Gas bolt action air rifle to airsoft sniper conversion

[wally squad]

'Inspired' by the HITMAXX

It is powered by a 200 bar air tank underneath the barrel as you can see in the picture, and it is filled with a hand-pump which is included with the rifle. The rifle was originally made by FX-Airguns in Sweden for the british market, where it is mainly used for hunting rabbits. They modify it so it can use 6mm bb's which are fired with a velocity of 210 meters per second, roughly 690 fps. The cocking handle is a skeet-shooting type (so it says on the homepage) with a very short, straight pull for maximum after-shot target aquisition. The magazine capacity is 8 bb's, and the rifle comes with 2 magazines. The Hitmaxx is delivered without scope or scope-mount. It is not possible to order the rifle online, as Dragons Lair want to make sure the buyer is experienced and knows the power of the rifle.

 

Unfortunately this bad boy is around the fifteen hundred quid mark

 

So.....

Step one get an air rifle.

Precharged jobbies start around 300ish (as far as I could see, and a bit much for pulling to bits). Much roaming around airgun forums later, found a donor, which although wasn't a pre charged jobbie out of the box i.e. running on compressed air (runs on co2 as standard) it has been converted to use air by some people, so it is possible.

 

Will come to price later.

 

Not many pictures and details regards the conversion I'm afraid.

It took mucho talking to airgun people and a specialist to get it firing at airsoft levels, and I think that if anyone else wants to do this sort of conversion they should understand it as thoroughly as I had to.

The main reason being that with an airsoft barrel cobbled on and running the guns standard power it was pushing nearly 1000fps on .2's.

To show you how tricksy it was, when adjusting the power, 0.4 mm difference on the valve stem equated to a 600fps difference

Wanted to post this just to show it's possible really.

 

 

Top is a proper air rifle, bottom is converted to airsoft.

You can see the gas tube below the barrel - good for about fifty shots with only one sparklet.

 

Initial 'bodged' airsoft barrel and grub screw for hop adjust

 

Not quite finished yet.

It is currently running on co2 as haven't got around to the precharged conversion yet. It uses two 12g sparklets in the lower tube.

Hop up is an 'H' type, adjusted via grub screw on top.

Hop rubber and barrel are standard aeg, fps set with a 456mm barrel.

There is no way to feed a magazine in from below, so at the moment it will be a sprung feed tube that is part of the scope mounts (not pictured!) with about 30rnds.

Power was up today because I finished getting the barrel etc sealed, but otherwise it has been running at 475fps +/-3fps (I know not as consistent as a vsr, but fun to use and judging by the build, fairly indestructable - no buggered sears here)

Haven't tried groupings because there is some snagging still to do.

 

Price so far including the air rifle, but not my time and effort , a little over a hundred quid

 

Any questions, don't hesitate.

 

Cheers

d

 

 

[Dave_gray2077]

My daystate Huntsman II is calling me

 

As far as a magazine goes could you not make the weapon side feed like a Sten gun?

Or top feed with actual magazines like a Bren and mount the sights on the side?

 

I'm wondering if i could mod my daystate into a l96 stock. That should be a good project. The PCP regulator on the old day states isn't covered like modern rifles so I could easily alter FPS for different sights as well which would be useful.

 

I'm just wondering if my PCP regulator will go down to such a low pressure. Did you have any problems getting you regulator down to 450fps?

[MDK_Marshal]

Didn't someone go off about doing this before? And, uh, wasn't he shouted down because it's realy pretty damned dangerous? I mean, what's to stop you going into the field with this, craking the power back up to 1000 fps and putting holes in people?

 

Not to mention that there may well be some legal potholes as you're dicking around with an air weapon.

 

If you like air rifles, fine. If you like airsoft, fine. But, in my opinion, and that of a fair whack of the forum, the two should be kept pretty damned separate, just like airsoft and real firearms.

 

 

Good work on the technical side of it, though. I won't deny that it'll take some modicum of skill to actually do this. I just think it's a damned dangerous and slightly stupid idea...

[wally squad]

My daystate Huntsman II is calling me

 

As far as a magazine goes could you not make the weapon side feed like a Sten gun?

Or top feed with actual magazines like a Bren and mount the sights on the side?

 

I'm wondering if i could mod my daystate into a l96 stock. That should be a good project. The PCP regulator on the old day states isn't covered like modern rifles so I could easily alter FPS for different sights as well which would be useful.

 

I'm just wondering if my PCP regulator will go down to such a low pressure. Did you have any problems getting you regulator down to 450fps?

 

Magazine is a bit of an issue. Didn't want a magazine that would kill the look of a bolt action rifle, so things stuck out the side or top, whilst feasable, I didn't think would look right. The tube built into the scope mount won't be that visible and will be easily filled with a speedloader - maybe not as quick as a mag change but viable for a sniper.

