Airsoft Action - May 2022

WINNER BEST AIRSOFT MAGAZINE

ISSUE 137 MAY 2022 ISSN 2634-9515

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CONTENTS 8 ARMOURY: ARES X-CLASS AR-091E After a bit of a drawn-out launch period ARES have released to market their new X CLASS AR models; these combine thoroughly modern styling with some tried and tested internals and certainly look righteous! Bill has been putting the 091E carbine variant through the mill to see if its stunning looks are equalled by real range-readiness!

WINNER BEST AIRSOFT MAGAZINE

ISSUE 137 MAY 2022 ISSN 2634-9515

Editorial Director: Bill Thomas Graphic Design: Calibre Publishing Ad Design: Deadshot Design Publisher: Calibre Publishing

18 ARMOURY: ICS CXP MARS II Jimmy is really on a roll with the latest products to come from our friends at ICS Airsoft! With his ever-expanding technical knowledge, and indeed very specific knowledge of the systems and components involved in the new ICS AEGs and GBBs he’s the very man to check out the newest addition to the CXP line, the mighty MARS II!

Wyche Innovation Centre, Walwyn Road, Upper Colwall, Malvern, Worcestershire, WR13 6PL, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 1684 878 003 Web: www.airsoftaction.net ©Calibre Publishing Limited 2021 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 publisher in writing. The opinion of the writers do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher. The editor reserves the right to edit submissions prior to publication.

24 ARMOURY: SNOW WOLF MP18 Whilst in no way a new AEG to hit the market, the MP18 is a classic historical model which set the tone for all SMGs that followed it, and Snow Wolf have replicated it as a thing of beauty in airsoft form! Long wishing to get his hands on one, Bill finally got an MP18 on the range recently and was most definitely enthralled!

FIND US ON…

LETTER , IDEA OR QUESTION? Got something to say? A question for our experts? An article or article idea?

Drop us a line and let us know. Either email the Editorial Director: bill@airsoft-action.co.uk, write to us at the Calibre Publishing address above, or talk to us on Twitter or Facebook.

54 RED CELL: SUPPORT GUNS When it comes to range and even magazine capacity; an AEG fitted with a 2500/3000BB drum mag offers the same range and firepower on the field as a true support gun, and is actually far more handy! So why is it that many of the Red Cell team love a support gun, and which models do they love?

Contents MAY 2022

32 GEAR: OUTRIDER TACTICAL “YOUR EQUIPMENT IS OUR PASSION!” That’s what the team behind the new clothing brand, Outrider Tactical, tell us and after taking a look at some of their clothing Bill thinks that this is a claim wellfounded, so let’s get this (range) party started!

66 TECH: PKM UPGRADES We’ve been checking out support guns in this issue, what better a time to look at what can be created to make the “BFG” more fieldable and easier to use in game. Dan gets under the hood of the mighty PKM to create something that truly will be a “beast” on the skirmish field!

36 TOD: WEEKEND WARRIOR! We hope that what has been covered so far in our Tactical Outdoor Development column has helped to point you in the right direction! This time Bill concludes his “packing list” with an overview of that all-important gear that will see you through!

70 TECH: GATE STATUS We’re cramming more and more electronics into our AEGs these days.

Miguel has been looking closely at the GATE STATUS and now tells about how this can help you make sure that everything you add to increase your on-field performance is working in harmony!

40 IWA GEAR REPORT Last month the crew looked at all the airsoft goodness that they saw at IWA 2022, and this time our in-house “gearfreek” Bill turns his attention to the clothing, footwear and equipment side of the show, looking at innovations that he found particularly noteworthy!

86 EVENT: ACTION AIR TAIWAN Another year, another challenge!

2022 is already. For Stewbacca it’s already off to a very busy start in terms of a menagerie of spinning plates of interests and responsibilities, trying his best to make time for all the things he wants to do and all those he has to!

46: I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW A nice shiny optic looks just the thing atop an AEG or GBBR, and these days even on a GBB pistol! Ultimately though are we just putting them there for show, to make our “Gats look Gucci”, or are they there for a solid reason? Bill checks in with the AA Legionnaires to find out more…

94 FEATURE: RETAILERS Following the article on the rise of dedicated distributors in the UK, industry-veteran Frenchie spent the intervening period speaking with two of our most established retailers in the UK to find out what the state of the industry is in 2022, and how that has changed in the past few years.

