Sniping

[Airsoft-Ed]

I have yet to skirmish my sniper but I play in a dense woodland stretch that's about a mile squared.

My garden is about 21m long and I just did an accuracy test, results are as follows:

Range is 20m, target is a 5 by 5 inch metal pellet catcher.

Conditions are heavy rain, strong crosswind and maybe about 10 to 15 degrees.

Hop was completely off for this test, scope configured to compensate the drop of a .36.

I used the rain to roughly guage the effect of wind, though not 100% successfully.

30 shots of .3 ammo resulted in exactly 15 hits, so that's a 1 in 2 chance of a headshot at 20m

30 shots of .36 ammo resulted in 17 hits, though 2 were more skims, so results are more or less the same.

I did a test a while ago with hop, at the same distance but good weather using .2s and that resulted in 10 hits out of 30 on the same target at the same range.

I find that when I try to put the hop on, accuracy generally decreases, the barrel is something shocking like 6.1mm and I'm struggling to find a tightbore that I know will fit before I buy.

But yes anyway, so all you snipers on the forum, what ranges do you generally fire from to achieve a hit?

Will I fair well with this gun as it is, or are upgrades 100% necessary?

Considering it's completely stock I don't think it's that bad, especially for a gas sniper and from all the terrible things I've heard about it.

 

[Rock-climby-Dave]

VSR Barrels will fit it.

Don't aim for the head, unless it is the only target showing - less likely to hit and the target will hate you for it.

I engage happily anywhere between 20m and about 80m with anyone up to about 50 being hit on the first try.

get used to gaging your sites minimum engagement.

Learn your rifles shots more than anything else.

Use .36's skirmishing, they deliver a lot of energy to the target, so most sensible people will take the hit on the first try.

I said don't aim for the head - but if they aren't taking it - anything is game

 

[dazz]

Well generally speaking, the heavier the ammo, the more accurate the rifle should become. Some stock hop units / buckings need packing out or modifying a little to get the lift required for use of heavier ammo.

I use VSRs with the Laylax Nineball Hard Hop buking (purple one) and also apply a bit of bic biro inner tube between the prongs of my hop lever.

Rifle firing at 495-498 fps with other upgrades included, im accurately hitting 85m with ease. After that you are at the mercy of the weather conditions but still can hit an overall range of approx 100-110m - naturally grouping at this range is affected.

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

Dave, will VSR barrels fit without modification?

And is there one that's 6.03 x 620mm? Barrels are the most bitchy thing to find ever.

Dazz, I don't know much about hop units/parts, will the parts you mentioned fit any hop unit or does the entire unit just get replaced?

When I get my Mac I'll add some photos of the hop unit and its parts and show the barrel with its cuttings and hopefully I'll be able to get dead on, specific answers.

I don't want to commit to any sale until I'm 1million % sure what I'm getting will fit, don't have the money or patience to return orders or anything...

Just for the record, I'm not trying to direct offence, it's just my general approach to everything.

 

[Rock-climby-Dave]

As far as I am aware the VSR barrels and buckings will fit - I would buy them for mine - but feel free to do some research.

Firesupport are the best place for barrels.

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

There aren't any VSR barrels that are long enough to fit my M700, I need a 620mm.

Doesn't anyone know of any custom shops where I can have one made? I've heard of Edgi in the US but I don't know if they ship to the UK and it seems a bit too much expense and hassle just for a barrel, there must be something I can get closer to home.

Does anyone know if PSG1 style barrels fit? They're generally 650mm, I could cut one down or something.

I'm surprised this issue has never been faced by anyone else.

 

[Tristan Orr]

As far as i am aware a PSG1 barrel should fit, but I wouldn't cut it down at all as then your have issues if you don't cut is off square and de-burr correctly.

Any bolt action sniper rifle will need £200-500 worth of upgrade to make them spot on every shot. I have a DMR M14 EBR GBBR which its upgraded with 6.01 barrel steel moving parts, improved hop unit and bucking. Needless to say I can happily engage a target anywhere between 100m-120m I would say, altho I'm yet to pull off a shot like that as I get pretty close anyways.

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

I guess if I get one and it doesn't fit I'll be able to do what needs doing to it some way, somehow.

