Impulse

Check with the organisers. For milsim? Yes. Some will do a level of kit rental, but since you'll be out in the field for 24 - 36 hours uninterrupted you probably want kit that is personalised to you, not rental kit. No idea, but Defiant Events do stuff in the south east and they're pretty good. They have a minimum age of 18 at their events. Milsim is not regular airsoft. It usually has a lot less trigger time, kit requirements, squad-based gameplay, will run for 24 hours or more uninterrupted, so you need to bring your own food, drinks, sleeping bag etc. It's not for everyone; I'm not a fan of it, prefering the filmsim/battlesim middleground, but I know other people who basically only do milsim.

Oooooh, more for the glorious PAVN / VC side? I'll be there as VC with a VSR and my attempts at a mostly period appropriate "ghillie" and rifle wrap (lots of scrim net and lots of natural foliage).

@strykerles hit the nail on the head for maintenance so I'll echo some of what he said. I keep my mags with a bit of gas in them while not in use and I've only had two mk23 mags start leaking. Just make sure they're stored with a bit of gas in (maintenance gas is best) to keep them nice and healthy. Keeping them unloaded to protect the spring from becoming compressed is good too and will make sure it feeds nicely as you move forward. Also, I take my pistols apart after each game day I use them, give them a good clean and relubing (mostly just the slide) to keep it working nice and snappy. You typically won't have to lube up the piston head, but if you notice the loading nozzle having a hard time returning after each shot, or you notice a lot of gas venting out the top with each shot you will have to do that. I've only done that with one pistol of mine and that's the 1911 as I was trying to get as much gas efficiency out of it as possible due to tiny mags with tiny gas reservoirs. It's generally not that difficult, it can just be a bit fiddly and feature springy bits that you don't want to lose or warp. USP is nice. I'm also a fan of HK pistols because I prefer the mag release.

A Well MB-01 was my first gun about 16 years ago back when they were called the Warrior L96 and I had a lot of fun with it, however I will echo the "starting with a sniper rifle is a bad idea" sentiment. It worked out for me because aesthetically I love bolt action guns and was interested in the scout sniper role from the get go (I play support classes in video games, so sitting totally still and just relaying enemy movements to my team via radio is my jam), plus we didn't have the techno-wizardry of modern hop rubbers back then, but with a stock sniper rifle these days you'll get outranged by AEGs with a simple hop rubber change. Hop up is king and extra power means a lot less than it used to, plus you'll have a 30m MED to contend with. I'm not saying "don't do it" but I am definitely saying "consider it carefully". Sniping is a very different way of playing and you can have very, very slow days. Even with hundreds of pounds invested into a sniper rifle build, using the heaviest BBs possible, your shots will still fly off in a breeze or will be foiled by a stray leaf or twig being in the way of the shot that sends it wildly off course. If I was going to recommend a good starter gun for that price, I'm going to point at Cyma AKs and mp5s because they're great. The polymer Cyma AKs are pretty damn good for the price, but they probably won't be a go-to gun forever as you'll soon want something metal. I'd save up a little more than £100, as you want to get good eye protection, some boots with ankle support, better batteries and a good charger. £100 will cover a polymer Cyma AK and nothing else, though it does come with a cheapo NiMH battery and charger, as well as a high-cap mag so you can just pick it up and go. I don't care what other people say, the cheapo NiMH battery will work and I still use the one that came with my Cyma mp5k and it's fine, but like the gun being plastic, you probably don't want to use the cheapo battery forever.

Pretty sure you can buy the foregrips seperately if that's an option. When I had my D-boys M4 about a decade ago, that's what I did; it was a railed CQBR but I bought plastic grips and a carry handle separately so I could swap out as needed. Plan on doing the same with my MWS now too (though I already have the carry handle because I still have my old one I used with my D-boys M4. It's basically a relic now!)

