Rogerborg

AB++, Warfet, or anything optical will give you safe / semi / burst-or-auto. I'm not sure if the optical units can do safe / semi-or-burst / full auto, that's beyond my functionality and price-range of interest. Hopefully someone's butler might clear that up for us.

Hmm, that is interesting stuff, although as with all things airsoft, it's a miracle when the stars line up and these over-priced toys shoot at all. Generally speaking all you need them to do is to shoot semi auto as soon as possible after pulling the trigger, which is what pre-cock does. And then to fire as fast as possible between shots in "auto" mode, whether that's an unlimited burst, or an X-round one. But that's more of an issue for the battery and motor than the mosfet, which really just needs to get out of the way of the current flow as much as possible. Multiple modes would be nice for switching between sites or even games, but it only takes a few minutes to reprogram an AB++, including getting to it to push the magic button. I get the technical appeal of knowing exactly how your electrics are performing. In game though, actual performance is largely down to human reaction times in CQB, or not being seen in woodland. Gun go brrrt, fun is had.

Good question. I've very happy with my AB++, and I can't think of anything else that I'd need it to do. Active Braking or pre-cock, 2-5 round bursts, ROF reduction, DMR delay, low battery alarm. Binary trigger is the only thing missing, but that's for wanker-guns. I might eventually go optical on my MP5K, but only because the trigger has mechanical issues that an optical mosfet could ameliorate, not for any extra features.

Here's an SHS hop unit for illustration purposes only, the Specna is similar. It's under the hop arm. The arm presses down on the nub, which pressed on the bucking. You'll generally want to remove the hop arm, and the nub, before putting the barrel and bucking in or out, then replace the nub, and then the hop arm on top of it. If you've pulled the barrel and bucking out without realising that the nub was sitting on top of it, it might still be in there, or it might have dropped out and vanished into hyperspace. If it's all back together now, I'd get the hop arm out and see if the nub is still in there. There's a pin running side-to-side that the arm rotates on, you just push it out then the arm will lift up and out. A typical nub is just a little cylinder of rubber, it might be solid, or more often hollow. If you have lost the nub, then the traditional bodge is to cut a piece of biro tube, or a section of insulated wire (18g or 16g), or just the insulation from the wire. Essentially anything round that will fit inside the C section on the end of the hop arm, with a little give in it. However, I mention the "flat hop" style nub because your Specna may have a flat-hop bucking with no internal mound. If so, then a regular cylindrical nub won't put enough pressure on it to hop anything. None of this is a concern if you're replacing the bucking with a Maple Leaf: they're great buckings and pretty tolerant of nubs. You can throw just about any nub in there and it'll work, whether it's a standard round, Maple Leaf Omega, H-nub or just about anything else you fancy.

1000% agree. Particularly annoying as I do stick to one-in-the-air, which for DMR ranges means a shot about every 2 seconds, not two or three rounds a second, as far, far too many DMR players do. Yes, I've reminded other players, yes, I've brought it up with marshals many times, yes, I've pointed out the worst culprits on my own team, but I've never seen anything done about it, at any site, ever, beyond an occasional token reminder at the next brief. One site toyed with the idea of different coloured chrono tags (not that those ever get checked anyway), or tape around the muzzle, but never followed through. Me, I'd just bin them off completely, and I say that as an occasional DMR player. POW airsoft has already done so, and I agree with them on that. If I ever wanted to "win" at airsoft, I'd go out with my 1.8J+ DMR and spam the hell out of it. At the very most, I might have to say "Sorry, mate, my bad mate, I forgot, mate" once in a blue moon.

It is, all Specnas come with an M90 and an M120. You'll want that M90 back in, or buy an M100. There's very little use for an M120 in the UK unless it's for a DMR at a site with a low power limit, or if you're removing teeth and reducing cylinder volume. Normally I'd agree with using a Maple Leaf omega nub with a Maple Leaf bucking, but you may have a flat hop as stock in your Specna. If your bucking looks like this, it actually works quite well with a Maple Leaf hop. However, it's likely to over-hop 0.2g. I'd suggest 0.28g for woodland. However, I'd urge you to play with it unmeddled first (with the M90 spring) before doing anything to it, if only to get a baseline of its performance. A lot of airsoft "upgrades" can be sidegrades or downgrades if the parts don't work well together or you get a QC reject.

