Leo Greer

Seconds to what Fatboy posted. A good spring should basically never compress, whereas bad springs can lose power very quickly, or even bend.

A better question is why you want such a long barrel?

This issue is caused (almost certainly) by that small little microswitch in the top right corner. Looks up how microswitches react to relatively high amperage (compared to what they’re supposed to be used for) and you’ll have your answer. It’s a design flaw with the EFCS, causing the microswitch to send thousands of electrical pulses through the system, causing heat to build up, causing the chip to fry.

Let me see if I can dig up some more info. As far as I’m aware there is no such effect. I know people who do the mod in builds running 70 RPS+, but of course it depends on what you use, where you put it, how much, etc. Let me see if I can ask some the high RPS techs how it wears in.

It is indeed real, my good sir. I believe people have also used different kinds of rubberized sealants in thin layers, but I’d go shrink wrap for simplicity (you seal it with a heat gun or hair dryer).

Certain springs are quieter, in my experience, but Guarder are not especially so. They’re also not especially loud either. If you really want to make your spring quieter, you can just put some shrink wrap around a few of the coils.

@Lozart Good point on parts availability. I try not to recommend anything I know is super hard to find, but I’m sure it happens… @MrTea Glad you’ve been able to find most of the items you need! I’m watching the thread waiting to hear what you’re able to get out of it.

Which one did you buy? Umarex doesn’t actually make those—they’re just a rebrander with an HK license—and there are different models from the extreme cheap crap to being made by VFC.

I’m actually convinced they made the gears semi-proprietary on purpose, since there’s really no reason at all to place the gears like they did and make the spur unusual… it’s painful. One note on adding a Perun Hybrid—it actually takes a fair amount of material removal to fit a Perun to their GB shells, so be ready with your dremel, but go for it!

Specna has changed manufacturers around over the years, and unfortunately I’ve never had my hands on any of them. From personal experience contrasted with what I’ve heard, Novi/Krytac perform better more consistently. Are they bad gnus? That seems to depend on the model/OEM, and that I don’t know anything about. It is worth noting that Specna/Novi are quite a bit cheaper than Krytac, which ups my recommendation significantly for either. The squeak is related to the height of the bevel gear in relation to the pinion. The spur gear is pushed upwards by the upraised edges of the bearing hole, which increases bevel height, and causes the sound. This is evident even on extremely high end Krytac builds using extremely nice motors. (I’ve personally tried Tienly, ASG, ZCI, Lonex, etc, and other assorted pinions transplanted onto various motors. I was able to fix the issue by filing the lips of the bearing hole to lower the spur gear by a large amount. The issue then was that the shaft of the spur gear was too long and pressed on the gear for the dual selector, so then more dremel work. It’s not easy to replace the stock set because of classic fitment issues. The Prommy set does work, but from what I’ve heard they’re not good quality (I don’t have personal experience), The original Krytac set are extremely durable (much better than SHS). If you want to increase the speed, I would highly recommend picking up a quality 40K-35K motor, such as Tienly, the ASG Boost 30K (actually 35K), or simply ordering one from ChiHai. As far as I know, the motors are the same size as ordinary long shaft motors, but if not you can simply adjust the motor height, so the minute differences in shaft length should be irrelevant. I’m actually away from home for a while, so I can’t measure mine for you, but if you’d like I can ask around and find more info on the Prommy sets and Krytac shaft length.

It all depends on what you value. At baseline, you should know that airsoft will never be anywhere near as accurate as RS shooting. The very top end of upgraded tuned spring snipers struggle to make accurate shots at 100-110 meters. For an OOTB rifle, you shouldn’t expect more than 80 meters even with the best ammo. You should also know that spring snipers are not more accurate than any other class of airsoft weapon. They all shoot 6mm plastic balls (except for some very rare, odd, irrelevant models that shoot 8mm), and so the physics are the same between every airsoft gun. Secondly, I would suggest you go over to airsoftsniperforum.com, make an account there, and ask the same question. They specialize in everything to do with long range, and someone on there has dealt with every model you’re considering. Back to what you value—pure accuracy out of the box isn’t the only factor you should consider. I’m not an expert on spring snipers, but you should be on the lookout for parts compatibility with common models (IE, TM VSR), because if anything does break or wear out you want to be able to fix it, magazine compatibility (some models feature horrible mags). And finally, since I’m running out of spring sniper information, remember that price tag does not mean quality in any way shape or form! The best all round “buy-and-don’t-touch” spring sniper (compatibility, quality, accuracy) is currently considered to be the Novritsch VSR, despite there being plenty of far more expensive options. Good luck on the journey!

