[MagicMarker]

I realized something yesterday out at one of the fields I frequent.

My 'standards', if you can even call them that, are infinite- I'm never satisfied with the performance of my system. I fire into open space, then fire again, and can always say "the trajectory wasn't identical- needs work". It's just the nature of a good portion of what drives my interest in airsoft. I've thought about it before, how if I had a magic system that shot in a straight line over an infinite distance, I would suddenly feel so empty, as my primary hobby disappeared.
That's not what I realized yesterday. What I realized - after the fourth shot of the day, which was the fourth hit of the day, which was threaded through trees, branches, and a crack in hard cover, only marginally more precise than the other three - is that having unobtainable standards of performance means I am absolutely blown away by every awesome shot I make :lmao::cheers:
It might sound sad or frustrating at first for an outsider to hear my perspective on performance, but in reality, it's wonderful! The chase for perfection is hard, fun work - a true hobby - and then damn near every shot I made in the first match of the day, I was giddy with excitement at how capable the system was despite my extreme criticality of it just moments ago, sighting in :hehe:
It's like there's a grading system in my brain for my rifle, and an 'A' is infinitely out of reach, but when I step on the field of play- *pew* 'A'! *pew* 'A'! *pew* 'B+'! :lmao:

Do you guys get this feeling as well?

 

[1tonne]

I used to feel the same. The goal of maximum performance was always just out of reach. So I could always do better. But now I feel as though my VSR is at it's best unless I was to use ceramic bb's (I am not going to go that route). I can't think of any new ways to make it better. Every way I try does not seem to net anymore gain. So I am now satisfied that it is where I want it. It beats every other rifle on the field and when people make a goal, it is normally to beat my rifle. It has not been beaten in many years. I feel as though my VSR is at the tip or maximum of airsoft sniper science. So I can't do anything else but just play with it. So when you get to this stage, you begin to feel a little empty as there is nothing else out there. I am always reading to see if there is some science that I may have missed.
I then turned my teching skills to a DMR. I am also now at the same stage with the DMR.
Now I am working on a high speed AEG setup at 350fps as a sniper backup. The faster the RPS the better and the rifle has to be very light and compact. Currently it only weighs 1800gms and my rifle can fit a big 7.4v 2200mah battery in the stock. That is 1800gm's including the red dot site and the mag. So extra light and it was firing 36rps with 13:1 gears but I have just received a Dual Sector Gear today. So hopefully I can get 50rps. I may or may not be satisfied with it.
This new goal, the high rps build has been a lot of fun and I still have a lot more to learn.
Lucky, airsoft has so many difference facets that we can explore to keep the fire going.

 

[MagicMarker]

Yeah I'm pretty confident the quality of average plastic BBs is a bottleneck that arrives sooner than most realize- but I'm too obsessed, so I'm going down the ceramic rabbit hole other than that, I'm sure I'll see myself following your lead there with other avenues...

Lucky, airsoft has so many difference facets that we can explore to keep the fire going.

You said it!
My #2 focus in airsoft is ghillie crafting, which I'm actually focusing more on at the moment.

 

[Leetworld]

Are you allowed to play with ceramic? In my country only plastic bb are allowed and even the weights are set, for example aeg can’t shoot heavier than 0.3g

 

[Zero Roaster]

Oh wow...we are reaching DEEP here. hehehehe. I agree completely. Anything less than 10/10 at full range means something is seriously broken. I've even stopped playing the game...too obsessed about the science!

Then, I contracted 1tonne Syndrome. Maxed out. Really? Yes, really. I may have maxed out what I can and what the game in this country allows. In fact, I've built enough guns now of different types, that I know already this is what we'll get out of it, and this is how to do it, etc. Sooooooo.....now what? I finished my last serious build this spring and to be honest, I have one rifle left to do and I just can't seem to get at it. Why bother? The other ones work perfectly. A bolt gun, a DMR, an LMG, and a short unit for tight spaces...well, that pretty much does it, hunh?

My wife was feeling so bad for me that the rabbit hole was at an end she got me a an RC airplane! Slightly broken, needs some work. bawwwhaaahaa....whole new science project!

 

[1tonne]

Sheed (Another member on here who only lurks), has been inquiring with our club committee to see if he can change the Sniper rules. This is to give us technicians a little more to experiment with. Keep the old fullers interested in the sport with new facets to investigate. Currently, our sniper rules are that a sniper has to be bolt action and we have an fps of 600fps on 0.2gm bb's. What Sheeds aim is, is to get the committee to change the rules that we can make a 600fps AEG that has a 4 second delayer so that you cannot pull the trigger for 4 seconds between each shot. So effectively, it will be the same as a bolt action but just an AEG. More fun with airsoft.


