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Going to be a bit of a wall (such a glorious wall that I'm scared the FBI is going to raid my house and throw me in jail), so I will add a TL:DR at the end with some key points for those who don't want/need to understand the physics and mathematics behind our hobby. Ok, so I've done a LOT of research into BB weight and ballistics due to my interest in long distance shooting in airsoft. Also, please bear in mind that this is, at the end of the day, a layman's explanation of this. I'm operating on A-level mathematics and GCSE physics here, and I haven't done them in about a decade. It's also really hard to explain this without a whiteboard or sheet of paper to draw diagrams and stuff, so bear with me I'll do my best to keep it accessible! So, the maths behind our hobby! Kinetic energy is calculated by 1/2 x mass x (velocity x velocity), using brackets as order of operations means we do the squaring before the multiplication but it's easier to show this way exactly what I'm doing. However we can't just translate that to airsoft measurements of fractions of a gram and feet per second, as joules are calculated using mass in kg so really really small numbers in our context and velocity in metres per second, not feet per second. So a 0.2g BB shot at 328fps, which is 100m/s would calculate as: Energy = 1/2 x 0.0002 x (100 x 100) Energy = 0.0001 x 10000 Energy = 1J Only reason I used 328fps instead of 350fps is to avoid plaguing you with weird numbers and make the example easier to follow. Really, feet per second is annoying and we should be using metres per second since it's easier to work with in terms of energy calculations. It's why springs are m100, m120 etc, as they're designed in m/s rather than ft/s. What we can take away from this is that mass and velocity work in tandem to calculate joules (I know, I'm big smart for drawing such a conclusion). However we need to briefly consider momentum to understand ballistics; my physics teacher always described momentum as "how much something will hurt when it hits you" and is a lot simpler than kinetic energy. Momentum = mass x velocity. Easy. I'm not going to bore you with the calculations I'm doing for this example now, but I'm looking at 1.14J on a .2 and on a .48 as a comparison. That's 350fps on a .2 and 226.1fps (1 decimal place) on a .48. We can already see that momentum is going to be very different, but for argument's sake... momentum = 350 x .2 = 70 gram feet per second momentum = 226.1 x .48 = 108.5 gram feet per second (1 decimal place) So a heavy BB fired with the same kinetic energy as a lighter BB has more momentum (just over 50% more!). This is why when someone point blanks you with a .48 from a 1J pistol and says "stop crying, it's only 1J" is talking bollocks. Do I think we should be operating on momentum-based rules for airsoft? Hell no, that would be cancerous, but it's a consideration that I feel comes under the golden rule of "don't be a dick". However, this also goes a LONG way to explaining why heavy BBs tend to go further than lighter BBs; they simply have more momentum pushing forwards due to how physics works (the old example was if I throw a balloon vs if I throw a cricket ball with the same kinetic energy, which goes further). However, there's one last thing to consider when it comes to range and that's deceleration, as the BB is being affected by a number of things trying to slow it down and drop it to the ground, namely air resistance and gravity respectively. Hop up creates a backspin to give the BB an upwards lift to combat gravity, but combating air resistance isn't happening. I won't go into the mathematics on this as deceleration past GCSE level is really maths intensive (I would probably have to break out calculus and trigonometric functions to explain my point), but essentially an object moving at a higher velocity has more air resistance acting on it, so that BB travelling faster actually has more pushback from Mother Nature than a slower BB. Furthermore, that air resistance is going to have more effect on a lighter weight projectile as lower mass makes it easier to push back, so a combination of higher air resistance and more impactful air resistance means that a lightweight BB fired at the same energy is going to slow down and lose that energy a hell of a lot faster than a heavy projectile. Anyway, I hope you're all still awake after that (I find it fascinating, but I know not everyone does), but now I'll move into airsoft specific phenomena like joule creep and cylinder to barrel ratio. With AEGs, it's rare that power goes up with weight but it is possible. I couldn't explain to you in detail how the maths works out, but essentially there's