NickM

I'd have a look around ebay first (just to get an idea of prices) then head to my local army surplus. I got a set of desert dpm's, that was trousers, ubacs (you'll find it hard getting one of these in dpm cheap), and smock for under £30 at my local and another £20 for a G1 pair of desert boots. DPM stuff and olive green can be found very cheap As a 12yo I would recommend steering clear of anything expensive, you are likely to grow out of them very quickly so cheap and cheerful is probably the best bet. Having stuff being a little baggy now will give you room to grow into it without looking out of place as kit tends to be worn a little baggy. Don't go nuts though you don't want everything dragging through the mud. Alternatively, you may be getting close to the age to join a cadet force, they issue kit and will swap it when you need bigger sizes. You might find they aren't happy with people using the kit outside of their activities so might be worth looking into that first. Down side is you have to turn up to their evenings, learn to march etc, up side is you will get to learn about real guns and learn a whole bunch of new skills. I learned to glide in my air cadet days.

Ok having looked for springs and other parts for the mk1 I think I'll leave the drilling for another time. However springs.... I've looked for hammer springs, my googlefoo might be a bit weak but I cant find anyone selling the exact one from the mk1, so that leaves me looking for an alternative. Anyone know of a spring that will fit and wont be massively over powered? The ones I'm seeing seem to be saying 150% which I would guess are upgraded springs designed to bring the power of the average GBB up.

Cheers Samuri and Straffham. Will look for another spring before I go cutting anything.

Ok, so possibly clipping the existing spring or getting a weaker spring from somewhere as well. Ultimately weaker spring should mean softer hit on the valve which would mean less gas released. The spacers idea would compress the spring more so I guess that would ultimately up the power.

I met some guys using KJWorks Mk1 Rugers at a game, they come in hot out the box, 400 to 410 fps seems to be about average on the lowest power gas using 0.20g. They had done a bit of work to downgrade them. I'm looking to get one as well but i'm finding it hard to track down exactly what it is that I'm aiming to do that will downgrade it. There is a spring that hits the valve at the top of the mag, some people have talked about adding spacers to increase the power others have said it reduces the power. Others have talked about replacing the spring entirely but haven't said if it should be stronger or weaker. I know how to get to the spring, that isn't really the issue. Has anyone got any experience of doing this to a Mk1?

Yeah I've played against him at Red1's the school. He successfully fills a double doorway and is a very imposing sight. But like many huge guys he's really chilled out and takes everything really well.

The terms are used interchangeably by some and as distinct by others. It would be great to have a clear definition for each but it's just not that simple. I've heard people using "soft" and "hard" milsim. The soft milsims seemed closer to what I have experienced as Battlesim. All bar the last involve some kind of kit requirement and stricter rules on ammo and weapons. - Hard milsim (maybe more like milsim as Tier1 and Stirling) standing around on stag for 23 hours and an hour of shooting stuff. Lots of "realism" which means in my head lots of "hurrying up and waiting". A definite level or expectation of fitness and a level of discomfort. Roleplay required regarding positions and duties, but characters and back stories are unimportant. - Soft milsim/battlesim, less of the tedious stuff - more action. Based in a fictional or real environment, possibly taking aspects of current or historical conflicts and making a composite storyline. A degree of comfort pauses to allow those of us who don't regularly run marathons to get ourselves squared away. No expectations that players will yomp 4 miles in full kit and then fight a 2 hour running battle. Roleplay may be involved but is second to airsofting. - Filmsim I would deem to be a soft milsim/battlesim based on a film storyline. Roleplay could be involved but is second to airsofting. - Gamesim (as above but based on a game of some kind, eg COD). Roleplay could be involved but is second to airsofting. - LARP (I'd put zombie games in this category) based on current/historical periods or fantasy. Roleplay is the main part of this with airsoft second. A rounded character and back story could be very important. - Skirmish: no requirements of any kind, a free for all, anything goes.

I'd go with Bornleverpuller and TeddyBhoy,s responses. Story driven, with objectives opening and closing depending on the previous outcomes. Not something that follows a clearly defined pathway that feels preordained. Surprises and curve balls, like something happening elsewhere impacting on your plans. A defined hierarchy within teams and the expectation that you follow "orders". Although many games involve some kind of special forces team so small units being given a task or series of tasks but planning how they would best complete this by themselves like the "Chinese parliament" often described in SAS books. Distinct requirements for skill sets, eg dedicated sniper teams, support team, patrols. And games with a pace that allows distinct units to be deployed for particular tasks, not all the time mind. I would not expect a sniper to deployed in the field for the whole game dug in, but potentially I could see someone with sniper kit swapping between their rifleman loadout and their sniper load out as tasks dictate. Milsim to me would require times of simple admin type activities, guarding a base or check point, but that this could lead to defending bases from assaults. Less breaks from game time, so 12, 24, 36 and 48 hour games with personal admin being completed in games. It being a prop and vehicle heavy environment. But I wouldn't expect people to be humping all of their kit all the time, packs to be left at LUP's etc. A definite kit requirement to fit the time period of the story and team setting, eg SF kitted out as SF would be, Vietcong in black and green. Battlesim and Filmsim would take some of this stuff but potentially involve a degree of role play, be shorter, perhaps involve periods in game punctuated by out of game, eg 9am-9pm in game 9pm-9am relax and socialise out of game.

Jay, I'm a member on a couple of other forums namely Airsofters, Gunman and Zero In, do you want me to post this to those forums for you as well?

Cheers Jay, I know it must be hard thinking about your kit that you've worked so hard on. But having additional details out there makes it more likely things will turn up. This doesn't help you but reminds me, best idea if we all haven't already is to mark our kit in ways it cannot be removed or altered without damaging the kit. Preferably in places only we will know it's there.

