The_Lord_Poncho

Those activated charcoal hand warmers work too - as a low tech alternative option.

If they re-do the L1A1, I'll be clearing some space on the wall for it!

An MP5 with MLOK and 'Tasteful are, I'm afraid, mutually exclusive!

If you are looking for pure mechanical, Mancraft is also an excellent option. I have had absolutely superb after sales service form those guys.

Well,the S&T no.4 had it's first skirmish yesterday. I'd already swapped the barrel to a slightly shorter and better quality one than the stock brass coloured aluminium (!) barrel it comes with, popped in a silicon Maple Leaf Deception, and upgraded the spring with a heavily cut down L96 M150. Oh, and swapped out the loading plate with a filed to shape alloy L96 AWS plate to stop the original plate retaining c-clip pinging off every 10th shot. It was running at circa 1.3 joules after that, with a decent long range and impressive accuracy. I had an excellent game with it- the paltry six or so 'kills' I had with it each being incredibly satisfying. I would have given myself a high five after each one if that wouldn't have been just too weird (and my screaming biceps had any remaining energy to give). Many admiring comments from the sea of AR users!

A horizontal pouch to house a little 13CI HPA bottle, keeping it nicely tucked out of the way and not bouncing around on the back of the belt. Primarily for use with my recently converted L96 with a Mancraft SDIK. I couldn't find any ready made solutions on the market, so resorted to making my own with leftover bits and bobs that I had+ a 20 year old sewing machine!

It is rather unusual that your rifle has gained power, usually it is the other way around, especially if you haven’t been inside the gearbox or changed the hop rubber (which if you have, might have improved the air seal and given you the power boost). Also a variance of 30FPS is very high. My first suspicion is that you have got a bottle of mixed weight BBs - the lighter BBs will be giving you you the higher FPS numbers, and the heavier ones the lower output. But if you are certain that this is not the case, and you haven’t mixed up your BBs with some from a variety of sources, then probably the next thing I would do would be to swap out the hop rubber/bucking. If you haven’t done this before, this is a very easy task - plenty of YouTube videos on it (the process for your gun will be the same as any other 'M4' type, so search for that rather than your exact model of gun, which would probably not give you as many/any hits). Maple Leaf MR Hop AEG rubbers (yellow/60d degree) is my preferred choice, combined with an omega nub. But these don't fit particularly well in all hop chambers/guns. A slightly less well performing but still good choice (and one that seems to fit in a wide variety of hop units) will be the G&G green hop rubber.

I suspect the Nov and the Cyma that you mention will be good options (I don't know enough about the E&C to say either way), but plenty of other very good options for that price bracket, and many good options for actually a little less money. Some of the higher end Specnas, Double Eagles for example. Delta Armories seem to be churning stuff out at the moment too that I suspect is half decent (the fit and finish of the £35 Delta Armories receiver that I bought is really superb). The AR15/M4 style you seem to be leaning towards is a good option to start off with - a huge range of available guns, and one of the easiest to strip down and work on if you ever feel the inclination. Don't forget the AK platform though if you like the form factor - some very good options in your price bracket from the likes of Cyma and E&L for example.

Right - added to the new tax year purchase list then, thanks! It would be lovely if you could also get them in Mitchell pattern like the Helikon's, but beggars can't be choosers!

I was literally looking at those on Aliexpress the other day! What's the quality like? Standard poncho liner type thickness?

As per Impulses reply - Cyma MP5 is a classic choice. I've played a lot indoors and out with mine. They are solid. The only slight downside is the sliding hop unit can sometimes seem to self adjust - a known problem, and very quickly sorted out with a small O'ring placed against the slider to add more friction. Mine is an A3 version - CM041J Blue Edition - and has been cracking. I also have a very budget (£110) Specna SA-FX01 FLEX - ar9 style gun. Its super light (as its entirely plastic), super cheap, and phenomenally, comes with a programmable ETU. It's not bad at all, although the hi-cap mags seem to frequently jam with BBs caught in the mechanism - requiring the mags to be stripped to free them up. Mid caps are available. The other gun that could make it onto your list is the Double Eagle UTR45 (M917). A little heavier than the Specna mentioned above (but lighter than the MP5), but feels nice and solid despite being fully plastic, and again comes with a programmable ETU. Generally a well regarded gun. One of the downsides are that the mags are huge - albeit that is a key part of the .45 calibre aesthetic. I seem to recall that the stock motor that comes with them is a little lacklustre. All three of the above have quick change spring systems for their gear boxes - particularly useful for downgrading the power for CQB purposes. If you ever want to start investing more money over time in them, all three of the above are readily upgradable with new inner barrels, hop buckings, and motors if you ever feel the inclination, and the AR9 and UTR also have the advantage of using M4 style hop chambers too, with a plethora of after-market options (albeit that doesn't necessarily translate to better). Of course, if you want something short and stubby, and real world aesthetics aren't too much of a hang up, then the world is your oyster for super short M4/AR 15 style blasters with tiny out barrels and PDW stocks, but personally I’m not overly keen on the look.