50 GEAR: MAPA In Issue 135 Bill took a deep dive into the creation of the Polish MAPA pattern, and a first look at some of the new clothing and gear to become available for airsoft use; this time, having spent some “quality alone time” with the gear he looks at the individual pieces in more detail!

98 LAST POST While he was at Landwarrior Frenchie was fortunate to be able to spend some time on their “real steel” range. This represents some of the diversification that the company has undertaken and Frenchie reflects how very different parts of shooting sports can sit comfortably side by side…

74 EVENT: MOA CAMPFEST 2022 Despite recent spikes in the ongoing ‘Rona pandemic in Taiwan Eric Chu and his team from QRF Magazine, as well as numerous local airsoft industry professionals, players and enthusiasts, managed to come together against all the odds to hold another in a long line of excellent events in Taiwan that we’ve covered for some years now!

With Stewbacca “in country” and on the ground for Airsoft Action we’re very pleased to bring in his report on MOA CAMPFEST 2022!

Facebook (Global): ICSBBAirsoft

Youtube: ICS AIRSOFT

Twitter (Global): icsbbairsoft

Instagram: icsbbairsoft

ARMOURY ARES X-CLASS AR-091E

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ARMOURY ARES X-CLASS AR-091E

AFTER A BIT OF A DRAWN-OUT LAUNCH PERIOD ARES HAVE RELEASED TO MARKET THEIR NEW X CLASS AR MODELS; THESE COMBINE THOROUGHLY MODERN STYLING WITH SOME TRIED AND TESTED INTERNALS AND CERTAINLY LOOK RIGHTEOUS! BUT BEAUTY NEEDS TO BE BACKED UP WITH SOLID PERFORMANCE, AND BILL HAS BEEN PUTTING THE 091E CARBINE VARIANT THROUGH THE MILL TO SEE IF ITS STUNNING LOOKS ARE EQUALLED BY REAL RANGE-READINESS!

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or some reason I seem to have spent a fair amount of time with new ARES models on the range in the last year, but there’s one series that both Jimmy and I have got a little excited about, but for very different reasons, and that’s their new “X CLASS”! Ever since we saw the teaser image on their social media of the tricked out Model 12 we’ve been talking about it, and when the guys from iWholesales offered us one to get on the range we, of course, jumped at it!

AR-style models just keep on rolling out, and there’s more and more going on with them both internally and externally! I sometimes wonder if

we’re going too far down the electronics route (as an “old skooler” more inside means more potential problems to me!), but Jimmy continues to educate me on the benefits of all the new systems… that said I’m still a “program basic functions and go” kind of guy, and as long as an AEG continues to spit BBs I’m happy.

Am I missing a trick? Quite possibly, as an out-ofthe-box AEG is now far more capable than anything I was able to get my hands on back in the day, and the new directions that ARES have taken recently with their programmable EFCS and their quick change front ends has really impressed me. I really

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ARMOURY ARES X-CLASS VORSK OSIRIS AR-091E

like the X45 and the MUTANT, again for different reasons, but both have proved solid on the range, and durable thus far in terms of “internal ops”.

I’ll come back to the internals of the X CLASS later but what I will say here is more of a general overview.

Most people love a Marui, and why is that? Basically Marui make AEGS for their home market, and as much as we may now scoff a little at the power levels they deliver as standard, nobody can doubt that they work sweetly as new and continue to do so unless you mess with them unnecessarily. Fact is that they are made to function at their initial power level due to Japanese law, but everything in them is 100% set up and balanced to work at that level; gearboxes, gears, pistons, motors and electronics are absolutely working in harmony and the net result is an AEG that works flawlessly, from the box… okay, if something does go wrong, and it will eventually with all electric models, Mauri’s proprietary gubbins is going to be a right pain…

What we have seen though is other manufacturers start to follow this model; once upon a time many manufacturers looked to the majority of Europe and the USA markets where higher power levels are legal, and indeed sought after in my experience, and simply “up-powered” their basic AEGs with stronger springs, and the fallout from this was internal failures everywhere! Motors burned out, gears and pistons stripped, and that awful “whizz, grind, silence” became a pretty standard sound at every skirmish day we attended!.

