Chock

People who say that camo does not work in airsoft do not understand what the full purpose of camouflage actually is. Yes it is intended to help one blend into the average background of the terrain one is in, but that is in not its only purpose, it has several others. These being, recognition of friendly troops so you know who is whom and don't engage your buddies, and aiding in delaying target acquisition and range finding, by breaking up recognisable outlines, the latter being perhaps the most important factor. A classic example of the latter, is the splinter camouflage found on many WW1 and WW2 battleships; nobody was seriously expecting those paint jobs to actually hide a battleship, but they knew that when enemy gunners looked through their scopes at ships painted in such a way, it was considerably harder for them to determine the type of ship, its length and height on their stadimetric rangefinder scope reticules, because the pattern was breaking up the vessel's outline, so they would be slower in sending accurate range data settings to the guys fusing the shells and adjusting the elevation of the guns. The well known saying, 'thrice blessed is he who gets in the first hit' had a real meaning for the people in those old battleships painted in schemes which made enemy gunnery more difficult, since one accurate shot before the other guy could even fire at all, was often the deciding factor in a battleship engagement. The same is true in airsoft much of the time; all other things being equal, it's often the player who fires first who is going to win the engagement. So, when it comes to picking a camo scheme which you hope will work in two environments, you might find the criteria of 'what works against the typical background of the terrain' cannot be suitably addressed, but the other two criteria of 'recognition between friendlies', and 'breaking up familiar outlines', most certainly can. Because of that, I would suggest that a scheme which breaks up outlines more effectively on the more open ground would be the better choice, since that is the one where there will be more opportunities for snipers, and anything you can do to slow a snipers's process of spotting, determining range and taking a shot, will pay greater dividends in that terrain than it would in other locations where the sniper ranges may be closed down. You may also consider what people you regularly team up with are wearing as another criteria which will aid in teamwork, but since that is not something which can be entirely relied upon, I'd say it was a less important consideration. It's worth noting here, that one of the main issues with all camouflage, is that generally speaking, it tends to be a too dark to work at longer ranges, where terrain colours fade with distance, so that's something you might want to consider too, i.e. you may well find that a desert camo, whilst not being the typical colour you'd find in most quarries, is at least not going to be dark against stone colours which are being illuminated by a lot of sunlight.

75 quid including postage is not bad for an AK with a decent interior I guess. That's getting into the kind of price range much lesser guns on BB websites go for. If they knock it out in two tone, it could potentially dent some BB gun website's sales.

Their skirmish site has closed already? I thought they only set it up a few weeks ago. Shame, I was looking forward one day to going there with my SVD with the PSO on it and nailing a load of people with Double Eagle, Black Viper and Bulldog M4s with complete impunity as their fire from bulldog .2 BBs rocketed off in all directions.

Another one joins the Dark Side... Good choice, after all, several thousand terrorists/freedom fighters, the entirety of most Eastern European and Central American armies, plus most of SE Asia's armed forces can't be wrong.

Welcome aboard. Sensible to go for a black loadout for CQB, although when it is dark, I'm sure you've noticed from other players wearing it, that you can easily get away with camo gear, which means if you are planning to go to woodlands sites, you can start picking up the odd bit of camo here and there and using it anyway. In doing CQB, you have doubtless realised the importance of being able to get to stuff easily and quickly when at close quarters, when you often have to switch weapons quickly and occasionally reload them quickly too, so you'll already know that 'taking the kitchen sink with you' and having tons of pouches everywhere, is often a hindrance rather than a help in CQB, but less so in outdoor fights. In woodland skirmishes there's invariably a little bit more time to 'get your sh*t together', since the range starts off long and you can usually control how quickly it closes down, so there's quite often less of a rush to switch to pistols, and more cover to enable you to do that and things such as reloading, at a comparatively leisurely pace as opposed to in CQB. You've no doubt also already noticed that reusable timed and impact grenades can be game changers in CQB, whereas people are less inclined to be lobbing their 80 quid grenades about in woodland, where they can easily be lost, so one off pyro grenades and in particular, smoke, are the things which can change matters dramatically outdoors. Not to mention the fact that CQB sites are very often semi-auto only and in some locations pistols only, whereas in woodlands, you'll be contending with snipers, more full auto fire, and much higher FPS limits, and all the things that engenders, such as possibly different protective gear, for example goggles with better peripheral vision than you can get away with in CQB (and indeed better resistance to hits, since a sniper rifle can be hitting at 500fps). There's certainly more chance of being flanked and having pincer movements pulled on you than there is in most CQB situations, so a good peripheral view is more of a factor. If you think about that kind of thing, and consider the way a fight is likely to take place with two teams closing on one another in a forest with bushes for cover and lots of opportunities for good camouflage, the sort of things you might want to consider picking up in terms of equipment becomes fairly apparent.

