TinCan's VSR Building Guide [UPDATED]
Introduction
Hello everyone, my name is James or TinCan. I am currently trying to build myself a kick-ass bolt action airsoft (spring) sniper rifle! I am writing this guide as a work in progress, that will talk about issues I have experienced and things I have bought so you don't make the mistake!
Disclaimer: I am no expert at this, I am not a guntech, however I have read hundreds of bits of advice and posts regarding building these, and consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable of the subject.
I would firstly like to thank 1tonne, fuzzy, Kicking Mustang, Sniper Mechanic, Reliku and Dimitri for posting a large amount of information on the internet and helping me build my knowledge
Choosing the Gun
When I first went to choose a gun, I didn't spend too long looking at what form factor of rifle I wanted. I knew from just having a general knowledge of spring snipers that VSR had the most compatible parts, the most users, and would be my go-to platform to upgrade.
So, the next step is to choose a model/manufacturer to buy from. From my research I can list you a bunch in order of quality and giving some description of them from seeing them and reading about them. Before, you go off and purchase anything, feel free to ask me questions, and read the entire guide as not all of it may make sense with some of the part terminology or technical specifications.
If you would like to check prices for guns, firstly try the Checker on weaponscrate.com to compare prices. If this doesn't work, shop around!
1. Tokyo Marui VSR - These guys invented the platform, and now have two standard models. The G Spec and the Pro.
G Spec (229 GBP, Zero One Airsoft): 303mm Inner Barrel, 300FPS, 1040mm in Length.
2. Jing Gong BAR 10 - This is probably the best "clone" of the Tokyo Marui, it is as close as you get to it. The main difference I believe is slightly lower quality externally, however the internals are entirely compatible.
3. WELL MB03 (56GBP from Taiwan Gun) - This is what I opted for! I am on a tight budget, I got it for a great price at 56 Pounds! My logic was that if I intend to take out all the internals anyways, I can't go wrong. From using it, the build quality seems fine, and the externals, although it may scratch I will be painting it anyways.
470 FPS, 500mm Inner Barrel, 1150mm in Length. as far as I aware, it should be fully VSR compatible, and recently people have only said you may need to do some minor filing on the trigger unit.
4. There are many other clones out there, the WELL is far from the worse, however I implore you to research for yourself and make up your own mind on what you purchase. However this guide should still apply to you!
Your Gun has Arrived, What now?!
Ok, so its that day where the huge f-off box has arrived and you open it! Now, hold your horses! Before you bring it to your first skirmish you need to prepare a few things. Often times, they come pretty gunked in grease internally. So watch some youtube videos showing take apart guides, and clean it. I personally use 100% Pure Silicon Oil from Germany to lubricate my gun. I put it on the cylinder, O-Rings, Spring, Spring Guide, Outside of Hop Chamber and Piston.
Whatever you do, do not put it on any parts that require friction/among other things, e.g: The spring guide stopper, hop rubber or inner barrel!
Now that your gun is looking nice and lovely, piece it back together, (don't ruin the threads, and don't overtighten stuff). So you will need a scope, for me, any 30GBP scope from Amazon will do. I picked up a 3-9x40 scope that of course goes onto a picketing rail.
At first, I used a sticky compound known as Sugru to stick the lens protector on the front as it wouldn't stay in, don't do this, in fact don't use the given scope protecter, the chances of a BB hitting your scope is crazy low. The scope protecter made my scope blurry as hell, and unusable for my first game, until half way through I tore it off and saw clearly. This was due to condensation I believe!
Next, you will need some BB's to shoot with. Don't put average quality BB's that you would use in AEG through your gun. I would recommend the following brands: Geoff's, Longbow, and have heard good things from BLS.
To start, pick up some 0.4G BB's, they should be fine until you work out what works best for your rifle. You don't need lots as they are quite expensive, just get 1000 and that will do you for a while.
So you have a Scope, BB's, and a stock gun; go and use it for a few weeks, or months. Sniping isn't for everyone so before you spend hundreds on upgrades see if you like it first. I wouldn't recommend a sling. It kinda gets in the way, and although it can help stabilise the rifle, I don't think it is worth it and you are quicker just holding it.
