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at the risk of potentially giving out advice.... OP: have you considered what you're wanting to get with this £500? it's usual to have to factor in things like magazines, batteries, chargers etc for a starter purchase. reason i ask is that spending less on the gun, and more on accessories such as web gear, slings or a nice optic to partner with the gun can be just as valuable as the gun in the first place. eg a bone stock tm recoil with 1 magazine is gonna be a whole lot less useful than say a cyma platinum with a nice red dot, sling, bunch of mid caps and an odin in terms of overall skirmishability. i know i made that mistake first time, dropped all my cash on an f2000 and spent its first day out with 1 hicap and no sling, needless to say i couldn't bear to drop my new shiny toy on the ground so by the end of the day my arms were in agony.....

Good afternoon, Chris from Reading. After many years not being able to do airsoft due to a motorbike crash snapping my femur i was unable to play. Anyway got back into it now, cant believe how much has changed and the variety there is. Cheers

Off to more Namsoft silliness tomorrow. I fully intend to hoon around in more ridiculous manner than usual due to it being the last game of the year. The Cold War loadouts will soon be out. Same Imperialists, different season.

That's true, and I agree that they're the cheapest AEGs that are actually competitive in both CQB and woodland, and with a battery and charger included. It's just that for a bit more you're into Lancer Tacticals and Specna Arms Cores, with rotary hops, quick change springs, better wiring, all the good stuff. Granted, you need to buy batteries and a charger for them, but you'll want to upgrade the CYMA ones anyway. But no argument, if your budget is under £100, CYMAs will get you out there and playing.

See this:- Couple of points if I may. -Metals not all its cracked up to be. Yes it's more durable, more like the real thing etc but it's also heavier. Plastic guns are easier to wield through the day (especially for newbies). -Look for bundle deals where batts, chargers, mags etc included. Makes things easier and better value. -From personal experience, I bought a Lancer Tactical M933 as my first AEG. £100 and everything included - decent battery, decent charger, hi cap mag, cleaning rod. Many of the CYMAs also come with all the bits n bobs included and are generally excellent value.

A drop of solder in the bend can help with that.

it definately used to be a big thing with the old nicad/nimh batteries, hell you could recover serious performance with cycling them. lipo's are much less susceptible, however the key question is how much is it worth doing? eg my phone is ~7 years old now and still holds over a days charge (nearly 2), and whilst i don't use those superfast chargers it does get charged fully every night (that i remember) of course after 7 years, battery life isn't what's going to kill it, what'll kill it is the charging port wearing out to the point that i can no longer charge it, and for many consumers it's less relevant even than that, as the boredom and desire to change will kick in much earlier. for an airsoft gun? well batteries ain't too expensive and replacing them isn't exactly a difficult task, trying to eke out the maximum number of years service isn't worth anywhere near as much as it would be for say an electric car, where such worries about increasing charge rates etc are very much relevant.

I'm perfectly happy with a 455mm x "6.01mm" AOLS in a DMR. In conjunction with a full cylinder, it also lets me get >1.8J out of a slightly cut down M130 spring rather than anything more gearbox-stressing.

HK gang! Got some new sidearms and going to test them this weekend alongside my VSR. I'd usually use the m21 at this time of year since the site is still heavily overgrown and it has no MED, but want to test these thoroughly so I'll use the gun with an MED. The HK45 goes nicely into my Warrior Assault Systems universal holster, and I bought a thigh holster for the MP7 which works a treat. Don't step on this sniper 😈

From my own personal experience I don't get too hung up on bore sizing, especially with lower price cheaper barrels. If you took a bore measuring tool you'd probably find it was nowhere near the specified size lol.... As for maintenance I'd take out and clean after every game (that's just me though).

