The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread

[Speedbird_666]

15 minutes ago, C-Diddy said:

Interesting. Iirc we live in the same part of the world, and I'm looking for alternatives to Ground Zero without having to go too far. Spec Ops was a possibility. 

 

Indeed - I think I'm only 15 or so minutes from you IIRC (I'm in Christchurch).

 

There is definitely some fun to be had there, and there seems to be quite a number of 'regulars' attending. Perhaps my standards are too high....

 

Some things I noted:

- Car park is too small - get there early to get a spot.

- The 'facilities' consist of a Portacabin and a single Portaloo (with a dodgy door). Food options were Hotdogs or Chilli Con Carne.

- No card payments. Had no idea until we rocked up (can't find it on the website), but they will take PayPal.

- The game areas I played felt tired and a bit unloved. Some covered pallets pitched here and there, a few broken structures that have never been fixed. Yes, there are a couple of 'features' on the fields i.e. a tyre fort thing and the trenches, but GZ has much better quality playable buildings and individual game zones etc. I like the terrain more than GZ though, especially the 'Dark Woods' area of the site. 

- The site is great for sniping.

- The games are around an hour long with four played yesterday, which leads me to.....

- Takes a lot of ammo/mags/batteries - I used more BBs yesterday than my last two playing days put together.

- I like the rolling 25-pace fallback re-spawn. It kept the pace up for both attackers (unlimited lives) and defenders (2 lives).

 

I would say give it a go and see what you think. I'm going to try Bravo Romeo next - it's only a mile or so further up the road from Spec Ops.

 

 

 

 

[C-Diddy]

30 minutes ago, Speedbird_666 said:

 

Indeed - I think I'm only 15 or so minutes from you IIRC (I'm in Christchurch).

 

There is definitely some fun to be had there, and there seems to be quite a number of 'regulars' attending. Perhaps my standards are too high....

 

Some things I noted:

- Car park is too small - get there early to get a spot.

- The 'facilities' consist of a Portacabin and a single Portaloo (with a dodgy door). Food options were Hotdogs or Chilli Con Carne.

- No card payments. Had no idea until we rocked up (can't find it on the website), but they will take PayPal.

- The game areas I played felt tired and a bit unloved. Some covered pallets pitched here and there, a few broken structures that have never been fixed. Yes, there are a couple of 'features' on the fields i.e. a tyre fort thing and the trenches, but GZ has much better quality playable buildings and individual game zones etc. I like the terrain more than GZ though, especially the 'Dark Woods' area of the site. 

- The site is great for sniping.

- The games are around an hour long with four played yesterday, which leads me to.....

- Takes a lot of ammo/mags/batteries - I used more BBs yesterday than my last two playing days put together.

- I like the rolling 25-pace fallback re-spawn. It kept the pace up for both attackers (unlimited lives) and defenders (2 lives).

 

I would say give it a go and see what you think. I'm going to try Bravo Romeo next - it's only a mile or so further up the road from Spec Ops.

 

 

 

 

That's right, I remember now. 

 

Great feedback with some very handy tips; lack of card facilities being a massive one as I rarely ever have actual cash now. Got to wonder why this is the case with various operators now. I get that it's often reliant on phone signal, but come on, post-Covid (Covid's ended now, right?) who uses cash as primary currency now?

 

I may well head that way in a couple of months as I need a break from GZ. It's convenient and generally a good experience, but it's all getting a bit samey now, and, as you say, the terrain is a bit of a PIA. The foliage is so dense as to be unpassable for all but the scrawniest of speedy bois! 

 

Good shout on Bravo Romeo at Bere. Forgot about them. 

 

 

[TheFull9]

Something I learned starting my own little side business designing and drop-shipping gear recently is how fees factor in; I actually had to quickly up the price on my own product a few $ shortly after release when I totally forgot to factor in card fees to my costs.  From what I've read over the years, airsoft sites don't make much profit margin and that's in a business that's mostly charged cash since it started (that's only really changed some places in the past couple of years).  When you suddenly lose around 3-5% of the money you take in (maybe more for these remote payment kiosks) that starts to make things pretty tight indeed.

