Rogerborg

I agree, this is one for @Sitting Duck (I think we need a third invocation to summon him) All I'd say is that with a 1.8J DMR build I went with a full cylinder for a 455mm barrel, because with DMR rate of fire, I don't have any concerns about PME or sucking when I should be blowing, and I reckon if just enough is good, then more must be better, right?

As Luke at Negative keeps noting, sometimes you just get noisy gears even with perfect shimming. I've taken to using a tin of Carlube LM2 multi-purpose grease now, because it happened to be closest to hand one day, seems to work as well as anything else I've tried, and might be reducing noise a bit. Although, again, ritual beliefs.

Agreed on the shower shells and Foo-Mikes. At ranges where you can use them, you probably shouldn't. Then again, I've never seen one actually used in game. Tags, I can really do without anything heavier than a BB being shot around. It's bad enough taking a .46g at 2J, and those whacky or explodey shells, no, I really don't fancy them. I've seen the bangy ones lobbed by marshals to add atmosphere to a filmsim, but in a general skirmish by any rando that can afford them and who is looking for every opportunity to yeet them downrange?

Tri-shotguns. You can tell yourself that the instant trigger response and BBs spread are an advantage, but at ranges where the response matters, the spread is minimal, and at ranges where you get spread, you could put a lot more BBs downrange with any auto or fully-semi-automatic AEG or gas gun. They're still hella satisfying when you get a hit, but that's from putting in the effort, not because they're particularly effective.

I've never liked dial units, there's way too much slop and slack in the gears. I'm not sure if the Modify unit is a dial or a rotary, given that it's about the worse name for a unit that you're trying to search for. I'd agree with trying a softer nub, either the Gear Parts Omega 70 - in stock, amazingly! https://www.ak2m4.co.uk/internal-parts/hop-up-buckings-nubs/omega-nub-soft-70-gear-parts - or try a standard cylindrical nub. You could also try a flat-hop style nub if you can find one, or make your own from sugru, RTV or plumber's silicone.

We all have our own rituals, but I start by shimming under[*] the spur gear until it's just clear of the gearbox and not scraping on it at all. I've not had a gearbox yet which didn't need some shims under the spur. Then I shim the bevel and sector to sit just above the spur and do spin tests with the gearbox closed and held in the same orientation, left-side down. Only then do I put shims above the gears and hold the box upright or right-side-down. I'd agree with wanting at least one 0.1mm shim on both sides of each gear to give a flat surface for the gear to spin on, unless there's literally no free play at all in it with no shimming. [*] "under" with the left hand side of the gearbox on the bench, nozzle to the right.

Their SSL/TLS security certificate is scrawled in crayon on a Blockbuster's loyalty card from 1992. Sane browsers just laugh it off, although some might give you the option to continue anyway by clicking "Yes", "Yes", "Yes, I really, really do understand the risks" about half a dozen times.

That was about 21 for me, sadly. The struggle has been real since then, I sorted myself out in my 30s with restricted hours eating, lots of cycling, and some weights, but then I made the mistake of buying a motorised bicycle, and, oops, that was that. But as God is my witness, I will see my toes again. Absolutely, which is why it's so important to find a diet that you can stick to. I'm amazed how easy it's been to drop the bad carbs, after the first week. Hunger pangs and cravings have plummeted and restricted hours eating is a doddle. There's some evidence that just 3 x 10 minutes of interval sprints a week can have most of the health benefits of regular daily exercise, although that's not for me, I prefer moderate daily cycling. I would highlight the benefits of an indoor option like an exercise bike so that you don't have an excuse to skip it in bad weather.

Oh, it was hilarious, the chrono was set to the correct BB weight, and I actually pointed at the Joules number on it. But he still insisted on looking up the FPS figure and BB weight on an app on his phone, because, uhhh, you trust the chrono's FPS number, but not its ability to do a simple piece of arithmetic with it?

It does make a lot of sense, and I've been recommending to my local site that they tape-mark DMRs in particular as otherwise there's no way for marshals and players to tell in game. I could run a lonnnng M4 at 1.1J, alongside a Mk23 pistol and barrel extended/silencer running at over 1.5J, and how are they supposed to know which one needs to respect a MED and ROF limit? (Segues into rant about Mk23s and CO2 pistols...)

