Ian_Gere

Where's that cat's eyepro?

Yeah, I've never seen one. Pretty expensive to buy the IKS-74U and bolt an ICS full length front end on it too... and the top cover is different too (and a pain in the hole as it obscures the screws needed to disassemble the thing, so you need a right angled screw driver - of course you could replace them with hex head cap bolts and use an Allen key, but you need the right angle to get them out the 1st time). Edit to add: oh yeah, they're pozi screws too, so about the worst possible to get at with a right angle driver... but afaik they're simple to get to in their full length AK-74's, because the top cover comes right off.

Most of the gear I'm selling in this thread is still available. Some of it is S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-esque. I'm away from home until next weekend though, so postage would have to wait until next Monday.

They're very consistent in their performance. The only thing that's a bit arse about them is that they are not parts compatible with other brands. IMO the hop unit design is superior to the TM/clone type (even though it works in the same way). The way it attaches to the barrel base assembly is much more robust. Some of my AK mags do not work with my IKS-74U (they don't stay in), but tbh I've got so many different brands of mags, and i'm such a drug addled old git, that i couldn't actually tell you which ones are no good.

It is however a simple way to get a little more power out of the gun without changing anything else. So while it's true that, with the right spring and air seal, a short barrelled gun can outrange a longer one and, with a better hop and/or barrel*, achieve better accuracy, so long as the new longer inner barrel is of at least the same quality as that being replaced, you will see a little extra range. *Both of which can improve range also. But yes, a suppressor can be used to cover an extra length of internal barrel and wrapping tape around it to jam the new barrel tight into the outer barrel just before the suppressor will prevent wobble. This is potentially quite important to get right, because if you don't centre it neatly, or if anything force it down slightly, the BB will hit the inside of the suppressor once it exits the inner barrel. You'll also want to make sure the suppressor is attached to the barrel good and tight for the same reason - use PTFE tape.

I'm gutted I wont be able to go, but no point going and having a shit time. The site was pretty good on the opening day so by now it's probably great. So jealous...

Personally I find the Z-Tactical Bowman EVO II headset to work well. By the end of the day my ear has been a little painful due to being squashed, but it wears off in an hour or so, and it's worth it for decent quality audio in a robust design. The EVO III gives more options, but with the removeable mic boom, its something to go wrong - to get terminals bent, to get water inside, to get yanked out and trodden into mud, or lost, etc. and besides the less unsoldered contacts in an audio chain, the better the sound quality. On top of that, replacing the boom with a throat mic is a very bad idea, unless you can afford a genuine military one, because the replicas are truly shite for intelligibility.

TBH I think you'd need to build the whole thing from scratch utilising just the internals - even the lever is the wrong shape. It would be a legendary project though and if it worked reliably, it'd be worth plenty.

I brought up this very gun in the thread we used to have: Guns That Need To Be Made (or something) which seams to be AWOL these days. IIRC nobody could google one up, but yeah, CO2 powered, shell ejecting and everything, it would be such a cool thing...

Just bear in mind, friends, the political ramifications of our spending power are a legitimate topic of conversation when considering where and what to buy, but no matter how passionate anyone may feel about any cause involved, we only want to see polite discourse - no name calling, deliberately obtuse styles, baiting people, basically no being a dick. ICS Galil FTW.

This bloke is good for all your British Army badge/patch needs. But these shoulder ones... ...were from flecktarn.co.uk

^^Yeah, they're fine. Loops on your trousers, man. That is the way to prevent pads slipping, not wearing pads that barely work.

And Bolshevics patch - good man yourself! My latest piece of insignia: ...which I bought to play Ukrainian military at the MCG The Gaol S.T.A.L.K.E.R. weekend, but I've had to cancel my place, because I'll never be fit enough for a whole weekend by next Friday. Still, I should be returning to the field on the 11th and i'm going to give a whole bunch of that new gear a debut.

Z-Tac Evo II...?

