Impulse

I had a more genuine sniper experience yesterday at Worthing Airsoft than I think I've had in a while. We played a long, multiple objective game in the morning, as they have the past few game days and I've been enjoying this, and I took up a position overwatching a pathway with my KJW m40a5. I lay in position for about 2 hours, watching movements in the distance and not shooting at all as my team pushed up to the checkpoint in front of my position, so I decided to get up and move because I was getting cold lying in the dirt. As soon as I pushed up, everyone on my team in front of me and around me got hit and I decided to go back to my previous position. Last hour of the game I went through all 3 of my mags holding that path, as it then got very busy. Had to pick my shots, because in cold weather the cooldown effect of my gas magazines is amplified and if I shoot too quickly the power will plummet. It's an interesting complication, but I would much rather it get warmer so my rifle performs to its best! I think the only thing that could've made the experience more genuine is if nobody pushed up the path the whole game and also if I pissed myself and had to lie in it, but fortunately that didn't happen ? Didn't play in the afternoon. Only had 5 hours sleep the previous night and with my current diet and exercise regime that is about half of what I should be getting, so I was really tired and I wasn't that bothered with dealing with the cooldown challenges of my rifle all day. Once my m14 socom is sorted I'll probably use that until it warms up a little, but most of my collection are gas guns and will have similar issues at the moment.

I run .48s (sniper rifles), .4s (DMRs), .32s (most things), and .25s (shotgun and LMG) and for all of them I've always liked Geoffs until recently because they shot up in price and are just expensive now. Now I'm running BLS BBs and they're pretty great and affordable, but ASG Blasters have always been good as well and I've used them in the past.

Totally agree. Of all the GBBRs I have, the only one that doesn't have some sort of NPAS or adjustable valves is the mp9 and that has the low power bolt so it shoots about 0.7J. They're a must-have because weather affects power, so if I use them in the current weather I need to turn up the power, but then when it's 20+ celcius I need to turn the power down because the gas runs better in warmer temperatures.

Another weekend, another skirmish at Worthing Airsoft. I was intending to use the m40a5 today, either with my HK45 as a sidearm, or my mac11 + mk23 combo, but as I was experimenting on the range with my chrono, the power was dropping with every shot. Issue with running a gas bolt action in the cold is that the cooldown effect of each shot just compounds and makes it worse, so the mags were progressively getting colder and the ambient temperature was making it worse. So that was out, but I at least had my HPA VSR as a backup so I set that up at 2.25J and took it out with the HK45 as a sidearm, as if I'm running a line I don't like using the mac11 because the shoulder rig I run it on constantly catches the HPA line and it's a pain to deal with (especially when you're trying to move as little as possible so people don't see you) Anyway, I went out for the first game which was a large, multi-objective game that would last until lunch. Brilliant, I love these games! I took a spot in a holly bush to overwatch a path, though at this time of year there aren't many leaves on them! It was a good spot to hold though as I single-handedly held the path against a lot of players that just couldn't locate where the shots were coming from. Some BBs were sprayed in my general direction, but with me low to the ground and surrounded by foliage nothing was coming close to me. I eventually got taken out when some regulars led a massive group of enemy players down the path. I managed to take out the two regulars, but was taken out by one of the other players as there was a wave of about 12, so one of them was bound to spot me after I opened up with the GBB pistol! I respawned, grabbed two teammates and went to cut them off again, but there were only about 3 of us and we weren't able to stop them from getting into a base and digging in. I then tried to go around them, got a bit lost and went out of bounds where I bumped into another sniper on the other team. I said we were out of bounds so we walked back in game and had a gentleman's agreement to not shoot each other, but he ran off and told his team I was there so I got taken out pretty fast. Respawned again and headed the other way this time, as their team were firmly entrenched on the other flank, so I thought I could punch through a gap by going the other way. I hugged the boundary and came up to their respawn where I went to ground. I didn't shoot, because spawn camping is bad, but I wanted to wait until nobody was in their spawn so I could cross over, get to the fence line, move along to another base and shoot them in the back, as they wouldn't be expecting shots to come in from behind. One player respawned and almost walked on top of me, but thankfully due to the power of my KMCS ghillie suit just kidding, I run a cape ghillie that I built off a webtex concealment vest, but it worked well enough for the enemy player to pass me by. I let him get clear of me, before I scurried across their now empty respawn and got to my fence line. My blue armband was on my right arm, but they could only see me from the left, so I made it look like I was a yellow player and hoped I didn't bump into anyone who would recognise me and realise I was on the other team. I think I only passed one player this way, who didn't recognise me and I got into my sniper spot. Problem was, I was fogged up and the sun was in my direction, so I couldn't see anything through my scope. I got a few players as I tried to get my heart rate down and stop sweating quite so much, then as I heard the 10 seconds left call, I took out one last guy who was chatting with his friends and then the game over was called. It was funny, because while I was in that position, a yellow player spotted me as he was heading back to the safe zone to get his lunch and gave me a nod and mouthed "well played". It was very amusing, but it was also frustrating because our team just wasn't really doing anything. Every time I made a play, there might've been 2 or 3 other people around. Apparently most of our team were sitting in a pair of bases that the enemy team just... avoided because they didn't have objectives there. It also didn't help that the spawns weren't far enough apart / far enough from bases, so there was some spawn camping happening on both sides. I then decided to set my VSR back to 1.1J. The reasons are twofold; first, it's a lot quieter on 75psi than it is on 130psi. I think it's louder than my gas m40a5 when firing at 2.3J. Secondly, I found that Worthing Airsoft is a bit too... twiggy. The foliage is almost non-existent at this time of year, so there's very little to hide in, but there's a lot of twigs everywhere. The flora at Worthing Airsoft is lots of coppices, so while there aren't many leaves on them, there's lots of twiggy bits everywhere and threading long range shots is a bit weird. I'll still run the m40a5 at 2.3J, but with the VSR, the difference in sound signature just makes 1.1J the better call. I'll keep it as a backup gun. Didn't play the afternoon games as the guy who drives us up there has an issue with his ankle and can't really play, so me and the other guy decided to call it early as it doesn't feel fair to drag it on. Also, I couldn't put my finger on it, but the atmosphere today was off and all in all it felt a bit weird. I don't think there was too much enthusiasm to play on either side today, I think the spawn camping made people annoyed and a good chunk left at lunch, and... I don't know, it's hard to put into words, but there was this uneasy feeling looming over the game day today. Might be heading to Driver Wood next weekend, so it'll be good to get out to another site. Will probably use the opportunity to run a DMR as I like their DMR rules and my HPA m21 really prefers running at DMR power than anything else.

