Impulse

Me and all my friends use Baofang UV-5Rs. They're about £30, but they're so good for the price. Mine is acting up a little after 6 months, but I've dropped mine a few times in the woods (mostly just damaged the ports where the headset connects to) and used it through AI500 in 2021, which meant absolutely torrential downpours that soaked it through.

Wolverine has always been good to me, so I've had no reason to try anything else. However, it must also be said that all my HPA guns are snipers or DMRs (usually set the "DMR" to 1.1J though as my views on DMR power limits are not exactly singing its praises, and no MED is fun).

Ah, but what about weirdos like me who use "snipers" and "DMRs" that are 1.1J for no MED shenanigans?

It's dumb and I wouldn't book in there either, but with my collection and play style I'm very biased in that. First site I've seen that has banned it and I have no idea really why they would. Are they also banning HPA snipers / DMRs? If so, why just snipers and DMRs? Why not all HPA? Why are gas snipers and DMRs banned, but GBBRs and GBB/NBB pistols are fine? Also, what makes CO2 so bad? So many questions around this weird decision. For gas snipers and DMRs, I think it's probably because they can be easy to cheat with as well. I have, technically, 3 gas snipers or DMRs, being a HPA VSR, HPA m21 and a Tanaka m700 and I know for a fact I could set my regulator on my HPA setups to pass chrono, then go away and jack that gun all the way up. Similarly, I could chrono my m700 on 144a, then go away and chuck higher power gas in it later. However, if they were banning it for that reason they'd surely just ban all HPA, but they clearly haven't. Also, why wouldn't they ban GBBRs or GBB/NBB gas pistols for the same reason? I wouldn't because that's unsafe and incredibly dickish, but that's the theory of what a person could do. Maybe the marshalls there are just salty that us gas snipers are so stealthy and have been mentally scarred from being hit from seemingly nowhere with no sound 🤣

And a tiny bit of compatibility. It's not the end of the world, since most differences are easily fixable, but having worked on both a TM VSR-10 and a JG BAR-10 I can say they're not quite the same. We're talking fractions of millimetres though, for things like the Action Army VSR magazines fitting the TM VSR perfectly, but can sometimes have issues with the JG if the stock is screwed on too tightly, or things like the cylinder heads having different threads, which I only found out when I was reading up on HPAing the JG. Cheap snipers are fine. For me, hindsight is 20:20 and I'd always go for the TM VSR going forward due to the issue I explained above, and they're only £80 or so more expensive than the clones. When I'm thinking about spending around £800 on a rifle, an extra £80 on the base rifle isn't exactly going to be a make or break for me. As has already been pointed out, you're probably stripping everything out of it anyway, so the fact the parts inside are crap doesn't really matter. My first upgrades on anything is the hop up and barrel. They're usually the easiest parts to upgrade in terms of actually installing them and they don't cost very much. A 430mm Laylax 6.03 or a Maple Leaf Crazy Jet will come in at about £50 and a Maple Leaf autobot rubber and omega nub will cost about £15 all in. If we're upgrading a sniper, we're probably going to need either a new hop arm or, preferably, an Action Army hop up chamber for a VSR or a TDC mod. The VSR hop chamber is actually quite bad, and the TM one will struggle to hop anything heavier than .28s stock, and you don't want to be using .28s in a sniper rifle. I think PDI do parts for the TM L96 if you're looking to go pricey. They're great parts, but you do pay a premium for them. I plan on doing a TM L96 build at some point and listed the parts I'd throw into it, but I don't quite know if it would work perfectly, as is the way with project guns. When it came to the power upgrades... I'd go HPA. Mancraft do a kit for the TM L96 and I'm loving my HPA VSR, and as I already have tanks, lines and regulators it would be a no-brainer for me.

I have a TM416D and I've left the power totally stock. The difference in effective range between 0.7J (which is stock TM guns) and 1.1J is miniscule and TMs are generally built super nicely. You generally don't have to touch TMs, they fire brilliantly out of the box. I run mine at the stock 0.7J power and put .28s in it. Shoots wonderfully.

