The_Lord_Poncho

After many hundreds of chinese purchases over the past few years, i got stung for VAT (and a small handling charge) for the first time this month. The value of the package was about £135. The value declared by the sender of the package on the sticker on the outside was £50!

Personally I'm a member of the peg board posse. Sounds like we need to hold an annual 'Skadis Invitational' skirmish- Grid Wall Gang vs Peg Board Posse to settle this once and for all!

I've a Cyma 028 with wood effect plastic furniture. The range and accuracy are obscene (mine has a traditional style Guarder hop rubber and an old school H nub), and it's very light. The grey body is an acquired taste, but a can of matt black spray paint sorts that out. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the gun can be lightened even more by easily removing a weight that usually sits inside the (fake) gas tube.

If it assists to widen your search, I use double M4 mag pouches with a full flap (i.e . pouches that fit 2x m4 mags each) which fit a single M14 magazine well.

It's not just you - today I've found it painfully slow (using firefox). I'm also unable to open various links/forums etc in new tabs.

I've mostly found my springs settle down a little, and I lose up to 15fps (assuming a 0.2g), usually takes a month or so. Presuming though that you haven’t got an enormous inner barrel, and that you intend to use something heavier than the 0.2s that you Chrono'd with, one might think that when the hop is set for heavier BBs, you might scrub off the rather small amount of power that you need to lose? Using it on auto, and stopping mid cycle may leave the spring cocked back under tension, which if left that way for a few days would likely also reduce its power somewhat.

Yes, I do 50% hpa, and 50% aeg- I enjoy both. The Chinese regulator and line I got was a solution to different HPA guns shooting at wildly different power levels despite the same regulator setting. As I like to cycle through different guns each game, it was becoming a pain to re-chrono before each game, so having two sets of everything solved that

I've got both. The Chinese version is almost the same, but is adjusted by an Allen key rather than the two pronged key thingy, and doesn't seem to refresh as fast (fine for me as all my hpa stuff is semi only). Aside from that, the Chinese version functions well, as does the line (albeit I didn't buy them as a bundle) from memory I only paid circa 20 for the regulator from AliExpress a few months ago- it was worth it at that cost.

In addition to the above, perhaps double check that the hop unit is hard back against the gearbox too. I'm unfamiliar with the SVD, but presuming its the same rough idea as many other designs, adding a few o-rings onto the inner barrel at the front of the hop unit can work to push it back nice and snug. You mention that some shots are veering off - if you are using your original inner barrel it is possible that the MR Hop and the Omega combo are too big for the window cut into the barrel, and you may be getting irregular pressure/hop as a result.

Whilst I swap between iron sights, red dots, and LVPO's (generally set around 2-3x magnification), I do often find myself missing the magnification on the games that i use just the irons or red dot. The woodland sites that I play at are characterised by open woodland, interspersed with very dense foliage. Especially on dank days, being able to have a bit of magnification is a real godsend for me in order to spot hiding players, and sometimes, to follow the BB path and correct if necessary.

Plenty of stick batteries that should fit just fine in that standard looking buffer tube.

Ah, got it, thanks both for the info!

What 'ban' are we talking about here, just out of interest?

