Ian_Gere

That link works for me, but I don't actually have an opinion based on experience. One thing I will say is that plastic is likely to resist cooling in winter better than metal, so they may prove to be better for consistency.

TBH I think you should have sent/taken it back immediately because that looks to me very much like you've FUBAR'd it. I'm trying hard, but I can't actually imagine how you broke the end off the rod? To unjam the mag you might try some oil, which may have helped elsewhere also. But I think perhaps you may be better to avoid risking doing any more damage by doing it yourself and let a gun tech sort it out, either at wherever you bought it, or by hiring someone local to you.

No need to apologise for questions, GBM, that is what this thread is for! Your gas mag link is broken.

I used to be of that opinion also, until I bought a pair of Bolle Cobras They do not fog, even without a lens treatment (in fact putting something else on the lens may knacker the built in anti-fog properties). Are these then the answer to all our problems? Can fat bastards like me sweat to our heart's content and still see what we are doing? For about 10-15mins yeah, but liquid begins to build up which distorts your view. 25-30mins in and I was having trouble spotting camouflaged opposition in bushes; 40mins in and that was about the absolute limit of their use.

The BTC Chimera does pre-cocking and does come in a V3 version, however it is oos everywhere. I emailed BTC a while back about this and after a while they emailed back to say they had some ready to sell, but by the time i had the money, a few days only, they were oos again. Afaik this sudden availability did not make it as far as Air Lab, their UK distributor. I can't actually remember how they deal with the issue of the spring being left compressed for ages, but they do deal with it - it is possible to get the cycle to end up simply completed. I dont think the Burst Wizard KK does do pre-cocking and certainly the King Kong V1 barely works at all. It is also so complicated to program that it's kinda difficult to know whether you have ballsed it up yourself or whether it has failed. The new version II may well be better, but after how disappointing the V1 proved to be, i will not buy one unless I hear from someone on here who has had one working for a few months on a V3 GB.

The G9E is bound to be good, but tbh it's probably over-spec'd for what you need.

^^Exactly what I was about to ask

^^Yeah, that's what Vanquis think too, muahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Mixing gasses should be fine though - the bulb is rated for CO2 and propane, green gas, Abbey Ultra etc are all lower pressure than than that, so if i put a bit of CO2 in with whatever gas, I should just get a bit more power - I've heard that using green gas in these bulbs gives 300FPS from a KWC NBB Makarov, but my Umarex has no hop so if that's all the power i can get it will be next to useless - it struggles to reach 35m as is at 420FPS. But if i can get 340 say, or even 365 for woodland sites, that's gotta be enough effective range for a viable sniper backup. If the bulb works without major problems I may fit a CO2 conversion kit to my SVD and get a few more of them.

The credit card or mixing gasses in a cartridge?

Gordon Bennet, the rot has really set in now! I have been having problems keeping track of my overdraft vs PayPal because they don't take the money out of your bank immediately... and because i'm a drug addled old fool, of course, so i've been getting hit for bounce fees. So I half jokingly applied for a credit card to link to my PP as 1st payment source instead of my bank account and, woojabelieveit, Vanquis actually went for it So now I don't have to cough up until the end of the month, I bought a PPS 12g Refillable CO2 Cartridge from airsoftarmoury.co.uk - £16.49 posted which is a liberty being taken right there, since £7.08 of that is P&P and it's not as if it will be gassed up when posted. But you can fill them with green gas which should make my Umarex Makarov NBB 'site legal' - woofuckinghoo! And what do I find when I go looking for a cheap CO2 charger so I could fill this thing with a mix of gasses to get the max out of it - I could have bought the PPS refillable cartridge from khmountain on fleabay for £9.50 posted V^^VGrrrrrrrrrr! I'm gonna see if i can cancel it before it gets posted.

Yeah, the CM.039C brand new looks like something cobbled together from someone's bits box, but i think the U version looks passable - trouble is my build will have a tube stock adapter so that rail would look shit. Having an extra bolt through the barrel base assembly must also restrict the space available for battery & connectors...

