TheFull9

It's partly because I'm a little short sighted combined with not being very good at airsoft, but I don't think I've ever been close to certain someone was not calling their hits (personally). Yet I sit through every single safety brief every single game day and they say "no cheat calling, it's as bad/worse than not hit taking" and at every single skirmish I hear "oiii take yer fuckin 'its maaate".. 🙄 Pathetic, cringe bs.

Do not know, didn't spot anything that looked like a good all day car park on the way in or out, was my first time attending and their website/staff certainly don't mention that. Looking at google maps there's at least 1 standard pay-and-display car park close enough that carrying all one's equipment might be safe/viable, potentially, haven't really dug in to it as the site is a decent distance from me so it won't be my regular or anything (plus I need my guns sorting lol).

Bit of a rollercoaster yesterday at UCAP Vendetta, which for those who've maybe not heard of it is a former prison right in Gloucester. I've been wanting to get to one of these former prison sites for years (I think there's 3 in the UK?) and I've never been posted anywhere that's very close to any of them, but I happened to not have to come in to work today so the sunday game was a solid opportunity. Got there right on opening time as I'd seen a review saying safe zone table/seating space was a little tight, definitely an interesting experience even just driving in the place as you go through 2 extremely tall, heavy (but narrow) entrance gates arranged in an airlock type fashion that I presume made up the proper vehicle access when the prison was still running. The parking is within a fenced area within the main walls and is understandably tightly restricted, which unfortunately means cars are packed in like sardines and you will not be leaving site until the game finishes, full stop! Got ready and went 2 chrono with 2 just-worked-on AEGs, one of which I'd used at Airsoft Plantation and passed their chrono fine on .25s, but not at UCAP! 😆 The other also failed even more spectacularly, doing 370 on a .2, not something I've ever happened in my entire time playing. *Luckily* not all the rental guns were spoken for, so I paid the difference, left my VFCs with hundreds worth of internals work in their bags and rocked out with a beautifully basic Specna made entirely out of plastic, adorned with nothing but flip-up iron sights, not even a sling. The irony being that this was my first time ever playing with a rental gun, having attended even my first game in '06 with my own toy AR (it wasn't a RIF at the time technically, was just before the VCRA). I'd always meant to try renting just for the heck of it, but would've much rather done it on my own terms it must be said. I'd expected all the rentals to be gone and with my car thoroughly blocked in I was deep in 5p-50p territory for a little while there. What I had predicted was that it'd be extremely nimble and practical running the rental, especially close up, which indeed it was, more so than much of my regular guccified guns. The safe zone is definitely up there in luxury (comparatively) and protection from the elements as long as you do get a little bit of table space, toilets not too bad as they go, didn't check out the shop and brought my own lunch; given how empty the SZ was at lunch I suspect the queue was substantial. UCAP is definitely heavy on rules as organisations go, more limits on RIF/mag/ammo types than I've seen elsewhere, 'no boots, no play' policy which resulted in some.. haphazardly sourced footwear, heh. Chrono was thorough on the one hand and they even check you're not hopping too much, turning it down to increase velocity if necessary, but they also don't physically tag anything, just show the hot gun to one of the many many security cameras they have around site and tell you not to use it. That's mostly ok in an integrity based game I'd say, but then my own experience did rather prove the system fallible. As mentioned I failed chrono initially, used the rental gun first game, then figured I'd take a hail mary shot on the .2s I got for renting maybe doing some reverse joule creep on the 1 gun that was close to passing. I got it re-checked by a marshal and luckily it squeaked under limits, so I could use one of my own guns on the 2s and spent the rest of the day doing so. With around 5 minutes to go of the final game of the day an evidently new marshal asked if I was the guy that failed chrono in the morning, I said yes I had but I'd been re-checked and passed, but he didn't take my word so they brought the chrono out and checked me again; which was fine as nothing had changed. That said, rather pointless given I'd played almost all day with said gun already and to me that's pretty clear proof that their apparent camera monitoring system is just security theatre, as once I got re-checked and passed nothing was done or changed. It'll work on honest people, but it wouldn't stop a determined cheat, as I basically demonstrated. Anyway, the physical site is very interesting indeed, one of the best actual locations I've played, maybe the old Mall would be the only potential rival. The fact they also do paid tours of the place says a fair bit, most of the prison is pretty intact and there's even a couple of inmate transport trucks, one of which is open and fully in play. For me the best part is the layout does perhaps the best job I've seen of placing players at the ideal engagement distances. You're rarely at all doing that classic thing of looking at someone 60m+ away and not actually being able to shoot them, with no cover inbetween. You generally come round a corner and the other team is at 10-40m or so and you have a great little firefight. A few kids were slow on calling hits and were looking around to eyeball the firer before making the shout, but that's kids I guess and far as I can recall all the adults were good in this respect. The number of obvious (at least to me) current/ex military and police blokes as well as obviously experienced players of the game inattendance says a fair bit about the site overall, imho. Car parking sitch is, for me, a not insignificant negative as I always want to be free to leave when I so choose even though I never do leave early, I just do not like the notion personally. Overall though, solid site to play for sure.