I only get to play once a month and I've never had a lipo go tits up from leaving it fully charged. In fact the only time I've had one stop working was when I discharged it too much

"Buy a TM recoil because it's got the best parts, then replace them all with bester parts." has a familiar ring to it. Where have I heard that before? 😕

you can get them from Korea. I ordered a K1 and fitted a gearbox to it. they are cheap but that's because they are made of plastic and creak worse than a TM Famas. I still like mine though. Check the link for available models. http://707arsenal.com/product-tag/ts-airsoft/

New pew! Classic Army MP5A3 because SEF lower > recoil.

start with just the rubber and nub and work from there. as a general rule unless there's anything specifically wrong with the stock unit i tend to reccommend not changing them. the pro-win units are regarded as having qc issues these days, so you wouldn't be guaranteed it'll improve anything. i'd not bother with the barrel, if you must change then the ZCI 6.02 stainless barrels are very good bang for buck but tbh i'd be putting my attention to the air seal within the gearbox. that said, if the airseal is decent (relatively low shot to shot deviation) then it's probably not worth pulling the box apart.

Would agree with this 100%. The gun is only one small part of your loadout. Think what else you need. Clothing and protection wise mainly. Not just for looks- you want something that's practical, conformable and isn't going to make you drown in sweat. What site will you be playing at, what camo or colour will work well there etc. Eye pro is your most important thing imo.

Don't spend as much as you want to spend, spend as much as we tell you to spend.

Thank you for the replys 👍

Nice review thanks dude! Drum mags are allowed on all pistols We tend to allow drum mags on other types of weapons if they are lower capped drums. Always trying to improve here so its good you didnt list anything that effects gameplay/safety. The cancellation issue was my bad. Two people who booked via a message instead of our booking system turned up I completely forgot and persoanlly appologised to them and offered a free game as an appology. They now have a good joke about it with there inner circle.. which doesnt bother me good for them . As you can expect the site costs an absolute fortune to run thats how we fell out with the shop. The other James wanted to discuss a possibilty for them to pay alittle standing fee to be on site every day and they outright refused and got their knickers in a twist. It is what it is and I got no hard feelings against those guys so good luck to them! If anyone has any suggestions shoot em my way I'll improve