 

Obviously it can take time, maybe petrol, to pay cash in to the bank but generally I'd wager sites save a good bit on operating cost by being paid cash by players.  I know if I had the option to pay £1-3 or so less per game for cash rather than card I'd take it every time.

[GeorgePlaysAirsoft]

On 18/04/2022 at 16:42, Speedbird_666 said:

I went to Spec Ops Blox for the first (and probably last) time yesterday.

 

Meh. Not amazing but not terrible - I expected better facilities and fields from a site that's been around for so long. Staff were friendly enough though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This set off a bit of a walk down memory lane for me. I was playing at spec ops before it became spec ops - at the time mr spec ops ran the games at Ground Zero and spec ops was an invite only all day long proto-battlesim type thing. No hicaps seemed like such a big deal then and I spent loads of money on TM standard mags cause it was either them or the Star "realcaps". Mad to think midcaps weren't invented yet.  Fond memories of ruining my jetboil by using it to make pepperami instant noodles. I also helped build some of the first structures there. I also lost my USP on its first game which sucked but a guy cheered me up by doing a peter griffin impression. This must of been in 2006-7 or so. Funny to know they still do hotdogs and chilli con carne as that was the menu all those years ago. I went again I think 2014 or so hoping to meet aforementioned mr spec ops but he wasn't there rip. There were rumours that there were abandoned houses out in the woods, there was also a supposed sighting of the "beast of bloxworth" and also during a night game, a ufo. We never did come across any of these houses but I note that the site down the road does have one. So maybe there was a beast of bloxworth after all...

[MAX DICKER]

On 18/04/2022 at 18:42, C-Diddy said:

who uses cash as primary currency now?

 

 

Tax dodgers like me

[Tackle]

1 hour ago, MAX DICKER said:

Tax dodgers like me

My local (very expensive) chippie also will only accept cash, been doing it for about 3 years, back then he had 1 shop, he's just opened his fourth & his cousin told me last week that he's planning on buying himself a Bentley ffs. 

 

Mind you, they'll take it all off him when they catch up with him. 

[RostokMcSpoons]

My airsoft day has gone very badly. 

 

I got all my kit together over the last few days, including rebuilding my F2000 with a new 14 tooth piston, and it seemed to be shooting pretty well, so I had 5 guns to take for the day.  New set of Lonex flash mags in my mag pouches.  And I woke up this morning to sunshine.  Marvelous! 

 

Drove to the site to be greated with an empty car park and not a sign of life.  Did I turn up a day early?  Nope, it's been cancelled and I'd missed the email 😬🙁😂

 

The local council has blocked use of the woods for airsoft.  Bastards!  I need to pew pew! 

[Guest Mr. No_Face]

Well as expected we got back home after a night out and several alcoholic beverages at a around 3.00am. Gameday morning hits and nobody's answering their phones, nobody shows up at the event.... It's just me and big bro.🤷‍♂️ Well with that being said I'd like to congratulate myself for showing up with no sleep, no food and slightly hungover. 

 

Anyway, Game day harboured some pretty epic results for my TM CQBR block 1 and the angry gun nozzle. Only 2 minor jams and was hitting targets from absurd ranges that left me baffled. It was certainly a shock to see player hands go up from down field. 

I opted to play a defensive and super conservative style opposed to my typical aggressive style, just sitting back and patrolling areas whilst looking down my 4x Acog. Sometimes I wouldn't even fire a single shot for the first half of the games since I had to make my three "35" round mags last.

Got some awesome compliments about running a GBBR. "He's playing airsoft on hard mode" < - I need a patch of this, somebody make it happen lol. I was the GBBR guy for once which was pretty damn cool. It was also interesting to see so many players say they are looking to get into them as opposed to running AEGs. 

 

Besides that, player hitting taking was overall pretty good. However there were some slightly annoying issues with over shooting from the enemy team which had multiple players making remarks including myself. I don't typically lash out after being overshot, but coming off a hangover and with no sleep or food left me angsty and more irritable. I mean I'd raise my hand and call out loudly "HIT", I keep my hand raised clearly whilst repeating "dead man walking" But the enemy team would continuously keep shooting until I walked out of sight. So yeah, a lot of "F-bombs" and "C U Next Tuesdays" left my mouth. Still a pretty decent experience and as usual I'm continuously learning of ways to improve my performances and making amendments to my loadout and gear. All of this would've been better if my squad actually turned up though. 👍

 

So what did I learn? 

