Impulse

It's amazing how some people don't understand how sources work. If a source asks for anonymity, you give them anonymity. It's journalism ethics 101 and there are legal protections around it. Also, someone in TAD posted a meme that made me literally laugh out loud. At work. In the office. People looked and thought I was weird, so now I'm sharing it with you

Sorry, those are the ones I tend to use and so aren't on the chopping block. Mostly just thinking of getting rid of... essentially everything else

I'm more prone to spend a lot on guns, so doing a £2k MTW build including all the real-steel external bits isn't a stretch but it is my most expensive build for sure; most of my gun builds tend to be under just under £1000ish, maybe just over if a GBBR because those mags are expensive, and pistols tend to be around £300 - £400 as I tend to obsess over my guns and tweak them as perfectly as I can. But when it comes to other gear I don't have any night vision or thermal stuff, I tend to buy scopes from Aliexpress (expensive ones there for £250ish, but nothing like real-steel optics as I don't think they're needed), my ghillies are all crafted for cheap and while I like to buy decent quality load bearing kit (and have to because cheap stuff just isn't designed for 6'5 people), my Warrior Assault Systems stuff isn't too expensive in the grand scheme of things. I think my plate carrier setup probably totals to just over £300ish, belt kits were probably about £150 each as I have one for standalone and one for with a plate carrier or chest rig. Outside of that, my two split chest rigs were definitely sub £100 each as they're Condor with mostly 8fields pouches. That said, I am considering selling just over half of my gun collection since I don't use a lot of it... I counted up today and it turns out I have 41 guns including pistols, and I think I actually use about 19 of them, 7 of which are pistols because most of my other guns that I use regularly have MEDs

My go-to stuff is: Flamingo 60d bucking Jaeger Precision Titan nub Stalker Morpheus barrel (to length, so 250mm in my CQBR and 510mm in my mk12 and my planned m16) Some sort of NPAS. At the moment I have Ra-Tech ones, but will be trying the Jaeger Precision ones soon(ish) Outside of that, it tends to be a case of if it ain't broken, don't fix it. I just keep the stock parts until they break (they haven't broken yet)

That lasted long 🤣 Give me a few months and I'll hopefully be in the same position, just in time for something new and shiny to come out and me to also go back on it

I think they revealed the engine at the same time as the MTW-308. To me it isn't a shotgun, just a really big burst fire, and it's going to 100% be a massive wankergun

I found it didn't hop heavy enough BBs in my mk12 build, so I've moved over to Jaeger Precision Titan nub and a Flamingo hop rubber. That combination seems to work really well for me and outperforms the sixG + stock bucking setup at least in my MWSs.

