The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread

[Baser]

Back to Apocalypse in Kent on Sunday after last weeks, slightly disappointing, game I really enjoyed myself. Maybe I rolled out of the right side of bed this week.

Took the trusty RPK16, freshly updated with a Prommy purple hop rubber and nub and polished inner barrel. With my trusty Sig 226 on my hip I was ready to go, just about got the RPK through chrono but Ive picked up a new spring to lower the power to be safe. I went to site on my own again but joined a group of regulars so felt like part of a team rather than tagging along. around 140 players on site made it a little quieter than usual but it was supposed to rain which probably had something to do with it.

First game was carry. Players are divided in two teams and a brave Marshall stands in the cross fire. The aim is for the Marshall to carry a case through the site, they can only move with 2 players escorting them, with the other players either supporting or stopping the movement. checkpoints and spawns move as the Marshall moves. I really enjoy this game play and it's the first time I've played escorting rather than stopping the Marshall moving. This game is always intense as the ambushes and pushes are fluid and have a very focussed 'kill box'. Shout out to our rentals who ran at the other team with no fear putting a lot of us to shame. I emptied a 1650mah battery, 2 drum mags and 3 stick mags totalling nearly 6000 rounds. We lost but everyone put 110% into the game with some great positioning and cross fire keeping us pinned back.

Second game after lunch was move the bomb from your base to your enemies base. Again game play was intense with a lot of action somewhere in the middle (no mans land) we got our bomb to the other teams base through distraction, again great play by the rentals going full highlander with a charge worthy of William Wallace shouting 'FREEDOM' to the right of village while the bomb was snuck in on the left. Sadly the bomb was found and thrown out of village while the other team got into our base stockade. After this the snipers/ghilles/DMR players found their fox holes and slowed the game right down. Again we lost this one but not for a want of trying.

Didn't stay for the third game as I'm working away from home this week and needed to get home and get everything cleaned and put away.

Surprising how it only takes a few small things to change a meh day to a great day.

Touring the UK this week so already been into Bespoke Airsoft on Monday to pick up some parts, then off to Patrol Base and Urban Airsoft Mega Store tomorrow for similar before picking up a used LCT AKMS on Thursday.

Gratuitous photo below, held this spot for about 20 mins, the barrier helped keep me protected and took most of the weight of the RPK.

 

[Colin Allen]

There seems to always have been at least one cat at Battle Lakes; the one that was there when I was marshalling was a very friendly little chap.

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The Battle Lakes cat, 2017.

 

[Impulse]

Went to Worthing Airsoft on Sunday to play airsoft. Though I'm not sure I'd count it as "playing airsoft" with how I played this weekend. I only played half the day, as I needed to make sure guns were working for next weekend at rift, but in the morning games I fired a grand total of... 0 shots. Yes, you heard right. 0 shots. So... how did this happen?

First two games were a king of the hill style game on the new base, a killhouse at the bottom of the site, with sides swapped. It's a really nice base, but it's... not exactly the territory of bolt actions or DMRs, and with me using my mk12 MWS set to 1.8J. I decided to try a cheeky flank, using a route that I knew nobody else would go to. As it turns out, there was a good reason why nobody was using it. Getting to it was hell, as I had to make my way through incredibly thick brambles and stinging nettles that came up to my chest height (and I'm 6'5, so they were some TALL nettles...). Then when I finally managed to get onto this route, the route itself was mega-overgrown and I had to fight my way through some really thick foliage. With the game only being 20 minutes, it took me the whole game time to get through, literally getting off the path as the "30 seconds remaining" was called. Damn it.

Anyway, second game where we flipped sides, surely I am smart enough to not try that again, right...?

Wrong. I did the same thing in the 2nd game to the same result because I'm both stubborn and stupid; I also assumed it'd be easier since I had already pushed through the thick foliage part, and I was correct, but... I got to the point where I went up in the first game, but it was way too close to the enemy respawn and I didn't want to either spawncamp or get spotted, so I had to go further along this horrendously overgrown route which basically meant the 2nd game ended the same way as the first game for me. Definitely got a good workout in, but no shots fired. If both games had been 30 minutes, I could've done some serious damage, but with only 20 mins for each game I just... ran out of time. Just about. Damn it...

Third game was a larger game, with loads of objectives around the bottom of the site that needed capturing. Items that needed to be brought back to our base (and could be stolen), as well as some flip cans that needed to be controlled. I spent this game on base defence, watching that same path I used in the first two games as it was a super easy route into our base, but nobody came along that path. I eventually left with 15 mins left of the game, after having sat there for over an hour, and sure enough 5 mins after I left someone tried going along that path and got hit by the others defending the base. Because that's how timing works. I did essentially get a surrender kill at about 70m though; saw someone coming along the other flank I moved to, but when I pointed my rifle at him, he just called out. When he walked past, heading in for an early lunch, he said that he couldn't be bothered fighting me with his pistol at that range, and wasn't going back to respawn with only about 5 mins left of the game.

