Adolf Hamster

wonder if the arm was a bit tight/stuck it's not unheard of for guns to have a level of lift with the hop turned off, indeed i've done it many a time intentionally. however i'd be surprised if a stock arp was doing it.

as long as the can is lined up properly and the bb isn't hitting anything on the way out then it's not really an issue. if it's not lined up and the bb clips part of the can on the way out then it'll properly ruin accuracy, but that will be very obvious. it's relatively common for hpa's to run suppressors without inner barrels because you do get an actual noise reduction, and i never noticed a lack of performance from doing it. plus you can put a tracer unit inside

if you're buying new, why not go e&l? nicer (subjective admittedly) externals, and more importantly better internals on the platinum line? cyma midcaps for cheap & cheerful, NPO for gucci looks (especially for plum) would be my pick. can't say i rate lct or e&l's mags for performance (weak springs) the lowest profile you're really gonna get is either a top cover or gas block rail with something like a t1 on a low mount. front mount takes a bit of getting used to but it's not so bad, indeed i've heard it suggested it's preferable for snap style shooting. hinged top cover is an issue with zero retention, although how relevant that is for airsoft accuracy standards is up for debate. issue with the sight block rails is the sight block is already tall, comparitively it's similar to a carryhandle mount on an ar platform. mostly the russians don't care so much about bore offset, pretty much all the integrated siderail optics have quite a bit of offset to them. if my aim was low profile, tbh i'd probably just use irons. in terms of aesthetics? whichever you prefer. afaik (citation needed) the pbs-1 is supposed to be only for 7.62/akm pattern guns with the smaller thread as opposed to the pbs4 being for 5.45/ak74 pattern guns with the larger thread. the putnick i'm personally not a fan of, it's like hanging a coke can on the front of your gun, but i suppose if that's your thing then go for it. if it were me i'd go with a standard brake on a full length gun, or a pbs-4 for a krink.

hmmm if it was pme that ate the teeth on the piston then semi shouldn't be sounding too healthy either. what sort of auto rof was it getting before it started playing up?

start with just the rubber and nub and work from there. as a general rule unless there's anything specifically wrong with the stock unit i tend to reccommend not changing them. the pro-win units are regarded as having qc issues these days, so you wouldn't be guaranteed it'll improve anything. i'd not bother with the barrel, if you must change then the ZCI 6.02 stainless barrels are very good bang for buck but tbh i'd be putting my attention to the air seal within the gearbox. that said, if the airseal is decent (relatively low shot to shot deviation) then it's probably not worth pulling the box apart.

step 1- clean the barrel step 2- use decent ammo step 3- step 4- ??? step 5- profit?

at the risk of potentially giving out advice.... OP: have you considered what you're wanting to get with this £500? it's usual to have to factor in things like magazines, batteries, chargers etc for a starter purchase. reason i ask is that spending less on the gun, and more on accessories such as web gear, slings or a nice optic to partner with the gun can be just as valuable as the gun in the first place. eg a bone stock tm recoil with 1 magazine is gonna be a whole lot less useful than say a cyma platinum with a nice red dot, sling, bunch of mid caps and an odin in terms of overall skirmishability. i know i made that mistake first time, dropped all my cash on an f2000 and spent its first day out with 1 hicap and no sling, needless to say i couldn't bear to drop my new shiny toy on the ground so by the end of the day my arms were in agony.....

Also iirc isnt advertising only allowed in the retailers section? Citation needed

it definately used to be a big thing with the old nicad/nimh batteries, hell you could recover serious performance with cycling them. lipo's are much less susceptible, however the key question is how much is it worth doing? eg my phone is ~7 years old now and still holds over a days charge (nearly 2), and whilst i don't use those superfast chargers it does get charged fully every night (that i remember) of course after 7 years, battery life isn't what's going to kill it, what'll kill it is the charging port wearing out to the point that i can no longer charge it, and for many consumers it's less relevant even than that, as the boredom and desire to change will kick in much earlier. for an airsoft gun? well batteries ain't too expensive and replacing them isn't exactly a difficult task, trying to eke out the maximum number of years service isn't worth anywhere near as much as it would be for say an electric car, where such worries about increasing charge rates etc are very much relevant.