I might just order one and see what happens, but I'll wait a while and see if any of the retailers I've emailed get back to me first.

Edit: I just found a 6.01mm barrel on Evike in the US made by Edgi, has anyone bought from Evike before? This is definitely the best thing I've found so far, but a lot of people tend to say 6.01 in some cases doesn't help the accuracy because the BB comes into contact with the barrel wall too often, can anyone confirm that?

I plan to run a cloth through it after every game so dirt won't jam it regardless of bore, but would I be better off looking for a 6.03, for example, anyway?

 

[Jake117]

I read pretty much an essay on 6.03 vs 6.01. Apparently too many people take actual firearms physics into account whistle talking about airsoft and so buy the wrong products. It concluded that because the 6.03 lets more air around the BB's cushioning it better and so makes it more accurate where as the 6.01 increases the FPS more but is not AS good in accuracy.

That just what the reviewer said but he did seem to know what he was talking about.

 

[M_P]

I'd go wider than that, a 6.08 will give more accuracy at longer ranges

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

But it's at 6.1 now and it's awful. I can't see .02mm making that much difference.

 

[M_P]

Barrel finish quality and diameter make all the difference

 

[RR01]

Looking at your initial post, I presume you are using a gas powered rifle. First thing would be to check the FPS it's doing over about 20 shots with a chrono and 0.2 BBs, to see if the output is consistent, or varying shot to shot, as that can effect accuracy. If it's fairly consistent (within about 5-10 fps each shot), then you need to look at ammo weight as against the stock FPS. If it's much less consistent then you need to get it looked at to determine why.

If you are getting under 350 fps with 0.2's then it's probably not worth using anything much above 0.25s. Up to about 400 fps, try 0.3s and above try 0.33s, 0.36s or 0.4s.

As regards your accuracy test, wild and windy conditions are not the best for this. If you can only use the garden, wait for a calm day and redo the testing. At 20 mtrs with 0.2s my old, absolute stock Well L96 could hit a 5in square steel plate 95% of the time. Move it out to 35mtrs and that dropped to about 50% with the bbs starting to climb. It took lots of work, a new 6.03 barrel and hop unit/rubber and 0.4's to get it doing above 50% at 50 mtrs on the same size target on an outdoor gun club range (used for live fire & air rifles mostly). So yours ought to be doing better at that fairly short distance.

Until you can establish a base set of figures you can't really sort out what needs to be done to improve accuracy at range. Once you have that then you can start changing hop settings, barrel, hop units and/or rubbers to see what works and what doesn't, but that will probably take money to do. A later owned A&K SVD of mine (stock 540 fps out of the box) was hitting a 4in round tin at 25mtrs every shot , mostly in the 2in bull, and to improve on that at normal sniper engagement ranges (above 50 metres) took lots of practise and a lot of minute changes to the hop nub until I got it running consistently and accurately at distance. Then I sold it!!

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

I think it is largely down to consistency with regard to it being gas, but since finding consistency issues and getting rid of them is likely to be a very long winded, potentially expensive and picky process, I want something for the here and now that will improve the most, the fastest and I figure a new barrel will fit that bill.

After that I'll look into air tight hop units, gas seals in the mech and fixing the mag into a more uniform position, I'll probably need to make a few more posts along the way and ask for help, but main concern for the time being is definitely a new barrel.

If anyone can, then please post links to barrels you think will fit and explain how you came to that conclusion, explain the diameter choice etc etc.

Once I've got it working to the best of my and its ability, I'll write a massive tutorial to all the mods and list the expenses, how long it takes, where to get everything and then everyone'll be able to make a good rifle out of a cheap stock rifle.

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

Sorry for double posting, but it's also a bump.

I just ordered a deepfire 6.02mm ID barrel at 650mm long, does anyone know what I'll need to do to fit it?

I think the hop rubber needs a groove that I can probably cope without cutting and the barrel is held in with two screws jabbing into it on either side, where the screws contact on the stock barrel there are slight wells bored/drilled into the barrel, will I need to do that? Or could I just tighten the screws and let friction alone hold the barrel?

Also, I know it's going to be too long by at least 10mm, does anyone know how to go about cutting it down? Or would it be easier to drill into the barrel endcap so that the barrel meets it later?