Stillers80

Red Alert Newbury, again. I rarely go anywhere else these days, I don't need to as it's such a good site.
 
Last week I added a Tridos TDC 2.0 hop adjuster to my SSG10 (Video about this in my thread in the media forum).
I put it in because, while I love the Rif, I was fed up of accidentally changing the hop as it was right next to where my thumb sits when shouldering the rifle.
Sunday was the first day of using it since.
As well as the intended result it has added extra power and it's more accurate (it was already pretty good). 
So I spent a fun morning totally beaning people with it. Really happy with the results.
 
Later in the day it became apparent that the teams were a little imbalanced. Yellow, the team I was on, had a lot of rentals but also people new to the site as two other nearby sites were closed this weekend (One of them being Absolute Airsoft, ho ho).
So I ditched my beloved SSG10, and pulled out the Cyma SVD AEG I recently bought second hand, in order to get a little closer to the action and help the team tactics and morale.
The svd was... not great. It has a combat union hop in it, and is pretty fussy. I didn't manage to find a weight and hop setting that resulted in a half decent BB flight, but that didn't really matter as I ended up ditching it and leading from the front with my MK23.
It was fun for me, but also pretty frustrating. Defeat in the first few games had demoralised the yellows, and many of them were not playing the objective, and the rest were all hanging way back. 
We lost again, despite myself and the head Marshall attempting to get them motivated.
Oh well. It did, however, result in chatting with lots of new people and they all seemed to have a good day despite being steamrolled. And all the players from "that site" I chatted with were really impressed by Red Alert, but then their bar is pretty low.
 
In the first game after lunch I was feeling tired, being the creaky old fart I am. I had just cleared out some reds, and feeling that I may be safe I decided to sit on a bench in one of the buildings and take a sip from my camelbak. Foolish old man.
One of my friends in the other team came swinging round the corner and snapped off a reflex shot from his pistol.
Hitting me in the left testicle from less than six feet.
I sat out the next game 🤣
 
At the end of the day we had a cqbish game in the town area, basically stick in the mud.
I used my TM MP5K High Cycle, which I recently added a Swordfish rail to. I love that gun. I need to use it more, but it's very situational.
 
Overall a great day. VERY happy with the changes to the SSG10, the SVD needs some attention, and the MP5K is just so sweet.
 
This weekend Red Alert are running a Battlesim Lite, which I'm very much looking forward to. Basically a normal skirmish day but the only break is for lunch, with set objectives, teams etc. Their full battlesims are great, and this should be a nice intro to the kind of gameplay that a Battlesim offers, for less experienced players.
 
 

(For context I run a DE M908A as a DMR, with plenty of upgrades to it, shooting 0.40g and have used ZCI plastic hop units in DE M908A's + M904E's + M906C's)
 
I've bought quite a few ZCI plastic M4 / AR15 hop units and they're substantially better than the stock DE ones. The plastic is way stronger, the arm is better (especially if your stock arm is the one that retains the odd DE figure of 8 rubber nub), the pin holding the arm in place is metal and not flimsy plastic like the DE one. Pair it with a Maple Leaf Macaron bucking and an Omega nub and you're good to go (make sure the Omega nub is absolutely dead center).
 
As Speedbird said the ZCI metal unit offers zero benefit over the plastic one.
 
Also, from my perspective, the only reason to go with a hop unit even more expensive than the ZCI plastic if if you need to hop VERY heavy BB's and get into things like r-hop.

In almost all hop units, metal bodied or otherwise, the parts that interact with the hop nub are plastic - there are (very expensive) brands like Maxx that are all-metal but they are the minority.
 
ZCI Plastic and Metal versions use the same plastic parts. Only the body of the hop unit differs.


 

finally settled on the final design for the Modernised VZ61 GBB Scorpion. I wanted to run a tracer, torch and red dot and after a bit of tinkering I came up with this design.

Sun's out - guns out.
 
First game out for the year on Saturday at the soon to be closed for 2 years (HS2) at RIFT Comsite 3.
 
Lots of people for this event, but unfortunately this hindered the game, as the site has got smaller the car park has got smaller, and the day basically was who can run to the choke-points fastest and who had the best hop up unit as it became  6 hours of out ranging each other.
 
