Impulse

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.

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 ?

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.

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!)

Threaded outer barrel arrived over the weekend for my TM P226, just in time for lockdown to deny me taking this bad boy out to skirmish.

A fellow Worthing player! Yeah, and in fairness I was basically out of the game for well over half of it as I couldn't move! But it was all worth it for that short time I was able to do stuff

100%. I could feel it going into overdrive as the players chatted, fired their AEGs and stood pretty much on top of me xD

I had an amazing day today. Found out that my first ghillie suit DEFINITELY works. Not only did I have multiple instances of people looking directly at me and not seeing me, but I also had around 15 - 20 mins in a rolling assault where they had cleared my team out and were swarming all around me to keep engaging with my team who were moving back. Their respawn was literally 3m in front of me for about 5 of those minutes and nobody saw me. I was so worried someone was going to either see my boots or step on/trip over me as they came REALLY close. Waited until their respawn moved a bit further past me down the path, repositioned and started plinking people with my VSR, much to their confusion. Was a fantastic day. Easily one of my top 3 moments in this hobby over the last 15 years. The adrenaline was insane and my heart was pounding the whole time xD

I am ready to colour them, but this is going to take a while. Colouring them with acrylic inks one at a time by hand. I threw the bright red and orange ones out, so at least it's 300 not 400 xD

Since I have my first, lightweight ghillie suit done, I'm going to visit that leaf suit I bought that has been in my wardrobe for about a year now, as well as making a proper rifle ghillie for my VSR. If I have anything left over, I'll use the OTHER webtex concealment vest I have (I bought one too many) and make a leafy cloak thing as a lightweight alternative to my already relatively lightweight ghillie.

Had a great day that was tarnished by losing another pistol mag. I am DONE with any pistol with a push button mag release and will solely be using my lovely HK pistols from now on (mk23 and HK45), as I've now lost a P226 mag and a 1911 mag by running and the pistol jiggling about just enough to tap the mag release and send the currently inserted mag somewhere into the bushes. First daylight game out in the ghillie this year, as it was finally not 20+ celcius and I'm still packing a bit of extra "insulation" (keto diet is shaving that away fast though. I had 50kg to lose though so it's an ongoing battle). However, the ghillie worked an absolute charm and I may have ruffled some feathers as I had one of those clickbait youtube highlight sniper moments. Managed to sneak around behind the enemy team, hid in some ferns in my ghillie and kept picking off the enemy team from behind. Seriously, it really hammered home the importance of only taking a single shot from a position before moving to a new one; I got so many people as they bumbled over to my last location. Apparently they complained to the marshalls about me, but I hadn't broken any rules so there was no issue. Ironically, they were the ones breaking rules as they were actively searching for me while they were hit. Also, it may seem silly, but I really had to overcome my phobia of wasps. Through the day, wasps kept on coming for the plants on my ghillie suit. I had one buzzing around a plant that hung on my hood to the side of my face. I managed to stay still, but I probably missed an opportunity or two because I was watching that goddamn wasp ?

Just some accessories for my pistol, though the mag pouches are actually for VSR mags. I've started running my VSR mags on a drop-leg platform so I can do away with any chest rig, as I've found if you put something lightweight on a drop-leg it doesn't flap about much. Both pistol holsters are to see what I prefer (they weren't expensive), as I run my HK45 with a suppressor, so drop leg might be nicer for drawing it. If not, I'm used to mounting holsters on my belt.

I find it's easiest to just mention it to the marshalls. Don't approach them all fire and brimstone, screaming about how the bad man isn't taking his hits. Just let a marshall know and say "I'm not sure, but could you keep an eye on [insert description of potential cheater here], as I think they may not be taking hits." But if I think someone isn't taking their hits, I'll always mention it to staff and then leave it to them to enforce. I don't see the negative stigma of it, unless it's every game day, but if that's the case it's probably the shooter not hitting their target; I've seen so many airsofters have a moan about hit taking, but their BBs are falling short because their gun fires to 60 airsoft metres, but only 40 actual metres.

I always aim for the body with my 2.3J .48 slinging gas VSR. But players like that... I'll give everyone a chance, but if they're consistently not calling (and then also being snarky about it all!) and you can see the BBs hitting them...

Did my first night game yesterday and it was great. UK woodland gets SUPER DARK so we were wandering around without being able to see more than 5m in front of us. The only way we could really see anything was silhouettes. (NVGs weren't allowed because of the scenario requiring a well-equipped hunter force having a massive advantage over us) Wore a ghillie suit, got tripped over, took out a whole squad of three people with a pistol. Good day. Very good day.

Viper Special Ops rig 6x Nineball gas route seals for P226 (as they came in packs of 2 and I have 5 mags. Leaves me with a spare, I guess) Maple Leaf MR Hop rubber 50 degree Hadron FANG plate Maple Leaf Crazy Jet 97mm barrel Nineball DYNA piston head No prizes for guessing what I'm doing... I've decided to dedicate to my VSR loadout rather than building any others, and a stupidly solid (non mk23) sidearm was very needed. We'll see how it performs on Sunday! Also, genuinely surprised with the Viper rig. I bought it because I needed a tiny bit more load bearing than just my belt, purely for VSR mags and misc items, and I love how low profile it is. Should be able to crawl with it on without it pressing into my stomach/chest

I started back in 2006 and I very much prefer it when it's simpler. Yes, I'm branching out into converting my own guns to HPA (done a boltie, DMR is next), but I don't understand today's obsessions with fps and rps. My m14 DMR fires at 1.4J and my spring VSR is at 2.1J that's fine by me! It's a limit, not a goal. And you said you wanted some old pictures. I'm fortunate enough to have a bunch of my old photos from back in 2008 or so. Safe zones used to be a lot more simple. Literally just an area of the field marked with tape at this event in Spain. Back then there was very little organised airsoft where I lived. It was mostly just us as a community agreeing "yeah, we'll go airsoft in this place" as there were loads of abandoned / out of the way places to do it. Though this pic is from an event that was at least somewhat organised. I think it was a two day thing in the mountains near a small hotel that we stayed in over night. Yes, that's a stock cyma m14 and a stock Warrior L96. I was also firing .25s and it was just fine (where today people would say "WHY NOT HEAVY AMMO?") And a bit of fun at an Easter game