The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread

[Anonymoose]

3 hours ago, El Zomba said:

Spent Sunday morning at RIFTs new Blackstone CQB site in Huntingdon. 

 

I saw that and was debating whether to go, but there were no pictures of the place that could find. I didn't want to drive ~90 mins to find it was a tiny place.

[Galvatron]

I played at RIFT's Blackstone CQB site on Saturday and I echo what El Zomba said about the intensity of playing. One part I'd add to the immersion was the sound and lighting effects as they did day & night time fading in certain games.

 

One thing I'd add about the setup area is that it actually has more space than the complement of players will need but that's because a hard limit of ~40 players in total can be booked per session so the game area doesn't become overcrowded.

 

 

 

On El Zomba's point about pyro, the safety briefing on Saturday (so I presume Sunday also) specified that that pyro is non-paper only so you can't use smoke, Mk5s, etc., due to both compromising visibility in an enclosed space and the increased risk of fire as the location has a lot of wallpaper in its decorations as the site is designed to resemble a village. BFGs and impact grenades are acceptable.

 

6 hours ago, El Zomba said:

The only other complaint was the use of pyro.  It's an indoor site and you need something to clear corners and rooms, but having a flashbang go off at your feet gets your bell rung.  My ears are still ringing 24 hours after.  Some poor sod had one go off near his face.  All an accident, the marshalls were on it, and no one was being a dickhead, but it if you're going to allow flashbangs and grenades at an indoor site, you should really make earpro mandatory, even if it's just foam earplugs.  Every little helps.  If I'd known, I would have sorted myself out.

 

Earpro would be a good recommendation when pyro is used there though I don't see how mandating the use of earpro can be enforced practically - unless the marshal sees the back of your head, they should always be able to tell if you're wearing eyepro but you can be wearing a head or ear covering of some sort that obscures your ears.

[hitmanNo2]

For ear pro, the best thing a site could do is say they recommend ear pro and it's up to the customer. They can't be expected to police that. 

[El Zomba]

10 hours ago, Galvatron said:

Earpro would be a good recommendation when pyro is used there though I don't see how mandating the use of earpro can be enforced practically - unless the marshal sees the back of your head, they should always be able to tell if you're wearing eyepro but you can be wearing a head or ear covering of some sort that obscures your ears.

 

Difficult to enforce, but not impossible.  Show your ears as you leave the safe zone.  I had a mask on, but would be able to whip it back a bit to show I had plugs in were I wearing them.  I do see your point though, as it would be extra faff.  I suppose the other way is to meet in the middle and recommend earpro in the terms & conditions and the brief.  That way it's the players' own responsibility.  Anyway, live and learn; I'll take earpro for the next game I attend there.

 

I did email Tony with a bit of feedback about the site and gameplay, including pyro.  In his reply he mentioned that they'd tested with 209s and 380s with no lasting effect, so maybe someone was being a bit cheeky after all.  He also mentioned that they'll be tweeking the rules about how grenades are used and how frequently, so I guess I wasn't the only squeeky wheel on that.

[hitmanNo2]

1 hour ago, El Zomba said:

 

Difficult to enforce, but not impossible.  Show your ears as you leave the safe zone.  I had a mask on, but would be able to whip it back a bit to show I had plugs in were I wearing them.  I do see your point though, as it would be extra faff.  I suppose the other way is to meet in the middle and recommend earpro in the terms & conditions and the brief.  That way it's the players' own responsibility.  Anyway, live and learn; I'll take earpro for the next game I attend there.

Is a typical marshal going to know the difference between a bog standard covert radio ear piece or in ear pro like an Invisio X5 headset? Nope. If a customer shows said radio ear piece or even a set of regular earphones and for whatever reason passes them off as ear pro (we know what airsofters are like) and a marshal gives the OK and there's an issue later that day...Is that negligence on the site's behalf? The marshal? Would insurance get involved? Whatever the outcome, it probably wouldn't be good for the site.

 

But yeah, ear pro should be thoroughly recommended, especially at indoor sites. I had a Tag round go off 1.2m from my head at the weekend. I was glad to have had ear pro on.

[Impulse]

I would never go to any sort of CQB site without earpro. Earmor m31s are cheap and do the job really well, but my proper CQB kit uses a helmet with Earmor m32s attached.

