[The Ohio Grass Man]

Hello all you who either own or are looking at owning a KA Blaser. I have searched and searched for parts and upgrades, and thought I might share my findings with the world community.

This is going to be a thread for people to share their knowledge and ask some questions. I am no expert, but am going to share all of the quirks and things I discover along the way of owning my Blaser.

I am copying my post previously in another thread, since I am lazy. (ironic since I spent many hours actually using the next page button of Google) Any time I refer to "this" or any specific person, disregard that, as it was from the thread I originally posted this in. A quick update to whatever follows, I just received my Blaser R93 today from AirsoftGI. The "Tactical" part translated to it being the ultra grade.

I recently (last week) purchased the Blaser R93 Tactical (whatever that means) from AirsoftGI. It was their "Daily Shocker" meaning that I got it for $80 (US), with free shipping. Pair that with a Condor Outdoor ghillie, a Simmons 3-9x50 Truplex sight, and weaver scope rings, and you have your first sniper kit for EXACTLY $200, shipping and tax included. :hehe: I read through this, and thought, "There have to be parts out there for this by now!" Indeed, there are. No more bending of cylinders, exerting brute force to plastic internals, all you have to do to bump your FPS up to either 550 or 600 FPS is to use that handy-dandy cylinder assembly release switch :tup: by the trigger, pull out the stock one, and push in the new one that came with everything needed to upgrade it, other than the upgraded trigger assembly. I have gathered tons of links and store pages to lead everyone in the right direction, so bask in the past 2 hours of searching through part catalogs and online retailers. (Side note, you can bypass the age restriction on the AirsoftGI website simply by logging in and paying through your Amazon account.)

They have upgraded trigger assemblies (HERE), replacement cylinder (HERE), Upgraded Piston (HERE) Upgraded piston head (HERE), Upgrade springs, M170 and M180, (HERE) and (HERE), Upgrade spring guide (HERE), Silencer Adapter (HERE), Replacement barrel spacers (HERE) and a complete upgrade kit for 550 and 600 FPS, with the cylinder, piston, piston head, spring, and spring guide, and anything else other than the trigger, (HERE) and (HERE)

By looking at the picture of the silencer adapter, it is easily distinguished that the massive orange tip is screwed on, since the pic shows the tip unscrewed, with the threads for their adapter already cut on the barrel.

I have found some parts for purchase (HERE) and the rest of the parts (HERE)

Today, I also realized that the giant orange tip on the front of the gun is held on (in part) by a little black screw on the bottom with glue sealing the top of it. How I removed that screw was by taking a bastard file to the head of the screw to remove the glue, then filing away on 4 sides of the screw to expose about 1/32" of the top of the screw. Since the top of the screw was completely flat, I took a thin hack-saw (almost a coping saw) and cut a notch into the top, just large enough to fit a small standard (flat head) screw driver into it. This allowed me to unscrew it. I think the tip may be glued on (or really freakin tight) to the outer barrel. I know that it is threaded with a non-standard thread, since KA sells a silencer adapter that shows the tip removed, exposing threads on the outer barrel that the silencer adapter screws onto, giving you the 14mm cw/ccw threads.

If anyone has any wisdom or questions, please just reply, as there is someone in the community that has to know the answer.

 

[mynameisD]

You, sir, are a hero.

 

[The Ohio Grass Man]

After receiving my scope and ghillie in the mail yesterday, and mounting them up, I am just giddy with excitement to go to my local field. However, the heaviest BB's I have are 0.25 gram, and from what I hear, this thing likes about 0.30's. I have applied my ghillie wrap to the rifle, but am having a hard time getting good coverage on the barrel. (More specifically, I can't get it to really stay on there solidly) I am getting a 3d printer within a few weeks, so I will probably design a clip to attach to the barrel to give an attachment point for it.

Before I even assembled it, I took some air-compressor oil and slathered up the outside of the cylinder. After assembly, I kept the cylinder slightly oily. This really made the pull smooth. I will probably clean it all out and use a thick gear lube that will hold on and not drip off.

A major problem I have noticed is the cheek-rest. the front of it really does get in the way of the bolt if you set it to a comfy height. I am still pondering whether or not to make this modification, but I may take a 1-inch hole bit for my drill and bore a U shape into the tip to give room for the bolt. However, I could also make a lid that fits onto the back of the cheek-rest to make it into a waterproof container for whatever. That, IMHO, would be amazing.

Also, I noticed that the joint between the front/top of the handle and stock has some up/down movement in it with some pressure applied. I will try to reinforce this to the best of my ability, and will put up pics when I find the time to do it.

