VFC HK416: Performance and hop-Up

I finally got to shoot my new VFC HK416 today. Took it to a friends farm to shoot and sight in my red dot sight. I was unimpressed by the performance. I was about 100 feet out and the bb's were dropping. I adjusted the hop-up from most hop to least hop and it didn't change the distance at all. Do I just need to put more rounds through the gun? I vaguely remember reading awhile ago that you almost have to break in new hop-ups. I put less than 500 rounds down range. Plus, I fired my KJW M9 which is several years old and it was reaching as far as or farther than the 416. Am I expecting too much from my rifle, especially since it is the CQB version? Or does hop-up take some time to "warm up"?

Sounds like a faulty hop or compression issue

Papa Bear wrote:Sounds like a faulty hop or compression issue

Roger that. Someone else suggested that the barrel may have been installed incorrectly. I'll check that first and pray nothing is actually wrong/broken.

EDIT: I opened it up and took the barrel out and put it back in. I adjusted the hop-up and it looked like it was fine. I moved the wheel and looked in the barrel and I could see the nub or whatever rise and lower in the barrel. Sadly, I can't test fire it to see if that did it.

Check to make sure the nub is still in the hop!  Many a time my hop up nub had fallen out during reinstallation and I had similar occurrences to what you are describing.

Church wrote:Check to make sure the nub is still in the hop!  Many a time my hop up nub had fallen out during reinstallation and I had similar occurrences to what you are describing.

The Nub is the part that actually is in the inner barrel, correct? How do I check if its there without taking the gun apart?

the nub is actually in the hop up unit itself. If you remove the inner barrel from the hop along with the bucking...the nub can fall out without realizing it. The nub should rest in the hop up wheel arm. If its not there then you will get zero hop when adjusting.

This has happened to me countless times, in fact I found a lonesome nub in the middle of my closet floor a couple of days ago haha.

Church wrote:the nub is actually in the hop up unit itself.  If you remove the inner barrel from the hop along with the bucking...the nub can fall out without realizing it.  The nub should rest in the hop up wheel arm.  If its not there then you will get zero hop when adjusting.  

This has happened to me countless times, in fact I found a lonesome nub in the middle of my closet floor a couple of days ago haha.

I did not remove the hop-up from the barrel. Just the barrel with the hop-up attached from the gun. I moved the wheel and I could see inside the piece that moved up and down. It worked fine.

EDIT: I was told that it might have something to do with the grease they put on it when its made. I did clean out the barrel with dry cloth and silicon oil but I didn't clean the hop-up unit. Should I clean that out?

any kind of lubricant, including oils used for cleaning, will ruin your first 100 or so shots.  I make it a habit of cleaning my barrel and hop every 5000 or so rounds, unless I play a foul weather game.

Oden wrote:any kind of lubricant, including oils used for cleaning, will ruin your first 100 or so shots.  I make it a habit of cleaning my barrel and hop every 5000 or so rounds, unless I play a foul weather game.

Roger that. I will re-clean the barrel and the hop-up this time and test fire it when I can.