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yea i just can't be bothered doing anything to it so i'll just send it off someplace

I had been waiting on a couple of bits turning up from lands afar, but those arrived so now the rest of my sidearm purchases during my little stint in the south atlantic are about ready for public display. My second custom build from ESC, but this time around I wanted something that would be about as skirmish practical as physically possible (while still looking a bit pretty) so it's almost entirely made of TM parts. Upper setup is just for the lulz and photo ops, lower for actual usage in the field. Night Warrior 3-Dot Sights M.E.U. Slide M.E.U. Outer barrel/Barrel bushing etc to compensate for the base gun being a 4.3 Desert Warrior Nineball Purple hop rubber Nineball 6.03 Tightbore Desert Warrior frame 1911A1 Trigger VZ Grips G10 Operators II in 'Military Brown' Strike Warrior magwell Since my good old A1 is entombed with a carbine kit I wanted something in the classic style, just as a display piece if anything; so there's my Series 70. Replaced the stock grips with some real rosewood ones, and like that it shall stay. KJW A1, just a cheap trainer gun to go along with my target-range-only G&P WOC-X. The combination of compatibility with my existing magazines & holsters, the low price and low number of shots it'll fire per gas fill make it suit that role perfectly I feel. Got those nasty grip weights out of there and put on some proper wood repros of the WWII diamond style grips. Took some dremel work since the frame on this has the CO2 bulb protrusions, but I much prefer the balance of the resultant weapon vs. the original. Had a few comments regards my selection of grips on my HurricanE Kimber Covert II when I first posted it elsewhere a while back, so I've swapped out the cheaper RS Colt rubber grips that were on there for some VZ Grips 'VZ Recons' made of G10 in their Desert Sand. Quick family shot of the collection so far to finish off:

Took a trip down to the royal mail depot today (which is unusual because normally parcel farce snaffle anything that comes from the U.S.). Picked up two sets of VZ Grips for 1911s in G10 (Operators II and VZ Recons), a Hardpoint Equipment low-pro belt and a Bitter End stamped steel lower face mask (very impressive bit of safety gear).

Why is that if ever a part is missing from it kit - it's usually the most important, and probably the smallest? Unable to do anything with my rails and l85 until I get a tiny, tiny screw

