Sniper gun FPS a little to high for game play

[Cyclops]

Recently got a new JG BAR10 custom made gun. I have a 170 spring in there and it chromos at 560 to 575 fps. I need to drop it to around 540 to 550. A few of my team mates are telling me that if I just dry fire the gun like 1,000 times that it will loosen the spring up some. BUT is it worth trying to fire this thing that many times? OR should I drop down to a 160 spring or what ever to get to my goal on FPS? In the last 5 days I have put close to 300 shots thru it. Just sighting it in and playing around with it. Any advise would be greatly appreciated thank you.....

[Reaver]

Heavier bb's lol. Honestly, it should settle and drop its fps eventually, remember how many rounds I cranked through my g36 using the c-mag? My fps at LOW VI dropped down to 354 from 380.

[Jester316]

For a bolt use a lighter spring. Also you don't need to be at 550. Mine is at like 410 on a good day but is scary accurate. Ask the people from this weekend who were shot by it.

[Beran]

If the gun is brand new, it will probably settle in a little over time and drop 10-15 fps. I wouldn't dry fire it, that can be bad for the sears on the springer bolt guns. Heavier ammo will lower the FPS, but not the energy. Games usually chronograph with .20 regardless of what ammo you will be using, and if it doesn't pass with the chrono ammo it wont be allowed.

What I'd do is take a few hours somewhere with some distance (and where you are allowed to shoot) and put a few hundred rounds through it with the ammo you plan to shoot out of it. That will help break it in, and you can zero your scope and get a feel for how the gun shoots.

[Riddick]

I notice a few others state this but how does dry firing hurt a rifle?

is not the mechanical action the same if a bb is in front of the nozzle or not?

Nothing changes inside of the rifle just the air has no resistance when its exits the nozzle but that wouldn't hurt anything.

I have always concluded its a myth just like semi auto hurts your mechbox.

[Payback]

I was wondering that last night as i was putting my guns away. I came to the conclusion that dry firing is harder on the gearbox because that cushion of air isn't there slowing down the piston from slamming into the cylinder head, and therefore into the box. I'm assuming that's why they are twice as loud empty as they are when having a bb in the barrel.

[McNair]

I was wondering that last night as i was putting my guns away. I came to the conclusion that dry firing is harder on the gearbox because that cushion of air isn't there slowing down the piston from slamming into the cylinder head, and therefore into the box. I'm assuming that's why they are twice as loud empty as they are when having a bb in the barrel.

This was always my conclusion. Though, I've never spent the time testing the theory.

[Riddick]

I was wondering that last night as i was putting my guns away. I came to the conclusion that dry firing is harder on the gearbox because that cushion of air isn't there slowing down the piston from slamming into the cylinder head, and therefore into the box. I'm assuming that's why they are twice as loud empty as they are when having a bb in the barrel.

This was always my conclusion. Though, I've never spent the time testing the theory.

However the bb itself isn't lodged it's held. and held not very tightly. I think of it as a myth but if players want to be more careful then assume it does hurt for the sake of increasing realiability then go for it

[Payback]

I just went by the sound mainly, but also if you fire your AEG with the upper off. And hold your finger just in front of the nozzle without touching it, there is a difference you can tell in the way it shoots.

But honestly, i dry fire allot when working on my stuff. I've only had one box crack on me.

[Matt]

It could just be that the dry-fired guns fail more often because the overzealous n00blets who own them can't stop pulling that damned trigger, whether there's BBs in there or not. But you know, better safe than sorry.

[Beran]

The backpressure on the "cushion of air" isn't very much but it is still something. On a high powered spring rifle, you have a lot of force smashing the piston forward into whatever is holding it and without that small amount of cushioning to even minutely slow it down that shock can transfer back along the mechanism to the weakest point which is typically the pot-metal sear. They designed the guns to be fired with a BB in the barrel, and assume that pressure would be there to slow it down just a tiny bit. I know it was a habitual problem on some of the first generation inexpensive L96 clones. We used to carry replacement sears for them when I worked at AONW because they would shear so often from kids dry-firing their new toy.

Not to say that if you dry fire your gun its going to immediately break. It's typically the guns that get dry fired hundreds or thousands of times in the span of a couple of days. I just avoid it when I can, but a few shots at the end of an empty magazine or to clear your gun at the end of a game shouldn't hurt it.

[Cyclops]

Not looking to dry fire 1,000 times to see if it will break the sp170 spring in, and in hopes that it lowers my FPS with the 0.20. I'll most likely down grade to the next lower spring. Some players mention about FPS not that important but when I'm looking at hitting a target about 200 plus feet I'd like enough pressure in the Bb so that when they do get hit they know it.

[Beran]

On a good gun, 200 feet isn't that far. Some of the best spring bolt gun's I've seen can reach out to 300 or more. Most AEGs can hit at 200 feet relatively reliably.