Rogerborg

Ehhhh, will there though? I'm trying to feel it out in my head. What it seems like is that even if multiple teeth appear to be engaged at once that in imperfect reality most of the stress is going to be on one of them. I can't see that there will be a lot more stress on the 3rd-last tooth - it's not going to get pulled any further or harder than before. If the argument is "ah, but the 2nd-to-last tooth was just about to pick up some of the stress", well, yes, but then that (also plastic) tooth was already receiving and surviving more stress anyway, before the gear and rack got to the final metal tooth. I'm gambling that plastic racks aren't as fragile as we might imagine. I probably will do at some point, I just fancy sacrificing the existing piston on the alter of pseudo-science first. ... or maybe not sacrificing. Care to take a guess? I'll wager just 0.05J from 2 teeth, because I'm a wild optimist. I'll be re-greasing and fitting a BS910 24.1mm piston o-ring while I'm in there but will otherwise leave as-is (unless I don't).

Before anyone goes all Reddit Skylaar, here's what I'm starting with: an MP5K with a 110mm-ish barrel, a cheap plastic rack with (I think) one metal tooth at the end, and a 3/4 cylinder which is presumably significantly over-volumed and producing a significant amount of smack and crack noise (IIRC it was fitted as 1/4 as stock and I just flipped it end-for-end for funsies). It's shooting bang on 1J with an M100 spring, and is used as a CQB primary or woodland secondary for close encounters. I'm looking for a little better response and ROF (it's already on a Big Dragon M140, thicc wiring and trigger protection / current flow mosfet, and can't fit any 11.1V battery that I'd actually want to use). Now, here's what I'm thinking: if I leave everything as-is, and only remove 2 teeth or so from the pickup side of the sector gear, what could possibly go wrong? From the point of view of the piston, it's not going get pulled any harder than it currently is, at any point in the cycle. The gear won't reach the final metal tooth, but the plastic teeth won't experience any more stress than they currently are. It'll just release earlier. The energy loss should be minimal given the over-voluming. If anything, short stroking should get the volume down closer to where it should be, and BB energy will be a question of how fast the air is being pushed, rather than how much of it. I'm thinking that the worse case is that comes out weedy, and I throw in an M110 or M120 until it eats the plastic rack, then I replace that as well. Any glaring flaws in that plan? Anyone care to predict the results in terms of energy or longevity?

Well, magnets. Cold springs can be a bit hotter, but not by that much. I'd guess at air seal, and using my forensic imagination, some piston grease has made its way forwards and sealed the nozzle up. Take the win and swap the spring. I'm down to an M90 on my CYMA M4 due to randomly fortuitous air seal on completely stock CYMA gearbox parts meshing perfectly with a ZCI hop, Maple Leaf lips and a ZCI barrel.

I don't feel lucky, and will only be buying from Abroadland sellers who charge UK VAT and duty at source, or more specifically, label their packages as that. AliExpress can do it for tuppence-ha'penny trinkets. If we keep buying from sellers who are letting us eat the extra costs of paying that, then they've got little/no financial incentive to change. I understand that it's not free for them to get set up to pay UK tithes, and would be happy paying a reasonable surcharge for a bit of certainty, rather than being mugged for it anyway by DPD / UPS. I am at least pleased to see Evike-Europe saying that they'll remove French VAT for UK (and Swiss) orders. Last time I checked, TaiwanGunFire weren't even doing that, but they wouldn't be paying it either, so they were effectively scalping that amount as pure profit from UK orders, making them even worse deals.

Yup. "United Kingdom*** - Your order should be above 135£ (160€) for customs clearance" "Customs clearance" is a very deceptive way of saying "...for us". Over £135 means they're intending to not charge UK VAT and duty on it at source, which means you'll get rinsed for it during import. Maybe. Or you might get lucky. Or it might get seized, and end up in the DPD or Border Farce basement shooting galleries. What should happen is that the listed price will be reduced by ~17%[*] at checkout (to remove the French VAT), but when it arrives in Blighty, you'll get mugged for ~22.5% (UK VAT + duty) on that price + ~£20 (DPD double-mugging you for paying that on your behalf), and a possible firearms declaration and a delay of anywhere between 0 and infinite days. Whether any of that will happen, or to what extent, is down to the whims of people outside your control. Do you feel lucky, punk? [*] Not 20%, mathletes. A €120 list price is composed of €100 untaxed cost + €20 French VAT. 1/6th rather than 1/5th needs removed to get back to the untaxed price.

