Impulse

I've run a game with a belt kit with a single 2x 5.56 mag pouch on it with two midcaps and a utility pouch with an Odin speedloader and I never had any ammo issues, and it was super lightweight. Can recommend! Would never do that with my MWS though because heavy, but when I run a gas sniper rifle, I do that on a belt kit as I only take 2 spare m700 mags. It's a bit heavy even with only two, but it's manageable! Got myself a split chest rig (so I can unclip the front and push it aside when crawling on my belly and have nothing on my front digging into my torso and dragging mags through the dirt) for if I am running my MWS or AKM or if I'm going to a larger event like AI500 or the NAF and need the ammo, but for most skirmish or filmsim games I find that a belt kit is adequate for running anything that isn't my MWS or AKM

I storage charge mine after every game day I use them, however I don't reliably use my batteries since most of the time I run gas guns. If I run an AEG, it's entirely possible I won't run one for months or I may run one literally the next game day, so I just got into the habit of storage charging just in case.

Wait, people take more than like... 300 BBs out with them into games? [this post was brought to you by GBBR Gang]

Just got back from a great day at Worthing Airsoft (for the most part). It was very, very warm, but after last game day I decided to go with the long sleeves and I'm very happy with the decision as I have got home and my arms are not in agony from the various lacerations from all the thorns and the horrible burning from all the stinging nettles (seriously, the foliage at Worthing is more dangerous than the enemy players, I swear...). Took my KJW m40a5 as usual, but decided to run my KWA mp9 in a thigh holster, as I want to replace it with a TM mp7 so I wanted to make sure it worked well as a setup, as well as my TM bodyguard in a shoulder holster. Didn't fire the bodyguard pistol once, but the other two got a whole lot of use. Everything chronoed fine, with the m40a5 being around 1.8 - 1.9J, which I was fine with since with the temperatures probably increasing in the day the power would likely increase a bit, so having a solid 0.4J of wiggle room means I wouldn't end up being hot. KWA mp9 came up 0.8J, so that was fine as well. Hopping .32s out delightfully! Anyway, first game was the sands of pain. Basically, box with timers on it that you have to go up to and push your button down to start accumulating time. Can't press it with a foot, have to go up and put your hand on the button. Box can't be moved and it's always placed in a nasty location where you're going to get shot a whole lot. The site hasn't had any changes from last time and I am yet to see a team win from one of the sides. We started on that side and made a decent push up, but both us and the other team were unable to get much time on the clock. I teamed up with some of the more experienced players, calling out movement and taking some long-distance shots for them as we tried to push up, but spawning from that side was very difficult to push up with as there are a LOT of strong positions on the other side with the way the new constructions are. However, second game we switched ends and... it wasn't even close. I went to the same position that I know has been made disgusting because of the new builds and held a flank by myself, with my friend a little behind me in another spot watching our flank (and also having perfect sight onto the sands of pain box, so none of the enemy team could get any time on it). The main issue was that I only have three magazines for the m40a5, so that's about 84 shots in total and I had gone through a magazine in the first game. 48 shots and I'm pretty sure I got about 40 kills with them, as enemy players constantly approached the new checkpoint that I have perfect line of sight to and I kept picking them off. Furthermore, the rest of our team managed to push up decently well and we got a whole load of time on the clock. I think we got almost 3 minutes total, which all of it was in the second game (which is a LOT when you have to be pressing a button in the open to count up) and the other team got under a minute which was pretty much all in the first game when we were on the other side. The highlight of the day was that there were some milsimmers present today and some of them were getting a bit salty with me constantly picking them off; the issue with getting salty at me when I'm not breaking any rules is that I find those buttons and just constantly press them because it gives me great joy, so every time they came along my flank I'd give them a .45 (BB, not the calibre!) to the plate carrier or arm. By the end of the game I was basically out of ammo on the rifle; I think I had 2 shots left. I will once again reiterate my point that they need to do some more work at the Tower base, as it's really imbalanced from one side. Third game was a three base domination and I found out that some, but not all, of the ghillies on the other team (all of the ghillies were on yellow; only me in my uncrafted viper hood and my friend in his ghillie were on blue) were being cheeky and they were spawn-camping all day, creeping around the edge of the site and setting up just outside our spawn; I just didn't know because I hadn't had to go back to respawn yet! This game I decided that I wasn't having that and basically played rearguard all game. I spotted one trying to cross into some nettles that were just outside our spawn and I showed him why I have the opinion that mk23s are crappy sidearms for snipers. His position was way stronger than mine, and if the positions were reversed, I would've hit him where I was shooting from easily when we traded a few shots with the bolt actions, but fortunately the shots he took went wide and I decided that instead of this unfavourable situation for me, I would give him an unfavourable situation, dropping my bolt action and pulling out the mp9 before rushing him down. He was a little salty, saying the tree he was behind was crap, but it was way stronger than my spot; his issue was that the mk23 is crap at fast shooting and I just rushed him down with the mp9, keeping his head down with a few shots and moving around to shoot him from the side. I reset my position and spotted a 2nd ghillie who had crept into the nettles and I sent some shots his way. There was a bit of teflon here, since I watched the shots go in and watched him recoil from some of them, but he went to ground and kept trying to creep up next to our spawn. Sent some more shots into him as he crested the nettles, causing him to go to ground again. I then told a few of my team mates that there was a sniper in the nettles and two started moving around to clear him and a 12 year old with the worst sounding AEG I've ever heard came up to where I was. Told him where I had seen the bush wookiee and... he spotted him and took him out. He did get traded, but he took the full ghillie'd full-upgraded VSR bush wookiee with his m4 that sounded like it was constantly running out of battery, respawned in and came back to me congratulating him on the shot. Turns out it was his first time airsofting, so I'm glad he got him I did then friendly fire someone, but it wasn't my fault. Saw them peeking out in our direction from behind some cover, so I colour challenged him. He didn't respond, peeked out again and I shot him on the face mask, then he came out was showed his arm band. I was just like "why didn't you respond when I colour challenged you?!" since if I colour challenge someone and they don't respond, I'm assuming they're hostile 😂 I called it at lunch time though. It wasn't because it was too hot; I generally enjoy warm weather airsoft, but I do quite literally have heart disease so I didn't want to push it. I'm being somewhat melodramatic with that, but last week I finally managed to get the symptoms for my palpitations captured when it acted up on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning and they've confirmed it's atrial fibrillation, which is a heart disease (but it's not the worst). Hopefully will be able to get an ablation done and get back to living my life properly, playing all day at airsoft and doing the exercise I enjoy doing during the week and losing the weight I want to lose, because I can't at the moment Spent the rest of the day tweaking my Tanaka m700, but that's really a wall-hanger. It's incredibly rare and the stock is a real wood Remington 700 stock converted for the Tanaka m700 receiver, plus it's not as consistent as my KJW ones and doesn't like the intake rubbers I use to control the power, so it's not practical to use. However, I also learned something that might cause me to revisit HPAing my m14, as someone else was having the same issue and the tech on-site had a good look at his and found out what was causing the issue in his. I'm about to try the fix on my engine too and if it works I might consider keeping that HPA'd and just run is as a shorter m14 build for a more recce role (and also CQB because I love taking long guns to CQB and I don't mind the line as much in CQB since I run my plate carrier, which works better with a line and tank, and I'm not crawling through bushes and getting caught on literally everything) Looking forward to next week. Trying a new site with a few of the Worthing lads and everything worked well today so I'll be running the m40a5, mp9 and bodyguard pistol there too

BLS and Longbow. Also ASG Blasters are okay at those weights too.

I always have flip up irons as well as a scope where possible, but that's mostly because if the heavens open up (which let's face it, we're in the UK and that isn't uncommon) I can just remove the scope and flip up the irons to aim instead, since trying to use a scope in the pouring rain is a real pain. At CQB distances I'm at a point where I typically don't need to properly aim and just point and shoot, though sometimes I'll tilt my rifle to get a better view down the barrel. At those distances, hop doesn't matter, and for anything longer I just use the LPVO.