So that was that. A morning of airsoft, not a single shot fired, and got 1 kill. I will say I'm incredibly happy that we're finally playing the bottom of the site again. It's been literally years, and even though it sucks for sniping since it's so overgrown, I'm really happy that we're using it. The top of the site was getting very samey.

 

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

Took the trusty RPK16, freshly updated with a Prommy purple hop rubber and nub and polished inner barrel.

Gratuitous photo below, held this spot for about 20 mins, the barrier helped keep me protected and took most of the weight of the RPK.

View attachment 28153

Click to shrink...

I play with an RPK most games. I remember the tedium of cleaning the aftermarket barrel all too well. Rodded about half a kitchen roll soaked in meths through it.

What's the weight of that beast like? Looks like a lower back killer tbh.

 

[Baser]

I play with an RPK most games. I remember the tedium of cleaning the aftermarket barrel all too well. Rodded about half a kitchen roll soaked in meths through it.

What's the weight of that beast like? Looks like a lower back killer tbh.

Click to shrink...

5.5kg without batteries and BB's. 1kg+ of BB's, 1650mah lipo, 3x AA batteries, 2x CR123 must push it close to 6.8/7kg.

I don't feel it in the lower back more shoulders and upper back. Makes carrying a standard AK74 or MP5 feel like nothing.

Usually don't play a whole day with it as a LMG, as numbers thin out and games get more CQB in the afternoons I swap to something else or feed it with stick mags which takes over a kg out of it.

 

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

5.5kg without batteries and BB's. 1kg+ of BB's, 1650mah lipo, 3x AA batteries, 2x CR123 must push it close to 6.8/7kg.

Click to shrink...

Hats off mate. That's not dainty!

I use my standard RPK all weekend on filmsims/milsims. It weighs about 4.2 - 4.5kg. I agree that it makes a standard AK feel like a stick. Strangely it feels lighter than my CYMA M14 which is actually lighter by a kilo. All down to balance I suppose.

Absolutely love the way your setup looks. Really purposeful!

 

[Impulse]

Got home from this weekend's Shift Your RIFT event and holy hell was it a scorcher. A not insignificant number of people went down with dehydration, heat exhaustion or sunstroke because it was basically 30c all day on both days with very little wind and limited shaded areas. Fortunately for me, I have experience from my time living and playing in Spain, though I'm definitely not acclimatised as much as I was back then as I was feeling it. My 2.5L hydration bladder was definitely the winning piece of kit for me this weekend and got refilled many times.

The drive up was hell. I typed it into google maps and followed the route. It was on the M25. There was a huge accident on the M25 on the Friday that closed the entire road going north up the west side of London. I literally turned my engine off and people were out of their cars as we just had to wait for ages for them to re-open. Then when they did re-open, someone broke down so they had to close 2 lanes again. The trip was supposed to be 2 hours with no traffic. I am no fool and anticipated it could take up to 3 hours 30 mins because the M25 is cancer. It actually took us 5 hours. Driving back I went on a load of smaller roads instead to avoid the M25 because fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...

Anyway...

I love SYR. It's a proper airsoft festival. The vibes were immaculate, there were loads of great retailers there, and the gameplay was pretty enjoyable, though there were some of the standard-issue Airsoft Problems(tm) that reared their ugly heads. I suppose I should talk about the gameplay first

Kudos to the marshall team, they run a tight ship at SYR, and organising an event of this magnitude takes some doing, so props there. They re-chronoed all gas guns at lunch because it was significantly hotter and people had guns running a bit spicy. When I chronoed my mk12 MWS at the start of the day it was only 1.7J, so I was okay as I had 0.6J of wiggle room, but I saw other players getting sent back to the safe zone to either tune their guns down or swap to something else as they were now over the limit due to the weather being so warm and gas guns now running way warmer.

The teams weren't the most balanced, and blue team generally dominated the weekend from start to finish. The key difference between red and blue team wasn't necessarily skill gap or luck or random bullshit. It was aggression, plain and simple. I always say, as a sniper myself, that it's not the snipers who win games. It's the aggressive pushers who win games, and blue had waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more of those than red did. I was on red and frequently found myself the last man standing on the front line, and don't get me wrong I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and had some cracking last stand moments where I bagged a metric shit tonne of kills, but it was somewhat soured when I eventually got hit and found that support was absolutely nowhere to be found, even after I had done a good job being an absolute menace where I was. Red just... didn't push anywhere near as much or as effectively as blue, and that's what had blue dominate the weekend. Honestly, well played to them, though they did have to get moved off as there was a bit of spawncamping that ended up happening because of it.

