Impulse

I know we're talking about quiet, but since the thread title is "ideal sniper sidearm" I feel obliged to bring up the other side of the argument of "loud and proud". Yes the TM mk23 is, in my opinion, the best quiet sidearm, but the only time we use our sidearm when sniping is either on the move or if somebody gets too close and even then you're likely not taking out 2+ people if they're close to you with a mk23. So I introduce to you the other side of the debate and say that a compact SMG like an mp7 or mp5k or p90 would also serve as a good sidearm for a sniper. Nowhere near as silent, but if you're moving and don't want to give away your position, trust in your stealth and go to ground. If you're moving and you want to engage, you'll have a much better chance of winning that engagement against 2+ people (though the mk23 is better against 1 person by themselves for sure). Similarly, if they're within your MED and they don't know where you are, you can go to ground and wait for them to pass, or if they do know where you are again you're far more likely to win that engagement with an SMG than a mk23. Basically, a mk23 is a great pistol and I have one and would highly recommend one as a sniper sidearm if you want to go quiet. It's by far my best stealth sidearm and I used it essentially as a primary weapon with a Cyma spring tri-shot as my "secondary" at a private game at the UCAP tunnels; was hilarious people having no idea where they were getting shot from and it went well with my costume as a cyberpunk/noir corporate operative silently taking people out. Even managed to knife kill the juggernaut (knife kills were the only way to temporarily remove the juggernaut and his scary full auto LMG from game). However, it's awful at any kind of quick shooting because the trigger pull is long and squishy thanks to it being a NBB. I also have an mp7 that I carry in a thigh holster, an mp5k I carry on a sling, and more GBBs than I can shake a stick at because I love pistols and I would say they ALL have their uses as sniper sidearms (even if GBB pistols have their main selling point as "they're fun and cool to shoot") Anyway, feel free to also ignore me as your son says he wants something quiet. I'm just highlighting other considerations for sniper secondaries as someone who has been doing it for 17 years or so.

Ok, it wasn't enough. I sorted the AEG m21 build today with helical gears shimmed correctly. Now, I will say that it's amazing how much duller the sound signature is and nobody's going to hear this at 30m, however it's just not enough for a rifle I will likely be setting to 1.1J most of the time and taking closer range engagements. I'll get the AEG SR-25 build done, because I've bought the stuff, however I am now starting the process of saving for a Wolverine Inferno Gen2 plus SR-25 nozzle, though this will not be immediate as it's a pretty pricey piece of kit. I'm going to HPA it because while I was impressed at how great the quietness is, it's just... not enough. My HPA m21 and VSR builds have spoiled me. I'm just glad I didn't shell out TOO much, though probably about £100 total of parts will end up a wasted purchase ?

Entirely possible. This was my first real attempt at freestyle shimming (I say that because the Guarder tune up kit for the m14 comes with instructions on how many shims to put where, so that was easy shimming) so I could've done it poorly. I just couldn't believe how noisy it was! Was supposed to quieten the gearbox, not make it assault my ears

Being totally honest, I can't tell. Tried looking down with a torch shining up into the hop unit but can't make it out at the bottom of the barrel. It would make the most sense though, as when I spoke to High Pressure Airsoft they were a bit confused but said that misalignment would be their best guess. If that's the case, I'll probably end up sending it to High Pressure Airsoft because I just don't have the tools to sort it out.