TL;DR? Well you're lucky then, because I've now made 2 videos: Behold The Rundown Of Ed’s EPIC ICS L85A2 Out of the box rifle specifications: FPS: 345, 370, 410 – spring tension is adjustable. Values may vary for each gun. Barrel length: Supplied with a 480mm brass barrel, of 6.05mm in diameter. However, up to a 510mm (M16, AUG, M14) length barrel will fit without protruding into the flash hider. Supplied with: Two high capacity magazines (470 rounds each) unjamming/cleaning rod and a pot of ICS .20g BBs Rails: Top rail – 19mm Hop: Unique design, no aftermarket hop units available for this rifle. It has its issues but it works well enough. Gearbox: Again, unique to the ICS L85, supplied with very solid gears, bushings, factory shimmed and all around, pretty darn good to be honest, it's also heavily reinforced. Motor: Comes with the godly ICS Turbo 3000. This thing can pull any spring you gear it to. So let’s get started. I bought the rifle back in December 2011 with the intention of making it look exactly like the one currently issued in Afghanistan. The first things to order were the replica Daniel Defence RIS made by Madbull, as well as the adaptor for fitting to the ICS L85, I then bought a grip-pod made by god only knows what company, I can’t even remember where I bought it from, but it’s a nice high quality product for the price, works flawlessly and looks great. Once those parts came and were fitted I needed the correct ACOG mount, so I ordered that from Ant-Supplies, as I was a little weary about ordering from RSOV in Hong Kong because of all the horror stories I’d heard about import tax and such. I already had an ACOG at the time and back when I started the project I thought that would do, later on I decided it wasn’t accurate enough to the real steel, so I decided to order a new ACOG, but that wasn’t until about 5 months into the project when I went to the Arms Fair in May. So at this point I had the gun set up with the DD RIS, grip pod, ACOG mount and an ACOG, but not the right one. Since the RIS was fitted I needed to start running LiPo batteries, issues arose at this point, the connector that comes with the gun is for a large Tamiya and there’s so much extra wire that I couldn’t come anywhere even close to fitting the battery in with a connection conversion lead. So I rewired to small Tamiya and cut short the cables so everything fit. I was happy with this set up for a fairly long time until I ran into issues at a skirmish at The Stan. The gun just died, like there was no battery connected and the trigger mech kept making a strange clicking noise. I finished the day using my MP5. Once I got back I looked into it and found that from all the stripping and reassembling I’d been doing to change bits and alter the spring tension for different site rules etc. had caused the connection pins that break the circuit when the receiver is split as a safety feature, to be pushed away from their contacts. They didn’t complete the circuit once the gun had been re-assembled, as they should have. So I bent them upwards, which seemed to fix it. To fix the trigger mech clicking I dismantled it, couldn’t understand what the issue was, re-assembled it, and now it’s fine… That seems to fix a lot of things in my experience. If something doesn’t work, take it to bits and reassemble it before you plan to do anything else to it. Since I’d been looking into the internals, I decided I’d start doing some actual work on them, this is the first AEG I ever dismantled, so that’s testament to how easy to work on it is. I knew I wanted a Tanio Koba Hop-Twist barrel, but I couldn’t find the right one anywhere on earth, so I ended up getting one for an L96 from Land Warrior for about £70. Since the barrel cut was for a sniper, the barrel retention pieces in my gun didn’t fit the barrel, so I had to decide to either mod them, make some new ones, or remove them altogether. I realised they weren’t needed for anything other than a better air seal, which I didn’t realise the importance of at the time, so I opted for full removal. This meant that the barrel had to be held in by friction alone, so I wrapped insulation tape around the barrel so that it was a super tight fit in the outer barrel, it was damn hard to get in and out after that. Now the barrel was done I went for the hop unit, I’d been advised to get a Madbull Blue rubber, and so I did. I also experimented with different nubs, eventually choosing to use the biro ink tube mod, so I cut it to size and used that. I ran with this set up for about 2 months until I noticed Red Wolf had the correct twist barrel in stock, so I immediately ordered one. This gave me back the bug for adding stuff again… I asked for advise on how to make the gun the best it could be (thank you Mr. Finius) and was told I needed a better hop nub and a new piston head (amongst other minor, home grown internal modifications that so far I haven't attempted). So I ordered a big-out H nub and a Lee’s Precision Engineering piston head, which has an air brake on it to increase the life of the internals. In retrospect the piston head wasn’t really needed, the only change I’ve observed is that it’s more difficult to tell when the gun is dry firing because it sounds similar to when it’s firing rounds, and it’s ever so slightly quieter. At this point I was running the same externals as before but with a new piston head, proper twist barrel allowing me the correct barrel fitting and the H nub. This is possibly the greatest combination of parts for any rifle if you want immense accuracy and even more immense range. I have my rifle set on the middle spring tension, which is about 350fps on .20s, I run it using .25s and I can comfortably hit a man sized target at up to 50m. Twist barrels are said to work best at under 330fps, so if you want to stick one in a sniper running 500fps, it’s fine. Just use .40g or .46g BBs to bring the fps down and your sniper will become a laser rifle… Well, minus the projectile speed. After adding those parts I started researching into the real steel a bit more, I found out that the real steel L85 was now fitted with a new flash hider, a different ACOG to mine that's equipped with a docter site, I also noted that the L85 was now issued with Magpul EMAGs and an LLM01. So I ordered all of that, and some rail ladders for good measure. Shortly after making this order I realised that the docter sight on the ACOG I'd ordered didn't look like the proper one on the L85, so a quest began to find one. I eventually found it thanks to a tip off from CKinnerley about BritKitUSA, so thanks to CK for the final, finishing touch. A lot of this stuff was in the post for absolutely ages, I ordered the ACOG from G1098Airsoft and they messed me about for over a month, so I re ordered most of it from RSOV. Whist it was all in the post I thought I’d improve the internals. My aim was to increase the trigger response, as it was the only thing letting the gun down. I looked into changing the motor, but decided that the ICS Turbo 3000 was actually an amazing motor already, which troubled me somewhat, how can I increase the trigger response time if I can’t just get a new motor? I decided to look into shimming the gearbox, the idea being that if the gears are more properly aligned, the motor won’t have to work as hard to turn them over, giving me a more efficient use of battery and motor power. I’d been practising taking guns apart and getting to know and understand gearboxes over the last couple of months, so I ordered a few packs of shims from Patrol Base and managed to shim the gearbox pretty well, it did give a noticeable improvement, but the trigger response still wasn’t good enough. So I’m stuck now. The gun’s