However, again in my opinion, many manufacturers, ARES included, are now approaching things differently and these days the internals are of better quality generally, and certainly more balanced to handle higher power-loads for longer. The entire AEG is now put together with parts that actually work together properly, and although certain manufacturers will always find new directions to explore, these directions are generally real enhancements to what’s already a sound system. Better parts, better quality and quality control, and a real desire to REALLY make things the best they can be are more often than not the norm now, and I rank ARES amongst the manufacturers taking this approach, and if you’ll

pardon the pun, all power to them!

A CLASSY NUMBER!

So, what’s new and interesting about the new X CLASS variants, of which there are a few ranging from the 555-650mm Model 6 “PDW” up to the 850930mm Model 15? Basically put ARES have created a line of AR AEGs that are designed from the get-go to be a reliable yet stylish, up-to-the-minute choice for players, with a billet style ambidextrous lower receiver, flat-faced trigger, a uniquely designed CNC handguard, and a steel QPQ flash hider. In addition to this, the X-CLASS models come as standard with a 6.03 inner barrel, a very usable set of flip-up front and rear sights and a redesigned stock. The stock itself is slimline and low profile, and easy to adjust, and for better control the AEGs come with a slim motor grip, angled with a 1911-rake for a more comfortable and controllable shooting experience. The carbines and rifles are available in two colours, and whilst the black looks great, the bronze colour looks downright gorgeous!

The latest releases in the X CLASS line have some great features and the externals as I now expect from ARES, and they’re first rate in terms of fit and finish.

First off, this premium AEG has thoroughly modern styling with a Radian Arms-inspired lower receiver; the real Radian Model 1 Upper Receiver is a thing of beauty, precision CNC machined and structurally reinforced in critical areas for improved strength and rigidity, such as the contouring around the magwell and beefy “fences”. The upper receiver on the real Radian setup is billet-style 7075-T6 aluminium and is assembled with dust cover, hand guard anti-rotation pin, light weight forward assist, and Raptor-SD Ambidextrous Charging Handle; sadly the X CLASS is missing a Radian-style RAPTOR charging handle and the curved forward-assist cutaway on the upper, but it ain’t half bad, and after all is “inspired by” and not a replica of the real which of course would need to be liecenced!

There’s also a Geissele-style rail system, one which seems to be very popular in airsoft circles at the moment! The high-grade alloy CNC 6063 handguard fitted as standard to the X CLASS looks very much

“IN THE PAST MANY MANUFACTURERS LOOKED TO THE MAJORITY OF EUROPE AND THE USA MARKETS WHERE HIGHER POWER LEVELS ARE LEGAL AND SIMPLY “UPPOWERED” THEIR BASIC AEGS WITH STRONGER SPRINGS, AND THE FALLOUT FROM THIS WAS INTERNAL FAILURES EVERYWHERE! MOTORS BURNED OUT, GEARS AND PISTONS STRIPPED, AND THAT AWFUL “WHIZZ, GRIND, SILENCE” BECAME A PRETTY STANDARD SOUND AT EVERY SKIRMISH DAY WE ATTENDED!” 10

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ARMOURY ARES X-CLASS AR-091E

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ARMOURY ARES X-CLASS AR-091E

like an M-LOK Super Modular Rail MK4, but without the additional picatinny sections at 3 and 6 o’clock, and it looks great! We talk a lot about M-LOK these days, and for newer players it may be useful for you to know that M-LOK is, and I quote directly that it is “a modular locking accessory mounting system that is a direct attachment method for hard mounting accessories to a negative space mounting point”.

Developed by Magpul Industries Corp in 2007 for the Masada Concept Rifle, the system first featured a polymer handguard with three elongated holes that acted as a “negative mounting surface” for accessory rails. These slots became one of the first “negative space” attachment systems that allowed the user to only put rails sections where they were required rather than covering the entire surface with full-length rails, then covering those rails with protective covers. The system also allowed direct mounting of accessories, such as fore-grips and flashlights with no rail interface needed, and it’s become the preferred option for many shooters, both real and airsoft!

INTERNAL HARMONY!