The polymer receiver is obviously hollow, and I have had this thought in my mind for quite some time now. You know that A/B foam that comes in an aerosol can? The kind that expands into a rigid insulation? I think it is called "Great Stuff". I think that it might be possible to drill a small hole into parts of the receiver, after dismantling it, of course, and squirt some of that into it. It should expand and fill the cavity in the receiver. With minimal weight, it should give the gun a much more solid feel when it is tapped on, or when it is banged against something. It should also deaden QUITE a lot of noise when firing, since it IS technically thermal and sound insulation. Don't know if any could get into important parts of the gun, like the trigger assembly and mag well, but it would be worth a shot (no pun intended) to try this.

Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome. And remember, this is a place for people to ask questions, so don't be shy.

 

[TacoApple99]

So I'm contemplating buying this, over some of the more popular brands. I was initially thrown off due to me not knowing about all these replacement parts and upgrades, and I thought this gun was so unique I would never be able to upgrade the gun as I could with the other popular brands.

You've definitely changed my mind about that, and this was certainly a very informative and well-researched post.

However I still want to be 100% certain here, what would be the advantage of buying this and modding it over getting one of the more popular brands and modding those?

-

And one more question, with an upgrade to 550-600 FPS, shouldn't you be using BB's that are way heavier than .30 gram?

 

[The Ohio Grass Man]

And one more question, with an upgrade to 550-600 FPS, shouldn't you be using BB's that are way heavier than .30 gram?

I still have not been able to get out to the family farm and sight in the rifle, but I can assure you that it is very high quality. Other than the slight, and I mean SLIGHT wobble in the receiver, as outlined in my last post, the gun feels really nice. The cheek rest, if you need it up a lot, which I don't, and I am only 16, you cannot pull the bolt back all the way, which is a design flaw, but it is not necessary to do that in the first place, so it doesn't get in my way. I was speaking out at the stock 400-420 with 0.20s to use 0.30s. With a gun shooting between 550 and 600, it is definitely necessary to move up to 0.35s or 0.40s.

As with my first post, I managed to pick up the deal of the century with the AirsoftGI Daily Shocker price of 80 bucks US, with a 60 dollar ghillie (5 piece I may add) and a 45 dollar, but REALLY nice Simmons 8-point Truplex 3-9x50 scope, and 14 dollar UTG Aluminum scope rings, with free shipping and tax bringing the total to 205 dollars. This gun just made sense. I was going to wait for the release of the OD Well MB4411D, but for 20 bucks more, I had the full setup.

I will post my stock groupings after my next visit to the farm, (not enough time to head to the local field) with some 0.25s and (hopefully) some 0.30s.

The fit and finish of the rifle is quite impressive, but there IS a big seam along the bottom of the receiver, but with a ghillie wrap, that is impossible to see, and with gloves on, you cant feel it. The polymer is of high quality with a high pitched, but solid sound when it is tapped on. The barrel, despite how it looks, is VERY securely attached to the receiver via 3 heavy aluminum (or steel, I didn't check with a magnet) Allen key screws that thread in nice and deep, one in the bolt carrier, which holds the bolt with a delrin ring that also slides into the outer barrel a little, and two into the outer barrel itself... No movement whatsoever.

I do have to note this, since it is very rare nowadays with any boxed product, that this rifle does not come in hard polystyrene. It does not come in cardboard. It comes in a nice, soft, silky closed cell foam. The manual is written only in English that is clear and well written. It comes with a nice unjamming/cleaning rod, and a very nice speed loader and mag adapter for said loader. The bipod rail is all metal, and the bipod adapter is also metal. Anything plastic on this gun is dense and robust polymer, and anything metal is real metal, not pot metal.

As far as upgrading, if you go with the complete FPS upgrade set, and the reinforced trigger guard (important to do the trigger before a spring upgrade to save yourself the hassle of breaking stuff) it should be SUPER easy. I mean, remove the three screws aforementioned, life the barrel and bolt carrier up, slide out the stock cylinder + stuff inside of it, and remove the trigger (one self-contained unit), drop in the new trigger, drop in the new cylinder (not sure if it comes assembled or not, but still WAY easier to put together in your own way rather than rip the hell out of the stock one to open it up) then put in the three screws... DONE.

All of the parts inside of the stock cylinder other than the spring are plastic, but the upgrade kit comes with all the upgrade parts.

I have no clue on the upgradability of the hop-up, but it is accessible via a polymer lever that slides back and forth with a positive click every 1 mm or so, like a fine ratchet. Said slide is found just in front of the mag, on the bottom of the barrel.

