Impulse

Also, if you work on an m14, you're pretty much diving in at hardmode, so then doing any work on other AEGs will be a piece of cake

I won't go into my opinions on DMRs (TL:DR: I think it's pointless. 1.1J is enough. However, I also know some people love DMRs, so play your way first and foremost), but if you're looking at a platform to upgrade to one, I'd just say go with what you like the look of. For example, I love m14s and I have two of them, despite them being an absolute ball-ache to work on, despite me probably being able to get similar results with an AR-15 based rifle and their easy V2 gearboxes. If you like the rifle, you're more likely to use it, even if it's not the most optimal, and that comes down to personal preference. I love my US weapons, for example, but one of the guys I get a lift with to my local airsoft site loves Russian kit which I think it mostly hideous outside of a simple AKM or AK47 If you plan on doing any milsim, filmsim or period airsoft, I'd advise going with something that is a DMR in the real-steel shooting world, as some a lot of these events will require it and even in a skirmish setting, some sites will be miffed / not let you use an ARP9 with a drum mag that is locked to semi at 1.6J (and I don't blame them. Not entirely).

Yeah, the low FPS with no real way of bringing it up significantly hurts their viability; you really need to use .2s in them which are horrendously inconsistent (the lightest BBs I use are .25s in my Cyma spring tri-shot which has no hop up). Also, as @remus says, they're incredibly slow to shoot, compared to a GBB that generally will have a snappy response unless it's got a metal slide and it's winter and you're running lower powered gas in them (that's a lot of conditions). I run TM GBBs with their plastic slides and they're snappy all year round, I just use green gas in the winter and 144a in the summer and they're perfect. Also, there are NBB pistols like the mk23 that are also incredibly reliable all year round. They're also snappier, quieter and they shoot harder than AEPs. If you want something reliable as a secondary, a NBB gas pistol, short spring shotty or some sort of small SMG that is still an AEG like a P90 or mp5k are your best bets. I don't think AEPs will ever eclipse those options.

No, simply put. There's a whole bunch of reasons why, but I think their awful performance by comparison is probably the biggest one.

Have you heard the word of the Mk23? The one true sidearm? Mine works in all weather and has never given me issues, plus you can upgrade them to shoot better than most people's AEGs and they're silent. The TM one is a bit pricey (but worth it because it'll perform well out of the box and you don't need to modify the suppressor), but if you are on a budget, the ASG one retails for around £60 or something, then you can spend the rest on an extra mag and a new hop rubber + hadron H-arm. £100 pistol that will shoot stupidly well. Also, if you're able to carry something slightly bigger, I'm going to echo what @Rogerborg said; mp5k is a great secondary. I'm partial to running either my mp5k or my super awesome amazing stockless spring shotty as secondaries. Both are totally stock Cyma, both are super reliable and both perform as well as I'd expect. The spring shotty cost me around £60 all in (with 9 total shells and a small molle attachment to hold 5 of them) from TG before they had their shipping woes, but it only goes to 30 - 40m, which is plenty for the ranges you use a shotgun for. It's also one of the most fun RIFs I own and everyone always loves it when I bring out the shotty, even though it's absolutely not the optimal gun for woodland airsoft! The mp5k cost me around £140 from Patrolbase and it reaches out to 40 - 50m; I currently have it mounted on a cheapo single point bungee sling that I can quickly clip/unclip it from and carry a few stubby mid-caps in pistol mag pouches. Both of these are in addition to carrying my primary (so usually my 416 with the shotgun and my VSR with the mp5k) as well as a sidearm on my belt. Carrying 3 guns isn't that hard if two of them are small. And before anyone comes in here and says "my spring shotty and mp5k shoots to 100m easy" both of those ranges I gave above are effective range, hitting a man-sized target 9/10 times without having to angle the gun like a mortar and measured in actual, metric system metres, not airsoft metres!

