j5689
So it's sort of like how rifling works on real guns?
Also, how come none of my friends actually use it on their guns? It is always set to normal instead of hop-up.
Actually, it doesn't really have anything to do with rifling. That's what a tightbore barrel somewhat does. In a tightbore, it causes the bb to bounce around less wildly as it travels down the barrel. There's also the Tanio Kobia reverse rifling barrel which the rifling is actually recessed grooves with a twist so the air pushes the BB into a gyroscopic spin when used in conjunction with hop-up. A real rifling has grooves sticking out to grab the bullet and force it into a twist, which causes the marks on bullets that you see on CSI and the like. I saw a test where it didn't do really anything at close ranges (20 feet or so), but helped improve the grouping (which really defines a gun's accuracy since sights can be adjusted) in longer ranges (about 60-80 feet I think).
As for a definition of hop-up, exploding-waffles has how it works down, but not really as to why. Time for a little science lesson for those that are interested.
The system applies the pressure on the top of the bb as it's fired, and creates backspin. This causes the bb to gain lift and fly further. It's possible due to Bernoulli's principle, which explains why an airfoil allows by it's shape and design, is able to create lift. (faster air, lower air pressure) It's like a golf ball with little divits being able to fly further than one without, or a baseball, if thrown with a forward spin, will drop down low (in this case, it's sort of a reverse hop-up because the lower pressure is under the ball).
Science lesson over.
It's all about adjusting the hop-up to the proper level. You want it to travel with as straight and flat a path as you can manage before gravity takes over and it drops down. Too much, and it'll climb creating a hill shape at the end. Too little, and you won't get the full benefit. It takes some trial and error, much like adjusting sights.
The reason some people don't use them can be a couple reasons: 1) They're lazy. 2) They won't be using it at the gun's maximum range and be dealing with CQB scenarios. 3) They choose not to use it because of the trade off by using hop-up: By gaining a higher range, you sacrifice some accuracy due to the unpredictability of how effective the hop-up will be on every single bb. There will be an extremely slight variation with each one and how well it performs. However, in these cases, most would just get a gun that doesn't even have any hop-up.
Reply
