Converting from semi-auto to full-auto...which is it?

[Roboshred]

and the point is??

From my perspective, one thing that die hard, mall ninja wannabes and anti-gunners seem to agree on, is that semi-auto's can easilly be converted to full auto by adding or removing a couple of parts. I hear that all the time.

It would be very easy for anti's to start such a thread and take this information and hang it over the legal public's head. I realize this information is out there in the public but in ones own zeal to answer a question they may be sealing their fate. I would use great discretion in responding to posts like this when the poster has very few posts. No flame intended but the conversion is illegal and should be addressed as such. My car can go 150 mph but it doesn't because the owner respects the law. The same should be said for the illegal conversion of firearms. RB

 

[fslflint]

thats exactly why I talked about a paintball gun in my post.

 

[possenti]

fslflint-

I'm assuming the paintball gun you're talking about is a Tippmann 98, or one of it's variants. It has a gravity-feed hopper like 99% of all other paintball guns. I once did an easy full-auto (selective fire) conversion to my old Spyder marker. I had the same problem with balls not feeding fast enough, and the gun virtually turned into a paint sprayer/spitter after the first ball fired. I even tried a motorized hopper, but although the balls were always being loaded into the feed tube, it still relied on gravity to feed balls into the reciever.

However . . . I have a Tippmann A-5 with the "cyclone feed" hopper. At the bottom of the hopper is a star-shaped device that holds 5 balls. With each shot, this feeding device rotates, by extra gas pressure, and shoves a new ball into the breech. I believe the feed rate will keep up with the cyclic rate of the action. One of my upcoming projects will be to convert the A-5 to select-fire, but I dread drilling a hole through the lower frame to do it.

 

[Mike Irwin]

The family station wagon is "easily convertible" into racing car.

Your home computer is "easily convertible" into a Cray-like super computer.


Both statements have a ring of truth to them.

The family Ford or Chevy station wagon share body types with NASCAR racing cars.

IF you were to get the physics right, and daisy chain enough home computer processors together, you could come close to emulating a Cray.

While both have a ring of truth, as I said, there's more to it than meets the eye.

Some older firearms could be easily converted to fire fully automatic. Since 1986, however, that's no longer the case. Semi-autos are a LOT harder (and some are simply impossible) to convert.

I'n some cases, it would be easier to make a gun from scratch rather than convert it.

 

[zahc]

I believe the feed rate will keep up with the cyclic rate of the action.

I'd be surprised. Most blowbacks go ~40cps on runaway. All it takes is a toothpick to do this to a 98c. I am an established tippmann-butcher. Mine is top-cocking.

We now return to regularly scheduled programming.

 

[Hutch]

This "easily converted" bidness is a buncha hooey. I saw a rubegoldberg mod, designed by John Moses hisself that allowed a Winchester 92 leveraction to go full auto. No foolin'. I think the Aussies did something similar for the SMLE.

 

[MeekandMild]

I don't know about converting from semi to full, but for an Uzi SMG owner it is impossible to use (cheap) semiauto replacement parts!!!

I wanted to get a replacement barrel for my SMG. If you've ever fired full auto you know why. They get hot then wear out. The barrel gets so hot you have to drop it into water or spend a half hour wandering around behind the firing line watching the other shooters before you can put the gun back into its case.

ANYWAY! So I looked at $29 SA barrels one day at a gun show and found they were the wrong diameter! So I got to talking to the guy who was selling them and he opened up one of his carbines to compare with my SMG. Basically they are entirely different guns which look cosmetically alike, sort of like the way a KIA and a Mercedes look alike from a quarter mile away.

 

[fslflint]

I thought I was one of the only guys that did budget select fire conversions to cheap paintball guns. fun stuff! I'm a tippmann butcher too.

 

[Kenneth Lew]

I don't know about converting from semi to full, but for an Uzi SMG owner it is impossible to use (cheap) semiauto replacement parts!!!

I wanted to get a replacement barrel for my SMG. If you've ever fired full auto you know why. They get hot then wear out. The barrel gets so hot you have to drop it into water or spend a half hour wandering around behind the firing line watching the other shooters before you can put the gun back into its case.

ANYWAY! So I looked at $29 SA barrels one day at a gun show and found they were the wrong diameter! So I got to talking to the guy who was selling them and he opened up one of his carbines to compare with my SMG. Basically they are entirely different guns which look cosmetically alike, sort of like the way a KIA and a Mercedes look alike from a quarter mile away.

Full auto UZI (South African) barrels are only $25 ea. from a guy named barrelexchange on www.uzitalk.com.

Kenneth Lew

 

[MeekandMild]

Thanks for the link Ken, the price has come down for sure.

But my discussion of my search for a cheap barrel was just a lead-in to the discussion that the two guns are really different, with major differences in most of the internal parts, so that they are not the same gun at all.

 

[cidirkona]

Why worry about getting the Model98 to do any of these things? Just get a Timmy with the right board, or flash the board... and away you go.

I don't believe there could be a semi-auto that you couldn't convert to full-auto - if no internal work is possible, you could always make a trigger-pulling device...? Just wrap it around the trigger guard/frame. Hell - I made a automag (paintball marker!!) F/A way before the E-mag ever came out.

-Colin

 

[cidirkona]

It all still seems worthless to me though. I've only been in two scenario games that allowed full auto paintball markers.

For home defense, I would NOT want F/A. I need to know that ever round is going toward ceasing the threat to my life, and not into my neighbor's apartments. I also want more than 1 seconds' worth of ammunition...

-Colin

 

[zahc]

I have been in 2 games that did allow FA too-no big tragedy-I think FA should be allowed more in paintball, but that's a long discussion.

Why worry about getting the Model98 to do any of these things? Just get a Timmy with the right board, or flash the board... and away you go.

And that's the reason. Cheater boards and trigger bounce. F/A would be safer and more controllable. 'Semi' doesn't limit ROF anymore-if anything paintball needs more paint limiting.

I'm interested in how much the military actually uses FA. I heard some versions of the M16/4 aren't even select fire, or are burst only.

 

[cidirkona]

Tournaments I've played use a 200 ball-per-player limit, although we usually divy quite a bit over to the back players right off the bat. One pull, one ball.

-Colin

 

[zahc]

That's what I'm talking about. Never seen paint limiting myself.

Back on topic now?

I'm interested in how much the military actually uses FA. I heard some versions of the M16/4 aren't even select fire, or are burst only. is this true?