Impulse

Welcome! If you're in Sussex, maybe I'll see you around if you come down to Worthing when this tier 4 nonsense goes away. In my opinion, buying from HK should only be used for specialist parts that you can't find in the UK; I typically won't buy from HK unless I absolutely have to. Got a metal, threaded outer barrel for my p226 because it was out of stock literally everywhere here, and some spare m14 gearbox springs because I lost one way back when I foolishly decided to do some work on it, but I'd never buy any RIFs or anything that I can get here. Seriously, once you add postage and import duties it basically ends up a similar price as if you just bought it here. Only difference then is that you waited a month or so for your order to arrive from HK as opposed to the few days it would've taken here.

If it's a two-tone, I'd get a new instead of upgrading as long as you have a UKARA defence now. In my opinion, there's no point throwing money at a cheap two-tone, but it'd make a great backup gun in case you have issues with a new one down the road. Unfortunately, I don't have masses of experience with M4 AEGs, so I can't really advise on which one to get though I've heard G&G CM16s are good? However when it comes to upgrades, I can throw in my two cents there. As long as your RIF is firing near or around 1J, don't touch the gearbox at all. The only thing I would change out at first would be barrel and hop up, as that's where the majority of your performance is going to come from. The only thing I did to my Cyma m14 was an r-hop inner barrel from Umbrella Armory and it fires amazingly . Some people might say that you can get the same range with the Maple Leaf Macaron rubbers, and they may be right; I have no experience there either so I cannot comment on the efficacy of those rubbers (but the VSR rubbers made by Maple Leaf are fantastic, so I have no doubt the Macarons are fantastic too). What I do have experience with is an otherwise stock Cyma m14 chucking .4g BBs to hit a man-size target at 60m 9/10 times and 70m 2/10 times. More than enough range for a 1J gun that is used like a DMR (but without an MED thanks to being 1J power) If it's not a two-tone, then I'd just upgrade what you already have. I am definitely more of the "quality over quantity" camp when it comes to airsoft, as I'd rather have 5 RIFs that shoot like dreams and work exactly how I want them to, rather than 50 semi-decent RIFs.

I totally agree here; a lot of people get mad and shout about hit taking when they have no idea where their BBs are going. I've had people moan to me with "I shot you like 19 times!" when they just did a great job at lighting up the bush/foliage, or their BBs are falling 10 - 20m too short. At the end of the day, you're firing a projectile that weighs a fraction of a gram at around 1J; it's going to be affected by literally everything, from wind to stray leaves to temperature. Even bolt actions will have issues if there's a leaf in your shot's path; trust me, I've seen way too many of my shots ruined by a dangly leaf... It's a little different as a bush wookiee, because you're usually taking shots at targets who have no idea you're there and through magnified optics. Maybe that's why I generally don't get annoyed about non-hit taking, because at the longer ranges, even with a scope, I can't tell if I've hit or not unless the person reacts to the shot. Seeing a 6mm BB at 75m is pretty darn difficult. Also, non-hit takers are a little bit amusing when you're using a boltie. If I'm slinging .48s at 2.3J, people feel it and will flinch from the hits so it's super obvious if they're not taking their hits. Furthermore, because they have no idea where the shots are coming from, I can usually make a follow up shot to convince them to leave.

Noisy, even with the airbrake and all my attempts to further silence it. Want to try the SAP as I've heard it in action in a guy's rifle that he did very little else to and was suitably impressed. I guess this is what I get for using a HPA VSR. Everything is loud by comparison!

Has anyone got experience with it? I'm waiting on mine to arrive and I was wondering if I have to put one of the weighted sleeves on or if I can just leave it as is without any weights. With a rapax 2J spring in my build at the moment with the SCW piston, I'm pulling 2.3J on .45s so I'm worried if I put a weighty piston in it will creep over the limit. Has anyone run one of these and if so has anyone run it without using any of the weights? I just don't want to damage it as soon as I get it!

Anything TM... Honestly though? TM 1911. Magazine gas reservoir is tiny, but I've used it in all weathers and it continously cycles flawlessly. I love it.