• Magnified Acogs are probably not a good idea with GBBRs with heavy recoil as I'd constantly lose sight of my target after every shot. But this is probably a disciplinary issue on my end, just not having developed the muscle memory to prepare for the recoil and properly stabilize after years of running AEGs.
• Get a better quick release rise mount, as the recoil would keep knocking the entire mount along with the optic off after a while.
• My m4 pouches suck. Dropping mags all over the place and the retention has completely gone. So pretty much will be binned

 

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by Mr. No_Face

[Skara]

Good to see you guys are having fun!

 

My day never started, yesterday I destroyed my chrono by letting a 30rps burst onto its screen and today we had to cancel the game because of heavy rain (and because people are pussies).

 

On a positive note, I now have some time to sort the tournament M4 (1.05J, need to knock off one more tooth from the sector to bring it below 1) and start figuring out what I'll be carrying on the upcoming 21h event.

[Skullchewer]

Well, today's game at Reforger turned into a bit of an impromptu AFUK day out.

Arranged to meet up with @GAMBLE and @Honey Badger 63, then before the morning brief we bumped into @Floperatorand @Keldon

 

Was a great day, slightly marred by some dickish behaviour from the other team. For example Gamble getting full auto in the back of the neck at very close range, Ramon getting full auto in the goggles while he had his hand up (Marshall witnessed this and went ballistic), but otherwise a really fun day at a great site, with a bunch of tossers I would definitely play with again.

Edited April 27, 2022 by Skullchewer
Typo

[colinjallen]

The lad and I toddled off to Tower Airsoft and had another good day there.  As a site, it is nothing fancy, being a smallish site with a village, a bridge, a castle and a church among the trees.

 

However, it seems to attract a good group of players (about 40 today), is well organised and really well marshalled by the Camo team, and has a great safe zone.

 

The games were simple but engaging and I did rather enjoy taking out the same ghillie suited sniper three times over the day; the little LR300 has a surprisingly long range.

 

We will be off to another site next weekend, before the lad returns to university for his exams and some OTC activities.

[Floperator]

42 minutes ago, Skullchewer said:

Well, today's game at Reforger turned into a bit of an impromptu AFUK day out.

Arranged to meet up with @GAMBLE and Ramon (sorry dude, I can't remember your forum name!), then before the morning brief we bumped into @Floperatorand @Keldon

 

Was a great day, slightly marred by some dickish behaviour from the other team. For example Gamble getting full auto in the back of the neck at very close range, Ramon getting full auto in the goggles while he had his hand up (Marshall witnessed this and went ballistic), but otherwise a really fun day at a great site, with a bunch of tossers I would definitely play with again.

Yep, great day out. Did you get any video?

I'll definitely be making Reforger my regular venue, at least while the weather is so good. Could do with some more covered area in the safe zone, but the regulars seemed to have it figured out with folding chairs and tables so they could work out of their cars.

Marshal staff seemed to be pretty on the ball, and the free bottled water was very welcome.

 

On a personal level I had a good time with my kit setup, everything was comfortable (those mesh gillie suits are great) and worked for me, and I didn't have any technical issues. The second battery for the M4 ran out in literally the last 10 seconds of the last game just as the other team rushed our position in a mad last charge - cue a mad scrabble at my holster and some panicky pistol fire 🙃

[Impulse]

Bittersweet weekend for me. I'll start with the negative, because there's only one thing (but it was pretty major). The VSR managed to tear its hop rubber. I swapped the suppressor and threaded adapter for the original end cap (no other changes and it was shooting perfectly two weeks earlier when I last used it), and it managed to push the barrel in or something which then caused the rubber to tear and fold in on itself from the barrel side and all along the contact patch, meaning it wasn't hopping at all. I originally thought it was clipping the end cap, but I was wrong. I've put the suppressor back on and will just scrim it up next time I go to a Vietnam game so it's not on show, because I'm not using that end cap ever again!

