Airsoft High Speed Guide: The Basics

What exactly is a High Speed Build?

In airsoft a high speed build refers to a upgraded platform (usually PDW or PBR) capable of a fearsome rate of fire (30-50 rounds/sec). High speed builds are typically medium to high stress and require moderate tech skills and basic knowledge of the inner workings of your rifle.

What gives your rifle a high ROF?

The ROF (rate of fire) is determined by three things: The battery, the motor, and the gear ratio. Ultimately the battery affects the ROF the most but motor and gear ratio are equally important. Even with a powerful 11.1v LiPo your guns ROF will be heavily restricted by its stock motor and gears. Upgrading your motor and gears will allow you to use the full power of your battery and greatly increase efficiency and trigger response. To handle the high stresses that these new parts will put on your system you will need to upgrade parts such as the piston and spring. Modifications such as radiusing and short-stroking may not be essential but are highly recommended. Shimming and motor height tuning should be done on ALL builds and is a must for stress builds of any sort.

Understanding what parts to buy

Battery: First things first, throw away every Ni-cad/NiMh battery you own, you wont be needing them anymore. . .

Turnigy 11.1v 1300mAh 25-50C LiPo

Choosing the right battery can be complicated and even frustrating at times. To find the right battery you must keep following factors in mind. How much battery space do you have? Can you mount an external battery? How long will you be out on the field? All of these things matter when shopping. That aside you must also match the performance of the battery to your build. To do this you must understand the battery ratings. On each battery you will find three things; the voltage, C rating, and Mah. This stuff gets very complicated very fast so lets put it into simpler terms. Imagine a river flowing out of a lake, The Mah is the size of the lake (capacity) and the C rating is how wide the river is or how much water flows out at one time (Discharge rate). To calculate how powerful the battery is you have to multiply the C rating by the mAh. In other words a battery with 2500mAh and a 50C discharge rate will be less powerful than a battery with 9000mAh and a 25C discharge rate. Also a battery with 5000mAh and 25C will last longer than one with the same mAh and 50C, though the later will be more powerful. And then you have the voltage which ranges from 3.7v, 7.4v, 11.1v, to 14.8v (the most common in airsoft are 7.4 and 11.1). Imagine the voltage as power levels or the speed of the current though the river, as rule of thumb a 11.1v will always be more powerful than a 7.4v regardless of mAh or C. For high speed builds 11.1v LiPos are a essential. I personally use 11.1v 3000mAh 30C brick type LiPos. A 11.1v at 25-50C with around 1500 Mah would be a good place to start.

Motor: Airsoft motors come in three flavors; High Torque (HT), Balanced, and High Speed (HS). Contrary to popular belief HS motors are actually the worst type for high speed builds. Its also good to note at this point that most stock motors are absolute garbage (with the exception of KWA and JG) since they use ceramic based magnets. Most aftermarket motors come with neodymium or rare earth magnets, these are a must have in any decent motor. Motors are also rated by TPA or turns per armature, In basic concept the higher the TPA the more powerful the motor is. The lower the TPA the faster the motor is. In the old days you used to have to choose between RPMs and torque (ROF vs trigger response). Now with the implementation of neo magnets HT motors are powerful enough to pull super low ratio gears to get a fearsome ROF and a crisp trigger response. Most HS motors are useless these days, HT will be your friend. Although some balanced motors can increase your ROF much higher than any HT can they tend to burn out and wear much, much faster. HT motors are my go to for any build for their reliablilty, effeciency and trigger response.

Aftermarket vs stock gears

Gears: This is one of the more simple parts to understand. Most stock gears come in a 18:1 ratio, this means that the motor has to turn the bevel gear 18 times to fire the gun. Gears like motors are rated from HT to HS, 32:1-20:1 are considered HT, 18:1 and 16:1 are considered balanced. HS gears are where its at, the most common are 13:1 and 12:1 and some companies even make 10:1. Gears themselves will make the smallest difference in performance but paired with the right motor will make a fearsome build. That being considered, gears are subjected to the most about of stress out of all the parts in your gearbox. Gear failure is the most catastrophic failure that can happen and is often quite violent not to mention expensive. NEVER skimp out on quality with gears, although they might be expensive up front it is far cheaper in the long run.

This guide is primariy geared towards (no pun intended) meduim stress builds so unless your an expert mechenic ,in which case you would not be reading this, stay away from DSGs. I will make a DSG guide in the future or at very least cover the concept.

What brands make the best parts?

All the parts on Brill Armory are very high quality and are fairly reputable. We reccomend you do as much shoping off of there as I can as all the parts are hand selected by Brill himself.

Batteries: DO NOT BUY AIRSOFT BRANDED BATTERIES! Buy batteries from hobby stores or in bulk from distributers as they are far cheaper than the airsoft branded ones. Tenergy, Turnigy, and Floureon all make great batteries.

Motors: ZCI and SHS motors are by far my favorite because of their powerful magnets, high quality and competitive price. Action army although very pricy make good high quality motors and undergo strict QC. ASG motors are also a good choice with their high TPA and CNC machining. I’d personally steer clear of Lonex as their motor brushes are extremly soft and wear quickly, they also don’t mesh well with SHS gears which are my favorite for Meduim stress builds.

Gears: As I said before never skimp on your gears. If you are going to make any investment in a build then buy a set of Siegetek gears. Siegetek makes the best gears hands down nuff said. . . seriously if you can afford them go buy some. SHS Also makes good gears, SHS makes the best gears for their price range I use them in most of my builds. Super Shooter gears are also reccomended, I’ve heard they are SHS’s “premium” line whatever that means, they also have ball bearing shafts.

countinued. . . 

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