The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread

[Colin Allen]

25 minutes ago, Egon_247 said:

 

Chislehurst, kent? I did a quick googly search but couldnt find it. I'm in dartford and looking for other sites as i'm doing the same thing at Apocolypse 249 with the kids. 

 

https://www.red1airsoft.com
 

Their online presence is minimalist.

[Egon_247]

7 minutes ago, Colin Allen said:

https://www.red1airsoft.com
 

Their online presence is minimalist.

LoL, you arent wrong! Ah, its in st Albans, not near me unfortunately. Ah well.

 

[Lozart]

55 minutes ago, Egon_247 said:

 

Chislehurst, kent? I did a quick googly search but couldnt find it. I'm in dartford and looking for other sites as i'm doing the same thing at Apocolypse 249 with the kids. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/red1airsoftwoodland/

[Colin Allen]

37 minutes ago, Egon_247 said:

LoL, you arent wrong! Ah, its in st Albans, not near me unfortunately. Ah well.

 

They have a site in Chislehurst as well; it is on Foxbury Avenue, off the A222.

[Cr0-Magnon]

1 hour ago, Egon_247 said:

 

Chislehurst, kent? I did a quick googly search but couldnt find it. I'm in dartford and looking for other sites as i'm doing the same thing at Apocolypse 249 with the kids. 

 

 

Yeah, they usually run fortnightly games on a Sunday.

 

https://www.red1airsoft.com/

[MrTea]

First game at District 23 last night. What a quality site. It's a 2 story CQB arena within a industrial unit. Player count was around 15 people or so which was good as the site wasn't overcrowded and let me learn the layout as well as let players get flanks off and get behind the other team. Marshalls were great, super chilled about everything. Chrono was done in good time and there were decent length breaks between games to refill mags etc. Took out my MP5, Shadow 2 and LVOA as a backup in-case the MP5 went down.

 

The MP5, with my hasty CYMA hop unit replacement, had feeding issues with the CYMA mags meaning I had to keep them pushed forward slightly. A bit annoying but other than that, the gun performed great all night and even caught the eye of a marshall who was asking me about it. Several players said it hits like a truck as well and the Olight Odin is like turning on the sun given how bright it is, however, it's a dead giveaway to where I was. The Shadow 2 was a nice piece of kit to have around for the tighter corridors/doorways of the upstairs area. Just a shame I couldn't get it to consistently hop .28g BBs accurately. Probably just need to fine-tune the hop.

 

One highlight of the night was pushing down the left flank and seeing some lad in a black cobra hood sprint past into a dead corner. I knew he had to come back past me but if I chased, i'd get shot in the back from their spawn. I lobbed a multibang the length of the lane and it exploded at his heels as he tried to escape. Being a mostly empty industrial unit, the echo from the multibang is unreal and prompted a few "WTF was that!" calls from the whole field.

 

Getting shot under the plate carrier sucks as well. Would not recommend. First game using my new setup and it's great. The plate carrier was comfortable for the entire game but never got to use my sling for the MP5 as I bloody forgot it at home. The two-piece molle belt was great and kept all my other grenades, pistol mags and dump pouch secure with zero movement.

 

Overall, it was a quality night. No issues with not taking hits, marshalling was fantastic, players were all super chill, especially the guy I kept teamkilling and he kept teamkilling me. Not sure how, but we kept finding each other on the field and managed to kill each other a lot. One note i'd make is that they could use some new, brighter bands for the players that wear them. They're so old/faded that it's difficult to tell who is and isn't wearing one in the low light areas.

 

When sorting my kit this morning, it appears as though my B&T tracer has died. It performed fantastically all night and when checking this morning, it wouldn't turn on. I tried new batteries and no change. I think it's gave up after one game.

 

They had a Tavor in their shop and I was sooooooo tempted to buy it.

Edited March 16, 2023 by MrTea

[The Waco Kid]

Due to being left in charge of childcare I have opted to conduct home schooling for the last two days.

 

I would like to share my lesson plans for any other interested parents.

 

Subjects covered: 

English - briefing and comms use.

 

Welsh - “what is a Brecon pocket?”

 

Chemistry - comparison of different batteries.

Physics - Ballistic theory and practical example.

 

Biology - selection of eye protection and use. How to splint a broken wrist using a flag.

 

Japanese - studying the Marui catalogue.

 

Mandarin - prepare a cartoon manual for your aeg.

 

Geography -  What is dead ground? topography of a game field.

