Captain Darling

We had a couple of .303 Bren guns in our ACF armoury back in the mid 1980’s. I remember being issued one for an exercise with 2 mags and just 20 blanks. I got a massive bollocking when during the contact I ripped the whole lot of in one burst. Sod carrying around that lump as a teenager

I’d tend to agree with this, and must clarify that I avoid using white light as much as possible - it’s far more satisfying to bean someone with a single shot out of the darkness. However there always seems to be a willy waving torch duel at some point. It seems to me that many airsoft deaths at night games are due to blue on blue, confusion and disorientation reigns supreme. There is an argument for not really needing a mega powerful torch, and in lieu having something to flick on and identify friend or foe.

I've been using The Odin LEP for over a year now, so know a little about its capabilities. It's a great unit, if a little specialised. I run it purely for night airsoft, in conjunction with bino NVG's and a Jerry C5 thermal ecoti overlay. I don't run an IR laser, and just use passive aiming with a Eotech XPS3. On the rare occasions I use white light the LEP is pretty devastating, and wipes out the targets natural night vision, or causes their NOD's to autogate. You can get this effect with many weapon lights, but the Odin LEP really spotlights the target at medium to long airsoft ranges. It's especially useful for designating targets to other team members, whether they have NOD's or not. It reminds me of a stage follow spot in a theatre. The light isn't a nice white high colour temperature, but more of a piss coloured yellow, which is disappointing, but acceptable. It's not so great at short distances, as you can struggle to cover the whole target with the spot of light. It's also pretty bulky, much more so than a Surefire Scout for example. Battery life is very good, as are the mounting options, remote switch and value. It's also great at reducing spill from your firing position, if you can mount it as far forwards as you can. I've had it shone at me whilst messing about, and I didn't go blind - I think it's safe. I have seen brighter torches, and I am more concerned over the various Russian lasers and full power IR designators out there damaging peoples eyes and kit. It emits light at a frequency we can see and react to by shutting our eyes, unlike IR/red/green lasers. It's a cool airsoft toy, but not really a game changer, IMHO. I'm lucky and daft enough to enjoy all of my NVG kit, but none of it is guaranteed 'pay to win' when up against decent teamwork and moderate NOD's/thermals.

I’ve just come across your post and agree entirely. It did feel like a ‘mini milsim’ and the standard of player effort was very good. Are you going to the one this weekend at Tuddenham? I was the player that travelled from Derby, and all being well will do the four hour round trip again this weekend, it was that good last time.

Did you leave the ‘silent fill’ gubbins in the fill valves? I find these handy on other mags, but not TM ones. You can use dental ligatures to make your own for about £2 for 500, just don’t use them on TM mags unless you like buggering them up. 20 grams of gas should have given you about 200 shots, not 20.

In my book the only thing better than an MWS, is a pair of MWS. Sharing the same mags/BCG is handy. Having said that, I’m enjoying my GHK AK running on CO2 in the cold weather. So to answer your question, no I don’t carry boring electric guns as insurance - you’ve got to commit to gas. I really really enjoy playing airsoft with the difficulty set to hard level, with all the challenges of GBBR’s. 15+ years into the hobby, it gives me satisfaction to hand some HPA spray and pray try hard his arse by moving more carefully and only taking shots when there’s a high probability of hitting. Much fun.

Pick the o ring out with something like a dressmaking pin and throw it away. TM gas system is not designed to use ‘silent fill’ inlet valve modifications. Sounds like you need to purge your mags - use a fresh tin of gas, turn the mag upside down and fill with a long burst of gas, but use your little finger to keep the knocker valve open briefly. Between one and two seconds, then let your finger off the knocker valve and let the liquid fill the mag. Or your tin of gas is getting empty, and you’re injecting vapour not liquid. Try chilling your mags in the fridge for 20 minutes first, and getting your gas container up to around 20 degrees C

Where did you get that from mate? Impulse?

