El Zomba

As alternatives, if you've got the cash an Archwick B&T Air SP300 is an option. It's built with all the upgrades you'd want to add. I have one, and it's very nice. For a less pricey option, a pal runs an Action Army AAC T10, which is a VSR clone, so plenty of upgrade options. You can get one from Airsoft World for £159, which is a steal. That, plus an uprated spring and piston will get you to 2.2j nicely.

Site/game rules override all, but if it's not defined there's nothing wrong with a bit of SIGINT. Listening in on a channel is fine. Blocking/spamming the channel is pushing the boundries of sportsmanship; may your conscience be your guide. Don't even think to fuck around on the Marshalls' channel. That's a paddlin'.

I have a 61cm head, but have the added fun of a long-shaped skull rather than a round one (xenomorph/motorcycle petrol tank), so getting a helmet that fit was an absolute PITA. I ended up going to SOCOM in Fleet as they have a wide range of helmets to try. I wasn't holding out much hope; the FMA AirFrame copy, which was meant to be good for large heads, was still too tight. The only one that fit with any degree of comfort was the FMA FAST heavyweight.

Helmets will make you hot and uncomfortable. I use one, but only for CBQ games indoors; even then the positives barely outweigh the negatives. If you really want something to protect your noggin, you can get a bump cap insert for a baseball cap, like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ergodyne-Univesal-Universal-Lightweight-8945/dp/B079KDWN62?th=1&psc=1

Not to mention the deluge of oh-so-funny 'Rate My Kit' posts of 'non-political' SS or Russian gear (usually swapping the t for a p in 'Rate' in the title too). Bunch of edgy turbovirgin shite.

Fire Support have them in stock, and within your budget. https://www.firesupport.uk/tokyo-marui-recoil-m4-urg-i-115inch-sopmod-block3-aeg.html

I know this is putting the cart before the horse, but seeing that Polenar holster has made me want to pick up an MP5. Seeing as I'm about to dip my toe into the murky world of bolt actions, I'm going to give lugging my MP7 around as a secondary a go. My thinking being that if I fancy being sneeky I can set up the rifle, but can switch to the 7 if I feel like being lairy. I give it two games max before I'm sick of the weight and one of the two is getting left in the car for the rest of the day.

Difficult to enforce, but not impossible. Show your ears as you leave the safe zone. I had a mask on, but would be able to whip it back a bit to show I had plugs in were I wearing them. I do see your point though, as it would be extra faff. I suppose the other way is to meet in the middle and recommend earpro in the terms & conditions and the brief. That way it's the players' own responsibility. Anyway, live and learn; I'll take earpro for the next game I attend there. I did email Tony with a bit of feedback about the site and gameplay, including pyro. In his reply he mentioned that they'd tested with 209s and 380s with no lasting effect, so maybe someone was being a bit cheeky after all. He also mentioned that they'll be tweeking the rules about how grenades are used and how frequently, so I guess I wasn't the only squeeky wheel on that.

@Cannonfodder About 10 minutes or so. Enough to do your admin before the next game briefing. Game briefings were fairly quick too, other than a couple of moments where rules had to be re-explained (rules around stairs were a bit complex, and turned into a Q&A), and a warning about Pyro (after the incident mentioned above). Not much sitting around at all.

@Cannonfodder I was there on the Sunday and just wrote about it in the 'How did your day go?' thread. They run an AM and a PM session. We went for the AM session, got there for 8. Safety brief/site rules started at roughly 9:15. It is RIFT, so the brief is... comprehensive. We had five games. The first three were two rounds each with spawn swaps. The last two were one-rounders. Each round was about 20 mins. Breaks were about 10-15 mins; enough to bomb up and get a drink/have a slash/have a smoke before the next game brief started. All very quick and organised. We weren't sure whether we'd get our money's worth for a half-day, but you do. It's very intense.

Spent Sunday morning at RIFTs new Blackstone CQB site in Huntingdon. First impressions are that it's really good. They've obviously put a lot of time, money and effort into it. The set-up area is massive, with plenty of space for everyone. The permanent White Sphere Tactical shop is full of nice shiney things for you to buy. The vending machines were a bit of a ballache, but there's free tea and coffee-making facilies on site should you wish to partake. Organisation is up to the usual standard at RIFT. The long and thorough briefing made sure everyone knows the score. Costas and the rest of the marshall team are always on hand and friendly. Games were short, about 20 minutes a round, two rounds a game, with teams swapping spawn points each round. What you lose in time, you gain in intensity. There's lots of corners to hide around but you're mostly able to flank the campers, so you're rarely safe and have to keep moving, keep pushing. Game modes are the usual mix of CTF, bank raids and bomb defusal, and are fast-paced. Most of the games had limited spawning/lives, which makes play more deliberate and suits the smaller nature of the site. As for how I did... Ups and downs. The first game was a mare, as I was learning the lay of the land, the pace of the games, and struggling with a shotgun run on duster gas because it was too spicy on green at chrono. For the following games I was more confident navigating the maze of killrooms and alleyways, switched to an MP7 and had great fun sneaking up on the unsuspecting. The only game that let the session down was towards the end and was was a CTF variant with VIPs and infinite respawns. The opposing team dominated early on and it turned into a meatgrinder, with a 30 second play loop of spawn, try to push out, get shot and move back to spawn. No whinging about the other team as they absolutely nailed it; more that the rules didn't work that time around. The only other complaint was the use of pyro. It's an indoor site and you need something to clear corners and rooms, but having a flashbang go off at your feet gets your bell rung. My ears are still ringing 24 hours after. Some poor sod had one go off near his face. All an accident, the marshalls were on it, and no one was being a dickhead, but it if you're going to allow flashbangs and grenades at an indoor site, you should really make earpro mandatory, even if it's just foam earplugs. Every little helps. If I'd known, I would have sorted myself out. Anyway, new site. All these gripes will get ironed out and refined as they go. But the foundations are there, and they're solid. It's a really good site, My pals and I had a great morning and I think it's going to be our go-to over the winter.

Got a buyer for it right here:

Nah, that's only for 2-point slings. The issue SA-80 sling was a 3-point that hugged your rifle close to you when you needed both hands free. You had a release buckle that you could unclip when you needed more room to go prone or wave it about a bit. A fun test was undoing that clip to see whose rifle would clatter to the ground because they'd threaded their sling wrong.

Pointy bits inward, yeah? 👍 It's not impossible, but given that I've tried fitting them every which way with the same result, I'm going to say it's improbable. Either I've been blessed with a Friday afternoon batch, or you're the lucky one with the decent QC. Either way, luck of the draw.

Yeah, might just do that. Nice one. The cost bit was more around the rails than the mounts (£144 for gen Ops-Core if the FMA rails are shitty too), but I guess if I wanted to avoid a money pit I picked the wrong hobby. 😄