The_Lord_Poncho

Hey, I'm keen on this Leia - she makes me feel good about myself LOL. If only my wife were as keen on my 'fantastic weekend DIY projects' !

What the guy has done in that link - and the amount of time he must have invested...wow!

That's an interesting idea! Certainly, when I ran the shotgun last night in the Epsom tunnels, my attempt at fixing the torch to the top rail and actuating with a thumb or forefinger didn't really work out. That said, the whole shotgun performance was pretty poor. Despite cleaning a metric tonne of what looked like grease out of the barrels, and gently cleaning the fixed hops with a alcohol soaked patch, the range on the Golden Eagle was pathetic, 15m, with no appreciable hop (on 0.2s), and a spread larger than person sized at that 15m range. Not sure if i have got a lemon, but at the moment, investing the time in rigging a torch onto the lower tube doesn't seem worthwhile unfortunately.

Some great ideas,thanks! I'll try to work something out this evening. Including if I dare screw anything into the pump/foregrip. I don't tend to use a torch much in CQB, as I subscribe to the above wisdom that 95% of the time it unesssarily advertises your position, but when you need it, you need it!

In a few days time I'm looking at running my new Golden Eagle M870 (https://www.patrolbase.co.uk/golden-eagle-type-870-m8871-railed-gas-shotgun) in the Epsom Tunnels (CQB). I'm struggling to identify a viable way of mounting a torch with pressure switch - what do people suggest? I imagine that its a problem common to all types of pump action....

Ok, problem solved! A bit of a roundabout way to get there, but I ended up buying a WE Glock17 Gen 3, and then fitting the army Armament R34 slide to it (fits perfectly), hand stippling the WE lower to match the Taran Tactical/JW2 look with a soldering iron (dead easy, and looks really good), and fitting the flared magwell from the Army Armament to the WE (again, fits perfectly). Pistol now works well with all mag types - highest FPS with WE and Action Army/AAP, slightly lower with army armament magazines. The magazines mostly have flat routers, and the BBU is curved as the original mags have curved routers, but this doesn't seem to be an issue as far as I can tell.

I've made a few courses in the garden before - a couple of hours cutting out a lifetimes supply of IPSC carboard targets from old boxes, mounted on garden canes, inc. a few white 'no shoot' targets partially obscuring a couple on each course. A wooden framed plate rack with steel discs held loosely in place within 3d printed cradles, lots of steel disc 'gongs', and a few falling plate steel 'popper' and disc targets. I've cut up an old mesh trampoline net which I use as screens to restrict field of views/arcs (perfect for the job as once cut up as each 'panel' has a sleeve either side for garden canes to be inserted). Mild steel discs can be readily purchased online of various sizes and thicknesses - I tend to find FH Brundle a good supplier (ebay is more expensive). These can be painted (e.g. white line marking paint) and drilled to be hung as gongs etc. Also, I've made a IPAS (Iron Plate Action Shoot) set up - which is good fun - 5 mild steel squares, 4 of them painted white and a fifth in red, paired with 5 simple wooden stands that allow the targets mounted at various heights/configurations. To be shot as fast as possible with a pistol, always ending on the red - various mobile phone shot timer apps will work. Both are mildly diverting BBQ side activities for guests....! But of course, old tin cans stuck on top of garden canes also works...

Very impressive!

I've tried and failed with canted irons for the reasons you state - and no adjusting of the sights could compensate for the skewiff hop effect at any useful range. But conceivably, with a canted re dot, it might be possible to utilise without actually canting the rifle - especially if (against conventional wisdom) it were to be mounted to the left of a (right handed set up) rifle?

Top stuff, thank you both! Sounds like I'm not going to have an issue with volume then when I fit the longer barrel (and I've learnt something too to boot). Ultimately the test will be when i fit the barrel - it turned up yesterday, so I'll get it sorted this weekend and report back!

Yep -this did the rounds - as far as i know, it was driven by competitors or youtubers keen on clickbait. But fairs fair, clearly in certain circumstances the plastic clearly wasn't up to it. I believe that the second batch he sells had this remedied - in the meantime, mine (first batch) was shipped with a suitably sized patch of self adhesive velcro that I stuck on the box to provide some extra protection. All I can say is that it is comfortable, quite in operation, keeps me fog free when I'm indoors (I wear mesh outdoors), and was a lot cheaper than Ex-fog when i looked into that solution (and at the time they just had a rather heath robinson arrangement of sticking the tubes into the goggles).