Time for another update. Had another go at it last night because my pinion tool arrived and I figured that I could do it now that I could swap out the pinion gear on the motor. Removing the pinion and replacing it with the helical pinion was fairly painless, which could be part of the reason for this renewed confidence. But was it false confidence? At first, everything was going okay. Took the SR-25 apart and got to cleaning out the snot that Cyma lube their gearboxes with. Cleaned it all out, followed a guide on how to shim a gearbox properly and eventually got to a point where my gears were turning nice and easy. Things were going well! I then put it all back together, ensuring to put everything back together properly and even making sure the fire selector was put together correctly this time! Then came the monster pain point. The damned motor. No matter what I tried I just couldn't get the motor into the pistol grip. I wrestled with it for literally hours before calling it at almost 1am and going to bed. This morning I tried again and managed to get it in there, but as soon as I test fired... It cycled. Once. I think the mosfet was like "this battery is low so I'm not working" as the gearbox didn't lock up and it reset just fine after the trigger pull. However, it was LOUD and SLOW. Oh my god was it loud. I must've done something wrong because it shouldn't have been that loud or that slow; the sluggishness could be because of a low battery as the battery I tested was storage charged, but still it was incredibly loud. Louder than my stock AEG m14. So plan is, as it was before, to give this over to my local tech to sort out. I've had it up to here with this build and unless something dramatically changes I am seriously looking at just getting a Wolverine Inferno and a special SR-25 nozzle. If I do that it won't be for a hot minute because it'll set me back £400 by itself and I don't want to spend that much at the moment. Parts for my AEG m14 will be arriving today, so I will do that this evening. I am more familiar with the v7 gearbox and I've rebuilt them before, so I'm confident I can do that one properly with a very similar build to this. If it doesn't impress me, the draw to get a Wolverine Inferno for this build will only increase. ?

I don't typically wear my plate carrier, but I'm an immersion nerd who will silently LARP my way through a skirmish day and for the role I play a chest rig is preferable even in the real world. The whole idea of the recce role is to not get into firefights, as well as climbing up, down, left and right of all manner of weird terrain which you definitely do not want to be doing in body armour. I'll put my plate carrier as part of my CQB loadout for sure and I put weighted plates in it to mimic real body armour weight because I'm a massive nerd as I already stated; doing a role where you're expecting firefights you definitely want body armour! That being said, I find it hard to wear a plate carrier because I'm big and tall and they can look comically small on me. The placement of the plate is supposed to cover your vital organs, but I feel like mine are always poking out the sides That and there are quite a few, um... rotund(?) individuals who play airsoft and plate carriers look even more comical on that body type. I mean, if you want to wear it, wear it, all power to you, but I think it looks silly and will definitely be aiming for the flabby bit underneath or spilling out of the sides with whichever flavour of sniper rifle I am using on the day ?

Bit of a premium, but I've always found Warrior Assault Systems kit fits me well, and I'm 6'5, big built and like to lift heavy metal objects in my spare time. They also do kit in multicam if that's what you're looking for: https://www.uktactical.com/warrior-assault-systems/multicam/elite-ops

Basically, yeah, what @Enid_Puceflangesaid. I've got a mk23 with a crazy jet barrel, Hadron triple TDC, Hadron H-arm and a Maple Leaf Autobot hop rubber. It's incredibly quiet and reaches out accurately (hits the target at least 9/10 times) to about 60m on .32s, which is better than most people's AEGs I'd also second getting the TM though. They're far nicer than the ASG one, but you do pay that premium price tag. I own an STTI mk23 as well and it's just not as nice to use as my TM mk23.

Honestly, whatever you want. I tend towards woodland MARPAT and US m81 woodland because something-something muh freedom, but any decent woodland pattern will blend in well enough. Hell, because it's a warm and sunny time of year, I've simply been going to my local site in a black t-shirt, OD trousers and a Stich Profi cobra hood (lightweight Russian leafy hood thing) and I still get people walking right past me despite not wearing any proper camo outside of the hood that only covers my head and shoulders. If I wanted to get the "best" camo, it'd either be Pencott Greenzone for the more expensive set, or more likely I'd just get a set of woodland DPM from my local army surplus shop for the budget option. Both will work really well in UK woodland terrain, however the difference is miniscule between the two and also the difference is miniscule outside of most other woodland patterns. What keeps you hidden is staying still, not silhouetting yourself and when you do have to move, doing so very slowly and deliberately. I will, however, echo that multicam / MTP blends in awfully in UK terrain. Even all black blends in better as long as you keep to shadowed areas (speaking from experience as a VC player at Vietnam games)