Fantastic game day today, despite being on the definitive losing team and it being cold and wet! Saw me hold a corner by myself with my m14 for over half a game; must've been about 20 mins overall. Felt like a woodland version of Black Hawk Down (you know the scene...) when they finally got me because I was down to my pistol and surrounded since the rest of the team had capitulated by that point. Don't need a ghillie to be sneaky, was just in my DPMs with some scrim net draped over my head and shoulders. Some minor feeding issues, but not enough to detract from the overall day. Also, my VSR got fixed, so I'm back to using that hilariously quiet rifle. CO2 power + suppressor makes no noise whatsoever.

Classic meets modern. It's a shame I have to wrap it in scrim net and my leafy elastic rifle wrap thing as I love how it looks, but if I'm in my ghillie, so too does my rifle have to dress like a bush. Solved the issue of the RAS handguard kit tilting the scope up. Cut the part that fixes to the side of the receiver, as the top screw keeps it in place more than enough, and put on a normal scope mount that I know keeps the scope nice and straight. It's a workout gun though. Thing weighs an absolute tonne and is very front heavy thanks to the bipod, rail handguard and the m14 being front heavy in the first place. However, I'm very happy to have the bipod for when I'm in a hide and needing to keep this behemoth up and level. Yes, I actually use bipods while sniping.

Oh 100%. I love my VSR(s) too much to just hang it up and using a bolt action is way more satisfying, but my issue is my HPA VSR does about the same as your bolt actions of around 75 - 85m effective range, but my 1J AEG m14 can also push 65 - 70m effective range and I find myself wondering if the extra 5 - 10m is really worth the hassle 😂

Honestly, with hop ups how they are now, bolt actions are really not as good as they used to be in relative terms. Well tuned AEGs are reaching out to the same sort of ranges as a well-tuned bolt action. You can still pull the bolt without people noticing, but you do need a lighter pull or a gas/HPA rifle. I've converted my VSR to HPA and I love it as I can do the bolt pull with a single finger if needed, and it's a lot quieter than the already quiet spring powered bolties, so you can make shots when enemies are closer to your position without getting detected. I don't think sound or me pulling the bolt back has ever been the reason I've been seen since I moved to HPA, but I don't think me pulling the bolt has ever caused me to be detected even when using a spring VSR. When I can afford it, I'm shoving a Polarstar engine in my spare m14 and using that as my primary "sniper" rifle. No MED (as I'll be keeping it at 1.1J), similar range, semi-automatic fire rate? All combined with the near silence of a HPA rifle and the sleek look of an m21? Sign me up!

If it's the site rules to put the band on your arm, you put it on your arm. It's not even hard to stay hidden and if you can't remain undetected with a small band around your arm, you're doing the whole ghillie suit sniper thing wrong. Most airsofters won't see you as long as you stay still, don't silhouette yourself and aren't dressed in some sort of flourescent onesie; managed it with a solid black fleece last weekend. You're totally right though. My local site has started balancing out the snipers at the start of the day to stop one team having too many and getting absolutely stomped as they're becoming more and more common. However, good ghillies are still fairly uncommon; as has already been said, most people use leaf suits that just don't blend into their environment and have no idea how to actually stay hidden, silouetting themselves against trees or barricades and moving all the time. So I don't think it's OP, but I do think it makes the game a lot harder as most games require you to take objectives and doing that with a boltie is... hard.

I'll second Warrior Assault Systems; fantastic kit! I've got a SAPI carrier on the way in OD from them, as my chest rig from them has lasted me for around 13 years now. It's more pricey than the other airsoft brands like 8Fields and Viper, but the quality is far, far better as they're designed for real steel shooting.

All TM pistols I've owned have performed fantastically. Even my 1911 can cycle through at least half a mag in the dead of winter on green gas while all those red gas using WE pistols are failing to cycle. Every TM pistol I have fires accurately to at least 40m with .25s (talking 9/10 shots hit on a man-size target). The mk23 goes to about 60m with .4s because it's stupid. I have a TM 1911, mk23, p226 and M&P9L. They're all fantastic pieces of kit, and that's coming from someone who has to use their sidearm a lot thanks to a pesky thing called a minimum engagement distance.

