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General Information

Jing Gong BAR-10 M700 Sniper Rifle
By the Crimson Falcon

This review also appears in its original form on Airsoft Sniper Guides and Reviews. It is the property of ASR and ASGAR, and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without prior approval. Without further ado, let's take a look at this new rifle:

For those of you interested in the ACM sniper rifle releases, Jing Gong has released the hottest rifle yet, the BAR-10. Here's a beauty shot for those that like to know what they're looking at:




I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of mine, and much waiting and pacing around my apartment, the gun finally arrived. Since I ordered from Nachosdesign2 on Airsoft Retreat, it didn't come with a box or anything.

Alright, lets get to the meat of the review. For clarity's sake, I'll give you a brief table of contents for what I'll be talking about:


Table of Contents


First Impressions
Real Steel History
Appearance
Feel
Build Quality/Disassembly Guide
Function
Performance
Accessories and Modifications
Aftermarket Upgrades
Pros & Cons
Ordering
The Final Word

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First Impressions

Okay, so now that I've got my hands on my package, it's time to see what I've got here. I rip off the bubblewrap, literally shredding it in my excitement to finally get at this gun. JG has proven themselves a serious contender with their AEG line, and I've been hoping that with their past history of building great AEG's, that they'll do a solid job on their first sniper rifle release. As I get the final layers peeled off, I begin to realize that I'm probably not going to be disappointed. Although the safety switch has snapped off during travel, (perhaps because it didn't come in a box), the barrel assembly looks solid, and the stock is gorgeous; it doesn't look or feel like any old rifle stock. More on this later... Upon putting the pieces together, using a quick application of elbow grease and a Torx (Allen) wrench, I've got myself one of the most beautiful ACM's I've seen yet. The barrel assembly fits a bit tightly, and I suggest you place a piece of duct tape over the end of the spring on the mag release, since it's prone to fall out, but overall it fits together snugly. Here's a shot of the assembled rifle:




Real Steel History



The appearance of this rifle is very similar to the Remington M700, with paddle style cocking handle. One thing you'll notice is that the cocking handle looks a bit different from the VSR-10 cocking handle; it's more textured, and a lot more like the M700 handle. Here's a picture of the cocking handle:



world.guns.ru tells us the following about the M700:

"This rifle traces its ancestry back to the British P14/US model 1917 Enfield. Starting with model 700BDL action, Remington adds a stainless-steel barrel and a carbon-fiber stock, then tunes the rifle for one-minute-of-angle accuracy using match grade ammo. This rifle design was (and is) a basis for many custom build tactical sniper rifles. The USMC (Marine Corps) was among the first to make model 700 action the basis for a precision sniper rifle. The original USMC M40 bolt-action sniper rifle used in Vietnam and into the late 1970s was built on a Remington Model 700BDL action. In fact, today's M40A1s are still being rebuilt on these same actions. Lather, when the US Army decided to switch from a semi-automatic to a bolt-action rifle, the Remington Model 700 action was chosen for the M24."--From world.guns.ru

If you want to learn more about this great gun, visit the link above, or visit Wikipedia.


Appearance

The appearance of this gun is amazing. It boasts several nice features, including a tapered outer barrel, and the finish is excellent. There are no obvious seam lines, and for those of you that like the tactical look of a black bolt-action rifle, this one will not disappoint. There is only one trademark on the gun, which says "Made by J.G. Works." Here's a photo of that:



And here's a shot of the tapered outer barrel.



It also boasts some swing swivel studs (which means you can mount any swing swivel stud bipod) which are very sturdy. It does not come with any easy way to mount a sling out of the box, however. The studs are metal, not the plastic that some USR-11 owners have noted. Here's some pictures of the studs:




The rear buttpad is rubber, feels very nice, and is removable, to reveal a little compartment for storing things, or if you should so desire, for adding weight to your gun to give it a more realistic weight. Here's a shot of the buttpad removed:



And a picture of the compartment:



The barrel assembly is very clean looking, with no paint chips, and looks very professional. As usual, JG has done a superb job with the appearance of the gun.


