Full Blowback Versus Partial Blowback Airguns Explained
I sometimes mention in my review videos that a gun is either Full Blowback or Partial Blowback and some people may not understand exactly what this means and how it effects the Airguns Blowback Action and Performance so I figured it would be best to make a dedicated video talking about the differences and also some of the Pro’s and Con’s of each type of Blowback Action.
In the video I obviously go into a fair amount of detail and show you around each type of Airgun and Magazine as they do differ a fair amount but to summaries for you here in this written form, the main difference is going to be how much the slide moves back and forth. With Full Blowback Airguns the slide will move much longer back and forth on the frame of the Airgun much like a real gun does and the slide Catch/Lock generally locks back further too. With a Partial Blowback Airgun the slide generally has a shorter range of movement back and forth on the frame with the slide locks usually about half of the distance compared to a Full Blowback Airgun.
The magazines are also very different as a Full Blowbacks Airgun generally has a partially exposed BB which is pushed into the barrel by the nozzle with each slide cycle. With a Partial Blowback Airgun the BB is generally not exposed and either the trigger action or simply the CO2 force is required to transfer the BB in the breach of the Airgun.
Another point to mention is that Full Blowback Airguns tend to use more CO2 and have a slightly lower velocity as compared to Partial Blowback Airguns but this is not a rule.