Not a great sign, is it? If you are 18 or over, you are legally fine to purchase, or attempt to purchase, a realistic imitation firearm from anyone in the UK. You are not committing any offence by doing so, and you don't need any sort of defence or licence to buy or own it. It's the seller that's committing an offence by selling it. They need a defence to do it, one of which is selling for the purposes of historical re-enactment. They clearly don't believe that's your real intention, they're just asking for a MVT number that they can record against the sale in the very, very unlikely event that it ever becomes an issue for them. Some sellers even accept "defences" that are (legally speaking) nothing of the sort, e.g. cosplay. That's a concern for them, not for you. They want to sell, you want to buy. My concern would be what you intend to do with it, and whether you're likely to attract the wrong sort of attention. Please be aware that public possession of any imitation firearm, realistic or otherwise, is an offence, and that you need to be able to produce a reasonable excuse on demand. That would mean being on the way to or from an airsoft event at an insured site, not showing it off to your mates down the local woods. tl;dr version - if you're at least 18, you're fine to buy and own get an assault-style toy inside the UK. Just be very careful what you do with it.

If you are 18 or over, you are legally fine to purchase, or attempt to purchase, a realistic imitation firearm from anyone in the UK. You are not committing any offence by doing so, and you don't need any sort of defence or licence to buy or own it. It's the seller that's committing an offence by selling it. They need a defence to do it, one of which is selling for the purposes of historical re-enactment. They clearly don't believe that's your real intention, they're just asking for a MVT number that they can record against the sale in the very, very unlikely event that it ever becomes an issue for them. Some sellers even accept "defences" that are (legally speaking) nothing of the sort, e.g. cosplay. That's a concern for them, not for you. They want to sell, you want to buy. My concern would be what you intend to do with it, and whether you're likely to attract the wrong sort of attention. The double-post isn't a good start. Please be aware that public possession of any imitation firearm, realistic or otherwise, is an offence, and that you need to be able to produce a reasonable excuse on demand. That would mean being on the way to or from an airsoft event at an insured site, not showing it off to your mates down the local woods. tl;dr version - if you're at least 18, you're fine to buy and own get an assault-style toy inside the UK. Just be very careful what you do with it.

That's a rather peculiar concern given how much you've spent on getting the ultimate speedQB winr8. Worst case, your spring will tire out a bit and you'll drop maybe a fraction of a Joule, not really an issue in CQB. The cost and time of replacing a spring whenever the clocks go forward or back is negligible compared to what you've already sunk into it. Does the titan always complete a cycle even on auto? Or could you just tap a few auto bursts at the end of day until you get a lucky happy ending on your piston position?

It depends. In my ~1J SA-E02 Edge, I get consistent overspin and double-tapping on semi with a very moderately spinnier Tornado aftermarket motor, 11.1V and (IIRC) an M100 spring. I haven't tried with the stock motor. You might get lucky, and worst case it's an excuse to add a trick mosfet with active brake / pre-cock. Or it might not even be much of an issue in practice in woodland if you can use 7.4V for single-shots at chrono then shout "Sorry mate!" a lot in game if you end up double-tapping under your semi-auto distance (or worse case it's an excuse to buy a pistol... ).

Agreed, especially if it's going to be used as a rental gun when robustness will be more important than peak performance. The only consideration might be changing springs, but it seems that in Latvia, anything under 4J (!) is fair game.

Oh, hello, I see you're setting up an airsoft site in Latvia. Are you asking about these for personal use, or as potential rental guns? They will all work. The CYMA is likely to be the most reliable. The Specna has a better hop unit and a decent spring change system, if you need to change the power to suit your site limit (and insurance). I believe the CORE has a stronger gearbox than the EDGE series, although I may be wrong about that. Sorry, I don't know about the King Arms.