a sweet spot for ammo weight with most guns and it varies dependant on inner barrel length and cylinder size. What tends to happen is that shorter barreled AEGs are more efficient with heavier ammo, but longer barreled AEGs tend to drop in power with heavier BBs due to voluming issues; the cylinder doesn't have enough air to fill the barrel so the BB starts to decelerate while it's still in the barrel, meaning that a heavier BB that comes out slower originally will start to have forces working against it (friction with the barrel and air resistance) sooner by fractions of a second, but it all affects it. It all depends on if there's enough air in the cylinder to fill the barrel. Look up cylinder to barrel ratio for a better explanation than I can give; I don't use AEGs much and they're the only guns I don't tech myself because I'm useless with gearboxes. Also, as has been said, heavier ammo typically needs more hop pressure to be applied which can also drop your power (as at the end of the day you're adding some resistance to the BB's flight path. Assuming you have enough air volume in an AEG, or if you're using another platform like a GBB, then heavy ammo will typically cause your power to go up due to joule creep as long as you're not having to apply incredible amounts of hop to lift them. The BB will accelerate while it's in the barrel as long as there's something to push it, which for a gas gun is the gas expanding when it leaves the magazine, so a longer barreled gas rifle will have a higher power than a shorter barreled gas rifle as it has more space to accelerate before leaving the barrel; it's the same as real-steel firearms, a long barreled AR-15 will shoot better at longer range than a short barreled AR-15 assuming the same ammo due to acceleration in the barrel. So why am I saying any of this? Well, it's the considerations part of your question. With AEGs you need to consider cylinder to barrel ratio and with gas guns you need to consider barrel length. In both you need to consider the hop setup and how much you need to apply to lift the BB and the barrel diameter also impacts power; wider = less power, tightbore = more, as there's less space for air to escape past the BB in a tightbore so it has to push the BB out to escape the inner barrel, which at the end of the day is what the gun is trying to do with all that air and is why air seal is so important for consistency, as the air will seek to escape from wherever it can. Now in terms of the benefits, a heavier BB will tend to have a more stable trajectory, has a bit more punch to get through foliage and will retain its kinetic energy for longer, though we're talking about fractions here. Will a .32 be all that different to a .28? Not really, but will a .48 perform differently to a .2? It most certainly will but I think often times people over-estimate the difference in BB performance. Wind will still carry a .48 off to Narnia and a leaf will still deflect a .48; trust me, speaking from experience there as a bolt action enjoyer who has watched many shots through my scope go their own way because of wind or leaves in the way. Really, punching through foliage requires volume of fire as opposed to weight of BB and I think "go heavy to punch through foliage" is a false economy. Even my .48s fired at 2.3J have issues punching through foliage and I usually try to post the shots through empty spaces in the bushes rather than going through any leaves; precision over power. Anyway, I feel like I've gone on enough about this. Thank you for coming to my TED talk on BB weight and the physics behind our hobby. In short: Heavier BBs fired at the same kinetic energy as lighter BBs have more momentum, which is why it hurts more getting shot by heavy BBs, even at 1J Faster projectiles have more air resistance acting on them Lighter projectiles are more affected by air resistance Therefore lighter BBs travelling faster both have more air resistance acting on them and are more affected by said air resistance This means that heavy BBs will travel further as they have more momentum, less air resistance acting on them and are less affected by that air resistance (assuming your hop can lift them) Joule creep will cause power to go up in gas guns with longer barrels as the BB has more room to accelerate Cylinder to barrel ratio affects power (and consistency) in AEGs. Heavier BBs can up the power in short barreled AEGs, but tend to drop the power in long barreled ones If you want the absolute maximum performance of your gun you generally want to be as close to the power limit as possible with the heaviest BB that your hop will lift I will still call you a dick if you run .48s in a pistol, especially if you're shooting up close

