RostokMcSpoons

I nearly got hit by a very close range ricochet in the safe zone at Spec Ops, an incident I mentioned a while ago. Happy to say that Carlos now shouts very loudly at anyone who dry-fires in the safe zone. But with the number of rentals fiddling with their triggers, and people on the wrong place on the good ol' Dunning-Kruger graph still thinking 'no mag = safe' then things will still go wrong and I feel better when I have some eye pro on. I have a pair of Bolle glasses which I now use for the chrono / range test, and they often stay on at other times too, if the kiddies are getting a bit hyperactive. And hey, nobody's perfect + "shit happens". Even safe, sensible people can make a mistake or slip or do something momentarily idiotic. I managed to shoot someone (out in the game zone) in the "Gentlemen's Particulars" from about a foot away because I hadn't cleared my pistol properly and managed to pull the trigger when it wasn't pointed safely. (Honestly, I was still aiming for the ground... but missed!) Poor bugger was in a lot of pain, and I'm grateful he forgave me, rather than punching me straight in the chops. I'm not saying I'm necessarily "safe and sensible", maybe I'm an idiot , but I have spent an lot of time around various firearms so I'm supposedly well trained. But that one time I messed up and I still burn with a sense of shame over it. All in all, I'd be happy to use a barrel sock in the safe zone (and indeed between the safe zone and the game area)

As I mentioned previously I've really liked the Halfords paint, and I'm very impressed with the level of finish that can be achieved, even in the hands of an unskilled user (i.e. me) So may I commend to the house my full and unwavering support to the motion that we should take up our paint delivery devices, and make our RIFs interesting.

Metal handguard version still available for £189 from our favourite retailer https://bbguns4less.co.uk/products/double-eagle-m906c-ar15-rifle-with-falcon-system-in-black.html Or the longer version with the better crane stock fitted... £229 https://bbguns4less.co.uk/products/double-eagle-m908a-ar15-rifle-with-falcon-system-in-black.html Patrolbase have the polymer gat in stock for a sensible £160 again https://www.patrolbase.co.uk/double-eagle-m904g-honey-badger-w-fire-control-system-edition?pv=13200

Here are a couple of pics... I did try mixing up a bit of black coffee and and sponging that on first, but that didn't really have any effect, so went for the paint instead. The effect is 'grittier' than just toning down the contrast of the colours, but actually it does give it more of that 'just been dragged through the battlefield' look that feels appropriate, IMO.

Thanks @Leo Greer that's a very useful review of the Novris and Krytacs. Probably better off with the Specna over either of them then?

I prefer the look of the H21 with the longer barrel, but of course a £15 outer barrel extension will give you that if you want it (I'm buying one for my VFC HK416A5)

I decided I had to do something during the half time of the world cup final, so went out and dusted the gun with brown and black, and also used a bit of sponge... It's toned the thing down and looks pretty good now I think. I'll post some pics shortly. Of course I still managed to bugger up one bit of it which will grate on me for ever more ?

As a big fan of the MP7 too, the VFC version is worth considering isn't it? ... plenty of owners love theirs. The full auto mag dump isn't as good as the TM's though

Yes, Luke from Negative Airsoft seems to hate VFC AEGs with something of a passion. I've been tempted by a couple of boneyard guns at Action Hobbies, but ultimately decided against them because of him ? The DE has the psychological advantage of lowering expectations due to their lower price, but almost always being very good. Which is nice. I love mine. Roger's suggestion therefore has great deal of merit. Two guns for the price of one also introduces a bit of variety, which allegedly is the spice of life ? I like the sound of the Arcturus guns, shame they seem to be hard to find. Maybe Krytac or :gasp: Novritsch might be contenders for around £350?

One thing I found when doing this today... Most of my spraypaint cans failed on me. The Halfords ones still work well. I'm sticking with them for my future paint jobs, where possible! It's a shame they only do the green, khaki, brown and black though.

Right, I got bored - too bored to wait for some low-tack vinyl to appear, so I went and bought some modeller's masking tape (Revell brand) in the hope that it'd do a better job than the green painter's tape I was using previously (spoiler: not really) So my M90 Homage happened... I did the colours in the wrong order, so there's more khaki than green, was intending the other way around, but actually this looks nicely 'disruptive' so it's fine. It's not perfect when inspected closely (damn it, vinyl might be the only way to do it really nicely), but I'm happy with it. It'll look even better when worn / weathered, as the khaki is brighter in sunlight than this pic shows ... which brings me to a question: @JimFromHorsham you mentioned a light dusting of black to blend it... would you recommend me trying that across the whole gun? I've previously spoiled my M16 with side-spray that drifted across from a bit I was touching-up, leaving a lot of big blobs, is there a knack to getting a really fine dusting?

"Sold!" "Sold!"

Yes there's a thread about Vortex, there's no one reporting a bad thing about them, they really do replace shot-out optics for free. Obviously it's a bit of a pain to be without your favoured sight while the replacement occurs though, I'd still put a protector on one.

Ahhhh that's a cool design but my pallet doesn't give me the depth to angle the mats very much!

