Impulse

Skirmish days will tend towards just that, simple skirmish games. A lot of people go to skirmish days for that brainless video game-esque experience of "hold this area" or "capture that objective". Yes, I call it "brainless", but that's a good thing. Silly skirmish fun is a great time at the end of the day, especially if you have friends at the site and can laugh about the stupid stuff that happens. Sounds like the spawn ideas were awful though and I dislike both teams having the same spawn points. My local site has been trying this idea and a few of us are feeding back that it doesn't work well as it promotes two negative play types: first, it allows you to just walk in the open, get hit, then walk to a spawn point behind the enemy, removing any impact from the stealthy players who would normally spend huge portions of the game simply moving low and slow to avoid detection to get on the flank. Secondly, even if you tell people not to spawn camp, it happens. If you respawn, then 5 mins later a wave of enemies respawn from the same place, you're going to engage them. I've seen my local site has started doing longer games once a month, tending a little more towards the filmsim side, and it has been well received, but I think doing it every week would dissuade a lot of people from attending the site regularly, as sometimes you just want to go to the woods and shoot each other with toy guns without thinking too hard. Variety is the spice of life, and if all I did was narrative filmsim every week, I think I'd get tired of it. If you find skirmish tedious, maybe you should look at attending milsim events, or film/battlesim, or even period airsoft. They're a very different experience to skirmish days; it's not an experience that I'm that keen on (milsim, that is...), but it's another way to experience the airsoft hobby. I attended my first milsim a few months ago and I'm going to my first Vietnam game in a month or so. As I said earlier, variety is the spice of life.

When it comes to parts, I typically tried to shop local before Brexit anyway, because something-something-support-local-businesses-and-uk-economy. I typically ask my two local shops if they can get the parts and if they can't I usually look for UK retailers anyway, going through a list of retailers I trust in preferential order because I'd rather give my business to those who have done right by me in the past. Outside of that, I typically go to HK/Taiwan for hard to find parts and have never had any issues with ordering from them. EU retailers that ship to the UK and don't have the £140 cap, I also have had no issues from. Bought some stuff from the Nov, for example, kept it below £135 and watched it sail through customs with no issues. Though it must be said, I don't think I'd import RIFs after seeing some of the horror stories from people importing RIFs. Fortunately, I don't generally need to do this because local shops are quite good at getting hold of stuff. Never really bought from Europe before Brexit apart from getting cheap RIFs and stuff from Taiwangun, but since I don't really need anything new this is no longer an issue. Plus, not having access to those stupidly cheap prices is helping me avoid the temptation of new things

As someone who works on m14s (which have different barrel cuts and shorter hop rubbers), this is par for the course in my opinion. Cutting hop rubbers is easy and it doesn't have to be 100% perfect; a bit of a jagged edge isn't going to make any difference. I still get flawless airseal in my m14s and I've simply used some multi-tool scissors to cut it down to size. Plus, as has been said, hop rubbers are pretty affordable.

GENTLEMEN... IT BEGINS! *evil laughter*

Since my martial arts school reopened at the start of the month, I've also started going to the gym. I've gone from barely any exercise, to 3 gym sessions and 2 martial arts classes every week, with airsoft every two weeks. I feel a lot better for it all, getting stronger, fitter and all around healthier. Had to take half of this week off though, since I fell off my bicycle when it refused to mount the curb and my knee was hurting from the fall so I didn't want to risk it. Seems better now, so back to the gym on Monday! Working US-friendly hours helps, because the gym is pretty empty around 9pm, which is when I'm down there.

When I first started, this is actually how it was. Chrono was just to self-check and there was a level of trust. However, that was also when an absolutely packed game day at my local site was 30 people. I agree, especially with the social media and content culture of today, that you should do it thoroughly. Owning a chrono myself, I can say it's super easy to change the weight on the fly and takes seconds. The issue is that people could rock up and say "oh, I'm using .32s" when they're actually using .48s, but this is a risk that has to be taken, as if we all chrono'd on one weight, then people who do actually use heavier ammo would be over, like me and my .48s. I don't think there's a way to completely get rid of people cheating chrono outside of nobody owning their own guns or silly levels of regulation, which I'm pretty sure none of us want. Airsoft is, at the end of the day, a game of honour.

TM m14 is a fantastic base for DMR-ing. To lock it to semi, you can do what I did when I accidentally broke mine. The fire selector mechanism can be snapped, then rotated out of place. Boom, locked to semi. If you later decide you want full auto, simply rotate the fire selector back into place (and secure with electrical tape if you want, though this isn't necessary). The downside is that the gearbox is hell to work on, since you have to take literally everything apart since a bunch of mechanisms are located outside the gearbox shell, bolted onto the side. If you want something similar, go with a Cyma SVD or SR25 instead. Much easier to work with and still makes sense as a DMR. However, I'd say "anything that has an HPA engine compatible with it" for DMRing. Because I'm a filthy HPA convert.

