Cyberlawyer

Ouch!! That would bloody hurt, especially on a tiled floor!!!

I try not to think about it…. In fairness I only bought one set of mags when I bought my first new MWS. The others came as part of used packages when I bought my other MWS. My main reason for keeping them is I figure If I ever sell up I’ll get more for each MWS if it comes with a usable amount of mags….. Well that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it…

Internet forum: How many mags do I need for my MWS? Me: Ummmmm…. Yes!

I briefly owned the v1 version of the WE Beretta and quite frankly it was terrible. The hop design was truly awful, definitely don’t buy one of those. I don’t have any hands on experience with the current v2 version (which was why I didn’t comment) but looking at the exploded digram it uses a Glock Style hop unit so should be better in that department. On the plus side for the Beretta it doesn’t have the tilting barrel design pioneered by the 1911 that most of the other pistols use (this is true of the real steel as well) so it should be inherently fairly accurate. On the down side the grip of the Beretta is properly large (again a feature it inherits from the real gun) so I don’t find it particularly comfortable to shoot (I’m a size large in Mechanix gloves just by way of scale). If you have hands like a garden gnome this will be a big problem if you are built like a silverback gorilla not such a big deal. Also the thumb safety is in pretty awkward place if you plan on doing any RS safety procedures.

My thoughts (and I have plenty of these guns to hand for first hand experience). If you are relatively new to skirmishing and that is going to be the main use for the pistol (as a secondary) then I always recommend the WE Glock 17 or 19x At £99 a pop from plenty of places you can get 2 for the price of a Marui with a spare mag and it is a decent performer with a metal slide and decent kick. You will get a spare mag, and if you drop it in the mud (and at some point you will) you can just swap to the other one rather than trying to clean off the mud in the safe zone (which never works properly). Cycling a pistol with dirt in the slide will shorten the life of the pistol. In terms of best performance out of the box the Marui FNX and Marui HK45 are head and shoulders above the rest. The FNX is slightly better due to bigger mags (more gas and BBs), but I prefer the HK ergonomics. The VFC licensed FNX is more realistic and satisfying to use (metal slide and better double action trigger), but performs no where near as well and mags are hard to find and stupid expensive. The Umarex HK45CT is a decent performer and is nice to use, but in reality shoots no better than the WE Glock for twice the money and is hard to find mags for (ordered mine from the US).

Not sure I fit into either category. If I had to pigeon hole myself with a catch phrase it would probably be “skills over kills”. I get way more satisfaction from a perfectly executed mag change or a slick weapon transition than racking up a massive body count, which probably explains why I only really use GBBRs all year round. I currently own 4 MWS builds for different purposes and a couple of gas MP5s and a gas MP7. I will probably add an the new Marui AKM just so I can practice my weapon handling drills on one. While that sounds like a lot it’s much cheeper than the revolving door of AEGs a lot of people seem to have.

True, the Lee Enfield 303 (British Number 4 rifle) had a magazine that was intended to be fixed in normal use and ammunition was loaded through the breach on stripper clips with the feed for the stripper built into the receiver, but that was a design choice that was common at the time and the magazines were made with this in mind to the appropriate quality. Ironically today’s AR style magazines (Magpul and the like) are relatively expensive compared to the cheep aluminium shells with a couple of moulded bits of plastic and the worlds cheapest spring that were standard British fare in the 80s and 90s and both economically and from a build quality perspective are totally appropriate for reuse. This wasn’t the case with the early SA80 mags that were originally specified to be disposable and then weren’t properly re-specified and re-engineered when this changed. Not sure the logistics are that much different between stripper clips and disposable mags. Obviously the ammo boxes would be larger and heavier (or carry fewer rounds), but I have never heard of any reported concerns about this, although the only actual conflict I am aware of where disposable magazines were standard issue is Vietnam (although I am happy to be corrected on this point if anyone is aware of any others).

Let's just say if your CQMS is good at his job he will be owed enough favours that he will rarely be buying his own drinks. Definitely a case of looking after the troops and they will look after you. Originally the idea was that magazines would be shipped preloaded and disposed off after use, so every ammo resupply would also replace the mags. The yanks did this in Vietnam where the ammo was supplied in preloaded mags in the bandoleers and the mags were considered disposable. The bean counters did away with this and we instead got stripper clips in bandoleers and plastic speed loaders. The biggest problem with this was that the build quality of the magazines was not significantly improved when it was decided they were going to be reused, hence the cheap springs that were originally going to be a single use item would loose tension following repeated reuse and cause stoppages. This resulted in the fairly common practice of only loading 28 rounds in each mag (or wherever possible stealing colt mags when on joint exercises with the US as they were far superior).

