Ian_Gere

External pads allow you to kneel in deeper mud/puddles than built in ones without moisture wicking into your kecks. That may not be part of your envisaged mission for them, but for me the point of wearing pads is to allow me to utilise cover which I would be squeamish about with my civilian knees and having to wear those kecks all day, often until gone 19:00 before i get back through my front door. The addition of 'belt loops' on the side of your kecks is a surefire way to prevent them slipping, but Hatch Centurion barely move anyway, unless you're up and down like the proverbial sex worker's underwear. Loops like these: ...as you can see they allow the pads to work in any position.

^^No doubt the reason they recommend keeping it short is because it is so poxy Resistance of the signal wire is not an issue, so the length need not be an issue either, just so long as however you build the new loom you provide for heatshrink to protect any high wear areas and, if you are daft enough to use that capellini that comes with it, to bundle it with the power cables to reinforce its strength in tension.

Hatch Centurion - comes in OD, black, and tan, iirc. They have a small ridge at the top of the hard foam inside which helps to prevent them slipping down. The are very comfy and also have those pegs so that once you have adjusted them to fit, you can get them on and off easily without messing with the adjustment again.

Have you got velcro inside that belt and on the keepers, Chris? Because most of my loadout options these days involve a harness and belt and the most annoying thing I find is when stuff shifts around.

Adam3088 makes a good point about University authorities. Many people have a disproportionate fear of firearms and even toys like ours which look like them. However I'd not go so far as to advise that you do not store this, or any other RIFs you may acquire, in your student digs, but do make sure that you do not let random people see it/them. No need to be secretive, but no need to flash it/them around either, because people will talk... I know it's the most tempting thing in the world to buy a pistol, but tbh they are not really much use in airsoft, compared to an assault rifle. But the first thing you really need is your own well fitting eye protection, because the kind of paintball masks which are generally on offer to hire at sites can be majorly fog-tastic. Good boots wouldn't go amiss either... This may help you.

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I'd love to get one of these, but I have an Ares L1A1, which has not been messed about with at all, but has been a pig from day 1. I'll be waiting to see what people who buy them say, but TBH, since I almost certainly will want to upgrade it internally for fast trigger response, unless it is standard V3 and AK compatible, I'll also be waiting to see if airsoftpro.cz bring out any upgrade parts for it (as they used to supply a Vz58, but it has been discontinued as far as anyone can tell).

Take my advice and do not use the thin wire they supply as the signal wire. The reason is because it is so thin and the insulation is not very robust. If you allow even the poxiest short through compromised insulation it will cook the MOSFET (I have done that to a Pico SSR v1 and with an 11.1V LiPo connected up the short can be due to a spark jumping from an insulation compromised trigger wire to the gearbox shell). Instead, since you are replacing the stock wiring with 16AWG, use a piece of the original loom as your signal wire. Just make sure that you choose a piece without any squashes/grazes where it has been badly crushed between the GB shell and receiver.

I'm really not sold on WBB's - on a bench, maybe, but in the field I highly doubt their efficacy. But let us know. ZCI is a brand. Amongst other things they do TBB's - someone on here bought one a while ago and said they would give us the benefit of their experience but, so far as i've seen, so far hasn't. Not you though, obviously...

I've got a bunch of double fast mags for M14 and they hold L1A1(7.62x51mm) mags fine, but I took the top of the 2 rubber bands off each of them to allow for getting the mags out quicker. With the 2 bands they were very stiff. I expect that 417 mags will fit, but they have a curve, right? Which may mean that if you fit 2 or more next to each other on your molle, the mags may rattle against each other when you move. Edit: I've just looked them up and the curve isn't as pronounced as I feared, so they probably would fit in fast-mags without rattle.

Let us know how this set up performs please. How did you get on with the ZCI? That was you, right?

No problem until they get well used - after a lot of use the spring which lifts the BB's will lose strength and the last couple, and eventually few, BB's will not feed. But you will be able to just stick a few more in there to compensate. It will take a long time before that happens though. Just a point on realism - a bullet travels straight through bushes without being deflected and similarly is not affected by the merest zephyr of breeze; this is not the case with BB's, so it can take several to get one on target. Plus people always feel being hit by bullets, but this is not always true with BB's; thus even if you do hit with your first shot, your target may not notice. Also people are really afraid of being shot by bullets, which means that it takes far less of them to intimidate, or 'suppress', the opposition than it does when firing BB's. So low caps, or 'real caps' as they are also called, are not really equivalent in effect to the same number of bullets. Having said that, you can carry 12 BB mags easily enough, assuming you have the webbing and pouches, whereas 360 bullets would weigh a lot more. I sometimes use RPK mags in my 74's - the main issue is using them prone without the mahoosive bipod that an RPK has - not easy. The other issue is finding mag pouches for them - you will need to buy Russian gear which tends to be more expensive, although if you look on frontoweic.com you may find what you need without paying the full whack for a Smersh. Maybe look at joining the FB group "Russian Military Airsoft Loadouts - UK" too / lots of Rus-softers with info and/or gear to sell. I think mine are Classic Army mags, but I bought them in a closing down sale a couple of years ago, so I can't remember and can't go back to check...