absolutely flawless in every way, externals, internals, accuracy and range. But the trigger response is still terrible. I would say it’s the only thing I can hold against the ICS. I think the G&G L85 has a pre-cocking system, which would make the trigger response literally instantaneous. I’d pay a lot if there were a way I could have that in my ICS. Since I can’t think of any solution to this that can be realistically achieved I’ve decided to let it go. I’d considered getting an even better motor or switching to higher voltage LiPos but I don’t want an unrealistically high rate of fire and I don’t want to have to buy stronger gears. The ICS L85 also has a proprietary piston, there are no after market pistons available. Meaning if my set up shred one, I can never run the set up, because that’s the only piston I can ever have. My current thoughts are that if the target is far away I have the range advantage about 90% of the time. If they’re up close and personal, I’ll just have to switch to auto to deal with them, as that’s the only way to overcome the trigger response issue, I’ll just have to learn better trigger control and not get greedy. Running real caps means auto is rarely a good idea. Edit: Motor packed in today, before the ACOG, docter sight and wing mount have even arrived! So I guess we'll see if changing the motor can get me a better trigger response, I've got a Systema High Torque motor on the way, from Zero One... £85. Gulp. Still planning on swapping to Deans connectors and at some point completely rewiring it with low resistance wiring. If possible I'll also fit a Mosfet. My quest for better trigger response has begun! The first step on the quest was successful, the Systema motor came today and the trigger response has improved noticeably. The gun actually feeds more powerful, you can really feel the shake of the internals in your shoulder when you pull the trigger. I tried turning this motor over by hand before installing it and it was damn difficult. I used to think my ICS motor was difficult to turn over, this thing must be at least twice as powerful. The power of it makes me feel like I have to do something to reinforce the circuitry a bit better. Edit: Trigger response has been massively improved by getting a new trigger mechanism. There's a small pin in the trigger assemly that acts as a guide rod for the trigger contacts and mine had snapped in half somehow, but I didn't realise it wasn't supposed to be like that until the new trigger mech arrived. Trigger is absolutely spot on now, response is perfect, ROF is perfect. New hop hasn't really made any change, even with an AEG cut barrel the barrel retention bits still needed modding, so I just used the pre-modded ones from the old hop. The gun is shooting straight as an arrow though, accuracy is above average, it could still do with a few hop tweaks, but I'm going to skirmish it on Sunday and see if the parts don't just all bed themselves in a little better. I imagine consistency will increase through use. I also now have all the parts, so after I've skirmished it and have a bit of spare time I'll get some photos added... Though I might not do it until something buggers up. Once I've set the gun up I don't really like taking it apart to do anything apart from change the spring, 'cos the barrel assembly is an utter arse to get back together properly. It's really hard to seat the hop rubber correctly because of how tight the unit is. I've recently decided that I'm going to get an M140 spring for this to whack the fps up to 450, then use .36s or .40s and field it as a DMR. I'm pretty certain the internals can take it and I've already shimmed it to perfection, the systema motor could probably pull an M9billion so that won't be an issue either. I'll let you know how it goes. Anyone know how to disable auto? 'Cos to me it looks like you NEED the fire selector mechanism to be able to use semi, without it there's no way to engage the cut off lever... Might have to just hope my site trust me. Which I think they do. Edit: DMR plans fell through, somehow the motor is unable to pull even an M130 (I couldn't find an M140 in stock anywhere) so for the time being I've decided to just use it as a regular AEG, it running at about 360fps at the moment because my new spring is yet to bed in, but with .25s it's running around 320fps. If I take up the DMR plans again I think I'll start it by changing the ratio of my gears, as it stands I can't really be bothered to work out what ratio I'd need, or which gears will be compatible. I'm also planning to make an L129A1 DMR at some point over the next year or so, so there'll be no need to have my L85 at DMR specs. Edit: Currently it's August 2012, the gun is about 8 or 9 months old and has had approximately 20,000 rounds through it since I bought it, so various parts have been added and removed etc. I don't think I'll be making any vast changes from this point forward, other than replacing parts as and when they break. I'll write an update for this around this time next year and see how everything's holding up. Edit: Just a little update on how the gun's performing. It's now December the 11th, so within 10 days of the gun being a year old. At approximately 3000 rounds, or one pot of ammo per month, that means it's fired something in the region of 36,000 rounds. Everything is still solid and showing no internal wear at all on any of the internal parts - Except, the motor gear and whatever the name of the gear that the motor meets, don't mesh 100% perfectly, the angle of the slope on the motor's gear is slightly steeper than the corresponding slope on the 3rd gear from the piston in the gearbox. This is causing wear on the 3rd gear and the motor's gear, resulting in tiny little metal chips building up in the gearbox and a very, very slow rate. I've only cleaned it out once in about 4 months and the little bits I had to remove were akin to sand, or very fine iron filings. It does not appear to have any effect on performance. Currently I'm running it with a 6.01mm barrel which I initially bought for a 16-17inch barrel M4 project but it was too long (455mm) so I tried it in the L85 and I've actually been seeing much better results. I don't know whether it's because my twist barrel has been used too much and the "threading" I'll call it, in the barrel has been knocked by BBs too many times to be effective anymore, perhaps twist barrels can expire, or wear out... Well either way, running a Version 1 Madbull 6.01mm by 455mm tight bore barrel I have been seeing better results than with the twist barrel. In the hop I'm still using a Madbull blue rubber. I keep meaning to experiment with different rubbers, but so far the Madbull is a signifiant improvement over the standard rubber. Additionally, when using the Madbull a smaller nub is required, otherwise even with hop off, the rubber will obstruct the barrel to such an extent that it will overhop literally everything you shoot through it. The nub I use to overcome this is the same as I had before, a Big Out H nub. I've changed the spring to an M100. I'm now seeing the fps sit at around 360 in the middle setting using .20s and as per usual, I run it using .25s. The rifle is effective out to around 40m. By effective, I mean I could hit a target with one shot. As for hitting a target at all, the max range I've ever hit someone was round about 70m and required me to aim around 6 feet above the target and just spray on auto when they were unaware of my position, so as not to see the BBs coming in and move out of their path. For reference to its effectiveness there's my YouTube videos (link to my channel in my signature), all of which, bar one (or two if you count the one