MrTea

Hop unit options for MP5s are extremely limited and i've not found a company who make an aftermarket one. When I (or my tech) broke my G&G one, I just replaced it with the same one and it's been fine ever since. If yours ever breaks, email G&G directly and they'll sell you one, they're a nightmare to find in the wild. If you want a quick boost to range/accuracy, you need to look at the bucking and nub. I use a Maple Leaf Macaron 60 degree (yellow) with Omega nub in mine (and most of my AEGs) and it's great. As for barrel, mine came with one of those ultra crappy aluminiuml (i'm not sure what it's made of) inner barrels and the coating on the outside was starting to crack and flake. If yours is a brass one, try giving it a polish like @Leo Greer says or go straight for a stainless steel one. As I linked in a previous reply, the ZCI ones are about £20 and unless you're on a super tight budget, this is a worthwhile change. As for motor, sure, a high torque motor is never a bad idea if you want better trigger response but it won't improve much outside of that IIRC.

I wondered who bought that abomination!

@Lozart @Adolf Hamster Thanks for the insight, i've never ran into this issue so it's a new one for me and all the previous ML stuff i've used has just worked a treat. I've got two ML MR Hop 70 degree buckings so I might try "adjusting" the lips of the bucking to see if I can improve feeding. As for the PDI W-hold, the stock bucking looks pretty similar in it's contact patch/mound shape. I'm at a bit of a loss as for what other buckings/nubs to use in a flat-hop setup (if I screw up fixing my current buckings). I know Prommy/Laylax sell a hard (red) flat hop bucking and the pack of two nubs but i've seen some forums posts elsewhere saying that Prommy purple is more than enough for 400-450fps with a hard flat hop nub.

Back again and i'm moving in the right direction, FINALLY. I sat down this morning after mulling over my options and remembering someone having a somewhat similar issue with their AEG being massively inconsistent and it turned out their bucking was causing the issue. I stripped the rifle and disassembled the hop unit. Here's what the hop unit looks like with the ML MR Hop rubber installed. I took the hop unit apart and compared it to the stock hop rubber as seen below. Apologies for the poor focus. Interestingly the stock hop rubber is a few millimeters longer than the ML MR Hop rubber. I put the stock hop rubber into the hop unit and as you can see below, despite being longer, the feed lips(?) don't protrude into the hop unit as far. I PTFE taped the hop rubber and hop unit in keeping with my first attempt at assembling the hop unit just in case the PTFE was somehow causing my issues. I rebuilt the gun and went to test it on 0.2g BBs and then 0.36g BBs. Results are below; Now i'm getting somewhere! Interestingly the power has gone UP from before and, thankfully, it's consistent! I'm impressed that on 0.36g BBs i'm getting 3.2fps difference across 20 shots, that's probably my best yet of any of the AEGs i've worked on. My issue now is; does this gun require a different length or type bucking to work correctly or is possibly just the ML MR Hop rubber causing issues? As for the power it's producing, i'm aware it's well short of the 420fps on 0.2g BB (313fps on 0.36g)/1.64Joule limit i'm looking for and I do have an M150 spring kicking around in my spares box somewhere. I would have slapped it into the gearbox but my screwdriver fell to bits on me this morning and i'll have to wait for another to arrive on Sunday which is a bit annoying but still... progress! @Leo Greer I'd like to pick your brain over the hop rubber issue. Have you ever ran into anything like this before? Should I just try trimming the feed lips by a millimeter or two so it matches the stock bucking length when installed?

Very loosely on the Ruger MKIV IIRC.

I love it honestly. I was looking at slapping in one of the TNT Studios kits but they appear to be sold out almost everywhere in the standard 143mm length barrel and I don't want to go for a longer barrel as I like how short this is.

ASG/KWA MP9R. A loud but tiny package. Might have to look into, somehow, making it quiet but as far as i'm aware, the majority of the noise escapes from the ejection port...

Had a skirmish at District 23 last night with the MP9 (go see gun pics thread) that @Ronin0033 sold me and man that thing is awesome. It's loud as hell so everyone can hear you coming and the 48 round mags mean you have to be selective with your shots. Carrying 3 mags means I only ever had a regular M4 mid-cap on me at any time. The gun functioned almost flawlessly except once the bolt got jammed and took a few minutes of racking the bolt for it to release, I thought i'd broke it within 2 hours of play It's shooting about 300fps on 0.2G BBs with the -50fps powerdown valve in it so I reckon i'll be changing the valve to the less severe power reduction one to squeeze the last bit of power from green gas. I was having so much fun with the MP9 I didn't even test the L85A2 i'd taken as well. The gameplay was great, only had one issue with a guy blatantly not taking a hit but never had the issue again. The final game of the night (for me) was "main street" which is just the single corridor that splits the middle of the arena where the objective is to touch the opposing teams wall or kill their entire team butyou can tag in dead teammates. The problem the enemy team had is that they brought no grenades and I brought eight. In a best-of-five style match my team walked away 3-0 and I had one last grenade left. I also tested some new Magflash samples sent by @Tugger which were amazing. They had no sparks but were blindingly bright. Unfortunately they left a lot of tough residue on the floor of the site so the marshall said these versions wouldn't be allowed sadly. Hopefully @Tugger can adjust the mixes so that it doesn't leave a lot of residue.

