MrTea

My project gun. I've got a tan Holy Warrior EXPS3 S1 to go on top. Tan mags are on order. The one thing I hate is the gap between the flash hider and the handguard. I tried loads of different outer barrel combinations to get it as close to the handguard as I could, while allowing the suppressor to attach, and this is what I ended up having to settle on. Will have to try and fix this later. I believe that suppressor is wide enough to accept an Acetech AT2000 tracer unit which would a cool bit of functionality for it to have. Still can't decide on using the black RIS covers or the tan ones.

Another few hours working on the gun today. New compression parts arrived from AK2M4 and what a huge difference they are compared to the old set. I wish I had a chrono on hand to test the before and after. Had a bit of trouble installing the flat trigger (also from AK2M4) as the body pin for the receiver would block the selector going to safe and would bind the trigger. Took about 30 minutes of slowly dremeling material away from the middle third of the pin until the issue was resolved. Put back together and tested. Working flawlessly and feeds fine with the new compression parts. Cannot wait to get this out to a field.

Another afternoon of playing with the project gun and today I opened up the gearbox. The gearbox sticker was still intact. It had never been opened, ever. The job today was re-shim, re-grease the internals of the gearbox, adding a Perun Hybrid V2, new inner barrel, bucking, nub and adding a functional sling-plate rather than the blank one that comes with the gun. The Perun was a doddle to install minus a bit of dremelling required on a post inside the gearbox that blocked the trigger travelling all the way. Once that was dealt with, MOSFET was in quickly, tested and working. Re-shimming the gearbox was a bit more troublesome. Had a couple of false starts with the shimming with one setup cycling halfway then locking up. Managed to get it right eventually. I probably should've got new bearings but totally forgot about it. For greasing the gears I used some Teflon grease designed for bikes as I didn't have time to get some LT2 grease. I used Silicone grease for the compression parts which are on their last legs. A new, upgraded, compression set should have arrived today but Royal Mail are on a go slow so they're getting here tomorrow. The current parts improved with new grease but they're still poor but don't have a chrono on hand to check how bad they are and how good it is after. Reassembling the gearbox was a faff on, the issue being the tappet plate rather than the anti-reversal latch. The tappet plate wanted to keep jumping over the sector gear but was fixed with a long, small, flat screwdriver holding it down while I squeezed the top of the gearbox case on. I added the new inner barrel and I thought it'd be a bit long (340mm) but it's the perfect length for my build. However, I have an issue with whichever factory makes/assembles the SA-C04. The grease/oil they use for the inner barrel/bucking STINKS of fish. I mean, not a little smell, it reeks! The bucking was well beyond it's expiry and went the journey to be replaced with a maple leaf Macaron 60 degree bucking and the nub was changed to a Prometheus flat nub. I cleaned the inside of the hop-unit the best I could with a cotton bud to remove the old oil/grease. Once reassembled, I added the new sling-plate and put the the remainder gun back together. Programming the MOSFET was easy and with 3 levels of active braking and 4 of precocking, the piston is almost all the way to the rear and the trigger response is so fast. Moving forward from here, i'm not sure where to go next. 13:1 gears? High torque motor? Brushless motor? Any and all advice/ideas appreciated here. I do think i'd go for a CNC/metal hop unit as the finishing on the Specna Arms one is poor as I had to clear off several sprues when changing the barrel & bucking. At the minute I have a new ambi charging handle in tan, dust cover and bolt plate arriving from AirsoftPro.cz to replace the worn/scratched/slightly rusted parts on the gun.

This site is a good resource for UK sites; https://playairsoft.uk/

If you're going to change bucking, might as well change nub whilst you're at it. The Omega nubs, i've found, are a real pain in the ass to fit due to being small. I've got a Omega nub in my MP5 with the Macaraon 60 degree bucking and it's fine. Can almost sail 0.25g BBs the length of my local indoors site. I've got a Prometheus Flat Hop nub in my Krytac LVOA with the same Macaron 60 degree bucking and have had no issues with it using 0.28g BBs either. I couldn't use an Omega nub in the Krytac due to the way the hop arm is shaped, it wouldn't accept it.

The Cage Airsoft sell a full L119A2 kit with lower, upper receiver, handguard, flash hider etc etc... £1200 all in if you really want that style of RIF.

Up to £120 you have a few options. Generally you can get a good deal on used ones that come with all the pouches too, check out the classifieds on here. Plate carriers don't pick up a lot of damage so they tend to be in good condition. Personally, if you're not completely set on a PC i'd suggest going for a chest rig. Less weight and bulk to restrict your movement and are cheaper. If you want surplus Osprey, look on Ebay or Etsy.

