Colin Allen

This morning, I somewhat reluctantly set off for Airsoft Plantation; when the alarm went off at 07:00, I could have quite easily remained in bed for several more hours. However, I was rather glad that I did go, not only because it was a damned fine day of airsoft but also because, after paying and getting my wristband, I bumped into three fine, upstanding members of the Brotherhood of Arseholes (BOA), an airsoft team (in the loosest sense of the word) that I have not had the pleasure of slinging plastic alongside for several years. We started off with a simple attack/defend game in the mortar pits; the attackers (that was us!) had to locate and set off two sirens that were secreted in the area. We got the first one rather quickly but locating and securing the second one seemed to take forever, probably because of the difficulty of dislodging 115 well dug in enemy players each with two lives. However, eventually we found it and set it off. After a short break to mag up, the game was turned around and we held our position for quite a bit longer than the blue team had, mainly due to some excellent communication between players, calling out sightings and movements of the enemy, who could attack from the full 360 degrees. After this, we played a long fallback game. Starting at the far end of the woods, we had to clear the enemy out of the area around the Killhouse, secure the briefcase full of packets of Colombia's finest and transport it to the Border, where a very dodgy looking chap would take it off our hands in exchange for a briefcase full of cash, which we then had to take to the bank in the village. We had a rolling respawn on a marshal, while the defenders had one life in each of the Killhouse area, the border and the village. Again, it felt like we were making really heavy weather of it, until the enemy's defence of the village finally collapsed. Huge kudos to the blue team player who, having been overlooked as the Border fell, took out about 12 of us from behind as we moved towards the village,. After lunch, we played a simple bomb delivery game in the mortar pits; each side had a smoke bomb, which had to be transported to a location on their opponent's side of the mortar pits and set off. All players had two lives and only five designated players on each team could transport the bomb, so they had to be protected. My involvement with this game was lamentably short as I got slotted twice in short order while pushing forward with intemperate aggression. Once that game was resolved, the fallback game was turned round; a stalwart defence of the area around the Killhouse delayed the blue's attack; once hit, I fell back to a favourite spot near the border, a deep ditch protected by a fallen tree. I was joined there by a friendly Bush Wookie. We put up a good defence; he died first and I held out for quite a while before being overrun. One chap got very salty when I emptied a pistol mag into him and his pals at close range. After falling back to the village, I was eventually taken out by a sniper; as I walked back to the safe zone, the marshal announced that the blue team had five more minutes to match our time; they failed! It was a very good day of airsoft and it was great to play alongside the BOA guys again. The only downside was that I yet again failed to win the raffle for a TM pistol. Splatoon is next Sunday's destination. Weapons used: Hurricane/G&P SR47 Double Bell AKMS Milbro M1911 Classic (CO2)

Every step towards a resolution is a major step.

Resolve or obtuseness?

It seems like a bloody stupid idea.

Thanks for this report. I have been contemplating going to Driver Wood as I have heard some positives comments about it. However, I have been hesitant following my eldest's visit there a while ago. He used to be a regular player, was a marshal for a few years and still plays very occasionally. His experience was very similar to yours, especially with regard to the unbalanced teams (regulars v the rest), spawn camping and hit taking. I don't think I will bother going. The "outside food is not allowed" rule seems to show that it is, indeed, very much a business. I was planning to go to Airsoft Plantation today, but events prevented me doing so; Tower Airsoft on Saturday will be my next outing, followed by Splatoon the following Sunday.

Well, that is not a statement I expected to read here.

That would be well over priced!

£179.99 at Patrol Base; mags are £11.99 each so gun plus five extra mags = £239.94 £150 is a good price.

In order for anyone to advise you which is best, you first need to define what you mean by best. Even if you do that, you will probably get a lot of different opinions. As to FPS, that is impossible to advise; guns that are nominally the same and are from the same manufacturer can have very different power outputs.

I usually play every other week; however, over the summer, festivals tend to get in the way and gigs can do so randomly.

This is now, not 25+ years ago. If you are playing at AP and the vast majority of sites, it needs to be running at or below 350fps on a 0.20g BB. Regardless of the weight you are using, you need to be at or below 1.13J.

He seems to make a habit of damaging his toys.

QBZ-95. A decent Browning Hi-Power/L9A1.

