TM VSR-10 GSPEC - Upgrade help

[sherminator]

Hello all,

Need suggestions for parts and whatnot. I have been out of this for a decade so I have NO idea where to start.

I want to upgrade a TM VSR-10 G-SPEC. It has sat in a box untouched for a decade. The gun works fine aside from the hop-up, which has no effect. (I assume the age of the hop-up rubber is the culprit here)

Anyways, I want to upgrade this thing over the summer.

Please help me airsoft community.

Ideally I would like it to shoot 450 - 475 fps with .20g bbs. I plan to use .30 g bb's. Accuracy and Range is important to me; more-so accuracy than range.

My budget isn't set in stone, I am willing to put $500 into this beast to make it shoot well.

Thank you
Sherminator

[Drakker]

PDI V-Trigger with vacuum cylinder/piston kit. Install an airbrake like the ones Thundercactus makes.

Keep the stock hop-up chamber, but use an upgraded hop-up arm like the dangerwerx, maple leaf, airsoft pro, etc. Any of them will work. The Maple Leaf Autobot rubbers are amazing with the maple leaf arm, but you could also use an R-Hop.

Lastly, the barrel. If you use a maple leaf rubber, you need to unbridge the barrel for it to fit, if you R-Hop, you keeping the bridged barrel could help. The stock barrel on the G-Spec is actually pretty good, so you can opt to keep it. If you change the inner barrel, then a Laylax/Prometheus 6.03 or a PDI (6.04 or 6.05) would be your best choices. It's not worth it to put any other brand in because they will not perform that much better than the original barrel in a G-Spec (note: the pro-sniper has an aluminum barrel, and it must be changed, hence why all the guides around will recommend changing the inner barrel). You might want to use barrel spacers too, old school thinking said that the more spacers you used the better, but lately the thinking is more that they don't do much and that you don't need to worry about barrel vibration in a slow shooting bolt action rifle anyway, so two spacers at either ends of the inner barrel are probably more than good enough.

That's it, this should fit in 500$.

[sherminator]

Thank you good sir for taking the time to reply. I will consider the options you have given me.

What is a hop-up arm?

What is R-hop? I have heard that recently, I have NO idea what it is. Can any airsoft gun be converted to do R-hop?

Why does aluminum barrel need to be changed in the other version of VSR?

Also - is it worth getting a longer inner barrel that runs through the silencer? Or should I keep a shorter barrel? Silence is important to me and I can't see much difference in range with a longer inner barrel, however, I have been out of this for a very long time so maybe I should pose a question instead of sounding smart.





Thank you
Sherminator

[Drakker]

Originally Posted by sherminator

Thank you good sir for taking the time to reply. I will consider the options you have given me.

What is a hop-up arm?

Something like this:

Originally Posted by sherminator

What is R-hop? I have heard that recently, I have NO idea what it is. Can any airsoft gun be converted to do R-hop?

It's a patch that you custom fit to your barrel. If you don't know what it is, don't bother with it, its rather hard to install and won't perform much better than a maple leaf hop-up rubber. Actually, the maple leaf hop-up rubber will perform better than a r-hop that is not perfectly installed.

Originally Posted by sherminator

Why does aluminum barrel need to be changed in the other version of VSR?

Also - is it worth getting a longer inner barrel that runs through the silencer? Or should I keep a shorter barrel? Silence is important to me and I can't see much difference in range with a longer inner barrel, however, I have been out of this for a very long time so maybe I should pose a question instead of sounding smart.

The aluminum barrel will foul really fast and oxidizes quickly. It is possible to lap an aluminum barrel to get great performance, but it doesn't last and will have to be re-polished/lapped often. It is not worth the hassle. The brass barrel you get with the g-spec doesn't have this problem.

My recommendation is to not get a barrel that runs through the silencer. With a good air brake, it is possible to make a really quiet g-spec, and if you are like me, you'll find that a shorter rifle is a big advantage, especially in built-up areas or in very dense woodlands. You can always put the silencer on if you need to shoot from up close in your minimum engagement distance to make the shots ever so slightly quieter. If you use a longer barrel, it will shoot harder, but then you don't get the option of removing the silencer to get a short rifle. The barrel length has no effect on accuracy, it only increases power. A longer barrel also matches the air volume of the cylinder better, so without an air brake, it is a lot quieter.

[BogardusFoul]

The one thing that you must ABSOLUTELY make sure is that your v-trigger and piston are compatible. They either both need to be 90° or 45°. 90 is preferable as 45s are prone to slam fire with higher fps springs.

[ThunderCactus]

You don't need a longer barrel to increase range, but you may need it to increase muzzle energy.
The sole function of a barrel is to accelerate the BB in a straight line. The range comes from the muzzle energy/BB weight/hop up, and the accuracy from BB weight/BB quality/backspin consistency/muzzle energy consistency. Your barrel can only ever reduce range and accuracy by being of poor quality, or bent, or tarnished.
So when you go from a crap barrel to a high quality barrel, it's not that the new barrel added accuracy, it's that it mitigated the loss of accuracy.