Have you tried Red Dot Engineering's polycarbonate protectors? I'm confident they're good at 350 but I don't know if they're ok at higher velocities. Still they are cheap (a tenner or so for a custom size), so worth a test? https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/reddotengineering?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=29Dc19V6RWe&sssrc=3418065&ssuid=T3xj7EiGQjq&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

The words "I fricking love it" spring unbidden to my lips ? Now I've never had a chance to have a pop with an MWS, so I'm going by the fact that a couple of respectable reviews I've read have put the MWS ahead in the pecking order. I'm inclined to believe them, especially if you want to mag dump (but I doubt in real game play you'll even do more than briefly burst fire the gun, so that's no real difference) If it's more accurate then that's the thing to have... My VFC is no laser gun. I've still pulled off some cool shots at range though. I suspect most GBBR's aren't all that consistent or accurate, but damn they're fun. Could I have got more hits with an MWS? Quite possibly? I'd love to find out, maybe one day I'll buy one. But an MWS will cost a chunk more money to buy used. I got my VFC at a very decent price and I'm delighted with it ? Amusing story from my last gameday. I was walking back to the safe zone at the end. Two guys in front of me were talking about the different gats they'd seen through the day... "Gas blowback is just a flex", at which point I adopted my best He-Man voice and called out "I AM THE FLEXOR" I wasn't embarrassed or annoyed, I was PROUD ?

Thanks for adding the Wishlist link in the "My ..." section at the bottom of the user menu

I made a trip out to the wilds this morning and popped in at Halfords, found these... £6 each, they're not too thick so retain some flexibility. Each one can be cut in half to make 'larger than A4' stoppers, so I'll arrange them such that they're dangling by paracord and will stop ~95% of my shots. I'll re-arrange the yoga mat strips as the first line of defence (to quieten the impact, hopefully) The odd flyer can be caught by everything else. I wanted something vaguely weatherproof in case the rain blows in on it... but carpet would've been good enough to last for a good long while though, given it's mostly nylon these days. So that was a good shout. I could've saved £12!

I'm trying to imagine the physics of it all ... it's hard to think that even a wide strip wouldn't get kicked out of the way by 5-10 BB's hitting it in a decent burst. Do I hold it place with elastic bands at the bottom? Or weight them at the bottom of each strip? If they resist too much the BB's will punch through them. Arrgghh! Gavin, I can see the sense in an NBC suit, presumably that's a rip-stop material? I don't have any to hand that I could cannibalize though... Maybe I'll just buy a couple of cheap car mats as the fail-safe backstop. (You know what's really annoying is that I just replaced my shed roof. It's covered in rubber membrane. With quite a bit spare all around... all securely fixed in place now!) Edit: Astroturf? It's weatherproof, pretty indestructible, green... and there's a shop near me that might have off-cuts...

I think I saw a yoga mat in Asda or Tesco for a tenner a while ago, so I think that's got to be worth a shot - I should be able to ensure a good coverage, and I'll probably cut much wider strips (3-4" ?) to make sure they stay in place better

So this sort of twattery occurs when you have too much time on your hands... turning a pallet into a backstop for my garden test shoots The cunning plan was to cut strips of an old yoga mat and suspend them from a bar to absorb the hits and ensure there aren't BB's bouncing noisily off the fence (which might annoy the neighbours). Also would stop the BB's bouncing back on to the lawn (which might annoy m'wife). You can see previous evidence of my misdemeanors in the photos Unfortunately it wasn't all that cunning... the yoga mat wasn't really big enough to provide enough strips to overlap well, so I added the camo netting doubled over, front and back (which was originally intended just for the front, just for effect). That really didn't do much except tangle up the strips and probably get in the way of them hanging straight. So BB's are going all the way through to the last layer of defence, some old under-flooring insulation (a very frangible fibreboard). Eventually they'll get through that too, given how the concentrated bursts are grouping so nicely. Any good ideas on what else I can do (cheaply!) to improve this? I could get another cheapo mat and just add extra strips, if you guys think the original plan was good enough?

I have the visionking and it's held up well to the recoil of my GBBR, so it's a good scope. I would have preferred a true 1x minimum magnification (though it has to be said mine usually sits at 2-3x through a game), so I like the look of your choice. That one piece mount looks good too.

Double Eagle are no longer considered to be shit! That's changed ?

Given that a hop rubber with a bit of silicon lube on it loses its ability to impart backspin, I'd say the effect of a BB touching the sides of a clean polished barrel will be fairly negligible. But as you say it's really all guesswork with no evidence. The makers of wide bore barrels claim great things, but I've watched a video where testing showed they tended to be less accurate. Too many variables in play, and not enough science, so far. (I daydreamed of a glass barrel so someone could actually film the BB traveling along, but I suspect in reality even that would effectively be impossible due to the realities of manufacturing difficulties and costs, refraction affecting observation etc)

Sorry to hear your knee is still knackered, after many games of footy I can empathise... But I don't think I've ever had it as bad as you looked yesterday ? Yes the afternoon games were good too. The blues continued to win everything until the last game (narrowly, not a complete mullering), when I was asked by one of the kids to swap teams. Bingo, first win for the non-armbands! (Not that I'm claiming any credit, I was just a Steady Eddie all day long, no hero moments for me) Hope you're in better fettle for the next game there ?