Colin Allen

This morning, the lad and I once again set off for Airsoft Plantation, one of our regular sites. The morning started with a game in which we (red team) had to assault across the mortar pits to reach a siren which was located on the far side in front of one of the landing craft. The attacking team had infinite regens on a marshal, while the defenders had two lives. Assaulting out of the woods, the big surprise was that the double decker bus had moved from the centre of the mortar pits to the edge nearest the woods; apparently, this is in preparation for their upcoming two-dayer over the bank holiday weekend and completely changed the dynamics of fighting in that area. We were badly held up trying to get out of the woods, but eventually wore the enemy down, forcing our way through the mortar pits and setting off the siren. The game was then switched round and we realised why it had taken us so long to break out; shooting fish in a barrel came to mind. After being hit, I moved back to a position in our left rear, where the enemy were starting to apply pressure after engaging in a wide flanking manoeuvre. We held them up for a while, but they eventually reached the siren, taking one minute longer than we had. Unfortunately, during this game, one of the lad's BFGs went missing after he had used it in a very well defined area; when he went to recover it 3-4 minutes later, it had vanished, After the game, we searched for it, but could not find it. After a break to mag up, play switched to the other end of the site in a game wherein the attackers had to transport a stretcher from the far end of the woods to the wobbly bridge and kill house; once they had arrived there, a casualty had to be placed on the stretcher with an band applied to each limb and then transported via the Border to the town hall in the village. Attackers again respawned on a marshal, while defenders had one life at each of the wobbly bridge, the border and the village. If the casualty was hit, they had to leave the stretcher and a new casualty had to don the bands and be transported forward. The lad and I, along with several other players, occupied the ditch on the far right of the site, working well as a team and taking out a lot of attackers in the light woodland. Eventually, my rifle received a hit from a sniper rifle or DMR; calling a gun hit, I drew my pistol, only to be hit again by fire from my left, sending me back towards the border, where I settled into a favourite position and waited for the enemy, who arrived rather more rapidly than expected. I took out a bunch who were exposed to my right and then another group who appeared in the same place; while I was doing this, a fellow defender to my front fell gallantly when faced by overwhelming numbers and I found myself facing a lot of enemies to my front and right flank. After holding them back for a few minutes, I was hit and went back to the village, where an unfortunate friendly fire incident ended my participation in the game. I decided to have another look for the lad's grenade and was later joined by him; we still could not find it. We met an enemy player who had been there when it was lost and he stated that he had seen it in on the grass in clear view. As this was now lunchtime, we mentioned the grenade to the site owner; at the end of the afternoon briefing, he mentioned it and stated that whoever had picked it up should hand it in at the site shop/office. A player did so, claiming that he had picked it up (why?) and put it in his dump pouch, but had then completely forgotten about it and then spent one and half games and all of lunchtime completely oblivious to having a large and heavy BFG banging against his hip (yeah, right!). Anyway, the important thing was that the lad got his BFG back. After lunch, the stretcher game was reversed; a group of us, including the lad and I, assaulted the ditch that we had defended earlier, driving the enemy out in fine style. We then attacked the border, which is always difficult as it is a very strong position, but eventually broke through after a fierce fight against a superb defence; poison gas and flash bangs were much used. Rolling up to the village, we stormed it en masse, getting our casualty to the town hall more quickly than the enemy had. After this, the final game saw a return to the mortar pits, with both sides attacking across them to set off a buzzer at the enemy's start point. All players had two lives and my participation was somewhat limited as my two lives each passed quickly. Despite the grenade incident, it was a really good day, with us running some of our less used weapons. AP already has a 30m minimum engagement distance for full auto and, as last week, there seemed to be an effort to persuade players to use semi all the time, which is something that I applaud; it makes play so much more interesting. Next weekend, we are probably going to an outdoor CQB site that is completely new to us. Weapons used: Me: King Arms PDW Double Bell KAC PDW Milbro M1911 Classic (CO2) The lad: JG G3 SRC MP5 ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

That sounds like an unpleasantly painful experience; is there anything that can be done to prevent it happening?

Yep, that pretty much describes Croydon.

He's been trying to shift them since May; strangely, nobody seems interested.

If you trim the hinge off, there is not enough material on the dust cover to fit into the curved slot on the back of the CM028 trunnion. However, the one that BIGwat has linked to 'should' work; my son has one fitted to a CYMA 04x series AK105.

Maybe email them and ask? Based on their statement, I would assume that they do ship to the UK.

You have not included a picture; however, if it is a railed cover for a CM045 it will not fit on a CM028U. The 045 dust cover is hinged at the front.

My Ares VZ58 has the same setup; I believe it is common across many of their models.

