BrightCandle

I saw a guy turn up to a skirmish with a new red dot scope, take off the iron sights, fit the scope and then go straight into the game. All I could think was that a non zeroed scope wasn't going to be very effective! Presumably he never zeroed his iron sights either. Its stuff like that which makes you think a lot of these guys don't actually set up their guns properly for any sort of accuracy, they fired at the guy who was in their sights and have taken no account of the difference of point of aim and BB trajectory let alone the zeroing of the gun. I just don't see that many cheats. So far I have seen one guy escorted off for blind firing and another for screaming call your hits very aggressively towards another but actually genuinely catching cheats I haven't seen very much. But based on how some people seem to fit their gun and zero it without paper outside does suggest to me a lot of people have a core accuracy problem on their guns which only contributes to the issue.

Best place to learn the ways of airsoft is at a site. Book yourself in, get your rental kit and just go and play. You'll get to chat to lots of people about everything from gear and guns and you'll get to hold and shoot and try out pretty much anything you want to. Its the best way to get started and once you are well on your way to UKARA you'll have a much better idea what you are looking for.

They shouldn't be counted but you need to be pretty confident its a ricochet before you don't call it. I had one round hit my hand while I was backed up against a wall where I knew the enemy had no direct line to me. I called hit immediately and then looked around for how it got me. I found the barrel the guy was shooting at that was bouncing them around the corner and called back in. He was specifically going for the ricochet kill and that personally I think is not right, very much against the spirit of the game. I don't think ricochets should count but I can't often tell the difference and its not uncommon for me not to see the shooter so I probably end up calling a lot of them as genuine hits.

We have been getting reports that some of the Gen 3 G&G top tech guns mosfets have been burning out. So far those reports were limited to 11.1 lipo's but there is clearly a problem with the mosfets. My guess is that this has probably failed. Return to the shop for a repair, they will presumably work out precisely what went wrong and fix it.

I heard it in todays game a few times. The first time a marshal went up to investigate and the guys were not getting hit. In this case the rounds were pinging off the cover and ricocheting into the cover. There were no direct hits. I think the shooter assumed that because it was 2 young adults in there that they must be cheating but from my angle I could see the rounds were going lower than they thought they were. He hit them in the end. The second case was actually my team within itself rather than to the opponents where they were convinced they were hitting a guy behind a tree. I took a lot of shots at him myself but he had a significant height advantage and was a decent distance away and the shot I finally got him with I was aiming about 16 MOA above him before it finally pinged into him. I have never said this phrase, I never will. I expect others to give me the benefit of the doubt that it didn't hit and I do the same to them. I saw a guy appear to flinch today but he got behind the cover he was running to, rounded it and got a shot on me. I had thought I hit him but I am never certain of that, even at 10metres. One of the things I really noticed today is the limited range of the guns. A woodland site really shows how easy it is to get range issues and there is significant reduction in power and accuracy at the peak of the range. I tried over hopping and while it increased the reach it become hard to actually hit anything. In the end I took to crawling through the high grass (a highly effect bit of cover in airsoft, no your BBs don't penetrate more than a little bit of it) and reducing my range 10 or so metres. Its an obnoxious thing to say, it assumes the other person is cheating and very rarely have I actually seen people cheat, and certainly I don't think I genuinely saw any in my game today, but some of the other players frustrations with loosing and struggling to hit their targets came out this way.

It doesn't need to hold your body weight, it doesn't even need to hold your newborns weight, it needs to hold 5KG. The amount of nylon even in these cheap slings is more than enough for doing that job. Spend on features and build quality if that is what you want but a piece of string will do the job, its just not as comfortable.

I think the welts look very manly, so much so that just before a holiday I ensure that I charge towards the enemies support gunner on purpose just to get myself a tone of them. Scars and brushes make you look badass and the ladies love them (OK no they don't). Hopefully one of those padded shirts will suit you, otherwise just really thick clothes like a rugby shirt are going to help quite a bit. There is an enormous difference between double polycotton and the spandex/elasticated bit on a UBACs in terms of welts produced through it so you don't have to go much thicker to really reduce it. You can also play a little less aggressively, stay back a bit and get shot from further away. BBs loose a lot of power over distance and 10 metres in the difference between a welt and nothing.

I literally bought a pistol yesterday and was specifically warned about it. Proairsoft has had quite a few problems with TM slides breaking when powerful gas is used and also having customers complaining about performance in the winter, it was they which were explaining the problem. I personally don't have any experience of it, but I had to take the guys word, especially when if he sold me the TM it would net him an extra £50-100. Its one of the things these retailers are good for, its well worth asking them what they think about the various models and the types of failures their customers see. I don't think there is a problem with the TM pistol, you just ought to run it on the 144a like TM says instead of green gas or anything more powerful. That does also mean in Winter it will loose FPS, it has to its just physics. Only those with guns capable of taking CO2 can compensate for that drop. Its not necessarily a reason not to buy a TM or to buy another make, its just something to be aware of so you don't break it.

