Hop up adjustment, how do you guys do it?
 

Again..I came here with questions. Sorry.
I feel like I had been asking way to many stupid questions, this kind of question should be answered long ago. However, I used the forum search and google and turned up with nothing useful.

Everywhere people would say adjust your hop up to get a more accurate shot. But how do you guys adjust it? What I mean is that you are obviously required to have a large field to do the "shoot & adjust" method. I tried to do it at the field, but I don't really know where the BB lands. I can see where it curves down sort of, but I don't know my adjustments are making it curve earlier or later..I can't really tell.

At home there is no way to adjust the hop up. My back yard certainly isn't big enough for the bb to even curve before hitting a wall. Same with panther's little "shooting range", it's just way too short. Has to adjust it during a game, and that doesn't help the fact I'm engaging the enemy player while taking note where to adjust next..

How do you guys do it?

You have to look where it's going then adjust. Usually you want it to travel as straight and far as possible, maybe with a slight upwards movement at the end before dropping.

Also you should be using white BB's, in the bright daylight. If you can't tell, shoot against a dark background.

Panther's range is ~220ft so you should be able to zero your gun pretty easily, unless you're using that tiny indoor one the rentals and paintballers seem to use. If that's the case, use the one by the parking lot the regulars use, any one of the guys there will help you out if you need it.

Get someone to spot for you while you shoot, helps out. There's a tiny diamond plate at the end of the range I aim to hit consistently w/ my G3 before I'm happy w/ the hop up setting.

Oh..wtf god damn I didn't know there is somewhere to do this near the parking lot..I just saw a bunch of airsoft people carrying a mortar test launching a nerf rocket near there..

I use to play paintball there, so I assumed to use that little range to test fire..
Thanks for that info..adjustment during a game is too painful..

Always wondered why I get blasted long range, but short/mid range I can take out multiple enemies since hopup has almost no effect. I run a P90 now, so I try to close the gap as much as possible, but there are gamemodes that requires me to engage long range targets. Yesterday a guy shot 20+ rounds full auto into a hole about a persons hand size from farrr away with an AEG..

Lol, yeah whole line of plates there spaced 50ft apart I think, pretty much for airsoft use only I think. Try for the 150ft plate w/ the P90, would be a good range to zero at.

Oh and just an FYI, eyepro and barrel condom rules apply for that range, and ceasefires when people are walking along the path next to it.

if you want high degree of accuracy and precision at farther ranges you need to use heavier BBs. The trade off is the velocity of your round, but at the end of the flight path, it's carrying more speed because it's heavier so you make up for it there. A heavier round will be less prone to being blown by a breeze or mousefarts, also more likely to not have air bubbles that throw off the balance as it spins through the air.

A lighter bb doesn't carry as much momentum so air resistance will slow it down much faster than a heavier round.

If you have trouble seeing the bb, try shooting it at different backgrounds. Depending on the lighting, you may be able to see it better shooting at dark areas or maybe more open, brighter areas. As someone has said, white bb's usually show up best on a good sunny day.

If you STILL couldn't see it... get glasses? :p

Yeah, I use a .25 BB..and currently at 250ish fps with that .25. I don't think I should make the BB any heavier..And during the game it's shooting really straight as in it doesn't shift to the left and right much but wind does play a heavy factor.

I have to put a ACOG on my P90 to be able to sight because my lower mask just won't let me iron sight. It looks really funny

Yeah, Will do!

Glasses won't help. My eye sight is pretty good. And we use white BBs..
It was a rainy day tho. Sometimes I can see it, Sometimes I can't. It's hard to see where exactly it curves because it's flying straight when I'm looking through my ACOG, I can see it curves, just don't know where.

I'd probably get a friend to stand on the side when I'm adjusting

There's your problem. You're getting out ranged because you don't have enough energy to get the BBs out that far. Is there a particular reason you're using such a light spring?


guys with closer to 1.48J will out range you hands down because their muzzle energy can carry their ammo out farther. .25 is probably as stable as you'll get with a 1J gun, but you're at a pretty significant disadvantage.

Up the spring strength and adjust until you have the flattest trajectory possible.

Get a friend who has a spotting scope, or even just any form of magnified optics really, to sit with you at the range to spot you while you fire and adjust. He or she can tell you if it's staying flat, dropping short, has a hump in the flight path, etc better than you can tell without magnified optics.

If you have an 4x ACOG you should have no issues doing this yourself though.. that is unless you are one of those freaks with an ACOG red dot sight... O_o

I didn't understand why you kept saying you couldn't see "where" it curved (by which I assume you mean drop or hop), then I looked at these charts and realize you probably can't see the hop created due to the bb's characteristic at your low muzzle energy.

http://mackila.com/airsoft/atp/images/07-a-020.gif
From: http://mackila.com/airsoft/atp/07-a-02.htm

When I adjust my hop, I just look for that little hump or hop that occurs just around the point when the bb starts to drop dramatically. I'm not really looking at "where" it's happening, but rather I'm looking to see if that hump or hop exists. (Look at the green line.)

I would first do what everyone else says and improve your fps first, then go from there.

Find a tree on the field. The dark backround will contrast the white BB.

Do not look through the optic. Shoulder the weapon and aim at the tree but raise your head when shooting and loop ever the sights.

If you have a bright light you can use that in dim light to make the shots seem to light up. Or you can go out in the dark with a tracer unit and glow BBs and become familiar with the way BBs fly.

^ This. Why are you shooting at ~280fps for a outdoor/field gun?

no idea, the guy who sold me this, told me he got mark(the gun doc) to install a M120 spring..But even the stock spring would shoot 380fps according to youtube videos, so its changed?

I don't really believe him after I shot it into a chrono at the field a few days after(paintball chrono should be the same as airsoft one eh?)

I was okay with lower spring just because of I do plan on playing indoor games, and that one has a rule of 330 max fps..so low.

I don't want to open the gearbox since I don't know anything about it. And it's a CA P90 so changing the spring would require opening the gearbox. (of course someone could scam me cause I don't know the internals)

There's no way there's a M120 spring in that gun shooting 280, unless there's some significant airseal problems or other issues.

A PB chronie is ok in a pinch but a proper airsoft one will be more accurate.

The P90 uses a v6 mechbox, which honestly is one of the easiest mechboxes to work on in existence. It's also really easy to get the mechbox out of a P90. Worth giving it a try, as long as you take your time, watch some vids, etc.