Second on Novi—the warranty is nice, and they perform okay OOTB, especially for their price. My one note is that Novi uses (on the SSR4) the same crappy hop unit, hop rubber, and barrel that Lancer Craptical does. All the money is in the gearbox, getting you an ETU, good neo motor, high speed gears, etc. Krytac is becoming slightly outdated at this point in regard to their offerings for the price. The internals, while being quite solid, are intentionally proprietary in some painful areas, like the spur gear. This leads to the infamous “Krytac squeak”, which is extremely hard to fix. Particular to the UK models with lower FPS, they get overspin on 11.1v very easily. This leads to you either needing to use a 7.4v, or do work right out of the box. None of these are “make or break” cons, but when you’re paying as much as you do for a Krytac… you should expect better. On the flip side, Krytac does a lot of things great. Their barrel groups are the most accurate OOTB of any RIF I’ve had my grubby fingers on. Their gearbox shells are bulletproof, and the gears, while proprietary, are stronger than almost all aftermarket sets available.

I would recommend the newer Arcturus lines. They’re coming out with newer models that feature a collaboration with GATE, but right now the C.A.T. Series and ME series feature extremely solid gearboxes paired with great barrel groups. The externals are good quality, no creaking or cracking, but the star of the show are the reliable, simplistic, and extremely well performing internals. I’m a tech, and very familiar with these, so here’s my more detailed opinions and notes: (I’m long-winded, so there’ll be a TL:DR at the end. Feel free to skip.) The gearbox is the same on all the models from 170 to 400, but the externals go up in quality. The externals are easy to judge for yourself, so here’s my take on the internals. The compression set is 100% good. Steel cylinder, CNC POM nozzle, and cylinder head with great seal. The piston is bulletproof. It’s much tougher than almost all aftermarket pistons. I and another tech both use the stock pistons in DSGs doing 55+ RPS. The gearset is ordinary, but solid. I use the stock gears in upgraded builds doing higher FPS and faster RPS. The trigger unit is a microswitch paired with an inline 3034 MOSFET. This means you have 1,000,000 cycles with no issues, according to manufacturer specs, as well as a tactile “click” to the trigger. The design of the gearbox here does make it very difficult to install any aftermarket trigger units if you ever wanted to, so keep that in mind. Arcturus has a steel QC spring guide that can be accessed just by removing the stock. The motor is a mid-level neo motor that does about 30K, which means you’re hitting 20 RPS on 11.1v (M120 version, faster for the weaker versions) with great response. Don’t expect it to pull any M170s, but it’ll get the job done, and I’ve used them in tougher builds as well doing 25+. The spring is Japanese tempered steel, and is of excellent quality. I tested four of these springs from an Arcturus rep, and got the exact same FPS from each, as well as ~1-2 FPS variance. No change over time, between a heavily used spring and ones right out of the packaging. The gearbox is solid. Nothing special, except for the split GB shell on the CAT models, but it’s strong and easy to work on if anything should happen. Arcturus uses 8mm bushings for spur and sector, and 8mm bearings on the bevel. The barrel group is very, very good out of the box. The hop unit is an ordinary plastic rotary, which works well. The hop rubber is a split design similar to those that Krytac uses. It does the job out to about 60 meters, but you may need an upgrade for farther distances. The barrel is where it stands out, as Arcturus features a 6.02mm steel QPC coated barrel, which is excellent. It’s much better than ZCI and a lot of “upgraded” barrels. They also come wired to deans with a high quality plug. Cons: The only real con is that you’re prohibited from using any aftermarket electronic trigger units, and doesn’t feature an ETU built in. It’s a matter of preference whether you like your RIFs with computers built in, but Arcturus not allowing you an option (yet) is a con for sure. TL:DR, the internals are great, super simple, and will allow you to keep up with players running far more expensive RIFs.

Ditto to the previous three posts. In the early days of my teching career, I attempted to upgrade a RIF and made some huge mistakes. It took me almost six months of fiddling and research until I was able to fix that RIF properly. And many “techs” are just as bad as I was. They throw parts in with no logic and no proper technique, and it doesn’t work well. Before you upgrade anything, you should have a clear, concise idea of what you want to see improve and why. You should already be using high quality BBs and a good quality battery. You should also be a confident player. You don’t have to be great at the game yet (it takes a while 😁), but you should be confident in how you play, or the upgrades won’t matter a bit.

I personally make protectors out of Lexan (polycarbonate), and use two layers. It’s super cheap—I cut the Lexan with tin snips and finish it off with a sanding belt.