Mine has it too. Makes a half-decent *clink* noise when firing but i've got mine on 13:1 so sometimes, in auto, it literally can't keep up. I understand why people hate it though. ZCI inner barrel works fine in my G&G MP5A4. Personally I bought mine from TheCageAirsoft but they're out of stock in the 240mm inner barrel you need (stock length is 233mm). BombUpAirsoft have one in stock here. As for where to buy upgrade parts, it's not so simple. I tend to buy them from a few different places simply because lots of places are out of stock of different things. If you're going to upgrade the inner barrel i'd suggest doing to the bucking and nub at the same time. I use a yellow (60 degree) Macaron and Omega nub.

https://www.308-sniper.co.uk/mk5-thunderflash-104758393.html - 47 in stock. https://www.justpaintball.co.uk/collections/mk5-thunderflash-flashbangs - a few different bundle sizes. Not sure about availability but they're not showing out of stock. I'd just Google them and ring/email and ask about stock and the cost of shipping.

The hop unit from AirsoftPro arrived and was installed. Went in like a treat with none of the issues from the Wiitech one. What I didn't do is change the nozzle to the AirsoftPro one because I was short on time and just wanted to see if the hop unit fit. I decided to do some testing to get some initial FPS readings and it's not good. The single highest FPS reading I got was 274.4fps on 0.36g (1.26joule) which is 368.3fps on 0.2g. In addition to the low FPS, it's also massively inconsistent with a ~50fps difference between the highest and lowest FPS reading. I'll have to go back into the gearbox and use the AirsoftPro loading ramp and nozzle to see if it makes a difference in the FPS in testing. The airseal from the compressions parts (with the nozzle on too) was great when I tested during installation so I know that's unlikely to be the issue. For reference; the limit on 0.36g is 313fps (420fps on 0.2g) or 1.64 joules. As long as i'm over 300fps on 0.36g with a max variance of 3-5fps i'll be happy. Fixing the inconsistency is key in my mind. If the FPS was consistent but low, I wouldn't mind. Boosting FPS is easy through spring strength, it's the inconsistency that's got me wondering. In other news; the spring guide for the A&K Masada SPR is a non-standard size. I ordered a QD bearing spring guide and that's also too big. I measured it with calipers and cannot find any spring guide with a similar size. I've also 'shimmed' the inner barrel to the outer and that thing is rock solid now, zero movement at all.

Same. The Specna polymer is great. I'd wish they'd bundle these with a MOSFET and it'd be perfect. Even better when their 100 round mid-caps are only £9 each. Edit: Patrolbase are sold out of the black mags already, only grey and tan left.

I'm pretty sure EG used sell a bandolier so you can carry 6 at once. I was planning on grabbing a few of the EG18s to try out, might just got for the X versions.

Not yet! I think i'm going to be stocking up on pyro again next month as my box of pyro & smokes is starting to get low again. As I understand it, the X version just dumps all of the smoke in half the time?

Not necessarily. Frags, as in single use pyro loaded with dried peas/BBs, are worth it as they're usually the only type of ball grenades available IIRC and as I said earlier, you can roll these really easily and catch people off guard rather than having pyro sail through the air. Enola Gaye have the best smokes IMO. Referring to @Tommikka chart, the EG18 is where it starts to get real expensive at £10-£15 per smoke. The Mil-X and CM75 are stupid expensive but it's unlikely you'd be able to get your hands on them anyway. Most people use the TP40 size as they have the best price/performance balance.