What can you get these days for £20? Bag of 0.32's? Half a five guys burger? Today I landed two boneyard pistols. For a score. One is a valken avp17. (Silver one) Gbb pistol of questionable looks but hey, same as me really. It wouldn't rack. Couldn't get the topslide off. Turns out to be two filthy bb's jammed in the topslide release mechanism. Cleaned, unjammed and now hoping 0.28's happily.😁 0.7j. Second one is a SAI BLU AEP Electric Pistol (MOSFET – by Cyma – CM135UP). Yup. That's a mouthful. Never had an aep. New experience for me. Has a dodgy connection somewhere inside but managed to get a few shots into the Chrono. Probably needs 0.2's as 0.5j is a bit meh. Not a fan of the gold shiney bits either. Strange sensation aep's, aren't they? 😂😂 Anyway. Pics.

Holy shit Impulse, great reply. I can't help think a more fitting 'thank you' is required but I have crap communication skills so... Cool.

I did it myself in the end, you were right it is really easy, thanks !

That's what I heard although I don't know how true it is. Makes sense though Mind you, there is part of me that thinks if you're dumb enough to use airsoft parts on the pressure bearing bits of a real firearm then you deserve what you get

That makes sense, however you haven't seen my girly throw.

Heavier BB’s can increase the dwell time of the BB in the barrel and make the RIF more efficient and capable of developing more power. For example, if I gave you a ping-pong ball and asked you to throw it as far as you can, and then gave you a tennis ball and asked you to do the same the tennis ball would go further even though your strength hasn’t changed. This is why good sites chrono based on joules of the ammo you’re using, not 0.2’s for FPS.

Hi People I've a new ASG CZ Scorpion EVO 3 A1 2020 Revision on the way from patrolbase. They recommend a 7.4v or a 9.9v Life. Does it make a difference? I'm not to bother about RPS but other factors could swing it. And in the future does anyone know how I might convert it to take 11.1v. I assume a new spring but any info would be helpful Cheers!

Not in all cases, some setups can have a dramatic drop in power when the hop is almost/completely off, so dramatic the bb can struggle to even make it down the barrel. I've never quite figured exactly how that works but i've seen it often enough that i got into the habit of setting hops at least mid-way when bench testing. Hence why it bugs me when sites do the whole "chrono with the hop off" thing because its basically asking for false readings.

Hi all, thanks for the honest answers. GBB it will be then, my wallet is getting a beating again 🤣

Take the motor and bevel in hand, and spin them together to find the optimal motor height--the easiest most proper fitment will feel right. You then need to fully close up your gearbox with the bevel in it and screw the motor grip on. From there, adjust the motor height until it reaches the height your hand test showed. Next, add very small shims beneath the bevel until there is about 0.1-0.3mm of play in the bevel gear. It's important to do all testing with the gearbox tightly screwed shut. Full contact is good. You want the bevel gear to have a hair of play between it and the pinion, but it looks like your bevel is rather low to my eyes. After you shim the bevel to pinion, you can add shims to the top until you hopefully end up with just a hair of play. The way I personally measure if I've done it right is by tilting the gearbox side to side, when screwed fully shut. If the bevel gear rotates on its own, yet has maybe 0.1mm of up and down play, I know it's right.

This is correct, a heavier BB may need a bit more hop to counteract gravity and keep in flight for longer. It’s not to bring their pew within chrono limits. Sounds like you experienced Joule creep, there’s tons of info on that here.

Standard AR is 1/2x28tpi , H&K is M15x1 they are likely different on purpose so airsoft shit doesn’t fit on RS and kill everyone at a range day 😛 it is most likely due to gun and export laws around the globe .

Most are CCW to make them accurate to their RS counterparts and as such most suppressors etc you’ll find are the same. Seems odd size / CW threads are manufacturers trying to be either different or deliberately difficult - I’m looking at you TM and the 16mm CW outer barrel on my FNX. At least there’s plenty of adapters available- I’ve used Lees Precision a couple of times.

Joule creep. It's more prevalent when you've got a longer inner barrel. That's correct hop's sole purpose to get the most out of your BB regarding distance and to have a "straight" fly path. I think you can decrease your FPS with no hop but no sane marshall is gonna accept that chrono reading.