I actually swapped to my SRS after lunch. Not because my MWS was hot, but because my MWS was jamming. Asked around some of the retailers later that afternoon and it sounds like my nozzle return spring might be on its way out (unsurprising, I've been running this mk12 as a DMR for a while now and the nozzle return spring is still the stock TM one). Much of the same happened in the afternoon, but this time I only got taken out once as the spot I found was absolutely diabolical (had a lot of people shooting in my general direction, but not sure where the shots were exactly coming from, and all the 1.14J guns were falling well short of the mark anyway). I only got taken out when the enemy team had once again pretty much pushed to our spawn and thus could see me a lot easier from that angle. Got whacked by a trigger-spamming HPA DMR that I'm pretty sure was hot though; I've got a nasty welt on my neck and a painful bruised nail from it and it was at about 70m. Laced me up all down my side, which I wasn't too happy with, but you're always going to get those players at these large events; unfortunately it's part and parcel of them.

Overall with the airsoft, I had a cracking time. The last stand moments interspersed between long distance shots (longest I confirmed with my rangefinder this weekend was 114m, still not my record but satisfying as hell nonetheless!) was an absolute blast, even if it was a very sweaty one. My ghillie is only a cobra hood, but leafy boonie + cobra hood + shemagh + chest rig + backpack + shirt (sleeves rolled down because while I have very olive skin, that's a LOT of UVs over 2 days!)... it all adds up! There was definitely the classic 3 o'clock syndrome, but it was accelerated due to the rather toasty weather and players obviously being dehydrated and moody; hit calling deteriorated, tantrums were thrown, your usual airsoft skirmish day blues. Fortunately it wasn't too widespread and when informed about it, the marshalls were on it, but with that many players it's bound to happen, and it's going to be hard to police everyone carefully.

Outside of the airsoft, as I said the vibes were immaculate. There were a lot of vendors there and once again I took some time to chat with the guys at Empire Airsoft (they're great), as well as telling SniperMechanic that his buckings are fantastic. Also had a chat with the guys at White Sphere Tactical about why VFCs are so goddamn pricey in the UK (basically, vendors have to pay a huge premium on them to import, and they usually go through multiple companies, all of which put their own mark up on to make their money, before getting to the shop that wants to sell them to us. I wanted a VFC G17 Gen5 MOS, but I was told to import it because it'd be easier and cheaper. Also went around the car boot to see what others were selling and picked up a few nice items from them, as well as some spares / upgrade parts from Empire Airsoft (some Flamingo and 4uantum buckings, and some MWS nozzle return springs). From other players I only bought an SCG autumn rifle wrap (I already have and love the spring/summer one) and a big ol' Vietnam style L shaped flashlight

I think the vendor that made the most profit though was...

The ice cream truck.

Yes, there was an ice cream truck and he was making bank with how hot the weather was. Every time I walked past it there was a queue of people there.

Me and my friend left at lunch time on the Sunday. It was hot, I wanted to get home and fit in a swim at my local outdoor pool after this scorcher of an airsoft event, and my friend... isn't fit enough to do two full days of airsoft, especially not in the heat; he doesn't deal with hot weather well. Got home in good time, went for the swim as planned (which was gorgeous), but I haven't unpacked anything yet. Only thing I've unpacked was my dirty clothes (as I wanted to put a laundry on straight away!) and my hydration bladder as I wanted to make sure that was hung out to dry asap. All my camping stuff has already aired because I didn't sleep in my tent on the Saturday night so it was basically just out to air from 6am on Saturday until about 11am on Sunday. Slept in my car instead as our group was watching a movie on a projector and no way was I getting to sleep with that going on. I think my car might be more comfortable than my 1 person tent anyway...

Definitely going again next year. This is just going to be a regular occurrence for me with how much I enjoyed the first one I went to and now this one as well. Next year though, I said to one of the guys in our group that I'd join him and his friend in the CQB tournament they run on the Saturday evening each year; seems like a bit of fun, and if you can't humble yourself, then you have an issue. I am a sniper / DMR player. I generally stay away from CQB as much as possible. Apparently a lot of the teams who entered were proper speedsofters with the rash guards and the HPA pistol ghostbuster guns, so you know I'm going in with my plate carrier (with weighted training plates), heavy helmet, and MWS GBBR. I think it'll be a bit of fun; I doubt I'll be great at it, but who cares?

TL: DR - Shift Your RIFT is good. You should try it if you haven't already.

 

[Punisher3990]

Had a fun but very hot day out at Ambush Activities on Sunday.

Absolute scorcher of a day. I went to try out the new configuration on my TAC-41 and, rather foolishly, decided to ghillie up in that heat. I started getting really annoyed because my shots were flying off in completely random directions. I spent ages trying to sort the hop and figure out what was wrong, only to finally realise the actual issue , the camo cover I’d put on the suppressor had shifted slightly forward and was hanging just over the barrel. That tiny bit of material was altering the spin on the BBs and sending them off wildly.