Feel

The feel of the gun really impressed me. The stock has a nice satiny finish, which feels absolutely superb. This rifle feels like no other ACM sniper rifle (and, in my opinion, even rivals or beats most high-end sniper rifles). It is a nice touch, since it doesn't really feel like plastic any more. Here's a shot of the stock:



Most of the parts are made out of metal, including a metal trigger:



This particular rendition comes with a removable rear sight, although there's a version with a scope mount. It is compatible with a VSR-10 scope mount, or with the MP001 scope mount. I actually swapped the mounts with my MP001, so the following pictures of the rear sight are on the MP001. But that's the BAR-10 rear sight...




But how well is it built, and what do the internals look like? I know you're all dying to know...


Build Quality/Disassembly Guide

Let me begin by saying that this gun feels very solid. It doesn't have the same toy-like feel that the MP001 has, although that might be because the stock feels better, and the slightly larger grip just feels better. It's still fairly light, although that's true of the VSR-10 and USR-11 as well, and can be easily fixed by weighting the stock. The construction is either very solid plastic or metal, and the parts that take a lot of stress, like the hopup parts (including the hopup adjustment switch, cylinder, sears, etc) are all steel, although the safety switch is potmetal. I'm definitely pleased that the trigger is metal, although the trigger guard is not.

Finally, lets take a look at the magazines. I want to note that the magazine is VSR-10 compatible. I've tested the VSR-10 mags, and they fit fine, although they're a bit of a tighter fit, and they also feed perfectly well. I suggest sanding the back a bit, otherwise they don't come out easily. USR-11 and MP001 mags will fit also. The magazine has a 30 round capacity. Here's a picture of the magazine with the VSR-10 magazine below it:




Okay, time to open her up. You're going to need a small Phillips screwdriver and a 2.5 metric Torx wrench.

First, we are going to remove the two Torx screws that hold the stock and barrel assembly together. Here's a shot of the screws:



And here's a shot of the pieces separated:



Now that we have the two pieces apart, we need to use the Phillips screwdriver to remove the screw on the bottom of the barrel assembly, so we can separate the bolt assembly and the barrel. After you get that screwed off, the barrel itself is screwed in. No slipping around like the M324 or MP001. This is a really nice touch. Here's the barrel removed:



And a picture of the bolt assembly:



And a closeup of the trigger mech:



Before we turn to disassemble the barrel, we should look at the cylinder, and find out if it is openable. Happily, it is indeed openable, just like the VSR, which means that the BAR-10 is upgradeable as well. Since the trigger mech is compatible with the VSR-10 as well, that means it's FULLY upgradeable. Finally, a cheap M700 upgradeable platform! Here's some pics of the cylinder:




So, lets open it up. The easiest way is wrap some electrical tape around the nozzle (just a single wrap, that's going to help the FPS later as well), stick an Allen wrench in that hole, and use a wrench or a pair of pliers to start turning it. That brass end cap comes right off, and then you can open it up. If you need a guide, check out this thread: http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/index.php?showtopic=39751. Here's what you see inside:




That big long thing sticking off the front of the piston is the airbrake. At the end of your piston stroke, it slips into the nozzle, which slows the piston down. The longer the airbrake, the quieter the gun, but it also means that upgrade springs aren't going to do all that much. So I'm going to cut it down.



I cut it off a little more than halfway. It didn't change the noise of the gun much, but it DID make it close to can-top capable. So I'm now shooting close to 500 fps, and that's with a STOCK rifle with minor modifications. And that's just awesome... Anyway, once you're done doing whatever it is that you decided to do in the cylinder, screw the head back on, and we'll get back to the disassembly.

