The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread

[Shamal]

@rocketdogbert

:Goes off to search Alibaba for a cheap knock-off for a quarter of the price:

Mate don't pay a Kings ransom for boots just get some Viper v-cam double zip. Great for work,rest and play.?

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

Mate don't pay a Kings ransom for boots just get some Viper v-cam double zip. Great for work,rest and play.?

I had ruled those out as a little too pricey, but I can feel some 'budget creep' coming into play here, I'll add them to my shortlist.   £70 new, aren't they?

Edit: £80, at the only place with any stock I've found, so far...
https://www.horseandhoof.com/viper-special-ops-boots---multicam-68428-p

Oh yeah, I've found my combat boots in the loft, and weighed 'em.   2.4KG for the pair.  I suppose for a full height paratrooper boot in size 44, it's not actually outlandishly heavy.  But they do feel hefty for sure.
(Here are the same make / model boots in a recent ebay listing: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295588238936)

Chances are I'll be either picking up something cheap (~£30) now, or wearing the chonky para boots next skirmish and hoping I get a job so I can treat myself to a pair of those Lowas (or something similarly fancy)

 

[Shamal]

Oh yeah, I've found my combat boots in the loft, and weighed 'em.   2.4KG for the pair.

That's divers boots lol.

You will know it after a day's skirmishing with them on?

Keep a look out on the bay cause viper boots do come up for sale now and again.

You can get them for less than £70 but it takes some searching.

I've only ever bought good condition used pairs for around the £25-30 pound mark.

But honestly they are sooo comfy.?

 

[Colin Allen]

Oh yeah, I've found my combat boots in the loft, and weighed 'em.   2.4KG for the pair.  I suppose for a full height paratrooper boot in size 44, it's not actually outlandishly heavy.  But they do feel hefty for sure.
(Here are the same make / model boots in a recent ebay listing: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295588238936)

Oh god!  Those things!  Awful boots; heavy, uncomfortable and very basic.  I bought a pair once; they went back whence they came very rapidly.

 

[Rogerborg]

(Here are the same make / model boots in a recent ebay listing: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295588238936)

Mmm, after my Boots, Surplus, Assault, Gore-Tex, Kingdom, United wore the soles right through after a mere 6 years, I just took a punt on a pair of those Fallschirmjägermilitärstiefel, freshly resoled. They are chonky bois and no mistake, so I'll likely relegate them to motorbike use, and... uh... wear my motorbike boots for airsoft, I guess. ?

 

[EDcase]

This tangent deserves its own thread.

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

This tangent deserves its own thread.

~
Yes, sorry, that did occur to me halfway through proceedings - apologies.

I'll start one!

 

[EDcase]

I wasn't complaining.  Just thought it was a pity that people might not find the interesting info and links about boots.

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

I wasn't complaining.  Just thought it was a pity that people might not find the interesting info and links about boots.

A very valid point!

Here's my new thread

 

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

Another game that we didn't know about, but I don't think we could do two full weekends in a row (because money) and the Gunman ones take priority for us. 15 a side sounds like a blast though and glad that it was a great weekend. Here's hoping this coming weekend is good as well

(even if I feel a little called out by your moan about loadouts ?)

I think that the best load out was the civilian in jeans and plain blue shirt.  I expect that is how millions of urban Vietnamese dressed in the 1970s!  

See you the weekend (until the game starts and you disappear...)

 

[EvilMonkee]

I would normally be going to the Nam game at Gunman but I only want to play the Saturday, getting rid of the single day tickets has completely ruined it for me.  That being said, I will go to both days of the Cold War games....

 

[Impulse]

I think that the best load out was the civilian in jeans and plain blue shirt.  I expect that is how millions of urban Vietnamese dressed in the 1970s!  

See you the weekend (until the game starts and you disappear...)

Oh, so that's what you mean by low effort... That makes me feel better about my stuff then ?

 

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

Jeans and shirt were clever.  I expect that a lot of Tet Offensive VC dressed similar. Black cargoes and hoody are definitely not 70s though.   

 

[Impulse]

Ah, that makes sense. I was picturing the tacticool milsim plaid and jeans look which something tells me wouldn't fit ?

 

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

Ah, that makes sense. I was picturing the tacticool milsim plaid and jeans look which something tells me wouldn't fit ?

Now that would have bloody funny!

 

[Impulse]

Just came back from a weekend of Gunman 'Namsoft up at Eversley Alpha and it reminded me why I do airsoft and why I love this hobby so much. Got a lift up with the usual pair I go airsofting with, one of whom is a pretty avid camper so it was as comfortable as it really could be camping in the woods and ended up having a great time. Met up with a bunch of people, old and new faces alike, and we ended up camping next to our resident @Tactical Pith Helmet and his family.