Local one for me too being from Hartlepool and again, It was fantastic. I actually preferred the amount of people that were there on Wednesday as it left plenty of gaps/flanks to be exploited. Creeping about on the creaky floors and suddenly walking into a room of 3/4 people was a tense but fun time. The low light really makes it though, I even managed to shrink myself into a dark corner and watch someones shadow on the wall so I know they were coming in the room, they didn't make the most dignified of noises when I shot them ?

First game at District 23 last night. What a quality site. It's a 2 story CQB arena within a industrial unit. Player count was around 15 people or so which was good as the site wasn't overcrowded and let me learn the layout as well as let players get flanks off and get behind the other team. Marshalls were great, super chilled about everything. Chrono was done in good time and there were decent length breaks between games to refill mags etc. Took out my MP5, Shadow 2 and LVOA as a backup in-case the MP5 went down. The MP5, with my hasty CYMA hop unit replacement, had feeding issues with the CYMA mags meaning I had to keep them pushed forward slightly. A bit annoying but other than that, the gun performed great all night and even caught the eye of a marshall who was asking me about it. Several players said it hits like a truck as well and the Olight Odin is like turning on the sun given how bright it is, however, it's a dead giveaway to where I was. The Shadow 2 was a nice piece of kit to have around for the tighter corridors/doorways of the upstairs area. Just a shame I couldn't get it to consistently hop .28g BBs accurately. Probably just need to fine-tune the hop. One highlight of the night was pushing down the left flank and seeing some lad in a black cobra hood sprint past into a dead corner. I knew he had to come back past me but if I chased, i'd get shot in the back from their spawn. I lobbed a multibang the length of the lane and it exploded at his heels as he tried to escape. Being a mostly empty industrial unit, the echo from the multibang is unreal and prompted a few "WTF was that!" calls from the whole field. Getting shot under the plate carrier sucks as well. Would not recommend. First game using my new setup and it's great. The plate carrier was comfortable for the entire game but never got to use my sling for the MP5 as I bloody forgot it at home. The two-piece molle belt was great and kept all my other grenades, pistol mags and dump pouch secure with zero movement. Overall, it was a quality night. No issues with not taking hits, marshalling was fantastic, players were all super chill, especially the guy I kept teamkilling and he kept teamkilling me. Not sure how, but we kept finding each other on the field and managed to kill each other a lot. One note i'd make is that they could use some new, brighter bands for the players that wear them. They're so old/faded that it's difficult to tell who is and isn't wearing one in the low light areas. When sorting my kit this morning, it appears as though my B&T tracer has died. It performed fantastically all night and when checking this morning, it wouldn't turn on. I tried new batteries and no change. I think it's gave up after one game. They had a Tavor in their shop and I was sooooooo tempted to buy it.

After a couple afternoons trying out different options between making spacers for the bolts of the handguard and tightening the bolts in a proper pattern I have accidentally fixed the issue by taking apart the outer barrel and reassembling it. I'm not exactly sure why it fixed it but it has. The outer barrel is now pretty much dead center and has zero wobble. Not going to complain but it would have been nice if there was a clear and obvious issue causing it.

Local Airsoft techs store, The Cage Airsoft. Saw their black ones sell out so snapped a tan one up. Initially I was going to wait for payday but glad I didn't as I got the last tan one it seems. They're now sold out.

Nice bunch of packages to wake up to this morning; A Holy Warrior EXPS3 in tan for £70, postage inc. Very happy considering it's way under MSRP (trademarks are under the stickers). Plus a KAC style QD suppressor with the three-prong flash hider. Not pictured is a tan motor/pistol grip for my project gun. I just need to change the battery cover on the EXPS3 but need to work on getting the cable away from the shroud.

Took another couple of pictures to display what the issue is. I've tried adjusting how many barrel shims i've used to no avail. Someone on some long forgotten forum post suggested nipping up the grub screw on the outer barrel so I tried that. It's almost eliminated the wobble in the outer barrel but it's clear it's sitting off centre of the handguard. Aside from the cable tie method mentioned in this video i'm drawing a blank on what else to do. Google brings up a couple results for barrel spacers for MK18 style handguards but they're out of stock almost everywhere or won't ship to the UK. Can't find any aliexpress wares for this either.

I keep seeing the "£200 RIF for a first gun" on places like Reddit etc. and I always give the options of; Specna Arms RRA SA-E02 EDGE (£140) - X-ASR MOSFET, full metal receiver Specna Arms RRA SA-E03 EDGE (£160) - Same as above, just longer barrel Specna Arms SA-C23 (£140) - X-ASR MOSFET, polymer receiver, m-lok handguard Cheaper than their budget which leaves cash for batteries and charger or mags.

