Impulse

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.

If dressing up like this annoys you, don't do any historical filmsim. WW2 airsoft has to have two teams, after all

That's a shame, because there are some really lovely non-m4 replicas out there (I'm a big fan of Cyma m14s...). Hard for me to say, as I tend to tinker with all my stuff, but if I wanted something that I knew would perform really well out of the box without any tweaking... I'd try and go for a TM NGRS. However, you'll get better performance for less if you're willing to do very basic upgrades, like swapping out a hop rubber and nub, which is incredibly easy to do on basically anything. I've heard good things about Double Eagle for m4 style rifles and they're a lot less than £400.

Pretty sure there's kits for that, but it won't be cheap. I'd put my vote in for the MWS. I have one as a m16 recce rifle setup and will get a 2nd to make a general purpose, short-barreled carbine. I seriously love the platform.

I have a Warrior Assault Systems RPC and I don't need any other plate carrier. Got 3 clip on front panels for it; one for AR/AK mags, one for 7.62x51 mags and one for SMG mags. It's such a nice plate carrier and it fits my 6'5 frame nicely, which not all repros do!

I have two sets of eyepro, but I want to get a third. At the moment I use Revision Sawflys and they're amazing and tend to be my go-to eyepro with Rx inserts as I am short-sighted and haaaaate contact lenses (plus, airsoft would be the only thing I would run contacts for as I'm not that short sighted and don't always need glasses) Second pair I have are a set of Heroshark mako frames with prescription inserts for if it's a foggy day, as the mesh allows more air flow to ensure the inserts don't fog up, though if it's particularly hot and humid there's only so much I can do. People always say BBs can fragment, and I'm sure they can, but it's never happened to me, and if it did I think the prescription lenses would be fine against the fragments that might get through Third set I want is a set of full seal goggles with a fan (to prevent fogging) for with a CQB kit I want to put together. Revision do a set, but the Desert Locusts about £200 and are usually out of stock just about everywhere. A lot of fan goggles I've found tend to be crap though, so I might shell out on the Revisions anyway.

Probably one of the more annoying changes I've seen. I miss the days when you could turn up, pay your green fee and play BB wars without needing to pre-book in advance.

Take what I say with a pinch of salt as I only like LPVOs on 1.1J builds. Anything at DMR or bolt action power I want a bit more zoom and find that 3x zoom is fine for anything over the 30m MED that comes with the higher power. I also don't have any direct experience with the listed optics, so my post is more just general advice. Adjusting for wind in airsoft is... not a precise science. The muzzle energy is too low and the projectiles are too light to really use wind adjustments on a scope, so I tend to just use the mil-dots and some experience-based judgement on my shots where I adjust for wind. My preference is using the crosshair itself so I like a good crosshair with mil dots over anything else, since the majority of shots I will just use those to adjust for distance and wind. Distance is a lot easier to work out and if you spend time dialling in your rifle you can reliably make shots that other people think are impossible. That said, if you can get both I'd say get something with tool-less adjustment nobs (not under caps either, literally just turnable as they are) AND a mil-dot reticle, then spend a long, long time working out where you need to turn the nobs and where to aim on the reticle to hit at a whole variety of long distances. I still probably wouldn't bother with windage adjustments and just go with mil-dots on that, for the reasons I stated, but for distance I could definitely see the merit; just need to get my rifles to a range without wind as the range at my local site catches the wind and this summer the weather has been wank. Illuminated reticles are nice for low-light situations, so if you can also get that I'd go for it but to me it's the least important aspect of the three. FFP scopes are nice too, but for the distances we deal with I'm not entirely convinced with their usefulness when you consider the price, though I may try getting a Visionking FFP scope to experiment with that. I probably wouldn't go with the Novritsch scope, as you can probably get a better Visionking or Vector Optics for a similar price; that said, I have also heard good things about it, but from someone who really likes a lot of Novritsch's stuff. You don't want to cheap out too much on the scope as you'll be using it a lot and a good scope can really help. Heard good things about it, but I also typically want a bit more than 4x at the highest level so I can double up on recce duties, observing enemy positions and movements from a distance and radioing it in to my team; one of the best games I have had in the past few years was one where I didn't fire a single shot, but radioed in every movement the enemy team made along one part of the site.

I don't know what voltage he was using, but I know someone who had the Cyma platinum mp5 and his mosfet burned out. Not the end of the world, he just replaced it with a Perun, as the stock Cyma mosfets aren't the greatest.

