Are O-Rings Worth It?

[BlindFaith429]

Talking about Bolts, are O-Rings worth it?

I'm aware of what whey are meant to do, help keep the air where it should be.

Will an o-ring-less bolt just be less air efficient? Or will it also have consistency issues?

In my '99 Shocktech, I have an old "supa-fly" Bolt with no o-rings. I'm sure the newer bolts would be an upgrade, but is it worth it?

Im most likely going to keep the old-school bolt, just kinda curious what I will be giving up.

[Chuck E Ducky]

I prefer good fitting non oring bolts. Keep what works. Your not going to notice a difference.

Some people like them. I find the only way to get them operating smooth is to go so small on the bolt oring it defeats the purpose. Also people like to oil them and that traps dirt that would otherwise be blown out during normal play.

I find a good fitting bolt to be much easier to tune and keep running smooth without orings.

[Cunha]

I don't really care on a semi auto. On a pump I don't want O rings because they make the cycle feel less consistent / good.

Nothing wrong with the supafly.

[BlindFaith429]

Perfect, just saved myself some money. Was leaning towards the stock bolt, and now ill be keeping it for sure.

Thanks!

[gabe]

I have found that I am very much against bolts without o-rings but recent experience has softened that some.

My experience is from building a mini Orracle that I threw the CCM catalog at including a CCM bolt that has no o-rings. I messed around with it for ages trying to get it to stop chopping paint but it was just an absolute blender. The issue was it was getting lots of blowback up the feedneck. The CCM bolt actually had great efficiency and gained about 20fps over an AKA bolt but it was just blowback city. I switched to an Inception trident bolt with o-rings on the air passage as well as tip and all the issues went away. That CCM bolt was the culprit just causing massive blowback.

I got an Orracle here recently that doesn't have said issues and has a WGP o-ring-less bolt and the bolt is just much more tightly fitted to the body. I would assume that having minimal clearances fixes a lot of the blowback issues. I checked the CCM bolt and it's extremely loose in all 3 WGP bodies I have, almost .002" undersized. In addition it has cuts on the sides of the bolt for detent clearance but they're on both sides and bottom. Looking down from the top of the feedneck you can see the detent cut exposed which I think channels air from in front of the bolt out the feedneck.

In short I had a bad time with a CCM bolt. Not all their bolts though, the ones in two different Series 5's I've had fit well and didn't have blowback so that's something. I tend to stick with o-ring bolts these days just so bolt to body fit is one less thing I have to consider. I can't recommend the Inception Trident bolt enough as it comes with a bunch of different o-rings to fit to your specific gun so that it runs smooth and doesn't have blowback. Another thing to consider is breech wear. Every gun I've had with a non-oring bolt has had far more breech wear than guns that have run a bolt with o-ring.

[iamthelazerviking]

I agree with gabe in this. As far as snipers, I understand no o-rings can make for smoother pump stroke. But for my own peace of mind, I prefer o-rings to prevent blow back up the feedneck. Getting the right fitting o-ringless bolt seems like an endless trial and error. I am going to test it out though since I now have one of each and the o-ringless one seems to fit the breech decently, don't see light coming through around it from behind when it is backed out to the right place. I've just always had better luck with stock WGP o-ring bolts and still plenty smooth for me.

[Trbo323]

Will an o-ring-less bolt just be less air efficient? Or will it also have consistency issues?

Most likely a little less efficient since there will be some air escape around it. consistency I doubt would show up at all. Each paintball will have it's small imperfections so that will most likely cause the biggest inconsistencies. Anything the bolt is doing you likely wouldn't even be able to measure accurately.

That's just my theory on it. I really doubt you could measure bolt inconsistencies separate from marker cycling and paint inconsistencies. Not like I've tried though

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

[Cdn_Cuda]

I’ve got several different cocker bolts and should sit down one afternoon with a chrono and write some numbers done. For my Snipers I prefer no o-ring for a smooth pump stroke. Cocker I’m mixed. I’ve got a Shocktech, ID Trident and arriving shortly a CCM bolt.

[Grendel]

If it has an o-ring groove I use an o-ring.

[OpusX]

If I have the option from the parts bit to use a solid delrin bolt I will. Otherwise o-rings are fine. Also if I'm using a bolt with orings, that means it is stock.