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I’ve heard two different ones, though both refer to the same thing. Either ‘top dead centre’ or ‘top down centre’, essentially you drill a small section out of the outer barrel and run some sort of bolt through that hole which applies pressure directly to your hop arm.
 
Truthfully I fear we might already be past how much thought you’ve put into what exactly it is you want to be achieving. In no way am I intending to dissuade you, but I get the impression that an opportunity for a cheap RIF has come up and that’s now pretty rapidly growing into something else.
 
Seems to me you think FPS (‘power’) is the be all and end all, which it absolutely isn’t. This isn’t exact at all because we want everything to be working together but as an extremely simple breakdown of what’s doing what:
 
Stronger spring = Higher FPS/Joules = BBs get where they’re going faster
 
Heavier weight BBs + Better hop setup + Clean barrel = Longer range + More consistency
 
Selecting the correct spring ideally needs the hop setup and BB weight settled on and installed, otherwise you may well end up at risk of hurting someone with a RIF running above the joules it should be (I’m not going to go into depth on what joule creep is, a Google search will get you there if you care to know… much like it would have for what a TDC mod is FWIW).

I’ve heard two different ones, though both refer to the same thing. Either ‘top dead centre’ or ‘top down centre’, essentially you drill a small section out of the outer barrel and run some sort of bolt through that hole which applies pressure directly to your hop arm.
 
Truthfully I fear we might already be past how much thought you’ve put into what exactly it is you want to be achieving. In no way am I intending to dissuade you, but I get the impression that an opportunity for a cheap RIF has come up and that’s now pretty rapidly growing into something else.
 
Seems to me you think FPS (‘power’) is the be all and end all, which it absolutely isn’t. This isn’t exact at all because we want everything to be working together but as an extremely simple breakdown of what’s doing what:
 
Stronger spring = Higher FPS/Joules = BBs get where they’re going faster
 
Heavier weight BBs + Better hop setup + Clean barrel = Longer range + More consistency
 
Selecting the correct spring ideally needs the hop setup and BB weight settled on and installed, otherwise you may well end up at risk of hurting someone with a RIF running above the joules it should be (I’m not going to go into depth on what joule creep is, a Google search will get you there if you care to know… much like it would have for what a TDC mod is FWIW).

Main thing you loose with a clone is the half decent QA Marui do, but if you’re ripping all of those parts out then you’re paying extra for no reason.
 
When it comes to bolties the only upgrade I’d put down as a performance increase is a TDC modification to the hop, simply ensures you can use higher weight ammo (0.45g or 0.48g) with better consistency.
 
Outside of that swapping parts is often more a matter of longevity rather than an increase in performance or to make them quieter etc, not actually making your BB go any further or any more accurately. It’s at least worth noting there is a degree of diminishing returns when it comes to throwing money at a bolt action rifle shaped wall. You could get that TM L96 running at 500fps simply by swapping the spring out, but I imagine those internals would shit the bed long before they would have at stock FPS.
 
To sum up, it’ll wind up as expensive as you want it to either way. My advice is to consider how much you’re planning to use the thing and go from there. If you use it most weekends for the whole day then go nuts, gut the whole thing and ‘enjoy’ the process of fettling all the aftermarket parts to get them singing together. If you’re only going to use it now and then (or have never tried the whole ‘sniping’ thing before) clean the barrel, slap a TDC on it and put a spring in that gets you at the joules you want to be at with the ammo weight you’ll be using and call it a day there. In either case, the clone VSR is a better choice in my eyes simply on availability of parts.

Liking the shottie holster!

Finally with Christmas play time managed to finish what I’m calling an AK105-VSU.
 
Tried and hopefully succeeded in painting it in such a way it works with both the GZ and RG load outs 🤞
 
 

If it's comfy then it's comfy, but it looks like you're riding a little low with the PC there. Obviously no important for anything other than looks, but 🤷‍♂️. I know they're very much a marmite thing, but I hope you get on with the helmet 👌.

It's all part of the hobby nowadays, unless all sites are starting to put matching limits on it I don't think it makes a huge amount of difference... especially if the intent is to favour newer players. All it stands to do is give them an unrealistic idea of what's out there. Sure this site in particularly might become somewhat of a safe haven for them, but I can't see a single site maintaining folks interest for too long. It's almost like shielding the new folks from what regular game days are like, and setting expectations outside of where they probably should be for folks that might ultimately be looking to invest in a new hobby.
 
