Upgrade Guide

At some point everyone wants to get a little more performance out of their airsoft gun. The question then becomes what parts, exactly, should I get. The market is awash with upgrades and some are more effective than others. The intent of this guide is to provide some insight into what upgrades are effective and what the advantages and disadvantages are of each.

First of all, before starting down the long and dark road of gun upgrades, it helps to have a clear goal and keep other restrictions in the back of your mind. Do you want your gun to shoot 550fps? Do you want to shoot 30 bps? What are the velocity limits, if any, where you play? Most important of all, what is your budget?

The important thing is to balance cost, performance and durability in the best way to suit your needs. This could be anywhere from a single part that costs less than $40 to a $400+ upgrade project. Also remember that you don’t have to do everything all at once; if you’re on a tight budget you can still get to where you want to be one or two parts at a time.

Goals

Velocity: A lot of people want to shoot at the highest velocities possible assuming that gun will have the greatest range and accuracy. There is a strong correlation between velocity and range but not necessarily velocity and accuracy. Another important use of velocity is shorter bb travel time to the target and better penetration through brush and leaves.

Higher velocity is not always the best thing though. At most outdoor events the velocity limits are around 400 fps and most indoor events are 350 fps or less. Increasing velocity, especially to very high speeds also usually comes with a detrimental effect on gearbox durability, battery life and rate of fire.

Range: While it is affected by velocity, range is also heavily affected by hop-up, inner barrel length, inner barrel diameter and bb weight. The real goal is effective range, or the furthest distance from you that the bb is still consistent and controllable.

When an airsoft gun is set up for long range, it will generally hurt the flexibility of the gun. If you put a 650mm barrel in a gun it won’t be very practical for indoor CQB. If you upgrade to 500 fps you can’t go to any national operations, etc.

Accuracy: One of the most elusive and effective qualities of an airsoft gun are its accuracy. This is primarily affected by hopup, bb quality, and inner barrel and to a lesser extent by velocity.

The only minor disadvantage of high accuracy is that it makes trick shots using bb drift and hop-up around corners and over ridges more difficult. There are, however, detrimental effects to increasing barrel length and velocity in search of accuracy as discussed above.

Rate of fire: Many people, especially those who play indoors and close range games want to increase their rate of fire. This allows faster trigger response and a better chance of making a shot when the target is exposed for a very short period of time. Rate of fire is primarily affected by the gearset, motor and battery voltage.

The main disadvantages of a high rate of fire are that when installing high speed gears there is less potential for velocity increases. It also puts a significant more wear and tear on the gun, making it less reliable.

Durability: An obvious but often undervalued quality of a gun is its durability. For people who play extended milsim games or go to multi-day events or even those who just play a lot of airsoft, durability is critical. A gun that always works but doesn’t quite shoot as hard or as fast or as accurately is always more valuable than a highly upgraded gun that never works. Upgrades for durability include pistons, piston heads and reinforced metal gearboxes.

The primary disadvantage of a durability upgrade is that those reinforced aftermarket parts are usually the most expensive. Also, a gun built for durability won’t be shooting extremely high FPS or ROF to avoid overstressing the internals.

Sound: An often overlooked quality, there is an advantage to having as quite a weapon as possible. There are two distinct sound involved in an AEG firing. The first, louder sound is the motor and gears turning. This is more difficult to quiet but can be reduced with helical gears, replacement motors and effective sound damping materials. The second sound is the pop of the air being released after each shot. Foam filled silencers/barrel extensions can be effective in reducing this sound.

The main disadvantage of quieting a gun is that it is a significant cost with little perceived benefit from making an already relatively quiet gun slightly quieter. There is otherwise no performance gain in making these upgrades

Upgrade Chart

Key:
+	Major Increase
-	Major Decrease
+	Minor Increase
-	Minor Decrease
+/-	Minor Increase or Decrease
+	Optional Improvement (e.g. silent piston head)

Part Upgrades

Battery: The battery makes a big difference in the performance of an airsoft gun. Not only will a larger (greater mAh) battery last longer, but a higher voltage battery will significantly increase the guns rate of fire and trigger response. The disadvantage of high voltage batteries is that they tend to degrade the trigger contacts if you don’t have a MOSFET switch installed, which will reduce your gun’s durability.

