Issue 14 - Oct 2012

ACTION

THE Airsoft Magazine

AIRSOFT ACTION

HUGE CAM

COMPETI O TION PR IZE WORT

£2,500!

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POST-APOCALYPSE

FILMSIM

WASTELANDER STIRLING IN

OCTOBER 2012

BERGET X: FINAL STRIKE

RACEGUNS EXPLAINED

AIRSOFT ELITE GLASGOW

Matt Furey-King reports What they are, what they do Baz Collins checks out a from the frontlines of Sweden and why – Arclight enlightens 'new' site outside Glasgow

Halo mill training ❱ Viper boots on test ❱ Aim top svd ❱ (very) young guns AA_001_Cover_Rev2AP.indd 1

OCTOBER 2012 - £4.25

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CONTENTS AIRSOFT ACTION – OCTOBER 2012

6 9 Editor: Nigel Streeter Assistant editor: Anthony Platt Graphic Design: Steve Dawson Art director: Chris Sweeney Ad design: Anna Makwana Advertising: Toni Cole Operations director: James Folkard Assistant publisher: Ruth Burgess Publisher: Wesley Stanton

Full UK 12-issue subscription rate: £59.40 For overseas prices visit: www.airsoftactionmagazine.com

Blaze Publishing, Lawrence House, Morrell Street Leamington Spa.Warwickshire. CV32 5SZ Tel: 01926 339808 Fax: 01926 470400 E: info@blazepublishing.co.uk W: www.blazepublishing.co.uk © Blaze Publishing Limited, 2012

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READERS’ GALLERY YOUR CHANCE TO GET YOUR FACE IN THE MAGAZINE AIRSOFT NEWS AWEOME NEW CQB SITE, KWA TRADE NEWS – AND RATTY’S A DADDY! REVIEW: WE M14 RA-TECH JAY SLATER HAS A SERIOUS SOFT-SPOT FOR THIS SOUPEDUP GAS BLOWBACK RIFLE COMPETITION LAST CHANCE TO ENTER OUR CAMO COMPETITION! EVENT: BERGET X MATT FUREY-KING REPORTS FROM BERGET X FINAL STRIKE (VERY) YOUNG GUNS HOW DO WE INTRODUCE YOUNG CHILDREN TO AIRSOFT? HALO MILL RON MAHONEY CHECKS OUT A BESPOKE TRAINING FACILITY FOR AIRSOFTERS

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RACEGUNS ARCLIGHT EXPLAINS PRACTICAL PISTOLS COLD WAR WARRIORS TROUBLE’S BREWING AS GADGE LOOKS AT BRITISH INFANTRYMEN IN N IRELAND ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE OSCAR PLUMMER BRAVES UNDEAD-INFESTED TUNNELS SKIRMISH CUP JIM SIDROY REPORTS ON SKIRMISH AIRSOFT’S RECENT COMPETITION FILMSIM: WASTELANDER II COVER STAR GADGE RETURNS FROM A SUCCESSFUL FILMSIM ADVENTURE BILLY BASICS: STIRLING DAVID STIRLING, SAS FOUNDER, CAPTURES BILLY’S IMAGINATION EVENT: STIRLING IN SPAIN OP: MARLBOROUGH SAW SCOTT ALLAN BATTLE IN MADRID

Distribution: Distributed to the newstrade by Comag Magazine Marketing, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QE T: 01895 433 800 Copyright © Blaze Publishing Limited 2012. All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the express permission of the publishers in writing. The opinions of the writers do not necessarily reflect those of the publishers. The editor reserves the right to edit submissions prior to print.

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KIT TEST: VIPER BOOTS NIGE CHECKS OUT VIPER’S NEW LIGHTWEIGHT MULTICAM BOOTS REVIEW: AIM TOP SVD HAS AIM TOP’S SVD TOPPED EXPECTATIONS? SKILLS ROOM: VEHICLES PRO TACT’S ANDY N ON FIGHTING FROM VEHICLES AIRSOFT ABROAD THIS MONTH CHARLES DUVAL LOOKS AT AIRSOFT IN FRANCE AIRSOFT ELITE GLASGOW BAZ COLLINS GETS STUCK IN AT AEG, JUST OUTSIDE GLASGOW MEDIA REVIEW ALEX W TAKES A LOOK AT GHOST RECON: FUTURE SOLDIER RIFS: COMMON SENSE COMMON SENSE IS A VALUABLE COMMODITY IN AIRSOFT, ARGUES OSCAR PLUMMER THE SNIPER DAN MILLS ON THE ROLE OF THE PLATOON COMMANDER BOOK SHOP FINISHED THE MAG? FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO READ SITE DIRECTORY FIND SOMEWHERE TO BE NEXT WEEKEND…

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ollowing the recent shooting and subsequent arrest of a man in Surrey, who was carrying an imitation firearm that had been painted black, I have been trying to ascertain under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) just how many offences have been committed where an imitation firearm has been involved.

If you recall, one of the reasons for the banning of imitation firearms in the VCR Act was the supposed sudden increase in the number of crimes being committed involving imitation firearms. My intention was to contrast and compare the numbers from pre-VCRA to those post-VCRA and ascertain the effect (if any) on the level of offences committed with imitation firearms. After nearly five years of this piece of legislation, one would have thought this a very reasonable and responsible thing to do – but not, it would seem, so easy to achieve!

Typically, the response from the police forces I have made an FOI to has been that it is not possible to differentiate between offences where a ‘real’ firearm has been used and those where an imitation firearm was involved. According to Merseyside Police, the only way to do this would be to request the case notes of each individual firearm offence and ascertain whether it was real or imitation from those – something that the 18 hour time allocation under the FOI would not allow.

However, one response in particular throws up the gem that this has only been the case since 2008 (just after the introduction of the VCRA), which strikes me as completely bizarre. Why introduce an Act of Parliament and then make it damn near impossible to find out whether it is being effective?

At the time of writing I am still waiting for responses from a number of forces but, as it stands, it would seem that without a huge amount of resource being thrown at it, there is no simple way to ascertain the effect the VCRA has on the reduction of crimes where an imitation firearm was involved. If anyone has any information or, better still, verifiable figures regarding this, I would be very happy to receive them (nigels@blazepublishing.co.uk).

On a slightly lighter note, it’s our first birthday and I would just like to say a big thanks to everyone who has helped to make Airsoft Action such a stunning success.

My biggest thanks goes to you, the players – without you there would be no airsoft and no Airsoft Action!

Until next time, play safe, play well, play fair.

See you out there!

Nige

Find us on… facebook.com/AirsoftAction

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Letter, idea or question?

Got something to say? A question for our experts? Or an article, or article idea? Drop us a line and let us know. Either email the assistant editor (anthonyp@blazepublishing. co.uk), send us a letter at the Blaze Publishing address on the previous page – or talk to us on Twitter or Facebook.

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READERS’ GALLERY Send your pics into anthonyp@blazepublishing.co.uk and see yourself in the mag – the more the merrier!

balek in Hungary One from our overseas friends – Kenny

Steve Kempton, playing at Xsite The Outpost

Awesome airsoft photo, by Tzanlex

Paul with 5 Sectio n at

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AIRSOFT | NEWS

AIRSOFT NEWS FCS ESSEX ACADEMY OPEN Firefight Combat Simulations (FCS) has opened a massive new CQB venue in Essex.

The FCS Essex Academy in Chelmsford is more than 200,000sq/ft of dormitories (more than 100!), stairwells, large secure vehicle compound, gardens, courtyard, conference halls, cafeteria and more. With access points from the front and rear of the building and a fully-equipped safe zone in a separate building, the Academy is an impressive space for airsoft skirmishes and tactical training.

The pilot skirmish at the Academy was held 5 August and proved successful with players. Game dates are set for the first and third Sunday each month. Walk on fee is £40, with advance bookings costing £35.

The site has ample parking space and is situated very near Chelmsford city centre – ideal for grabbing a pint after a hard day’s skirmishing!

The Essex Academy: Chelmsford, Essex CM3 4AT For more details visit: www.firefight.co.uk

CONGRATULATIONS Regular contributor Ian ‘Ratty’ Armitage welcomed his son, Bodie Michael, into the world on 13 August 2012.

Congratulations to Ratty and Nicky on their new arrival from all at Airsoft Action and Blaze Publishing! How long ‘til Bodie’s out on the field with daddy we wonder?

UKAPU NEWS Work has already begun on preparations for the third UKAPU Annual General Meeting, scheduled for November. All members are given a vote to decide who should be on the UKAPU committee. While work has started on creating agendas and annual reports from existing committee members, there are things that you as a member can prepare.

Firstly, if you have any topics you wish to add to the agenda for discussion by all members then these can be sent through and time will be allocated in the agenda for members to discuss whatever they feel is important.

If you’d like to make a presentation to members on a particular topic then please do get in touch with our chairman or secretary via the website.

Another important part of the AGM is the committee vote. Every position is up for renewal at the AGM and any members aged 18 or over are welcome to stand for nomination. With this in mind, I’d like to inform members that our registrar, Hayden, is due to step down at the next AGM and will not be standing for re-election. We are on the lookout for a passionate and hardworking individual to manage member sign-ups, registration and renewals. If you think you might have the time and dedication to take up this vital role then we would love to hear from you. Names are now being taken for members wishing to stand for election in the 2012-2013 committee so please get in touch with the chairman or secretary via the website if you would like to be considered.

If you have already joined UKAPU, thank you. If you wish to join annual membership costs £5 and is available from our website www.ukapu.org.uk.

Matt Furey-King – UKAPU Chairman

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Huddersfield haven for airsofters A new airsoft venture, HALO Mill, has opened in Huddersfield.

Flick to page 27 for a write up from the opening weekend.

Open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, as well as on Saturdays and Sundays, HALO Mill primarily provides airsoft combat training, though offers everything from skirmish days to practical pistol and firearms training to range shooting.

Operated by the chaps behind Patrol Base, Halo Mill welcomes players at any time, and runs a system of time slots to ensure players pay for what they want. No strict start times

mean players can turn up whenever within the opening hours, undergo a safety brief and get straight into shooting.

Set in a former wool mill in Linthwaite, Huddersfield, HALO Mill is perfect for the airsoft target shooter, or the airsofter short on time. Non-members are welcome to play on site twice before signing up to become a member.

For full details regarding opening times, game types and location visit: www.halomill.com. To book a place call: 01484 840554.

Trade news: KWA distributorship KWA has appointed Defiance Airsoft of Switzerland as its new exclusive distributor for Europe. The distributorship was previously held by Edgar Brothers.

Defiance Airsoft will supply both civilian and law enforcement markets with KWA products. Defiance Airsoft, a division of Defiance Systems, was set up purely to deal with the KWA contract. Defiance Systems works with KRISS USA, sparking some rumours that the deal precedes a European release of the much-anticipated KWA KRISS Vector. At the time of print neither KWA nor Defiance Airsoft had confirmed whether there was any truth in this, however.

Peter Ching, President and CEO of KWA, said: “By working with Defiance Airsoft we are able to bring the same level of service and support to the European markets [as in the US]. This partnership will strengthen our market positions and reach new customers.�

KWA has confirmed that products and parts will be available to European retailers from October 2012, through the official distribution network.

For European dealer inquiries, email: sales@defiance-airsoft.com or visit www.defiance-airsoft.com.

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AIRSOFT | NEWS

NYLON WORX: COMPETITIVE AIRSOFT Nylon Worx held its first RTE Tournament Sunday 19 August – the first airsoft competition of its kind in Scotland.

The competition saw two-man teams go head to head.

A full write-up from the event will follow next issue, but suffice to say that Richard Cairns and Angelo Canale were crowned the first RTE Tournament Champions at Section 8 after a day of intense airsoft combat. They will be the first names added to the Krylon Cup, and also walked away with a WE PX4 pistol. Steve Dodds was crowned man of the match.

Champion Richard Cairns said: “I’ve been in real firefights less intense than some of the matches I played in and watched today! It just goes to prove the level of commitment and effort that players put in to today’s competition.”

If you fancy a shot at the next tournament, keep an eye on Nylon Worx’s Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/ NylonWorx.

SPEED TRIGGERS FOR AK, M4/M16 Following on from the release of its Tunable Blade Trigger for M4/M16 AEGs, SPEED Airsoft has now launched its AK series of triggers.

According to SPEED Airsoft: “The new Tunable Blade Triggers are for those who want their guns to really stand out, but still have the ultimate trigger performance.”

SPEED Tunable Blade Triggers are precision-machined from billet aluminum, using hardened roller pin for a slop-free pull. The Trigger incorporates a setscrew for easy alignment to the trigger switch assembly unit.

SPEED Tunable Triggers are available in silver or black. The AK series triggers will fit V3 gearboxes including G36 and G39 types. At the time of print the UK retail price was not confirmed; in the US it has a guide price of $23 for the M4/M16 and $26 for the AK series.

SPEED Airsoft: www.speedairsoft.com.

For those who saw our previous newspiece about Nylon Worx’s own airsoft site, we have been informed that Nylon is in discussions with local councils to tidy up the last of the red tape. Watch this space…

PATROL BASE SITE OVERHALL Patrol Base’s website – www.patrolbase.co.uk – has had a makeover. It’s now even easier to find what you’re looking for, from airsoft supplies to outdoor equipment.

As such an ‘online’ hobby, the look and feel of a website can play an important part in whether customers choose to shop there. Tokyo Marui, noticeably, has also revamped its website, resplendent with quality photography of its various products.

Unfortunately the lack of any way to change the text language suggests the company hasn’t changed its stance regarding non-domestic customers. Ah well, we can but hope…

Visit www.patrolbase.co.uk.

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WE M14 GBBR RA-TECH LVL 2 It’s cost a fair bit to get it just right, but Jay Slater reckons he’s found the best gas airsoft rifle around

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he opening shot resonates brilliance. With a clang, clack and kapow, the .43g BB spat out of the barrel, hitting its human target more than 100ft away, the nutshot impact delivering a death throe and howl of pain. With the kick of a mule reminiscent of a .22 rifle and an impressive plume of gas venting from its open bolt, this weapon appears to be alive. It’s an airsoft beast with undeniable power, accuracy and the delicious sound of metal against metal.

The WE M14 GBBR remains king, without a doubt the coolest gas airsoft rifle yet.

An iconic weapon as seen in ’Nam busters such as Black Hawk Down and Full Metal Jacket as well as first-personshooters, the M14 was designed after the close of WWII when an American infantry platoon might carry as many as four different weapons – and four types of ammunition. Therefore the US Army asked for a single rifle that could fulfil all roles: the end result was the M14.

Rugged, accurate and with plenty of man-stopping power, the M14 was

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first fielded in 1957 and used the NATO 7.62mm round. The rifle became standard issue until 1970 where it was replaced by the lighter M16. But despite its weight the M14 was much loved by its operators in Vietnam. It is even used today in Middle East hotspots as a reliable sniper rifle where it makes short work of insurgents.

The WE M14 is a work of art and is faithful to the real steel in terms of weight and feel. Heavy for an airsoft rifle at around 11lb, this weapon is panzer joy, eyeball candy and sheer nirvana.

That said, the rifle was to be improved by Ra-Tech, a specialist company based in Taiwan and run by the legendary ‘Boss Johnny’. We like Boss Johnny. The WE M14 GBBR RaTech Lvl.2 is the best gas airsoft rifle bar none for performance, reliability and craftsmanship. Gone are the cheap metal parts and plastic stock. Bought for £495 from Tactical Quartermaster in Croydon, Surrey, the improved rifle includes many Ra-Tech parts such as a 6.03 precision barrel, hop-up rubber,

steel tappet, a real wood stock, a marking part, a real gun function bolt stop system and NPAS (negative pressure air system). Make no mistake: this is the Supermarine Spitfire of airsoft guns.

Ra-Tech and beyond Admittedly too loud as an ideal sniper rifle, the WE M14 is perfect as a designated marksman rifle (DMR) due to its long range, or for snipers who like to be heard. Despite its brilliance, the Ra-Tech version of the M14 has flaws and fails to address inherent design issues. It’s a gas hog. Also, the magazine has to be inserted correctly – a surgically precise procedure – or it will vent green gas/propane. It is therefore an expensive rifle to maintain and use and its realism is a serious disadvantage when competing against the AEG boys and their high-cap magazines. BBs tend to curve at long range until the gun is bedded in and the wooden stock is still cheap and nasty. The grain is fake and the awful varnish coating will scratch easily. And faithful to the real thing, the

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THE ARMOURY | WE M14 RA-TECH magazine holds 20 rounds, although this can be modified to 30 by replacing an internal spring. Lastly, what about those CO2 magazines, Boss Johnny?

But this is where negativity ends.

It’s all about realism. No AEG can touch the feeling you get when shooting the WE M14. The bolt locks back and gas shoots out of the open bolt when firing. The rifle jumps around

like a devilish .22; it’s intimidating physically and its performance is unequalled. Extremely strong and built to take punishment, the rifle is gas efficient (although the less-muscled will find lugging eight or so gassed and armed brick-like magazines in the field a bridge too far).

Another great feature of the Ra-Tech version is the NPAS. Able to shoot at a mighty 550fps, the NPAS allows

power to be increased or decreased and is fully adjustable. To do this, take apart the trigger guard assembly unit and the stock and barrel detach, just like the real rifle. The NPAS can then be modified with a small Allen key, as can the hop-up, although the latter can also be adjusted externally (just pull back the bolt and voila).

To customise the Ra-Tech rifle further I asked Mark Naylor of Tactical Quatermaster to convert it from fullautomatic – firing 11 rounds a second – to a site-friendly 328fps, single-shot only. Of course for those summer days

“It’s all about realism. No AEG can touch the feeling of shooting the WE M14. The bolt locks back and gas shoots out when firing. The rifle jumps around like a devilish .22; it’s intimidating physically and its performance is unequalled”

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THE ARMOURY | WE M14 RA-TECH

“No doubt about it, the WE M14 Ra-Tech Lvl 2 raises the bar to new levels” with astonishment and wonder from airsofters who want their weapon to look its best.

Not only that, the choice of stock varnish will prevent it from wet weather and knocks on the battlefield. Taylor is now taking orders after much interest and offers six coats of Tru-Oil for £80 and 12 coats for £120. To contact, send an e-mail to paul-taylor68@tiscali. co.uk. Trust me, it’s worth every penny and transforms your rifle into a work of exquisiteness.

No doubt about it, the WE M14 Ra-Tech Lvl 2 raises the bar to new levels. In spite of the complexities of gas rifle maintenance and its finicky, temperamental, and venting magazines, this rifle has it all. From its fine-looks and high-quality manufacturing to its power and hitting range, the M14 commands respect. From the insertion of a loaded magazine with a soft click to the pulling back of the bolt with a metal kerching, the WE M14 Ra-Tech Lvl 2 has the precise and devastating punch of a panzerfaust. The best gas airsoft rifle. Ever.

of Stella Artois tin can target practice, the rifle can be tweaked to its maximum power range. At 80ft, a water-filled tin can will be penetrated through both sides with the use of a heavy BB such as .43 or equivalent. Lighter ammunition such as .20s and .25s are not recommended as they will curve due to the immense power propelling them.

Another handy feature is the stock chamber that reveals a shoulder plate, ideal for snipers preparing their killer shot. There’s also is a stock chamber via a metal door that can store whatever – Allen keys, speedloader… Using a scope is recommended for the long-

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range shooter to give you the edge in battle.

Taking stock In an airsoft first I hired a professional to work on the stock and rejuvenate it as a resplendent part of the rifle. On undertaking the services of Paul Taylor, the stock was stripped back to bare wood and then rubbed with wire wool.

