by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier
Dan Wesson 715 airsoft revolver looks and operates just like the BB revolver.
Dan Wesson 715 BB revolver Part 1
Dan Wesson 715 BB revolver Part 2
Dan Wesson 715 BB revolver Part 3
Dan Wesson 715 airsoft revolver Part 1
Dan Wesson 715 airsoft revolver Part 2
This report covers:
- Sight-in at 10 meters
- Sight-in at 25 feet
- Hop-Up and the sights
- Adjusting the Hop-Up
- Thoughts on sighting-in an airsoft gun
Today is a first look at the accuracy of the Dan Wesson 715 6mm airsoft revolver. Lots to cover today, so let’s get to it.
Sight-in at 10 meters
I began this test at 10 meters, shooting off a sandbag rest with the underlug of the revolver barrel resting on the bag. All shooting was done single action. After shooting two groups and adjusting the sights once I discovered the gun was shooting what I felt was too large a group at 10 meters (6 shots in about 4 inches), so I moved the rest to 25 feet and continued.
Sight-in at 25 feet
The first group at 25 feet was about the same size as from 10 meters — 5 shots in about 4 inches and one flier that missed the target altogether. I expected 1.5-inches at this distance. The thing that’s different about airsoft guns is once the Hop-Up is adjusted well, they hold their group size over a long span of distances. I’m saying there might not be much difference between a group shot at 10 yards and one shot at 20 yards.
Five shots in 4 inches at 25 feet and one BB missed the target altogether. I need to adjust the Hop-Up.
If you recall in Part 2 of this report the revolver was grouping around 4 inches at 20 yards offhand. That was when I first started shooting outdoors. I was just watching for sharp curves in the flight of the ball at that point. I wasn’t that concerned with accuracy. Apparently the BBs from the Dan Wesson stabilize at about 25 feet and don’t spread much as they fly out to 60 feet (20 yards), because I shot about 4-inches offhand at that distance. The Hop-Up had to be adjusted.
Hop-Up and the sights
The thing about adjusting the Hop-Up in an airsoft gun is it usually moves the point of impact at the same time. So sighting-in takes on an extra dimension. You have to find the one good BB you want to shoot, then get the Hop-Up adjusted where you want it and only than can the sights be adjusted. Do it out of order and you will never get sighted-in.
Adjusting the Hop-Up
The Hop-Up adjustment screw was turned all the way down tight. I backed it off 1/2 turn and then shot a 6-shot group that measures 2.057-inches between centers. This was more like it! Not only were all the BBs on the target, they were much closer together.
Loosen the Allen screw to adjust the Hop-Up.
The second group measures 2.057-inches between centers. This is more like it!
This group was low and to the right, so I adjusted the sights up and left and shot a second group with the same Hop-Up setting. This group is more centered on the bull, but it measures 3.059-inches between centers.
After adjusting the sights but leaving the Hop-Up alone, this group is more centered on the target but measures 3.059-inches between centers.
This third group was one-third larger than the group shot just before it. The sights were adjusted but the Hop-up was still in the same place it was for the last group, so apparently it isn’t as well-adjusted as I had hoped. I thought I was finished for the day, but curiosity caused me to load 6 0.28-gram Tactical BBs from TSD I just hoped they would be on the target paper. What they did, instead, was cluster all 6 shots in 1.443-inches at 25 feet. This is the BB I should have been shooting! And this is the one I will shoot from now on.
This last group was an afterthought. Shot with TSD 0.28-gram Tactical BBs, it wasn’t supposed to do this well. Since BBs in 1.443-inches at 25 feet. This is what I was after!