Thanks both of you. Will probably get an ablation done, but the hardest part is pushing the NHS to actually do something

Only played half the day today as my atrial fibrillation (at least that's what the doctors think it is) played up on Friday so I decided to keep it light today so I don't wake up tomorrow with palpitations. Hopefully on the road to sorting that, but anyway... Got there a little later than usual, but set up both the m40a5 and the m14, chronoing both immediately. M40 was a crisp 2J and the m14 was 1J. Perfect. Then while my friend was setting up his guns it started absolutely tipping it down, so I hurriedly got everything back into the car. It wasn't meant to rain today and fortunately it only lasted for about 45 mins or so. I got all my kit together and decided to run the m40a5 with the HK45 as my sidearm and my newly acquired and set up TM bodyguard pistol in a shoulder holster. With the Hadron TDC upper and a little suppressor, it was absolutely tiny but it was sending .32s out to 50m relatively accurately (though I don't think I'd be going for many 50m shots with it) and was nice and quiet; not quite as quiet as the mk23 as the suppressor is tiny by comparison, but considering how massive the mk23 is and how small the bodyguard pistol is I was more than happy as it was a lot easier to carry. Super impressed for such a little and honestly pretty damn cheap pistol. First game wasn't one I was too fond of. It was a timed attack and defence on one of the bases, but defenders weren't allowed more than 20m from the base, which severely limited my options as running something with an MED at Worthing at the moment is a bit of a challenge and it didn't really afford me any positions I could take and use my bolt action well. We attacked first and the writing was on the wall; our team was very timid. Nobody was pushing. I wasn't able to really impact the game much either with how the sight lines were around this base, but we eventually cleared it out and took it. Then we swapped sides. I took a position concealed under a holly bush and managed to take out a bunch of the attackers on the way in, but not being able to move too far from the base means I was eventually flanked and taken out when someone almost stepped on me while I was incredibly fogged up thanks to the earlier rainfall making all the bushes super humid. Whoever said you need a ghillie to be invisible anyway Second game came around and... I really enjoyed it. Usually we do a 3-base domination, but this time they did a 5-base domination and I think it worked well. I would've used some other bases, as 4 of the bases were very close together, but having to spread across 5 bases was far better than 3. It was in this game where I feel I did my best work, crawling into a position, setting up my rifle to fire and taking out a fully ghillied enemy sniper team and 2 of their team mates as one of them was directly observing the area I was crawling through. Slow deliberate movements, never silhouetting myself and finally a good bit of marksmanship really helped and it felt so good to achieve, since I play with the short-sleeve handicap during the summer; no ghillie, just an uncrafted cobra hood over a plain black short sleeved t-shirt. I'm not exactly covered in camo! From there I held that position, taking out the sniper as he returned from respawn as well as a whole host of other people on the enemy team who wanted to use that position. It's games like this that remind me why I love sniping. We then switched sides, taking me to the side I was far more familiar with and I immediately went and took a position overlooking a path into the area with the bases. I completely shut down that side of the site with the help of another forum-goer here until he got friendly fired by trigger-happy teammates (who I've forgotten the name of sorry ) and eventually the enemy team just completely abandoned their efforts there, so while the start of the game was eventful, the end saw me barely taking a single shot. I'm glad I refilled my mags before this game as I burned through 2 of my 3 m700 mags in this game, so I would've run out of ammo if I hadn't. Across these two games, I think I took out the enemy team's full ghillie pair about half a dozen times without them even seeing me once. I definitely feel like I was on point for these games. Also, it seems I was finally caught on camera, so you can see what I mean by "I'm not in a ghillie right now" ? At lunch I decided to call it, though I heard it was a complete slaughter in the afternoon with our team getting absolutely pantsed by the enemy team. Exercise is what sets off my heart palpitations, so after the morning I felt I didn't want to push it. Furthermore the game after lunch was in a super dense part of the site that is basically a CQB killhouse, but with thick bushes for walls instead of... walls. Wasn't going in there with a 30m MED (you're lucky to get 15m shots in there), so I stayed back in the safe zone. Tweaked the m40a5 a little as it was overhopping, but I think I may try a new hop rubber. Now that the X-range is bedded in it's hopping .45s a bit too much, so I'm going to pick up one of the new Maple Leaf silicone rubbers (the 2023 ones) and stick a 60 degree in. Fingers crossed it works out, but we'll find out next game day as I don't exactly have a 75m range to try it out on living in Brighton. Also continue to be impressed with the King Arms adjustable m700 bolt. It's super consistent and hasn't let me down once. After the m40a5, I took my new AAP onto the range to get the hop dialled in; I saw one for sale on ammo drop on sale for about £70 and I wanted to do a modern ruger .22 upper to go alongside my old fashioned one. Set that up and was happy with the performance, but I'm not a huge fan on the magazines as I feel they're not that gas efficient but further testing is required there. Anyway, all in all it was a great day. After the brief downpour in the morning it was sunny for most of the day which helped dry the site out a little and reduce the humidity a little so after the first game I wasn't fogging up much at all. Downside is that I'm almost certainly going to have to skip the upcoming Vietnam game at Gunman Eversley (sorry @Tactical Pith Helmet but I won't be there. The others I usually go with should be though! I think one of the others can't make it either so our contingent won't be in attendance) as I'm not going to go camping in the middle of the woods with any risk of atrial fibrillation rearing its ugly head.

