ASP383

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Had an amazing day at Red Alert last weekend. Great marshalling team and a really well put-together site. Everytime I’ve played RA there’s been a good atmosphere and a distinct lack of poor sportsmanship, very happy to say this was the case for this game too.
 
Got snapped a few times as we were attacking the “embassy”. Cheeky sidearm kills are always 10x more satisfying than primary kills

 
Ran a HPA tapped WA Salient Arms AR and WE MP5k for the day, made a lot of noise and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

A good evening game at Driver wood last night - £15 for 4 hours of quite closely packed game play which i thought was very reasonable. We used one of the paintball fields, so more open terrain, small buildings and towers and artificial cover interspersed with trees. A good choice, as the dense packed undergrowth of the rest of the site would have led to boring and uneventful game play, as well as a significant amount of blue on blue.
 
Aside for one particular game where flashing pucks needed to be collected from around the field by our team - and where the opposing team hadn't heard the Marshalls whistle to start the game (!) culminating in them leaving their spawn 5 minutes in, it went off smoothly.
 
It was nice that there was some flood lighting dotted around the field, randomly changing colour every now and then to add spice. Still plenty of dark corners to hide in, but it was just enough so that players weren't forced into the tedious dilemma of using a torch to try to spot the enemy whilst simultaneously giving away your position. At least, not all of the time. The games were chosen to work well on the field, and meant that it was generally fairly predictable which rough areas of the field the friendlies and the enemy were in, reducing the annoyance of constant blue on blue.
 
Reaffirmed my view that tracer units - whilst undeniably fun - have more negatives than positives in the dark, literally highlighting your location to all around. A decently dialled in red dot did me proud last night, atop my L119a1ish.
 
Oh, and, following on from the (rather accurate) posts earlier in this thread about the green team always winning - nice to see the Orange team winning each game last night!

Ah yes, now you mention it, I think i saw the brass plaque on the Zil, commemorating that event!

Ah, I'm with you now. That will be interesting. I don't think I ever really saw that truck being used for cover.

Like yourselves, I rather like the dense foliage. However, I'm rather confident that, unless there is a low pass from a B52 spraying Agent Orange, the sheer amount of rhododendron there will mean that there will still be more than adequate opportunities a for sneaky play and flanking. After playing there rather a lot over the past few years, I'm actually quite looking forward to a little change!
 
Where has the new bus been plonked?

Quite the necro post - but it's about driver wood which makes me tingle in my priesthood.
 
Heard they were cutting bush and I admittedly got scared. So much concealment on that site makes for brilliant flanking but I understand why, because people stick to the main open areas and venture out very little.
 
I'm there tomorrow too, I'll be the easiest target to aim for.

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.

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 all the replies all, I’ve managed to grab 3 tm mags from hi capa hub which should come this week 😁

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)

I've had the TM, my son has the asg, out of the box the TM is best, even before any mods are applied, definitely the one to have👍

Having owned both the TM and ASG I'd say while the ASG isn't a bad gun, the TM is certainly better in terms of quality and performance 

The TM MK23 is probably the best fit for you. They "can" be upgraded to do some pretty mental stuff but a stock TM Mk23 is very quiet and will happily flick a 28 at least 30 metres without any fuss.
 
When you start looking at clones, STTi, ASG and Novi - They are that, a "clone" and for the most part, genuinely all the same gun. I wouldn't brand Novi stuff as "bad" more that it's sold as "ready" out the box and people get miffed if they need to do anything, he sells box loads so there will always be bad feedback flying around compared to those qho quietly buy an STTi for £40 and expect a long build up.
 
I'v personally had 3 STTi's, an ASG and have finally settled on a TM. I've done some mods, Hadron TDC, flamingo bucking, SBA suppressor and removed the 2 stage sear and I'm very happy with it as it is ultimately "just" a sidearm backup pistol.

@Dan Robinson, shame to have missed you, my lad and I were orange team too ... can see the enemy through 30' of foliage, but not someone 5' away!
 
