Reef

1911's have terrible gas capacity. TMs are the best 1911 because of the low weight plastic slide, but even TMs struggle to fire more than a single loads worth of bb's.
 
It's likely you will need to lube the slide as TMs can be quite dry out of the box. A dry slide will also increase gas usage to persuade a dry slide to move.
 
Also if you are constantly firing it in a short amount of time, the mags and gas get very cold, which means it gets far weaker and prevent the slide from locking back. The warmer the mags, the higher power the gas inside is.
 
TMs do not have silent fill valves so gas does escape when filling. This is perfectly normal.
 
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Lube the slide with silicon oil, don't constantly use 1911 gas pistols with rapid fire and I am sure it will lock back on empty every time. 
 
Readjust your expectations, 1911s are cool, but the small gas capacity has always been a problem and you will need to regas for every load of bb's you fire. 
 
 

We were at Dogtag today as well. Enjoyed the new area, I didn’t know that arena with the ‘castle’ existed so it was a surprise. 
I did hear the issues with hit taking, the marshal had to remind everyone after the first round which was the first time I’ve heard them do that. A shame that was happening but I still had a blast with a few good gun battles.

We were at Dogtag today as well. Enjoyed the new area, I didn’t know that arena with the ‘castle’ existed so it was a surprise. 
I did hear the issues with hit taking, the marshal had to remind everyone after the first round which was the first time I’ve heard them do that. A shame that was happening but I still had a blast with a few good gun battles.

A heavier BB will go further and quicker than a lighter one if it has the same forwards energy.
The issue comes when you add hop to impart more of the springs energy to the BB to make it spin in a similar way to a lighter BB which leaves less energy to make it go forward, so it's slower out of the barrel not only because it's heavier, but also because some of the pushing energy got used up getting it to spin.
Normally we would adjust the spring to add some FPS to compensate for the hop rubbing more.
 
Joule creep happens because a heavier BB takes longer to speed up and exit the barrel than a lighter BB so the force acting on the BB can do so for a longer time (potentially the pressure will be higher too). This only works if the lighter BB wouldn't have used all the energy.
 

Thanks for the reply's guys. I didn't realise this thread was still going
 
It is a brand new stock TM VSR we have. My son (12) is happy with the range using .28's at the moment, I'm sure we will be upgrading the internals at some point though. My worry with heavier springs is his ability to cock the gun. 
 
When/if I get to have a go with the gun in the field I will get a better idea of what needs to be done.
 
Thanks again for all the info, its a learning curve for me.

Huh, then that's surprisingly high power for a stock VSR-10.  I'm guessing that it Joule-crept up to there on the 0.28g and might have come out under 1.14J on 0.25g.
 
If your son is enjoying using it, I'd be minded to leave it as stock, other than dropping the power very slightly so that it's just under 1.14J with the heaviest BBs that it can lift (I'd hope 0.32g wouldn't be an issue).  You'll keep the light pull, not stress the components, and lose the MED.  Just dropping in 0.25g might bring it under the MED limit.

Thanks for the reply's guys. I didn't realise this thread was still going
 
It is a brand new stock TM VSR we have. My son (12) is happy with the range using .28's at the moment, I'm sure we will be upgrading the internals at some point though. My worry with heavier springs is his ability to cock the gun. 
 
When/if I get to have a go with the gun in the field I will get a better idea of what needs to be done.
 
Thanks again for all the info, its a learning curve for me.

the heaver you go up , on a stock vsr you will start to lose range  and gain travel time , .28 is probably the sweet spot .30 might be the maximum you could probably use before you start to see longer travel times and less magnus effect  

Just done this journey myself.
My son and I played four games as rental before buying any rifles. This was to make sure it’s something we wanted to do and also get the UKARA defence so we didn’t have to buy two tone.
For protective stuff I’ve got full face covering (goggles, face shield) hat, gloves and knee pads. Face covering and hat is a good idea because as a new player you will get hit… a lot!
We play woodland so rifles were a no brainier. Spent about £170 each on rifles + scope, strap, spare mags, BB’s, battery charger, carry bag, This is taking into account you already having the proper clothing and boots.
 

I'd say if you spend a lot of time prone and needing to stay dead still for 10+ minures, then a bipod is worthwhile. Otherwise you can often find something to rest it on. 
 