Go VSR. I'm not biased at all in my opinions on the matter. Totally impartial. *hides both VSRs* Seriously though, VSRs have a silly amount of aftermarket parts that are really good. You can take a large number of different approaches to upgrading and there are a lot of combinations that work really well. There are other platforms that are really nice too, but I can't comment on them as I haven't built any of them; next boltie project I'll do will either be a TM L96 or a KJ m700, but they're low on the priority list! In terms of what type of VSR to go for, both clones and TM have their benefits. I've found there are tiny inconsistencies between clone VSRs and the TM one, but they're generally not a problem. I think the most I had to do was loosen one of the screws that holds the stock to the receiver so the Action Army magazines I like to use would click into place. I also have a Maple Leaf receiver that doesn't like my JG stock and sticks out a little bit, but I just kept the stock receiver in my build because it's fine. Oh, also, if you're looking to HPA it in the future and want to go the route of having a CO2 adapter in the stock, the TM stock requires a little modification (sanding down the interior) as it's pretty thick. However, unless you know you want to go into the world of the boltie, you'd do better with a JG or Cyma. Why? Because all you really need to do with them is slap a Maple Leaf hop rubber and nub into them and you'll have a boltie that will perform decently enough; swapping out the hop unit for the Action Army one and swapping the stock barrel for a tightbore are advisable, but not necessary. Other than that you can just run them stock until you decide where you want to go or until the stock parts give up, as the JG starts at around 1.8J (at least mine did) and the Cyma is supposed to be around 2.2J, which is perfect. It's the power upgrades that really cost a lot, so if you can avoid doing them to start with, the better. However, the stock internals will eventually give out, but it will give you the time to get some trigger time with it and decide if you want to dive in fully, or if you want to keep it as a side thing that you don't want to spend too much on (because building the "perfect" boltie isn't cheap... Trust me)

I was about 350lbs when I got back into airsoft. I'm now, through lockdowns, about 250lbs and I did it all through diet. With my other active hobby hopefully opening back up next Monday, I'm doubling down on the diet I've gotten lax over during the summer to try and hit my goal for the end of the year (about 200lbs). Let's all drop those excess pounds and up our game! In terms of diet, I did it through keto, then simple calorie restriction. This time I plan on doing both, paired with getting back to martial arts with it reopening. However, keto isn't for everyone, so find what works for you and stick to it. As has been said, upping exercise will really help supplement healthy diet choices, so maybe consider investing in a bicycle and avoid public transport if you're in a city like I am (public transport is disgusting anyway...) In terms of starting airsoft, rent first, or buy some sort of two-tone cheapo sportline thing for £100 (can pick up a plastic bodied Cyma AK for £100); argument for the latter is that will give you a backup gun or something for spare parts later down the road after you buy a proper, non-two tone once you have your UKARA. You'll spend almost as much on rentals if you enjoy the hobby (3x before UKARA), so it's not a terrible idea, but it should be weighed heavily as you might go to your first game and hate it, which would be a lot cheaper to just rent. And if you do like it and decide to jump in, don't feel pressured to buy all the things. A simple cheap AEG (some of the cheaper brands have really upped their game over the last few years) and some army surplus kit will work wonders and cost very little.

Also, the Maple Leaf MR hop is supposed to mimic an r-hop patch, but it's a £10 rubber. Pair it with an omega nub and it's basically the same thing. I've converted totally away from r-hop patches myself and swear by all my Maple Leaf setups.

I guess I'm lucky. It's rare that anyone uses tags at my local site, because they're silly expensive. However, when I went to my first (and probably only) milsim event last month, people were launching tags more than I was firing my bolt action rifle. Seriously, the number of tags that went off were horrendous. That said, I have seen them at one skirmish game day from a bunch of milsim manchildren where they got annoyed with me because they kept firing tags into a location that I had long since relocated away from, they just hadn't seen me relocate and assumed I was there and not calling the hit. You'd have thought they'd give up after 2, but I think they fired 5 tags into that position before the game ended. To me, it's unfathomable how much some people spend on airsoft, and that's coming from me and my real steel load bearing gear, expensive HPA boltie setup and multitude of upgraded TM pistols. Adding another to this list though, I'm going to say GBBRs. They're inconsistent, can throw a tantrum in the cold, but I love them all the same. I just love the kick and the realism, even if I'm limited to 35 BB magazines vs hi-cap heroes at a skirmish day Also, any original 1911 GBB. The magazines are tiny, so a full fill is equivalent to like... half or less of another GBB magazine. However... I love my 1911! And why not make it a third. M14s. M14s are horrible to work on, they're really heavy and super front-heavy, and they're just another AEG now that their hop up isn't wizardry relative to other platforms any more. However, once I HPA mine it will be my main gun alongside the VSR because I love it and I love how it looks. There's just something about the m14 that I love (and people seem to love. I get a lot of people asking about my m14 and complimenting me on it whenever it comes out to play)