I don't really see much of a point of sites being overly controlling over what folks use, as long as it's safe. And that's ultimately when lines should be looking at being drawn, not because a few newbies heads are dropping because they don't think their rental gnus are keeping up... because lets face it, rental gnus only just about keep up with other rental gnus. And besides, most sites struggle to wrap their heads around chronoing properly in a timely fashion let along adding RoF checking into the mix.
 
In terms of actual advice, I wouldn't dick about making any site rules around it. Just take it up with individuals if you feel they've got something excessive going on. Most RIFs running a high RoF have a way of adjusting it fairly easily, be that an FCU for HPA or a MOSFET in an AEG. If they refuse then it's up to the site owners how they wish to proceed.

I’ll spare the full run down unless someone actually wants it, but I officially think I’m ‘there’ in terms of my ideal kit. Took a lot of trial and error to get there, but extremely happy with where it’s ended up. Swapping between AK and AR is a simple case of changing placard on the chest rig.
 

I'm not quite sure what you were expecting when fitting a 9.3" rail on a 10.5" outer barrel? The repro SureFire cans need the clearance so the QD works properly, granted they're too chunky to sit 'in' the rail.
 
Entirely subjective at the end of the day, I think snug to rail/'internally suppressed' looks decidedly wank so I like having rail - outer barrel - suppressor... granted I'm not sure I've ever bothered with a suppressor on a GBBR. It's just extra weight and length at the front for zero gain.

This little puppy is back with me after some extensive work. Will likely swap out the B19 for a B19N at some point simply because I think they look nicer, and likely swap the grip/handstop to an RK-6. Will be adding paracord to the stock and I think it’s about there.
 
 

 
 
 

I imagine the temperature will have a lot to say in whether you're within the limits, so make sure you have a variety of pressured gasses with you/fit an NPAS to avoid disappointment at the chrono.

Ended up heading out for a game every weekend for the last 3 weekends (including yesterday). It's been forever since I've been anywhere close to that regularly, thoroughly enjoyed myself each time.
 
1st was a woodland game at Dagger Woods in Preston, only issue I had all day was ear pro not sitting comfortably and my trousers being too big. Opted to attach my Peltors to my helmet to fix the first issue, and some correctly sized trousers for the second. A very active day, Dagger is a very weird woodland site because it's pretty small so it feels very intimate. Lots of opportunities for flanks, and that is high on the list of shit I love.
 
2nd was for the second day of the 'Shift Your Rifts' event at Redcon-2, first games at a brand new sites often kinda suck for me. You have some decent engagements but I generally find I have no idea what's going on or where I'm supposed to be going. Unless a site is run like absolute garbage or I just get an sense that it really isn't for me I'll tend to try a site 2-3 times before I'd say it's actively bad, getting a feel for the lay of the land can really sway how enjoyable a site is for me. So yeah, a lot of aimless wandering. Ended up with a nasty muscle strain in my thigh in the morning from the very heroic act of... standing up from crouching a bit too quickly, boy do I love getting old. Back to warming up ahead of game days for me from now on. Took the rest of the morning off to have some painkillers and wander around to keep things as limber as possible, popped on a compression sleeve and played the afternoon keeping to a smaller section of the site. Corrections to kit worked out nicely.
 
3rd (yesterday) was back to Dagger Woods. Had a great time as I always do there, this being my 4th game at the site. Thigh was much better but I made sure to be 'responsible' around it, excluding game two where I decided to run around like a moron retrieving canisters... 9 of the teams 11 retrieved that game. Ok, I was more responsible about carrying an injury in the afternoon. Outside of that just a really solid day, good hit calling, good marshalling, all my kit behaved bar wiping about the QLS receiver for my holster doing a slide into cover retrieving 1 of the aforementioned canisters... like a twat. Fortunately the cheapest part of my holster setup to replace, so though I won't celebrate breaking something that's somewhat of a silverlining.
 
Two week break now until I head back to Dagger Wood for their final game of this year (unfortunately the site is only open for a few months of the year), and then off to Com's Site 3 the weekend after that with the same group of friends from down South that I went to Redcon with. Thoroughly enjoying getting out and playing at the moment, long may it continue 🤞.
 

It'll be a rough approximation of a Blood Diamond/BHD carbine (more Blood Diamond than BHD to start with, but it's not particularly hard to transition it over), but keeping some modern conveniences... namely a BCM pistol grip, a larger trigger guard and an adjustable 2-point sling.
B5 Systems (Brownells) repro CAR-15 stock Skinny handguards Carry handle rail Aimpoint Comp M2 repro (will pick up a real one at some point because I highly doubt the repro will hold zero for more than 10 seconds) Surefire 6P thrown in a modified repro Weaver barrel mount 607 moderator (being made up by the same person who is doing the graft) Essentially it'll be this, but remove flat top upper/optic and replace with carry handle upper/carry handle mounted optic and swap out the muzzle device. TLDR I guess I'm going from the modern flavour of mayo, to the 'retro' version flavour of mayo 🤷‍♂️.
 