The next step is to deal with the trigger mech. First thing I want to note is that it's got an adjustable trigger, just like the VSR, and the trigger box is made out of steel, so it should last for a while. Here's the picture of the trigger adjustment screws:




Next let's look at how to open this up. First things first. We need to unscrew the little screw that holds on the safety switch and spring there with our Phillips head screwdriver. Here's what you need to do:





Next we're going to unscrew the four screws that hold the trigger mech together. Notice that the front screw is smaller. The other three are the same size, so make sure that the small one goes in the front. The others don't matter.



Before I open it up, I'm going to flip it over and point out the safety sear. When you cock this gun, this piece gets pushed down, and allows the cylinder to slide. If this piece isn't here, however, it will slam-fire, so make sure not to lose it or the little spring that pushes it up:



Next we're going to open this up, and I'll point out all of the parts for you noobs out there. First we've got the spring guide stopper. That's the L-shaped piece. You probably had to use a hammer and screwdriver to gently tap this piece to get the trigger mech out. I'll eventually replace this with a PDI spring guide stopper, but it's still good quality on the BAR-10, and this piece almost never breaks anyways:



This piece is the safety sear and it's spring. It will probably stay in the gun when you open it up, assuming you do so carefully, so don't touch it. It can be slightly challenging to get back in, but make sure you note how it fits in, in case it does come out. It doesn't typically break, so I'll leave this piece stock:



Next let's take a look at the trigger. It's a metal trigger, which is a good touch, and thus will not need replacement. Since it's all adjustable, also, we can adjust the trigger to handle a bigger spring, which means we don't need a zero trigger if we get new sears. I suggest PDI; they're the best quality reinforced sears in my opinion. Here's the trigger picture:



Now the heart and soul of the trigger mech: the trigger and piston sears. Don't lose the spring that fits into that round hole on the bottom:



Notice the pin in the middle, and take special note of the small spring that's there. Be very careful to note how it fits in. It will fit in on the left side of the trigger sear, if you have it facing away from you (the stock side facing away from you) and should face upwards, like a V. In the MP001, this spring is bent over on one side; you want the bent part running across the top of the piston sear. Anyway, let's disassemble it by pushing out the pin in the middle, and take a closer look. I'll point out the place where the spring fits in, and then disassemble it:




Okay, that spring is a pain to figure out how to get it back on, so let me point out where the ends of the spring fit. One end presses against a little ledge inside the trigger sear:



And the other end presses against a little ledge on the piston sear:



Here's a shot of the spring resting where it will go on the piston sear. Remember, because of that pin, you'll have to put the piston sear partially into the trigger sear first from the bottom, and then put the spring in from the top, with the bottom of the V facing DOWN. Here's that placement though:



Now go ahead and slip it in there, and make sure that you do it all in the correct order. Piston sear goes in the bottom, then the spring goes in the top. You may need to use a screwdriver to force it into the right position. You next insert the pin carefully, so it goes through the hole in the spring and in the holes in the sears. Next, we reassemble it all. We'll pop the sears in first, making sure to have that spring facing down, so it pushes the sears up:



Next we'll get the trigger back in. It's easiest if you glue that remaining spring to the trigger, as so:



And here's what it should look like when you reassemble. If those axles fell out, you will need to reinsert them--one goes in the trigger sear, the other in the trigger:



Spray some lube in there before you close it up, so that everything moves smoothly. Grease works great for this sort of thing (same grease you'd use on AEG gears, for instance, in a light coat). Now just put the two halves back together, screw it together, and we're all done.