Yeah, intelligibility and good comms discipline are the main problem and answer to it respectively - even the best radio equipment and/or accessories has/have limitations. TBH I had given up taking mine due to frustration with garbled messages, but I've just bought a 2nd hand XTR446 (£14 posted ~ fleabay) to use as a loaner: as Chock says, for times when I want comms with people i've just teamed up with on an ad hoc basis. I'm determined to put stuff I was taught last year by an ex Marine sergeant into practice and just hope that doing so rubs off on whomever I'm communicating with. Part of the problem is that I hate sounding like some kind of walty gamer, but the reasons why the military use the procedures they do are to overcome exactly the same problems we are faced with, so call signs and clarity will be the order of the day, as it were - "bellend one to bumcrack six, over" may take the edge off Can you show us those Bell South handsets, Chock? If they were from a dealer, can you give us a linky too, because yeah, that is a spectacularly good deal. One thing on features: if a handset is equipped with a "Roger Beep" it must also be able to turn it off, because the bloody thing is soooo annoying in general use - it is so loud in comparison to speech, so whatever volume you have your gear set to in order to hear messages clearly, a roger beep will be excessive... and when in typical airsoft use... "Say again?" "...t theyreoverthere! DIDDLY-DING-BEEP" "...at you mean? BING-BONG-BEEP" "Who are you talking to?" "...kinell! DIDDLY-DING-BEEP" "...hind the bush. BING-BONG-BEEP" it becomes justification for homicide... but only marginally more so than not waiting a second before speaking after pressing the PTT to avoid your initial speech being cut off by auto-squelch. Hopefully someone who has done it can help me out here: how do you program a CTCSS code into a Baofeng handset? As I understand it, the Baofeng is only interested in the frequency and the privacy "channel" is nothing to do with that.

I have a bag of the white BB King 0.4's that ASPUK are/were selling but have yet to try them - just today however I saw someone selling a couple of bags of them cheap because he'd had problems getting them through a PDI 6.01mm barrel (which worries me because that's exactly what I have in Svetlana, my SVD... a bloody long one to boot ). Most recently I've been using washed Blaster Devil 0.3's but i'm not sure that i have actually seen any improvement by washing them. I also don't think that 0.3g is heavy enough for sniping - they just don't resist air movement well enough compared to heavier BB's, but i spose that missing makes you rely on the other sniper skills, such as estimating windage, concealment, and knowing precisely when to shoot so the target does not notice if you do miss, and merely exercising these is almost as much fun as doing so and actually getting hits Madbull tan 0.4's are way overpriced - they have an alarming incidence of internal bubbles which are not particularly central either.

I used to go with a couple of sandwiches or a snot poodle, a packet of biscuits, extra strong mints, and water. Get a cup'o'tea on the way and another at lunch. These days I go with less caffeine and more water, a Soreen loaf, and mint humbugs to suck to keep my mouth moist and a constant supply of sugar going into me. And drugs. Lots of heavy duty drugs. Frizz, you should tell your parents you're going to join the army if they wont let you play at shooting people...

Cobras are only slightly better than Binatone, in the same way that Gonorrhea is better than Syphilis. The Motorola 2.5mm TRS jack is a good design so long as whatever accessory you choose uses a right angle plug design, which most of them do. 2 pin designs may at first glance appear to be more robust, but in fact the requirement to get both jacks into their sockets straight is apparently too much for many people because bent internal contacts is a leading cause of failure. One advantage of a 2.5mm socket is that they are also used on some mobile phones, so they are pretty cheap to replace should you prove a bit ham fisted, but this is much more true of 3.5mm single pin designs, since they are also used for many consumer music applications. Bear in mind that although some other companies use the same design connector as Motorola, like Cobra for eg, that doesn't necessarily mean that they are 100% compatible with accessories - you may have to wrap tape around the plug to hold it slightly out to make it work. TDB of PMR446 is the Motorola XTNiD but failing that the Midland G7 has an excellent reputation for intelligibility. Frankly though, the Motorola XTR446 may be an old design, but it remains popular because it is good enough for pretty much any application where the additional range of a licensed frequency is not needed - providing better intelligibility than many, it is simple to use, and very robust. They can also be had refurbished with a warranty pretty cheap. IMO there is a lot of merit to what James said about military replica headsets and PTT's being 99% shite, but some stuff is so simple it is next to bombproof - the Z-Tactical Bowman EVO II for eg and their original U98 PTT replica (the one without the additional finger button). I am far from gentle with my kit and mine have been going strong for over 3 years.

