Colin Allen

Someone else posted three days ago stating that he is alive.

Indeed. There is no consistency in airsoft and tolerances are loose.

I have seen 21mm and 21.4mm. However, not all 21.4mm ones are the same length; there are marginal, but potentially significant, differences. However, it could be a timing issue or one of many other issues which can occur when you bring different parts together.

Possibly a marginally different nozzle length, a different profile, or slightly too tight on the cylinder head tube.

That should be ok for most M4 type barrel lengths. I use a similar one with a 360mm barrel.

That looks like the standard G&G cylinder; what is the inner barrel length?

It seems to have been a great day! What a fantastic report.

Today's airsoft adventure was a trip to the second game day at the new Dragon's Lair site in Essex; the lad and I were accompanied by his girlfriend Charlie, who is an accomplished real steel shooter. Around 55 people were present, fewer than two weeks ago but this may have been down to it being peak holiday season. The first game was a simple domination; the team that had the village flag up at the end would win. We started from the back of the end compound, which is definitely not the best place to start this game. Along with a group of team mates, I set off into the woods on the ridge to our left, intending to prevent the enemy outflanking our central push and, if possible, push them back and outflank theirs. We had a cracking fight in the woods and pushed them back almost to their start point; however, this had no impact whatever on the outcome of the game as the blue team quickly got their flag up and held on to it until the end. After a short break to reload and take on fluids (it was very hot), the game was reversed; a small group of us set off into the same woods, where we pushed forward past the village. There I encountered Charlie, whose stalking skills had come to the fore; she was amazingly still, moving just enough to engage new targets, which she rapidly despatched. We were soon joined by the lad and held our position until Charlie was hit by a wonderfully sneaky fellow who had flanked round us; the lad and I avenged her! The game ended with our flag up in the village. After another very necessary break, we played Hamburger Hill. We defended the ridge nearest the safe zone with three lives while the attackers had to raise their flag on the hut on the summit. The three of us took up position in a rather nice position among bushes under a low, spreading tree and engaged several attackers who we sent back to regen on a marshal positioned behind their team. I was then shot in the back; clearly the attackers had turned our left flank, although this seemed odd as one of our players was still in position there. After crawling out of the undergrowth I encountered two of our younger players and none of the enemy; when I asked them if they had just shot me, they told me that they had because they thought I was the enemy. I took up another position behind a bush about 5m further back. After potting a few attackers, I was hit by some shots from my right flank; assuming that the enemy had pushed up the main path up the ridge, I stood up to move back to my final position only for one of my own team to apologise for shooting me. This seemed to be becoming a habit. On the summit, I positioned myself behind a barricade, where I held out for a while until we were overrun. After lunch, Hamburger Hill was reversed. We struggled up the hill in the heat and pushed the enemy back; when I reached the summit, I witnessed the lad making a brilliant and successful run to raise the flag. Unfortunately, our time was exactly one minute longer than that of the blues. After taking on more water, we returned to the valley. As the attackers, we had to raise our flag at each of the following: the camo net building, the centre compound, and the end compound; one a flag was raised, that became our regen. We had infinite regens while the defenders had one life at each structure. The slopes on either side were out of play, so this was played straight down the valley. We quickly raised our flag at the camo net building and moved on the the main compound, which could only be entered by one door, which unsurprisingly proved to be a bit of a bottleneck. However, our assault team pushed through, took the compound and attacked the final one, where the flag was eventually raised. After another short break, during which a player was sent home for having a mag in his gun in the safe zone despite explicit warnings in the morning briefing, the game was turned around. In the first stage, we prevented the enemy getting the camo net building flag up for quite a long time; after potting loads of attackers, I was hit on a finger, which was the only exposed part of me. Defending the middle compound from a position in the back right corner, which covered the entrance, I was again hit after taking out a number of attackers. In the rear compound, I took up a forward position in a corridor at 90 degrees to the entrance, while two other colleagues covered it from close up. They did a great job of smiting attackers and preventing them breaking in until they were both eventually hit. Valhalla would welcome them as true heroes; Romans would laud their defence as being akin to that of Horatius Cocles. After that, I potted everyone who tried to storm the entrance and those who tried to flank it. The game ended when the attackers ran out of time. It was a very good, albeit very hot, day of airsoft which was well marshalled, well organised and well played by both teams. Charlie really enjoyed her second day of airsoft. Guns used: Me: Hurricane Kit Knight's Armament SR47 Double Bell AKMS ASG XP18 Commander (CO2) The lad: CYMA Zenitco AKS74U CYMA Zenitco AK105 ASG XP18 Commander (CO2) Charlie: G&G "Magpul" M4

Damn you! I really hoped that you were going to say that it was a pile of Austrian Hundehaufen, so I would not feel tempted to get an A1. Oh well, time to start sewing FIDF patches on the DPM.