that isn't airsoft related) I use the L85 in. Aside from the barrel change, I also bought a new charging handle and tappet plate. The charging handle replacement was bought because the standard one had become so wobbly that I just couldn't deal with it anymore, tightening it to the point where the screw wore away could be completely undone by simply racking it once. Interestingly, the replacement charging handle was different in this respect, instead of the bolt handle being screwed into the fake bolt, it was screwed in and then welded in place, so it physically cannot move. I've had no issues since then, and regularly rack it back and let it go for the fun of it. The tappet plate was bought more as a spare because the part is proprietary and I didn't want my current one to break for me to then be stranded without one. Again, interestingly, the new tappet plate was of slightly different design. Testing it in the rifle showed no performance difference from what I can see, but what ICS seem to be doing, is in some way or other improving all the individual components, separate from the rifle itself. So you buy the gun and it comes with all the standard bits. But, should they fail and you buy a spare or replacement, the part you get is different to the one you broke, despite it being by ICS and for the L85. So it seems that ICS are making up for the fact that these parts are proprietary, by making the replacement parts better than the ones supplied with the gun, so that replacing parts when they break, is akin to getting an upgrade. I also readdressed the DMR idea. I haven't skirmished it with this set up yet, but I bought a new Madbull M120 spring and put it on the highest spring tension. This put the fps up to 380 (average over 5 shots) with .20s Couple this high fps with .30s - the same 6.01, madbull blue and H nub as with my regular set up and this thing shoots an untold distance. As I said, I've not skirmished it yet. But I did test it when I took it to chrono at another site (they wouldn't let me use it because they don't have a DMR rule... ) and the BBs were flying out of sight before I saw more than 1 foot of drop and I could clearly see them for at least 60m. So in short, should I ever skirmish this with this DMR configuration, everyone I see will be within engagement range the only downside, is that there is no way to lock this gun to semi. The fire selector which is linked mechanically to the trigger mechanism is required in order for semi auto to work and the only conceivable way to remove the auto function is to remove the fire selector. Since I can't remove the fire selector without losing semi and not auto, there's simply no way to lock it to semi only. Which in all likelihood will make it impossible to field as a DMR legitimately. I'll also update the parts list and overall cost to account for me now using a different barrel and having 12 Emags. UPDATE - 13th April 2013 Since the above posts, my motor's pinion gear shredded itself to pieces. Rather pleasingly, the ICS gears and piston are still completely fine, so that's some evidence that ICS parts are of comparable quality to Systema. I worked out Sherlock Holmes style that the reason the motor gear imploded was because the angle it met the gears wasn't right, and since there's sweet FA I could do about that, I thought I'd use this opportunity to buy some new bits and bobs. So in the post I had some Ultimate High Torque gears - in the hope that they'd meet the Systema Magnum motor's pinion gear at the right angle, a new pinion gear of the exact kind I'd had before, a Systema version 2 cylinder head, some new shims and probably some other stuff. It's getting too much to remember all the stuff I've done to this rifle now. In short it took roughly 50,000 rounds for this part to fail (discounting the ICS motor burning out) and it wasn't even a standard part. I now have it fitted with: A Madbull Ultimate aircraft aluminium, 6.01mm tightbore, of 510mm in length. The hop unit has a Systema standard AEG hop rubber in it, and a Big Out H Nub. I also managed to grab an aluminium hop arm off someone on these forums. The air nozzle is the stock part, the cylinder head is a Systema V2, for the piston head I've recently gone back to the standard one, as the Systema cylinder head's shape renders the LPE air brake piston head pointless. The piston itself, piston head and cylinder are therefore all as they came when I initially bought it. The gears are Ultimate High Torque gears, I think the ratio is 28:1 and the gears are helical. The gears have been shimmed. Lastly the motor is a Systema Magnum High Torque. I use it with a 9.9v 1000mah LiFe battery, Blaster .25g BBs, Magpul PTS Emags and an M100 (I forget which make, but I don't think that matters) With spring tension on full, this is possibly the most accurate, long range, skirmishable AEG I've ever known. Hitting a man with one shot at 50m? Piece of piss. I can see it reaching out to up to 70m with the barrel pointing up a fair bit of course. Anyway, here's a list of absolutely everything I've bought to add to the gun, externals, internals and generic parts, as well as parts I've replaced due to wear, or fault. If you want to know where I got any of it from, just ask and I'll help you find a place to get it. Update - 30th July 2013: So the helical 1:28 ratio gear plan didn't last very long in the end. Since the motor had to turn so many more times for me to get one shot off, rate of fire and trigger response suffered quite a lot and since my batteries are only 1000MaH, they were running out pretty quickly as well. So now I'm running with all the same parts as the last update, except I've got the original 1:18 ratio gears installed and I also picked up a Systema V2 piston head, to better compliment the Systema cylinder head. I've also bought and sold a few ICS L85s and L86s since the last update, and one of them went to a collector who just wanted it as a display model; so now I've got a complete set of internals spare in case anything goes arse over tit. The only thing I really have to keep tabs on is the motor's pinion gear, since the angle of the gears don't mesh with the pinion gear, they do gradually wear each other down. I might have to buy a load of pinion gears in bulk just in case it packs in unexpectedly. But aside from that, I'm happy with it. Maybe I'll think about getting some high speed gears just to make the trigger response even more epic... Still need to rewire it all to Deans connectors as well =/ I had an art teacher at school who used to say, "You can't finish art" It's TRUE! Argh! Base cost: Rifle £320 Externals and related: RIS £130 RIS adaptor £16 Grip-pod £20 LLM £70 ACOG and docter £110 ACOG mount £26 Docter wing mount £11 Rail ladders £60 Flash hider £25 Total: £788 Current Internal upgrades: Barrel Madbull (6.01x510mm tb) £30 Hop rubber Systema £6 Hop nub Big Out H Nub £10 Systema High torque motor £85 Systema V2 Cylinder head £10 Systema V2 Aluminium piston head - Left it too long to update this... I think it was £12, not sure. Aluminium hop arm £10 Total: £173 Grand total: £961 (Minus postage and additional costs below) Additional costs: Magazines: Magpul PTS Emags x14 = £280 Batteries: 9.9v LiFe x4 - £60 Charger: Basic LiPo/LiFe charger = £15 Generic internal parts: Shim set x3 = £12 Replacement parts due to wear or other fault: Trigger mechanism = £23 Hop unit = £19 Charging handle = £14 Pinion gear = £10 Butt plate (lost the screw from the back that stops the motor adjustment screw from altering through use) - £22 Overall costs, including everything apart from postage costs and ammo = £1,432 Oh and here's a photo of a real Afghan spec L85: And here's a photo of mine:

