N00bs! Read this regarding FPS upgrades!

[kalnaren]

This is an aritcle is a repost from Airsoft Iowa (which in turn took it from ASR). Anyone who's been playing airsoft for a while already knows this, and CDN_Stalker has already done some very good work in another thread on BB weight, FPS, and accuracy, so it's usless to experianced airsofters.

This article is for the n00bs who want to upgrade their guns to shoot 400 FPS right away in order to get more range out of them, or those who think that FPS is all so mighty and important. So if you fall into either of those catagories, read this article:

----------------------------

Here is an article written originally on Airsoft Retreat forums by The Crimson Falcon. A very interesting article and supports what many of the core Airsoft Iowa players believe. An FPS limit should not be a goal. Click the "read more" link below to view it. Hey all, it's time for another one of Crimson's hopefully well-reasoned rantsguidesannouncements about one of our old favorite new player misconceptions, namely, the idea that a gun is better simply because it has higher FPS. I'm posting this thread up to clear up this misconception (or to get some reasons why people think that FPS is more important than I give it credit for being), since I've seen so many people recommend one gun over another simply because it has higher FPS, or because people will try to get as much FPS out of their gun as possible, but will overlook other (more important) modifications or upgrades. So, without further ado, here's what I think about FPS.

What does FPS get you? Many people believe that higher FPS will get you more range, and they're somewhat correct in this because the bb WILL go farther. But a more powerful spring, or teflon modding your sniper rifle, etc, is not going to significantly increase your EFFECTIVE range, and in many cases it will DECREASE your effective range. So what do I mean by this?

Effective range is the range that your gun can get consistent hits on target. My personal standard for measuring effective range is 9/10 torso hits, or 8/10 if we factor in misses due to unexpected high gusts. Effective range is a factor of your gun's accuracy, power, and the quality and weight of the ammunition that you're using. Effective range is also inherently limited by the nature of airsoft projectiles, since they are very light. No matter how fast you're firing, an airsoft gun will never have an effective range of more than 100 yards at the absolute max (for a sniper rifle firing .43g bb's or heavier) or 200 feet for an AEG (firing .2's or heavier). You may be able to get hits much farther out, but those hits will be largely a matter of luck, even with fully upgraded internals.

Okay, so lets take a look at what's going to be most important here. I'm going to use ACM's as an example, since they seem to be the most popular sort of gun for a new player to buy. Most ACM's feature very wide inner barrels (usually 6.1mm or wider), and mid or low quality hopups and hopup buckings. I mention these two factors because they are a big influence on accuracy. So what happens if we were to increase FPS, but not do anything else? I'll use the UTG M324 and the JG M16 as examples.

The UTG M324 (also the DE M50) has a stock 6.14mm aluminum inner barrel. This barrel is very low quality, and makes the M324 usually inaccurate past 100 feet. 80-120 feet seems to be the usual range that people will start to see their shots spiral off wildly. If you clean the barrel and hopup rubber, and tweak the hopup a bit, you can extend effective range to maybe 150-180 feet if you're lucky and use heavier ammunition. But the barrel is so wide, and the hopup isn't a v-hop, so it doesn't have horizontal stability, which means that the shots are going to be pretty inaccurate.

So say we do the teflon mod to the M324, and, assuming it's a v.1 or v.2, increase FPS by around 70 fps. We're shooting at maybe 450 fps now, which means that it's going to have a longer range, right? Wrong. Speeding up the FPS means that we're actually making inaccuracies even worse. If the bb is deflecting around in the wide barrel to start out, increasing the FPS means it's going to be deflecting with even more energy than it did initially, which means that any inaccuracies due to the hopup and barrel will get magnified by the higher FPS. In my personal tests with a v.2 M324, I noticed my effective range decreased by 20 feet after doing the teflon mod. My shots would go farther, but I had no idea where they were going.

Okay, so how about an AEG? The same story holds true. This test was done with a JG M16A4, v.2, which I borrowed from a friend. Effective range ran about 120 feet with .2's, and I was getting nice torso shots, but even with the hopup set perfectly to float bb's out as far as possible, they would still start to spin out unpredictably past 120 feet. So I downgraded the spring to an M100, and noticed, not surprisingly to me, that my effective range did not decrease at all. In fact, it increased to about 125-130 feet. Granted, my shots didn't hit with as much force, but they still were getting out there. So next I popped in an M150, just for kicks. Obviously you'd want to upgrade everything else as well, but since I was only planning on leaving it in there for a few shots, I figured it would be okay. With .2's, my shots were going all over the place at 100 feet. The much higher FPS hugely exacerbated problems with the wide inner barrel and hopup rubber, and basically ruined my effective range.

Okay, so by now it's pretty obvious that increasing FPS isn't going to allow you to put plastic on target reliably, and may in fact make it worse. If all you care about is being unsafe, and hurting your friends, then by all means, FPS upgrades are worth it. But if you want to make your gun more skirmish-worthy, I think it's clear that putting in a higher power spring isn't going to change things for you.

So, if you want to get better performance out of your gun, you're going to need to do things that will affect the accuracy, not the power. Try putting a tightbore barrel in your gun for starters. Tightbores universally increase effective range, because it means your shots will stay straighter for longer distances. Replacing the hopup bucking or the entire hopup will also have a significant impact on your gun. You should also think about cleaning your barrel and hopup before you bother doing things like the teflon mod.