Inner barrel: A tightbore inner barrel is one of the most effective upgrades you can do to an airsoft gun. For a relatively low cost, it will improve accuracy, consistency and velocity, all without having to open the gearbox and it does not affect the durability of the internals whatsoever. Most airsoft guns have 6.08mm inner barrels and most tightbore barrels range from 6.01-6.04mm. In general, the smaller the inner diameter, the better, but you have to be very careful which bbs you buy. Cheap, inconsistent bbs can jam in the barrel and some brands of bbs can swell in high humidity resulting in the same problem.

Springs: The spring is the main factor in determining velocity. A very stiff spring will usually result in higher FPS. This inevitably negatively affects the durability or, if combined with torque up gears or a torque up motor will result in a reduced rate of fire.

Spring guide: The spring guide is the plastic or metal part that guides the spring into the piston and eliminates side-to-side motion. It is primarily a durability upgrade but bearing spring guides may slightly increase velocity due to greater spring compression.

Piston: The piston interacts with the spring and the gears and primarily increases durability. A heavier metal piston can result in a slight decrease in rate of fire and slight increase in velocity while a lighter piston can result in the opposite effect.

Piston Head: The piston head sits on the end of the piston and pushes the air from the cylinder out the nozzle. It is primarily a durability upgrade but a better sealing piston head will result in a slight increase in velocity. There are silent piston heads that slightly reduce the pop sound of every shot. Note that the silent piston head must be purchased in conjunction with a cylinder head. The silent piston head will not work with a standard cylinder head.

Cylinder Head: The cylinder head sits at the end of the cylinder and holds the nozzle. The piston compresses the air inside the cylinder and the air escapes out the nozzle

Gears: Gears are what transmits and multiplies the high speed, low torque energy of the motor to high torque, low speed retraction of the piston against the spring. High torque gearsets further reduce this ratio to act against stiffer springs resulting in a lower rate of fire. High speed gearsets result in less torque but a higher rate of fire. High speed gearsets cannot pull back as stiff a spring as a standard or torque up gearset and are generally limited to about 330 fps. Helical Gearsets require more precise alignment, but are slightly quieter than straight-cut gears. Almost all aftermarket gears are much stronger than the factory gears so anytime they are replaced it is a significant upgrade in durability.

Motor: The motor is the source of all the motion in the gearbox. Energy from the battery turns the motor which causes the gears to turn and the piston to retract against the spring. Upgraded motors are better quality units that can be optimized for higher speeds or higher torques. Quality upgraded motors are also more efficient, doing more work with less battery energy. There are a number of high performance motors on the market that are less efficient and draw a lot more battery energy in order to make a lot of power.

Cylinder: The cylinder is the metal tube where all the air compression takes place. Many cylinders have a hole in the side that is optimized for the barrel length. If you buy a replacement cylinder make sure you buy the one with the hole in the correct place for the barrel length. The basic idea is that the shorter the barrel, the further forward the hole should be. Most cylinders say which barrel size they are meant for on the package.

In most cases replacing the cylinder is unnecessary but there are some that are made out of smoother material in order to slightly increase rate of fire. The other cylinder upgrade is a bore up cylinder that increases the amount of air pushed out the nozzle, resulting in higher velocity. This cylinder must be used in conjunction with a bore-up cylinder head, bore up piston head and bore up nozzle. If all these components are not correct the piston will either jam in the cylinder or the air seal will not be correct and the gun will shoot at low velocities despite a good spring.

Nozzle: The nozzle is at the end of the cylinder head and channels all the compressed air out of the cylinder onto the bb and out the barrel. The nozzle is primarily a durability part since it can break when a bb is jammed in the barrel. Bore up nozzles must be used with a bore up cylinder, piston head and cylinder head.

Workmanship

The final question before you begin an upgrade is who will do the work. The upgrade is only as good as the installation so make sure quality is kept in mind before beginning the work. If you are upgrading a gun for the first time (especially opening a gearbox) be sure to do some research online and, if possible, have a friend with some experience help walk you through it. It is not uncommon for someone to lose or break expensive parts if they are not careful.

Another option is to take it to a quality local airsoft shop and have the upgrade installed professionally. It does cost a bit more, but most professionals will warranty their work so you can be sure it’s done right.

Summary

Choosing how to upgrade a gun is not as simple a process as just replacing a random part. Airsoft guns should be looked at as an entire system and upgraded with clear goals in mind. One should also understand the risks and costs involved in upgrades and what side effects will result from replacing certain parts.

At Fox Airsoft, we try to make sure our customers have a good understanding of what the advantages and disadvantages of each component are. As always, feel fee to stop in, email or call the store if you have any questions about this or any of our other technical articles.

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