The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread

[RostokMcSpoons]

A bit gutting because a lot of people left at lunch and I assume the smaller numbers made for a more intense afternoon. 

Sorry to hear your knee is still knackered, after many games of footy I can empathise... But I don't think I've ever had it as bad as you looked yesterday ?

Yes the afternoon games were good too.  The blues continued to win everything until the last game (narrowly, not a complete mullering), when I was asked by one of the kids to swap teams.  Bingo, first win for the non-armbands!  (Not that I'm claiming any credit, I was just a Steady Eddie all day long, no hero moments for me)

Hope you're in better fettle for the next game there ?

 

[Impulse]

Only played half the day today as my atrial fibrillation (at least that's what the doctors think it is) played up on Friday so I decided to keep it light today so I don't wake up tomorrow with palpitations. Hopefully on the road to sorting that, but anyway...

Got there a little later than usual, but set up both the m40a5 and the m14, chronoing both immediately. M40 was a crisp 2J and the m14 was 1J. Perfect. Then while my friend was setting up his guns it started absolutely tipping it down, so I hurriedly got everything back into the car. It wasn't meant to rain today and fortunately it only lasted for about 45 mins or so. I got all my kit together and decided to run the m40a5 with the HK45 as my sidearm and my newly acquired and set up TM bodyguard pistol in a shoulder holster. With the Hadron TDC upper and a little suppressor, it was absolutely tiny but it was sending .32s out to 50m relatively accurately (though I don't think I'd be going for many 50m shots with it) and was nice and quiet; not quite as quiet as the mk23 as the suppressor is tiny by comparison, but considering how massive the mk23 is and how small the bodyguard pistol is I was more than happy as it was a lot easier to carry. Super impressed for such a little and honestly pretty damn cheap pistol.

First game wasn't one I was too fond of. It was a timed attack and defence on one of the bases, but defenders weren't allowed more than 20m from the base, which severely limited my options as running something with an MED at Worthing at the moment is a bit of a challenge and it didn't really afford me any positions I could take and use my bolt action well. We attacked first and the writing was on the wall; our team was very timid. Nobody was pushing. I wasn't able to really impact the game much either with how the sight lines were around this base, but we eventually cleared it out and took it. Then we swapped sides. I took a position concealed under a holly bush and managed to take out a bunch of the attackers on the way in, but not being able to move too far from the base means I was eventually flanked and taken out when someone almost stepped on me while I was incredibly fogged up thanks to the earlier rainfall making all the bushes super humid. Whoever said you need a ghillie to be invisible anyway  

Second game came around and... I really enjoyed it. Usually we do a 3-base domination, but this time they did a 5-base domination and I think it worked well. I would've used some other bases, as 4 of the bases were very close together, but having to spread across 5 bases was far better than 3. It was in this game where I feel I did my best work, crawling into a position, setting up my rifle to fire and taking out a fully ghillied enemy sniper team and 2 of their team mates as one of them was directly observing the area I was crawling through. Slow deliberate movements, never silhouetting myself and finally a good bit of marksmanship really helped and it felt so good to achieve, since I play with the short-sleeve handicap during the summer; no ghillie, just an uncrafted cobra hood over a plain black short sleeved t-shirt. I'm not exactly covered in camo! From there I held that position, taking out the sniper as he returned from respawn as well as a whole host of other people on the enemy team who wanted to use that position. It's games like this that remind me why I love sniping. We then switched sides, taking me to the side I was far more familiar with and I immediately went and took a position overlooking a path into the area with the bases. I completely shut down that side of the site with the help of another forum-goer here until he got friendly fired by trigger-happy teammates (who I've forgotten the name of sorry ) and eventually the enemy team just completely abandoned their efforts there, so while the start of the game was eventful, the end saw me barely taking a single shot. I'm glad I refilled my mags before this game as I burned through 2 of my 3 m700 mags in this game, so I would've run out of ammo if I hadn't. Across these two games, I think I took out the enemy team's full ghillie pair about half a dozen times without them even seeing me once. I definitely feel like I was on point for these games.

Also, it seems I was finally caught on camera, so you can see what I mean by "I'm not in a ghillie right now" ?