Can confirm. All I've swapped out in my Cyma m14 is a ZCI barrel, Maple Leaf macaron and omega nub. Puts .32s out to about 60m with 7/10 accuracy and hits 50m every time at about 1J. Not bad for a £190 gun, though it only cost me about £120 because I got the m14 from Taiwangun before it became harder to buy from them. Do I plan on putting another £190ish into it to make it snappier and quieter? Yes, as well as some Guarder steel internals that have been lying around for about 2 years from when I tried DMRing my TM m14 and hating it. Got a better grasp on what will make it do what I want it to do, and I am now so used to v7 gearboxes that I find them easier than others. As a note, I typically prefer 1.1J builds over the 1.64J and 30m MED limit of my local site's rules, as for a 30m MED I'll just use one of my many, many bolties at 2.3J

I'm at my wits' end with this issue. The gun works amazingly well up until I take the mag out and have to clear it when it has a tendency to jam up. The first shot gives a disheartening click as something doesn't quite work properly and if the trigger is pulled again it jams the HPA engine open, allowing a bunch of air to leak out until I disconnect the line. I had a look today and there's a BB rolling around in the hop unit from what I can see after that first disheartening click shot and when it jams open I can't see the nozzle jammed inside the hop unit so it's not the hop rubber stopping it from returning back as it's an open bolt system. I've tried the following and none have worked: - Using a higher psi. I typically set it to 60psi so I can run it at 1.1J so I thought that maybe it was too low, even though Wolverine say 60psi is fine. Tested it at 80psi to make sure and still getting the same issue. - Attaching a strip of a drinks can around the bottom at the back of the hop unit as there's a small gap that I thought BBs were falling through. Didn't fix it. - Removing the metal thing that clips over the top of the hop unit underneath the bolt and dust cover. This partially worked, but it still did it from time to time and also potentially exposed the hop unit to the elements were I to do it in game I was just wondering if anyone else here has built a HPA m14 and had the same issue as me, and if so how the hell did you solve it? I love the gun otherwise, but this one thing really ruins the whole thing.

I did it, but I was practicing for when I got my MWS and that only has 35rd magazines. For the most part it's an impractical way of playing, but I do prefer it. Then again, I like playing the scout sniper role, so it suits me fine; I don't get into firefights even when using a normal rifle. Ambush, then fade away is my typical method of play, so running around with 30rd magazines isn't that big of a deal for me. However, as has been said by @Druid799, you will just be outgunned in any firefight you enter into if you're using low/real caps. Really it's down to personal preference. Mechanically it sucks, but if you prefer it then you prefer it.

