Black Fox's Tricks of the Trade - The Golden Secret

[Black Fox]

Have you ever noticed that some guys guns just always seems to out gun yours? Or that they always seem to have a bit more sting to them. There is a reason for it and I’m about to tell you why. I’ve given some hard though about sharing this trick of the trade. But since I don’t live in this area I really don’t have to worry about going up against any of your guns. With that in mind I will share with you what I consider is the Golden Secret of the airsoft trick of the trade.

This secret has been around for some time but one that has not really been understood. Because of that, airsofters in general have not paid much attention to it. What I am talking about is matching your inner barrel with the proper cylinder to the spring and BB weight you are using. This combination more than any other upgrade you do to your gun will determine how potent your airsoft gun is. Done properly, you will maximize the energy and the range of your BB. In short, you will be able to out gun most people on the field. Done improperly, your gun will act as an airsoft vampire that will drain or prevent your BB from reaching its maximum energy potential when leaving the barrel. I’m going to help better understand this aspect of airsoft technology.

Before we start. First, I want you to go to this link and look at the Systema cylinders labeled “Type-0â€

[Archangel 06]

[Patrick750]

[Black Fox]

[Limpy]

[Boots Guy]

[DMitri]

[Blizzard]

[Black Fox]

DMitri

You're right? The cycling on the piston all happens in a split second. In reality the difference of piston stroke between an M-4 using a ported cylinder and an M-4 using a full cylinder may only be a hundred or thousands of a seconds difference. I will take a look at it and see if I can rephrase it more clearly. If I were a graphic artist. Explaining it would be a who lot easier.

Unfortunately I don't have any hard data to back up what I am saying. I have a chrono but I don't have the kind of equipment that can provide the data that I think you are asking for.

However, I've personally have experimented with many different combinations of using full and ported cylinder over the years. All I can say is that matching the correct cylinder with the length of the inner barrel that you are using does improve your range.

As for the explanation I gave above. This is how it was explained to me from a friend of mine who worked at Systema for many years.

[Black Fox]

[Black Fox]

[Blizzard]

[DMitri]

I'm only contesting the implication that too much air volume in a cylinder will cause a replica to be out-ranged by another replica with a volumetrically smaller cylinder in relation to the port, but that still manages to produce the same velocity regardless. This makes the only variable the volume of air, making your claim appear to be that too much air is detrimental. Without data this is hard to rationalize.

It could very well be true that the velocity will change between the two as a result of a plausible millisecond of increased resistance on the piston. The increase in velocity would, by extension, increase range--and even accuracy to a lesser degree. If that were the case it makes sense for Tokyo Marui and the like to include them in their replicas. But given that we have an artificial cap on velocity anyway--which is commonly reached, the argument appears moot to me.

Is it not also feasible, that if the time the piston travels were actually negligible between the two replicas, that it would result in greater air/bb velocity with the same energy needed to cycle the replica, given the amount of air in the cylinder is greater but still is compressed into the same amount of space in the same amount of time? I believe this is the concept behind "bore-up" cylinder setups. This would suggest that an unported bore-up cylinder set in conjunction with a tightbore inner barrel, would be the best first step to reaching the velocity cap, in order to lessen the requirement of the spring which increases strain on numerous parts and overall energy consumption, along with reducing rate of fire.

Data, my friend--it's crucial.

To look at it from yet another perspective, I said a long time ago that I'd be interested to figure out the affect that a ported cylinder has on the longevity of the o-ring, especially in replicas which also have ported piston head, along with other issues like expelling grease.

So, for the time being, for all the reasons listed above, I offer my own hypothesis that an unported bore-up cylinder is the best route to take for all replicas which are headed for their velocity limits, and possibly even without that requisite.

[CommieHunter]

[DMitri]

I'm not a physics expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd think the air would need to be capable of moving quicker than the air which acted on the BB and the BB itself for that to happen.

Visualizing it in my head, I'm led to assume that by the time the BB is expelled, you've already reached peak potential velocity.

I also think such an affect on the BB would alter its trajectory/accuracy and not just the range, I can't really fathom how range would be affected at all otherwise, given we're talking about increased volume and possibly velocity of air. I haven't heard of any wacky flight paths being caused by unported cylinders.

Again, this is just conjecture though. I don't want to do the very thing I'm being critical of.