Colin Allen

Our April Dartmoor wildlife sighting; definitely not a deer.

The Covenant is just about ok. Ambush, on the other hand, is garbage; the plot is full of holes, the script is awful and the acting is dreadful.

The sites that I play at are as busy as ever, if not more so.

He is only claiming that the scope is brand new; how do you know it is not?

Good luck with it; I loved the look of the one I built but I decided to sell it as I could see a lot of problems with it in the future.

I cannot think of any in Kent, but Tactical Warfare Airsoft, which is only a few miles outside Kent,, is open on Saturdays. It is a mixture of woods and CQB, but tends to attract a few too many speedsofter types for my current taste.

He won't.

It is a proprietary two part hop (separate feed tube). https://www.zerooneairsoft.com/products/Tokyo-Marui-Plastic-Hop-Up-Unit-for-Type-89 The sector gear is made of pot metal and is also proprietary, having an extra cam to enable the burst function; the cam for the COL is also in a different position than usual due to the unique gearbox design with its vertical sliding trigger switch.. That makes increasing the power somewhat risky as the sector gear is prone to shredding itself if pushed too hard. Element used to make an improved gear set, but I have not seen one in stock for years. This is a good guide to the idiosyncrasies of the Type 89: https://tacticalparts.com/blog/resurrecting-the-champ/

Have you received the boots? The site is flagged as potentially being dodgy with the company being based in China.

Beautiful! We were on the high moor hunting tinnners' huts, kistvaens and anything else that took our fancy. I think we saw about eight people over three days.

Never used. Still pricy though!

This is what I gave sent them: Dear Sirs, As a member of UKAPU, I am deeply concerned that you have failed to abide by the latest published version of the Association's constitution, in that you have failed to give members the 28 days written notice of the 2023 AGM that is required by the Association's constitution. I understand that the AGM is due to take place at 7PM on 22nd June. I note that the latest published version of the constitution states that one purpose of the AGM is to elect the Executive Officers; the constitution states that nominations must be made to the secretary in writing at least 45 days before the date of the AGM. You have not notified members of this, making it impossible for members to nominate Executive Officers. Therefore, I am calling on you to cancel the AGM on 22nd June and rearrange for a date that will enable you to: 1. Notify members of their right to nominate Executive Officers and allow them sufficient time to do so bearing in mind the 45 day cutoff. 2. Notify members of the date, time, location (if physical) or access arrangements (if online) at least 28 days before the date of the meeting. 3. Inform members that they can raise any matter at the AGM, provided that they give the secretary at least 14 days written notice. I await your response. But UKAPU was founded in 2009 or 2010?

I would point out that it is a legal requirement to give members written notice of an AGM. Members have an absolute right to attend, raise issues, ask questions and vote. Stating that “I don’t see why they won’t be able to this year” makes it seem that they are there on sufferance. As a member of the association, I will be writing to the committee pointing out that they are in breach of their constitution and requiring them to give all members 28 days notice of the AGM.

Surely members should have been sent an invitation to the AGM?

You get to play soggy biscuit as well!

And there was me thinking that "ex-special forces members" were "ex-military".

i would be interested to know how many players are signed up to UKAPU and what percentage of them have received help from UKAPU. Also, when was UKAPU founded? I suspect that this group may have provided more good advice on import and customs issues than UKAPU.

What power and range are you getting? I built one from a collection of parts a few years ago; they are "interesting" internally, with so many potential failure points and unique parts, which is why I sold it on as rapidly as possible. Mine was shooting at about 0.78J and reaching out a very good distance.

The lad and I were there at Easter for one of our regular visits; it didn't seem too busy. An excellent and entertaining write-up, as ever.

I would also recommend Airsoft Plantation and Tower Airsoft; both are great sites that are extremely well run. I was at Battle Lakes a week ago; it has definitely improved since the Zed days.