For those of you that have guns that only fire around 330 fps (like the A&K M-series guns, for instance), you're much better off getting a TK twist tightbore than upgrading the spring. In general, you should get a tightbore for your gun first; not only will it increase your power, but it will also extend your effective range. If you want to upgrade your spring, you're going to need to make sure your gun is as accurate as possible if you want the power upgrade to mean anything. FPS without accuracy is completely meaningless.

But that's not the only problem that higher FPS can cause. If all other things are equal, it might seem better to get a gun that has more stock power than less. And this isn't necessarily untrue. But higher stock power also means that the internals are going to be under more stress, and your gun is correspondingly not going to last as long. This is a big concern for guns like JG v.2's, which come with a stock M120, but the internals are not reinforced enough to handle the spring for as long as they could handle an M100 or M110, for instance. Protecting your JG investment means that you should have reinforced parts on hand, although if you crack the gearbox, you're basically out of luck. That doesn't mean that JG guns aren't a good buy; they are. But the higher FPS of v.2's means that they're going to be under more stress than, say, an A&K, and they don't have stronger internals than the A&K.

So you should also be asking yourself not only how hard the gun will hit, but also how long it's going to be able to last, and whether the extra 60 fps, or whatever is going to be worth the shorter lifespan and marginal range increase (if there is one).

If you are planning on getting a spring upgrade, you should also think about getting reinforced internals. So, my suggestion for upgrades, in order of practical importance, are as follows:

1. Tightbore--this is the single most effective and important upgrade you can get for your gun.
2. Durability upgrades (reinforced internals, metal bushings, shims, and other upgrades of that ilk)
3. Hopup upgrades.
4. Power upgrades/new battery
5. Aesthetic upgrades (more durable externals may go here, or in 2).

The order of 2-5 may vary from person to person, but I think that a tightbore is clearly the most effective upgrade you can get for any gun, unless perhaps it's a sidearm or a CQB weapon, in which case accuracy is less important than trigger response time or durability.

-The Crimson Falcon

--------------

Original link here: http://www.airsoftiowa.com/index.php...id=23&Itemid=1

As for my $0.02, at the Wolfpack game this weekend I was playing with two guns, both stock, one shooting 272 and the other 315 on .20s (I was shooting .25's) and I held my own just fine against upgraded guns.

Cheers

[Red Ghost]

Originally Posted by kalnaren

both stock, one shooting 272 and the other 315 on .20s (I was shooting .25's) and I held my own just fine against upgraded guns.

Cheers

HA! nice to know my SR-16 at 274 wasn't the second lowest FPS at the game

Good find by the way

[kalnaren]

Originally Posted by Red Ghost

HA! nice to know my SR-16 at 274 wasn't the second lowest FPS at the game

Good find by the way

Lol, yea, my MP5 chronied 271, 272, and 273. It was accurate as hell with the tightbore.

[Red Ghost]

Didn't stop you from following me into a trap though did it?

[kalnaren]

Originally Posted by Red Ghost

Didn't stop you from following me into a trap though did it?

I didn't figure they'd shoot the skinny guy.

[KNIVEZS]

very informative article

[Karma]

Originally Posted by kalnaren

As for my $0.02, at the Wolfpack game this weekend I was playing with two guns, both stock, one shooting 272 and the other 315 on .20s (I was shooting .25's) and I held my own just fine against upgraded guns.

Cheers

I would also like to point out that at that same game there was a guy with a stock gun that was shooting 230fps.. thats right 230fps, and he was still getting excellent kills all day long. It goes to show that haveing a gun upgraded to the tits doesn't make you a great player.

[spl01t77]

very good read for someone like myself (first season in) and helps explain a lot of what i hear out on the fields

[Donster]

i liked it. it was very informative.

[CDN_Stalker]

Crimson Falcon is a good guy, I've chatted with him a few times over the years.

It drives me nuts when a new player insists on hiring me to install upgrades to get 400fps. I will actually discourage that, and make the upgrades to around 380fps or so.

And higher fps = more range is a myth I've busted a few times already:

In order for me to use my sniper rifle (CA M24) at a game recently, I downgraded n't really a myth anymore, I have recently busted itit to 350fps (all guns had that limit, and sniper rifles were banned unless they shot 350fps and the user was trusted). While I was test firing it after getting it to 340fps (using 0.20g), and adjusting the hop up, I found my 0.30g BBs would get out nicely to 300ft rather easily.

And, last summer, my 365fps (w/0.20g) MP5, only upgrade was the busings and spring, could easiliy get 0.28g BBs past 200ft away. Sure they'd spread enough to make a 2ft grouping at that distance, but was more than enough to hit a guy.


First upgrade anyone should do is upgrade the BB. 0.20g are useless outdoors, 0.25g are better as they will punch through brush easier and give you a longer effective range, even in a stock gun. 0.28g BBs are the best, but not for use in stock guns (I haven't tried yet). I have a 320fps (0.20g) MP5 that shoots 0.28g past 150ft currently that I have set up for close in stuff, but have the range easily if I need it.

[Oerlikon]

I've noticed the same themes as well in Airsoft, again and again. I have a KWA M4, shoots 398 with 0.20's and a 6.05 tightbore, my friend has a stock TM Sig 552, he is a heck of a lot better than me at shooting and maneuvering and not only claims more kills than me but he now put a tightbore in his gun, still shooting at 260 but his gun has just as much effective range as mine (~180 ft).