[Colin Allen]

On 24/11/2024 at 20:14, TheFull9 said:

 

Any idea what's actually wrong with it exactly?  Mine has died on me a couple of times over the years, first the wiring/electrics, then the piston totally sheared in half.  Been fully resurrected both times, still ticking along.  Currently in with Negative to get another check up and potentially improvements.  We chatted about about them for a bit and I'd have to say I think it'd have to be pretty nuclear-bad for it to be totally unsalvageable.  Feel free to DM me at any point if you like to discuss it.

Mine had the classic Ares piston failure years ago and is on its second micro switch.  Having opened it up, it seems that the threaded part of the cap that locks the spring guide into place had given up, allowing the spring guide to bounce around, which had jammed the piston.  Fortunately, it was a plastic toothed piston so the gears survived.

I have fabricated a replacement from a bolt and a piece of steel and moved everything into a replacement gearbox as one of the internal threads at the front of the old gearbox had stripped and the other was on the way out.  All seems good.

[The_Lord_Poncho]

Personally, I'd be more than happy if there was a no pyro rule in indoor CQB sites. A well aimed and timed bit of pyro outdoors takes skill; conversely, to lob a grenade through a doorway in a building and hope for the best does not. Kind of the definition of pay to win in my view. Even in well policed sites, there always seems to be someone who doesn't stick to the rules and uses oversized pyro too.

 

I always look forward to the pyro cut off time when I'm playing evening games at my preferred CQB site, the game play just becomes more even and fun after that.

 

 

Edited November 27 by The_Lord_Poncho

[Impulse]

23 minutes ago, The_Lord_Poncho said:

Personally, I'd be more than happy if there was a no pyro rule in indoor CQB sites. A well aimed and timed bit of pyro outdoors takes skill; conversely, to lob a grenade through a doorway in a building and hope for the best does not. Kind of the definition of pay to win in my view. Even in well policed sites, there always seems to be someone who doesn't stick to the rules and uses oversized pyro too.

 

I always look forward to the pyro cut off time when I'm playing evening games at my preferred CQB site, the game play just becomes more even and fun after that.

 

 

 

I think I agree with that. First AI500 I went to was at the citadel in Dover and all that was happening in the indoor segments was a barrage of pyro. The tan team got a massive box of pyro for free as there was one that was capturable provided by the sponsor that was in a building near their respawn, so naturally they got it all, which meant that it was a weekend full of being pelted by pyro. If there were greens in a room, that room got a pyro posted through the door.

[Cannonfodder]

As is clear by my profile picture I like things that go boom, however I do agree that unrestricted use of pyros does make the game get boring fast. However a blanket ban can kill a game just as badly. If nobody wants to move as they know there's several guns pointing at a doorway then games will end up as a stalemate with neither side wanting to move forwards.

 

Fortunately from what I've seen many sites are starting to restrict the number of bangs a player can carry.

[Tackle]

5 minutes ago, Cannonfodder said:

 

Fortunately from what I've seen many sites are starting to restrict the number of bangs a player can carry.

Just need them to also restrict the use of full auto, the completely unrealistic hosefest you get at some sites really spoils the play.

Want to hose the shit out of everything,  fine, get an lmg/hmg, not a stubby m4 with a boxmag ffs

[Huxley]

On 24/11/2024 at 21:31, Impulse said:

 

I've just got the feed lips that came on the Nov gen3 mags on them, with the purple nineball routers because they're a better design than the yellow ones that come with the Nov mags. I imagine it might just need breaking in, as I have a friend with the ASG mk23 and he uses the ASG mags with hadron feed lips as well, because the clone mk23s can have issues with sticky triggers with standard clone feed lips. Fingers crossed yours just need a bit of use!

Funny enough mine have the yellow routers so I'll need to keep the purple ones in mind. 

I think I might throw a biro spring in with the slide return spring, as some have said it's a bit weak and can cause feeding issues with it not returning fully. 

 

Every time I see a glock I fancy one, that tm gen 5 looks very tempting.

[The_Lord_Poncho]

3 hours ago, Huxley said:

Funny enough mine have the yellow routers so I'll need to keep the purple ones in mind. 