Evri stunned me today. I sent pair of trousers with them for £3.50 postage. It was delivered today and I got another email saying it had been sent "out of tarrif". They weighed my parcel and it was 1.2kg when I sent it with 1kg or under service. Fair enough, I didn't expect to be over 1kg so never weighed it. It was an extra £1.36 for the wrong weight class... then £3 admin fee for doing nothing except pushing an invoice with paypal and delivering the package as normal. £4.36 extra in total...

What's wrong with WAS? I've seen almost zero complaints over quality and I can't fault my PC so far.

Well... after a couple hours dicking around with what is probably now my project or teching gun, the handguard is on! I tried both new barrel nuts to find that the GBBR barrel nut did exactly the same as the one the guy sent me so I think he's somehow forced it onto an AEG. The new AEG barrel nut that came needed backing off once or twice but threaded all the way down without issue. Due to the increased length of the handguard (over stock) I got lucky with a 1.2" barrel extention being the perfect length to let the flash hider sit just at the end of the handguard. I slapped a spare handstop and RIS rail covers on to see what it looked like. Now it's on, i've ran into a new, interesting, issue thats difficult to see from the pictures. The outer barrel is leaning/pulling to one side. It has zero movement up/down, just left to right. I already used a varying number of barrel shims to fix this issue with no luck. I'm now planning on a couple of options to fix this. First, I could try using some padding/filler inside the handguard to essentially shim the outer barrel where it's least supported at the front. Second, cable tie or wire shenanigans to fix the outer barrel in place. Third, anything anyone else can suggest to fix the problem. The gun is likely only going to be used in a semi-auto only indoors site. Testing on 7.4v LiPo shows that the gun is already pretty snappy but it's pretty loud and it looks like the gearbox sticker hasn't been cut. It probably needs a reshim/relube. Suggestions welcome. I also now have a spare 7" Nuporl Bocca Series Two handguard if anyone wants to buy it.

8Fields and Viper have done me well so far. I'm just sad that i've burned a couple holes in my Viper glove fingers (I keep accidentally going near the lit pyro fuze to throw it further) that i've had to replace them. They were fantastic over the last year. I've never had an issue with any Viper gear or clothing I bought in terms of quality or wearing too early. I've got an 8Fields rifle bag and SMG mag pouch and they seem pretty solidly built. Other than a few stray threads which were quickly melted down with a lighter, can't fault them.

Brother was gauging my interest about attending NAF in '24 (too busy for this year) and apart from trade stands, food and it being a piss-up I wasn't terribly interested. I read stories about how the queue for chono was over an hour long and the standard of play (for those who did play) was shit and not even worthwhile. Am I pretty much in the right area?

Updates with pictures. I've took pictures of the handguard where the barrel nut sits, a couple of the barrel nuts threads and one of the handguard plate which is particuarly battered. Not terribly bothered about the state of the handguard plate, can be changed with the new one that i've ordered if that new barrel nut fits but i'm impressed how they've battered it that much.

Thanks for the reply. The used handguard only came with one barrel nut and I've been assured that it's the AEG one but you know how sellers are. Looking at pictures of the barrel nuts, they both look the same but I assume the threads are different. The new handguard hasn't arrived yet. Should be posted tomorrow and probably arrive on Wednesday. Was just hoping people had some insight ahead of time. I've seen those HAO MK16 rails and was tempted but I much prefer the look of the DD mk18 rail. I've seen this quoted from a couple places during my googling about my issue.

Hi all. Just wanted to drop in and ask if anyone ever replaced the handguard on any Specna Arms AEG with an aftermarket one? I've just received a used Nuprol Bocca series two handguard as they're nigh on impossible to find new in the tan/bronze anywhere. I disassembled my SA-C04 and attempted to thread the replacement Nuprol barrel nut on to find that it won't thread past half way on meaning the outer barrel is loose and I cant fit the new handguard. I didn't want to force it on with an AR tool. The threads on the Nuprol supplied barrel nut aren't in the best condition but according to the seller, it works fine on the AEG they had it on. In the mean time, I've ordered a brand new series two rail just to test a new barrel nut to see if that's the issue. Are Specna Arms receiver threads different to the majority of AEGs that this handguard is probably made for? Do I need to get a Specna arms produced handguard or just a different barrel nut? The threads on the receiver are a little chewed and paint missing but the original delta ring assembly still threads on tightly so they're not totally shot... Yet. Pics to follow later today as I'm currently on the night shift. Thanks in advance for any help.

As long as you've paid through paypal with their Goods and Services service, you should be covered if they do try to scam you. Give them some time then request updates with tracking info every few days. This way, if you get no further, you can show paypal that's you've attempted to reach out reguarly.

Oh yeah, I literally have no idea what he's thinking charging over RRP. Once you've bought it and try to resell, used or not, it knocks cash off

You can always pay via Goods & Services, cover the fee yourself without letting them know, and then take it up with paypal if they did send you a lemon.