tbf, you'd be surprised how often you can tag people who just stand around thinking you can't hit them whilst i do agree, hpa isn't strictly a magic bullet. it still requires the rest of the system (hop, barrel, ammo, etc) to be of a good standard. it will also need dialed in properly, whilst this is easier to do than aeg's they can also be a lot fussier especially with voluming. certain systems, specifically the polarstar jack/F1 open-bolt systems can have real accuracy issues (as in worse than a decent aeg) due to the way they work, with the likes of the F2/Fusion being a bit higher end (ie over-budget). i can't comment on the wolverine stuff having never used it, but they claim closed bolt operation so probably the better pick for this case. of course that's assuming you're happy to deal with the air line (which isn't so bad), weight of the tank (which can be a pain sometimes), getting air (which can be easy if the site does refills or a real problem if they don't) and more importantly the de-facto hatred from other players.

lemme guess, were most of the parts sourced from the same company?

really depends on your definition of best. whilst the tm's reputation is mighty, it's not the only gun on the market that shoots well ootb. however as @Groot and @Rogerborg point out a few minor tweaks to a cheaper guns can get them up to that level, especially when you also give them good food.

interesting stuff. did you check consistency as well as out and out fps? reason is i've intuitively leaned towards tighter o rings on the basis i'd rather lose a little energy to friction and keep as much air as possible. would be interesting to know.

^droppin them truth bombs

i thought that's how folk would read it the big problem with such things is the only person who knows how well (or not) a given "upgraded" gun actually shoots is the seller. but even if we assume complete honesty, there's the issue of benchmarking. if the seller claims for example "shoots like a laser" how to they know that the gun they think is good, is actually good? if they're name-dropping a tech that you trust then you can go on that basis, but usually the best you can hope for is to tot up the value of any big-ticket parts in the build.

indeed, i'd not even care because it'd be getting a full re-wire anyway. so the term means different things to different people. ahh yes, the "simple fix", famed for rarely being so simple. that said, plenty of "working" guns can still have serious issues needing correction, hell even (some would even say often) "upgraded" guns can have major issues.

Thing is boneyard means different things to different people. Someone might sell something as boneyard simply because the fuse is blown or its had a bb jam. But yes some stuff is junk, but again folk might have crazy projects or want obscure spare parts and its easier to get a boneyard gun to pillage. You see the same thing with cars, people do buy scrap cars to take banger racing, or to pillage for parts (aka breakers yards).

and tbf, the issues discussed aren't the worst. the barrel nut is confusing me, as iirc it's a sliding block but the carry handle isn't too bad and the mag wiring is the kind of thing i'd be re-doing even on a stock gun. it does at least seem to provide realistic expectations.

description says complete gearbox, pictures say bunch of parts wonder which it is?

not messed around much with dual-gas guns, but i have noticed that the co2 guns i've owned tended to have smaller diameter pistons than a similar sized gun on green gas, with thicker walls. co2 guns beating themselves to death can happen, for example the 1911 anniversary edition i had sheared the front off the barrel bushing simply by beating the crap out of it. that said, gg guns can do that too depending on how well they're made, eg my we 226 beat the dissasembly lever bad enough to snap it in two. tbh i tend to avoid co2 as the venn diagram of people who claim to have reliable co2 guns (with whatever trick you care to name being responsible) and the people who i've seen skirmishing with reliable co2 pistols doesn't overlap.

pre-upgraded, tells time 20% faster than other watches.

Pfft, wristwatches. Pocketwatch on a double chain or go home peasants

i'm guessing specna don't serialise their stuff? i know most manufacturers don't bother but this would be a perfect time to be able to do the ol' "if you see someone selling guns with 45xxx on the serial let us know"

it's a steep learning curve. if it's any consolation, it took about half a dozen stripped pistons/gears and 2 nearly killed batteries before i learned the 40k was not the way.