Safe to say I was very relieved to discover the issue wasn’t the RIF itself. As soon as I adjusted the cover back properly and tested it again, it was shooting perfectly.

Had a great time running the MK23 as well. It chronoed at 1.12J in the morning using Abbey Ultra gas, so I had to pick up some weaker Abbey green gas for the afternoon to bring the power down slightly. Thought it was pretty funny when the marshal asked what BB weight I was using and, as soon as I said 0.40s, he instantly knew it was an MK23 without even seeing it.

I also managed to hide up near one of the objectives and pick a few people off while they were trying to carry the two-man carry objective away, all while tucked into the bushes with the ghillie on. Honestly, that’s probably the best way I’ve found to properly test how effective the ghillie cape is, plus it gave me a nice excuse to lie down and cool off for a bit.

Overall, it was a brilliant day. No complaints about non-hit takers, and the marshals were great as always. A few people struggled a bit with the heat and felt unwell during the day, but aside from that, everything seemed to go really smoothly. Definitely investing in a water bladder for the next game so I can always have some water on me if it's that hot again. A canteen was just not quite enough

 

[Baser]

Took a trip ago Apocalypse in Kent on Sunday morning, didn't expect to play the full day given the heat as I'm built more like a gravy seal than a navy seal. Wanted to treat this more as a weapons test morning as I have been tinkering with a couple and bought a new (used) AKMS.

Travelled lighter than usual so packed the AK12 and new to me AKMS to try on the range. Left the RPK, pistols, most of my tools, batteries, most mags and all the other stuff I usually take to shed a few KG only to add them back in with 3 L of water.

Both rifles got through Chrono OK.

The AK-12 made it to 1.23J on .3's, site limit is 1.3J for no MED full auto and it was 1J exactly out of the box. Happy with this as it gives me headroom for a better hop rubber, nub and barrel in the coming months as it lifted .3's ok but they didn't always fly straight and true. Think with a bit more tinkering this will become my main rifle for Apocalypse along side the monstrous RPK 16.

AKMS was just under 1J and will probably be left alone and used for CQB focussed games apart from a hop rubber and nub as BB's were a little inconsistent in their flight path. I always get a little nervous shooting 1.3J when it gets up close and personal as I know it stings like a mo-fo so drop to my pistol when entering buildings and this will be perfect primary rifle for the job.

Weather was scorching, around 22 deg C during the game brief rising to 30 by lunch time. 120/130 players on site ment it was a little quieter than usual but half term combined with beach weather probably saw a few off doing other things.

First game was classic pole flip, 3 poles in play, 1 in stockade, 1 in no mans land and 1 in village. I played on the blue team and we got to stockade and held it as the reds arrived, I went out the back of stockade to stop the reds from flanking us and with 5/6 other players we held it well. When I eventually go hit I swapped to the other spawn point to try and push village and no mans but similar to us in stockade the reds were dug in and we just couldn't get through. My AK12 ran out of battery power (assume it used more power due to the bigger spring) about 10 mins from the end so I wandered back to the safe zone grabbed a spare battery and had a play on the range.

Was going to stay for the afternoon game but was sweating BB's at this point, I had achieved what I wanted to so packed up to come home. A lot of others did the same as it was getting uncomfortable.

When I got home I stripped both riffles gave them a proper clean, then ordered a not so short list of barrels, hop units, hop rubbers, nubs, springs to bring them and a couple of other guns in my collection up to scratch.

 

[Galvatron]

Like @Impulse, I went to Shift Your Rifts as well. It was bigger and even better than previous years. I'll try to repeat as little of what he said as I can't think of anything he said I disagreed with.

I don't think I could stress enough how stifling the heat was as he said. The marshal doubling up as the MC rightly advised people to keep hydrated and wear sunscreen but a lot of people still suffered the effects to varying degrees. With that said, I couldn't praise the host, marshals, security, catering staff and the on-site paramedic enough. RIFT Airsoft's Blackstone CQB site and the White Sphere Tactical shop were both closed down temporarily so all the staff could be consolidated at Redcon for Shift Your Rifts.

When signing on, in addition to the wrist band you were given depending on the day(s) you were attending, there was a goodie bag with a site map of the traders stands and the gaming area, some stickers, business cards, a pin badge, a pen and a bottle opener.

I didn't just survive the heatwave. I also survived Tony's brief (if you know, you know). As a weekend player who attended the Saturday briefing, I didn't have to go through the briefing on Sunday. I had to chrono my guns on both days.