The surface was methodically cleaned, rubbed, and cleaned further still. Tru-Oil was applied to the stock, a process that took two weeks from start to finish. The end result is something else and when the M14 is taken to a shoot it is met

WE M14 RA-TECH CONSTRUCTION: Metal; imitation wood LENGTH: 1,130mm WEIGHT: 5,000g POWER SOURCE: Gas blowback (green gas/propane) VELOCITY: ~320fps (standard WE M14) Variable 300-500+fps (Ra-Tech M14 Lvl2) PRICE: £355 (standard) £495 (Ra-Tech M14 Lvl2) WE Ra-Tech M14 Lvl2 available from Tactical Quartermaster.

CONTACT: 0208 665 4646, www.tacticalquartermaster.co.uk

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WIN...WIN...WIN...WIN...WIN...WIN...WIN...

MAMMOTH CAMO COMPETITION This is it folks – last chance to work out what the patterns below are and get your entry in for our Camo Competition. We've extended the deadline printed in last issue to give the stragglers a chance – you have until 24 September to get your entries in.

On the page opposite is a picture of most of the kit up for grabs, which one lucky bugger will take home.

ONE WINNE £2,500 R – PRIZESOF !

Due to the amount of kit the winner must collect prize from the Airsoft Action office.

All you need to do is fill out the entry box at the bottom and mail your answers – plus name, address and the usual – or email your entries to us to competition@blazepublishing.co.uk.

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QUESTION: What are the names of the camouflage patterns above?

1 ___________________

2 ___________________

3 ___________________

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Post your entry to: Camo Competition, Airsoft Action, Blaze Publishing, Lawrence House, Morrell Street, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire CV32 5SZ. Or, email your entries to competition@blazepublishing.co.uk, quoting ‘Camo Competition’ in the headline. Entries received after 24 September will not be valid. One entry per household. Winner will be first correct entry pulled from the editor's hat. Winner will be contacted for clothing sizes, and must collect prize from office (address as above) and consents to the taking of a photograph of them with prize to be published in a subsequent issue.

Blaze Publishing would like to keep you informed of other offers and publications. Please tick here if you would NOT like to be contacted by post or email

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THE ARMOURY | M2000 SNIPER RIFLE

WIN...WIN...WIN...WIN...WIN...WIN...WIN...

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e’ve been building up to it for a year now, but it’s finally time to reveal all… Thanks to all our lovely sponsors at the top of the page for providing prizes throughout the year.

One lucky so-and-so win everything in the picture above (and a few sneaky surprises that we just couldn’t fit into the picture!).

If you don’t know how to play, read the opposite page. For now, here’s a quick rundown of what’s up for grabs…

Thanks again to: ASG, BadgerTac2, Edgar Brothers, JD Airsoft, G&G Armament, Military 1st, Pro Airsoft Supplies, BB Bastard, Airsoft Innovations, 5.11, Custom Sniper Equipment, Camo

Systems, Thatchreed, Tasco, York Guns and Viper Kit! Magpul Masada AKM CQB (black) G&G G96 ASG Franchi SAS 12 Shotgun ASG (KWA) G19 Defcon 5 Vest (olive) Camo Systems Jackal Ghillie Tasco Titan Riflescope Swiss Eye Glasses Viper Multicam Boots ASCU V2 Airsoft Innovations Tornado Grenades (x3!)

5.11 Multicam clothing Viper Spec Ops Top

Custom Sniper Equipment BB Bags (x2!)

TLSFx care package Abbey Supply Co care package Magpul iPhone Case MacWet gloves Blackhawk Holster Olive shemagh ICS hoodie TLSFx polo shirt ASG Ultimate Working Pad ASG 12g CO2 capsules ASG LiPo Battery Pack BB Bastard (2,000x0.2g; 2,000x0.25g) ASG Open Blaster (3,000x0.2g; 3,000x0.25g) ASG Gold Fire (3,000x0.25g) G&G BBs (4,000x0.25g)

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OP BERGET X: FINAL STRIKE It’s been seven years in the making, but the storyline of Swedish MilSim epic, Operation: Berget, has come to a close.

UKAPU’s Matt Furey-King reports from the frontlines

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peration Berget is like nothing you will experience in the UK. For 10 years this annual game has been growing in popularity and scope. Hosted in the vicinity of Harnon Island in Sweden, the event hosted 2,000 players this year.

The terrain is rocky, forested mountains and open grassland, studded with farms, hamlets and lakes. The proximity to the North Pole means it never truly gets dark, and when the skies are clear it is near-impossible to keep track of the time. The heat is intense, the mosquitoes rarely quit and it is liable to rain to the point where tents are washed away.

Combine these factors with the size of the game area (around 1,000 acres), and the fact it runs constantly from Wednesday to Saturday, and you can see that Berget presents Average Joe Airsofter with a formidable challenge.

The dedication of the players makes this event though. Our faction, the army of the fictional country of Poldavia, consisted of 900 men separated into Infantry, Mechanised, Mountaineer, HQ, Psi-Ops and Sapper units,

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with a full chain of command, vehicular transport and radio net. We knew that we’d defend objectives for hours on end, and walk across the whole area, often literally miles from respawn. We knew that we’d probably not see much action.

But being prepared to work hard and stay focussed, trying to maintain the mindset of a real soldier, meant that when it did kick off it was the most intense airsoft combat you would ever experience.

At this 10th anniversary game, the culmination of a seven-year storyline, Poldavia was set to invade neighbouring Zansia. Zansian forces were represented by 240 real-life Finnish mountaineers, and were supported by the 700-strong Northern Alliance Forces (NAF).

After spending the last few years fighting on our own soil, the advantage had swung towards Poldavia and we were now poised on the Zansian border ready to invade. Key to this was a number of nuclear silos; upholding our reputation as Berget’s bad guys, our aim was to rain down nukes on Zansian cities.

Wednesday: Game on After an introduction and briefing, our division set out to eliminate any resistance and hold Devil’s Crossing, a point-scoring bunker not far from the NAF Camp. We were the second Section of 1 Platoon, 15th Sappers. Our section was a band of Portuguese, English, Scottish, German and Norwegian players, mostly veterans of previous Bergets and armed with 450fps support guns, mines, C4 and BAVS grenades.

Despite patrolling forward for four hours without a contact, boredom was far from our minds. Somewhere in the distance was the crackle and boom of artillery fire, rained down on the abandoned village, still shattered from the previous year’s engagement.

Our noise and movement discipline was good as we moved to within 300m of the target. Visibility dropped down to a few metres in the foliage, and we were ready to move from column to an offensive formation.

Suddenly the squad in front of us started taking hits; the chatter of AEG fire erupted

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MILSIM REPORT | OP BERGET

“If we display our replicas in such a manner in the UK someone would panic. Over there, they just accepted that we are playing a game and that we have a right to live and enjoy ourselves. So refreshing!”

International effort: Matt’s section consisted of English, Portugeuse, Scottish, German and Norwegian players

The 15th regrouped and attacked again that night with the support of 3rd Mountaineers and 5th Infantry. Sheer weight of numbers and a superior position (attacking down a rocky mountainside) won out this time; we successfully displaced the enemy from Devil’s Crossing. The 5th stayed back to hold onto the tactical point but there was no time for us to rest; the march home was about four miles. We tabbed back to camp, harassed by occasional raids from enemy mechanised forces mounted in gun-toting off-road vehicles.

We were shattered when we got back to base at 04:00 – but that was only the first evening’s mission, we still had another three days to go!

Thursday: ‘Hold until relieved’ Our objective for the day was to attack, mine and hold the exit road from the NAF camp.

Fortunately we were deployed by truck as the road was on the other side of the game area.

As we were so close to their camp we expected contact, and weren’t disappointed.

Unfortunately 2 section was hit heavily in the opening salvo and we fell back to a swamp overlooking the objective. Like the Paras at Pegasus Bridge we were ordered to ‘hold until relieved’. We made a few daring runs onto the open road to plant mines and placed support guns on overwatch.

It took the NAF some time to bring their forces to bear. Meanwhile, their mechanised forces were halted by our roadblock – they advanced up to our mines and our AT gunner

around us. We hit the deck, returned fire and tried to coordinate the counterattack. As squad leader Yams tried to assess the state of the squad and form a perimeter, we heard orders barked in a strange language… Finnish!

We knew from last year that the Zansian Finns were an enemy to be respected; walking into a Zansian ambush was a very bad idea.

Monty and Furey crawled to the edge of the track and began to empty support gun fire into the woods beyond. The wounded were pulled into the relative safety of our shrinking perimeter to be attended to by medics.

The radio operator had lost contact with our commanders and was trying to get through to ‘Scorpion’, a Norwegian in the mechanised QRF that had promised to support us if we got in the shit – but they were tied up. The Finnish shouting was virtually on top of us. They’d outmanoeuvred us in a way only well-drilled, real soldiers can.

Although we’d heard a few hits called the numbers against us were staggering – and we’d not even laid eyes on the enemy!

The incoming fire was growing in intensity and our numbers were being decimated. The desperate remnants attempted a breakout – two were hit from close-range bursts so Yams and Mike just ran, right into the steely-eyed Finns who had cut off all lines of retreat.

We regrouped with the rest of the dead and walked back to the village. We’d had our butts kicked, but there was no shame in getting smashed up by the Zansians!

After this intense firefight we were buzzing, keen to respawn and take the fight back to them. It couldn’t have been a better introduction for those new to Berget: long build-up followed by short, brutal firefight. The whole incident had lasted 12 minutes at most.

We later found out that our 70-strong unit faced the entire Zansian Black Guard – 240 Finnish mountain troops, who see Berget as a chance to hone their military training in a realistic and unscripted combat simulation! In the words of one Finnish Paratrooper: “I don’t play airsoft… I’m only here to sharpen my combat skills.”

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MILSIM REPORT | OP BERGET was likely picked up by them before we even set off. We fought right up to the perimeter of the enemy camp anyway, which they didn’t appreciate much!

Friday evening saw us march down to a rocky outcrop in the south of the game zone between two lakes. We stayed until 2am and held another nuclear silo there. The rain really came down and the hours in the damp and cold became a little too realistic for some.

Although we claimed another silo and keyed in the arming code to the warhead, the expected attack never came. The NAF requested a ceasefire for the night due to the weather. Our friends from Ireland fared worse – they had a rather dedicated sniper team overwatching the enemy base until 6am, and they didn’t hear about the ceasefire!

Saturday: The final dash

sprinted out and nailed the first vehicle. The rest withdrew, and from then on didn’t try to assault our dense swamp with vehicles.

One of the weird things about Op Berget is that it is held on public land, so we sometimes had to stop shooting as bemused Swedish citizens drove through our battlefield after shopping in town! In Sweden there’s an enormous respect for personal liberty. Public access to public land is absolute – so we can play airsoft on regular roads and land so long as we aren’t hurting anyone. It was odd, patrolling past houses and not going ‘off game’. In the UK someone would panic. Over there, they just accepted we were playing a game and have a right to enjoy ourselves. So refreshing!

On Thursday evening we were moved by bus to a remote location. Once there we had to assault a quarry held by NAF forces.

In the centre was one of the much-coveted nuclear missile silos, and we had no problems brushing aside resistance.

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Friday: Assault on Zansia On Friday we were tasked with retrieving a package, which – surprise, surprise – was on the other half of the map. Getting there was eventful; our rearguard was taken out by a suicide bomber, who had a bomb in a pineapple (obviously), and when we passed the village we made contact with a significant mechanised force backed by sniper teams.

Our drills were pretty slick and we smashed the vehicle column aside; the snipers survived, withdrawing before we could pin them down.

That would haunt us later as key personnel were dropped by silent, well-placed rounds.

After we took the old mill, a respawn building close to the package, we started up a rocky mountainside, culminating in a brutal exchange around the base of a telecoms mast.

To our surprise the package was under the mast, and behind the mast was the NAF base.

The small Zansian perimeter around the NAF had been set up almost on the package, so it

On Saturday we had to escort the vehicle which was carrying our, now live, nuclear weapon. If we could get it up to the village we could launch it at Zansia! We pushed hard, but the Zansians came out in force.

Berget events usually end in a draw but this time, on the final game, we had the chance to make a lasting statement and drop a fictional nuke right on their beloved fictional country.

After seven years of battling it out we got within 100m of the village before we were overrun and the time limit expired – failure!

Still, we’d safeguarded Poldavia – and had a damned good week. Next year Berget Events will start a fresh storyline and we can’t wait to see what’s coming.

Our final objective, by far the most important, was to attend the beer party. They had a rather cool cover band in the Nordic rock tradition and gave out some goodies. In true spirit, both allies and foes hit the town afterwards in an effort to snag a Swedish lovely!

UKAPU AT BERGET If you’d like to join UKAPU and go along with Matt and the guys next year, visit the UKAPU website. All members are welcome, and membership is open to all airsoft skirmishers.

Estimated cost of attending – including transport and game fees – was around £400. There’s no specialist kit required, so that’s not a bad cost for half a week of possibly the best skirmishing of your life!

CONTACT: www.ukapu.org.uk

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TWO-TONES | MY FIRST GUN

(VERY)

YOUNG GUNS How do we go about introducing younger kids to airsoft?

Nige investigates super-entry-level guns

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f you are an airsofting parent with young kids, I am sure you (like me) have faced the inevitable questions as you get your kit together and prepare to leave home…

“Dad (or mum), where are you going?”

“I’m just going to play airsoft.”

“What’s airsoft?”

“It’s a game where I shoot at my friends with pretend guns.”

“Why?” “Because it’s great fun.”

“Can I play?”

“No, not today.”

“Why?” “Because you’re too young.”

At this point you either get that look of ‘Oh, the old “you’re too young” excuse again!’ or floods of tears as daddy (or mummy) won’t take them airsofting. To be fair I have not had to face the floods of tears, but I did have the questions and decided to deal with them in what I felt was a sensible manner.

The problem for us parents is not whether we should let our children play, but about not wanting them to be hurt.

After all, I couldn’t see my 10-year-old daughter Elizabeth (though she prefers Lisa) taking on some hairy-arsed airsofter,

loaded to the gunnels with every conceivable piece of kit and coming at her on full-chat!

However, I believe if you want to teach somebody something then the younger they are the quicker they will learn and the longer that knowledge will stay with them. I wanted Lisa to get an appreciation of what (airsoft) guns are about and to learn the basic rules of safety and responsibility at the earliest age. I cannot tell you how old your child should be – for me it was when she asked if she could ‘shoot a gun’.

I have a reasonable back garden so I’d let her try a couple of mine but she found them very heavy and almost impossible to pick up, let alone fire!

This got me thinking about what there is out there that I could use. I wanted something light enough for her to hold and fire properly but which still (to a large extent) looked and felt similar to what she perceived to be a ‘real’ gun.

Strangely enough, when I ran the recent review of two-tones she said she didn’t like them because they looked ‘odd’ – but when Sportsmarketing (SMK) sent us a selection of transparent guns, her eyes lit up and I decided to write this.

To ensure it was balanced and fair, I recruited two more youngsters: my nephew Harry (nine years old and an avid AA reader already) and his sister Chloe, who is 11 and was born singlehanded. They had three guns to try: SIG 552 Commando, Colt M4A1 and Sig Sauer P226 – all single-shot and spring-powered. After they tried each gun I asked them to write down what they liked about it, what they didn’t like about it and a score out of 10. I also asked them to write which one was their favourite, and why. These are their words.

SAFETY

Each gun was fired individually at a single target and each reviewer was given a safety briefing before being allowed to fire the guns. At no time were they allowed to fire at each other, or at anything other than the designated target.

Before they shot each gun, they were shown where the safety was, how to cock it, how to fire it and how to put the safety back on.

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CHLOE M4A1

LIKE: Easy

to use, long shooting range and easy to control.

DIDN’T LIKE: It was very hard to pull back the cocking lever.

SCORE: 9/10

SIG 552

LIKED: Easy to aim at the

target and very easy to

shoot.

DIDN’T LIKE: Very hard to balance.

SCORE: 10/10

P226

LIKED: Easy to hold, easy to reload, light weight and good range.

DIDN’T LIKE: The magazine only holds approximately 15 rounds and so runs out very quickly.

SCORE: 10/10 MY FAVOURITE: The P226 was my favourite as it is lighter and easier to aim with.

LISA M4A1

LIKE: I liked the fact that on this rifle

the sights were easy to use. This was helpful because when I aimed at the target I was able to hit it, or be close.

DIDN’T LIKE: I didn’t dislike anything. I thought it was easy to hold and I could aim perfectly. It wasn’t too heavy for me so I have nothing bad to say about it.

SCORE: 10/10 – because there was nothing wrong with it that I noticed.

SIG 552

LIKE: I did not like anything about this

rifle except I felt alright on how you hold it, because it is the same way as the other rifle.

DIDN’T LIKE: I disliked lots of things.

First of all I disliked the sights. All they are is a rectangle piece of plastic with a hole in the middle and it has no point to guide you exactly where the target is.

Second of all I did not like the weight.

It was heavy for me, which made me shake and I could not get the BB on the centre of the target.

Third and final the cocking handlewas hard to pull, which made it hard for me to reload the rifle.

SCORE: 2/10 – because most things were

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hard to use but I would say the most important one is the sighting because it is not precise, making it hard to hit your target.

P226

LIKE: I liked that it was

easy to hold which meant I could have a steady hand when targeting. I also liked that the trigger was easy to pull.

DIDN’T LIKE: I disliked the fact that, although I could aim it I still couldn’t see exactly where my target was because the red square on the sight is quite large so it was in the way.

SCORE: 7/10 – because although the style was nice and it was easy to use, I still didn’t like the fact I couldn’t see the exact target.

Also the magazine release button was in the way, so it was hard not to accidentally press it – but everything else was alright.

MY FAVOURITE: Easy! The M4A1 rifle.

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TWO-TONES | MY FIRST GUN HARRY M4A1

LIKE: The gun was very nicely designed

and it was long ranged. The shoulder rest was comfortable and the magazine held a lot of ammunition.

DIDN’T LIKE: It was hard to reload.

When you tried to pull back the cocking lever it was quite hard to pull it all the way and it hurt my arm.

SCORE: 7/10

SIG 552

LIKE: I liked the fact that it had plenty

of ammo and again it was long ranged, also it was light to hold and unlike the other rifle, it was easy to reload.

DIDN’T LIKE: The shoulder rest wasn’t very comfortable and hurt my shoulder a little.

SCORE: 9/10

P226

LIKE: The pistol was light and easy to

hold and it had a good sight and quite a good range for a pistol. The magazine was simple to use and easy to refill.

DIDN’T LIKE: It was hard to cock and the magazine didn’t hold a lot of ammo.

SCORE: 8/10 MY FAVOURITE: My favourite was the SIG 552 because it was easy to hold, lots of fun and very well designed.

So there you have it: three different guns, three different reviewers, three different opinions!

There’s no ‘correct’ age to allow your children to shoot airsoft guns – that is a decision for you and them to make. But if we teach our children to respect guns from an early age, that surely is no bad thing?

Thank you to Harry, Lisa and Chloe for their time, patience and input. Thanks kids, you were great!

SPORTSMARKETING Thanks to SMK for loaning the guns for this review.

COLT M4A1: £60 SIG 552: £70 SIG SAUER P226: £30 Available from Sportsmarketing (01206 795333) or your local airsoft shop.

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AIRSOFT TRAINING | HALO MILL

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he front door was pulled open in front of me and as I flicked my balance from one leg to the other I rounded the door frame. I was then confronted with a row of front doors and windows resembling a small terraced street. My weapon was shouldered as arcs were scanned and the rest of the assault team snaked in behind me. Light streamed into the dimly lit street from several windows and there seemed to be a disco in one of the rooms as strobe lighting was emerging from the doorway.