Do everything Drakker said. 430-500mm is a good length of barrel for a VSR to get the muzzle energy you need. Too short, and the BB leaves the barrel before the piston hits the cylinder head, wasting energy.
You want a bore in the 6.01 to 6.03 range. You'll get a bit higher muzzle energy with a 6.01, and they are the PDI barrels which are really good, just don't get the "raven" line (they're the cheapo line to compete with angel customs garbage). The tighter bore will foul faster, BUT you shouldn't be shooting the gun enough for that to actually be a problem.

Rhop is a flat hop rubber which is custom fitted to your barrel. It can be done to ANY gun given enough skill. Since you've never attempted it before, I HIGHLY recommend you get someone who knows what they're doing to do it for you. It's just like $45-$60 and makes a big difference in range.

Use high end BBs, there's no sense spending $700 to upgrade your gun then running B-grade BBs through it to save money. Kinda makes the upgrades pointless lol
At 2j, you'll want to be using .36s, not .30s. You'll find the .36s will have a much flatter trajectory out to 300ft.

Airbrake is optional. It's a rod that I install in the end of the piston that blocks the air nozzle before the piston head hits the cylinder head, creating a high pressure air cushion to stop the piston WAY more gently. Done properly, it can make your VSR completely silent from 10ft away (and no I'm not exaggerating, I have actually shot people from 10ft with mine and they didn't know where it came from). HOWEVER, that last little pocket of high pressure is also where you get a significant amount of your muzzle energy. A proper air brake can drop you by a full joule of force, maybe more.
For example, my M24 has a 2.7j spring in it, and only does 1.8j with the air brake in it.
So if you want a ridiculously dead silent bolt action, either get a 600fps spring, or be okay with running at a lower muzzle energy.

[jomor]

What do you mean by unbridging the barrel if you use a maple leaf rubber? The other question I have is to do with PDI internals. What the difference between VC and HD?

[Floreos]

Originally Posted by Drakker

PDI V-Trigger with vacuum cylinder/piston kit. Install an airbrake like the ones Thundercactus makes.

Keep the stock hop-up chamber, but use an upgraded hop-up arm like the dangerwerx, maple leaf, airsoft pro, etc. Any of them will work. The Maple Leaf Autobot rubbers are amazing with the maple leaf arm, but you could also use an R-Hop.

Lastly, the barrel. If you use a maple leaf rubber, you need to unbridge the barrel for it to fit, if you R-Hop, you keeping the bridged barrel could help. The stock barrel on the G-Spec is actually pretty good, so you can opt to keep it. If you change the inner barrel, then a Laylax/Prometheus 6.03 or a PDI (6.04 or 6.05) would be your best choices. It's not worth it to put any other brand in because they will not perform that much better than the original barrel in a G-Spec (note: the pro-sniper has an aluminum barrel, and it must be changed, hence why all the guides around will recommend changing the inner barrel). You might want to use barrel spacers too, old school thinking said that the more spacers you used the better, but lately the thinking is more that they don't do much and that you don't need to worry about barrel vibration in a slow shooting bolt action rifle anyway, so two spacers at either ends of the inner barrel are probably more than good enough.

That's it, this should fit in 500$.

The only thing I don't like here is the keeping the stock chamber. I've used the dangerwerx type B, it actually has more play than the stock plastic one. that being said hop pressure is still being applied unevenly. You almost have to do the TDC mod unless you're a magician at shimming.

Look up the TDC mod, its a must do. If you don't feel like doing that. grab a Action Army chamber.

Originally Posted by jomor

What do you mean by unbridging the barrel if you use a maple leaf rubber? The other question I have is to do with PDI internals. What the difference between VC and HD?

Basically in a maple leaf bucking the mound is very long overlapping with the front bridge, right before the mound hole in the barrel. You can remove it or buy a bridgeless barrel.

[Drakker]

Uuuh... The Dangerwerx arm fits very snugly in my original TM chamber, no shimming required whatsoever. It's as close to a perfect fit as it can be.

[ThunderCactus]

VC pistons have a hole in the head to reduce resistance when cocking the gun, although it really does absolutely nothing since there's a big hole on either side of the cylinder when you're cocking it so having a hole in the piston is entirely redundant.
HD pistons just don't have the hole. Cheaper, but much more annoying to attach an airbrake to.

[Floreos]

Originally Posted by Drakker

Uuuh... The Dangerwerx arm fits very snugly in my original TM chamber, no shimming required whatsoever. It's as close to a perfect fit as it can be.

I must have gotten a dud then.. hmm

[jomor]

As per usual Thunder Cactus you be the man!!!! Thanks!!

[ao_tenshi]

Anyone had experience with the Maple Leaf Crazy Jet 428mm barrel? Read a lot of good feedback on it.

[Drakker]

It's just a gimmick. The "crazy jet" thing itself doesn't help accuracy at all, but the barrels are pretty decent. Still, for te price, you'd be better off with Laylax or PDI.

[ThunderCactus]

Ive seen swaths of gimmick barrels come and go in 10 years.
Some can be on par, but nothing performs better than a good old fashioned well built smoothbore.