Pretty good day at Worthing all things considered, it was a fancy dress day, but the only costume I had was way too warm for this so I left it at home. Was an incredibly humid one, so I feel like I probably sweated out my body weight in water even without the dress up and running my summer lightweight no-camo sniper setup, but had a lot of fun running the VSR (the HPA one) and negotiating the site with an MED; it's very thick and there's only certain spots you can really play effectively with a 30m MED at this time of year. Some wonderful sneaky sniping was done by myself and two others I joined up with, one in a full ghillie, one in a grim reaper cloak. Got some cheeky angles and had someone moan about me as he thought that my gun was hot and I was shooting within my MED after he poked his head around a corner and I dinked it. Gun chronoed today at 2.29J and I was about 40m away, so was well within my rights; if you present only your head, your head is getting shot. Had an almost flawless plan in the afternoon too. Was a big rolling assault game where we were only allowed to flank on the same level as the defenders, so we couldn't go behind them and shoot them in the back. The way the site is laid out and the order of objectives, me and another sniper decided to go and set up a flanking position on their second defence point (out of 4 total) instead of attacking their first one as we could do so without flanking behind them. We set up without being seen and waited a looooooooooooooong time for our team to take the first objective and push up the hill, waiting to start shooting only once our team was pushing their second defence. Gestured across the path to each other multiple times about how boring it was, but it turns out our team weren't very good at attacking and took ages to take the first base; they never got to the 2nd so when I heard the call of "60 seconds left" I just said "screw it, I'm shooting these people." Took 2 of them out before game was over, but when I linked up with the other team afterwards they said that the rest of our team were basically nowhere to be found. Still loved it because at the end of the day it was the quintessential immersive sniper game. Slowly creep into a hide, wait for a long time without shooting anything, watching the enemy team mill about as they fell back to their 2nd defence point and basically not firing off a shot. Only reason I did is because I heard 60 seconds left and was like "I wanna shoot them..." We even got so bored that the other guy sneakily snapped a pic of me in my really uncomfortable hide position. Short sleeves + dry, dead holly leaves = ouchies. We only had a handful of people walk past where we were (we were largely out of the way of the main gameplay, so only people out of the game walked past us) and only a handful actually noticed we were there when they walked past. Even though it's much harder at this time of year, I'm still loving the sniping. It has been my thing since I started 17ish years ago (yes, my first gun was a BASR!) and I still love it way more than regular style of play. Yeah, you don't hit as many people, but you also don't get hit nearly as much and the shots you do hit are spicy and feel great, and the escape and evasion parts that crop up where the enemy team comes searching for you and you have to get out is exhilarating once you get good at it!

Cyma are brilliant, depending on what you want. I can recommend two from personal experience: Cyma platinum SR-25 as your more expensive option. Comes in around £330, but does everything amazingly out of the box and the internals are really, really nice. I took mine apart and was thoroughly impressed with what is put into it! The MOSFET isn't amazing and is just there to protect the trigger and apparently also protect the gearbox from locking up on semi which is nice, however it's not programmable at all, so making it semi auto means you'd need to modify the selector plate or something. Cyma M14 as your cheaper option. Comes in around £150 and will shoot pretty damn well out of the box. V7s are pretty easy to work on once you get to the gearbox, but they're more time consuming as getting the m14 apart takes a bit of effort. All I've done to mine so far is swapped out the hop, nub and barrel (so about £40 extra? ZCI barrels are great) and it's firing at 1J and hitting out to decent range. Probably won't DMR mine, but I do plan on doing some more work to it once my SR-25 is sorted and I can take the lessons I've learned there to my m14. If you did want to DMR one, you'd probably need to swap out the piston for a metal-toothed one at least, but the other internals I imagine would hold up. I accidentally modified mine (I snapped it when I was working on it by accident ?) and found out it's suuuuuuuuuper reversible, but not so reversible that you wouldn't be allowed to use it as a DMR. When you separate the receiver from the stock there's an arm that goes around the top and moves in and out depending on semi or full auto. All you do is remove a screw from this arm and detach one side from the other and you're immediately fixed to semi auto. From a purely practical perspective, I will second this (though I prefer pistols because a GBB is fun to shoot and I just like pistols a lot). I also have an mp5k and I can say they're fantastic little guns, though I run mine on a sling. Again, Cyma, £150. All I've changed is the hop rubber and nub again and it's sending .32s to 60m. As @Rogerborg said, it's full auto, full size gearbox and it's just all around great. I run 65rd stubby midcaps in mine, but the 600 round double high cap also works. If you want the best performing secondary alongside a rifle with an MED, this is your best bet, and will probably be a cheaper option because the mags are dirt cheap, unlike gas pistol mags that are fairly pricey. For a more expensive option, I love the TM mp7. Same thinking, but it's an AEP (or gas, but I don't like the gas one) so it only shoots about 0.6J, however I've got mine spraying full auto to 45m fairly accurately which is all you really need alongside a DMR and it's slightly easier to carry than the mp5k because the mag goes into the pistol grip. In terms of pistol, this is a great option and it's cheap! £90 or so and it has an absolute boatload of aftermarket parts, including drum mags and carbine kits. I've converted mine to a Ruger .22 to use at Vietnam games because it's so good and reliable I wanted it to replace my 1911 and its tiny magazines! So much more reliable, which I need as a sniper; a good sidearm is just as important as a good main rifle in my opinion! Outside of that, just get whatever TM pistol you like. They're pretty much all good (though I've heard the old m9s are a bit crap), though you need to watch the 1911s because the mags are so small they don't hold much gas. They still shoot well, but outside of summer they can struggle to cycle through a mag on one fill of gas. I've owned about half a dozen TM pistols and not one has disappointed outside of the 1911 for the reason I said above. Overall, I wouldn't get hung up on full-auto for a pistol if it's gas. Whenever you fire, there's a cooldown effect each time and gas doesn't like being cold (it just doesn't work as well when cold). When you fire a gas gun on full auto, it loses all consistency and sprays BBs and gas all over the place because that cooldown stacks after every shot. You also don't need full auto though; I've been running BASRs lately at my local site, even though there's a lot of close range areas where it's useless with its 30m MED and I haven't once gone away from a firefight thinking "if only I had full auto...". Snappy GBB pistol has been all I've really needed, and my various TM pistols + AAP-01 deliver that in spades.

