FEATURE THE NEED FOR SPEED: PART 2
never realize they’re only shooting BBs and haven’t even adjusted their hop up to boot! Humorous anecdotes aside, one of the best and simplest upgrades you can do to your rifle is to shoot heavier ammo. No, that’s not really an upgrade, but you would be surprised at how much more accurate your gun is when using anything heavier than a basic .20g. Following up on that, is a real upgrade: changing out the bucking. I also feel this one is a sort of prerequisite for any new airsoft gun, as the stock buckings are usually little better than acting as placeholders. More advanced setups would consist of a high-quality aftermarket barrel and an R-Hop installation. Do not get hung up on questions of length beyond what is appropriate for your current build. Bore quality and internal finish/ level of precision matters far more than length.
TRIGGER TIME
After accuracy woes, the other most requested upgrade is to make the gun run faster – or have better “trigger response”. Trigger response is an often-misappropriated term, but distilled down to the basics, should be considered as the time it takes to physically fire a BB from the moment the trigger is pulled. Gamers and real steel shooters with fast
88
OCTOBER 2021
trigger fingers can easily outrun a stock gun, which is often a point of consternation as this can contribute to seizing up a gearbox via inadvertent short-stroking of the trigger. So, when someone requests “faster trigger response” they typically mean they want to reduce the time it takes to fire a BB from when they pull the trigger. Aside from the hop up upgrade, the single biggest improvement that will net you a physically felt difference is an aftermarket motor. In many ways, this is the beating heart of your gun. A quality Neodymium or brushless motor can significantly increase your rate-of- fire and make your gun feel more responsive and quick on the trigger. This is, of course, just one aspect of obtaining responsiveness. Further refinement via gear ratios and electronic trigger units/MOSFET’s and things such as pre-cocking, short stroking, etc. also play a role in responsiveness. It is also possible to set up a build to be better oriented for semi-auto use or high ROF style builds. Long story short, these are all things that can make a physically measurable difference on felt responsiveness. Generally, when getting any Airsoft gun upgraded, you should strongly consider taking care of all the basic foundational work too. The most critical of this also being the one many struggle with doing well: shimming. A well-shimmed set of gears will not only sound smoother and cleaner, it will also have