Stacking up by the first door, the first team entered the room. Immediately a shout of “Room one clear” was heard.

‘Hmm this is looking a lot smoother,’ I thought. That was pretty short lived though

HALO MILL

Ron Mahoney gets involved at the opening weekend of HALO Mill, a dedicated airsoft training facility with some impressive features as the next room assault ended with cries of “Hit, hit, friendly down!” As further rounds took out another member of the team I realised shots were coming from outside the buildings and started to move and double tap rounds towards a dark corner. With the hostile in sight I heard the spring on my M4’s magazine uncoil and I dropped to the ground with a cry of “Stoppage.” I went to draw my pistol but while fumbling about was hit twice in the shoulder.

“If ever there was an advert for a Blackhawk SERPA holster that was it right there,” joked Matt, who was instructing this phase of our session. “You’d done everything about right until you couldn’t get at your sidearm and then it was goodnight.”

I wasn’t sure hurt more: the welt on my bicep or my pride! Actually it was the welt, as this was training and we should be making our mistakes here.

Thankfully I didn’t have to relive the fumble on the big screen in graphic 1080p

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detail, though that’s not to say the facility wasn’t there if I had wanted to!

The training was taking place at HALO Mill, a brand new facility created by the team at Huddersfield’s Patrol Base store.

The team has utilised state of the art electronics, sound and targeting systems with lots and lots of good old-fashioned plywood to create a fantastic airsoft training facility that is as far as I know the only such venue in the country. I know a few of you will be thinking, ‘Hang-on what about XYZ site?’ But the difference is that they are skirmishing CQB sites whereas HALO Mill is a dedicated training facility.

“We’ve had a few people come in on open days we’ve organised, and as we run events like today no doubt people will come up with ideas for scenarios,” said Chris from Patrol Base. “But the idea of the scenarios will be for enhancing training, not really skirmish gaming.”

Chris first came up with the idea after seeing a number of the sites in the USA as well as a request from a real steel shooting pal who was looking for an indoor range.

“As the idea started to develop I decided that if it was going to happen then it needed to be special, not just another indoor venue

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AIRSOFT TRAINING | HALO MILL

“A former firearms instructor has been involved in its development and during the week the facility will be hired out to police forces for simulated firearms training” run by a woodland team. To be skilful at shooting is all about practice, building up muscle memory, repeating the same movement time after time. Most people can’t get that sort of practise at their local site as you basically turn up; check zero and then you are off into a game. HALO Mill is exactly the opposite: here you turn up and book some time to practice.”

I had come along to the opening weekend at HALO Mill and, in these days of austerity, talk about value for money. For not more than the price of a high-quality airsoft magazine (and we know there’s only one of them) the HALO Mill team had put on three training sessions organised with

the lads from Stirling Airsoft. The idea was to allow everyone the chance to experience the set-up and have a bit of structured training at the same time.

As I took a tour of the facility I began to get an insight into how much planning had gone into the facility. Take the row of terraced rooms I described earlier. Every room has a series of door and window mounts that allows the configuration to be changed to suit the training required.

Static doors can be attached to make single rooms, doors on hinges for openings, doors removed for a corridor feel, windows up or down to allow for intelligence gathering, sniper observation and so on.

If this all sounds a bit like what you would find at a professional training establishment for the military or the police then that is no coincidence. A former firearms instructor with the West Yorkshire force has been involved in its development – during the week the HALO Mill facility will be hired out to police forces for simulated firearms training.

In another part of the building is another ‘street’ with several rooms designed again with the flexible build concept. Near the end of the street is a small bank/building society branch mock up – this was something that the police requested and it will make a very difficult hostage rescue location. At the very end is something I think you’ll find a lot of fun: a mock-up of the inside of an APC. The idea is you can sit inside with massive sub-woofers under the seats creating noise and vibration. As the door bursts open and you de-bus a smoke generator overhead is belching out dense clouds of white haze to create an atmosphere of chaos and confusion.

The APC also contains a large ‘stop’ sign at the back of it. This is the final target of a series of 12 small electronic targets dotted around the street. You start by shooting a

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AIRSOFT TRAINING | HALO MILL

‘go’ sign and then work your way down the row of rooms. I managed all 12 targets in a time of 47 seconds without any misses and was pretty pleased – that said I’ve seen those who know the layout do it in less than 30 seconds.

In addition to the two CQB areas is a 25m range (at the open day we practised pistol drills, stoppage drills, switching from your long to short weapon and shooting from various angles and positions) and a 30m long range for zeroing or practising with sniper rifles (no wind, no excuse for poor groupings!).

A main concept behind HALO Mill is that if everyone is limited to 350fps then it really is those that take the time to practise and hone their skills of pistol and rifle handling that will stand out on the skirmish sites of the north (and hopefully beyond). HALO Mill isn’t there to take trade away from local sites; it exists to bring their players up to a more competent level.

I couldn’t agree more with comments that Patrol Base’s Ratty (no, not our one!)

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made as we talked. “You see some really poor weapon handling and lax basic safety on sites; people walking around with loaded weapons in safe zones, fingers on triggers as they wave a rifle in front of your face, really dangerous control of something that could do you serious damage. If we can bring the same ethos and safety culture that’s good enough for firearms officers into airsoft then we are doing everyone a favour.”

With an open-plan entrance to the building and check in, briefing and personal storage area it is quite like a visit to the gym. There are consumables on sale and for hire, charging facilities and a very open booking system. Want to book just a couple of hours to train? No problem, just check the timetable. Want to arrange a private training class for your whole team? Let’s go!

The team at HALO Mill have thought of everything and aren’t stopping there.

Electronic turning targets are designed and going through trials along with membership

schemes that offer great rates and free training with a tactical firearms instructor, video analysis of your skills – sorted.

At the end Chris asked me what I thought of the set-up. All that came to mind was the saying from Field Of Dreams (or Wayne’s World depending on your age): “If you build it they will come.”

Chris laughed, “That’s exactly what I thought.” Well they have built it – all I can suggest is that you should go!

HALO MILL Colne Valley Business Park, Linthwaite, Huddersfield HD7 5GQ HALO MILL runs sessions on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, as well as on Saturday and Sundays. Full timetable details are on the HALO Mill website, along with prices and membership schemes.

CONTACT: 01484 840554, www.halomill.com

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THE ARMOURY | RACEGUNS

Arclight explains just what raceguns are, and how to make the most of yours

RACEGUNS C

ompetition ‘practical’ shooting (airsoft or otherwise) is about the relatively simple task of accurately placing rounds on target at short range.

There is of course the added and relatively difficult complication of having to do so as quickly as humanly possible. There – practical shooting in a nutshell, done.

Right off the bat we have to lay out some basic lexicon though. You may have heard the term ‘racegun’, but what exactly is it?

The ‘gun’ part should be fairly obvious – bullets come out of the pointy end after all.

It’s the ‘race’ part that raises eyebrows.

Some guns are made for hunting game, others are built to neutralise tactical threats and yet others are built to blow the crap out of low flying ceramic disks. Well, raceguns are built for racing. Exactly what makes a gun ‘race’ flavoured requires more explanation, hence this article, but in lay terms the point of a race gun is speed. It’s lighter, faster, quicker, smoother and crisper.

Even the basic functions of the weapon are

altered to be operated more easily and run smoother than butter.

Where it starts Exactly where the racegun idea starts, where step one lies, is one of two things really, but once I explain both you’ll see why both are fundamental factors. Each is of paramount importance yet exactly which is more important depends on the specific build project in mind. These two factors are ‘class’ and ‘base’.

By ‘class’ I don’t mean how far you are from being an aristocrat; I am talking about the two classes of racegun pistol, as each competes in its own circle of IPSC. They both do the same things but the basic rules governing their physical builds means each can only be played against others of its own class. The two classes are Open class and Standard class.

Open class pistols are essentially a free for all: lengthened barrels, compensators, red-dot scopes, enhanced controls…

anything it takes to make it shoot faster, better, stronger. Open Class is to IPSC what Formula One is to racing.

Standard class returns to the heart of what practical shooting is supposed to be: the skills required to shoot a handgun in a realistic environment. I won’t get into the exact rules, but basically Standard class pistols can still be modified but cannot make use of the drastic measures such as six-inch barrels, red-dot scopes and the like. The principle is that anything you can do with your Standard class pistol you should be able to directly carry over to a stock factory pistol of the same type. You can still make them run smoother, with lighter controls, as arguably you can do that to a daily carry handgun; you just can’t get outlandish. People rarely walk around with holographic sights on their self-defence pistol.

‘Base’ is more a word I use personally than an official term, but it’s just the single word reduction of the essential factor that

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is choosing a ‘Base gun’. Raceguns are jazzed-up versions of stock guns – sure you can push them so far they are completely different animals to those they started off as, but the modifications that have crafted them are dictated by the base gun one chooses in the first place.

Base brands Around 99 per cent of airsoft raceguns are based on the Tokyo Marui Hi-Capa 5.1. That is not without good reason, but it doesn’t mean there isn’t a choice. Like the classic logic of comparing statistics to personal choice, no one person is the average; ultimately you make your own choices.

Brand-wise it is pretty much a no-brainer.

There are a few good brands to choose from but it’s difficult not to just give in to the gold bastion that is Tokyo Marui. Its factory pistols already set the standard for top-notch shooting. Other brands may have superior muzzle velocity, kick strength or metal content, but the moment that Marui pistol nails a human-sized target at 40 yards everyone shuts up. They have the most reliable magazines, the most reliable actions, the lightest slide cycles, the crispiest triggers and sport hop-up units that make the other brands’ guns seem plain broken.

Couple that with the simple market phenomenon that almost all aftermarket brands for pistol parts support the most common pistols (Marui, WE, KSC).

Furthermore, the top choice premium aftermarket brands (PDI, Nine Ball, Airsoft Surgeon, Prime, RA Tech) all start with and spend most of their time hanging around Marui pistols. Thus choosing your base gun from the Marui line up saves you a lot of headache and opens your options vastly.

Models For me to run down all the options would be ridiculous, so let’s just assume you picked Tokyo Marui. The next step – which actual model of pistol to choose – is the first major junction where we get to weigh up options, not just for technical proficiency but also for personal taste. Marui make a lot of pistols and while they are all born equal, the wider world quickly makes it apparent that some stand alone while others get silver spoons as standard issue.

Hi-Capa rules the roost as the top model; 1911s and Glocks sit one tier below, perfectly competent models but

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“Brand-wise it is pretty much a no-brainer. There are a few good brands to choose from but it’s difficult not to just give in to the gold bastion that is Tokyo Marui”

with slightly less parts available than the Hi-Capa; and then all other Marui pistols are either third tier or not on the list at all.

This does not mean Hi-Capas will always beat 1911s or Glocks, but the shooter’s performance can be improved by customising his pistol. Therefore Hi-Capas come out on top because of their innate design as well as the plethora of parts available.

The Hi-Capa, first of all, is normally the 5.1 model (so called for its 5.1in barrel). The 5.1 is a stock pistol that competes in the Standard class or, modified, in the Open class. The smaller 4.3 or 3.8 models (the latter of which is not even a TM factory model) are smaller – pointless, as smaller size is no advantage in IPSC whatsoever.

The Hi-Capa is a natural choice by both design and coincidence. The real STI 2011 is a nice choice for real-steel IPSC shooting and thus in good airsoft fashion the replica follows suit. The Hi-Capa is also a nice

option technically because it is a modular pistol. It uses the slide and barrel setup of a 1911 – not similar, the same. Even wondered where the name comes from?

It’s just a 1911 with a double-stack mag.

Other pistols separate into the slide (upper bit) and the frame (the lower bit, the body); the Hi-Capa uses a 1911 slide but also separates into and upper frame and lower frame, its body breaking down further into two components.

The lower frame is known more colloquially (and universally) as the grip.

Other pistol grips can alter patterns slightly and some pistols can change whole grip panels, but a Hi-Capa can have its whole grip (lower frame) replaced. Sure it still has to fit the same internals but its exact morphology, its shape, texture, colour, is all subject to the fact you can go out and buy from a wide range of Hi-Capa grips. You already have more control over your grip than you would on a less modular pistol.

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The upper frame is a separate piece.

Its attachment to the lower frame is consistently standard to the point of boredom: it bolts on, done. But as it is responsible for riding out the slide and interfacing with barrels and compensators it can be tweaked, snipped and filed down for a buttery smooth connection. Meanwhile it can bolt on to any lower frame you want, so your choice of grip and choice of slide are largely independent thanks to the unsung hero that is the upper frame.

Other models of pistol are designed to emulate their real world status (which is the point of a replica in the first place). While most people understand that, they do not always jump to the extended factor that is simply the aftermarket parts serve the same master. Glocks are used by military and police; they can have CIA slides and laser-aim assist modules. 1911s where used in WWII as well as by modern special forces; they can have wood grip panels

and fibre optic sights. Real STI 2011s are not used by armed forces, they are pure completion pistols; parts available for the airsoft Hi-Capa, consequently, all attempt to make it more of a competition pistol.

Bits and bobs Once more, I whittle the options further.

This article lacks the breathing space to even do justice to the Hi-Capa, let alone other pistols, so once again I will simply assume you chose the Hi-Capa.

So, the great big obvious parts first: the barrels. Yes, I pluralised – airsoft guns have an inner and outer barrel. One is more important to IPSC than the other, but both must be dealt with. The outer barrel needs to cover the inner – its only mechanical parameter of worthy note is its relationship with the slide. For this reason, most (good) slides come with outer barrels already; this is not just a package deal, the slide must be clear of the barrel and be a tight fit to

prevent anything from wobbling around.

Inner barrel length is not about range.

While it certainly has an effect on power of gas guns (increasing a 5.1 barrel to a full 6in can see a power jump from 280fps to 300fps without changing anything else) the power of a racegun is largely irrelevant.

They all aim for around 280-300fps; any weaker is unnecessarily slow while anything much stronger is a waste of gas.

The only thing an airsoft racegun needs the power to do is reliably penetrate a cardboard target set 20ft away with a BB, which is hardly a tall order.

Valves and springs is where many starters tend to get lost. While everything else up until this point has had a real-steel analogy, the realm of inlets, blowback pistons and valve knockers is well and truly exclusive to airsoft. Explaining what it all does would take up more space then we have to work with, but suffice to say the idea is simple but the execution is

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complex. Green gas/propane transitions from liquid to gaseous state when it leaves its high pressure reservoir and hits room temperature/room pressure; it is the change from liquid to gas that causes the pressure spike to drive the action of our airsoft pistols. In this respect the power source remains an (unpredictable) constant, so the rest of the pistol’s working parts are essentially one massive system pushing back against the gas. In essence, the gun shooting is the result of the gas overpowering the action of the pistol.

When we change the shape and mass of these parts we change the way they are arranged and the friction and resistance they offer. Then we have to retune the system as a whole – we have to adjust springs and valves to ensure our gas expansion supply remains enough to keep things working, yet not so much it just cryoVesuvius the frack out of our whole gun (and now-frostbitten hands). Learning to tweak like this can be a daunting process but like everything in airsoft it is that steep learning curve that

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is part of what makes our sport so much fun. Take it slow; you will learn it all in time, though it will take a while. If it came too easily it wouldn’t be a hobby worth so much of our time and resources now would it?

Embellishment Now we round the home stretch as we discuss the obvious over-the-top design of raceguns. Not content to wield overengineered cap guns, racegun owners go out of their way to polish up and embellish their pistols to the point of artistic expression. This phenomenon isn’t

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THE ARMOURY | RACEGUNS

unique to airsoft IPSC though, nor is it unique to shooting as a whole.

Ballroom dancing, gymnastics, Formula One; subdued design is not the go-to choice for the flash sports.

Competition is inherently about showing off, about one-upping the other guy, about outdoing everybody else so you can stand head and shoulders above them all. Over-designing our pistols with bright colours, chrome, engravings and sometimes even crystal studs

is a matter of showing off personal taste, a kind of peacocking. Shooters are observed at the event and top shots get their pictures in magazines and YouTube videos. No one says you will lose points for not turning your pistol into a cartoon, but you will not get points deducted either so why the hell not?

Working backwards Having made apologies for forcing this article down a specific root for the sake of streamlining, you can now assimilate much of it as you move sideways into other models and brands. Other models modify similarly to the Hi-Capa, they just lack some of their big brother’s options.

Other brands can be modified but not to the extent of the Marui brethren. Using the Tokyo Marui Hi-Capa 5.1 as your core allows you to learn all of the options, and then deal with every pistol in relation to the gold standard that is the TM Hi-Capa. This is something we should all be doing anyway because when it comes to competition pistols, unlike most of airsoft, IPSC really is all about winning and losing – but that does not mean you can’t have fun.

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Photography courtesy of Ellie Wake

INFANTRY PRIVATE,

NORTHERN IRELAND 1972 The Troubles in Northern Ireland, as they came to be known, were a major learning curve for the British Army. Gadge Harvey explains

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rom 1969 to 1998 the British Army fought a long running battle with terrorist groups on home soil.

Euphemistically called the ‘Troubles’, the more than 700 casualties sustained by the army in Northern Ireland meant this was like a war.

While the majority of Britain’s defence budget in the latter half of the 20th century went to safeguarding the realm from Soviet aggression, a sizable proportion was spent on policing the Troubles much closer to home in Northern Ireland. Over a period of nearly 30 years, 300,000 servicemen took a ‘tour’ of the province in a series of actions collectively known as ‘Operation Banner’.

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Many of the terrorist organisations the British Army would clash with professed to have Marxist revolutionary ideals, and while perhaps this month’s article doesn’t feature a true ‘Cold War Warrior’ it is safe to say that the British soldier in Northern Ireland is an iconic image of the Cold War period.

For decades the British Army fought a running battle against terrorist and paramilitary groups in the Ulster streets of Belfast, Londonderry and the rural counties. While most folk remember the Troubles as a battle between the British Army and the IRA which sought independence for Ireland, the reality of the situation is much more complicated.

Initially the British Army was called in during 1969, to protect the catholic minority from persecution from a small but violent element of the largely protestant population. While the army was initially welcomed by both sides it did not take long for their attempts to keep the peace between two violently hostile groups to result in the catholic population losing faith in the British Army. The British were perceived to be favouring the protestant side.

In truth the army spent much of its time thwarting the attempts of Loyalist terrorist groups from killing those trying to kill British soldiers as well. In a brutal war of sectarian beating and killings the army found itself ‘pig

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COLD WAR WARRIOR | NORTHERN IRELAND in the middle’, expected to literally stand between murderous mobs out for each others’ blood while using minimal force.

Increasing hostility While many of the armed clashes of the Troubles took place in rural areas, and especially dangerous towns on the border with the south like Crossmaglen, the world mainly saw the daily rioting and street violence broadcast on the nation’s TV screens nightly. As the army spent longer and longer in Northern Ireland and the levels of violence increased, the army’s stance became increasingly hostile.

The 1969 images of squaddies drinking tea on catholic doorsteps with chatty locals were replaced by starker scenes of flak jackets and riot shields, water cannon and baton rounds.

In this month’s article we’ll look at the typical kit of a soldier on urban foot patrol duties in one of the province’s main cities.

Foot patrols were essential ‘eyes and ears’ on the ground, disrupting the terrorists’ abilities to stockpile weapons or plant IEDs. In our chosen year of 1972, the British Army has massively disrupted the IRA by breaking up terrorist ‘no go zones’ and illegal vehicle checkpoints in a massive-scale operation named ‘Motorman’. After Operation Motorman the army continued to dominate the ground in Northern Ireland in an attempt to maintain the initiative and keep terrorist groups on their toes.

olive drab 60 pattern uniform, by 1975 the 68 pattern DPM smock shown here was pretty much universal. Made of a heavy cotton camouflage print fabric and fully-lined, the 68 pattern smock remained a firm favourite with soldiers right up until the general issue of ‘soldier 95’ in the mid-1990s, as successive patterns of combat jacket were never quite as well-made or popular.