I appreciate being chronoed in game, but marshals need to understand that they're looking for folk who cheated the morning chrono, not the victims of circumstance. Gas guns will creep up as the temperature rises. If you chrono first thing in the morning, gas guns that are are 0.1J under the site limit are 100% going to be over it an hour later. Either don't let them on the field, or be sure that whoever chronos them later understands this. The correct response in that case is to ask players to take it out of the game, and to offer a rental gun if you have any available, not to punt them off site. If there are multiple site chronos available, test on the one that gives the lowest reading - or else bin all of them except the one that give the highest. Grinds my gears, the number of marshals who don't know the first thing about what they're doing. [Rants about the marshal that didn't know how to read the Joules number off a chrono on a site that chronos in Joules]

Is what I wouldn't put in if you're going for a spicy ROF. Although I'm just repeating internets wisdom, for what that's good for (HUH! Absolutely nothing!)

Sort-of related, but Patrol Base seem to be getting a bit fruity in their Boneyard descriptions. I'm guessing that they're getting tired of punters whinging "but i fort it wud wurk" over and over.

It's a tricky one. Given the propensity of airsofters to clump around objectives, I'd suggest that the number of marshals needs to scale more with the site topography and objectives, not the number of players. In English, you need fewer marshals-per-player when you have more players. Which makes getting a site up and running tricky and expensive. This is off the top of my dome, I could be completely wrong about that. What I am sure about is that I'd rather have fewer, better marshals around than a mob of shruggers, phone twiddlers, or gingers.

Er, sugars are carbohydrates. If we're talking complex carbs, why load your bloodstream with sugars before you have to? There does seem to be a fair case building that insulin resistance is the slippery slope to a whole raft of common Western health woes. I'd suggest that you can tolerate more carbs, if you're burning them off. The Tsimane people are the prime example of that, doing very well on a high-fibre, complex-carb diet, but a key factor is that they're constantly active so will be using the simple sugars as fast as they're being broken down. As above, when I'm doing a day airsofting (thread relevance) I do have some carbs at breakfast, although I can also get by perfectly fine without them on my disgustang excess body fat and plenty of water. Day-to-day, I'm sitting at a keyboard, with periods of cycling. Blood sugars begone, I'll have no truck with thee. I guess anyone lucky enough to have next to no body fat does need to carb load before exertion, but how many AFUKers does that describe? Airsoft day is also bacon day. It's got electrolytes, right? That's the Big Spud lobby talking. He really doesn't, he's not looked into this all that much, and it's hard to tell the science from the propaganda or woo. I mean, pretty much anyone can set themselves up as a nutritionist and make sweeping statements without either evidence or consequence. I guess the key thing is that if you're fat or lethargic, then whatever you're eating or doing needs to change. You won't know until you try. I tried some tortilla chips tonight, as an experiment, and now I feel bloated and bleurgh. Untry, untry.

Sorry to hear that. I've often wondered what the score is with getting out of marshalling once you've been suckered into it. I know some sites pay, and some just offer free game days (if you ever get to use them), but at some point HMRC is going to come sniffing around insisting that everyone who is asked to show up gets paid for it, as they've already done with shoot beaters and pickers.

Ah, but the difference is that you have to collect the expensive one. The optic and torch really add something though, like one of these vroom-vroom "exhausts" on a bicycle.

I'm trying to figure out how poor AOE could result in stripping teeth out of the middle of a piston. I get that it might wear the 2nd tooth from the back, but it's engaging at the minimum of spring tension, and once it engages with the rear tooth, it's not going to pull any differently than if you had the AOE spot on. Not that I have anything better to suggest, I've yet to succeed in stripping even a plastic piston.

More fool me, I've DMR'd mine. When (not if) it cracks I'll be sure to post a "You told me so" thread.