I think I might throw a biro spring in with the slide return spring, as some have said it's a bit weak and can cause feeding issues with it not returning fully.

 

The only issue i've had with both my MK23's (an ASG one, and a Nov ssx 303) has been a sticky trigger/trigger not resetting after a shot - necessitating pulling the mag out to let the action re-set again. Happened with the nov gen 2 mags, and the original ASG/STI mags. I'm not sure exactly the feed issues that you are having, but if its of this nature, there is a very simple process to go through - plenty of videos on youtube etc. Essentially you scrape using a blade to slightly thin the 'fin' that picks up the BBs and pushes them through the mag feed lips. 5 mins of work and sorted both mine out.

[Huxley]

21 hours ago, The_Lord_Poncho said:

 

The only issue i've had with both my MK23's (an ASG one, and a Nov ssx 303) has been a sticky trigger/trigger not resetting after a shot - necessitating pulling the mag out to let the action re-set again. Happened with the nov gen 2 mags, and the original ASG/STI mags. I'm not sure exactly the feed issues that you are having, but if its of this nature, there is a very simple process to go through - plenty of videos on youtube etc. Essentially you scrape using a blade to slightly thin the 'fin' that picks up the BBs and pushes them through the mag feed lips. 5 mins of work and sorted both mine out.

I've had that issue as well, along with a double feed, I think using tm feed lips resolved it, no this is different it's only feeding every so often. 

I think I've resolved it, someone said that under the slide on the back there's a plastic guide that's a part of the section that picks up the bb, anyway it catches the nov routers so I filed it down, threw in some oil and so far all is well 👍

[Impulse]

I just got home from a really great game day at Worthing Airsoft today. Despite the rain (forecast said it would stop by 10am. It didn't...) the gameplay was really good and the vast majority of players were great as well (some notable exceptions, but we'll get to them ). There weren't that many people today, only about 40(ish?) instead of the usual 70 - 80, because of what I assume is a combination of people tightening their belts for the (expensive) festive period and also the crap weather. Anyway, once again I intended on using the MTW and once again it was sending BBs all over the place, not hopping consistently and just generally being a twat. Off to super5ives that goes because I'm at the end of my rag with it and our local site tech recommended them for MTW work, so I'll get that posted out this week because I just want it to work properly! At least I brought the co2 VSR again, now with a new Tridos TDC installed and it was absolutely amazing. 2.2J on the money and sailing BBs out amazingly well to the 75m and 85m targets, so I went with that and the mk23 again this week.

 

They decided to do smaller games today due to the lower numbers. Usually we'd do one big game that would last all the way to lunch, but with the lower numbers they decided to run a few small games instead and I think it worked well. First two games were essentially a king of the hill game on one of the bases, with teams swapping ends after the first, and I stayed far away from it and covered the flank instead. I was a little late out to the first game as I was finishing up with setting up my kit after the brief as I wasn't entirely sure if I was playing today (first week back at the gym and did a leg workout on Friday so I am sore!), but I got into my usual spot, hit a few players, then the first game was over and we switched ends.

 

Second round I pushed up very aggressively to the point where I was told to move back by one of the marshalls, as he didn't want us to get too close to where their spawn was which was fair enough; I couldn't see or shoot their spawn from where I was, but I would've basically cut off an entire flank by myself if I stayed, so I get why he did it . The issue for me was that this put me in a much weaker spot, but I made it work out. A wave of players pushed up without knowing I was there and so I took the two front ones out with my mk23 and then the rear one with the VSR as he was trying to come in to medic his friend; I'm really starting to like this mk23 again. They came back and I hit them again, sniping one of them out on the approach, but he got pulled behind the barricade and medic'd. This time they had a good idea where I was so I fell back a little. Got another with the mk23 and then some questionable hit calling from another as he then gave out a bit of full-auto to my face, so I called it and I headed off back to respawn. The marshall who was about was on it though and gave the player a poke about being too trigger happy with his full-auto up close, but these things happen.

 

Didn't manage to do much more after this as I got back up into a position, but didn't get any targets and then it was game over. Our team lost both of these games quite handily, so for the third game they swapped a few players to make the teams more even, and it led to a fantastic third game, though first I had to head to the safe zone to get something dry to try and dry off my scope, as I couldn't see through it at this stage with all the rain making it wet!