Our soldier however still wears the OD 60 pattern combat trousers as an alternative to the DPM 68 pattern trousers. These are often mistaken for the ‘lightweight’ olive green trousers worn by many British soldiers, but ‘lightweights’ were not allowed to be worn on street patrols as their high plastic content could create problematic burn injuries if petrol bombs were encountered.

Firsthand account of soldiers who served at this time often recall how combat trousers in particular took very heavy wear in Northern Ireland as a combination of urban patrolling and constantly crossing obstacles rather than using potentially booby trapped paths and gates took their toll.

A US-issue M69 flak vest is worn over the 68 pattern DPM jacket. A growing number of deaths and injuries from blast and nail bombs had forced the British government to look into immediate solutions to better protect their soldiers, and a short-term solution was the purchase of thousands of Vietnam War surplus vests. Anecdotal accounts of the time claim that many of these came shipped to the UK complete with graffiti scrawled on by US ‘grunts’ – and bloodstains of the previous owners!

Incongruously our ‘Stafford’ wears a beret, rather than the standard issue MKV steel helmet of the time. This was an attempt by the army to appear less hostile to the local population (strange, given the fact soldiers at the time were carrying rifles and wearing body armour), and at this time soldiers were

Peacekeeping duties To that end, our soldier here from the Staffordshire regiment wears kit typical of ‘peacekeeping’ on the streets of Ulster in the early 70s. While still attempting to exercise a ‘friendly face’ of the security forces, rising violence levels saw an increasing need for personal protection which is reflected in his uniform and equipment. It’s an old military maxim that if you want peace you must prepare for war, so it comes as no surprise that our ‘peacekeeper’ has a distinctly martial look.

While British troops originally deployed to Northern Ireland in 1969 were wearing the plain

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COLD WAR WARRIOR | NORTHERN IRELAND still patrolling with clean faces and bright cap badges… later on casualties from paramilitary snipers would force the army to patrol with blackened faces and cap badges, and in ‘hard areas’ controlled by terrorists steel helmets, armoured Land Rovers and Saxon APCs.

“Without a doubt ‘Operation Banner’ was a double-edged sword for the British Army”

Minimal ‘belt order’ webbing While the British Army in Germany would conduct operations using a full ‘fighting’ or ‘marching’ set of 1958 pattern webbing, in Northern Ireland it was often greatly reduced to a minimal ‘belt order’.

Short vehicle-based patrols and the proximity of friendly base areas meant soldiers were not required to carry extensive kit on urban patrols (those working in the countryside would usually be equipped in a more conventional manner).

Webbing would typically consist of a belt, two ammo pouches and one or two water bottle carriers, often the popular and easier to use 44 pattern type pictured here. Many lads would find this set up more comfortable when wearing bulky flak jackets, without a yoke or kidney pouches.

Suitable footwear for operations in Northern Ireland proved to be particularly problematic

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for the British Army. The old WWII pattern hobnailed ammo boots used by many units in the early years were unsuitable and noisy on paved streets, and the rubber-soled DMS boots worn in our example were only marginally more popular with the troops.

Many soldiers therefore chose to patrol in their own private purchase ‘Doc Martin’ boots (with a comfy air-cushioned sole). This solution was frowned upon by senior ranks though, and eventually a ‘Northern Ireland patrol boot’ was developed.

These boots were the forerunner to the stalwart 1980s issue ‘boots combat high’ and resembled a lightweight version of the BCH boot.

The NI patrol boot was very popular with the troops, and they are prized to this day and hard to find in good condition.

A further trademark item designed to protect the British soldier in the Troubles was the Northern Ireland glove.

These sturdy black leather-lined gloves were a massive improvement on the previous WWII-era wool gloves and protected the soldiers’ hands from broken glass, rusty barbed wire and the cold and wet of the province.

Contrary to popular belief, the padded section on the back of the gloves were not designed for increased fighting ability, but rather to protect and cushion the back of

the hand – although some veterans hint that unofficial practice was to add lead shot to the pads to put a bit more power into a punch during riots.

Dependable battle rifle As with many of our Cold War Warriors of the British Army the standard battle rifle of the time was the venerable L1A1 7.62 SLR – a semi-automatic variant of the Belgian FN FAL rifle, designed to use the standard NATO 7.62 round in keeping with the British doctrine of marksmanship over volume of fire.

SLRs of the period frequently featured a mix of wood and plastic furniture, and a rifle featuring a wooden stock with a plastic carry handle was not uncommon. In Northern Ireland, however, the sling was often removed from the front sling loop, and a wrist loop created. With the sling attached in this manner it minimised occurrences of weapons being snatched from soldier’s hands by the sling – which was often done by children riding by on bicycles at speed!

Without a doubt ‘Operation Banner’ was a double-edged sword for the British Army.

While on one hand it was a terrific drain on resources and caused the army to suffer appalling casualties, it also created an army well-versed in the rules of urban warfare and peacekeeping. This harsh schooling proved incredibly valuable in the unstable years following the breakup of the Warsaw Pact in Bosnia and Kosovo, and even today reaps dividends in peacekeeping duties in Afghanistan.

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REQUIEM AIRSOFT Oscar Plummer reports from Requiem Airsoft’s zombie apocalypse event which combined LARP with airsoft – and a good dose of the undead

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t’s about 3am and it has gone quiet. I’m lurking in a corner of my Command Post (CP), manfully huddled behind a crate, straining my ears for any movement while my eyes search for any light shining down the three pitch-black access points to my position.

I am, of course, alone. I have no idea where the rest of my team is, due to a comprehensive navigational failure on my part combined with a flat radio battery.

Having considered several options I scurried back to the only ‘secure’ area I know and dug in. Why? Because I am scared – really rather scared.

Then something moves. Resisting the urge to climb inside the crate and pull the lid over me I lean around the corner and raise my sidearm. I decide to risk a brief flash of light, and immediately something shrieks and charges...

My comms ain’t the only dead thing in these tunnels.

I’m at Requiem Airsoft’s Waking Dead event, in the UCAP Bunker tunnels in Portsmouth. The scenario is fairly straightforward – Zombie Apocalypse.

Small groups of survivors, a scientific bunker rumoured to contain a cure and an airborne contagion due to reach the site in 14 hours. We have until then to

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find a way to survive. And tonight, we soon discover, the place is crawling with virus-ridden homicidal zombies – many of whom have learnt to stand quietly in corners as you crawl through holes in the wall…

The site itself promises a real treat. Dug during WWII as the naval nerve-centre for the Normandy Landings, the Bunker is a network of more than a mile of tunnels set 110ft underground, linking a maze of rooms ranging from tiny offices to warehouses, labs and the main map-room.

That’s lots of angles to fight, sweep and secure. It also makes for an awful lot of dark to lurk in, given that Requiem is running a red-light rule: the site’s main lights are off and all taclights are provided with a red filter.

An evening of offing the undead and skirmishing with other survivors in a pretty damn unique environment – so far, so good. But what

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FILMSIM | ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE makes this different is that it’s badged as FilmSim – and this is my first time out with that concept.

Requiem pitch this somewhere between a skirmish and a full MilSim, with elements of roleplaying chucked in for good measure. I have to be honest, LARP isn’t something that immediately appealed to me, but as the event went on it created some memorable moments. Ever wanted to bag a kill with a (foam) baseball bat? Ever had to rescue an outrageously-camp German medic from crossfire? Now you can, kids!

The LARP elements began to alter the way we played. After a while it wasn’t unusual for half a team to be on the floor in the middle of crossfire, calling in a medic, when in an everyday skirmish the player would just have bled out tactically.

The game itself is a 14-hour marathon session, with five groups of survivors competing for multiple ongoing objectives – not least to make it through the night without ending up in a zombie’s digestive system. There are points

on offer for finding intel, securing resources, helping survivors, and ultimately making it through the night.

Off the rails Kit-wise the rules were spring or gas on semi, with ammo and bangs managed per life rather than by total limit. There were no restrictions on colour/camo, but with no team armbands in play it’s up to individual groups to coordinate their kit to avoid friendly fire. Each team has a CP to stash kit and gather resources. None of the CPs were safe, though – they remained in play throughout the night which meant they were open to raids by other teams and, on more than one occasion, being overrun by zombies.

A few neat little rules also added to the play – no speedloaders outside CPs, for instance, which might seem insignificant but has a real impact on how the night goes.

The Requiem team ensured the environment drove play, building a framework of encounters throughout the game such as NPC survivors wandering around, staged events and ad-hoc objectives to spur things along and keep play alive.

Ultimately, though, it’s entirely up to the teams whether to react to or ignore these. One team even used them as diversions to raid opposing CPs. There’s a huge amount of freedom for each team to play as they wish, balancing risk around various point objectives.

This meant we could change tactics throughout the night in reaction to threats and opportunities posed by other teams – who are themselves reacting to events and environment.

The other big advantage to this style of play is that there’s no need for any tedious stag or spending hours in a ditch ‘observing’ another team (who are themselves sat in a ditch). The site has a huge amount of options in terms of areas to explore, defend or take, but you are never more than five minutes from your spawn. That’s not to say it’s small, though; at one point around 3.30am, my team realised that we had yet to locate one opposing CP. This led

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to a 40 minute creep through the site, in the pitch black, avoiding several contacts by sound alone – only to realise the CP we hadn’t found was no more than 100 yards (three corners) away.

In keeping with the FilmSim idea, a lot of work has gone into costumes and dressing the site. The Bunker sets a high bar in terms of atmosphere but the Requiem crew had added a lot of little details – my team CP was lit with guttering candles, creating a pool of flickering light surrounded by deep shadows. Touches like that really amp up the feel of the event.

And of course there’s the zombies.

Lots and lots of zombies.

Undead opfor These guys are absolutely central to the game, and an ever-present threat.

Several times I found myself with that horrible feeling that something was wrong, only to turn around and find one of the blighters creeping up on me.

Remember that CPs were always in play? The point was brought home with a thwack when I got eaten while

bombing up. Yes, I screamed like a four-year old girl, but at least it warned the rest of the team! On the other hand, shotgun butts were in (very careful!) play as melee weapons, which led to some gratifying payback.

At other times they massed into some phenomenal wave attacks. It wasn’t uncommon to hear an outbreak of screaming from the other end of the site, echoing down corridors. And, in what has to be the outstanding moment of the night for me, at 6am the entire site was over-run.

One by one the opposing teams’ CPs were swarmed under, and many players took the opportunity to become infected and get some zombie action themselves.

In a feat of timing, my team had chosen that moment to liberate some resources which had been pinched by another group of survivors. The good news was that when the horde reached our CP, we weren’t there.

The bad news? We, in our infinite wisdom, were right in the middle of the site, entirely surrounded, and most of us down to about half ammo – 70

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FILMSIM | ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

rounds or so. By my reckoning, with the other teams infected, we had about 50 hostiles inbound.

What happened next could have come straight from a movie. Down to four effectives, we were pushed relentlessly backwards – down to single shot, covering reloads, calling targets – and faced with a wall of zombies, staggering, creeping, charging and crawling towards us. We were backed into a prison cell, and had to watch one of our team swarmed under. At two mags left, we were shoulder-toshoulder in a doorway, with a barricade in front of us as a breakwater – I’m covering left, my teammate right. With one mag left, our number three is sent to check we are secure to the rear. He tells us we are.

He was very, very wrong....

The future So what’s the verdict? Very intense, and very fun. This is more of an event than a skirmish, but with a competitive edge to keep it running and the motivation up. We were not on rails, being led

through by actors. To my mind, what was really brilliant was the freeform nature of the game, coupled with a varied, atmospheric and interesting site.

And there was a great standard of play too; really good-natured with minimal whinging the whole night.

A big part of this is due to the Requiem crew. I was really impressed with the quality of their staging, marshalling and the game as a whole.

They were a great bunch of guys who put a lot into making the evening run brilliantly – their enthusiasm communicated itself through into the whole game.

There are a couple of minor things I would suggest as improvements. A couple of rules were unexpected when I pitched up – the red light, for example, had been established through the forum rather than the main site. Minor, definitely, but a slight last-minute kitbash needed.

Also, 14 hours was perhaps slightly too long. The last couple of hours felt, to me, a tad flat – but to be fair that’s as much about my physical decrepitude

as anything else! I know, though, that the Requiem team was taking notes throughout and are updating the website and rules based on feedback.

Overall then it was a fantastic, incredibly fun and certainly unique game with some vivid memories coming out of it, and lots of new faces – special thanks to the Misfits for taking me under their wing.

I’ll definitely be watching out for more events from the Requiem crew – I will be back for more!

REQUIEM AIRSOFT Keep an eye on Requiem Airsoft’s website for dates of future events. Having taken players’ feedback on board the next event will run 12 hours, 10am-10pm.

Please note: all pictures were staged, not taken during the game itself, hence the lack of eye protection. All players were of course wearing suitable PPE during the game!

REQUIEM AIRSOFT: 07763 641437, www.requiemairsoft.co.uk UCAP AIRSOFT: www.ucap.co.uk

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Team Rogue Angels managed to sneak into first place on the final round to be crowned the overall winners

Wolf Pack picked up the Rifleman trophy for best under-16 team

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COMPETITIVE AIRSOFT | SKIRMISH CUP

SKIRMISH CUP Jim Sidroy of Skirmish UK fills us in on the Skirmish Cup, held this year at Skirmish Airsoft Billericay

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he second annual Skirmish Cup was held at Skirmish Airsoft Billericay, 7 July 2012.

The format saw six-man teams trying to eliminate one another. Playing cards, issued to each player at the beginning of the day, were handed over to the team that shot a player out. The eliminated player left the field once his or her card was handed over. Teams handed in all cards collected for the round, including those issued to them and one point was awarded per card.

Some 11 teams played six rounds, including a pistol target round. Each player had 80 seconds to run around the course, taking three shots at each target. The best three shots on target for the whole team counted towards the overall score.

For the skirmish rounds, numbered start points were spread out over 40 acres of

natural hardwood woodland. These were marked on grid-marked maps given out at the start of the day. On the whistle all teams would start from their allotted start point and seek out any other teams they came across, collecting cards as they went. Each team started from a different point in each round.

The way teams moved off from their start point determined where the biggest firefights occurred. Some were unlucky to be caught between two or even three other teams advancing straight for them, quickly discovering that you perish very quickly if you do not move!

The early leaders were last year’s winners, Echo Troop, with Rogue Angels, Wolf Pack and Rogue Recon close behind.

The lead changed hands several times – Wolf Pack held the top spot going into the final round.

The Rogue Angels stormed into the lead on the final round, taking the tournament by six points. Wolf Pack took second with Echo Troop coming in third.

An excellent day of competition ended with the trophy presentation, including the Skirmish ‘Riflemen’ trophy for the best all round under-16s team. This was awarded to Wolf Pack, to go with their second place trophy.

Quote of the day came from Alan Eden, team captain of Echo Troop, after managing to unintentionally avoid all contact for an entire round: “We would have done a lot better in that round if we could have found anyone out there!”

A free barbecue and the famous Skirmish karaoke session carried on late into the night, rounding off a great day of competition and bonhomie.

SKIRMISH UK Essex, CM11 2TX Skirmish Airsoft Billericay – reviewed in Airsoft Action February 2012 – runs regular game days for both experienced players and newcomers to the sport.

CONTACT: 01277 657777, www.airsoft-billericay.co.uk

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FILMSIM | EVENT REPORT

WASTELANDER PART II

Gadge Harvey helped organise part two of Gunman Airsoft’s Wastelander series, a post-apocalyptic FilmSim adventure – and reports back after a long weekend

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Photography courtesy of Guy Berresford (guyberresfordphotography.co.uk)

lthough the threat of nuclear war was left in the shadow of the ‘80s, post-apocalypse fiction has never really gone out of fashion. With successful computer games and films such as Fallout, Borderlands, The Book of Eli and The Road keeping the genre alive it was inevitable it would be incorporated with airsoft.

As I write this I’ve only been back from Gunman Airsoft’s ‘Wastelander’ event a few hours and I’m still exhausted and buzzing from the event… as one of the organisers it was one of the most taxing airsoft events I’ve ever taken part in, despite having nearly

a decade of event organising skills under my belt.

Wastelander Part II was, as you can expect, the second event in a series of gaming weekends loosely based in the game world of the Fallout series that is known and loved by millions worldwide. At our event however there was a twist; rather than being set in a post-apocalyptic ‘50s styled USA we went for a more dark and dismal 1980s nuclear apocalypse in the UK. And what better setting for a post-nuke scenario than a derelict old NATO missile base? That’s right – the game’s location

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at Gunman Tuddenham ‘The Village’ used to be a Lancaster bomber base in WWII, but post-war was fitted with silos for THOR class intercontinental ballistic missiles!

So with the scene firmly set let me tell you about a few of the event’s highlights, dramas and firefights.

Airsoft meets LARP Like most FilmSim games, this event was very much a ‘roleplaying’ event that used airsoft guns to help tell the story and resolve any combats, to this end each of the 35 players had previously sent us a ‘character’ they would play that had been designed using a rules system that allowed them to choose their character’s skills, specialities and even physical perks and flaws.

Players could opt to be either one of the existing tribal gangs or a freelance mercenary for hire, and many opted for the latter. To make the game more interesting players had to start off with really basic kit – a pistol, and maybe a shotgun if they were lucky.

Players had to complete jobs, earn money and scavenge for scrap to ‘buy’ better kit (you could keep your own ‘upgrades’ in the store to buy later).

After a quick site and safety brief the players made their way to their base camps

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FILMSIM | EVENT REPORT Radiation hazards The search continued under a blazing August sun as players surveyed the site, skirting around radioactive ‘hot’ zones marked with bright yellow signs and warnings about ‘RAD counts’ (each player had a custom made ‘click boy’ wrist mounted damage tracker which also had a dial to keep track of how much radiation they were exposed to). Exploration was punctuated by occasional raider and slaver attacks. The local ‘provost’ police force did their best to keep law and order but many a time justice was meted out via trial by combat in a fighting pit, with the bystanders waging their ‘quids’ game money on the outcome of the fights.

All the factions found their efforts frustrated by sabotage from rival tribes (who would occasionally steal components they had secured) and Dyson’s habit of wandering off when not supervised. The search for the equipment was further hampered when a violent thunderstorm broke out at around 5pm on the Saturday. Ever quick to build on the story, we told players that this was an ‘acid rain’ storm and contaminated! Any player caught out in it would take extra radiation damage. and the freelance ‘Wastelanders’ were bundled in the back of Land Rover ‘taxis’ to be dropped off some way away from the village in order to make their own way in on foot. The day started off with players warily checking each other out, gathering information and dropping into the ‘Dog and Hammer’ cantina run by retired bounty hunter ‘Mild Bill’ (myself no less, in a handy static referee position) to pick up any gossip.

It soon transpired that for their own various reasons each of the local tribes was in search of a working computer and a technician to reprogramme it in order to sort out their base camp’s facilities. As luck would have it they also heard rumours that just such a scientist, Dyson Sinclair, was stranded in the village and would work for them if suitably persuaded.

And so a scavenger hunt ‘royale’ began, with players combing the wastes for a computer (several laptops were hidden on site but only one would power up), scrap electronics to fix it and the elusive Dyson Sinclair to do the job. They quickly discovered that the erratic Mr Sinclair was hopelessly addicted to an illegal narcotic and would only work for them if they could find the ingredients for him to make up more doses of this nasty chemical!

