MikeMarden

Been on the spend again, this time we have..... A-Tacs AU Warrior DCS 5.56 Plate Carrier & Warrior Ricas Plate Carrier with full compliment of pouches A-Tacs AU balaclava New set of desert combat boots - having to retire my current set! Should have my loadout of A-TACS AU finalised for the New Year, just waiting on a few Xmas pressies to be finalised!!

Have been on the spend again & bought the following few bits:- Red dot laser & zoom focus torch combo - realized after selling my NVRS & x2 accompanying PEQ's that I done myself out of a light & red dot Scope Dot Sight Lens Protector Cover Shield - Unsure how this will work with a Thermal Imaging scope but it's a coupe of quid & some more A-Tacs AU bits & bobs:- Chest Tapes Custom name patches Condor CBT 2 point bungee sling Punisher shield devgru patch Tactical Airsoft Hard Half Face Mask - Wanted to try something different as I'm looking to move away from the larger mesh variety Spend, spend spend! & then one last little pic of me in the full ACU Digital before I swap everything over for the A-Tacs AU

Decided the time had come to change a fair bit of my existing kit, current gear was all ACU-Digital, appreciate it divides opinion but it's served me well for the past 2 years! Have now opted to go for A-TACS AU, so all currently on order as of today, has been an expensive week but you can't put a price on your hobby right?! All A-Tacs AU Trousers + Knee Pads / Top with elbow pads Warrior DCS DA5.56 Plate carrier mod combo - Additonal pouches etc. Hydration pack & tube cover Viper Special Ops 30L rucksack Browning Gloves Browning woolly hat Boonie Hat Mesh Face Mask Have made a rather large purchase earlier in the week & upgraded my existing Yukon Firefield FF16001 NVRS to a thermal imaging scope, purchased the Pulsar Apex XD38 - absolutely blown away by the quality of this being OLED & 50hz. Lastly for some shits & giggles - going to try something a bit different & have bought a Jack Pyke Leaf suit with obligatory matching gloves, hood & a leaf cover for my gun. Has been somewhat an expensive week but have been wanting to upgrade & change my gear for a while now, so has involved some serious saving, selling all of my older gear & some of the gear generously bought for me from obliging family members for Xmas presents so cannot have them til Xmas day!. Just a single picture of the only tangible thing that's been delivered so far! - But IMHO the best thing ;-)

Picked myself up one of these recently, BTC Spectre for my TM 416D - Having it fitted at the end of the month, not too sure what to expect really, as I got caught up in all the hype but took a punt regardless!

Welcome buddy - Did you go to Apocalypse Sunday 20th March? - if so I was there! & was on the Blue team How did you find it & get on? As others have stated, don't buy too much initially as you'll be finding your feet as to what works for you & what doesn't. Good thing about Kent is that we have a plethora of decent sites, my opinion is that you cannot go wrong at Apocalypse, huge site, constantly being developed with impressive structures & a very solid Head Marshal in the guise of Big Jon Davies who keeps everyone in line! Hope to see you around some time :-) Mike

Latest picky of mine, couple of bits I've added as we've some night time skirmish scenarios coming up, have added the NVRS & PEQ, recently changed back to a stock marui grip but added the Harris style bi-pod in for good measure. Looking forward to putting the kit through its paces!

Have previously sourced 0.25 Devil Blasters through Platoon Stores in Rochester Kent as a. they're local & b. they do a bulk buy which works out to approximately £7.50 per 3000 bottle. However as mentioned by previous posters, Ebay has been my friend with x6000 bottles of the 0.25 coming in at £15 + free postage, which is excellent value for money & I don't have to commit to buying so many of them in one go.

It's a yes from me, most weeks we skirmish in dense woodland, so it serves a dual purpose for me whereby my noggin doesn't take any BB hits and I can happily charge through the woodland at full pelt when needed without the worry of tree branches etc. causing any facial damage. Appreciate that they're not for evryone though & as with everything, is down to personal preference of what works for them & what doesn't.

Good to know this - thanks for the feedback / advice, when I get round to using mine on a Night game i'll then give an update on my experience.

Am interested in your response - care to elaborate for us?

Night vision would give you a massive advantage - Just purchased some myself, looking forward to giving it a go, I've signed up for the Open Milsim in June at Apocalypse so won't be too long until I can try it.

I currently use Devil Blasters, have never had any issues TBH. Previously used Bulldog BB's - lots of bad write ups about those - but again, never had any issues, reason I switched because Devil Blasters I can get in bulk & through a local shop so gives me the opportunity to go out & spend on other gear that I don't really need! ;-)

This is one of my set ups, mesh face mask on first, mesh goggles on second, & then pop on the Fast Helmet - You're pretty well packed in but works well for me!

Thanks for asking - the night went really well, we had 67 players on the evening. The event was great fun, absolute carnage & was very evident that comms were essential, those with night vision absolutely bossed the games (as they would!). The Apoc team pulled out the stops, getting generators in to light up some of the main structures (The Village) Completely different dynamic that was more tactical & for those whom excelled, done so by Team work. As for this year, Yes! They're starting doing evening events from the end of March - probably being Wednesday's & will be doing more overnight missions on Saturdays as well which will lead into the usual Sunday skirmish. So all in all it went well & has set a precedent for new events coming to Apocalypse Airsoft this year.

