When it comes to airsoft, players are always seeking way to improve their guns. Most of the time when we talk about upgrades, we talk about internal gearbox upgrades to make your gun shoot faster or harder. But what good is a fast shooting gun if you cannot hit your target? The concept of hop-up is a fantastic idea, but it still has flaws. Which brings us to the concept of r-hop.
First, what exactly is hop-up and how does it work? Well, it is actually quite simple. As the BB is pushed through the hop-up chamber, it travels under your bucking nub, and puts backspin on the BB allowing it to not drop to the ground right after you fire it. When the BB is loaded into the hop-up chamber (before it is fired), it will be resting between the mouth of the bucking and the nub of the bucking, waiting to be fired. The shape of the bucking nub is not flat, and is actually “U” shaped as the hop-up arm pushes down on it (See Picture Below). The BB will not be sitting perfectly center in the bucking every time it is loaded, and thus your accuracy will vary just a little bit, causing a left or right shot. Additionally the BB size may be just a bit different, causing a variation in accuracy.
Another factor would be the bucking “spacer”, which puts pressure on the bucking nub as you adjust your hop-up. Most spacers that come with buckings are fairly poor and offer little to no support. Most of them will not hold their shape as the BB is fired, and will actually squish down quite a bit. Here is an example of a stock bucking spacer (below). As you can see it is a hollow piece of silicone rubber and offers little support.
The R-Hop is just a rendition of the flat hop, or if you want to be technical, the G-Hop concept. It is hard to know which came first, the flat hop or the G-Hop, but they are both essentially the same. Flat hop takes away the traditional bucking mound and the traditional spacer, and instead uses a flat spacer to put pressure on the BB (see below). This spacer is out of the Modify Ryusoko Flat Hop kit. As you can see it is a solid piece of hard rubber and will not flex as much when pressure is applied to it. It also puts even pressure on the BB to give you a more consistent BB flight.
With flat hop, you are using a mound-less bucking and this spacer (seen above), without any patch over your barrel window. Basically, you are using the inside of the bucking as your contact patch for the BB. With a G-Hop, you are cutting a piece of bucking and gluing it to your barrel window (just like you do with the R-Hop), which serves as your contact patch.
R-Hop uses a thicker patch that is glued to your barrel window. This patch will have a “channel” that the BB will contact giving you increased consistency and accuracy (see below). With the R-Hop, serious modification is needed. You need to shave the inside of your bucking flat by removing the mound and the rib. Additionally, you need to shave your hop-up arm flat, so you can attach the M-Nub (which is a flat piece of rubber) to your hop-up arm. Lastly, you will need to sand down the top of the R-Hop patch so it is flush with the outer diameter of the barrel.
In conclusion, if done correctly, you will notice a drastic increase in range and accuracy. The amount of material that the BB touches is far greater than that of a traditional bucking. With this, you will want to use a heavier BB, like a .28g, to cut down on over-hopping. As you know, lighter BBs require less hop pressure, and since you are increasing the backspin of the BB by increasing the contact patch of the BB, a heavier BB will give you increased range and accuracy.