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FILMSIM | EVENT REPORT

Throughout the day players struggled to amass the cash for ammunition for their weapons, this was no hi-cap blat fest; every round counted when most players could barely afford to fill a 30-round magazine!

Towards the end of the first day more money came into play when a benevolent ‘huntress’ took a posse of Wastelanders out to hunt elusive RAD-rodents for their highly prized pelt. This was in fact a little light relief to break the day’s tension before the end of day in-character party… several crew had hidden in the woods with furry RAD-rodents attached to spools of wire; as the huntress’ Land Rover passed by the crew reeled in the wire causing the ‘rodent’ to skip along the road or up a tree!

With the sun setting a call of ‘sun down, guns down’ was made and from that point, for health and safety reasons, players were restricted to foam LARP weapons or dart guns.

We could safely swap the ‘beer’ in the bar for the real thing and relax with eye protection off.

I fought the law…

Bleary-eyed and with a few hangovers around the village we roused the players at 8am. The desperate struggle for ‘survival’ in the Tudd continued. However two important

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developments had occurred: my co-referee Evo’s character ‘Otto’ had been acting as a forger of important papers on day one, as well as repairing players’ armour (which sustained damage per firefight and could be made useless). Unfortunately the Provosts had found out and were gathering evidence to have him arrested.

At around the same time the lawmen had arrested Dyson Sinclair on charges of drug possession and incarcerated him at the Provost Station.

All factions needed Sinclair free, and with ‘Mild Bill’ desperate not to have his business partner jailed an uneasy alliance was formed.

Two tribes allied to break out Dyson and destroy the evidence against Otto, while the third hung back to offer healing services to wounded players. Wasteland mercenaries were recruited and Mild Bill liberally handed out bribes and medical ‘stimpacks’ to anyone volunteering for the raid. With not long to go before the end of the event the players banded together and sent a decoy from the slavers faction to negotiate with the law while the rest launched a flanking attack. The attack was successful, just, and Dyson Sinclair was rescued. To ensure he didn’t wander off again

he was made a prisoner of the allied factions, who fitted him with an explosive bomb collar!

The event ended on a real cliffhanger: the allied factions had joint ‘ownership’ of a highly unstable character, but to find out what happens next you’ll have to read the account after next year’s event – even I don’t know what they will decide to do.

It’s hard enough running an airsoft battle at the best of times, but the high roleplay content and convoluted props made this one physically and mentally draining. As we packed up and loaded the vans I swore I’d never do anything this extensive again – it was just so intense… but a few miles down the road after two consecutive 18-hour days, Evo and I were already brainstorming ideas to make the next Wastelander even better!

GUNMAN AIRSOFT Gunman Airsfot runs a host of FilmSim and other events, and holds skirmish days at its own sites in Eversley, Cambridge and Norwich.

CONTACT: 078854 277264, www.gunmanairsoft.co.uk

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STIRLING WORK Billy Basics takes time out of the classroom to talk about something close to his heart

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t’s a sad reflection on our nation that we give the elderly so little credit or attention these days. Reading the occasional obituary of some unknown old fella who did something years ago, we think: “But what’s it got to with us?” We’re so caught up in what we’re doing right now, iPads (I’m writing this on one and they are amazing, but that’s not the point), broadband and conspicuous consumption.

They’re just ‘old people’ – their day has been and gone. Whenever their issues are discussed in the media it’s in relation to how much they’re costing us or how poorly we’re treating them – a burden on the taxpayer, some say. Well not this callsign, friends!

I have had the pleasure of meeting some amazing old men and women, some of them soldiers and sailors and airmen, who did the most extraordinary things with their lives.

My own grandpa was a civvy who worked

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tirelessly to keep Lancaster bombers in the air during WWII. One old man that I didn’t get to meet was the late Sir David Stirling DSO, OBE, founder of the Special Air Service Regiment. A man of adventure and with a powerful lust for life, he was actually training to climb Mount Everest at the outbreak of war (which was at that time unconquered).

Let’s not forget that men like Stirling were also thinkers; he had been studying at Cambridge when the call to arms came. It turned out that a conventional academic life and work was not what lay in store for him.

After enlistment, commissioning and training in the Scots Guards he initially found his way to Egypt with 8 Commando, desperate for a chance to take the fight to the Germans. Like many highly-trained units that were a little bit different, though, their real utility was squandered

by narrow-minded commanders who lacked imagination, or were constrained by pressures from the chain of command above.

Not content to let his ideas for a force that could really make a difference wither, Stirling set about convincing likeminded souls around him that it had legs. He began training them with kit they could get their hands on – and here we see the helping hand of fate step in (with an unusual leg-up).

Following a parachuting accident, our young lieutenant in the Scots Guards found himself stuck in a hospital bed in Cairo with a couple of frustrating months ahead of him.

Now don’t forget this was one clever bloke – he couldn’t use his body for a bit so the grey matter got his full attention.

He must have sat in that bed, broken leg a constant pain, seething with indignation at the enemy and dreaming up ways to make

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BILLY BASICS | DAVID STIRLING them pay for their nerve – and determined to make them pay for their cheek.

This was before the days of Wi-Fi, iPhones, FHM and Nuts magazine, don’t forget. So, confined to a bed for what must have seemed an eternity for a man like Stirling, he spent those long hours coming up with the idea of a band of men chosen by a punishing selection process designed to find the fittest, most determined souls.

They would be trained in unconventional specialist skills, like sabotage and demolitions, deliverable by any means – boat, jeep and parachute – and would wreak havoc on the enemy behind the obvious lines of the conflict. And then, thanks to the unit’s size, they would disappear into the desert, only to reappear somewhere else to deliver another bloody nose to the Germans.

Stirling’s theory was that by attacking the

“In an action that was to embody the Regimental motto ‘Who Dares Wins’, Stirling scaled a fence (with a crutch), dodged a few guards and broke into the offices of General Ritchie” vulnerable (but hard to reach) supply routes and rear areas, hundreds of vital frontline enemy troops would be diverted to protect these areas. This would therefore ease the burden on his comrades in arms elsewhere fighting them.

I’m sure we’re all aware of what the SAS does nowadays and it’s easy to think of what they do as pretty awesome, but can you imagine what it must have been like actually thinking up such an idea yourself? Stirling was so keen to take the fight to the enemy – and wring their necks with his bare hands!

But let’s not forget that this was wartime, Stirling was only a Lieutenant and there were protocols to be followed, paper to fill in, senior officers to salute, halls to wait in for an interview… After all that he was told to run along and stop daydreaming.

But he didn’t. Stirling wasn’t about to let this idea get squished. In an action that was to embody the Regimental motto ‘Who Dares Wins’, he scaled a fence (with a crutch), dodged a few guards and broke into the offices of General Ritchie who,

after pacifying the irate guards, listened to Stirling’s plan and took it up to General Auchinleck. Stirling got the go ahead to form his Special Forces unit.

The Regiment had an inauspicious start.

The first parachute jump (in high winds) saw his men scattered all over the place: 66 jumped, only 22 returned to the camp.

It would have broken lesser men, but such was Stirling’s belief in what he was doing that they persevered and entered the history books.

During his time thinking and planning in hospital, David Stirling set down four principles upon which he would build his Regiment. His thinking was that a Regiment is not a set of buildings, an armoury of weapons and a fleet of vehicles; it is a group of men drawn together for a common purpose, to serve together as brothers. Stirling’s Tenets were a set of standards and qualities that he looked for in his soldiers and officers, not just during training but throughout their time with the Regiment. Stirling’s

Tenets were: The unrelenting pursuit of excellence; humour and humility; selfdiscipline; and classlessness.

They still apply to this day, to anyone who wears the beige beret.

Stirling has forged his own place in military history. A statue was erected near Stirling, Scotland, in his memory. A few miles outside a village called Doune is a bleak hillside where a lone figure in an old army greatcoat, binos in hand, gazes across the mountains to the west. It’s a fitting tribute to a man with such a vision and belief in what his men could achieve.

I was driving back from the very north of Scotland a while back, and seeing the signs for Doune decided to pay him a visit.

Now I am not usually one for statues or monuments to be honest, and I was pressed for time too, but it was an hour well spent.

You can see the statue as you climb the hill and I was struck immediately by the energy that the figure exuded, leaning forward unbowed by the setbacks and hardships he had faced in life. I walked around the statue and looked in the direction where his gaze fell and do you know what I think… He’s still planning, scheming and plotting the demise of his and our enemies!

As I said, it was a real inspiration and I regularly remind myself now of the four pillars upon which he built our great Regiment.

So the next time you see an old person on their own, take a moment and get to know them – you might be amazed at what you discover.

Take it steady everyone. Billy out.

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STIRLING AIRSOFT IN SPAIN Scott Allan joins Task Force 88 on Operation: Marlborough as they take to the streets of Baghdad (aka Madrid) to root out Al Al Qaeda and restore peace

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he sun rose later than I am used to and, being a Scotsman, an extra couple of hours’ darkness was half welcome in the early morning Spanish heat. I rolled off my ground mat and looked around, dust in my mouth. The yellow sun-washed walls of the former explosives factory try (and fail) to cheer me up after what seemed an impossibly broken sleep.

I would kill for a coffee if the temperature were not steadily climbing and bordering on uncomfortable. A mouthful of lukewarm water almost hits the spot, but is a cheap respite – I know what the day entails and how long it will be before I get to welcome the ground to try and sleep again. Little did I know it was going to be one of the toughest airsoft games of my life!

I am no stranger to Stirling Airsoft games, having played many events at Catterick and Cope Hill Down, not to mention the infamous England vs Scotland game for the Stirling Shield. I knew the standard – that it is not so much expected as it is demanded.

Stirling Airsoft runs, in my opinion, one of the finest balances between MilSim, skirmish and roleplay. With a staff of ex-UK forces and serving personnel (and the occasional SF consultant), you can always be sure that the events are current with tactics and developments.

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Personally I love MilSims, and always enjoy a general skirmish day, but roleplay is not really my thing. That’s not to say I do not enjoy the realistic aspect that these players bring to the game. I respect the effort and lengths these players go to, but to be honest I personally could not see myself bringing a live chicken to a game (yes, someone brought chickens) without feeling I had missed out on the military aspect. But that is the beauty of Stirling Airsoft events, it can be and is for every player – and chickens (although they were accused of foul play).

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MILSIM REPORT | STIRLING ABROAD

“TF88 had to suit up in a real explosive ordnance disposal suits and trudge into the desert heat to deal with the device.

Echoing scenes from The Hurt Locker, each device was safely dealt with” Continental challenge This review is purely from a Team Leader point of view, for the group I led over the weekend.

I immediately felt at ease with the team I was appointed to, call-sign ‘Romeo’: Ross Sharkey and Ally Roxton, two fellow Jocks who I have skirmished with for years, Keith Brown and Matt Bushdyhan (two Stirling regulars, so I knew they would be great straight away) and a Spanish player, Jose, who spoke better English than I spoke Spanish – so that gave us an important translator.

All Stirling Airsoft events in Spain offer training to the Spanish teams and players.

This helps them acclimatise to the event quickly and learn new skills and polish up old ones. The training was simple and effective, with ex-forces staff covering simple patrolling techniques which were explained, demonstrated then practiced by the players.

The next phase was working as a team to assault a building. Players were broken down into the classic four-man stack and covered a grenade and entry style assault. The building was complex and there were many questions, asked in Spanish, translated into English, answered then re-translated back to Spanish.

Hats off to those translating lads!

With a buzz of confidence the players left happy that they can hit buildings effectively.

Little did I know most of the players I taught were actually enemy players and I had dumped all my little snippets of tactical goodness into their heads, which they then tormented me with for the remainder of the 24-hour mission.

Our mission started off pretty well. We adjusted to the heat, language barriers, our new surroundings and the lack of sleep.

Various teams from TF88 patrolled after our briefing. We had to keep our eyes open looking for our high value targets (HVTs). During the brief we had seen various pictures which showed who they thought were our targets, but many had changed their dress and hair and beards were grown or removed.

We did manage to identify a few targets over the hours. A pocket camera came in

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handy for acquiring pictures to help the snatch teams organise a lift on the ground. The soft arrest seemed to work best as forced lifts sparked a small riot at our gates. The Spanish were very convincing, with a few ring leaders working the crowd. Our hearts and minds operation meant that a softly-softly touch was the best bet for long term help from the locals.

Over the course of the afternoon we built up the picture of our HVTs and where they fitted into the grand scheme of the efforts to undermine TF88’s objectives. The people arrested revealed more snippets of information which, in turn, painted a bigger picture showing the hierarchy of Al Qaeda in Baghdad.

Throughout the day our FOB came under a series of hit-and-run attacks and mob assaults at the front gates, including throwing oranges – more annoying than it sounds! During this time the enemy team were transporting vital components which, once assembled, created a series of IEDs. TF88 had to suit up in a real explosive ordnance disposal suits and trudge into the desert heat to deal with the device.

Echoing scenes from The Hurt Locker, each device was safely dealt with and our very own Guy Pearce returned safely to base, sweaty but unharmed. While we suffered no casualties the devices did hinder our efforts to freely move

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MILSIM REPORT | STIRLING ABROAD on the torch to ID my target. Lucky for him I did. It was one of my team coming back from a nature call who had accidentally raised the alarm. Heart racing I decided to rest again.

Babies do not sleep as well as I did that night!

Final snatch

and slowed us down. Escorting the EOD guy and keeping the curious locals at bay, who had all come out to see the giant green lego man do his work, meant we were constantly on the back foot on these operations.

Night falls As early evening set in I sat in an orchard baking in my own juices. Some men pay extra for that kind of experience I have been told, but having consumed around 12 litres of water I was keen to get our next op done and out the way. We were to assault a primary enemy stronghold and arrest our suspects. Our team ended up on the vanguard, pushing through fairly open ground. It took longer than I thought before we were busted but it made little difference. Too little cover and a concentrated enemy ensured that our assault slowed, stalled and eventually failed. We returned to base, rethought our plans and waited for nightfall.

Night ops have always been a favourite of mine. The bulk of our team had night vision and infrared aiming lasers, which gave us an advantage – but I knew when it came to the building assault and things went noisy I would always opt for the biggest torch possible. Our initial assault was discovered through the orchard so after a quick rethink we opted for an

assault down the main street past the market.

The street was exposed as people ‘lived’ in the buildings we passed, but it would bring us closer to the building’s short side, which would be easier to defend against. We opted to leave a team of three in the orchard. The tasking was to give a loud distraction which kept most eyes away from the main street. Working near-perfectly, our assault teams pushed in and did a fair amount of damage, stacking up and hitting the building while many of the enemy inside wasted fire on our team running around with flashlights in the orchard, occasionally letting off bursts into the upper floors.

We returned to the FOB for the evening to recharge. One of the blast walls of our FOB had a perfect little observation point over the orchard, and Ally and I set up to watch for enemies trying to hit us from there. We rotated stag through the evening on the front gates.

Sleep took me, only to be roused in a haze to a loud call of ‘Stand to!’

It takes a second to work out where the hell I am. I’m in the OP point. Where is Ally and how long have I been asleep? My rifle lying next to me is quickly shouldered, NV switched on and I begin to sweep. I quickly spot a guy climbing the wall next to our FOB; I wait until he has committed to the climb before I switch

The next morning I felt great, although I am unsure if it was the sleep, if I had acclimatised to the heat or it was the fact that I would be having a proper shower in about eight hours.

Breakfast was wolfed down, I brushed my teeth (worth an hour’s sleep any day) and had as good a wash as possible, then got straight into a briefing. We had just about all the intel we were going to get. We knew our key bad guy, we just had to work out where he was and how we were going to get him. The target building was identified and the plan was set.

We would use the main street through the market place; the risk of IEDs and ambushes was higher but we were relying on the enemy team being tired and not knowing we were coming. The time for the hit was set at 10:00hrs and each team knew its job.

The building had three entrances and two floors, and we had an overwatch team to prevent any ‘death from above’. The hit went well: our teams blasted in, taking no casualties on the approach or breach. As always the stairs present a problem but we kept pushing on until just one final gunman remained.

He was taken down and our target lifted. A disorientated enemy failed to put together an organised rescue. We had our man.

During the debrief it was discovered we took around a quarter of the explosives we could have; the enemy still held around 1,900lb of explosives but we did get one of their key men. Each side took something as a victory.

This is what I love about airsoft events like this: you can work your arse off, sweat, tire yourself into the dirt, find out you did not really win as such, but who cares because you had a great game, made some new mates and came away smiling.

Already I hear the next Stirling Airsoft event in Spain calling. Anyone care to join me?

STIRLING AIRSOFT Stirling Airsoft runs a range of MilSim events and training days. The next event, Op: Matterhorn, takes place at Copehill down on 8-9 September, followed by Op: Inceptor at Catterick, 13-14 October.

CONTACT: 07831 429407, www.stirlingairsoft.com

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VIPER MULTICAM SPECIAL OPS BOOT Genuine Crye Precision Multicam pattern; 1,000D Cordura and leather uppers Double YKK side zips Weighs approx 1,200g Manmade lining Viper Foot Comfort System with impact absorbsion zone EVA rubber sole Available in sizes 7-12 DISTRIBUTED BY THATCHREED: 01234 740327, www.thatchreed.co.uk Available from airsoft retailers, priced around ÂŁ70

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KIT TEST | BOOT REVIEW

VIPER MULTICAM

SPECIAL OPS Nige gets his hands on (or rather, his feet into) a pair of Viper’s new genuine Multicam boots

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hen it comes to boots, I am a bit of a stickler. Over the years I have done a number of long-distance treks and one (very painful) lesson I learned early on was that if you get the wrong boots it can go very, very wrong indeed! Since then I have always chosen what I wrap my feet in very carefully and have particular requirements of each pair of boots I own.

Having just survived a pretty soggy winter, and with predictions of a potentially hot summer (yeah, right), I had been looking for a pair of lighter-weight boots. On a recent visit to Thatchreed my attention was drawn to the new Viper Special Ops Boots, which look particularly excellent in (genuine) Multicam.

‘OK’ I thought, ‘they look great but at that price (I usually spend a couple of hundred pounds on my boots) surely they can’t be up to much?’ Still, at about 1.2kg they are lightweight, have genuine Multicam Cordura (and leather) uppers and double side-zips and they would match my Smith Optic Aegis Arc eyepro.

So, with the phrase ‘matching collar and cuffs’ bouncing around the hollow that is my skull, I tucked a pair of size 9s under my arm and told myself not to be disappointed when they didn’t live up to my expectations.

It just shows how wrong you can be. Let me say this straight up… these boots are great!

I have been wearing them for nearly a month now (two, by the time you read this) and they have turned out to be quite

a revelation, exceeding my expectations by miles. Although I wore them a few days beforehand their first big test wasn’t actually on an airsoft field, it was at War and Peace – where I was on my feet for 10 hours and spent most of the day walking. I should add that I also pay great attention to the socks I wear and, for lightweights, my preference is a pair of Trespass Coolmax Liners under Marino ‘1,000-mile’ socks. For me this combination has always worked well with high-quality boots and works perfectly with the Vipers’ ‘Foot Comfort System’.

Good ankle support is vital for me and, while the height of the boot is important, so is how it laces. Weakness in this area would mean lesser ankle support and the potential for damage that comes with it. A double-zipped boot could have an inherent weakness if the zips used are of poor quality or design. Happily the Viper Special Ops boot uses YKK nylon zips and I think the Cordura they are sewn into would give out before they do – but let me give you a little tip…

The temptation is to tighten the laces to how you like them and then use the zips to do the boots up, or undo them. Don’t! A zip’s strength comes when it is fully closed, and by using them in this manner you will overstress the individual teeth and they will fail.