However, it was a good time in a strange way because I didn't actually play much. I had rampant anxiety on the Friday night as Friday was a sweaty day due to the heat, having a wander around the site to get the lay of the land etc, and my mind was constantly like "hey, your heart could start doing its weird stuff again" even though I'm pretty damn confident I solved that problem. This meant I didn't get a wink of sleep and thus I couldn't play on the Saturday as I was absolutely drained as soon as I got out there, then on the Sunday I realised that being 20kg heavier (again, this was caused by my heart thing earlier in the year) and wearing pretty heavy, thick, all black kit in this weekend's weather was a recipe for disaster. I just... couldn't play, no matter how much I wanted to. It was truly disappointing! "So how was it a good time?" I hear you ask. Well, the social side was fantastic. I absolutely loved chatting with everyone, talking k98s with TPH and just seeing airsoft how it should be played, and I'm not talking about the filmsim roleplay parts; there wasn't rampant cheating, or people throwing their toys out the pram (too much) or people yelling about getting overshot. It was just a good weekend of BB wars and I was all for it. Also Josh, the organiser and owner of Gunman, is a joy to be around. That man has boundless energy and always loves for his games to just be a good time. I'm not the biggest roleplayer, for example, but that's never been a problem. As long as my kit looks good and my weapons are period-accurate, I'm never made to feel unwelcome just because I don't yell "GO HOME GI" at the top of my lungs (though it was very amusing for the otherwise silent forest to be punctuated by such yells that I could hear across the entire site while I was trying to sneak up on people).

Fun parts where I actually played were fun though. I left my guns in our regen and took a radio that I tucked into my trousers, heading to a US-held area. I told them I needed to pass through the village and they searched me, but they didn't find the radio so I headed on through and... proceeded to relay their numbers and positions to my fellow freedom fighters. Then on the Sunday I managed to stalk through the bushes and take out four Americans with just a pistol by shooting and then moving.

However, my 1911... in the words of Darth Vader, "you have failed me for the last time..." It just wasn't performing great, even though it was perfect weather for gas pistols. I've tried to make it good, but this was the last chance I was giving it, so moving forward I will run the AAP (it's converted to a Ruger .22) and the mac11 as a backup secondary (since the mac10 was used and they look the same, just slightly smaller)

The really good things that came out of the weekend were:

• Social
  
• Josh being Josh
  
• Reinforcement that my heart thing is solved because it didn't happen on any night and every day was full of stuff that would've normally set it off, just my mind was telling me "oh but it could" all through Friday night
  
• Top quality airsoft for the 2 hours I played
  
• Learned that I need to revisit my kit for Nam games to make it a bit more practical
  
• Gave me a kick up the backside to lose weight and get fitter
  

I'll let Mr. TPH give you a more accurate rundown of how the games went, but even from the perspective of me, a person who had basically everything conspire to stop me from playing, the weekend was fantastic and I'm already looking forward to the next one.

 

[Jaylordofwaargh]

Just came back from a weekend of Gunman 'Namsoft up at Eversley Alpha....

However, my 1911... in the words of Darth Vader, "you have failed me for the last time..." It just wasn't performing great, even though it was perfect weather for gas pistols.

That is great to hear that you had fab weekend and are looking forward to the next. I do like Alpha as a site, need to get back there soon....

Anxiety and that little voice can so so much damage some times. Glad to hear the ticker is sorted.

Dare I ask what the brand and issues with the 1911 are? That pistol platform is on the "list" (but quite far down)

 

[Impulse]

Dare I ask what the brand and issues with the 1911 are? That pistol platform is on the "list" (but quite far down)

TM, and it doesn't clear a full magazine on a single fill of gas if I'm shooting it fast, but it does shoot fantastically well while it does. I do have higher standards for my pistols, since I tend to run scoped long guns that aren't practical for close range or moving around, but not being able to squeeze through an entire mag is just a deal breaker for me.

That said, other people have better luck with their TM 1911s, but mine just doesn't seem to work well at all  

 

[Colin Allen]

Having collected the lad from University on Friday, this morning we set off for Airsoft Plantation, equipped with water bottles laced with screech and, in the lad's case, a Camelback.

Around 170 players were present on what was a very hot day.

The first game required the attackers (us, being the blue team, in the first leg) to collect two smoke bombs from the DEA base and the new village and transport them to the village where one bomb had to be set off in each of the two double storey buildings.  Our regen was on a marshal 30m behind us, while the defenders had one life in each of DEA base/new village/the firebreak/the village.  Out attacks seemed to go rather slowly, with us eventually setting off both bombs in what seemed like a very long time.

After a break for drinks and ice lollies, the game was switched around.  Our defence of the DEA base and new village seemed to collapse really quickly due to some brilliant flanking moves by the red team.  However, we held them at the firebreak in a series of extended engagements, during which the SLR once again proved that it is not the ideal weapon in dense undergrowth.  Unfortunately, the lad was grenaded by fellow blue players, who were only 3m behind him; well done chaps!  Eventually falling back from there, we fought an all round defence of the village until being overrun; to my surprise, the reds had taken longer to complete the mission than we had.