 

However, let's move onto the many many positives. Vietnam airsoft was fun as all hell. I had to do it with my £130 AEG m14 build that I brought as a backup because my VSR died as I said above, but it was a lot of fun bouncing the GIs all through Saturday. From what I gathered from the other guys I went with, VC/PAVN are usually pretty badly outnumbered and usually means they die horribly, but this game was balanced as the guy who organised it refused to sell more US tickets until VC/PAVN numbers went up. As a result, we absolutely hammered them through Saturday (though I don't know how it ended on Sunday as I could only do the one day). Favourite part was a bit of escape and evasion I had to do after the GIs managed to push us out of a fort (well, the team took a prisoner and fell back from the position), leaving me lying completely still in a concealed position as the GIs were all around me. Managed to take a few out on the approach with the m14, then a few up close with the 1911, but I then just had to lie totally silent as they took my friend captive as I couldn't take them all on by myself. Managed to avoid detection, waiting for a gap in their patrols before making my escape back to base. Real heart-pumping, adrenaline fuelled fun and the moments I absolutely love, being a traditional bush wookiee.

 

I did almost get into a fight though, for the first time in my 16 years of airsoft. Some GIs marched into our base and demanded our objectives, completely ignoring the morning briefing where it was explicitly stated that our base couldn't be attacked and therefore we couldn't bring any of our objectives there, instead carrying them with us in the field. When I told him this, he said he didn't care and that I was now his prisoner, so I shot him point blank and said that I wasn't; there were no bang kills and I never accepted any surrender. I then got lit up full auto by his teflon-coated friend, that I shot with the m14 as well, with an m16 at about 5m away (it was also a semi-only game outside of support guns) and we finally managed to get them to leave, though the other guy who was with me was prodding him with a stick, calling him a little boy and telling him to walk away and such because he was acting like a baby. He turned around and looked like he was about to start swinging, but I think one of the other US guys talked him out of it and they finally left. I thought it was all very amusing, personally; being a chonky 6'5 martial artist I wasn't really that scared if he did start swinging. Absolute man-baby hours and fortunately the only episode I experienced in the day 🤣. Most of the US guys I spoke to were great guys!

 

Didn't play much today though. I was exhausted from sneaking all over Gunman Eversley Alpha all Saturday and had very little sleep over the weekend because of timings and discomfort while camping on-site on Friday, plus it was today where I found out my VSR hop rubber was torn and that, combined with the tiredness, just made me say "screw it, I can't be bothered". Ordered two new rubbers (will test between 80 and 85 degree Maple Leaf silicone autobots). Shout out to all the PAVN/VC guys at Eversley over the weekend, you were wonderful to fight alongside and we worked really well as a team (especially whoever had that damned whistle. The charges were glorious!). Shout out to most of the US guys too, especially the Hawaiian guys who finally dug me out of my position while I was harassing one of your bases in the afternoon. You guys were a class act and it was a pleasure to play against you.

[PopRocket123]

Bit of a mixed bag today. A lot of frustration and things not working properly and games being a bit messy. It started off promising with everything working at chrono but then I immediately ran into issues out on the field. The AK was misfeeding and double feeding and hopping really inconsistently so I wasn't having much luck with it. Then it started acting like the battery was dead so I went back to the safezone when it started working again randomly. Tried the sniper but I think I need to clean the barrel as the accuracy was atrocious. I carried on anyway but I was shooting a lot and not hitting much. Went back to the AK after lunch and nursed it through the rest of the day. I started to have a better time until I lost a pistol mag. Especially annoying as I'd planned on upgrading from the viper tacos soon anyway but too late now. The actual kit I was using was great besides the pistol mag pouches. My FRV belt and WAS RPC were solid and super comfortable all day and the rubber tacos held the am mags in really well and got some good pictures. 

[Rogerborg]

Pretty darn good day at Area-66 on Saturday despite the usual paucity of marshals.  The site was packed, but it was all good natured and generally fair.  Nice weather, decent briefs - using a whiteboard, even - and well thought out games.