Going to be a bit of a wall (such a glorious wall that I'm scared the FBI is going to raid my house and throw me in jail), so I will add a TL:DR at the end with some key points for those who don't want/need to understand the physics and mathematics behind our hobby. Ok, so I've done a LOT of research into BB weight and ballistics due to my interest in long distance shooting in airsoft. Also, please bear in mind that this is, at the end of the day, a layman's explanation of this. I'm operating on A-level mathematics and GCSE physics here, and I haven't done them in about a decade. It's also really hard to explain this without a whiteboard or sheet of paper to draw diagrams and stuff, so bear with me I'll do my best to keep it accessible! So, the maths behind our hobby! Kinetic energy is calculated by 1/2 x mass x (velocity x velocity), using brackets as order of operations means we do the squaring before the multiplication but it's easier to show this way exactly what I'm doing. However we can't just translate that to airsoft measurements of fractions of a gram and feet per second, as joules are calculated using mass in kg so really really small numbers in our context and velocity in metres per second, not feet per second. So a 0.2g BB shot at 328fps, which is 100m/s would calculate as: Energy = 1/2 x 0.0002 x (100 x 100) Energy = 0.0001 x 10000 Energy = 1J Only reason I used 328fps instead of 350fps is to avoid plaguing you with weird numbers and make the example easier to follow. Really, feet per second is annoying and we should be using metres per second since it's easier to work with in terms of energy calculations. It's why springs are m100, m120 etc, as they're designed in m/s rather than ft/s. What we can take away from this is that mass and velocity work in tandem to calculate joules (I know, I'm big smart for drawing such a conclusion). However we need to briefly consider momentum to understand ballistics; my physics teacher always described momentum as "how much something will hurt when it hits you" and is a lot simpler than kinetic energy. Momentum = mass x velocity. Easy. I'm not going to bore you with the calculations I'm doing for this example now, but I'm looking at 1.14J on a .2 and on a .48 as a comparison. That's 350fps on a .2 and 226.1fps (1 decimal place) on a .48. We can already see that momentum is going to be very different, but for argument's sake... momentum = 350 x .2 = 70 gram feet per second momentum = 226.1 x .48 = 108.5 gram feet per second (1 decimal place) So a heavy BB fired with the same kinetic energy as a lighter BB has more momentum (just over 50% more!). This is why when someone point blanks you with a .48 from a 1J pistol and says "stop crying, it's only 1J" is talking bollocks. Do I think we should be operating on momentum-based rules for airsoft? Hell no, that would be cancerous, but it's a consideration that I feel comes under the golden rule of "don't be a dick". However, this also goes a LONG way to explaining why heavy BBs tend to go further than lighter BBs; they simply have more momentum pushing forwards due to how physics works (the old example was if I throw a balloon vs if I throw a cricket ball with the same kinetic energy, which goes further). However, there's one last thing to consider when it comes to range and that's deceleration, as the BB is being affected by a number of things trying to slow it down and drop it to the ground, namely air resistance and gravity respectively. Hop up creates a backspin to give the BB an upwards lift to combat gravity, but combating air resistance isn't happening. I won't go into the mathematics on this as deceleration past GCSE level is really maths intensive (I would probably have to break out calculus and trigonometric functions to explain my point), but essentially an object moving at a higher velocity has more air resistance acting on it, so that BB travelling faster actually has more pushback from Mother Nature than a slower BB. Furthermore, that air resistance is going to have more effect on a lighter weight projectile as lower mass makes it easier to push back, so a combination of higher air resistance and more impactful air resistance means that a lightweight BB fired at the same energy is going to slow down and lose that energy a hell of a lot faster than a heavy projectile. Anyway, I hope you're all still awake after that (I find it fascinating, but I know not everyone does), but now I'll move into airsoft specific phenomena like joule creep and cylinder to barrel ratio. With AEGs, it's rare that power goes up with weight but it is possible. I couldn't explain to you in detail how the maths works out, but essentially there's a sweet spot for ammo weight with most guns and it varies dependant on inner barrel length and cylinder size. What tends to happen is that shorter barreled AEGs are more efficient with heavier ammo, but longer barreled AEGs tend to drop in power with heavier BBs due to voluming issues; the cylinder doesn't have enough air to fill the barrel so the BB starts to decelerate while it's still in the barrel, meaning that a heavier BB that comes out slower originally will start to have forces working against it (friction with the barrel and air resistance) sooner by fractions of a second, but it all affects it. It all depends on if there's enough air in the cylinder to fill the barrel. Look up cylinder to barrel ratio for a better explanation than I can give; I don't use AEGs much and they're the only guns I don't tech myself because I'm useless with gearboxes. Also, as has been said, heavier ammo typically needs more hop pressure to be applied which can also drop your power (as at the end of the day you're adding some resistance to the BB's flight path. Assuming you have enough air volume in an AEG, or if you're using another platform like a GBB, then heavy ammo will typically cause your power to go up due to joule creep as long as you're not having to apply incredible amounts of hop to lift them. The BB will accelerate while it's in the barrel as long as there's something to push it, which for a gas gun is the gas expanding when it leaves the magazine, so a longer barreled gas rifle will have a higher power than a shorter barreled gas rifle as it has more space to accelerate before leaving the barrel; it's the same as real-steel firearms, a long barreled AR-15 will shoot better at longer range than a short barreled AR-15 assuming the same ammo due to acceleration in the barrel. So why am I saying any of this? Well, it's the considerations part of your question. With AEGs you need to consider cylinder to barrel ratio and with gas guns you need to consider barrel length. In both you need to consider the hop setup and how much you need to apply to lift the BB and the barrel diameter also impacts power; wider = less power, tightbore = more, as there's less space for air to escape past the BB in a tightbore so it has to push the BB out to escape the inner barrel, which at the end of the day is what the gun is trying to do with all that air and is why air seal is so important for consistency, as the air will seek to escape from wherever it can. Now in terms of the benefits, a heavier BB will tend to have a more stable trajectory, has a bit more punch to get through foliage and will retain its kinetic energy for longer, though we're talking about fractions here. Will a .32 be all that different to a .28? Not really, but will a .48 perform differently to a .2? It most certainly will but I think often times people over-estimate the difference in BB performance. Wind will still carry a .48 off to Narnia and a leaf will still deflect a .48; trust me, speaking from experience there as a bolt action enjoyer who has watched many shots through my scope go their own way because of wind or leaves in the way. Really, punching through foliage requires volume of fire as opposed to weight of BB and I think "go heavy to punch through foliage" is a false economy. Even my .48s fired at 2.3J have issues punching through foliage and I usually try to post the shots through empty spaces in the bushes rather than going through any leaves; precision over power. Anyway, I feel like I've gone on enough about this. Thank you for coming to my TED talk on BB weight and the physics behind our hobby. In short: Heavier BBs fired at the same kinetic energy as lighter BBs have more momentum, which is why it hurts more getting shot by heavy BBs, even at 1J Faster projectiles have more air resistance acting on them Lighter projectiles are more affected by air resistance Therefore lighter BBs travelling faster both have more air resistance acting on them and are more affected by said air resistance This means that heavy BBs will travel further as they have more momentum, less air resistance acting on them and are less affected by that air resistance (assuming your hop can lift them) Joule creep will cause power to go up in gas guns with longer barrels as the BB has more room to accelerate Cylinder to barrel ratio affects power (and consistency) in AEGs. Heavier BBs can up the power in short barreled AEGs, but tend to drop the power in long barreled ones If you want the absolute maximum performance of your gun you generally want to be as close to the power limit as possible with the heaviest BB that your hop will lift I will still call you a dick if you run .48s in a pistol, especially if you're shooting up close