Alrighty, now we're going to turn to the barrel. First we need to remove the magazine guide (the big metal piece on the bottom. That will require removal of two Phillips screws. Here's what needs to come off:



Once that's screwed off, we need to remove the hopup adjustment lever, again using the Phillips screwdriver. It's a nice shiny silver color, so it's hard to miss. Here's the adjustment lever:



Once that's screwed off, we can pull out the hopup and inner barrel, which is a nice brass. That should slide out quite nicely, although in mine, I had to sand down a burr on the inside of the outer barrel. Here's the inner barrel and hopup removed:



Now it's time to turn our attention to the hopup. If you're wanting to swap out inner barrels, you'll need to disassemble the hopup, so pay close attention, and DON'T LOSE ANYTHING. You'll notice that the hopup unit is a good bit larger than the hopup in the MP001 and M324. I'm still waiting on comparisons to the VSR-10, but, as we'll see, it's a nice hopup. Here's a closeup of the hopup:



We'll need to remove 4 Phillips screws, two in the metal part, and two on the black plastic part that goes around the barrel. Then we can carefully pull the hopup open. Be sure to note how everything is put together. Here's the hopup opened up:



The first thing that I want to note is that the BAR-10 has a V-hop. It's the only ACM sniper rifle on the market to have one that I know of, so I'm definitely very happy about that, since V-hops are more accurate. Here's a picture of the side of the hopup lever:



Next pull out the inner barrel. The first thing that I noticed is that it is styled like the VSR-10, and doesn't have a hopup bucking--just the rubber. That means no stupid plastic pieces to break. Hooray! I pulled off the bucking and took a look, and compared it to a VSR-10 tightbore inner barrel. Lo and behold, they're exactly the same. Here's the comparison picture (brass is BAR-10 barrel, steel is VSR-10 barrel):



Again, this gun is fully upgradeable with VSR-10 aftermarket parts, which is a good sign. USR-11 is no longer at all worth buying... Alright, if you have a tightbore, pop the rubber on the end, and stick it back in, then follow these directions in reverse to reassemble the gun. Once it's all back together, it's ready to shoot.


Function

I can't help it, I always have to have one of these in here. It's pretty simple. Insert the magazine, set the safety to Fire (F), cock the gun using the bolt handle, return to resting position, aim, and pull the trigger. The gun is pretty quiet, with a bit of a recoil and it makes something of a SPROOOIIINNG noise, unlike the CLACK!! of the MP001. Here's a video of the operation of the gun:

http://media.putfile.com/JG-BAR-10-video


Performance

Performance is pretty solid (although I had issues the first time because it only has a rear sight, and I'm used to shooting with a scope. So, I put on a scope and redid the accuracy test. Same setup as always (.2 g bb's from 100 feet indoors with a sandbag to stabilize) As you can see, it has a nice tight grouping, with one flier, easily as accurate as the MP001. This particular grouping is 2.1":



Remember to clean your hopup bucking and inner barrel before you do any testing if you want to get comparable results. So, how about the power of this gun?

Well, I first did the PMC (Poor Man's Chrono). It's easily capable of puncturing both sides of a can, but isn't quite can-bottom capable. This puts it somewhere between 350 and 420 fps. Obviously we need a better measurement. Luckily, I have a chrono. It clocks in at 391 fps averaged over 10 shots. So, better stock power than either the USR-11 or the VSR-10, with comparable accuracy thanks to the V-hop.

Okay, so how about testing it with the teflon mod? I did the single wrap of electrical tape around the nozzle of the cylinder head. Presto! Can-bottom edge capable! It even does a good job of cracking the top, although it doesn't have full penetration. Chrono results yield a staggering 479 fps, and that's without a tightbore. If I were to install a 6.01mm tightbore, I imagine I could get close to 500 fps without even doing a spring upgrade. This gun is capable of some serious shots!

Remember that airbrake that I mentioned earlier. The above results were before I went into the cylinder. Afterwards, well, here's what it did to a poor Sunkist can...



As you can see, the airbrake modification puts this sucker can-top capable, chronoing in at a whopping 507 fps with .2's (averaged over 10 shots), and that's after 2 cents of electrical tape, and 5 minutes of opening up the gun, cutting off part of the airbrake, and sanding it down a bit. Just insane for a stock gun...


