Impulse

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!

The good thing is they aren't that expensive. I got mine from Taiwangun before Brexit so I only spent like... £60 all in for the shotgun, 6 extra shells (for 9 total) and a molle attachment for the shells, but even from the UK it's still sub-£100.

I have one and reading the comments here it seems I lucked out then. My cm.351m is amazing and hops .28s out to about 45 - 50m. I love it, even playing in woodland as I do

Because people on the internet are always right and you shouldn't question them ever. 😐 He says mean words and hurts people's feefees 😭

Had a fantastic day today, even if the games were suuuuuper imbalanced. One team had a dominant position which made it super easy to hold the objectives (which they did), and they had the stronger players so it was a massive stompfest (I was not on this team... 🤣) Still it was great fun, since I decided to stop trying to attack their bases when it was clear our team was woefully outmatched and instead took the Viet Cong approach of hiding in the bushes and just making life difficult for the other team. I got so many people with my silent HPA VSR and mk23 combo and so many bewildered players looking around confused trying to see where they got hit from, even though I was just wearing a short sleeve t-shirt and a leafy hood thing I bought from Russia for £25. However, it really highlighted how 1J builds are better at my local site during the summer. It's thick woodland, so the sight lines are generally pretty crap at this time of the year and a lot of shots I took were either with the mk23 within my MED, or they were at a range I could hit with a 1J gun (like 60m or less)

Not what I'd have chosen, but all solid choices. You'll find your life easier with the TM version than the clone ones, as while they're "compatible" with each other, there are tiny inconsistencies between the brands that can be annoying. For example, the 50rd Action Army magazines fit perfectly in my TM VSR, but I have to loosen a bolt on the JG BAR-10 to get them to click into place, however loosening it too much causes feeding issues. Also, be prepared to clip the spring or swap it out later down the line. Yes, a 150 spring should give you the power you want, but you really won't know the power output until you finish the build and test it with the ammo you intend to use. When I built my first VSR I stuck a 150 spring in it and it came out at 2.9J. I'm now running a Rapax 2J spring... that is at 2.6J so I'm going to get it clipped. However, I'll go over each part in detail: Personally, I think the Springer Custom Works S-trigger is the best VSR trigger on the market. I also highly rate his piston and spring guide, but I have no experience with the Action Army ones so can't really make a comparison. For cylinder, the Maple Leaf one is as decent a choice as any. I use a Laylax one and honestly you can just use the stock one, but the TM cylinder requires some precision drilling to open and to someone like me who doesn't have the tools to do so, I'd just say get an after market cylinder. I don't think there's a massive difference between various VSR cylinders. M150 spring? Already said my piece on springs. 150 should do it, but don't be too put out if it runs hot. Just clip a few coils. I do think the Rapax springs are the best, but if you're getting a Rapax spring, you'd need a 9mm spring guide (Springer Custom Works do one, they also do a sleeve that goes on their 7mm one to convert it). The difference is 9mm springs are generally easier to pull back and when sniping you want to minimise as much movement as possible, but keep the movement you have to do slow and deliberate, so having an easy bolt pull allows you to pull it back slowly and deliberately, which is less likely to be seen than jerking it back. No idea on the PDI hop chamber. PDI stuff is usually pretty damn good, but if it's built like the stock chamber then I'm not a fan. I way prefer the Action Army hop chamber and have it in both of my VSR builds! Maple Leaf macaron is an AEG bucking, I believe? They're fantastic and I have one in my Cyma m14 build, but VSR buckings are the envy of the world, so I'd go for a traditional VSR bucking. Again, Maple Leaf are great for this and I highly praise the new silicone rubbers. I've got a silicone Autobot rubber in both of my VSRs and it's ridiculous. 80 degree in my HPA VSR (silicone ones are softer than regular) and 60 degree in my spring build with a weird hop arm that made an 80 degree send .48s into the stratosphere. I've heard great things about ZCI barrels, though if they're bridged I don't like them for the VSR. As I said above, VSR rubbers are amazing, but they need unbridged barrels like a Laylax or Maple Leaf Crazy Jet, so I'd go with Laylax because I've had the same stainless steel barrel in my VSR for 12 years now. Barrel bore won't make a huge difference (I like 6.03mm as the middleground), but stainless steel will last a loooong time.