That is indeed the one, mate. Borg Cymru is selling another for the same price. He doesn't mention what, if anything he's letting it go with, but he and I chatted briefly after I bought John B's - he said he has mags... It's the money though, eh? I've gone on serious austerity measures for the last week and they're set to continue for another 2... I had to bust open my emergency cash stash on my keyring to pay for airsoft yesterday, but I just had to take Agnes to Skirmish and test her out. The verdict - there are some issues, mainly to do with me, but I'm confident they'll be ironed out and OMGonads, the range... the 'kin range! I'm out of touch, Hubert. I vaguely remember some comments about buying the optics first and then looking for the gun to fit, but I don't remember the details. What are you getting?

The comment just seemed relevant to the chocolate really, not intended to move in to anything political/philosophical. Simply; I like my country, that's why I don't mind being in job where any time day or night they can say to me "pack a bag, you're off to some unpleasant land full of unfriendly locals for an indeterminate amount of time" and I'd be contractually obliged to do as I was told.

Since the latest update, I've had huge issues with connection quality. Before the release of Premium and CQC (or whatever it is..), I could connect to pretty much any server, no problem and have almost no issues in-game with ping around 30-50. Since the update, all the servers in the server list are showing 300+ ping, or not even showing any, apart from the rare few showing 30-50 like before. Sometimes I join a server it just disconnects me, with "Unable to connect to EA Online" or "Disconnected from Server" messages. Then clicking "retry" just tells me the server cannot be found, then I likely never see the server again. When I eventually get into a game, no matter what ping it showed in the server list, whether it's 30 or 700, I have one of the following: - Constantly high ping, 300-500+. - Fluctuating mid-high ping, 50 for a few seconds, then 300 for about 30 seconds, then back down to 50 again. This is every server I join. Regardless of location, I've tried UK, US, Russian, German, Japanese etc. servers, same result. It's not my PC or Internet connection. No other games do it, I get constant 30-40 ping on CS:S and other games. I'm not downloading anything, I've even disconnected everything else in my house from my router and tried at all times (peak and non-peak), which made no difference. I've re-installed Origin and BF3, which made no difference either. Restarted the router countless times and restarted my computer even more. With EA Support I got into a continuous loop of "Have you tried re-installing Origin and BF3", "Yes, it made no difference", "Try it again.". No help found on the forums either, all the moderators just say they'll let the developers know, even in 6 month old threads, so obviously they've doing nothing about it. Does anyone have this problem, or even better, a solution to it!? Any help at all would be amazing.