Easily. I run .32s, though with my weird hop arm that's as much as it'll do. With a better hop arm or nub like the bavtac one, you'll easily lift .3s. I've got a Jaeger Precision hop arm in my bits box now, so I'll likely fit that at some point if my gun starts performing poorly. At the moment though, if it ain't broke, I'm not fixing it! In terms of range, I can reliably hit the 60m target at my local field and I trust the range at my local field because I've confirmed the ranges with my rangefinder! It's a lovely gun for sure

Or they'll agree that it looks like shite and would still love to chat about it 🤣

Two birds with one stone: https://www.empireairsoft.co.uk/g17-g18-gbb-tdc-outer-barrel-assembly-tm-we-copy.html The pic isn't threaded, but this is the threaded version. The threads aren't amazingly strong because it's 3d printed, but I have one on my HK45 and they show no signs of breaking. Just don't fall/sit on your pistol and you'll be fine. Also has the added bonus of being a TDC, and again if the HK45 version is anything to go by, it'll be really nice.

Looks like they're also going to do a longer one? Maybe a 14.5" from the looks of it? Not my cup of tea as the next MWS build I want to do is a bit more retro (well, a retro build and a 2010ish build that I will swap stock and handguard depending on how I feel), but if I was made of money I'd look at getting a 3rd as these do look really nice.

I just use this: https://www.bullseyecountrysport.co.uk/airtech-studio-universal-m12-odin-speedloader-sidewinder-adapter-37496-p.asp Should work with any AEG magazine. I use something similar to this with my m14 and SR-25 magazines. EDIT: I literally use this and it works well

I've only been for private games, but the site itself is really nice. Very CQB, but there are also a few long sight lines down some of the tunnels, as well as plenty of sneaky crawl spaces and small gaps. It's a great site, but I can't comment on how they run it (I assume it'd be fine?)

I run a Maple Leaf MR hop in mine because it just seems to really like it (I'm usually all about the autobot rubbers), however I'm not using the bavtac patch and instead am using a slightly modified hop arm since I've had my AKM since before these things existed

Don't know about their carriers specifically, but I have a bunch of their pouches and a few holsters because they're pretty good for the price. Haven't had anything fall apart on me yet!