Skirmish Test

So, how does it perform in the field. I took this gun for a spin to see how it works. The one issue that I had was that the magazine was having issues feeding, and I had to push it in when I cocked it to get bb's to load. I have since fixed that with a simple mod. Anyways, this gun performed amazingly during the skirmishes. It's easily capable of 250 foot shots, and I got several 280+ foot shots, including a 280 foot headshot. It's incredibly accurate, even in stock form, and I shudder to think of how well it will do with a tightbore.

I actually did install a tightbore, but have yet to test it in skirmishes. It does get insane groupings at 150 feet though--try quarter sized groupings with my EdGI barrel... Remember, I'm doing quite a bit of prep work and setup to get these kinds of results. They are by no means typical. Contact me if you need more information on the setup.
Accessories and Modifications

Well, this gun can take any VSR-10 compatible upgrades and parts, and can take a swing-swivel bipod, although it doesn't have any rails for mounting lasers or such nonsense (and good riddance to that garbage, it doesn't belong on a sniper rifle anyways). The end comes off easily, and accepts the VSR-10 silencer adaptor. It's also 100% VSR compatible, and can take upgraded hopups and cylinder, although I don't know about the outer barrel yet. You can also do any of the mods mentioned in the MP001 Mod thread on ASR, although it doesn't need any messing with the trigger mech, since it works flawlessly. I suggest you buy some hardened Torx screws as well to replace the stock ones (for the stock), since they strip really quickly.

Next, let's quickly go over the teflon-mod. You're going to need to tape the cylinder head in two places to get the best seal, and you're going to want a roll of PVC electrical tape. You'll want a 2 inch strip, cut into 2 or three strips, each about 1cm wide. You want to wrap three wraps around the very base of the nozzle, up against the head. This will seal against the outside of the hopup unit. Next, you want to very tightly wrap a layer and a half to two layers around the tapered end of the nozzle. This will seal nicely against the hopup bucking. Here's what you should get at the end:



I've also created a custom suppressor for this gun, to give it more of a GSPEC look. I used some PVC pipe and a CD to make this bad boy, and it adds about 6 inches to the length of the gun. Here's a shot of the suppressor installed on the end:



These suppressors are pretty easy to make. You're going to need some 1" PVC, some glue or Liquid Nails caulk, an old damaged CD, some scissors, some double-sided carpet tape (not really necessary, but I like the look), and some paint. Step 1 is to cut the PVC to length. I suggest you cut a 16 inch piece. This suppressor is going to friction fit against the tapered barrel, and you're going to need at least 10 inches to get it to fit at the appropriate point. You could also use .75" PVC if you want to fit up closer, but the 1" will allow you to make the CD endcap. Alternatively, you could get some 1" and some .75", and slide the .75" inside to help provide a spacer. Anyway, here's what we start out with:



Next we're going to go ahead and cut the end cap out of the CD. If you cut out the center of the CD, all the way to the inner most little line thing in the clear part, it will fit pretty perfectly on the end of the PVC. Hold it up against the PVC to see what I'm talking about. You can even use scissors to cut it out, it's not difficult. If you do that, you may want to sand the edge smooth. Here's the end cap:



Next grab the glue or caulk or both and attach the endcap to the end. Here's the endcap attached:



You may choose to use that carpet tape to attach it on there as well (wrap a single wrap around the very end of the PVC. I use double-sided and remove the wax paper to give the end a more textured look. You may choose to leave it clean. Here's what it looks like now:



Let the glue dry, and all that's left is to paint it. Then you've got a nice mock suppressor!

Here's the finished product:




Next I added a custom cheekrest. You can make one of these bad boys with some leather (a thin layer for the outside, and then a thicker layer for the inside of the cheekrest, some foam, some thread, some nylon cord or parachute cord, and some doublesided carpet tape. You want to cut out pieces of each so that it will fold over the top of the stock. You'll want to score the thick leather so that it will bend appopriately. Then sew the foam in between the thick leather and the thin leather, so that you have a nice leather covered pad to rest your cheek on. Put a layer of carpet tape on the inside of the thick leather, then attach it to the stock. The double-sided tape will make it stick quite nicely. Next you use the cord to attach it to the stock. You can use parachute cord like I did, or you can punch some holes around the bottom and use those to tie it on, something like lacing up shoes. Either way, you'll have a gorgeous looking cheekrest. The carpet tape isn't necessary, if you want to be able to take it on and off, but it does prevent it from slipping, and cheekrests for me tend to be permanent fixtures. Here's a shot of the completed product:



