Bolt Action Project: VSR G-Spec, M24 Full Upgrades Discussion (Parts, Mods, HPA/CO2 vs Spring, etc)

[Ricochet]

I'm considering a full VSR G-Spec build for a project. In the past I completed a fully customized TM L96 with almost exclusively PDI and Laylax parts, both of which are great parts companies, but in the end I wasn't happy with the L96's hop style. In the last few years companies like VFC and Action Army have been putting out, what appears to be, high quality parts, such as triggers, pistons, etc. My question is; has anyone on here used these parts, or even done a side-by-side comparison?

Thanks.

[spartan117]

There is a lot of info at airsoftsniperforums. You could check that site out.

[daishi]

Action Army hop is being favoured at airsoftsniperforums right now.

But with some work you can keep the outside adjusting tm hop...which is perfect for sniping. Rather then taking it down everytime you need to adjust for weight or ect.

[damage]

Keep the stock TM hop chamber then go full PDI internals.

[Drakker]

The Action Army parts are cheap for a reason. They're okayish, but not the best. I am not impressed by their cylinder and piston. While I never used their hop-up unit, feedback has that they require some work, you will definitely need a new nub, and it has all the drawbacks of the PDI chamber without any of the advantages. It's a crappy one part design where you have to push the barrel and rubber inside like AEGs which makes precise adjustments to the angle of the hop-up rubber pretty much impossible, and you don't even have left-right adjustment available like the PDI chamber to compensate. You will also have to remove the mag and fiddle with an Allen wrench every time you want to adjust your hop-up, which gets old really fast and is why I ditched the PDI chamber in the first place. You should definitely stick the the TM chamber, just get and upgraded hop-up arm and shim it correctly and it will work marvel, and you will get none of that BB side-hooking people are complaining about with the stock chamber and heavy BBs, which is the only "advantage" of the AA chamber.

If you do end up buying the Action Army cylinder, you will need a large diameter piston, like the Laylax or the Action (just "Action", not action army, yeah, confusing) piston. Smaller pistons like the PDI and King Arms will just leak like crazy. Stay away from the action army piston, its a terrible design with glued o-rings as shock dampeners and it has no air brake and its impossible to fit one in.

[Ricochet]

That was an informative post, thanks Drakker and everyone. I'm lucky I can bug ThunderCactus personally...and I do regularly. His old G-Spec was outstanding. Also I bug Damage when I see him out and about.

My goal is to have a gun shooting sub 450 FPS (on 0.20g) and probably run 0.36g or so. It's going to be made as quiet as possible with whatever mods and suppression I can throw in it. There's a plethora of forest out here, so I need it to be safe for fairly close engagement (it'll be paired with a suppressed TM MK23), but be able to get those accurate plus250' shots.

So that being said, pound for pound, what's the highest performance parts technically possible?

Make/model: Tokyo Marui VSR G-Spec

Barrel: Laylax/Prometheus 6.03mm, 430mm stainless

Trigger: PDI V-trigger

Cylinder set: PDI (should I get a cylinder/piston set)

Hop: stick with TM, change the rubber and mod the arm.

Barrel spacers: Laylax?

[Drakker]

I don't know in what kind of wood land you play in, but during the summer when there is a lot of foliage, in semi dense to dense woodland, expect engagement distances closer to 100-150 feet. Also, 250 feet shots in woodland are incredibly hard, you ALWAYS hit a twig or something.

G-Specs are very hard to make quiet unless you extend the barrel through the suppressor, but then you lose the advantage of the short rifle. In woodland I find that a shorter rifle is a huge advantage, especially when its strapped on your back and you have to move fast.

The PDI V-Trigger is the best trigger, the pull is a bit harder, but its manageable and predictable.

The PDI cylinder is amazing, not so for their piston and cylinder head. The o-ring shock dampening is crap and they will fall off. Since you have access to ThunderCactus, get him to install a long air brake on the PDI piston head. You can also mod the PDI cylinder head to accept a sorbo pad. You will need access to a lathe and something that can handle stainless steel, but basically you remove the o-ring and then remove the excess stainless to flatten the head a bit. That will remove some of the fluting, but using a sorbo will increase durability and really help dampen noise. If you go PDI and don't plan to use an air brake, go with the Hard Piston/kit. The Vacuum system is shit and useless, all it does is make your FPS less stable unless you plug the hole with an air brake. The King Arms piston works very well in the PDI cylinder, with a modded cylinder head you'd get a pretty good and stealthy combo. The King Arms piston might need a larger o-ring, but actually, in the VSR world, that can be true of any piston. Also, to maintain perfect seal, that o-ring will have to be changed relatively often.

