Impulse

... That is one nice lookin' m14. I love what you've done with that! I am cursed with a love of the m14, but I don't like using AEGs as I've fully taken the GBBR pill.

Got it before I could. Was going to get it purely so I could have a takedown version in my collection, but I've heard they can have issues when it comes to performance. Keep us posted how it goes!

A guy at my local site has the exact same issues as you (older, wider, and broken) and he uses an SSX303 as a DMR and loves it. His has the shot shell HPA adapter as @The_Lord_Poncho stated above as that makes carrying ammo a lot easier and a lot lighter. I personally don't like it because the trigger pull is horrible due to the double action trigger, and it's harder to cock the hammer (teehee) manually, but if you get the right parts they shoot well and with the HPA adapter they can be tuned very easily. Another popular option that goes more towards sniping (as it's a bolt action) would be a Tac41 lite. They're very light and very easy to carry, with a single extended mag holding 110rds you may even get away with not carrying any spare mags for it and just reload the mag between games.

I've fortunately only seen it... twice over the almost 20 years I've been playing. Both times it's been over something incredibly stupid and trivial, and fortunately I've never actually had anyone throw a punch at me; being 6'5" definitely helps there, as the guy who squared up to me in that Vietnam game a few years ago did think better of it and walked away eventually. And you're totally right. Fisticuffs over BB wars is turbo-cringe.

With my Sixmm order arriving, the m14 scope mount looks great; will put that away with the TNT hop unit for when I do the WE m14 project... However, to nobody's surprise, they sent me the wrong bloody springs, so now I need to source some G&G m700 gas router springs for my 6 short magazines that I'm upgrading to (hopefully) be usable. The stock KJW m700 short magazines are awful out of the box, but with the upgraded gas router spring and the upgraded strikers and internals they're supposed to be really good. Got the internals sorted, now just need those springs!

There were two groups from what I gathered. One was great and nobody had issues with them, and one was not-so-great and I heard complaints all through the day about them. I think we got into a firefight with your lot very early on the Saturday and I didn't have any issues with that firefight. People took their hits on both sides (I tagged one and then watched him hoping he'd bait in the medic who never showed up ) and the remnants of our group eventually fell back because there were only like... 3 of us left and we didn't fancy our chances with the Aussies and other US special forces group patrolling around. The guy who full auto'd me in the face did it after I was hit and waving my medic bandage around (so if that was you, for shame! ), and was way after we had fallen back from engaging what I assume to be your group, regrouped with another NVA unit and then got sandwiched between this other group and one of the Aussie teams. I don't want people to think that I was saying that all the NATO guys were awful, that couldn't be further from the truth; every group was great on both sides, apart from one group which was notably awful. And as much as I said the other group sucks, it still doesn't top my first Vietnam game a few years back where some guy squared up to me and wanted to start a fight after I told him that none of our objectives were in our spawn and were all out on people in the field because the US weren't allowed to be in our spawn. That was a... um... interesting encounter. In terms of the complaints I heard from the US side, they were limited (as I was VC and only spoke to a few US guys who were camped near us), but the complaints I heard were basically around bad attitudes. Obviously they're not going to have the same non-hit-taking complaints as we had of them because they weren't shooting at them. At least, I hope they wouldn't be

I only use the website and haven't noticed any change. Sometimes if a product is out of stock or discontinued they will say that they can't be shipped to the UK rather than saying they're out of stock, which is annoying but it's just one of the Aliexpress quirks that you get used to.

Seems I struck a nerve 🤣 And yes, I'm calling it as I saw it on the day and with these responses I'm definitely not retracting my statement. There were so many complaints on the Saturday and they were all about your group. If it was just me, I'd have made assumptions that I wasn't hitting, or I was just getting unlucky etc, but since there were numerous complaints, from all different people (on both the NVA and some on the US side), all about the same group, I was far more confident in my assessment. Your response just reinforces it. Funnily enough, the non-hit taking from your group that I observed was not from my rifle, but from my pistol up close. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, but with so many anecdotes on the day from so many different people, and now with your reaction, what am I supposed to think? Also, Eversley Alpha is a fantastic site to snipe at if you know where to play. The last Vietnam game I played there I had a field day in that valley, but the way it happened to be set up this time around made getting there significantly more difficult for the NVA side. The bog and the middle parts of the site are awful for sniping, and that is where we happened to be. If I knew how the game would flow, I would've just used my MWS, but funnily enough, you have to play the game to work out how it will flow. And if you'd actually read what I wrote, you'd have seen that I specifically said that "a group of shitty players" was exactly not the reason why I didn't enjoy myself and admitted that it was a mix of other factors without any blame but myself (and a little bit on the guy in my group who dropped out (for no real reason, and at the 11th hour) and left us short-handed for how we usually play)

