Air flow , exiting gel ball

Hi , I think I was reading in the old GBF site , about gell ball exiting barrel and the air around it effecting accuracy, and about ie , a suppressor or silencer steadying the air around the gell giving a steadying effect, can any one enlighten me wether this is true.

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Not really, I say the only reason to use a suppressor is to cover up hop up and make it sound goooooooood, it’s really up to your cylinder and barrel volume to decide the accuracy fps and what not plus the stabilization of your barrel

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Hi @Clyde ,
Yea I had quite a few posts on the old GBF regarding my research and testing on the effects of airflow transition on gels exiting barrels :+1:

My research was done on real steel designs, but also other areas of air flow/pressure and turbulence.

Real steel is different in that there’s a lot of explosive energy and gasses to control, whereas Gel Blasters are actually only “displacing” air from a cylinder and through a tube.

Different in many ways, but still applicable in the way turbulence can be controlled/minimised at the end of the barrel to allow the gel the best possible smooth path to achieve better performance.

Unfortunately I don’t have any pics or information that was lost when the old forum shut down, but I will endeavour to try and explain in further detail in a follow up post as to what I found gave me the best results for different powered blasters :+1:

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I don’t think so, they are more an easy way to conceal a hopup, which is where the accuracy is actually coming from. You do want any excess air to disperse as much as possible, and any suppress is large enough to do that.

Main ways to achieve consistency (accuracy) and the order I do them are:

Voluming. Match barrel and cylinder and you have less turbulent air as the gel exits the barrel. You do want a good airseal for this to work well, as the main aim is to improve consistency and have the correct amount or air behind the gel every time.

Barrel stabilisation: remove any movement the inner barrel has, and make the outer as stiff and free from movement as you can. There is a variety of ways to do this, doing it will so people can’t see you have done it is where the real challenge is.

Gels. Use good quality gels, grown consistently, and use gels that suit your blaster. Surprisingly, most people don’t need to use ultra hard gels, and if you can use something softer you will have less issues with jams, accuracy, and fps deviation.

Hopup. So you have done all the above, now add a hopup and tune it. If you are playing cqb, and have done the above well, you probably don’t need a hopup as the steering of the gel due to it spinning is more for beyond 5-10m. Outdoors, you will definitely want one. Tuning a hopup can be tedious, I generally wind it on agressively until you start skying gels, then back it off until it is almost flat, with a preference to slightly lift before the energy is lost and the gel falls. Mainly as a slightly smaller gel will still get some hop and go pretty straight, but a larger gel will lift more, either way though, it will travel relatively true on the vertical axis. For these reasons, I find that a bit too much hop is better than just not enough. Playstyle and taste play into this too, so everyone is a bit different. You will be going for consistency, as not every gel is perfect. I use a 1m target at 32m, if I can hit it that is my minimum requirement for an outdoor blaster. It has a smaller target around 30cm diameter, if I can hit it with a short burst of auto at least once out of a 5-10 round squirt/single auto trigger pull, I am very happy.

I have an obsession with hiding the hopup in a flash hider or muzzle brake, as suppressors’ noise and look are too common, and not for me, and I try to build different. This approach usually requires more effort and often expense to get it right, it does mean that after many builds I have spare outer barrels, hopups, and muzzles, so there is that bonus. Basically, it is an aesthetic and auditory choice. I prefer the raw crack then the hollow pop, and just like the way a brake looks, so tend to choose that.

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Not that hard to fit a hop up in a flash hider, done it to a few of mine. Measure twice, buy once. :+1:

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Depends on the flash hider! Some are easy. It’s more concealing it with some that is fun.

It’s the only way I instal hopups.
It’s mandatory that I can fit it inside the flash hider. Even better just inside the outer barrel.
One of the things I loved with the new GE was the hop up was installed just inside the outer barrel.

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That was the great thing with those CYMA hop ups, their size enabled them to fit inside pretty much anything and performed really well for such a small and simple unit :ok_hand:

Hey @RokSolid , great reply and advice :+1:
I failed to mention that my research on air turbulence was something that I was looking into after all the mods you mentioned had already been done.

Was taking it as the next level/last step to see if there was even further improvements to be gained mucking around and testing different types of muzzle breaks for smoother air control, not so much with suppressors though that I found :thinking:

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My biggest frustration with my Guns Modify MWS is the outer barrel has an ID just under 10mm. No current adjustable hop up fits inside the outer barrel. I have had to construct a replica of the Poseidon barrel (but with a 7.5mm ID because 7.3mm ID barrels are rubbish and butcher accuracy) and even then devise a non permanent but stable way of adjusting hop up.

To get back to the OP though I have found some differences between running with supps and without generally in favour of the supp installed. So there could be some weight to this theory. The difference is not enough to dictate me run a supp when I prefer not to but I have noticed it. This includes thread on supps such as for my Sig MCX and also QR supps such as my Rotex and Surefire Socom.

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My most accurate blaster has a DK hopup squeezed into a cherry bomb flash hider, which I have a suppressor that can screw onto the flash hider. I have not noticed any difference other than aesthetic.

Other than that example, I usually use the suppressor as a sort of inner barrel extension, and locate the hopup nearly at the end of the suppressor with the inner barrel extending through the suppressor, all in the name of keeping things as compact and practical as possible. I personally don’t like having extra length (gigity) if I am not making any use of it. The main bonus to putting a hopup inside a suppressor is that if you know the front end of the blaster the hopup and inner barrel is protected from mishaps.

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