Ian_Gere

Yeah camping... I hear a lot of people complaining about 'camping'. A person assesses the field and based on tactical considerations and terrain chooses a position to defend. By luck, experience, or a combination of the two, s/he has selected their position well: it is difficult to attack because there is little cover approaching it, or what cover there is does not give a clear shot at our protagonist; it is difficult to hit them with a bang because hard cover protects our protagonist from the only directions a throw is possible; it may also be possible for our protagonist to move unseen from one part of their position to another, so they can pop up and fire from somewhere other than where last seen; crucially the position cannot simply be ignored - the opposition must get rid of our protagonist in order to proceed with their objective. The only way to defeat such a position is well coordinated team work - several people must provide suppressing fire so that our protagonist has no choice but to make use of their cover, while another one, maybe two, run in to shoot at close quarters... "well coordinated" being the operative term. Suppressing fire doesn't mean a load of shots in the general direction of the enemy, nor does it mean the most common interpretation (in my experience) a few shots at the position and then wait to see if the target pops up. "Well coordinated" doesn't include running out of ammo and needing to change mags while johnny-on-the-spot is relying on that fire, nor does it mean that because one or two people are firing at the position you can leave off an wait to see what happens, or, of those outcomes I've seen with my own eyes, my personal favourite, use the opportunity afforded by the initial attempts at suppressing fire to bugger off and try to advance somewhere else on the field... Of course most people at a skirmish day do not belong to a team and even those who have arrived with mates have no command structure. Which is fair enough - if we wanted to take orders, many of us would have joined the military. But a curious phenomenon which I've seen play out several times is a group of players huddled in cover as close as they can get forward talking about how they can't get any further because of so-and-so here and so-and-so there, and what can we do? Then someone attempts to put a plan into action requiring the players to act in coordination... But some of the people who were, minutes before, asking what can they do, who did not themselves have a plan, or voice any objection to the plan put forward by the ad hoc leader, just did not play their part. Later in the safe zone I've overheard such people saying things like "who the fuck does he think he is, telling me what to do?" Now fair enough, I can be a bit abrasive when I'm feeling frustrated, so if it was just plans that I've put forward and seen fail in part or wholly because others did not do their bit, then I could put it down to poor leadership skills on my part (although to be fair to me, this is not true of me in any other area of life and, as i say, whilst i can be abrasive, I am not dismissive or unapproachable), but as a sniper apart from the group i've seen it happen with other people's plans also. So yeah, being very good at defence irritates attackers who cannot beat you. Hence the petulant yelp, "Camping!"

^^To be fair to them, ARRSE do have some hilarious threads when they discuss rumours doing the rounds in the military. It has to be said that to understand some of the humour you must either be in, know someone well who is in, or have read quite a bit of previous a[r]rse surrounding the same/similar rumours. Which is not surprising really - whether people choose to admit it or not, the military is a massive clique, each service a very large clique, each battle group/regiment/(whatever the RAF call more than 1 sqdn) a pretty large clique, each ship/detachment/company/squadron a large clique, and each detail/platoon/flight a clique. It is the inevitable consequence of esprit de corps... The reason why is illustrated here: I don't know all the correct terms for various groupings within the military and TBH I don't much care. But to ex/serving personnel, those groupings are the lads and lasses whom they will/do rely upon in dangerous situations and to whom they owe personal loyalty, far and away more important than any oath of allegiance. I reveal myself as an outsider... Nonetheless, there is no need to be quite so much of an arse as these buttocks have in this case.