Its also worth considering a 3 point/adjustable sling. You can get ones that can adjust between a 1 point setup and a 2 point setup as well as adjustable length so you can extend out the sling itself. They have the advantage that you can get the gun to sit across your chest at an angle and out of the way of your legs when using a pistol. The big problem with the one point slings is that the gun barrel is often in the way of one of your legs or sitting to the side with a pistol. A high mounted t-bar depending on the gun may very well be better for this but I can't say I have used one. I think you should look at all the options, because there are a lot of ways to do this with various trade offs.

The main problem with the TM guns is usually the plastic slide. You have to be careful to use the appropriate gas for the time of year to keep them in good working order or they can break. But its really the little things that makes them better. They tend to be pretty impressive accuracy wise, some of them come with fixed hop up units instead of adjustable ones (which in pistols the hop up does tend to move, they are often quite loose). The magazines all tend to have catches for holding the spring down, the way you get into the magazines to seal them is a bit easier and less fiddly and so far from the reports I have read people have less problems with leaking mags. But We and KWA are also putting out mighty good pistols as well. They make ones that can take CO2 for the winter/more FPS and are full metal slide and models you don't find from TM. From an externals point of view the often plastic slides on the TM means the recoil isn't as good and they are a bit more breakable and don't look right. To some extent I think this choice of secondary is about whether you want the externals and higher power guns and gas options verses famous TM quality. Its no accident the long term skirmishers all have TM pistols that they use a lot, but they also tend to have other makes as well for those cold days or when achieving a particular look.

G&G top techs are pretty good internally. The T4-18 is an 8mm gearbox + the usual trimmings of a decent gun. Take a look at : which will go over the internals over the top techs (compared to the combat machine). In short the top tech has: Ball bearing spring guide Ball bearings in the cylinder Cylinder is brass Brass barrel (6.03) 8mm bearings Steel mag catch Steel trigger I don't know about the VFC internals I haven't investigated it too heavily but you should be able to get a parts breakdown on youtube and be able to compare what wear and tear reduction/consistency parts VFC are putting in there. My general understanding is the G&G is better internally but you'll want to look into the specifics of that.

It reminds me very much of counter strike and the first COD. Its very sharp and fast kills like those games and a pretty decent competition game.

I have the gen 3 T4-18 light and I only just got it, haven't skirmished it yet so I don't want to comment too much on it. The Electronic blow back system is mostly noise, it provides no useful feeling or kick to the gun whatsoever, its also light so I don't imagine it will cause any issues on the gearbox. Its not a reason not to get this gun basically. The dust cover might be a problem at some point, the hop wheel could get gunk in it but its not like you'll get dirt in the actual barrel and hop this way (well not easily!). I think its a non issue. In terms of accuracy out of the box I am putting in 2cm 7 out of 10 groups at 10m (prone supported) and about 30% "fliers" which are up to an inch away. That is pretty healthy and compares favourably to a CM16 which was 4 inch groups at the same range (or all fliers depending on how you look at it). Some of the fliers might be me rather than the gun however as I think my 4 MOA sight isn't sufficient to get the full accuracy out of the gun as it completely obscures the small competition targets I am using (10m air rifle). Its pretty accurate out of the box, bang on 320 fps for me. The only complaints I have about it so far are with the front rail. Most of the weight of the gun is in that rail, its very front heavy. I have some white welding showing on the rail in parts, its hidden away and not obvious but if you turn the gun upside down its quite obvious. Not the best workmanship and painting job I have seen unfortunately. So far its fired flawless except for one of the mags which was sticking but seems to have loosened up a bit, 500 rounds or so without any problems other than that magazine. I am pretty happy with it overall it seems to work as intended. Basically how I looked at this one was: 1) Recoil + bolt lock gives the most realistic feeling to the gun and you want that then get the TM. 2) External trade marks and realism from the look is important to you then get the VFC. 3) Otherwise the G&G is cheaper. Its probably not as accurate as TM (what is?!) but its a lot cheaper. I went (3) despite saying I was going to do (1). In the end I decided recoil and bolt locking was nice but it just wasn't worth £300 to me. I don't care at all for external trades, I just want a competitive gun rather than the look. I went for a HK 416 so I didn't have to deal with a front iron sight in my sight picture and I got some rail space for my tac light. PS Despite the mosfet in the Gen 3 mine specifically comes with a warning in the box that says a 11.1 lipo will void the warranty and that it should be used with a 7.4V lipo or up to 9.6V ni. We have had a report on these forums as well that the mosfet burnt out on the 11.1 lipo. Trigger response is very nippy with a 2600mah 25C vapex 7.4 and rof was 15 rounds per second.

http://www.proairsoftsupplies.co.uk/acatalog/m4_and_m14_variants.html This is one of the main suppliers of G&G guns in the UK, they have plenty of CM16's for sale and they even have the transparent CM16 in stock right now as well.