Bittersweet day at Worthing so early disclaimer that I am a bit salty about a number of things and am not afraid to spill that salt all over the table like a cat causing mayhem in the kitchen. I had a lot of stuff I needed to test out, so I wasn't able to bring absolutely everything I needed, so I left the m21 at home and brought the short m14 and the m40a5, which had a new hop setup since the last one started overhopping last game day, so I tried to get something a bit softer. Changed from the Modify X-range 55 degree and the Action Army hop nub to a new Maple Leaf 2023 silicone autobot 60 degree rubber with a new 50 degree silicone nub and it worked a charm; no more overhopping! I set the hop on the range after magging up, but here I got the first bittersweet bit of news. I was told that they had built more barricades and structures around the tower base and a lot of them interfere with the limited long-range lines of sight. I often describe Worthing Airsoft during the summer as "woodland CQB", so hearing that as someone who enjoys long range shooting made my heart sink a bit. So after magging up the m40a5, I decided to leave the m14 until after lunch as I had a lot I needed to test on that. So the first thing I did in the morning before briefing was head out into the game area with my friend that I often pair up with as a sniper. We headed out to have a look and while I do like more builds on-site, there were a few bitter points of these and I'm pretty sure one of the barricades that was built was built because of me. There was a spot I used to crawl to that would cover over a very strong position behind the church building and essentially counter it. It was a difficult position to get into and involved low-crawling through a bunch of stinging nettles to get into it, but it was, I thought, one of the only positions that countered the position on the back of the church. Now that they've built a massive barricade across the entire line of sight from that spot, I realised I was wrong; it was the only position to counter the back of the church, which now goes unchecked for the team that spawns over that side of the base. Another build that really affected me was bad in the other way; it has made another of my spots far too strong, since it creates essentially a funnel right in front of it about 50m away that you can cover and hold super easily. Another barricade totally neuters a position that me and another sniper liked to take which, again, was a bit of a pain to get to as you had to crawl under a holly bush that was in view of the enemy team, so low-crawling was the only was to do it if people were in the area, as one new barricade covers half of the sight line and is about 20m away, while another barricade covers the rest of the sight line at 30m away. What didn't help is that the spots that were ruined were both spots that could be used by the team spawning from one side of the base, while the two spots made overpowered were on the other side and for the other team. Anyway, one safety brief later we headed out and I stuck with the m40a5 because I needed to get an idea how these new builds would interact with snipers. Short answer is, it makes snipers and DMRs even worse during the summer. Worthing is already quite a thick site and with how much there are only a few areas where sniping works well; the tower, the outpost and the paths. Now, the tower is no longer one of those spots outside of two positions that are way too powerful now with the new barricades. I spent the first game in my overpowered spot overwatching the funnel checkpoint, while my friend took position behind me in the other overpowered spot and we held down that side of the base essentially by ourselves. My suspicions were definitely confirmed that those spots had been made incredibly overpowered, but time to switch sides after a relatively dominant hold from that side. I headed over to my old spot and while I still had a thin sight line to the back of tower, no dice for the church as expected. What made it worse is that getting into a position to see the front of the church (not even the rear which is the power position), I have to crawl forward and would be within the 30m MED to engage. Also, from what I heard, a sniper on the other team took up one of my overpowered positions (fortunately nobody really knows about the other one apart from like... 3 of us) and dominated that entire flank just as we had the previous game. Next game was a bit widerspread than being concentrated around the tower, so I was excited for that. Sandbag bunker, a small base in the middle of the site near the boundary on the other side, had barrels in it and both teams had to get as many as they could. However, teams could only transport one barrel at a time, so you couldn't just rush it, get everyone to grab a barrel and run; you had to hold the area to transport the barrels away one at a time. Our base was the tower, their base was the outpost and the game never went anywhere near the tower. I think they got there first and got more barrels than us or something, but the entire game was us sieging the outpost, a hard base to take since the spawn for the team is very close. Got some lovely shots with the m40a5 in this game though, since around outpost is one of the few areas where sniper rifles work well at this time of year; I even got a shot at about 60m on a running target! That was my favourite shot of the day by far as it was just perfectly judged