Gunboat Diplomat

Not so much just bought, but certainly new in the last month. This has more or less instantly become my favourite RIF. Stock apart from a Waldo Dynamics hop arm. Was a bit of a basket case when I got it, the manufacturer had managed to glue the hop adjuster shut in their attempt to thread lock it into the upper. After removing all of that I fitted the Waldo arm and a 4UAD bucking, but got terrible nozzle sticking so swapped back to the original bucking. Despite that it shoots great. At my local CQB site I can easily one shot all of the Attack Sense targets dotted around the arena.

Reforger has been on my you'll-enjoy-this-if-you-put-the-time-in list for a while. I mean it's basically a milsim day from the comfort of my office. However, I can never be arsed to put the time in!

Nov 2nd me and the boy will be there.

This is a good one, I’ve only ever played my local sites and the Gaol thread has prompted me to book there next month. Its been on my list but ironically its potential closure is the thing that has gotten me off my arse to actually plan a visit.

I’m pretty sure I’ve got some of those resettable hand warmers in and old sock draw so could stuff those in my mag pouches.

Cheers I’ll give them a watch and no, I will not be entertaining any thoughts of skirmishing in those sorts of temperatures. I’d frankly have doubts even were I in a real conflict quite frankly. I’ve got the later DE stanags and some GM Pmags. My old Bulle chest rig has internal M4 pouches so I tend to put them in there when it’s cold. Although the Pmags are rather brilliant at resisting any attempt to warm them up thanks to the polymer shell.

What is the practical temp at which you stop running your MWS? I’m new to GBBRs and have been having a great time throwing money at my Double Eagle MWS clones, but as we’re heading into winter I’m wondering if/when I’ll need to shelve them (or HPA tap them). I know anecdotally they cope well with the cold, but I imagine there is a difference between a quick YouTube demo of an MWS firing on a snowy day vs a day long skirmish in the cold.

Not much to preface this thread with, is the genuine CTR noticeably better than the clones? Are there any particularly decent clones to go for? It’s going on an MWS tube and minimal stock wobble is preferred without having to faff with shims.

OP - I'd swap the 'can' in your posed question with 'should'. I think in this hobby it's really worth stepping outside of our little bubble and taking a look at ourselves from an outsider's perspective. Our hobby is fucking weird. 'Oh yeah, at the weekend I dress up like a soldier and run around with other grown men, but also children, and play with toy guns. Sometimes I like to wear my soldier costume in my house and look at myself in the mirror. Oh yeah that's the wall in my office that I've dedicated to hanging all my toy guns on so I can stare at them.' Yes, we all know we're a bunch of harmless dorks who love a weekend of BB wars as an alternative to a 5-a-side match or a round of golf. To the general public (especially in today's intolerance fuelled culture of performative indignation) we're the people they should make laws about to make our streets and public spaces safer, only the army should be allowed to have military equipment, why can't they just play paintball... you get the idea.

I've decided given the negligible cost to just buy a bag of each and find out for myself, but based on replies I'm going to guess in a blind trial I won't be able to tell the difference!

Reviews for the Freya are generally very good. A guy at my local site has one and has no complaints with it. He's changed the barrel and bucking in his, but by his own account that is in chasing the last few % of accuracy rather than any shortcomings with the stock items. I think he plays Sat and Sun every single weekend so his certainly gets used. I don't think you can go too far wrong with that choice. I'll also vouch for Double Eagle though along with @WildBoneZ. My first gun was an M906C and up until the last month had been my only one for the last two years. No end of abuse and never let me down.

At the risk of derailing the OPs thread, how do they compare to GBBRs? I'm a recent GBBR convert, to the extent that my previously entirely satisfactory AEG no longer interests me, despite its obvious benefits in the cold. I know an EBB is never going to match a gas powered BCG, but are the NGRS options good enough to make it feel less like an AEG and more like a GBBR?

