Raptors Airsoft is a relatively little known hop up bucking option for airsofters. In a market already flooded with options, it can be hard to decide which bucking is the best for you and your setup. With this review, we will discuss one of the reputed “best” options out there – the RTX Maple Leaf hop up bucking and nub.
This hop up bucking best falls into the category of “flat hops.” A flat hop differs from a traditional hop up bucking and nub in several ways – in the case of the RTX, it features a specially formed and curved nub that is designed to form to the outside surface of the bucking. The bucking itself has a unique triangular shaped contact patch that provides a greater surface area for the BB to ride against. Another obvious feature is the ribbed outside (not for her pleasure) designed to enhance your hop up’s air seal. In this regard alone, the RTX hop up fits very snugly inside the hop up chamber, and performs it job admirably well.
This unit would be installed in a Real Sword Dragunov SVD, currently chrono’d at 500 FPS and featuring a Prometheus 590mm 6.03 EG stainless tightbore. As always, testing BB’s are Bioval .30g’s. For testing and evaluation purposes, I selected a 60 degree hardness RTX hop up and nub. I generally prefer a slightly softer hop up rubber versus a harder one, mostly due to cold weather variances and their effects on synthetics (the colder it gets, the harder the rubber.) In a dedicated semi-auto only weapon, this makes more sense because you’re not going to be generating as much friction and heat in your hop up chamber as you would through full auto. As such, your hop up bucking is going to be operating at a colder temperature than a typical AEG.
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Installation is slightly more complex than a traditional bucking is. In brief summation, it requires you to completely disassemble your hop up chamber. You will not be able to approach this in any other fashion other than complete disassembly. This is entirely due to the design nature of the nub itself, and the tighter tolerance of the bucking too. The Real Sword SVD hop up chamber is a more complex beast than most, but it does offer very precise micro-click adjustments so you can really fine tune your hop up. I actually feel this is a good system to use with the RTX hop up, because the RTX seems to be more sensitive to its adjustment than traditional hop ups are.
While I had the hop up chamber disassembled, I took the opportunity to give the nub arm a little polish with a round file to remove any burrs and molding marks. Not a very necessary step, but it looks pretty. In the photo on the right, you can see the best method for installation of the nub. Take a very small dab of silicone grease, place it on your nub arm, and apply the nub. The allows you to easily drop in the whole assembly into your hop up chamber without losing the nub. You can use this method with any Version 2 or 3 hop up arm assembly as well.
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An important step to remember is that you already have installed the bucking on the barrel and inserted it into the hop up chamber. If the bucking is really tight, I find a little bit of synthetic valve oil works well for sliding it in. This is the same stuff as sold for musical instruments, such as trumpets, saxaphone, etc. It works very well, and will evaporate off within a day or so without leaving a residue or contamination. I have been using the same 8 oz. bottle for over 15 years now, and I’m probably 3/4’s of the way through it now . . . so it goes a very, very long ways.
Drop in your nub and arm assembly from the top, close everything up, check for function and ensure that you have installed the bucking correctly (make sure it isn’t protruding into the feedway area, or that it isn’t interfering with the barrel retainer clip), and take her to the range for testing.
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Range Report
So how does it perform? As I’ve mentioned earlier, the RTX hop up seems to require a more precise adjustment than a typical hop up bucking does. The Real Sword hop up chamber really shines in this regard because it allows for very precise adjustment. While I have had very good luck with Version 3 and 2 installs using the RTX hop up, it requires a more careful hand, otherwise you can overshoot or undershoot your hop ups’ “sweet spot” and have a bad trajectory. This is not a hop up unit for those who don’t pay attention or aren’t devoted to tuning.
Onto performance: After dialing the the hop up, I had to readjust the POSP scope reticule to where the BB’s were now shooting. Range-wise, I was achieving at least an extra 20 yards over the stock hop up bucking, with a much flatter trajectory. Accuracy was also much improved, with a noticeably tighter group than stock performance. 100 yard accurate shots were a breeze, offhand, prone, or supported. Of interesting note, it was possible to over-dial the hop up to where the BB’s curved quite high about midway out (60-70 yards range), but flattened out slightly afterwards to fall in a slow downward trajectory, thereby extending my total effective range even further (estimated 110 yards perhaps.) The only drawback to over-dialing like this is that one would have to aim quite low (as in at the feet of your opponent) to affect a center-mass hit at the 60-70 yard range, which makes it pretty impractical for closer shots. Our local fields’ minimum engagement range for sniper weapons (anything over 400 FPS) is 50 yards, so I typically prefer to zero my shots to hit dead on at 50 yards, and adjust for elevation at longer ranges. With a 4x scope, spotting where the BB’s are going at 110+ yards becomes a tad bit difficult (especially against a backdrop of endless pine tree’s.) I can, however say with confidence that effecting solid torso hits at 110+ yards is wholly possible if you know what you are doing and are willing to account for a few missed shots.
Chronograph readings showed a decent FPS gain of around 12 FPS +/- 1, thus reaffirming the quality of air seal the RTX hop up provides.
An important note: range and accuracy gains are a bit of a subjective matter – insofar as every AEG is unique and thus every AEG will behave and shoot differently. A lot depends on your gearbox setup, compression, shimming, barrel quality, etc. I have achieved differing results installing the RTX on a Ver. 3 AK – albeit still very positive and gainful results.
Summary
Overall, I am moderately pleased with the performance of the RTX bucking. The main advantage of the RTX over other “Flat hop” designs, is its pure drop-in fit – meaning it does not require any modifications or alternations of your barrel or hop up chamber like many custom flat hops do. Moreover, you do not risk a potentially expensive and damaging modification and install when performing an install of an RTX. While some of these custom flat hop designs may be more accurate, it does approach the point of diminishing returns when you start heavily modifying your internals to the point where increasing chances of equipment failure begin to crop up. The more you push something out of spec, the bigger your chances of Mr. Murphy coming to pay you a visit.
Update: It should be noted that there appears to be some quality control issues with the Maple Leaf buckings. I went through two units before finding one that fit and had a centered contact patch / spline. My overall experience from installing literally dozens and dozens of these things now, has been that no two are completely alike most of the time. They by and large take some finessing and wrangling to obtain satisfactory results with. If you can achieve this, then you have a pretty good hop up system that will generally give you a decent performance boost over traditional units. But be prepared to potentially spend a few extra bucks until you find the right one. I do believe this bucking has been eclipsed by better and more current designs now.