The other idea that he had that should be within the club rules is that we make an AEG just semi auto but to cut off the rear end of the tappet plate so that the air nozzle would not be pulled back each time the gears spun. This means that you could keep your finger on the trigger of the rifle and a bb would not load as the air nozzle will always be forward. We could then connect the tappet plate to the charging handle on the outside of the rifle. So each time we pulled back the charging handle, the bb would load. An AK has the charging handle in the right place for this and there are also ways to do it with an M4. Even more fun with airsoft!


I guess another facet of airsoft that I have not really experimented with is HPA. I did have an HPA bolt action but I did not seem to have the same interest in it. So I sold it. I have not been down the route of PolarStar though. So I guess I could always do that one day. But to me it just does not have the same appeal as a mechanical operated rifle.

 

[whalesmash]

I used to be in that boat, chasing that absolute 0.1% until I hit that ammunition quality limit. From that point onwards, I dialed it back a bit and opted to wander down the road of one offs and ground up custom rifles. For me as an individual, airsoft has always had that element of "I'll never be able to touch the real gun in real life", so I took that a bit further and started building my own guns from my favorite video games. I've already got five or so 3D printed guns (Halo smg, CMP, destiny handcannon, wa2000, ots14...), but the nice part is that I basically have an unlimited amount of inspiration. So long as developers continue churning out guns I find shiny and appealing, I'll have another project I can mess around with. On the bright side, I'll have this hobby for years to come. On the downside, I'll probably never be done...

 

[Zero Roaster]

No, no, Mr. Smash...the UPSIDE is that you'll never be done. That's excellent!!

1tonne, is it wrong if I view HPA as 'too easy'. Big deal. Air valve, big bottle of air, of course it works! hahahaha. Believe me, getting an electric LMG to be accurate to 'x' distance and maintain 10 rps was a real trick! Don't get me wrong I LOVE that BAR...it is so predictable, so steady...you could almost write a dead guy guarantee. But....

Man, 600fps is COOKING. We'll never have that here. Federal law won't allow it, so that's another thing. We're capped by The Man.

I do like Whalesmash's idea of making 'non guns'. That's awesome! 3D printing? Top notch!! Well done, sir...

 

[wyz2285]

Well I'm not skilled as you guys, my VSR is nowhere near 1 shot one kill so...
However, I'm bad at finish one project at time lol. So I'm always full of work, a bit here, a bit there... Currently I stopped working on my VSR because I'm out of ideas what else I could do so I made a 3D printed smg sort of thing for my g18, HPA and takes M4 aeg mags, just to refresh my mind. To be honest, I get more pleasure by going to the game always with eyecatchers made by myself than the game itself lol.

 

[MagicMarker]

Are you allowed to play with ceramic? In my country only plastic bb are allowed and even the weights are set, for example aeg can't shoot heavier than 0.3g

I've only asked one field, who said 'no'- hoping with a little education spreading, we can get this sorted out. The softest BBs on the market are still going to break teeth and optics at standard range energies- so is there actually cause for concern?
The implications of these ceramic rounds are way underappreciated. Currently, the fact is that the only hard benefit to using a BASR may be a higher muzzle energy limit- but most of the fields in my area give those same increased limits to DMRs anyway. Not only do the extreme quality and weight of ceramics drastically increase the value of precision roles, but they also discourage spamming due to their considerably high cost, so that even if a BAS is not given any extra benefit of any kind, the single-shot play-style will still have considerable value via the use of ceramics.
Bolt action sniping in airsoft is currently little more than role-play at the moment; primarily, we are a breed of people with a certain interest, and any hard benefits allotted to our rifle systems are nearly negligible. Ceramics would bring actual hard benefit to the role. They're a natural force for creating a more interesting field role dynamic.
The acceptance of ceramics cannot come soon enough.

 

[Zero Roaster]

Mr. Marker, excellent perspective as always. Unfortunately, in our tiny nation North of the 49th, that would NEVER come to pass. Luckily crafting of the rifles here isn't quite as hardcore as in the States so we still maintain a considerable advantage...but You're right, I have no trouble knocking out snipers with my AEG...so, what's the point of sniping?

 

[MagicMarker]

Right, I mean the reality is currently very few people put so much time/effort/money into their rifles, so there's still that considerable gap keeping us relevant :hehe:

 

[Zero Roaster]

Yes SIR!!! I just love it when anyone says 'I just bought this new super duper Krytac (VFC, Umbrella, whatever) and it's awesome right out of the box!!'....so innocent, so hopeful.