The Commissar's faith was weak, he took a bleeder on the lip. Then his borrowed face guard protec. It's like some beautiful dream. Great structures and cover too. It's like some recurring nightmare. Way too much of this at way too many sites. Punters who don't want to play, marshals who don't want to marshal, site owners/runners who are mostly there to banter. Take up fishing instead.

That's TM power, therefore best power. £90 delivered seems fair enough, mind.

Another decent day at the small-but-perfectly-formed Area-66, at its 1st birthday celebration. Yes, cake was had. I'm now a confirmed fan of woodland sites that are less walk, more rock. More decent whiteboard briefings, and generally fair and good natured play. More marshals this weekend, but still too laissez-faire for my tastes. The usual delays caused by a couple of teams of Banter Buddies who only started bombing up when those of us there to actually play airsoft were heading out to game start. Hanging's too good for them. Chuckles when we had a bloke with a 40K Commissar hat and chainsword as a VIP. I'm currently waxing my helmet (not a euphemism) preparatory to wearing my Cadian kit next weekend. Let's make dying for the Emperor great again.

We know that PatrolBase is pretty optimistic about flogging completely non-functional guns for more than sweetie money, but it's just occurred to me: given that they're actually marketing them as "wall hangers", why would the defence for selling them for airsoft skirmishing apply? 🤔

If you can find a copper or prosecutor who even knows the law on RIFs, let alone cares about it, between now and the heat death of the universe, I'll eat my 2nd best helmet.

Hubble just spotted one.

He's off slacking at the moment, UK airsoft fettling is grinding to a halt. Also... I couldn't resist.

That's fairly common if you're trying to spam the trigger in semi. For now, just try to make more deliberate trigger pulls. There's nothing (as stock) to complete the cycle once the trigger contacts are broken, so it can stop in an awkward place. The Gate-XASR in the Specnas is just there for trigger contact protection, it's not up to much - mine craps out with a stronger motor. A meatier battery and motor will cycle it quicker so it's less of an issue. Although see above for my issue with that. Sure, or the Perun AB++ mosfet. There are some cheaper mosfets that only do active braking that should let you use 11.1V, but a Warfet, Aster or Titan, or an AB++, will add some nice features like programmable bursts.

Can I get that on my AOL? My holocheckogram seems legit, but they're old tech either way. We've been inducted into the RC arcana now, although you'll still see the occasional holdout recommending the B6 here. New-ish. Airsoft retailers are all prone to flogging returns as "new" stock. Not a problem if it's genuinely as new, but it can make it tricky to know if yours has been fingered and licked by a previous abuser. I'd suspect so. The M90 is OK-ish for UK use, although an M100 should get you nearer site limits. However, it's all highly dependent on air seal, and a wild guess without a chrono. Eh. Active braking can help to prevent overspin, where on semi auto you get two shots for one trigger pull. I've only had this happen with 11.1V batteries though. Pre-cocking used the same mechanism, but with a bit of delay. Think of active braking as stopping the motor (and piston) as soon as possible after the trigger contacts are broken, while pre-cocking lets it run for a fixed and configurable period to pre-compress the spring and make the next shot complete quicker. Both of them put more strain on the motor, if that bothers you. There are two common issues that at both typically referred to as "lockup". The minor one is where a semi auto cycle ends with the cut-off lever holding the trigger trolley back and the trigger contacts wont engage. This can be sorted just by flipping to auto and firing a quick burst. The other, rarer case, is when the spring ends up fully compressed and the motor stalls trying to pull it any further. This is when you can get popped fuses and sometimes needs a disassembly and manipulating the anti-reversal latch (definitely do not do as I do and shove an Allen key up the nozzle and forcibly push the piston all the way back). None of this is hugely likely, or a big concern, I just mention it out of interest to give you some search terms. There's a lot that can go wrong with airsoft toys, but it generally doesn't, and you can just get out there and play.