Format shamelessly stolen from @Asomodai. EXTREMELY LENGTHY REVIEW. THIS SITE IS NOW PERMANENTLY CLOSED. Site Name: Echelon Airsoft Contact Details: [email protected] Website Address: https://echelonairsoft.co.uk/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/echelonairsoftuk Site Address: 19-20 Thamesgate Shopping Centre, DA11 0AU Hello all! Having now been to Echelon Airsoft's site twice, I figured it was time for this relatively new site (only open since 05/08/21) to have a review on AFUK. I'd heard mixed to negative things about the site in advance, mostly complaints about a lack of player enthusiasm in pushing up. @blobface and I played the Wednesday evening games on 18/08/21 and 29/09/21. The Site: Echelon is a medium-sized indoor CQB site, based in a defunct Debenhams in the presumably also defunct Thamesgate Shopping Centre, literally 30 feet from Gravesend train station. This is exceptionally convenient for London-based players and likely for others too; the station is 20 minutes from St. Pancras approximately twice an hour with off-peak day returns £19.30. There are a number of car parks (Gravesend station, Thamesgate Multistorey and Parrock Street) available for those travelling by car. Providing a size comparison to other CQB sites isn't that easy, but I roughly estimate it at about a third of the size of The Mall. Echelon currently offer multiple games a week; Wednesday evening games, from 18:55-22:00 (safe zone opens at 18:00). These are lights on, but the lights can be turned off if all the players agree. Thursday evening games, also from 18:55-22:00 (safe zone opens at 18:00). These are night games with the lights turned off - expect to encounter some players (though not the majority) with NV. Saturday day games, from 11:00-17:00 (safe zone opens at 10:00). Sunday day games, from 09:30-15:00 (safe zone opens at 08:30). Private games. You'll have to ask about booking those. Pistol and shotgun games. These run less frequently. The site is semi-auto only, with an energy limit of 350FPS (1.14J). It's not specified if that's actually in Joules if you're not using 0.20g BBs, but you should assume that it is; the maximum BB weight is 0.32g. No sniper rifles, DMRs, or box or drum magazines are permitted, except for drum magazines on pistols. Pyro use is limited to BFGs and Mk. Vs, and banned altogether on the ground floor because it trips the alarms of an adjacent bank. The site's in pretty good condition - clean, no rubbish or trip or hanging hazards - barring a few holes knocked in interior walls to improve gameplay. You'll probably want to bring a torch and maybe a tracer unit - there's no natural light and a few dark spaces even in the day games. Good: Location: You're not going to find a more convenient site for London players, or really anyone that can readily access a train. The site's front door is quite literally 30' from Gravesend station's exit. Game Options: The option to play an evening game after work is a much under-appreciated option for players who don't want to sacrifice half their precious weekend. Bluntly, given how much more strenuous CQB is than woodsball you may well find four hours to be just right - my friends and I were definitely tired out by the end of the evening. Night games are rarer than you'd think; regular night games indoors are almost unheard of - these are an excellent opportunity to flex your £2,000 NV, or ruin NV players' investment with a 500,000lm torch you got off AliExpress for £20. Site Layout: At present three floors of the site are largely open - the ground shop floor and warehouse second floor, which are more open with obstacles and cover breaking up the spaces, and the office third floor, which is a tight maze of small rooms and corridors. The floors were played concurrently the first time I played (half the players downstairs, half upstairs) and consecutively the second time; I imagine this depends on the number of players on the day. I don't know if Echelon plan to utilise the first floor in the future, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do, as in the six weeks between our two games smaller areas of the ground floor had already been opened up. Engagement distances are typical of CQB, ranging from bad-breath range on the third floor to up to 10-15m depending on angles elsewhere. There are obstacles to use as cover, the rooms can be accessed in multiple ways, there are little tunnels for sneaking around and the site has been carefully configured to avoid choke points (or at least I didn't experience any the second day) which means minimal time wasted stacked up on doorways. The respawn points are well placed - you won't spend more than a couple of minutes walking there and back. While the weekend games are apparently rammed the weekday ones are pleasantly lightly attended: I'd estimate maybe 30 players our second day, which was Goldilocks levels of just right. The site could easily accommodate 50-60 players if the two zones are played concurrently. Safe Zone: Hosted in the old café, it's right inside the front door. Clean, well lit and opens straight into the ground floor - no hike to the safe zone like you had in the The Mall. Reasonably large (comfortable capacity about 50 players, I should think) with plug sockets, lots of chairs and plenty of horizontal surfaces. Actual plumbed toilets, clean (and seemingly repeatedly cleaned during the day) with soap and paper towels. Safety: Solid without being over the top; the usual rules apply. The safety brief was brief, concise, covered all the salient points and was given in the safe zone where people can actually hear everything. No "humour" barring an off-colour "Allahu Akhbar" suggestion during a later bomb-objective game. All guns are chronographed at the beginning of the day and no loaded guns or dry-firing are permitted in the safe zone. I didn't see marshals doing random spot checks or checking regulators (there are more than the usual number of HPA guns), but I have no doubt if concerns were raised they'd be willing to do so, because... Marshalling: Impeccable. The marshalls were polite, patrolled the site, and including player marshals were available in abundance. They monitored the team balance and didn't hesitate to rebalance if things were uneven. There is a three-strikes rule but zero tolerance for bullshittery: the marshals told us that by the end of our second day 67 players had been banned over the life of the site, which averages out to about two per game day. I'm sure the bans are weeding out the crap players; I think a considerable number of players were banned on our first day and one on our second. Other players might find this alarming - I find it reassuring. This leads directly to... Playerbase: On our second day the players were uniformly excellent - perhaps the best I've ever played with. Aggressive in pushing up, called their hits, minimal overshooting and very, very little bitching even when players had copped a couple of bleeding welts. I didn't have a single negative interaction in the entire day. This was an improvement over the first day, where the players were generally good but marred by a couple of Teflon terminators. This is not a milsim site and you're not going to encounter much in the way of multiglam geardos (night game possibly excepted), but you will encounter a few speedsofters, although of the nice kind rather than the knee-slide overshooting SpeedQB kind (of which I think at least five got banned during our first day and won't be missed). Turnaround Time: You'll get 5-10 minutes in the safe zone between games to reload, no more, and certainly no finding half your team standing around chatting while the rest of you are getting absolutely mullered in-game. Average: Value: £25.00 for an evening game (£50.00 including rental equipment) and £35.00 for a day game (£60.00 including rental equipment) will seem steep to players used to paying £25.00 for woodsball and a free lunch. However, it would be deeply unfair not to stress the excellent value this represents compared to other urban or CQB sites, especially given that London players won't need to wake up at the crack of dawn or return in the dead of night to attend. The prices are comparable to the other (now-defunct) London sites, which were much smaller and in much worse condition. Site Shop: Limited to what you'll need on the day; BBs, propellant, pyro, cold drinks and snacks, and complimentary battery charging. No hot food, no guns that I could see. Card payments are accepted without issue, even for low-value transactions. While they don't seem to have any guns to sell you... UKARA Membership: Echelon are UKARA-registered and able to provide you with a UKARA-registered defence. Game Modes: These aren't hugely innovative (almost all find object, bring it to place, keep it there) but frankly they work well. There's not really any need to create complex objectives for players to misunderstand, and not really the room for them anyway. What you get is a simple, coherent team objective which leads to you all getting to shoot a lot of people; what more could you ask for? Bad: I really struggled to think of a downside that personally affected me (and was the site's fault, unlike my temperamental AUG) but I am aware of a couple of teething issues that you should probably be aware of. Cancellation Communication: I saw on Facebook that a few weeks ago some players had turned up to find the site not open for business; the game had been cancelled owing to a lack of bookings. You should definitely book if you intend to play to help the site gauge whether it's worth running the game day, and so they can communicate to you if the game day is not going to happen. Shop Issue: I also saw on Facebook that either on the first game day, or within the first couple of game days, there had been a major spat between the third party engaged to run the shop and the site management. That lead to the shop packing up halfway through the day and taking its rental equipment home with them. I expect this won't be repeated but it does speak to a certain lack of organisation. Conclusion: I think the second day might have been one of the best day's (well, evening's) airsoft I've ever played. As more of the site opens up and any remaining bad eggs are weeded out I expect the site and play to improve even further. I'd wholeheartedly recommend Echelon to anyone that wants to play some close-quarters CQB and I'll certainly be back. Bullpup Watch: My AUG, I think that was about it sadly. On the first day there was an AEG AUG too. Other Site Reviews CAMO CQB Skirmish Arena (Essex) Invicta Battlefield Black Site (Kent)