and super satisfying to hit. No idea who won that game, but it was very enjoyable. We switched ends after that and the game ended up with us trying to siege the tower base. We didn't get anywhere close to taking the tower though, since we were attacking from the nasty side. I spent most of the game trying to work out how to counter-snipe one of the overpowered spots, but while in game it was going to be hard to work out. The main takeaway I got from this game was that I think it's time I returned to long sleeves; the foliage at Worthing is out to kill you as it's covered in thorns, stinging nettles and holly bushes and I'm tired of coming away from a game day with my arms burning and having to take some painkillers to get to sleep. So lunch time came around and after grabbing my burger, I headed out into the gameplay area again to try and work out how to counter-snipe that spot. After about an hour of combined effort with my friend, we worked out that it's essentially impossible to counter-snipe, and I'm not just saying that because I'm bad. The strength of the area is that it's behind a slight defilade and takes cover behind a tree, so all that really pokes out is the barrel of your rifle and the scope. Even without a ghillie or any camo patterns, as I went out in a black t-shirt, my friend said it was essentially impossible to see me from pretty much any angle. We worked out a way to counter the spot, but it doesn't involve counter-sniping it. It involves full-auto and a bit of luck where you just spray the exact position and hope you at least get a gun hit or something. Only other way is to flank around the entire field, but then you also need to sneak past the steady stream of dead and respawning players as you would cross over the paths to and from the enemy team's respawn, or you need to take the base itself, though with that side locked down by those positions, you would need to attack from the other end. Anyway, the next thing that sucked was the short m14. For some reason it was shooting weird and felt like it was only firing at 0.2J or something. I have no idea why, since I only changed out the outer barrel and the stock, but when it just flat out stopped shooting I just gave up as I didn't want to damage it. I found the reason for it stopping shooting, which fortunately was only because the motor connectors were loose and the movement of the gearbox was shaking them off (the vibrations when the piston goes back and forwards was enough to shake them loose), but since I just can't do gearboxes, I'll be sending that off to my local tech soon-ish to get it sorted. Will probably get a third m14 rather than trying to frankengun a short m14 scout build with a mix of TM and Cyma parts, which is another case of clone items not being entirely compatible with each other beyond the Laylax scope mount not working on the Cyma receivers. The TM stock is a bit tighter than the Cyma one, though it will fit with some persuasion, but the outer barrels are incompatible; Cyma outer barrels won't fit in TM receivers without modification. I'll pick up a Cyma m14 socom to use for my short build and swap out the outer barrel for the one I have where the iron sights are separate from the flash hider. The only other thing to really say is that the split chest rig also worked really well. A few minor tweaks to be done as the holster kept coming loose for the bodyguard pistol and I think if I was running an SMG secondary as I want to do, the mag pouches on the belt would press against it and be hard to access, so I'm going back to a separate shoulder holster. However, the idea of running one and taking weight off the belt kit was sound, and unclipping it when going prone allows me to still low-crawl with nothing on my front. So in summary - Short m14 shat itself - Anything with an MED is incredibly limited at Worthing Airsoft now until the winter comes along and the foliage recedes - While I'm salty at the moment about the barricades doing this, I think it will be great during the winter to stop snipers being too dominant when the foliage recedes - One of the bases is super overpowered from one side - The marshalls who do build work have acknowledged that and already planned on adding some more stuff the other side to make it balanced - Will this make guns with MEDs even worse during the summer? - m40a5 was shooting flawlessly with the new hop setup - Split chest rig is the way forward for me when I'm sniping, which is most of the time, even with 1J builds Next game day I'm leaving the bolt action at home and bringing out the SR-25. I will also bring the m21 as I still need to test it with its new Cyma gearbox since I didn't like it being HPA, though I did move the lovely green TM stock back to it as it was mostly TM just with a Cyma gearbox. I will see what it's like running a similar style but with no MED and a bit less effective range, but my suspicions are that I won't lose all that much and I will gain a lot. It's either that or bring the m40a5 and set it to fire at 1J instead of 2J. I will also be bringing out the mp9 in a thigh holster for next game day even though I don't really need to with a 1J build, purely to test out the new split rig + belt + shoulder holstered bodyguard pistol setup when running that SMG secondary, even though it's not going to be my SMG secondary since I prefer retractable stocks over folding stocks for that and will be getting a TM mp7 at some point in the future to fill that role.