My lad and I went for the afternoon, we got separated while going through the woods to try to flank the other team, he ended up lost for about 10 minutes trying to find his way back into play and we only caught up with each other back at the safe zone. I tagged along with a sniper and together we flanked round to near 1 of the towers, the sniper got tucked down in the undergrowth on the opposite side of the track to me, where he had a line of sight more towards the tower and my blindside, but could also swing round to his right, where I was covering 1 of the paths enemy players would be using to get to the tower, I was also able to cover behind us, in case their players tried flanking us or just happened up that way. Together we got a few kills and then I noticed an enemy player in the tower, so went for him. The sniper then shouted hit and a few moments later, I felt something on my jacket, unsure if it was a twig or BB, I decided to call it, walking back, we went right through the enemy team, so after respawn, we knew where to go and worked our way up, both hit again, respawned and went back to same are, where we, now with a 3rd team member eliminated those players. all too soon, the game was over though.

Unfortunately, when we got back to the safe zone and caught up with my lad, he wasn't looking right and said he had a migraine coming on and he'd forgotten to bring some medication with him (I'll make sure he has some for next time), so he wanted to call it a day, but he did enjoy his game and managed a few kills too. 

Will be good to meet up with others and I'll keep an eye out Dan, or any others on here if you're playing when down this way.

@Dan Robinson, shame to have missed you, my lad and I were orange team too ... can see the enemy through 30' of foliage, but not someone 5' away!
 
My lad and I went for the afternoon, we got separated while going through the woods to try to flank the other team, he ended up lost for about 10 minutes trying to find his way back into play and we only caught up with each other back at the safe zone. I tagged along with a sniper and together we flanked round to near 1 of the towers, the sniper got tucked down in the undergrowth on the opposite side of the track to me, where he had a line of sight more towards the tower and my blindside, but could also swing round to his right, where I was covering 1 of the paths enemy players would be using to get to the tower, I was also able to cover behind us, in case their players tried flanking us or just happened up that way. Together we got a few kills and then I noticed an enemy player in the tower, so went for him. The sniper then shouted hit and a few moments later, I felt something on my jacket, unsure if it was a twig or BB, I decided to call it, walking back, we went right through the enemy team, so after respawn, we knew where to go and worked our way up, both hit again, respawned and went back to same are, where we, now with a 3rd team member eliminated those players. all too soon, the game was over though.

Unfortunately, when we got back to the safe zone and caught up with my lad, he wasn't looking right and said he had a migraine coming on and he'd forgotten to bring some medication with him (I'll make sure he has some for next time), so he wanted to call it a day, but he did enjoy his game and managed a few kills too. 

Will be good to meet up with others and I'll keep an eye out Dan, or any others on here if you're playing when down this way.

@Dan Robinson, shame to have missed you, my lad and I were orange team too ... can see the enemy through 30' of foliage, but not someone 5' away!
 
My lad and I went for the afternoon, we got separated while going through the woods to try to flank the other team, he ended up lost for about 10 minutes trying to find his way back into play and we only caught up with each other back at the safe zone. I tagged along with a sniper and together we flanked round to near 1 of the towers, the sniper got tucked down in the undergrowth on the opposite side of the track to me, where he had a line of sight more towards the tower and my blindside, but could also swing round to his right, where I was covering 1 of the paths enemy players would be using to get to the tower, I was also able to cover behind us, in case their players tried flanking us or just happened up that way. Together we got a few kills and then I noticed an enemy player in the tower, so went for him. The sniper then shouted hit and a few moments later, I felt something on my jacket, unsure if it was a twig or BB, I decided to call it, walking back, we went right through the enemy team, so after respawn, we knew where to go and worked our way up, both hit again, respawned and went back to same are, where we, now with a 3rd team member eliminated those players. all too soon, the game was over though.

Unfortunately, when we got back to the safe zone and caught up with my lad, he wasn't looking right and said he had a migraine coming on and he'd forgotten to bring some medication with him (I'll make sure he has some for next time), so he wanted to call it a day, but he did enjoy his game and managed a few kills too. 