 

Design Technology - development of the V2 gearbox.

 

History - how to collect a period load out.

 

Maffs - capacity of different magazines and comparison.

 

Food technology - How to cook a ration pack.

 

P.E. - Fire and movement, the leopard crawl.

Edited March 16, 2023 by The Waco Kid

[Shamal]

I think I need to enroll.😂

Wtf's a Brecon pocket?

Dead ground?

Sounds like anywhere I'm standing lol.

The only crawl I know is a pub one.

 

Regards 

 

Edited March 16, 2023 by Shamal

[Khyber]

21 hours ago, MrTea said:

First game at District 23 last night.

My local site. It's a great layout for a small indoor site. The action isn't channelled down corridors but very much a 360 play field. Glad you enjoyed it. Wednesdays and fridays are usually quiet but sundays are normally really good.

[MrTea]

8 hours ago, Khyber said:

My local site. It's a great layout for a small indoor site. The action isn't channelled down corridors but very much a 360 play field. Glad you enjoyed it. Wednesdays and fridays are usually quiet but sundays are normally really good.

 

Local one for me too being from Hartlepool and again, It was fantastic. I actually preferred the amount of people that were there on Wednesday as it left plenty of gaps/flanks to be exploited. Creeping about on the creaky floors and suddenly walking into a room of 3/4 people was a tense but fun time. The low light really makes it though, I even managed to shrink myself into a dark corner and watch someones shadow on the wall so I know they were coming in the room, they didn't make the most dignified of noises when I shot them 😁

Edited March 17, 2023 by MrTea

[Khyber]

13 hours ago, MrTea said:

 

Local one for me too being from Hartlepool and again, It was fantastic. I actually preferred the amount of people that were there on Wednesday as it left plenty of gaps/flanks to be exploited. Creeping about on the creaky floors and suddenly walking into a room of 3/4 people was a tense but fun time. The low light really makes it though, I even managed to shrink myself into a dark corner and watch someones shadow on the wall so I know they were coming in the room, they didn't make the most dignified of noises when I shot them 😁

Agreed it does make for some great gameplay when its low numbers. Allows for different tactics. I'll give you a shout next time I'm there see if your going. Yet to meet any fellow AFUKers.

[Jaylordofwaargh]

@Egon_247 Red1 woodland is a grand little site. They do sometimes have pyro limits due to a football field next door.

 

Cute little trench system, two decent cqb villages with some longer play areas as well. Not large by any means but that just means you learn the site quickly. 

[Cannonfodder]

On 16/03/2023 at 19:31, Shamal said:

Wtf's a Brecon pocket?

Military equivalent of a wizard's sleeve?

[Shamal]

Just now, Cannonfodder said:

Military equivalent of a wizard's sleeve?

What all floppy and colourful like?lol.

 

So I guess it's able to take plenty of gear easily? 

 

[The Waco Kid]

Brecon Pocket

 

1) The method of stowing spent mags inside the front of your smock, where the waist belt stops them falling out

 

or

 

2) The source of an infection picked up in Merthyr Tydfil.

[Cannonfodder]

2 hours ago, The Waco Kid said:

The source of an infection picked up in Merthyr Tydfil.

So my bad joke was right 

[The Waco Kid]

Indeed, your prize can be picked at a local pharmacy. 😜

Edited March 19, 2023 by The Waco Kid

[RostokMcSpoons]

My first visit to RIFT The Ridge (nr Toddington)

 

It rained last night. It's still the winter.

The site is also used by 4x4 off roading vehicles.  The primary soil in the area is clay.

These are key things to bear in mind...

 

It was a gigantic mud pit of a place, and although some fun was to be had, I left early because I was just too tired and couldn't face the overly long and frankly dangerous treks back to and from spawn.  The area is very hilly and crisscrossed with the tracks the cars and trucks take... Leading to very long slippery roads, with sumps of deep muddy water.  I spent more time worrying about sliding into waist deep puddles or talking face-first dives into deep mud than caring about incoming fire.

 

The marshals and staff were all very friendly, everything seemed to run smoothly (though I'm sure the Sermon On The Mount took less time than the briefing, semi-ironically made from a mound, and one of the few dry spots in the site), but the logistics of the place and all that mud just didn't let it work properly.