After more drinks and ice lollies, we played a game which required both teams to transport their VIPs across the mortar pits to the safety of a marshal who would be located where the other team had started from.  Each player except the VIPs had two lives, while the VIPs had infinite regens on the marshal where they started from.  I am not sure what happened to the red team, but we pushed forward and got our VIPs to their objective, while they did not manage to do so.

Following lunch, which involved more drinks and ice lollies, we played a domination game across most of the scrubland part of the site.  This was a challenging game, partly due to the heat and partly due to the nature of the AP site, which lends itself to sneaky infiltration tactics, with groups of players popping up in unexpected places.  The QBZ97 proved its worth in the scrubland, being much easier to manoeuvre than the SLR and more than capable of holding its own in the open.  At the end of the game, we held two points, while the reds held three .

There was another game after this but, along with quite a number of other players, we decided to leave due to the heat, especially as the lad was developing a headache.  Despite that, it was a typically excellent AP day!

Weapons used:
Me:
Ares SLR (morning)
Real Sword QBZ97 (afternoon)
Milbro M1911 Classic

The Lad:
LCT AS VAL (morning)
JG BAR 10 (afternoon)
ASG Commander XP18

 

[Colin Allen]

Just came back from a weekend of Gunman 'Namsoft up at Eversley Alpha and it reminded me why I do airsoft and why I love this hobby so much. Got a lift up with the usual pair I go airsofting with, one of whom is a pretty avid camper so it was as comfortable as it really could be camping in the woods and ended up having a great time. Met up with a bunch of people, old and new faces alike, and we ended up camping next to our resident @Tactical Pith Helmet and his family.

However, it was a good time in a strange way because I didn't actually play much. I had rampant anxiety on the Friday night as Friday was a sweaty day due to the heat, having a wander around the site to get the lay of the land etc, and my mind was constantly like "hey, your heart could start doing its weird stuff again" even though I'm pretty damn confident I solved that problem. This meant I didn't get a wink of sleep and thus I couldn't play on the Saturday as I was absolutely drained as soon as I got out there, then on the Sunday I realised that being 20kg heavier (again, this was caused by my heart thing earlier in the year) and wearing pretty heavy, thick, all black kit in this weekend's weather was a recipe for disaster. I just... couldn't play, no matter how much I wanted to. It was truly disappointing! "So how was it a good time?" I hear you ask. Well, the social side was fantastic. I absolutely loved chatting with everyone, talking k98s with TPH and just seeing airsoft how it should be played, and I'm not talking about the filmsim roleplay parts; there wasn't rampant cheating, or people throwing their toys out the pram (too much) or people yelling about getting overshot. It was just a good weekend of BB wars and I was all for it. Also Josh, the organiser and owner of Gunman, is a joy to be around. That man has boundless energy and always loves for his games to just be a good time. I'm not the biggest roleplayer, for example, but that's never been a problem. As long as my kit looks good and my weapons are period-accurate, I'm never made to feel unwelcome just because I don't yell "GO HOME GI" at the top of my lungs (though it was very amusing for the otherwise silent forest to be punctuated by such yells that I could hear across the entire site while I was trying to sneak up on people).

Fun parts where I actually played were fun though. I left my guns in our regen and took a radio that I tucked into my trousers, heading to a US-held area. I told them I needed to pass through the village and they searched me, but they didn't find the radio so I headed on through and... proceeded to relay their numbers and positions to my fellow freedom fighters. Then on the Sunday I managed to stalk through the bushes and take out four Americans with just a pistol by shooting and then moving.

However, my 1911... in the words of Darth Vader, "you have failed me for the last time..." It just wasn't performing great, even though it was perfect weather for gas pistols. I've tried to make it good, but this was the last chance I was giving it, so moving forward I will run the AAP (it's converted to a Ruger .22) and the mac11 as a backup secondary (since the mac10 was used and they look the same, just slightly smaller)

The really good things that came out of the weekend were:

• Social
  
• Josh being Josh
  
• Reinforcement that my heart thing is solved because it didn't happen on any night and every day was full of stuff that would've normally set it off, just my mind was telling me "oh but it could" all through Friday night
  
• Top quality airsoft for the 2 hours I played
  
• Learned that I need to revisit my kit for Nam games to make it a bit more practical
  
• Gave me a kick up the backside to lose weight and get fitter
  

I'll let Mr. TPH give you a more accurate rundown of how the games went, but even from the perspective of me, a person who had basically everything conspire to stop me from playing, the weekend was fantastic and I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Many thanks for the entertaining write up.  How many people typically turn up for these events?  I recently played one of their days at Battle Lakes and was surprised by how few players were there; given the size of the safe zone, it did not seem that they were expecting many,