ASP383

That's a shame hadn't noticed any new videos from Ghost Rider Airsoft for a while though, so kind of adds up, as that's his regular site. Although much closer to me than Driver Wood, I prefer Driver Wood, as flatter terrain (nearly 50 fat bloke), used to shoot HFT at Dogtag's site around 2012-14, while with Horsham Rifle and Pistol Club.

Wanting to give HPA a go, I've picked up an Ares Amoeba Honey Badger 013 HPA edition on Monday. Already thinking of what to do with it, but as it has a mock suppressor and the inner barrel comes all the way to the end, I was looking at the Airtech barrel stabiliser and tracer adaptor to fit a short suppressor, however, everywhere I'm looking, even Airtech, they're sold out, so I'll probably look at extending the outer barrel and suppressor instead. Looking at some reviews, I'll probably change the hop rubber, as a lot of reviews suggest the original doesn't last long and maybe upgrade the barrel (same length), to a better quality one. I'll give it a go as is for now though. As I started a new job in January, the overtime I've been doing while training has paid for the RIF, bottle, regulator and hose and I'm still in pocket, so I can get the other parts in my own time. Only thing I forgot to ask the shop, was what weight BBs they'd recommend, luckily I've got a few different weights, so I can have a play while setting it up.

I was lucky, we were aid up until the Friday, but still 1 week short of the full month and the administrators paid our outstanding holiday. Had to apply for redundancy and notice through the Government website, as I'd only been with the company 6 years, I didn't lose out on any of that, but quite a few of the guys who had been with the company for 30+ years and gone through multiple buyouts, lost out on quite a lot, due to the caps in place on the payments from the Government. I don't know how long the administrators had been in for, but as I say, only a few people knew, but they were in long enough for the HGV division to be saved and revert back to it's original name, the Met Police vehicle maintenance contract to be secured back in house and the mechanics in the workshops were tupe'd over. Everyone (including myself), that worked for the mobile part of the company were let go, as they apparently couldn't find a buyer for us. At least with the parts team going, there were no lists of our van stock and with both area managers going too, there was no list of which engineers had what IT and other tech. A few guys (1 assisted by 1 of the area managers), even removed all the racking from their vans and filled them with garden and other waste, before they were collected by either the administrators or lease company (depending on who owned them), but mine is still sat in the car park, MOT has now run out, so no doubt DVLA will soon take it away.

If it was anything like who I worked for, we knew some mobile engineers were quiet, although most of us were booked up for the next 2 months, we had a message for a company wide Teams meeting after work, where we were told the company had gone into administration and we were redundant immediately. Only the director and a couple others knew the administrators had been called in. even our area managers didn't know anything about it. At least I'm starting my new job in a few weeks time, but I know it's a rough time for anyone in retail and hospitality, with the amount of those businesses going bust or closing stores.

Not been playing for a while, due to company I worked for going into administration, but starting training on new job next week, so decided to Pop over to Driver Wood (Sussex) this morning with my lad to make use of their range and set up my Tac-41L and my lad's SA-FX01, both of which were bought the week before myself and the other 54 colleagues got our career news. My lad had a few issues with his FX-01, in that the BBs weren't feeding properly, luckily I'd had foresight to take my tool box with me, I noticed the ejection port cover wasn't exposing the hop adjuster when the charging bolt was pulled back, popped the pin out and moved the upper receiver forward, which must have pulled the barrel and hop forward to it's correct position (possibly assembly QC, but will keep open mind), this allowed it to feed better and I was able to adjust the hop, although stock, .28g is at max hop, so may look at .25g or different hop rubber in time. Mag still seemed not to be feeding properly, as though it was building tension on the feed spring, but not enough to feed correctly, as randomly decided to feed, however, I caught the tension release and blew a few BBs out, hey presto, feeding fine and quite surprised how many BBs it feeds now between needing to be wound. I've got 5x 100rd midcaps coming, which were ordered at same time, but were on back order, so hopefully they'll all feed OK out the box. My lad was then quite happy getting to grips with it and some practice with his pistol. With my lad sorted out now, I was able to turn my attention to my Tac-41L, heaviest BBs the shop had when I bought it, was .36g, so that is what I was using. Zeroed in my scope (as best I could, then set the hop and spent some time on targets at varying ranges. After a few mags, I checked it on my chrono, which came out at about 1.8j, so I decided to try the spare spring that comes with it, slight adjustment of hop and scope and all was good, ran through a few mags and checked on the chrono again 2.20j-2.23j across 10 shots (site limit 2.32j), so will have to keep an eye on that, just in case it starts creeping up, but luckily, barely a 5 minute job to swap back to the lower power spring if needed. As is, I pinged the furthest target with my range finder and was happy knowing I'll be able to take confident 75 yard shots. I was also able to buy a couple of Runcams, 1 for my M4 and 1 for the Tac-41L, just before we all got our work news, so no doubt be posting videos on my YT channel, although more for me to review to see if/where I can improve, hopefully, they'll be more entertaining that my beach fishing videos. Now I know regular money will be starting to come back into the house again next month, I'll probably be extravagant and book Sunday afternoon games.