One of my grandfathers served in the Royal Navy in WW1, seeing action at Dogger Bank and Jutland. One of my great-grandfathers served in the Second Boer War and in WW1, ending up in Salonica. I still have his mess menu from Christmas 1918, when he was still in Salonica. Going back a bit further a relative was at Rorke’s Drift, winning the VC, while, even further back, another served in La Legion Irlandaise (later the 3e Regiment Etranger) in Napoleon’s army, rising to the rank of Chef de Bataillon and being awarded the Legion d’Honneur in 1814, although he never received the actual medal as Napoleon abdicated and the Bourbons returned to power for a while. I just remembered another relative who went to America in 1861 to fight for the Confederacy (Boo! Hiss!). Having managed to join up, he was captured and sent back to England, where he got on another ship and went back again. According to family legend, he was again captured and, this time, was held prisoner. He was pardoned after the war and one of my cousins still has that document.

Many thanks for the entertaining write up. How many people typically turn up for these events? I recently played one of their days at Battle Lakes and was surprised by how few players were there; given the size of the safe zone, it did not seem that they were expecting many,

Having collected the lad from University on Friday, this morning we set off for Airsoft Plantation, equipped with water bottles laced with screech and, in the lad's case, a Camelback. Around 170 players were present on what was a very hot day. The first game required the attackers (us, being the blue team, in the first leg) to collect two smoke bombs from the DEA base and the new village and transport them to the village where one bomb had to be set off in each of the two double storey buildings. Our regen was on a marshal 30m behind us, while the defenders had one life in each of DEA base/new village/the firebreak/the village. Out attacks seemed to go rather slowly, with us eventually setting off both bombs in what seemed like a very long time. After a break for drinks and ice lollies, the game was switched around. Our defence of the DEA base and new village seemed to collapse really quickly due to some brilliant flanking moves by the red team. However, we held them at the firebreak in a series of extended engagements, during which the SLR once again proved that it is not the ideal weapon in dense undergrowth. Unfortunately, the lad was grenaded by fellow blue players, who were only 3m behind him; well done chaps! Eventually falling back from there, we fought an all round defence of the village until being overrun; to my surprise, the reds had taken longer to complete the mission than we had. After more drinks and ice lollies, we played a game which required both teams to transport their VIPs across the mortar pits to the safety of a marshal who would be located where the other team had started from. Each player except the VIPs had two lives, while the VIPs had infinite regens on the marshal where they started from. I am not sure what happened to the red team, but we pushed forward and got our VIPs to their objective, while they did not manage to do so. Following lunch, which involved more drinks and ice lollies, we played a domination game across most of the scrubland part of the site. This was a challenging game, partly due to the heat and partly due to the nature of the AP site, which lends itself to sneaky infiltration tactics, with groups of players popping up in unexpected places. The QBZ97 proved its worth in the scrubland, being much easier to manoeuvre than the SLR and more than capable of holding its own in the open. At the end of the game, we held two points, while the reds held three :(. There was another game after this but, along with quite a number of other players, we decided to leave due to the heat, especially as the lad was developing a headache. Despite that, it was a typically excellent AP day! Weapons used: Me: Ares SLR (morning) Real Sword QBZ97 (afternoon) Milbro M1911 Classic The Lad: LCT AS VAL (morning) JG BAR 10 (afternoon) ASG Commander XP18

Bloody hell! The wonders of enrichment. Thankfully, you were both ok.

Very unlikely in the UK; totalitarianism does not tend to happen in countries that do not take their politicians seriously and which recognise them for the incompetent, greedy, egomaniacal bastards that most of them are. We take the piss out of our politicians far too much for anyone to get into a position where they can create a totalitarian regime; Mosley was probably the biggest internal threat to our democracy in modern times and he failed in part because he was widely lampooned and derided, but mainly because we do not really 'do' totalitarianism. As for Covid, the response to that was probably basically correct, albeit with several mistakes, acts of stupidity (eat out to help out) and utter corruption and cronyism from the ruling party. Unfortunately, climate change is a real thing, regardless of whether individuals "believe" in it; we really do have to change the way we behave if we want to leave the planet in a reasonable state for future generations. As to whether they are going to "come for our guns" at some point, I suspect that they probably will eventually. I have always been somewhat surprised that owning RIFs is so easily tolerated in the UK and will be somewhat disappointed but not particularly surprised when they do.