At 9in the boots are quite high and the zips are there to facilitate putting them on and taking them off, so use them as they were intended and use the laces for tightening.

As this is a typical British summer, I thought I’d best see how waterproof they are! I waited a couple of days for the inevitable rain before I got bored of waiting and resorted to a garden hose. Obviously, this is not the same as standing in a rainsoaked valley in Brecon (not that I would

wear these boots in a rain-soaked valley in Brecon) but after 10 minutes of constant hydration, the boots showed no sign of leakage and the socks I had stuffed them with remained bone dry.

Just as this issue goes to print I’ll be heading off to Turkey for a bit of a break and, if I have enough (sorry, if my wife leaves me enough) space in my suitcase I might just take them with me to see how they cope with dry, arid heat.

For now though I’ll end by saying that I am impressed and, with a retail price of around £70 I think the Viper Special Ops Boot is both a good boot and excellent value for money. As with all reviews, this is just my personal opinion so if you’re interested, get yourself along to your local airsoft shop to try a pair.

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AIM TOP SVD The Dragunov, one of the most iconic sniper rifles around, gets a new twist. Scott Allan has the details

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IM TOP has a varied past, producing many hit and miss rifles (more misses than hits).

Few have grabbed the attention of players – but is the SVD more than just a new lemon?

Gas blowback rifles are nearly 10 a penny these days, with everyone from G&G to VFC having a kick at the ball.

Many are expensive and the UK climate prevents their use year round.

The real-life SVD – or Snayperskaya Vintovka Dragunova, which translates aptly into Dragunov Sniper Rifle – was not really a sniper rifle in the purest form. It was intended to be a squad weapon, much like a light machinegun. The idea was that you had a sharpshooter within your squad who could take slightly more difficult shots more accurately than your standard infantryman could with his AK47.

While still using a 7.62mm round it was a bigger 54mm cartridge, making it not only bigger than the standard AK47 39mm cartridge but also larger than the NATO standard 7.62x51 cartridge.

So it has a fair amount of poke, but

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the semi-automatic system is said to be less accurate over distance thanks to the recoil. Undoubtedly, the SVD will remain a ubiquitous icon of Soviet weapon design, alongside the AK47, and for that reason will always have a loyal following.

First impressions The first thing that strikes you about the rifle is the plastic furniture – though a wood kit effect is available separately.

Two colours are available, black and olive drab (which is very similar to the Magpul Foliage Green). Both plastic kits look and feel nice enough; whether you can get past the lack of wood effect is a personal thing. The bodywork is full metal all the way throughout and nothing seems to creak or squeak anywhere on the rifle. The cheekpiece is removable and feels pretty good.

Optics-wise, there are scopes available to fit the side mount although they can be damned tight to get them on – don’t expect to remove them too quickly.

All in all, the external package is damn good for the pricetag of under £200.

Gas rifles are fickle at best; if I had a quid for every post I saw on forums along the lines of ‘mine has never been a problem and I use it all the time’ I would have retired to a lovely beach somewhere (probably Blackpool). In short, the UK climate is not the most suitable for gas rifles, especially GBB rifles – the only thing worse is a fullyautomatic GBB rifle.

The main reason is the cooling effect of the gas as it expands. The colder the rifle gets the less pressure the gas makes; as you shoot you lose pressure.

But – and it’s a big but! – as this is a semi-automatic sniper you should not have as quick a cooldown because you are not firing it as much or as often. On top of this the magazine holds a lot of gas, probably a few magazines’ worth, so you should not be running out too quickly.

The internals are all cast metal and look like they should hold up well over time. It’s a simple mechanism, always better than a complicated one such as the KJ Works’ M4 (which actually has a rubber band inside to help move parts).

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THE ARMOURY | AIM TOP SVD

“The only downside I found during testing was the gas plume, which momentarily obscures your sightline. Is this a realistic feature or just a pain?”

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THE ARMOURY | AIM TOP SVD In action Test firing produced a high of 520fps with 0.20g Blasters and a low of 480fps after the second magazine was finished.

Not bad at all, and I am actually pleasantly impressed. Some testing with a 0.40g Blaster BB produced some whopping shots out to around 80m. The only downside I found during testing was the gas plume, which momentarily obscures your sightline. Is this a realistic feature or just a pain? I will let you decide that.

I have used an SVD in game a good few times. I owned one of the first really useable SVDs, the AtoZ/King Arms version, which has been readily copied (although not as nicely) by A&K. They are very long and become tangled easily in buildings; the same is true in some woodland. There are certainly easier rifles to use on the game field.

The gas blowback provides a good sense of realism, but personally gas systems have always been more of a novelty factor than a feature of a longterm gaming rifle.

Conclusion A full-metal, gas blowback, nicelyfinished sniper rifle utting out 500fps for under £200? While it is hard to complain about the package on offer, this it is not a rifle for every player – but then few are.

That said, few rifles will provide as much satisfaction when you blast someone from long range; the wholesome clack of the bolt and plume of gas as your shot sails towards them, followed by seeing that hand raise at the far end, won’t fail to put a smile on your face.

AIM TOP SVD SPECIFICATIONS LENGTH: 1,220mm BARREL LENGTH: 590mm WEIGHT: 3,200g POWER SOURCE: Gas (blowback) VELOCITY: 480-520fps PRICE: £195 Available from Land Warrior Airsoft CONTACT: 0131 654 2452, www.landwarriorairsoft.com

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HOW TO | TLSFX PYRO

USING G3 TLSFX PYROS

Airsoft Action’s handy guide to using the most realistic pyros available

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or some airsofters, realism is everything. That’s partly what drove TLSFx to devise its latest third generation of pyrotechnic devices. With a range including smokescreens, thermobaric multibangs and straightforward frag grenades, they

are the ultimate one-use pyros available.

There’s still a lot of confusion regarding their use though, and many times we’ve witnessed people get it wrong. So, here’s our handy step by step guide to using TLSFx’s third generation pyros.

STEP 1

STEP 3

Place the lever of the grenade against the web of your thumb on your throwing hand. Ensure it is firmly against the pad of your thumb so it can’t slip from your grasp. It should look something like this (although we’ve used a slightly looser grip than recommended, in order to get a good photo).

Once the pin unhinges and comes loose, pull it clear. Keep a firm grip on the grenade.

STEP 4 STEP 2 Grip the pull ring with your index finger and thumb of your other hand. Rotate it anti-clockwise until the pin disengages.

You’re now holding an armed grenade. While you prevent the lever moving it will not detonate. As soon as the pyro clears your hand the spring-loaded lever will snap back and trigger the fuse.

Once mastered, these pyros are pretty much the most consistent and reliable available – not to mention damn realistic, too!

TLSFX PYROTECHNICS TLSFx products are available from most airsoft retailers and many game sites too. Check out its website for details on its entire product range and videos of them in action.

TLSFX: 01673 863294, www.tlsfx.co.uk

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SHOOTING FROM VEHICLES

Andy Nightingale runs through the right way to shoot from vehicles – and when to abandon the idea

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e have all seen it on the TV and the big screen – the highspeed car chase where the cops are trying to shoot out the tyres on the bad guy’s car, or the Hollywood hero shoots his way out of a tight situation while driving his car to get away. But can we really shoot from vehicles like the movies or is that all a myth?

Shooting a firearm can be one of the most dangerous events in our lives if we don’t abide by the safety rules or take proper instruction for their safe use. Driving any type of vehicle is the same: we have rules of the road and we must also go through proper instruction before we are allowed to drive on the road. Put driving and shooting together and we have a different kettle of fish altogether. Just like different shooting positions for different defensive situations, there are different ways in which we can shoot from a vehicle depending on whether you are the driver or passenger. We will look at both and dispel a few myths.

First and foremost, if the car is still operational when the lead comes your way then use the car to get away or use it as a weapon. A car is just as good as a bullet at high speed, and while the bad guy can only shoot in straight lines the car can turn corners. So my advice is to get the hell out of Dodge. But that may not always be the case. If you do have to fight from a vehicle then this article should help you to survive.

First we will look at defence from a stationary car with you as the driver (and assuming you’re right handed and wearing a hip holster).

If you are the driver and the threat is to your right, release the seatbelt with your weak hand as you lean forwards and grasp the handgun with your strong hand (1).

Lean as far away from the window as possible, present the weapon to the threat and shoot (2).

To shoot to the passenger side, again release the seatbelt and lean forwards to aid the draw as you grasp the handgun with your strong hand.

Trace your gun muzzle around the steering wheel and towards the threat so as not to muzzle flash yourself (3).

If you have a passenger use your weak hand to pin the passenger to the back of the seat as you trace your gun muzzle around the steering wheel and towards the threat.

If you are on your own then follow the same procedure, but gain a two-handed grip and bring the weapon onto the target.

If the shooting is to the front just shoot through the windshield (4).

There may be a time when you have to abandon the vehicle and make good your escape on foot. If that is the case then you must do so as quickly and safely as possible. Studies show that in a gun fight people tend to shoot at the biggest thing – in this case a car.

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2

Get away from the car if it is no use to you as it will become a bullet magnet.

If you have to extract then throw the door open and jam it open with your foot to stop it swinging back (5).

Exit the car and make your way to the back as you shoot, using the car as cover (6).

From here it’s up to you to make your next move.

If you are in the passenger seat of a right-hand drive car and the threat is to the left, you must first release the seatbelt with your strong hand and discard it with your weak hand as you reach for your handgun with your strong hand (assuming you’re right-handed and wearing a hip holster). At the same time lean as far forward as possible to ease the draw.

Bring the muzzle up over your lap with the muzzle pointing towards the dashboard, taking care not to sweep the driver. Lean away from the window, present the weapon and shoot through the glass.

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SKILLS ROOM | VEHICLES

“There may be a time when you have to abandon the vehicle and make good your escape on foot”

The first round will most likely miss the bad guy – even at close quarters – due to the deflection of the round as it breaks the window.

Continue to shoot until the threat is down or you have made good your escape.

If the threat is coming from the driver’s side and the driver is unarmed or trying to manoeuvre out of danger, then release the seatbelt with your strong hand and discard it with your weak hand as you reach for your handgun.

With your weak hand push the driver forward and bring the handgun up behind the drivers back and to the window. This is a difficult 3

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manoeuvre to perform and you may muzzle flash the driver, but it is by far the safest option if done right (7).

If you were to shoot in front of the driver they would get muzzle flash and hot spent cases in the face.

Most vehicles are soft skinned (that is, they won’t stop a round).

The only parts of a vehicle that are likely to stop rounds are the engine block and the wheels. But don’t rely on or trust these.

Even the soft skin or bodywork can play tricks. A round fired at the bonnet, for instance, may not penetrate but can ricochet off and skip into you if you are too close to the vehicle when taking cover. As with all cover and concealment, stay at least an arm’s length away to reduce the risk of ricochets hitting you. Just like all skills and drills this must be practised regularly for it to become second nature. Take it slow when practising to get it right and always watch where your muzzle is pointing. Stay safe and happy shooting.

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AIRSOFT ABROAD

FRANCE L ast issue we looked at playing in Belgium, so now we’ll tackle the slightly thornier France.

In many respects airsoft is similar in France as in Belgium – players join officially-formed ‘associations’ to play skirmish days on leased land. This means the style of play you will see in France – as well as the kind of player – is like that you will find in Belgium.

The law, however, is a long way off.

The word ‘airsoft’ does not exist in French law – but despite that it has been banned twice in the last century already. Article four of Decree 99-240 (the main legislation affecting airsoft) states that all imitation firearms must be sold with two markings: ‘Caution: Do not distribute to minors’; and ‘Never aim at people’.

If you’re under 18 years of age, forget it.

There is no two-tone solution in France – you

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can’t buy any RIF or IF, and the law is vague on whether it is an offence for a parent to ‘gift’ an imitation firearm to their child. No one wants to be the one to clear it up. Besides this, no insurers will cover under-18s, so no association can allow under-18s to play.

In France there is a legally defined power limit of between 0.08 joules and 2 joules. After all, fps just measures velocity; measuring joules is much more accurate, because it is a calculation between the weight of the BB and the speed. You may remember some adverts that boasted about super-high fps rates, but neglected to mention that all calculations were done with 0.12g BBs… Using joules is much more clear-cut and results cannot be distorted.

It is forbidden to wear any full camo (top and trousers) on a public road in France, and all replicas must be kept inside a bag or box and

kept in the boot of your car when travelling. It is also illegal to display any military rank – or verbally use any form of military rank – so take any offending patches off before you travel.

Travel So that’s the situation in France – but how do we get there in the first place?

It is possible to send a replica by post if you have somewhere to send it to, but you risk it being seized and destroyed. Travelling by air is another option, but few airline companies are willing to transport replica weapons.

By far the easiest way is to drive; securely pack your gun in the boot and you should have no problems getting to France. Make sure you declare you are carrying a replica prior to leaving whether you go via the tunnel or on a ferry service.

Getting back should be very much the same, but some HMRC staff will have never seen a RIF in their life and it can get tricky.

Keep calm and make sure you can prove what the weapon is and that you have a right to own it. Be careful as things can get very messy,

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FEATURE | OVERSEAS AIRSOFT very quickly – trust me, I’ve been there.

Before playing you will be asked to write down your name and address and pay a fee, which will be used to pay for the insurance.

Do make sure you are you have the EHIC card (the E111 does not exist anymore). It is free of charge and it would be silly not to.

The game The main issue with finding somewhere to play is ensuring that your game site is legal.

The easiest way to find a legal association is to take to the web – www.france-airsoft.fr is a very good source. Again, it is very important to make sure that you have the right to play where you intend to. There are lots of very good sites in France, and it’s not difficult to find a great place to play – getting the authorisation to play there is another matter.

The Gendarmes and French Police are armed – and they have the right to shoot you.

Saying this, most of the associations will have a member who is a policeman or a Gendarme. It does help if you have to meet them.

The first few games are always very short,

“Most of the time, deliberate headshots will get you banned from the game. Shooting at a target less than 2m distant will get you banned too” FIREARM-FRIENDLY AIRLINES Airlines serving France that carry imitation firearms BRITISH AIRWAYS: www.britishairways.com, 0844 493 0787 Unlike most airlines, BA differentiates between real firearms and imitation firearms.

They will carry them in hold baggage, with no special provisions or charges – just make sure it is securely packed inside a gun bag. Give them a call before arriving at the airport to let them know you have one. Ensure you have any documentation possible.

AIR FRANCE: www.airfrance.co.uk, 0861 663 3777 Similarly, Air France will carry imitation firearms in the hold. You must contact them at least 72 hours prior to departure to request transport approval. They may be treated as firearms, which will incur charges.

BMI: www.flybmi.com, 0844 8484 888 BMI will carry replicas as firearms, which will incur a £50 charge per weapon. They must be declared at the airport. Ensure they are well-packed, properly sealed, and stored separately to magazines and batteries.

The following airlines will not carry imitation firearms Flybe

EasyJet

BMIbaby

Jet2

usually around 10-15 minutes and no more than 30 minutes. Most associations will play airsoft on Sundays from 9am-12pm, or 10am4pm. Some associations play on Saturday, but they are few and far between.

Most of the warm-up game scenarios are based on old paintball favourites: capture the flag, base defence or assault. This will allow the organisation to make sure that everyone has understood the meaning of the phrase ‘fair play’!

There are no regulated marshals, as such.

You will find that experienced gamers (with two or three years of skirmishing behind them) will guide, watch and help in any situations.

Both ‘knife kills’ and ‘verbal kills’ are usually in play when you are very close (less than 2m).

Most of the time, deliberate headshots will get you banned from the game. Shooting at a target less than 2m distant will get you banned too.

When an organisation is happy that all

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FEATURE | OVERSEAS AIRSOFT

EUROPEAN HEALTH INSURANCE CARD The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) was introduced in 2006, invalidating all E111s. It allows you to get state healthcare at reduced cost, or for free, depending on the specific country in question. The EHIC is completely free of charge.

The EHIC will cover you for treatment that is needed to allow you to continue your stay until your planned return. It also covers you for treatment of preexisting medical conditions.

It is valid in all European Union countries, as well as in Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Iceland and Norway.

In France, it means you will be treated by state healthcare services on the same basis as a French resident.

To apply for your EHIC free of charge, contact the NHS: 0845 606 2030, www.nhs.org.uk

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players have understood the rules and are playing well, games will get more complicated, adding VIPs or something heavy to carry to the objectives. Sometimes they might even add a bit of spice by putting the ‘old’ against the ‘new’…

The last game is usually a free-for-all, with everyone against everyone else… Quite intense!

Most associations will run games with a total of 20-25 guys maximum, which makes good team play vitally important.

If you travel around the world to play

airsoft in other countries you will find out that players are pretty much the same everywhere in the world: first-timers, old guys wearing half-a-ton of gear, young ones wearing a quarter-of-a-ton, and very old ones (like myself) playing in a pair of boots, trousers and a green t-shirt (I do love when people call me a newbie!).

In France, airsoft is all about communication – not just within the game, but in the planning and execution. Be sure to ask questions – and get the answers – before you play. Go with an open mind and enjoy it. Voila!

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SITE REVIEW | AIRSOFT ELITE GLASGOW

GLASGOW Baz Collins jumps at the chance to try out a ‘new’ site just outside Glasgow

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hen I started playing airsoft I hit every site in Scotland – hard! I played every weekend and just couldn’t get enough. Soon I hit the limit and, short of visiting England, had no more sites to try. My mate Chris told me about a friend of his, Norrie, who ran a private site on an old MOD range. I always wanted to give it a go but never got the chance.

Earlier in the year there was an announcement on the Airsofters forum that a new site was opening in Glasgow.

Lo and behold it was Norrie’s site, under the epithet Airsoft Elite Glasgow (or AEG for short). Needless to say I was ecstatic.

I contacted head marshal Norrie and arranged to head out.

From Glasgow the site is a 20-minute journey on the motorway, making it

the easiest airsoft site to get to in the vicinity of the city. The site is located in Cambuslang and is just off a country road, but it has a valid postcode so it’s very easy to find with a sat nav. The site is the old Dechmont Range, which is owned by the MOD. On this particular day the normal car park was closed for repairs, so we were ferried up by 4x4s from an alternate route. Once we got to the safe zone I quickly noticed the site went straight up from the zone – as in a massive, wooded hill! The safe zone was well secure with netting all around and cover from the elements (which was nice to see) makes it stand out from regular woodland sites I’ve played at. The safety brief was standard and covered everything you would expect. Afterwards maps of

the site were handed out to everyone – another very nice touch!

The first game was a fallback game which was far from typical. The defending team started off confined to a base with one life; once hit they’d fall back to the next base. There were three bases in total and attackers would have unlimited lives, and the game was against the clock.

I was in the attacking team and as soon as I left the safe zone I saw the extent of the hill before me. It’s not the steepest in the world, but it is huge! After hauling myself up and right into the line of fire (I never even saw the base) I returned to my respawn. As I trudged back up again I realised that this is a very physical site and I may be in over my head. Once I reached the base the ground levelled out

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“You had to break into the open ground to strike. This was a sniper’s dream – we were getting pinged the minute we moved” and I was able to attack with my team and drive the defenders out. Moving onto the next base was far easier, though between it and us was a rather large (cordoned off) quarry with only a narrow pass straight up the middle. You could flank round the quarry instead, but that was a significant detour. I opted for frontal attack.

I don’t know how many times I got hit but it was a lot. I found this particularly fun as it was a meat grinder style of play – advance, hit and repeat. After a fair bit of time we cleared this base and moved to the last, which was on open ground with some defences and good cover. This again was very difficult, as you had to break into the open ground to strike. This was a sniper’s dream – we were getting pinged the minute we moved. All told, this warm-up game took over an hour and I was certainly buzzing afterwards!