I've been doing a lot of reading and experimenting with different methods of carrying gear, and I would advise you also try different things to see what you like. What works for most people may not work for you, or it might. I've now got two belt kits that I tend to go for (well, three, but one is only for period loadouts!), and I only came to the conclusions I came to by experimenting with different styles and seeing what I liked and what I hated. One is a supplementary, lightweight belt kit. I can run it solo if I really want to and only if I'm using my m700s or SRS, but it's designed to supplement my plate carrier or chest rig so it will generally struggle if I run it solo. The other is an LBE setup with a harness. It's designed to run solo, with no chest rig or plate carrier and carries everything I need on it, with a backpack to supplement with more water, gas and BBs. I do need to revisit it to attach comms to it, as my radio pouch is currently on the back and I don't like that, and I need another PTT as my other two are firmly threaded into my chest rig and plate carrier... Hmmmmmm... What I will say though as a general warning, especially as a larger gentleman (I, too, suffer with it and just got back from a session of trying to sort that issue), you don't want to put too many mags on your front on your plate carrier. I use single stack mag pouches on my chest rig and plate carrier both, and use the belt to hold the extra mags to keep me at a fighting load, because I use GBBRs with 35rd/20rd magazines and I'm an immersion nerd (6 spare mags + 1 in the gun is a US standard load of magazines). If you double stack mags on your front, it's fine as long as you never go prone. Prone with a gut and double stacked mags sucks

Hope you enjoyed the rally! I don't blame you either for that; it's a lot closer for us, but it's still a 2 hour journey with traffic on the M25. I thought the cajun game was in December? There was a guy trying to get interest for it and we're thinking about it, but I don't think we'll make it for this one. I have my driving test in December, so if I pass (I really hope I do, because if I don't I probably won't get another test until May) then I'll have a lot more freedom to just say "screw it, I'm going" There's a few filmsims I want to try out at Gunman, so when I have my license you might see more of me at these events.

Yeah, but they're not period-correct. The only reason for this kit is for Vietnam games, so if I can be period correct, I will be. My more modern LBE uses double .308 mag pouches, which hold 2x .308 mags or 3x ar-15 mags. I don't think I'd do an ALICE belt setup, purely because I've got my m56 webbing for old style, and a molle system built off a Warrior Assault Systems PLB belt + harness for a more modern style LBE.