Well if you're not skirmishing it you can crank up the fps to whatever you can manage. I think that any weapon firing over 373fps measured with a .20 that is capable of full auto is illegal in the UK though... Might need someone else to clarify. But I've heard of bolt action snipers pushing 750fps, airsoft guns are essentially air rifles that fire safer ammo, after all. Anything an air rifle can do, an airsoft gun can do with the right parts and know-how, and air rifles can hit above 800fps, above 900fps even. There's probably a point where you'll reach the 12ft/Ilb energy limit though.

I don't know sorry, i've got a systema energy CMB with a M120 spring, and it works absolutely perfectly, and the 3rd burst works really well. i don't think changing the spring will do anything though.

Y'know, I thought that the ASCU's were meant to be high end quality upgrade parts? But the wiring they come with is SH*T! Monumentally sh*t! It's made out of some sort of >sh*t< multi-strand tin wire that snaps if you so much as touch it, so I've now had to re-wire and re-solder the motor connectors 5 f*cking times and they STILL keep F*CKING snapping! I feel more like throwing my M16 against a tree than bothering to do anything with it anymore. I'm going to send it to Patrol Base to get it serviced, shimmed, rewired and everything basically - if I do it myself I WILL smash it against a tree.

Gotta be the A&K? If anything purely because there are hardly any other VN 60s available on the market.

Just trying to get gearbox back into lower receiver. If the box goes in then you cant select anything then when you pull box back out the selector gets caught on disk inside the safety swirch and snaps. just wasted 8 quid! been quoted £35 to supply and fit a new one.

Haha I might end up doing it in FG, at the moment im still deciding as to what I'm going to do externally if im honest, im not going to Ghillie wrap it or anything, I want to keep the looks of the rifle pretty standardish-might be tempted by a fluted bull barrel though

Yea kinda what Marcus said, Magpul sold it to Bushmaster and they changed the name to Adaptive Combat Rifle (ACR) and there is the odd little change (most notable using the RIS handguard more then the magpul one) however, it is the same basic rifle and all the origional Mgapul ideas are still in there (i.e abidextrous controls, quick change barrel, massive adaptiveness) oh and when you hear people call it the Remington ACR basically Bushmaster told its sister company, Remington, to make the military ones now while Bushmaster made the civilian ones. The ACR design is still technically Bushmasters as Remington didn't change anything, however, it is still a Magpul rifle. EDIT: Marcus, I'm expecting you to re-do the camo with A-TACS

If I bootcamp it though, won't only half the specs carry to the windows portion? I'm not sure I even want to, I'm worried it'll get riddled with viruses and stuff like my old laptop did, within a year. I'm just not handy enough with PCs to do anything properly without being a risk of completely FUBARing it.