What you could do, is get some upgrades which will still be usable for when (note when, not if) it breaks, because it almost certainly will break sooner rather than later. So don't waste money on trying to tart it up internally, just use its capabilities to best advantage, by doing the following, none of which will be a false economy... So, a decent sight will be usable on a new gun just as much as it will on that thing, a decent three-point sling will too, as will a tactical light and a tactical front foregrip, none of these items need to cost too much money, none require a UKARA, and all will easily be usable on a new gun when you get hold of one. All will at least make the gun a bit more usable, i.e. you can spend some time zeroing the sight in, to shoot more accurately, a three point sling will allow you to get it into your shoulder quicker and make it less of a pain in the ass to carry, a tac light is useful for indoor CQB, whatever gun you happen to be using, and a tactical foregrip will improve your accuracy and speed up you acquisition of targets, and you can put the thumb switch for the tac light onto it with some gaffer tape.

Sanded the crappy two tone blue off my new A47's furniture, to reveal a pale tan coloured ABS, which was sort of okay, but I didn't like it much, so decided to give it a coat of X-26 acrylic to give it that slightly dodgy Eastern European lacquered look. That's the nice thing about painting and varnishing the furniture on AKs, RPKs etc, the sloppier the job you make of it, the more authentic is looks. I actually really like the look of this thing now, might take it to CQB next week for a piss take

Among the many things I teach professionally, is web design, so, HTML, CSS and Javascripting, as well as pure plain coding. The truth is, pro web developers will use anything which gets the job done quickly, and that certainly does include pre-coded plug ins. A lot of the time, they will use PHP or other languages, rather than HTML, but you would be surprised how many pro developers do use Dreamweaver (and all the plug ins you can get for it), Muse and Adobe's Edge stuff, some will even use Flash and then use the Wallaby plug in to convert it from SWF to HTML 5, CSS and Javascript. The main thing is, checking to see if it works properly and quickly on a variety of Browsers and particularly mobile devices, and if it does that, then what you use to create it does not matter. It used to be the case that developers were concerned about very compact and concise code, but now everyone has fast web connections, if the code is a little bit longer because it is using a plug in, it hardly matters, since it will come down the pipe fast anyway. Some useful links for anyone having a bash at it and wanting to learn some stuff: http://www.littlewebhut.com (free HTML, Javascript and CSS tutorials) http://www.w3.org (the official HTML arbiters, with info on all the latest coding standards) http://teamtreehouse.com/join/first-week-free?utm_source=google&cid=1027&as_clid=297355d4-6045-4844-8f45-bcbd75433c5b:team%20treehouse:e:g:1t1&gclid=CJm737XNpMMCFQcewwodT6EA6w (not free, but well worth a subscription - which is only about a tenner a month - if you wanna learn how to design web content easily. These are almost certainly the best web tutorials there are on the 'net, although you might think you are watching the Disney Channel at some points when you see the presenters) https://www.emailonacid.com (also not free, but excellent for checking cross browser compatibility)