There were a lot more vehicles at this year's event so there were Snatch Land Rovers and CVRTs at our disposal (passengers only) for the total war game on both days where Red Team started in a convoy that had to stop at 4 locations to deploy a mortar and flag, holding position for 10 minutes each until all 4 locations were secured. Red Team also had a side mission to set capture laptops across the site and return them to their hard respawn. Blue Team had to hinder the progress of the convoys - a smoke grenade in front of a vehicle would force the convoy to stop where the players on board could either surrender or make a last stand to protect the fuel cans in each vehicle from Blue Team who would seize a can (only one can could be retrieved per vehicle per ambush) and return it to their hard respawn. Blue Team also had the objective of protecting the laptops Red Team was tasked with capturing. In the afternoon the roles were reversed but before the afternoon game started, gas weapons were rechronoed. I was just barely within the limits on green gas in my primaries (I didn't adjust the NPAS) and I had to use my white gas for my pistols as both were too hot on green. Several players couldn't use their gas guns as they were too hot and white/duster gas was sold out everywhere on site.

As Impulse said, across the weekend Blue Team was much more aggressive in pushing so it led to a very Blue-dominant weekend of play despite some Blue players being switched to Red. On Sunday, pyro was banned except for on hard concrete ground due to the risk of fires with the trees and bushes. In addition to the CQB tournament in the arena near the western hard respawn, there was a pistol duel competition with prizes for players with a 4 hit streak.

There was a hose set up just outside the entrance to the gaming area to produce a mist that really cooled you down. It was a simple but very effective idea.

Scran options were decent across the weekend. For those camping on Friday evening, there was a really good Jamaican chicken (or chick pea vegetarian) curry & rice. There was another ice cream van doing a variety of hot & cold drinks but my attention was on the Oreo or Biscoff frappes. Saturday had RIFT Airsoft catering offering sausage muffins for breakfast with Greggs hot savouries shortly after until lunch time where the lunch menu turn to a chicken burger. Plenty of crisps and confectionery were available from the morning until the evening along with hot & cold drinks. Coming back from last year was Dec's Grill (local Oxfordshire business selling smash burgers, nacho trays and hog roast baps). RIFT Airsoft's bar opened up on Saturday evening with a selection of beers and ciders at £2 a can or bottle or 6 for £10. Sunday scran had bacon & cheese turnovers for breakfast and hot dogs for lunch. The organisation really did save us in the heatwave with the toilet situation as some of the portaloos became... overloaded by Saturday afternoon. There was a set of portaloos reserved for Sunday use so we had less used toilets come Sunday morning. The permanent plumbed toilets through the White Sphere shop were reserved for women for that weekend.

There were about 40 traders selling things from clothing & webbing to RIFs, upgrade parts, airsoft training and pre-owned - Empire Airsoft, Socom Tactical, Double Tap, JBG Airsoft, Two Four Delta Surplus, Stack Up Airsoft, Delta Action, OG Carbon, Defiant Events, Hades Airsoft, November Foxtrot, Enola Gaye, Krios Photography (official event photographers) Big Steve Builds, Dragon Fire Airsoft, Airsoft Industries, Fujin Airsoft just to name a few. RIFT Airsoft had a plentiful supply of red and green gas (no white/duster by the afternoon unfortunately!) along with ammo and pyro though the latter couldn't be used on Sunday.

White Sphere Tactical had its whole RIF stock out at SYR with some discounted Army Armament and Golden Eagle pistols with Glocks, Hi-Capas and 1911s available for £65 and under (no Vorsk or Raven pistols this year). Nuprol hard premium cases were available for just £60. The Vorsk VMP-1 and VMP-2 platforms were heavily discounted too for the weekend where you could buy the VMP-2 for as little as £110, depending on the model you went for. WST also had an exclusive pre-order with a 15% discount on the up and coming partly MWS compatible Vorsk VMAR GBBR, expected in late June. WST was also raising money for Cancer Research (breaking what it raised last year) though its raffles with some kind donations from the traders, including a Double Tap, an SMG AEG, a GBB pistol, a £250 10 game RIFT Airsoft game pass, a bolt action sniper rifle, a gas sniper rifle, an HPA bundle, an AAP-01 pistol among other prizes across both days. There was a weekend raffle for £1 a ticket where the sole prize was a Tokyo Marui URGI NGRS AEG.
On the edges of the camping spots were boot sellers, clearing their old kit. There were a few bargains to be had with some GBBRs and magazines being particularly popular along with some deals available on used optics. Most of the bargains had been gone by Saturday afternoon.

If you're thinking of doing SYR in 2027, book as soon as possible (likely April 2027). They usually sell out within the day that bookings for live at the start of April though cancellations open up bookings again for individuals and small groups. Only more temperate weather would have improved my time in 2026 as I enjoyed playing, mingling, eating, drinking and walking across the weekend.

Primaries:

• DE Noveske N4 GBBR
• Salvo Precision .300 Rattler GBBR
• VFC AKS-74U GBBR (loaned by a friend)

Secondary:

• EMG Staccato C2 Compact GBBP
• WE Dragon 7" Hi-Capa GBBP

 

[TheFull9]

Better reviews than NAF gets thus far. Any of you folks (or anyone else) done both to compare?

