Impulse

"I need to go to Italy for work reasons and definitely not for a holiday I promise."

Just got home from a great private game at UCAP tunnels in Portsmouth. I took my 1.1J spring VSR with me, much to basically everyone's confusion as the tunnels are very CQB, as well as the mp9 and the mk23, one on each hip, as the ammo weight limit was .28s at most and they are some of my guns that can use .28s and not overhop as I typically play woodland and build for .32s. We were encouraged to bring LARP weapons, as only LARP weapons could kill the juggernauts that would be coming out, plus it's a bit of silly fun swatting each other with foam hammers and the like, so I packed my rubber knife too. Through the morning I made my presence very known and just held corridors. I would find a nice pitch black spot and just hold down the corridor in front of me, preventing the other team advancing down the tunnel I was watching. Was it the most practical gun? Hell no, but I was doing it as a partial joke as everyone knows me at Worthing Airsoft as a sniper and it did have it's uses; it wasn't entirely useless as some of those corridors are very long and having a gun built for range, accuracy and silence turned out to be quite the boon to our team. We were getting hammered in the morning, but I was at least holding down one of a potential 5 or so avenues of attack for them which was all I wanted to do and the best way for me to contribute. I don't really do CQB and I'm a 6'5 weight lifter; those tunnels are not built for me 😂 However, after lunch I had to change tactics. The other team had a juggernaut and constantly used him to push into our base to steal an objective we managed to recover nice and early, so I couldn't use the bolt action to hold corridors because the juggernaut was just coming down with a minigun and enemy players using him as cover. We held them off for a long time though, considering they were being escorted by a juggernaut and managed to hold onto the objective for an hour or so. I managed to learn by being a sneaky sniper eavesdropping from the shadows that only one person on their team could move the objective, so I started targeting her, waiting for the juggernaut to pass as I hid away and then ambushing the players who could be shot. The mk23 and mp9 really showed their worth, taking shots from concealment with the mk23, but pulling the mp9 as soon as I needed a bit of a snappier gun. Even managed to get a melee kill on the juggernaut (the only way to kill them), hiding in a dark room as he came down the corridor and quietly stabbing with the rubber knife as he walked past. We managed to pull out a win at the end of the day when my friend decided to go out with only a melee weapon. He crept around the entire enemy team and cleared them out with melee kills, allowing the rest of our team to push up and detonate the bomb. In the meantime, another team made not one, but two raids on the enemy base and stole all their objectives. After receiving a bit of a hiding for most of the day, we managed to pull out a sizeable win in the final moments which was nice My main gripe was the ammo limit, but otherwise the rules were great and made the game super fun. The ammo limit was 600 BBs per life, which in the tunnels basically just meant a lot of trigger spam down corridors; I probably would've done 300 (which was what we had at the last private game we played there) just so it wasn't quite so spammy. All in all I had a really good day, even though it was very much not my type of game. Helped that this time our respawn was the other side of the site to where my team spawned in the last private game we ran there, so I got to experience the other side. Just going to say, and any of the UCAP bunker regulars will know what I mean, but the toilet block is such a great place to ambush from! I was moving through there with the mk23 causing absolute havoc on the enemy team as they tried pushing into our base. Next time, I'll bring something a little more practical. I'll bring my SR-25 or my m21 instead so I at least have semi-auto instead of a bolt action

For the one burst of auto I did, my SR-25 had pretty good ROF out of the box on an 11.1v... Until I swapped the 13:1 gears for 18:1 and the motor for a superduper high torque one. Now I imagine the full-auto is probably kinda sluggish, if I even still had the capability for it

I have their M40A3 and it's pretty good. Just haven't got around to tuning it properly yet because other projects have taken up my time, but eventually I will.