 

Might be magic in the summer, but right now it's a 'no' from me, Clive

Edit:

 

(The muddy path in the background gives but a taste of the problem.  Often a route would be blocked by a criss-cross of super-slippery paths with giant puddles at the intersection - and the paths were often at a steep angle.  So although there was plenty of drier grass, getting to it meant taking your life (and gear) in your hands and hoping you'd not end up lying in the muck and water.  Often the grassy areas were full of fierce brambles too)

Edited March 21, 2023 by RostokMcSpoons

[Dan Robinson]

Was at RIFT in Barton today. 

 

I'm not going to give a verdict as the place was a quagmire so the gameplay was exhausting.  I think the open area could be great if they were able to have barricades erected, but I suppose that is not conducive with the 4x4 side of the business. 

 

Chrono was a bit weird as you were shooting parallel to the main road with no barriers, also no gun tagging to prove you had been through - just a name check. 

 

First game was defending/capturing several flags, which was good fun.  I really felt sorry for the poor bastard that went full send through a waste deep puddle jumped into a good cover spot only to be taken out by a grenade 10 seconds later. I tried to "help" by attempting to shoot the nade into the puddle, but it was in vain. 

 

Some player had a gun capable of insane ranges as well. Several of us thought we were safe on a ridge line only to be picked off by this dude sitting in no man's land. 

 

We had a couple of good pincer manoeuvres against a guy with a riot shield who was leading a line of players up a path only for us to pick them off one by one from the back of thier line. 

 

The newly fixed Specna was on form shooting 280 fps on 28bbs.  Honey Badger was much less fussy this time too, but binary firing mode seems to eat batteries and bbs like nobody's business. 

 

I also went for a tumble down a steep hill after being shot, twisting my toe and knee.  At least I held the objective by myself for a long time before that only being shot by two players flanking me from two sides. 

 

I've decided that the Rapax M7 is not the gun for me.  It's just too damn long. So I'll likely be putting it up for sale and looking for another Bullpup DMR to go with my SVU... Maybe an L86? 

 

Have to agree with @RostokMcSpoons (good to see you again chap 👍) about the brief being too long, but the staff were indeed very helpful and fair in their marshaling.  

 

I wasn't to impressed with having to stage from the car park either, which lead to me having a flat battery in the van.  Next time though I'll take a table so the doors don't have to be opened and closed all the time.

 

So, my main moans were because of the wet weather making the gameplay too exhausting and genuinely dangerous at times.  A bit better planning on my part, and making sure that the weather has been dry for a week beforehand will get rid of the main issues. 

 

The boy had one of his class mates have his first try of airsoft and absolutely loved it.  Seemed to be a bit of a natural as well as he was very selective with his shots and threw himself into the game, jumping for cover and pushing objectives.  He's certainly left us with a job of cleaning the pews next week LOL. 

 

Will certainly go back to give the place a fair crack, especially as its only ten minutes from home. But its got steep competition with our other regular fields. 

 

To give you some idea of the mud:

 

 

 

The infamous hill that I was - some 20 minutes later - going to be rolling down very unceremoniously.🤣

 

 

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by Dan Robinson
A few piccies to upload.

[Colin Allen]

I had intended to go to Airsoft Plantation today; however, this plan was cancelled when my eldest son rang me on Saturday morning to ask if I would look at a house that he and his flatmate were thinking of moving to, as he had to work today and did not want to make a decision solely on his flatmate's opinion.

I agreed, although I was rather disappointed about missing a day's playing.

However, just after I had gone to bed last night, I got a message from him at 23:25 to say that they had changed their minds about it.  I quickly got my gear together, put batteries on charge and then got some sleep, before heading off to Airsoft Plantation this morning.

Numbers were lower than usual, maybe because many people were being nice to their, or their children's, mothers, with only about 70 players on site.  In addition, the woodland part of the field was out of use as several trees had committed suicide over the last week, rendering it unsafe.

However, the rest of the site was more than big enough for 70 people (in fact, it is big enough for double that number) and there was room to probe for gaps, move around flanks and generally be sneaky.  Games were quickly improvised to suit the number of players, which they did, and it was a grand day despite the mud and general sogginess, although this was nowhere near as bad as mentioned in the two posts above!

Guns used:
Ares L1A1 (morning)
Umarex (S&T) ARX 160 (this may be my favourite gun to shoot) (afternoon)
Milbro M1911 Classic (CO2) - I really must get a better pistol.

