Well guys I'm going to start this thread about my experiences with rhop and what I think of it along with some of my things I've tested and tried to see if the claims out there have lived up to the hype or if it's about the same as a normal bucking. Now I should note this isn't scientific this is just my opinions and experiences so don't take it as the end all of rhop information.
So I started by buying the tubing rather than a normal rhop kit, I bought the same material(from what I've read) as the IR-HOP materials. I did not use the mnub I've used erasers and other things along with standard nubs in my testing so far. So maybe changes made there could effect the results but since I haven't tried that I can't give an opinion.
First gun I tried it on was my M14 and I had a heck of a time getting it to run properly. I had pinch jams through this whole process, probably tried it a dozen times. I was about ready to give up at this point since I had nothing but problems. Fast forward a month or so and I tried rhopping an M16 length barrel for my M4 to try and make a sort of DMR out of it, so that I could swap barrels and run it at longer distances. Well I had success and I managed to get an rhop that worked properly even at .20-.25 weights. Then I had some hooking issues, and ended up going back to a normal bucking and barrel for a while.
Around that same time I decided to rhop my TM VSR10 since I had planned that the whole time and after success with the M4 I figured it was worth a try. I managed to do that correctly the first time, worked right from the go. But I did have some hooking problems that showed up later, come to find out one of the legs of the patch had come unglued which was causing uneven contact with the BB. I glued that and sanded the outside a little more and it's back to working 100%. That was after around 2000 rounds of .40g BB's out of the rifle. I've shot maybe 1000 since fixing it without any additional issues.
This morning I decided to play with the M16 length barrel again, trimmed the patch a little shorter since I figured out it was sticking some in the window when depressed by the hopup nub. So basically it would get stuck slightly causing the hooking I encountered. Then reassembled and it's working well now.
So I've rhopped a couple different guns successfully and had my fair share of failures along the way. But the important question is how does it shoot and is it different than a normal bucking. Well yes it's different but how is harder to say. I haven't seen any magic that makes my guns shoot amazingly further than before rhop. I'll start with my M4 since it's fresh in my mind from this morning. Yesterday I did some shoot testing I've got laser ranged folding chairs setup at 25, 50, 75, and 100 yards. Basically they make a good noise when hit, and they are around the size of a person so they make good reactive targets for testing. I can hit the 50 yard no problems with most guns stock or otherwise 50 is a pretty good starting point. 75 yards on the other hand is rare, upgraded or not with an AEG. I've managed a few stray hits at 75 yards with my M4, G36, and M14. All three are just shy of 400fps, anything less than that in my experience doesn't really have a chance of tagging that 75 yard mark.
So I walked out to 75 yards and shot back at my pole barn with it's metal siding it makes the target the broad side of a barn;) What it really does for me is allow me to know when I'm hitting the barn, then I can lower the point of aim until I can't hear an impact which tells me I'm hitting the dirt in front of the barn. It also let's me check absolute range to a degree, and I've got a 50 gallon plastic drum there, which I can hear the difference in an impact on that vs. the metal of the building and it's easier to use all the feedback to track the rounds onto target especially at that range and further. So I did some shooting with the stock bucking and normal M4 barrel. 50 yards again no problem, at 75 yards I can't make a hit without hold over. On my EOTECH if I hold at 75 yards at the top intersection of the reticle and the circle I can make hits fairly regularly at 75 yards on that 50 gallon drum. So probably 6ft. of holdover at that range if I had to guess. But I was able to make the hits and I was somewhat surprised that it was able to do it. This morning I did the rhop and did the same testing. 50 was a little more difficult, I found that even with about the same setting for the hopup I was hopping more at 50 yards with rhop than with the bucking. IE I needed more holdover to make the shots at 50. At 75 I set the hopup to put the rounds on the drum at the same point of aim as the bucking so top of the reticule. So I was getting more hopup mid flight with rhop but basically the same absolute range and honestly I don't think the barrel length nor the rhop effected accuracy in any positive manner. It might be but groups at that distance looks about the same to me by eye. Also hitting the barrel was about the same results number of hits per try. So my current conclusions on the M4 is that it's not worth it, maybe with heavier ammo these tests were done with .25's rather than anything heavier. That might make a difference but I wouldn't hold my breath. I'll still be testing more with this platform and really the M14 again but so far nothing amazing. Also I should mention this is a CA M15A4 upgraded most of the internals running an M120 and a full cylinder.
My VSR10 now that is a little different story. I noticed a much more consistent hop compared to the stock bucking with much less pressure applied to the slide adjustment. IE I needed nearly full adjustment to hopup .43g BB's before rhop, now I'm able to get the right setting with about half adjustment. Range, I'm not sure it is any longer shooting but it might be. I'm able to hit the 75 yard chair regularly not 10/10 but more like 5-8 out of 10 depending on the wind. I'm able to walk to 75 yards and hit quite consistently on the barn as well as the barrel. I can also walk out to 100, and make hits on the barrel and barn still fairly consistently. I've also walked out basically as far as I can while still hitting the barn that seems to top out around the 120-130 yard mark. I can say I did that same test with the rifle before the rhop and I wasn't able to go past the 100 yard mark. It could be some of the other modifications I've done to the gun since then or weather or something else not sure but now I'm able to tag the barn at those distances. That's not to say I could hit a person at that distance it would be a very lucky shot. Also I should mention this is a higher hopup setting than I used at 75 yards. I can pretty much set the hopup to be center of the scope at 75, it's high at 50. If I shoot at 100 I can hold over a fair amount or put one more click of hopup on the lever which puts me almost center of the scope at 100, which of course is then higher at 50 and high at 75. It's not really overhopping in the climb to the sky manner, it's more of a ballistic trajectory. This gun is a TM VSR10 with aftermarket sears, stock piston etc, SP170 spring and otherwise stock including gspec barrel length. It's currently shooting just shy of 500 with .20's.
So I'll update this as I fiddle with more stuff and get a better idea what the results really are. But for guys thinking about doing an rhop, I'd hold off if it's an AEG unless you've got time and money to burn. If it's a bolt action I'd probably go ahead with it. I think it really needs the higher FPS and BB weight to have any real noticeable effect from what I've seen. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's been the impression I've gotten from the testing. It might have more of an effect on my M14 with it's longer barrel and different cylinder but I don't know yet what that will show. I will say the M14 with a stock bucking is more reliable at hitting the 75 yard chair than any of my other AEG's so maybe but I'm unwilling to make a guess yet till I get it done.
Take care!
Luke