Ok, I like sniping, now I want a better Gun!
Perfect, there are lots of individual parts in the gun, all of these work together to give you accuracy. This is what we want, you may have high, or low FPS out of the box, but regardless you want accuracy and distance at the end of the day.
To do this, you will eventually end up upgrading everything, but as you are getting into it, and as you move into this guide I will detail some DIY mods that you can do to save money and let you read around and build a knowledge on what you want from the gun, and what suits your budget. I won't go into anything too complex, as I myself couldn't be bothered doing a lot of them!
Dental Floss and Plumbers Tape (PTFE)
So, you know your way around the gun by now, you can easily identify the hop rubber. Towards the end of the rubber that is going towards the hop unit, wrap some dental floss around it twice, knot it up, then wrap PTFE tape around it until it covers the end of the rubber that meets the barrel. Make sure it doesn't cover the area above the window, as this may make the hop work worse!
More use for PTFE Tape, love it; this one involves your cylinder head. When you screw the cylinder head into the cylinder, you see it will have a thread with a rubber ring half way up it. Wrap this thread in PTFE a few times, bingo.
Both of these modes increase the air seal, this is when the air escapes in the gun through places other than the barrel. Not only does this mean it lowers your FPS, but it increases the variable your shots have. Sometimes it has +/-15FPS, this will all effect your accuracy which we just can't be dealing with of course!
Barrel Spacers
Another great and easy mod is to simply get some electrical/masking tape, put the sticky side outwards and wrap it wouldn't your barrel. Then reverse the tape so it sticks to this, and keep wrapping it round until it fits snugly in your barrel, put 3-4 of these down your barrel and it will decrease vibration, and increase accuracy!
Cylinder Head Nozzle
This is one that I never would have considered. What you do, is go onto Amazon and purchase some 7mm Heat Shrink. When it arrives, place the tubing on the end of your cylinder head (Called the Air Nozzle), and cut it to size. After this, use a lighter or a match to shrink it so it fits tightly. Now use some super glue and this will increase your air seal!
Foam Dampener
Here we are going back inside the cylinder, essentially on the reverse side of the Cylinder Head, there is a lot of impact pushing the air into the Air Nozzle, we want to reduce the noise by getting some foam, cutting it to shape and sticking it inside. 1-2mm will do to reduce the noise the gun makes somewhat.
(Thanks to 1tonne for his information on this, along with my modification of his ejection port cover which I will show later)
Ejection Port Cover
Usually this is done by sanding and cutting up an aluminium (sorry not tin) can and and bending it, then putting it so it covers the ejection port window. This helps stop dirt getting in, and scratching your lovely gun. I will possibly be making a model or selling 3d printed versions in the future so feel free to check us out at Clockwork 3D Printing in the services tab of weaponscrate!
Barrel Spacers
Using masking or electrical tape, with the sticky side facing outwards wrap it round your inner barrel (TIGHTLY), now, reverse the tape and put the sticky side ontop of this. Keep on layering it up until it fits tightly in the barrel, bare in mind they may be tapered! However this eliminates vibration when shooting that leads to innaccuracy.
Other DIY Mods
So there is a crazy ton of mods that people have come up with, to name a few: Top Dead Centre, Long Range Barrel, Sanding the Inside of the Cylinder Head and may more!
I want MORE range, HIGHER accuracy and FASTER shots!
Brilliant, don't we all, however it can get expensive here so hold onto your seats kid. Luckily I am on a budget too.
I am now going to list various parts that will bring you to a great sniper rifle, and give various suggestions from different companies on what I have researched. They will be in the order at which I will/have use them in my MB03 so bare that in mind.
Trigger Unit
Ok, so one thing that's a problem is the fact that the standard triggers are pretty much all 45 degree, what I mean by this is shown in the image below. Please not is has nothing to do with the rotation of the individual images, its the limitations on Paint..