View attachment 113110

At lunch I decided to call it, though I heard it was a complete slaughter in the afternoon with our team getting absolutely pantsed by the enemy team. Exercise is what sets off my heart palpitations, so after the morning I felt I didn't want to push it. Furthermore the game after lunch was in a super dense part of the site that is basically a CQB killhouse, but with thick bushes for walls instead of... walls. Wasn't going in there with a 30m MED (you're lucky to get 15m shots in there), so I stayed back in the safe zone. Tweaked the m40a5 a little as it was overhopping, but I think I may try a new hop rubber. Now that the X-range is bedded in it's hopping .45s a bit too much, so I'm going to pick up one of the new Maple Leaf silicone rubbers (the 2023 ones) and stick a 60 degree in. Fingers crossed it works out, but we'll find out next game day as I don't exactly have a 75m range to try it out on living in Brighton. Also continue to be impressed with the King Arms adjustable m700 bolt. It's super consistent and hasn't let me down once. After the m40a5, I took my new AAP onto the range to get the hop dialled in; I saw one for sale on ammo drop on sale for about £70 and I wanted to do a modern ruger .22 upper to go alongside my old fashioned one. Set that up and was happy with the performance, but I'm not a huge fan on the magazines as I feel they're not that gas efficient but further testing is required there.

Anyway, all in all it was a great day. After the brief downpour in the morning it was sunny for most of the day which helped dry the site out a little and reduce the humidity a little so after the first game I wasn't fogging up much at all. Downside is that I'm almost certainly going to have to skip the upcoming Vietnam game at Gunman Eversley (sorry @Tactical Pith Helmet but I won't be there. The others I usually go with should be though! I think one of the others can't make it either so our contingent won't be in attendance) as I'm not going to go camping in the middle of the woods with any risk of atrial fibrillation rearing its ugly head.

 

[Colin Allen]

Cheers @RostokMcSpoons, the 6th time it popped out was enough to end the day for me.  Usually it resets straight away, but this time it took 2 hours and still isn't quite right this morning.

Shame though because the morning games in the good weather were pretty epic for us on the blue team.  Particularly the raiding of the military items.  We got all of ours pretty quickly when attacking, but on the reversal, the otherside didn't get any as far as I know. Especially funny was when 6 or 7 people were running up a path in the open and 2 or 3 of us just opened up, putting an end to that particular push. 

L85 was rocking again... Although the boy's parting gift was to change the riser for my scope which meant not only was the zeroing totally off, but he didn't tighten the mounting screws enough, so that was a running repair for the morning. 

I didn't think the hit taking was too bad, only one instance I noticed, which in hindsight could have been a flag tied to a tree looking like a protruding leg. ? What was frustrating though is when the game relies on constant pushes to keep the other team suppressed, but the younglings and rentals, for obvious reasons, are chilling at respawn shooting themselves or the trees.  

As mentioned though, my knee decided to keep popping out of its joint, to the point where Carlos had to help me walk to a suitable fallen tree to recover, that was the 5th time. Then ironically during lunch, it happened again when I got up for a second helping, and, even when it reset, the pain was too much.  Tried walking back to the war zone for the afternoon session but had to give up.  A couple of kind gents ran  to the game zone to recover my remaining pews and ammo and I went home. 

A bit gutting because a lot of people left at lunch and I assume the smaller numbers made for a more intense afternoon. 

That sounds like an unpleasantly painful experience; is there anything that can be done to prevent it happening?

 

[Dan Robinson]

That sounds like an unpleasantly painful experience; is there anything that can be done to prevent it happening?

Not sure what can be done. Avoiding kneeling down like this... 

View attachment 113114

And more moving around like this... 

View attachment 113115

(sorry they just uploaded the pics from yesterday so good excuse for some tacticool ?). 

Not quite as serious as heart palpitations, so I hope @Impulsegets some solution to that. 

 

[Colin Allen]

This morning, the lad and I once again set off for Airsoft Plantation, one of our regular sites.  

The morning started with a game in which we (red team) had to assault across the mortar pits to reach a siren which was located on the far side in front of one of the landing craft.  The attacking team had infinite regens on a marshal, while the defenders had two lives.  Assaulting out of the woods, the big surprise was that the double decker bus had moved from the centre of the mortar pits to the edge nearest the woods; apparently, this is in preparation for their upcoming two-dayer over the bank holiday weekend and completely changed the dynamics of fighting in that area.  We were badly held up trying to get out of the woods, but eventually wore the enemy down, forcing our way through the mortar pits and setting off the siren.

