Impulse

I've hidden from people while wearing a ghillie suit made of tinsel (red, green and gold shiny stuff!), but never worn that setup, so I cannot refute your claims.

Ready for some Gunman 'Namsoft in June. Love a weekend of shooting at GIs with their own guns, but this time I actually have mags for the AKM, so that's coming too

Practice, practice, practice! Only way to get better is to shoot more. Shooting at static targets is useful for getting to know how your rifle shoots, time to impact at different distances etc. Once you are very familiar with how your rifle shoots, you need to practice leading shots in game. It takes some practice because airsoft is incredibly inconsistent, but you'll eventually get a feel for how your rifle shoots in different conditions and be able to judge shots on moving targets easier. All this said, it's definitely easier if you have a scope with a good reticle with mildots. I was running a scope with mildots over the weekend and it made adjusting for wind so much easier as I knew "for this shot, I need to aim two mildots to the left (of which there was quite a breeze on Sunday!)

Slow start for me today. Took the spring VSR and the Tanaka m700 and I can say that the Tanaka m700 hates low power. I put the small gas router in it and was getting 0.04J (the Bbs were pretty much rolling out of the barrel) and the middle one was only between 0.3 and 0.4J, but the normal sized one was 1.5J which was too much, since Worthing Airsoft is getting to be woodland CQB again so a 30m MED is way too much of a liability right now. Furthermore, the spring VSR was chronoing at 1.17J without a suppressor on and I didn't bring one, so I had to drop the BB weight a little to get it under 1.14J. With a suppressor it chronos reliably at 1.11J, losing 0.06J as it goes through the suppressor, but all of this took a while this morning and I missed the first two games. Onto the day itself then, but it was pretty good. The weather was amazing, though it was a bit breezy, so shots were swinging wide for everyone. Running the spring VSR at 1.1J with no MED was a bit of a laugh, but there were definitely still moments where I was like "ah, I wish I had 2.3J right now...". I might experiment playing with that 30m MED and a reliable pistol or SMG secondary (I'll need it) in future at the site, but next game day I need to make sure the KJW m700 is still set up for 1.1J, since I have some 'Namsoft the week after the next game day in June and I'm pretty sure Gunman has a sniper ban at Eversley at the moment because the ferns are grown up, so everything has to be 1.14J or under. Also ran the belt kit today for my Vietnam stuff and it's so good. Who needs modern tacticool molle setups anyway?

I remember that. I waited until I saw some in stock for a reasonable price on fire support and bought 5 immediately (my friend bought 5 as well, so between us we bought like... half their stock from that wave of mags). I probably will hold off on the saiga though. I don't do much CQB, so it wouldn't be used that much and it's probably going to end up being about £650 here (could even be £700) looking at the Japanese price, with mags at between £50 - £60 each. That's a lot to spend on a gun I might use a few times.

Shame TM will screw it up and there won't be any mags in stock for years (like the AKM). But I will say I do really like the look of this. I think I'd want a drum mag though.

Only HPA guns I have are a bolt action sniper rifle and a semi-auto m21 build (so... another sniper rifle). Not all HPA users are spammy wankers, and not all spammy wankers are HPA users.

Some sites do, at least for part of the year because it gets hard to use them and observe their MEDs. I'm not talking about CQB sites either, I know that Gunman do it at Eversley Alpha for the summer months and that's a woodland site, since the ferns grow quite high. It's entirely possible to use a 2.3J sniper rifle and be effective during the summer, but they ban them because too many people are crap at doing so. Doesn't matter to me, I run my bolt actions at 1.1J for the mostpart, because my local site doesn't have long sight lines, even during the winter. I'll run them at 2.3J if I'm going to an event away from my home site and I reckon I'll get use out of the extra power, like at AI500 last month.