You aren't nuts for wanting a .308. As someone who owns pretty much all RIFs where the real-steel versions are 7.62x51mm, I can vouch for a whole bunch of good ones. If you like that AR style platform, the Cyma SR-25 is absolutely amazing. A little pricey as it's part of their platinum series, but having taken mine apart and put it back together, I can vouch for the internals; they're really impressive out of the box. Ok, so you play predominantly CQB so ignore all of what I just said as I was attacking the .308 side from a sniper perspective; yes, I'm taking a 1.1J BASR (complete with 3.5-10x scope!) to a CQB game this weekend, but I'm weird. Don't be like me. As to your concerns, you don't have to get an M4 as your first rifle and there are plenty of parts available for other gearbox types. V3 gearboxes are used by both AKs and mp5s, both of which will do CQB pretty well, or at least have variants that will do CQB well like a folding stock AK. I typically try to avoid G&G because they love doing weird proprietary things that make them a bit weirder to work on, but I can vouch for Cyma. Every Cyma gun I have ever had has been an absolute workhorse of a RIF. The m14 socom I had 12 years ago was one of the best performing RIFs at the site I played at in the south of Spain out of all the players, my Cyma m14 that I have built as a 1.1J m21 has people with 2.3J BASRs fearing it for its range and accuracy when I'm counter-sniping them, my Cyma mp5k is probably my all around best gun that I would take to a game if I wanted to play to win and be the most effective player in game I could be and my Cyma SR-25 is... broken because I can't do AEG gearbox teching (but it will soon live again and once more terrorise the enemy team!). Also, Cyma AKs have been consistently great for over a decade now. I used to be a TM shill (and still am for their gas guns), but now I'm a total Cyma shill. I'm constantly impressed by how consistently well they perform with the most minor of modifications, which is generally just a ML rubber, nub and maybe a ZCI stainless steel barrel if I'm feeling spendy. No idea on their M4s though, and back in the day their M4s were crap.

Honestly... Cyma AKs are really good for the price. They do a few metal / wood versions for around the £200 - £250 mark and require minimal modification to be truly amazing; typically just a hop rubber, nub and maybe a barrel change is all that's needed. Cyma have really upped their game in the last 15 years and their AKs, m14s and mp5s are all absolutely solid pieces of kit, and I also have an SR-25 from them that puts out some nasty shots. Plus, it's all very standard, so upgrade parts are very easy to come across. For more premium AKs, you're looking at E&L or LCT, with the former coming out of the same factory as real AKs and are largely compatible with real parts. I have no experience with either though so now idea how good they are. Real Sword were pretty good too, but I'm pretty sure they're out of business as they don't seem to be making any more and my friend was (well, is still) waiting for a replacement gearbox for his SVD from them after over 2 years. And for GBB, the new TM AKM is phenomenal and I can speak about that from personal experience. The only not-so-phenomenal thing about them is that you're not getting any extra mags any time soon, and a single 35rd magazine isn't going to cut it. Not wood, but there is a wood kit around for it that I plan on getting for mine when budget allows.

Welcome back to the hobby! As someone who also started when I was 14 and am a similar age (31 here, so it was 17 years ago for me), I can tell you that the hobby has changed from what it used to be and that has both good and bad parts. You'll see a lot more players at a skirmish weekend now; back in the day a busy day might have been 25 - 30 players at my local site, but now a busy day is knocking on 90 players (and that's only because they limit spaces as otherwise the site becomes overcrowded and gameplay suffers). You'll also see a major difference in how well the guns shoot. Now, a cheapo Cyma AK out of the box will hit 45m consistently and without any real issue which back in the day would've been unheard of even for upgraded AEGs. Also, two-tone is an okay thing and you can probably get something two-tone that will cost a comparable amount to renting 3x and can serve as a backup for when you finally get your UKARA and something not two-tone. A plastic bodied Cyma AK goes for £100ish and they're actually pretty damn good! Hope you enjoy your return to the hobby as much as I did!

*breaks into the thread to preach the good word of the TM MWS or Wolverine MTW* *notices budget* *leaves* I don't know anything about AEG m4s, but I had a Dboys m4 CQB a while ago and it was great. Heard Double Eagle ones are pretty good, but I don't like how they look.

Some of us are the other way around. I hate playing in the rain, though that's partially because I like sniping and sniping in the rain is a chore because your scope lens gets soaked and you can't see anything; if I'm using my SR-25 or my m21, I'll usually just take the scope off in the rain and run iron sights, but if I'm using any of my bolt actions, they don't have iron sights so I'll be reduced to just using my SMG secondary and my pistol. However, when everyone's calling it quits and lying around in the safe zone in the 35+ degree heat, I'll be out there playing as normal, drinking my body weight in water as I do.