Internally the X CLASS variants come with the ARES RVTSTM, or Rapid Velocity Tuning System Quick Change Spring System, along with their tried and tested programmable EFCS gearbox and everything is compatible with other V2 gears and parts, not that you’ll need to be thinking major upgrades any time soon! As an added bonus, the X-CLASS models now come standard with Airsoft T-Plugs and work ideally with Titan Batteries! Like most ARES AEGs these days, the X CLASS variants have that Electronic Firing Control System (EFCS) gearbox. With the development of this easy-to-use system, ARES now seem to be making the EFCS Gearbox “standard” in line with what is on offer from other manufacturers, but unlike some, the EFCS has now been around for a little while.

This programmable system will still need the external programmer but most good airsoft shops seem to have one these days and can set up your AEG just as you want it in mere seconds. However, when it comes to the X CLASS my advice would be to invest in one of your own. The programmer will allow you to set up your AEG in different ways but also protects it by having it withstand current to around 30A, enhances piston positioning and allows it to set up with rapid semiauto fire.

The gearbox is of the highest build quality, coming with a quick release spring guide, silver wiring, and an electronic trigger. Allied with a high-torque motor that sits beneath and in line with the gearbox it all 12

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equates to an efficient and effective setup. The EFCS system can be programed to use either 7.4v or 11.1v batteries and you can also program either semi and auto, 3 round burst and auto, or semi only, which is a very useful thing to have in any AEG! In full, the EFCS features: • Gearbox protection system - EFCS will shut down the battery if there is a malfunction in the gearbox • Able to withstand large firing current to around 30a • Enhanced ABS and precise magnetic sensor to improve piston position • Suitable for advanced player settings • Able to withstand rapid semi-auto fire • Adjustable trigger stroke distance • Reduction in battery use • Easy to manitain • Programmable for different shooting modes (ARES electronic gearbox programmer required)

DOWNRANGE

The model that was kindly sent to me for testing was the mid-length 690-770mm AR-091E; I’ve regressed slightly back to mid-length ARs recently unless it’s a .308/7.62 replica, and I have to say that in recent builds of my own this is undoubtedly the length that suits me best for general use, as an AEG of this size and weight (2600g in respect of the 091E) is easy to manipulate yet still has decent inner barrel to work with. As much as the X CLASS performed extremely well in in initial testing, and I’m now more confident with their internals overall, experience has taught me that with an ARES model I still need to perhaps tweak the hop unit and rubber, and check the air seals to ensure real long-term performance… only time will tell on this.

With the EFCS programmed at the shop again thanks to Marcus, I loaded up the 140BB midcap with .20g and had at it on the 30m range. When it comes to getting the 091E rolling, a battery can be easily housed inside the buffer tube and stock; as I’ve found with other ARES AR carbines of late a decent stick LiPo will fit easily into the buffer tube if you’re careful and don’t compress the stock fully, which means you can use the new ARES slim stock without any bother, and I fitted my normal “ARES tester battery”, a 2600 mAh 11.1V TITAN LiPo. The standard rotary hop really is easy to work with and adjust, and once set, it stays firmly in place, and with everything set on .20g BBs the 091E is a bit of a performer! The trigger is most certainly crisp, as just a nudge sends BBs downrange happily with the

ARMOURY ARES X-CLASS AR-091E

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ARMOURY ARES X-CLASS AR-091E

standard magazine feeding smoothly; on semi you really can get shots away quickly, and full chat with an 11.1 works brilliantly for a great ROF. I’m pleased to report that the 091E I received for testing chrono’d with consistency at 1.12 Joule/348fps using .20g BBs; I jest not when I say “consistency” as with a ten BB string I noted a deviation of less than 0.85fps with zero misfeeds! That’s pretty cool for any AEG and comes back to what I mentioned earlier in relation to all the internals working in harmony together!

The flip-up sights that come fitted as standard to the 091E are more than adequate for most situations, so the AEG is ready to roll straight from the box if you add a battery and some BBs, although for full testing at longer range I added my favourite holosight and a foregrip. At 30m unsupported it was easy to get hits on a 400mm x 400mm torso-sized target with each BB flying straight and true. I also took the 091E up to my local site for longer range testing, and the carbine performed superbly on .28g BBs, easily and accurately sending them to target at 60m, and that’s pretty much straight out of the box before any “bedding”!

