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Why don't we just pick fights with 15 year-old kids and film it on a GoPro like the Americans?

Oh 16AA banned third person years ago. It's completely disabled. The fact of the matter is that large-scale warfare virtual or otherwise can't be done without a chain of command and drills. Many of the larger communities just don't get anywhere near to what some of the larger milsim operations do. ShackTac doesn't run proper combined ops like a lot of them but some of his videos are ok (if you like watching Dyslexi fly around in a Littlebird). A lot of them can be really bad though. The American ones in particular attract a special kind of five-star armchair general.

ShackTac are a poor example of milsim co-ordination. You want somewhere super walty like 16AA.net.

6.08 is not a tightbore, so that's probably why you've witnessed the difference. R-Hop patches are great.

Remember, don't get the snake oil on your bucking or it'll swell. That's what the last guy told me.

Well I think both Trigger and I agree that R-Hopping a tight bore is probably rather silly so I suppose something good has come from this.

Ah, I see whatcha mean now. Certainly a fair point to make: R-Hopping rarely worth the effort if you don't want to lift anything lighter than .30g.

This. Airsoft is a hobby like any other, and just like in any hobby you get some people who take it too seriously and some that don't take it seriously enough (i.e. cheating). Either group can ruin a day, but pick the right site and keep your fingers crossed that the ratio of idiots:players is good. And I will say it's not exclusive to any age group; there are equally dickish holder and younger people alike, but people tend to notice it more when kids do it I've found.

So you're changing your mind now and they're not 'snake oil' but instead just aren't anything 'special'. Where do you actually sit on R-Hopping then? Just last page you were making it out like they're useless and now we're saying that good results can be had but equal results are also attainable from other buckings like I said just before? I'm genuinely confused as to what we're arguing about here. I don't know anyone sensible that holds R-Hops up as being a miracle solution to hopping. And this is entirely about surface area when it's boiled down to what makes flat hops and R-Hops better than most conventional buckings: The variables in most HPA systems are negligible with the hop setups people have. An excellent example of this is the Daytona Gun community - same machine, identical hop units that have been around in their modern form for quite some years now, so a good test group yet many go with R-Hops over the bespoke buckings despite them being very good - it just comes down to consistency and air seal for most of these players. A properly installed R-Hop patch will last many years (even when being absolutely hammered by the break-in process) if you don't mess it up with lube and will continue to shoot the exact same as the material doesn't wear across one point like W-Holds or the Firefly 'ramp' design. The point of contact for R-Hops and flat hops is much greater, and that's why the perform well. The complete air seal out of the box and flexible nature of being able to increase the hop window are why I think R-Hop gets the edge over flat hopping though. Believe me, I'm one of the first people to bring into question any long-standing 'last guy told me this was right' type stuff that is so prevalent in airsoft when it comes to fiddling with internals, but the R-Hop has been around for a while now. Far from being 'snake oil', it's the best you can get alongside a well thinkered-with, quality bucking like you describe. I'm not saying it's the only option, but surprisingly for most it's the easiest, cheapest and gets immediate results if done right. Here's a fairly comprehensive view on the subject: http://www.airsoftcanada.com/showthread.php?t=152480 and http://www.airsoftcanada.com/showpost.php?p=1777097&postcount=23 Edit: Found the image I was after for anyone who has no idea what we're talking about. I should say, the flat hop obviously looks different to a normal one so this might not be the best picture ever.

You can certainly get comparable performance to an R-Hop, but they aren't overrated; they are genuinely the most economical way of getting backspin because of the intrinsic value that comes with having a very flat surface with a perfect air seal. And like I say, they don't wear as easily because of that even distribution. You can get a similar distribution with a flat hop, but ultimately your air seal isn't going to be as good without modification and/or a decent hop unit. Fliers too are something we'd have to disagree on (and many other R-Hop users). They're well known for consistency when fitted properly and fliers are incredibly rare. Patches are basically a flat hop with perfect air seal. If you have the hop or diligence to Teflon tape your bucking then you'll be golden too, but one can knock the issue of compression, consistency and durability with one tiny bit of plastic and 15 minutes of time. That's why they're great and why more people should use them.