Just got home from this season's 'Namsoft at Gunman Eversley Alpha and... it's a strange one. I didn't really enjoy it all that much if I'm going to be completely honest, but have I got any complaints? Not a single one. And would I recommend them? Absolutely! Josh puts some amazing games together and this one was no exception. Didn't see @Tactical Pith Helmet this time though... The good points were... most aspects. The weekend was really well run and Josh's enthusiasm is infectious. The scenario was great overall, with the opening scenario being incredibly chaotic as the Australian forces and US special forces had to locate and rescue all the US platoons that were stuck out there alone and with no radio. VC and PAVN had to find these platoons and destroy them and we were met with... actually more success than I thought. We got utterly hammered, as with our low numbers it was incredibly difficult to win any firefights, as we'd get in a gunfight with one platoon, and while we were fighting them another group, either Aussies or the US special forces, would come in behind us and wipe us out. I also got full auto'd by one of the LMGs in one of the US special forces groups. In the face. From less than 10m away. So that wasn't fun, but remember this US special forces group because they'll come up later. Speaking of later, after I went back to respawn, we headed out from our respawn, which was just over the road from their respawn, though the path between was to be treated as a solid wall, with it being completely out of play and neither team could engage over the path and had to go wide around the site to get to the objectives. The US special forces saw us leave our respawn and then just... decided to not go wide, walking up right behind us and shooting us in the back, half of their group engaging from the path that was out of play. I managed to shoot two of them with my 1911, but neither took the hits. However, we actually managed to steal one platoon's radio equipment during this part of the scenario scoring us a point, and kept the US forces occupied enough to where they never managed to rescue one of their platoons, soring us another point. After this we split off in our groups. The PAVN group brought a bunch of mines and tripwires, so they were tasked with sneaking to the other side of the site and just setting up loads of traps, then goading the US forces into attacking them through their traps; they were incredibly successful in doing this and kept a stupid amount of the US forces occupied, who were all too keen on trying to squash them. Meanwhile, while the US forces were trying their hardest to kill off the PAVN, there were two VC groups going around the rest of the site and performing objectives. We had to set up ambushes that the US had to clear through, however with them so pre-occupied with the PAVN, we were able to just... farm up points. The ambush group I was in didn't even get any contact, and if the ambush wasn't cleared in 30 mins, we got a point (or the US lost a point, I'm not sure but it was a net +1 for us either way). The ambushes were signified by these bluetooth speakers playing jungle sounds, so we'd deploy the bluetooth speaker on max volume, then the US needed to deactivate it to clear the ambush. All through the day, however, there were so many complaints about the US special forces group I mentioned earlier. There were two special forces groups in play, one special forces group was full of great players who played the game phenomenally well, while the other group put the speshul in speshul forces. It's a shame, because all of the other US and Aussie teams were fantastic players and there were no complaints about anyone else on either the NATO or NVA teams, but this one special forces group were consistently shrugging off hits, spraying full auto up close, ignoring the 1 second burst rule for their full auto and ignoring objectives in favour of racking up a body count to the point where they actually tried to spawn camp us at one point. Josh spent a lot of the Saturday coordinating with his marshalls to try and deal with all this, and I don't envy the job he had to do. From what I gathered, they were a new group who hadn't played any Vietnam games at Gunman before; at least a bunch of us regulars didn't recognise them. Anyway, we spent most of Saturday doing this, sending groups out to set up ambushes and farming points if (well... when) they weren't cleared. I can't comment on Sunday as I didn't play, as I wasn't too motivated to play, and my friend wasn't able to play at all since he played more on the Saturday than he should've because he was enjoying it so much and was paying the pain tax on the Sunday. However, the scores at the end of Saturday were NVA had +3 on the morale-o-meter, and the NATO forces had -7 on the morale-o-meter, so a *very* successful Saturday, despite feeling like we got kicked around the site all day. So, why didn't I enjoy myself personally? My friend really enjoyed it, and everyone else seemed to really enjoy the games, but why didn't I? It was just an unfortunate combination of things that all fed into each other, honestly. I can deal with a group of shitty players, as I've played airsoft long enough to know how to deal with them, so it wasn't that. One of our group dropped out at the last minute, leaving just two of us, but the other guy is significantly older and can't play as much or as hard as me and the guy who dropped out. Also, there have been new rules added to the Vietnam filmsim ruleset at Gunman since I last played... around 2 years ago (heart issues caused me to miss a bunch, though I was still there for the social I just couldn't play). The rule in question was the "no one goes to war alone" rule, which is basically there to stop people coming down and treating it like a skirmish game as people should be moving around in squads. However, this combination meant I was unable to go out and do my sniper thing, since I didn't have my spotter (or shooter if he wants to use his bolt action, then I spot for him) as you need to leave in at least a two-man team, and can only perform objectives with at least four people, but also that I had to group up with other squads as I couldn't go out alone and hunt the GIs solo. The guys who play VC and PAVN forces are phenomenal guys and I love playing alongside them, but especially since we were outnumbered around 2.5 to 1 it meant that all of our regular squads were very focused on doing objectives. The issue is a lot of these objectives were in parts of the site where a 30m MED just meant that my rifle was useless and so I went around with a pistol all day Saturday. I spoke to Josh about it on the Sunday morning, and since he knows that I'm not some weird speedsofter and actually play the sniper role properly (as it's what I always did at Vietnam games), he's happy to make some accommodation if it happens in future, but it needs to be part of the scenario so that the Americans know it's not just someone flagrantly disregarding the rules. I will 100% be going again, whether to the one in April(ish?) or Josh's next one next June. If I get the feeling I can't snipe, or simply if the sniper ban is in effect, I will just use my m16 (or m14 if I have it done by then) from the start. Hopefully we'll be back to a group of 3 or even 4 though, which will make it a lot easier for us to operate as snipers and support the other squads with intel and overwatch, rather than going into the thick bushes with nothing but a pistol again