Yeah, hence I don't recommend getting a new trigger box until you want to increase the power because they're pricey. I'm of the opinion that you run the Cyma or JG at the stock power until the sears explode, then swap it out Without a new trigger box, you can probably do the build for around £250 all in and run it until it dies. Then, if you like the playstyle, shell out for a Springer Custom Works S-trigger because they're the best damn triggers on the market, as well as the rest of the upgrades. I run a Springer Custom Works S-trigger, piston and spring guide in my spring build, even though it's only a 1.1J build because it was a 2.3J build at one point in time and I've never had any issues with it over years of use. For those, plus a new spring you'd probably be looking at around another £200, then if you want a teflon cylinder and a better cylinder head that's another £100 or so. It can get expensive fast! There are some very decent out of the box snipers, like the tac-41, SRS, Novritsch stuff etc, but in my opinion they just don't quite hit the same high level performance at the top end. Yes, they're a lot cheaper and they perform comparably for far less money, though it depends on if you think that consistency/range is worth the hundreds of £s extra and time investment that a custom build will cost. We come from opposite ends of the spectrum on that, as you're "buy cheap, buy twice" and I'm "buy once, cry once" and will spend months building a project to perfection, including pistols. Including trial and error costs, you don't want to know how much my HPA m21 build cost me over the years... 🤣

Not a full loadout (imagine the usual black PJs for VC shenanigans), but I just put together my "ghillie" for Operation Boogaloo in two weeks time; VSR is similarly wrapped in a bunch of scrim net too Will attach an abundance of natural foliage on the day and be a haunted bush hunting GIs all day. Well, that and civvie recon, walking around with no military gear and having a bit of RP fun ("you shot my cow! You pay for cow, GI!") Going to make a point to not know about any objectives so if I get captured I can't tell them anything, because with how annoying I'm going to be I reckon it'll happen at some point. Going to be good escape and evasion practice, as it looks like we may be outnumbered something like 4 to 1. Last Vietnam game I went to had some fantastic escape and evasion action, so I have my hopes up. Goal is to get hit and/or captured as little as possible

Good idea. Both will work as a starting base, though if you're looking at getting a VSR like the MB-03, I'd suggest looking at the JG BAR10 and the Cyma CM.701 rifles as well; they're cheap and more compatible with VSR parts. You can start relatively cheap, still get pretty good performance and see if the gameplay interests you, then decide to shell out hundreds more. I was going to do a build for the Evolution M40 myself, but now I'm going to use one of my KJ m700s as a base for an M40A3 instead as I like my gas guns. My recommendation for parts would be: - Maple Leaf silicone autobot hop rubber (probably 70 degrees as that'll work for 1.1J as well as 2.3J), - If you go for the M40, one of the Maple Leaf VSR hop arms. I believe there are two and I believe they will fit onto the hop unit but can't be certain. - If you go for a VSR (MB-03, BAR-10 or CM.701), I'd get the Action Army VSR hop unit. It's fantastic. - Maple Leaf omega nub - Either a Laylax or Maple Leaf Crazy Jet inner barrel. Yes, the stock barrel is 6.03mm, but it's brass and it's bridged. You want an unbridged barrel and I am a big fan of stainless steel barrels (had the same Laylax barrel in my VSR for about 12 years now). I can't remember what length you want, but I know the stock inner is slightly longer than a 430mm VSR barrel so you could use a 430mm with barrel spacers to make sure it's nice and centred. In terms of mounting a suppressor, I'm not sure what I'd use for the adapter. You may be able to use a VSR thread adapter, but I can't confirm that as I can't remember exactly what the end cap is like. When it comes to actual suppressors, you want a decent foam filled one. I've got the Action Army DDM silencer which is meant for the AAP-01, but it works great on anything. Well, anything suppressors are good with; they're utterly useless for AEGs and GBBs (outside of cool factor), god-tier for NBB gas and HPA and somewhat useful for springers. It'll make a difference in reducing the noise that comes out of the end of the barrel when the air and BB escape, but it won't do anything to quieten the sound of the piston slamming forward in the cylinder. In 1.1J builds it's not really needed as they're quiet enough and the Evolution M40 is pretty quiet out of the box. A suppressor won't hurt the gun's performance outside of making it longer and a bit more unwieldy.