Plate carriers don't look good on larger individuals, because the plates are designed to be small, but large enough to cover all the vital organs, and if you're overweight there'll be spillage up, down and side to side. They also don't feel good, as the weight will sit weird if you're carrying a few spare tyres. If you're tall and in shape, plate carriers are fine, but being overweight really emphasises all the issues plate carriers have and they're super uncomfortable, as well as looking pretty awful. I mostly run a belt kit with harness to keep it in place, as I do the snipey-snipe so I want to go prone a lot and crawl on my stomach, which is uncomfortable with a chest rig and super uncomfortable to the point of impracticality with a plate carrier, once again compounded when I was overweight. If you want something on the body, I'm going to also advocate the Warrior Assault Systems 901 chest rig. It's a fantastic piece of kit and you can buy a back panel for it for if you need the extra molle space on your back. They also last for years; I'm still using my one I bought when I was about 15. 15 years on and it's still going strong! it's always fit me too, from my fittest (17 years old and around 100kg of muscle, captain of the school swim team, number 8 on the school rugby team), to my heaviest (literally no exercise and 160kg of flab), now back on the road to my fittest, my Warrior Assault Systems gear has all always fit me really well. I'm 6'5", like you, and I also have a sturdy Dutch build, but Warrior Assault Systems stuff has always fit me. It's pricey, but worth the investment in my opinion.

Oh, no, 2200 is my BMR, so that's how much I'd burn if I lay in bed and slept all day. I aim for 2000 as a large deficit, but I should be having around 3000 normally. Higher with exercise. I meant 2200 is high for the average person, not a 6'5" dude with a sturdy Dutch build

Yeah, I don't find it hard to go keto since I don't have a sweet tooth, so cutting out sugar is easy as I don't really eat sugar anyway. Part of my issue is that I am big and tall, so even my low calorie intake is pretty high. Generally can't get it from veggies unless I eat buckets of the stuff

Yeah, this is where everyone's different. My BMR is about 2200 calories and I'm currently on a calorie restricting diet of around 2000 calories a day. I think on an active day of airsoft I burn way more than 3000, probably more than 3500 but not quite 4000 I will probably hit the keto diet again once I've paid off debts, but it's far more expensive than my simple calorie restrictive diet; did it for 9 months last year and it was good. I might not need it though, since at some point I'll have to return to the office, meaning cycling three times a week to and from there, plus once I can get back into martial arts (as my school is still shut; thanks covid) that plus the cycle to and from there. Calorie restricting is still working well enough and the only exercise I'm doing is airsoft every two weeks, so once I add in all the cycling and the martial arts, the remaining weight should fly off. Then I can joke about having lost an average person's body weight as the total weight loss would be 70kg from start to finish.

I took up martial arts to go alongside my stealthy sneaky airsoft because I want to be Big Boss. In all seriousness, I saw airsoft as an active hobby that gets me out of the house and running around nature. I always wanted to do martial arts too, but I just never got around to it, so in 2018 I just decided to jump in and thoroughly enjoyed it. Over the course of a year I got back into airsoft and started doing martial arts twice a week. I've always hated exercise for the sake of exercise, so going to the gym or jogging or anything like that was always a massive mental hurdle, but airsoft is just a fun game that I enjoy playing, and martial arts is learning a skill that hopefully won't be needed, but is good to know just in case. And now I want to be as good at my hobbies as I can be, and to be as good at martial arts and airsoft as I can be, physical fitness is a good way to do it and get a leg up on the stereotypical... mature and "well rounded" airsofter. I'm really feeling the fruits of my labours now, having dropped 50kg so far and being able to move a lot quicker, for a lot longer and handle firefights a lot nimbler is incredibly refreshing and invigorating. Still got 20kg or so to go, so I look forward to seeing how good I can be once I've shifted all this extra weight.