The corner that has the chance to contact the sticker. That sharp lip on the selector window is the concern. Have you disassembled the RIF and looked at the selector plate yet since installing? You should check and make sure before doing anything.

The selector sticker is probably in the wrong spot. It can be finicky. You also want to make sure the gearbox isn’t rubbing the selector sticker. I typically file the gearbox shell down a bit so the sticker has full clearance.

I would personally do as suggested and simply increase the height of the nub with tape or glue. It’s extraordinarily easy, and may just solve your issues without an expensive hop unit. I actually did this on a friend’s RIF between games to deal with the issue. I’ll also note that Maxx units are very picky. Some models have issues with certain hop rubber or nozzles, and different models have different issues. They also won’t actually increase your performance over what the stock one can do, unless your stock has serious issues.

The Perun should be a flat drop in replacement, so assuming you can get the gearbox back together correctly (YouTube is amazing here), you’ll be doing well.

The only upgrades you really need are a Perun and maybe a hop rubber. Everything else is fine—you shouldn’t actually need to reshim or relube the gearbox. I would personally say to put the Perun in, maybe change the hop rubber if you want more consistency (only applicable if you’re using high quality BBs .25g or up), and avoid touching the shimming and lubing, especially if this is your only gun. Stock shimming and lubing does not need to be touched on most stock guns (CYMA Plats being better than most), and I can tell you from experience that as a beginner you’re more likely to mess something up than improve it on your first, second, and third tries. You can do whatever you would like with your RIF, but I would personally recommend picking up a cheap second RIF if you want to learn to tech. It’ll save your game days and headaches!

The issue with the CYMA is not a MOSFET. A MOSFET is a chip that allows the vast majority of the power to flow directly from the battery to the motor, instead of through the trigger contacts. The issue is with the trigger mechanism, which is a very small microswitch. When unprotected microswitches experience vibration, the contacts bounce, causing current to switch on and off sometimes thousands of times a second. This causes immense heat build up, and burns these units out quickly. It’s impossible to predict exactly when they will burn out. I’ve seen some burn out within a couple games, and some last for more like 3-4 game days. They will do this on any battery, as it’s not the voltage but the current doing the damage due to CYMA’s design flaw. It’s a critical issue with the series and I don’t know why people recommend them. As long as people are still buying, CYMA isn’t fixing. You can replace them flatly for an excellent Perun Hybrid ETU.

SHS gears usually match up well with SHS pinions—what’s your motor? A lot of guns actually have good shimming jobs from the factory nowadays. Truly bad shimming is relatively rare.

Curved barrels, or LRBs (Long Range Barrels) were a thing before hop up existed. Enthusiastic players would bend the last third of the barrel a few degrees in order to impart some kind of backspin. People have been debating where the BB flies in the barrel for years at this point. Over on the American forums, we actually have members working on a glass barrel project. On examination of the fluid dynamics, it seems that no proper quality airsoft BBs contact the top of the barrel or rattle around, but instead float through the barrel, closer to the top but not touching. Bore size is practically irrelevant. The people who say the BB rattles around in some bores and skids or floats in others are completely ignorant of how little the difference actually is between these barrel bores we care so much about. I will also cite that BBs rattling or skidding down a barrel produces a very distinct, noticeable sound that is lacking when you shoot your airsoft gun, even upside down. Naturally, air will push and flow around the BB due to its spherical shape. The proponents of the skid theory, where the BB rides along the top, propose that the Magnus effect forces the BB to “hop” off the hop patch and cling to the top of the barrel. However, this does not make any sense, as the Magnus effect does not become stronger than the forward velocity of the BB until long after it has left the barrel (overhop), even using extremely short barrels, which should theoretically prove this. I am not a physicist either, but having spent time both talking to people smarter than I, and researching fluid dynamics, I believe the most logical explanation is that the BB does ride closer to the top of the barrel, because of a negative pressure cushion created by the backspin (Magnus effect), but does not touch, because of air naturally flowing between the BB and the barrel and causing an opposing cushion. For some excellent practical evidence, Google Tanio Koba Twist barrels. They were airsoft barrels with rifling, tuned for 1J, that spin the air around the BB. Because they have cut grooves along the top, yet shoot normally, they prove that the BB does not ride along the top or rattle around,

HSS gears? Never heard of them... Where'd you get them from? Different pinion gears absolutely effect sound and fitment--you can switch pinions with a pinion puller relatively easily as long as your motor has an o-type shaft.

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.