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It's great to see this being observed. I always say that 2 minutes is important, it's 2 minutes the fallen will never have and for 1 Sunday a year 2 minutes isn't asking much from people.

This one is a week late as it was last Sunday that me and the boy visited the Gaol in Oakham. With news of their precarious future I rushed to get a booking in for November, fortunate that I did since most (if not all by now) of their remaining dates for 2025 are full. It has always been on our list, but the common refrain of ‘we should go there one day’ meant we never got round to it. We arrived later than planned due to bad planning and the place was packed as it was a sell out day. Nonetheless we found a space to set up and the staging area (in what I assume are the old administrative buildings of the prison) are well equipped, even if they do look like the backdrop to a public information film from the 80s. The games started with by far the longest briefing of any airsoft site I’ve been to. As it was my first visit I didn’t mind too much but I could imagine as a regular it would drag. Still it must work for them as the general conduct of play was some of the best I’ve experienced and everyone whether new or regular knew what they were doing. I’m not a snooty mil-simmer, but everyone knowing the basics of cover, movement and controlled fire really helped to sell the immersion when sweeping through corridors and clearing rooms. Mix of games revolving around moving and static objectives were played. I won’t describe them in detail as it never comes across as well in text, but I will say that the Gaol is a really challenging site. Most airsoft games tend to be won by force of will as much as by tactics, with the most aggressive play usually resulting in the win, but the Goal requires a lot more planning and coordination. There are a myriad of routes around the site and in and out of buildings, some incredibly hard to breach defensive positions and a maze of corridors to navigate. Ambush, flanking and friendly-fire are all likely, sometimes simultaneously. The skill ceiling is sometimes pretty low for airsoft sites, but I think the Goal would encourage you to become a much better player as a regular. I took my Ghetto Blaster which ran flawlessly despite being chilly, switching to my backup M906 in the afternoon just because I’d charged the batteries I didn’t want to bring them home full. The boy brought the £20 boneyard Double Eagle (that’s now 4 Double Eagle products we own!) shotgun I bought him a couple of days earlier - surprising it ran like a champ all day and now seems to be his new favourite.

Not played for a few weeks due to general life busyness so really enjoyed stretching the legs at Apocalypse yesterday. It was quieter than usual with around 100-120 players but weather was foggy and cold to start and it was Remembrance Sunday so a few regulars and Marshalls had other duties. 2 min silence at the game brief which was very respectful. Took the G3 DMR, MP5 and SIG 226 and had issues from the start. Trigger on the G3 was intermittent following its MOSFET upgrade, apparently the optical trigger sticker doesn't like the shiny white LCT plastic sector switch plate, one day I will play a full game with this gun and bring it home working but its not this day! Switched to the trusty MP5, unusually for me I took the electric drum mag. I usually carry a few mid caps but I'm trying to decide if I need a LMG so I thought I would play a limited support gunner role (2 second bursts, etc etc) Drum worked fine for the first hour then stopped winding. I changed the batteries and messed around but I couldn't get it working so ran the 2x mid caps I found in the bottom of my bag for the rest of the day. Second hand £50 WE Sig 226 shot perfectly. First game was fall back and we were defending, started in the village which we held for a long time. I parked in the centre of the village with a couple of mates and we held our building for what felt like a long time. I stayed low and in the shadows and held the attacking team back from my doorway while the guys covered the windows. Eventually they found a sight line we couldn't cover and we had a grenade come through the window. After the walk back to spawn we held the edge of the village but got pushed back to no mans land. Lost no mans land quite quickly as there's limited cover and we were snipper/DMR picked off. Had a magical LMG moment when 5 guys tried to flank us to the right and I took them all down on full auto. I missed the final fall back to stockade as the drum mag stopped feeding but heard it was an epic fight with the attacking team winning in the last minute. A few players on our team were a bit salty about loosing, I don't think my cosplay soldiers with toy guns enthusiasm helped. Second game was rescue the downed pilot, he was our 'hostage' to start and we got ripped apart. The reds snipping team did an epic job of picking us off. I had limited ammo 200 ish rounds in the MP5 and 60/70 in my pistol so hid up and played a stealthy game. I thought I did well until they called the end of game and 6 red players stood up right on top of me, I recon I had another 2/3 minutes before they filled me full of lead or plastic? After a second defeat half our team up and left, to be fair we were spanked in the second game but hey at least I was having fun. Third game started with a team rebalance, I think we were down to about 15 players at this point vs 30 or so reds. Given the limited numbers we went back to village for a CQB domination game. I tried to get back to the building from the first game but was to slow and we held for a while but were pushed back, it was fast and frantic with lots of up close and personal kills, a brilliant run from one of the reds with only his Pit Viper cleared our building out. When we got back from re spawn we were grenade killed quickly and that was that. Forth game was a re run of the third with the winning team being the one with their flag in the oil drum. We got their first and held for a while but eventually got pushed back. When it got to around 4pm it was getting dark and teams were down to around 10 on each side so they called it. Personally had a great day, lots of contact and a few different game styles which I really enjoyed. I am annoyed by the gun gremlins and will get to the point where I take the G3 to a game and have it work all day.