First normal game day back after surgery (I played AI500 last weekend, but this is my first regular skirmish day back) and... Mother Nature is having a laugh at my expense. Absolutely tipped it down in the morning during the brief and the initial getting stuff ready time, eased off a little for the gameplay, though it was still raining a decent amount, and then it absolutely tipped it down again after lunch. I'm not a cold and wet weather airsofter. I'll happily play when it's overly warm and 25 celcius or more, but when it gets cold I am no good, and when it gets wet it makes sniping a real pain with how wet scopes get and how hard it is to see through them. I brought the SRS and MTW with me today, with the hi-capa and mk23 as pistols, and decided to go with the SRS + hi-capa combo. I also made the decision last night to not pack my usual sniping ghillie setup with the cape and boonie and opted instead to bring my cobra hood so that I could wear it over my gore-tex CCE waterproof jacket and that was a fantastic decision as I remained largely dry all day! Anyway the first game was a king of the hill game at a base that is... not the best for sniping. My friend decided to head more towards the objective, so I held the flank instead and marveled as my cobra hood did its job rather well. A sneaky yellow-team player managed to get all the way around and started shooting people in the back. Took a bit of time for me to make sure he was actually a yellow player and not just a trigger happy blue as his armband was on his opposite arm so I couldn't see it, but I did eventually manage to see his armband and took him out with the hi-capa. He walked right past me and didn't see where I was! I managed to take a few players out who decided to try the flank but my efforts swiftly dissuaded the yellow team from pushing along there and it got quiet, though I did manage to take out an enemy sniper about 10m in front of me as I saw the foliage moving unnaturally and just waited for him to move into a spot where I could get him with the hi-capa; I could hear his rifle shots and he did take out quite a few blues from his spot, but eventually he moved and I took him out! However this showed me reasons #1 and #2 as to why I'm not a huge fan of this SRS. Reason #1 is the bolt pull; it is horrendous and I had to be really careful about when I pulled the bolt back as the movement would definitely get me spotted unlike my gas m700s where I can pull the bolt back very slowly and deliberately to where people won't see me doing so even if looking directly at me. I would not get away with that with the SRS! And reason #2 was that rain got into the hop rubber. This is an issue on my gas m700s as well to be fair, but the SRS is even worse with how exposed the hop rubber is to the elements. It just stopped hopping well at all and I had to crank the hop up to lift .45s. Lost a bit of consistency as well, with the occasional shot flying wide. Regardless, blue team won that because we had a bunch of people sprint for the objective at the start and then locked it down before the yellow team could get there, so we held it the entire game. I'll never be one of the initial sprinters, but having those players on a team is such an advantage against us walkers. Hey, I have a bolt action and a ghillie, I have an excuse to move slowly! 😂 Second game was a multi-objective game and I really enjoyed it. Managed to get into a very forward position, but with how blurry my scope was, how dark the woodland was, and how rubbish my now-wet hop rubber was being, I couldn't get many shots from that spot. However, I got a couple trying to use the ridge line on our right as a staging point, but eventually one spotted me and while I took him out with the hi-capa, he very much knew where I was so I knew it was time to move. I managed to sneak my way out of my spot and headed back to re-organise my magazines. I also realised reason #3 as to why I'm not a huge fan of this SRS; two of my magazines aren't feeding properly. Fortunately I'm used to having low round count so I could make do with the 3x SRS mags that worked. Anyway, I repositioned to a spot I had scoped out last month when I was still on blood thinners and using the lunch times to look for spots, so it was my first time using this spot and it worked an absolute charm. I could easily pick people out of a bunker about 50m to my front, cover the path to the left of them, and also I was concealed enough that the few who pushed to the ridge line and tried to use that just... didn't spot me. One player came up on our flank there and absolutely wrecked about 5 or 6 blue players with his pump shotty, but he didn't spot me lying about 10m in front of him, so I remained completely still until he looked away, at which point I picked up the hi-capa and took him out. He had a giggle about it as I wasn't even behind anything, just lying completely still and not silhouetting as there was a pile of logs to my other side. By this point, however, I realised that my hi-capa wasn't hopping now either as I'm sure some rainwater had now got to that hop rubber as well. I burned through most of my ammo from this spot, picking people off with my SRS through my rather blurry scope and remained there until the game was over. During lunch I put the SRS and hi-capa away and swapped over to the MTW and mk23, however after I made sure it was chrono'd fine (it's still 1.1J because I have a Halloween night game next weekend that I want to use it for) and shooting well on the range, I was about to head back out... and then that's when the heavens opened up again. At that point I was like "you know what... I'm not going out in that" and hung around the safe zone chatting to people under some cover. My friend came back after about 30 mins, absolutely soaked, and we decided to pack our stuff away as the rain abated for a little. It picked back up, so it was the right thing to do, but not as heavy as it was when I was about to head out! Anyway, I'm really happy to be back playing airsoft, but this SRS isn't it. My MTW is probably going to be my go-to for the winter and I'll put it back up to 1.88J after the night game next weekend, but I'm also going to revisit a spring VSR build and give that a spruce up as there are a lot nicer upgrades available now since I originally did my spring VSR build in about 2019. I think that'll be a lot less vulnerable to getting water inside the hop rubber due to the fact that it's not poking out and mega exposed like the SRS one.