I had very similar symptoms with a RIF and it was exactly as Adolf states. Over time, the motor height adjustment screw backed off; when the piston was almost the whole way back, the resistance in the gearset was such that the pinion slipped on the bevel. A tiny drop of thread lock on the adjustment screw solved the problem.

Several years of marshalling gave me a very jaundiced view of most airsofters and almost resulted in me giving up the hobby.

The scuffing is irrelevant; you were sold a faulty item that they then failed to fix. Contact Citizens' Advice.

I cannot remember what it was when I got it as it was a few years ago; it is now running at about 1.05J after an extensive rebuild last year.

After last week's disappointment of the event we had booked being cancelled, today I took the safe option of wandering across the Thames into darkest Essex and the small but perfectly formed Tower Airsoft. The site was not the only thing that was small today; rather surprisingly, there were only 21 in attendance. However, the marshalling team did a good job of rejigging the planned games to make them work. First off was a game in which the attackers (Red) had to grab a flag from the castle and get it into the church and wave it. There was a time limit to the game but victory over the two legs would be decided by which side took fewer hits while attacking. Defenders had three lives, with a 30m fallback after being hit, while attackers had infinite regens on a marshal. After we had dug in around the castle and the bush Wookies had disappeared to do whatever bush Wookies do together in the woods, we waited for the enemy's attack and then waited a little longer. Finally, it arrived, with BBs flying in all directions; after potting a few attackers, I was hit and fell back to a position in front of the church. After a while, a shout went up that the flag had been grabbed and was moving forwards; eventually, a decent firefight broke out and, again after sending a few Reds back where they came from, I was hit and pulled back behind the church, from where I could make sure that nobody was sneaking around behind it. Everything seemed to go rather quiet for quite a long time until the reds finally launched an attack, during which they managed to get a gas grenade into the church but did not have anyone left alive to storm it. Having returned from the dead, they tried again but ran out of time, having taken 47 hits. Talking to some of the red team, we found out why it had gone quiet; four of their ten players (a group of milsim types), who were new to the site, had got rather lost and found themselves the wrong side of the deadfall that protects the church from flank attacks on one side. Following a hydration break, we played another game. We had to assault the village from the bus yard, find four data disks and return them to the bus yard, from where they and we would be exfiled. This was great fun; we assaulted the village from two directions and, after lots of hairy firefights with the resolute defenders, managed to grab all four disks and get the last one back to the exfil just within the time limit. Then we got a nasty surprise; someone had blundered! The exfil was delayed and friends of the previous defenders were coming back to prevent us getting away; they must come from a very inbred community as they looked identical to the folk who had previously been defending the village! This led to some great firefights, with the SLR reaching out and touching people; by the time the exfil arrived, about half of us were left alive. After lunch, we turned round the Castle/Church game. We decided to carry out a mass flank attack from the right, driving forward en masse, while the bush Wookies kept the defenders, and themselves, amused frontally. This worked very well; we cleared the castle in short order, grabbed the flag and headed towards the church. Again, we organised a mass attack while a couple of us kept the defenders in the church tower pinned down by peppering the windows with BBs. After getting a teensy bit bogged down due to a solid defence, this strategy eventually succeeded and the flag was waved in the church well within the time limit, with us having taken 25 hits. When we got back to the safe zone, the milsim types decided to go home; apparently, one of them had been getting somewhat upset about getting shot rather a lot and had been a bit shouty about it. Three other players on the Red team also had to leave to go to work, leaving only a chap and his two lads. As there were now only 14 players, the marshals decided to spend the last hour of the day playing a number of games in the bus yard; as this is not something that I am particularly keen on, I decided to pack up and leave having had a good, fun day. Weapons used: Ares SLR Real Sword Type 97 My longest and shortest rifles! Milbro M1911 Classic (CO2)

Reading the description was highly amusing; one issue after another appeared. Oh, the irony.

Indeed.

This chap "joined the community" and posted a sales ad seven minutes later; I thought that members had to post a certain number of times before they could put up a sales ad. Decent price though.

And let's be honest, they almost certainly will snap at some point.

No airsoft for me this weekend; we had planned to go to a site near Stoke-on-Trent, but they messaged on Thursday to say that the event was cancelled. Our backup plan was to crack out 14 miles on Bleaklow, visiting the plane crash sites, but the weather forecast is for heavy rain and possibly thunder and lightning:(. Oh well, there is always next weekend.

Ali Express is fine; I have ordered quite a lot of stuff over the years and have never had a problem.