I'd say the first thing to realise is that sniping is a different way to play entirely; so much so that it's not far off the truth to say that although you are part of a team on the field, unless you have radio comms what you are doing is disconnected from everyone else. You say you scored 7 hits which beats your previous record... there have been days when i have had only 2 or 3 hits with my SVD and still considered it a good day. I'll not bother to list the upgrades because, at this stage, they will mean nothing to you, but suffice to say there are only a couple of insignificant parts which aren't upgraded - the range from it is fucking ridiculous compared to an AEG and accuracy wise I can hit a head sized target at 80m no problem. I've been sniping for a year now, although i haven't been able to skirmish for a few months due to ill health: I consider myself a novice, but I do know what I'm doing - I could bore the arse off you with the tales of my favourite shots... nonetheless I get bored, I'm still mainly a 'hit oriented' player, so i take an AEG with me so that I can get forward for a couple of games and shoot the shit out of people! The problem is wind. It doesn't matter how much you spend. You could have a barrel made from titanium polished by CERN and a hop up designed by NASA and the wind would still affect your BB's trajectory more than all of your upgrades put together. Basically if you're in it for the number of hits, forget it. Airsoft sniping is about enjoying getting difficult shots, or making pivotal shots, and having your camouflage work well; more than half the time your best shots will be ignored by the target - they feel or hear the hit, glance around, can't see you, can't believe they could have been hit from the direction from which the shot came and just carry on - who knows whether they believe it must have been a ricochet from friendly fire, or not even a hit, like a twig or something fell on them from above, or whether they simply cheat, but that's the way it is. I've had a couple of almost unbelievable hits where I've also managed to put a second shot on target, at extreme range 95-100m-ish with adverse terrain and wind conditions and still the fuckers just carried on! And when you tell people about such hits, it's like the classic fishing story, "I'm telling yer it was this big!" People don't believe you, or assume you're exaggerating... but I know I made those shots and that's all that counts But if that doesn't sound like something you can learn to love, considering how much money you need to spend to get a bolt action sniper rifle (BASR) to the minimum standard necessary to have a range and accuracy advantage* over even good quality well set up AEG's, then you're better off not bothering. The forums and FB pages are constantly stocked with a never ending supply of BASR's noobs have bought and given up on - it usually takes a few months for them to realise that supply and demand economics really does apply to the gun they bought for £160 and then spent another £100 on / there are plenty of them so they're worth 5/8ths of fuck all... but that is the place to look for a base gun to begin upgrading. Also bear in mind, when negotiating a buy or when it comes to giving up and selling, for people who are really into it, upgrade parts have no more value than stock parts in a 2nd hand gun, because unless the provenance can be verified so the degree of wear'n'tear known for sure, ie they are buying a mate's gun, the serious sniper will expect to swap those parts for new or known used bits anyway. *And if you cannot field a BASR which has a range and accuracy advantage then what is the point? Unless you prefer to make the game much more difficult for yourself of course. But if not you're better off with an AEG, which at least has volume of fire on its side and which you can fire while running with a reasonable chance that 1 out of your 10 shots will be on target and the rest may very well suppress the enemy allowing you to reach cover closer to a target whose very good AEG outranges yours by a few meters...

M4. Loin cloth. Fake blood. Barbed wire with the barbs filed rounded coiled into a crown... Jesus II He's back... and this time he's pissed!

How did you stitch it? Got any pics?

Here's one for the brandname snobs amongst us... ...note the position of the top strap in relation to the centre of gravity of any pistol it might hold and the lack of elastic. Made by your friend and mine, Web-tex available here for £21.49 posted, but probably cheaper elsewhere. Worth checking alibaba.com for the platform type and this type also. I bought a USP SERPA from there for about £8 and it's great.

Well yeah, first things first, you really do need a duty belt. Get a Viper one = cheap as chips, work very well, very comfortable, very robust. I don't think that any of the commercially available cloth drop legs really address the issue of flapping about. Which is a shame because the thigh position is certainly the best for quick draw, unless you have short arms, in which case on the belt, or just below with one of those adapters. The problem is because the straps are usually too low on the body of the holster, below the centre of gravity of a pistol with the mag in. My answer was not to spend more money in the hope that a brand name would produce better results, it was to look at why the problem exists and what I could do to prevent it. Apart from the position of the straps, another major problem is that, because the thigh is basically an upside down cone, the straps will always tend to slip down and become loose. The reason I went with the crotch strap addition is because the 20mm strap addition had been the simplest way I had available to keep the holster flat against my leg. But I reckon the absolute best solution would be a top strap made from 50mm webbing, without elastic, attached so that it is right at the top of the holster body. The strap could only slip down by bending width-ways, so If you set the side release buckle on the inside of the thigh, so it could not bend, the strap would not be able to move far at all. I don't think it's necessary to have a second strap on the body of the holster at all, but a slim strap around the webbing that the holster hangs from would probably help loads. It's not easy to stitch through layers of Cordura though. I've found the best way, obviously apart from an industrial stylee sewing machine, is to use a thick needle held in pliers as an awl to poke a hole before stitching normally. I've yet to try one of these... ...but if they are flexible enough to do up tightly I suspect they could be excellent. Trouble is it's £25 and then you need a SERPA as well. Helmetworld have them on sale for £21.16 but i'm in the skint phase of the month at the mo so i'm not forking out that much to find out. Can anybody tell us how tightly they fit?

