FAQ for Tokyo Marui Hi-Capa, 2011, 1911, MEU & Detonics type variants

[RJT]

Originally Posted by ILLusion

Glad to hear you got it sorted out. I personally always use upgraded hammer springs, as I've seen a problems locally with propane gas on stock hammer springs - particularly during the summer months.

Hmm, it has been 95 to 100 the past two weeks and with the stock hammer spring it shoots like a champ but with the upgrade not so much. Maybe NC USA heat is differnt than Canada heat..... lol

I really like my new build. What do you think??

[ILLusion]

Looks good!

[RJT]

Thanks Brian!! Not as nice as your stuff but I try....

[Ra1j1n]

Wow, it's been over a month and no one have posted any issues with their builds. I'm guessing no one's been messing with their setup enough!

I guess I'll be the first to break that...

I have a TM 4.3 with SD slide and alum lightweight BBU. When using the alum BBU, I'm getting inconsistent range. A series of BBs would shoot dead-on but there would be one that would shoot about 20 feet, and then it would shoot normal again.

I changed the BBU to the stock BBU, and that problems goes away, but now I'm not even able to lock the slide on the last shot. Not enough gas.

Question is: How can I improve gas efficiency while using the stock BBU?

Thanks guys!

[ILLusion]

Try tipping the muzzle towards the ground after every shot. I have a feeling that 1 in 20 shot got pushed past the hop up chamber and is rolling out the barrel. When you shoot it, it's already half way down the barrel, so it would have significantly less power to it.

Just an assumption... try it. See what happens

[Ra1j1n]

Originally Posted by ILLusion

Try tipping the muzzle towards the ground after every shot. I have a feeling that 1 in 20 shot got pushed past the hop up chamber and is rolling out the barrel. When you shoot it, it's already half way down the barrel, so it would have significantly less power to it.

Just an assumption... try it. See what happens

That is exactly what's happening! I would pop off about 8 rounds, and the 9th round would just roll off the barrel as I tip the muzzle towards the ground.

Have ideas on fixes?

Thanks!

[Slono]

Try cleaning your inner barrel and your hop up rubber. You may have overlubricated... its happened to me before.

Originally Posted by Ra1j1n

That is exactly what's happening! I would pop off about 8 rounds, and the 9th round would just roll off the barrel as I tip the muzzle towards the ground.

Have ideas on fixes?

Thanks!

[Ra1j1n]

I've switched each part of the slide assembly with a working gun, and it seems that it's the blowback unit that's giving me problems.

Don't get me wrong, before I switched out everything, cleaning out the barrel and hop-up was the first thing I did when I saw that it wasn't shooting consistently.

[ILLusion]

Originally Posted by Ra1j1n

That is exactly what's happening! I would pop off about 8 rounds, and the 9th round would just roll off the barrel as I tip the muzzle towards the ground.

Have ideas on fixes?

Thanks!

It's a pretty common problem I've seen with plastic slide Hi-Capa 4.3's. Essentially, what's happening, is the slide is cycling so fast, that when it chambers the next round, it actually does it so fast that the BB pops past the retention nub in the hop up bucking. If it's pushed past that nub, then nothing will hold the round in place and it starts to roll out of the barrel on its own.

Light weight blowback units are meant to specifically speed up the cycle rate, so it makes the problem worse. Installing shock buffers, enhanced recoil springs, or short stroking will all attribute to this problem at all.

The default Marui OEM hop up rubber is sticky enough to work for what it was meant to do, but when you start changing the specs, it just won't be able to keep up. Combine a bit of silicone oil in your gas, and the friction coefficient drops even more. Even after soaking the rubber in dish soap, scrubbing it, degreasing it, and trying again, it just doesn't seem to work well.

The best solution I've found is to upgrade to a stickier hop up rubber. I personally recommend the Nine Ball hop up rubber. Doing the swap has solved this problem in 100% of the scenarios I've seen this issue.

[MASAKO]

Hi there,

Hope somebody can help me out, the thumb safety on my TM 1911 MEU start to act weird, normally the safety can be on when the hammer is in cock position but right now it can be on even in normal position. I knew there must be something wrong inside but I can't seem to figure it out.

The pistol has been upgrade with NOVA LAPD SWAT CUSTOM II kit and the thumb safety is also nova. Thanks.

[ILLusion]

Originally Posted by MASAKO

Hi there,

Hope somebody can help me out, the thumb safety on my TM 1911 MEU start to act weird, normally the safety can be on when the hammer is in cock position but right now it can be on even in normal position. I knew there must be something wrong inside but I can't seem to figure it out.

The pistol has been upgrade with NOVA LAPD SWAT CUSTOM II kit and the thumb safety is also nova. Thanks.

Sounds like something is broken. Without seeing the parts, I can't tell you if there's anything wrong. Seeing the actual parts is the most definitive way of confirming whether anything is broken, and how.

[Slono]

Does anybody know how the PDI raven barrels stack up against the Nine Ball 6.03, Tanio Koba Twist and PDI 6.01 tightbore inner barrels? And if I cut my 5.1 tanio koba twist barrel to 4.3 specs, would that affect its performance? I noticed the barrel is slightly tapered at the end and if I cut it I would eliminate that tapering. What's the purpose of it anyway?

[ILLusion]

Direct from PDI themself:

Original barrel < 01Raven < PDI 01 (Cold Forged)

Additional information from PDI's own marketing literature comparing various bore sizes:

6.01mm
Muzzle Velocity: ***
Carry: *

6.04mm
Muzzle Velocity: **
Carry: **

6.05mm
Muzzle Velocity: **
Carry: **

6.08mm
Muzzle Velocity: *
Carry: ***

That should give you idea of the Nine Ball 03 vs the PDI 01.


I do NOT recommend cutting Tanio Koba Hop Twist barrels (they are 6.04mm bore) for a number of reasons. First, because it's ideal to replicate the crater cut at the tip. The purpose of the crater cut is to diffuse the projectile's exposure to the environment. The idea, is that with a flat cut, the BB will smack head on in to a wall of the outside atmosphere. Crater cuts diffuse this by gradually introducing the BB to the atmosphere, thus, stabilizing the flight path.

Unless you have a lathe, do not attempt doing a crater cut by hand or a crooked crown will pull a BB to one side.

The second reason why I don't recommend cutting Twist barrels, is because you'll not only need to debur the main edge that was cut, but you'll also need to figure out how to debur all of the grooves. That won't be an easy task.

[Slono]

What is the "carry"? Is that range?

[ILLusion]

Originally Posted by Slono

What is the "carry"? Is that range?

I believe so. My interpretation of it is range, as the 6.08 barrels are marketed as "for long shot" sniper setups.

I'm also not sure how all of this plays in to velocity vs groupings - I mean, I have no quantitative data to back anything up, but from what I understand, the tighter a bore gets, the more messed up groupings get (this is the claim made by Systema), and 6.03mm / 6.04mm has been found to be the perfect equilibrium between grouping increase and velocity increase. The theory, is that the tighter the bore gets, the more the BB is likely to bounce off the walls of the barrel, thus, imparting undesired trajectory effects.

I've never had the time or opportunity to collect good data on this, but it would be good to find out this information - collected in a tightly controlled environment. ie, bench shot, controlled (stabilized) power source, with consistent projectiles and done indoors.