The problem is that if they were that degradable, then they'd start to break up on the slow boat from China. The last thing you want is BB's shattering while being shot. I've had some biodegradables start to surface-craze about 2 years after being opened and first used, but actually breaking down meaningfully takes much, much longer. Here's what landowners and wives shouldn't read about PLA: https://www.biosphereplastic.com/biodegradableplastic/uncategorized/is-pla-compostable/ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304615824_Mineralization_of_Poly_lactic_acidPLA_Poly_3-hydroxybutyrate-co-valeratePHBV_and_PLAPHBV_Blend_in_Compost_and_Soil_Environments And that's pure PLA. As you go heavier - which means anything above 0.2g - then you have to start adulterating the plastic with heavier Mystery Mass, like ceramic or metal. Some heavier grey BBs actually have iron in them, which I'd reckon is more degradable than PLA. So if possible, I'd suggest a net and some sort of tray or tarp to collect the buggers. 12" sticky targets are available which actually work quite well: the BBs stick, then (slowly) roll down them and into a tray. BBs get everywhere even when you're trying to be careful: I need to give my garage a good sweeping up before Mrs Borg gets that look again. And yes, any safety glasses will be fine for self protection, i.e. DIY or even sports glasses as long as they're polycarbonate and not perspex. A mid capacity magazine or two is a decent shout, but I'd see how you get on with the supplied high capacity magazine. It will hold hundreds of BBS, but needs winding up with a wheel underneath it. Not actually that onerous, plenty of folk use them in skirmishes. But mid caps still hold over a hundred BBs, and are load-and-shoot without the winding. You'll need a "speedloader" to fill them. E.g. https://bbguns4less.co.uk/products/cyma-g36-mid-cap-mag-also-fits-src-g36-130-rounds.html and https://bbguns4less.co.uk/products/vigor-bb-speed-loader-150rd-in-clear.html (larger loaders are available, I'm just guessing about where you're likely to be buying, and looking at what they have in stock). I'd sound a note of caution though that airsoft magazine compatibility isn't brilliant, even within brands. My JG G36 fed fine from its supplied hi-cap but didn't like the mid caps that I bought for it. Much of airsoft is a gamble. True, but you're looking at £45-50 including delivery for a SkyRC S65 and a decent capacity 7.4V lipo. I'd say that's required for skirmishing, but for plinking the provided nimh will actually work just fine. It's not like trigger response and ROF are critical. As with the magazines, I'd say: run it as it is out of the box, and see if you enjoy it. Then consider a 2nd round of purchasing. Or consider dropping by a skirmish with it - folk of all ages and abilities enjoy airsoft, and plenty of us here play at a very placid pace.

Partly that, you do feel a lot more confident when armoured up, even when it's out of proportion to the protection offered - I've formed a theory that this is a key factor in morale. There's also the consideration that the more armour you see, the harder you'll start to hit. This also has airsoft implications. The more you experience Crye-babies claiming "Didn't feel nothing, mate" as you whang BBs off of their plate carriers and stacks-o-gear, the heavier you're going to get on the trigger compared to being up against Team Mankini.

Allan loves wonderous variety. I run everything from zoomy-scoped sniper and DMR, 3x, red dot, reflex, iron sights, tracer, to crudely hacked out foam sights and point-and-spray-pray. It all works to some degree, and it's all fun. The harder the shot, the greater the God-like feeling of satisfaction from making it.

I do wish there was more mil/filmsims in the Democratic People's Republic of Caledonia, as I agree that themed is far more rewarding than random skirmish days. Doing half a day's travel (there and back) to get to events Doon Sooth is a bit too much of a gamble for me though.

Ouch. I went up to early 14th century, padding + mail + curies / coats-of-plates, and my anecdotal experience was that the more armour folk were wearing (or facing), the worse the injuries tended to get. Dark age stuff with mostly spears and squishies seemed much more restrained and safe.

And I do genuinely mean well done on getting this far - so many of these projects get over-hyped then produce nothing.