Full HD mini camera 4-32Gb Micro SD Card compatible USB HDMI £60.75

I could probably stuff my Umarex Makarov inside that without modification, but no hop unfortunately. It would have to be a tiny CO2 pistol with hop. WE3 PX4 is green gas, right? BTW, what gearbox do tommy guns use?

Spotting fake SF for dummies: "How do you pronounce Herford?"

"Sexual Assault Rifle" as primary, Sex Pistol as side arm, inflated condom on a stick as melee weapon... and a big ol' pink helmet! Oh yeah, and a T-shirt with that quote of Alan Bennet's [Gay or Straight] "That's a bit like asking a man crawling across the Sahara whether he would prefer Perrier or Malvern water." ____________________________________________________________ Years ago I knew somebody who had a metal model of the pistol from Bladerunner. It was a lot heavier than it looked and the balance was terrible, but even so I'd love to have one of those that fired BB's @420FPS with hop, DMR rules. Some bloke in drag with a clear plastic mac and red wig to shoot at

Well yeah, it's a funny analogy, but there is a point: it is practice for when you come across these kinds of people irl who are expressing objectionable views. You can just let it go, but doing so fosters the culture in which whatever they have said is considered, if not 'ok' exactly, then normal. So if we think of the kinds of views which the stereotypical ex/uniformed pillock holds as a scale with 10 being egregious at one end and just daft being 1 at the other, then if we let a 5 become normalised, then when he's feeling confident, or belligerent, etc, then he will come out with 6's & 7's and if he gets away with that, it'll be 8-stylee xenophobia, 9-stylee gender/sexuality/race/religious persecution and eventually 10-crypto-fascism. But these people are belligerent when challenged and it can be difficult to get your ducks in a row when somebody is arguing with you aggressively, using the age old loom to lend credibility to an idiotic position, ad hominem, etc - but if you've practiced it beforehand, what to say is right there on the tip of your tongue, all you have to think about is how to say it for maximum effect and whether you can wipe the floor with him intellectually without getting a punch in the face, or whether it's worth the punch to further 'the cause'...

Nevertheless, I think it would be interesting. I believe that there is more to this than the usual dickheadery. To these people carrying a gun was/is a huge part of their self image - they are special, a gun = power and only the special can have them... ...and thus anybody else doing it, even in play, is a massive threat to their egos. It is entirely subconscious: if it were not they would genuinely feel dismissive, since AEG's are not guns and those airsofters who strut around making out like they are SF (and we've all seen 'em) are bellends. But if someone is genuinely dismissive, no matter what the internet argument, they dismiss (after all it's not like there isn't a million and one other things they could turn their attention to online)... they don't rant on about what cunts whomever has irked them are. But if someone who is 'special' like them and can prove it says airsoft is cool, unless these people are able for one split second to muster up some self awareness, then the threat to their ego is monumental. I'll bet it wouldn't matter what is said, they must be seen to have the last word, in the most caveman-ish way to 'win', and if that is not possible, for eg if you stay civil and can intelligently counter every argument they put forward, they will keep banging away at it, getting more and more offensive, until the thread gets closed. The funniest thing is that in situations like this, online or irl, you can even tell them what they are doing and prove it by making predictions about what they will say which then prove to be correct, but they will literally not be able to stop, even if the ban hammer, or being booted out of wherever you are, looms... There is a certain amount of this behaviour which goes on amongst any group, especially groups of men, but it is usually much more subtle and hidden behind stuff which is arguably just humour; you know, "it was just a bit of banter - don't get your knickers in a twist". As mods all we can do is try to keep a handle on 'the vibe', but as individuals we could proof read our posts and, if we are ribbing somebody, briefly consider whether it is just banter or, for whatever reason (which we ourselves may not know, or know for sure, but which we nevertheless feel), we are poking somebody to put them down...

