TECH: BOLT ACTION UPGRADES

ALL THE JOYS OF SPRING!

WHEN IT COMES TO THE SUBJECT OF UPGRADING BOLT-ACTION RIFLES, THIS ARENA CAN BE JUST AS IN-DEPTH AND COMPLEX AS IT IS FOR UPGRADING AEG’S. THE PLETHORA OF OPTIONS, SYSTEMS, AND PLATFORMS AVAILABLE IS EXTENSIVE, AND IT’S EASY TO GET “LOST IN THE WOODS” TRYING TO FIGURE OUT YOUR AVENUE OF APPROACH, SO DAN SIMPLIFIES THINGS A LITTLE TO GIVE SOME POINTERS IN GETTING THE BEST “BANG FOR YOUR BUCK”!

Many owners fresh to the bolt-action life often become dismayed that their newly purchased rifle is not performing as expected, and in fact, many find themselves outgunned and outranged even by simple stock AEG’s. The cold, hard reality is that starting out your airsoft journey with a boltaction first often means that journey will end shortly thereafter and the “bolty” is quickly put up for sale at a loss.

While a stock rifle is certainly something one can skirmish with, it should be understood that very few commercially manufactured bolt-action rifles will actually be fully tuned from the factory or possess high quality parts that give them a leg up against their sewing machine competitors (AKA AEG’s). This is largely down to price-point and the simple fact that most manufacturers consider bolt-actions low on the totem pole of product offerings. Excluding some boutique custom shops, you will not find a major manufacturer touting a bolt gun as their ‘flagship’ product, as an example; when looking at it from a pricing tier, the majority of bolt guns can be purchased for around US$125–200, which doesn’t package something up with a lot of improvement in material quality or component design.

To properly evaluate stock bolt-actions in their proper context, one must look at it from the perspective that these are a simple chassis, or template, if you will, with parts as placeholders that you can upgrade at your personal discretion. You will have to spend some to get some with this class of rifles. Getting the most out of your bolt-action rifle will involve creating a plan of attack first and foremost; and here, the plan gets a little simpler than approaching an upgrade path with AEG’s…

SELECT YOUR PLATFORM

The first stop is to select the platform you’d like to start with. I often recommend thinking about the aesthetic style or design you like first because gun choice is often a very personal matter, then researching whether it has any upgrade options available for it. This latter aspect might influence your choice more than you’d like to admit, and may even omit some designs entirely due to lack of available upgrades and other pitfalls.

On an aside, I will caution that researching bolt guns can be a bit of a hurdle in and of itself too. There are fewer true subject matter experts on upgrading these, and often they are more specialized or concentrating on just one or two platforms that they know intimately. Perhaps as a side effect of the cost point at which most bolt-actions are priced at, this tends to generate a lot of low-quality information about how to upgrade them too. Quality information is harder to find and amongst “experts” there are unfortunately also more than a few “gatekeepers”. I’ve not found it to be nearly as tough a neighborhood as it is in the GBB world, but it’s definitely not as eminently accessible to the everyman as the AEG side is.

So when it comes to selecting a platform to settle on, you will doubtlessly notice a theme trending here with regard to aftermarket support. In the bolt-action world, the Tokyo Marui VSR design (and clones) reigns king for aftermarket upgrades, much like the Hi-Capa or Glock for GBB pistols, or the Ver. 2 M4 and Ver. 3 AK for AEG’s. Other designs, such as the L96, Ares Striker, KJW M700’s, and etc. typically have decent support, but will not have the same degree of customization available. More niche platforms like the A&K spring SVD or S&T Kar98k have even more limited upgrades; in this case, just one or two manufacturers produce any aftermarket parts for it. You can get even more obscure with shell-ejecting rifles or truly niche “partless monsters” (to quote my friend Mark Van Dyke) like the CheyTac M200 Intervention, as a notable example.

ACCURACY FIRST

Regardless of any other upgrade you can throw at the gun, the most noticeable and biggest performance upgrade you can immediately make is upgrading the hop up bucking and barrel. On the cheaper end, just swapping in a quality bucking can do wonders, and this should be the very first upgrade you pursue. As most bolt actions are quite easy to disassemble, this is also a quick and painless upgrade to install and only costs a few dollars at most.

Somewhat more technical to install, but paying big dividends in the range department is having an R-Hop installed. I would actually suggest doing this only after you have selected a higher quality barrel as there’s no sense in doing it twice.

As mentioned, an aftermarket barrel is a good second upgrade to consider if the budget allows for it. Here bore quality and internal finish level matters more than length, although length is an important factor to consider when it comes to properly voluming the bore. EdGi, PDI, and Lambda are among some of the best brands out there for producing straight barrels with high quality internal finishes.

Additional ‘icing on the cake’ would be in the form of upgraded hop up components or hop up

“QUALITY INFORMATION IS HARDER TO FIND AND AMONGST “EXPERTS” THERE ARE UNFORTUNATELY ALSO MORE THAN A FEW “GATEKEEPERS”. I’VE NOT FOUND IT TO BE NEARLY AS TOUGH A NEIGHBORHOOD AS IT IS IN THE GBB WORLD, BUT IT’S DEFINITELY NOT AS EMINENTLY ACCESSIBLE TO THE EVERYMAN AS THE AEG SIDE IS.”

chamber. A lot of aftermarket companies make these for most of the major platforms, and the designs can differ from something as simple as an improved hop up arm design, to full CNC hop up chambers.