I expect historic reenactment or HEMA (Historic European Martial Arts), i.e. fighting with swords and axes and glaives and such. Generally pretty safe as most training starts with not hurting people, but accidents happen even with blunted weapons. I'm down a front tooth due to a langsaex, I'd love to say doing something heroic, but it was dropped on my face while I was lying on the ground. There seems to be a fair bit of overlap between airsoft, punchy and hitty-weapon sports, and motorcycling, which I would generalise as "adrenaline, warrior spirit, dumbness and optimism". My most pathetic current injury is a strained thumb from hauling on the anchors too hard on my Royal Enfield which is making it ouchy to grip a toy gun so I'm involuntarily practicing off-hand shooting. Life, and idiots, find a way. 🙄

I'd go the other way. Given the low number that you'll get through while plinking, and the cost of the gun itself, the extra cost per bottle is negligible. And I agree on bios, PLA breaks down in an industrial composter at 60C, not lying on the grass in Scottish weather. The "BIO" label is really just for fooling landowners and wives.

Well, fair enough and congratulations on producing it. I would caution that the worldwide market for it is a few hundred sites, of which maybe a few dozen would actually replace their current boom-box with it - conditional on aggressive marketing. It's something to do for fun and experience rather than as a profitable product.

Generally, go with the heaviest that the gun can lift. That's determined by a complicated relationship between nozzle energy, bucking shape and material, nub hardness, and hop arm pressure, which boils down to: it depends. Pretty much any stock gun should hop 0.25g. Most can hop 0.28g, although it's not guaranteed. What I would always suggest is cleaning the hop rubber and the barrel before use - hopefully the CYMA will come with a cleaning rod, although you can push a patch down the barrel with any 6mm-ish plastic rod. Ideally you'll clean from rear to front so as not to push any barrel shipping oil back into the bucking, although it's not super critical as long as you get it all clear all the way. If you do fancy diving inside, this is a fairly decent disassembly video. Or you can remove the inner barrel by taking off the handguard, removing the three screws shown in red here, and the whole inner barrel assemble will slide out forwards, giving access to the hop unit and rubber.

Yup, Deans is just fine, although you can occasionally find a couple of connectors that don't want to match up perfectly. Still much better than Tamiya.

I like shotguns, but I couldn't recommend either my ASG Franchi, or the CYMA CM.051. Both springers, both tri-barrel. The ASG works as advertised but has no hop and so is only effective at very close ranges. So I got the CYMA to get something with a hop, but that didn't work out. It's very cheaply made, has feeding issues and the fixed hops are essentially useless as they provide wildly different and inconsistent amounts of lift, making aiming a complete lottery. There will be folk who have had different experiences (and will be happy to post YouTube reviews to that effect), but the problem is, if you get a bad one there's not a lot you can do about it given the nature of these beasts. They're sods to take apart, are filled with a hand-grenade's worth of small, fragile plastic components, and it's a coin flip whether anything you do to them will make them better or worse. On gas, I've heard anecdotally that the Golden Eagle gas shotguns are leakier than a disgruntled civil servant, which just leaves the Tokyo Maruis and gambling that the fixed hops actually function. If I were buying another (and it being airsoft, I might) I'd either go Tokyo Marui from a UK retailer and be prepared to return it if the performance doesn't match the price, or just pick up one of the cheapest Double Eagle single shot springers with an adjustable / "adjustable" hop, as if it works at all it would be a win.

"tooo much to mention". Yeah, tooooo much to pay. Especially for a TM that might be shredding its internals. I generally feel a bit sad for folk trying to flog all their gear, but this bloke isn't even trying, and I rather suspect that actual "sensible offers" will be met with an "I know what this is worth all day long, mate."

Go for it. I have a Jing Gong G36C which is essentially a clone of the CYMA (or vice versa). It was bought as a reliable backup gun (they're site rental favourites), but shoots so well that it's actually the one that I use most often now. CYMA gear tends to be basic but robust. They're better known for AKs and M4s, but the G36 has a V3 gearbox, similar to their AKs, so should be a solid choice. G36s have a decent rotary hop unit that tends to be more consistent than basic dial or slider units. It even comes with a basic nimh battery and dumb charger which will be fine for plinking. Just don't leave it plugged in for more than a couple of hours, and keep an eye - well a hand - on the battery temperature while charging. The only thing I'd flag up is the two part V3 trigger and mediocre motors and batteries on stock guns can leave them slightly vulnerable to locking up if you trigger-spam on semi and don't fully complete a cycle. This is more of an issue while skirmishing, it shouldn't be a problem while target shooting.