Feed-paths on bolt rifles
 

On the bolt-action sniper rifles, what is the feed system like? If someone designs a new and improved airsoft pellet that's oblong or something, do you feed them in by hand?

Yep. Pretty much.

Nice, thanks. Now all I have to do is design a new improved pellet:)

The problem is if you want any hop-up at all the pellet must still remain round like a bb. The only improved ammo design I can see is if you made bbs that are all the exact same size (ie 6.00mm)

You also have to keep in mind that your goal is to touch the other player, not make a hole in him.

Pointed pellet, or bullet shaped would be more acurate, stable and cool, but it's not good for airsoft.

You could attempt recreating the Asahi blade-bullet ammo? But, like stated there would be no hop-up, and I dont think too many people would be extatic about getting shot by that.

If you're going to go to the trouble of recreating the Asahi blade bullet, please, for the love of all that is holy in airsoft:

REMAKE THAT WHOLE SYSTEM!

Pre-charged shells has got to be the slickest idea for a sniper system EVER.

That rifle and that system are my personal airsoft holy-grail.

That, and a system similar to tanaka's new shotgun - Pre-charged shells with BB's in them.

If you use oblong pellet the best way to stabilize (sp?) it's trajectory would be to use a rifled inner barrel, which will give a spin to the pellet, no need of hop up. If you don't use a rifled barrel nor a hop-up tje gun would shoot like a musket ie: anywhere but the targeted area. But here the pellet would need enough spin and enough velocity to keep a relatively straight trajectory.

As for the potential penetration ability I believe that is the ends are round enought the pellets woudn't have more penetration power than actual BBs. If the weight and velocity are equivalent I think that the effects on human bodies would remain equivalent. Of course if the pellets are sharp the will be more promt to cause bodily laceration.

It would be an interesting study to complete.

Thanks for the info on that Asashi thing, that's awesome! The only problem I can see with the cartridge design is that you'd lose the cartridges. Interesting pellet shape they have, though.

word up to that

I'f you're going through the trouble of making bb's that are perfect enough to be used in a rifled airsoft gun you may as well just use bb's. IIRC the flintlock in my basement fires pellets through a rifled barrel.

A more precise pellet would be great. We could drop the hop up system and just aim with a little arch. If the pellets were consistent from shot to shot it wouldn't be a problem.

if the system could be worked out competently (barrel and twist, replacement of the hopup system) then it would not be difficult to adapt it to AEGs as well, all that would need to be done, is to re-shape the magazine shape, and elimination of hi-caps, as they would not work well with the shape getting in the way of efficient loading (that alone is a good arguement). Producing pellets would not be as difficult, because you would just need to make a differently shaped mold.

While it would be a lot more accurate, range would be complete shit. Have you ever tried hitting a target at 30 yards with a pellet gun shooting 495fps? You have to aim 6ft above the target. If your field restricts use to 400fps, good luck hitting anything over 40 yards. Your scope wont have anywhere close enough elevation adjustment to compensate.

Seems like a trivial reason not to try. If accuracy is possible, I'm sure technology would move to catch up. Until then you could just hold-over.

And for the record, shooting logs with a .22 air rifle long-distance is a very rewarding experience, the longer the delay from pop to thud, the cooler it is.