Again, a guide on upgrading your AEG

Many of the airsoft operators wanted to have a gun which has the high rate of fire (ROF), high in speed(FPS), and accuracy. The easiest way to have AEG with those characteristics is to be willing to buy a high price AEG. But, not all of the operators outside there are willing to cashing out a big money only to by a AEG. what they do is upgrading their AEG according to the need of their mission.

Which upgrade i should go for?

Any operators that are smart will go for upgrading their AEG according to their needs of mission. For example, if you go for CQB or CQC, high ROF and high FPS in what you need. If you go for snipering mission, you will need an AEG with high accuracy and high FPS.

• High rate of fire

1. This is the most easiest part of upgrading your AEG. first way to increase your AEG ROF is by changing your batteries by replacing the stock batteries with the higher voltage one. By changing your batteries, you should increase your AEG's ROF. A good quality of 12v battery should do the trick. But keep in mind that you will need to take account on the wiring aspects of your AEG. The wire may not can handle the increasing voltage, causing the insulators, contact point, and motor to burnt.

2. The second way is by downgrading your stoc spring. Why downgrade? The reason you need to downgrade is because it will be easier for the motor to pull the spring and more critically, much more faster.

3. The higher end of ROF upgrading, inclusive of what was mentioned above, is to change the the whole set of gears into high speed gears, high speed motor, 6mm metal bushings with bearings, the addition of sorbo pads to absorb more frequent impacts from the piston head hitting the cylinder head, and in turn hitting the front side of the mechbox.

4. Bear in mind that the higher your AEG ROF, you will end up drying your magazine faster. And yes, you need to invest some more money on buying extra high capacity magazines.

• FPS

1. Of all the upgrades that will be mentioned here, FPS upgrade is the most damaging factor for your AEGs. I was honestly quite reluctant to write this down but due to being a freak for high fps setup myself, I say what the heck. But what I do want to stress is that having a high fps setup means upgrading a lot more than just the spring itself, which is what I shall present in the following upgrades after this.

12v battery from Systema

2. Changing the spring to a higher rated spring is the quickest way to increase your FPS. Period. If your mechbox comes with 7mm diameter bushings, it’s probably a reinforced mechbox, which you would be able to put in a maximum of M150 spring. You need to get membership to a gym and pump up those biceps and triceps as well just to push the spring into the mechbox. Most people would argue that M120 or M130 springs should suffice, with the main reason being safety. The second reason would be durability for your mechbox. Anyway, here is a sub-guide to the things you need to change to achieve your target FPS (any parts which are not mentioned would be left stock):

a) 400fps
M120 spring, High Torgue Motor or High Speed Motor, Polycarb Piston, Spring guide with bearing, Piston Head with bearing, 9.6V battery.

b) 420fps
M120 spring, High Torgue Motor or High Speed Motor, Polycarb Piston, Spring guide with bearing, Piston Head with bearing, aftermarket air-seal nozzle, metal Hop-Up chamber, Teflon mod, at least 6.03mm TBB, 9.6V battery.

c) 450fps
M130 spring, HTU Motor, Polycarb Piston with metal teeth, metal spring guide with bearing, Piston Head with bearing, aftermarket air-seal nozzle, metal Hop-Up chamber, Teflon mod, at least 6.03mm TBB, a good 9.6V batt like Sanyo or 11.1V lipo, Gear Delayer, Mosfet, hard type bucking.

d) 500fps
M140 spring, STU Motor, STU gears, Polycarb Piston with full metal teeth, metal spring guide with bearing, Piston Head with bearing, aftermarket air-seal nozzle, metal Hop-Up chamber, Teflon mod, at least 6.03mm TBB, 11.1V lipo 20c, Gear Delayer, Mosfet, hard type bucking.

e) 550fps
M150 spring, STU Motor, STU gears (some people prefer helical gears, some prefer Teflon coated gears), hardened piston with full metal teeth (Systema Super Core Piston is a favourite), Piston Head with bearing, aftermarket air-seal nozzle, metal Hop-Up chamber, Teflon mod, at least 6.03mm TBB (I prefer 6.01mm TBB), 11.1V lipo 20c, Gear Delayer, Mosfet, anti blow-by rings (this in itself can increase the FPS by 30fps if done correctly), hard type bucking. Some people prefer Bore Up Kits for this high fps type but I do not think it is vital. Biceps and triceps like Hulk Hogan are optional.

Example of motor

3. High FPS setups require reinforced mechboxes. This cannot be said enough. More so if you are using Version 2 mechboxes, which are not as strong as Version 3 mechboxes. That being said, the confusion is further compounded by the slightly different variations and quality of mechboxes even if they are of the same Version, by different companies. You cannot assume that a reinforced Boyi’s Version 2 mechboxes to be the same quality of JG’s Version 2 reinforced mechboxes. Remember, different company have differet quality on their product.

