is it worth the money?

[rileysault]

I have just purchased a tm hicapa 5.1 and was planning on doing some upgrades.

Shooters Design Metal Piston Head Set
NINE BALL Hi-Speed Recoil Spring
NINE BALL Hammer Spring
NINE BALL 6.03mm Inner Barrel
NINE BALL Magazine Valve
PGC metal slide

This is all going to come at a hefty price. I was curious as to how good the high flo valves are? do they substantially improve performance? Also does the tightbore improve the accuracy and fps by a ligitament amount? How does the PGC slide fit? is it too tight requiring modding, or to loose? Also how do the NINE BALL parts compare to their Guarder conterparts? Is the extra cost worth it?


Sorry for asking all these questions but it would be a major bummer to spend all that money and not see a durastic improvement in performance.

[vondnik]

just change the piston cup so you don`t have a o-ring problem. Use the hell out of the gun until the plastic slide breaks..(been 1 year of heavy use and still going strong) When it breaks then upgrade to a metal slide and a enhanced recoil spring, mabie the hammer spring while your at it...Hi flow valves... well....since I can cycle the gun faster than it can shoot without any problems and the FPS is stable around 300 there realy is no need for them unless you like spending money. IMO they are only usefull on full auto guns...No other upgrade are realy usefull IMO

[Oz]

The PGC slides are great in my expirence, fit is VERY tight to the frame but only takes some 'working in' to get it cycling properly. I dout the nineball springs are worth the price compared to the guarder set. The guarder springs are doing great in my hicapa. As for a piston head, STAY AWAY from the TK one... its a piece of shit, sence that one blew on me the stock one has been working fine. The barrel is on my wish list but tight bore barrels are highly debated, some love em some hate em. As for the mag valves... I wouldnt bother the proformance is great without them and at $40+ a mag they add up. They also increase your gas consumption. The only other upgrade I would suggest is a few of those after market mag lips. I have two out of three mags down because the lips snapped...

[ILLusion]

My recommendations:

Skip the Nine ball recoil and hammer spring - the Guarder ones are stronger

the inner barrel = good, but I find the tanio koba twist barrel to perform better. Any tightbore will definitely tighten up your groupings and improve your velocity consistency.

the nine ball magazine valve works, but isn't worth all the money. Guarder ones perform better for less money.


PGC metal slides are hit and miss. You may be able to just drop it on with minimal modifications required, or it may require heavy modification. Hard to say.


This is coming from a die-hard hi-capa user and have run through almost every part available.

[Shinjin_MC]

hey illusion
what is the range and accuracy like for mid-longer ranged shots (~70-100+ft) with the TK twist barrel?
i thought the twist barrel was like that old cyclone system on MGCs?

[ILLusion]

uhh... far and very accurate? Not sure how you want me to answer that question. i don't have any empirical evidence to back my claims, that's just judging from shooting a distance at no particular target compared to my other Hi-capa that only has a standard length 6.03mm Prometheus inner barrel.

It IS like the old cyclone system, but mixed with hop-up, it works wonders. I was actually surprised at how well it worked... more surprisingly, the higher up you crank your hop up, the greater your range - and it shoots incredibly straight for the entire range. It doesn't hook upwards, it doesn't do any hard spiralling or anything weird like that. I'm really impressed with it's performance and would like to test out an AEG version.

[Jim]

Gyroscopic effect

[rileysault]

Thanks for the info guys!

[Oz]

I've heard of issues with the TK twist barrels in their VP-70. When your velocity drops due to cool down the bbs start to spiral out of controol. Any expirence with this Illusion?