It's a very cyclic hobby in terms of trends. We're gradually transitioning out of Mk18's being the 'go to' with Mk16's on the way in, give it a few years and Mk18's will have a renewed 'old school cool' factor and folks will be clamouring for decent versions of the rail... much like they are for carry handle uppers now... just as Multicam/MTP is the new DPM.
 
I definitely think things like the Unity mounts are partially to blame, optics on stilts is just so much comfier... slapping them back on a carry handle is the next logical leap to putting them even higher. But yeah, I've never been one for trying for 100% accurate clones as you've alluded to I very much like my wrists functioning after a day of playing!

Very much intended as a placeholder set up, but it’s growing on me slowly but surely despite how mayo it is… but my turn in the queue to get the carry handle graft done on my ‘spare’ upper is fast approaching so I’m not sure it’s got much time left as is.
 

 

 
 

This little puppy is back with me after some extensive work. Will likely swap out the B19 for a B19N at some point simply because I think they look nicer, and likely swap the grip/handstop to an RK-6. Will be adding paracord to the stock and I think it’s about there.
 
 

 
 
 

Got the B18 to fit and finally got around to sorting the paracord on the stock. It could certainly be better, but it could equally certainly be worse. Have a B19N and RK-6 on their way from the Motherland, and a PBS-1 replica to throw a tracer in. Loving the build, but my wallet is very much looking forward to it being done.
 

Couldn’t. Resist.

That’s fair, come to think of it I can probably come up with a fair few hobbies where it’s the ‘retail therapy’ side of things that folks are into more than the thing you’ve bought them to do. With that said, I still don’t understand it at all!
 
I wish I could put my old fart hat on and blame it all on social media, but it’s been the same for as long as I can remember so I dare say that isn’t it.

The folks that dip out before a day is over (or the 'Photo Ops' as I call them). Show up, get their photos to show they were there, contribute very little to game(s) and then disppear early citing a whole number of reasons ranging from injuries to 'the entire other team are cheating'. Just never understood it, and if I was to be leaving early I'd absolutely be getting a refund before I did. I'm aware there are absolutely cases where there is an entirely valid reason, and I'm not talking about those. But especially since all the pandemic restrictions lifted I feel like there are half the people remaining at the end of the day than what there were at the start, seemingly irrelevant of the site.
 
It's been touched on by a few folks, but this is one of the only... perhaps the only hobby I've had where people seem to have it as a hobby, but not actually like playing the game 🤷‍♂️.

Based on everything you've said here I'd pop up a wanted thread on here for the specific CYMA AK(s) you'd landed on and just a have little patience (which I know is very hard to do when you've just got your defence sorted).
 
Seems to me you've landed on the right answer for you and you're trying to find a new answer which you can obtain quicker by throwing money at it, but this new answer isn't actually right for you at this point in time. Food for thought I guess.
 
I don't have any experience with the essential line, but was impressed by the E&L that my one up for sale on here started life as before being gutted and having a fortune thrown at it. In my, albeit limited, experience with AKs the cost your paying has more of an impact on the quality of the externals than it does the quality of the internals. At this point in time outside of a select few RIFs (namely, some Marui's) I expect to be swapping out a hop bucking as a bare minimum when picking up a new RIF to get a small bump in the weight of BB I can use and E&L was no different to a CYMA in that respect.

An extremely gratuitous few purchases, but ones I’m over the moon with:
Ferro Concepts FCPCv5 Ferro Concepts Assault Cummerbund Ferro Concepts Strap Socks (I reckon these have been updated with a bit more padding than the last set I had, big fan) Ferro Concepts TEAR Front Panel AXL Advanced Admin Zipper Esstac KYWI 5.56 Full Size Spiritus Systems Small GP Pouch Trident Gear Training Plates - Swimmer Cut  

 
 
Extremely comfortable, breathes nicely, the cummerbund is superb and the front panel might be my favourite looking one to date alongside taking mags very nicely without feeling like I need to attach the bungees.
 

Stock NGRS barrels are 275mm (for the most part) if memory serves so my best guess is that 🤣

Not that it makes a particularly big/any difference to what's being asked, but in the interest of ensuring accurate information the stock barrel in all versions of the MWS is 250mm.

I imagine the temperature will have a lot to say in whether you're within the limits, so make sure you have a variety of pressured gasses with you/fit an NPAS to avoid disappointment at the chrono.