 

[Galvatron]

Better reviews than NAF gets thus far. Any of you folks (or anyone else) done both to compare?

Click to shrink...

I have a few friends from different airsoft circles who have done both. The consensus is that they say Shift Your Rifts has better airsoft and marshalling, especially as they're quicker to act on hot guns, monitor players who don't call hits, shut down abusive players and they insist on a chrono test every day you play and retest during the day. As a festival and as a social gathering for airsofters, they say NAF wins for having a wider variety of food and drink available along with live music acts and more traders though NAF has at least twice the attendees SYR has. NAF also has the benefit of private toilets and showers though you have to pay a massive premium for the privilege. SYR has no shower facilities (except for the plumbed toilets and sinks, reserved for the ladies) to freshen yourself up so it's wet wipes or portable showers in the back of a van/camper.

Despite each other's benefits and drawbacks, my friends' views were that you can enjoy your time at both.

 

[A_Stoat]

Out at Skirmish Budby last night for the monthly evening/night game. Thunderstorms finally broke the worst of the heat on Tuesday evening, but still a balmy low 20s when we kicked off. Fortunately the trees gave plenty of shade. Rolled up essentially directly from work, so the linen shirt under plate carrier and jeans possibly weren't the most sensible attire, but we move.

Earlier this month I had a truly horrendous ear infection that resulted in the doctors sending me home with OraMorph to keep me quiet. While lightly doped, I maaaaaaaaaaaaay have purchased a VFC G36C and a slack handful of mags. This was how I defended the decision to my partner in any case, and I'm still here to tell the tale! A warm evening seemed like the perfect time to try my first GBBR out.

We had about 20 total, all familiar faces, and with only one marshal the brief (apart from the usual mandatory safety notices) was "we've all had stressful days at work, we're here to have fun, act like adults and we'll treat you like adults", which I really appreciated. The vibes were just incredibly chill all evening, which meant I could crack on with learning the gat.

I tell you hwat - going to a GBBR with 120rds total from my usual E&L Krink with 8x120 midcaps was something else. I knew consciously that I was going to have to be on the trigger a hell of a lot less than I usually am, but I wasn't ready for how cautious it made me play. Some of it was definitely the new gun, and not necessarily trusting it to put BBs exactly where I was expecting (I needn't have worried, it was overhopping .32s quite comfortably), but in general I was definitely feeling a lot more circumspect. I think I was just hyper-aware that I had an order of magnitude less trigger time at my disposal, and tried to change my playstyle too much to compensate. I'm out again this weekend, so I'll be challenging myself to rambo it up a little and send it.

Games were essentially the usual missions with a few little tweaks, over the village, convoy, and hyperball maps. With fewer players, it was generally more dynamic, and I could tell that a lot of guys were just trying daft stuff they wouldn't do on a main game day, so there were plenty of weird and wonderful moments. The last game kicked off in the dark-ish at about half nine, which led to some really cool low-light play. No-one was showboating their NVGs, so it was quite a bit of sneaky ambushing, general blundering, and friendly fire. All good fun.

Honestly, the main purpose of the evening was to (a) test out the G36 and (b) blow off some steam with my buddies. The gun itself was absolutely great fun - meaningful but not unmanageable kick, solid performance, and definitely gave me plenty of things to improve on, like aim (can't just walk BBs on to adjust with 30rd mags!) and deciding when to shoot. Ran like a dream, didn't break anything, the insides weren't caked in goo or magic dust when I took it apart to clean - so far, most of my fears about running a GBBR haven't come true (yet!). As a game day, I really liked it. I certainly wasn't playing my best (or really trying to), but neither was anyone else. It was honestly just a bunch of blokes having semi-structured fun in the woods, which was a cracking way to break up the week.

I *did* need pouring out of my plate carrier at the end, though.

 

[Colin Allen]

Having not played for a while due to being in the USA and other issues that I had to deal with when I returned, I was very keen to get out and play today. Looking at the sites that were within a reasonable travelling distance, my attention was drawn towards D&A Dropzone, which is near Swanley. The lad and I used to play at the site when it was run as Doomsday, which was a cracking site; unfortunately, it had to close due to planning issues.

Both the safe zone and the playing area have changed beyond recognition; as the land is classed as Green Belt, the planners will not allow any permanent structures on site and it seems that they classify the pallet or wood built structures common on airsoft sites as being permanent.

This was slightly disappointing as Doomsday had some cracking structures, as those who played there will remember.

The safe zone has one permanent structure which the planners have agreed to, with the players' tables being in very large tents, one of which comes complete with a bird's nest including the bird and eggs.

Checking in was quick and efficient.

Chronoing was also done well on a very nicely set up range; one of my guns was at 1.06J (the site limit is 1.14J) and the chrono marshal asked that, as it was quite close to the limit, could I please ensure that I didn't overshoot anyone at close range; I assured him that I would not be doing so.