 

A couple of rental hoodies playing in God Mode, and the usual DMR flexible interpretations of "one in the air", but otherwise great stuff.  It was particular nice to see some bush wookies acknowledge hits at extreme range when the BBs must have been just about dropping on them: that always deserves a thumbs up and a thanks.

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

Great day at the same event that @Impulse played at.  Dustoff is the first game weekend on the ever expanding Namsoft calendar.  I couldn’t find the silly black pjs and had to settle for PAVN green and being shot by friendlies three times the first morning.  It did feel good donning the pith helmet again. 

 

Due to the storyline, both teams were pretty evenly matched number wise, which was a Namsoft novelty.  I did wonder if this meant a complete spanking for the US, as the VC usually come away victorious in terms of objectives fulfilled, despite playing two or three to one.  Anyhow…

 

Saturday started on time, and consisted of much more of a straight infantry skirmish than the usual VC guerrilla stuff.  Attacking The Wall, I was hit with more grenades than I have ever seen thrown in my life.  Honestly, I was hit by BBs and then about seven MKVs.  On the second or third rush, someone started chucking orange (incendiary) smokes too.  It was hilarious fun, if noisy.  It later transpired that someone had put a box of pyro at the base of the wall to sell, and in the heat of the moment the lot got used by over eager players.  I expect the would be entrepreneur will punt them in the car park next year.  Or I heard another tall airsoft tale.  We’ll never know.  

 

The afternoon produced a series of attacks on the hilltop bases held by Aussie and US players.  These were accompanied by much whistle blowing and charging like loons up slopes with sparse cover.  I had been using an AK, but the full on style attack had me reaching for my trusty RPK.  The rules only allowed full auto for support weapons, so the suppressive fire that the RPK gave was useful. 

 

Sunday proved the maxim that all plans fall apart in the face of the enemy.  The carefully worked out fall back game turned into the US really getting it all spot on and outflanking us until the two US forces met in a pincer movement.  We got completely hammered, although we did put up a lot of resistance at the beginning.  I got the RPK set up on high ground with a mate, and held out until the inevitable happened and the GIs got within pyro throwing distance.   

 

TBH, I enjoy these games so much that I don’t mind missing skirmishes and the like for weeks on end if work etc gets in the way.  The storylines and high standard of gameplay are great.  The social side of things is brilliant too.  It’s a proper weekend away in Victor Book for Boys fantasy land, with industrial quantities of BBs through the support weapons, stupid amounts of pyro being thrown, and a huge amount of beer. 

 

Anyhow, being evenly matched didn’t suit us and we lost for the first game in ages, if memory serves.  In any case it hardly matters as I had a great weekend and am all set for the next in May. 

 

Du ban GI!

[MAX DICKER]

Had a cracking day at strikeforce Gloucester on Sunday. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea because of all the HPA speedybois, but the frentic in your face non stop action suits me. Didn't get shot in the face too much for a change lol.

 

Highlight of the day was tug of war which was played just before lunch, out team absolutely steamrolled the other team and pushed them right back all the way around the site.

 

I also used the opportunity to practice switching shoulders. Firing from my left shoulder is something I've basically never done until recently which is partly why I get so much use out of my pistol as its always been easier for me to switch to that than to change shoulders. The ferro slingster has made a massive difference.

Edited April 26, 2022 by MAX DICKER

[Rogerborg]

3 hours ago, MAX DICKER said:

tug of war [...] pushed them right back

 

You were... pushing rope? 🤔

 

 

3 hours ago, MAX DICKER said:

I also used the opportunity to practice switching shoulders.

 

This is actually the only bit of airsoft "training" that I'm minded to work on.  I'm still at the stage of instinctively closing my left eye then wondering why I can't see through the sights.  Race ya!

[MAX DICKER]

7 minutes ago, Rogerborg said:

 

You were... pushing rope? 🤔

 

You kinda just have to thumb it in 😉

 

Me goofing around....  ahem... "training":

 

 

[Keldon]

On 24/04/2022 at 18:35, Skullchewer said:

Well, today's game at Reforger turned into a bit of an impromptu AFUK day out.