I have one and I use the Wolverine Wraith X system on my MTW 308. It allows me to use a 13ci air tank with a sleeve over the tank, or a co2 adapter that appears just like a buffer tube, so I have a repro CTR stock on it and it looks just like a regular rifle (though in this picture I haven't screwed the co2 adapter on all the way!) There's also the Wraith Aero stock, which is the older Wolverine air stock and I don't think it's as good, and also the Polarstar UGS. For co2 stocks there's the Mancraft co2 stock and the Polarstar CGS as well. I will, however, echo the previous sentiments. A well-tuned AEG will perform just as good as a well-tuned HPA system, it's just easier to tune an HPA system than an AEG to that level. The main benefits of HPA is the sound signature as while you can get AEGs to be pretty quiet, they can't match HPA on just how silent they can become. Also, the lack of a line and tank is mostly useful if you're like me and tend to crawl through bushes and move through thick foliage a lot, as I found that an external line would get caught on absolutely everything, and also if you're very choosey about your shots. I usually play (gas) bolt action and I tend to use my MTW in exactly the same way, so an air tank only giving me about 700ish shots is absolutely fine for a game day, and with my setup I tend to get 1 magazine out of 1 co2 bulb, so if I'm reloading magazine, I'm reloading co2 bulb at the same time and vice versa (I removed the buttplate from the repro CTR stock so that I could easily access the co2 so changing it over is pretty easy). Also, since I use my MTW 308 as a DMR, it's useful for that because sites have different DMR limits. I'm fortunate that the two sites that are closest to me being Worthing Airsoft and Driver Wood both have the same 1.88J DMR limit, but I just went to AI500 this past weekend and their DMR limit is only 1.48J, same with Gunman sites, so having the ability to quickly tune the power down if I'm visiting another site is very handy. However with quick change springs in AEGs nowadays it's pretty easy to also do that with AEGs.

I can only really advise on inner barrel length as I don't own a TAC-41 myself, but I do own an SRS which has some similarities in how you build them. I'd advise going with a 420mm inner barrel. 330mm is a bit too short to take advantage of the high cylinder volume and can cause inconsistencies in power and accuracy due to overvoluming. And in terms of hop rubbers... there's a whole host of different options and I think everyone has their own preferences. I had a chub nub and a 60d MR hop rubber in my SRS and it shoots really well, but there are a lot of options that apparently work. I'm going to be trying a Stalker setup as it allows me to use unbridged barrels and I've heard that the Stalker stuff is also pretty good but I have no direct experience with it yet. And for the spring, I don't know about newtons, but you can use a Rapax 2J spring as well and they're pretty good. I'm sure someone who actually owns one will be able to give you more information as mine is basically from doing an SRS build which has some similarities, but obviously it's not a TAC-41