The G&G is called the T4-18, comes in a normal length and a Light version which is a close quarters length barrel. I don't know about WE, I haven't seen all that many people using them so its hard to say. So far I have just assumed they are a bad chinese firm (based on the price points they are hitting) so I kind of figured it wasn't worth considering.

Model number: GP121 Price: ~£35 Setup I have been using the G&P aimpoint now on two different guns. The first was a G&G CM16 Carbine (transparent) with upgraded hop nub and downgraded M90 spring (~325 FPS). The second gun I have tested this sight on is a G&G top tech T4-18 completely stock (320 fps). I have replaced the original rings from the scope and replaced it with a higher mount so that it sits above the usual iron sights aim point to allow it to work better with a mesh mask. In game I also use a G&P killflash on the front to protect the lens from BB strikes. Reticle The reticle on this sight is supposedly a 4 MOA single red dot. One thing you notice immediately when you look at the dot is its not actually round, mine is made up of a number of dots and the top right has twoi tails pretruding about 2 MOA from the ideal which make the dot look like the playboy bunny! The reticle, at least at 10 metres, seems to correct for parallax reasonably well, its not actually perfect and near the top left and right its more of a problem but the direct sides and the bottom seem to be pretty close to ideal and I get solid groupings from each. Its a dot you want to keep in the middle 1/3 especially on >20m shots but on the reflex shots its going to be acceptable parallax adjustment. There is also a reflection of the dot that appears as a horizontal smudge just above and to the left of the reticle in certain angles in low light. Its not as bright as the main dot but its pretty annoying and distracting and it gets in the way of the overall image sometimes. Glass and lense The glass is tinted green/blue and I would estimate it is darkening the image by about 20% of the light coming in. Even indoors with CQB its not too terrible but in the real darkness (like Epsom bunker) its quite enough to be a problem. You will also see the occasional reflection of light on the target lense from strong lights. I haven't yet had a serious flare in the sunlight but in CQB with strong artificial lights and looking into dark areas its quite apparent sometimes. Brightness Indoors the dot is too bright even on its minimal setting. In a dark CQB environment there is quite a lot of glow on the dot making it bigger, more obscuring and uneven and in the real dark its too bright and your eyes wont adjust to the darkness properly because of it. Its brightest setting has worked happily outside for me at least but the 5 settings of brightness it has just aren't enough, and in particular it doesn't go down low enough for the environments in which I play. Quality I have bashed the sight about quite a bit and its held up. Its taken quite a few BB strikes and while a little bit of black paint has chipped off the sight is undamaged. The Killflash has also taken a strike and is a little bit bent but it saved the lense and that is its purpose. It certainly looks the part all be it missing all the trades. The lense caps do keep out most stuff but they aren't aimpoint quality and I doubt they are really anything more than shower proof let alone rain proof. Killflash One thing to note about fitting the killflash is there is something not quite right with the threads on the scope. Ideally you should be able to screw the killflash all the way in and then be able to close the dust/weather cover over it. But on mine I can't tighten it down that much. The thread seems to be incorrect from a certain point and the killflash just can't screw all the way in. I know some people on my local site have forced it in and stripped the threads and now can't easily replace the killflash but I didn't do that. So with the killflash on and not damaging the threading on the scope you wont be able to close the dust cover, so you'll probably be removing the killflash and putting it back on every game. Zeroing You need a flat headed screw driver to zero this scope. The adjustment jumps are small enough and a click translates to about 0.25cm at 10m. Although I seem to have a particular point in my scope where one click goes a lot further than the one before it, moving the point of aim about 3cm in total. On the CM16 carbine its not an issue, but on the T4-18 the point is right in the middle of the ideal point for left and right adjustment. This means the gun has to be set to hit about 0.5cm to the right of where I would ideally like it to be or its 2.5cm to the left and nothing in between. Weight Its kind of heavy! With the original mount its a little over 0.5KG, with my reduced size mount its a little under. Its much heavier than a T1 micro (0.15KG) or a holo 551 sight (0.25KG). Considering there is no magnification that is quite of weight and there is no quick release or other extra weight to carry, its all in the scope itself not the attachment, Conclusion This scope is one of the cheapest out there and it does the job. Its certainly easier to accurately acquire targets using this than the iron sights. Its far from an ideal sight however, the lense, the reticle and the weight of it all seem to really be its major downsides. But that isn't to say its not good enough, because its more than accurate enough for hitting your targets, but I suspect there are better sights out there.