Cyber Monday has turned me into a HPA nerd. Gone are the days of CO2 in the VSR and next big purchase (probably in the summer) will be a Polarstar engine for the m14. Figure that tank will probably last me a few more shots than a 12g CO2 bulb, and plenty of time on a semi-only m14 😅

I think that would actually get me to dig out my old dropleg holster, because it has a mag pouch on the front! Sounds like it'd be a lot of fun.

Or at the very least that one guy you just hit goes back to respawn and brings like half a dozen people just to flush you out. The number of times this has happened to me and my ghillie shenanigans

I'm also interested in hearing about CYMA mp5 models. I'm tempted by the EBB version to use as a secondary alongside my VSR. Loving some of these pics. The mp5 is a great little gun!

I like the idea of limited ammo games, but I'm also not a massive fan of milsim. Then again, I do snipery things, so limited ammo is just a normal day for me. VSR mags can only hold so many BBs...

Rent first. Don't buy anything until you've played a few times, got a feel for the hobby and a UKARA so you don't have to run around with a bright blue popsicle.

No, because I'm not doing it for airseal. I'm doing it part of the way down the barrel where it exits the hop unit to make it fit snug. Otherwise it doesn't quite fit and rattles around and doesn't line up properly. This has only happened to me on Crazy Jets and has happened with both I have (both on the mk23 and VSR).

I totally agree, apart from the Crazy Jet (unpopular opinion, I know). Hadron TDC and H arm are fantastic purchases for a mk23, and for hop rubber you can also look at the Maple Leaf Autobots (the new, 2021 versions) or MR hop rubbers as well. I dislike Crazy Jets as both of mine don't fit properly into the hop units as the outer diameter isn't large enough, meaning I would need to wrap PTFE tape around the outside to make it fit. This leads to the alignment being ever so wrong (literally < 1mm off) and so the BBs clip the suppressor. I imagine this would be amplified in a DMR kit. They're more expensive, but I'm a big fan of Edgi and PDI barrels. Nineball (Laylax) are also good if you're on a budget, but with pistol barrels the difference is usually tiny so I'd say just go big or go home. Stock TM barrels are pretty good.

See, I know I'm getting a Warrior Assault Systems SAPI carrier in the near future... So I picked these up. Heavyweight rubber training plates from the guys at Trident Gear. I really love the feel and weight of these, as it feels like I'm holding real ballistic plates (they are not real ballistic plates and are made of rubber!); they weigh 2.1kg each, which is between the weight of real level III and IV ballistic plates. I wanted real ballistic plates for muh immersion, but when I saw they were literally £150 - 200 PER PLATE I decided to get these instead. £45 for the set and I still get muh immersion. Also fitness. If I'm running around with my AEG, I use airsoft as a workout. Time to up my game!

When I did airsoft in Spain about 12 years ago, there was no such thing as an official site (at least not on the Costa del Sol). It was just a bunch of people who showed up to an area and played BB wars, as there were LOADS of abandoned urbanisations on the Costa del Sol, because they built them all without planning permission as holiday homes and stuff, but then had to stop when the authorities realised it was an illegal construction. Nobody was about to pay to demolish them, so they turned into our unofficial airsoft sites. There were a few "events" as such, I remember going to one up in the mountains near Monda and Ojen, but they were few and far between. Like, once a year or something. That said, there was a small urbanisation we played on near Mijas, but I believe it was demolished after someone slipped and fell down the stairs, cracking their head open and had to be rushed to hospital. That was the main "site" we all went to (even if I thought the one in Estepona was way better!). Have a lot of good memories from there, it was like half woodland, half urban and it was really cool. There were some dark corridors on the lower levels, multi-level firefights and even a really dark and a cramped tunnel that nobody ever used (because it was really hard to actually move in) apart from about 5 of us which could take you behind the enemy lines. Here are some low resolution photos I've dug up (hey, 1024x768 was the 1080p of 2008!)