I have to say that the 091E definitely lived up to the promise that Jimmy and I first talked about when we saw it, and has most definitely been worth the wait.

It looks great, feels great, and shoots superbly! You

have the now-fully-tested EFCS gearbox system along with a quick spring change system at the rear and the super slim high torque motor grip. The carbine has full ambidextrous controls throughout with multiple QD sling points on the rail and the stock. The handguard is a great length and the barrel is threaded 14mm with a steel muzzle device. In fact everything is in situ to make shooting the 091E a pleasure from the first time you lift it out of the box!

I really do like the 091E, and by extension the X CLASS models as a whole; for the carbine tested it’s an exceptionally tight package both inside and out, and care has obviously been taken to provide something in AEG form that’s fully worthy to take ARES forward into their next iteration. If you’re looking for a thoroughly modern, high-performance AR AEG that with care and maintenance will see you through many airsoft adventures, then I believe that you may well find a trusted friend amongst the ARES X CLASS models!

As usual my thanks go to the guys at www. iwholesales.co.uk for providing the 091E test model, so please do take a moment to go and check what else they offer that can be ordered easily from most good airsoft stockists! AA

“I HAVE TO SAY THAT THE 091E DEFINITELY LIVED UP TO THE PROMISE THAT JIMMY AND I FIRST TALKED ABOUT WHEN WE SAW IT AND HAS MOST DEFINITELY BEEN WORTH THE WAIT. IT LOOKS GREAT, FEELS GREAT, AND SHOOTS SUPERBLY! “

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ARMOURY ICS CXP MARS II

MIGHTY MARS!

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ARMOURY ICS CXP MARS II

JIMMY IS REALLY ON A ROLL WITH THE LATEST PRODUCTS TO COME FROM OUR FRIENDS AT ICS AIRSOFT! WITH HIS EVER-EXPANDING TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE, AND INDEED VERY SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE OF THE SYSTEMS AND COMPONENTS INVOLVED IN THE NEW ICS AEGS AND GBBS HE’S THE VERY MAN TO CHECK OUT THE NEWEST ADDITION TO THE CXP LINE, THE MIGHTY MARS II!

T

he CXP (Concept eXclusive Program) series is a brand new AEG platform developed and designed based on the existing SALW (Small Arms and Lightway Weapons) from our great friends at ICS, which not only combines erogonomic theories and designs, but also applies with years of experience gained by ICS manufacturing and operating AEGs. A massive shout out to ICS and a big thank you for sending out these exquisite specimens to test and review it means a lot being part of the journey!

ICS certainly are spoiling us of late and this really goes to show in the latest offering in the form of

the CXP MARS II sss3 carbine. Currently ICS offer up TWELVE different variations in the CXP range and all sport the same commitment to high-end quality.

It has to be said that the quality of ICS products, whilst always good, over the last few years has improved tremendously and many of their models in my opinion are now simply impeccable. You expect that from a premium manufacturer of performance products and expectations have been fulfilled.

In the last Issue of AA I had the pleasure of testing the new LIGHTWAY DAGGER, a platform I was highly impressed with, but the new MARS II has impressed me even further to a point I just cannot

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ARMOURY ICS CXP MARS II

leave it alone. This thing is dripping quality and you will be hard pushed to find any flaws in the materials used but then ICS have been producing fine airsoft products for a very long time, around 27 years.

So to the product in hand is the latest iteration of the very popular CXP range; while keeping on track with their split gearbox design this AEG has had an internal make over with the addition of some very up to date components and some pretty radical styling, ensuring the customer, you the airsofter get the best possible platform straight out of the box, and a platform this good should get the recognition it deserves. ICS have created a package that is highly desirable and offers a vast list of features that not many can compete with, features “from the box” like: • SSS.III E-trigger system • Smart Trigger & Pre-cocking Function • Titan T-Dean Plug • EBB System • Lightweight 13” M-Lok handguard • High capacity Battery Space ERGO Stock • 20° Verticle Pistol Grip • Competition Short Stroke Flat Trigger • Blaster Steel Flash Hider • Reinforced Full Metal Teeth Piston • MASTER AL6061 Cylinder Head & Piston Head & Air Nozzle • MASTER Hop Tensioner Nub • ICS Split Gearbox • QD Spring Guide Design • One-piece Metal H-UP Chamber • Release Spring Function • Basic specs on this particular model are: • Length- 872mm to 946mm • Weight- 2940g • Barrel length- 13 inches • Velocity- states 394fps but upon chrono we achieved an average of 323fps +/- 2fps • Materials- full metal • Magazine capacity 300bbs • Motor- long shaft evo 35000 ICS recommend the use of either 7.4v or 11.1v; this recommendation will differ depending on your velocity and the motor being used. It does state use only 7.4v if using the evo motor and I can confirm