After the short but adequate safety brief, 24 players set out to shoot little plastic balls at each other. The game simple; two water canisters sat next to an oil drum in the middle of the site and the aim was to have your team's drum on top of it at the end of the 20 minute game. The two teams started at different sides of the site. This provided a good vehicle for me to explore the site and I set off on a wide flanking manoeuvre to our right, intending to sneak around behind, or to at least get on the flank of, the enemy. Meeting up with a couple of our team, I had some great firefights, got some very pleasing kills, got hit a few times, and probably had no impact whatever on us achieving our objective, but I throughly enjoyed it. I have no idea who won.

After a short break on the field, about which more later, the game was reversed and I and a couple of others set off to sweep around the enemy's right flank; again, this was fun and we had some very hard fighting. Again, I have no idea who won.

After this game, we returned to the safe zone, where the teams were rebalanced. On returning to the playing area, we found out that we were going to play exactly the same two-legged game again, with the difference being that, this time, we would be playing up and down the site; hmm! Again, some great fights were had and I had a lovely time crawling along a ditch shooting opposing players from many different positions. Again, I have no idea who won.

Of course, after another short break on the field, this was again reversed; by this time a certain ennui had come over me although there were still sone great fights. Guess what? I don't know who won that one either.

Luncheon followed, which allowed me the opportunity to chat with the other players, 90% of whom were Lithuanians, as were the people running the site.

Once we had all dined, with me having my usual Airsoft lunch of cold Sainsbury's pizza, the 14 of us who remained went back out again to play yet another variant of the same game! However, this time there was a twist! One side had to set off a siren and the other side had to prevent them doing so, with the winning team being the one that had the siren doing what they needed it to do at the end of each 20 minute game. The first leg of this was rather tricky for our team as our opponents locked the area down very quickly and prevented us getting to it. The reverse, again following a short break on the field, was much more fun as we pushed hard and, after a very difficult fight, managed to have the siren going at the end.

After this, I decided to leave.

Positive points from the day:
Really nice and very friendly people who played well and hard.
It was nice to play on the old site again, even though it had changed massively.
Lending a young lad my spare full seal eyepro with prescription lenses as he was struggling with his glasses under a full-face mask; fortunately, our prescriptions were very similar, The site kindly loaned him a lower face mask to go with them. His father is going to get him some.
Chronoing.

Less positive points from the day:
Drinking alcohol on site; the site shop appeared to be selling alcohol and at least one player had a hip flask.
During breaks on the field between games, players were allowed to remove their eyepro after guns had been put down. During one such break, I sent off a couple of shots away from the group with my pistol to see what the response would be; nobody commented on it or batted an eyelid.
The site owner wearing standard prescription glasses on the field, leaving him vulnerable to a stray BB hitting an eye.

Overall, I enjoyed the game play, although the lack of variety of games led to it becoming slightly boring.

Would I go again? No.

Weapons used:
G&G T-91
Double Bell Colt 607
ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

 

[Impulse]

Played the full day at Worthing Airsoft today. I was going to only play half the day and use the 2nd half to make sure all my gear is set up for the Vietnam game as I needed to get my DMRs down to 1.14J as Gunman have a sniper ban at Eversley this time of year. However, I arrived early (as usual) and decided to sort everything in the morning rather than chattering. A lot of the regulars weren't there today as we were at Shift Your RIFT last weekend, so there were less people for me to get distracted by. Set the M14 and SVD down to 1.1J, but I did something unexpected today and ran something that wasn't a sniper rifle or sniper adjacent...

I went out with my TM AKM. It was shooting really nicely, and the m14 was overhopping so I need to change the rubber out, and the SVD wasn't shooting that well, so the AKM was the obvious choice. Still a GBBR (because of course it is, this is me we're talking about!), so I was still very limited on ammo but it was... interesting to play with something that didn't have an MED for once.

First two games were a king of the hill on the new base at the bottom of the site, a killhouse. I was tempted to go inside the killhouse today, but alas, I spotted people being cheeky little flankers, so I redirected my efforts there. Fought my way through some thick foliage and popped out on the flank of the flankers, with a sniper on my team who almost unloaded his mk23 into my back (the branches saved me!). Between us, we managed to totally de-fang that attack, picking people off from an angle they really didn't expect, even with my AKM doing GBBR noises

Second game we just swapped ends and we pushed down that same flank but from the other side. This went incredibly well, as I linked up with another pair (and the same sniper also happened to come up on us too, so there were 4 of us) and we pushed all the way down that flank to totally secure the area. Only got a few kills myself, but the kills I got were impactful to protect my other team mates, as I tended to watch the weird angles while they pushed, since I'm very used to watching weird angles as a sniper.

