Colin Allen
-
Posts
1,681 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
31 -
Feedback
100%
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Buy a Patch
Classifieds
Posts posted by Colin Allen
-
-
23 minutes ago, Oli_Bacon said:
Nah seriously? My gun isn't an airsoft? 💀
Bro check the package:
It's CLEARLY an airsoft
They have described it as an airsoft gun, but it is not something that you could use to play airsoft at any level. It is an extremely cheap toy.
-
- Popular Post
- Popular Post
A logistical dilemma caused by the convergence of the last rehearsal before our 25th Birthday gig and the London Marathon means that I am spending tonight in a Premier Inn in Woking.
However, every cloud has a silver lining, so this seemed like a good opportunity to spend the afternoon at Driver Wood, a site about which I have heard and read a lot but have never visited.
So, this morning, in addition to my video mixer, projector, video loops etc, I loaded my airsoft gear into the car, including the lad's C7, which I had done some work on last Saturday evening as it seemed to have lost power.
Arriving at Driver Wood was a bit of a culture shock; there were paintballers, kids' parties, airsoft beginners' sessions and about 60 airsofters. This actually seemed like a proper business!
Checking in was straightforward; I got my wristband and I was in. I found a table, chatted to the players on the next table, one of whom admired the C7, and chrono'd the C7 (1.04J and great range). The safezone was well organised, clean and had WiFi! The only negative aspect was a number of signs stating that no food or drink could be brought in.
I then sorted my own stuff out, remembering to ensure that barrel socks were in use in the safezone, chrono'd my rifle and pistol, and set off for balancing of teams, distribution of us afternoon arrivals to teams and a mercifully short but complete safety and rules brief.
Immediately after this, we set out for the game zone, passing various areas full of kids having great fun shooting paint and BBs at each other.
The first game of the afternoon involved collecting a downed pilot, getting them on to a stretcher and transporting them to one of the helicopters. Each side had a stretcher and, if the two players carrying it were killed, they had to drop it; the opposing team could then try to prevent them recovering it but could not steal it. However, if the pilot was on it, they could transfer him to their stretcher if it could be brought alongside.
I teamed up with a few players who decided to try to work around into the enemy's left flank and rear; this went rather well until we encountered an enemy force who had decided to try to work around into our right flank and rear. This resulted in some great fights; I found a spot in a ditch under a bush from where I could control the convergence of two paths that the enemy were using; it was what WW2 U-Boat crews called a Happy Time; a target rich environment and a hidden Colin with a very accurate rifle.
Ultimately, as for the U-Boat crews, the Happy Time ended and I was sunk. Regenning, I encountered the two chaps from the table next to mine and we fought our own little war against a group of enemy who were continuing to try to push into our team's tactical rear, holding them off until the end of the game, which our side won, getting the stretcher and pilot into the helicopter after a stand off. Hurrah!
After a short break, we started the second game of the afternoon; a three point domination. The targets were the green tent, the six wheeler and one of the helicopters; whoever controlled each of them at every 10 minute interval got a point . I have no idea what happened at the six wheeler or the helicopter, as I was solely involved around the green tent, which the enemy grabbed at the start of the game. This was a really good action, with people flanking all over the place, hiding in bushes, and generally popping up where they were least expected. Despite us pushing hard, the enemy held the green tent for most of the game, with us only capturing it for the very last point.
My first impressions of Driver Wood are positive, despite the signs about not bringing your own food and drink. The playing area reminded me somewhat of Battle Lakes, albeit without that site's bottlenecks and choke points.
I will definitely be going back.
After the game, I stopped off at Surplus Store UK in Crawley, with the possible intention of buying a JG T3 SAS. However, the size, or rather the lack of size, of its battery compartment, put me off.
Armband watch: Bright green (I thought they were yellow!) and purple.
Weapons used:
SRC T-91
ASG Commander XP18 (CO2) -
1 hour ago, Jacob Wright said:
Good day at Gunman Tuddenham today for a filmsim game. Started off a bit wet and windy but warmed up for the second half of the day.
Got a chance to use my new MP7 and Ferro Concepts Slickster. The MP7 was great fun, but I'll be sticking with NGRS for now at least. The Slickster on the other hand will be staying in the collection - I've not always been a fan of plate carriers but it easily retained 4 magazines plus a speed loader and radio, fitted nicely and will be well complemented by a decent belt set up.
Gameplay was standard, a few instances where people claimed that dead players were spotting for those who hadn't been hit - and one poor show of a player swearing about the game (because they weren't winning/didn't appear to understand it), and then refusing to engage with the marshal who was trying to understand their frustrations 🤷🏼♀️... Otherwise a good day with some amazing shots and attacks through the woodland.