Thoughts on sighting-in an airsoft gun
The Hop-Up adds a dimension of complexity to the process of sighting-in. The first thjing you have to do is make up your mind what level of accuracy you are looking for. And be reasonable! otherwise you will chase after something you can never achieve. Second is to find the most accurate BB for the gun. Forget the cost — find the best. Anything else is a waste of time and money. This will be the most difficult step because each BB reacts differently to different Hop-Up settings. I found a good BB today through sheer trial and error, but it happened too late in the testing to help me much. However, I am prepared for next time. After that, spend some time adjusting the Hop-Up on the gun to get a reasonable grouping at close range. I had hoped to do that at 10 meters (33 feet) today, but my plans were scuttled and I had to settle for just 25 feet. However now that I’m on at 25 feet with a good BB things should work well at 10 meters, so the effort wasn’t all wasted. After all this is done you can think about adjusting the gun’s sights so it hits where you aim. This is a long process but it does work and if you follow it you’ll get good results. Just remember — there is no way you can adjust the gun to shoot more accurately that what it is capable of doing. So be reasonable. Next time I’ll start with the TSD BBs and go from there.
BB
On the hop up with the gun your testing today. Does backing the screw off lighten the hit of the hop up as the air soft ball passes by? What I never tryed with my sniper long gun was chronying the air soft ball before and after adjusting the hop up. Since the hop up hits the ammo as it passes by. You would think how hard the hop up hit would cause some sort of drag on the ball. So maybe velocity is another thing to take in consideration when adjusting the hop up and affecting trajectory and probably accuracy.
And aren’t you glad you was curious this time and tryed the other air soft ammo. And I forgot what ammo you started this test with. You didn’t mention today but without going back to part 1 or 2 I thought it was a heavier air soft ball.
That was the funny thing about the sniper air soft long gun I had. It liked a heavier air soft ball. Maybe because it was making more power??? All I know is it did group better at longer distances. And it for sure had more energy at the longer distances.
And the whole thought about how you came about this air soft pistol to test was to compare results to the same steel bb shooting pistol. After you of course get the hop up dailed in nice you are going to put them side by side in a target contest aren’t you?
And you never did state the shot count your getting out of a 12 gram Co2 cartridge with this air soft version of the pistol.
B.B.,
Nice testing and learned a thing or two. It would seem that the air soft crowd faces the same quandary as us pellet shooters in that we must find the “right” pellet for our particular gun. Good luck with getting it dialed in better.
I would have thought the Hop Up would have been at the muzzle of the barrel. What happens when the ball hits the side or bottom of the barrel with the imparted back spin? Maybe the secret is you are imparting a spin and adjusting it to ricochet around as uniformly as possible?
RR
I never measured the barrel diameter on the air soft gun I had. But I believe that the air soft ball is a pretty precise fit. Remeber only two small contact areas of the ball touch at one time as they go down the barrel. I think the back spin would over power the ricochet as you call it.
And if I remember right some air soft guns do have barrels that can be changed and modded as a upgrade in performance. Velocity and acurracy improvements from what I remember. Same as our pellet guns. It’s about the fit of the ammo to the barrel.
That’s how some of the better air soft sniper long guns can shoot well. I could hit a can at 35 yards with my scoped sniper gun I had every shot. And at 50 yards hit a 1 gallon milk jug. And I had my hop adjusted so I got a pretty flat trajectory with the arched affect towards the end of its flight trajectory. So my gun shot in a sense like a lower powered spring gun shooting a pellet. I could use hold over or under at different distances just like a pellet gun. So if I had cans setting out in the yard at different distances and I was plinking/mini sniping I would use the different hold overs. Pretty fun actually.
GF1,
If I could get an airsoft that would shoot biodegradables and get soda can accuracy at 50 yards, I would be interested.
By the way, I want your TX.
RR
I shot the biodegradable air soft balls out of my sniper gun also. But they do take a while to degrade. But they do. So you don’t have to worry about picking them up. And they do have brown or green colors that helps hide them before they degrade.
And I will email you about the Tx.
After hitting the hopup, the ball tends to “stick” to the top of the barrel for the rest of the barrel travel rather than bounce around the bore, due to the backspin.
There used to be a company that made a twist barrel for airsoft guns (Tanio koba) but the design was limited to about 340fps.
While very accurate, the fps game won out there just like in regular air guns, to the general population, speed sells, not accuracy.
Tokyo Marui used to be the standard everyone copied, but they produced a much better hopup, they limited their factory guns to less than 300 fps, again speed sells.
There have been mods called an R-hop, but I have never messed with that one.