First game day of 2022 and it was pretty damn good. VSR is now shooting well enough where I can upgrade my claims on it from "it has an effective range of 75m" to "it has an effective range of 85m". Took it to the range when no one was there, deployed the bipod and started plinking to zero the scope for the day. Was hitting the 75m target every time (they're metal and make a very audible dink when hit), so I decided to try for the 85m target. Aimed and fired and there was that satisfying dink. Shot again, another dink. Again? Another dink. Literally hitting the target, which is about half man-size, every single shot without me having to tilt the rifle; just put the crosshair on it, pull the trigger and watch the BB sail towards it. Was so happy and then took it out into the game and got so many kills with it. The ghillie continues to work flawlessly and I'm really loving it. Felt bad because someone crept around the outskirts of the site on a massive flank that took a looooong time, then walked right past me and got mk23'd in the back. He then came back along a path I was watching and was victim to about an 80m shot. Good day for sure! However, it started absolutely tipping it down after lunch so now I have to dry my ghillie, rifle wrap, take apart my mk23 so it can dry out. I think the VSR is fine as I stopped playing pretty soon after it started raining, but I'll probably stand it up with the bolt open so it can get some air through it anyway. And no, I didn't stop because "oh no, it's raining!" I stopped because my thumb cuticle got caught in the bipod when I was deploying it and it tore away about a 2cm square of skin from my thumb and started bleeding profusely. I stayed where I was for the time being and got a few kills, taking off my fingerless glove and clenching my thumb into it, but as soon as I had to move from my hide I called it a day because I couldn't properly use my rifle one-handed. It's fine when the bipod is deployed and I'm watching an area, but having to move, maybe take a shot or two, re-deploy... Not doing that one-handed. Oh, I also needed to get a plaster on it Roll on the next game day!

Personally, I wouldn't get another AR-15 style rifle as I like variety (yes, yes, I know I'm a rampant hypocrite with 2x VSRs and an m700, 2x M14s and 2x mk23s). I'd get a Cyma AKM instead, as it'll allow you to expand into a wider variety of loadouts, whether it's RUSFOR or a typical "bad guy" loadout; plus, if you decide to go to milsim or filmsim events they may have weapon requirements, so having a variety of rifles gives you options for what type of games you want to try out and go for. You can get a metal/real wood Cyma AK for £200 and it'll shoot pretty nicely out of the box. https://www.patrolbase.co.uk/cyma-cm-048m-ak47-airsoft-real-wood-aeg Once I have that as a backup, I'd upgrade whichever I liked more and keep the other one as a backup (well, I'd upgrade both of them because I like to live dangerously and have been teching my own guns for about a decade). As has been said earlier in the thread, you can get a ZCI barrel for about £20 and then a maple leaf macaron and omega nub for another £15. £35 will have your gun firing really nicely and barrel/hop up modifications are super easy to do; it's only when you open up the gearbox do things get more complex, but most guns these days come at about 1J out of the box in the UK, which is all you need. Yes, there are more modifications you can do to an AEG, but a simple barrel/hop up change will see the most gains for the cheapest investment and easiest installation. Take my words with a pinch of salt though, as I like my GBBRs and HPA/spring snipers. Not a massive fan of AEGs.

I'd keep the LMG because it's your only one, whereas you have other battle rifle type guns.

Don't go cheap for holsters, you can lose entire pistols, though this is fairly rare, however losing magazines due to cheap holsters is not uncommon at all. The WAS universal holster is great for the mk23 (it does fit. I leant mine out to a friend last game day and it worked fine for him), though I cannot recommend the WAS universal holster for anything with a normal button mag release. I've lost a 1911 mag and a p226 mag to the releasing system brushing up against the mag release and ejecting while I'm running. As I said, for the mk23, or any HK style pistol, it's fantastic. I typically use my WAS universal holster for my HK45 Tactical, suppressor and all, though my favourite holster for the mk23 itself is the DTD retention holster. Cracking bit of kit that.

I had someone twerking at me last game day from a long range (about 75m ish), right in the middle of the path. Clearly he didn't think my VSR could reach out that far... He was wrong

I'd love ammo limits, but you won't get them for the mostpart in casual skirmish weekends. I typically only run about 150 BBs in my VSR or 350 BBs in my m21, plus 125 BBs in a pistol or 250 BBs in the mp7, depending on what I'm carrying, so my maximum loadout of BBs at any one time is going to be 600 BBs (m21 + mp7 combination). Once I get my standard rifleman setup done, that will only be carrying about 175 BBs because GBBR magazines are small, so ammo limits never affect me since it's my normal way of playing. However, as I said, you won't get them in skirmish games, as skirmish is supposed to be accessible to everyone. This includes both the speedy 14 year old with his m4 pistol and drum mag and the super-serious-milsim-tacticool-oper8r with his gucci gear and NGRS and real cap magazines.

As a HPA sniper (best of both worlds!), I'll add spring snipers to that list. Plenty of spring snipers who go for headshots, try to inflict pain because it's "funny" and ignore their MED. Not all HPA users are dicks, just like not all dicks are HPA users.

If that's the case, will running my Hydra at "60psi" on the Storm regulator damage it if it's technically only like... 50 or so as I have no idea if it's truly accurate or if the Balystik is the accurate one, or if neither are, or are these engines built with these tolerances in mind that regulators can be inaccurate?