Regarding the armband, everyone should wear one unless it's an event where they aren't in use (filmsim, tans vs greens games etc) and if everyone else has to wear it on the arm, so should the ghillies. Similarly, if ghillies are allowed to wear it around the ankle, then me in my regular t-shirt and trousers should be allowed to wear it around the ankle as well. You're more likely to be shot by your own team than get spotted because of your armband anyway; two things that have never given me away is me having my face uncovered and my armband. Also, people who conceal their armband underneath ghillies are cheating. I've seen people craft extra stuff around a part of their arm so that they can put the armband on and then cover it with ghillie material. Also, it's very true; the ghillie doesn't make the sneaky bastard and I always advise people new to sniping to hone their playstyle without running one at all. You can dress in the gucci-est, most well-crafted suit, but if you don't understand camo and concealment fundamentals you're going to get spotted all the time. Other part of the reason I don't ghillie much in the summer; it's good to keep skills well honed. I definitely think this is part of it. When I started, very few people ran ghillies (I literally knew 3 including myself) because they generally sucked to make. You had to get the jute / burlap, dye it in a bucket (multiple times because different colours), unthread it and fray the fabric manually then either sew/glue gun it onto BDUs or otherwise attach it to a Webtex concealment vest (I still love them for ghillie bases to this day).

It's part of the reason I don't wear my suits much any more, though I don't think I'll ever stop for good because I've been doing it for longer than most and it's what I enjoy. Also, my suits aren't the full blown bush wookiee suits and it annoys me whenever people are like "ah, so you don't run a proper ghillie" because I prefer the cape and hood style over turning myself into a bush; I hate those suits and they snag on everything when you crawl on your front. Every time I go to a game day, I see at the very minimum half a dozen ghillies but it is often upwards of 10 or 15 depending on the season (less people run them in summer because it's too hot). Considering the absolute maximum people we will have at Worthing is 85, if 15 are in ghillie suits that's starting to be a large portion of the players. I think the worst case I saw was about 22 ghillie suits on a day of about 60 players. I would love it if we had ghillie suits restricted to snipers, but for skirmish that's always going to be tough to do since skirmish is meant to be very "turn up with whatever kit you want and play BB wars" and I wouldn't want that to change. For more organised events like filmsim, battlesim or milsim stuff, I would limit them to snipers, using either using a bolt action sniper rifle or a DMR in a sniper role (locked to semi-auto and higher power, no 1J no MED DMRs even though I love them) and spotters (can have a regular rifle but must be paired with a bolt action / DMR sniper). I'd be hesitant though because it would encourage more people to run DMRs and there are a lot of trigger-spammy people who have no concept of what an MED is. That said, I don't think it's as simple as the ghillie itself. It's the playstyle that comes with it. Most I've seen will go out purely for kills without a care in the world as to what the objective is, and that's the real problem, especially if one team has more of these kill-obsessed bushes on their team as they will just get ruined on the objectives. For me, I tend to play the same with or without the suit and will always try and do something that will help my team with the objective beyond "I got 95328592 kills that game". Sometimes it's area denial (I will pick an area and deny it, even once the enemy stops going that way to force them into other areas for my team to take advantage of), sometimes it's cutting off reinforcements, sometimes it's sitting in a concealed position radioing in enemy movements to my team without firing a single shot, but it always will be based on what the objective is. Not all ghillies do this; they just suit up because they saw a Kicking Mustang video once and just go and see how many kills they can get.