I did think of that, and honestly it's a good suggestion, but I don't think I need more and as a more reconnaissance style of player, I'd rather not have too much added weight. Though better safe than sorry, I am bringing an SKS chicom that can hold 20rd mags just in case. My usual playstyle is gas sniper rifle (and will be using my Kar98k with its lovely 10rd magazines if the sniper ban has been lifted), so 8x 20rd magazines on the m16 is more than enough if I end up having to use it; I've gone entire skirmish days on < 100rds all day. If I was doing normal rifleman stuff I'd probably do that with some of my normal stanag mags in the rifle mag pouches, plus my chicom with 20rd mags, but since I'll be doing more sniper and reconnaissance style stuff with my friend it's not really needed. As long as I have BBs to take a few well-placed shots, or break contact if we get engaged, that's enough. And more mags is more weight, because yeah... gas mags. The M56 webbing pouches are also not great for 30rd mags, annoyingly enough. They were designed for m14 mags, and stubby 20rd m16 mags, so when I try to put 3x 30rd m16 mags in them, they're just a tiny bit too tall and the pouch doesn't close properly. They'll hold 2x 30rd magazines as the fabric folds around the mags a little, but 3 is too many. I'm bringing them, but will be sticking to the 8x 20rd magazines unless something goes wrong and I have to use my xm177.

All ready for this weekend; ready to ambush some GIs with their own gear! Been going down the LBE rabbit hole, watching god knows how many youtube videos and reading a bunch of real steel shooting articles to make sure my setup is as good as it can be and has everything I need. 8 rifle mags (stubby m16 mags or kar98k mags), 4 spare pistol mags, 1911, knife, and a WW2 camo scarf and a bunch of scrim netting in the butt pack for sneaky sniper shenanigans, plus two canteens for water for sustainment. It's also pretty well balanced, with the right side only being slightly heavier than the left because my Bell 1911 is heavier than the rubber knife, though if I use one of my TM 1911s the weight difference is negligible (but I'll be using the Bell 1911 because it's incredibly fun to shoot) I also only just learned that I need to wear my LBE a little bit higher than my waist-line, so... yeah. Learning!

My father and I used to shoot air rifles and airsoft guns in the back garden with no eye protection whatsoever, so you're already doing one better than we did 😂

Eye protection is something you should never cheap out on. I buy loads of stuff from Aliexpress (because it's great), but I will never buy eye protection from there, even though my general experience on the stuff I have bought from Aliexpress has been fantastic. For eyepro, I bought a pair of sawflys, a pair of heroshark's mesh goggles, and will get some Trittech glasses in the future. As I need prescription inserts, all of these options I think went into the triple digits since prescription inserts are pricey (the Trittechs will go into the multiple triple digits...), but 100% worth every penny.

So much this. A lot of these pre-made ghillies, especially the cheaper ones, catch the light weirdly and stick out like a sore thumb to anyone who knows what to look for. One option I tend to use is a £5 OD scrim net, secured with elastic hair bands that I then also use to tuck natural foliage in. Doesn't need much natural foliage, but a little natural foliage works wonders for concealment. The other option I use is an SCG pre-made rifle wrap. If you really want something pre-made, then these are good, but double the price of what you were looking at: https://www.longbowbb.co.uk/product-page/scg-next-gen-halo-multi-season-rifle-wrap (summer / sites with evergreen foliage) https://www.longbowbb.co.uk/product-page/scg-autumn-halo-screen-rifle-wrap (winter)

You and me both. I have my fingers firmly crossed that something actually shows up. Hopefully it'll even be the items I ordered!