And another beauty shot of the whole gun with the added modifications:



The next step is to quiet down the gun by limiting the amount of noise that can get released from the trigger end of things. So let's take a look at the trigger. The first thing that I want to note is that the trigger is adjustable, just like on the VSR-10. I've highlighted the adjustment screws in red for you. They can be adjusted with Torx/Allen wrenches. Here's the relevant pictures:




Okay, so the next thing we have to do is remove the trigger assembly. Remove the barrel assembly from the stock so you can get at the trigger. Okay, so we first have to remove the trigger guard, using a Phillips screwdriver:



Next we need to unscrew the trigger assembly, removing the two Phillips screws on the front and back of the trigger assembly. Next, take your screwdriver and hit the little piece on the bolt side of the trigger, right in the middle, so that the trigger assembly will release from the cylinder. Here's the trigger removed:



Alrighty, so now we can see the bottom of the receiver and cylinder. Those holes are where the sound comes out, so we're going to muffle it with some foam. Here's the bottom of the receiver:



Next, take a thin piece of foam and put it over the trigger assembly, and make sure the sears can stick out. I cut some small holes for them. Here's what I'm talking about.



Finally, reassemble the trigger assembly, and tape the foam up to the underside of the receiver. We've got one more thing to do; we need to tape over that hole by the hopup, as so:




Now we just reassemble it all. If your barrel extension that you made earlier is foam-filled, you'll notice that your rifle is WAY quieter. Mine is quieter at 5 feet than the noise of the bb hitting a soft target. From 100 feet, it's almost impossible to tell where the shots are coming from, if you even hear it over the ambient noise.

Well, the obvious next step for me was to paint this gun. I was very hesitant to do so, since I love the way the gun feels, with the velvety finish. However, in the interests of making this gun more skirmishable, I'm going to have to paint it, and eventually I'll get around to making a rifle rag for it. Anyways, I used a combination of Krylon Camouflage Fusion paint on this, although it does kind of ruin the feel of the gun Oh well. I cut out several shapes in paper to use as spray paint templates, and applied them over an olive drab base. Here's my woodland camouflage job:



Okay, so lets deal with that pesky feeding problem. We're just going to put two strips of clear tape, or one strip of electrical tape (smooth is ideal) on the back of the magazine. You can see the shine where I taped mine:



Okay, so now I'm going to start upgrading the internals. At this point, I've installed an EdGI tightbore, Nineball hopup bucking, Laylax silent dampener cylinder head, and Laylax steel spring guide. I'll be installing PDI reinforced steel sears and an SP170 in a little while as well. Okay, on to the installation pictures and guide.


Aftermarket Upgrades

The most important upgrade you can buy for your gun is a tightbore. I got an EdGI tightbore for my MP001 and just loved it, so I decided to buy another EdGI barrel for my BAR-10. There are a number of different choices you can pick from for your barrel. I'll briefly go through those.

First, you can get Laylax PSS10 steel barrels, which have an inner diameter of 6.03mm. Those barrels are very nice, and typically cost less than 40 shipped, and are very durable. However, since they're not as tight as 6.01mm barrels, they're also correspondingly not as accurate.

Tanio Koba twist barrels are also available, although I don't recommend them, as the stock BAR-10 fires too fast for the TK twist barrel to work properly. You can investigate them, but they're probably not worth installing.