I always check RIFs before shooting them and treat any RIF I haven't personally set up and checked like a loaded firearm, but I think that's a carry over from real-steel shooting and even air rifle shooting. However, I know that isn't the case for most because I play airsoft and I see what happens in the safe zone and on the range and even in the game field.

I've taken a 1J VSR to CQB. I've also taken an SR-25 to CQB. Both with 3-9x50 scopes still on them. This is an improvement!

CQB gun. Cyma m14, but with a TM m14 stock. Not 100% on the optic mount at the moment because I know the Laylax mount doesn't work well with the Cyma receiver (had to use it; outer barrel didn't work with the TM receiver) and ends up being off by a fraction of a degree, meaning you can never zero the scope properly. Currently using the G&P scope mount as I want a low profile mount, but if that doesn't work like the Laylax mount doesn't, I know my TM scope mount will work, it's just a bit higher up. And no, I'm not joking. I will take this to CQB games

1. I get bringing blank firers to special events where it makes sense. I think Milsim West do it well and it can really add to the immersion of those events, but as long as it's clearly advertised that blank firers will be in use, so hearing protection is advised. Someone brought a blank firing pistol to a Vietnam game I was at and it was well used. However, bringing one to a skirmish is dumb as skirmish is meant to be for everyone, from your meal team six milsim operator to your speedyboi with a HPA AAP-01 to your 14 year old rental kid. 2. This is just flat out cheating and these players should be kicked off site, even if their guns are indeed under. I don't like chrono and when I started nobody chronoed and everyone was fine, but with heavier BBs around, as well as the hobby being far more mainstream than back then (still niche, but today's turnouts are way higher than the mid 2000s), you need to have chrono because, unfortunately, not everyone can be trusted. I know that my guns are under as I tinker with all my stuff and own a chrono to test for power, but I still go through chrono and have no issues doing so. With gas guns, going through chrono helps me make those fine tuning adjustments as sometimes if it's warm, the NPAS in my MWS needs turning down or the bolt in my m700/m40s needs turning down. I would talk to the marshalls about both, and if they didn't do anything about it I'd probably find a new site. The blank firer is less an issue for me as I have hearing protection and can bring it no problem, but people skipping chrono is a big no-no for me as I don't want someone to bring a hot gun and take out my teeth or my eyepro because they're splooging full auto at 1.5J at point blank range, or they're doing their best Kicking Mustang impression and running a bolt action at 3J and also have no concept of MED (the latter part of that is pretty common...)

Worthing Airsoft is running a game day that weekend, but it's not exactly on the way back towards Hitchin unfortunately

Pretty much this. Only laser product I have that I trust is my Vortex rangefinder (which says it's a class 1 laser and therefore safe and I believe that as a Vortex product), but that's also only used in very specific situations where I am very conscious what I'm shining it at. A lot of the danger of lasers in airsoft is that you may shine it in someone's eye as a reflex reaction to seeing them and shooting at them. Also, as @MrTea has already said, most lasers in airsoft products are totally unregulated and it's very possible that they are high strength and could easily blind someone. Personally, I'd also look for a dedicated weapon light and get something with silly levels of lumens. Most people who run lights in airsoft expect them to blind (not literally like the lasers do!), but most lights don't have enough lumens and end up just being a nice target to shoot at.