MP5K, £69.19 including postage: http://www.taiwangun.com/en/g-5k-galaxy?from=listing&campaign-id=14 These are pretty good, I have one and it's actually a pretty good gun for the price, although the battery space is minimal and with the battery in place the (dummy, but movable) cocking handle cannot move at all since the battery fouls its movement. It's only suitable for CQB since, like all MP5Ks, you couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with one at anything past 150 feet, and that 200 rnd mag will empty bloody quick on auto, but for the money it's hard to beat, and yes, they are very robust. Well suited to shooting people in the face from thirty feet away in CQB situations lol If you want an (included) sight on it, for about 80-odd quid inc P&P, they do this one too: http://www.taiwangun.com/en/3-in1-cqb-set-g-5k-galaxy?from=listing&campaign-id=14 Mind you, putting a precision sight on an MP5K is like putting an ashtray on a motorbike

Welcome aboard

Same as mine. Yes they are very good boots, but be sure to order the right size if you go for it, and if you are unsure of a size (i.e. not sure if you want a 9 or a 10), then err on the larger side because you could always wear thick socks, but if they're too small, you're screwed lol. Although if you take a trip to a local surplus store, you might find something cheaper and will at least be able to try em on, so if that means waiting til weekend, then I'd advise waiting.

Okay, to explain a bit. Yes there are 'free' websites you can get, and indeed 'free' hosting, but as you probably know, there's very little that is truly free in this life, so there's always a caveat to 'free' stuff. In the case of websites, what 'free' invariably means is the following... 1. feck all bandwidth (so it'll be slow and unsuitable for any kind of high traffic or commercial activity) 2. you'll not be able to have a decent domain name attached to it, so again, not ideal for any kind of commercial venture, so the domain name you end up with does not look good and does not inspire buyer confidence, when it is something along the lines of: www.freewebsitehostingforanythingyoulikeatall.com/freeuser6789210/freepage/index/blahblah/etc as opposed to something like: www.alanbradbury.co.uk which is obviously a bit more snappy and which only cost me a tenner for three years. 3. free hosting sites most often do not allow commercial ventures on them, since they want you to pay for the service. 4. there's very little promise as to how stable the service is, since there's not much of a contract involved, and since you are not paying anything, you can hardly complain if it goes down. 5. no support if there is a technical issue. So, what you really want is a commercial hosting package, and to pay for a domain name. Now, you should bear in mind that you do not have to be some kind of web HTML wizard to create a site if you do go with a commercial hosting package, because for one thing, they give you telephone support and often have many tools offered for free to help you create the thing and get it up and running. With that in mind, here's what you should do... Go to the link I posted earlier on this thread and on the main page, check to see if the domain name you want is available in the 'Domain Name Search' box. You will find that the suffix can affect the price of a domain name, so if you wanted joesmith.com, it might be more expensive than joesmith.org, or joesmith.net or joesmith.co.uk etc. From there, you can see if a, it is available, and b, how much it would cost you to buy that domain name for typically something like 1-3 years (it'll be about a tenner, maybe a score if it's a dotcom). Next you look at the hosting packages. The things to look for are: how many email addresses you get, how much bandwidth does it offer, how many web addresses will it support (since you can get multi-domain hosting), does it allow commercial usage and all that kind of stuff. Notice that if you pay up front for 12 months' hosting, it is a bit cheaper than paying monthly and so on. You'll find that you can get something along the lines of 50Gb of storage (that's for any files of pages of your website you upload to the host server, and unless you are planning on rivaling Amazon, 50Gb will be plenty), unlimited traffic bandwidth (i.e. loads of people can visit your site and download files etc), a free domain name, and one domain name hosted (i.e. one web address) for about 4 quid a month (if you pay monthly that is, it'll be a bit less if you pay for a year in one go). So, if you went for that and purchased it, you'd have your domain name and the hosting sorted, so now what you'd need is the website to upload to the server. Now, a site can be real simple (i.e. it could just be one page), or is could be many pages with a navigation menu and all kinds of stuff all over it. Web pages are (typically) written in HTML code (that'd be hypertext markup language), which is a fairly simple coding language which browsers such as Firefox and Internet Explorer can read and then format into your web page' layout. Here's an example of a real basic web page in HTML code: <!doctype html> (this bit defines it as being in HTML 5, which is the latest version of HTML code) <html> (this defines the start of the page) <head> (this is the header section start, which contains information for the web browser) <meta charset="utf-8"> (this bit tells the browser what character set to use) <title>My Airsoft Blog</title> (this is the title of the web page, it displays at the top of the browser window and is also something search engines check for, when someone does a search on Google etc) </head> (this is the end of the head section, notice that the word head has a forward slash in front of it, which is the HTML code language for 'end', the 'head' bit is what is known as a tag, and tags are what format the content of a web page) <body> (this is the start of the main bit of the page) <strong>Chock is being very helpful here, isn't he?</strong> (this text is surrounded by 'strong' tags, which would make that text display in bold type) </body> (this is the end of the 'body' section) </html> (this is the end of the HTML file) If I saved the above with the name index.html, it could be uploaded to my host server and linked to a domain name (via a control panel you get access to when you log in to your hosting service's website). And that's it, you'd be done. All it would have on it was one line of text in bold, but it'd be up there for all to see. So, what that tells you, is that HTML is pretty simple, but in most cases, you don't have to learn much of it, because most web hosting places have 'drag and drop' type website creation tools which let you do all the website layout purely visually, and they write the code for you. It's handy to know a bit of code of course, but it isn't strictly necessary. Hope that demystifies it a bit.