However, one thing I've observed (though again it's all 2nd hand info as I haven't been myself) is that Americans have a better attitude towards milsim; maybe it's got something to do with how prevalent real guns are in America so they get the idea that it's BB wars with toy guns better than we do over here. Milsim in the UK tends to have its head so far up its own arse that a lot of them forget we're still playing soldier running around the woods playing BB wars. From what I've seen in America, milsim is still milsim, but they seem to still hold onto that "we're just giant children" aspect a bit better and it seems more fun. Plenty of opportunities for trigger time at things like Milsim West, where the milsim I attended here, which was entry level, had me shooting a whole 1 time across the entire 24 hour game, and it was a scripted vehicle ambush where we as OpFor were essentially set up to fail.

I can only give my opinion on each of these points, so... For me, I prefer stainless steel barrels to brass barrels as stainless steel barrels won't corrode and to me they seem to require cleaning a little less often. Had one brass barrel corrode pretty bad, while I still use the same stainless steel barrel in my first VSR build for the past... 14 years? It's pretty much that simple. Reason for ZCI is their prices are great for what you get; £25 for a stainless steel tightbore is pretty nice. Trial and error for me. I've found that I might get a higher maximum range with the MR hop, but the macaron gives me way better consistency and better effective range. For me, effective range trumps maximum range every single time. Nubs, probably, but I wouldn't want to try to replicate an autobot or macaron contact patch by hand, though I'm crap at that kind of thing. Also, hop rubbers are pretty damn cheap. They're usually less than £10 and the nub is less than £5, so it's not exactly breaking the bank. I think it's "all of the above". I know my local site has a 25rps limit, because if you put a 1 second burst into someone that's still 25 BBs hitting them, potentially in the face. It's not nice getting absolutely hosed by someone with a wankergun build and an itchy trigger finger. I've got some pretty snappy builds, but none of them are over 20rps on full auto (and I never use full auto anyway). Also, if you're going that snappy, semi-auto might as well be full-auto. Insert the "that's not full auto, this is" video here. Also also, full-auto on something that isn't a support gun is just a crutch for people who can't aim. The crutch gets bigger the higher the ROF. Change my mind

Pretty much this. It's why I never run anything at DMR power since I find that usually what you gain in a good DMR build over a good 1.1J build is minimal, but you lose that engagement within your MED and are locked to semi (though the latter isn't much of an issue for me since I prefer semi anyway). Yep, this is also another factor for DMRs. Most bigger events will require that your DMR be weapon appropriate (so some sort of long barreled 7.62 or a mk12 or VSS or something), so you're going to run into voluming issues since you definitely want to be using heavier BBs in a DMR. HPA can solve this issue, but that comes with a bunch of its own issues (mostly an airline and strapping a bomb to yourself, along with very high setup costs). Short barreled AEGs are actually more efficient with heavy ammo, but can't be used at larger events as DMRs

This is why I always say that Novritsch stuff is usually okay, but it's designed to be bought and used without being tinkered with (and they do a decent job usually for this). For people like me who like to tinker with all my guns, there's no point. That said, I do like some of his ghillie stuff. His gun wraps make decent bases and his raffia is pretty good. Trying out his knock-off haloscreen stuff next (waiting for it to arrive), but his leaves are trash and fall apart

I have a Cyma m14 as well and it's also great, but it's a lot more intimidating to tech than an SR-25 or m4 style platform. Generally most Cyma guns will perform decently well out of the box, but are also affordable bases for upgrading and making something fancy. My Cyma m14 has had some work done on it to make it a bit quieter (though it's still an AEG so there's noise there) and make it super consistent and snappy and I had people at a private game thinking I was using a sniper rifle when I was using it. Oh, also if you wanted to be a bit different... you could go for a Cyma SVD. I rarely see SVDs these days and I kinda wanna get one now. Damn it 🤣

Cyma SR-25 is great. Out of the box it will perform fantastically and it hits all of the stuff you want from it: quick change spring, rotary hop unit and tightbore out of the box and a mosfet (however, you'd probably want to replace it at some point with a Perun or something because it's very simple, can't be programmed and will likely burn itself out eventually) And if you do want to DMR it, you basically only need to replace the spring as the internals are built for 460fps out of the box, they're just downgraded when they come into the UK.