07:00 today saw the lad and I heading off to to Airsoft Plantation in Essex. The safe zone seemed a little emptier than usual, probably because the car park had been designated as an additional safe zone and a fair number of players had decided to remain there. Having fortified the lad with a very strong coffee, the first game was a fallback. The defenders had three lives, one in the woods, one at the border and one in the mortar pits. As the attackers, we had infinite regens on a marshal who was 30m behind our rearmost player. Along with other team members, we set off to attack down the left; the lad disappearing into the long grass, crawling on his belly towards the enemy. After taking out the defenders on that flank, we pushed on towards the border, where the Blue Team put up a very impressive defence, which delayed us considerably. However, we eventually got five players onto the bridge at the border, which required the defenders to fall back to the mortar pits, where we had to put up a flag on the middle bridge. The lad and I had completely lost contact with each other by this time, so I joined a group who were moving through the village to swing around past the boat house and attack the bridge where the flag was from the flank. We ran into a fair number of defenders, who slowed us down. However, after a total of an hour of fierce fighting, the flag was raised by some of our colleagues. After a short break to reload and take on fluids, we set out for the reverse of the previous game. At the start, I took up position behind a fallen tree to the left of our first defence line, while the lad ensconced himself in a large and very dense holly bush to my right. Our group took out a lot of the enemy, but they just regened and came back to the assault. Eventually, I was hit and fell back to defend the border, which eventually fell after a hard fight. Meanwhile, the lad had been conducting a one man fighting withdrawal, falling back in 30-50 metre bounds and reengaging the enemy each time. The border having fallen, we regrouped at the mortar pits, where I took up a nice position covering one of the main approaches to the flag. After a while, I had to abandon it as the enemy were pushing from the left and, at some point, I was hit by a shot from the recently captured castle, which ended my involvement. The enemy raised the flag in a time that was a few seconds quicker than ours. After lunch, we returned to the mortar pits for another game; the enemy had to get an ammo box with two grenades in it to the black Land Rover and then onto the top floor of the bus, setting one off in each location. We could have a maximum of four players in the bus. The attackers had infinite regens while we had two lives. The lad positioned himself under the Bedford, finding the AKM a very useful tool to beat down the rampant stinging nettles. The blue team's attack was heralded by a massive number of flash bangs, smoke grenades and gas grenades, which sent a fair number of our team back to take up their second life. After potting a few of them, I was taken out by a flash bang and fell back to defend from behind one of the old cars, along with a couple of other players. This proved to be a good position, until we were finally taken out as the attackers swamped our position, whereupon we retired to the sidelines to watch the fun. Having earlier blown up the Land Rover, the blue team turned their attention to the bus, over which they took an inordinate amount of time given that there were hardly any defenders left. We joined their snipers in "encouraging" them to get on with it. After another short break, that game was reversed and we went onto the attack, whittling down the defenders and blowing up the Land Rover, with the lad displaying his customary controlled aggression. The bus proved tricky to break into; the lad climbed in through the rear emergency door and was then shot by a team member who had just entered via the front door and looked at him for about three seconds before shooting him. I spent my time pinging BBs into the top floor windows to keep the defenders' heads down. Eventually the second grenade was detonated on the top floor of the bus, unfortunately in a time a few seconds longer than that taken by the blue team. For a final quick game, we moved to the village where the blue team had 15 minutes to get five players into the town hall. We had two lives while they had infinite regens on a marshal. The lad and I took up our favourite position in the fuel dump, him covering the left flank while I covered the front, with our right being covered by teammates in the main structures. This was a fast moving and very intense game, with lots of communication among our team. We were both eventually hit and fell back to the town hall, which was successfully defended, despite a couple of attackers breaking in at different times. As the attackers were close to succeeding after 15 minutes, the game was allowed to run to a conclusion. So ended a very good day of airsoft. Hit taking was excellent and gentlemanly conduct was much in evidence during the very well designed games. As the lad was releasing the precocking on his gun at the end, the site owner came over to him to commend him on his play during the day, which he described as fantastic; training goes a long way. Weapons used: Me: Ares L1A1 Real Sword QBZ97 ASG XP18 Commander (CO2) The lad: LCT AKMS G&G AKM ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

This looks great and I wish you every success. However, unless you are going to run it as a CQB site or for heavily themed games where shooting is only a minor part of the experience, 1.7 acres is really small; it is approximately 83m x 83m.

It is good practice to take the batteries to their storage voltage (around 3.8v per cell), so the advice from Onyx was good. I do it with our batteries; it isn't exactly a hardship. Nuprol batteries are not very good, to put it mildly. Vapextech are better, but I really like the Turnigy ones, except when they refuse to come out of battery compartment that they went into so easily, but that is another story!

Ooer, missus!

I suspect that you are being overgenerous; the statement is very clear.