RIP eyes, gone but not forgotten

I don't have an HPA stock. I use a 10ci tank (which is apparently now discontinued!) in a stock pouch. It pokes out a little bit, but doesn't really affect me as I can still shoulder it on the right (though not on the left, but I rarely set up shooting from my left shoulder. Not looking forward to if I have to replace the tank as I'd have to go 13ci which are longer and may not be practical in a stock pouch I used to run the same with my m21, but for a semi-auto build it wasn't practical as 300ish shots with a bolt action will last me all day, but around 500ish shots with a semi-auto can be a bit tight. The only pic of my setup I have is with my m21, which I no longer do, but it's the same with my VSR setup: In terms of HPA stocks I honestly don't know much about them, so you may be stuck with CO2 if you don't want a line and tank (even then I don't know much about the CO2 stocks, just the adapters). I know there's one for the MTW (Wraith Aero stock) as I know a guy who has one, but I don't know if they'd be compatible with something that isn't an MTW. I generally just run a tank in a backpack when I run my HPA m21 and it hasn't ever really been a problem for me. I can still sling it and the line never gets in my way, though I'd rather not have it, hence I'm going AEG at first with my SR-25 build.

Wonderful thing about the hobby is there's not really a "wrong" way of doing it in terms of gear and gun preferences. As has been said, you can play with a stock Cyma AEG and some surplus gear for a loadout that will cost <£200 in total and have as much fun and be just as effective as the guy in full Crye gear with a TM NGRS kitted out with real-steel shooting accessories and sights. It's very much a "you do you" hobby and anyone who says you "must" play a certain way should be ignored. I'll always give prospective snipers my opinions on stuff, but I'll never be like "you're doing it wrong", even if they rock up to a game with a bolt action rifle dressed as a hot dog as if that's how they want to play, then that's how they should play!

One potential solution that I was going to put in my SR-25 before I decided to try it in AEG mode (to take advantage of the v2.5 gearbox the Cyma has) was to go with a Wolverine Inferno engine. It's an electrical one, so it will require a battery unlike the Kythera, but they do replacement nozzles for the Inferno (which is typically a v2 engine) to use it with some of the weirder guns, including the G&G SR-25 Obviously, HPA builds are pricey, so take the time and find exactly what you want so you waste as little money as possible . If I don't like my SR-25 as an AEG (I'm making it as quiet as possible), I'll be going with a Wolverine Inferno with this replacement nozzle in 2023 once I've given the AEG setup a good, thorough trial through the rest of this year (well, the A&K one for me as the Cyma is a clone of it or the G&P)