If you can r-hop the barrel it would be great, then you can use a hop arm like the maple leaf.



Otherwise get the Maple Leaf rubber and the same arm, its a great combo. You might have to mod the barrel to accept the rubber, the hop window "bridge" has to be removed. You can buy barrels that already have that bridge removed anyway.

Barrels spacers can be any brand really, if you order PDI stuff from x-fire.org, get their spacers, they are the cheapest that way.

[Ricochet]

So are recommending a PDI cylinder, modified PDI nozzle and King Arms piston over ANY other variation, or if money was no object, what would you go with?

[ThunderCactus]

He's in van, so expect 400ft clear engagement distance in the forest lol

Im curious about the action army V trigger clone. The pdi V trigger is built to handle something like 650fps, so if the AA clone is just a bit weaker, it might be fine at 450ish
Id go with pdi cylinder and piston, laylax 430 inner, air brake and sorbo.
Firefly hard or I can rhop it. Alhough my original VSR was pretty damn amazing, I dont know what it was like at 300ft since I never had to make those shots. Was more concerned about being silent up close.

[Ricochet]

Well, we have all field types here, but forest silence and consistent open area distance would be nice. Some areas are quite thick well others are grassland, or the trees are far, far apart with little to no bushes in between.

I'd be down with you R-hopping and air-braking it for me. Frank If you had to do it all over would you R-hop or stick with the same as last time? Reviews on the AA V-trigger seem to be good, but we know the PDI one is sublime already, so it's whatever. Maybe I should try it and see... So I guess it's a PDI HC cylinder set then? I was always gonna get a Laylax short barrel.

I have a tough time imagining suppressor over barrel is better than suppressor past barrel. How would that work? Wouldn't foam absorbing sound that has left the barrel be superior than just absorbing it through?

[Drakker]

If money was no object and skill was available locally I'd go with a PDI cylinder, a modified PDI cylinder head with sorbo and PDI vacuum piston with the hole plugged with a custom made LONG air brake. I'd keep it G-Spec length and use a 300mm barrel from Laylax or PDI with the bridge removed and an r-hopped. I'd buy the Airsoft Pro hop-up lever arm, file the bump away, install a proper m-nub. The G-Spec has a lot of over volume, which is why it makes it hard to make it silent, but a long air brake and a sorbo fix that problem. The hard part is finding someone to make the air brake, you can't actually buy it in online stores.

Since money is in short supply and local skill is not available, I settled for the PDI cylinder + King Arms piston with a short air brake, but I'm looking into finding a long screw with proper threading to make a custom long air brake that fits the KA piston.

[Ricochet]

Interesting. Yeah, money may or may not be a factor and I'll have to mail the gun to Frank, which I'll likely do.

On that note, the quietest sniper rifle, or even any airsoft gun I have ever seen, was a VSR G-Spec. Lots was put into making it quiet, but I've never seen that level of silence replicated, not by a MK23, not be an APS2, nothing.

[Drakker]

The most silent airsoft gun I've ever seen was my good old A&K SVD. It's dead now, the crappy pot metal receiver bent while stored in a too tight gun case, but that gun was absolutely silent. I used a PSG1 140% (160%?) spring, a Prometheus 6.03 590mm barrel and an Airsoft Pro piston and cylinder head with a sorbo pad a Lee's custom piston head with an air brake. It shot a consistent 380 fps, not super high, which helps make the thing silent, but the silence level was just crazy. My MK23 was louder.

[Ricochet]

Frank's old G-Spec was just the trigger click and you'd damn near have to have your head beside it to hear that. I had a friend way back that had a Classic Army G36 that was deadly quiet. Not as quiet as the G-Spec, but near as quiet as the MK23.

[Drakker]

My SVD was never THAT quiet. You'd still hear a low pitched thunk when the piston hit, but only when you had your head near it.