Welcome Aircanman, Unfortunately stock is low everywhere. There are many variants that look similar to the TRX-9 which are under £200 or even £150 so have a look what's available in the UK retailers. Patrolbase is another good place to look. CYMA and JG are good budget manufacturers. SpecnaArms: Some have reported problems but they are generally regarded good value. G&G are popular with some. I have no experience with LancerTactical so maybe someone else can comment. Stay away from Nuprol weapons, batteries, chargers. You can bet any 'special deal' from a shop including battery and charger will be more beneficial to the seller than you. If a gun comes with a battery and charger from the manufacturer then it will be enough to test and play a bit but if its going to be used regularly its always worth buying a good battery or two and decent charger. There are discussions about batteries and chargers on this forum that you can do a quick search to find.

A little tech support would be appreciated just in terms of guesses at probable cause at the very least. I've been shooting my MWS perfectly fine for almost a year now but suddenly I've started to notice every fourth or fifth bb will rocket skyward almost as soon as it leaves the barrel only for the next to be perfectly fine. In effort to troubleshoot this I've taken the gun apart in its entirety sans my BCG which I'll be taking apart this evening. I've replaced my bucking and tried alternate barrels all to no real effect. I've even tried an alternate hop unit only to have the exact same problem. It persists across every magazine I own and I've even tried alternate Ammo weights and brands. Has anyone ever run in to anythign similar? Any advice would be greatly apprecaited as I'm pulling my bloody hair out over this at this point.