However, the gun takes a completely standard AEG-cut barrel, so upgrading that is as simple as pulling it out, putting the hop-up unit on the new barrel, and sliding it back in. With the optional suppressor adapter, it is possible to put on a mock, or real, suppressor to conceal a longer barrel.

Some people do not like the straight pull bolt, but I personally love it. Yeah, it is more satisfying to use a standard bolt, but that gets quite tiring, where as the straight pull is more practical, as with the real Blaser R93. It has a nice, solid bolt that is directly attached to the cylinder with a big Allen screw just like the three that hold the barrel to the gun. I personally use gear lube to keep the cylinder nice and slippery. I lubed it up before I even assembled it, and it is the smoothest pull I have felt. (especially if you use your whole hand to distribute the force of the pull on the whole handle, I can cock it while shouldered without moving my sights)

I hope this helps. I personally, as of now, without taking it to a place with enough distance to really put it to its test, would definitely recommend this if you want a unique gun. After I stretch its legs, I will report back with its performance.

 

[TacoApple99]

Well I went ahead and decided to purchase the rifle, it should be here within a week or two! I'm really short on time and money, so I most likely won't be taking it out until the summer. Right now I'm focused on getting myself familiar with the internals and construction of the rifle itself, and I do plan on upgrading the internals later in the future.

This is my first actual airsoft gun (before this my only experience was those cheap plastic toys you get at Walmart or Sports Authority) and I'm very excited to get into the sport seriously. It's not looking too good as to when/where I can shoot, as Alaska basically has 0 airsoft events anywhere that I can find, and my friends have plans for the summer. I'm thinking of just working and saving up for the new upgrades and accessories, but I don't know I guess we'll see how it turns out.

I do have one very very stubborn problem that I cannot for the life of me find more information on. What information have you gathered so far about the hopup? I can't find anywhere what type it is, what it's compatible with, if it's easy to remove, or if it's even upgradable. My main concern is that I read somewhere saying that upgrading the internals so heavily (from ~400 FPS to 600 FPS) will damage/rip the hopup bucking. Would you happen to know any good buckings compatible with this hopup system? I plan on replacing that too anyways.

 

[TacoApple99]

Well as it turns out my airsoft rifle came WAY sooner than I expected, and coincidentally I answered some of my own questions. I'm gonna be posting my experience with the hopup unit, as well as explaining how to remove the infamous blinding orange tip.

-

So first off, since this section is shorter, I'll show what I did to remove the orange tip. My process was a little similar to OP's, with a twist (pun intended). What I did was first took a razor blade and chipped off the glue that was covering the screw at the bottom. Then I just took a plain old hacksaw and sawed on 4 sides of the screw. Make sure to not slip and end up having to Sharpie over the scratch you make >

After that I simply got a pair of needle nose pliers and twisted the screw out.

Now comes the messy part. I recommend removing the hopup unit and inner barrel, as to not get water in them. What I did was got a pot of near-boiling water, and held the tip in there for a solid 5 minutes to melt the glue/soften the plastic. After that I took it out, got something to get a good hold of the tip, and twisted it off.

Notice a few things here. Firstly, there was no threads holding the tip on. The threads are on the inside of the outer barrel. This means you can twist it off from any direction and it'll come off. In fact, you can put it back on or take it off and it'll stay on fine as well as come off relatively easy. The other thing to notice is this black piece that also came out. This is to hold the very tip of the inner barrel in place, although there is another spacer not even half an inch behind it that was still in the barrel at the time. Another thing this does is somewhat close off the front of the outer barrel. I say somewhat, because it too has no threads, so it can't be held in place on its own. If you want the orange tip to stay off, you're going to HAVE to buy or DIY a silencer, then get spacers to hold the tip of the inner barrel in place (or if you don't want a silencer but still want the orange tip off, tape on this black front piece with electrical tape or something). I personally plan on taking the silencer route sometime in the future.

-

Now for the hopup! As far as I've read (as I'm new to airsoft), this is a unique design and isn't compatible with after market upgrades, aside from the bucking itself, which I'll get into in a moment. I'll be posting bigger pictures here so you guys can see the detail, but this is simply the assembled hopup unit straight out the barrel. The actual main body of the hopup unit is cast metal, and does not separate. I added a scale to show how the arm moves to increase/decrease hopup, as well as the axis of movement of the hopup arm (in blue).

After turning it over and removing the main plastic frame of the adjuster (held together by one philips head screw) this little plastic piece needs to be removed. Here I annotated the carvings of the inner barrel to allow this plastic piece to be held in place, as well as its corresponding contact points on the actual plastic U piece itself (in red), as well as the little nub in the middle of the plastic U ring that lines up with the hopup bucking guide (in blue).