Patrolbase messed up my order so I got them to exchange it for an item of similar value. Got this for £75 (the rifle, not the extra bits. Those I already had!) including postage with a bottle of .3s. It's supposedly VSR compatible, so I'll find out to what extent when I get a 60 degree autobot rubber and omega nub in the next few days. From a cylinder/trigger perspective, it isn't VSR compatible as the cylinder is slightly shorter and the trigger box isn't quite the same size. It didn't accept my Laylax cylinder and SCW S-trigger, though the parts inside the cylinder looked like they could be compatible, so if it breaks I'll try putting my SCW piston and spring guide in there. Chrono'd at 0.95J on a .32, so I'm not going to be taking apart the cylinder anyway until it breaks, as I like my spring snipers to be lower power with no MED, as my HPA VSR is more than capable of doing 2.3J and lower power is quieter for spring guns. Is it as good as the VSR? No. The bolt pull is a bit weird and requires some force to push it back into place, even after lubing the outside of the cylinder with PTFE grease. I think it's a little louder than my 1.1J spring VSR build, it's a bit heavier than the VSR and, obviously, it's 0.95J as opposed to my 1.1J VSR which is right on the limit. However, I wouldn't say it was a bad purchase. If it sucks on the range after I put the Maple Leaf rubber in when I take it to my local site in the new year, then it'll be bad, but I really like the fact it's relatively unique (don't see many m40a3 builds out there) and love the adjustable stock and cheek rest. Also, having QD sling attachments is nice as I have a genuine magpul ms4 gathering dust on my TM416D that I never use as I don't like AEGs (even recoil ones like my 416!) since buying and firing my TM AKM GBBR and I have no other guns that can use it. I guess I could get the Maple Leaf stock for the VSR, but I just... don't like it.

Hey guys, I'm just curious if this is a thing, but I've found I get different power out of my two regulators at the same psi. This weekend I forgot to pack my Balystik regulator, causing me to almost panic as I only brought HPA guns with me and thought I'd have to run around with my two sidearms that I brought (mk23 and mp7 aep as a backup in case the mk23 didn't work). However, I remembered I brought my CO2 adapter as a backup for if my air tank ran out of air, which had my other regulator attached, a Wolverine Storm. What prompts me to ask this question is that I usually chrono with my Balystik set to about 105psi to give me that crisp, consistent 2.3J out of my VSR with Wolverine Bolt, however when I chronoed last weekend with the Wolverine Storm regulator instead, I had to crank the psi to about 120psi and I got 2.2J out of it. Similarly, I let my friend borrow my m21 as his SVD was having issues, but when he took that to chrono on 60psi (again, with his Wolverine Storm regulator), it only put out 0.9J, whereas with the Balystik at 60psi it's bang on 1.1J with how the FCU is set up. Anyone know why this happens? It's more of an idle curiosity than a "I must solve this problem" thing, since it's not exactly broken. However, if the Wolverine Storm regulator gives me lower powers, I may be able to more efficiently set the dwell on the m21 build, since at 60psi on the Balystik (60psi is the minimum operating pressure for the Wolverine Hydra) gives me about 1.3J with the dwell set efficiently; I'm having to run the FCU setup suboptimally to keep the m21 at 1.1J so as to avoid an MED with the Balystik, but may be able to run the Wolverine Storm regulator and have the FCU set up efficiently.

Yeah, same. It lets me go off and be annoying, picking people off at range and then repositioning to leave them questioning if I'm still there or not. Having the whole site in play really opens up my style of gameplay. I mean... with how you were dressed up today, I'd be shocked if you appeared next to me too 🤣

This was quality to see. I'm glad cursed grim reaper santa jedi was on my team

Pretty much stole the words from my mouth. 25rps is more than enough and is a lot of brrrrrrrrrt. I don't see why you would need more. I disagree, but I also think HPA is bad for the majority of its uses and I'll never use a typical 1J full-auto HPA assault rifle style of gun. Where I think HPA shines is in sneaky sniper guns, whether they're a BASR, DMR or a 1J sneaky gun, all of which are by design probably not going to be full auto, because full auto HPA is a lot easier to hear than semi-auto HPA.

What a way to round out the year. I donned the tinsel ghillie once again and went around sniping people with the HPA VSR. Had some really heart-pounding adrenaline fuelled moments of people walking right past me and me lying completely still and hoping they don't spot the shiny tinsel, which they surprisingly didn't! I was really enjoying my invisibility and got some really nice shots as the VSR was firing amazingly well and there was very little wind. Games were pretty close too, with one team winning a narrow victory in the morning, then our team came back strong in the afternoon. Took my newly repaired mk23 out too, since the return spring pinged out at AI500 when it fell out of the holster and it performed like a dream with a new one in. So happy to use it while I heard GBBs really struggling with the temperature, and it's a lot more silent than the mp7 aep (though the mp7 does have a fun switch!). Downside is the lended out my m21 to a friend and it jammed, so I'm going to need to sort that. Wasn't his fault, it's a thing that happens sometimes and I think I'm going to need to tape some card just under the back of the hop unit, as there's a little gap that sometimes BBs roll backwards into in between the nozzle returning to position if you're firing uphill, jamming the nozzle and therefore jamming the HPA engine open so it vents loads of air. I'll do that at some point over the next two weeks...