I use .32s in my mk23 too, but I can run .25s in it as well (haven't experimented with .2s yet). Anyone who says that you can't get an upgraded mk23 to shoot light BBs is making excuses And it's a real shame that this is a consideration we have to make. Don't want to have to shoot someone 5 or 6 times with .4s or heavier because that gets pricey!

I would never run heavier than .32s, but my answer is basically to mirror the ammo you use in something else so you don't have to buy different ammo types. People always talk about muzzle energy, but the heavier you go at the same muzzle energy, the higher the momentum goes (which is why it sucks getting point blanked by heavy BBs, even at 1.1J). Looking at momentum, a .2 has 70.1 gram ft/s and a .32 has 88.6 gram ft/s and a .48 has 108.5 gram ft/s at 1.14J, just to give you a frame of reference. I think all of my pistol builds can hop .48s if I really wanted to, but I stick to .32s as that's what I stick in my 1.1J builds while playing in woodland (which my local sites are) since I play like a sniper, even with my 1.1J builds, and .32s are where I find the cost/benefit ratio is best. Heavier than .32s the BBs start getting exponentially more expensive. I also tend to run guns with a 30m MED more often than not, so I tend to use my pistol a lot at around 20m. Also, you're typically using a pistol for closer engagements, so most of your shots won't be that far off. Either you're mid-reload and someone's pushing you and you have to fight them off with the pistol, or you're going into a structure or clearing a barricade, that kind of thing.

Have you tried the Tanaka revolvers? They're gas, they have internal magazines (not shells) and probably have the best range for revolvers.

He probably is. The problem is that GBBR magazines are heavy and only carry 35 BBs each, so you can load up with them and still need more ammo. I carry 9 MWS mags for my setup, but that's still only 315 BBs total (and weighs a tonne!). I just use a small speedloader, a bag of BBs and a 3d printed adapter that clips on top of the mag. Got one for my MWS mags and one for my AKM mags and they work really well.

