Gas vs Spring Sniper Rifles

[Liam Porter]

Looking at bolt action gas sniper rifles and wondering advantages/disadvantages.

 

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each type?

What are some good ones of each type?

How upgradeable are gas sniper rifles, and what do they need to be 'good'?

 

Which one of each (brand & model) would you get and why?

 

Thanks.

[Bulld0g]

it depends how experienced you are because gas rifles require more maintenence and may lack perfomance depending on the wheather, you also need to chose the right kind of gas which can be expensive mags are about £30 each so if i had the choiche i would prefer a spring rfle as there are less problems and do not require as much attention.

[Flynn567]

I would like to get a jg bar 10 Spring

[Airsoft-Ed]

I'm on the brink of buying a gas sniper, for me it's just the bolt pull.

 

Either it's a hard pull with spring, or the easiest thing ever on a gas and it's not that I'm lazy, it just feels awesome and makes the coolest noise ever.

 

Bolt action gas rifles don't need much more maintenance than an AEG, lube the mags and bolt every now and again and it's fine.

It's GBBRs that need maintenance.

 

Also, there's no need to upgrade the fps on a gas rifle, they cost more initially and to run, but there's less to upgrade.

[Rock-climby-Dave]

It depends on the rifle.

 

I own a G-spec thats pimped to the knackers and a KJ SA1G (gas) - I beleieve it is the one you are looking at from otehr threads.

 

The G-spec wins at performance hands down. I Have it doing 430fps as I can run .3's easily and I cannot find any visible heavier BB's, so no need to up the power.

The SA1G can hit 550fps on certain gas and can run at 450 with a frozen mag, but the gas cloud means you can't see where the BB is going in order to compensate.

 

Bolt pull - the Gspec I feel, has a more satisfying pull behind it and the noise is just as good but a bit different.

 

Mag size - It's not really an issue for a good sniper, but 10 rounds on a gas or 30 on the G-spec? I know which I'd rather have.

 

Upgrading - I've spent £700 on the Gspec altogether and the SA1G will be done at £200 + a new barrel, but mags are more costly, as has been mentioned.

 

 

For skirmishing the G-spec wins hands down, for amusment or plinking I'd choose the SA1G - It's down to you, no one else can make the choice.

[Alexb111]

A year out of date but better to re-open an old thread than a new one I believe.

 

Anyway, I've secured a placement in Germany which means this time next year I will have enough money to throw at airsoft to get pretty much anything I want short of a minigun or a mortar.

I have a standard spring L96 (Warrior) and am very tempted to sell it in a years time and buy a gas version when money is not an object (I'll also have UKARA by then so won't have to spray).

The issue at the moment is that to cock the rifle the force required physically moves it meaning I have to re-align my shot each time I fire.

 

I am pretty good at learning and have a lot of patience to find out about things so maintenance is not an issue (Im also an engineer for whatever that counts as ).

 

The main question I have is: After the £300 roughly on the gun and the usual cost of extra mags how much would people advise I spend on upgrades and what would I buy?

 

I know spring guns would cost around £300+ just on upgrades which puts me off a bit if its still going to be as hard to cock and aim as it is now.

I also know its early but I'm already excited and Im trying to weigh up the pros and cons so when I get there Im ready to throw the money on the table knowing exactly what I want.

1 minor downside I've found on the gas powered one is that I can only seem to find 10rd mags, is there any extended ones about anywhere and how expensive are they?

 

 

P.S. I am kinda set on an L96 model because of how comfy the stock is before anyone advises me on a different sniper, there would have to be a pretty good reason for me to change my mind

[Liam Porter]

Since I posted this topic, I've learnt a lot about different snipers.

 

And, I would always go spring for a few reasons.

Pros and Cons of both:

Spring Pros:

- consistent shots.

- easier maintenance and upgrades.

- cheaper initial rifle.

- usable at more sites (my locals don't allow gas over 300 FPS).

- cheap magazines.

Spring Cons:

- less realism - hard bolt pull and magazine placement.

- upgrades can be expensive.

- need upgrading from stock.

 

Gas Pros:

- more realistic.

- easy bolt pull.

- can up the FPS a lot more than spring rifles.

Gas Cons:

- inconsistent FPS - shots get less powerful as you empty the magazine. Can be sorted using an external HPA.

- upgrades can be expensive.

- initial rifle more expensive.

- harder maintenance.

- expensive magazines, small ammo capacity.

 

I think that's pretty much everything covered. Most of this is from various other forums, but I can probably find it all linked somewhere.

[Airsoft-Ed]

I had a KJW R700P briefly about a year ago and it was the worst gun I've ever owned, bar none.

 

Couldn't hit a head sized target at 20m, even with a tightbore. Shot consistency was that terrible. Hop design was terrible. Magazines were about £50 each and leaked all the time.

 

With HPA it would've probably been a beast, but I haven't the foggiest idea how to go about setting up a HPA rig.

[Liam Porter]

Here you go Ed:

 

http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/Construc...56-t127562.html

 

http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/List-Che...-P-t163702.html

 

I can't make head or tail of it to be honest. Here's something that may help you out with it though: http://tinyurl.com/7xhehul

[Alexb111]

Thanks for the pro's and con's. Exactly what I needed

 

HPA rig sounds like a project for me and a friend - Considering he was wanting to build a simplified ramjet in the back garden last year..

It doesn't look too hard to be honest. 1 cut into each magazine, thread the hole and attach a gas pipe.

I expect my friend will put his own personal touches into it such as a cut off nozzle and quick release to change mags in a hurry.

 

By the sound of I will check my local and their regulations but with a good HPA regulator I should be able to tune it to exactly 300fps or whatever the site limit. At least I have a year to look at it and think about it.

Besides, if I do upgrade the internals I can stick a huge gas canister on it and see what I can crank up the fps to before the stock parts break.

 

 

Last question then: Does anyone know if its possible to get a non-folding stock version of the gas L96 or are they all the para type?

[M_P]

It's not a para type, it's a different model if it has a folding stock

Take a look at the tanaka m700 AICS, it's not quite an l96 but it use a stock designed by accuracy international and most people wont notice the difference anyway

[Alexb111]

Ah right, I read somewhere that the folding stock variety in general was to keep length down for paratroopers dropping in so they could get it out the plane easier.

 

Yeah something like that looks good, will probably be easier to fix a HPA to that too with the mag extending out.

[kungfumonkey]

having seen the itervention now avaliable with a co2 conversion kit i would ( if money was no option) go for that but real world i would say spring cost evens its self out over say a year due to cost of gas etc

[Airsoft-Ed]

Cheers for those links Liam... Apart from the last one. Why'd you add that?

 

I think it seems very straight forward, I just doubt I'll be able to comfortably locate and pay for the parts without having doubts about all the parts not fitting each other properly.

 

Plus, I don't have any gas weapons at all at the moment so I couldn't try it out even if I wanted to.