Had a great day today, running a very light VSR loadout and no ghillie. Had some issues with the HPA system leaking, but the tank lasted until just before lunch where I took it apart and fixed the issue, then switched to co2 for the afternoon. The line came loose where it screws into the bolt, so I just had to tighten that up. Got so many people with the VSR just holding areas and when I started playing aggressively with the mk23 I got loads of people with that by flanking as there were less numbers due to people wimping out due to rain (which all cleared up before the games started anyway). Also had a lot of success from a stealth perspective, even without the ghillie. Just observing the seven S's of concealment saw a lot of success, as I had people look directly at me multiple times and not know where I was. Scrim net over the head and shoulders, rifle wrapped and staying nice and still made me basically invisible. Paired with both the VSR and mk23 being stupidly silent and I went undetected for most of the day, just posting up and covering a location, then moving if things got too dicey.

Oooooooooooh, I've been in the market for an AK for a while, but wasn't keen on the NGRS. This will definitely tempt me! Also, thanks Google Translate...

Jeeeez, I'm suddenly glad I resisted the temptation to buy some pistols from HK. This is ludicrous!

I'm going to agree here. If someone isn't making it obvious they're hit, I'll just put one into the plate carrier to be sure. Some players will casually walk down a path, hands still down on their gun, in the hopes that everyone will think they're dead and not shoot, then shoot everyone in the back when they get past, and one shot to the chest really isn't a big deal, especially since most people wear a chest rig or plate carrier that absorbs most of the hit. I've never had anyone moan about it to me, and I'm usually slinging .48s at 2.3J. I think a single shot is different to lighting someone up because you think they might be playing dead. However, if they still have their gun shouldered in the game area then they are in no position to moan. To me I'd see them as still in the game until the hand goes up and they call out "hit"

That's some pretty serious teflon player action. I've yet to see someone take two shots to the face from my VSR and not call it, but they're .48s at 2.3J. I've definitely seen people shrug off multiple body shots though, even at that weight and power. And you just need a smaller 2nd gun. I bought a Cyma mp5k and it's not too difficult carrying both it and the VSR, though I'll agree it gets difficult with a larger secondary rifle. I did it with my 416 and it worked, but it was much harder and I'm 6'5 and heavily built, so two guns isn't as big on me.

Was doing some general maintenance to my pistols and came to realise I have more pistols than long guns... And I want more! I still need a handful of parts to upgrade the STTI mk23 (bottom left) and the Bell 1911 (2nd from right) which I'll get first, but there's at least a TM HK45 Tactical, Bell m9 and Bell MEU on the list of pistols I want to add to the collection.

As someone who uses a boltie, the number of times I hear this... It always amazes me when people are shocked that their stock AEG can't reach the same ranges as my painstakingly tuned boltie

You beat me to it. Glocks are undeniably great handguns. They're reliable, have a high magazine capacity, easy to use, they're everything you want in a pistol and if I had to carry a handgun I'd probably go for a Glock 21 as it's got all that Glock goodness and comes in .45 calibre. It's perfect. But I still hate them; give me my impractical m1911 with its outdated single stack magazine. Also, in airsoft... AEGs. Yes, AEGs. I think they're the best weapon platform for airsoft. They're reliable, they'll work in all weather, you can put thousands of BBs through them with no issues and all you need to do is swap batteries if you get low. Also, with how far hop rubbers have come along, they're reaching similar ranges to bolt actions (not quite the same, but comparable enough where you can just aim up or dash forward 10 - 15m to get in range). To top that off, you can run hi-caps allowing you to never run out of ammo, or even use a drum mag if you so desire. Or you can up them to be DMRs and bridge the gap between AEG and bolt action, getting the middle ground "best of both worlds" platform. All in all, they're amazing, they're versatile and they often look really good. But I still hate them. They sound silly, they're loud(er than HPA), and they're so uncivilised.

My mp5k or spring shotty always comes with me as a backup gun, regardless of what else I'm bringing. Always a good idea to have a backup! And you're totally right. Outside of gearbox related shenanigans, airsoft guns are really easy to work on. And even then, V2 gearboxes aren't that complicated once you open them up and have a look. I'll give someone a pass though if they don't want to crack open their V7 gearbox, as I've endured that pain myself and wouldn't wish it on anyone (unless it's a tech I'm paying to open it up for me, then I do wish it on them because that's what I'm paying them to do!)