Might be the last Airsoft day for a while due to holidays but looking forward to the next one already.
Bloody humans! They always try to spoil everything.
-
48 minutes ago, Shamal said:
Oh, I'm probably going to take the new spring out and cut 10mm off the end. Got nothing to lose at this point!
I've read on here that if you cut springs you have to flatten the end. Not sure how you would do that. Maybe a Dremel? Or perhaps heat and a hammer?
Holding the spring with a pair of pliers, heat up the cut end and, when it is glowing orange, press it down against a metal surface.
-
2 minutes ago, Cannonfodder said:
Room inspections and monitoring student's internet usage isn't a new thing. They had them when I was at uni living in halls and that was 25 years ago. They didn't do them often but they certainly happened. I know internet use was also monitored as there was a known case of a student being caught and arrested for looking up underage girls. Airsoft probably gets flagged as firearms related content
Yep, that is exactly the filter that picks it up. I am working on educating those who do the sifting about airsoft; I thought I might invite them to a game so that they can see what a bunch of nerds we really are.
-
1 hour ago, GiantKiwi said:
Your university has been going down the draconian interpretation of what is permissible under PREVENT then. 'Proportionate' seems to have been left to the wayside a bit.
We have reasons to, although I keep arguing that we are too strict. I was one of the first people to get tagged, which highly amused the Vice-Chancellor.
-
20 minutes ago, hitmanNo2 said:
It's unlikely that any university will allow Airsoft guns to be kept in halls of residence. Imo, just do it anyway. They're not to know if you keep it to yourself. Just keep them out of sight in generic boxes under your bed, in your wardrobe etc. When you move out into a house share, you can be a bit more open as hopefully you'll be with friends and not complete strangers that you'll be stuck with in halls for the first year.
Random room inspections can and do happen. I have been in the slightly awkward position of having to run a disciplinary case against a student whose RIF was found in his wardrobe.
I am my faculty's Prevent officer, so I have to check up on students who have been accessing websites and content on university WiFi or via university PCs that could indicate that they are at risk of radicalisation or are potentially a risk. Recently, a Chinese Year 3 direct entry student was flagged for accessing a number of airsoft sites. I called him in, as I am required to, and asked him in particular about an airsoft site whose website he had repeatedly accessed. He explained that he and his friends were looking for sites to play at; I asked him if he had played at that site and he said he had. I asked him when and, when he told me, asked him which team he had been on. When he told me, I mentioned that we might well have shot each other. We then spent a great hour talking about airsoft.
The moral of that is that you should not look up airsoft related content using university PCs or WiFi, including Eduroam. -
From their Residential Terms and Conditions:
"not bring into the Premises anything which in the University’s reasonable opinion is or may become dangerous, noxious offensive, combustible, corrosive, inflammable, radioactive or explosive including, but not limited to, firearms, air rifles, pistols, cross-bows, or any other weapons (including replicas or deactivated weapons), gas cylinders or oil burners." -
I am an airsofter who works for a university, with a son, who is also an airsofter, studying at another university.
I do not know of any UK universities that allow airsoft guns to be kept in halls.
-
-
1 hour ago, Ulmocuk said:
I understand that the UK has specific rules, whereas the EU has no regulations in place. When I used to live in Sweden, I had no issues purchasing airsoft equipment from the US-based store, Evike. Our team members from Germany and Turkey also order their airsoft gear from Japan and China without any complications. Recently, I bought my WE M14 GBB from a manufacturer in China and had it shipped to Germany. I only had to pay the border tax and asked the company to label the box as a RIF with a pink flash hider.
Picture here
I think having a UKARA is a good thing also I am of the opinion that implementing firearm laws is imperative. However, I also believe that these laws should be designed in a manner that differentiates between hobbies and other activities and international players who intent to stay a bit longer in the country like me.UKARA is a good concept but, as you have probably noticed, some players and retailers still attempt to find ways around it.
Laws tend to be written without such fine delineation as that would result in unnecessary complexity and inconsistencies. -
23 minutes ago, Ulmocuk said:
Greetings everyone!
This is my first post here!
I've noticed that the prices for attending regular airsoft games in the UK, particularly in my area (RG9), are quite high. As a non-UK airsofter who has recently moved here, obtaining UKARA registration is proving to be extremely costly. I'm required to attend three games, with gear rental costing £60 each time, which is already the price of an entry-level airsoft rifle.While I completely understand and respect the country's rules, I've played airsoft in Germany, Sweden, and Turkey numerous times with various teams, where game attendance typically costs around 5-10 euros. Renting gear is an additional expense, but none of these countries require a license number for purchasing a RIF (Realistic Imitation Firearm).