Do you want to buy one, or build one? There are very few retailers selling "DMR" specced AEGs, i.e. 1.5-1.8J and locked to semi. You'd generally start with a 7.62mm-ish replica (if you pretend the Mk12 doesn't exist) and then up-spring it and lock it to semi by one of the several available methods (trick mosfter, selector plate modification, stick a screw through it to limit the selector). Do you have a pretend-platform in mind? SR-25, G36 lonnnng, some commie AK monstrosity?

Pre-cocking fnar I'm so sorry is what can improve first-shot semi-response. Active braking can cure overspin. But then so can pre-cocking: there's a fair amount of overlap. Ah, about that. Was the "M90" spring in a wrapper marked M90? If so, was it pre-opened? I ask because Specnas tend to come with an M90 and an M120. Mine came with the M90 fitted, and the M120 spring in an open M90 wrapper. Depending on who you bought from, you may just have put the M120 in. If you're going to get into tinkering and teching, a basic chronograph is a game-saver. Get ready for some "u wot m8?". Airsoft is very conservative and tends to be years behind RC. Brushed motors are still very much the default, and airsofters still tend to recommend ancient chargers like the B6 rather than the S65. Take anything you hear from us with a huge pinch of salt and if you think you know better about anything electrical, you probably do. Airsoft M4 AEGs (with the exception of stuff like PTWs) are pretty generic. This covers getting the gearbox out: This covers the gearbox internals. You have a "V2" gearbox, common to M4s. There are loads of alternative videos. One thing I'd stress is to take the spring out before opening the gearbox, to avoid the risk of it kersproinging the internals into hyperspace. Magnets (how do they work?) are a great shout for keeping parts together, or holding the anti-reversal latch and gears in place while you re-assemble. All that said, I'd suggest finding an excuse to buy a second primary before you open up your first one. Having a completely un-"improved" gun in the bag can be a day-saver.

$CURRENT_YEAR, if we're being formal.

You have chosen... wisely. 👍 M-Lok almost feel like it's designed to make you spend more to actually use it. Meanwhile, cable ties remain available. A lot of airsoft kit is engineered to just barely work. You've got a basic no-frills mosfet in there, so the next obvious steps are the highest amperage 7.4V lipo or li-ion that you can fit in the stock, and then the motor. SHS are fairly popular, although I chisel a few £££ and buy Big Dragon M140s from AliExpress. You'll want "long shaft" fnar for your M4. I'd caution against going straight to 11.1V as you're likely to encounter overspin and double-shots on semi. Not all guns, not all the time, but I've always had it with mine. Granted, if you're playing woodland, you can probably get away with it after chronoing with a 7.4V, with a few judicious shouts of "Sorry!" if you double tap anyone point blank. Gate and Perun mosfets can add a lot of features. Some folk love optical mosfets, I'm still a bit sus so stick to Perun AB++ which offers any feature that you're likely to want, including burst fire, and active braking or pre-cock that will allow use of 11.1V without overspin. Oh, and shim and re-lube the gearbox, the first time you're in there, that's pretty much airsoft teching 101 - there are plenty of videos on YouTube about it.

On doing some forensic analysis, I've had to file mine a bit both on the outside at the top, to get it into the G36 magwell, and also inside to get STANAG mags to go in without using Thor's hammer. I may also have run a rat-tail file up the BB tube as it's a little kinky as stock.

Just asking out of interest. I ended up with a flat hop bucking and nub in my Bits Box that I think came out of my Edge, but I've never seen it marketed as a feature. And it's a curious one to have in CURRENT_YEAR since Maple Leaf buckings do the same job without having to press the bucking right through the hop window. Flat / R / S hops are really more of a Reddit thing now.

Upside down is always a nice touch. At the point where you're just saying "M44sale lol" why not pitch it as a mystery box? Folk seem to love those.

I'd echo the suggestion that I think I saw above about going for a mesh + fabric lower face protection rather than full mesh, as it lets you get a better cheek-weld, as the speedy-bois say. You're home. Yes, it's very rare that I close out a day with the same gear or gun that I started it with. A bit of variety helps to keep it fresh.