Can do, depends on the weather. As for airsoft, I had a eye near miss for the first time in 17 years of playing a couple of weeks ago. It was at a CQB site in Derby, and I foolishly broke cover and ran across an open doorway only to get pre fired by some tights wearing HPA hicapa spammer who was lying on the floor and put a line of bb’s into my face out of his/her/it’s stupid M4 magazine. The eye pro took the brunt, but a stray bb hit my eye socket in the gap between my ballcap and my specs and left me dazed and a gnarly black eye formed overnight. I wear prescription Oakleys which don’t seal to my face, but have got away with that for years. It’s at my own risk, but it’s probably foolish. My main error was going to a silly CQB site and exposing myself to a lot more risk than I usually do. In retrospect, I’d say wear high quality full face for CQB. I’m never going to that kind of hell hole, it’s not what I play airsoft for and is just too unrealistic. I’m sticking with my prescription Oakleys and being very picky about when I stick my neck out as a target. I like to try and treat airsoft like real life and not run out into obvious potential lethal danger, and as such I don’t get hit very often when playing. I do a lot of milsim, and this Dye type paintball PPE just doesn’t work with NVG or respirator’s either.

I'm still not clear on what you mean?

I can’t help you with sourcing one, but I’ve owned a Vector and found it terribly front heavy, with generally a poor design both ergonomically and technically. Have you tried one? Bespoke Airsoft supply a KWA thing that looks a bit Vectorish. I think it’s called a TK45 Ronin

I’m still using the Modify X blue bucking, and getting good results with DN (Daves Nub), Laylax 370/6.03, black NPAS, black gas, standard TM mags. 10 shots per mag? That’s terrible, I’m getting about 100.

I was surprised to discover that a TM MP7 is perfectly capable of holding its own in woodland as well as urban/CQB. 6 mags and a 6.03mm inner barrel/ML bucking and they shoot miles with green gas and heavier bb’s. Get one, you won’t regret it.

Without exception the most entertaining airsoft games I've played over the last 16 years have been limited ammo games. I know that won't float on an open day, but I get by just fine with real cap mags, and internally deride the tactical maracas bunch.

Electric guns are a thing of the past for me now. I’ve committed to hard mode. I’ve run plenty of black gas through my MP7 in winter, never ever in summer. Nothing has failed yet, but if it does C’est La Vie

Will you split at all?

Heavy trigger and hard to reload mags would necessarily put me off from skirmishing one. GHK mags and GBBR mags in general do have a learning curve to reloading them quickly. And the DAS M4 has (or had) an unrealistic heavy trigger. People skirmish both of these guns all the time. Any possibility of doing the Devil Hunter mod on these GHK Glocks, do you think?

I made a tool to get my mk18 barrel nut off, used a vice and AR upper clamp. And a electric heat gun to melt the thread lock. It was an absolute arse, but do-able. With this in mind, you’re probably better off going for the CQBR as your base gun. You’ll need a low profile gas block/gas tube and flash hider. I sometimes run a 10.5” barrel in hotter months with a 250mm inner, but I’m trying the 370mm 6.03mn in winter to get better performance on black gas. The HAO rails seem much better than the alternative clones. The mags are SAA, they’ve run totally fine for me and weight 100g less per mag.

Yes, I own a modded MK18 and they are the same internally as far as I can see. It doesn’t look much like a MK18 now though

Which Gunman Chris, Descent? .36's I always found to be a bit too heavy, in terms of cost, joule efficiency at 1J, availability and also time to target from pulling the trigger. SixG nub is the one to go for, or the laylax arm from somewhere like Firesupport if Dave doesn't have any nubs ready to go/has missed the emails or whatever: https://www.fire-support.co.uk/product/first-factory-strike-hop-arm-for-marui-m4a1-mws Biro trick might work, give it a try.

Jay, try looking up the Okto 8 games, they’re an offshoot of Gunman airsoft. The people running them have been organising airsoft for as long as I can remember, and can be trusted to not cock your weekend up. There’s a game with them in a few weeks on the same Eversley site.