Systema PTW, in game spring swap?
 

I've always pondered if the ptw would be a good purchase. Then i looked and said its pretty much all the same, but I always find myself modding the internals and spending quite some time and money invested in a particular gun. And also at times in the field i wish i had a variable spring inside so i could reach out and knock that person 150ft away. So i thought hey if i could do this in the field quickly under 5 seconds and have an optimum gun, then MAYBE the systema would be a fine buy.

So really my question is for example I go into a game with the 400fps (dont know what colour yet) could i switch springs for further distant shots only, lets say the 500fps spring, and then replace it back with the 400fps spring for normal schrim?

Hop-up takes time to adjust and mosts fields in Canada won't let you shoot 500 fps. Swap is quick though (~10 seconds or so if the cylinders are handy).

(sorry for all the editing... comp at work is fucking with me)

well, i dont own one yet so take my opinion for what its worth, but that is the reason im buying one... cept the other way around (400-300) but its fairly easy to swap, push bidy pin out, split body, pull charging handle remove cylinder assy, insert new cylinder assy, close and secure body. should take 30 sec maybe less with practice.

Again, the hopup is the biggest problem. It'll take at least a minute or two to set properly, and it's completely unfeasible to perform while in-game.

Maybe a 2nd complete upper would be better.

Two pins and your done right?

Have a CQR with a M90 and a M16 upper with a M130.

Expensive.

I guess that feature i was hoping it would have, would have me buying one...

the guys on youtube do it so quickly i would think that it was done in like than 15 seconds lol.

Well are there any other nifty things i might not know about this?

i think you can swap the hopup and the mechbox in an inokatsu aeg. though there not exactly portable or good for sniping. m60's are great though i wish i had 2000+ dollars.

...Why would you need to change the spring in a game...?
Between games I can understand, CQB to outdoors, but for the same price as a PTW you could buy two guns anyway lol

I was considering this for games at the LZ in Ottawa, when entering the CQB areas you're supposed to use a sidearm but I thought I could swap springs and it wouldn't really matter if the hopup was off a bit or even a lot since its CQB. Its just too much bother though and if you have to exit quickly you're screwed.

On another note I don't know what its like in your area but in Ottawa if you are caught swapping springs in the field (STAR guns, CA249, ICS, PTW, etc.) you are pretty screwed and assumed to be blatantly cheating. One thing I have heard people doing in the states (haven't heard of it in Canada yet) is people set the hopup and all that for their 550fps red M150 cylinder and pop in the 390fps blue M110 cylinder for chrony at game start then swap in the field.

Honestly, I bought the PTW for performance and reliability, not the quick swap spring feature. Is nice to have it though, turned my PTW from field gun at 390fps (blue M110 cylinder) to 340fps (black M90 cylinder) for the indoor game at the Mill this weekend in Quebec in 15 minutes (including hopup adjustment, cylinder swap can be done in under 10 seconds with practice.)

I can reach out and knock off guys over 150ft away with my MP5 which is shooting 365fps. Maybe heavier ammo is what you should be looking at?

I read that alot of people are just swapping the complete uppers, I am in the middle of this process....just waiting for parts here and there...

can i swap the forward handguards for a CQBR rail system?

With a Systema, people usualy swap the upper. THey will have different configuration (aka CQB, RIS, Sniper, etc).

So basically you have a PTW gun, with the CQB upper you stick the M90 in it. With a 'normal' upper and for example a Daniel Defense frontguard you can use the M110 to stay legal. If you want a sniper, you would block the PTW so it only shoots semi and stick a M130 in it with a 'sniper upper'. Get the picture?

Ronan, the upper stays the same no matter what, it's the cylinder assembly that gets swapped out.

If you pop the front pin you can remove the entire upper/front end and replace it. I was considering this as you can get a spare upper from ThePirate! for ~$200 I think it was and a barrel set, then snag a real steel free floating RIS off eBay and you have a fully functional second upper. I was going to make an SPR upper for my CQB-R but then Macgyver enlightened me to the fact that MAX generation M16 length rifles only have M4 length barrels. I am now considering an M4A1 with M203 though as my second upper if I can get the cash together though more than likely I will just build another AEG for that cost.

Ah yes, he's talking about upper swaps for barrel length, thought he was talking about fps changes (read it quickly). My bad, carry on.

What? You guys have to adjust your hop-up when you change cylinders?

I have swapped cylinders dozens upon dozens of times, and I haven't touched my hop-up since spring when I first got them. The guns still shoot the same as they always have, and cylinder velocity change makes no difference. Perhaps there's some excessive maintenance being done.

I'm totally amazed at all the useless info, conjecture and supposition posted above. Buy the gun, buy the cylinders. You can even buy uppers to give your gun a "different" look, but it really won't make any difference in performance. And who wants to drop $1000 on a gun just for the esthetics? Come on, guys!!

Hmmm...strange. Mine came set perfectly for .25's with my M110 but when I swapped to my M130 the BB's went high, had to turn the hopup down a little. Strange thing is the same thing happened with my M90 even though it was a lower velocity the BB's still went too high.

Well there's a clue right there, If your gun is factory assembled, it is set with Systema 0.20g BBs. Perhaps you should try a different BB. I use Metal Tech 0.25g exclusively, no hop-up adjustments, no changes in flightpath (other than distance) with all cylinders (and I have them all).

With a kit, you can get hop-up related problems that are 100% due to gun assembly (I'll give you a hint: stock tube), that can cause all manner of performance issues.

+1 to that. If you're chronying at some certain FPS, and then you change your spring after the chrony, that's defnitely a no-no. It's cheating and going around the rules. If you chrony with both cylinders and they both pass, then that's fine.

I use metal tech .25's as well. First time I ever fired a BB through it was with the M110 cylinder and MT .25's and it had a perfect hopup setting. Then when I used either the M130 or M90 cylinders I had to dial down the hopup. I have no problems with my gun other than I need to swap the hopup settings for each velocity even when using the same BB's. This is the exact same thing that happened with my STAR L85 with quick change spring and people I know who use CA249's. Change in velocity changes how the hopup effects the BB, at least as far as I have seen.

theres a quick way to change the spring on the l85!?

Quicker than most AEG's, don't need to take the mechbox apart. You take the two screws out of the stock plate, take the plate off, and pop out the spring guide. Takes ~5 minutes.

I might agree with you on your comaprison to the L85, however, the hop-up system in the PTW is so radically different, you can't expect similar performance in generating backspin between the 2 guns.

I don't change my hop-up settings at all. What is so different about my guns?

Mine are factory assembled.
I regularily clean the barrel, and have used silicone oil once this year.
I maintain my cylinders prior to nozzle o-ring failure.
My receivers are so hard to open, you need to whack the stock hard enough to hurt your hand sometimes.
All of my mags feed flawlessly, including an old Gen 1 mag in a MAX gun.

If yours has all these traits, you should not need to adjust the hop-up at all once it's been set, regardless of cylinder. Hell, I don't even take the hex driver with me when I go to a game most of the time.

uhm not really. I was wondering if my front handguard will fit the top reciever of the systema body. I'm obviously going to keep everything stock except the asthetics. C'mon who likes the origional handguard, theres no taste to it!

oh btw, the handguard i want to put on is the King arms free floating RAS kit.

Get an armourer's wrench or barrel nut "key" wrench (if you get a factory assembled gun).

Hmmm...my receiver definitely isn't that hard to open. You need to smack it but not hard enough to hurt yourself. I'll tighten that up with some more shims and try it again.

the CQBR you need a wring to take it off? i thought you just turn the D ring?