Well, I'm taking them out of an abundance of caution, but the only thing I've really cut out is sugars, rice, wheat, sugary fruits, and the carbiest of root vegetables (but I'm eating moderate amounts of carrot, onion, radishes and so on). Low carb does not have to mean butter and bacon. I'm now eating more green vegetables: cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, courgettes, celery, tomatoes, olives and green beans. What am I missing out on? Evolved, not designed. We may be having a labelling squabble here. If I said "Cooked Palaeolithic plus some non-lactose dairy" rather than keto, how are we looking? Why requires? I have more sustainable endurance now than I did 3 months ago. But what are the answers? In my case it's a moderate fat, moderate protein, low carb diet. I've reduced my food intake, it's just that I've lowered carbs much more than fat or protein, both of which provide essentials acids. I think I've said several times that I wouldn't necessarily suggest high fat, minimal carbs as a maintenance diet, but dropping carbs has certainly working for losing body fat, particularly visceral fat, and I hope we can agree on the health benefits of that. It's practically impossible to do so, and nowhere in here am I advocating it. I'm happy to call it very low carb, Paleolithic, or whatever doesn't imply 90%/6%/4% full keto. Fruits, maybe, but those are seasonal. Potatoes, possibly, but we didn't evolve to eat those, nor wheat, nor rice. And see the veg list above, plus a multivitamin a day. What am I missing out on? I'm still unclear on what's unhealthy about a diet based around loads of fresh veg, nuts, some dairy, fish and chicken. I've looked, but all I can find is woo-science handwaving, and unsourced assertions. I'm happy to follow the science, but I have to actually see it.

Why, exactly? I've seen it often asserted, but never explained. This NHS page, for example, asserts that "Carbohydrates are important to your health for several reasons." and then goes on to explain glucose -> glycogen -> fat, but provides zero (I counted them twice) reasons why this is necessary, specifically in the context of tubbies needing to get rid of fat rather than storing it. There's no fatty or amino acids in carbs - those are essential. Body fat gets turned into ketones, which we're able to use quite handily as an energy source, including for our brains. So, really, I'm fascinated to see some clinical evidence of what we actually need carbs for, or what negative things happen when we go into ketosis. Aside, it's essentially impossible to eat zero carbs, I wouldn't advocate trying that. For one thing, we do need fibre for digestive health, and that always comes with some digestible carbs as well. But I've never felt better than when keeping carbs to a minimum. What's not working?

Well, I respectfully disagree, they're fine to limit that too, or to have a two-or-three-shot-then-pause rule. What matters is that they only say what they mean, that they mean everything that they say, and that they sack up and enforce the rules against individuals, not doing counter-productive collective punishment. This is a bit like when I worked in an office where they sent out an email to the whole company, flagged as "important" saying "Whoever keeps defecating on the men's bathroom floor, stop it. This is totally unacceptable!" Well, good job, you solved that problem. I'm sure someone sociopathic enough to do that will stop now that you've let them know that it's "unacceptable." In both cases, if you're going to do a group communication, don't bother haranguing the toxic people who don't care. Ask the decent people to identify them, then deal with the bad individuals. This really isn't that hard a concept to grasp, surely?

We'll, it's at their risk, and it seems to be a purely theoretical one. And indeed, once one does it, the rest will say "Hey! Those are dodgy sales that we could be making!" It's commendable that PatrolBase haven't budged, and it's one reason why I'd tend to point people at them by default. I just hope that when one of the hooky ones does get stung by Trading Standards or tugged by the fuzz that it doesn't result in the legislation being reviewed. I know that's very unlikely too, but I'm particularly concerned about the Scotch situation - Holyrood hates anything remotely projectile related.

Done in an explosion containment pie dish, low current, cells being touched and tested for heat, back door open, and ready to hurl the whole lot out there so it'll burn down my neighbour's house. Serves him right for building up to the property line.

How else do you lose weight though? Eat less, or stuff your face and then dancercise it off. I'd certainly advocate vitamin and maybe some mineral supplements if you're reducing your food intake. Eh? Weight loss only happens if you're unbalanced, and burning more than you're eating. All good points, although what works for Alice might not work for Bob. I find it easier to stick to hard rules than a sliding scale which can result in backsliding. Truth to tell though, when I'm airsofting, I still allow myself a bacon and egg sammich breakfast, with multi-seeded wholemeal bread and lashings of brown sauce.