On ghillies, a concealment vest is about £40 and is an excellent base to craft on, no need to go for the expensive suits right away. BDUs + net + shoe goo is even cheaper. Green and brown cotton can be cheap, but tricky to get the right colours online. The ghillie packs of cotton are good colours but more expensive. Raffia is very cheap, nutscene do some excellent dyed colours. 
 
But good field craft is required to make it effective. 

Great to hear that it went well.  Are you minded to push the power up towards 2.3J?  Once you start doing that, you may find yourself chasing the White Rabbit of robustness and performance mods, which can get expensive, fast.
 
The other option is to cut a coil off the spring[*] and drop it below 1.14J, so your son can use it without a MED.  This is a viable play-style if you enjoy it.
 
[*] With it being that close, I reckon I'd just heat and flatten a coil instead, then chrono it.

Well I said I’d report back.
 
I think the gun crono’d at 1.17 with .28 BB’s. Marshall’s said we had to adhere to the 30m rule which was fine. We will use the heavier BB’s as recommended by you guys next time but I’d already bought the .28’s so thought we’d use them as a test.
 
How did the games go? No idea, my son took the rifle and hogged it the whole time… He said it was excellent and really enjoyed using it. The only game where he switched to his other gun was the last game which was a CQB.
He said we need to get a Bipod as it was hard to hold for long periods, can anyone recommend one?
 
Hopefully I’ll get a look in next time we play but I’ve just seen him searching for ghilly suits so I’m not sure.
 
 

Thanks, I told him to just use the terrain or branches to hold the gun up. Anything that makes it notably heavier I think is bad news, one of its key things is it’s so light. 
I’ll get him to try again and see what he says.
Great idea on the pouch, I’ve used something similar for camera lenses in the past.

Well I said I’d report back.
 
I think the gun crono’d at 1.17 with .28 BB’s. Marshall’s said we had to adhere to the 30m rule which was fine. We will use the heavier BB’s as recommended by you guys next time but I’d already bought the .28’s so thought we’d use them as a test.
 
How did the games go? No idea, my son took the rifle and hogged it the whole time… He said it was excellent and really enjoyed using it. The only game where he switched to his other gun was the last game which was a CQB.
He said we need to get a Bipod as it was hard to hold for long periods, can anyone recommend one?
 
Hopefully I’ll get a look in next time we play but I’ve just seen him searching for ghilly suits so I’m not sure.
 
 

I'm a massive advocate for bipods, but on something lightweight like a VSR it isn't worth it. As @Hatchet said, it almost doubles the weight, or at least it feels like it because it massively shifts the weight of the rifle because it's lightweight by itself, so a large lump of metal near the front makes it front heavy and nasty to handle. For heavier stuff like M14s it's worth it because they're heavier, so harder to hold up for long periods of time anyway, and also because they're heavier the bipod doesn't have such a massive impact on the balance of the rifle, but I wouldn't put one on a VSR unless you get the heavier Maple Leaf stock; the regular stock and receiver setup's strength is that it's so light.
 
The sand sock has been used in the military for a long time. It's basically just a sock that is filled with sand and then tied off so it's a good rifle rest. I liked @concretesnail's idea of getting a tear-off pouch and filling it with soft stuff and then using that as a rest, as that's likely going to be fairly lightweight and can be worn on a belt kit or chest rig so you won't feel the weight much anyway, but will give you a steady place to rest your rifle when in a hide position.
 
Glad to hear the lad enjoyed running around with a bolt action, even one that was under-powered and still saddled with an MED; it's a very satisfying way of playing for sure! I would actually focus on the rifle before going for a ghillie though, as he'll learn better camo and concealment fieldcraft if he doesn't get reliant on a ghillie suit. It's amazing what you can do with good camo and concealment skills while wearing regular DPM, or even just flat olive drab! I see a lot of ghillie snipers who have awful fieldcraft and they're incredibly easy to counter-snipe. Having a rifle that performs well is always useful though and I'm sure he'll appreciate it when he's able to reach out to 75m with decent accuracy.

Well I said I’d report back.
 
I think the gun crono’d at 1.17 with .28 BB’s. Marshall’s said we had to adhere to the 30m rule which was fine. We will use the heavier BB’s as recommended by you guys next time but I’d already bought the .28’s so thought we’d use them as a test.
 