Money sent to you for one patch (£8.47). Now, Keep Calm and F*** Off

Don't really have time to create it myself, got a lot on, but I can answer the odd question if you need it answering. A lot of the answers depend on how fancy a website you need; you can knock up simple websites in Photoshop or Notepad on a PC if you know some HTML code, but if you needed things such as videos, animations, shop interfaces and the like, then it gets trickier to do it yourself and if you don't know much about it, it is a bit of a learning curve.. To get started on what you need to look for, I'd have a look here: https://www.names.co.uk They can host your site for 3.99 a month and a domain name will only cost a tenner or so, although if you host with them, they do actually give you a domain name for free. See also their header on the main page entitled 'Create a Website', which gives you an inroad to creating a site with no previous knowledge.

My JG A47 arrived in the post yesterday. Quite nice when you actually have hold of the thing, especially considering it was less than a hundred quid including postage. Apart from the fact that it has a curved AK-style mag (albeit shorter), it does look a lot like a Romanian PSL. The rear stock is perhaps a little bit on the flimsy side and could do with reinforcing a bit (not a tricky task, so I'm certainly gonna do that), but the rest of it, being metal, seems very robust. The ABS fore grip is certainly on there a lot more securely than the fore grip on the A&K SVD and doesn't creak like the A&K fore grip does. Propped up next to my A&K SVD, it's about one and a half inches shorter than the SVD, but it weighs considerably less, in spite of the fact that it has a metal bipod. It's surprising to note that it's not too nose-heavy either, which I thought it might be, given that the rear stock is only hollow ABS and it has all that very long metal up the front end. What's nice is the fact that there is some internal structure inside the fore grip, so unlike a lot of AEG AKs and SVDs with no gas return tube, there is no glaringly obvious gap visible through the fore grip vent holes. With the crappy two tone blue (paint) removed from the furniture (oven cleaner and brake fluid here we come), and that furniture made to look a bit more Romanian as far as wood colour goes, I think it might look quite cool. Like the SVD, it's certainly a very imposing looking thing, and I'm looking forward to giving it a whirl in woodland, since it will be nice to have something 'DMR/sniperish' which can go full auto. Mods to come I suspect will include a drum mag, an AK side rail and raised mount, removing the built in rear sight, and something along the lines of a Nikko-Sterling 3-9x50 scope on the thing on high mounts attached to that AK-style side mount, unless anyone knows of something which looks more like an LPS TIP2 that is suitable for airsoft engagement ranges.