Arranged to meet up with @GAMBLE and Ramon (sorry dude, I can't remember your forum name!), then before the morning brief we bumped into @Floperatorand @Keldon

 

Was a great day, slightly marred by some dickish behaviour from the other team. For example Gamble getting full auto in the back of the neck at very close range, Ramon getting full auto in the goggles while he had his hand up (Marshall witnessed this and went ballistic), but otherwise a really fun day at a great site, with a bunch of tossers I would definitely play with again.

 

 

Had a great day at Reforger and even better to randomly meet so many AFUK members. 

 

Got to try out my new DMR by Luke of Negative Airsoft and had a blast in the morning with it performed excellently. Was fun going on the left flank having that little more range watching those bbs falling short and taking out the shooters until that other sniper/DMR would fire back ha ha. That's what you get trying to flank in the open I guess. 

 

Changed up for the afternoon to normal AEG again had a blast was some great fun. Though I did underestimate how many bbs I would go through and only just had enough spare on me in the field to resupply all but my highcap mag. 

 

Even went down to my pistol in the capture the flag game(defending). Though was great that I was able to to stop 2 captures with said pistol one with the last shot of magazine. Then was killled during mag change. 

 

The last game enjoyed the 25min rest we managed to have ha ha. How they didn't spot me on that final push I have no idea. 

 

But was a very enjoyable day and a great place to play as a sniper or DMR player as proved by the number of them who showed up. 

 

Oh by the way @Skullchewer that's a great pic of the AFUK patch in action you should get one😁

[Skullchewer]

57 minutes ago, Keldon said:

Oh by the way @Skullchewer that's a great pic of the AFUK patch in action you should get one

Ha! As you well know, I've bloody tried, twice! Both times royal mail have apparently binned them.

I've messaged Profink about trying for a third time.

On 24/04/2022 at 19:35, Floperator said:

Yep, great day out. Did you get any video?

I did indeed, not as much as I'd have liked as I was too hot, and kept talking my helmet off, so I got lots of great footage of trees and grass, but the rest of it I pulled together what I could....

 

 

[Floperator]

3 hours ago, Keldon said:

The last game enjoyed the 25min rest we managed to have ha ha. How they didn't spot me on that final push I have no idea.

 

Were you on the right flank with me and a few others in the holly bushes?

We had that nicely sewn up 😎Basically did to them what they did to us in the first game!

[Keldon]

2 hours ago, Floperator said:

 

Were you on the right flank with me and a few others in the holly bushes?

We had that nicely sewn up 😎Basically did to them what they did to us in the first game!

I was further behinds you but directly behind the objective I really blended in well with the tree I was behind in my blue top/grey trousers and sandy cap ha ha 

[SussexMatt]

Good first game out for a few years today at Driver Wood. Nice to have a chat to a few people and not feel like too much of a loner after turning up on my tod. 

 

Didn't expect to see quite so much camo and as many guys who have spent a fortune on kit. I was rocking a hoodie and my old helikon greyman jeans. Much prefer having mags in pockets to some slightly walty chest rig, that said I could have done with somewhere to carry some fluids. 

 

Was gutted my newest acquisition didnt feed in the chrono (bastard worked fine when I got home) but the Tippmann performed solidly all day despite the charging handle catch falling off after about 30s of being out of the bag (fortunately it does nothing on the Tippmann AEGs)

 

Game ran all morning, 09.00-12.00 long slog but a massive game, 35 acres and we had 180 players in the game today. Did alright got some very clean hits in, didnt die much, TBH I was being quite cautious and hanging back supporting. 

 

Cant believe how knackered I was after, drenched in sweat, checked my fitness tracker, burned 2500 cals over the morning, went home for a second sleep. Glass of wine and a movie this evening then. 👍

[colinjallen]

The lad and I spent today at Airsoft Plantation; it was my third visit and his first.

It was very busy; 250 players turned up, which raised some concerns about how the site would cope with such numbers.  It is a big site, but that is a lot of players!

However, it worked really well; the site did not feel crowded and there was still plenty of room for flanking manoeuvres and lots of little individual combats.  The games were well thought out, challenging for both sides, and interesting.  Hit taking seemed pretty much spot on and the games flowed well.

Credit must go to the marshals for making the day work so well and to the other players, especially the poor chap who fell in the pond and then had to go back in to rescue his rifle.