![]()
So, as you can see, on the left, the circled part is the problem, this will slowly wear away until you slam fire, which causes the gun to shoot as soon as you cock it. Which is basically broken at that point and dangerous. This won't start if you purchase a 90 Degree, or Zero trigger as shown on the left!
Brands I have heard good things from:
I will personally purchase an Airsoft Pro V4 Trigger Setfor 90GBP. The brilliant thing about this, is that it comes with the piston, spring, and spring guide! Furthermore, choose the spring you want for the power you are going to need for your field, personally I would go with an M130 (460FPS) as with our upgrades it should get up to around 495FPS eventually!
One of the brands you will hear a lot about is Laylax, they are known for making brilliant parts, and just because they are out of my price range does not mean I can put them down. The Laylax PSS10 Zero Triggeris simply amazing from what I have heard, whether they are worth the 200GBP price tag, I amen't quite sure. But, if you do buy it tell us down below your experience. Please note I don't believe it comes with a Spring or Spring Guide!
Action Army is another solid brand that has essentially copied Laylax but made ita lot cheaper, think of JG copying Tokyo Marui with the VSR! A lot of people I have read from have purchased and been very happy with the results, however you will need to buy a new spring guide, and possibly a new spring separately from them. Get the Action Army Zero Triggerfor 128GBP from their official UK retailer. Note, it doesn't come with anything aside from the Trigger Unit and Piston!
Hop Up Rubber/Bucking
Ok, so I amen't going to explain stuff that has already been explained but people who understand it better than me, simply watch this video by Reliku on it: Maple Leaf Bucking by Reliku. So this gives you an idea of the bucking I am to use, and explains really well why they are pretty great! I plan on purchasing a Maple Leaf Diamond Rubber anda Maple Leaf Omega Nub. However, you need a barrel with an open window so hold your horses till the end of the guide! See the image below for an example of each.
![]()
To use Maple Leaf Rubbers you need an Un-Bridged Barrel, so don't order anything yet till you read further!
However, initially a gent by the name of Kicking Mustangwas kind enough to send me an original Tokyo Marui Hop Rubber that will probably be better than the stock one if you bought a cheaper clone like me! Check him out for any tactical airsoft footage and other cool videos!
Another option is to doa DIY called S Hopping/SUGRU Hopping. People online have told me it works well, not as good as R-Hopping (Google it) but good results for cheap! It will work with your standard barrels (Bridged), and could be a good option until you get money for a full Maple Leaf setup! Watch this video by mes copain Frozen 77from France. Even if you don't speak French you should be able to work it out! I will try it next week and give you guys an update on how it works I think.
Hop Up Units
Now, an integral part of the Airsoft Rifle, the hop! I have spoken about Hop Rubbers, now time to speak about the containing unit. I am not going to waste too much time considering all the options here, as from research and asking people the clear winner seems to be the Action Army Hop Unit. This has been known to give brilliant air seal, which you guys know is super important for shot consistency! Further to this, the unit is said to improving magazine feeding, and I find has a much better adjustment system. It is done via an Allen key in the Maxwell, as I often knock my external adjustment on my MB03!
Barrels
As you have seen above there are two types, bridged and un-bridged. Since I am going for a setup with Maple Leaf, I will be buying an un-bridged barrel! I have done a lot of looking around from two manufacturers for this, Action Army (Seeing a trend here?) and Maple Leaf themselves. When getting any barrel there are two main stats given, the barrel width, and the length. Firstly, if its 6.01 or 6.03 I don't think its anything worth getting too worried about or into a huge debate about it. It's very hard to test, and not really worth anyone's time deciding what is exclusively better.
Then, there is the barrel length, 1tonne wrotea lot about this on his 1Tonne's Guide. There isn't much point in me re-gurgitating his information, essentially, for my goal FPS of 450-500, I will be using 0.4G BB's, with a 430mm inner barrel. This is taking his advice into consideration but also what many others have told me.
Maple Leaf Crazy Jet 428mm(Basically 430mm who cares): The way this barrel works, is towards the end it has, almost a sheath that air flows into, and due to it being a smaller area it is at a higher pressure. This leads to it leaving the barrel faster, creating a small tube of air around the BB, in theory it all checks out. Putting it into practice people seem to agree. A lot of people and I am going to agree with them! It's on skirmshop.nl for around 50GBP!