I'm pretty sure I've seen videos on youtube of somewhere like that already being used by an airsoft place. Was either Scotland or somewhere on the channel islands

Hi Jay83, I'm really sorry to hear about your kit. I presume you've raised this with the police already, fingers crossed they know of a scrote in the area likely to be responsible and your kit is returned asap. As DEDSEC says (although recalling this stuff may be a sensitive subject) details would be really helpful. Especially a couple of photos if you have them of as much kit as you have. Get it out onto as many of the forums and facebook pages as you can find. Contact as many of your local sites as possible (UCAP would probably be a good one to get hold of). I'll let the guys I know in the kent area.

Oooooo TRMR with a 3 shot adapter!!! Looks like my new bfg will be one of those, not the aphatech or innovate airsoft one, although their tripwire function looks cool as well.

The best place I've heard of is kingdom of airsoft. But it's up in Scotland. We had one guy from the team go up with a load of guns think it was about 6 in total. I would suggest getting on the websites and forums for local airsoft companies and ask about. Eg the mall, or try gunman they have a fairly good network of people and have a site at Eversley.

I have an OhShiBoom, I've been using it about 18 months now and love it. All of the impacts have a reliance on hitting something fairly solid and occasionally fail to go off. But their massive advantage in CQB is that when they go off its instant. The down side of traditional pyro and the timed bfg's are that if someone knows its coming they can get out of the way before it goes off. In woodland I wouldn't bother with a bfg, mainly because I like having the range a mk5 can give me, you can throw those full pelt into people and they wont hurt. If they went off on them that might be a different story, I've seen one hit a guys shoulder and go off causing no damage other than temporary hearing loss. I've got good 10 or 15m lobs on them from time to time. My safety pin is on a retractable lanyard which is secured outside the pouch the ohshi fits in but I also carry a spare. At the moment I'm still working through the box of 50 9mm blanks I got but I will be buying the smaller shotgun primers and adapter shortly. My 9mm blanks are held in a pair of bianchi speed strips which I keep on a length of paracord tied to my belt and in my right pocket. If careful when reloading you don't need any tools just put the blank in the adapter, screw in slowly then press the wobble top gently and reinsert the pin. But 50 9mm blanks and an oshi works out cheaper than 50 tlsfx mk5's. So in my head it's paid for itself. I might even buy a second one shortly but it will be shotgun primers all the way from now on.

Probably not, they would be x-raying your bags if you fly, might be more likely if you drive. Perhaps try somewhere else in Europe that uses them and is less bothered about sending them about the place.

Send it back, its under warrenty so they should just send you a new one. In that case you should get one with a better fps. I wouldn't mention upgrades yet. Most guns work good enough out of the box that upgrading too early will end up causing you pain in the long run. I have 2 ICS guns, 1 L85 that I bought first and after 6 months I started tinkering, I upgraded all sorts and my tinkering has had some good but also some bad effects. I now rarely skirmish this one because it's not as good as the stock M4 I bought as a backup. I will continue to mess about with the L85 and if I decide to upgrade the M4 down the road I'll send it to a reputable gun tech rather than do it myself I'll also not do it till the L85 is working sweetly.

If its brand new there is a very simple solution, you contact the retailer that sold it to you and it should get sent back. If its second hand things are a bit more of a problem. You could send it off to someone like Kingdom of Airsoft ( a very well respected gun tech up in Scotland) or have a bash yourself.

Hows about Urban Assault in Peterborough. It's an old RAF base. Supposed to be pretty good, although not entirely CQB.

What a bunch of idiots! Youtube have already closed one of their channels for this sh!t!

I have a love hate relationship with them. I'd put it mostly down to the human in the equation though. I have 2 of the 190 metal mags and one 130 plastic. Every so often they develop serious feeding problems, but this seems to be as much to do with them getting dirty (again the sandpit seems to be my mag killer, so I need to look after them better), over filling them causes the springs to bind. The other issue seems to be bb related, the zero one bbs I bought 10 bags of are sh!t. They seem to be less slippery than the Devil blasters, (the surface is a bit more matt) this seems to cause them to bind in the tube which stops them feeding properly.

Massively important to post people like this in as many places as possible. Try the Airsoft Sales Feedback page on Facebook, they are a good way of checking lists of sellers for good and bad. Sorry you have been hit this way but the best thing to do would be to get the word out. I will mention his name and direct people to this forum post and the zero in one. Hmm seems I cant follow the zeroin link or find anything about feedback on him on there. It is massively suspicious that he is selling so many guns, and clearly wants "broken" guns. Hmmmm

Much as Satnav says teaching brings all sorts for all different reasons. I started because I really didn't know what I wanted to do but have experience of education and thought it would be a challenge. It's been 5 years (including the PGCE, so 4 years of teaching on my own) of massive challenges, the rewards are massive, the stresses and pressures are equally high. Last year I left teaching (forced partly because I felt unhappy in the school I was in and relocation) so I was looking for a year or two away to decide if teaching really was what I wanted to do, but I missed it, after 3 months of not teaching I was offered the opportunity to interview for a position and now I'm back in a very different school. There have been times when I worried I was seeing less of the good and more of the bad. Much happier now though.

Cheers lads. Ok..... so are the WE M9 feed lips the same as the TM M9 ones? My google of the TM ones came up with nothing. It looks similar but the Mk23 one but that one is a NBB not a GBB. Presuming it's the same but the bit at the front looks thicker than the ones I have. Ah I may have a source sorted so thanks for all of your knowledge and google-fu.

Prices for postage from Evike are insane. Got a quote of over $50 for 5 magazine feeding lips that could quite easily have come in a small bag.