Oh right, Chris. I thought you might have a supplier of the striker alone, without the matches. If you do get hold of the striker strip on its own, please let me know.

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I always love to see things like this, when people have taken the time to really make it work, but for practical airsoft...

The actionhobbies one is not System 7, KWA's flagship gas system, which they also call something like 'professional training pistol'.

I added a skirmish report to your thread about those holders, mate. I'm in favour, but i had to mod them to work with my Russian webbing. For those who run molle rigs, I expect they'd be good to go as is. Used properly they could be a game changer, in terms of just how quick you can deploy a MK5.

+1 to A&K SVD The upgrade's you need are the extended cocking handle and advanced hop unit. ASPUK are fine, but airsoftpro.cz are cheaper. A TBB will get more FPS from the spring and depending on quality may improve accuracy, but it has such a long barrel that if you get a TBB you will need to do your calculations for what spring to get, because for eg a 6.01x590mm with the stock spring will put out about 530FPS on .2g BB's. It takes AEG springs though, so it's cheap enough to experiment - an M135 is a good place to start for a 6.01mm TBB. The stock trigger sear begins wearing out from the 1st shot, but not quickly and there is a steel one cheap enough - this begins wearing out the piston though there is a steel reinforced piston too. There is also a steel barrel base which is probably not needed unless you also do the home made mods to minimise barrel wobble and air seal leakage, but more importantly get your shooting position and technique sorted to minimise involuntary movement, but with all that sorted, the additional inertia of steel must improve accuracy. I would advise getting the steel bipod as opposed to the 'metal' one as, although a sniper rifle will generally take less abuse than an assault rifle, when you need to displace in a hurry, you will drag your bipod across the ground and move with it extended, so if it's crap it will get bent.

You only need to put a UKARA number on the package if you're having an RIF shipped from abroad. Do you actually mean low cap, like 30 rounds, or mid cap 100rnd-ish? Because I'm not at all sure that MAG make '74 low caps, although their mid caps are good. For low caps I think you may have to get Ares and i would not be surprised if they are temperamental, work in some guns but not others stylee an ting...

Not discharging NiMh batteries and allowing them to lose charge over time also knackers them.

It's the not knowing that wrankles, eh? When I email for confirmation, I want a reply within 24hrs. Genuinely too busy to get back to me within that time frame? Get more staff... But yeah, eb are wankers for that. The last time i ordered from them I swear they'd have just kept my money without delivering in perpetuity if I hadn't chased them up.

TBH almost the only times i buy from UK retailers is when they're having a sale or I want the stuff yesterday. I don't mind paying UK retail prices when I want the thing in a hurry and, if I want it really badly, I will cheerfully put up with even Royal Mail shipping prices to be able to order Wednesday and have it Friday without fail, but what pisses me off is when I pay for next day delivery and it takes longer, especially if it doesn't turn up until after the weekend I wanted it for. But the thing that really gets up my hole and will definitely result in bad-mouthing is when retailers feel the need to gouge a few more pence out of me for P&P - charging VAT on top of P&P for eg, or even just adding 80+p to what RM charge. I know that packaging materials cost, and that people to pack need wages, but these are costs involved in any distance sale, so they should be covered by the ticket price so I can compare prices without having to go through the whole order process and only before I click 'buy' get the full story. I spose the only exception to the above is Bullseye Country Sport - very competitive prices, even when compared to HK or Poland when you factor in shipping, fast and reliable shipping, prices inc. shipping up front, good range of stock, and quick to reply when you email. About the only thing more I would want is a wider variety of SHS parts. Otherwise if you can do what they do, sooner or later you'll get my business.

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Darren Chen? No way, man! The CS bloke they used to have was called "Mordred Chiang". Hope he hasn't fallen foul of any corporate Arthurs...

Something you need to know is that ICS L85's are not parts compatible with most gearboxes. Off the top of my head I recall that the cam on the sector gear will not work if you replace it with a standard gear set and, i'm pretty sure, the piston is proprietary also. You could look on youtube. I've taught myself to tech my guns by watching YT vids to find someone taking that gun apart and reassembling it, then having a go. It has been trial and error. Many errors I suspect everyone develops their own techniques, but the first thing you probably want to know is how to prevent the gearbox from pinging parts all over the room when you open it: use a thin screwdriver to insert into the spring guide and hold the main spring down against the left hand half of the shell, but the first you need to know is to release any tension in the gears. I use a bent paperclip to poke up through where the motor attaches and hook around the anti-reversal latch; i then pull it to disengage the ARL allowing the gears to spin backward; it can take 2-3 goes before there is no tension at all - failing to do this can cause teeth to be knocked off the sector gear.