Introduction
It's December 25th, 1996, you're 15 and just received your very first airsoft gun, it's a JAC UZI! You've read a few blogs on your fathers PC58. You know it runs on freon refrigerant you can purchase at your local Autobacs. You load a magazine up with your favorite Tokyo Marui BB Bullets and it slides freely into your new replica! You pull the trigger and the replica lets off a blazing 40RPS and quickly empties your fresh magazine, you grin from ear to ear.
Unfortunately many people will never get to experience this, myself included. Bullet Valve replicas, and almost all of the companies that ever produced them are long gone. It was a fascinating system with so many implications i'll explore below!
What was Bullet Valve? How did it work?
BV, or "Bullet Valve" was a type of operating system that proppelled BBs down an airsoft replicas barrel. It was one of the first firing systems used, and was the first to feature fully automatic firing. It was used in almost all early airsoft replicas from the 1980s-2000s, when eventually Tokyo Marui released their FAMAS AEG; which began the AEG revolution.
Bullet Valve technology was very simple in its operation; but yet it had many different variants centering around its main concept, to use a BB to regulate pressure. The name starts to make a whole lot more sense when you realize truly how simple it was, "Bullet" in this scenario was the BBs used to fire, and valve was... a valve. This system took many forms, from FUJIMIS M712 to JACs moving barrel, but they all ended with a BB being proppelled down the barrel.
Furthermore, id like to try and explain how the simplest of these replicas worked, step by step. for my example ill be using the FUJIMI style set-up-
It all starts with the magazine, obviously the user loads BBs into it; once loaded into the replica a spring pushes the BBs into a chamber of sorts, with an O-ring standing between the barrel and the BB. When the user pulls the trigger, pressure from your flon12 canister floods behind the BB, pushing it into the O-ring. Once there is enough pressure behind the BB, it bends the O-ring just enough to fly through and down the barrel, with gas venting behind it until the user lets go of the trigger typically. The FUJIMI model also had a blowback and semi/full auto mode, but im choosing to ignore it for these purposes, a more in depth review on that can be found- HERE.
Why did Bullet Valve Tech fail?
There is no one reason, but a combination of multiple, from Japan's stricter enviormental laws, to the more mechanically cool Tokyo Marui FAMAS AEGs. Depending on you how stretch it, you could even blame guns like the JATIMATIC for the downfall! Unfortunately they never really made a come back, they have potential if a company wanted to modernize the system; because BV will always reign superior in one category; reliability. The system was so versatile with so few moving parts that an AEG or GBB simply can not keep up with how easily upgradeable and reliable they were.
Could I still field a BV replica if i purchased one?
YES! A majority of the ones we sell have been retrofitted with a new HPA line by their previous owners, this means any regular HPA tank will work for the most part. The replicas are still very well designed and can be upgraded (Albeit a lot of them already are upgraded) Users have added recoil weights, tighter o-rings for more FPS, or tighter springs for quicker RPS!