A few initial thoughts on the S&T no. 4 after owning it for a week or so, albeit not yet using it in anger. Finish - pretty good. Wood tone isn't too 'cherry red', although there are a few blemishes where the finish hasn't been applied too well. I wish they had bothered to get the saw dust out of the grooves in the top piece as well, before immortalising the dust by being forever set within the applied varnish. Rearmost wooden top piece does move about a bit. Metal work is nice. Action - adequate, but not great. Mine chronos at 400fps on a 0.2, and the bolt is significantly harder to work than my 2.3j L96. I understand that this is usually down to a poor spring that is distorted out of the box - and can be rectified with the addition of a TM L96 spring. The rear of the bolt was also wobbly upon receipt - I needed to remove the fake cocking piece, then access an allen head bolt hidden inside the back of the bolt in order to tighten it up. The cocking piece doesn't reliably cock back on every cycle of the bolt - if the rear of the bolt is lifted as it is returned forward. Accuracy - actually, not bad. Very consistent at circa 50m with 0.32s. The only problem is, it is shooting low and left - and there appears to be no way of adjusting either the front or rear sight on the no.4. Plans for it - Jaeger Precision spring guide and piston on its way to me. I'll pop a thrust bearing on the back of the spring guide, and team with a L96 m150 spring. The spring guide, bearing, and better spring should sort the bolt pull out, and with the heavier piston, I should be able to propel heavier BBs better. I'll swap a Maple Leaf Autobot bucking in, and I'm currently investigating the best barrel to pop in there - internet wisdom seems to be that the very small cylinder volume (6cm of piston travel) means that you need to go shorter than the 570mm stock inner barrel - I'm thinking of a 400mm male leaf VSR cut barrel (which I might then need to internally shim to get it shooting straight in the absence of adjustable sights!). At some point, I will inevitably sand the wood down, re-stain (light oak might be nice), and oil - but given how good it looks to me at the moment, that's not high on the list. Not having owned a VSR - am I right in thinking that for this (loosely) VSR compatible platform, I need to specifically seek out a VSR cut replacement barrel rather than any GBB cut barrel?

top stuff, thanks!

Was that a spring for the TM (AW) L96, or a Maruzen/Well L96 (or does it not matter)?

The only issue i've had with both my MK23's (an ASG one, and a Nov ssx 303) has been a sticky trigger/trigger not resetting after a shot - necessitating pulling the mag out to let the action re-set again. Happened with the nov gen 2 mags, and the original ASG/STI mags. I'm not sure exactly the feed issues that you are having, but if its of this nature, there is a very simple process to go through - plenty of videos on youtube etc. Essentially you scrape using a blade to slightly thin the 'fin' that picks up the BBs and pushes them through the mag feed lips. 5 mins of work and sorted both mine out.

Welcome! sorry to hear about the fall/damage. Looking up that particular model online, it looks to be a standard AR/M4 style rifle. Whilst standardisation in airsoft can be a little hit or miss at times between manufacturers, I would be very surprised if the majority of rail systems sold for M4 style rifles wouldn't fit. The world is your oyster! It is likely that a new rail would come with a different barrel nut too. This is the large (usually cylindrical) nut that slips over the outer barrel, and then screws onto the threads at the front of your guns receiver, thus clamping the outer barrel to the receiver, and providing something for your rail/hand guard to fit to. Some examples here: https://www.18airsoft.com/collections/rifle-handguard?sort_by=price-descending You need to be looking for those that are noted as being for AR or M4 type.

Unfortunately I'm away overseas that weekend, otherwise this would be a definite. A bit gutted that i won't be able now to put forum names to faces!

Well the S&T No.4 Mk1s seem to finally be on the shelves! £379.99 at PB (or £450 from DCA if you fancy emulating the KLF) . I'd been holding off buying the SMLE version for an age waiting for this release, with PB tantalisingly stocking the correct No.4 mags about a month ago, but not the rifle. Well, order placed, including two spare mages. Hopefully buying an example from one of the first factory batches won't be the usual lottery due to the (I imagine) largely internally identical SMLE version having been around for a few years already. Interestingly it seems the S&T No.4 mags only hold 32 bbs, compared with the SMLE mags holding 35 (albeit apparently they work interchangeably).

Ah, that's good news. Whilst it's not my go-to site, it is relatively local, ands it's always nice to have options, as well as to create a competitive market to keep the other local sites on their toes!

Personally, I'd be more than happy if there was a no pyro rule in indoor CQB sites. A well aimed and timed bit of pyro outdoors takes skill; conversely, to lob a grenade through a doorway in a building and hope for the best does not. Kind of the definition of pay to win in my view. Even in well policed sites, there always seems to be someone who doesn't stick to the rules and uses oversized pyro too. I always look forward to the pyro cut off time when I'm playing evening games at my preferred CQB site, the game play just becomes more even and fun after that.

I do exactly that too!

I have the Nov version, and its done me rather well so far. A year or so in though, and the fan gets intermittently noisy, so if I can't resolve that when I finally get round to opening it up, i'll try out the ali version.

I really don't get the current fad of lazer cutting the top flap of closed magazine pouches. Half the benefit of a closed pouch is to keep the water and filth off your mags...