Getting the pressure down was a pig, and there are still a few things I want to fiddle with.

Basically, getting an airsoft barrel to fit was fairly easy because of the way this particular gun is constructed...

 

 

 

You can see that the original barrel (2500) slides into the top receiver and is secured with a grub screw (2800). This is the screw that now adjusts the hop, so had to drill and tap a couple more holes to hold the barrel.

 

So once airsoft barrel (and hop for seal)was in started test firing, getting around the 1000fps mark.

Getting the power down is a combination of things...

The valve itself, spring rate, valve stem and flow through it.

The transfer port from valve to barrel.

Weight, length and spring rate on the hammer.

I think I said earlier that the smallest differences could make 600fps difference (i.e got it firing at 290 for a while and couldn't bring it back up)

Finally got it to around 450 with the makeshift barrel and thought bingo, but once the proper barrel assembly and seals were installed the power was back upto over 650. Back to the drawing board

So as such there is no regulator on the pressure except the valve/hammer.

 

Currently it's not groupin well, but have found this is because the original bolt/nozzle assembly is around 3mm too short so it's not quite seating the bb's in the hop correctly.

 

Hope that helps a bit.

 

Cheers

d

[wally squad]

Didn't someone go off about doing this before? And, uh, wasn't he shouted down because it's realy pretty damned dangerous? I mean, what's to stop you going into the field with this, craking the power back up to 1000 fps and putting holes in people?

 

Not to mention that there may well be some legal potholes as you're dicking around with an air weapon.

 

If you like air rifles, fine. If you like airsoft, fine. But, in my opinion, and that of a fair whack of the forum, the two should be kept pretty damned separate, just like airsoft and real firearms.

 

 

Good work on the technical side of it, though. I won't deny that it'll take some modicum of skill to actually do this. I just think it's a damned dangerous and slightly stupid idea...

 

 

Believe me, there is no quick way to return this to 1000fps, especially in the field. It would require completely stripping down and the remaking of some internal components.

I did speak to Stealthbomber about this before posting to get the ok, but if a mod wants to take it off I won't be offended.

By the way, if one of the restrictors fail, the gun will not fire. Period.

 

Cheers

d

[Stealthbomber]

Didn't someone go off about doing this before? And, uh, wasn't he shouted down because it's realy pretty damned dangerous? I mean, what's to stop you going into the field with this, craking the power back up to 1000 fps and putting holes in people?

 

Not to mention that there may well be some legal potholes as you're dicking around with an air weapon.

 

Every time you pick up a VSR10 you're "dicking around with an air weapon".

 

To be pedantic, at long as the air rifle you start with is shooting at less than 12ft/lbs, exactly the same laws apply to a "proper" air rifle and an airsoft boltie.

If the gun was an FAC-rated air rifle then there are potential legal issues with converting it to airsoft use.

 

I ABSOLUTELY agree with you about the power thing though.

Regarding the above post about a Daystate rifle having an adjustable regulator, that is the LAST thing I'd want to see on a rifle like this.

If you walk onto a site with a gun like this I think a lot of people are going to wonder WTF is going on.

As I said to the OP in a PM, that is really between him and the sites where he plays though.

If he's a trusted regular at his local site he might be fine using it. Alternatively, he's probably going to have to get used to putting it away a lot if people object.

 

I know it sounds a bit silly but looks are important. A PCP action built into an L96 stock is going to come in for less attention than a gun that is clearly a wood-stocked PCP air rifle.

[snorkelman]

agreed Ive worked over airpistol makarovs to bring them down to airsoft levels and the changes are non trivial While on a mag loading pistol with valve assembly integral to the mags it would still be possible to regain a bit of the power on a mag change to a less modified mag, on a rifle with integral valve assembly built into the gun thats not going to happen.

 

Folks might as well raise the prospect of someone stripping down and re-springing an AEG in the midle of a skirmish - which would need a lot less effort and parts to be carried than those required to start returning the power levels of a PCP.

 

[AdrianRogers]

Folks might as well raise the prospect of someone stripping down and re-springing an AEG in the midle of a skirmish - which would need a lot less effort and parts to be carried than those required to start returning the power levels of a PCP.

 

 

Indeed! ICS springs (npi) to mind!! One bolt popped out and a new upper gearbox assembly with an M150 spring.. Would take you about 30 seconds if you're stupid.

 

Hope you manage to get it working Though bear in mind that is probabaly the cheapest co2 air rifle ever produced, so you may always have problems with consistency unless you're going to get right into the guts of it.

[wally squad]

Hope you manage to get it working Though bear in mind that is probabaly the cheapest co2 air rifle ever produced, so you may always have problems with consistency unless you're going to get right into the guts of it.