If you want the best accuracy, you're going to want a 6.01mm tightbore for your gun. There are three choices; PDI barrels, which typically are very expensive, costing upwards of 70 dollars or more for a BAR-10 length barrel (430mm). They are steel barrels, and are very well designed, and are very accurate. You can also get deescustoms barrels, which are made out of brass, and are also very accurate. Dbcustom has some of the best customer service (CS) of any retailer out there, and I am always happy to buy their barrels. They're often slow about responding to emails, so I suggest calling them. You can get these barrels from www.deescustoms.com. Barrels run 60 shipped for the 430mm VSR-10 tightbore, although they might be releasing a 435mm BAR-10 tightbore. Finally, you can get EdGI barrels, which are my personal favorites, and, because they were specially designed for the BAR-10, not the VSR, they'll be a bit more accurate than the others. They can cost a lot shipped (around 80-90), and can be obtained by PM-ing EdGI. You can find a link to his PM page in the Sniper Links page of the Sniper Manual under EdGI Custom Works. Anyway, let's take a closer look at his barrel, since that's the one that I chose to get.

Here's a few shots of the barrel:




And here's a comparison of the EdGI barrel and the stock barrel. It's actually a bit longer than the stock barrel, and is optimized for the BAR-10:




And finally, here's a shot down the endcap. The end of the barrel is machined down to fit perfectly into the endcap. It's a bull barrel (it's thicker than the stock barrel, which reduces vibration, and yields better accuracy:




Speaking of accuracy, you're probably wondering how accurate this barrel is. Well, worry no longer. I did an accuracy test in an indoor controlled situation. My shot was sandbag stabilized, and I used TSD .28g bb's, from a range of 150 feet (a little under 50 meters). Here's the result:



As you can see, my grouping is the size of a quarter. I'd say that's pretty good accuracy... Anyways, the next important upgrade as far as performance goes is a new hopup bucking. Again, you have a few choices. The best options are the Firefly hard bucking (which is basically not in stock anywhere, except for a site in the UK, and www.dentrinity.com), and the Nineball bucking, which is in stock at a number of different places. I purchased mine at www.airsoftextreme.com. If anyone wants to send me a free Firefly bucking, I'll be happy to post up results :) Anyways, the Nineball bucking is very nice. It has much nicer seal than the stock bucking, and fits a lot tighter. It's also a lot harder, which means it will be better for higher FPS guns. In other words, don't downgrade and use the Nineball--you'd want a Firefly medium bucking. Remember, not every Firefly bucking will fit. You need one that says it fits the VSR (it also fits a number of GBB's, but not AEG's). Ditto for the Nineball. Here's some pictures of what you get:




In order to install it, you're going to need to open up the hopup. That requires you to remove the barrel assembly from the stock, unscrew the screw in the middle so you can unscrew the barrel assembly, remove the magwell piece, the hopup switch, and open up the hopup unit by unscrewing the 4 screws. We went through this all earlier, and there's a disassembly guide on this site, so I'm not going to bother reposting the pics. Anyways, you need to pull off the stock bucking and pop on the upgrade bucking--that's the rubber part on the end of the barrel for you noobs out there. Be absolutely sure that the hole is oriented properly so that lever presses into it, and the protrusion on the bucking fits into the hole on the side of the hopup unit. Here's some pics for reference:




Now, assuming you've already gotten a tightbore, you're basically done with the hopup, and you're not going to need to open it up again except for cleaning your gun. Those are the major upgrades that will help your gun's accuracy, and I consider both to be necessary upgrades. So, my next task is to work on durability and stealth. The next part that I will install is a Laylax Silent Dampener Cylinder Head. I actually highly recommend this upgrade part. It makes your gun much quieter and has better seal and compression than the stock cylinder head due to the O-ring on the head. You can get a similar quieting effect by putting a circle of foam on the bottom of your stock cylinder head, but this head is well-made, and will last quite a long time. It's made out of steel, and is designed to absorb high-speed piston impacts. Let's take a look at a few pictures:








Performance is a bit better; I estimate I gained about 3-5 FPS from the upgrade, and it definitely made the gun quieter and more durable, which are both big plusses. Don't forget to relube your cylinder while you're in there. Okay, now I want to install a new spring guide. Bearing spring guides are nice. I chose the Laylax spring guide, which I also got from www.airsoftextreme.com. Here's some pics of the spring guide. Notice that it comes with some spacers for the spring, so it will actually increase your FPS. I added another spacer also:




The spring spacer should be 10mm in outer diameter, and about 8 inner diameter. I suggest you use a piece of metal piping. You'll have to experiment and see how long it needs to be. Somewhere around a half inch to an inch would be good.

