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Spring vs Gas vs Electric

7925 Views 7 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  SamuraiBrah
Sup brahs, SamuraiBrah is in. I want to know your opinion on the best type of airsoft gun for sniping; Spring, Gas, or Electric.

Instead of just saying which you prefer, why not add in a little about your playing style, what gun you use, and why the type of airsoft gun you chose is best. Of course these are all opinions, and each gun has its ups and downs.


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Well I guess I'll start off. I've never used a gas sniper, but I have used gas powered guns. That being said, my favorite type of gun is very easily spring, bolt action snipers. Second I would have to say electric, then finally gas.

My favorite thing about spring rifles is how quiet they are. With electric you hear the gearbox wind up, and from the experience I have with gas, the discharge is usually quite a bit louder than spring. With anybody I talk to after battles, their first response is always: "Where the f*ck were you?" Nobody hears my gun, just my bbs.

Another thing I love about spring rifles, is the realism of them. There's something great about 1 shot 1 kill with spring. Of course the military uses semi-automatic snipers, but any very long distance shot is going to be taken with bolt action. I shoot real firearms, and hunt quite a bit. There's a reason why hunters aren't going out with semi-auto aks (I've hunted with one before, kind of sucks), and are only using bolt action. I guess what I'm saying is, is that I feel more like a legitimate sniper using spring.

My play style is very patient. As I said I hunt, I'm not road hunting. I'm hiking 3 miles uphill, and sitting in the same spot for 3+ hours while someone pushes deer toward me. My tactics involves getting to my target location as quickly as I can, and waiting it out. If I'm in a good spot, I have no reason to move even after I've hit a couple people.
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I see what you did there Wolf...

Anyway, as far as which type is the best is debatable. For me, gas and spring are tied for first and AEGs are last.

Gas and spring are tied for quite a few reasons.

Maintenance: I keep my guns clean and lubed (for the most part), springers are super easy to maintain and so are most gas powered. AEGs... I HATE GEARBOXES... I hate opening them up, hell some times just getting the box out is a pain. It takes me forever to clean and reassemble them, and tuned the way I like. PITA!

Performance:
-Stock out of the box: Gas, followed by spring, then AEG. My experience with out of the box performance with gas guns have been good, like wise with spring. AEGs.. With my Magpul M4 and E1 CSR listed as flukes, my general experience with AEG stock performance has been, meh.

-Upgraded performance: Once you start upgrading all bets are off with good performance or not. This includes mods.
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12g CO2 has an output pressure between 800-1000 psi (roughly) between 70F and 100F. It can go higher or lower depending on temperature of the cartridge and ambient temp.

Propane/Green Gas has an output pressure of approx. 150 at 90F.

Seeing as green gas, propane, and CO2, are in a liquid form, as the liquid turns into a gas, this cools down your cartridge or mag, which will drop the pressure of the gas, until it warms back up. This is referred to as Cooldown. This only occurs when shooting quickly, a lot and often.

You also loose pressure when you are out of gas (liquid or HPA)... This is just a fact of life with gas guns. So put more gas in and go.

As far as consistency goes, all gas guns that are not powered by HPA are unregulated. Which means the pressure of the gas going into the barrel is what ever. Which gives you massive jumps in FPS.

HPA needs regulation. Seeing as it is just compressed air in a bottle at high pressure (3000-5000 psi depending on tank.) All tanks used in airsoft are paintball tanks which have a regulator to bring the output of the tank to 850psi, or 450psi if you get one with a Low Pressure reg on it. HPA is not affected by cool down as it is not a liquid, it is also not affected by ambient temperature.

If you mod a Green Gas rifle for HPA or CO2 from an external rig (such as a tank on your back or 12g quick change), you will need a regulator, most prefer a dual regulator setup. (technically its 3 with the tank reg, but that is left out as it is not adjustable, most of the time.)

The dual regulators serve to drop your air source pressure of 850psi down to 40-125 psi (depending on tuning). This give you a constant pressure into the valve, which in turn gives you a constant FPS.
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