The airsoft scene here seems more serious, which I appreciate, but as a non-UK airsofter, I've brought all my gear with me except for my RIFs, which I had planned to purchase locally. However, to do so, I must first obtain UKARA registration, which entails spending at least £180 to attend the necessary games.
My question is: Are there any alternative options for experienced airsoft players with a proven background to obtain UKARA without having to attend games?
Many thanks.Welcome and no, there is no way of bypassing it.
-
1 hour ago, Hudson said:
Oh wait, it comes with a spare ambidextrous mag release.
That explains the price!
Which comes with the gun when bought new.
-
-
-
20 hours ago, The_Lord_Poncho said:
Decided to roll out the AAP (TTI) carbine for the first game at Driver Wood on Saturday - now sporting a 310mm new maple leaf inner barrel, and running on mini MP5 mags via an Airtac mag adapter. Accuracy and range were now pretty good on 0.36 BBs - with the HPA reg set on circa 110PSI/1.8j. The odd flyer, but got some good hits, and the clack clack of the bolt+ slight feedback was great fun. Second game I switched to the Noveritsch SSX303. I've never been that happy with the accuracy from it, but I'd recently swapped in a new silicone MR hop bucking, and a mini TDC screw+ CNC hop arm from Tridos - and, wow, what a difference they have made! Again, running an airtac adapter (this time taking 30rd shotgun shells), the gun was getting incredible range on 1.8j, good accuracy, and is super quiet. At the start of the second game I legged it , and spent the first ten minutes of the game taking out the their team as they advanced past the side of me - not one of them had a clue where they had been shot from, enabling me to to achieve the same results in the second wave until I got bored and moved off.
The Driver Wood game play has become so much better now they have moved to roving spawns and ditched the 'medic' arm bands - marshals seem to be able to equalise game play a little by moving the spawns from very dominant teams back a little further to the rear, game play is more fluid around the playing area, and hit taking seems to have dramatically improved - no doubt as there is no longer a 5 min trudge back to spawn.
I might head down there for Saturday afternoon this weekend; I will be staying in Woking that evening and it is on the way.
-
9 hours ago, Majestyk said:
Definitely a dreamer.
-
-
8 hours ago, RostokMcSpoons said:
Mine went well then a bit shit.
Too skint to go to Spec Ops Cqb, so I instead spent some time with my Old Skool TM AK47-S. Got a new dust cover a couple of days back from Hutt Armouries (cheers) so trying that out was a good reason to fling a few shots down the garden. It's still impressive. Hitting 320fps on 0.20s and very nicely accurate... The impact point bang on to the iron sights. A bit slow on the RoF with a 7.4v lipo, but usable all the same. Good ol' TM.
So that was all good!
The shit bit was when I was packing it away. I put the gun on top of a stack of toolboxes, damned thing slid off onto the floor - barely any height, and onto carpet - but enough to shear the pins inside the stock release catch/attachment to the receiver.
Bugger.
So I now need to find a replacement folding stock, or at least the catch and its fitments. Not much luck so far (remember I've already been on this journey because I was trying to replace the just release button when that went walkies)
Looks like I'll have to pay Chump Tax and buy a whole Cyma stock ($30 at Evike USA)
That is a shame; the old TM and CYMA ones are rather vulnerable. A friend of mine broke his and replaced it with a much better quality Real Sword one.
-
56 minutes ago, Tackle said:
I used them a bit back when I worked in the square mile, so easy to jump on the tube at lunchtime & grab what I needed, plus at one point I was getting trade discount there via a site owner/teammate, which was nice😁
BUT
On ALMOST every occasion I visited I found staff, including the owner, to be arrogant, borderline rude, & very much up themselves.
Only reason I went there as often as I did was because:
1. I was getting very good prices
2. It was local, & being an old fart I hadn't fully embraced buying on the net, needed to "feel" the kit.
But once the discount had ended & I'd stopped working in london, not felt the need to even consider them for online shopping.
Yes, on the occasions I went there, staff were unpleasant.
-
10 hours ago, Tackle said:
Thanks, I'd always heard they were shit, didn't know they'd improved a bit, & now they're shit again.
Never considered making the trek to twa, definitely off the radar now, that Marshalling is appalling, its amazing that it's lasted as long as it has considering its rep.
It is rather disappointing as it did seem to be getting better, albeit always with a bit of vagueness about rules and boundaries. Since the sad demise of Tower Airsoft, which was a cracking little site, it was the only site that opened on Saturdays within what I regard as a reasonable travelling time. Rehearsals and recording sessions tend to eat into my available Sundays, so being able to play on a Saturday was quite useful. I am just about to head off for the penultimate rehearsal before our 25th Birthday gig and the lad is going back to university today, which is why we went there yesterday.