Going to be a long one, because... I am finally back from the AI500 weekender this year, which was at Anzio Camp near Leek, and I am absolutely knackered. The weekend was great and I thoroughly enjoyed spending the weekend half way up the country with around 20 friends from Worthing Airsoft. Glad to be back now and showered and fed and I will probably head to bed fairly soon after writing this. It was also my first game in a few months after having (minor) heart surgery just over 7 weeks ago and being on blood thinners until next Friday, so it was definitely tough and there were definitely things with my kit that I didn't quite get along with. The guns performed well and I was really happy with the my 16" SRS performance, though my big bugbear with that was the bolt pull. I use gas powered bolt actions for most of the year, so moving to an SRS which is both a spring powered sniper rifle and also one of the worst bolt pulls because it's a bullpup was a bit of a shock. In terms of shooting it was fantastic and I was relieved as I've been trying to troubleshoot issues for about a month, so the fact that it all shot super nicely for the whole weekend was really good. My sidearms of choice were my Hi-capa on the Saturday, which performed flawlessly and felt great, and the AAP-01 on the Sunday, which while it did what I needed it to do, I was actually underwhelmed with it as I was expecting it to be more efficient with the ultra lightweight blowback unit, but it was actually no better than the hi-capa which has a metal slide (and admittedly a lightweight blowback unit too). I think it may be the Action Army magazines, but further testing over winter will be needed. We got there on Friday and they chronoed every gun. I took all of my guns to chrono to get it out of the way and get tagged up as I didn't want to have to find a marshall mid-game if a gun went down and I still needed to have my backup gun chronoed. Everything passed, with both the SRS and backup gun of a co2 powered VSR at bang on 2.3J, and my three pistols (hi-capa, AAP and mk23) all coming in at just over 1J. Perfect. They've definitely learned from previous mistakes here and it went smoothly from what I could see. Had to get a takeaway that night though because the local Wetherspoons was absolutely rammed and our whole team couldn't fit (which was definitely a better one and not like the city centre one where I live in Brighton which is awful!) So, one burger and chips, a hot shower and a wonderful night's sleep later (I was in a hotel because I like my luxuries!) and we headed up to the site for Saturday. Briefing was short and probably could've been a bit longer to clarify a few things, however everyone was given the rules well ahead of time and seemed to understand what was going on. I've been at AI500s in the past where it's been a horrible mess and nobody knows what's going on, but this wasn't one of those AIs. We had a bit of confusion on our team just because we're all used to playing at Worthing Airsoft with Worthing Airsoft rules, so we were taking gun hits like normal, but at this event gun hits didn't count; that was the sort of things that got confusing, but it was really minor and not due to any particular fault of the organisers, just us operating on muscle memory. One criticism I do have though is... it was cold and wet! We had rain through the morning, a patch of sun around lunch time and then more rain as the game was coming to a close. How dare Mother Nature give us rain on an airsoft day! 🤬 All jokes aside, the one criticism I had at this point was actually around numbers. Green team came out strong and had around 70-80ish players, but tan team only had 30-40ish. The organisers did lock the green team tickets so that only tan tickets were available a few weeks before the event, but it didn't even the numbers enough and so the tan team were outnumbered 2:1. This led to an uneven weekend and I have massive respect for the tans who stuck around, as a bunch went home after the Saturday because they didn't like being outnumbered (and it was cold and wet!), which led to the remaining tan team to being very undermanned. Fortunately a bunch of greens also did the same because they weren't getting the trigger time (and it was cold and wet!) so the numbers remained at roughly the same ratio of tans being outnumbered 2:1 through Sunday. I actually wish it was the other way around, as I quite enjoy being the underdog. At most Vietnam filmsim games I've played at, the NVA side have been outnumbered 1.5:1 or 2:1 and I really enjoy it, but it was also interesting to finally be on the outnumbering team, rather than the outnumbered. I still prefer being on the latter, but you have to try everything at least once! Anyway, on the Saturday I found myself with the Authentic Ghillie Experience(tm) of sitting still in the rain and watching a path that snaked along the edge of the site to make sure none of the tan team could sneak around that flank. I shot not a single shot all morning outside of briefly moving to help snipe a few people out of a building so that our team had an easier time pushing in. I then went back to the fence and continued to sit in the rain while watching the flank. 10/10, would sit in a soggy bush again. The afternoon picked up though and we had more activity on that side of the site, and I swapped out my earmors for an earpiece as my M32s were really annoying me trying to aim through my scope and they were getting in the way. I wasn't going into the buildings anyway and I wasn't being grenaded at all, so I ditched them in favour of a simpler earpiece and it made life a lot easier. Me and my friend set up watching a three way fork in a road that was just down from a base they were spawning at and denied that avenue of exit. We weren't spawncamping, as it was very easy to leave along the top of the hill, but some of the tan players just kept coming down that path and kept getting sniped by the two of us. They eventually worked it out and pushed through the thick foliage next to us which caused us to fall back and call in some help over the radio. We then pushed with more of our team after we heard another ghillie on our team radioing in that he had single-handedly crept into that base they were spawning from and flipped it to green team, so we pushed up to reinforce him. A few of us stayed to defend and the tans eventually counter attacked in force. We held them for a while, but eventually one of their players crept in behind and took out all the green defenders... apart from me. I was hiding right near the fence, holding the route into the base from the hillside so I went quiet. After I heard the player yelling that tans had captured it and the rest of the tans yelling to push up and running in, I leaned out and took out the entire attacking wave with my hi-capa and then popped over the top and shot the player who had crept in as well, retaining it for green team. A classic "this is why I love GBB pistols over mk23s as a sniper" moment, as if I was using my mk23 I doubt I would've been able to take out all of the tan players who were charging in. Spent the rest of the Saturday game keeping an eye on that hillside, but eventually Saturday