My ex says this is where I belong.

As a big ESS/Rev fan goggle user, I have to say I was pretty shocked by their seeming total lack of availability now (having not looked for a few years). Personally I'll only play with full seal lensed eye pro and for me a fan is then a 100% necessity, so unless the likes of ESS get back in to the business then either getting the Trittechs or home bodging some non-fan goggles will be the way I'd have to go. Though given I've always gone for my lower face pro attached to goggles which doesn't really look feasible with these, then the home brew path might be the only option left.

Great, but how does it shoot now??

lol, given how often 'I've used X strategy to hide this thing I just bought from the lady' is posted on here, well.. I'm saying nothing else 😆

2nd half of 2022 acquisitions, list available below. A good few of these have been made space for by having to sell the previous incumbents (as it were), I'm fighting for every bit of space saving efficiency these days, but you can only squeeze out so much juice from the orange 😆😬

I had a think back and I did indeed get a customs bill from my last order with WGC a few months back, so yeah definitely a toss of the coin type situation. I only mention it as I've long been a fan of importing most stuff given the much wider product range available outside of the UK, but I do want people to do it properly and have the extra 20-25% cash set aside. If you do have that and you get lucky then hey mega bonus, you're in the money, treat the mrs - but if you don't have it and you bring in a £500 parcel then an extra unplanned bill of well over £100 is going to be horrendous.

That sounds like luck tbh, I had a quick flick through their site and couldn't see them saying they pre-pay import VAT for the UK (unless it's really buried in some document I couldn't find). I've used them many times and one occasion was only a few months back; I might've gotten lucky once or twice long ago but mostly I've paid import VAT and fees etc. As with any import the chances of that and associated cost all varies by the time of year, courier used, paperwork, who at customs gets your package and how much they care if they do in fact decide to open or do anything with it at all. Obviously it should always be the same every time legally speaking, but that's been my experience having imported stuff a few times a year for longer than I want to admit 🧓 Personally I've switched to mostly getting RIFs in the UK, where possible anyway (if it's not here and I still want it then I'll happily import). Varies case by case of course but it's usually worked out to be right around the same price or sometimes cheaper here. Right now I want an ICS DD Mk18 and the 2 best prices I've found are WGC or F-S: https://www.fire-support.co.uk/product/ics-dd-mk18-s3-black-airsoft-gun-aeg https://www.wgcshop.com/products/ics-180s3-1 After shipping and the likely VAT the F-S route is a good deal cheaper, will get here a lot quicker with less chance of loss or damage, better warranty practicalities and no chance of kevin the world's coolest man at customs ringing you up to have an argument because he doesn't know the VCRA.

As is/was usual, the film gun is a real mash up, but I think most of us who want this look just want 'an M16' with the relevant issued heatshield type handguard and the longer barreled M203; most of the details aren't noticeable to the vast majority of people. This is something I'm working on myself atm (in AEG form). It's definitely an awful lot cheaper to do as an AEG I'll say that. If TM released an MWS line M16 it'd cut an awful lot of cost to say the least, but it's hard to say if that'll happen. They haven't done a 20" AR in a very long time far as I can recall, but they're pretty unpredictable and the M16/M16+203 combo has had some big exposure of late. I actually had some of the handguards (real and replica) bookmarked on a few sites and watched them almost in real time vanish from being in stock after a garand thumb aired video a short while back.

Not correct, just watch a few YT videos of competition shooters in the US hosing down stages with no issues, then look up a 'melt down' video to see the crazy volume of non-stop automatic fire it takes to actually break something on even a commercial firearm that's not designed or built to be used in automatic. The info/evidence is widely available.

Pics through the mag would be much appreciated please and thanks 😁 (from Opp tac store?)

Do let us know how it is.