Edited March 19, 2023 by Colin Allen

[Impulse]

Played at a private game yesterday (Saturday) at UCAP bunker in Portsmouth. I'm pretty sure the guys organised the first game with me in mind, since everyone knows me as a sniper and my collection is pretty much all long guns since it's what I enjoy and they decided the first game would be small teams of four and you had to keep moving around. Lots of speedy CQB action to try and avoid getting shot in the back and clearly doing that with an SR-25 was going to be a challenge, especially since a bunch of the guys do CQB on a regular basis at SHOTS (there's a killhouse there and they do CQB games every other Friday evening).

 

However, it's amazing how muscle memory works. Didn't take long for the muscle memory to kick back in from when I used to play at urban sites in Spain. Yes, I still played sniper in Spain, but clearing my way to positions meant I got my reps in for room clearing and I ended up taking point a lot during these games, even with the SR-25; it's a lot more awkward, but I still managed to work the angles and take some names. Was a fun game mode, apart from getting shot in the back shortly after leaving respawn by the next team of four to come out. Played another fun game where we all carried a playing card and when you were hit you held up your card for 30 seconds for the enemy to get. The objective of the game was to collect up cards until you had a hand of poker that you then played against the banker, who was roaming the tunnels with his bodyguard and won poker chips depending on how much you won the hand by. Team with the most poker chips wins. I did what everyone assumed I'd do in this one, found a nice darkened area by a door, poking my rifle around the corner and just... denying an entire corridor to the other team. Not exactly speedy CQB, but it made the other team's lives hard and it was what I was good at. Minimised my silhouette so they had no idea where I was, though lots of shots slammed into the metal doorframe above me that I was tucked behind.

 

All in all it was a fun day and I really, really needed it with all my sleeping issues recently and distinct lack of playing because of health/gun issues over the last few game days. Looking forward to when they run the game with the playing cards and the 4 man teams game at Worthing, as I think those will be really interesting in a woodland (and hopefully less getting shot in the back after respawning in!)

[alxndrhll]

So Camelot was certainly ‘a thing’. The first hour or so of Saturday was great, the rest of the day was… pretty shite. The age old story of too many players and a grinding stalemate that resulted in nothing much happening… for a further 2 hours.

 

And the reward for that in the afternoon? A reverse of the same game. Woo.

 

Sunday (today) saw many players leaving due the general not so great experience from the day prior which led to far better flow. The games being a defenders hold and fall back versus attackers. Again, the afternoon saw this reversed which given how enjoyable the morning was I was happy to see. I’d defended in the morning, I generally prefer attacking.

 

My newly jazzed up MCX was a monster all weekend, so thanks very much Dave if you happen to read this. With how well that was performing the weekend could have been a total wash and I’d likely still come away with a smile on my face. As ever, the folks I played had a huge amount to do with everything good that came from the weekend.

 

 

 

For those that care, I’m third in from the left. Playing surrounded by giants, I’m bang on 6’ for reference.

Edited March 19, 2023 by alxndrhll

[RostokMcSpoons]

On 19/03/2023 at 18:04, Dan Robinson said:

To give you some idea of the mud:

The infamous hill that I was - some 20 minutes later - going to be rolling down very unceremoniously.🤣

 

Your pics don't show - I suspect direct links are blocked, unfortunately...?

Honestly I have no idea how you got so far up that hill, top effort.  I got to the base of it and held there (until I got shot from behind by a very clever flanker)
Seeing you fall down was one of the reasons I decided I'd had enough and bailed out early.   It was too easy to imagine knackering knees and ankles in that boot-sucking mud.

Edited March 21, 2023 by RostokMcSpoons

[Dan Robinson]

2 hours ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

 

Your pics don't show - I suspect direct links are blocked, unfortunately...?

Honestly I have no idea how you got so far up that hill, top effort.  I got to the base of it and held there (until I got shot from behind by a very clever flanker)
Seeing you fall down was one of the reasons I decided I'd had enough and bailed out early.   It was too easy to imagine knackering knees and ankles in that boot-sucking mud.

 

I'll try adding them directly.... It was a copy paste from my Google photos album.  Might see if making it public helps? 

[RostokMcSpoons]

On 21/03/2023 at 15:07, Dan Robinson said:

 

I'll try adding them directly.... It was a copy paste from my Google photos album.  Might see if making it public helps? 

 

I did used to use the windows screen capture and then paste the pics straight into the posts, but having been bitten by running out of my personal storage space on the forum, I now use the screen caps, paste them into Paint.Net, then save them as jpegs at reduced size and quality to cut the pic size down to as little as 100k, I then 'insert media' from my local folder.  Job is then very much a good 'un 😋

Edited March 23, 2023 by RostokMcSpoons