• Accuracy

1. Why accuracy is important? This is because you can save your BBs alot. You do not need to fire many BBs in large number just only to hit a target. And this is very important aspect of upgrading for those who owned an AEG for snipering mission. AEGs, unfortunately are inherently inaccurate things when in stock from, even Japanese ones.

2. Consistency=Accuracy
Most of people only think that by changing the barrels into tight-bore type is the solution for this issue. If you have the same idea on that, hey... you are wrong. accurizing an AEG actually starts from the mechbox. Most of you have noticed that stock AEGs has huge variances in FPS readings, some up to 40 fps. This is the reason why most FPS readings are taken on an average of ten shots. This makes it harder to accurately gauge the distance to a certain target as variances such as these means either a perfect headshot or a miss by a mile. To completely take out this problem is not possible; even for a highly upgraded BASR the FPS variance is around 3-5fps at best.

OK then, Let’s start from the spring guide. Springs, when in tension, try to recover back to the original shape in two ways; by pushing outwards and by uncoiling or unwinding. While there is little that we can do to control the outward movement, what we can decently control is the unwinding action as the spring stretches out. The variable unwinding speed that occurs determines how fast the spring is pushing the piston towards the cylinder head, resulting in the variances in FPS readings. Fortunately, we have ways to reduce the impact of variable spring unwinding speed; by using bearings on the spring guide and on the piston head. What happens is that resistance is reduced when the spring is unwinding on the bearings, resulting in faster piston travel and more consistent compression within the cylinder.

Guarder AEG M120 Spring

3. Air-Seal Nozzle
This is one component most people won’t even think about. “What’s wrong with using my stock nozzle?”, you might ask. Basically, nothing’s wrong with it, except aftermarket air-seal nozzles have a slightly smaller inner diameter and a slightly tapered channel as well. This can boost the compressed air slightly travelling from the cylinder to the hop-up chamber, aiding in some increase in FPS, and more critically, ensuring that part of the mechanism is air-tight and no loss of compression occurs. Take note on the length of the nozzle though, as some aftermarket nozzles are not of the same length with the stock nozzle.

4. Hop-up chambers
Aftermarket hop-up chambers are always good, especially metal ones. A good seal can be achieved from loss of compression.

5. Hop-up nub and Hop-up bucking
Ok, this part is crucial for accuracy. There is a golden rule for choosing the right hop-up bucking which is “Hard and Fast, Soft and Slow”. Sounds erotic, so basically you can easily remember this rule. For high FPS setups, use hard type bucking and vice versa.

Stock hop-up nubs come in one shape only; cylindrical. How on earth that shape is going to help with accuracy, I do not know. The preferred shape should be something that can form a snug shape on the bucking and nicely fits the top of the bb when it hits the small mound that gives it the all crucial backspin.

6. Teflon Mod
This ensures a good seal between the bucking and the inner barrel, so that no air leaks can occur, which can affect accuracy and definitely FPS.

M14 in teflon mod

7. Tight Bore Barrel (TBB)
TBBs are definitely one of the major tools in accurizing your AEG. It does help to make your groupings tighter. Bull barrels such as from EdGI Customs has thicker walls of its TBBs to help in reducing the vibrations due to shock travelling through the barrel after each shot is taken. But make sure you get the bull barrel that is cut for AEGs and not BASRs, as most AEGs do not have extra space in their outer barrels for thicker inner barrels. Proper care should be taken into the cleanliness of the inner barrels to maintain accurate shots. You should cleanyour TBBs the night before gameday and immediately after the end of a gameday. Once a month, with or without games, try to perform general maintenance on your aeg.

Example of TBB. Click here for the description.

8. Barrel Length vs Cylinder Type
It is without a doubt that longer inner barrels promote more accurate and longer effective range. This is because the BBs are being projectored with guidance long enough with the help of barrel. You might wondering, in real life and real gun, why the sniper gun has longer barrels than other one? And why it can hit clean target as far as 1000m? Now some people might think that higher FPS helps to push the BBs further and they correct. But in my experience so far, extra range can be improved much better with a longer TBB paired with the correct cylinder type.

Using the wrong type of cylinder for the wrong barrel length has its adverse effect as well. For example, should you use a Type 2 cylinder in a 550mm TBB, the bbs would normally fail to travel the adequate distance out of the TBB before the piston moves back and the next round is chambered. When this occurs, the earlier BB might be sucked back into the inner barrel and hence causing the “Vacuum Effect”. This is typically true when running at full auto. At semi mode, sometimes you can see BBs literally falling short of the expected distance and in some extreme cases, one can observe BBs literally dribbling out of the inner barrel.

Conclusion

Upgrading is a continous learning process. if you wanted to upgrade your AEG, make sure you have the main purposes for it, either it is for mission requirement, or barely to show off to get the "Most Killer Gun" in your team. bear in mind that each upgrading process need you to invest some money, and it can go large. So be wise with your money.Also, learning from others will be great. As I am still learning, my source of my knowledge is from others forum. So don't be shy to asks. Finally, as a reminder, again I am not a pro-airsoft operator as i am still learning.