that on an 11.1v I experienced PME (premature engagement) but even on a 7.4v it is still very responsive.

STRAIGHT OUTTA THE BOX!

SO… out of the box this new AEG is very aesthetically pleasing and looks modern with its sleek body and ergonomic feel which makes it comfortable and easy use. Being a carbine it is an acceptable length so will cater for all and the adjustable stock can be finetuned to fit many different people.

Handling the carbine feels so right; the angle and shape of the grip nestles nicely in the palm and the Magpul-esque M-LOK handguard is very slim, allowing fir the perfect “Chris Costa C-clamp”, and due to this slim design it accommodates attachments incredibly well and doesn’t become over bulky. Up front you will find a metal screw on shroud neatly etched with the words ‘BLASTER’ which covers a full metal flash hider, I’m not sure if any suppressors will screw direct on to that flash hider, that I’m yet to discover.

The full metal outer barrel sits just proud of the front of the handguard and it is solid, not one bit of movement, which is pleasing. The handguard being mainly M-LOK offers a vast amount of real estate even across the top as the standard 20mm picatinny has been removed all bar about 2” right at the very front allowing easy fit of iron sights or maybe a PEQ or DBAL. You could attach sections of rail should you choose, but for me I really like the look of M-LOK which keeps everything slim and very modern looking.

Moving on to the receivers, these are very well made and very futuristic looking and sport some fine laser etching. They chose to go with a non-ambi mag release on this strangely, but offered ambi fire select (sorry leftie shooters). The 300 BB polymer mag fits superbly with a very tiny amount of movement and clicks in place with no effort whatsoever. Even though the mag is a nice snug fit, upon release it will just fall out, so if you are the tactical reload kind of person ICS have you covered. When I say tactical reload kind of person I mean for those who think they are Mr J Wick esq and don’t pay for their magazines…

I really like the pistol grip on this as it is for me is a perfect size, not to skinny and not too wide with some

“WHILE KEEPING ON TRACK WITH THEIR SPLIT GEARBOX DESIGN THIS AEG HAS HAD AN INTERNAL MAKE OVER WITH THE ADDITION OF SOME VERY UP TO DATE COMPONENTS AND SOME PRETTY RADICAL STYLING, ENSURING THE CUSTOMER, YOU THE AIRSOFTER GET THE BEST POSSIBLE PLATFORM STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BOX, AND A PLATFORM THIS GOOD SHOULD GET THE RECOGNITION IT DESERVES. ”

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ARMOURY ICS CXP MARS II

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ARMOURY ICS CXP MARS II

aggressive detailing for better grip; on the base it has a quick release baseplate held in by two stainless steel, very well machined pins (no more stripped threads) and on the rear of the receiver you will see a nice size sling plate with yet more fine etching. That isn’t the only sling mount point as ICS has you covered again (it’s almost like they are thinking about us airsofters) as there are another two more points on the stock itself. A solid metal buffer tube accommodates the ERGO stock and the fit between the two is better than most, with only minimal stock wobble. The butt pad is a nice chunky piece of rubber, very grippy, and is also quick release which then gives access to the vast

battery compartment! It’s probably the largest battery compartment I have seen truth be told.

Gorgeous as the externals are, inside this beaut you will find a fine array of components from Master Mods as standard, components I rate very highly.

One part I believe would really set this off and make it perfect is the addition of the Master Mods barrel and R-hop; if that was in there I would go as far as to say that this is one of the best airsoft guns out of the box your money could buy… it’s definitely a major contender, but why settle for contention when you can be the best.

