TheFull9

Thrice Amen. I don't know of any specifics, they just didn't really survive the late 2010s for some reason. When I started around 06 they were ramping up (initially more kits for plastic TMs I think?) and they were the go-to metal ARs for years in the late 00s and early 10s, tons of variants all with darn authentic trades plus accessories from UGLs down to the small parts. They probably peaked in the Magpul era, pumping out tons of AEG and WA system GBB ARs based on US civilian builds of the time, often with PTS plastic attached. Then PTS lost the Magpul license and at some point Cybergun or whoever has the Colt trades license agreement clearly put their big old foot down; around then G&P just stopped making anything vaguely based on any real firearm of any type. Granted that was the trend at the time (around the initial popularity of Keymod) and G&G/ICS/VFC were all doing the same, but G&P failed to move with the times and just faded away apparently. They released a batch of Mk18s in brown a few years back that got terrible reviews and very briefly had a 'recoil system' which had the same reception. E&C have completely taken over what was the G&P domain in my estimation (military AR AEG focus). An awful lot of the same guns and parts as G&P used to do, I don't think it's the same operation though. Edit - Looked up their IG: https://www.instagram.com/gnpairsoft/?hl=en Barely a post for years now. Forgot how hard they leant in to the Salient craze.. that won't have helped the business. Maybe they only do silent OEM stuff now? It can be comparatively easy work for an established factory. Not sure.

By weird coincidence I was also looking around just earlier, it seems most of the usual UK retailers for quality kit have stopped bothering stocking rifle bags for the most part, if not entirely. Every option I looked at on Tactical-Kit was OOS, Flecktarn have zero and I don't recall seeing any gun bags on UKTactical. Google offered up nothing of great interest either. Personally this is the only option I'm considering that I found in stock in the UK: https://www.military1st.co.uk/tb-du8-cd-01-helikon-double-upper-rifle-bag-18-black.html It's pretty annoying and probably an indicator of the times. I have a WAS bag from about 15 years ago that's all 1000D, 1 big space for a rifle, another that can fit a shorter rifle/SMG then outer pistol pocket + 2 general zip pockets. Built like a tank and.. not even shown on WAS's own website anymore (the one where they list every single product they seem to have made in the past couple of years). HSP looks to have stopped production of the Incog entirely and the Spiritus Autobag seems to have been a one off thing. My guess is that such large items with such expensive shipping are not particularly economically viable in this lovely post-covid economy; they're pretty hard to dispatch without also paying to send a large volume of air in each pallet.

I was thinking about it a bit, and the conclusion I came to is that aside from the weight of the L85 the big issue is that there's no industry around it to iterate improvements. Our government has killed both private and public small arms production/development in the UK for the most part, so unless we setup and pay loads of money for specific iteration work and improvement on the SA80 series then nothing gets done. I don't think it'd be wildly untrue to say that essentially the opposite is true of the AR platform in the states; there's more companies than probably any one person knows, all of them constantly trying to beat the others at offering the latest and greatest variant of the western world's darling assault rifle. It's been a game of decreasing returns on investment for a long time now, just chipping away at very small performance increases as the technology is pretty much at it's limit, but when you have unimaginable amounts of money being poured in to seeking out those small gains you end up with an impressive end product. Heck that bloke pictured has almost nothing of British origin on him anywhere, even MTP as a pattern was mostly developed by Americans with only a smidge of input from ol' DPM. The biggest capability increases in the past 10-15 years have been in optics, lasers and other accessories and the other issue with the L85 is it's not quite as good of a mounting system for those things as the AR. Obviously the A3 is a lot better but not quite on the same level. Partly through the weight, partly the general layout and ergonomics and the fact all those gadgets are again designed with an eye on the DoD/US market (and therefore the AR layout even if it's something like the XM7). I'm sure other have seen US SOF guns (especially longer range setups) absolutely dripping with gadgets to the point you can barely see the rifle anymore. You can easily fit 10s of thousands worth of extras on something like a 6.5CM semi-auto that might 'only' cost say $5-8k and those things allow the shooter to pull off pretty crazy feats, especially at night and at long ranges. That's the sort of thing can really give us an advantage now over a bloke with an SVD or PKM. Or you know.. a PLA infantryman.

Standard V2 AEG M4A1 (ideally properly Colt marked) from a high quality brand/in high end form. I know I know big yawn, but we seem to have hit a point of having a million different ARs on the market yet the most basic type is comparatively unusual to find at this point.

I figured most likely, but that 1% doubt in the back of my mind was there.. I've heard some cringe stupidity in morning briefs.

As a joke, right?

I get where you're coming from, but people will have inevitably done more in depth maint on a weapon while under fire for real, so yeah as long as they have the tool in question that could and probably has happened. Now on a lot of civilian rifles owned by people with minimal training or experience then often the non-QD scope mount + irons is just a lack of thinking through the setup, but that's bound to happen. Personally in airsoft I like a magnified optic for ID/instead of prescription eyewear and any sort of BUIS/red dot are either aesthetic or a nice-to-have, since every airsoft shot is a 'tracer' and if they're close enough for airsoft you can obviously mostly just shoot instinctively, as has been mentioned (especially combined with the 'tracer' aspect with normal white BBs in daylight). Obviously if someone's build is a replication of a real build then none of the above matters anyway.

Yeesh imagine an entire game where everyone's dressed like a plant, not one of them actually doing anything as per usual ?

Seems there must be no demand at the moment, given the total lack of stock everywhere? I've gone about 10 pages deep on google, all I can see are the horrible looking AIP versions. I'm very close to just buying a couple of Strike warriors, swapping MSHs to the guns I want the mag wells on and selling the strikes at a loss (if anyone wants a discount on one, drop me a dm). If anyone's got any alternatives I'd love to hear them please.

@heroshark I found another one.

Been posting these old photos (around 2010-12) on social media then remembered they've never been on here either, only Arnies back in the day. The quality isn't a bug on the forum or anything, the images are just intrinsically that low resolution. Couple of iterations of my 14.5" NGRS back when I had the King Arms CASV. These days it has a carbon fibre handguard so it's just a tad lighter than the EGLM setup.

I'd reckon there's a decent chance the Foliage Warrior is TM's slowest selling/least popular GBB pistol and perhaps the one most commonly regarded as their fugliest offering. Probably lounges on stock room shelves for years and years. So, here I am.

Are you a fan of quad rails and the KAC NT4 per chance? I'm just jealous because your biceps must be triple the size of mine at a minimum.

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.