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SITE REVIEW | AIRSOFT ELITE GLASGOW

We played a turnaround (we won, as we held out longer) and broke for lunch.

During lunch the usual banter abounded, with people telling their war stories, gun problems and what new bits of kit they had their eye on. This is something I love, and always comment on – whether you are a total beginner or a veteran player, everyone comes together as if one big family.

After the break the next game was a three-way split. Two teams were searching for the third small group, to exfil them out to their respective drop-off zones. Again the marshal team handed out info sheets on this game as it was longer and more complicated that the previous; this is the first time I’ve seen this done (outside of the big games down south), so thumbs up guys!

I sat this game out to take pictures, but witnessed some fantastic play from both sides. The small five-man team held its own

for a good while but was finally felled by some nice flanking moves and a brutal sniper that managed to down three of them. The Tan team managed to exfil the captives to take the win.

The day was rounded off with a bombthe-base style game, where each team had its respective bases and a bomb which they had to put in the grounds of the enemy base.

Both teams ran from their bases and met in the middle of no man’s land. The result was a huge, brutal firefight which saw support gunners proving their worth by mowing down hordes of opponents. I took a fair few hits here also, and while I didn’t manage to take anyone out I did support my teammate to get the bomb home. A turnaround was played on this one too with bases switched, and I decided to hold back and defend my base. After 20 minutes without contact, just as I was beginning to think I had made a

poor decision, a fellow defender and I were assailed on both sides – but managed to hold off!

With the daylight dwindling we called it a day. I was well and truly finished, and I know I say that in most reviews but this site really does test your limits. AEG is one of the most physically-demanding sites I have ever played but makes for one of the best, with such a unique set-up. Get yourselves out there and give it a go – you won’t be disappointed.

AIRSOFT ELITE GLASGOW Cambuslang, Glasgow G72 8YP PRICES: WALK-ON: £15 RIFLE HIRE: £40 CONTACT: 07980 225857

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GAME REVIEW | MAX PAYNE 3

Has the latest in a line of Tom Clancy games moved too far from the original idea? Alex Wharton reckons so

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here were four of them patrolling around the tent, between us and our target. I marked all four, watching my team move into place carefully and quietly.

I can see the AKs in the enemies’ hands, and the one I have my eye on is pausing for a smoke. Slowly I see the infrared lasers from my team light up and take a solid aim on the chests of the other three.

“On you,” the radio buzzes. I watch my target exhale smoke as I pull my rifle to the aim, my targeting laser finding its spot. I slowly squeeze the trigger and watch the soldier drop.

Before he’s halfway to the floor, three more shots ring out and the rest of the guards hit the ground. We don’t even acknowledge a job well done – we’ve a lot more to do before we can head home.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is

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the latest in a long, long line of Tom Clancy games, but does it live up to the rest? Tom Clancy’s strength is that most of his work is based on fact. So Future Soldier is based in the very near future and makes use of technology that might be under development as we speak. You are kitted out with everything from active camouflage to magnetic vision that allows you to see through walls. You even have a handy little UAV that you can pop up to see what’s around before targeting enemies and having your squad drop them! And of course, the newest weapons in development sit alongside the old favourites (I’m looking at you, trusty AK-47!).

The Ghost Recon games were originally a tactical military-sim type of game, but throughout the iterations Ubisoft has slowly moved away from this. Future Soldier sits in a strange

genre partway between tactical shooter and run-and-gun. It still tries to get you to think about the tactics and outthink the enemies, but in all honesty plays more like Gears of War. You can sprint between cover and blind fire around corners.

That aside it’s still a lot faster than most third-person cover shooters, though no way near as fast as the runand-guns. It’s certainly fun – just not in the way it should be. Players looking for a hardcore tactical shooter should look elsewhere (and players who want run-and-gun have Call of Duty!).

I wouldn’t worry about the story either. I’d try to explain it to you, but I’d need to work it out myself first.

There’s definitely something about finding a bomb, and the loss of one of the Ghost teams. Then you’re in the Artic; then you’re in Africa. You shoot down a plane.

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GAME REVIEW | GHOST RECON FUTURE SOLDIER

TOM CLANCY’S GHOST RECON: FUTURE SOLDIER DEVELOPED BY: Ubisoft PUBLISHED BY: Ubisoft OUT NOW ON: Xbox 360, PS3 and PC PRICE: From around £30 depending on console

A lot of stuff happens but I still have no clue why. Like most games these days, the objective marker is king. The marker says go over there, the brief says don’t kill anyone – so I follow it quietly. It then says take the building, so I take the building. For a series of games that used to make you think about tactics and squad movement, it really has been dumbed down!

Detail was an important part of the older games – the ability to change the fire mode of your rifle, for example. In previous games you could swap between single-shot and full-auto (burst as well, if the gun had it) on the fly. In Future Soldier you can change it, but only at the setup screen by changing out the trigger type. So of course, you always take the auto trigger as it’s easier to fire just a couple of shots on full-auto than it is to fire lots on semi.

Each stage of the story unlocks new gear and equipment, so you do feel as though your soldier is progressing.

The weapon setup screen is also very

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cool. As you choose how you want your rifle set up it splits the rifle down into its constituent parts. You can then chose the particular stock you want, trigger mechanism, sights and suppressors, even barrel length and gas tube. All of these affect the way that the gun handles. It’s a cool touch and makes the gun geek in me happy!

However when, halfway through the game, a patch comes out which removes all of your unlocks, it kind of makes you lose interest, so thanks for that Ubisoft! I ended up starting the game over again on easy just to get through it.

Multiplayer presents you a number of different game modes, Conflict, Siege, Decoy and Saboteur. None of these really add anything new to the multiplayer gaming land but they all play relatively well and are enjoyable.

You also have three character classes to choose from: Engineer, Rifleman and Scout. Each play differently and have access to different weaponry. Engineer is the CQB class.

Players get access to personal defence weapons and shotguns. Great for close up work. The soldier is of course the all rounder. Assault rifles are the tools along with light machine guns.

Finally the scout which is of course the range class. All classes also have access to different gadgets and tools to help you in the death dealing.

There is also a third game mode in addition to Single and Multiplayer – Guerilla. This is a wave-based game mode where the goal is to survive.

Again, nothing new, but it’s enjoyable and great if you can get a few friends on with you.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is not a good Ghost Recon game. In my opinion it has deviated too far from the tactical shooter setup to truly deserve the Ghost Recon title.

However, that is not to say it’s not a good game. The story is pants, but the gameplay is enjoyable. I’ve certainly lost many hours to this, even though I didn’t know why I was shooting!

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RIFS:

COMMON SENSE

Oscar Plummer details some practical advice for any airsofter transporting RIFs in public and at home

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n 25 July, police were called to a property in Knaphill just outside Woking, Surrey. They had received a call that a man was armed and was threatening to harm himself and others. Police evacuated nearby homes as there was concern that an explosive device was present at the address.

Surrey Police dispatched an armed unit to the address and a man in his 40s was shot. At the time of writing, the man is recovering at a hospital in London. No explosive devices were discovered.

As with all incidents where police discharge a firearm, the case has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). Because that investigation is ongoing few details of the incident are in the public domain. That ensures that any legal action can take place without prejudicial discussion in the press or social media.

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They have confirmed that one round was fired by one police officer. Crucially, though, they have also confirmed that ‘a weapon was found at the scene, which was identified by a ballistics expert as a 6mm BB gun which had been painted black.’

Although we do not yet know exactly what was going on at the address in question (or whether the individuals in question had a skirmisher’s defence) it is an easy assumption that the sprayed gun was considered part of the threat. Even the language used makes it clear how seriously the police take threats like this; they say it is a ‘weapon’. They used a ‘ballistics expert’ to check it. They take incidents like this incredibly seriously.

Reading any forum will show you how often stories like this crop up in local and national papers; a quick internet search brings up regular stories about the misuse of BB guns in

public. Thankfully, few escalate to armed police involvement, but all too often bystanders are shot at random. And every time a story like this appears public attention turns to our hobby and someone asks why people are allowed to have imitation firearms – realistic or otherwise.

At the risk of a gross simplification, incidents involving BB guns make people ask why our hobby is allowed. Therefore it is absolutely crucial that every one of us who enjoys this hobby take every care to minimise negative coverage of airsoft.

But while the rules on the purchase of RIFs and two-tone IFs are clear, guidance on transporting them, working on or displaying them at home, and using them on private property are less so. Essentially, every time we take our kit to a skirmish we are carrying it in public at one point or another; what steps should we all take to ensure that we don’t end

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legal matters | rifs up causing an incident ourselves, giving the naysayers ammunition to criticise our hobby?

We spoke to the Association of Chief Police Officers following the incident in Surrey, and asked them what guidance they would give airsofters. Chief Constable David Thompson, ACPO lead on the criminal use of firearms, told us: “While it is essential we understand the concerns over the possession of any imitation and converted firearms, we must also acknowledge the point of view expressed by the law-abiding and responsible individuals who own items for theatrical, historic reenactment, collection and sporting purposes.

“Carrying an airsoft weapon for sporting purposes must be done so in a sensible and discreet way, to prevent alarm or distress to members of the general public. Airsoft weapons should be covered when being transported in a public area and there must be a legitimate reason for carrying the weapon at the time, for example travelling to or from a sporting venue.”

So far so good; essentially, use your common sense when transporting airsoft guns. But again we have to note that RIFs and IFs are referred to as weapons and we have to

“At the risk of a gross simplification, incidents involving BB guns make people ask why our hobby is allowed. It is crucial that we take every care to minimise negative coverage of airsoft” be careful not to ‘alarm or distress members of the public’.

Still we have no cast-iron, copper-bottomed guidance on what precautions we should take when carrying RIFs and IFs in public, or using them at home. But there are two great places to start from – UKAPU’s code of conduct has some solid recommendations on the subject, and also the Home Office publish guidelines on transporting real firearms. Put together, these produce some very sensible recommendations. Here is our take on the three key things to remember.

Keep it covered There is no need whatsoever to advertise what you are transporting.

If you are taking your kit to a skirmish, keep it out of public view. Either invest in a gun case or slip, or use the box it came in. If the box has a prominent picture of the RIF you should consider covering it or turning the box insideout. Your case, slip or box doesn’t have to lock, but it should be secure; you really don’t want to drop a RIF in the street outside your house.

Bear in mind that the silhouette of a gun can be enough to ‘alarm’ someone. Even if

A rifle case can be invaluable kit for transporting guns in public

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legal matters | rifs Store your RIFs sensibly at home and ensure they can’t be seen from ooutside

you have the RIF swaddled in a bag or sheet, a glimpse of a barrel or stock might be enough to catch the eye.

If you are transporting your RIF in a car, keep it in the boot if you can, under cover. Don’t just chuck it on the back seat, or put it in the glove compartment; keep them out of the driving compartment where at all possible. People can see into your vehicle, and in any case you might get pulled over for a spot check (it does happen!).

Keep it safe The rules for real firearms are very clear and are intended to make it hard for accidents to happen. It’s easy to achieve the same thing with RIFs – and you should have done most of this when leaving the game zone anyway.

Make sure it’s unloaded. This should be standard practice – take out magazines and clear the barrel. The last thing you want is a BB bouncing around your car as you pull onto a dual carriageway.

Real firearms should have an integral part removed – the bolt or similar. We are not suggesting you strip your RIF, but consider removing the battery as well. It can’t hurt.

Don’t forget to check reusable grenades or pyro. Remove any charges and make sure pyro is safely stored. Ask around – you’ll soon find

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someone who has had a loose striker set off a burning pyro which was bouncing loose in their kit bag.

Keep it sensible Store your RIFs sensibly. You don’t have to keep them out of sight, but consider whether they could be seen from the road or by the guy delivering a pizza. And don’t move your RIFs in public unless you have a good reason to do so.

It’s obvious, but be very, very careful if conducting a trade in public. Make every effort to conduct trades in a sensible location, preferably at an insured airsoft site.

Real firearms have to be kept locked away and inactivated in a steel cabinet. We don’t need to do that, but there are regular reports of RIFs being stolen during burglaries and getting out into the wild. Again, not a rule, but you may wish to consider an inexpensive cable lock.

If you are plinking in the back garden, consider who can overlook you. You may know your immediate neighbours well, but remember they have visitors and people passing.

Don’t forget where your BBs might go.

You must ensure that they stay within your property – if you are testing or zeroing, make sure rounds aren’t going through the hedge or bouncing into the garden next door. This is

especially important if they might cross from your boundary onto public land.

Don’t forget to be sensible with your rig.

A RAV bristling with mags and replica M67 grenades is not the most inconspicuous of things.

And finally, remember to be careful with upgraded RIFs. UKAPU’s guidance reminds us that if a fully-automatic RIF exceeding 1.3j (~370 fps on a 0.2) is considered a section 5 firearm, and a single-shot which exceeds 2.5j (~520fps on 0.2) is considered an air rifle. Just because you can push the limits doesn’t mean you should!

This isn’t intended to be a hard and fast list of rules – nothing is a substitute for oldfashioned common sense. But every time you travel to a skirmish, ask yourself if you could ‘alarm’ a member of the public – if you think you might, then check again what you can do to cut down on the risk. Everything you can do helps keep our hobby safe, sensible and in play.

FURTHER READING UKAPU’s code of conduct is a great resource for airsofters.

FIND IT ONLINE HERE: goo.gl/SGfLX

October 2012

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Available to download now for iPad and iPhone www.airsoftactionmagazine.com

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Dan Mills, Sniper One, talks about his experience as a Platoon Commander in 1 Mech Brigade based in Bhurtpore Barracks, Tidworth

T

he post of Platoon Commander is normally filled by a Commissioned Officer, freshly trained and qualified through the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. These young officers attend and pass out after several months of training, their instructors being a Colour Sergeant or Staff Sergeant from any one of the regiments or corps within the army.

These new subalterns are then posted to their respective battalion where they will lead a platoon of men for up to two years as Platoon Commander.

The exception to this is within the specialised weapons platoons. These specialists require a more experienced and qualified leader to command them; these commanders are either experienced Captains or senior ranks who have specialised in that field.

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The latter is where I came in: leading 1PWRR (Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment) Snipers back in 2003. My qualifications and experience at the time of my appointment were as follows: I completed a potential non-commissioned officer’s course on an earlier posting in Tidworth back in 1987, on Salisbury Plain and Otterburn. From this I gained the basics of leadership, instruction and tactics and from then on commanded a fire team.

The hardest test then followed when, aged 20, I attended and passed Junior Brecon to gain promotion to Corporal. Back then phase one was skill at arms and was held at the Para Depot, Browning Barracks in Aldershot. Phase two was tactics and held in Dering Lines Brecon at The Infantry Battle School.

My next tour of duty, shortly after I sewed corporal chevrons on my uniform,

was in West Belfast, where I led a brick of four men on operations against terrorists.

Belfast was the first time I experienced getting shot at, witnessing dead bodies and being too close to an exploding device!

After several years I attended Senior Brecon at Warminster and Brecon, gaining qualifications in field firing, skill at arms and senior tactics qualifying one up, which meant I was able to take over as platoon commander should the need arise – I was one bullet away from leading the platoon!

This course qualified me as a Sergeant.

During 1994 I was one of only six soldiers who came away from the sniper instructors’ course at The Infantry Training Centre qualified as both a sniper and sniper instructor. This enabled me to select and train potential snipers back in my battalion for the field army as well as operate as one.

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REAL-STEEL | LEADER OF MEN

“Jumping straight back up after stopping a bullet did wonders for the morale and confidence of my men – if I had stayed down it would have been a very different story!”

During the ‘90s I operated as a sniper in Northern Ireland and Bosnia gaining valuable experience, including as a Sergeant operating in South Armagh on several short, emergency callouts due to a rise in terrorist activity.

In 2003 I returned to the battalion from a stint at ITC Catterick where I was platoon sergeant, straight into my new post as the platoon commander of the battalion’s snipers. Snipers were a specialist weapons platoon and very few officers have qualified to lead such men, so a senior rank would usually do it. This was my big chance.

Sniper platoon operated alongside the Recce Platoon, Anti Tanks and the Mortar Platoon. These other platoons were led by Captains, so I had to step up to operate with commissioned peers.

Several months after my appointment the news arrived that 20 Armoured Brigade

would be deploying to Iraq on Operation Telic 4. Months before the land war had been declared over the country had been torn apart by war for the second time in 12 years or so – and for once our unit was going to get a part to play.

This news was widely appreciated throughout all ranks of the battalion and I set about at great pace, wasting no time to select and prepare the men for battle.

First I needed to run a selection cadre to find some new blood for my platoon; the battle group had months to go before a significant test exercise in Canada. Canada would determine what role the battalion would have once it deployed on operations to Iraq.

It was important to have the right men for the right job for the forthcoming tour so the pressure was on me. Part of the job of command is to manage the men, which

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includes giving both good and bad news. I decided to use the basic sniper course and the test exercise to select. As the manager I had to put the right men in the right job.

After getting to know all the various personalities on joining the platoon, there were some that I felt were not good enough, but they were given the same chance as all newcomers to show what they were made of over the programme.

In some cases this included some of the junior NCOs. One of the biggest challenges I faced was gaining the respect of the troops I commanded, and that of the officers who were my peers. By the end of the selection cadre several new members were selected to go forward to the test exercise. During Canada we gave an outstanding account of ourselves, at one stage completely wiping out a decent enemy force which had been dropped well within our battle group area to disrupt and destroy what they could. Luckily I had sited a large sniper screen and once the enemy patrol had been spotted I used my assets to ambush them. This was a high point of training and one which went down very well at BGHQ.

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Hostile environment Once back in England the grim task of selection took place. Several corporals and privates were told that they no longer had a place in snipers, very bad news for them all but a necessary one. This was not always easy for me as I was friends with some of them.

Afterwards I was left with a nucleus of 15 men including me. Training for role now came fast and furious – as the only other rank in a bunch of officers I felt I had something to prove.

As well as training I was responsible for the discipline, fitness and welfare of the men under my command. My soldiers’ qualifications and career progression was also important to me, so my schedule became very busy – especially with mandatory courses and qualifications prior to deployment. To this end various snipers were sent off on career courses before, during and after the tour.

After initial deployment to Iraq and acclimatisation I soon cut my teeth leading the platoon in battle. After just two foot patrols my callsign was attacked on its first vehicle patrol and the ensuing battle lasted for several hours in 50° heat.

Fighting in such heat led to many challenges: keeping the platoon in a healthy fighting order was hard enough given the hot, dry conditions, let alone fighting. Lack of sleep, the operational tempo, the mileage on patrols carrying heavy loads, the food you took in – it all took a toll on the men.

As the platoon commander I had to ensure we kept ourselves in the best condition we could. Regular foot inspections and airing were a must. It was not uncommon, when surprise attacks came, to be fighting on the rooftops in base in flip flops!

Any infantryman knows you must look after your feet so I insisted on regular inspections. The same was expected of the basics like toenails and fingernails – in the arid environment a simple ingrown toenail can easily lead to infection. It was also equally important to be dentally fit, as once out in the patrol bases it would be hard to get any treatment.

The heat caused many problems with sweat rash, and with a shortage of water due to the supply being destroyed by mortar fire the cleanliness of one’s body became even more important. In particular

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REAL-STEEL | LEADER OF MEN

the armpits, groin and feet. Water intake was rationed as supplies ran low, leading to severe problems (heatstroke and dehydration are not nice in the desert!).

Clothing became worn and dirty very quickly in the harsh conditions and it was important to keep it clean. Once the water supply was cut this was dispensed with too.

One of the hardest things was to gauge each individual soldier’s reaction to fighting.