The TM is better, although its a shame it still has an exposed battery wire in the folding stock and the VFC doesn't. The more reviews I watch from experienced people the more I realise VFC is popular because they do really nice externals. The internals are pretty bad but that is OK because the people that buy them intend to upgrade the gears, shims, piston, cylinder, barrel and hop anyway. Then you can get a great gun given the appropriate outlay on replacement parts. I didn't even look in to the WE gun because its definitely third in this comparison.

How long does it take? Well based on the fact my site did it while I was on the phone from the form about 2 minutes. However I rang them after 2 weeks because it hadn't been done. But in actual effort it looks like its easy, just depends on when they get around to it, or when you force them to do it by calling about it.

Physical violence at my local site will get you an immediate and permanent ban. None of this 1 month rubbish, you are gone for good.

The tape solution on a strip is pretty genius actually. A lot simpler than my my metal tubular magazine DIY project that was rapidly turning into something far to complicated. I shall definitely try that and just a little bag and see if I can live with that or if I want to get more complicated. My ideal is probably a top unloading device attached to the inside of the grenade pouch that is kind of spring loaded like a magazine, it pushes gently on the caps to push them up to a place where they can be grabbed but still held by the spring pressure. But it requires pretty much everything you see in a pistol magazine, you need to be able to pull the spring down, and you need the tube closed on both ends but with the top having a gap suitable to grab the primer. Its potentially quite a detailed project and I'll definitely try the lower tech solutions first.

In the end I bought a G&G top tech T4-18 (Hk416). I was really keen to get the built in silencer built in (CQB-S) but by the time I went to buy they were sold out and over a month away. For me there were 3 features of the TM I valued: - All the BBs feed - something the G&G has as well (mostly just magazine dependent) - Recoil - The EBB on the top tech is no where near as powerful, its more noise than actual kick. But I also wasn't sure I even wanted recoil and the disadvantage it might bring. - Bolt locks on magazine empty So for those 2 features of Recoil and bolt locking I wasn't really willing to pay twice the price and be down on FPS and have a gearbox that really wasn't able to take a more powerful spring. So I cheaped out, decided the TM wasn't really worth it for my first proper game.

So I recently bought myself a TRMR grenade and now I am trying to work out what to do with the shotgun primers that it uses. I stick them in a generic utility pouch but I certainly don't want to be using the original box and sticking them in a sandwich bag is neither going to stop them going off if I get hit on the rig with a BB nor is it going to be fast to reload. So I was wondering if anyone knew of some shotgun primer "magazines"? A dispenser basically for a small number of primers that I could stow in my gear and quickly dispense a single round so that I can reload the grenade faster. Any ideas?

I haven't heard about a new recoil system, but its certainly possible. G&P are about to come out with their version of the TM recoil but not heard anything about a TM update. The Scar L CQC is a well made gun, TM make lovely things. I tried someones Scar H at my site and I did like the sights and the butt and generally the feel of the gun. There are three reasons why ultimately I didn't choose it a couple of days ago. The first is the battery compartment, its pretty small and fiddly and does not look like it will take a lipo without issues. The second reason is the TM magazines, on the one hand its great that the bolt locks and all rounds are fed but on the other hand they are downright pricey which on top of a very expensive gun does add up. The third reason is the spring power. People rave about the TMs but that low FPS is a real killer for me, I want to be playing on a 350 fps field and I do not want to be 20% down on power and subsequently range (all else being equal). I don't think its therefore a perfect gun.

Its pretty good. Have you tried it with a blurred out background image? Something urban/grey might contrast well with the main characters and fill the blank space the black background has. Almost no one uses dark blacks/greys on the internet anymore, its very 2000. Might be worth experimenting to see if you can find a background that suits it.

I think everyone who intends to buy their own gear should read through the relevant parts of VCRA and the commencement order. These two parts of the law are important to read as they tell you not just the letter of the law but also some of the intent as well. The commencement order for example is clearly saying that it expects that airsofters will have membership photo ID cards, even though UKARA never ended up implementing such a thing that was the expectation when the law was commenced. But the general public doesn't need to know this and in my experience you shouldn't expect the rossers to know it either.