^^Yeah, the assembly comes apart easily enough - gentle but firm and pull it apart, not brute force and ignorance. Test the polarity of your replacement LED then lay it beside the old one the right way round to clip its legs to size. IIrc you only resolder one leg and the other gets bent to fit into the switch mechanism - it's a very simple slide thingy. The clear cover just jams in place so, thinking about it, it's probably worth adding some small bits of blu-tac to where the tiny pegs fit, or perhaps some prit stick, to make it a bit more knock proof, or perhaps even superglue; although in that case you'd have to be careful to make sure that it didn't run right through the lamp/switch assembly and glue the switch in place, plus careful not to get too much on the clear plastic because superglue makes clear plastic go cloudy. Thinking about it some more, I'm not going to need to take it apart again, so I am going to glue the clear cover in place. Oh yeah, the reflector is just a bit of mylar sheet and it is only being forced into position around the LED which gives it a curve, so that's something else to be careful of if gluing. It's very simple though, so you'll have no trouble with it. About the only pisser is that you can't buy 1 LED, you have to buy 5... still, it has made me wonder where else i could deploy a UV LED - a ring maybe? For looking at maps and showing them to other people without making a glare that carries - or maybe on the back of a helmet so that you can whisper into your comms "watch for a tiny UV flash - that's me"...? The other idea I had, which I have all the bits for but haven't put into action yet because my G36 is in bits, is to fit the 1/2 of one of these... ...which has the rail bolted at 45° on the left side of the stock, at the rear, where my body will hide it from view, and fit a 30mm ring mount to hold... ...a cheap UV torch so that at 'port arms' it will shine vertically down, or diagonally down when the gun is aimed. I dunno though, since I made the bendy one I suspect this idea will be too bright unless i was crouching.

There's a Russians vs NATO weekender in the planning stage amongst lads on RMAL-UK for next spring, which will be a milsim-ish stylee an ting so all comrades keep an eye out for news on that. Of course we will need ye MTP/MC wearing M4 carrying fascist running dogs to shoot at too, so if you dare, be there... I'll give your thingy another read Baz - I cant even remember exactly when it is tbh and ive signed up for this S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game mid Oct and I may not be able to afford both even if they're not on the same wkend.

There's also a Silverback one which, iirc, is cheaper than the G&P. There is some kind of issue with the ammo counter vs midcap mags and the underslung nade launcher does fuck all, but this is the kind of thing that, if you take it on in the first place, bodging a gas shotgun into it as well isn't such an unlikely thing to do - one of those Goblin Solo thingies would probably do the trick nicely. It's one of those things which I will get round to one of these days... and the armour too, maybe. The thing that puts me off is the mag base thingy - i've never seen them for sale separately so you'd have to make some for spare mags to make it a skirmishable gun.

I think donating it to a college film/theatre group is a great thing to do.

What puts me off milsim as per Tier 1 and Sterling, is the tabbing miles carrying your kit in a bergen. Realistic? Yes. Fun? No. I also don't believe that realcap mags make for realistic skirmishing. A real gun shoots through stuff we use as cover and light gusts of air do not massively deflect shots, so it can take many more shots to get a hit at 50m than it would take with an assault rifle. Also people are not afraid of being killed in airsoft, so they are braver than they would be facing real ammunition - hence it takes more firepower to suppress them. I would like to take part in a more immersive event than standard skirmishing and had I not earmarked my cash for NAE14 rather than your event, Baz, I would have given it a go. As it turned out I couldn't do NAE anyway because I was too unwell :'( are there still places (because I'm a lot better now, just unfit as fuck!)? Having said that, I'm not put off by 24hrs or more with no safe zone, digging a hole to shit in, the risk that i could be shot while shitting in a hole even I don't mind taking orders either, so long as whoever gives them understands that if they talk to me like I have no options, I will exercise my option to swear at them. The standard "no ammo not in mags" rule is something which ordinary skirmishes could benefit from imo... What do you have in mind, Richie?