 

Third game was a "gold rush" game, where there was a marshall with a box of gold bars in the central Tower base, defended by a juggernaut with a rubber sword and a load of grenades, and one of the other marshalls in the top of the tower who would shoot anyone who looked a bit too aggressive. Each team had a case which we had to get into the Tower, so we could take one gold bar and take it back to our respawn (I think? I wasn't listening admittedly, because I knew I wasn't getting anywhere near that with my setup).

 

I set up in my favourite spot that watches down the main path leading along the side of the Tower base, with my friend set up in his spot that watches the arc to my left, while I'm covering his right; with a field to my right, where we set up we had an absolutely deadly crossfire and I was rewarded with one of those "this is why I play sniper" games. I got so many people trying to push up that side, and my friend was racking them up to the other side, including the same three from the earlier game. Multiple times. This is where I think tempers started to fray as I noticed this group of players start to not call hits even more. I even had one of them crossing the path trying to medic his friend, so I popped a single mk23 shot into his chest that he flinched from, but kept going, then started medicing his friend so I gave him 2 or 3 shots to the side of the face. He called those ones. One of them at one point tried attacking over where my friend was and started getting irate saying he was shooting my friend in the face and he wasn't taking his hits, but where my friend was he is surrounded by metal, so it's very audible if BBs are landing near him. I didn't even hear his BBs landing near me and I was closer to where he was shooting, so I think it was a classic case of "my gun can shoot 70m!" when in reality it was dropping at about 50m.

 

I spoke to the marshall about these players and he said he knew and he was on it, so the marshalls today were clearly on point with any iffy gameplay and I assume they had a word with the offending players. That was the last game for me and my friend though. We were both absolutely drenched, scopes were impossible to see through again so I had an early lunch and then took the afternoon trying to sort guns out (as that was what I was thinking about doing anyway with my soreness and the weather being shit).

 

MTW was still being a shit, so I moved onto the SRS and got that all set up nicely with the Stalker stuff, but that took a while. No hop it was 2.1J. With hop it shot up to 2.5J. Then I extended the airbrake in a bit and it was 1.5J. Then I changed the weight and it was 1.3J. The I took the airbrake in and it was 2.4J. Basically, it took aaaaaaaaaaages of me tweaking it, but I finally got it between 2.1 - 2.2J so that's where I left it. By this time, the day was basically over, so we packed up there and now I need to get all my kit to dry!

 

Anyway, fantastic day at Worthing. Great games, great players (mostly), great marshalls, so it was great even though the weather was awful  

[Colin Allen]

Today saw the great AFUK meet-up at Battle Lakes on a very wet day.

In total, there were 15 players, five of whom were AFUK members.

In all honesty, the safezone was not great, with the only cover being three quite small ex-military tents with hardly any seats, very little table space and no lighting; it was very dark inside them.  Free tea and coffee making facilities were available and lunch, which was either a cheeseburger or a plain burger, could be booked on arrival.

After chronoing and a concise but complete briefing, we set off for the morning game.  In this, our team had to locate six large cylinders that were spread across the site and transport them to the locations written on them.  The other team had to prevent us doing this and, once a cylinder was at its location, they could steal it and transport it to the Pig Pen, from where we could attempt to steal it back and return it to its rightful home.  There was also a suitcase, which had some role in the game, but I have no idea what as I was focussed on the cylinders.  This was a really good game, which saw both teams operating aggressively across the site, patrolling, ambushing each other, searching for cylinders, stealing and reclaiming cylinders and generally having great fun in the heavy rain.  We mounted a couple of raids on the Pig Pen to recover stolen cylinders.  I have no idea who won the game, but that does not really matter; great play and having some great moments are far more important, and there were plenty of both.  Unfortunately, at one point, I did manage to misidentify and shoot a fellow AFUKer on our team; however, I did then medic him!

Returning to the safe zone for lunch, I found that the site cat had taken over my open gun bag and was curled up on it.  After lunch, we went out to play a domination game; there were three points to control by raising a flag of your team's colour, these being the Village, the Comms Tower and the MG Nest.  For me, this game was slightly less satisfying than the morning one, but was still good fun, with some good firefights throughout; we held all three locations for most of the game, but the other team came back strongly towards the end, at one point controlling all three locations.  However, we retook the Village and the Comms Tower and held them until the end.  My personal high point of the game was shooting @Jez_Armstrong, who had abandoned marshalling to play for the other team; however, he shot me a little later.

