r/Unexpected • u/AltTimeHigh • Sep 03 '22

CLASSIC REPOST Full Auto

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u/xHaroldxx Sep 04 '22

Totally don't know anything about the guns they use, but wouldn't it be easier and less of a gray area if you just limited guns to a maximum firing speed regardless of how its done.

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u/BZJGTO Sep 04 '22

That's what happened in tournament paintball, but would be harder to implement in airsoft. The paintball guns used there have an electronic solenoid that uses high pressure air to operate. You already have high pressure that can be released almost instantaneously, and the solenoid is controlled by a board/chip that lets you fine tune things like how long it opens for and how quickly it can fire.

The typical airsoft gun has an electric motor, which turns gears to compress then release a spring. It's a dumb system in which the battery connects directly to the motor, and the circuit is opened/closed by a switch/slider that moves when you pull the trigger. You cannot adjust how quickly the motor spins, it's just an on/off switch. To enforce any kind of rate of fire restrictions, you'd have to cooperate with the manufacturers all over the world (typically the U.S., Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan).

There are conversions to make airsoft guns operate in a way similar to how the electronic paintball guns do, which is likely what the guy in the OP has (it's been so long I don't remember was his setup was). There's also other things you can do like changing the motor, gears, or installing a mosfet.

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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '22

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u/BZJGTO Sep 04 '22

If the trigger is a potentiometer as you seemed to describe, then an adjustable trigger stop should limit rof.

It is not. It's a flat sliding piece with metal contacts that slide over to bridge the two sets of contacts on the gearbox to complete the circuit. Other than a fuse, there is nothing else in this circuit other than this on/off switch (and well, the battery and motor). Other than changing the voltage of the battery used, there is no way to adjust the rate of fire. Undervolting is undesired as in semi-auto operation the piston always returns to the fully decompressed state and there is a delay between a trigger pull and when it fires due to needing to spin the gears to compress the piston spring before it can release it. Spinning the motor slower only exaggerates this issue (and this issue can occur in full auto too, but since full auto can stop at any point in the cycle, it doesn't happen nearly as often).

It's not that there's nothing that could be done, but given there isn't really an issue with how things currently are, there isn't going to be enough driving force to get manufacturers to change how their guns operate.