People setting up in buildings and playing pop up pirate all day. And with an LMG and the single shot rule, made it a long day.
 
First time using the MK46, and the overpriced mag shit itself during chrono. Luckily it was a gear coming off the motor and once i popped it back on, was good to go.
Short review of the gun - it gets out ranged by a few (new hop rubber on order), its lower on FPS than most as its JP standard, the mag is picky with ammo and misfeeds a wee bit and the fact its not auto winding is a mystery to me. And its heavy. I'm not a small bloke, in fact in the winter i dabble in powerlifting, and I was broken on the Sunday.
 
But not one gun I've own has been more fun, got more compliments or had people ask to have a go. I love it, and wish there were more like it. If TM released an m240 version, I would be there with the deeds to my house as a down payment.

Recent (last month) arrival
Still trying to figure out my favourite set up for it
 

John Wick-ish set up 

Stock now done 

Thought I'd do it in glow in the dark material for fun 
Videoleap_2023_03_20_05_40_33_250.mp4

Strike Industries TM MWS completed(?)
Might experiment with a small red dot or something, but I can't see it changing much more than that. Started in March last year! Time flies. Love how it turned out.


 
To match, also built a Strike Industries TM G17 (decided to not go with the EMG/G&P prebuilt one in the end). Waiting on a nicer red dot to arrive, but God knows when that will be.

 
Make quite a nice pair!

Not really what we see in Mack's, but this seller is dreaming if they think they they're any good with photoshop 

This is ace. What kit is this, please?

With time, effort and money you can tweak / get a standard 1.14 Joule AEG to shoot quite far if using a decent BB weight like 0.32g, certainly to the point where you can stand 10 meters further away than other players on your teams and shoot the exact opposition that they're engaging and know that most of the opposition players BB's will fall short and not get you. If you go on YouTube "Negative Airsoft" is spot on when he says in one video from 2023 that you can build an all purpose battle rifle that can be used for CQB and then the next moment be used as a half way house to a DMR when outside (it's what my M904E is now).
 
I do enjoy having my DMR though, especially as I'm 50 / not that fit, and I'll play the morning with it then swap to my M904E after lunch. The major downside of running a DMR though is that you MUST have a sidearm as you'll only be able to shoot at people if they're over a certain distance away from you (MED, aka "Minimum Engagement Distance"). So, once say an enemy gets closer than 15 meters to you you'll need to use your sidearm / pistol to shoot them as getting hit close range with a heavy BB bloody hurts and will draw blood even through clothing. My sidearm is a mildly upgraded AAP-01.
 
Others have recommended parts from AK2M4, and this parts supplier is damned good and is happy to answer questions, so if as your post all you want is to shoot at around 400 FPS on 0.20g BB's with your M908A then I've a feeling that a GearParts / XT M120 spring will be the safest option for you (possibly an M130, but if one day you're building a DMR I'd buy both anyhow as they're so cheap). This will give you the raw power, but your air volume etc. will not be high enough, so don't expect to become a lethal killer on the field
 
Also the inner barrel you have is good enough, you don't really need to replace it, but I did with mine as I took it to the next level and wanted a Maple Leaf inner barrel to get a 100% perfect fit with the ML MR bucking (which with the right nub is a simple to install R-Hop).

That’s awesome, cheers for that. Gives me some light reading for the evening going through the ak2M4 site!

@Stillers80 I run my M908A as a DMR, with an M130 spring shooting 0.40g BB's.
 
I'll read through this thread but feel free to bombard me with questions if I can help at all
 
Edit: This is pretty much how it looks at the moment...
 
https://i.imgur.com/z0AVJpA.jpg
 
... but with the metal receiver being a lot more worn plus a an IMI Defense vertical grip on the handguard.
 
Edit 2: Be careful about what you expect you'll be getting regarding a DMR from just a spring change, as to get a genuinely effective DMR you have to go way beyond that.
 
For example, off the top of my head, these are what have been swapped into my M908A (lots of parts from AK2M4)...
 