Alternatively if you don't particularly trust the air funnel stuff, there is the much simpler option of an Action Army 430mm Barrel, also from skirmshop.nl for around 40GBP. As you can tell, they are a quality brand and that is why I am using them throughout my build!
Furthermore, there are other more expensive options like, Edgi and Laylax but I amen't too bothered by them. At a certain point the improvements aren't quantified by the sometimes doubling of price Laylax can cost you.
Closing Points
So I hope you have enjoyed my guide and found it informative, I didn't make it exhaustive because I believe through my time reading, messaging people and just scouring the internet I have found what should work for me, and hopefully you.
When it comes to tactics, as I said Kicking Mustang provides brilliant Ghillie Crafting tips and tactical insight into what he does.
Personally, I would say carry 2 mages, the full 4 I got with my MB03 was entirely unnecessary and adds to the hassle you don't need. If it a super long game or your really bad like me carry a speedloader!
When sniping, you can take on many different roles, but understand your limitations. Although it seems smart to carry a full size M4 to make you a flexible player, remember: Jack of All Trades but Master of None! Whether you are scouting and giving information at MilSims, or covering objectives, do what this sniper is meant to do!
The human silhouette is easily distinguishable, along with dark colours/shadows in a outdoor setting, try and break out your should and gun outline as much as possible.
Some people like a sling, but as I said I found it impeded me moving, and further to this, although unlikely it may damage your sniper if you let it hand around whilst running.
Lastly, please just remember guys what we are doing here is great fun if we all stick to the rules of our sites and countries. Don't spoil it for everyone else by ignoring minimum engagement distances, FPS rules through dirty tricks and going for headshots unnecessarily!
Any feedback is welcome,
Tincan, or James.
Introduction
Hello everyone, my name is James or TinCan. I am currently trying to build myself a kick-ass bolt action airsoft (spring) sniper rifle! I am writing this guide as a work in progress, that will talk about issues I have experienced and things I have bought so you don't make the mistake!
Disclaimer: I am no expert at this, I am not a guntech, however I have read hundreds of bits of advice and posts regarding building these, and consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable of the subject.
I would firstly like to thank 1tonne, fuzzy, Kicking Mustang, Sniper Mechanic, Reliku and Dimitri for posting a large amount of information on the internet and helping me build my knowledge
Choosing the Gun
When I first went to choose a gun, I didn't spend too long looking at what form factor of rifle I wanted. I knew from just having a general knowledge of spring snipers that VSR had the most compatible parts, the most users, and would be my go-to platform to upgrade.
So, the next step is to choose a model/manufacturer to buy from. From my research I can list you a bunch in order of quality and giving some description of them from seeing them and reading about them. Before, you go off and purchase anything, feel free to ask me questions, and read the entire guide as not all of it may make sense with some of the part terminology or technical specifications.
If you would like to check prices for guns, firstly try the Checker on weaponscrate.com to compare prices. If this doesn't work, shop around!
1. Tokyo Marui VSR - These guys invented the platform, and now have two standard models. The G Spec and the Pro.
Pro (182 GBP, Zero One Airsoft): 430mm Inner Barrel, 280FPS, 1080mm in Length.
G Spec (229 GBP, Zero One Airsoft): 303mm Inner Barrel, 300FPS, 1040mm in Length.
2. Jing Gong BAR 10 - This is probably the best "clone" of the Tokyo Marui, it is as close as you get to it. The main difference I believe is slightly lower quality externally, however the internals are entirely compatible.
Pro (150GBP Approx) - Specs the same as Tokyo Marui Pro, aside from FPS which is around 400FPS. Only problem, as with a decent number of clones is that your hand may be awkward when using the bolt handle. Can be easily fixed however!
G Spec (150+GBP Approx) - Specs the same as Tokyo Marui G Spec, aside from velocity which is 390FPS.