Consensus seems to be that Secutor Shotguns are rebranded Golden Eagle shotguns (certainly the gas ones, and possibly the spring ones as well?) - so you might find more luck searching for Golden Eagle instead. If you are fixed on a spring shotgun, the Cymas also have a generally good reputation.

The Novritsch ones are really good - the magnetic link attachment works perfectly - so much so, most of the time, the act of putting the helmet on is enough to link it up to the goggles. The hole that it requires you punch in the frame of the goggles is rather small - I'd say half way between a Skittle and a Smartie! That said, I used it with the pyramex goggles that have a soft rubber frame - I presume it would also work with goggles that have a hard plastic frame, but it might require a bit more attention, and maybe a bit of glue.

So I have a AAP based carbine - built up around the TTI PCC kit, and currently enjoying a 21cm Unicorn airsoft barrel and bucking. I've run a game with it using the rather nifty Airtac MP5 mag HPA adapter, and it performed....adequately. Aside from the outer barrel being rather wobbly affecting accuracy (nothing that a bit of threadlock can't solve), I was running at around 1.4j with 0.36 BBs with the reg set on 120PSI (i.e. green gas pressure). As the carbine is locked to semi, I would like to exploit my site's DMR rules, which allow 1.9j (i.e. equivalent to 450fps on a 0.2 BB). I don't really want to achieve that by simply turning up the regulator, and put additional stress on the gun, so I've invested in a 310mm Maple Leaf inner barrel, and I'll probably up my BB weight to 0.4g to gain max benefit from joule creep. However, and this is the question, is the 310mm barrel going to be too long for the amount of air/volume that an AAP would produce, especially when paired with a 0.4g BB? I could presumably (and hopefully) turn my regulator down to lower pressures, e.g. 80-100PSI with the extra FPS added by the longer and marginally tighter barrel - would that therefore make the magazine valve a little softer for the AAP's hammer to strike, and thus release a touch more air to compensate for the additional volume required by the longer barrel?

BLS seem to be well regarded, but I've been absolutely fine with .28 ASG cursed - got through several bags of it in multiple guns, all with good results.

Mixed morning at Driver Wood yesterday - they were trialling a new game format, including roaming spawns (marshall with a flag acting as the spawn point, and moving around behind the action). I’m a great fan of roaming spawns - they are a good solution to allowing the use of a large playing area, without the trek back to spawn becoming so lengthy that it encourages cheating or is just outright tedious. The game involved a team trying to get a stretcher to a number of different objectives in a set sequence, the other team defending those objectives. First game we were ‘defending’, second game, attacking with the stretcher. I opted to run the AAP carbine in the first game - built up using a TTI kit, with a 21cm inner barrel, and running on HPA via an Airtac MP5 magazine adapter. It didn’t start well, with the obligatory pre-game test shots sending the charging handle extension flying over my shoulder and my discovery that the outer barrel was wobbly! Throughout the game, I was needing to constantly re-zero the gun, not by adjusting the sight, but by nudging the alignment of the outer barrel within the handguard. Madness. Still, it gives me an excuse to strip the carbine down to pop a longer inner barrel (circa 300mm) so that I can reduce the HPA pressure to create less wear and tear (and this time use a bit more threadlock when I re-assemble…). Aside from gun troubles, the first game was a bit of an annoying game of attrition, with our team somewhat static, and lacking the motivation to push hard, despite the spawn only being a short distance behind us. Second game we swapped roles, and this time I opted to take the L96 and MK23 - both of which performed superbly, with plenty of pleasingly long range hits with the sniper rifle, and much more mobile game play from both sides for some reason. Also, re-affirming my view that a good ghillie head and shoulders aka viper hood is in 80% of cases as effective as a full ghillie suit, without the heat and hassle. And for once, the weather was great!