Ok, so it's been a week and I've got some updates! Firstly, thanks to @ak2m4 and his wonderful shop, I am ready to test at all power levels that I might require. I also bought a set of ZCI 18:1 SR-25 gears as I realised that the helical gears I was going to install may not interface properly with the helical bevel/pinion (which is more important) as the teeth on the bevel gear that interacts with the other gear (not the pinion, they're all swirly) are straight, to interact with a normal gear set. Also SR-25 gears are weird because of the longer piston with more teeth, so while you can use regular 18:1 gears, they won't make use of the longer gearbox and therefore have less air to push through the barrel, which affects the cylinder to barrel ratio and defeats the point of using a v2.5 gearbox over a standard v2, and I definitely want to be using the strength of the v2.5 gearbox for this semi-auto sniper build (whether 1.14J, 1.64J or 1.88J). The stock gears are 13:1, which I gather are better for speedyboi full auto builds, so I wanted to swap them out for 18:1 gears for a bit more of a torque-y setup, so I picked them up alongside some extra springs. Secondly, I tried to install all the things myself. I've done custom builds on all of my gas, spring and HPA guns, so surely I could do an AEG build no problem, right? Right...? I was wrong. Tried doing it and I screwed a few things up, plus I couldn't remove the pinion from the motor to replace it with the Lonex helical one. Firstly, I had no idea how to modify the fire selector to disable full-auto, unlike the m14 which was super easy to do so and super reversible if needed. Also, not sure if the gearbox was put back together entirely properly, might've put the fire selector back together backwards (so safe would be auto and auto would be safe) and I couldn't and I couldn't connect up the motor and didn't want to force anything and potentially break stuff, so I put it back together mostly, left the motor outside and bundled it up to give to my local tech, as he specialises in AEGs and loves doing them where for me AEGs are techno-wizardry and I hate them; however I will probably do my AEG m14 myself as funnily enough I find V7 gearboxes easier to work on and I never thought I'd see the day where I'd be saying that. Never let it be said that I didn't give it a good go! Won't be able to get it to the tech for a bit though. Hopefully won't be too long, but will have to play the waiting game for now. The build now will stand at: Cyma Platinum SR-25 (with the suppressor filled with foam now) Pro Win rotary hop unit Prometheus 6.03 stainless steel tightbore 509mm barrel Umbrella Armory custom R-hop patch with custom hop arm OR Maple Leaf 70 degree macaron and omega nub ASG Infinity U-18000 motor Lonex helical pinion and bevel gear ZCI 18:1 SR-25 gear set 70 degree 3/16" sorbo pad To test power (aiming for 1.1J, 1.64J and 1.88J) between GPA m100, m105, m110, m120, m140 and ZCI m130 springs A bunch of shims to perfectly shim the gearbox For externals, at the moment I've got: Strike Systems 3-9x50mm scope (I really like this because it allows me to keep the back up iron sights mounted because I am an immersion nerd) Outdoor and Tactical 6-9" Harris bipod Unknown brand KAC-style vertical front grip (though I will eventually replace this with a Magpul AFG2) Even with all of this in, I think this build has cost me around £500 in total, so compared to some of my other high-performance builds it's fairly cheap, coming in about the same cost as a new TM NGRS, but I think it's going to perform faaaaaaaaar better than one (my HPA VSR, for example which probably cost me around £800) Still looking forward to getting this done and what I have learned will be really useful for when I do any other AEG builds, which I do plan on doing with my AEG m14 at least and maybe even upgrading my mp5k past the hop rubber and nub which I'll be testing on Sunday (stuck a Maple Leaf macaron and omega nub into an otherwise stock Cyma mp5k to make a devastating little secondary to run alongside this SR-25 if I do set it up as a DMR with an MED).