3. WELL MB03 (56GBP from Taiwan Gun) - This is what I opted for! I am on a tight budget, I got it for a great price at 56 Pounds! My logic was that if I intend to take out all the internals anyways, I can't go wrong. From using it, the build quality seems fine, and the externals, although it may scratch I will be painting it anyways.
470 FPS, 500mm Inner Barrel, 1150mm in Length. as far as I aware, it should be fully VSR compatible, and recently people have only said you may need to do some minor filing on the trigger unit.
4. There are many other clones out there, the WELL is far from the worse, however I implore you to research for yourself and make up your own mind on what you purchase. However this guide should still apply to you!
Your Gun has Arrived, What now?!
Ok, so its that day where the huge f-off box has arrived and you open it! Now, hold your horses! Before you bring it to your first skirmish you need to prepare a few things. Often times, they come pretty gunked in grease internally. So watch some youtube videos showing take apart guides, and clean it. I personally use 100% Pure Silicon Oil from Germany to lubricate my gun. I put it on the cylinder, O-Rings, Spring, Spring Guide, Outside of Hop Chamber and Piston.
Whatever you do, do not put it on any parts that require friction/among other things, e.g: The spring guide stopper, hop rubber or inner barrel!
Now that your gun is looking nice and lovely, piece it back together, (don't ruin the threads, and don't overtighten stuff). So you will need a scope, for me, any 30GBP scope from Amazon will do. I picked up a 3-9x40 scope that of course goes onto a picketing rail.
At first, I used a sticky compound known as Sugru to stick the lens protector on the front as it wouldn't stay in, don't do this, in fact don't use the given scope protecter, the chances of a BB hitting your scope is crazy low. The scope protecter made my scope blurry as hell, and unusable for my first game, until half way through I tore it off and saw clearly. This was due to condensation I believe!
Next, you will need some BB's to shoot with. Don't put average quality BB's that you would use in AEG through your gun. I would recommend the following brands: Geoff's, Longbow, and have heard good things from BLS.
To start, pick up some 0.4G BB's, they should be fine until you work out what works best for your rifle. You don't need lots as they are quite expensive, just get 1000 and that will do you for a while.
So you have a Scope, BB's, and a stock gun; go and use it for a few weeks, or months. Sniping isn't for everyone so before you spend hundreds on upgrades see if you like it first. I wouldn't recommend a sling. It kinda gets in the way, and although it can help stabilise the rifle, I don't think it is worth it and you are quicker just holding it.
Ok, I like sniping, now I want a better Gun!
Perfect, there are lots of individual parts in the gun, all of these work together to give you accuracy. This is what we want, you may have high, or low FPS out of the box, but regardless you want accuracy and distance at the end of the day.
To do this, you will eventually end up upgrading everything, but as you are getting into it, and as you move into this guide I will detail some DIY mods that you can do to save money and let you read around and build a knowledge on what you want from the gun, and what suits your budget. I won't go into anything too complex, as I myself couldn't be bothered doing a lot of them!
Dental Floss and Plumbers Tape (PTFE)
So, you know your way around the gun by now, you can easily identify the hop rubber. Towards the end of the rubber that is going towards the hop unit, wrap some dental floss around it twice, knot it up, then wrap PTFE tape around it until it covers the end of the rubber that meets the barrel. Make sure it doesn't cover the area above the window, as this may make the hop work worse!
More use for PTFE Tape, love it; this one involves your cylinder head. When you screw the cylinder head into the cylinder, you see it will have a thread with a rubber ring half way up it. Wrap this thread in PTFE a few times, bingo.
Both of these modes increase the air seal, this is when the air escapes in the gun through places other than the barrel. Not only does this mean it lowers your FPS, but it increases the variable your shots have. Sometimes it has +/-15FPS, this will all effect your accuracy which we just can't be dealing with of course!
Barrel Spacers
Another great and easy mod is to simply get some electrical/masking tape, put the sticky side outwards and wrap it wouldn't your barrel. Then reverse the tape so it sticks to this, and keep wrapping it round until it fits snugly in your barrel, put 3-4 of these down your barrel and it will decrease vibration, and increase accuracy!