Gun make and model: As above, L85A2, made by ICS. FPS: It can be changed to one of 3 possible options. With the stock spring I've had mine chrono'd at 345 on the lowest setting, 370 on the middle and I've never had it checked on the highest because it's got to be over 370 which is my site limit. If I were to make a guess, the highest setting is probably around 400 to 410. Bear in mind these tests were not done with the stock barrel, but with a twist barrel which I think have a bore diameter of 6.05 if I remember correctly. Hop up: The hop is adjustable of course and is adjusted just like most M4 platforms, with a dial that you twist. Anti-clockwise for hop on, clockwise for hop off. The annoying thing about this is that the stopper that ought to prevent you from being able to turn the wheel forever in one direction, is a very small nub. So if you twist the wheel fast, you just brush over the stopper without even realising you've done it. Meaning that the hop can seem very iffy and crap at first until you figure this out. Out of the box I also had issues with the hop sending all my shots sky high even when the dial was turned completely off. However, this can be remedied by using .25s, which I would recommend doing anyway. By buying a new hop rubber - I'm using a Madbull Blue. Changing your hop up nub to a better, harder one and finally, By packing out the hole that the spring sits in that pushes on the hop arm, to make the spring more effective. Mag Capacity: One of this gun's best features is that it comes supplied with 2 470 round high capacity magazines, it is the only L85 that comes like this as far as I'm aware. Battery: With the standard hand guard there is ample space for a large 8.4v battery. With the Daniel Defence RIS fitted your battery space becomes VERY small and tight, I use 7.2v 1450mah LiPo batteries, they're just the right size to fit along the bottom inside edge of the RIS and if you're not rambo you can probably make it last you all day, I always do. Plastic/Metal/Both: Just like the real thing, metal where it ought to be, plastic where it ought to be. Simple as. My opinion and overall comments: Well, where do I start? Out of the box this thing is very good, there is no call for any form of upgrade. Just simply putting a tight bore barrel in this thing ups the range substantially. 40m is a breeze even in stock form. Mine after upgrades can push 60m and still retain reasonable accuracy. Although a lot of the parts are proprietary they are very good, some people may be disappointed that you can't change the hop unit but there's really no need. It's the easiest gun in the universe to work on. Just remove two body pins, take the stock plate off, separate the upper and lower halves, disconnect the motor and then the entire gearbox just slides right out in one piece. Fully stripping it to change the spring tension can be done in less than 2 minutes, easily. Due to the adjustable spring it also means you can take the spring out of the gearbox before opening it up, meaning there's no chance of the spring exploding the gearbox everywhere and making you lose any gears or shims or springs etc. This is my favourite and most used gun and I've poured one hell of a lot of time and money into it, it's the gun that keeps on giving. It has its problems but it more than makes up for them in performance. The internals are amazingly good, the gearbox is built like a bomb shelter, the motor it comes with is the kind of thing you'd buy as a high end upgrade, everything's just utterly bullet proof. All parts are easily replaceable if anything goes wrong, gear sets, hop unit, trigger mechanism etc you can even buy the entire gearbox and motor combo as one item which I think is great. To top it all off though, it's an L85. You just can't ask for more. Buy one now, all of you. Overall rating: Once you've put the work into it to make it shoot as you want, it's definitely worthy of 10/10. Additional stuffs: Problems and solutions: Here are a list of problems I have run into and what I did to sort them out - Over hop - I mentioned this above, under the hop up section. Solution? Heavier ammo, pack out the spring, change the rubber and the nub. Double feeding - Mine has done this a lot, on and off at random. Solution? Again, use .25s, I can't understand why this works but it does. Also ensure your magazines are working correctly and that the gearbox is seated as far forward as possible. A lot of the time small performance niggles can be solved by taking the gun apart and putting it back together again. It's like some sort of weird gun placebo surgery. The gun thinks you're fixing it, so it works. I can't explain it. The biggest problem I had manifested itself thusly - The gun would not work. Everything was in place, but the trigger did nothing. After a LOT of dismantling the trigger mech, the gearbox, checking my batteries, following the entire circuit through to find a break etc etc I realised that it was being caused by the two connector pins on top of the trigger mechanism. These pins cause the circuit to break when the gun is taken apart into upper and lower halves, they can become bent slightly through rigorous assembly and take down. I change my fps a lot for the different sites I play at, so from taking the gun apart so much they had bent just enough so that they missed their contact when the gun was closed. Just get a pair of pliers and bend them upwards. Never had the problem again since I did that. If you have a problem I've not mentioned then PM me about it, I can probably help you figure it out, either that or I'll have had it happen to me and just forgotten to add it to this list. I'll update it as I run into issues and find fix for them. For fear of causing you all to commit suicide at the sight of so much text I will hold back on the skirmish report until anyone wants to know more about it, but I will say that it's the most beastly gun ever. Thanks for reading, let me know if I missed anything. For more info about my L85, see my L85 rundown thread, here.