I've only interacted with them in person at AI500 and I haggled a discount on two TM guns I wanted. They were the on-site retailer for both the Citadel in Dover and Flashpoint in Rochdale. Haven't really had any bad experience with them, honestly.

Has been said, but it's not the law. When I started at the age of 14, I wore only safety glasses because my site was okay with that (this was back when airsoft was still very niche). The reason why most sites will say that under 18s need to wear full face protection is due to the site's insurance cover. For example, my local site, Worthing Airsoft, says all under 18s have to wear full face protection, but only under 14s have to have it as one piece; people between the ages of 14-18 can choose to wear whatever combination as long as it covers their whole face, so can wear what you're thinking of getting. That's just my local site though and your mileage may vary. Might be worth checking with your local site just to make sure you'll be okay to run the eye-pro + face shield combo.

Unfortunately my experience is pretty much all with snipers, pistols and some GBBRs, but I'll throw the Cyma SR-25, m14 and mp5k into the mix as AEGs I have experience with. SR-25 is more expensive, but the platinum internals are really nice and it feels lighter than the m14. m14 is a great base and mine was fairly quiet out of the box for an AEG, but even just disassembling to get to the barrel and hop unit is a little involved and it's a bit heavier. mp5k is small and probably more usable by your son than the other two I would imagine In all of those, all you'd need to do is swap out the hop rubber and nub to get some spicy ranges; could do a barrel change while you're at it, but it's unnecessary. I like Maple Leaf macaron rubbers (70 degree is what I like, but 60 is also good), Maple Leaf omega nubs and ZCI stainless steel barrels. In terms of pistols, anything TM. 1911 has a small grip.

1911s have notoriously low gas reservoirs because the magazines are so small. 10 BBs max sounds like you have issues though, as in a warm environment you should be in the 20s. As to what to replace it with should you want to get a new pistol, my recommendations are basically any TM, whichever flavour you like most, and keep it totally stock; the only time I advise tinkering with pistols is if they're broken, or if you're using it as a primary / have an MED that means you'll be using it a lot, so need that peak performance. Only exceptions are the 1911 as it still has small mags, but should cycle through one because plastic slide is efficient, and some of the older m9 versions I've heard can be a bit rubbish.

Can confirm. I saw you about 15m in front of me lying behind a tree because I saw your tracer unit poking out, but didn't have an angle on you from where I was and didn't want to advance because the milsim brigade kept advancing down the path with their lights. I was turning my red dot on to shoot, then off afterwards because cheap red dots like mine tend to glow like a sun in the darkness as well!

Just got back from Worthing Airsoft's annual Halloween night game and it was a whole heap of fun. Went down with my spring VSR with a red dot instead of a scope, as the rules are nothing over 1.14J as we don't allow NVGs or any of that at Worthing night games so MEDs are a big no-no. Having that level playing field is one of the things that gets me down every year, even though I'm awful at night games since I've only played two now and I steer clear of milsim events for more reasons than just not wanting to play against NVG gang with my naked eyeballs in the dark. So, what went well? For starters, I had 100% accuracy. Literally every shot I took I hit. Using a bolt action at night is great because it's quiet, but it's a challenge because you really have to make sure you hit because if you don't they're swinging around powering on their torch and lighting you up both metaphorically and literally. Every shot was probably no more than about 15m tops because at Worthing Airsoft it gets absolutely pitch black levels of darkness, especially when it's overcast like it was tonight. All I was doing was shooting at silhouettes, tracer units and torches when people had them on and for the most part people were really good at taking their hits, though at those ranges you really hear the impact as well. The games themselves were good fun, basically skirmish type games that you'd see on a regular game day but played in the pitch black and only with about 25 players all in. Lots of sneaky shenanigans were done, getting lost happened more than once and many laughs were had as most took it in the spirit of the game. My friend was just going around knife killing everyone in the darkness until they finally clocked onto his silliness 🤣 So, what didn't go so well? Marshalls allowed full auto. With most engagements happening quite close, this caused some issues and they eventually just said semi only, which was definitely the right call (though it should've been semi only from the start). Also, there was some absolutely laughable levels of non-hit taking at times. I lined up a shot at about 10m away, heard the very audible noise of it hitting the guy, only for him to flinch, scurry forward and start calling out to another person asking them what team they were on. He took the second that was aimed a bit higher up. Also, there was a bunch of milsim-ers there and they were predictably milsim-y. The team play, the callouts, the tryharding I didn't really mind, but they moaned a LOT and were party to some of that laughable hit taking I mentioned earlier. Me and another guy were set up watching a path, they walked right in front of us about 5m away and we lit them up as they approached, heard the BBs hitting them and they kept pushing forwards. They eventually took it when a third person started rinsing them as well as us, but she was using tracers that visibly bounced off them so they couldn't exactly not take those. Will I go next year? You bet I will. However, I'd hope to have my SR-25 or one of my m21s all set up for it and I'll run those. It would've been really nice to have something silent and semi-auto rather than having to slowly pull that bolt after every shot while trying to not be heard. I was planning on running my HPA m21, but when I took it to the range last week it started jamming again, so that was a no. Oh well, these things happen