I have had a similar issue with the MK23, but only when in the game area - e.g. bending down and somehow pressing the hammer in when it's holstered. It should never be an issue for you in the safe area, as your magazine should always be removed from the pistol anyhow. I use a DTD holster for the MK23 when playing which effectively blocks the trigger, so for me i simply have got into a discipline of cocking the hammer back before a game starts+ after using the pistol during a game.

I'm not sure it 100% translates to this situation, but I read somewhere that at room temperature, normal green gas is around 120-130PSI. So on any GBB running on an HPA adapter, I treat this as the maximum PSI that i am prepared to go to without putting undue stress on the internals.

If you are after extracting maximum performance from a pistol, the conventional wisdom is the avoid using gases that contain a silicone lubricant mixed in. Theory being that the lubricant gets blown by the action onto the hop rubber, reducing the hop effect or providing inconsistency. The downside is that the various orings and seals in the magazines and gun itself like some silicone on them to keep them sealing nicely. This explains the Honourable Puceflange's post above where he mentioned the use of UltraAir (a silicone free airsoft gas) with the occasional use of a 'green' gas with added silicon to lubricate the seals. If your pistol is reserved only for close up engagements, then you aren’t going to notice much of a difference if you were to use a silicon containing gas however - so your choice whether the extra (potential) maintenance hassle is worth it. Personally I run without any silicon mixed into my gas, but that's more me just being tight (I use a plumbers bottles of pure Propane in conjunction with an adapter). I add a few drops of silicone every now and then to the pistols blow back unit, and whenever one of the mags starts leaking (pretty rare to be honest) and tightening the baseplate or valves doesn't do the trick; depending where the leak is, I either remove the base plate and use silicone grease around its big oring/gasket before re-sealing, or work some silicone oil into the internals of the valves. It's all dead easy, and dead quick to do - like 5 mins max...

Whereabouts did you get the carpet from? I'm quite interested in its backstory

I'd second the recommendation for the AAP - they just work, and work rather well. They are very cheap, but will out perform pistols three times as expensive, and a plethora of after market parts for them means you can bling them out to your hearts desire if you ever feel the urge to splash the cash. If they really aren’t your thing, then WE Glock 17s and Glock 19s are reasonably well regarded (I have a couple, and they have been great - I confess to not knowing much about the G23you mention). As said, WE's do seem to be hit or miss sometimes, but their Glocks generally appear to have a good reputation.

A number of options, for all budgets.... Note that unless you are very lucky, some trial and error is required for most in order to manoeuvre the gearbox about to get a good nozzle alignment with your hop unit (plenty of online guides how to do this). Personally I'm a huge fan of Mancraft - they are a great company to deal with, and if my experience is universally true, have amazing aftersales. The Mancraft PDIK will fit inside your existing gearbox (or you can buy them that come within Mancrafts own fancy gearbox), and is mechanical only - i.e. you don't need to worry about batteries and fancy electronics. this does mean it is semi auto only, but is spot on for a DMR type set up. https://shop-mancraft.com/en/pdik-hpa-conv-kits-for-aeg-rifles/195-539-mancraft-pdik-v2-gen3-hpa-engine.html#/154-gearbox_model-v2_with_gearbox_shell There are lots of other options for systems that can be retrofitted to a V2 gearbox - e.g. Wolverine and Polarstar are established brands in the market, and provide full auto capability. If you are happy to go out on a bit of a limb with a new 'drop in' and budget offering (which because its new, doesn't have much feedback yet), Ares have just brought their HPA gearbox to the market too. e.g. https://highpressureairsoft.co.uk/collections/ares-engines/products/ares-conversion-v2-hpa-gearbox-set-tm-ares-amoeba-compatible . They are built around the TM standard V2 gearbox design, so, although Krytac can be a little quirky, I might suspect they would fit without too much drama. If you go down this route with the Ares box, please report back on your findings!

Hmm - I've had something on 'pre-order' since November. Time to get concerned i think!