Another really critical upgrade is to get new screws to attach your stock to the barrel assembly. The screws that come with the gun are very prone to stripping, and then you're in trouble. You should definitely buy new screws at your hardware store. I believe that they're 8x24's, although you should bring in the screws. I suggest getting hardened screws with thick heads, since those will take a LOT more torque before stripping. Here's the ones I got:



They stick out a bit when screwed all the way in, but they're way more durable. They cost me 25 cents for the set, so there's really no excuse not to do this. It's hardly expensive.

I also plan on installing an SP170 and PDI reinforced sears to handle them. I really like the stock piston with the airbrake, however, so I'm not sure whether I'll do anything else. Anyways, here's one more beauty shot of my rifle, now with a custom painted suppressor. It's also very quiet. Here's a few sound tests:

http://media.putfile.com/BAR-10-sound-test
http://media.putfile.com/BAR-10-MP001-Sound-Comparison

And one more beauty shot of my gun with custom painted suppressor.



As it turns out, the SP170 doesn't fit in the stock piston properly, so you can't really cock the gun. If you want to do a spring upgrade, you'll need to replace the piston. You would need to do that anyways, however, since the stock piston is not likely to be able to handle the 170 anyways.


Pros and Cons


Pros:

The stock--best feeling stock out there
Feel and handling is superb
Well-made out of durable materials
Fully compatible with the VSR-10
Excellent stock power
V-hop
Openable cylinder
Clean finish
Tapered outer barrel
Brass inner barrel that's VSR-10 compatible
Outer barrel screws into bolt assembly for no-slip operation
Metal swivel studs
M700 style bolt handle
Discreet J.G. trademark, and no others
Excellent stock performance
Metal trigger
Cheap--130 shipped or less


Cons:
The magazine release falls out when you disassemble (fix by gluing the spring to the stock and to the button)
The safety is pot metal, and prone to breaking. Just superglue it if it falls out.
Fairly wide stock barrel
Stock piston can't take aftermarket springs
Ummmm, I can't think of anything else at the moment...it's such a nice rifle...


Ordering

This gun can be ordered from WGC Shop, Airsoft 1, Airsoft GI, or by contacting Gunner Airsoft (emailto: info@gunnerairsoft.com) or Nitro Airsoft (emailto: sales@nitroairsoft.com). It will be out at Pointact soon also, and other retailers are starting to look into carrying them. Pricing runs about 105-130 USD shipped for the non-scoped version, or 150-160 USD shipped for the scoped version. Enjoy!


The Final Word

My final word on this gun is that it's clearly the best budget sniper rifle yet released, and future releases are going to have their work cut out for them. The finish is amazing, performance is very good, it's upgradeable, and it really puts the USR-11 to shame. It doesn't require pins to be drilled out to open the cylinder, has better stock power than the USR-11 or the VSR-10 (comparable to the MP001, but without the same issues, as far as I can tell thus far). In short, this rifle is the best budget sniper rifle option that I've yet encountered (although the Warrior 1 is very nice with its tightbore and powerful stock spring). I don't have much bad to say about it, although painting it does ruin the satiny finish. Ultimately, the final word is that you should go out and get it; you won't be disappointed.

Remember, THIS IS NOT MY REVIEW!!! The Crimson Falcon wrote this review for www.AirSoftRetreat.com , so all credit goes to him.

For the full Photo Review, click here http://www.airsoftretreat.com/forums/index.php?topic=43489.0

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