45Bravo
The twist barrel is interesting. Did it still have a hop up option do you remember?
Off topic – sorry. My daughter asked if I could teach her to shoot a pistol. Awesome, absolutely. I’m looking for an air pistol that is a fairly faithful reproduction of a firearm operation in case she wants to continue to that someday in the future. She is fairly small, so a huge grip/frame won’t be a good fit for her. I don’t know the sizes of these pistols, so they may be horrible selections, but the ISSC M22 and the Sig Sauer P226 look like faithful renditions of typical firearm operation. I don’t care so much about faithful looks, but I do want a Double (First shot)/Single Action like a firearm, with blowback to mimic a firearm. The M22 with the new copper plated lead BB’s might be ok, I wouldn’t consider it otherwise. I’ve tried some Umarex BB pistols before, and the BB’s rolled out the barrel if the pistol is pointed down and you’re slowly squeezing the trigger in – I was VERY unimpressed. Hopefully the M22 doesn’t do the same. I’d prefer a pellet pistol, but the replica-like operation airpistols seem to favor the BB side of the hobby.
So, what do you all think about the ISSC M22 and/or the Sig Sauer P226 options? Good, bad, really bad? Is the Sig Sauer P226 too large for a small teen girl? Is the ISSC M22? What other options would you recommend? I’m open to other options if you think other air pistols would be better. Thanks for any and all help – you guys rock. Sorry for the off topic post.
I never got into hop-up during my brief airsoft career. Engaging in more complexity for mediocre accuracy didn’t make sense to me, especially with the marvelous pellet gun offerings. However, I’m very attached to airsoft for snap shooting and tactical practice.
Siraniko, right you are about the restorative powers of primitive man. And I’m not even so sure that open and compound fractures were entirely beyond their skill. I believe the ancient Mayans and Aztecs routinely did brain surgery (“trepanning”) to relieve headaches with no ill effects. In anything outside of our technology, the ancients were our equals. And the Neanderthals had plenty of experience with broken bones. But at the moment, I happen to be appreciating the benefits of technology. After my appointment yesterday, I see that orthopedics has advanced considerably beyond the plaster casts that I remember from childhood. They fitted me with a kind of Ironman boot that supports me but which I can take off at night and for a shower. I’m going in for a quick surgery to screw the broken bones together (reminiscent of gunsmithing), and I will be up and about on an accelerated time frame of a month or so.
I’m glad you’re seeking out Victor for advice. As a state champion shooter and international competitor in smallbore and airguns, I do believe that Victor is one of our most accomplished shooters although you never know who is lurking out there. I’ll go you one better and see if I can connect you directly to the man himself which would be much better than getting the info at second-hand from me. I can tell you now that Victor doesn’t offer magic secrets. He’s all about fundamentals. But he approaches them in a super-professional and detailed way. And he has a whole series of specialized exercises and drills that were beyond me although I have a very large appetite for this kind of thing. Email me at gufgo24@yahoo.com and I’ll see if I can connect you to Victor.
On the subject of surprising talent out of context, how about this bizarre story which I happened to come across and cannot verify but just offer as is. A chess grandmaster was on a train when an unprepossessing companion asked him to play a game to pass the time. The grandmaster took pains not to embarrass the guy, but ended up losing. He asked for a rematch and paid more attention but lost again. He asked for another match and did his very best but still lost. Astounded, he asked the guy who he was and where he learned to play like this. The man said that he just played with friends. Then, he said that the grandmaster was not bad, thanked him for the entertainment, and got off at the next stop never to appear again.
Matt61
Another QUESTION of the day —-
How do we search for comments using the commenter’s “handle” ???
jh
JH
You could probably use Google using this format:
comments (insert commenter’s handle here)/blog//
eg. comments siraniko/blog//
It will lead you to a a listing where the name was used. Not the specific comment. You will have to use CTRL+F and search through the page for his comments.
If you recall the topic you can also add that to the search string.
yes they had a hopup, but I got my best results with the hopup turned off, and 330fps with a .20gram ball.
http://www.airsplat.com/tanio-koba-hop-twist-barrel-363mm.html
45Bravo
Thanks for the info and posting the link.