I always opt for full face protection, first time I ever skirmished I was twatted in the face a few times, and you know what, it hurt! So I was keen to avoid that for subsequent visits. At our local site, one of the marshals lost a tooth due to a stray BB. I know people tend to not wear the masks, but that's not for me, can't imagine anything worse than having a tooth shot out & the next day looking like Cletus the slack jawed yokel from the Simpsons.

An earlier Member commented that a working internet connection & pay day are a dangerous combination! Just purhcased a PEQ 15 & a set of HeroShark Mako mesh goggles - Have been usuing the standard mesh goggles so for the extra price, I'm interested in how the vision compares! Now to disconnect the internet connection! Mike

Some little buys - just little & often which were:- ACU-Digital Wooly hat as my ears feel the effects of the cold winter wind! Additional SOPMOD Battery Bulk buy on some 0.25 Devil Blasters which will last me best part of the next 3-6 months Harris style Bi-Pod, replacing my previous extendable foregrip (Reminded me too much of Del Boy's mobile phone & it's spring loaded aerial!) Rubber Magpuls x10 - EBay jobbies but do the business & a bit more of a bigger buy.... With our local site starting Wednesday evening shoots from March as well as overnight missions (Not full blown Milsims) i've decided to take a punt & buy this.... http://www.amazon.com/Firefield-FF16001-Night-Vision-Riflescope/dp/B000YQLW5C Reviews / vids & write ups seem favourable so we'll see

1) Single odd BB's found throuhgout the house 2) Bladder from hydration pack cleaned out in the bath & hung up in the airing cupboard to dry 3) Batteries on charge religiously every Saturday evening 4) Me moaning every Monday morning when getting up that I'm absolutely fooked

Nothing more than a few cosmetic tweaks for 2016...... Have gone back to the stock foregrip whilst adding a Harris-style Bipod upfront, very pleased with how the gun looks & performs

This is my trusty chariot - E400 AMG, very fortunate whereby my best mate is a Director at Merc, it'll do nicely for the next few years! Mike

Like to switch between two different options, first is Woodoland Vegetato, does the job nicely & like to be a tad different from the Multicam crowd. The second is somewhat a bit of an acquired taste - ACU-Digital as per my profile pic. Both me & a friend wear this for the majority ofthe time at our local site.

I personally can't fault the 0.25 Blasters, used these in a night game earlier in the year, found them very useful at dusk when firing at targets underneath woodland coverings - gave you much better sight in the travel of your BB. When it was full darkness, again, really useful as you can see the direction of the travel, gave you confidence of what you were firing at, as mentioned though, did give away my position, but blast & move kept me ahead of the opposition ;-). I use the TM tracer unit with my Devgru 416. What I did notice with this unit was that the light emitted from the unit did seem to be a tad less than other variant of tracers that were being used on the evening. Cool piece of kit & worth the money imho. Mike

As already mentioned - We're very fortunate in Kent, have a multitude of sites worth checking out, plenty of Airsoft teams attend these events so i'm sure you'll be able to find a team you could buddy up with. Although - Why be a sheep when you can be a wolf?! - Why not start your own team? Sites worth checking out in Kent:- After Dark CQB - As it states, pure CQB site run in the evenings in a dedicated (I think in doors setting) - run by a guy called John who is thought of very highly in the Kent Airsfot scene. Apocalypse Airsoft - Huge site, great set of features / buildings, well established & a great all rounder - Generally it's the only place where I skirmish. Bush Valley Airsoft - Another huge woodland site - fairly new but the guys are developing the site weekly, great thing about here is that they're really trying to be unique with the missions etc. - Worth a look UCAP Sandpit - Fantastic break from the norm, very different setting based in a quarry, use of the buildings / army vehicles etc. really does bring a different dimension from the usual Woodland sites There's plenty of others as well, but these 4 in my mind & the stand out ones Hope it helps Mike

I own the 416D Devgru - Like others this is my first gun so have no basis for comparison. I had a few sensible minor upgrades carried out which takes the FPS on 0.25's to around the 340ish mark as well as giving me that little more distance I needed. The Sopmod batteries i've also had upgraded with larger capacity internal batteries - whilst they're not cheap, they fit as they should with no hanging wires etc. & have never had any failures. Whilst I don't skirmish as much as I would like too - the gun runs faultlessly time & time again, feels & looks great which was everything I was after. Price-wise I don't think they're that expensive, given the consistency & performance, now if we're talking about expensive I keep on eyeing up the Ares AMP DSR-1 V2 Gas Sniper Rifle at a bargain price of £900 - now that's expensive!

These are quite a rarity i'm afraid - You're best bet might be to have a conversation with a site & see if you could work with them to pull something together. I took this approach with Apocalypse Airsoft (Detling, Kent) & we had an evening to night game in June, we got a total of 65+ along to the event & it was enjoyed by all & bought a new dimension to the normal skirmishes etc. Would I organise another event - Potentially, it was friggin hard work but very rewarding, maybe after Xmas though as work wise i'm just flat out & would struggle to find time to organise another. UCAP Sandpit / Pit (Bluewater) organised a Zombie / Halloween / Night skirmish last year which was pistols & shotguns only - Never went but saw feedback & everyone spoke very highly of the event. We've plenty of sites in Kent - Latest is BushValley Airsoft in Lenham near Ashford, chaps who run it are eager to cater & please so they'd be a good site to aslo have a chat with. Lastly - A CQB site has recently opened called 'After Dark CQB' which I think runs on a Wednesday evening - I believe there's a Facebook page & it's run by a guy who goes by the name of Jon DarkwaterAirsoft, take a look. Hope the above all helps Mike