Will be good to meet up with others and I'll keep an eye out Dan, or any others on here if you're playing when down this way.

Made it to Driver Wood yesterday, and have to say it is one of the best Safe Zones I've seen,  clean, plenty of covered tables, decent food and toilets too.
 
Chrono was effective  - my new G36 was too hot, my L85 needed a few mags run through it to calm it down too.
  
The game zone was pretty damn good too with plenty of vehicles to play around and in (including two Sea King helicopters and a London bus.   I was rather miffed to discover that the non hit taker I was about to call out was in fact stood behind a fully rolled up window, and there was now two hicaps worth of BBs sitting in the back seat of the open window I was shooting through. LOL.  Show's it's worth checking before making a knob of yourself and complain unnecessarily (see story below).
 
Sadly I just couldn't get into the feel of things apart from the last game of the day.  Not sure if it was me having a lot on family wise at the moment and not having the boy with me, or if it was the worry of my knee giving up (which thankfully it didn't).  Certainly not the fault of the site.  Games started off with a TDM, then various item acquisition and domination games.  One criticism I do have though is that the attitude to spawn camping by the marshals was rather soft.  Our team seemed to always end up pinned down to a certain extent, but to be fair the green team were much more organised and pushed forward much harder than our team at the beginning of each game giving them the upper hand.
 
The best game of the day for me, was the Escort the VIP.  Said VIP had to reach certain locations and stay there for 5 minutes before moving on.  We had one amusing incident where I was helping him through the CQB area and we were firing as we moved.  A guy (who was on his third day in a row thanks to NAF and possibly "tired and emotional") was rather upset that he thought we were on full auto whilst slot shooting him.
 
We (then a marshal) politely pointed out that we were both on semi, and that shooting him through the slot he was hiding behind was perfectly OK, as well as the fact we were in the open at the time.  His whining then went on to rate of fire, seeing as he lost all other arguments; and that the slot shooting rule was not explained to him properly.  At which point the VIP and I just wandered off to have fun elsewhere.  Especially ironic as his team were not the greatest at hit taking and we had been taking full auto hits all afternoon without moaning; plus there was some very dodgy hit taking and a lot of blind firing from one of his pals who was holding the big tower in an earlier game.    For what it's worth the slot shooting rule is the same at every other site I have played, so why he thought it was any different here I don't know. 
 
My new fan-equipped eye pro, courtesy of @mightyjebus proved to be very effective.  The only issue was the unavoidable "raining" on the lenses when the sweat was really pouring; but no amount of anti-fog is going to help with that unless wipers are fitted.  A gentle draft across the lenses kept them nice and clear, with no problem of the eyes drying out.  Pew of the day was the DE 904 - whilst a little short on range, the accuracy and shot consistency more than made up for it.  Specna and L85 were working well, although for some reason BBs were veering off more than usual once they got past 30 metres or so.
 
Shame to have missed @ASP383and @Asomodai,  maybe another time?  Will certainly try and get there again as it happens to be just off a short cut I take when I drive to my dad's house -so I have been driving passed it unawares for years LOL.  I know the boy would love it because of the vehicles.  
 
One last amusing occurrence was a bunch of guys doing an paintball stag (judging by the outfits) do came up to me and asked if us airsofters were on some kind of military training - my reply was "nope just like you guys but with more realistic guns and better value for money"  which is when I noticed their surprising collection of deactivated weapons for a picture - including what looked an awful lot like an AT4 rocket launcher and a Mauser anti tank gun.
 
 
 

Think you got the best game of the day TBH.  Sorry your lad couldn't carry on....I'm gonna post in the the How's Your Day thread later 👍

Only just seen your message Dan, We got there for the afternoon games, can't say I noticed you, was looking out for your patch though. We only managed 1 game in the end, as my lad got a migraine and had forgotten his medication. At least I know the  Maple Leaf 275mm 6.03mm  barrel and 70* hop rubber I fitted has helped flatten the trajectory and close up my grouping, just got to decide it the G&G CM16 Raider is worth spending the money on to try to quieten the gearbox, or keep it as a back up/loaner