Yes the grip works. I really don't understand where this placebo effect idea keeps cropping up in reference to the grip. I think its mostly because the grip isn't nearly as useful or powerful an attachment as it had been in past CoDs.
There are some weapons where it does very little at all.
I'll give you a basic synopsis of the various weapon types and styles and how it affects them(Ive done plenty of fire and bot tests to determine).
Automatic assault rifles:
- makes spray more center consistent on the kick(some weapons have wierd kick shapes. It gets rid of these shapes and instead makes it more of a circular spray).
- reduces the overall spray diameter by around 15-25% (this is the kicker. And likely the reason players keep mentioning placebo. In past CoDs it seemed like grip reduce spray diameter by around 30-40%...it does very little in BLOPS 2, but it is noticeable. In short its really only beneficial for long range battles and the occasional midrange battle. It really wont help much in close quarters.)
- Like on certain other Weapons, Some occasionally have a Maverick bullet (IE. a bullet random jumps out the side that isnt on target and doesnt hit anywhere close to the aimed location). It appears to get rid of these.
Burst assualt rifles:
- Reduces bullet variation significantly. (This is hard to notice because only the last bullet tends to deviate from the pack, if any of the bullets are off at all. If the bullets are not off, then grip won't really help you. If the last bullet is off, thats all the grip really seems to benefit, by making it match with the previous bullets.)
SemiAuto AR:
- Don't even bother. It might have some small small tiny benefit for quick triggering longshots, but its so little, for weapons that are already powerful and shoot like lasers, that its pointless to use.
LMG:
- Removes the maverick bullets
- Reduces spray diameter by around 25%
- Reduces Recoil Increase Over Time, by around 50% (with Automatic weapons, you will notice that some have a recoil that gets worse and worse and worse, the longer you hold it. With LMGs this can be noticeable. It appears to reduce the recoil increase overtime, allowing you to fire an entire clip without too many developing accuracy issues.)
Unlike with ARs and SMGs...Im not sure if the grip prevents obscure bullet pathing on the recoil. Never focused enough to see.
SMG:
- Removes Maverick bullets
- Reduces Recoil Increase OverTime (we will refer to this from here on as RIOT).
- Removes obscure bullet pathing, and transforms weapons into circular spray.
- Reduces bullet spray diameter by around 15%(This is the most extreme example. SMGs receive only a tiny benefit.)
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By comparison Ive found that Stock tends to do these things:
- Removes obscure bullet pathing
- Reduces (not removes) maverick bullets
- Reduces bullet spray by around 5-10% less than grip on respective weapons. Given how little Grip already reduces the spray, this is why it is sometimes hard to notice the difference between them. I have done enough tests to know that their is a difference however, and grip is slightly better at it.
For the SMGS, Here is what Long Barrel seems to do:
- Increases damage over distance ratios
- Reduces bullet spray by around 7.5-15% less than grip. This makes it less effective then both grip and stock, but still effective.
- Unlike the others it appears to effect the pattern of close to center shot variation on its spray. While it does not effect maverick bullets or bullet pathing, it does seem to make dead to center shots happen more often. In other words, it makes The standard deviation of the bullet spray make Dead center shots more likely, while simultaneously not reducing the bullet spray quite as much.
Also, for those wondering about Suppressor:
It does the same thing as long barrel with a few slight variations
1 - Reduces damage over distance ratio
2 - makes your shouts more silent and prevents map location when firing
3 - Appears to reduce wall penetration ratios
4 - It actually appears to increase accuracy and close to center shots (even though on the game image it shows the opposite) much like the long barrel. It seems to have around 75-80% of long barrels effectiveness in these regards.
5- On rare occasions it causes significant Recoil jump (SVU-AS) or reduction (Skorpion, MSMC).
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Finally here are some weapons the grip is effective with:
- HAMR
- QBB LSW
- Skorpion
- MSMC (Better combined with Rapid fire, but can give some improvement without rapid fire)
- Rapid fire PDW
- MP7 (if you hold MP7 for more than around 7-8 bullets it starts to follow a crazy bullet path. Grip seems to get rid of this unless you enable rapid fire. Combining another spray reducing attachment with grip will remove the reenabled rapid fire pathing if you use the Primary gunfighter wildcard. However your circle spray will make rapid fire long distance battles harder unless you burst fire).
- Mtar
- An-94
Weapons that do not need a grip attachment:
- M27 (Thing is a laser; I believe its even more accurate then sniper rifles)
- FAL
- SMR
- Chicom
- Swat burst and M481 burst. (While it can make the final bullet on each gun follow the exact line of the first bullets, they are only slightly deviated anyway. Only in the rarest of instances will this likely be beneficial.)
37 posts since 