It's a good idea, because the offerings on decent G36 replicas are pretty slim. I'd like to see a Novritsch AUG series.

I frequently take my VSR and m700 to CQB sites. 1.1J bolt actions are clearly the superior choice for close quarters!

I've heard from a few people that Golden Eagle gas shotguns are better than the TM ones. One of the marshalls at Worthing has a TM m870 breacher where he has basically replaced all of the internals for Golden Eagle internals but kept the TM externals. I want to get a Golden Eagle m870 breacher myself at some point

In an AEG, barrel length and diameter makes very little difference. I don't do AEGs, but this is my understanding of it. Smaller diameter will typically up the power a little. I like 6.03mm barrels as 6.01mm barrels don't really affect the accuracy, but if you don't keep them very clean you'll find shots becoming very inconsistent as anything in the barrel will affect the BB more as there's less gap between the BB and the barrel. Barrel length (and diameter to a lesser extent) interacts with cylinder volume. Cylinder to barrel ratio is basically the relationship between the air volume in your cylinder and how much of the barrel it will fill. In an ideal setup, your cylinder air volume will be able to fill the inner barrel but not exceed it, as that way you get the best compression and it will make the power very consistent. Generally, with heavier ammo, you actually want shorter barrels in AEGs because cylinders typically don't have enough volume to fill those longer barrels. Both of my AEGs are long and one of the upgrades I've done to them is giving them a full cylinder to increase that air volume to get through those 500mm barrels. As I said, I don't really do AEGs so I'm sure someone will correct me where I'm wrong or elaborate where I've missed stuff out. I typically use gas guns where barrel length is very much a consideration as gas guns suffer from joule creep with heavier ammo

I have a mix of both. Some of my guns are totally just wall-hangers (Tanaka m700 in a real Remington 700 wooden stock) that I won't use in game because replacing it would be impossible. However, I frequently run rifle setups that cost me many hundreds of pounds (today I had my m700 which all in is about £400 or so, and my MWS which is about £800 not including the magazines), but if things break on them the parts are available for me to fix them so it's fine, even if they can be difficult to source at points.

I mean... if money was no object I'd just get a gas gun and throw real-steel parts at it. I'd love to get a real-steel MDT or Magpul stock for my m700, but they go for £1800 and £1200(ish) respectively. I also plan on doing a tacticool CQB MWS build with real-steel parts. However, to answer your actual question, my answer depends on if you know a reliable tech. I would get a basic AEG, a Cyma m14 or AK or mp5 or a Double Eagle m4 type rifle, then get a tech to work on it to put some better quality internals in it. I have a tarted up Cyma m14 and SR-25 as my backup AEGs and they just... work. Very little that puts stress on the parts, since I mostly use them at 1.1J on semi-auto and the full-auto isn't very brrrrrt when I do use it. The other option would be just getting a TM NGRS and leaving it alone; kept stock, an NGRS will last for a long time and perform pretty damn well. The problem with the NGRS is when people decide they need upgrading because they only come out at around 0.8J. They're great and don't really need anything done to them. Take everything I say with a pinch of salt, however, as I way prefer gas guns. My go-to gun is a gas powered bolt action and my usual backup guns are both GBBRs. If I was in your position, I'd just keep the MWS and mp7 😂

That sounds like someone trying to stir up drama, honestly. I saw the police at the site afterwards (well, the pictures because I had already left by that point) and they were posing with airsoft guns with the staff and having a go, so I doubt that the police were called because the staff were doing anything bad as it wouldn't have been that friendly if that was the case. I remember the 8mm at Dover, and someone running a HPA speedsoft pistol setup at 2.3J at Rochdale, but this time it seemed like everyone's guns were legal because of the chrono they did. At least, I didn't hear anything about or feel any hits from hot guns myself.