“THE MARS II HAS A VERY RESPONSIVE SEMI-AUTO WHICH IS ALL DOWN TO THE E-TRIGGER SYSTEM, THE GREAT EVO MOTOR AND THE SHORT STROKE FLAT BLADE COMPETITION TRIGGER; THE MARRIAGE BETWEEN THEM IS A TRIPARTITE HARMONY AND THIS GIVES YOU THE EDGE WHERE A MECHANICAL TRIGGER SYSTEM WILL FLAG!”

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ARMOURY ICS CXP MARS II

RANGETIME

On the range I’m not nice to RIFs when testing; like Bill and Stwebacca I will abuse the mechanics and don’t care if they break as after all that’s what we here to do, not just tell you how shiny AEGs and GBBs are, we want to know can they stand up to “the suck”?

Giving the testing we do I can’t say that a particular platform will last for a million BBs or never break, but if I can put 5000 BBs through something with heavy full auto bursts and continual trigger spamming in semi then I’m happy. When I say “burst” I don’t mean 5 seconds or even 10 seconds, I mean drum mag dumping keeping the finger on that trigger and emptying it!

For an out of the box AEG the MARS II operates flawlessly and will be very competitive out on site giving you an advantage over many. Sending BBs out to over 50m with ease and able to effortlessly lift 0.30g BBs (this is largely due to the effective rotary style hop unit combined with the Master Mods brass hop tensioner and great air delivery) the MARS II has a very responsive semi-auto which is all down to the E-trigger system, the great evo motor and the short stroke flat blade competition trigger; the marriage between them is a tripartite harmony and

this gives you the edge where a mechanical trigger system will flag! There is no flagging with the new E-trigger system. I would like to see some sort of basic programming from this system maybe in the future this is something ICS could revise.

This model comes with the EBB feature, and while I do like EBB I found this one to be a little weak; I like to really hear and feel that blowback, and I know some of you are just going to say “if you want the feel of blowback why don’t you just get a GBBR? Truth is I am not a fan of GBBR, I like AEG and that’s final!

So to conclude I do believe that ICS are at the forefront of AEG manufacturing right now (and doing some very interesting things with GBB now too!), and the CXP MARS II just shows it; buy an ICS, it just makes sense! Okay, it’s a premium rifle with a premium price tag but you’re getting your moniesworth here, every penny of it.

As ICS say “Be a game changer!”

The CXP MARS II is also available as a “Komodo Junior” model, but my thanks as always go to our friends at ICS in Taiwan for supplying the carbine test model reviewed; do be sure to check out their website, www.icsbb.com, and busy social media feeds for the very latest news!! AA

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ARMOURY SNOW WOLF MP18

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ARMOURY SNOW WOLF MP18

WHILST IN NO WAY A NEW AEG TO HIT THE MARKET, THE MP18 IS A CLASSIC HISTORICAL MODEL WHICH SET THE TONE FOR ALL SMGS THAT FOLLOWED IT, AND SNOW WOLF HAVE REPLICATED IT AS A THING OF BEAUTY IN AIRSOFT FORM! LONG WISHING TO GET HIS HANDS ON ONE, BILL FINALLY GOT AN MP18 ON THE RANGE RECENTLY AND WAS MOST DEFINITELY ENTHRALLED!

I

believe that in one shape or another we will all have some form of SMG in our airsoft collection, be it a classic MP40 or Thompson, or something more up to date like the Uzi or MAC! A number of my airsoft friends are currently going through another MP7-phase, and of course you can’t really call yourself an airsofter unless you own, or have owned, an MP5! However, reeling things back, WWII was surely the “War of the SMG”, and whilst the Germans were again at the forefront with the excellent MP38/MP40, the Allied forces soon followed with the likes of the Thompson, the STEN, the Austen, Owen Gun and Patchett, the PPSh-41, and of course the M3A1 “Grease Gun”.

WWII saw most armies still largely armed with those bolt-action rifles, and the .303 SMLE did sterling service against the venerable 7.92×57mm Kar98k, but the with the “Blitzkrieg” came a new, fast-moving type of land warfare fought from the backs of vehicles that required more easily carried, fast-firing sub-machine guns with effective riflemen and LMG gunners in support; far from the days of the “Sturmtruppen” being over when the trench warfare of WWI ceased to be the norm, the soldiers of a new war were confronted with fighting in towns and cities, and the “weapons mix” was chosen accordingly.