Next I removed the inner barrel and bucking, and I was left with the hopup adjustment arm, as well as the little rubber cylinder that acts as a spring for the arm (EDIT: This is most definitely not a spring for the hopup arm, my mistake. It actually sits on the smaller of the 2 indentations (seen below) and pushes down on the hopup bucking itself). Here is what the actual hopup adjustment arm looks like:

Alternate view:

As I said earlier I'm new to airsoft and have 0 experience with replacing/upgrading inner barrels or hopup buckings. I forgot to take pictures of the bucking, but it's very very similar to this design I found on google images:

It's basically just that V design. The inner barrel didn't seem to be the best of quality (then again I wasn't expecting it to be) and this is what it looks like. I annotated the hopup bucking guide (blue) an the indents that lock it into the hopup unit with that plastic U we saw earlier (red).

That's basically it! The hopup unit was very easy to remove and disassemble, and came nicely greased up. I'm personally going to wipe everything down and re-lube it myself.

 

[Pankeeki]

Great post, I also bought a Blaser R93 and the reinforced Triggerbox.
I also ordered some new hopup rubbers here especially for the R93.

I installed a Orga barrel 6.23 to see what results that will give me.
After testing for FPS and range I will decide on further upgrades to raise my FPS.
I hope to do that this weekend.

I'm a lefty so I heard that it is possible to change the bolt to facilitate left handed shooters. Anybody any experience with this or that knows how to do it?

Take care, Pankeeki

 

[Pankeeki]

I tested fps with the orga barrel, still 430 fps without spring upgrades and shooting far and straight.

So now im installing the 550 fps cylinder set from King Arms.
I want to reach max 500 fps.

Im also going to do a flathup with the namazu firefly and a prometheus purple hopup rubber. Should all be in by april 18th, i'll let you know the results.

 

[TacoApple99]

As far as I know, with the design of the bolt it's unfortunately not possible without major work. Also when you shot with the Orga barrel, was that all stock cylinder parts (spring, piston, etc)? Is it worth it to buy a 6.23mm for this rifle?

 

[Pankeeki]

Yes, all stock, I first wanted to see what the barrel will do for fps, before i upgraded the spring, piston etc. In my country you cant go above 500fps. Ussually you lose some fps do to the barrel being wider. I've seen differences of 100-150 fps bcause of a orga barrel
I have no comparison to other barrels on this replica so I dont know if it is worth it. I just wanted to try it.

 

[The Ohio Grass Man]

Hello guys, I haven't had a chance to hop on the forums lately... (damn homework). I made it out to the farm, only to find that I had accidentally gotten a bit of oil on the hop up bucking... took it apart today, due to it failing to cock back, only to be greeted with a nicely broken spring guide. :lame: I had only about 50 shots through the damn thing. I am now saving some money (already have about 100 bucks) to go through with all of the upgrades that I talked about in the OP.

Taco, I am glad that you put up some pictures of what I was talking about! However, everyone be prepared to buy the upgrade kit I researched, along with the upgraded trigger assembly. I will post again with any replies and questions posted, and will update with pictures the upgrade process, maybe even a viddy-yo. We will see. However, I definitely will stay active, so in the far future, nobody worry about necro-ing this thread, as I am always scanning for updates. :cheers:

 

[The Ohio Grass Man]

I'm a lefty so I heard that it is possible to change the bolt to facilitate left handed shooters. Anybody any experience with this or that knows how to do it?
Take care, Pankeeki

From what I can see, it is not possible. The bolt is only held on with one hex screw on the back, so it should be possible to replace it. Maybe you could buy a bolt and drill a hole in the back.

 

[TacoApple99]

Small update, got a scope mounted and it's so nice! I found some vinyl electrical tape and had some fun doing a little DIY fixes :hehe:

-I didn't get any pictures of this, but the mag was loose so what I did was stuck about 5-7 strips of the tape to the edge of the mag where it lies in the mag well, and now the rattling stopped and it sits there nice and snug.

-Next I used it on the cylinder internals to quiet it down some:

I taped the tip of the spring that inserts into the cylinder so it doesn't rattle around inside there, and another strip of tape about midway up the spring to prevent it from rattling against the cylinder itself:

I taped the end of the spring to the spring guide so it wouldn't end up moving around or anything, and i taped the actual spring guide itself so you don't hear the plastic-on-metal noise when firing or cocking the rifle:

And lastly I super-glued on a piece of rubber as a cushion for the piston against the air nozzle, all on some vinyl tape so I can easily remove everything in the future:

The mods don't make this a near-silent rifle, however it does quiet it down some, as well as changing the firing noise from a loud SLAM to a more quiet of a THUMP, which I'm hoping will make it less noticeable. Still probably won't get to skirmish until summer, however in the coming weekends I plan on sighting it in and tuning the scope/hopup for .3g BB's. Don't know the effective range of this setup so I'll find that out during sighting in and report back with what I come up with. Also gonna chrono this setup.