This is what i'm on about: ...these Hatch Centurians have a ridge inside which helps prevent them slipping, but for absolute surety add belt loops to the sides of your kecks so that the lower kneepad strap is supported. As you can see, I could kneel in 2 1/2" of muck without even noticing it. Goretex kecks are good for times when you're pushing through wet foliage a lot. I have added belt loops to mine, because my arse isn't big enough to keep them up without a belt and experience has shown that they slip out from under a belt without loops, which is a ballache if you are wearing drop leg platforms/holsters, dump pouches and/or kneepads. ...they do rustle a bit, but so does foliage when you push through it.

Has a bad reputation for failure. There is a known fault with the mag feed lips which break very easily unless you extract/replace the mag in exactly the correct way (which is all very well in your living room, but under pressure during a skirmish it's quite possible to break well designed, robust kit, let alone something which is dodgy) - some sellers specifically say that their warranty does not cover the ag feed lips. My research suggests that, taking everything into consideration, the WE is probably the best Tokarev out there. The reason I don't yet have one is because i spent a long time trying to work out if it would be worth buying a Gratch and modifying it for skirmish use and then, when i decided that the results just weren't worth the effort, I spent the money on night vision - couple of months and i will get one.

Yeah, there are plenty of good arguments for pistols and sidearms in general, not least of which is that they are a laugh, but winter is coming [make your own GOT joke] and when you're getting hit because you don't want to crawl into a muddy puddle* for cover, good kneepads and gloves will prove a far more useful expenditure than shits and giggles. *Edit to add: which is also why you should resist the apparent 'cool' of modern looking trousers with built in kneepads in favour of old skool fat ones - they lift your knees higher out of muck/puddles preventing water absorbing into the fabric of your kecks and bugging you all day. I mean yeah, nobody wants to admit to any degree of wimpishness, but damp kecks on a cold day are only marginally less irritating than wet feet...

^^That's a great looking rig, Alex, but the ammo pouches are for AS VAL etc, so if he wanted to carry an AK he'd be restricted to those 220rnd short AK hicaps, which look fine, but are hicaps thus pants... Dammit, mind like a sieve! I meant to say, GP-7's have straps on the back so they can be hooked through any chest rig shoulder strap.

^^Agreed on the "tried too hard". But it's better than watching nobenders et al and no ads so as something to have on in the background, it makes a welcome change from Discovery, Nat Geo & Dave... i have a series link on my TiVo still, but i just switched it to 'New Only' - it's definitely not good enough to run through series 2 again. Oh, and History.

There's no point using a lifchik with an SVD unless you're carrying an AK of some description as backup. It's easy enough to find Soviet era 4 x SVD mag pouches on fleabay and modern SPOSN / Splav pouches are not impossible to find but, if you have a particular style in mind, you may have to be prepared to be patient, because they don't seem to stay in stock anywhere for long. KZS suits and KLMK onesies (both in berezhka {spelled in a few different ways when translated from Cyrillic} or "birch" camouflage and pretty much the same thing except the former is separate elasticated pants and top) are available for as little as £30, but it depends on what size - size 3 (for height 180cm) are not so easy to come by compared to other sizes, but size 2 KZS's are all over the place. There are different vintages, slightly different fabrics, and different colours. For proper coolsies, what you want is the 90's era silver leaf KLMK - it just looks tdb.

I've only used their PICO SSR and PICO-AB models, which are excellent. They are also completely waterproof. Given that the Nanos do the same job but are bigger, is there a reason to choose them over the tiny Picos?

Hatch Centurion = the kneepads of champions!

What part of the set? Personally I'd like to get my hands on the particle beam failers from the drop ship, just so I could call them puppies, pretty much for the same reason you mentioned. One of these days I'm going to get one of those kits, build a red dot sight on which the window flips up from a flat position, MBUS stylee & ting, and turn the nade launcher into a gas shottie. Oh and make a bunch of spare mags. And maybe add some kind of sound system to replicate the firing sound...

^^Actually somewhere in the UK was selling the M41A pulse rifle in bright blue. I refuse to even look for it. In fact, if people reading this disbelieve me, on the grounds that nobody could possibly have such unmitigated horrendous taste, then that's all to the good. It is mentioned in our annals though possibly with its own thread... :puke:

And you could also look like two people with cool looking sci-fi loadouts carrying stupid looking guns.