The game was then switched round and we realised why it had taken us so long to break out; shooting fish in a barrel came to mind.  After being hit, I moved back to a position in our left rear, where the enemy were starting to apply pressure after engaging  in a wide flanking manoeuvre.  We held them up for a while, but they eventually reached the siren, taking one minute longer than we had.  

Unfortunately, during this game, one of the lad's BFGs went missing after he had used it in a very well defined area; when he went to recover it 3-4 minutes later, it had vanished,  After the game, we searched for it, but could not find it.

After a break to mag up, play switched to the other end of the site in a game wherein the attackers had to transport a stretcher from the far end of the woods to the wobbly bridge and kill house; once they had arrived there, a casualty had to be placed on the stretcher with an band applied to each limb and then transported via the Border to the town hall in the village.  Attackers again respawned on a marshal, while defenders had one life at each of the wobbly bridge, the border and the village.  If the casualty was hit, they had to leave the stretcher and a new casualty had to don the bands and be transported forward.

The lad and I, along with several other players, occupied the ditch on the far right of the site, working well as a team and taking out a lot of attackers in the light woodland. Eventually, my rifle received a hit from a sniper rifle or DMR; calling a gun hit, I drew my pistol, only to be hit again by fire from my left, sending me back towards the border, where I settled into a favourite position and waited for the enemy, who arrived rather more rapidly than expected.  I took out a bunch who were exposed to my right and then another group who appeared in the same place; while I was doing this, a fellow defender to my front fell gallantly when faced by overwhelming numbers and I found myself facing a lot of enemies to my front and right flank.  After holding them back for a few minutes, I was hit and went back to the village, where an unfortunate friendly fire incident ended my participation in the game.  I decided to have another look for the lad's grenade and was later joined by him; we still could not find it.  We met an enemy player who had been there when it was lost and he stated that he had seen it in on the grass in clear view.

As this was now lunchtime, we mentioned the grenade to the site owner; at the end of the afternoon briefing, he mentioned it and stated that whoever had picked it up should hand it in at the site shop/office.  A player did so, claiming that he had picked it up (why?) and put it in his dump pouch, but had then completely forgotten about it and then spent one and half games and all of lunchtime completely oblivious to having a large and heavy BFG banging against his hip (yeah, right!).  Anyway, the important thing was that the lad got his BFG back.

After lunch, the stretcher game was reversed; a group of us, including the lad and I, assaulted the ditch that we had defended earlier, driving the enemy out in fine style.  We then attacked the border, which is always difficult as it is a very strong position, but eventually broke through after a fierce fight against a superb defence; poison gas and flash bangs were much used.  Rolling up to the village, we stormed it en masse, getting our casualty to the town hall more quickly than the enemy had.

After this, the final game saw a return to the mortar pits, with both sides attacking across them to set off a buzzer at the enemy's start point.  All players had two lives and my participation was somewhat limited as my two lives each passed quickly.

Despite the grenade incident, it was a really good day, with us running some of our less used weapons.

AP already has a 30m minimum engagement distance for full auto and, as last week, there seemed to be an effort to persuade players to use semi all the time, which is something that I applaud; it makes play so much more interesting.

Next weekend, we are probably going to an outdoor CQB site that is completely new to us.

Weapons used:

Me:
King Arms PDW
Double Bell KAC PDW
Milbro M1911 Classic (CO2)

The lad:
JG G3
SRC MP5
ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

 

[Colin Allen]

Not sure what can be done. Avoiding kneeling down like this... 

View attachment 113114

And more moving around like this... 

View attachment 113115

(sorry they just uploaded the pics from yesterday so good excuse for some tacticool ?). 

Not quite as serious as heart palpitations, so I hope @Impulsegets some solution to that. 

Yes, I really hope that @Impulse gets his issue sorted out asap; it is not hugely uncommon and there are a range of treatments.

 

[Haru]

Well, I just had my first skirmish and absolutely obliterated my knee by sliding on rough concrete and ripped right through my trousers, going again sunday

 

[Colin Allen]

Well, I just had my first skirmish and absolutely obliterated my knee by sliding on rough concrete and ripped right through my trousers, going again sunday

Do you have a plentiful supply of trousers?  You might have found a new way of making an expensive hobby even more expensive.

 

[Madhouse]

Maybe pads outside the trousers?

Add some slider plates for sparky knee slides!