As much as I love it, the Wolverine Hydra and the m14 hop unit don't get along, so I've put a strip of a drink can at the back of the hop unit to avoid BBs rolling back and jamming it open. Took the opportunity to get the G&P scope mount which is far lower and now the m21 is complete. I will need to cable tie the rails onto the outer barrel to stop it moving about though as I had to modify it a little to use it with a scope mount; mounting a scope directly onto the rails doesn't work and tilts the sight upwards, hence I need a separate mount to keep it level. Not sure if I can get the stubby mags to feed properly though, so we'll see next game day. Otherwise I'll just run it with normal mags. Also, I now have a decent camera, so have some m21 pics.

@Rogerborg already hit many nails on the head there. Sniping is one of those things where it's either amazing and you feel like a god, or you barely do anything all day. I've had days where I've single-handedly, or as a pair, held an objective against basically the entire enemy team, but I've also had days where I can count the number of shots I've fired with my fingers and not have to resort to using my toes. Depending on what you're looking for, that can be enjoyable too, though it takes a certain mindset to find sitting/lying totally still in an uncomfortable position for a few hours, not pulling the trigger at all and just relaying the enemy team's movements to your friends via radio anywhere near fun. Not saying "don't do it", just saying it's a very different experience. When I started getting into sniping properly around 14 years ago I knew a pair of German guys at my local site in the south of Spain who said "it's not about how many you hit, but how you hit them" and in all these years I haven't heard anyone sum up sniping as well in as few words. I feel it encapsulates sniping perfectly; you won't get as many hits as your friend running around with an AEG, but each hit you do get will feel way more satisfying. I can tell you that the Evolution M40 is marketed as "VSR compatible" but in truth it's "mostly VSR compatible"; there are slight variances in how it's built where VSR parts won't all necessarily fit into it, like the Action Army hop unit which is usually a staple in my builds, though I believe there are alternatives like the Maple Leaf unit or arm, but don't quote me on that as I haven't tried it myself. It's possible to do a good build with one, but it'll require a bit of trial and error. If it were me and I had to choose between those three, I'd choose the Evolution M40 or the Well MB-03 (as they're the two "VSR compatible" ones, though the MB-03 has some inconsistencies too I believe), swap out the barrel, hop rubber, hop up nub and hop up chamber/hop arm and just run it at the stock power with the heaviest BBs it can lift. Running a bolt action at 1.14J is pretty enjoyable and can be really effective when tuned correctly, though be prepared for people to get salty and say "that's a bit close for a sniper!" and "you have a 30m MED!!" when you shoot them up close. Also, whoever told you that FPS is king has clearly never sniped before, or they're just not very good at it. Hop up is king; fps makes very little difference. For example, I have two pretty comprehensive HPA sniper rifle builds that I've built up over the years and consider my best performing rifles. One is a VSR that fires at .48s at 2.3J and has an effective range of 75m. I can hit out to 85m relatively consistently but at that point I'm angling my shots slightly and it's not hitting the target every time. The other is a semi-auto m21 build that fires .4s at 1.1J and has an effective range of 65m, though I can hit 70m angling shots it's not anywhere near accurate as the BBs just don't have enough energy left at that point. As you can see from this example, that extra 1.2J of power is giving me an extra 10m of effective range at the trade off of a 30m MED. Yes, more "fps" is giving me more range, but the amount of times you notice those 10m is rare I find, and usually you can just let them come a bit closer anyway as if you're remaining still at 75m range, they're not spotting you unless you're standing in the open. On this, I will echo what was said already; you want to chase consistency, not max range. Ignore the people who saunter about, boasting that their sniper rifle has a range of 90m+. You want to tune it so that you're hitting the target every single time. If you can't hit that target every shot (well, 9/10 times because BBs can sometimes get caught in Mother Nature's loving embrace and carried away by a slight breeze) then it's not worth considering in my opinion. I have a number of VSR-based cheapo builds, but chasing the 2.3J limit is never a cheap option. They're often either 1.1J builds or they're whatever the stock power of the base rifle is. If you want to increase the power, either you shell out for internals that can handle the higher power spring without exploding, or you shell out for an HPA engine, line, tank and regulator; both are expensive, both have their ups and downs. I prefer HPA and gas for the effortless bolt pull and quieter shooting, but most prefer spring as it's consistent, doesn't require a tank and will perform exactly the same all year round. This. My KJ m700s can chrono at under 350fps on a .2 (I think I got it down to around 0.9J), but then I put .48s in them and they are suddenly 2.7J. Gas guns creep like crazy

