No, but you do need the gun to function. Most guns are set up with an ultradot on the slide, which slows things down alot. I use a 10lb spring in all my wad guns. Then there is accuracy. You can reduce your powder charge, but accuracy tends to suffer. I've done alot of accuracy testing at 50 yards, and to be honest, if your gun can't shoot 1.5" 10 shot groups or less, your leaving some on the table. The tried and true loads are 4 grains of bullseye or 3.8 grains of clays with a 200 grain swc. Not a hot load by any strech, but again rapid fire is 5 shots in ten seconds one handed, and the x ring is not that big.