I go for the best setting for consistency rather than the best setting for range, because if you know where the shots are going to go, you can adjust the range by moving the aim point up or down. On my M4s, I only use open sights and in fact I often fold the the front sight down and line the rear sight up with the U shape left by that gap where the front sight would be. That's not going to be everyone's preference of course, but it seems to work for me, because I like to push up. And I guess that's the key really; set it up so it works best for you. Strictly speaking of course, assault rifles (or at least the first ones such as the STG and the AK) were never intended to be for pinpoint accuracy, they were about keeping people's heads down so that you could move a squad up, pin the enemy down and get into grenade tossing range, hence the name assault rifle. So you should regard an assault rifle as one part of your equipment, and grenades as its partner, because that is how an assault rifle is meant to be used. A sniper rifle or a DMR is a different story of course, but the important point with those is the consistency of shot too, because unlike with a real sniper, it's unlikely that you will have a spotter making windage and ballistic drop correction calculations for you in a fight, you need to know where that round is going to go all by yourself. So, what you need to be aware of, is the typical range you are likely to engage people at, at the site you go to regularly. So, pace that distance out, then go to somewhere where you can set up a target at that same range, this may in fact be done at the airsoft site itself, since you can always get there early, and do this whilst awaiting a morning brief or, when the lunch break is on. What is helpful, is to have someone with a PMR radio alongside your target whilst you zero the rifle in, calling corrections, because that saves you tramping back and forth to check where the hits are going. If you don't have radios, then work out a signalling system, such as pointing in the direction the shot is off in, and of course one for cease fire, or you will not be popular lol. Take something like a piece of cardboard and mark rings on it with a felt tipped pen, and be sure to also take something to secure it properly, because even in a light breeze it will be blowing around if not secured properly. Make sure the scope is fitted securely too, otherwise if it moves on the mount, it will all be a wasted effort, so take a notepad and write down any settings you adjust on the sight or any of the mount screws, you can mark the adjustment dials with tippex if you like, which does help. If you are sniping, sort your ammo out manually as well, wash it too, since a lot of ammo is covered in stuff such as mold release compound (which is a bit like soapy detergent), and that will affect consistency of shots if some BBs have that on them and others don't. Other than that, it's just a tedious: shot, correction, shot, correction, until it's zeroed okay.

I reckon that'll be okay. As you say, it's staying under 350 on Blasters, so just stick with them and you'll be fine, it'll probably drop to 330ish after you've stuck a few mag's worth through it anyway, and you may find that it will drop more if you faff about with the hop up setting, since hop up tends to slow the fps but lengthen the range, because of the contact it makes with the BB when inducing backspin. As Happy said, for CQB you'll be more capable with a pistol alongside your rifle, so if you take one, then make sure it is one that's easy to get in and out of a holster (or at a push, a pocket of some combat pants). Before you go, get into all your gear and arrange it so that your rifle sling is not in the way of drawing a pistol, because you will need to switch weapons quickly at times. If you don't have a fancy pistol, even a 20 quid springer is better than no pistol at all when doing CQB. I've actually had quite a few CQB kills with a springer pistol and I do in fact usually have one on my loudout despite having some fancy electric and gas blowback pistols. I know I'm not the only one to do so either, because the one thing you can say about springers, is that they are so simple internally, they likely won't fail you at an awkward moment.