- 410mm Maple Leaf (aka ML) AEG inner barrel.
- ML 70 degree MR bucking.
- ML Omega nub.
- ZCI rotary hop unit (the stock hop unit has a pants arm).
- Maxx Model 21.25mm nozzle.
- Maxx Model cylinder head.
(However, I'd personally say that the "XT M4 CYLINDER HEAD ALUMINIUM (PAD)" is as good if not better)
- ZCI 4/5 cylinder.
- XT 14 tooth CNC rack piston.
- GearParts / XT M130 spring. 
- XT 22 TPA high torque motor.
 
... at some point I'll buy a Maxx Model M4A-PRO hop unit for it, like I have in my DE M904E, as they're just so good and the solid metal nub work perfectly with the ML MR bucking (don't buy a Retro Arms CNC hop unit as they don't fit in the DE M900's, plus the finishing on two I bought were poor with noticeable burrs).

You might find that the heavier ammo gives better range without needing to swap out parts. I found this was the case for both my galaxy MP5K and cyma M4. If you're switching to heavier ammo anyway then this could save you some cash

Finally completed the most important thing i.e. matching my hangers to the cordura kit that's currently hung up.
 

Black and Multicam UKSF 

Well you can change hop-up rubber, nub, inner barrel and hop-up unit and not opening up your GB. Compression is different. 
 
If it's your first gun or a back-up gun I wouldn't touch internals because it's just shit when you can't play because your gun in pieces at home (don't ask me how I know it :D). Just buy a cheapo m4 take it apart until the last screw and that will give you enough confidence regarding V2 gearboxes.

I can't remember what my gun was shooting at when new, but looking at a joule chart, you should be able to push to 313fps with 0.25's, although the hop setting makes a big difference.  Still, there's probably some headroom for a better spring.    And if you're doing the spring, you might as well change the hop rubber too... something a little softer than the stock one.   I went for the good ol' Maple Leaf Macaron 50 Degree + Omega nub combo.   You might just want to pick a G&G Green or Guarder Clear and stick with the existing nub.   Seek opinions on that

I've used 0.28s in my DE for a while now - very happy with those, until Windy Saturday (just gone) showed me that 0.32s are even better.  They are noticeably pricier too, of course, but what's a few quid extra spread over 3000 shots, and given the overall cost of the day.

Why hasnt he been banned? Its pretty obvious he does this 'professionally'.  Let him fuck off and setup his own web store instead of spamming our pages with over priced shite

Thanks for replying! Yeah, I think there are some small adjustments I can make regarding air seal etc. I’ve been running .25g but have been thinking of upping to .28g for better accuracy without compromising too much on distance.
 
I think having the quick change spring system will allow me to experiment a bit more confidently. I also don’t to be opening up the GB as a newbie and getting things wrong. Though I do like to learn how to do things myself 😬
Thanks for replying!
280fps with .25g. It’s a new gun so perhaps I’ll just fit a new spring and see about getting to around 350fps before I make a decision to go down the DMR route. Or, perhaps I just look at running a dedicated DMR gun and spend some more cash 😂
 
I’m loving the gun so far though, especially after using hire guns for a while. Being able to hit a half decent range makes all the difference. 

Is that 280fps with 0.20's?    You may just have suffered the Double Eagle Cheese Spring issue.   Trying slapping in a new M100 or M105 spring, and also put in a new hop rubber. That should get you back to 340-350fps, and able to lift 0.32's to a decent range.  You might be happy enough with that before trying the full DMR approach, with the problems that brings (i.e sites that need a hardware change for semi-auto, rather than just programming the gun...  the MED range issue... etc etc)

Too many factors to consider so it's impossible to tell. Good airseal and a quality inner barrel can make a huge difference.
 
Also, you need a rough idea regarding BB weight otherwise you are gonna end up joule creeping and they are not gonna let you to use your gun.
 
I looked up a spring chart on ak24m and I decided to run 0.36 so I bought few different ones between M110-M140 for now. On one site your gun is perfectly fine and you go somewhere else and it's too hot on the same spring/same BB. That's why you need to able to lower your FPS. Real quick change spring system isn't that bad regarding this issue. You need a stronger motor to pull a  stronger spring just keep in mind.
 
For me an electric DMR is always a heavy stress build so it's not a bad idea to radius your GB and correct your AoE.