Hello,
So, prepare for some ramblings of a seasoned and extremely jaded airsofter.
I have played since.. Wow 2001ish with AEG’s and a Gspec but before that I used to play somewhere near reading with Rebel Troop with a TM Glock springer and 2 mags at some point in the late 90s.
So, while I am no expert. I have seen the sport change and evolve ( perhaps not for the better but hey ho ).
I have had most airsoft guns in one form of another, I was there when the chinasoft replicas appeared, making the sport far more accessible and when people suddenly discovered joule creep over the tried and tested.. Just use a 0.2 and you’re golden.
I mean I remember when we didn’t even chrono and when crow scarers - £20 for 400 and a wind proof lighter was accepted pyro.
( I wish I knew more about ear protection back then but that’s a different story )
This is mostly about my view now on a Sniper with a bolt action vs a tuned AEG lobbing a heathy stream of BB’s.
Then vs now.
Back in the good old days everyone had an AEG with the biggest Nicad they could get away with and glorious Hicaps.
We all ran Excel 0.2s and if you were fancy, you ran 0.25s and pretended you could really see a difference.
No one had any clue about hops and an upgraded gun was a systema gearset, a tn barrel and a bigger spring ( tell me I’m wrong ).
Everyone was equal and the sport was definitely more niche, I think had a better community but rose tinted and all that.
Certainly, the availability of truly excellent sites was at its prime and the people running the events were doing it for the love of the sport, rather than the financial gain.
That all has nothing to do with my ramblings but going back to everyone being equal.
A 350 FPS on a 0.2 with a stock hop or biro mod for the roller if you were fancy. All ranged about the same, accuracy.. sure.. ish.
When the TM G36 rotary hop appear on the market, there was a clear improvement over the normal M4 and AK versions.
But for the most part.. It was a level playing field.
Back then, your sniper rifle would have been measured on .2s. So we were probably running around 550fps by the time you had throw in some Maruzen .29 SMG bbs or the 0.5 teflon coated beauties. But the difference in range and the accuracy back then was noticeable. You hugely outranged everyone and could hit with relative ease.
There was usually like a 20m engagement range and snipers were few and far between. Not like today when I see 15-20+ of them on a field.
Flash forwards to today and my experience last weekend. I did try and help as many noobs as I can with actually setting the hops on their new guns or rentals. That shit seems get massively over looked and I like to help where I can ( not a total asshole )
I dusted off my tuned springer sniper. A gspec with all the innards running at 2.26Jz, new hop, running .45s.
I had a sniper friend setup it up and for the last game, busted it out rather than use my perfectly tuned Systema PTW ( yes I am better than you ) and its mags of 0.32.s
Now I had a lot of fun and that is probably the reason they do it but the difference between the range on my PTW and the range on my Sniper.
When you add in the reduced firing rate and the forced engagement distance of 30m.
It just didn’t feel like it was worth the effort anymore. I felt hampered and I got far less kills than I had gotten every previous game ( I’m amazing by the way, so i still got lots )
Yes, there was a wonder sense of satisfaction from landing a scoped shot and seeing it ping off a player but it just wasn’t as affective as the snipers used to be back when everyone else was running AEGs and .2s.
Additonally, DMR’s just seem like a scam. People running them and spamming the shots regardless of what the safety brief told them, about how many bbs can be in the air at any time for that extra sweet sweet 70fps.
Also far too many people running around with DMR and even normal AEG’s in Ghillies. Bushwookies all of them.
Anyway.
TLDR. Unless you are a sweat. I just don’t think with how good a tuned AEG is these days, that a spring sniper is worth the effort.