I love sights on basically everything outside of pistols (because I crawl along the floor a lot and would probably break lots of pistol red dots...) and think that if you take the time to zero a sight properly they are a massive help on pretty much any gun. Personally, I am a big telescopic sight fan because I like my bolt actions and long guns. I think bolt actions and DMRs benefit from having a 3x and upwards variable scope, as you take the shots with 3x, but can use higher magnification for reconnaissance purposes. If you're going to play the sniper role, at least play it right This does extend to normal rifles; I love LPVOs! 1-6x scopes are fantastic for any rifle, as you can use it like a red dot on 1x, but if you want to take some longer range shots or want to see where your shots are going you can put the magnification up to wherever you need it. I only run a red dot on my MWS because 1. I had it, and 2. I don't want to remove the front sight and the front sight very much interferes with using an LPVO. I also think that red dots are great on rifles and SMGs as if you set up a red dot and zero it properly, it's a great aid for lining up those shots quickly and accurately.

I run this and I love it: https://www.uktactical.com/product/warrior-pathfinder-chest-rig-od-green-16242 Don't need to put the two front ammo mag pouches on. Could put pistol mag pouches on the molle if you want, but I keep my pistol mags on my belt to keep it as low profile as possible so it's not too uncomfortable to go prone on.

Yep. I know that a lot left after the VIP game because fighting up that hill takes it out of a lot of people. We got rebalanced over to blues though we weren't given armbands, so we were just no bands. Everyone was told that the 6 no-bands were blue, but that didn't stop me almost getting friendly fired in the back of the head. Lucky I saw the guy and dropped into the stinging nettles (no way any airsoft gun is punching through those nettles behind outpost... but I'm still suffering for it!) so my friend shot him, said "he's on blue you know" and then I went over and medic'd him

I hurt. A lot xD So another great day at Worthing today. Went out with the ghillie and the m21 in the morning and it was okay. Had my obligatory "that's a bit close for a sniper isn't it?" when running my m21 at 1.1J for no MED, but I didn't get too many people in the morning. Most of the time I was just holding flanks and holding angles that often didn't get attacked (though without me there the other team could've just waltzed past our front line, so I stayed the course. Just before lunch had a good moment holding a corner and keeping the other team back with my lack of MED. Seriously, Worthing now is so thick with foliage that MEDs are just a liability now. However, the afternoon was amazing. It was rather warm, so I got rid of the ghillie and picked up the MWS, which I have now installed my standard setup of Maple Leaf autobot rubber (70 degree), omega nub and a crazy jet barrel and hoooooly balls it shoots far. We had to escort a scientist VIP up a hill to one of the bases and get him to let off a smoke, but we were just getting shot by our own players when we went for him. So what we did is we decided "screw that" and instead went and took the base we had to bring him to and just... let the other team bring him up. We then bounced them, took the VIP and got him to release the smoke so we won in the end, despite the other team doing the hard work for us getting up that hill; there were some great firefights and I got some brilliant shots holding the far flank. The MWS is even punching through foliage with those .3s I put through it and I had a lot of fun firing it off on semi and feeling that crispy recoil. Some speedy tacticool reloads were also needed thanks to 35rd magazines and it was just a great experience. When we then played a game where we had to hold that base again as we were getting towards the end of the day and I took up a similar position and got some wonderful shots. I can't believe how great the MWS shoots! When we swapped sides, me and a friend crept behind the enemy team and caused havoc by pushing through some pretty tall stinging nettles and shooting everyone in the back. And that's why I hurt. I had to hit the deck a few times during the gunfights we initiated from behind the other team (it was great, we got so many of them!), right into the nettles and I was wearing short sleeves. My arms currently feel like I have needles stuck all over them