was done. Headed back to my hotel room and had another hot shower and then went to the Wetherspoons again as this time we had asked if we could reserve one of the little side rooms and they allowed us to, so our entire team crammed onto a few tables and had a very enjoyable team meal. Lots of alcohol was consumed, three of our guys joined up with 7 or 8 others from another team (within green team) and went clubbing, including our 1IC who was then not seen on the Sunday until the afternoon, but most of us headed back and crashed out to sleep. People often seem to wonder why I go back to AI500 every year, but this is a prime example as to why. Worthing Airsoft have been going to AI500 for as long as I can remember, and I started airsoft in 2005, and the social side of it is absolutely fantastic and a lot of the green team regulars are a wonderful bunch to hang out with. Maybe next year if the opportunity arises I will join the clubbing group, but crippling self-consciousness meant it was a no-go this year. I've only just been able to return to exercise, so let me shift this weight and feel good about myself before I go embarrass myself on a dance floor! Sunday came around and it was colder than Saturday, but it was at least dry. The site itself was incredibly muddy and some of the paths were rather boggy, but it wasn't raining at least! I swapped to the AAP as my sidearm due to this, but as I eluded to earlier I probably should've just stuck with the hi-capa. I had a lot more action on Sunday than Saturday though, as I pushed up on that same flank as I played on the Saturday because it was fantastic for sniping, while the other side of the site was quite overgrown and my MED made it harder to play over there. We pushed to the same base that I held on Saturday and took control of it again, so I dug in at the bottom of the hill this time as I found a lovely little spot under some heavy foliage that gave me a clear line of sight over the path and we were told that up the hill was out of bounds for both teams (as pushing along it would've put us right outside their spawn). After waiting for a little, a large element of tans pushed from up the hill and took us all out since nobody was watching up there. I managed to take out 6 out of 8 of them with my AAP as they tried to push past me and only got hit because one of them ran across spraying full auto at the bush and only called the hit after I called one that happened to hit me. I had already hit him about 6 or 7 times before this with the AAP as he was running, but I wasn't going to start an argument. I said they weren't supposed to go up there, but they said that two marshalls told them they could. Then as I was walking away the head marshall told me that was not the case, but maybe 30 mins later the head marshall then said that the top of the hill was back in play as it was easier than keeping it out of bounds. Could've been miscommunication between the marshalls, but we'll never know. Tans needed the help at this point, so I just shrugged it off. We retook the base after this and I helped by sniping a few from the side as they tried pushing along the top, but this was where I was really starting to notice that hit taking was starting to take a tumble. I got hit from a building behind me, took it and headed to the captured base to respawn. When I came back, I set up watching the windows where I got hit from and scored two hits on two separate targets with that satisfying and very audible thwack of BB hitting fabric as there wasn't any other shooting nearby, but neither called it. Oh well... As Sunday was coming to a close we had to find 4 objectives that were supposed to be bomb making equipment that were set up in the buildings with the tans in control (green team got reset and we had to wait in spawn for them to set this up as we controlled most of the site at this point). Once we had them we then had to bring a bag of red smoke grenades to each building and let one off inside to signify that the building was "destroyed". We managed to swarm through the buildings quite effectively, and I teamed up with two of the other ghillies to protect flanks and snipe people out of 1st floor windows and it was good fun and I got some cracking shots, including one on a guy who I could not see at all as looking into darkened rooms from a bright outdoors was incredibly difficult, but I could see the light from inside his tracer unit in the darkness and just shot at the illuminated ring! We eventually got all four items and our team was tasked with destroying the buildings. As we destroyed the first one we saw the tan team trying to flank around that building so we just rushed the remaining buildings and kept the tan team at bay so they couldn't stop it. They just happened to choose the wrong flanking route at the wrong time, as we took out the buildings they could threaten before they could even really threaten them and then we could simply hold them back as we snaked through the rest of the site, "destroying" each of the buildings as we did. One thing I will say is that I have massive respect for the tans who stayed the course. I've been in their shoes before and it can suck, but the few tans that stuck it out played hard and certainly made their presence known. If they had the appropriate numbers and they all played like the ones who stayed, then tans would've probably won. After everyone came in, they gave out a few awards they had for the event, which were best green player, best tan player and best support gunner for the weekend, judged based on attitude, sportsmanship, how effective they were, and were nominated by their team. On green team, Team Beans (our Worthing Airsoft team) was nominated for the best green player award collectively. We're all used to playing against each other, but it all came together this weekend fantastically. Comms were good, and our team was very well rounded, with some real aggressive door-kickers who love CQB and were able to clear building after building, and then also hold them against counterattack, and also basically all of the ghillies at the event who were happy to work outside the buildings, scout out the enemy positions and generally cause havoc. We then had a group photo with the entire green team: And a sneaky little Team Beans photo And then a picture of a shrubbery (by this point, most of my camo paint had come off my face. It looked better in game, I swear!): All in all it was an absolutely amazing weekend and I had a lot of fun. This one was probably the best AI500 I have played at so far, as it was better than the last one at Ebbw Vale in Wales which was the previous best one (and was leagues better than the messy Rochdale shopping mall one!). Looking forward to the next one, but I think the next weekender I'll be at will probably be Shift Your RIFTs in 2025. I was really happy with how my £40 Aliexpress cobra hood build worked, but I do wish I brought my boonie + cape setup instead as I ended up not using my Earmors, and that was the main reason I went with the hood instead as M32s + ghillie boonie don't mix well. Roll on next year! Actually, I'm about to roll onto my bed and collapse for the next 10 hours. See you in the morning! 😂