Cheers Tommikka, Think the batteries are built in on the RunCam Scope Cam 2 4K, In theory, looking them, they should be OK for 2 games on a half day, with a quick top up during the break, found some 10000mah at 220g on offer at £10. I've got 7x batteries between our 2x action cams (more budget friendly than GoPro, but footage is good), so no problems there.

About to order a couple of RunCam 2 4k, generally, my son and I only do half days, due to his medical issues, but wondering what powerbanks people are using with theirs, or am I just being a bit over cautious for half day games? We are trying to work up to full days, so additional back up power may be required.

Picked up a Silverback TAC-41 Lite this afternoon from my local shop, been watching their website like a hawk last couple of days, as I knew they were landing this week, so as soon as I saw they'd changed from "out of stock" to "In stock", I gave them a call to keep 1 back for me, (not knowing how many they'd got in and how quick they'd sell), so popped in on way home. Also picked up the 24mm thread long carbon suppressor and a 110rd mag (no thread adaptors from 24mm-14mm and no standard 48rd mags in stock). I decided I'd use spare scope and rings from my air rifles, so went into my gun room to open my cabinet to get them out. Assembled the rifle and then tried the scopes, my options were either a Nikko Sterling Nighteater 4-16x44 SF or Hawke Sport HD 2-7x30 AO IR, only got low mounts that will fit the rifle. Despite the NS being about 4" longer and larger objective lense, it didn't look too big and although I could still operate the hop, it was fairly close, so went with the Hawke, which with the correct eye relief, the objective lense doesn't even get to the end of the rail and about 5mm clearance, so spot on. Just got to find some time to zero it before my next game. Might have to see how my Yukon Photon 4.6x42 digital NV scope is on the rifle, maybe do some night games, luckily, being digital, I can use it day or night, although image is only in black and white.

I'll be picking up the Lite as soon as my local shop has it in. Had thought about the Lite Sport due to total budget constraints and I'm sure Silverback wouldn't risk tainting their brand or model reputation with sub parr pasts on either the LS or PS, however, that said, I'll be buying the Lite, as other than the stock and shorter inner/outer barrel, the rest is sae as the established and proven P and A variants, despite it eating more into my total budget, so for now, I'll be using a spare scope and mounts from my air rifles.

With my Brother-in-Law and his wife coming over from Oz this weekend, he wanted to go shooting, however, my dive bottle is empty and out of test date, so no air rifles, so airsoft it is, which happens to mean needing a third pew. Not having much of a budget due to double birthday party for my girls, meant going cheap and cheerful, so checking my local RFD website and checking them out on YT for reviews etc to try to find best "bang for buck", I nipped into the shop this morning and picked up a Specna Arms SA-F02 and red dot optic. Have to say, for only £120, it appears to be punching above it's price point, with rotary hop and tight bore barrel (looks brass?), finish looks good and going by the various reviews, should be better out of the box than my G&G SM16 Raider, which I had to change the hop rubber and barrel for it to shoot OK. already fitted the optic and lense protector, so all I need to do now, is set the hop, which depending on B-i-L's schedule, will either be at our local airsoft site or at my woods, along with my lad. If my younger daughter wants to take up airsoft, then at least we've got a pew available for her or even use as a base for a custom build.

As has been said, the UK isn't as big a market as some other countries (not sure where we would rank), so most retailers wouldn't be able to put in big enough orders with each brand to be a priority for delivery, they want to ship at least a container and a small crate of a dozen by air freight won't really interest them, hence most UK retailers going through official importers and wholesalers, who will be able to put in an order for a container full of stock. Another issue is, the global chip market, still hasn't fully caught up from both the halt in production due to covid and a large % of stock was destroyed in a warehouse fire a couple of years ago. Airsoft isn't the only hobby to be suffering these issues though.

Got my first kills there, saw some enemy players the other side, so used it for cover, making sure my legs were behind the wheels, then shot through the chassis to take out 2 players ... never forget your first kill lol.

Where the 6 wheel Zil box truck was, between tower 1 and bridge tower (walk onto game zone, turn left, then right). With the clearance work, as well as being able to fire to both towers, there's now line of sight to CQB and looks like you can also see to the original bus.

