length.

So, theoretically a stock M16 AEG (509mm barrel) will have more cylinder volume compared to a stock M733 AEG (300mm). Longer Barrel replacement on shorter rifle cause Cylinder losing its air-pressure before bb leave inner barrel, resulting weak trajectory, reduced range, and often FPS drop. Otherwise, shortening inner barrel on longer rifle without adjustment and fine tuning will result in excessive pressure even after bb leaving the barrel, which cause inconsistency, and might damage internals in long term due higher impact from piston. Longer inner barrel needs more air-pressure from cylinder, shorter one need less air-pressure.

Conclusion

If you want to stick with longer barrel that you have already purchased, you might also want to swap your Cylinder as well.
Usually shorter rifle have a "slot" on the side of it`s cylinder. This slot reduces effective compression room of cylinder, making it suitable for shorter inner barrel.
Replacing cylinder to full (non-slotted) type will ensure you have maximum volume required for longer inner barrel, or you can even use BORE-UP cylinder for more volume.
 There are soooo many choice of aftermarket AEG cylinder, the choice is yours, just remember long barrel = full/bore up cylinder.
I have had a Snow Wolf M82a1 (seen on my greeting post). The first thing i done back then, was installing bore-up cylinder over stock one, and it performed like magic considering enormous stock barrel length of 650mm paired with tiny cylinder of V2 gearbox.

Hey, what about Gas sniper or Spring BASR?? there aren`t many choice of bore up cylinder for Spring BASR, even Gas sniper don`t even have any cylinder, what should i do then?

UPDATE:
Spring BASR here !

Stay tuned, i will be back with another post on these :D !

Spring Bolt Action Piston Head

Good day! 

Today i`m gonna share about some different design of BASR piston heads plus how they work, and also how to optimize them for better performance.As can bee seen above, there`s 4 design i will include in this post (from left to right): 

1. Suction Cup Piston Head

2. Ported O-Ring Piston Head

3. Singleport O-Ring Piston Head

4. Stock Piston :D

Now let`s take a closer look at each design !

1. Suction Cup Piston Head

This design consist of single rubber cup, as we can see, there is a little pit separating middle portion and thinner part around the edge. When piston moves forward, air pressure will enter this pit, and then causing rubber edge to expand, creating airseal between piston and cylinder. The good things about suction cup design is there`s no need to replace anything for maintenance, just clean and lube. This design usually seen on APS2/APS96 and some other models upgrade piston. 

2. Ported O-Rings Piston Head

This design consist of piston head itself and separate rubber O-ring. Aside from circular gap where O-ring drops in, you can notice several small holes on top of piston (may vary on different brands). The way it works are pretty simple, as the piston move forward, air pressure will enter from ports/holes towards O-ring`s chamber. O-ring inside piston head will then expand and create airseal between piston and cylinder. Usually you might want to replace the O-rings periodically to ensure it`s elasticity (more elastic, better), also during major re-tune you might also spray ports/holes from top of piston to clean them up, leaving no residues that can interrupt airflow. Afterwards you can do some experiment with different size/thickness/material of O-ring for better airseal (or just stick with good stock one). This design usually can be found on aftermarket piston for VSR/BAR series and some other rifles. 

3. Ported O-Rings Piston Head

This one is basically same as above, the only difference is port/hole position. I personally never used this type of piston, but im sure enough there`s no noticeable difference in performance as long as your O-Ring works properly. Also lately there was some manufacturer using this design on their upgrade product for high-end rifles (Beta Project M200, M24) and yet having negative reviews on their products, so it`s doing the work just fine. Maybe i will give it  a try if there`s any after market piston head for more common VSR/L96 rifle using this design.

4. Stock non-Ported Piston Head

Well, nothing much to say about this last one, instead of utilize airflow generated from piston move, some of stock piston just rely on tightness of O-Ring against Cylinder wall to produce air compression. Actually it works, but leaving many air escape on progress. My suggestions, lube O-Ring properly, make sure cylinder always clean to ensure a good compression, but if u have some budget, aftermarket piston head seems to be a best option.

Personal Thought

I`ve built many BASR until now, from what i found, Suction Cup Piston Heads always gave most satisfying result most of times. O-Ring Piston Head  are actually good as well, but sometimes the package comes with faulty O-Ring(s) or it just doesnt provide good sealing, leave me no choice but to replace it and do trial-error over and over again. I highly encourage the use of Cup design for its simplicity, but if you`re ok with trial-error things, don`t bother to try the other design to achive better air-seal.

That`s it for today, please leave comment if there`s any question,suggestion, etc. 

Pardon my bad English grammar if you spot some :) .

Happy Weekend!

Pick start up rifle

As you want to begin your "Sniping Career", obviously you want to have a reliable "Partner", a suitable Sniper rifle.

There are basically 4 types of 6mm guns nowadays, i will sort them out based on my opinion on which are best for building an Airsoft Sniper:

1. Spring powered (BASR)
Pros : ease of operation, ease of fine-tuning, efficient operational cost, high achieveable fps, lesser noise, infinite power source (except when your spring break in half), more consistent power output (FPS)
Cons : lack of fire rate, can be hard to operate if using high powered spring, usually lower magazine capacity

2. Electric powered (AEG-DMRs)
Pros : higher fire rate (followed up shots come up faster), huge magazine capacity (hi-cap/ electric mags)
Cons : complicated electricity (duh), Smaller cylinder size which restrict longer barrel (except on psg-1s), battery can run out, more noise than spring powered one

3. Gas powered ( Greeny/ Propane/ Co2)
Pros : extreme achieveable fps, some are very silent, very easy operation, minimum maintenance
Cons : extreme achieveable fps(nobody wants to be shot with 650ish fps), small magazine capacity, inconsistent in stock form, gas runs out quickly

4. Fusion (Electric-Co2)
No info on this platform yet, since these kind of system rarely found here in Indonesia, but i will update when i get my hands on these stuff. It is said that this system produce a very consistent output even while shooting rapidly.

Summary:
I`ve had built an AEG-DMR, Gas BASR and GBBR-DMR but none of those satisfy me yet, so i stay with classic Spring BASR. For those with huge budget, u can always look for Gas BASR, if you just moved from assault role, AEG-DMR seems a wise choice, but if u prefer realism over all factor, GBBR-DMR rocks!
I will later cover all of my build and setup on each platform, so stay tuned !

Greetings!

GREETINGS!

WELCOME 

Let me introduce myself first, i`m Wan, from Indonesia, Airsoft wargaming has been my main hobby for 6 year until now.

I made this blog as my contribution for fellow hobbyist and anybody who just want to begin Airsoft-ing.
All knowledge i will be sharing here based on proven experience.

In this blog i will specifically talk about "Sniper & Marksman" role.

Actually i`ve once decided to gave up on airsofting around 3-4 years back while im still running around with m4 CQBs, i really got bored back then, doing spray`n pray things, but thank God, one of friend whose play Sniper role asked me to accompany him as spotter and borrowed me one of his bolt-action rifle (which i`ve never fond of before).

After few rounds of game, watching his style of playing Sniper role, i got back my interest in Airsofting.In short, henceforth i swapped all my AEGs and GBBs for all the "Sniper Stuffs" which later will be discussed in this blog.

Mainly this blog will contain stuff like : tips, review, diy, myth-busting and many more.

Stay tuned !