As they've decided to post this more than once I'm just going to highlight the fact that the prize is worth nowhere near as much as they claim

Following as I’ve never had an issue with mine, charge them when I need them and leave them stored when I don’t. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Interesting reading. I was always under the impression that keeping Li batteries fully charged when stored was better for battery health as it stopped them degrading. My cordless drill has a Li battery and the instructions actually recommend storing it fully charged. The problems with Li batts seem to stem from keeping them on charge permanently with non-smart chargers (happens with laptop batteries). Boeing had a slot of bother with the batteries in 787s due to this happening...

Finally got my AK. A CYMA CM.040. Shoots around 320fps with .20g bbs. Hoping to give it a good run out this weekend.

Like I said elsewhere most sites cant organise a decent days skirmish with 100 players why would we expect a bunch of magazine editors to be able to run a decent game for 400 people in a site they dont run?

If I was spending £500 tomorrow as a newbie, I would get a Cyma M14 and ask a decent tech to fit a simple 'fet, tightbore and Maple Leaf bucking. IIRC a metal toothed piston is a good idea for one too. You will have a great shooting rifle for around £230 - £250. As the man above says, recoil systems etc are a pain in the nuts. A simple mosfet to protect the titchy trigger contacts on a CYMA is a good idea though I think. The rest I'd spend on decent boots, eyepro and a minimal set of webbing etc. The change I'd spend on satisfying post-game burgers, or possibly Curly Wurlys, with a chance of scotch.

My first ever leather project. I wanted old fashioned flap holster for my shadow 2 with torch. Couldn't find one so I designed and made it been using it in few games already and is still in one piece. I call that a success

Op the best out of the box gun is the one where you spend 2mins removing the upper and swapping out the hop rubber for a maple leaf 50 or 60 and the matching omega nub. This can be done by the most noobie of noobies and requires literally no skill or knowledge of AEG's to achieve. Remove two bolts, lugs. Gently pull upper forwards. Remove hop from barrel, bish bash bosh. You have the most accurate AEG achievable. Personally I would avoid recoils like the plague, they are piss poor power out the box and a whore to work on compared to every other AEG on the market. I would look at a https://www.patrolbase.co.uk/specna-arms-daniel-defense-mk18-sa-e19-edge I got one of these second hand an upgrade the hop and spring in under 5mins. It is as good as my 1k Recoil that I sold because they keep breaking after you up the power and ROF. Really any AEG with the hop upgraded is going to more accurate than any out of the box AEG and it is sooooo simple to do. SO SIMPLE! Don't drink the TM Recoil coolaid.

Does this count as 'making something'? I looked for like a general development/DIY topic but this is the closest. Magnetized the grip rubber because it uses two very long screws which take forever to get out for swapping battery etc. Worked out better than expected. Gonna chop some bolt heads off and glue them to the back so it looks like they're in.

Look mummy, I'm going to be a YouTuber.......or just send videos to my mates of me shooting them!

Finally got to run my new loadout today! Mk18 performed phenomenally, was picking off people that before I wouldn’t even have bothered at and didn’t use nearly half as much ammo as I thought I would!

It bad JuJu, you need to perform a shamanic ritual. Have you got any animals that you could use as a sacrifice?

Upper reciever basically done. will be starting on the lower soon. The v3 gearbox fits perfectly though I will need a little extension for the hop up 3d printed to make it work with m4 mags.

UKARA Police

Seems to be a common thing recently with guns being nicked. Hope they locate them all soon.

Aa doozie of an overpriced SRC MP40. Crap gun that fails often and noone has parts for and is also competing against the cheaper and better AGM MP40 which is half the price......if only it were the new GBBR it would have been a really good deal.