Overall, it was a really good day of airsoft in some horrible weather, with the morning game being particularly good.  It was good to be able to put faces to some names and to find that two of us live very close to each other, and to meet up with Tony, the site manager, again.  I was a player and a marshal at Battle Lakes back in the day and enjoyed Tony's approach to running an airsoft site.

Quite a few improvements have been made to the site since the last time I was there about 18 months ago and Tony has plans and materials to continue improving it.

Based on today's experience, I will definitely be going back.  It would be good to see more players at the site as it is a good day's play.  However, the safe zone really needs upgrading.

Weapons used:
SRC MP5A2 (Heavily upgraded, only the externals are SRC)
KA PDW
ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

Best thing of the day: apart from meeting other AFUKers, this has to be my DPM windproof combat smock, which kept most of me dry and warm all day.



 

[Tackle]

Gutted to have missed this, my attendance was always going to be difficult due to carer commitments to a close relative that have become complicated recently, but I was remaining optimistic that I'd at least manage the morning with you guys.

 

But as usual the proverbial brown stuff hit the spinny thing, late yesterday afternoon I took a massive faceplant on concrete, & broke my left wrist😭.

 

Not my dominant hand but still concerns me, I'm used to swapping hands when I get to 99 ? 🤓

[Colin Allen]

59 minutes ago, Tackle said:

Gutted to have missed this, my attendance was always going to be difficult due to carer commitments to a close relative that have become complicated recently, but I was remaining optimistic that I'd at least manage the morning with you guys.

 

But as usual the proverbial brown stuff hit the spinny thing, late yesterday afternoon I took a massive faceplant on concrete, & broke my left wrist😭.

 

Not my dominant hand but still concerns me, I'm used to swapping hands when I get to 99 ? 🤓

Shit!  I hope it heals rapidly and perfectly.

[LMKipper]

Echo everything @Colin Allen said - even the bit when he shot me in the ear 🤣. You're right though, a covered safezone would have made a world of difference today.

 

Morning game was really roving, all over the site and some good firefights. Like Colin says, no idea who won but I really didn't care by the end. I actually explored some bits of the site I'd never seen before. It really is a huge place and even after three visits, I still go down the wrong path. 

 

Afternoon game was good but struggled a bit in the middle - I think a couple of the non-bands went home early (likely the weather), which really robbed their team of momentum. To fix it, I was swapped onto the non-bands for the last hour or so of the game along with @Jez_Armstrong, which meant I got to shoot some fellow AFUKers (slightly more legitimately ). It's a really great site run by some good folk and I'd love to see it succeed.

 

The real highlight for me though, came after endex. I was chatting to a regular sniper last time I went, that there was something I'd always missed from my collection. Today, he mentioned that he'd given it some thought and since he had two, he'd sell me one. I'm picking it up on Wednesday with a photo essay to follow but for now let's say it will make @Impulse a little jealous!

[Colin Allen]

20 minutes ago, LMKipper said:

The real highlight for me though, came after endex. I was chatting to a regular sniper last time I went, that there was something I'd always missed from my collection. Today, he mentioned that he'd given it some thought and since he had two, he'd sell me one. I'm picking it up on Wednesday with a photo essay to follow but for now let's say it will make @Impulse a little jealous!

Well, that's a bonus!

[LMKipper]

1 minute ago, Colin Allen said:

Well, that's a bonus!

Not for my bank balance 🥲

[Colin Allen]

33 minutes ago, LMKipper said:

Not for my bank balance 🥲

But it is for your happiness.

[VictorFourTwo]

42 minutes ago, Colin Allen said:

But it is for your happiness.

Happiness is a well stocked toy gun room 

[Anonymoose]

10 minutes ago, VictorFourTwo said:

Happiness is a well stocked toy gun room 

 

And inversely a very slim bank balance..

[ButcherBill]

29 minutes ago, VictorFourTwo said:

Happiness is a well stocked toy gun room

100% agree.