Generally speaking, I suggest looking for something that offers more precise movement and a bonus is if it allows for a true top down center hop up arm, which is absolutely ideal for R-Hops or even conventional buckings.

One worthwhile upgrade is an externally adjustable hop up adjustment. This usually takes the form of a wheel that you can adjust by hand, but saves the hassle of always having to carry an Allen key (that conveniently seems to always wander off!) to adjust the hop via traditional means.

THE OS

Once you’ve got the main component of your accuracy side handled, now it’s time to consider what operating system (OS) you want to run. There is something to be said for simply running the gun up until something dies, then upgrading. That way you get more value for your buck. But whether you decide to upgrade now or later on, you will have to eventually decide whether you wish to run it in its native design, which will generally be either springpowered or gas, or make the switch to HPA or CO2.

There are some pros and cons for either pathway. Spring-powered upgrades are generally a lot lower in cost and relatively reliable, though some parts such as improved sears, trigger packs, pistons and cylinders, etc. can certainly start creeping up the expense sheet. Many of these parts primarily address design deficits and provide more durable components. Chiefly among these will be sears, which is a rather common component to break on stock bolt-actions. Incidentally, this is often the first part that will break

on a stock rifle too, so this is one of those parts that should be on high your upgrade list if you intend to keep the gun spring-powered.

Cylinders and cylinder kits is another area where you can get some more improvement. Some of these are simple polished steel affairs, and others use special plating’s or Teflon finishes, with the aim of reducing the amount of friction when the piston is drawn back. Other designs can also slightly increase the amount of air volume possible.

Most spring powered guns will typically chrono around 1.5J / 400 FPS, which is typical for fresh out of the box guns, but may be too high for some sites in Europe or elsewhere. Often, upgrading the main spring is done out of necessity to meet field limits or to put the rifle into a new class bracket, such as ‘sniper’ class. In the US, as an example, most boltaction rifles can shoot as high as 2.7J / 550 FPS, with a rare few being as high as 600 – 650 FPS. Keep in mind here that when you increase the spring weight, you also increase the amount of stress imparted on the sear and trigger components. Hence, these two upgrades often go hand-in-hand.

One of the downsides to spring-powered setups is the draw weight of the bolt handle. Unlike real steel bolt-actions, which have no rearward resistance, you do have this on spring-powered airsoft bolt guns by virtue of having to cock back the spring for every shot. As mentioned, there are cylinder designs and

other assorted improvements one can make to reduce the effort of this. Just remember, the heavier the spring you use, the more strength will be required to pull back the handle. Conversely, decreasing spring strength will reduce stress on the sear and trigger components, while also decreasing the amount of effort required pulling the bolt back.

HPA systems (as detailed by fellow tech Jimmy in this issue), and by extension CO2, get up there in cost as it represents a larger financial investment right out of the gate. If you’re not doing an on-board air supply or CO2 cartridge holder, then you will need to also purchase an air line and tank too. Some may not like the added weight this represents, nor necessarily enjoy being tethered to a tank for that matter.

Another con is some HPA systems require a battery to power the solenoid, which may be a detractor for someone seeking a simpler system, as this also requires a battery charger too. Most HPA powered systems are truly fully mechanical and do not require a battery or FCU such as is used when converting an AEG to HPA. On the positive side, HPA and CO2 systems completely eliminate the heavy pull weight variable of the bolt handle. Some unique designs and modifications even dramatically reduce the amount of distance required to pull the handle so it’s down to just the 6mm of distance required to seat a fresh BB. On the whole, one can more quickly operate the bolt on air-powered setups easier than they can on a spring gun. It’s almost like cheating!

HPA systems in particular are also easier to fine-tune the Joule / FPS output on as this is usually controlled off the regulator which is accessed from outside the gun. This can save a lot of time vs. the spring-action build, which will require disassembly every time to change spring weights.

IT’S ALL ABOUT AESTHETICS

Once you’ve settled on which system you want to use and have sorted out the internals to your liking, then comes the fun part of dressing up the exterior!

Naturally, the first stop is to top your rifle off with a bipod and good optic, another matter discussed elsewhere in this issue. There are a myriad of options and price ranges from the budget to the “spared no expense” to consider. For airsoft ranges, I would normally suggest a variable magnification scope to give you some options with your viewing distances; you don’t typically need much more than 4x power due to the ranges we normally encounter, but some highly specialized setups will benefit from increasing this.

Many platforms allow for the fitment of aftermarket stocks, external barrel lengths, mock suppressors, bolt handles, trigger shoes, and all manner of greebling. Most of these don’t really provide any performance enhancements, but do serve to make your rifle more bespoke.

Obviously, as with any aspect of airsoft, hobbies or otherwise, you can certainly sink a lot of money into your bolt-action. It’s good to approach it with a plan and a budget in mind, but also be willing to flex your budget and expectations as things evolve. A well tuned bolt-action is an absolute delight to use on the field, and represents a more unique challenge and style of play that’s quite unlike what you typically encounter. For someone looking to broaden his or her horizons a bit or try something new, I definitely recommend looking into it!

Many thanks to our good friends over at Airsoft & Milsim News for helping us out with additional images to support this article; you can find their full review of the Modify M24 at https://airsoft-milsim-news.com/ review-modify-mod24-sniper. AA