Impulse

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.

A bit far from me. I'm all the way down on the south coast in Brighton, so the ones within "can go on the regular" distance are Worthing, the Boneyard, Driver Wood and Dogtag (though the latter two I wouldn't go anywhere near...) Worthing is old school, and since I started 17 years ago I like old school (we recently acquired a portaloo!). As I said, got my criticisms of the site like I hate their DMR rules and think we should play the whole site more often as there's a large area of the site that is neglected but is really fun to play in, but the general feel and the community are top notch and the staff are great. It's a totally different site for 6 months of the year too; Just be prepared to experience woodland CQB if you go in the late-spring through autumn as the foliage gets pretty thick

TL:DR - £3k isn't enough for me What can I say? I love sniper rifles! The real difficulty of this is that my ideal gun would probably require the help of a gunsmith. In essence, I'd make the absolute gigachad of airsoft sniper rifles from a KJ m700p, ideally using either the Magpul Pro 700 stock or the MDT ACC stock. Where the gunsmith comes in is the modifications to make it compatible, but I know Remington stocks can work with KJ or Tanaka rifles, because my Tanaka m700 is in a Remington 700 wooden stock (it's a lovely display piece and target shooter, but like hell am I taking it to a skirmish!). Outside of that, my usual slew of upgrades, some gas mags and a real-steel optic and I think I'd run out of money before I even had a chance to think "oh god what am I going to pad the build with..." since the Magpul Pro 700 stock is around £1000, the MDT ACC stock is around £1500, a good real-steel optic can easily be over £1000. Instead, I'll go for a build I could do myself. Spoiler alert, it's very similar to the KJ m700 I'm building at the moment, just... not the same optic... KJ m700p - £200 Action Army custom outer barrel for m700 - £50 Action Army KJ m700 hop unit - £40 Maple Leaf Crazy Jet 470mm or 510mm - £50 Maple Leaf silicone Autobot 85 degree hop rubber - £10 Maple Leaf omega nub - £5 4x Action Army m700 28rds magazine - £200 (4x £50) Some sort of KAC-style QD suppressor (5KU or Big Dragon or something) - £50ish Midwest heavy-duty sling swivel x2 - £40 Magpul MS3 2-point sling (non-QD) - £70 Real-steel Harris bipod - £150ish EoTech Vudu 3.5-18x50mm - £1800ish Some sort of 50mm killflash to protect that damn scope from BBs - £10(?) Badger Ordnance 34mm scope mounts - £260ish Sprinter Custom Ghillie multi-season rifle wrap - £65 Total - £3000ish Can't even afford the stock I want or the gunsmith to help me get it to work 😧

Do itttt >:D Worthing is great. It's not a perfect site and I have my criticisms, but it's my favourite site in the south east. Brilliant community of regulars too.

I had a great day at Worthing, though for non-standard reasons. I didn't play too much, only playing in the afternoon. Worthing is a woodland site, but it's very much woodland CQB at this time of year and there aren't many places for me to use the VSR with that 30m MED, so I picked a position and covered a flank. The rest of the team managed to get most of the objectives back to our base so all we had to do was defend and stop the other team stealing them, so I was sure that someone would be sneaky and flank around where I was covering... but nobody did. I had the prime sniper experience of sitting completely still in an uncomfortable position for hours without seeing a single target The reason it was good is that it was a morning of testing for me. I had to set the VSR as the hop rubber had torn a few weeks ago and I'd put a new 85 degree silicone Maple Leaf autobot rubber in it so I had to make sure the hop was set and the scope was zeroed, but the main point was that I also brought the m21 and my spring VSR with me, my two 1.1J sniper rifles, and decided to test what the heaviest BB they'll hop was. Turns out that they both love .4s! The spring VSR gained a little more consistency but no more range, which is still worth it to me as consistency is king for sniping, but the m21 gained a lot more consistency and an extra 5m effective range, slinging accurately to 65m. I can hit around 70m with angled shots, but much further and the BB just doesn't have the energy. I was trying to get angled shots on the 75m target, but I could see the BBs just grinding to a halt shortly after 70m no matter what I tried. No matter, 65m effective range with no MED will suit me just fine. The VSR was doing it's usual 75m effective, 85m relatively effective (have to angle shots, but can reliably do so), but my friend told me to stand by the 100m target as he thought he was hitting it when I gave him my VSR to shoot. He wasn't, as I was standing about 2m to the side of it and they're metal so they make a nice dink when hit, but it was cloooooose. The BBs were landing between 90 - 95m. Could I push for 100m? Maybe, but there's no point thinking about it as I never have to take shots at that range and prefer to take accurate shots. If they're that far away, I'll just sit in my ghillie and wait for them to get a bit closer However, it has shown me that it is time to put the VSR back in stasis, as Worthing is just not practical for sniper rifles any more (well, not entirely as I'll still take it to a Vietnam game next month as Gunman Eversley is far more open than Worthing). It's definitely now the season for the m21 and MWS as the two guns I'll bring with me each week!

Sorry, not giving out my email address to someone with 2 posts. It's not you, it's just there are a fair few bots and such that seem to try their luck around here, so I'm naturally cautious. You could always post it here?

I don't really milsim as it's all a bit much for me (NVG crew gonna NVG, and I like having a nice hot shower, some food and a chill out in the evening), though I do filmsim/battlesim stuff and love a bit of dress up so I'd be interested to see what you come up with!

Apparently places are expecting stock around the end of July on mags, but I imagine they're going to get snatched up super fast and may sell out immediately with some sites taking pre-orders on them. My friend has 4 mags total, but he's buying another 5 as soon as he can and can carry that many mags in his Russian kit. I will get 7 myself if I can afford it (3 rig, 2 belt, 2 leg rig, 1 in gun), though I'm happy to settle on my MWS as I only really use my AK for Vietnam games or events where I can't use my gucci kit. This is an example of the only two people I know who have the AKM, so I assume that there are a lot of other people in exactly the same situation as us. Those mags are going to disappear so quickly... 😢