I'd go for the bang. One-use pyro is one of the biggest cash sinks for a lot of airsofters and in my opinion is basically a scam. Reusable pyro is the way forward!

I only played half the day today purely because I'm still recovering from a foot injury I sustained two and a half weeks ago when I was out for a run and I took a fall. Was good to get out there and play again, especially since numbers were so low because apparently most airsofters are scared of the rain; it only rained during the morning sign-in, chrono and safety brief, then half way into the first game it cleared up all day until we were heading home when Mother Nature let us know she had been gracious enough to let us enjoy our game day and now it was time to leave with a heavy thunderstorm! The m700 also continues to impress. Chronoed right on the power limit at 1.1J for no MED and it really slings those .5s out there. The jury is still out on the .5s, as not being able to see my shots is difficult as airsoft guns are not that accurate in the wider scheme of things even when you do everything to make it so, but at the same time it means my targets also have no idea the shots are coming in. Plus, .5s are cheaper than .48s, probably because people don't like the fact you can't see them. Still got most of my bag, so this will probably last me a good few months, so I'll get very used to them moving forward. If I decide I don't like them, I'll just go back to .48s. In terms of the gameplay itself, first shot I took I got a complaint against me. Not sure what was said, but one of the marshalls came around the corner after I hit a guy on it 5 seconds earlier. Walked over to near where I was and asked if there were any snipers around as he couldn't find me in my ghillie. I answered and he was like "oh, it's you. That's fine then." I think it was probably accusations of either a hot gun or shooting within MED, because .5s really do hit hard even on 1.1J. Was also on a skill-up day as I decided to go out there with the short m700 magazines instead of the long ones, so I was out in game with 40 shots in total (4x mags with 10rds in each). We then did a rolling assault where the enemy team didn't clear me out twice. First time I started harassing them outside their spawn and two of my friends on the other team hunted me down eventually, but the second time I decided to use the opportunity to practice my sneaky sniper stalking skills. I waited for them to start pushing onto the next objective and opted to just follow the enemy team down the hill towards the objective. I didn't shoot anyone, but having to pay attention not just to what's in front of me, but also behind me and all around me was a real challenge. Had to move very slowly to avoid getting spotted by respawning players behind me, but I managed to follow the attacking team all the way down to the next objective and right up to the game end. I almost took a shot at two of the younger regular players at the end, but wasn't able to line one up through the foliage that I was 100% confident would hit, so I held off in the end. I didn't hit many people during the game, but it was one of the most enjoyable games I've had in a while.

TM p226s have functional decockers as well. In terms of the half-cock functionality of the 1911, I believe the TM does have that but mine is currently away because screw using that during the winter.

I feel like that's their first mistake; thinking AI500 is anything more than a large skirmish day with ammo limits and basic uniform colour palette rules. It's far removed from any filmsim/battlesim or milsim I've ever been to, for sure!