I have front wired one for an LR300; I am not sure how the wiring runs on a G36, but I just added connectors in the power and signal cables, so that the gun could be dismantled.

Indeed, but this was deliberate.

Not a bad idea; it might make using the rifle a bit tricky though.

Today saw the lad and I travel up to Billericay, the home of three airsoft sites: Airsoft Plantation, Tower Airsoft and Skirmish Billericay. Our destination was the very large Airsoft Plantation, which has a great mix of dense woodland, scrubland, structures and open spaces. A good number of players were in attendance, with a range of ages and levels of experience. After the usual, somewhat amusing, briefing we set off for the first game "A Bridge Too Far". The attacking team (that was us) had to proceed from one end of the site to the other taking three bridges along the way by setting off a siren on each bridge. Once the first bridge had been taken, the surviving defenders had to pull back to within 50 m of the next bridge and the attackers had to regroup at the bridge before being released to advance again; the same applied at the second bridge and, once the third bridge was taken, the game was over. Attackers had infinite regens on a marshal, while the defenders had one life at each bridge. Our attack eventually overran the first bridge after a fierce firefight; the second bridge fell rather quickly as the red team massed behind the bridge, leaving only a very weak force in front of it. The fight for the third bridge was long and fierce and we eventually completed the mission in just over 42 minutes. After a short break to bomb up, the game was reversed. At the first bridge, the lad (dressed in fill 1980s Soviet Mechanised Infantry uniform including shiny brass buttons and foot wraps inside his boots) and I and a few others took up a position in dense undergrowth on the right flank, holding up an enemy flanking manoeuvre for a considerable time until we fell back into the ditch from where we held them up even further. After the bridge fell, we and a young lad fell back to a favourite position in a ditch on the left flank from where we had a great fight with the enemy, inflicting a lot of hits on them before eventually being overrun. The only real negative of the day happened at this point; as I walked away with my hand in the air, shouting "Dead man walking", some knuckle-dragger on the other team rinsed me from about 10m when I was in full sight of him. Sadly, I did resort to uncouth language. Falling back to the third bridge, we waited for the enemy who came storming out of the brush and were shot to pieces; their next attempt was much better coordinated and ended my involvement with the game. They eventually completed the mission in just over 47 minutes. After lunch, the red team (not us), starting at Swaziland, were tasked with picking up a stretcher at the Boat House, collecting the casualty (young Owen) at the DEA base and transporting him to the town hall in the village. As the defenders, we had two lives on each side of the firebreak. The attackers could regen on a marshal. As they could attack from any direction, the first stage was very lively. I initially took position in some bushes, which gave me a great view over three paths, allowing me to hit a number of the enemy before being hit when the enemy broke into the DEA base itself. I pulled back to the area around the Boat House, where we fought off several enemy attacks from various directions. At some point, the lad passed by, having been hit, stating that he was falling back to near the firebreak to cause chaos there as there were enough people defending the Boat House. After fighting off another attack, I decided that he had the right idea and sneaked to the mortar pits, where I had great fun engaging the enemy there, sending several back in search of the regen marshal before eventually being flanked and shot in the back. I fell back across the firebreak and joined in the defence of the village until I was eventually hit twice in fairly short order. The enemy failed to complete the mission in the allocated hour, so poor young Owen bled out. After that, we played a final game where our team, which had eight allocated bombers, had to get three bombs to their respective targets in the mortar pits. Each bomb had to go to its specific target, these being the bus, the UN vehicle and the Freelander. Bombs could only be carried by the bombers and, if the bombers were hit, they lost their bomber status, so it was essential for us to protect them. We had infinite regens by passing through one of the boats, while the defenders had two lives. We started the game by charging out of the three landing craft. Usually, this involves the landing craft ramps being raised by the marshals and then dropped to start the game; however, on this occasion, they were left down as snakes were living under them! The bus was bombed surprisingly easily, followed by the Freelander, but the UN vehicle took considerably longer as it is on the far side of the mortar pits and easily defended. However, we achieved all three objectives, which was a satisfactory end to a very satisfactory day. Weapons used: Me: Ares VZ58 Umarex (S&T) ARX 160 Milbro Classic M1911 (CO2) The lad: E&L/CYMA AKS-74 CYMA AKS-74U ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

I have done something very similar with an SLR :).

I have not seen those before; thanks.

And that it is the best gun you have ever owned.

When you run the gun without the hop spring is there a reduction in power?

I changed them because threads kept stripping so I cannot really offer any guidance; you are indeed the experiment. However, I guess that being somewhat soft might be better than being brittle when it comes to resisting cracking. Just remember to radius those front corners!