 

[Haru]

Do you have a plentiful supply of trousers?  You might have found a new way of making an expensive hobby even more expensive.

i can assure you i will not be making that mistake again, figured id give it a try since the ground was wet.

 

[Dan Robinson]

COD sliding as I call it is great fun, but does tend to give one awkward to reach splinters and holey trousers. 

 

[Colin Allen]

COD sliding as I call it is great fun, but does tend to give one awkward to reach splinters and holey trousers. 

Which are at least better than holy trousers.

 

[Impulse]

Yes, I really hope that @Impulse gets his issue sorted out asap; it is not hugely uncommon and there are a range of treatments.

Thanks both of you. Will probably get an ablation done, but the hardest part is pushing the NHS to actually do something

 

[Colin Allen]

Thanks both of you. Will probably get an ablation done, but the hardest part is pushing the NHS to actually do something

Aye, that can be problematic.  Best of luck with the procedure when it happens; until then, take it easy.

 

[Gunboat Diplomat]

Half day for me and the boy on Saturday.  He met up with a friend from cadets who had a great time and is planning his next visit, so looks like we've added another to the rank and file of Spec Ops roster.

Second day out with my Double Eagle and his Cyma G36.  Again, both performed flawlessly and just took the abuse and shrugged it off. 

I did a lot more shooting this game as I found myself in some great positions affording me sweeping arcs of fire as the opfor team tried to push objectives or flank.  I think I went through 12 midcaps in the morning session which is a lot for me.  Think I need to invest in an Odin or clone as my speedloader/thumb can't keep up at that rate of use.

Only brought one battery each as we were on a half-day and was starting to wonder if I'd regret that decision with the amount of firing, but surprisingly when I got back the LiPo from my DE was only down to around 25% so needed just a brief charge back to storage voltage.  The boy's LiIon pack was down to 10%, about 3.6v per cell so was pretty done.  

Was a busy day with a lot of rentals but it all went remarkably smoothly and I had one of my most enjoyable days yet.  The games this weekend were staged from some of the more peripheral areas of the Spec Ops map and it seemed to create some new and fun corridors of action that were better suited to funnelling people and objectives through. 

Good to finally meet @Dan Robinson, hope the knee mends up soon and thanks to @RostokMcSpoons for letting the boy have a play with the GBBR... I can hear a birthday list being furiously scribbled out at this very minute. 

Highlights of the day for me...

Saying 'This is the longest I've ever lasted in a game of Zombies...' before immediately being shot in the forehead.

Finding a perfect tree that afforded good cover and a great spot to rack up kills from.

Not being able to find said tree after returning from respawn.  How does a man lose a tree in a forest...

 

[Colin Allen]

How does a man lose a tree in a forest...

Consider the possibility that the tree loses the man.

 

[TheFull9]

Bit of a rollercoaster yesterday at UCAP Vendetta, which for those who've maybe not heard of it is a former prison right in Gloucester.

I've been wanting to get to one of these former prison sites for years (I think there's 3 in the UK?) and I've never been posted anywhere that's very close to any of them, but I happened to not have to come in to work today so the sunday game was a solid opportunity.  Got there right on opening time as I'd seen a review saying safe zone table/seating space was a little tight, definitely an interesting experience even just driving in the place as you go through 2 extremely tall, heavy (but narrow) entrance gates arranged in an airlock type fashion that I presume made up the proper vehicle access when the prison was still running.  The parking is within a fenced area within the main walls and is understandably tightly restricted, which unfortunately means cars are packed in like sardines and you will not be leaving site until the game finishes, full stop!

Got ready and went 2 chrono with 2 just-worked-on AEGs, one of which I'd used at Airsoft Plantation and passed their chrono fine on .25s, but not at UCAP! ?  The other also failed even more spectacularly, doing 370 on a .2, not something I've ever happened in my entire time playing.  *Luckily* not all the rental guns were spoken for, so I paid the difference, left my VFCs with hundreds worth of internals work in their bags and rocked out with a beautifully basic Specna made entirely out of plastic, adorned with nothing but flip-up iron sights, not even a sling.  The irony being that this was my first time ever playing with a rental gun, having attended even my first game in '06 with my own toy AR (it wasn't a RIF at the time technically, was just before the VCRA).  I'd always meant to try renting just for the heck of it, but would've much rather done it on my own terms it must be said.  I'd expected all the rentals to be gone and with my car thoroughly blocked in I was deep in 5p-50p territory for a little while there.  What I had predicted was that it'd be extremely nimble and practical running the rental, especially close up, which indeed it was, more so than much of my regular guccified guns.