Hey, I said less, not none! 🤣 I just decided that part of the site was mine and no tans were allowed there

So I went to AI500 this weekend and.... honestly, it was the best one I've been to so far. I preferred it to the Citadel in Dover and I definitely preferred it over what was a relative shitshow in Rochdale. It wasn't perfect, but it was a fantasticly fun weekend of airsoft with team Beans from Worthing Airsoft. I traveled as light as I could, as I was getting a lift up with two other guys and didn't want to monopolise car space, which meant that my backup rifle had to be left at home since I already needed to bring two rifles as bolt actions weren't allowed in a lot of the site. Brought the m700 and the MWS, as I was going for my US recce setup and therefore wanted long barreled rifles. We arrived on the Friday, dropped some kit off at the Premier Inn where a lot of us were staying, then headed up to the site. Chrono was present, but it was a bit of a mess through lack of communication. We were told we would be chronoed using their ammo, but they were told we were being chronoed on our own ammo. As a result, I got chronoed on .2s, which with gas guns is totally inaccurate due to joule creep, however using your own ammo can also be easily cheated so I don't have too many complaints on how they did chrono and was happy that they made a point to do so. Fortunately, I've got both of my guns set up honestly, so the m700 only chronoed at about 1.7J since with heavy BBs it creeps to around 2.1J, and the MWS chronoed at 0.9J and rises to around 1.1J when I put .3s in it. This means there could've been bad actors being dishonest with the chrono, however I will say that I didn't hear any reports of people taking hits from overpowered guns this weekend unlike at Rochdale where I definitely heard, saw and felt some questionable hits. HPA rigs were tournament locked and I think that outside of the lapse in communication it was done well. A large obstacle was thrown at the organisers last minute which sort of ruined the plans that I had for the weekend as the local farmer was kicking up a fuss, meaning the entire car park area was out of play, which was where they were going to put the exfil boxes (objectives had to be exfiled to score) and where I planned on playing with the m700. They reclassified the service yard as outdoors to try and make up for it (as originally it wasn't just to try and prevent full auto fire going into the buildings), but it did narrow the game significantly. First day the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Forecast was overcast for Ebbw Vale, but this was incorrect and the weather was absolutely perfect for me. I think the temperature was the late teens (18 - 19C or so) and the sun was out pretty much all day with very little wind. I spent the entirety of Saturday realising that a good quality scope with a decent reticle and mil-dots is the next step in my kit, as at my local site there aren't many opportunities for long distance shooting but at this event there was ample opportunity and I loved it. I had a few spots that I took with the m700, but my favourite was on top of a small hill with a rusty box of some sort on top of it as it allowed me to see pretty much the entire service yard and road alongside, meaning I could call out enemy movement across the entire outdoor area from my perch and take some very long distance shots. I think I spent the entirety of Saturday on 9x zoom on my scope, so anyone who says that you don't need more than around 4x for airsoft is a liar . I think I went through about 700x .45s since all of my shots were long distance and I often had to adjust for wind and distance. Longest hit I scored was 114.7m according to the my Vortex rangefinger and it was a beauty of an arced shot that accounted for a slight left to right breeze and it felt super satisfying. I could also see the tan team complaining to a marshall about me, but since I wasn't breaking any rules I don't know what they expected to happen. The negative was that while I would say most players were good with their hit taking, it only took a handful of absolutely laughable examples to start having both teams crying about people not taking their hits. I can't comment on greens, as I spent most of my time not that close to my team, but looking through a 9x zoom scope I saw some hilarious examples of non-hit taking, where you see the fabric of the clothes ripple from the impact and the guy suddenly tucks in more. We even had one guy crawling through a relatively thin bush get lit up by 5 guys on full auto and he just kept on going. As I said, most people from what I saw were good on the hit taking, but there were a few who let both sides down . Final score at the end of the first day was 36 - 0 to the tan team, as they managed to get an exfil done (basically, teams gathered objectives and then had to put them in a box that they had to take to a specific location to "exfil" them, obviously without getting shot in the process) and we didn't, though