Well last weekend was the boy's last gameday in the UK, so we went to AWA. He was in his usual Afghanistan deployment outfit but with a twist..... A socking great Japanese flag as a cape. Which looked like a suitably sized target for airsoft purposes. They've upgraded the bunker with barricades which make it even better. We had a friend with us too so he had my Specna and I alternated between the L85 and the Honey Badger which is currently sporting a massive 3-9 zoom sniper scope as a joke. Which turned out to be a good move. Both pews were working bang on, allowing me to rack up a record number of kills. First game was one where the winning team was the one who's coloured tin was on the pole outside a kill house at the end. My usual banzai attitude to these games kicked in so it was rushing the house repeatedly getting shot, but also getting a tidy pistol kill against a riot shield when I left the L85 behind for more speed and COD style sliding. Riot shield guy got his revenge later with the Touching Cloth game as he also had an RPG.... Which he unleashed on me when I rushed the bunker, and shot me from about 4m away. Fair enough - no MED was specified at the safety brief. One of the better games of the day was where the attacking team had to storm 2 houses to capture two sets of tins then get them into the third as the defenders retreat forming a stronger and stronger defense. Drils and skills kicked in and muggings here went in a bit of a rampage clearing the first house through the windows whilst other team members suppressed the defenders. Both inside and surrounding. Some poor sod got a couple of shots to the throat whilst one window was cleared giving a mixture of both guilt and hilarity. Final game of zombies was a blast too as us 5 zombies were a lot closer to the humans than they thought. Humans had to start in a kill house and leg it for cover, not realising that we were hiding just round the corner. Needless to say the dozen or so people running out of the main door were brutally turned to zombies before they even realised. Somewhat annoyed that the days there now finish at 15:30, but the day was pretty epic so will forgive them for now. Off to Spec Ops tomorrow with the boy's Specna (to test my repairs rrom this afternoon), the L85, Honey Badger and SVU. The latter of which I haven't used for ages because of having too much fun with the others. Fun times.....fun times.

A man ran home from work, pulled his wife into the bedroom, threw her on the bed, and pulled the blankets over them. She was shocked - he hadn't been like this for 20 years. Then her husband said: "Look! My new watch glows in the dark"

Apparently I read the thread wrong. Ignore my stupidity. I would have expected a heavier BB to decrease FPS, not increase it. I can't say i've ever seen this personally.

Well, where do I start..? Bought a HoneyBadger from the classifieds back in June & wanted to use it to strip down and rebuild as a first practice 'build' (remember my disappearing piston spring?), well I was going to buy a new (proper) gearbox for it but got a used M4 one from @HuttArmouries along with a few missing bits and bobs (selector switch, bolt catch, dust cover & prob a couple of other bits) but today I recieved some bits fron Dave's Custom Airsoft hense my long winded post... New 120 straight mag & battery cover. Those in the know will see the upper reciever sits a little high on the lower (I might still buy the correct gearbox after all).

hopefully they aren’t malice clips

Actually learnt a few things in that video - I didn't realise you were supposed to weave the straps on the pouches for one. Wonder if I will have time tonight before tomorrow to re run it all on my rigs.

Last week I joined a nudist colony. The first few days were the hardest...

tell that to my overflowing sideboard and collapsing chest of drawers full of gun cases accessories, mags ammo etc etc... =P