WET

Sorry, I'm just going through messages now giving people updates, I have a lot of work/messages to catch up on. For everyone else reading, Viva have informed me that the shipment has been delayed until December, due to hand processing of the stock taking longer than expected. Apologies to everyone who has placed an order, I will keep asking Viva for updates. We've waited years for a Bren, dare I say a few more weeks is not the end of the world... 🤞 But nonetheless, I know it's a lot of money so I'm keen to get these in ASAP. The November date is what I was previously advised by Viva Arms earlier in the year.

I have an A&K M249 Para. When it feeds it's great fun, but it is a heavy beast to lug about. Unlike the average carbine/rifle, there is NO point in chasing ultimate accuracy or rate of fire; the whole point of the things is to lay down a field of suppressing fire. The main thing to concentrate on is a) does it feed, and b) do I have the strength/stamina/sheer bloody-mindedness to lug it about all day.

Long as it's not just me, I'll wait till it's sorted and catch up then. Thanks.

I can't leave feedback at the moment, or is it just me? Had 2 great purchases from here recently from battlegirlA and QHDCSX.

A good look in this TM video of how the new system operates

Even Canada would be ringing the people in Geneva about that.

Following the rather less than wonderful experience last time out, I set out on a cold and foggy morning for Airsoft Plantation. The site was not quite as busy as usual, with probably only about 100-120 players present. For once, I didn't have any guns to test and set up, so my pre-game experience was rather more relaxed than it generally has been of late, leaving me time to chat with other regulars, the site owner and Luke, one of the marshals, who was also at Splatoon last time out. The first game of the day was a fallback. Starting at Swaziland, we had to drive the enemy out of the DEA base and then push on to get five players onto the bus located at the back of the mortar pits. We had infinite buddy regens after a 30m fallback, while the defenders had three lives to take wherever they chose after a 30m fallback. I started off on our right flank, pushing up along the site boundary with a group of players and flanking the DEA base; we managed to take out a lot of defenders to our left, although our advance was slowed by a couple of very annoying snipers. Having cleared the DEA base and after an impeccably observed two minutes silence starting at 11:00, we pushed on to the mortar pits, where everything bogged down a bit. We slowly fought our way in against tough resistance; I was particularly pleased with a flashbang that I lobbed over some bushes which I thought a couple of the enemy were hiding behind; after a shout of "Oh, fuck!" and a loud bang, seven of them walked out with their hands up. As we moved forward, I used the SR47's range and accuracy to help neutralise the defenders on the bus by making it too dangerous for them to appear at the open windows. Eventually, five of our players made it onto the bus. Huzzah! After the usual short break to reload, the game was turned around; suspecting that some of the enemy might try to sneak through the scrubland along the edge of the firebreak, a small group of us took up position in and around the fort. They did indeed do so and we had a great set of firefights, along with more lobbing of some of the 16 flashbangs that I won in one of AP's raffles a few weeks ago. Inevitably, I was eventually hit and retreated to a position behind one of the berms, from where I picked off enemy players who showed their heads above the fort's crenellations and those trying to force their way around by the comms truck. Being hit again, I was falling back when there was a shout that the enemy were attacking in force from the other side of the mortar pits. Moving over there, I found a spot behind a car from where I was able to interdict their movements across my front until a couple of snipers appeared, one of whom potted me. The enemy completed their mission. After luncheon, which as usual, was delivered delivered very efficiently, we walked out to the mortar pits for our own commemoration of WWI, a very short game with the two teams lurking behind facing berms and, after the application of copious amounts of pyro by the marshals, having to "go over the top" towards each other. It could have been trivial, but it was actually quite thought provoking. After that, we played another fallback game; we started at the border, with infinite regens on a marshal, while the defenders had one life in each of the village and the mortar pits. Our objective was to clear the village and then capture the bridge in the mortar pits. We pressed forward against a stiff resistance, which involved me making multiple trips back to regen on Luke, which is always a somewhat disturbing experience. After a hard fight, we pushed into the village and cleared it; myself and another player then swept the village, making sure that no defenders had been left behind. Having done that, we followed our colleagues towards the mortar pits and were moving into the fort, which rather dominates the bridge, when an enemy player popped up and shot a load of us in the back; clearly, our sweeping of the village was not as effective as it could have been! Having regened again, we joined the push towards the bridge, which was duly taken. This game was duly reversed and I found myself on our extreme left, lurking behind the hut in front of the still dried up pond; in the pond were a sniper and a couple of other players. It was a great position, from which I was able to slow down the attack by sending a large number of attackers back to find a marshal to regen on. As the pressure grew, the players in the pond bugged out; I was unable to do so, so I sold my life dearly. Crossing the firebreak, I moved into the brushland with a few comrades in case some of the enemy swept through that way; quite a few of them did and we had a running fight with them, engaging them to slow them down before pulling back to new positions. We held them at bay, but another group to our right eventually pushed through to the bridge, ending the game. It was a typical AP day of well thought out games which engaged both the experienced players and the fairly large number of rentals, played in a good spirit apart from the couple of typical tiny tantrums that seem to happen whenever grown men play with toy guns. Weapons used: Hurricane Kit SR47 Golden Eagle AMD-65 ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

Probably something to do with the imminent "upgrade", with a lot of features being migrated to the new set up ?