For me, it's all about the hiding. The adrenaline, heart-pounding moments when the enemy are all around you but have no idea you're there and you're just thinking "got to keep absolutely still and wait for them to pass." Yes, I could suddenly pop up with the mk23 and take out 2 or 3 of them, but waiting for them to move on and taking them all out is priceless.

Joules. Hands down, no contest. I'm pretty sure I could chrono my HPA guns on .2s, then watch the joule creep as I use the proper weights I like. I imagine my VSR would probably be closer to 3J if I chronoed to 500fps on .2s and then swapped out to .48s that it needs to perform to its best. I might try this and chrono at some point, just to see what the results would be. At the end of the day, the energy is what impacts and hurts. FPS by itself is meaningless.

I'm not telling you to buy new kit but... EVERYONE needs a shotgun to have some shotfun

You just get more of the same type of guns. I have 2 VSRs and 2 m14s, and I want 2, maybe 3, more m14s (so I'll have faux wood Vietnam, m21 SWS, socom, EBR and DMR). Collection is a valid part of the hobby too. Also, I don't see NVGs on that list. Save up for a £10k set of Gen3s

Welcome! You'll definitely find that some things have changed as you play more and more games. I was literally in your position 2 years ago, hadn't played in many years (I think it was 10 for me) and returning was both great and interesting. As you said, HPA has exploded (heck, even I've converted. Praise HPA!), but I think you'll also be shocked by how far even 1J guns can shoot now when tuned right, thanks to large strides in hop up design, and also how many people use bolties now, though I think this is related to the youtuber wannabes. I remember when I used to play in the mid to late 00s, an AEG shooting to 50m was a huge deal, and there were like... 3 people who used bolties at my site. Now I rock up to game days and there'll be over a dozen easily Hope you enjoy your time back. I know I have, but my wallet hasn't! HPA engines are expensive, I'll have you know!

I had a surprise airsoft day today at a totally new site. Was literally their first game and the first time I've gone to a site (in the UK) that isn't Worthing! 😮 I was down at S.W.A near Hailsham and it was grand. No site knowledge meant I really had to play carefully, and the wind and torrential rain weren't helping me with my bolt action VSR (the number of shots I watched whizz off to the side...). It was a pretty one-sided day though, since our team was playing aggressive and I think a lot of the other people on site were new, while our team had a coordinated team, with some ex-forces guys, making up the core of it. My highlights for the day were: An enemy sniper running up to take cover behind the tree I was sitting in front of without noticing me sitting in front of it with my russian leafy hood thing up. I turned with the mk23 and he tried to say "bang" while his hand wasn't even on the trigger of his rifle (was carrying it at the front of the stock) and there were no bang rule on site, as said in the safety brief. Plus, MED is a thing, so I just shot with the mk23. I'd have been slightly (not much) more inclined to take the bang kill anyway if it wasn't clear he was initially oblivious to my presence. A "mom, get the camera!" moment where a large squad of 8 managed to flank around our team to the objective. I waited for them to get in positions where I could shoot them and just started picking them off. With how quiet the HPA VSR is, none of them knew where the shots were coming from and I took out 6 of them before some of our team's respawns came in and mopped up the rest. Spent the rest of that game behind various tree stumps in the middle of the field and I think I got something like 15 kills in that game since they never pinpointed me, but kept moving past me so I could shoot them in the side and back, which never happens with a boltie! I'm usually lucky to get 5 kills in a game! Hitting someone in the helmet with the VSR (2.3J on .48s!), the satisfying "dink", the recoil of the head from the impact and... then him not taking the hit. 🤣 The only downside of the day was... me being on a keto diet and the lunch they served was bangers, mash and beans. I watched enviously as my team mates devoured their mashed potatos and beans while I was munching on my sausages 😭 On the whole, I really enjoyed the change of scenery. The site has some teething issues, which I'd expect from a first ever game, but I think with more time and more skirmish weekends it could end up being a fantastic site.

No idea. The price didn't go up at checkout and I didn't get a letter telling me I had duties to pay, so I was content with that I don't think I've ever noticed that from any retailer though. It's why I keep it under £135 because I can't be bothered to deal with all that malarky.

I recently made an order from Novritsch, kept the order under £135 (I think it was around £94ish?) and it arrived within the week. Made the order on Tuesday, it arrived today. I think I'm just going to keep all my overseas orders to under £135 as it's been serving me well buying from lots of different locations abroad. Hearing some of these horror stories? No thanks

Not impossible, but I'm always skeptical of people claiming rifle ranges because they're usually exaggerating. Also, to me, the term "shooting accurately" means you put the crosshair where you want the BB to go and then it hits the target, not aiming above and dropping the BB onto the target as that isn't "accurate" in my eyes since the shot has a much higher chance of missing due to the various things that affect the BB's flight path (it's an air powered musket, shooting a projectile that weighs less than a gram... A bird looking at a BB funny will probably affect it's trajectory), so maybe this person saying 70 - 80m is only 60 - 65m to me. Nothing wrong with using a cheap gun as a base though. I don't have much experience with DMRs, but I know 1J guns can generally reach out to 60m when tuned well, so 70m isn't outlandish to me for a DMR.