Good luck with it. I have one and I've just kept mine stock because they're a pain to work on and you won't push much more out of it. You can increase the power a little, but I've heard that the gearbox casing won't take it long term and will eventually crack, and good luck getting a new one if that does happen. However, I've heard that the psionic AEP rubbers are pretty good and you could combine that with a 6.03 inner barrel to increase the power a little bit without putting any extra stress on the gearbox, but I don't think it'll improve it by that much. Upgrading AEPs is horrendously difficult because of how they're built and the limitations of that, unfortunately. If you want an electric mp7 that has a bit more to give, then I've heard the VFC MP7 AEG variant isn't terrible any more, but I have no idea as I've never owned one. It is a full AEG though rather than an AEP.

As an HPA DMR enjoyer... I completely agree with you. Don't swap your AEG DMR to HPA because it won't improve on the performance of a well-built AEG DMR outside of making it quieter. The preconception that some people have that HPA is some magic propellant is silly because it's propelling the BB with exactly the same idea as an AEG; compressed air pushing a BB through a tube. It just differs on how it produces that compressed air. If you have a well set up AEG DMR, keep it that way. I definitely see improvements in range with my bolt actions over my DMRs. With my measure for effective range at the range that I test my builds on, my bolt actions at 2.32J I would say the effective range is 75m and my DMRs at 1.88J are 70m. Bolt action I can also hit 85m fairly easily, whereas for my DMR it comes to hitting the 75m target fairly easily, with the 85m target being a bit of a stretch and involving a bit more luck. At the end of the day, 2.32J on a .48 is more than 1.88J on a .43, and I do see that 5 - 10m increase in range. How often does that come up? Not too much, but I find it also helps with doing the silly long distance archery shots of 100m+, though there's definitely a large element of luck involved in those shots so it's not really worth the comparison. I can't compare when it comes to AEG DMRs, as my two DMRs are an MTW 308 (HPA) and an MWS in a mk12 kit (GBBR), but in terms of consistency I don't really see much difference when comparing like for like. My co2 powered VSR is just as consistent as my co2 powered MTW (they're not inconsistent like normal co2 guns because the regulator is still regulating as it would with an air tank!) and my green gas powered m700 is just as consistent as my green gas powered mk12 MWS. An AEG DMR built correctly will be just as consistent as a spring-powered bolt action built correctly in my opinion; it's just more difficult to build an AEG correctly than a spring or HPA gun, again in my opinion. The main benefit you'll get using a bolt action is you can build them to be a lot quieter than an AEG DMR. Whether spring, HPA or green gas powered, bolt action rifles can be made incredibly quiet because there's less moving parts and no motor whirring with each shot. I'm still shocked at how quiet my SRS is even though there's a bloody great piston whacking forward with each shot I take. The difference in range is definitely there, but I feel like the DMR mitigates that with the ability to make rapid follow up shots if your first one misses. If you miss with a bolt action, you then need to pull the bolt back and that movement can give you away, or it can give your target enough time to dive behind cover and start yelling "there's a sniper over there" at which point it can become a case of hoping the wild spray of full auto AEG BBs doesn't hit you, so that is a valid concern you have there. This is less pronounced with gas or (non-mechanical) HPA bolt actions because the bolt pull is effortless and can be done quickly, or super slowly and deliberately if they're looking at you but haven't spotted you yet, but it's still there. Personally, I would do a bolt action as well, because variety is the spice of life and I'm biased because I love bolt actions. However, it's not for everyone. An idea might be to get a Tac41 Lite Sport to see if you like it, and if you really do then flog it / keep it as a backup or for spares and get a proper Tac41, as the Lite Sport version is only £200 and the internals are all the same as the more expensive Tac41 models so all you really need is a new spring and maybe play around with the hop up. I wouldn't want one to do a proper, fully kitted out bolt action build with one though because the externals and general features aren't as good as the higher priced variants, but I feel like they're good for their price at least.