 

 

The reason we got it as a project rifle was it's very reasonable price, however, compared to most airsoft rifles it's built like a brick outhouse!

Will admit to having turned and polished most of the internals, and replaced the seals

Fingers crossed, the consistency is pretty good - certainly far better than my mk23 socom.

 

Cheers

d

[Carrion]

MKD. this is exactly the same as having a tanaka m700 when it comes to potentialy adjustable power levels.

 

with the upgrade bolt and chnoing it on 134a i was getting 500 fps. i did do a test with red gas and i opened it right up as much as i could and it did hit around 900 fps so its no different from what this could potentialy do if the op wasa muppet about things.

and whoever said about the ICS split gearboxes ditto. and i HAVE seen that done in the field more than once.

 

in may respects its the same as for pistols. its very easy to chrno on one gas and then use a higher powered on in game

 

to the op nice technical work.

 

 

[Dave_gray2077]

Once you go over 480FPS with a bolt action you are in the magic 1flbs limit which legally makes it an air rifle i believe.

 

My huntsman regulator is covered by the stock so a pressure adjustment would be an additional mod. But i am no way going to make it to go 1000fps. I was thinking more along the lines of 350-500 so i can adjust to sight rules you see.

 

Do you think such a mod would be a bad idea? i mean the old tanks rifles have regs in them thats why am thinking of doing this.

 

edit to add question to stelth.

 

"To be pedantic, at long as the air rifle you start with is shooting at less than 12ft/lbs, exactly the same laws apply to a "proper" air rifle and an airsoft boltie.

If the gun was an FAC-rated air rifle then there are potential legal issues with converting it to airsoft use."

 

What implications does this have? Because most PCP rifles can be adjusted up to FAC limits. Although this is difficult on modern rifles due to the regulators, my huntsman that im planning on modding is from 1985. this means that the regulators are simple to adjust and aint hidden etc.

This current rifle can be adjusted by turning a screw on the tank (removing the stock is needed) but it goes from about 10-62flbs. Most modern PCPs dont have anywhere near this kind of range you see. I currently have the rifle shooting at 11.8 for legal implications.

 

NOTE Im no way saying that I want to have a rifle on an air soft field shooting 60lbs. just stealth has raised a point that i would like him to clarify a little for me as to the legality of this mod that I am thinking of doing and am providing him with the details. CURRENT air rifle law says that i can own the rifle so long as i don't adjust it above what im currently legaly allowed.

 

So no flames please

[Stealthbomber]

Once you go over 480FPS with a bolt action you are in the magic 1flbs limit which legally makes it an air rifle i believe.

You believe wrong, in a variety of ways.

 

There's 1.35J to 1 ft/lb

 

1.35J equates to approximately 380fps with 0.2g BBs.

480fps equates to 2.1J or 1.5 ft/lbs.

 

There's nothing in UK law about what "makes it an air rifle". It's a gun that fires a projectile using compressed air so it's already an air rifle.

The concensus is that full auto or self-loading weapons > 1ft/lb should be considered Section 5 firearms.

 

Double-action or bolt-action guns (revolvers, NBBs and sniper rifles definitely. It might even be argued that an AEG is double-action) are simply air weapons and the only restriction on them is that they have a maximum power limit of 6 ft/lbs for a pistol or 12 ft/lbs for a rifle.

 

There is no magic 1 ft/lbs limit for bolt action or double action guns.

 

edit to add question to stelth.

 

"To be pedantic, at long as the air rifle you start with is shooting at less than 12ft/lbs, exactly the same laws apply to a "proper" air rifle and an airsoft boltie.

If the gun was an FAC-rated air rifle then there are potential legal issues with converting it to airsoft use."

 

What implications does this have? Because most PCP rifles can be adjusted up to FAC limits.

Well, an FAC air weapon (such as my Saxby & Palmer Royale) needs to be listed on your ticket.

If you were found to be using a "lethal weapon" in an airsoft game I imagine the law wouldn't be terribly impressed.

 

Alternatively, if you tried to get the weapon "deactivated" before turning it into an airsoft gun you'd probably find they'd insist you made the gun impossible to shoot which means you can't then use it as an airsoft gun and, if you DID replace the deactivated parts, you might be guilty of "reactivating" a deact by converting it into an airsoft gun.

 

I have no idea if there's any way, in law, to have an FAC air rifle downgraded to non-FAC power levels and taken off-ticket. That'd be a question for your local gunsmith.

I imagine they'd be VERY keen to ensure it was done thoroughly though. If you have a 35ft/lb Theoben rifle, I doubt you're going to get it declassified by simply putting a softer hammer spring in it or whatever.

