internals

scotsman1990

i see guys on here selling gears and inner barrels(tight bore etc) and stuff

i have absoulutly no idea what the upgrades do

could someone please explain it to me

Decoy

I am no gun tech but here's the basics as I understand them:

Tight Bore Barrel (TBB), will help with accuracy/consistency of shots, it will also probably increase the muzzle energy slightly which may help you gain some distance

Hop Rubber, a good hop rubber will definitely help increase range & consistency of shot

Motor, a high torque motor will assist in faster firing on semi-auto while a high speed motor will give a faster rate of fire (RoF)

Gears, a higher quality set of gears will last longer, a high speed set of gears (usually expressed in ratios 14:1, 18:1, etc.) will give you higher RoF

Shims/shimmed/shim job, these are used to ensure the gears mesh correctly resulting in the gearbox running better with less wear & tear

Wiring, the better quality the wiring the more efficient the circuit will be as there will be less power lost to heat build-up

MOSFET, electronic device placed within the circuit, the most basic function is active braking (AB) which is useful if you want to run high-power LiPo batteries but they can also be programmable to perform various functions such as burst mode on full auto. Another big advantage of MOSFETs is that they take the current load off the trigger contacts so they will last longer.

You should also ensure you have a good air seal, this may or may not require replacement parts but is always a good thing to check if you have the gearbox out/open. There's also stuff you can do with full-/half-teeth pistons, piston heads, bore-up cylinders, bearing spring guides, sector clips/chips but I don't know enough about them to even try to explain what they do.


These upgrades can be done by themselves or in combination with other upgrades but make sure you know why you are upgrading any item as you may not need it.

Shidosha

It's also well worth bearing in mind how the various parts interact if you're going to go upgrading. If you upgrade your motor you may need to change your gears too - a high speed or high torque motor might just strip stock gears that aren't designed to handle the extra work. Likewise a change in battery (moving up to a high-voltage LiPo for example) might warrant a change in wiring or the addition of a MOSFET to prevent the extra power doing damage.

Tight-bore barrels are an easy upgrade for even the most inexperienced airsofter (well, in many cases anyway), but even then you have to be aware that a tight-bore barrel is likely to be much less tolerant of poor-quality BBs, so if you make that upgrade you have to be ready to spend a bit more on precision BBs or you could end up suffering jams.

Puding

there is also a lot of unnecessary upgrading that goes on and people do have a tendency of making things lovely complicated.

When it comes down to it upgrades parts are userd to accive one or more of the follow targets:

Accuracy / Range
Rate of Fire ( ROF )
Durability


If you have an area you would like to work on it would be possible to provide a little more relevant information

Inari

As Puding has said, there is an awful lot of needless "upgrading" where people will swap out parts for no real reason.

Put simply, if it isn't broken, or if you don't need specific improvement, then leave it well alone. For example:
Range & Consistency: Swap out the stock barrel/hop up rubber for a tighter barrel, and a softer hop up rubber.

ROF/Trigger Response: If not done so already, up the voltage to a 9.6v NiMh, or 7.4v 25+ C LiPo, and swap out the motor for a G&P M120 (best of both worlds for trigger response and high ROF (without going too crazy) at least in my opinion.

You can go further, and change more, but you really shouldn't have to.

scotsman1990

thanks guys, i was just wondering really i have a stock m4 and was just wondering what the most common upgrades would be ??

Puding

most common, easy to do and most cost effective would be upgrading to a tight bore barrel and upgrading the hop up bucking

scotsman1990

i would no how to change the barrel but how would ya do the hop up ??

Inari

All you have to do is split the receivers of the M4; the barrel and hop up mech will slide out. All you have to do is take of the plastic cir clip, slide out the barrel (hold the hop up unit upside down to avoid losing the nub) - apply a little downward pressure as you slide, and you should be able to get the hop up rubber out with the barrel.

The replacement parts (barrel and hop) are direct replacements; no modification should be required. You just put the hop up rubber onto the barrel (there's a seam on the rubber that corresponds to a groove on the barrel), and slide that into the hop up chamber.

Then it's just a case of back into the receiver, and done

scotsman1990

thanks guys so if i upgrade the barrel and the hop up what benifits will that give me ?? and roughly how much would it cost to do ??

Inari

€40 for barrel, €10 (or less) for hop up rubber, and if you're doing the work yourself, free installation.

Improvements wise you should see an increase in range, and a LOT of improvement in consistency (i.e. your shot-to-shot groupings will tighten up). With the tighter barrel and softer rubber, you'll also see a slight increase in FPS as well.

What is your gun firing at the moment?

scotsman1990

i dont no what its firing at i havent got it chrono'd since i got it but i'd say about 290-300 fps