I feel like Mancraft may be missing a 0 in their description, since they also sell a restrictor that lowers the air volume from "6500mm3" to "4500mm3". 65000mm3 and 45000mm3 would make a lot more sense, especially if you're seeing no range issues but seeing accuracy issues, as that would likely be overvolumed. My SRS has 41000mm3 and that's considered a high volume for a spring gun, but HPA are capable of higher volume than spring. Doing a rough calculation with 65000mm3, even with a widebore 6.23 barrel and .48s to get the highest air volume necessary, you'd still be looking at roughly a 650mm inner barrel, which I'm guessing you don't have and would explain why you're very overvolumed.

100% recommend these guys if they have what you need. Never had any issue with them whenever I've ordered from them. I think I got my AR-15 carry handle scope mount from them and it fits really well and it's still on my MWS

This thread made me also think about using Aliexpress to do a cobra hood and so I have now made a summer hood just in time for winter (I want to wait until proper winter to do a winter one so I can get the colour palette correct). The raffia is from elsewhere (not expensive), but the hood and all the other materials are Aliexpress specials. I also have a cloak I can clip onto it that I haven't crafted, as I am planning on using a cobra hood and playing a bit more aggressive when I get back into airsoft in a few weeks. Also for AI500 which is at Anzio in 2 weeks time and I just know there's going to be a lot of pyro, so this setup will allow me to wear a cap instead of a boonie and then also use my earmor headset because I do not want to go into a FIBUA event with lots of pyro-happy players without earpro...

Hopefully you'll have them in long boi lengths 😂

I think the only thing that really affects performance when it comes to barrels is correctly voluming your build with the BBs you plan on using, and in terms of gas guns making sure you have the correct barrel length to joule creep to the power you want. Too much air volume leads to inconsistencies in shots, as the excess air can push the BB off-centre when it leaves the barrel, but too little volume leads to lower power and the BB decelerating while it is still in the barrel. Also, apparently barrel bore influences accuracy and power, with wider tending towards more accuracy and tighter tending towards more power, but I think the difference in accuracy between barrel bores is minimal. I've had very accurate builds with 6.02 and 6.03 barrels, and poor performance with 6.23 widebores, so I think the barrel bore for stability isn't a huge deal.

I love gas bolt action rifles and own 4 gas bolt action rifles myself (KJW m700, KJW m700 in an m40 kit, Tanaka m700 and PPS Kar98k)... and I wouldn't touch this with a 10ft stick. Ares guns tend to look really nice, but perform like utter crap and with this platform I have no idea what upgrade parts are available as I suspect a lot of it is proprietary, as well as magazine availability and how good they are as good quality magazines are very important for gas bolt actions. In short, I'd avoid it.