Welcome back to the hobby and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did when I returned from a similar bygone era as yourself. Mildly jealous of the WA 1911, as I was too young to afford such a piece when I started (same with Tanaka rifles, but I've since managed to get myself one of those without breaking the bank). The hobby is way more accessible and mainstream now, though it is still a niche hobby there are a lot more people playing. Main issues now are social media and their algorithms promoting drama content which produces some real asshole airsofters who create such content and also their fans who emulate it. Chrono is a lot more prevalent and any site will ask you to chrono your guns at the start of the day, unlike back in the day where we all just turned up and most of us shot each other with hot guns as they tended to come out of the box when imported from Asia anywhere between 380 - 420fps. Hop ups are a lot better now as well, and people typically use heavier ammo with most running .25s - 28s in their AEGs, some even heavier than that, and .43s or heavier in sniper rifles. It's amazing what kind of range you can get with a well-tuned build these days, especially when you consider that 40m was a real achievement back in the day! TM gas pistols are now king. They're the best gas pistols on the market and thanks to the plastic slide they tend to work all year round outside of the recent polar temperatures we've had the past few weeks, although I know people who have risked putting red gas through theirs and they've cycled fine for those game days. In theory they should be fine as the psi of red gas at 5 celcius is (probably) low enough to not explode them, but you won't find me risking it and I wouldn't advise risking it. The newer models have better blowback units and are even more gas efficient; as soon as the temperature is over 5 celcius, my HK45 tends to just... work. Reliably. On green gas. Going with what's comfy is definitely best. If you can carry what you need and be comfortable doing so, then it works. Impression kits are great and I'm definitely guilty of enjoying a bit of dress up, but for regular airsoft skirmish you can turn up in trackies and walking boots if you want to. Also, when charging LiPo batteries, get a good balance charger like an imax b6 or something like that. There are cheap chargers that will charge through the balance lead, but... well, LiPo horror stories are easy to find and chemical fires are no joke. I remember LiPo batteries being a thing back in the day, but they tended to be reserved for high rps builds and tended to shatter gearboxes, but these days most guns will be fine running 7.4v LiPo batteries, with some handling 11.1v out of the box. Just make sure you take good care of them and don't use them if they go all puffy. https://www.outdoorandtactical.co.uk/product/ot-8mm-bbs-0-48g-1000-white-8mm No idea how good they are, but they exist.

I always empty my mags after a game day and I still have m14 magazines that I've had since about 2010 and they still work without me having to change out any springs.

Out of stock, but... https://www.socomtactical.net/jg-aep-battery-charger-adapter/ https://www.patrolbase.co.uk/ipower-charger-adapter-for-lipo-aep-batteries I have the top one and also a version of the lower one that a friend sorted for me. Works great.

I'd like to do a modern tacticool high-speed m4 setup with my 2nd MWS, but all the real-steel parts are expensive. So instead I decided to use what I already had to do a retro build instead.

One of the marshalls at my local site used one as a juggernaut and it was very amusing observing the carnage from a concealed spot; front row seats to the spectacle!

I came here to complain about em kays and now you're all talking about plastics. Don't think I've ever refered to my mk23 as an em kay 23. Mark 23 is easier to say anyway.

I think some good reasons have already been given, but it could also be impacted by people getting into the sport and learning to do basic teching over time. Once you know how to change out a hop rubber, nub and barrel, you can get a Cyma, change out those parts and have a gun that shoots better than a TM for a fraction of the price. Could be impacted by airsofter's wives too. "You spent what on that new gun?"