Went to Worthing this weekend to play for the first time in a hot minute. Last game day I didn't book on and tuned all my guns for the upcoming Vietnam filmsim, and the game day before I had my only gun I brought go down at the start of the day so I was running around with just a pistol, so it was nice to get out there with a proper rifle. I was running my PPS Kar98k and Bell 1911, using my Vietnam load bearing kit (US m56 webbing plus SKS chicom rig), as I wanted to make sure that it was all working as intended for the Vietnam game in two weeks time. Me and my friend put ourselves on blue team, since we saw a lot of regulars on yellow. First game was a king of the hill on a base that I don't usually play around, because it's a nightmare with MEDs around it from one side. We started on the side that sucked for sniping, so I went over to one of the other bases to make sure nobody could do anything sneaky and sure enough, I spotted some ghillies trying to do just that. Called out their position and our team forced them back, but it was a largely quiet game with a blue team victory. We then swapped sides and so I took a position in the middle of the pack, again mostly just keeping eyes. Once again, I noticed one of the ghillies trying something, not spotting him but spotting the ferns moving in an unnatural way and just waiting for his ghillie'd head to pop up, which it eventually did. I fired a grand total of 1 shot that game and got a whole 1 kill on that ghillie, but spent most of the game just relaying enemy movements to the rest of my team. Again, fairly uneventul, but another blue team victory. They also gave us players a little talk because apparently there had been some poor hit taking and some overly happy full auto trigger fingers, so they gave a warning. Also, my SKS chest rig fell off. One of the leather loops that holds the straps decided to come loose and go walkabout, so that was a thing. Luckily, the m56 generic rifle ammo pouches can hold 4x Kar98k mags each, so I dropped from 11 mags to 9 mags; not much difference, and still plenty of ammo. (and before you go "bloody hell, 11 mags?!" I will say they're 10rds each. My 11 mags is still less than a single midcap!) After these convincing wins, the marshalls moved the last group of regulars from blue onto yellow, apart from me, to try and balance the teams for the large game before lunch. It was a multi-objective game and it was far more balanced than the first two games. Yellow team had to move things to bases in a specific order and then hold that base for 5 minutes. Again, I didn't even shoot that much and just kept eyes. I had a good line of sight to just outside their spawn (though well out of range and far too many twiggy bits in the way for me to even try and arc the 150 - 200m shots it would've been), so I spent a lot of time relaying enemy team movements again and dissuading ghillies from trying anything sneaky. Saw them trying it on the same flank as the first game, seeing the movement through the foliage and calling it out to my team; ghillies become far less potent on the field when people know where they are. In the end, I'm not sure who won, but I know that the yellow team got a bunch of their objectives done, so it was probably them? After lunch we played a bunch of shorter games. I was going to swap to my m16 to make sure that works and my load bearing kit works as well, but with my Kar98k mags still gassed and loaded, I didn't want to waste the gas by gassing up all my m16 mags and emptying all my kar98k mags. Stuck with the Kar98k. I chronoed the m16 and zeroed the repro colt 4x on it in the morning, so I know it shoots well, but the Kar98k definitely needs a clean as I realised shots were going off at angles every so often. Barrel is going to need a good cleaning... The games after lunch themselves were back to being fairly one-sided again. Blue team got back to their winning ways as we played a flip can game (blue needed blue side up, yellow needed yellow side up), and I got back to my ghillie hunting ways. I took a fairly rear position, but I kept an eye on where I knew one of the enemy ghillies would go, and sure enough, I saw him cross over the path, trying to get in behind us to shoot us in the back. The marshalls asked why I didn't just shoot him, but it would've been about a 90m shot and I didn't want him to know I had spotted him. I headed back, tucking in behind a bunker to watch our backs, eventually catching the attention of some of my team. After I told them that there was a ghillie somewhere there but he hadn't crossed where I was watching, they went hunting and took him out. When we swapped sides, I finally had a more eventful game as I managed to get into a bush where I could overlook two of the flip cans. I did almost got taken out by a rental, but he made a rookie mistake, shooting a single semi-auto shot at me while I was in a thick bush. His BB rattled around in the bush but didn't hit me, so I dropped to the floor and pulled my pistol. As he moved to engage another target I popped out and took him out. He would've got me if he just let out a burst of full auto and I felt his pain because I have 100% done the exact same as him before. Then the final game was a timed assault on one of the bases. We defended first and I took up my favourite position down a path, as their respawn was down that path I knew they would try and use it as a quick means of ingress. Sure enough, a bunch of them rushed down that path, led by a friend of mine, and my shot narrowly flew past him and hit the rental behind him. This dissuaded him from trying to continue along that path, but didn't stop a lot of the rest of them and I managed to single handedly pin a bunch of them at a checkpoint that they simply couldn't push through. They eventually took the base from another avenue, but I was proud of myself for holding back the tide. When we swapped sides, I went along that side, but dropped down from the path down the hill a little and came up along the fence line. Took one out close with the pistol and then got a beautiful shot onto another at the base itself with the Kar98k, but we took the base pretty damn quick for a blue team victory (as we did it faster). All in all, it was a great day to get back to. I do enjoy hunting ghillies (especially when it's successfully done!) while wearing a bright hawaiian shirt There were definitely issues (hit calling and full auto bursts being way too long and too close), but I saw the marshalls pull players out for breaking the rules which is great to see. You'll always get some players who try to cheat, but it's always disheartening if nothing is done about it, so seeing the marshalling team take a hard stance on it was really great. I personally didn't see much non-hit taking, as I only had one guy who didn't take one of my shots, so it probably wasn't even that bad (or I just was very ignorant to it!) Now I just have to pray that the sniper ban is lifted at Eversley Alpha in two weeks time so I can terrorise the (sold out) US team with VC sniper shenanigans; target rich environment! If not, the m16 will serve well, but I definitely prefer the sniper and DMR style of play. Now I just need to make sure I do some maintenance on the Kar98k and my 1911s before then. I'll also probably give the m16 and xm177 a re-lube just in case as well.