 

So, bottom line is that using an FAC air rifle for this is a huge pile of hassle that's completely unneccesary since the resulting airsoft gun MUST be less than 12 ft/lbs anyway.

 

Course, if you happen to have a PCP rifle and the adjustable regulator allows you to tune it above 12 ft/lbs then you're being a naughty boy in the same way you are when you drive at 90mph on the motorway.

If, however, you wind that PCP rifle down to 2ft/lbs, modify it so it can fire BBs, and bring it to an airsoft game then tune it back up to 12 ft/lbs or more then somebody is going to take that rifle off you and feed it to you THEN call the police.

 

The whole "but what if I use a rifle that has adjustable power?" thing makes no difference in airsoft because you're not going to adjust it, are you?

Cos that'd be cheating and cheats are not nice people.

[Dave_gray2077]

Messed up of the FPS convertion

 

I have had this conversation at my local gun club and the owner et al says having a rifle adjustable is ok so long as you don't adjust it over you legal limit. As soon as you mod it to fire over your FAC limit you are breaking the law and if caught 5-10 years for ya! Rifles that have leavers on the side for 6 to 12lbs are becoming quite common on "rat catchers" when you may not want to damage property.

 

WARNING ther is no legal president in law as such yet.

 

Modern riles its hard to do as the regulators cannot have such a jump in power at the point of manufacture such as mine. Just with mine being so old it was manufactured before such limits.

 

Or are you basing the above comments on the "its what it is at the point of manufacture and it stays that way" such as the case with Full auto weapons and semi auts above 22. that cannot be converted after the point of manufacture to comply with UK regs?

 

Want to try and get this cleared up now before i try something that my be illegal.

[snorkelman]

take it over 12 foot pounds it becomes section 1 FAC and needs to go on ticket, or more to the point legally you need to get a FAC get it entered onto it and then take it over 12 foot pounds

 

Once on ticket and over 12 foot pounds it aint comming back off ticket without a lot of jumping thru hoops no matter how low you adjust it.

 

If you never take it over 12 you can take it as low as you please, technically you could say that takign it below 1 foot pound is turning it into a RIF but the law considers an airweapon to remain an airweapon even if its performance is below the minimum threshold ie faulty in parts incomplete etc

 

theres nothing illegal about owning an older PCP thats adjustable over 12 foot pounds provided you dont actually do such >12foot pounds adjustments ie if its seized for testing and found to be clocking under 12 on all ammo tested* then the fact it could conceivably be adjusted to greater than 12 is neither here nor there

 

*on all ammo tested is where some folks can come a cropper - theres no standardised testing criteria across the UK Some forces conduct tests soley with the ammo taken along with the rifle (or a general cross sample if theres no ammo recovered) Other forces test on basis of a worst case scenario with ammo shown to yeild the greatest power results regardl;ess of wether that sort of pellet was siezed along with the rifle used by the owner etc In that situation you could have a PCP tuned to 11.999 foot pounds using your choice of ammo but still fall foul of the 12 foot pound limit using force supplied pellets even if you personally never use that type.

 

 

[Stealthbomber]

Want to try and get this cleared up now before i try something that my be illegal.

To be honest, I don't understand what you're worried about. Let me see if I can work through this with you...

 

Q1

Is the rifle you plan on converting to airsoft listed on a FAC anywhere?

YES: Forget it. Go buy another, <12ft/lbs rifle.

NO: Continue to Q2.

 

Q2

Is the rifle capable of generating power >12ft/lbs?

NO: Great. Continue to Q3.

YES: Well, don't! Continue to Q3.

 

Q3

Will your site allow you to field the proposed gun?

NO: Then there's no point in doing the conversion.

YES: Great. Get on with it.

[wally squad]

Quick update for those that are interested.

 

Have been having much much heartache with the accuracy, lotsnlots a fiddlin around..

 

Still, big breakthrough today - turned up the nozzle pushing the bb's forward was about 1mm too long.

With that corrected it is as consistent and accurate as my vsr (at least at the 45m I use for a range), and even when firing about once every four or five seconds there seems little evidence of gas cooling problems.

 

Gotta say I am a very happy bunny :D

 

Cheers

d

[Frakk2k]

Don't they play with the Hitmaxx in Denmark?

[1-hit-1-kill]

I have a question!! Y not a semi auto air rifle rather than a boltie?

[Angry]

Because semi-autos often have completely different rules applied to them. I know at my regular site anything that is semi-auto is classed the same as an AEG.

[wally squad]

I have a question!! Y not a semi auto air rifle rather than a boltie?

 

 

The only cheapish semi auto is the storm looking thing (crosman nightstalker) and I believe the internals are quite comlicated.

The jobbie I got to convert can be stripped in about two minutes.

 

Cheers

d