If you’re like me, you probably want to crank out as much performance out of your AEG as possible. Most internet advice points immediately to swapping out both the barrel and hop-up as your first step. I think this is only partly true in most cases.
It is probably true that you should at least swap out the hop up bucking and nub. Stock hop up rubbers are almost
all universally junk. There are very few manufacturers that install decent buckings in their guns. So swapping out the barrel would seem to be the next logical step in one’s desire to achieve utmost accuracy, right?
Not quite . . . I would recommend that you swap out your bucking first, and then test it with your stock barrel. While AEG
manufactures excel at installing crappy buckings in their guns, they usually manage to get a pretty decent barrel in their setups. Typically these will often have a barrel diameter of 6.05mm (most common) to 6.03mm (not as common) to 6.01mm (very rare.) You may be pleasantly surprised by the performance the stock barrel coupled with a good hop up
upgrade will do for you. For the budget minded airsofter, this is a more cost effective route to experiment with as well.
Realize too, that there are a lot more factors affecting accuracy and range than just the barrel and hop up. Any of the following affect accuracy and range – listed in the most likely order:
- Crappy BB’s (always buy high quality BB’s)
- Crappy hop up bucking / ripped or torn bucking
- Bad compression
- Crappy barrel
- Bad interface between hop up chamber and air nozzle (massive FPS loss here)
- Bent, damaged, or scratched barrel
- Cracked nozzle
- Cracked piston head
- Cracked cylinder head
- Poor support for the inner barrel within the outer barrel (too much barrel flex will cause accuracy issues, such as poor grouping)
- Your BB’s are hitting an obstruction, such as a suppressor or muzzle device (always ensure that your barrel is long enough to pass through a suppressor or that the hole diameter is large enough)
- Cracked gear box (extreme worst case scenario – everything starts falling apart at this point)
Personally if it was me, I would tackle accuracy and range in this order:
1) Shoot high quality BB’s FIRST. No your .12g Crossmans’ in the 50,000 round “Battle Pack” you purchased at Wal-Mart for $10 don’t count.
2) I would replace the stock bucking with a quality aftermarket one
3) Then I would crack open the gearbox and check for proper compression, and while it was open, examine all parts for damage and check the shimming.
If all that checks out, and the gun still isn’t quite performing to my standards . . . then I would consider looking into a barrel upgrade.
On an aside: one of the first things you should do with any new AEG is swab the barrel out. Some of these guns have been sitting on shelves or store racks for months or years. The barrels are often times full of dust, grime, or dried up silicone oil, all of which can impact your accuracy. I bought a KWA SR-12 a few years ago – while it was brand new, it produced some pretty grimy patches when I swabbed the barrel out. Just sitting on the shelf in the open air market produced that