Nothing too exciting, but a sign of things to come. Not getting the gun until probably the new year because it'll be expensive, but I got a stock notification for the somewhat illusive v2 hop unit that uses VSR rubbers unlike the v1 unit that uses TNT rubbers and it showed up today from JK Army. Now I just need... literally everything else for the build, but at least I won't need new mag pouches because I have .308 pouches already ?

Greetings from... *goes to check where I am today* Belgium.

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Haha, I pretty much only use gas guns now ever since my friend sourced me a cheap, but basically new TM AKM (it was when mags were rare and he wanted the spare mag as it came with 2, so he got me a fantastic deal where I basically got a new one for half price) and I shot it on the range for the first time, so I'm quite used to the added weight. I have an MTW 308 and an SRS that occasionally get used as backup guns when the weather is bad and I can't be bothered with gas, but that's incredibly rare. For my MWSs I "only" carry a standard fighting load of 7 mags (1 in the gun, 4 in the rig, 2 in the belt) and for the m700 I carry 6 extended mags (1 in the gun, 3 in the rig, 2 in the belt), but those are 35rds/20rds (depending on if I'm using the stubbies or regular mags) and 25rds mags respectively so it's still more than if I carry all 11 of my Kar98k mags as those are only 10rds. I'm also a psychopath who has weighted training plates in my plate carrier and a helmet that weighs as much as a proper ballistic helmet. For me, immersion is more important than being the very best that no one ever was, hence GBBRs and gas bolt actions. Also, GBBRs are just... fun. And very satisfying.

Probably have enough mags now. Adding to the 3 I already have, that allows me to carry an absolutely mind-boggling... 110rds for my Kar98k. Isn't that like... a single Tac41 magazine? ? And yes, I can easily carry all of them (but it is heavy, so I may drop it to 5 or 7 mags instead). The SKS chicom pouches are perfect for them and there are 10 pouches on the SKS chicom. 10 + 1 in the gun, and the far left pouch is larger and actually fits two mags so I can even carry that spare one there when in the safe zone and the mags have to be out of the gun. Also, as an aside, Tiger111hk is amazing. I only placed this order on Friday and it already turned up. No customs issues, and no goddamn UPS Stanford Le Hope which surprised me

Strong possibility I won't make the 'Nam game coming up in September due to car issues, but still going to make sure all my kit works properly just in case... Got another repro colt 4x scope coming for the car-15 and 8 (yes, 8!) more mags for the kar98k on the way. Tend to cover the scope with scrim as it's a bit modern, but no way in hell am I using a crappy zf39 scope. I specifically modified my receiver to accept that scope mount purely so that I didn't have to use the old zf39 scopes or a scout scope mounted super far forwards Kar98k will probably have to be run at 1.1J though because I doubt the sniper ban will be lifted at Eversley in September. I think it tends to get lifted a bit later in the year.