As always with such things it depends how close you wanna get. Within the ballpark? Literally easier than falling off a log, it's a tan AR with keymod and magpul furniture. 100% exact replica? Impossible far as I can see.

Every camo combo works. Just not skinny jeans, trex arms caps, pit vipers, skate shoes and plaid shirts.

The HWO T-1s and 2s I've got are pretty spot on overall, look right, clear lenses, overall decent build standard and cheaper than their good EoTechs. I've got one on a TM EBB and it's not shaken any connections loose so far on that specific example at least (which is a problem I saw a long time ago on the cheaper T series china clones). I've tried a few different EoTech clones over the years and for whatever reason the chinese factories just don't seem to be able to pump them out to a good standard in the same way they can with Aimpoint micro copies. The format is just harder to replicate it seems, I suppose it's just a bigger object overall with more going on vs a T-1. More wires, longer connections, bigger windows etc, so to make one that's not blue tinted or with a terrible reticule or electronic functional problems costs more money. I love the look and the big window for up close so personally if I do put one on a gun I'll just bite the bullet on the more expensive copy (maybe a used real one some day), but most of my shooters have ACOGs when I want magnification or T series red dots.

To me it's that combination of availability and budget. There are a lot of airsoft guns that exist (especially 90s stuff) that look real cool and are valuable to collectors, but they're made of shit plastic and you'd never ever find an original replacement part no matter how much money you have because they've been out of production for many years. As I think about it, the number of airsoft guns that are out of production vs currently available is probably huge actually. Obviously a discontinued version of a plastic G&G AR is probably not something anyone will cry over if broken so there are levels and that's a personal choice, I wouldn't let anyone else dictate that for you. If something is fixable/replaceable but you can't really afford to fix or replace it, then that's the other consideration and only you know your budget so again, not something for others to dictate.

For possessing camouflage clothing?

Lots of very unnecessary accessories dropped in from WGC that are giving me a lot of joy lol. Back in late '06 I bought my first airsoft silencer which was also a copy of the KAC NT4, but it was a Classic Army rendition. Having a CA AR I thought surely it'd fit, but it didn't, my dad took a hammer to it which essentially cold welded it on to the muzzle device when it should have been, you know.. QD. Finally getting a good one and mounting it up all good and proper now that I (mostly) know what I'm doing is a similar feeling to being able to buy the games now that I only had the demos of as a kid and had to play through the same level over and over.

Fair, fair. Have to say I've got one too and have also only added a single accessory part with no plans to do anything more, so zero disagreement here. I did a simple plastic flared magwell rather than the sights but either one is a decent shout and doesn't mess with the TM magic pixie dust so that's a winner in my book.

I do love it.

And besmirch that all that beautiful 2010-ness?? I shall hear none of it sir.

lol, I've just been editing the shots of mine literally a couple of minutes ago. I don't know how many years I'd wanted one, was back before they had adjustable hop, but even when the A1 came out I held off as it was a pure 'want' since I had 2 of the 226s already which are all you'd need in a skirmishing sidearm. After waiting so many years though I'd saved enough to say 'fair enough' on the buy and I have to say it's one of TMs best lookers imho. Between Die Hard and The Matrix (just for starters) and tons of games I think it's one of the most iconic handguns there is is for anyone between about 25 and 50 probably, but I rarely see them anywhere on forums/socials or at games for whatever reason. Which is weird when I think back as I had to setup a stock alert at F-S as they don't seem to be in stock anywhere that much, at least from what I've seen myself. Then again I suppose it's neither super modern nor historic and there's very little if anything you can do to change them, plus the A1 isn't actually the famous variant looks wise, but to me it has 99% of the aesthetic I love, it's got plenty of gas capacity and just the little bit of rail adds a lot of functionality vs the smooth dust cover. Like for me having the Blackhawk omnivores it totally eliminates an entire holster purchase, plus the obvious easy light mounting. Whether the metal ones like the WE are any good I don't know, they're probably a more appealing purchase for many but I'd pit the stock TM performance against the lower priced metal versions with a fair bit of confidence. My personal experience has been that the slightly increased at-home-handling satisfaction of the metal vs plastic vanishes rapidly in the face of actual getting in game. Personally I've lost count of the number of pistols I've seen doing the death putt-putt, just venting the whole mag or only shooting 10m; but everyone's experience will naturally vary. Just crossing my fingers for an A4 version now as that'd be different enough to warrant a purchase while also sharing the mags. Probably slim odds though, haven't seen much in the way of sneak peeks on upcoming pistols the past couple of years.