Personally, I'd just save an extra £20 or so and get a TM. I've never heard anything good about WE or Raven GBB pistols and you want to get a sidearm that will actually work. Fire-support have a TM Desert Eagle in for £135 with magazines also in stock: https://www.fire-support.co.uk/product/tokyo-marui-d-eagle-50ae-hard-kick-gbb-pistol https://www.fire-support.co.uk/product/tokyo-marui-desert-eagle-50ae-pistol-magazine-black27-rnd Only non-TM GBB pistol I like is the Action Army AAP-01, but that's neither a 1911 or a desert eagle. I've seen so many pistols that look really nice externally but just don't work well when you actually use them. Also, 1911s will always be a difficult one to make work outside of the TM ones, purely because their magazines are so small and carry very little gas. I have a Bell 1911 from way back in the day and it just doesn't work as a skirmishable sidearm, and even my TM 1911 struggles to get through an entire mag outside of summer. TM Hi-Capas are a potential alternative to 1911s, as they're designed on the 1911 style while having far larger magazines, but they aren't 1911s and I wouldn't take mine to a Vietnam game, for example. If you do look at going the AEP route, the Cyma ones with a mosfet installed are pretty great. The challenge is finding them, or the mags, in stock as you said, but if you can get one they're pretty reliable, shoot reasonably well for a sidearm and will work all year round. I don't like them because they don't shoot well enough for me to rely on them as heavily as I need to as a sniper, but if you're playing normally they're a great little piece of kit; one of my friends who runs a ghillie with a 1J HPA m4 sometimes runs one and it works great.

I don't think they're discontinued, I just think they're suffering from the supply shortages as relatively niche guns. Lots of stuff is out of stock everywhere.

I thought it was going to look stubby and weird, but I like how it turned out; Had to file away parts of the stock though because the Action Army outer barrel is chonk. Need to set it up properly, but initial chrono tests (which admittedly are limited) I am able to set it up to be 2.3J or less on 144a, which I couldn't do with the stock 630mm barrel because joule creep was hell. 510mm barrel is letting me run .48s through it at legal limits and it's basically as quiet as my HPA VSR with that suppressor on the end. Won't be using it too much in the near future because my local site will be awful for 30m MEDs until October, so got plenty of time for tweaking

I'm going to be popular with my 1.1J semi-auto m21 sniper rifle that I can point blank people with... >:) The result of last game day's testing. I found that .4s were the heaviest the m14 hop unit could do at that power, and it LOVED .4s...

Nah, next one I'll be at is Boogaloo on June 11 - 12th. And this time I will actually be using my VSR (unlike last time when the hop rubber was torn!)

Hand pump is all you'll need! Being serious for a second though, I have a hand pump and it's all I need. My little 10ci midget bottle only takes about 15 mins to pump from empty to full and my larger 48ci tank takes just over an hour. However, I've only had to do that pump once and now just keep it topped up after each game day as there's no way in hell I'll go through the whole bottle in an entire weekend event. At a full weekend event I might run out with the 10ci bottle in my VSR, but I'll just pack my hand pump and top it up in the evening or at respawn if I really need to (must remember to bring my hand pump to the Vietnam weekend next month...) I only use HPA for sniping though, so I'm not exactly sending thousands of BBs down range.

Only reason not to get the biggest mAh battery is if you're using it to power a HPA gun. A 300mAh tiny battery will power an HPA system for a whole weekend of playing and then some (personal experience there). Could I fit some monster 3000mAh battery in my m21 stock? You bet I could, but it would be wholly pointless, be awkward getting in and out and just take longer to charge for game days or discharge to storage levels afterwards. No thanks! I'm an advocate of "get a good charger" even though I barely touch batteries. Only for my MP7 AEP and my HPA systems, but I still love my Turnigy 6 charger (it's old now and discontinued, but it very much does the job). I'll charge my batteries before a game day or event and storage charge them afterwards out of routine, but I've heard from a lot of people that it's excessive (excessive in a good way though!). And yeah, lipo bags are cheap but you'll be glad to have them in unlikely the event that your battery does go up in smoke. Some of my friends have had lipos go up in flames on them, but one was a faulty battery (I told my friend to raise hell with the shop who sold it to him) and one was puffy and the guy was like "yeah, that was my fault. Shouldn't have tried it..."

Now I just need them to make an mp5k variant and I would have to add a gun to the "guns to buy" list that is currently almost empty.