Cylinder Head Nozzle
This is one that I never would have considered. What you do, is go onto Amazon and purchase some 7mm Heat Shrink. When it arrives, place the tubing on the end of your cylinder head (Called the Air Nozzle), and cut it to size. After this, use a lighter or a match to shrink it so it fits tightly. Now use some super glue and this will increase your air seal!
Foam Dampener
Here we are going back inside the cylinder, essentially on the reverse side of the Cylinder Head, there is a lot of impact pushing the air into the Air Nozzle, we want to reduce the noise by getting some foam, cutting it to shape and sticking it inside. 1-2mm will do to reduce the noise the gun makes somewhat.
(Thanks to 1tonne for his information on this, along with my modification of his ejection port cover which I will show later)
Ejection Port Cover
Usually this is done by sanding and cutting up an aluminium (sorry not tin) can and and bending it, then putting it so it covers the ejection port window. This helps stop dirt getting in, and scratching your lovely gun. I will possibly be making a model or selling 3d printed versions in the future so feel free to check us out at Clockwork 3D Printing in the services tab of weaponscrate!
Barrel Spacers
Using masking or electrical tape, with the sticky side facing outwards wrap it round your inner barrel (TIGHTLY), now, reverse the tape and put the sticky side ontop of this. Keep on layering it up until it fits tightly in the barrel, bare in mind they may be tapered! However this eliminates vibration when shooting that leads to innaccuracy.
Other DIY Mods
So there is a crazy ton of mods that people have come up with, to name a few: Top Dead Centre, Long Range Barrel, Sanding the Inside of the Cylinder Head and may more!
I want MORE range, HIGHER accuracy and FASTER shots!
Brilliant, don't we all, however it can get expensive here so hold onto your seats kid. Luckily I am on a budget too.
I am now going to list various parts that will bring you to a great sniper rifle, and give various suggestions from different companies on what I have researched. They will be in the order at which I will/have use them in my MB03 so bare that in mind.
Trigger Unit
Ok, so one thing that's a problem is the fact that the standard triggers are pretty much all 45 degree, what I mean by this is shown in the image below. Please not is has nothing to do with the rotation of the individual images, its the limitations on Paint..
So, as you can see, on the left, the circled part is the problem, this will slowly wear away until you slam fire, which causes the gun to shoot as soon as you cock it. Which is basically broken at that point and dangerous. This won't start if you purchase a 90 Degree, or Zero trigger as shown on the left!
Brands I have heard good things from:
I will personally purchase an Airsoft Pro V4 Trigger Setfor 90GBP. The brilliant thing about this, is that it comes with the piston, spring, and spring guide! Furthermore, choose the spring you want for the power you are going to need for your field, personally I would go with an M130 (460FPS) as with our upgrades it should get up to around 495FPS eventually!
One of the brands you will hear a lot about is Laylax, they are known for making brilliant parts, and just because they are out of my price range does not mean I can put them down. The Laylax PSS10 Zero Triggeris simply amazing from what I have heard, whether they are worth the 200GBP price tag, I amen't quite sure. But, if you do buy it tell us down below your experience. Please note I don't believe it comes with a Spring or Spring Guide!
Action Army is another solid brand that has essentially copied Laylax but made ita lot cheaper, think of JG copying Tokyo Marui with the VSR! A lot of people I have read from have purchased and been very happy with the results, however you will need to buy a new spring guide, and possibly a new spring separately from them. Get the Action Army Zero Triggerfor 128GBP from their official UK retailer. Note, it doesn't come with anything aside from the Trigger Unit and Piston!
Hop Up Rubber/Bucking
Ok, so I amen't going to explain stuff that has already been explained but people who understand it better than me, simply watch this video by Reliku on it: Maple Leaf Bucking by Reliku. So this gives you an idea of the bucking I am to use, and explains really well why they are pretty great! I plan on purchasing a Maple Leaf Diamond Rubber anda Maple Leaf Omega Nub. However, you need a barrel with an open window so hold your horses till the end of the guide! See the image below for an example of each.
To use Maple Leaf Rubbers you need an Un-Bridged Barrel, so don't order anything yet till you read further!