How did the games go? No idea, my son took the rifle and hogged it the whole time… He said it was excellent and really enjoyed using it. The only game where he switched to his other gun was the last game which was a CQB.
He said we need to get a Bipod as it was hard to hold for long periods, can anyone recommend one?
 
Hopefully I’ll get a look in next time we play but I’ve just seen him searching for ghilly suits so I’m not sure.
 
 

Well I said I’d report back.
 
I think the gun crono’d at 1.17 with .28 BB’s. Marshall’s said we had to adhere to the 30m rule which was fine. We will use the heavier BB’s as recommended by you guys next time but I’d already bought the .28’s so thought we’d use them as a test.
 
How did the games go? No idea, my son took the rifle and hogged it the whole time… He said it was excellent and really enjoyed using it. The only game where he switched to his other gun was the last game which was a CQB.
He said we need to get a Bipod as it was hard to hold for long periods, can anyone recommend one?
 
Hopefully I’ll get a look in next time we play but I’ve just seen him searching for ghilly suits so I’m not sure.
 
 

Same with the bipod. Most of the time they're just dead weight and you're better off bracing against an arm/leg/tree, etc. Particularly with VSR, adding a bipod is probably going to near double the weight anyway (okay, a slight exaggeration, but then again I've got this Parker-Hale bipod that probably makes that an accurate statement)
 
Usually bipods end up just being used to stand the gun in the safe zone on rather than shoot from, unless you're talking something particularly heavy (support weapon, EBR-14, etc). However, if you're determined to have one, I'd suggest something like a Harris - I'm sure there are plenty of clones but I've not used them. They're lightweight and quick to deploy with spring loaded legs and usually the ability to cant to one side or other to keep the rifle level.

I'm glad to hear it was enjoyed. Ii found Bipods are a mixed bag and gave up using one, instead I use a rip off pouch and put soft stuff in it. Then rip it off to use as a sandbag style rest when need.

We actually bought the rifle from Surplus Store. I won’t be able to get over there before Saturday but happy to give it a go with stock spring.
I found a hank of rope in the garage that is 30m and laid it out, it’s actually not as far as I thought. Looks like our usual engagement distance for our AR’s on a wide game to be honest.
 
Thanks for all the help and advice, really appreciated.
 
 

Good advice given on this thread!
 
I love running a sub 350fps bolty.  I use .32s as they are a good compromise with cost v ultimate 'liftability.'  I play at Gunman sites, and Josh usually asks anyone daft enough to use a sub-350fps bolty to say at the safety brief.  This avoids the 'He's cheating/shooting within the MED' crap.  You could ask the chaps at your site to do the same if they don't already.  For short range, get a bayonet fitted...
 
I find that I immerse myself far more with my K98.  I think harder, use fieldcraft more and don't walk shots in as much.   If you have a look at the day write ups thread, there are a few posts that give advice on getting the most out of your rif.  Impulse is a bit of a guru in this department, but don't tell him I said so!
 
 

Thanks Rogerborg, 
 
I've got a lot to learn on this, I've never fired a boltie and haven't put a round through our new gun yet. I'll see what happens the weekend and report back
 
I think we've fallen into the typical noob trap of getting over excited and buying loads of stuff. Hey ho, what else is money for.  

I've just worked it out using an online calculator on .28 BB's which I'm planning on using.
Totally get that it would be impractical to treat each gun on a case by case biases and I will stick to the 30m rule if asked too.  
I'll talk to the marshals when I get the gun chrono'd on Saturday and see what's said.
 
Thanks for the input and glad it wasn't a stupid question
 
 
 
Thanks Impulse, I will take .2, .25, .28 BB's with me so if needs be I can make sure I'm under the 1.14J limit. The marshalls have been really helpful so far at the site so I'll take their advice.
Personally I don't have an issue with the 30m limit but my son who's 12 wants to use the rifle and I don't think he can judge distances as well as me, I don't want to get him into trouble or piss off other players. We don't have sidearms (yet).
 
My son and i will come down to Worthing Airsoft soon, only heard good things about this place.   

Definitely put a chrono at the top of your "to buy" list. Especially if you plan on doing any work on you boltie (or any gun).