I have had the same consistency on my VSR, as that is a Wolverine Bolt with the co2 adapter inside the stock because I'm the same as you; I can't stand lines and external tanks, especially since I tend to play the sneaky sniper role and crawl under bushes and move through dense foliage and a line gets caught on absolutely everything. The reason why it's a lot more consistent than something like the GHK on co2 is that at the end of the day it's still an HPA setup with a regulator. You do still get a few spicy shots at the start of the bulb and a few very limp shots as you get to the end of the bulb, but for the majority of shots I have found (at least with my VSR on co2) that it's pretty damn consistent because of that regulator. I won't pretend to understand the science of it, but I think it's because it basically gets the liquid propellant out of the bulb, converts it to a gas in the regulator up to a certain pressure that you set on the regulator, then uses that just like it would a regular air tank to push the BB when you pull the trigger. I could also be entirely wrong on that, but it would explain why it's more consistent on the VSR, which is a bolt action, but could be inconsistent if I were to spam the trigger on the MTW; I might test that theory on Sunday, but honestly it's not a big concern of mine since I plan on using it as a DMR anyway (Worthing Airsoft and Driver Wood are both 1.88J for DMRs which is a lot nicer) and spamming triggers with a DMR is a no-no, and people who do it are making the rest of us look bad! And for AI500, yeah it's a real shame the limit is so low; I would've liked 1.88J, but even 1.64J would've been "okay". I'll see about it, but I might still go with 1.48J if only so that the shots have a bit more force for those 50-60m shots that I could hit at 1.1J anyway. My experience with 1.1J builds is that you need a couple of BBs for people to feel it at those longer ranges, as when I used my Kar98k at that range on .32s, people weren't feeling them unless they were completely still. Hopefully I won't even have to use it though, as I'd be rather upset if the SRS went down on the first game day I'll be using it, and 2.32J of bolt action is waaaaaaay more useful than 1.48J of DMR.

Yeahhhhhhhhh, the statement I made about not owning an MTW is no longer true as I have now received my MTW 308 Unleashed and it is really nice. Came with a curved trigger instead of that icky straight trigger too, so saved some extra money there too as I would've replaced the straight trigger if I did my build on the regular version. It's A&K SR-25 compatible with the mags, except not quite as my Cyma SR-25 magazines did not fit. Fortunately I picked up some Battleaxe SR-25 mags from someone here a few months ago that didn't quite fit properly in my Cyma SR-25 and they fit (very snug) into this, so I do have mags to use! Taking it to my local site this weekend and obsessively setting it up for 1.88J on .43s as I plan on using it as a DMR, then testing how many shots a single co2 bulb will give me. I love that it only comes with a two position fire selector, so it's very much locked to semi auto. I still need to buy a bunch of external parts from Brownells for it, but that'll be a next month purchase as I really can't justify spending even more than I already have this month. Taking both of them to AI500 next month, so will need to turn the psi down on the regulator as their DMR rules are turbo-crap at 1.48J, so I might just tune it down to 1.14J on a .32 for it but we'll see. Planning on using the SRS anyway, with the MTW as a backup for if the SRS dies, purely because of their bad DMR rules and I have to take it easy since I'll still be on blood thinners, so I'll be hanging back a lot. Also the suppressors arrived, both for the MTW and the SRS I bought recently too. Makes the SRS a lot quieter and I'm very happy with that and hoping it's good on the MTW as well, because I bought the same suppressor (the DTSS .308 one), but 14mm threads instead of the 24mm one on the SRS. Will be pumping up the tank for the MTW today and slapping some cr123s in the grip, so I'll find out later I suppose!

That's quite the shrink down! I've been tempted to shrink my collection, but every time I try I get disheartened by what people offer. Had someone offer me £400 for a £1200+ build, for example, and that just put me off it since I don't need the money.

I have the AKM, which is basically the same platform and it's a fantastic piece of kit. Never had any reliability issues, though my friend had his nozzle break after a over two years of fairly heavy use; he used it for a lot of game days and the nozzle eventually gave up. Mine has been just fine, but I don't use it as much because I'm more into the MWS. For upgrades, all I'd do is swap the hop rubber for a Flamingo rubber and swap out the hop arm for Jaeger Precision's hop arm as it's amazing: https://jaegerprecision.co.uk/shop/p/ne7ayhxn2g8eyi4mpl7ulzbzkvl234-a8gw4 For maintenance, just treat it like a real rifle and clean and relube it after each game day. It's fine to use in the rain and I tend to use GBBRs when it's heavily raining because there are no complex electronics that can get wet and ruined, just make sure afterwards you take it out of the rifle bag and let it dry out. I usually field strip my GBBRs if it's been really wet and just leave the parts out on my desk for a day or two to let them dry before I clean and relube it. Don't put it in an airing cupboard though as that can dry out the hop rubber; just keeping it out and letting it air dry in a regular room is enough.

I use these: https://comradequicheairsoft.com/products/tm-akm They're really good and basically just slot on top of the magazine when you fill them. I use the MWS ones as well and they're also really good.