Exactly. I'm looking forward to building my monster m21 and having no MED because there's way too much foliage to do any long distance shooting outside of a handful of spots around the site, though when winter comes around I may bring out the VSR again; the site changes a shocking amount from season to season. Even I saw more action than usual, because you guys kept trying to sneak through paradise and I think I was the only blue in the area. Also, I often play a reconnaissance element for the team, but most of my mates didn't bring their radios and my headset broke, leaving me with my crappy backup one that barely works so I had to make myself useful somehow 😠

I feel personally attacked 😭

Can we all just appreciate the sheer greatness of this phrase. On the topic of the thread though, I find myself in a weird middle ground of not fitting into either category. My approach is quality over quantity, so while my armoury is not that extensive and I have only ever sold one gun in the 16 years I've been playing, all of my guns have been tweaked and fine tuned by me to perform as well as they can. I generally don't have a monetary budget when working on guns, but most builds take months, or even years to perfect and get everything right as I'll save up from my paychecks until I feel I can afford the parts, and they'll usually be fairly premium. I have two VSRs and two m14s that have been tuned to be as silent as possible and have peak effective range, not maximum range; no point being able to shoot 90+m if you're only hitting 2 out of 10 shots! I have an NGRS for normal rifle skirmishing which has had a few tweaks, but then I also have a stock Cyma mp5k and spring shotty as backups, because they shoot fine for what I need them to be: secondary weapons carried alongside one of my more expensive, tweaked guns. Oh, I also have a whole host of pistols that I have tweaked to shoot better than most peoples' AEGs. For context, my GBBs shoot just as well as my mk23 because I both love pistols and tend to use mine more than the average airsofter because sniper with 30m MED or long, unwieldy 1J m14 aren't the best weapons for hide defense. When it comes to "looking cool", I definitely do things to my guns that don't make it better, but make it look cooler. Flashlights during skirmish days in woodland are useless, but they look cool. Suppressors on literally everything purely because they look cool, though on my HPA guns and my mk23 they're also essential for reducing the sound signature, so they're practical on those guns. And the biggest offender of all is the super cool rail handguard on my m21 that has nothing attached to it, doesn't fit as well as the stock plastic one and gets covered by a rifle wrap anyway. So why is it on there? Because when the rifle wrap isn't on it, it actually looks TOO cool and people come over just to tell me how cool it looks. I'm not joking, it's my most complimented gun by a country mile, but it's also my heaviest (particularly front-heaviest) and longest gun. Is it worth it to me? Yeah, because I'm going for a specific thing. I'm trying to go as stealthy as possible and really play that sniper/recon role where having silent weapons is super-duper helpful. To me, it's not about how many kills, but how I get them that makes me happy and get peak enjoyment from the hobby; that bewildered "where the flying f*** did that come from?" look is worth a hundred other kills, especially when they look directly at me and don't spot me. If I played more high-speed, I'd probably spend a lot less on guns because at that point the difference between 50 and 60m range is a second or two of running. It's also why I'm not tuning my mp5k or spring shotty and haven't tuned my NGRS as much as my long guns, as if I'm playing with those I'll play faster and more aggressive, where range isn't as much of a focus. I think both are valid approaches. I think where I get annoyed is where people get elitist about their approach, whether that's the cheap and cheerful crowd ridiculing the guy who comes in with his Crye BDUs and GBLS rifle, or the Crye milsim speshul farces looking down on the player with the plastic AK and mismatching camos.

I've made a DMR before, but not on a similar platform. Did mine to a TM m14 and was wholly disappointed, so when I HPA it (waiting in anticipation for that Hydra to arrive...), I'll be keeping it to 1.1J. I can't recommend Maple Leaf macaron rubbers enough. They're super good when paired with an omega nub it just feels unfair

I use a UV-5R+ (it's a UV-5R with more metal bits) and it's fantastic. Cheap and cheerful definitely describes it and I've managed to convince a bunch of my friends to radio up because it's not as expensive as we all thought. Radios are like... the most slept on piece of kit for any airsoft loadout. Having comms, even if it's just with 1 other person, is so incredibly useful and I wholly endorse more people radio-ing up.

My martial arts centre re-opened this week, so I'm back to my main form of exercise. Hoping the weight is going to start flying off now, since the only exercise I really do outside of it is airsoft and cycling when I need to go somewhere. Airsoft is every 2 weeks and cycling to go somewhere is like... maybe once a week? But now it'll be at least twice a week with two martial arts sessions and then airsoft every two weeks. Time to get rid of the rest of this weight!