I've got one of those beauties, a Zeta Labs Mosin Nagant Sniper rifle, the one with scope 'cause that is cool 
But, it shoots like rubbish.... 
So, the easy question: how am I going to make it 'work', or better, crank up the fps to say 450fps give or take a few?
Or, should I get the gas-bolt which will solve 'all my issues' at once? (In normal weather/temperature that is).
Any ideas? Or maybe the 'golden' tip how to make it a decent airsoft rifle? Because it is a very nice piece of equipment.
Dont get the gas bolt, it really is rubbish. Three effective shots per charge at wildly different fps.
aka Stigroadie
AFRA
better by design
"Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, always distant, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable. "
You can replace the spring with a stronger AEG spring. Clean the barrel and seal all leaks (hop chamber, hop rubber, barrel). Lube internals well.
In what way exactly is it rubbish?
Ditto to what poacher says RE the gas bolt, mine came with one and only gave about 3 shots for each refill. I switched to the spring bolt I was also supplied with almost immediately.
I found there was quite a bit of air leakage around the cylinder head. I put a rubber o-ring onto the cylinder head in the gap at the end of the thread. It even looks like one was intended to be there. Anyway, the air leakage has gone after the fix and I have good compression in the cylinder now.
Also I found there was no little cylinder of plastic between the hop actuator and the hop rubber, so I cut a section of BIC biro tube to fit as I have with many an AEG in the past.
I also wrapped PTFE tape around the hop rubber towards the front end. Another common trick to fix air leakages.
I tried a few shots a few weeks ago and hit everything I aimed at. Unfortunately I have been unable to measure the fps of the rifle since these fixes as someone else has my chrono.
Note mine is not a scoped version and I want it running sub 350fps anyway.
In what way exactly is it rubbish?
I found there was quite a bit of air leakage around the cylinder head.
My guess is that that's the issue: air leakage. It shoots around 270fps. Even when using a (much) stronger spring, the FPS is not getting that much higher, still stays at the 300-ish fps mark. One of my friends is even going to put a M210 spring in it to get the fps up (in our games, 500fps is the limit for bolt actions).
So, I guess the air leakage is the issue, but not sure where. But, thanks for the input (and especially that of the gas bolt) and I am going to have a look how I can fix those issues.
Is there a way to test for air leakage? Other that using a chronometer?
One simple test.
Take the cylinder out.
Remove the spring and reassemble the cylinder
With the piston fully back, put your finger over the end of the nozzle
Push the piston forward... it should resist and in fact should spring back.
Mine didn't do this until I installed an o-ring on the cylinder head.
