Today was a good one at Worthing. It was one of their skirmish+ days where they introduce a few filmsim elements into it and I think it was run very well. We had to arrive early as one of the guys was helping with the car park as we had 90 players in total booked in, which is a LOT for Worthing as it's not the largest site, so my friend was helping with the car park to stop it becoming a nasty mess as it usually does. I brought the KJW m40a5 (as usual) and the MWS as a backup just in case. There was rain forecast from 11am onwards, so I decided to take the m40a5 out, but if the scope was getting soaked I would come back, remove the LPVO from the MWS (it's set up as a recce rifle build) and just run it with the iron sights.
I started the day by getting on the range nice and early, before it got packed, so I could comfortably set up both rifles. The m40a5 had a new scope, so that needed zeroing, and the MWS had a new scope setup that needed zeroing and a hop up that needed setting as I had recently installed an NPAS and a 510mm barrel, so I needed to make sure it was shooting down at 1J. Managed to get them both set up, took them through chrono and got tagged; with this many players they were tagging guns (which was good!). Got all set up, safety brief done, headed out to cause some disruption.
The morning went well, with me playing a lot more aggressively than I usually do. I pushed up, taking an aggressive position watching the ridgeline at the top of the hill from their spawn, attemtping to cut off any cheeky flanking moves. With how quiet the m40a5 is, I was picking them off with them having no idea where the shots were coming from, which is always nice, and I brought the rangefinder out a few times to measure distances for shots, as some were creeping up to about 85 - 90m, and knowing exactly how far the shots were really helped me work out where I needed to aim the crosshair to adjust for wind and distance. Eventually got spotted because someone ran right up to the holly bush I had crawled under, so I had to take him out with the pistol and then transfer over to his friend who spotted me. Managed to get his head down with a few shots and then quickly crawled out of the position and ran off. The guy had no idea I had moved, so he peeked around again to look for me under the bush, but I had run about 30m off and had a clear shot on him now. Was a good exchange and really showed the importance of moving quickly once detected, as if I stayed and tried to take the fight I definitely would've lost. Moved back to another position as my team had all left the area and I didn't feel good being this far up with a bolt action, so I took a position behind a fallen tree. Continued to plink away, but the position was quickly overrun and I had to lie still next to the tree as the enemy was all around my position. Eventually one started shooting over the fallen tree, no idea I was there but it was only a matter of time so I quickly shot him, gave him a heart attack and then got traded by the half a dozen other players who were all around me. If I was in a full ghillie I probably would've remained still and just let them pass, but since I was in my hood and wearing a black t-shirt I knew it would only be a matter of time before getting spotted if I tried that.
It was raining by this point, but I managed to keep my scope dry by obsessively keeping my rifle horizontal as it wasn't raining too hard. However, I had a massive scare as I walked back to respawn as the QD mounting point in the rear of the stock fell out. With the Model Works m40 stock being so rare, there was no way in hell I'd find replacement parts. Fortunately I found the parts that slipped out and will be threadlocking them in place this evening so it never happens again (as it's a screw that goes all the way through and holds them in place). Shortly after this was lunch, so we headed back to the safe zone.
After lunch they split me and my friend onto different teams (sniper team too strong) as a bunch of people had called it quits in the (light) rain and headed home. We started with 45vs45, but by lunch it was 24vs40. After lunch the games definitely fizzled out though. With the newly rebalanced teams they didn't stay balanced for long as then a lot of our team headed home, leaving us at about 24vs15. Knowing who was on the other team, I took it upon myself to cover the rear, as I knew that some of them would sneak all the way around and nobody else was bothering to watch for it. I took one of them out as he came in from behind, clipping him with the pistol as he rushed before he could get anyone and then managed to hunt one of the ghillies down who had spent about an hour and a bit painstakingly sneaking around the trail of respawning players from our team. I know how rough it feels when that happens as I've been on the receiving end a few times, but I wasn't about to let him silently take out my team from behind, even if they might've deserved it with how little care they seemed to have for their own flanks
Anyway, I continued my patrols on that side, before moving up to help defend as our team was getting pushed at a base we were meant to hold. I took one player out as he came up, seeing his friend had crossed over the path I started to reposition to take him out as well and... friendly fired. I get shot by about 4 of my own team. Thanks guys... Anyway, I head back to respawn and we've now lost that base as the guy who slipped across the path took all of them out (didn't even feel bad about that. It's karma!), so I crept my way back. I managed to take up a hidden position looking into the base, but didn't want to be detected so I waited for my targets to start shooting before I'd thread shots through the bushes to take them out. As I was doing this, another guy on our team had pushed from the other side and retaken half the base, so we now had them in a pincer and it didn't take long for the two of us to clear out the rest of the base. Excellent, we had contol again so I crawled out and started moving up and... shot in the back by the EXACT SAME GROUP WHO FRIENDLY FIRED ME THE FIRST TIME ?. I think I find it so annoying because I make sure to PID my targets before shooting and it's incredibly rare I do any friendly fire, so getting hit by the same people, despite being the only person in my kit setup on the entire site (black t-shirt and an uncrafted cobra hood) was rather irritating.
Third time was the charm as I moved up yet again after being shot by my team. I managed to get into a position I like taking to defend that base and held it until the game ended, plinking a few targets along one of the flanking paths. Wasn't too much time left in the game anyway and I was about ready to pack up anyway. Definitely need to clean the m40a5, as the bolt wasn't acting as it should right at the end of the day, so I think some dirt got into it at some point. All in all it was a good day and it was well run with very little cheating observed my me, though I heard there were a few teflon players and some other players who didn't feel like walking all the way back to respawn, but they were dealt with by the marshalls. Managed to go the full day with the m40a5, despite the rain, as I kept the scope dry all day. However, the one take away I have from today is to just buy some flip up scope covers. During wet weather I think they'll be invaluable keeping my sniper rifle in the fight.