This is what I use: Cheap reading lamp off fleabay - I swapped out the LED for a UV one and sprayed the tip black to restrict the direction of shine to down not forward when it is worn clipped onto molle. There is no need for all that scruffy tape, however there isn't much holding the battery/clip assembly to the tube and tube to the lamp/switch assembly, so a bit of tape around each join seemed like a good idea and then i got carried away with it lol! At some point I'll get round to taking it off and wrapping it round instead of lengthways. Edit to add: I should have put a ruler in the pic, but stretched flat it is 25cm from end to end and it sticks out from my chest about 13.5cm. It is bendy so no chance of it getting damaged easily.

That is a decent gun, if you must have an M4 and you want it with a metal receiver. Out of the box it will not disappoint compared to anything you'll be up against skirmishing. Bear in mind that paying more money for 'pre-upgraded' guns doesn't always make sense, because they may not be the upgrades you would choose. It's also worth considering that right now you don't know much, so trying to pick 'the best' is not going to be easy - you don't know what will suit your play style best. The GC16 Raider S will work fine as an all rounder and has rails all over it, so it'll be a simple enough job to add accessories as you do develop your skirmish techniques. There are differences between gun lengths, but TBH I CBA to get into it right now. If you decide later that you would rather have 6" more barrel, it's a simple enough job to fit a barrel extension and longer internal barrel and it'll look fine. If you stick with short and want more power, a 233x6.03mm tight bore barrel should just about scrape under 350FPS without needing to change the spring. You may have already read about hop up, but if not stick around and you will. The G&G stock set up is good as it is, but for additional accuracy you could upgrade to an H-nub. If you have large hands you may find the controls of a stock M4 a little awkward, but this problem can be ameliorated somewhat by fitting a pistol grip with extra width to the backstrap. G&G make one which also has ergonomic moulding. I forget what they call it, but 'tactical' will be in there somewhere... Of course, if you had any taste or good sense you'd be after an AK, but the answer to the basic question of "is this gun any good?" is yes.

I bought one from a member on here and sent it back immediately! The figures I was getting from it were way too low, but iirc inconsistent too. Can't remember off the top of my head whom it was either lol. But whomever it was they were totally fine about it. I've also seen someone try to use one for a new site's soft opening - free invite to get feedback (1st feedback = don't use that chrono again lol). This ties in with what others have said, so I wouldn't touch 'em again. You should not have any problems using a phone charger plugged into it - the only time you would have a problem is if the impedances were wildly different. Worth checking that the batteries in it are actually rechargeables though and not alkaline ones. My question is why did you buy it when you had already read comments saying they are shit? I didn't know when I bought one... I've had no problems with my XCoretech X3200 MK II which i bought cheaply enough, new from fleabay, that i'm not 100% convinced it's not a fake - about £45 posted. But as i say, no problems. It does have a tendency to say "TOUT" instead of giving a reading if i place the muzzle too close, which means that finding the sweet spot, the closest distance at which that gun will give a reading, probably does introduce a degree of inconsistency between guns but, so far at least, whatever I've measured has not proved wildly different on a posh site chrono. I trust it for the main purpose i intended it for, which is to make sure that whatever upgrades and/or modifications I have added/made to a gun have not pushed it over whichever limits I'm operating under.

^^Hmmm, it'd be prettier with an M41A body kit on it.

3M 1621 Protective Goggle Glass Clear Lens Anti-Impact Anti-Splash You sometimes find these going really cheap on fleabay - i bought a pair to cut up for my C8 torch and my 551 replica - just haven't got round to it yet If anyone knows where to buy 2-3mm polycarbonate sheets cheaper, please let us know.

Forty quid is a bit fierce for a spring downgrade... I take it you didn't fancy doing it yourself? Version 3 gearboxes are pretty easy to dis/re-mantle. The Umarex Beta Spets is made by JG iirc, so the only issue to swapping springs is getting the trigger back in when you close the gb shell. The easiest way to do it is close the gb without the trigger and put the top strap on; place the trigger lefthand side down with the trigger spring fitting into the retaining hole in the left gb shell half, then crack the gb open just enough to rock the right side of the trigger in. The bushings for the spur and bevel gears will be slightly out of alignment, but keeping a grip on the gb to stop them moving further and you can poke them into place with a cocktail stick.

What grip is that? Why doesn't the screw reach: grip too long, or offset at an angle?