I'm not a fan of the G&G SR-25s because they're V2 gearboxes with weird nozzles; A&K, G&P, Classic Army and Cyma are all preferable from what I've looked into. From what I remember, the SR-25 Kythera is built with the A&K/G&P/Cyma gearbox and nozzle in mind. In terms of what you'd need for a G&G, I'm not really sure but it may be worth giving High Pressure Airsoft a call; they stock the Kythera and from my experience they can usually answer compatibility questions like this. I'm not as much of a fan of the mechanical systems myself, as they tend to be a bit louder and less customisable than their electronic counterparts, both of which I value far more than I value no battery and the gun being totally waterproof as I'm not about to jump into a swimming pool and play underwater airsoft with it; HPA electric systems are waterproof enough to where I took my m21 to last year's AI500 where we got battered by a heavy storm during the game and it was totally unaffected as the FCU was in the stock which was pretty watertight (though some of the people I went with had guns die on them in that torrential downpour because MOSFET + water = no bueno). Not saying mechanical HPA systems are bad and I definitely think they have their merits, but they're just not for me. For the stock, I'd go with the HPA stock, not the CO2 stock. HPA is consistent pretty much up until you run out of air, but CO2 is reliably inconsistent. What I mean by that is the power tends to drop steadily over the course of the bulb depleting, rather than being consistent up until it really starts running on empty. I used to use a CO2 adapter for my VSR, using the Wolverine Bolt, as I wanted a HPA setup without a line or tank, but quickly swapped to sticking a very small HPA bottle in a stock pouch because I hated the inconsistency of CO2 and being a DMR/sniper, which I'm guessing is your goal with a HPA SR-25 even if you keep it to 1.1J, consistency is the absolute golden thing you want, and mouse fart quietness is a massive draw for HPA in these sorts of builds. For other internals, I'm running a Pro Win rotary hop unit, but I imagine the Maxx units are pretty good too. I can't comment on it yet as I need to get my SR-25 off to my local tech (because AEGs are techno-wizardry and I couldn't do my gearbox modifications myself ), but I believe it's as good as anything. I probably could've stuck with the stock hop unit, but I had the funds, so I figured "why not?". For rubber and nub, I am a massive fan of basic Maple Leaf macaron rubbers (NOT the super macaron) and would generally advise 60 or 70 degree hardness with a layer or two of PTFE tape wrapped around where the rubber meets the barrel to make sure the air seal is nice and tight. For nub, Maple Leaf omega nub goes wonderfully with the macaron. I'd say I was getting about 65m effective range with a 60 degree macaron and omega nub in my HPA m21 build, launching .4s at 1.1J for no MED and hitting a man-sized target 9/10 times at that 65m range. Some would argue that's going overkill for effective range mandating 9/10 hits, but when you're being a sneaky sniper/DMR, you want all the shots to hit as if you miss your first shot, the enemy goes to ground and becomes a lot harder to shoot as they start to suss out your position, at which point they sling a wall of full-auto in your direction. Not ideal! Sorry for my wall of text, but I do love my sniper/DMR rifles and I love talking about builds because I'm a perfectionist nerd.

I don't ever purposefully weather my guns, but the way I play weathering is sure to happen at some point as I crawl through bushes and thorns and all manner of nasty flora that seems to want my blood. I maintain all my guns pretty well, but I'm not going to stress out over the occasional scratch or mark.

I've seen cell phones used in America, but we need more app development for stuff like this. Maps, team mate positions etc are things I imagine could be done in a phone app. I've actually been at a game where a drone was being used. Proper urban surveillance guys were on the enemy team and had a very fancy drone with stuff like thermal cameras. Also a lot of the guys had night vision; I'd hazard to say at most milsims you will come across nod-gang, as night vision is probably the most common addition at milsims in terms of high-tech stuff, and nod-gang like to nod-gang when the sun goes down.

I've been very unimpressed in general with Earmors. Now I just keep my headset plugged into the PTT and never remove it, because that broke my last PTT when I simply removed the plug because it's very tight and loosened some of the circuitry when I pulled it out. Once this set goes down, I'm upgrading to Peltors and a proper PTT. Earmors have been nothing but pain. Great when they work, but very prone to failure!