R-Hopping Part Two: Video Update

The above video demonstrates (rather poorly, since you can’t see the BB) my second go at the R-Hop install process following last week’s initial install that overhopped 0.28g BBs with no hop. Unfortunately you can’t see it very clearly at all in the video, but the BBs were easily flying past the powerline tower I was using as a target. I’m horrible with judging distances, but that’s got to be at least 225+ feet.

I forgot to mention that I was using a Prometheus Flat Hop Nub as part of this install. You can use a normal cylindrical nub with an R-Hop setup, but by all accounts online it won’t render the same results as a flat nub. The BBs used are 0.30g Calibre Six BBs fed from a Magpul PTS EMag.

As per the video commentary the range increase is significant. Accuracy/consistency was relatively the same, although with the Lonex hop unit and Prometheus inner barrel they were already pretty good to begin with.

One fairly crucial thing I forgot to mention in the above video: full auto fire with this current setup is terrible. The BBs are firing without any problem, but the hop is horribly inconsistent from BB to BB – at the 28bps provided by the G&P M120 High Speed Motor I currently have in there, it kind of looks like a very short ranged BB shotgun. My guess is that the motor is simply too fast. I’ll switch the motor back to the slower stock Avalon motor and see if that renders full auto fire at least somewhat useable.

I’ll do some tinkering and perhaps do another video at this Sunday’s game day. I may or may not post up a video later this week with various tips and tricks I learned with this install. In the meantime if you have any questions, please ask away. 🙂

(special thanks to Dirt for being my iPhone cameraman and confirming that the BBs were indeed going where I thought they were)

TJ’s Speed Shoot

Plinking BB’s at some steel at TJ’s private warehouse while in full kit – finally giving my WE M4 some loving.

Each of us ran the same course of fire 7-8 times during the day.

In the end, I had the second fastest run out of the 6 of us who participated in this private shoot-out.

KWA x PTS LM4 ERG Scout AEG

This is my first look at the KWA LM4 ERG. I’m actually quite impressed with KWA’s build quality and simulated recoil on this gun thus far.

Testing simulated recoil on semi and full-auto, as well as function of empty magazine bolt stop function and resetting system to continue firing. Recoil is nice – feels somewhat more like a bolt carrier is moving back and forth in the buffer tube, rather than a piston pumping back and forth in the gearbox as in the TM Recoil Shock M4 and HK416 series.

Magazine follower lever system that trips the bolt stop inside the mag well seems to work pretty well. The gun will fire once if the bolt stop is depressed and an empty magazine inserted into the gun before the lever system cuts off the gearbox. Depressing bolt stop paddle will allow gun to fire again, whereas racking charging handle to the rear will not allow gun to continue firing.

Drum hop up? Yes!!!

Update: Troy VTAC Alpha

I just installed a Magpul PTS MSA (MOE Sling Adaptor) onto my Troy VTAC Alpha 13-inch rail, despite reports of the Magpul MSA not fitting on Troy TRX Alpha and VTAC Alpha elsewhere on the interwebs (post by IWC, proprietor of Mount-N-Slot, on AR15.com forums). Pictured below is the MSA mount mounted on the 9 o’clock position near the front of my VTAC Alpha rail (I’ve now mounted it at the 11 o’clock).

Simple enough. I don’t see what all the fuss was about with the MSA needing a flat mounting surface… it most definitely works fine on the Troy VTAC Alpha. That being said, it could just be IWC trying to make a sale of their own solution for mounting a fixed sling mount to handguard cooling holes, as IWC is a business after all. Not particularly impressed with their advice though: “It won’t. While the slots are the width and the thickness is similar, the MSA requires a flat surface to mount to. Atta hung it to the VTAC will touch only the center of the MSA, as the VTAC is round.” This doesn’t really make sense to me at all.

GBBR Heaven

Inokatsu CQBR (first time I’ve seen and held an Ino)

 

… this is the B Grade – the tiny gap is depicted here in a slightly out-of-focus photo.

 

GHK AK74 (new product)

 

… steel outer barrel out of the box – very, very nice.

G&P WOC (brand new)

… complete with malfunctioning safety selector lever out of the box – the detent holes were angled the wrong way, causing the selector to lock into place if put into either the safe or full-auto positions.