Yep - they are rather nice, and these days, a little different. The double/single action trigger is a nice touch too, and would avoid those embarrassing moments when I draw the Glock mid game and have forgotten to cock the damn thing! Perfect for a late 90s/2000's UKSF look!

Soooo satisfying. To be honest, I tend to draw the pistol and have a little charge some times when I would probably be OK on the DMR MED, just for the drama of it.

I mostly go on my own too - agreed that at first i felt a bit uncomfortable as it seems everyone else is in big crowds of mates - but the reality is there are lots of others like us, quietly getting on with sorting our kit in the corner. And if you are so inclined, without fail, I've always found people will strike up a conversation at the slightest opportunity - ultimately you automatically have rather a lot of common ground with everyone else there! Also - agreed - DPM (and, similarly, Multicam Tropic) is beyond effective with Rhododendron! It was of course designed for a dense woodland environment of central Europe. Multicam/MTP is very effective, but ultimately a bit of a compromise, and is a touch too light in heavy cover (whereas DPM sticks out as a dark blob in open ground or very light cover).

I use three weights in my pistols- 0.2s for the hicapas indoors - where speed to target matters more than range and, well, they are cheapest! 0.25 in the Glock 19 used as a secondary when i'm running a DMR in woodland (usually gets drawn and used in anger 3 or 4 times per game) - a little more rage and 'punch' to get through vegetation, but ultimately for that type of use, the DMR covers everything 25m plus, so range isn't that important, and .32s in the MK23 (other pronunciations are available, but ill advised) when it is used as a quiet secondary when I'm running the L96.

A fairly productive weekend - a DPM sleeve to cover the red HPA hose that I've recently picked up, a couple of white medic arm bands made from an old T-shirt, A mini internal dump pouch to velcro inside of my chest rig pouch and to use for sorting out empty shot gun shells from full ones, and finally an el-cheapo hydration pack from aliexpress for my HPA bottle (turned up less than 5 days after ordering - a record!) sprayed up to tone it down a little.

On an aligned subject, over the weekend I had great success re-filling a standard green gas can (WE brand I think) from the residual propane left in a couple of the plumbers bottles. The trick is to find the correct sized plastic tube to join the two nozzles (i.e. the original nozzle on the green gas can, and the madbull style/clone adapter for the plumbers bottle) - and ensure it is strong enough. In testing, most ball point pen inner ink 'tubes' are too thin to fit the nozzles and too flexible. The perfect solution was a gel pen - that had a much thicker ink 'tube' and much stronger. It was then easy to leave the plumbers bottles on the radiator to gently warm them, and pop the empty green gas can outside in the cold to cool it (or presumably, the freezer in the summer). Then, stand the green gas can upright, slip the inch or so long length of gel pen tubing over its nozzle, invert the plumbers bottle with its adapter inside you gel pen tube, and push down hard - depressing both nozzles. You can hear (and see) the liquid gas transferring, and feel the green gas can warm up. Do it slowly in stages, and repeat the warming/cooling process enough times as it takes in order to maintain the pressure differentials. Previously I was left with a load of almost empty plumbers propane cannisters that were as good as useless - now I have an almost full green gas can, to use without faffing around with adapters! By pre-filling the gel pen tube with a light silicone oil before inverting the plumbers cannister and filling, you have the option of adding your preferred amount of silicone to the mix too. In terms of safety, go slow, and best not overfill the green gas can - ideally know how much it 'should' weigh when full with its original load of gas when purchased. Also, the plumbers propane bottles have pressure relief valves, but still, it would seem unwise to heat them up enormously on a radiator etc. I would imagine that this technique could also make more viable the use of those mini green gas cans that are a useful size to cart around with you during a game, but are an expensive way to buy gas.

I've had very good service recently from this outfit - https://www.18airsoft.com/ Presumably asia based - super quick postage (7 days door to door both times), prices have been keen compared with many of the more established asian shops, and the postage costs were relatively speaking quite low. Can't recommencer them enough based upon my last two experiences.

That's an excellent use - almost preferable to use mixed weights to provide a bigger spread, and increase the size of the 'beaten ground'!

Yep, same here! Generally go into a bag that is then only used for testing feeding/cycling on guns after I've fiddled with them, or for breaking in new mid caps by repeatedly loading/unloading them.