I don't like 1 points - the gun flaps about when you drop it to transition to pistol, or for fiddling with bangs/smoke/sweets etc. 2 points are ok on some guns - AK's for eg work very well with their intended 'real steel' slings I prefer 3 points - when you drop the gun it stays across your chest I just bought one of these Russian "Trehtochechnik" ...haven't skirmished it yet, but it's very comfortable and the rear strap goes around any gun's stock.

I'm such a cock! I spose because I had made the decision to go with the CM stock I had thought I had gone ahead and ordered it. I was sat here thinking, "Hmmm, that's been a while in the post, I'd better chase that up," as you do. So I've just spent yonks going through my receipts and no, didn't order one! That'll have to wait until next week at the earliest too Still, the whole build is on hold until my new hot glue gun arrives anyway.

Nice job... what did you paint it with, Adam?

Soviet VDV RD-54 ~ fleabay - price remains a matter for the KGB, but good enough to allow me to pass on my old one at a competitive price.

^^Yeah, no problem - i'm away from home until the weekend and also i want to wait for the new one to arrive so i can choose which one to keep. It's coming from within the UK though so i should have it by next Tuesday. I'm pretty sure I haven't photographed mine, but i'll have a look because, as i say, there are repairs so you'll want to see exactly what you're getting. Yeah, I don't have any photos of it right now, so it'll have to wait until the weekend.

The thing to bear in mind when choosing eye protection is this: it is an equation with safety on one side and usability on the other. Obviously zero % chance of anything getting into your eye is the most desirable solution, but if that comes at the cost of so much fogging, or liquid buildup on fog-proof lenses, that you cannot spot camouflaged people shooting at you, then it is no use for airsoft. There is another safety issue too: if you fog up really badly you may break your ankle or trip and fall on something sharp simply because you cannot see the ground in front of you well enough. I know that sounds extreme, but the first day I skirmished I wore a hired paintball mask and could hardly see through it at all for much of the day. I tripped several times - it's just luck that nothing disastrous happened as a result. But then again I was sweating like a rapist, so if you're pretty fit you may have less problems.

I've been hit in the eye by a fragment of shattered BB through mesh goggles (through my Hero Sharks if anyone is interested) and it was like getting sand in my eye at the beach. I just went back to the safe zone and rinsed my eye out with a few handfuls of water - it was fine - no soreness, no blurred vision, etc. Airsoft_Ed has had something similar happen iirc and i've heard similar experience from a few other people. Basically the tiny fragment of BB cannot carry enough kinetic energy to do you any harm. It is however sharp so, if you rub your eye, it will scratch the surface and irritate the arse off you. I forget whom, but one of our members has had this happen to them also. He had a sore eye at the time, but is fine. As Flex said though, you will have specs on and trust me, they would have to be made from cling film to be damaged by a fragment of BB carrying less than an absolute maximum of 0.12 Joules of energy.

^^The love child of Slobodan Milosevic (sp?) and Norman Bates... why not? I'm going to sell my Soviet-Afghan War era RD-54 soon, because I've just bought another one which I hope is in better condition. It looks like this, but with repairs: ...and light rust. Here they are out of stock on frontowiec - inc shipping (35 PLN) = 234 PLN or £44 so i'll do mine for £35 posted.

With the extra likelihood of fogging, I'd say you need mesh over glasses rather than lenses. A fencing type mask will fit over just about any specs. Like this. The problem with them is that you cannot get anything in your mouth, like drinks and/or sweets, without tipping them up, which may well send marshals into paroxisms. I'm planning on adding a hamster-cage-esque door over the mouth area of the one i have - i have a piece of mesh which has some automotive purpose, but it doesn't really matter what, so long as it will stop BB's, because it's not like anyone needs to see through that part. I did also think about just velcroing it on...

I swear by surplus German Para Boots, but they're not exactly comfy straight from the shop, you need to put insoles in 'em. I have very slim feet, so whatever boots I get they tend to slip forward, which then tends to crush my toes, so i need to stick some extra thickness of insole under the balls of my feet to prevent this - lighter boots do up tighter across my instep and that helps against this problem too (Magnum Panther 8's for eg), but I persevere with the GPB's because they are 100% waterproof, indestructible and less of a bastard on the heels than British Assault Boots. I bought a pair of Grade 2 surplus Altbergs a while back, but they aren't much use for my feet as they are (there's a crease in exactly the wrong place for the toes of my left foot) and I just got bored of trying to sort them out. One day when I'm bored I may have another go with the old moisturiser, damp paper, and radiator cure.