I can't recall whether DE (or at least your model) uses a hop arm with a captive nub. If you are getting no hop really at all, there may be a possibility that, in the process of changing the bucking, a non captive nub had dropped out of the hop chamber entirely, and become lost. Possibly able to be checked by removing the hop chamber, holding it upside down, and applying hop to see if the nub moves into view. If it is missing, and the hop arm really can't be removed, then you might be lucky enough to be able to place the nub back into position with the hop unit upside down, and hop fully off - and slide the nub into position via the main body. Or you could install the original bucking back in assuming you haven’t damaged it when you removed it, check the range, to verify that loss of the nub isn't the issue Of course, the other possibility is that the process of changing the bucking, and maybe the bucking itself, has messed with your air seal - i.e. the nozzle from your gearbox isn't playing nicely with the lips of your bucking, and you are losing a lot of air (and therefore power) this way. When you are sure the gun is unloaded, turn it upside down and without a magazine in place, place a small bit of tissue over the bb feed tube part of your hop unit. If the tissue is dramatically blown about (and not just from vibration) when you fire the rifle, that would start to indicate that this is the case. You can either try other buckings (not all buckings are compatible with all hop units/nozzle lengths), or try a cheap ZCI hop unit in the gun which appear reasonably universally adequate. The 4uantum buckings seem reasonably well regarded, so they should be doing the business if there isn't a compatibility issue (or you haven’t lost the nub!)

There is rather a lot to unpack here! I read that the DT4 is a double barrel M4, with a single gearbox but containing two separate compression systems. Presumably that therefore means that your poor motor is having to pull back two of your M115 springs with each cycle. That's brutal punishment for the motor, and it's no wonder that it is getting warm. You mention that it is doing 400fps - what weight BB are you using? On anything usual - e.g. a 0.20g bb and up, 400FPS will be over any UK site power limit, and more importantly, the UK legal limit for something that is capable of full auto - in its present set up, it is possible that your gun is classed as an illegal firearm. I'd recommend removing the M115 springs and popping in something around an M90 (or possibly an M95) - which, given the inner barrel length is quoted at 290mm, would likely give you powers within UK site limits, and give your motor an easier time. It will still heat up though, albeit to a lesser extent. The battery that you are using - you say its a big one from an RC car) hopefully that is no higher than 11.1v, if it is, you will be stressing the electrical system, and risks destroying your mosfet.

Might this be an alternative option for you (presuming that the nov 249s aren’t entirely proprietary)? https://eu.novritsch.com/product/ssr249-hop-up-unit/?_gl=1*z6cbzu*_up*MQ..*_ga*MjMxMjI5Mzc4LjE3Mzc0MDcxMzA.*_ga_K9359NZ65D*MTczNzQwNzEyOS4xLjEuMTczNzQwNzE0MS4wLjAuMTU4NjkyMjkxOA..*_ga_B99L79801L*MTczNzQwNzEyOS4xLjEuMTczNzQwNzE0MS4wLjAuMA..

If you have installed a like for like replacement G&G green bucking, then that rules that one out. But in my view the fact that the mags are no longer locking in place indicates that the failure to feed is unlikely to be down to the bucking lips being e.g. longer, but rather that the hop unit isn't sitting where it was previously - which you have probably worked out already. I presume that you are confident that the spring that was either around the inner barrel in front of the hop unit or the little bendy spring that is attached to the front top part of the hop unit were reinstalled (I’m not sure which design your hop unit has, but I presume that it is one of those two options)? This keeps the hop unit pushed back onto the front face of the gear box. The upper receiver is fully located as far back as it should be on the lower receiver, and the front retaining pin was able to be inserted with the similar level of friction as when it was first removed? You didn't take the opportunity to do a few wraps of tape around the inner barrel, which if overdone might somehow be preventing the inner barrel and hop unit sitting where they previously were inside the outer barrel? If it's none of those, then I’m out of ideas!

This rather nice 1911 from 18Airsoft. It's an E&C, nice trades, seems to work well - and only £52 (plus a minimum of about £20 for postage I seem to remember). Grips are Ivory effect G10 from Aliexpress for about £8 posted - only a small amount of dremmeling required to their undersides to achieve a perfect fit.

I couldn't agree more. If nothing else, it might help shake up the market a little and bring out a few more keener priced offerings from other manufacturers.

Yep, I've never had an issue with Aliexpress either. Plenty also from 18airsoft, MLE Mart, Airsoft Tiger that also arrived without additional charges.