R-Hop patches are absolutely not snake oil and this has been verified through many, many users. Because they're not a conventional bucking you get a near 100% air seal every time, but I will agree that in terms of performance they're on par with flat hops - though is this in itself an issue? R-Hop material is pretty cheap (cheaper than most buckings) and having such a perfect air seal is great for HPA consistency. The real issue is a lot of people lack the patience to fit theirs properly and have them sitting too low, which causes severe overhop and/or damages the patch as the BB only hits the leading edge rather than travelling along the whole patch as is intended. I've flat hopped and used PDI W-Holds and Firefly buckings and can attest to the R-Hop performing better even if we're purely looking at airseals here. Tight bores are a poor idea unless you absolutely have to squeeze FPS out of something (for example a Marui pistol). Anything else I'd go 6.05 or 6.08 like you say. Again though, I've tried all of them (that is 6.01, 6.05, 6.08) and indeed have a 6.23 ORGA in my 249, with a 6.13 on the way for my VSR. R-Hops work great with these barrels as they can provide even more hop than a flat hop ever could through lengthening the window. Makes them brilliant for sniping with heavier weights which they lift with ease. Purely from a basic physics standpoint flat hops and R-Hops will always be better then a protruding 'nub' like W-Holds and the Firefly 'ramp' because the force is exerted over a larger area, which allows for more minor adjustments, far less wear and a more consistent backspin. You can achieve the same hop with some buckings if you do it right, but if you want the absolute best air seal (and yes I realise you can get a great air seal with anaerobic sealant and/or floss with standard bucking) and hop area then R-Hops are great and are bespoke for every barrel by the very way that they're fitted, so you can get them to perform in essentially any bore.

Completely unrelated note: Not the best idea to R-Hop a tight bore. You'll get no benefit over a normal bucking.

Phone auto-corrected 'airsoft' to 'awesome' so it now says 'Awesome Surgeon'. Couldn't be further from the truth.

Also the RWA custom/Airsoft Surgeon pistols are usually massively overpriced and/or pretty ugly. And functionally a pistol loadout isn't usually a good idea except at some CQB sites.

It should be said that whilst the US and UK use some version of ArmA for training, it's a far cry from the retail one (in fact the companies - BIS and BI - are now completely separate and BIS is mostly owned by an American investment firm). It's one of the reasons Bohemia catch so much flak - they put an inordinate amount of effort into their military contracts whilst their consumer title sits still very broken and lacking depth in places. VBS is basically incomparable to ArmA in almost every way except its basic concept of being a military sim. I think a lot of people - most notably a lot of the big modders from A2 - we're severely ticked off that the game was/isn't quite as good as it should be doing how many copies they sold in 2012 and 2013. To the point where the RKSL and ACE teams kind of split in places and the modding scene hasn't been the same since. tl;dr Don't confuse Bohemia Interactive Studios (BI) (ArmA, Operation Flashpoint and poor community management) with Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BISim) (VBS, JCOVE and big government contracts).

They do - new distributor. TNKGuns.com Best place to look at some is on Youtube or their Facebook group, however.

My personal dream project would be putting an HPA engine into a bright orange L96 and making it fully automatic. I don't know where the BBs would go, I don't know where the engine would sit but what I do know is that it would be glorious.

Disregard Wolverine; acquire Daytona Gun. Failing that, put it in a second-hand G&P. Those things look real nice after they've been dinged up a bit.

I couldn't stand Ark. Actually got it refunded, but that was a long while ago and it's allegedly improved a lot.

Star Citizen's Squadron 42

Someone needs to HPA tap a McDonalds straw.

I must agree. G&G are not good quality, but - importantly - they have the correct tolerances and materials for everything to work together. If you piecemeal upgrade them though, that's when you have issues because you're going to be using aftermarket parts with mechanical qualities far superior to the pot metal in them. Keep them stock or upgrade everything. This is my philosophy with most guns, but I feel with the G&Gs it's even more important.

Not fussed. Thankful for just being able to go the one day thanks to you and your brother given the distances required.

You should probably just e-mail them.

Take the foam out of the top and bottoms of the goggles and use a decent anti-fog. If you get perspiration around your eyes then mop it up between games if they're short, but like you say you shouldn't be running too much but you might be moving quite a lot. I 'unno.