The safe zone is definitely up there in luxury (comparatively) and protection from the elements as long as you do get a little bit of table space, toilets not too bad as they go, didn't check out the shop and brought my own lunch; given how empty the SZ was at lunch I suspect the queue was substantial.  UCAP is definitely heavy on rules as organisations go, more limits on RIF/mag/ammo types than I've seen elsewhere, 'no boots, no play' policy which resulted in some.. haphazardly sourced footwear, heh.  Chrono was thorough on the one hand and they even check you're not hopping too much, turning it down to increase velocity if necessary, but they also don't physically tag anything, just show the hot gun to one of the many many security cameras they have around site and tell you not to use it.  That's mostly ok in an integrity based game I'd say, but then my own experience did rather prove the system fallible.

As mentioned I failed chrono initially, used the rental gun first game, then figured I'd take a hail mary shot on the .2s I got for renting maybe doing some reverse joule creep on the 1 gun that was close to passing.  I got it re-checked by a marshal and luckily it squeaked under limits, so I could use one of my own guns on the 2s and spent the rest of the day doing so.  With around 5 minutes to go of the final game of the day an evidently new marshal asked if I was the guy that failed chrono in the morning, I said yes I had but I'd been re-checked and passed, but he didn't take my word so they brought the chrono out and checked me again; which was fine as nothing had changed.  That said, rather pointless given I'd played almost all day with said gun already and to me that's pretty clear proof that their apparent camera monitoring system is just security theatre, as once I got re-checked and passed nothing was done or changed.  It'll work on honest people, but it wouldn't stop a determined cheat, as I basically demonstrated.

Anyway, the physical site is very interesting indeed, one of the best actual locations I've played, maybe the old Mall would be the only potential rival.  The fact they also do paid tours of the place says a fair bit, most of the prison is pretty intact and there's even a couple of inmate transport trucks, one of which is open and fully in play.  For me the best part is the layout does perhaps the best job I've seen of placing players at the ideal engagement distances.  You're rarely at all doing that classic thing of looking at someone 60m+ away and not actually being able to shoot them, with no cover inbetween.  You generally come round a corner and the other team is at 10-40m or so and you have a great little firefight.

A few kids were slow on calling hits and were looking around to eyeball the firer before making the shout, but that's kids I guess and far as I can recall all the adults were good in this respect.  The number of obvious (at least to me) current/ex military and police blokes as well as obviously experienced players of the game inattendance says a fair bit about the site overall, imho.  Car parking sitch is, for me, a not insignificant negative as I always want to be free to leave when I so choose even though I never do leave early, I just do not like the notion personally.  Overall though, solid site to play for sure.

 

[gavinkempsell]

Car parking sitch is for me a significant negative as I always want to be free to leave when I so choose

Isn't there an old 'visitors' parking area that can be used outside the buildings?

 

[TheFull9]

Do not know, didn't spot anything that looked like a good all day car park on the way in or out, was my first time attending and their website/staff certainly don't mention that.  Looking at google maps there's at least 1 standard pay-and-display car park close enough that carrying all one's equipment might be safe/viable, potentially, haven't really dug in to it as the site is a decent distance from me so it won't be my regular or anything (plus I need my guns sorting lol).

 

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

?

Downside is that I'm almost certainly going to have to skip the upcoming Vietnam game at Gunman Eversley (sorry @Tactical Pith Helmet but I won't be there. The others I usually go with should be though! I think one of the others can't make it either so our contingent won't be in attendance) as I'm not going to go camping in the middle of the woods with any risk of atrial fibrillation rearing its ugly head.

Damn bloody shame.  You'll be well missed, but your health comes first.  Heal soon and Godspeed to you.  You are one hell of a sniper!  I remember the game that you halted the advance of those US troops long he tree line at Eversley very well.  

I'll ratatatat a few extra imperialists for you with the RPK at the Namsoft game.  

Seriously mate, take care of yourself and we all hope to see you (and your fellow Worthing Massive soon).  I say this despite Mrs THP being introduced to the green gas M10/11 by Glynn.  She'd only just been bought a CYMA AK74SYU, yet raved about the rate of fire of the compact GBB rif.  More bloody expense...  Worth it if it makes a loved one smile though.  It's what it's all about....

Best wishes from all of us.