I had been planning to go to Driver Wood for the afternoon session (which is as much as my lad has been managing so far, unfortunately, ended up having to head over into East Sussex this morning, so knowing I would have been too late getting back, I chucked my kit in the car and took my younger daughter and middle lad with me, so when I was done, we nipped into the woods I manage for a mate and we had some fun with the guns, it also let me set up my new TM mk23, without having to rush things and others wanting the range before chrono. On the plus side for the hobby and a negative for my wallet, both the kids want to join my oldest lad and myself on the field, my daughter is 12, so old enough for quit a few sites, but my middle lad will have to wait until he's 10 in July. I've noticed hit and miss with team sizes too and those joining in the afternoon have their briefing out near the car park, while those that are there all day wait in the safe zone, we're then split up, can't say for sure if there are any regulars that only do afternoons, as we only do once a month, however, that doesn't prevent the total numbers of players in the teams being out of balance. Can't say I've noticed much spawn camping, regardless of which tam I'm on and to be honest, my view is that it spoils the game, not only for the team being spawn camped, but surely those doing the camping would rather a decent game? due to spawn points moving game to game, can't even put some sort of coloured markers/barriers x distance away, other than to tell players spawn camping isn't allowed?

Agree, I had my concerns too, especially with how my game play has evolved over the year I've been playing, where I've been purposely venturing out into the wilds to flank the opposing team, although to date, I've only had my M4, but now I've got a TM mk23 too, for those sneaky shots. I'll only be doing the afternoon, as my lad can't manage a full day with his leg issues

Couple of years old, I know, but more work has been going on the last few weeks, with moving a Zil to their Exeter site to make room for an open top double decker in it's place, will be ready to use in morning, cut back a lot of Rhododendron bushed, opening up more lines of sight into game play areas, other things relocated too, hopefully make players use more of the site. Plenty of update posts an videos over last couple of weeks on their Facebook page. should be there for tomorrow.

Undecided, will get some game play with it first. My local RFD sells the upgraded mk23, which was in stock a short while back, but was still saving up and since sold out of both the upgraded model and the parts. I'm not sniping or running DMR, so will see how things go as I use my M4 as main weapon, but like to sit in ambush, so want something I can do sneaky shots with and hope they think it's a sniper further away,

Bit of retail therapy today ... TM mk23, 2x spare mags, DTD mk23 holster with molle attachment and some green gas. might try getting out this weekend to break it in.

I'm trying to aim for once a month, but then again, it is my oldest lad and myself doing airsoft and apart from my wn hobbies having 5 kids who like different tings, plus my Mrs, I try not to push my luck with budgeting or the Mrs.

Thanks for the replies Looks like it'll be the TM then. My local RFD sells them stock and modified, although the latter isn't in stock as much, but reading the description saying parts availability, I'm guessing their tech does the upgrade in store? I now what you mean @Steveocee, having come from the world of air guns and knowing a few gunsmiths who specialise in air, as opposed to SG and FAC, I know even the "best" will have problems common with other brands, which is why I like to try to check out customer service and ease of obtaining parts.

Crawley Surplus Store is showing TM hi capa 5.1 silver in stock, but back mags are out of stock Tokyo Marui Hi-Capa 5.1 Silver Gas Magazine (surplusstore.co.uk)

Looking to get a gas gun, personal preference is non GBB, which restricts my options more than if I wanted GBB. As my game play is evolving, I'm finding myself trying to flank the field and set up to ambush somewhere between (but not in sight of) their spawn point and objectives, but without being a bush, currently using an AEG which is fine until I'm in position, where its quite noisy for ambushing. I'm liking the look of the mk23 platform, so have been looking at quite a few new, long term ownership and tech reviews to try to hep me chose, now, they all have their issues, which I'd expect from any mechanical equipment. Price point, the pistol with some spare mags is obviously more attractive than the SSX303, however, the latter, if on lower power, can be used without need for a second firearm, but with the higher price point and requiring either more mags than I'd need with the pistol as a secondary, or carrying additional BBs and speed loader, it makes it a lot more expensive. With regards budget, either option won't be a problem, although in time I may look at DMR or sniper rifles. For me, of more importance is customer service and parts availability. My local RFD lists quite a few brands of my mk23 platforms, including the SSX303 and I'm seeing lots off issues regarding Noveritsch's customer service and long lead times for parts., which seem to be worse than others. What are members experience of various brands of pistol and SSX303, as well as ease of parts and customer service?

Will do, The gun club I was a member of used Dogtag' site for HFT competition, think there was only 1 porta-loo for us all. Certainly no complaints about Driver Wood, plus easier to pop into Surplus Store on way home, if can't get what you want on site.

Currently got a 1997 Land Rover Discovery ES 300Tdi, so nothing exciting, but ticks all the boxes for me and is more comfortable on and off road than my first car way back in 1992, which was a 1963 Land Rover 2a. I like my Green Ovals, although only brand I've had more of is Mopar (not Fiat branded stuff either), proper Plymouth and Dodge muscle.