Difficult to say whether it could be regarded as unprofessional if we don't know what the profession is, and you do also mention some kind of 'clearance' issue too. For example, if you were a bereavement counsellor or an undertaker, I could see how publicly available pictures of you dressed in combat gear with a rifle might be regarded as unprofessional if they could easily be located by some kind of work connection, since you could end up having to deal with someone who had a friend or relative who had been killed in a war or something like that, so it would not exactly be very sensitive of somebody to be dressed up like Rambo under those circumstances. On the other hand, I think most would regard Facebook as your own personal business, and if somebody I'd dealt with at work looked me up on Facebook and saw pics of me dressed in combat gear and got upset about it, I'd say that's their tough luck really, since my Facebook page is bugger all to do with my work. Trouble is, much of employment law leaves employers to make up their own rules about what is acceptable behaviour, although if they start adding stuff after the fat that was not in your employment contract, then they might be on shaky ground with their complaint.

Aaah, the scientific approach

As Straffham says, it is probably just a bit of crap or possibly some distortion on a BB jamming things up, and giving the mag a smart tap on a hard surface will probably free things up. You don't have to hit it too hard, just do it a bit like you would do with a real magazine when you smack it on your helmet, to make sure it won't jam, before popping it in the weapon. If that does not work, try getting a drinking straw down through the feed hole to dislodge the jam, just see if you can use it to push the top BB back a little then release and see if that sorts it out.

Welcome aboard. Not exactly on your doorstep, both being roughly 25 miles away from you: http://www.swindonairsoft.co.uk/ http://www.badgertac.com/products/ Perhaps you could contact them and see if they know sites near to you?

Just make sure that you reinforce the front glass if you end up getting an expensive scope; the last thing you want is a BB taking out a nice scope. Pretty easy to do if you get some polycarbonate sheet and cut a circle out with a Dremel, then fit it over the glass, and you'll get a few out of an A4 sheet too, so you don't have to worry about a replacement if it gets scratched. Don't forget to add a rubber buffer behind it so that it doesn't slap back into the lens and mark it if your protective perspex takes a hit, you can use an old cycle inner tube to make that, or any other similar material you have lying about. Alternatively, you could make it wider than the tube so it can't push back and secure it with something like black electrical tape, but that would perhaps spoil the look of a nice scope unless you did a real neat job. Inexpensive polycarbonate here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clear-Solid-Polycarbonate-Sheet-thick/dp/B002USWXJQ

Got highs, mids and lows, all of which offer pros and cons, so I use whatever floats my boat on that particular day. Having said that, with airsoft rifles, and even smgs, we don't have the accuracy, range or penetration of the real weaponry, and sometimes people don't feel a hit, so we typically need a few more rounds to get a hit than you would with the real weapon, especially in woodlands, where even a leaf or twig can stop a round, which if it was the real weapon firing, wouldn't make much difference at all. That's never that much of an issue for me, because I prefer firing on semi-auto most of the time, with aimed double or triple taps and would probably only select full auto if someone needed me to keep someone's head down whilst they ran for cover or some such, so I can cheerfully get by with low caps, but for those who like to auto fire more often, I would say that mid capacity mags probably offer an experience more akin to the real thing, when we take that lack of range, accuracy and penetration with airsoft weapons into account, i.e they offer enough ammo to compensate for the shortcomings of airsoft weapons, but not the stupidly overpowered ability to cap off 300 rounds from what is supposed to be an assault rifle with a thirty round mag and a barrel that would almost certainly be on fire if it had 60 rounds go through it in one burst. In addition to that, I tend to regard having a speed loader in a vest pocket as the equivalent of carrying bandoliers or fast loading stripper clips (but without the weight fortunately), so even if I had just three or four low cap mags on me, I'd still basically have enough ammo to reload two or three of those, and that is definitely what I do with GBBs, because those mags can get pretty expensive, and unlike on the real battlefield, our GBB mags are heavy even when empty and are not really disposable either.

Got mine here, £3.95: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251639929323?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

You could possibly ask if a skirmish site staff member who knows you and your parent are regulars at the site can verify that fact with a local airsoft shop. Not sure if they would do that, nor if a shop would accept that as proof that the sale of a RIF was for use as an airsoft skirmish weapon, although it would be entirely legal for them to sell a RIF in that way so long as they were sure of that proof, so there's no harm in asking.