Indeed! It was rather impressive really. As the site is so large, the beginning and end of the two minutes were each signalled by a single shot from a blank firing pistol so that everyone got the message at the same time. I will be observing two minutes again tomorrow. Those cheap DE shotguns are surprisingly good.

Maybe the Specna flex offerings, in Polymer be another (lighter) option? I might presume (but don't know for certain) that they are effectively polymer versions OEM'd by A&K? Edited: I see that you are actually after a heavyweight option!

If you can't find a taper barrel the right length, you could try one of these: https://www.firesupport.uk/gp-taper-outer-barrel-adaptor-for-aeg.html and a regular barrel.

Me either m8

That does sound familiar, i certainly dont have it any more

Good to know, much appreciated.

Tbf if there's any colour scheme it should be okay to call awful and ugly, it's Baby Poop Camo. Like, Rhodesians hated it. It didn't really work. They just had no access to other paint because of the universal sanctions on them. It's hard to claim it has taste or artistic merit like.

Bloody hell they've gone up, just had a quick look and the cheapest I could find was £110.

Not only do I like wood, I of course have got wood. Not to hand at the moment though 57 years and still pending getting around to growing up

At one site where I used to marshal, a chap who became somewhat notorious in parts of the airsoft community started attending in full Waffen SS combat gear with the eagle and swastika badge and lightning rune collar tabs, accompanied by his young half-Japanese son in full HJ gear with a swastika armband. We persuaded the site owner to make them cover up or remove the Nazi emblems. After his first appearance, a bit of research revealed that he wasn't just playing at being a Nazi. He finally got the message that he wasn't wanted and never came back. As this was many years ago now, I am content to say that his lunch always had added ingredients.

That is an immense simplification of a far more nuanced and complex situation. The policy of gradually increasing representation of non-whites in line with educational and economic development would probably have resulted in an eventual transition to majority rule as opposition to the policy decreased, with a much better outcome for everyone than what actually transpired in both Zimbabwe and the majority of other sub-Saharan African nations. The utter disaster that was and is Zimbabwe could have been avoided. Unfortunately, the rush to hand over power In former African colonies has been anything but a success. Before anyone calls me a racist or a fascist or anything similar, I am moderately left wing and very definitely not racist.

Thinking outside the box moment but... try playing without wearing any hats/ helmets/ bandana's/ wigs/ knotted hankies etc, see if it helps.

Still can't post images but here is my general thoughts summed up in the form of a meme: https://ibb.co/1GD1WqN9

I used one of these for my HPA m14. Condor split rig with the hydro harness https://www.military1st.co.uk/mcr7-001-condor-ronin-chest-rig-olive-drab.html https://www.military1st.co.uk/242-001-condor-hydro-harness-olive-drab.html Worked well for me. I don't tend to use it much these days as I don't use HPA any more and would rather have a backpack I can take on and off for my gas, ammo, water etc.

Nope 😂 Still a poor design choice in every m249 style gearbox, but it's a £3 fix at least

Never understood the fascination with the Rhodesian Armed Forces, afterall they did represent a racist apartheid state.

Storm grip and Diemaco stock arrived. Now the only question is - do I paint it or not?

Rule 5 has been active for a long time now and the vast majority of you have been adhering to it and we thank those that do For those that do not know, It's the big red banner on top of every page please click on it and read it if you're new or are returning to the site if you've been away for a while, you can't miss it, it's there when you submit advert and it says what is required within that banner without having to click on it From tomorrow (26/7/25) if I see any advert that doesn't have a piece of paper (not a tablet) with your name and date on it, not only will I be issuing a warning via the site, I'll be deleting the advert Please do not PM me afterwards with the list of excuses I have been getting whislt doing this, there is now no more excuses for not following rule 5, just take the 10 seconds it takes to write your name down and pop it in the photo The sites classifieds are here for you to sell in, it's free and it has a massive reach so please just follow that simple rule Thanks ?

Anyone heard from Ben/Raresoft the past few weeks? Sent him a message and email to find out what's going on with the BREN (He said 4 weeks, 7 weeks ago) and now radio silence 😕 Edit/Update: He was away last week, all resolved now 🙂