As someone who pretty much exclusively uses gas guns (gas snipers, worst of all!), it's a fun part of the hobby laying down a tarot reading, consulting the stars and making an offering to mother nature every night before a game day. Puts the ritual back in pre-game day rituals.

@Shizbazkihas gone over the fine details so I don't have much more to add on that, however I will give the other side and say I prefer the Wolverine Bolt to the Mancraft SDiK. The Mancraft kit is good and not needing any batteries is nice, but in a platform where consistency is key, the consistency of the solenoid-based Wolverine Bolt just wins out. Also, I've found the solenoid system is quieter than the mechanical system of the Mancraft. The Mancraft will be a lot quieter than a spring setup for sure, but the Wolverine will be even quieter than that, which for a sniper platform is also very important. On the topic of tanks and stuff, a 13ci tank is all you will need for a HPA sniper or DMR setup. I get about 300 shots from my 10ci tank with my VSR setup with the Wolverine Bolt (out of production now, which makes me sad because I love it) and about 500 shots with my m21 setup with the Wolverine Hydra Gen2. The only time I need a larger tank is at events like AI500 or the NAF and that's mostly just for the m21 setup because semi-auto shots come out a lot more than bolt action shots, but at anything else, even a full weekend of harrassing GIs at Gunman's Namsoft events, a won't run out of shots. Personally, I'm not a fan of CO2 because while a tank will be consistent shot to shot, a CO2 bulb will be reliably inconsistent; the power will drop steadily until it starts to fall off a cliff towards the end. Yes, a CO2 regulator is smaller and can fit inside the stock, but it's not worth the inconsistency. I have a 10ci tank in a stock pouch (the regulator pokes out, but I'm not shooting from the left shoulder anyway so it's fine), but my friend runs a 13ci tank in an old mesh ghillie bag zip tied to his belt and it works really well. I just prefer not to have a line as I drag myself through bushes and along the ground a lot and don't want it getting caught on everything. One thing you will need to consider is filling your bottle. Most people invest in a scuba tank and fill station, but if you're only using small tanks a hand pump is a viable and far cheaper option. You would need a proper airgun pump that will go up to 3000psi at least, but filling a 13ci tank will only take about 20 mins at most. I took my hand pump to last year's AI500 as I had to refill my tank a few times through the event and it was a quick 10 mins of pumping at respawn.

I generally like .32s, but the stock rubber won't lift them out of the box and you may see it creep over the limit on certain gasses, however there's a very simple and cheap upgrade part called the sixG nub. Honestly, the sixG nub is the only upgrade you really need to do with these for them to shoot pretty damn well on green gas all year round (height of winter at temps under 5 celcius you may need red gas)

Why not go the whole way and look at the TM LCP or the TM Bodyguard 380? TM even make appendix carry holsters for them, or you can put a suppressor on them and they're pocket mk23s

I'm also interested in this, but what I ideally want tends to start around £1000, but most are around the £2000 - £3000 mark after a cursory glance on the internet at my options. I just think a thermal rifle scope on my m700 would be "fun"

I didn't play today as I injured my foot running earlier in the week, but I still went along to Worthing this weekend. I probably could've got away with it as it's healing nice and I can walk on it now just fine, but I didn't want to push it, so I instead cancelled my booking and went down just to chat with people and also devote time to my m700 and resetting my mk23 and MWS to .32s after I had to set them to .28s for AI500. I also took the m21 along as I wanted to test it again at DMR power (1.64J at my site). Started with the m700 at 10am. Took an hour for lunch and by 3:30pm it was done. Yes, it took me 4 and a half hours and I still don't have a 2J configuration for it, but I've decided to just keep this build as a 1J build as it's phenomenal with .48s and .5s; I have a 2nd and 3rd m700 that I'll set for 2J. A bit dickish as I can point blank people with it and .5s slap hard, but it's within the limit at 1.1J on .5s. Can't see my shots at all, but sighted it in on .48s and then applied a bit more hop and it seems to be hitting the targets as I can hear it impact the metal. Will see next game day how it performs! From what I heard there was some poor hit taking today and apparently there was almost a fight. I always miss all the fun... 🤣