Some soldiers showed in their manner and bearing that they were coping, some kept it within themselves and some would go on to show stress and hardship. Regular debriefs after each period of combat were essential; luckily I knew my men well and I could usually tell how they were coping.

If need be I would hold individual interviews, not sat behind a desk but informally, relaxing the soldier to get the

most out of him. Each person was given opportunity to speak about anything he had done or witnessed and any fears were addressed. One of the best ways to destress was by sticking within your own and talking about it, banter was essential.

A high for me personally was when we were at our best, operating out on the ground against the enemy. Leading men in combat has to be one of the most exhilarating things you can do and I thoroughly enjoyed it. With years of training and practice behind me I was up for it, and once things turned against the coalition forces I didn’t hold any punches; we destroyed as much of the militia in combat as we could. This was good for morale of the men and we became more and more confident in our abilities, as did headquarters (which showed in the types of tasks we received).

The lowest point for me was breaking the news of a fellow soldier’s death to the men, knowing that the soldier was probably known to most of the men. Some went through basic training with him and would have worked in the rifles together.

Each time I led a patrol out of the base in Iraq, none of us knew if we would patrol back in again. Fighting was pretty much guaranteed on every single patrol. The men, me included, had many close calls with death and serious injury.

My platoon suffered injuries from blast and shrapnel to lucky escapes from gunshot wounds. I was shot in the shoulder and helmet – jumping straight back up after stopping a bullet did wonders for the morale and confidence of my men; if I had stayed down it would have been a very different story! It was important to lead from the front and by example as much as possible.

Dealing with mental issues is one of the most difficult things, mainly because you cannot see the problem until it comes out in behaviour – then it must be acted on swiftly. Unfortunately in Iraq, certainly in the early days, many soldiers suffered and had to be removed.

Overall I found that period of time in my career was my best and most rewarding, the highlight of my career. There is no better feeling of satisfaction than leading men in battle!

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SITE DIRECTORY Find somewhere to be this weekend…

SYMBOL KEY

Is it woodland or urban?

Check the key!

UKARA

UKARA MEMBER UKASGB MEMBER WOODLAND

£

SHOP ONSITE BATTERY CHARGING URBAN PYROS ALLOWED REPAIR SERVICE DESERT

ATROOP AIRSOFT

Clocaenog Forest, LL16 4SP 07967 394976 www.atroop.co.uk

ABSOLUTE AIRSOFT

Maidenhead, SL6 3SS 07871 314951 www.absolute-airsoft.co.uk

ACE AIRSOFT WAR GAMES Penkridge, ST19 5RE 07786 192832 www.aceairsoft.co.uk

ACE COMBAT

Kent, TN12 7DG 01303 814803 www.acecombat.co.uk

AIRBORNE 101 AIRSOFT CLUB Downpatrick, Co. Down, BT30 07718 032541 robinsonm24@btinternet.com

AIRSOFT ASYLUM

North Lanarksire, ML7 5 www.airsoftasylum.webs.com ayrsoft@gmail.com

094

AIRSOFT COMMANDOS Sutton, near Ferrybridge 07723 061386 andyace@ntlworld.com

AIRSOFT KGB

Porkellis Moor near Helston, Cornwall, TR13 0 Chef1322@hotmail.com www.kgbairsoft.com.

AIRSOFT SKIRMISH

Stoulton, WR7 4QW 07764 587410 www.airsoftskirmish.co.uk

ALPHA ELITE GAMING

Le Mont de Rozel, Jersey, JE3 5 01534 733697 www.aegairsoft.je

AMBUSH ADVENTURES – SOUTHAMPTON

New Forest National Park, SP5 2DW 01252 315225 www.ambushadventures.co.uk

AMAZON EVENTS

Hellingly, East Sussex, BN27 4HL 0844 2570433 www.amazonoutdoorevents.co.uk

AMBUSH ADVENTURES – CHOBHAM

Chobham, Surrey, GU24 8SL 01252 315225 www.ambushadventures.co.uk

APOCALYPSE AIRSOFT

Sittingbourne, Kent, ME9 7QP 07872 348 576 www.apocalypseairsoft.com

ARENA AIRSOFT

Grimsby, DN31 3JD 07752 404060 www.arenaairsoft.com

AIRSOFT SKIRMISH CQB

Studley, B80 7LY 07764 587410 www.airsoftskirmish.co.uk

AIRSOFT XCALIBRE

Macclesfield, SK10 4SZ 07921 837658 www.airsoft-xcalibre.co.uk

ALL ARMS AIRSOFT

Near Trawden, BB8 8SN 07909 683464 www.allarmsairsoft.co.uk

October 2012

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AIRSOFT SITES | DIRECTORY Huge thanks to our friends at Airbana (www.airsoftmap.net) for supplying data!

AWA HERTS

Sawbridgeworth, Herts, CM23 4BJ 07732 184957 www.awaherts.com

CERBERUS AIRSOFT - RIVOCK EDGE

Keighley, BD20 0LS 07891 469492 www.cerberusairsoft.co.uk

BARNSLEY AIRSOFT

Shafton, Barnsley, S72 8RE 07779 236166 www.barnsleypaintball.co.uk

BATTLETEC AIRSOFT

La Couture, Guernsey, GY1 2 07781 104068 www.battletec.co.uk

BETTER BATTLES

Ravenshead, Notts, NG15 9DH 07967 940043 www.better-battles.com

BRAVO 2-2 AIRSOFT

Leisure Lakes, Mere Brow, Southport. PR46JX 07790 715059 www.bravo22airsoft.com

CERBERUS AIRSOFT SHEFFIELD WOODLAND

Sheffield, S6 6JE 07891 469492 www.cerberusairsoft.co.uk

CLOSE ACTION AIRSOFT Corby, NN17 3BB 07740 165787 www.close-action.co.uk

DOGS OF WAR

FINMERE AIRSOFT

DRAGON’S LAIR

FIREBALL SQUADRON

DRAGON VALLEY AIRSOFT

FIRST AND ONLY – ANZIO CAMP

Houston, Renfrewshire, PA6 7BP 07853 195290 www.dow-airsoft.co.uk

Brentwood, Essex, CM15 0LA 07703 530189 www.dragonslairairsoft.co.uk

Caerwent Training Area, South Wales, NP26 5XL 07921 336360 www.dragonvalley.co.uk

EAST MIDLANDS AIRSOFT COMBAT ACTION GAMES

Maryland, Norfolk, NR10 4 01328 711867 www.combatactiongames.co.uk

COMBAT SOUTH URBAN

Earlswood, B94 6SF 0844 870 9785 www.sabreforce.co.uk

ELITE ACTION GAMES – DORKING

Portsmouth, PO6 3LS 02392 655636 www.combatsouth.co.uk

Dorking, Surrey, RH5 5AB 01784 433023 www.eliteactiongames.com

COMBAT SOUTH WOODLAND

ELITE ACTION GAMES – EPSOM

BRISTOL AIRSOFT

Bristol, BS1 2HQ 07776 288826 www.bristolairsoft.com

Fareham, PO17 5ND 02392 655636 www.combatsouth.co.uk

BRIT-TAC AIRSOFT

Sheffield, S2 5TR 07795 631331 www.brittacairsoft.com

CONTACT! FIGHT SCHOOL

Kelvedon Hatch, Essex, CM14 5 01438 368177 www.thefightschool.demon.co.uk

BUNKER 51

Charlton, SE7 8NJ 0870 7549653 www.wolfarmouries.co.uk

COOL UNDER FIRE

Doddington, Kent, ME9 0JS 07960 532613 www.coolunderfire.co.uk

C3 TACTICAL

Longhope, Gloucestershire, GL17 0PH 07597 938011 www.c3tactical.co.uk

CERBERUS AIRSOFT - THE COMPLEX

Horsforth, Leeds LS18 4RP 07891 469492 www.cerberusairsoft.co.uk

CERBERUS AIRSOFT - THE SANDPIT

Bradford, BD2 1BQ 07891 469492 www.cerberusairsoft.co.uk

CORNWALL AIRSOFT ASSAULT

Truro, Cornwall, TR2 07837 475012 www.cornwallairsoftassault.co.uk

Epsom, Surrey, KT18 01784 433023 www.eliteactiongames.com

ELITE ACTION GAMES – WORTHING

Worthing, BN13 01784 433023 www.eliteactiongames.com

DELTA TEAM 3

Skelmersdale, Lancashire WN8 8UT 07986 053076 www.deltateam3.co.uk

Sutton Coldfield, B75 5SA 07582 684533 www.fireballsquadron.com

Leek, ST13 8 07862 288359 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

FIRST AND ONLY – BATTLE LAKES

Royal Tunbridge Wells, TN3 9AP 07862 288359 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

FIRST AND ONLY – BUNKER WOOD

Kidderminster, Worcs, DY11 5SA 07862 288359 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

FIRST AND ONLY – KHE SANH WOODS

Otley, West Yorkshire LS21 2NA 07862 288359 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

FIRST AND ONLY – MANCHESTER WOODLAND Bolton, BL7 9TS 07862 288359 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

ELITE BATTLEZONE

Bexley, Greater London, DA5 1NX 07968 448475 www.elitebattlezone.co.uk

FIRST AND ONLY – THE ASYLUM

Kidderminster, DY10 3PT 07862 288359 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

EXPERIENCE AIRSOFT

Swindon, Wiltshire, SN5 0AN 01380 728982 www.experienceairsoft.co.uk

CUMBRIA AIRSOFT

Dumfries, DG12 cumbria.airsoft@virgin.net www.cumbria-airsoft.com

Buckingham, MK18 4JT 07976 184897 www.finmereairsoft.com

FIREFIGHT COMBAT SIMULATIONS

Lewisham, SE13 5SU 07973 240177 www.firefight.co.uk

FIRST AND ONLY – THE EMBASSY

Leicester, LE2 6EA 07862 288359 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

FIRST AND ONLY – THE MALL Reading, RG1 1NR 07862 288359 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

FIFE WARGAMES

St Andrews, KY10 3XL info@fifewargames.co.uk www.fifewargames.com

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SITE DIRECTORY Find somewhere to be this weekend…

LAC SITE 3

Saxillby, LN1 2JW 07775 877057 www.lincolnshireairsoftclub.co.uk

LAC SITE 5

Kirton Rd, North Lincs, DN16 07775 877057 www.lincolnshireairsoftclub.co.uk

LINDSEY AIRSOFT

Manby, Lincolnshire, LN11 8HE 07955 487983 www.lindsey-airsoft.co.uk

FREE FIRE ZONE

Farcet, Peterborough, PE7 3DH 01733 247171 www.freefirezone.co.uk

FRV AIRSOFT

Annacloy, Downpatrick, BT30 8JJ 07730 586926 www.frvairsoft.com

GASS AIRSOFT – PENN

Penn Bottom, Bucks, HP10 07907 788970 www.gassairsoft.co.uk

GASS AIRSOFT – PIDDINGTON

Piddington, Oxfordshire, OX25 1 07907 788970 www.gassairsoft.co.uk

HIGHLAND TACTICAL AIRSOFT IV25 3PY 07702 846090 www.highlandtacticalairsoft.co.uk

HILTON PARK AIRSOFT

Wolverhampton, WV10 7HU 08000 354490 www.paintballuk.com

GREENZONE COMBAT

Co. Armagh, BT60 1NE 07772 919974 www.greenzonecombat.com

Spanby, Lincs, NG34 0AT 07971 560249 facebook.com/HomelandTacticalAirsoft

INVICTA AIRSOFT – RAINDEN WOODS

Folkestone, Kent, CT18 7AY 01227 763335 www.invictaairsoft.co.uz

ISLAND RECON AIRSOFT COMBAT

Near Shorwell, Isle of Wight, PO30 07964 751047 www.islandrecon.co.uk

LAND WARRIOR AIRSOFT GUN HO AIRSOFT

Guisborough, TS7 0PG 07525 435696 www.gunhoairsoft.co.uk

Gorebridge, Midlothian, EH23 4LG 0131 654 2452 www.airsoftedinburgh.co.uk

LAC SITE 1 GUNMAN AIRSOFT – CAMBRIDGE

Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP28 07854 277264 www.gunmanairsoft.co.uk

GUNMAN AIRSOFT – NORWICH Norwich, Norfolk, NR10 07854 277264 www.gunmanairsoft.co.uk

096

Matlock, Derbyshire, DE4 5FW 07974 507166 www.matlockcombatgames.com

MAW

Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, LE14 07562 479966 maw.airsoft@hotmail.com

HOMELAND TACTICAL AIRSOFT

GRANGE FARM AIRSOFT

Leicester, LE9 9FP www.gingerliberationfront.com

MATLOCK COMBAT GAMES

MIA

Cornwall, EX23 9JL 01288 331748 www.airsoftsouthwest.co.uk

Northfleet, Kent, DA11 9AA 07968 448475 www.elitebattlezone.co.uk

NSC AIRSOFT

Hetton, Sunderland, DH5 0 07983 333521 www.nscairsoft.co.uk

NTAC

Durham, DL4 2ER 01642 281220 www.ntac.co.uk

OBAN AIRSOFT – HILL ARGYLL Argyll and Bute, PA37 1 07967 710185 www.argyllsurplus.com

OP-TACTICAL UK – TEAN-OPS Tean, Staffordshire, ST10 4JT 07964 990831 www.op-tac.co.uk

PATHFINDER GROUP AIRSOFT MILITARY SIMULATION Former RAF Camp Sopley/ Merryfield Park, Hants, BH23 02380 899369

PHOENIX AIRSOFT MILITARY OUTDOOR ADVENTURES

Wrightington, WN6 9PL 01942 514724 www.*militaryoutdooradventure. co.uk

MILSIM UK

Checkley, Staffordshire, ST10 4NS 07523 916607 www.milsimuk.co.uk

Budby, Notts, NG22 9FG 01623 812483 www.phoenix-airsoft.co.uk

PLATOON 1HQ

Rochester, Kent, ME1 1 HQ 01634 829063 www.ptt-1hq.co.uk

PLAYERS OF WAR

High Bonnybridge, FK1 3AD 07767 203979 www.playersofwar.co.uk

NCIS AIRSOFT

Edinburgh, EH14 4 nick@ncis-airsoft.co.uk www.ncis-airsoft.co.uk

Gainsborough, North Lincs, DN21 4JH 07775 877057 www.lincolnshireairsoftclub.co.uk

NOMAD AIRSOFT

LAC SITE 2

NORTHERN ALLIANCE AIRSOFT

Gainsborough, North Lincs, DN21 4JH 07775 877057 www.lincolnshireairsoftclub.co.uk

NORTHFLEET CQB

Fenwick, Ayrshire, KA3 6AY 07904 998250 www.nomadairsoft.com

Thirsk, North Yorkshire, YO7 3LQ 01845 565465 www.northernallianceairsoft.co.uk

PREDATOR COMBAT GAMES Ballynahinch, BT24 8NF 028 4377 0566 www.predatorcombat.com

RAVEN’S NEST

Suffolk, IP8 4 01473 831563 www.ravensairsoft.co.uk

RAW WAR AIRSOFT CUMBRIA Wigton, Cumbria CA7 3SZ 01900 85645 www.airsoftcumbria.co.uk

October 2012

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AIRSOFT SITES | DIRECTORY Huge thanks to our friends at Airbana (www.airsoftmap.net) for supplying data!

RIFT AIRSOFT COM’S SITE 3 Chipping Warden, OX17 1LZ 07751 586781 www.riftairsoft.com

07766 770830 www.southdownairsoft.com

TA EVENTS

Hemel Hemstead, Herts, HP2 7QB 07894 059794 www.ta-events.co.uk

SPEC OPS AIRSOFT – BLOXWORTH RIFT AIRSOFT (COTTENHAM) Cambridge, CB24 8RL 07751 586781 www.riftairsoft.com

Wareham, Dorset, BH20 7EU 07984 656947 www.specopsairsoft.co.uk

TACTICAL WALES AIRSOFT

Reynoldston, Swansea SA3 1AS 01792 473336 www.tacticalwales.co.uk

SPEC OPS AIRSOFT – THE ROCK SECTION 8 AIRSOFT

Shotts, N Lanarkshire, ML7 5AB 07974 026517 www.s8airsoft.com

Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EG 07984 656947 www.specopsairsoft.co.uk

UCAP GREEN OPS

Linch, West Sussex, GU30 7 07590 818881 www.ucap.co.uk

UCAP SANDPIT

Bean, Kent, DA2 8 07590 818881 www.ucap.co.uk

TACTICAL WARFARE AIRSOFT

ULTIMATE WARGAMES – FAWKHAM

TASK FORCE SKIRMISH

ULTIMATE WARGAMES – LIMPSFIELD

Warlingham, Surrey, CR6 9PL 020 8665 1299 www.tacticalwarfare.co.uk

Fawkham, Kent, DA3 8NY 01268 796130 www.ultimatewargames.co.uk

STIRLING AIRSOFT SECTION 8 AIRSOFT

Shotts, N Lanarkshire, ML7 5AB 07974 026517 www.s8airsoft.com

Coventry, CV3 6NX 07831 429407 www.stirlingairsoft.com

Cowbridge, S Glamorgan, CF71 02920 593900 www.taskforcepaintball.co.uk

Oxted, Surrey, RH8 0RH www.ultimatewargames.co.uk

STORMFORCE AIRSOFT SG1 COMBAT GAMES

Co. Londonderry, BT45 8NA 07713 273102 www.sg1combatgames.co.uk

SKIRMISH AIRSOFT BILLERICAY

Billericay, Essex, CM11 2TX 01277 657777 www.airsoft-billericay.co.uk

SKIRMISH EXETER

Exeter, Devon, EX4 5 01548 580025 www.airsoftexeter.co.uk

SOUTHDOWN AIRSOFT

Petworth, West Sussex, GU28 0LR

Rugeley, Staffordshire, WS15 4LD 07515 937633 www.stormforcepaintball.co.uk

SUSSEX AIRSOFT

Slinfold, RH12 020 8150 9284 www.sussexairsoft.co.uk

SW WAR GAMES – SCRAESDON FORT

Antony, Cornwall, PL11 3AB 08456 345011 www.swwargames.co.uk

SW WAR GAMES – TREGANTLE FORT

Antony, Cornwall, PL11 3AZ 08456 345011 www.swwargames.co.uk

THE DESERTERS AIRSOFT

URBAN6AIRSOFT – ZONE 13

THE EX SITE

URBAN6AIRSOFT – IVYWOOD

Redford, DD11 07751 878175 www.thedeserters.co.uk

Mold, CH7 4 07840 001975 www.theexsitewales.co.uk

Stone, Staffordshire ST15 0QN 07432 291729 www.urban6airsoft.com

Elmhurst, Lichfield WS13 8EU www.urban6airsoft.com

URBAN6AIRSOFT THE WARGAMES CENTRE

Stevenston, Ayrshire, KA20 3LN 08456 434326 www.scottishadventurecentre.co.uk

UCAP AIRSOFT

Portsmouth, Hants, PO17 6AR 07590 818881 www.ucap.co.uk

Stone, Staffordshire, ST15 0QN www.urban6airsoft.com

URBAN ASSAULT

Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, PE26 1 01733 247171 www.urbanassault.org.uk

VIKING AIRSOFT

Welwyn, Hertfordshire, AL6 0UN www.vikingairsoft.co.uk

WARMINSTER AIRSOFT

Warminster, BA12 7RZ www.warminsterairsoft.co.uk

XSITE AIRSOFT OUTPOST Dunstable, LU6 2EE 01494 881430 www.xsiteairsoft.co.uk

XSITE AIRSOFT – LANE END High Wycombe, HP14 3NP 01494 881430

Email anthonyp@ blazepublishing.co.uk to add or change a site listing

www.airsoftactionmagazine.com

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