A&K gearboxes are not great; the alloy is rather soft, making it very easy to strip threads. That would not make me hugely confident regarding their durability at higher powers. I have two of their Masadas; neither of them has the original gearbox.

It does seem to be.

Excellent! Keep us informed on how it goes,

I would suggest that you go for it; at this point, there is nothing to lose.

Yes, that is what I did this morning; bushings have been pressed in and new gears are on their way.

Yesterday, I wandered over to Tower Airsoft, one of my regular haunts. Unfortunately, the lad was busy working at saving lives at the lido, so I was on my own; this situation did not last long as I bumped into someone I know and a bunch of his friends. Unlike my last couple of visits, the site was busy, with all available under cover table space being in use and a few people setting up in the open. We started off with a "Capture the Fort" game; the Red Team (hey, that's us!) started at the church and, unsurprisingly, had to capture the fort. We respawned at the church while the defenders had one life within 30m of the fort and a second life inside it. Due to the heavy undergrowth and trees, it was difficult to get an overall impression of what was going on, but our group pushed up on the right flank, clearing the more open section of the woods of opposing riflemen and snipers before attacking the flank of the fort. An excellently thrown gas grenade from someone to our left cleared most of the defenders out of the fort, enabling its capture. This game was then turned round and it was our turn to defend. With a small group of other regulars, I took up position in the woods on our far right to block any attacks from that direction. We got into a great little fight with a larger number of Blue Team players, initially at long range and then up close and personal. After taking out a number of opposing players, I was hit and fell back to the fort, moving upstairs to cover the front entrance. Unfortunately, a BB hit me through the tiniest of gaps in the fort wall. I assume that it was a random shot; if not, well done to whoever it was, firstly for spotting a 2cm square gap and, secondly, for getting a BB through it into my back. Having reloaded in the safe zone, we played a fallback game. Starting at the buses, the attacking team (that was us) had to recover a mortar tube from the village and an ammunition box from the prison and transport them to the other side of the bridge. Defenders fell back 30m each time they were hit, while attackers had to fall back 30m and find a friend to respawn on. Our group tried attacking down the right flank, along the site boundary; pushing forward, we struggled in the face of well concealed snipers so shifted our emphasis somewhat to the left, breaking into the village alongside the rest of the team. Having obtained the mortar tube, most of the team headed for the prison and then directly towards the bridge. I joined up with a small group who pushed wide on the left flank, eventually attacking the bridge defenders from the flank in a well coordinated attack. The mission was accomplished with about 30 seconds left on the clock. After lunch, the fallback game was reversed. Our group decided to defend the same area that we had initially struggled with when we were attacking. We fell back each time we were hit, creating a rolling defence, until we came to a really strong location which commanded a number of routes through the very dense undergrowth. I settled into a position where I had good lines of sight on two paths, one being the path down the boundary. I shot a few players coming down this route, including one chap who appeared in exactly the same place four times. They then seemed to switch their attack to come through the village, which meant that the other path I was watching became another killing field. By now, it was all getting a bit hairy as, having taken the village, they were able to flank us, which resulted in some very close up exchanges of BBs and a glorious gas grenade throw by one of the opposing team. It came sailing over the bushes, landing a few yards from a few of us. Fortunately, the breeze blew the gas cloud back towards the thrower and his colleagues and away from us. However, we were slowly being whittled down and I eventually realised that I was all on my own in the deep, dark woods. However, at about this point the game ended; I never did find out whether the blue team achieved the objective and, if they did, how long it took them. On arriving at the safe zone, I realised that a very busy few days with very little sleep had caught up with me, so I packed my gear, said my goodbyes and headed home after a really good day of airsoft. Guns used: APS UAR LCT PP-19-01 Milbro M1911 Classic CO2

G&G Afrit 25K. Further investigation reveals two teeth missing off the lower (complete 360 degree) section of the sector gear. I think I have found the problem; the spur gear bearing on the left hand side of the gearbox does not run anything like as smoothly as any of the others; it is pretty awful.

Dear Hive Mind, I managed to do something today that I have never done or seen before. I recently built a gearbox for a boneyard rifle that I bought. It is a ZCI gearbox shell with the internals being pretty much what came out of the old gearbox, including the King Arms 18:1 gears. The shimming was very nice and the gun sounded rather good. AOE is also good. Today, I took it along to a site to test it; at first, all was well. Then, nasty going noises started, ending with the whirring sound of death. On getting it home, I discovered what is seen in the photo: the spindle of the KA spur gear has sheared. The gun was running on a 1450mAh 25c 11.1V LiPo driving an M105 spring. So, Hive Mind, what went wrong?