Heard that. I just skirmished a whole day with my AK kicking out 293-298, down 50+ on what it was before I started messing with it to try to use a Variable Velocity Device, - it wasn't so much the range that I missed, because I got used to it quickly enough. What I really missed was having a pretty level trajectory at my new farther range. And before anyone says anything about hop up, it's a stock CYMA hop and I did my best with it Just installed a 2nd hand ICS Turbo 3000 motor into it, replaced the cheapo 110% spring I tried instead of the VVD, in an effort to get an fps guaranteed under 350 but still ok, with the original and got 10 small Tamya connectors from HK so my various batteries are now all sorted.

Aye, I know what you mean. Especially since my experience with the ICS-87 carbine has differed from both my LSW and your IW. (It works beautifully, and I have no intention of doing anything to it, since it's working better than a few of my mate's guns) However, I should point out - I modified my LSW along the lines someone suggested to me on another forum. Turns out he didn't actually modify his, so was telling me stuff based on guess work - which may explain the drastic drop in performance my LSW had post modifications.

It's not on our issued stores list or anything it is just something that is lying around unused 99% of the time so

I stopped going when I got banned from their Facebook page for going to another local site. The owner of Phoenix is a bit of an elitist tit so I didn't think he deserved my custom anymore. He was also immensely unfair and aggressive in his attitude towards the people who took up the site Phoenix moved out of, but having talked to them about it and got to know them, they're all great guys and Skirmish is still a great site, my favourite in fact. It's not like I was permanently defecting to another site, I was just making some fact finding trips to all the sites in the area to try and sort out deals for when I've got the Uni society up and running. If he'd not been such an arse about it he could've benefitted from the society visiting en-masse on a monthy basis once it's up and running, but after what happened I'm going to steer clear, which is a shame 'cos it'd be a fantastic skirmish site for sniping. If not the best. Had they set up any bunkers or tents or anything when you went? Last time I went it was more or less a completely bare forest, only about 3 small trenches dug, one tent and some wrecked freight containers, the rest was untouched.

Even still i`ll never recommend anyone buy`s anything from your shop mate too much crap seems to come out with not enough of anything decent!!!

Why must all my computers and internet die? It isn't like I'm looking at anything 'interesting' ( ), I'm only using iPlayer and writing essays! YAAAAAAAAAARGH! I. HATE. ELECTRONICS! *cue Homer Simpson-esq rage, attacking both my laptops with an umbrella* Also - a Masada Finius? Bad Finius, bad! Put it down! Remember the purity of the L85 - it has no rails!

Redwolf were there. Also, coolest thing about Arms Fair was my being there! Didn't buy anything and spent the whole day in the kitchen, but I've already started saving for the next fair in October! Gonna have at least £500 for it, but probably closer to £1000!

Yeah Ed, I'm not expecting much! I did test fire the Mini AK they sent me and it was surprisingly ok over short range - about 10m lol! The MP5 is coming to bits as soon as I get it and getting a morph into a Scorpion-stylee pistol and its innards refurbed with whatever comes to hand - tape & glue mainly I expect (although I've recently found a steel making firm that do some interesting deals so [cue twilight zone music] we shall see...)! But I reckon I'll have a full-auto side arm that does ok for when a mag runs out and the enemy are piling in... Update on BBguns4Less - maybe they read this forum b/c not long after I posted the above they emailed me to say the gun is on its way. No word on a refund for the postage yet, but I've informed them that my patience will run out at 13:30 09/05/2012, at which point steps will be taken etc. so watch this space I suppose It's not like harassing the arses off them will cost me anything, and I don't care that it's only over £3.38 - it's the principle of the thing, dagnabbit!