How do spring powered airsoft rifles work?

Spring airsoft rifles are the easiest to use and least expensive to buy, they are operated by manually pulling back the bolt or lever to cock the gun before each shot. When the bolt is pulled back, a spring inside a cylinder containing a piston is compressed creating an air pocket inside the cylinder. Pulling the trigger releases this compressed spring which pushes the piston down the cylinder and forces the compressed air into a small nozzle behind the airsoft BB, propelling it down the barrel. Airsoft spring rifles require no external input of gas or batteries to function making them cheap and easy to use; however they lack the speed and power to be competitive in games against gas or electric guns.

How to make a spring powered airsoft rifle more powerful?

A spring airsoft rifle can be made more powerful by replacing the spring with a stronger one. However, changing to a stronger spring can run the risk of damaging other parts of your rifle as the stronger spring could exceed the strength tolerances that the other parts were designed for which would necessitate the purchase of additional stronger parts to ensure reliability. Overall it must be noted that upgrading a spring rifle can be technically complex with few aftermarket parts available and the skills required to do it might be beyond the abilities of newer shooters.

How do spring powered airsoft rifles compare to electric or gas rifles?

Aside from BBs, spring airsoft rifles do not require any additional power source like electric or gas rifles as they are manually cocked by the shooter. However this comes at a considerable cost in rate of fire as each shot must then be manually cocked before firing another unlike the fully automatic firing modes of gas and electric airsoft rifles. What spring airsoft rifles lack in rate of fire they make up in having the best power consistency and highest accuracy potential of any airsoft gun making them ideal for airsoft sniper rifles