Today saw the lad and I travel up to Billericay, the home of three airsoft sites: Airsoft Plantation, Tower Airsoft and Skirmish Billericay. Our destination was the very large Airsoft Plantation, which has a great mix of dense woodland, scrubland, structures and open spaces. A good number of players were in attendance, with a range of ages and levels of experience. After the usual, somewhat amusing, briefing we set off for the first game "A Bridge Too Far". The attacking team (that was us) had to proceed from one end of the site to the other taking three bridges along the way by setting off a siren on each bridge. Once the first bridge had been taken, the surviving defenders had to pull back to within 50 m of the next bridge and the attackers had to regroup at the bridge before being released to advance again; the same applied at the second bridge and, once the third bridge was taken, the game was over. Attackers had infinite regens on a marshal, while the defenders had one life at each bridge. Our attack eventually overran the first bridge after a fierce firefight; the second bridge fell rather quickly as the red team massed behind the bridge, leaving only a very weak force in front of it. The fight for the third bridge was long and fierce and we eventually completed the mission in just over 42 minutes. After a short break to bomb up, the game was reversed. At the first bridge, the lad (dressed in fill 1980s Soviet Mechanised Infantry uniform including shiny brass buttons and foot wraps inside his boots) and I and a few others took up a position in dense undergrowth on the right flank, holding up an enemy flanking manoeuvre for a considerable time until we fell back into the ditch from where we held them up even further. After the bridge fell, we and a young lad fell back to a favourite position in a ditch on the left flank from where we had a great fight with the enemy, inflicting a lot of hits on them before eventually being overrun. The only real negative of the day happened at this point; as I walked away with my hand in the air, shouting "Dead man walking", some knuckle-dragger on the other team rinsed me from about 10m when I was in full sight of him. Sadly, I did resort to uncouth language. Falling back to the third bridge, we waited for the enemy who came storming out of the brush and were shot to pieces; their next attempt was much better coordinated and ended my involvement with the game. They eventually completed the mission in just over 47 minutes. After lunch, the red team (not us), starting at Swaziland, were tasked with picking up a stretcher at the Boat House, collecting the casualty (young Owen) at the DEA base and transporting him to the town hall in the village. As the defenders, we had two lives on each side of the firebreak. The attackers could regen on a marshal. As they could attack from any direction, the first stage was very lively. I initially took position in some bushes, which gave me a great view over three paths, allowing me to hit a number of the enemy before being hit when the enemy broke into the DEA base itself. I pulled back to the area around the Boat House, where we fought off several enemy attacks from various directions. At some point, the lad passed by, having been hit, stating that he was falling back to near the firebreak to cause chaos there as there were enough people defending the Boat House. After fighting off another attack, I decided that he had the right idea and sneaked to the mortar pits, where I had great fun engaging the enemy there, sending several back in search of the regen marshal before eventually being flanked and shot in the back. I fell back across the firebreak and joined in the defence of the village until I was eventually hit twice in fairly short order. The enemy failed to complete the mission in the allocated hour, so poor young Owen bled out. After that, we played a final game where our team, which had eight allocated bombers, had to get three bombs to their respective targets in the mortar pits. Each bomb had to go to its specific target, these being the bus, the UN vehicle and the Freelander. Bombs could only be carried by the bombers and, if the bombers were hit, they lost their bomber status, so it was essential for us to protect them. We had infinite regens by passing through one of the boats, while the defenders had two lives. We started the game by charging out of the three landing craft. Usually, this involves the landing craft ramps being raised by the marshals and then dropped to start the game; however, on this occasion, they were left down as snakes were living under them! The bus was bombed surprisingly easily, followed by the Freelander, but the UN vehicle took considerably longer as it is on the far side of the mortar pits and easily defended. However, we achieved all three objectives, which was a satisfactory end to a very satisfactory day. Weapons used: Me: Ares VZ58 Umarex (S&T) ARX 160 Milbro Classic M1911 (CO2) The lad: E&L/CYMA AKS-74 CYMA AKS-74U ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

Really? Absolute Airsoft was good?

Couldn’t resist it , the calling for a full metal kit was too strong , got some more steel parts on the way from HK too

Made a bracket out of aluminium for the 203 to fit on the MWS barrel

finished the main shape of the lower. working on the mag release (push button instead of paddle now) and just need to finsih off the bolt release lever and exactly where to make a hole for the fire selector. On the plus side the Scorpion mag fitted in the magwell first time which is a bonus.

folding flip sites fitted and working under spring tension. Fake bolt works however I need to add a rod and spring so that it moves forward under it's own power. The idea is for the bolt release to be manually engaged, like the real thing, to hold the bolt to the rear and then when released the bolt shoots forward. Turns out I'm 4mm too wide on the receiver so I've spent some time thinning the parts down to the correct size. I'm working from pictures from the internet and a pair of calipers so it's never going to be the exact dimensions of the real thing (unless someone has a real one and wants to share the measurements ) I tried converting the upper receiver STL file to STP so that I could get a rough price for CNC'ing but for some reason my Freecad conversion doesn't want to work on the companies program for STP files. I thought I'd see how much it would be to have it SLS printed in aluminium but that was around 500 quid to best I figure out the STL to STP thing. Here's a few photos of the current progress on the too wide body. I'm printing the new parts now so I can continue to tweek the design.

I understand that Austin is turning into East Los Angeles. The UK is a scrupulous rules-follower, even when nobody else is. We're a nation of park-keepers and curtain-twitching snitches, sadly.