there were grumbles on that as the tans exfil crate was gifted to them at lunch time since the greens had it locked down super hard. One of the guys on my team was part of the group that locked it down through the morning so he knew exactly where it was (it was in our side of the map, like our crate started on the tans side of the map) and said it just disappeared during lunch as it wasn't there when we got back out. Oh well, I'm not too bothered as I don't care too much about objectives as long as the gameplay is fun, and the gameplay was very fun! Sunday came around and the weather was... not so perfect and the weather forecast got it right. Day started with a drizzle, that misty rain that makes everything soaking, and that continued through the day, with the rain picking up in intensity in patches, so I quickly gave up on trying to use my m700 since I couldn't see anything through the scope. However, the start of Sunday was another lapse in communication and this one annoyed me and was probably the worst part of the weekend. The evening before we were told in no uncertain terms that the CPs weren't flipping and that we would be playing from the same sides for the weekend, so a bunch of us greens, including the green team 1IC, got to the site, unpacked cars and started setting up only to have tan players coming over and telling us that CPs had been flipped. We then heard that people were being told at the gate that the CPs had flipped and we eventually got confirmation, had to chuck everything back in the cars and drive down. Rather annoying, but we carried on as the rest of the event had been pretty great, plus looking at the map we knew the other side had a massive advantage on the objective exfil locations and were looking forward to showing the tans who denied that fervently. CPs were also moved to get both teams out of the rain so everyone's kit didn't get absolutely sodden, meaning both teams were moved into the shopping area, moving both greens and tans closer in to the objectives. Where Saturday was a bit closer, with a bit of push on each side, Sunday was incredibly one-sided. Tans started well, pushing down the road hard and almost taking it in its entirety, however it left the service yard undermanned and greens took control of both exfil boxes, exfilling objectives every half an hour as soon as the exfils became available. I don't know how many we got in total, but it was something like 7 exfils through the day (so spoiler alert, greens seem to have won by a pretty big margin). Over the day, we managed to push the tans back to their CP to the point where we were told to push no further to prevent spawn camping, and I made the tan team *very* unhappy by being 6'5" tall; there was a fence that was about 6ft tall (which was annoying in its own way as I had to constantly duck to not get shot in the head) that I was able to shoulder my rifle and fire over if I stood on my tip toes (good thing I don't skip leg day). The tans started throwing accusations of blind firing, so I had a marshall stand next to me while I did it to show the staff clearly that I was shouldering my rifle as I went up to shoot, which was what I wanted anyway as I was using the iron sights to get some good shots down the alley with the MWS. What it did mean though was that between my position and other greens on the doors to the buildings, we had a crossfire setup that meant that the alley was just completely closed off to the tan team. I lost count of how many kills I racked up from that spot and, just like the Saturday, managed to get some rather salty complaints levelled at me despite breaking absolutely zero rules. I'd be lying if I said I didn't take some enjoyment from that, especially as there was a lot of trash talk from the tans leading up to the event over Discord, so a hearty serving of humble pie needed to be served. All in all, I loved the weekend. Yes, there were a few hiccups, mostly around communication, but I think the event was better run than the last two I've been to and it's nice to see that they seem to be taking at least some of the feedback onboard as they move forwards. It wasn't perfect, but it was an incredibly fun weekend and I think most people would agree that they had a blast. The most negative voices will be the loudest in the coming days, but I figured I'd chime in with a positive recount of the weekend before the inevitable salt. The site was larger than it looked and even with 150 players per side it felt like there were a lot less chokepoint battles than both the Citadel and Rochdale. TL:DR - AI500. Not perfect, but a very fun weekend with the boys.

So I bought a thing at AI500... It's a very fun handful of brrrrrrrrrrrt and as soon as I bought it, another guy from our team (who also likes GBB SMGs) went in immediately and bought the other one they had. Bought two spare mags and will look for a shoulder holster for it.

Going to AI500 this weekend with a US-inspired recce loadout and figured I'd go all the way with it 🦅 🦅 🦅 🦅 🦅 It's freedom time!