Not in stock at the moment, but Guarder do a two piece outer barrel set for the p226. I use it on mine and it's pretty great. https://www.fire-support.co.uk/product/guarder-steel-threaded-outer-barrel-for-tm-p226-14mm-negative https://www.fire-support.co.uk/product/guarder-steel-outer-barrel-for-marui-and-kjw-p226 Unfortunately you need both parts, so it's pricey, but it's a nice quality steel outer barrel with 14mm threads.

For me it's a lot easier to decide. If I want to be engaging at extreme ranges, I'll just field my BASR with it's .48s at 2.32J, especially since the MED at my local site is 30m, the same for BASRs and DMRs (plus, my local site goes with 1.64J for DMRs, so with a 30m MED I just do not see the point at all). My local site gets pretty overgrown in late spring through late autumn, so while the foliage is like that I typically just go with the 1.14J "DMR" platform in my m21 because it's rare I'll be engaging at distances over 60m and I can hit 60m pretty damn effectively with my m21 build. Also with how thick the foliage gets I get a lot more encounters within what would be a 30m MED if I wanted to run something with an MED. It's all about where you play I think, as the other site near to me (that I'll be frequenting on the weekends Worthing doesn't run once I get myself a driving licence and a car!) has far more open sight lines and runs DMRs at 1.88J with a 20m MED, which would make me far more inclined to tweak the regulator to run my m21 as a DMR there. After all, there is a part of me that just sees an MED as an excuse to use my pistol more. I love my pistols and I make sure they can perform like a primary! Yes, to an extent. Heavier BBs will typically be better, but there comes a point where you have to weigh up the miniscule increase in performance with the exponentially rising costs. I settle for .32s in my 1.1J "DMR" because they're affordable and seem to be pretty efficient at that power level. I still go through less than 500 in an entire game day when using my m21, but I'd rather shoot about £2.50 worth of ammo in 500 .32s than £12 worth of ammo in .48s every game day. The difference in performance is negligible. As soon as you start going to .36s or heavier, the price increases dramatically!

I hope you're not aiming for 400fps on a .32 as that would be 2.37J which is just over the limit for BASRs! You can run a "DMR" at 2.32J at some sites, but you'll need to have a 2 second delay mosfet installed as it's classed as a sniper. For RIF, I'd say to get whatever you want and like the look of. Big props for not going with a big-spring-m4! If you like the ar-15 style platform, a Cyma cm098 would work really nicely. It's an SR-25, which is basically like an m16 in 7.62x51mm so it sounds ideal for you. As said by @Steveoceeabove, you're going to need a decent budget if you want to make a great DMR. The cheap way to do it is keep it 1.14J and just swap out the barrel for a decent stainless steel one and the hop up rubber/nub for a maple leaf rubber and omega nub. This way keeps you with no MED, which depending on your site can be one hell of a boon, and can get some serious range and accuracy; it's how I've done my Cyma m14 build, partially because I didn't want to have to delve into that hot mess of a gearbox, and it fires to the envy of many airsofters and only cost me about £150 all in (it was bought before Taiwangun got Brexited). This is where I would start. £270 for the gun, £56 for a Prometheus 509mm stainless steel barrel (though honestly, the barrel doesn't matter too much. ZCI are a pretty good budget alternative), £10 for a Maple Leaf macaron or MR hop, £5 for a Maple Leaf omega nub all in will be around £340. These are the most important upgrades hands down; barrel and hop up are the things that will do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to achieving peak effective range and accuracy. Now, going into a full DMR build you're going to need to up the power to whatever your local site limit is. Most sites are either 1.48J (400fps on a .2), 1.64J (425fps on a .2) or 1.88J (450fps on a .2) with an MED of either 20 or 30m. The way I would do it would be to go HPA because I'm a total HPA nerd and I always want to be as silent as possible, but that would add another £500ish for the build as you'd need the engine, tank, line and regulator, which would be out of your budget. Unfortunately I'm not that knowledgeable on AEGs as I've totally stopped using them now in favour of HPA and GBBRs, but I'll share my two cents anyway from my time when I used and upgraded them. What I'd swap out would be the piston, as you'll want a metal-toothed piston as plastic ones will strip the teeth pretty fast at higher powers, along with a new spring and a super high torque motor. If you have the budget, I'd replace the gears too. No idea what I'd put in, but that's the theory at least. i'm sure someone else can chime in with more useful advice as mine is mostly theoretical here as I don't use AEGs any more.