 

[Pankeeki]

I installed the 550 fps cylinderkit, and flathopped the Orga barrel with a Namazu and used a prometheus soft purple hopup rubber.

After installing I got really low FPS readings. FPS was around 300 using 00.20 gr bbs/
Range was terrible using 0.40 bbs but with 0.25 bb it shot beautifully straight and far. So the flathop is working great with the Orga barrel.

The only problem now is that I seem te be losing air somewhere.
My guess is the new air nozzle on the cylinder set is slightly different.
I think that in combination with the new hopup rubber from prometheus is probably causing loss of airpressure when firing.

Anybody else experienced this?


Furthermore I noticed that the bolt is very hard to pull and seems to be getting resistance when sliding. What is the best way to ensure this is smooth?

 

[adjunog]

hop-up assembly and parts

I broke the pin that pushes down the on the bucking. The pin attaches to the sliding adjustment plastic. I wish that stub wasn't so small and me being hard on plastic pieces. Is there a replacement for this part? Has anyone mod'd a different type hop-up unit to fit in a Blaser?

 

[The Ohio Grass Man]

I do not know if there are replacement parts for the hop up. Also, I do not know if there are ways to cram on a different hop up. I am looking into a different hop, and from what I see, as long as the bb's are not fed from the bottom of the unit, but from the back instead, and it is the same length (or can be made the same length), a new hop up could be fastened directly to the barrel, and the barrel modified so that it could be accessed. I will not take responsibility for any damaged guns, but if you are feeling risky, go ahead and stick a new one on there. Maybe the unit could be rotated so that it could be adjusted through the existing opening in the outer barrel... Definitely something to look into.

I other news, I have finally tracked down the reinforced trigger set. Airsplat has it in stock, however, I cannot add any to my cart. They just rebuilt their website, which I despise of, so that may be messed up. I can rant all day on the new airsplat website, but that is for a different thread.

If anyone knows where the reinforced trigger set can be found, in stock, I would greatly appreciate it, as that is what is holding me back from buying the 550 or 600 (I do not know which one is better, advice would be great) cylinder upgrade kit.

 

[The Ohio Grass Man]

The only problem now is that I seem te be losing air somewhere.
My guess is the new air nozzle on the cylinder set is slightly different.
I think that in combination with the new hopup rubber from prometheus is probably causing loss of airpressure when firing.

Anybody else experienced this?

Furthermore I noticed that the bolt is very hard to pull and seems to be getting resistance when sliding. What is the best way to ensure this is smooth?

I just read this, since I have been a bit preoccupied with school.

As far as the resistance, I took some thick grease and greased the sides of the cylinder. This helped tremendously.

If you want, you can take a pair of needle nose pliers and unscrew the nozzle from the cylinder, then unscrew the tip of the nozzle from the rest of it. After that, you can drill out the tube of the nozzle. I don't remember what size bit I used, but just wrap it in some fabric, put it in a vise, and drill slowly with lubrication. Worked fine for me to enlarge the inner diameter of the nozzle. Just screw it back into the rest of the nozzle, then screw it back onto the top of the cylinder.

Where did you purchase the reinforced trigger set, by the way?

 

[Pankeeki]

Thanks, but I think i need a better contact between nozzel and hopuprubber, not sure how the drilling will help with that.

The triggerset I order here:

Boutique Airsoft land - Accessoires, équipements et répliques Airsoft (pistolets à billes...)

 

[adjunog]

Fixed Hop-up adjustment pin

I broke the pin that pushes down the on the bucking. The pin attaches to the sliding adjustment plastic. I wish that stub wasn't so small and me being hard on plastic pieces. Is there a replacement for this part? Has anyone mod'd a different type hop-up unit to fit in a Blaser?

Drilled a (0.0400=#60 bit) hole at a slight angle so more material can be support it.
Inserted whole pin into plastic so the excess can aid the mount and install.
Spun 2x Unidirectional-Carbon around a pin. Sanded and Shaped to the correct diameter (0.0350) to allow contact glue to seep and bind.

Sanded and shaped outer-bottom "-" pin window and inner-top due to angle of Pin. Sanded according to fit the pin.