However, initially a gent by the name of Kicking Mustangwas kind enough to send me an original Tokyo Marui Hop Rubber that will probably be better than the stock one if you bought a cheaper clone like me! Check him out for any tactical airsoft footage and other cool videos!
Another option is to doa DIY called S Hopping/SUGRU Hopping. People online have told me it works well, not as good as R-Hopping (Google it) but good results for cheap! It will work with your standard barrels (Bridged), and could be a good option until you get money for a full Maple Leaf setup! Watch this video by mes copain Frozen 77from France. Even if you don't speak French you should be able to work it out! I will try it next week and give you guys an update on how it works I think.
Hop Up Units
Now, an integral part of the Airsoft Rifle, the hop! I have spoken about Hop Rubbers, now time to speak about the containing unit. I am not going to waste too much time considering all the options here, as from research and asking people the clear winner seems to be the Action Army Hop Unit. This has been known to give brilliant air seal, which you guys know is super important for shot consistency! Further to this, the unit is said to improving magazine feeding, and I find has a much better adjustment system. It is done via an Allen key in the Maxwell, as I often knock my external adjustment on my MB03!
Barrels
As you have seen above there are two types, bridged and un-bridged. Since I am going for a setup with Maple Leaf, I will be buying an un-bridged barrel! I have done a lot of looking around from two manufacturers for this, Action Army (Seeing a trend here?) and Maple Leaf themselves. When getting any barrel there are two main stats given, the barrel width, and the length. Firstly, if its 6.01 or 6.03 I don't think its anything worth getting too worried about or into a huge debate about it. It's very hard to test, and not really worth anyone's time deciding what is exclusively better.
Then, there is the barrel length, 1tonne wrotea lot about this on his 1Tonne's Guide. There isn't much point in me re-gurgitating his information, essentially, for my goal FPS of 450-500, I will be using 0.4G BB's, with a 430mm inner barrel. This is taking his advice into consideration but also what many others have told me.
Maple Leaf Crazy Jet 428mm(Basically 430mm who cares): The way this barrel works, is towards the end it has, almost a sheath that air flows into, and due to it being a smaller area it is at a higher pressure. This leads to it leaving the barrel faster, creating a small tube of air around the BB, in theory it all checks out. Putting it into practice people seem to agree. A lot of people and I am going to agree with them! It's on skirmshop.nl for around 50GBP!
Alternatively if you don't particularly trust the air funnel stuff, there is the much simpler option of an Action Army 430mm Barrel, also from skirmshop.nl for around 40GBP. As you can tell, they are a quality brand and that is why I am using them throughout my build!
Furthermore, there are other more expensive options like, Edgi and Laylax but I amen't too bothered by them. At a certain point the improvements aren't quantified by the sometimes doubling of price Laylax can cost you.
Closing Points
So I hope you have enjoyed my guide and found it informative, I didn't make it exhaustive because I believe through my time reading, messaging people and just scouring the internet I have found what should work for me, and hopefully you.
When it comes to tactics, as I said Kicking Mustang provides brilliant Ghillie Crafting tips and tactical insight into what he does.
Personally, I would say carry 2 mages, the full 4 I got with my MB03 was entirely unnecessary and adds to the hassle you don't need. If it a super long game or your really bad like me carry a speedloader!
When sniping, you can take on many different roles, but understand your limitations. Although it seems smart to carry a full size M4 to make you a flexible player, remember: Jack of All Trades but Master of None! Whether you are scouting and giving information at MilSims, or covering objectives, do what this sniper is meant to do!
The human silhouette is easily distinguishable, along with dark colours/shadows in a outdoor setting, try and break out your should and gun outline as much as possible.
Some people like a sling, but as I said I found it impeded me moving, and further to this, although unlikely it may damage your sniper if you let it hand around whilst running.
Lastly, please just remember guys what we are doing here is great fun if we all stick to the rules of our sites and countries. Don't spoil it for everyone else by ignoring minimum engagement distances, FPS rules through dirty tricks and going for headshots unnecessarily!
Any feedback is welcome,
Tincan, or James.