I missed 58 pattern webbing by a long margin, but on my combat infantryman course, down the front of the smock was the SOP taught as part of the training. While not as much as a ball ache as 58 pat it was still much quicker than getting mags back in a PLC pouch. No idea what the actual training manual said, but the front of smock method was RSM approved and everyone did it. Our CQMS used to carry a bunch of ‘off the books’ mags so if you did drop one (there were a few losses every exercise) you could still sign in your full compliment of mags so you didn’t get charged for the loss.

The Warrior universal holster is excellent. I have 2 and they have been flawless. I have even modified one carefully removing the fabric molle attachment and screwing on a safariland QLS fork, which has worked brilliantly and means I can move it across rigs and attach it to a safari land low ride/mid ride adapter. IMHO it is the perfect holster assuming you don't want to use a pistol torch/laser. I know they are relatively expensive (but still much cheaper than the custom kydex holders I have had made for my light bearing pistols) but you only need to loose one magazine, or god forbid a pistol, and they suddenly look like a bargain. Also you need to factor in that no matter how many pistols you have as long as you don't want to mount a torch you can use the same holster for all of them (I have yet to find something that won't fit (mk23 maybe? but I don't own one to check)).

How new is the mag? I find the MWS mags all start off a bit stiff at first when speed loading. The extra mechanical advantage of the loading rod really helps for new mags.

Taking that part of the mag apart is easy, just remover the two hex head screws from the base plate and that’s it. Be careful though there is a small plastic piece at the base plate end of the feed spring that likes to shoot it’s self into orbit if you are not careful. while you have it apart check the bb follower for imperfections. I have had one mag with this problem and it had a small amount of extra plastic on the bb follower I had to carefully polish off. Be aware putting the feed spring back in is a PITA. The aforementioned small plastic ‘plug’ seems desperate to ping across the room and get lost behind the sofa of embed it’s self in your eyeball. I found a bbq skewer helpful to feed the spring on to before trying to jam it back in the bb channel. Have fun!!!!!

According to the news articles I have seen Lego have sent a cease and desist letter, however I suspect that this is more a public relations exercise by Lego than any serious attempt to get the manufacturers of the gun to cease production and I suspect they will just ignore it. Lego have already lost in court several years ago to prevent the production of Lego compatible building block (see Lego Vs Tyco) so as long as the firearm doesn’t reproduce the Lego logo (which is still a valid trademark) on the top of every bump as Lego do on their actual blocks the chances they can stop the production of a brightly coloured gun with a regular pattern of bumps on it is pretty low given they couldn’t stop the production of an actual building block with Lego compatible dimensions.

I’d have to go with the WE Browning HP mk3. Truly an awful and outdated design for a GBB pistol, but it’s an all metal Browning that looks really cool so I can’t help but like it. Just partner with a WE MP5 GBBR (which is as brilliant as the Browning is terrible) for the ultimate 1980s SAS load out…

No personal experience with firefly hop rubbers, but in general soft hop rubbers perform really well in DMRs they just have a relatively short life span. The modify tan itself is very soft, this is one of the reasons it is so ‘grippy’ and works so well. I often use a 50 degree maple leaf in my DMR, with great results, but a rubber will only last a handful of game days. I don’t spout on about it because I don’t feel it’s right to recommend something with such a short working life. One of the reasons I went to Maple leafs in my DMR was that the modify tans don’t last that long at DMR FPS and a while ago they became very hard to source. The availability seems to have improved now, but they are still a couple of quid a rubber more than the maple leaf which really adds up especially when l have to pay shipping on top when the MLs are available locally.

That setup would certainly work and I have run similar before. Personally I prefer the deception rubber for consistency, and as I will always be down tuning the FPS with my NPAs to get to site requirements I'm not bothered that it requires slightly more barrel intrusion to hop any given weight of BB.

I have Crazy Jets in two of my longer barrel builds and have found them to be pretty good, but If you use them you really need to pair them with a maple leaf rubber and omega hop nub to get the best out of them, and the hop rubber needs a millimetre taken off the tab with a razor blade so it seats in the hop unit properly. If you use the brass nub and modify tan rubber which is well regarded in these parts then the Crazy Jet will be mediocre at best and there are several barrels that feature in these pages that are a better bet.

So I haven’t sold my NGRS to get an MWS as I still have it as a safety net, but I can’t remember the last time I used it in anger. I have a number of MWS and they are so reliable all year round that the NGRS doesn’t get a look in. I actually started a thread about selling it and it will be on the chopping block as soon as I can dig out the box. That being said I personally would never go to a skirmish without a backup rifle. I’m time poor so don’t get to go to as many games as I would like so it would suck if a mechanical failure ended my day early. But that is as likely with electric as gas.

If you are U.K. based at 450fps you will need to lock the gun to semi to comply with U.K. law. 450 FPS is easily doable with a 370mm barrel.