-
This morning, the lad and I set off for a journey across southern parts of London to spend the day at Tactical Warfare Airsoft, a site where we have had a few good days over the last few months.
As usual, there were a fair number of rental players present and, before the morning safety briefing, the lad twice removed magazines from rentals' guns in the safezone.
After the usual safety brief, which included the usual talk about eyepro, no magazines in guns in the safezone and no dry firing in the safezone, we set out into the game zone for the first game; turning around to talk to the lad, I was shocked to find that the marshal who was with us was not wearing eyepro in the playing area; I immediately pointed this out to him and that there were players with loaded weapons and that some were shooting. He argued that it was not a problem but, after some persuading, put them on.
As we assembled for the first game briefing (60+ players with loaded guns), I noticed that the same marshal was standing 2m away from, and looking at, a rental player who had removed his eyepro and was making no attempt to get him to put it back on.
Both of these incidents were reported to the head marshal, who stated that he would "have a word" with him.
The first game was a fairly straightforward capture the flag using the village and part of the wood; this turned into a stalemate with some very dodgy hit taking.
This was followed by a fallback game; as the defenders we had one life in each of Badger Base, Jungle Base and the Pit. This was mostly a good game, except for repeated concerns that an HPA user on the other team was running a hot gun; experienced players were reporting that hits were hurting far more than they should. When the lad challenged him on it, asking what weight he was using, he claimed to be using 0.20g BBs. The lad then mentioned it to the head marshal, who responded that it had passed chrono. Another player suggested that it be spot checked, but this was rejected. There was also massive confusion about the boundaries for each stage; at the Pit, several of our players were hit by opponents who were out of bounds, as no information had been given to them as to where they could and could not go.
When it came time to turn the game around, we found that more than half of our team had disappeared, either going back to the safezone or leaving. Despite this, we made a gallant attempt. While attacking Badger Base, I asked a marshal if a couple of enemy players were out of bounds; his reply was that they probably weren't as that was where they were firing from, which made no sense. We then asked how far we could flank round to attack them and were told we could go wherever we wanted; I checked whether this included flanking around behind the Pit and was told that we could not do that, so I asked again where we could flank round them. The marshal replied that we could go anywhere that we wanted, so I again sought clarification on what this meant with regard to sneaking up on them by flanking around behind the pit. The response was again that we could not do that. Apparently, anywhere that we wanted was not anywhere that we wanted. Utter disorganisation!
Lunch followed, during which the lad again had to remove a magazine from a rental's gun; unlike every other site we play at, TWA does not check that players returning to the safe zone have removed mags and cleared their weapons. On several occasions, triggers were pulled in the safezone, with no response from the marshals. After one player had twice fired long bursts (no BBs fired) with an SMG, I raised this with the site owner, who went over and told him not to do it again.
We discussed leaving but decided to give it another try after lunch. After the sides had been rebalanced and afternoon arrivals integrated into the teams, we set off for the next game. This was a game in which we, as the attackers, had to fight our way into the village, collect six barrels and get them back to our start point; we had infinite regens on our start point and the defenders had two lives.
After a stiff fight and some hilariously bad hit taking, we fought our way into the village, whereupon the 0.20g HPA guy inflicted some serious damage on a couple of players, drawing blood; he also hit my webbing, the impact leaving me in no doubt that he was not using 0.20g BBs.
Once this game finished, we decide to leave; we will not be returning to Tactical Warfare Airsoft. Unfortunately, it has reverted to being the shit show that it previously was, with the added bonus of little or no apparent concern for players' safety or even marshals' own safety.
Weapons used:
Me
CYMA G36C
King Arms PDW
ASG Commander XP18 (CO2)
The lad
G&G C7
G&G Modernised M4
ASG Commander XP18 (CO2)
Dynatex Grenade (x2)
- Cannonfodder, Hatchet, GenuineGerman and 5 others
-
2
-
6
-
It isn't so much the price or the misidentification as the 350fps on a 0.28g BB.
https://prefired.co.uk/ads/ak-74-with-folding-stock/
he has now changed it after I messaged him. -
1 hour ago, Badgerlicious said:
Well, Worthing went through with the new limitations to ghillies. Nothing below a viper hood (shoulders) with 1.14j full auto. DMR and bolt actions only for anything longer or a full ghillie. However they have upped their DMR limits to 1.88j so we're in line with most other sites now, which is nice.
At least I now have an excuse to finish my viper hood and buy some better combats.
That is a step in the right direction.
The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread
in General Discussion
Posted · Edited by Colin Allen
The food looked pretty good. There was also a vending machine with bottles of cold drinks for reasonable prices.
https://driverwoodactivitycentre.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/DriverWoodFoodMenu.pdf