I think that this is just about Mackable, not for the price but for the claimed range; I assume they are airsoft feet. https://prefired.co.uk/ads/sigg552-commando/

Brave, yes; foolhardy, no.

FPS will remain constant as you change the weight setting because the chrono reads the velocity of the BB, which has not changed. The chrono then uses the velocity and the set weight to calculate the energy in Joules.

310 fps on a 0.23 is 1.02J

Sam is the only tech I know of who will work on them. To be honest though, it is probably better to just buy a new one.

Cycling a V2 gearbox without securing the spring guide being secured can be disastrous; don't ask me how I know! It can also make a not insignificant difference to the power. It is quite easy to make up a collar that you can use to secure it with the screw.

Mine was from UKARA in April 2024.

Likewise.

Today, the lad and I set off for the first day at the new Dragons Lair site in Stifford, Essex. They had been operating out of their old site at Kelvedon Hatch since 1987 and we had been occasion attendees for the last nine years, so we were both intrigued and nervous about what the new site would be like. Another cause for slight nervousness was that I took two guns to use that I had just finished rebuilding and had not had time to test outside the house. The safe zone is excellent; good table space, free tea and coffee all day and a decent little shop provided by Airsoft Zone (Hi Marek!). Food could be ordered via a QR code from the hotel in whose grounds the new site sits. We were the first to sign in, so I was player No 1 at the first day of the new site. The first game was a simple attack and defend game; as the attackers, we had to take three structures along the valley (the site is essentially a long valley with wood and scrub covered slopes along the either side) and then turn 90 degrees left to take the final one atop the ridge by the safezone. This was hard! With the lad enjoying himself sneaking around the woods on the slopes to our left, we took the first and second ones rather rapidly and then ran up against the compound. I joined a group who were pushing along the right hand ridge, clearing the woods of defenders and pushing towards the rear of the compound, while the lad was moving along the compound wall with a group. After a lot of shooting and dithering by our team, the lad led an attack into the rear of the compound, enabling its capture, which was signified by pulling down the Union Flag and raising the glorious flag of...Afghanistan! However, we never got anywhere near the final objective on the ridge. After a short break to load up and take on fluids (it was very warm!), the game was turned around. The lad and I, along with some other players, headed back into the woods where he had been in the first game and had a great time shooting the other team as they tried to advance up the slope; at one point, the lad pushed through to the edge of the woods and took out a load of enemy players in the valley before being hit. Returning from regen, he was shot at close range by one of our own team! Falling back from there, I moved into a position supporting the compound, which was under sporadic attack from the enemy; a group of us were taken out by a player who suddenly appeared behind us, which rather impressed us; we were rather less impressed when we, and he, realised that we were on the same side! The game ended with us still in control of the compound. Lunch then followed; for those who had ordered from the hotel, this was delivered by a waiter in full dress, complete with bow tie, which was a slightly incongruous sight. After lunch, we played a game where we, as the attackers, had to push up the ridge towards the safe zone, in order to reach the structure on that plateau. We had infinite regens on a marshal behind the team, while the defenders had three lives. The lad and I decided to use this as an opportunity to explore the limits of the site, pressing along the right hand ridge to its end and then turning left to follow that boundary. The latter part involved us wading through stinging nettles and bushes, only to find that we had reached the same point as some of our colleagues who had come along a rather nice path. Lesson learned! As a team, we fought our way through the scrubland, eventually taking the objective and raising the Afghan flag after wearing down the other team. After another short break to reload, we then acted as the defenders in the reverse of the game. Taking up a position on the left, I took out a number of the attackers from a position in a large bush before being peppered by a few BBs. Falling back, I cowered in another large bush, again taking out several of the enemy before bring hit by a couple of shots that drew blood; the guy who shot me said that he noticed a small part of the bush turning to look in his direction and then realised that it was a boonie hat. Fair play! My final position was behind a barricade near the objective; watching two support gunners decimate the enemy advance was rather impressive until they both got shot. I was eventually hit on my fingertip, which, at that point, was the only part of me sticking out beyond the barricade; it was either a superb shot or a very lucky one. The lad fought on gallantly for a while, but the attackers eventually raised the Union Flag over the structure. It was a really good and fun day of airsoft, with only very few issues about overshooting. The lad and I agreed that we prefer the new site to the old one as it has much more scope for being sneaky and crawling around. We will definitely be going back. Due to the proximity of the hotel, no bangs of any sort are allowed. As to the two untried guns, both performed perfectly, although the MC51 was a little underpowered; on returning home, an XT M100 spring brought it up to 1.06J. Weapons used: Me: Double Eagle M904G Classic Army MC51 ASG XP18 Commander (CO2) Hector: G&G (originally) Magpul M4 G&G (originally) Keymod M4 ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

I don't know anything about ICS hops; however, I do know that Unit 13 are pukkah.

Replacing the piston head O ring would be a good idea if the new one does not come with one.