Third game was a hangman game, where we had to get to a marshall who had a whiteboard and play hangman. If we guessed a letter, he gave us an objective to take to our base, if we guessed the word, we got two objectives. If we guessed wrong, he shot us. I went to the top of a hill that runs along the boundary of the site. Bumped into the same sniper there and we pushed along as far as was plausible (you can push further, but you have to fight through some really thick bushes...). This actually worked really well, though unfortunately the sniper left after there wasn't much action. As luck would have it, mere minutes after he left the enemy team made a big push down that flank, but not up where we were. They engaged our team down below, and so I popped up and slotted a bunch of them from my position at the top of the hill. Getting up to me from where they were was incredibly hard, so they couldn't really push and I just kept dropping down behind the incredibly thick foliage, crawling a bit, then popping up elsewhere to take more out. Again, totally blunted their attack down there, because since I was playing my life and prioritising not getting hit, they couldn't push our team aggressively since I was on their flank and ready to shoot.

Final game before lunch was a simple game with 3 jerry cans. Each was painted one side yellow, one side blue, and to control them you had to have your team's colour facing upwards. I didn't get much done this game myself, but I did have a laugh with one of the marshalls (who was playing today) as we joked about people going to pointless areas of the site, far from the objectives and not even a good flanking route because of where the objectives were and where spawns were. Then we saw players doing *exactly* that, which was a bit of a giggle.

After lunch we did a three base domination at the top of the site. I was feeling the groove, playing aggressively but still measured. I usually play more passively than I did today, and... I need to try this with a DMR. I found myself getting into some great positions with my team, supporting them from a distance since my AKM shoots pretty well, but it would've been even more effective if I was using a DMR today. Bolt action sniping will always be a challenge at Worthing Airsoft this time of year, as it's a very bushy site, but I think that playing how I did today, but with a DMR instead of my AKM or MWSs that are 1.1J would be the secret sauce I think. I don't think I got a single kill from under 30m anyway, and it would've been really handy to have an optic so I could see where my shots were going at those longer ranges (and the extra power would've helped since most of my engagements were probably 50m+)

But everything worked well, so I am ready for the Vietnam game next weekend. However, I may need to dig out a not-so-period holster (one of those plastic amomax style holsters, all black, so it shouldn't stick out too much), because my leather 1911 holster did rip today. I was wondering why it was hanging so weirdly, but when I got back home and unpacked it I realised part of it had ripped where it was looped onto my belt.

Definitely had fun playing more aggressively today, looking forward to the Nam next weekend, but also really looking forward to playing how I did today but with a DMR instead.

 

[Baser]

Had a cracking day at APOC in Kent today.

Game started yesterday when I decided I hadn't used the GBB WE Apache MP5 collection in a while. Broke them out of the wardrobe and gave them a couple of rounds through the chrono. Good news is they all cycled with no extra gas so the mags held gas for 3/4 months bad news was they all shot way over limits, the A3 was 1.9J on its first shot. I purged the mags of what I suspected was red gas and re filled with green but still way over. I pulled them apart and adjusted the NPAS and got the A3 to 1.3J the SD to 1.2J and the K PDW to 1.1J so should be good to go.

Got to site nice and early re gassed everything and flew through chrono, it was a few degrees cooler this morning than yesterday afternoon but thought the A3 might have to go back in the bag.

Around 130 players today so a little quieter than usual but busy enough.

Council have continued to cut back the tree lines which is starting to get a bit much, what used to be cover is now open wasteland in a few locations making movement around some parts of the site very difficult.

First game was collect the drugs. Bergan placed on site and each team had to collect the bricks of drugs which were literal bricks and return them to our base, a quick reminder not to chuck the drugs at the other team was part of the safety briefing. Pushed to defend our base but started having issues with the MP5 from the outset, surprisingly slow to cycle after a few shots on each mag and they wouldn't recharge from the gas can. Game play was great and as I had issues with the MP5 dropped to pistol and played sneaky buggers hiding in a bush and picking off anyone that came within 20m. We lost the game but had a great time plying pistol only.

Durning lunch I went to the range to try and figure out what was gone on and discovered my can of green gas can wasn't charging the mags so while being almost full it wouldn't pass the gas over. New can of GG purchased and when back out for the second game.

Second game was a new one, bomb was on site and both teams know where it was but each team had to get the bomb to a different location. Initially went for the bomb with a few others but the other team made it there first with greater numbers. We tried covering each other but just got picked off while trying a tactical retreat. After respawn we went after the bomb and had a rolling BB fight for a good 30 mins. by that point we realised we were surrounded and again got picked off. For the third phase of the game we parked ourselves between the advancing enemy team and their objective and tried to stop them. With 5 mins to spare they broke through with all the pyro in the world and we lost the game.

Didn't stay for the 3rd round. Came home cleaned kit and inspected my bruises. Think there was a sniper/DMR out there who wasn't observing MED as I had a couple of cracking lumps coming up which is unusual.

Really enjoyed the day but need to re think some the routes through the game zone given the forest cutdown.