See, this is why I haven't bought any reusables yet. I hear so many stories of theft ?

Welcome back to the hobby. I would disagree and say that quite a bit has changed since 2006, but the fundamentals of the hobby are still the same; we still run around in dress up with battery-powered pews for the mostpart. The biggest differences I can think of are that guns shoot a lot further thanks to far better hop ups and prevalence of heavier BBs, there's a lot more HPA going around and you'll see a LOT more people at game days now. Also, consider me jealous of that Western Arms pistol! In terms of sites (you'd be surprised what is still around) in the south, Gunman sites are pretty great and Battle Lakes is also in Kent, though I'm not sure if they do regular skirmishes there; I think it's only filmsim, which is a bit more structured and I would definitely advise you give it a try but it's not for everyone. Outside of that there's Tuddenham in Suffolk and Eversley Alpha and Bravo in Hampshire. You also have Worthing Airsoft (formerly Elite Action Games Worthing) in West Sussex, which has been around since before 2006 and is where I first started playing back in 2005, then you also have Dogtag in Faygate and Driver Wood just outside Crawley. That's all the sites in the area that I know, but that's because I'm in Brighton. I'm sure there are some more sites over in the Kent direction that I don't know about since they'd be a bit far for me.

If people are like that, I usually give them another, then the third is going into the back of their head if they don't take that one too. This happens all the time though and has been a thing since I started playing some 17 years ago. Also, people not calling their hits if they can't see where it came from. Number of times I have had people not call a hit because they have no idea where I am... though I do find it amusing as they think nobody can see their cheating until I send another one their way as they are looking for the source.