These stock shortages are great, honestly. It means I can easier resist the temptation to buy stuff before I've responsibly paid off debts from a rough part of my 20s, because lord knows there's stuff I want to buy... *gazes wistfully at google doc list of things I want to get*

Potentially unpopular opinion, but have you considered HPA? V2 gearbox-based HPA engines are pretty common. As long as you get used to the tank and line, or come up with a way to mount a small tank to the rifle, the performance really can't be beaten in my opinion. Yes, it's expensive to build. Yes, you have to carry a tank, but the stupidly good consistency as well as the silence are just too good to pass up. Also, you can tune it to the exact power you need. I've done the conversion to one of my VSRs and will be converting one of my m14s once I clear my debts because I'm a complete HPA convert at this point. Outside of that, I'll echo the maple leaf rubber suggestions. I've got a ML macaron in my m14 and I can't fault it; it's otherwise a stock Cyma m14 shooting at 1J, but most people think it's some sort of 1.6J DMR with an MED because of how far it reaches out to and all I've done is shove a stainless steel prometheus barrel and a maple leaf macaron rubber in it.

It's a feature, not a problem. Got to love airsoft manufacturers' dedication to immersion!

Some sort of assault rifle is generally advisable as a starting gun for the same reasons they're used by the majority of soldiers in the real world: they're a jack of all trades weapon that does everything sort of well but doesn't particularly excel at anything. However, I don't think getting an m4 as a starter gun is necessary and AKs, SCARs, g36s, L85s etc. are plentiful and just as good in airsoft. I'm always an advocate of getting the gun you like aesthetically; find one you like and then find a manufacturer who makes it well; I'm a big fan of Cyma, as they do a large selection of guns and they're generally fantastic out of the box, especially for the price. I've had an AK, mp5 and 2 m14s from Cyma and every single one of them have been great guns. On that though, also think about how you like to play, so I'd generally advise renting for 3 games to get your UKARA before buying. Renting will allow you to experiment with different ways of playing and then make a more informed decision when you purchase. Want to play high speed and aggressive? Maybe an SMG like an mp5 or p90 is for you. Unlike in real-steel shooting, barrel length and calibre don't really matter; a stubby mp5 will perform just as well as an m4 or AK.

It still amazes me. At the moment I've ditched the ghillie and most of the summer I show up in a short sleeved OD t-shirt and m81 trousers, yet it's still relatively easy to sneak behind the enemy team or get into firing positions undetected by just staying low and moving slowly. Also, it's fantastic practice as when winter rolls around and I put the ghillie back on, I become super-invisible, because I'm used to having to do the same in a t-shirt 😇 For this reason, I always advise people to play the role and practice these stealth aspects of gameplay before shelling out on a ghillie; you come out way better at using the ghillie suit than anyone who just bought it and then relies on it as a crutch rather than a tool to merely supplement their already solid foundation in concealment.

I can't speak for all bush wookiees, but myself and none of the ones I interact with at my local site mind that too much. It's a bit of a joke, actually, since we usually get shot by our own team more than the enemy. It's frustrating when it happens, but we accept it's part of the job and will usually just hide from our own team as well 🤣

Personally, I don't want people putting tape all over my guns, thank you very much. However, the "if it looks like a sniper, then you have an MED" is utter tripe. Lots of people like running 1J bolties, especially those who are also into WW2 airsoft. Also, there are people who like running "DMRs" at 1J so as to avoid the MED. My m21 is very sniper-y (no, it's not an m14!), but I'll run it at 1.1J to avoid the 30m MED because I prefer the flexibility over the extra 0.5J and the tiny range increase that affords, so if someone told me "nah, you have an MED anyway" I'd probably tell them to piss off. Politely.