I have 2 Mp5s and four MWS in various configurations. To get out to 80-85 metres with the MWS you will have to do a DMR build which means locking the gun to semi and getting up to the 450fps range and upgrading the hop so you can use heavy ammo. It’s certainly doable fairly easily (longer tight-bore barrel, NPAS, brass hop nub and hop rubber of choice). For a 350 FPS build using ammo in the 3.2g to 3.6g weight range you are looking at about 60 - 65 metres.

Its pretty easy to adjust FPS on a GBBR even if there are no after market parts. In terms of options, I have listed some below in order of easiest to hardest. 1. Use weaker gas - no modification required just buy some HFC135A. 2. Fit a shorter/wider barrel. If you are happy to re-crown the barrel yourself (its pretty easy with a Dremel) you can just shorten the inner barrel you have a bit at a time until you get the desired FPS. A shorter inner barrel gives the BB less time to accelerate before the pressure disperses at the end of the barrel hence less FPS. A wider barrel will let more air past the sides of the BB reducing the pressure for a similar effect. Please be aware that cutting a barrel does not result in a linear drop in FPS (cutting an inch off of a 14 inch barrel will have much less reduction in FPS than cutting an inch off of a 6 inch barrel) and once barrels get below about 3 inches accuracy can suffer as the BB may not have time to stabilise in the air flow after the hop has been applied (the exact length at which these weird results will manifest depends on a number of factors such as FPS, weight of the BB, amount of hop, gas volume, but 3 inches is a good rule of thumb at 350 fps). 3. Fit a weaker valve spring. Your can buy loads of different springs on e-bay you just need the same diameter and approximate length and then its just trial and error on the spring strength/tension. A weaker spring allows the valve to close faster directing less gas down the barrel and more into the blowback mechanism. This has the double advantage of dropping the FPS and increasing the bolt cyclic rate, but a faster bolt can increase wear on the working parts. Note you can also cut the valve spring, but I don't recommend it as it is not a long spring with a lot of preload (unlike an AEG gearbox spring) and you still need enough spring tension to hold the valve fully open at the start of the cycle or cycling will become erratic so the scope for adjustment is quite limited. 4. You can made your own DIY NPAS using a small drill and a grub screw (there are several videos on YouTube). This effectively holds the valve partially closed so when gas pressure is applied in doesn't have so far to travel so closes faster (see results above). I hope that helps. C

As 20m both of my WE MP5s (one SD and one short front end) could achieve that grouping with nothing more than a better hop rubber and giving the inner barrel a good polish. Any of my MWS (even the PDW with the 180mm inner barrel) would be about 25% better. For me the difference increases exponentially with range. At 40m the MWS is still shooting a measurable grouping, but the MP5s are just “on the paper (mostly!!!)”. Assuming the FPS is the same I think the biggest differences will be (1) the hop rubber and corresponding nub, (2) the quality of the finish of the inside bore of the inner barrel, and (3) how well the inner barrel is stabilised in the outer barrel/upper receiver and (4) consistency of the air seal. In my case I attribute most of the difference in performance between my MP5s and my MWS to the fact that my MWS have relatively expensive aftermarket barrels where as the MP5s have the stock WE barrels which I have applied some polish and elbow grease to. The rest of the performance gap will be a result of the difference in build tolerances between the Marui and the WE meaning the Marui will have a much more consistent air seal shot to shot, but there is nothing I can really do to fix that. As they are CQB guns there is no real incentive to drop the money on some expensive aftermarket barrels for the MP5s to try and close the gap and see how close its possible to get.

I have never had a problem running my MWS based Mk12 as a DMR even at sites that state DMRs must be 7.62. I have been to a couple and spoken to the marshals before the game and they have checked it out and been fine. The fact that it is long and weighs a shit tone (18” heavy steel outer barrel) and being a GBBR has pretty realistic ammo limits as well as being based on a real steel DMR has always been fine with them. I think the issue is it is unfair to have the range benefits of a DMR without the disadvantages of a DMR to offset it (size, weight, ammo capacity). This is the main reason for the arbitrary power difference between bolt actions and DMRs (why would most people use a bolt action when you could shoot just as far with a semi locked DMR?). I also have a semi-locked 14.5 inch MWS that shoots at just under the 500 FPS mark, but it built as a competition gun for 2 or 3 gun shooting where the higher FPS is an advantage and we are only punching paper so no issues. I would never run this in a game as it would not be in the spirit of the hobby to do so as my carbine length M4 would be out ranging all but the most well set up sniper rifles (not to mention the fact that it was an expensive build so I would be very upset if I dropped it in the dirt).

Can’t say I have ever noticed this as a problem. I throw 9mm blank grenades about like confetti at a wedding, which was my main justification for buying them.

I have a set and they are pretty decent. I have no major complaints. Definitely very usable for airsoft. I will probably by the Milpro version later this year (mainly for the improved mounting system) and convert my current set to a non-helmet mount to use then I wear a cap.