I'll do my best to describe what i've used but i'm sure i'll forget something. Flash Bang Smoke - Disposable; Ball Grenade (loaded with dried peas/BBs) - These can be striker tops like the Mk5 Thunderflash or ring pull. These actually roll really well for indoors and you can bowl them across flat surfaces pretty easily to catch people off guard. Cylinders (loaded with dried peas/BBs) - These act like the ball grenades but are cylinders. Not ring pull, only striker top. Non-Thermobaric Multi-bangs. Great fun. Cylindrical. These are bangs only, not loaded with projectiles. Thermobaric single and multi-bang. These are a bang and bright flash. No projectiles. Also fantastic fun. FBS offer striker top, ring pull and fly off lever options on some of their devices but considering they're dispoable, it's not worth the extra cost for FOL options. Enola Gaye - Disposable; Mk5 Thunderflash - These are the thin cylinders with striker tops. The single cheapest and most common type of pyro in airsoft. 99% of retailers wont sell you (and most sites wont let you use) Mk7 or Mk9 Thunderflash due to the increased sound level. EG67 - These works exactly like the FBS Ball Grenades above. Flash 3.0 - Loud bang, sparks, flash. Come as a cylinder with wire pull igniter. Both FBS and Enola Gaye offer smoke grenades but, IMO, Enola Gaye has the better offerings however they get quite expensive. Reusable Pyro; Blank Firing Grenades - There's loads of different offerings on this from impact grenades to timed and in different calibers too. .209 primers are the cheapest, 9mm (.380) next up and then 12 Gauge blanks being the most expensive. A lot of BFGs only tailor to .209 for airsoft but there are a few still floating around that let you use 9mm and 12 gauge but you've got to be careful with 12G as they can (depending on what you buy) be too loud for indoor use. I'm personally getting back into using my BFGs now i've found a supplier for Magflash which are just as loud as regular pyro but way more fun. Charge/Legit training grenades - Things like the Virtus AG-40 Training grenade are A. Expensive B. Hard to find and C. The charges are incredibly difficult to get a hold of. While they're cool, they're probably not worth it. Gas Grenades - I've never dabbled with them as i've always seen reviews saying seals go bad after a year and it's usually tricky to get hold of spares to fix them and that's without looking at their mediocre performance. Most sites operate a rule where if a grenade detonates inside a certain radius, you die, regardless if you get hit by a BB from the pyro or not. I think the only exception to this rule would be Thunder Bs but they use CO2 catridges and disposable plastic shells which aren't cheap either. They're supposed to be stupid loud too. As a note; I'd avoid using reusable pyro outdoors as they're easily lost and due to their weight, can only be thrown under arm below waist height to avoid serious injury to other players. I'd also mention Taginn grenades. As Emergencychimps says, their disposable pyro is expensive per unit and louder than most sites will allow. Taginn (I think) are the only manufacturer who actually have pyro that can be launched from a underbarrel grenade launcher which is cool but crazy expensive when you start looking into it.

Both my SOTAC and Holy Warrior XPS3 replicas have adjustable zero. It takes quite a lot of winding (they don't click either) of the adjustment knobs/screws to get it where I need it but it does work. I'd guess the 'cheap' replicas have the adjustment features there but possibly don't work? I adjust my zero indoors where there's no wind or anything effecting the BB flight but as many others have said; airsoft isn't an exact science.

That's a nice harness Gav, where'd you get it?

Curve to the left could be something as simple as you holding the gun canted. A lot of people make this mistake. It's possible you twisted the barrel in the hop when reinstalling so it's not applying hop evenly to the BB. As for range, how short are we talking? A lot of people expect their AEG to be shooting 100m+ when they should be expecting about 50-60m for a well tuned, well maintained AEG. I always use 0.28G BBs when playing outdoors and have no issues with range.

Nothing too exciting just some ludicrously expensive, and hard to find, bits of plastic. What with the shortage of "heavy" BBs?

It's actually insane how fast you have to be to get a good deal. I was lucky once and snagged a Nuprol Operator 60L Duffle Bag for £15. It's a way better fit for me and my gear simply because of the internal dividers and backpack straps. Carrying a 50L holdall in one hand is a right pain because of how bulky it is especially when you have a rifle bag in the other hand.

Whenever he restocks his motors, I buy up a few ready for future projects because they sell incredibly quick. Last time he restocked I picked up 3x of those SHS High Torque motor with the fans.

Don't Lancer Tactical use a Zion Arms Nebula MOSFET inside the Gen3 AEGs? Could it possibly be a LT rebrand? It would be interesting as LT already have a PCC, the LT-35 Battle X. £210 off PB for a full metal PCC base sounds like a half decent deal and i've read good things about the MOSFET from the LT Gen 3 reviews. For me, I'm not a big fan of the receiver design. I was hoping to find it elsewhere but it looks like it's a PatrolBase exclusive thing.

Last owner gave them away for free. I've kept two and i'm selling the other three, which I don't need, there's nothing wrong with that. Wouldn't be the first piece of gear i've flipped in airsoft either.