Was good to get out today to Worthing Airsoft for my regularly scheduled skirmish experience. Was the first game day in a month so I was eager to play, however it is at the end of the first week of my new exercise regime so I was very tired. I was collecting two of my m14s from a local tech and I wanted to experiment with my VSR with its new widebore barrel, so I had a lot to do between all the experimentation and also zeroing the LPVO and setting the hop on my short m14. However, as I attended the safety brief they went over the first game of the day being an all-morning game with a whole load of different objectives all over the site so I instead decided to quickly set my VSR up for 2.3J and headed out for the morning. It started slow. We were almost getting spawn-camped, but there was enough space to get out so I headed to our base and set up a position to defend in a nice little sniping spot that I love to use. However... nobody was approaching in my arc of fire. I cautiously pushed up to try and get better shots but I didn't find anyone for a while, but I eventually got into a place where I had a line on a barricade that the enemy team were fond of using. The shots weren't easy, especially as I realised my hop was wonky and all my shots were arcing right. I also realised I had a great line on a holly bush and was posting shots into there as well and got a LOT of hits from that position. I played around that area through the rest of the game, moving between a few shooting positions and hitting about 16 people across the hour or so I was playing there. I finally got hit by someone who got rather angry with me and it made me chuckle. It was a ghillie with a proper MTW wankergun build, spraying BBs at about 25rps on full auto. I lay behind a tree and tucked myself in while he spammed full auto in the tree and started yelling "there's no way you're not hit, just call it!" at me, but nothing was hitting me as I was keeping close to the ground behind it. There was a marshall standing right next to me and I was just laughing while looking to the marshall just seeing how many of his BBs I could make him waste (it was a LOT). Eventually one did hit me and I called it, went off and respawned and then hurried back to a spot that I could draw a line of sight onto his position as he hadn't moved. Took him out with a single shot and took up a position defending the base again, but by this point most of our team had decided to go in for an early lunch, leaving me and another sniper as the only base defenders. Two bolt action rifles are not good for holding, so while we took out a bunch of them without getting spotted, they just bullied into our base and stole all our objectives at the end, so we very much lost the game After lunch I decided to do all my tweaking and setup and... I've created two monsters. The short m14 was shooting absolutely phenomenally and the LPVO was easy to zero, which was good as I wasn't sure how the mount would be on the Cyma m14, but the G&P low mount worked really well. It was firing 1.06J on .32s, it was snappy, quiet for an AEG and slinging those .32s fairly accurately to about 60m. Very accurate on the 50m target, hitting it literally every single time too. The second monster was as I was experimenting with the VSR. I got the widebore so I could try and run it at 1.1J, as with the 6.03 in there it was 1.4J on 80psi, which is the lowest operating pressure for the Wolverine Bolt. With the widebore it was right on the 1.1J money, with the lowest shot being 1.096J and the highest being 1.111J. The hop was still off and the BBs were arcing, however what I discovered was that on 80psi the VSR was disgustingly quiet. My friend stood about 2m in front of it and couldn't hear it firing, and I shot past my other friend as he was trying to work out what was wrong with his bazooka and he didn't notice at all. I'll probably still run it at 2.3J for now, as the site is fairly open (and it really isn't during summer) and you won't hear the 2.3J sound at 30m away, but seeing how it performed and, most importantly, sounded on 1.1J was disgusting. Not too long either as it's an internally suppressed Maple Leaf bull barrel. Next private game we do at the UCAP Bunker I might put a red dot on it and run it there... Also, the other thing I realised today was how quickly exercise makes a difference. This was the first week I've done my new training regime (I swim 1km every weekday) and... airsoft was nowhere near as difficult as it was before Christmas. Going to be continuing the regime as I have some tablets to help mitigate my heart symptoms when it pops up, so hopefully as I drop the weight and put on a bit more lean muscle it'll just get easier and easier.

Not at our power limits. I tend to zero my scopes on the 75m target at my local site and I can hit the 85m target semi-consistently as long as there's no wind (can hit it with wind, but there's more luck involved at that point), but anything further is a mix of calculation and luck, as you have to arc the BBs and hope they don't stray off course for whatever reason. At the end of the day, we're firing air or gas powered muskets and they will never be "precision rifles". In terms of which is the best, that is down to personal preference. For example, a lot of people would disagree with me when I say that the Tanaka m700 platform is the best overall platform because it's gas powered and therefore not quite as consistent as spring or HPA (some people HPA tap the mags, but I prefer the VSR platform for HPA builds). If you spend a lot of time learning exactly how the Tanaka m700 platform works, and you have the patience to tweak it at the start of every game day, then the Tanaka m700 platform is the best since you can still get it more than consistent enough for airsoft, they shoot just as far, just as accurately, the bolt pull is effortless and they're incredibly silent. However, if you don't learn the ins and outs and tweak it every game day then they're awful. For user-friendliness, I'm very fond of the VSR platform, so anything VSR-based would be my recommendation. If you already have an SSG10, that's what I'd use. Get it running close to 2.3J on at least .45s, but preferably .48s, with a good hop setup and you'll be golden.

He doesn't do courier service, but if you're in the south east you can look up Adzzzy's Armoury (Facebook, Youtube). He's based in West Sussex and has worked on all of my AEGs that have had issues, since I don't like AEG gearboxes. Never had a bad experience with his work, but you have to be able to drop it off to him as I don't think he likes dealing with postal stuff.

What?

I've got a bunch of the 65rds mid caps and they're great. Really good with an mp5k to keep the weapon profile incredibly small.

I told you all I was waiting for something expensive to arrive... MWS #2 will be a short barreled rifle. Will have a modern and a retro build for it, but will likely just go retro most of the time.

I have a load of Cyma 30 round red ones and they're great. Never had any issues in my spring shotty

Going to look into rain X for my scopes. It's always a pain in the butt when it rains heavy as most of my collection are long guns with scopes!

If it's really wet, I tend to ditch optics altogether, which is part of the reason I like having back up irons on guns where possible. However, to guard against rain moisture I use flip up scope covers and I just obsessively keep them shut until I'm in a position to shoot (and probably with the rifle horizontal). For fogging... you can put anti-fog on scopes the same as you can put it on your eyepro. The microfibre cloth is a good idea, but make sure you keep it away from the elements as if it gets too wet/dirty you'll just be smearing wet dirt over your scope.