Impulse

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.

I have both an mp5k and an mp7 and I can honestly say the mp5k is heavier and harder to carry alongside my sniper rifle, and mine is barebones without any sights. I end up carrying my mp5k on a fairly tight two-point sling because with the front grip and the magazine, finding a holster solution for it is hard. If I was smart, I'd try to 3d print something akin to the mk23 holster, but alas, I am the dumb when it comes to that. The drop leg holster for the mp7 works really well while crawling around, though I've removed the top part of the strap so it rests a lot higher on my leg to stop it flopping about like most drop legs. Can't speak for the chest mount; that would be impossible to crawl around with!

Take my opinion with a pinch of salt, since I typically like my sniper rifles, but you can achieve everything you need on 15rps easily. 20rps is pretty fast and 25rps is brrrrrrrt. My local site has a ROF limit of 25rps and having seen what 25rps is like when I was playing around with my m21 HPA build, I agree with this limit (before I essentially disabled full auto). 25rps is pretty savage! Also, if we're going for playing a proper support gunner role, with the suppressive fire and all that, a high ROF is going to chew through your ammo faster than you realise. Assuming 2000rds in the mag, 25rps will give you 80 seconds of shooting, which sounds like a lot but that will vanish sooooo fast as a support gunner. I have a friend who palys support gunner and he can chew through thousands of BBs per game. 15rps gives you just over 133 seconds of shooting, so almost double the longevity to do the same job just as well.

I'm with you there. I picked up a TM AKM (although I only have 1 mag because they're out of stock everywhere!) and since firing it on the range I've also decided to just stop using AEGs altogether. HPA and non-blowback gas guns are better for stealth, while GBBs (both pistols and rifles) are just way more fun than their electrical counterparts. I can't go back to AEGs after firing my AKM on the range!

I had a great day, contrary to my rather disappointing skirmish last time. Leaves have fallen, so sight lines are massively open and the VSR is performing damn well, even while having to contend with gusts of wind. Had to aim to the side to compensate for it, but was getting some stellar shots with it, so I'm happy. Also, first outing with my newly constructed ghillie and it's just invisibility; very happy with how it turned out though I do still want a Sprinter Custom Ghillie one. I had a guy run right past me while I was just sitting on my backside with my MP7 in my lap, then a team mate crawled pretty much next to me and only realised I was there when I warned him the enemy were close. This one was just put together because I had a bunch of Novritsch camo stuff lying about and a spare webtex concealment vest. Also learned from my mistake last skirmish and brought the MP7 instead of any of my gas pistols (as well as my thermals!) because it was coooooooold today. I have, to my shame, started using full auto when (relatively) close though, because I've found people just don't call it on semi-auto because it's a 0.6J aep firing .25s and they're just not feeling it. They typically feel a burst of 5 or 6 though. Roll on next game day. Christmas game, so silliness abound!

I have this. It's great. I literally ran it today, but in my opinion you have to take the top strap off so it's snug at the top of your leg otherwise it does what all drop leg holsters do and swing around your knee awkwardly.

I just have a black elastic armband with velcro on it. I haven't gone to an event where it hasn't been good enough.