VFC HK416 (customer’s)

… with a broken hammer. Fun fun fun fun. Not a first time issue though, too bad VFC can’t make a decent GBBR, because they sure look and feel nice.

… chewed up nozzle. Bottom got chewed up as result of hammer snapping in half. Not sure how the nozzle tip got so dented, though.

KJ M4 USGI Magazines

These arrived at work. Very cool, factory KJW M4 USGI-style mags.

This makes me reconsider starting on the KJ (Tanio Koba) M4 platform as my next GBBR project… especially since the KJW/TK M4’s now come with these magazines out of the box:

More photos after the break.

KWA MP7 Maintenance

Though my MP7 is one of my newer guns, I’ve put more rounds through it than some of my AEGs after downgrading my muzzle velocity with a Tonic Floating Valve. I recently installed a FE Steel Lengthen Piston (similar in design to RA-Tech Hard Kick Set).

Cleaned my barrel & feed ramp, replaced hop up bucking with a A Plus Studios KSC (KWA) MP7 SMG bucking. I couldn’t actually decide which hop rubber between the Falcon bucking and the A+ bucking to put in. I’ve read that both the Falcon and A Plus rubbers perform very similar to the stock KWA, though there are no issues with swelling due to excess silicone oil soaking into the aftermarket buckings. I’ll eventually install and test the Falcon one and see what happens.

Look at all that dirt…

Even my feed ramp was dirty…

My selector click pin is very worn out – hence my selector doesn’t click with the same authority as Jetlag’s. I’ve ordered myself one from Wii Tech.

Jetlag handed his Umarex MP7 to me as well.

He reported feeding issues and that his bolt stop would automatically lock after every shot, even on a loaded mag, and even when there was no mag and the cocking handle was racked.

The issue with his bolt stop was a simple-enough fix, reported on the KWA USA forums. The torsion spring that would ordinarily hold the bolt stop lever down had popped out of place and was resting under the lever. This caused the bolt stop to engage automatically. The fix was a simple as re-seating the spring over the lever, allowing one to slingshot rack the charging handle on a loaded magazine.

Feeding issues with KWA/KSC products are either often a result of BB sizing or hop up bucking. In this case, I know the Tier One BB’s he’s been shooting through generally will feed. I changed his hop up bucking with a spare KWA OEM one irregardless.

R-Hopping: Part One

Image above of HS5 Armory IR-Hop Z-Kit borrowed from Airsoftstore.ca.

I purchased the above HS5 Armory IR-Hop Z-Kit from Airsoftstore.ca a couple of months ago but have been putting off installation of it for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that I was intimidated by what I thought would be a significant amount of tinkering/fiddling with the installation (and I think we all know I’m not the most confident/skilled gunsmith out there, but I’m improving!). I also wanted to wait until I got my hands on a better hop unit (a Lonex unit) and inner barrel (Prometheus 6.03), but of which I now have. Nonetheless, I was still afraid I would completely bungle the installation and my Mk18 Mod 0 would spontaneously combust for no reason at all.

As with most things in life, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and my Mk18 hasn’t blown up (yet).

The installation isn’t perfect, far from it; my Mk18 currently functions more like an anti-aircraft gun than an assault rifle with its ridiculous amount of overhop, far too much for my own good (heh). And that’s with zero hop and shooting 0.28g BBs. That being said, the BB does fly pretty straight and true until about 200+ feet, at which point it arcs sharply upward. I’ll have to tinker with the installation and hopefully have it working perfectly by this Sunday, at which point I’ll do a video overview of the installation.

Until then, stay tuned.

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Jetlag!

Richmond Indoor Paintball (RIP) – Jetlag’s birthday game. A pain game for him and 4 bodyguards of his choosing; Jetlag’s objective was to stand in place over each X-marked spot on the floor for 5 minutes each. All the rest of the players were given 2 spawns each and dished out a ton of BB’s into us.

CQB Sept 19, 2013

4v4 team elimination game play footage from Bellator-organized indoor CQB @ RIP. Best of 5 games.

Featuring Drift, Jaws and Jetlag.