I've only ever used bio BBs, never had any issues, no noticeable fouling in any of my guns. However, I frequently hear (usually in GBBR discussions) of people only using non-bios in their guns for reasons ranging from accuracy to gun cleaning. Is this just recycled clap-trap from the days when early bios were rubbish, but have since gotten much better? Or is there some non-bio nirvana I'm missing out on. Disclaimer I only intend to use them on sites that permit them, for all the others I'll continue with bios.

Thanks all, I've used Firesupport a few times but never needed to use their after sales so will keep them in my list. BZ have come up a few times in my searches so I'll add them to my roster of places to throw money at.

Undoubtedly one of the Double Eagle MWS clones. Around £350 depending on the model but they are all very solid and trade blows with their Marui counterparts. Leaves you another £50 for a second mag, but expect to buy more.

Yep - this one is my most frequented and equally most frustrating at times.

Most retailers are pretty reliable at getting a box delivered these days, but after some pretty shaky after sales support on a recent order where the wrong item was shipped, I'm on the hunt for somewhere new to shop. Any recommendations for stores that actually have well organised and prompt after sales support? Preferably with a good focus on GBBRs as that is the bulk of my spending these days!

Well, the thing is you might be - some of the groups have some great info/contributors, just the platform sucks. Would be great if all those people would join up to the forum. In case it wasn't becoming self-evident, yes I am petulantly demanding everyone use the internet the way I want...

True, I freely admit to some old-git nostalgia about how much better it was in my day and all this used to be fields and a Freddo was only 5p etc…

It’s not so much the groups themselves (some have some really useful info and knowledgeable contributors) but the actual platform that I dislike. The entire UX design is just a shit experience for the kind of long form discussion that nerdy hobbies like ours benefit from.

This is really a bit of a self-indulgent moan about the internet not being the way I like it anymore, I expect the appeal of this thread (or otherwise) will largely hinge on your age, but anyway... I'm in a few airsoft related Discord groups, namely because they contain info I can't get anywhere else and are by and large far more active than forums. But for the love of Christ, the experience of using them is painful. Having an ever scrolling wall of text, out of context replies to prior comments punctuated by sporadic memes just makes my head hurt. I just can't fathom why anyone would prefer this over a forum thread, other than the low-effort barrier to entry. What am I missing here?

Hard to tell from the picture, if they are like the balance lead connectors from a lipo then what you are looking for is JST-XH female to female 4pin. Couple of quid (or € for you I guess) from eBay, Amazon etc

None of my local sites have a decent range for dialling in accuracy (usually you just have to find something noteworthy to aim at between games and guesstimate its distance). I'd like a morning to tinker with my HPA gun and just try it across of spread of PSI settings to see where it becomes most effective (obviously turning it back down to 1j for actual gameplay).

Interesting, some really good arguments for and against which I hadn’t considered myself. (OT - this is why it annoys me when forums die out in favour of content farms like Reddit et al, you don’t get the same level of discourse). I think I must be one of the masochists - about 75% of my time is spent at my local CQB site in shorts and t-shirt (I’m not a speed softer, I just get too hot) and whilst I do tend to finish with a lot of big bruises and welts, higher power wouldn’t put me off (within reason). I suppose to qualify my original question, my practical ideal power limit is that which encourages the most participation, causes the least headaches for site operators and attracts the minimum attention from regulation or bad press - I’ve had enough hobbies die out as it is without another one being killed off. Nonetheless, I’ve never used anything over UK limits, I’d love to back to back test on the same gun to see what different power limits really do to range and accuracy to see if there is Goldilocks style zone for an airsoft gun.

Been thinking about airsoft joule limits in other countries and wondering who has the ‘optimal’ limit to balance effective range against injury. I would personally happily take a higher UK limit, although tempered by the fact I still want my kids to be able to take part and I wouldn’t want an increase in field limits to result in site insurance policies that start mandating additional armour beyond eye protection. Where is your happy middle ground? Or if you are not in the UK, what is your limit and are you happy with it?