J-hop?

I was perusing some forums at work recently, reading about R-hops and flat hops, and the like, when I came across this:

http://www.airsoftsociety.com/forums/f10/j-hop-34376/

Basically, you use a silicone gel to mold a patch right in to the hop window of your barrel. I doubt it would have quite the same range potential as an actual R-hop, but I figured I'd share here to see what you all think. We've got some very capable techs in the club who I figure could give a good analysis of it's properties, durability, and usefullness.

I'm intruged on a 'it's-something-cheap-and-interesting-to-play-with-this-summer' level.

Doesnt work very well.

Could you give more insight as to why?

Papa Bear wrote:Could you give more insight as to why?

This. Most of the forums/discussions I found on it faded out without really getting science-y or presenting good data. A few 'I did it and it went great!' posts, some promises of future investigation, but no real testing and results.

I can see off the top why it wouldn't perform as well as an R-hop, but why doesn't it work well? Does the liquid silicone (once hardened) smear off and gum up the barrel? Do they wear out fast?

I'm probably going to try and answer a few of the questions myself, since it's somethign like $4 for a tube of silicone from Lowes, and I've got spare pieces and time over the summer. If I do, then I'll post more.

The things that are available for injection into a mold do not supply the correct characteristics to apply spin to a bb. You are also relying on the substance to be consistent, free of bubbles, and durable. This is very hard to do from a caulk like substance.

Even if this substance was found you would need to remove the patch and radius the front edge to avoid pinch jams and glue the patch back in with cryanolate.

Rhops require surfacing to be optimal as well. IR hops less so which is why you can use a z-kit and get decent results. But you would have to make sure whatever is in the barrel is completely smooth and not on an angle, or you would have to remove and resurface.

In short, it will work but it would be less durable and require as much work as a real r-hop to make it optimal...so just rhop.

I will post a step by step guide on how I install rhops now and it is much easier than the old method and looks like one of the predone models Hs5 sells.

Thanks for the explanation bro

Thanks for the science, Sean!

Sounds like it'll be a much better plan to just try and got some R-hopping done this summer.

I will try to post topic today on new rhop method.

Officially scrapped testing the J-hop. I have a stock barrel with a molded-in patch, but I haven't done anything with it.

By this weekend I should be testing my first two IR-hop installs, which I decided was a much better application of time and energy.

Random kind of off-topic question, would using a Guarder 70 degree bucking be detrimental to the performance of a gun only pusing around 400 fps? (with IR-hop) I have one that I shaved the nub off of to use, but I'm not sure if it'll be best served waiting until I have a higher-power build or just using it now.

Try it. As long as it feeds ok you will be good to go. Hard buckings tend to seal better and be more resistant to deformation. Many people only use hard buckings for rhops