But the tale of the SMG starts for me way before www.airsoftaction.net

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ARMOURY SNOW WOLF MP18

WWII! I would argue that the very first of what we would refer to as the “modern military SMG” was the MP 18 manufactured by Theodor Bergmann Abteilung Waffenbau that was brought into service in 1918 by the German Army during World War I as the primary weapon of those “Sturmtruppen”, the specialised German WWI trench assault groups. Up until then infantry combat was traditionally “ranged” and the bolt-action rifle and fast-firing HMG were the undoubted kings of the battlefield, but the bloody and gruesome, often hand to hand combat seen within the close-confines of trench systems called for something smaller, and with a higher rate of fire… the term “trench broom” which referred to shotguns, automatic pistol-based-carbines, and eventually the Bergmann MP18 was coined for a reason!

In December, 1917, at the height of World War I, that talented German gunsmith, Hugo Schmeisser, patented “a light machine gun chambered for 9x18 mm”, something that we might now refer to as a submachine gun. Created with Schmeisser’s great attention to even the smallest detail the resultant weapon resembled to some degree a “normal” light machine gun. Equipped with a heavy wooden stock, a rifle butt and a sizeable vented barrel shroud, it was still big, heavy, but thirty-two rounds were fed from a from drum designed for the Luger pistol rather than the belt-feed of a regular machine gun of the time, 26

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hence the phrase “sub” being added; this said, the German descipton for this type of weapon was (and is still) ‘machine pistol’. Again, this was actually nothing new as a lightweight (relative term!) magazine-fed machine gun had already been created, and the true paternal heritage of the SMG can be traced back to the Pistola Mitragliatrice “Villar Perosa” M1915, a rather ungainly twin-barrelled model that was originally designed to be used by the observer of an aircraft but that was later issued to ground troops!

However, by 1918, the Schmeisser-designed “SMG” began to be mass-produced in the factories of Theodor Bergmann(who incidentally designed the Bergmann MG15 nA machine gun that was in service until WWII), and soon entered service with the “Sturmtruppen” of the Kaiser’s Army, and it is said that some 30,00 had been made by the end of 1918; it somewhat turns the belief that this was a “rare” weapon on its head, although when the armies facing one another across the battlefields of WWI numbered millions, “rare” is of course another relative term!

After WWI weapons of this type though were removed from German service under the terms of the Versailles Treaty, but what started as the MP18 served as a prototype for the design, development, and tactical deployment doctrine of the “SMG” not only in Germany, but also in England (the Lanchester) and Japan (the Type 100/Shiki Kikantanju). However, as the treaty allowed the Weimar Republic to keep a small quantity of submachine guns for police use, a few hundred MP 18.1s were modified to accept Schmeisser’s original 20-round magazine design; having found a loophole in the conditions of the peace treaty, German designers began to improve the MP18 as a “police weapon” with some modifications, and in 1928 the MP28 was adopted by the German police! This model was widely used during the Spanish Civil War and really set the tone for the “modern SMG”, but by the beginning of WWII, the MP18/28 was outdated and remained in service only with the police forces.

Although further modified the “further improved” Bergmann MP34/35 inherited most of the flaws of the MP-28; it was bulky, heavy and quite unbalanced, and still made use of the side-feeding magazine that made it difficult to manipulate and aim. For some time the MP-34/35 remained in service in the SS, Luftwaffe, police and vehicle crews, but it would not be long before a new and thoroughly modern SMG appeared in the form of the MP38/40, and the rest, as they say, is history ... but that’s not the entire story!

At the start of WWII the RAF made the decision that they needed a fieldable and reliable (not the

ARMOURY SNOW WOLF MP18

STEN MkI then, which was also under development at the time!) SMG of their own for airfield defence.

Since Britain was only really just beginning to get itself onto a war footing, and the ignomy of Dunkirk had occurred not long ago, there was not time or resources to design and produce a new weapon… so the designers decided to simply copy a tried and true design, the MP-28! Online research tells me that this SMG was named after George Herbert Lanchester of the Stirling Armaments Company, but was quite different from the STEN concept; the STEN was esigned to be an easily mass-produced and economical weapon utilizing stamped sheet metal parts, whilst the Lanchester was more “old skool”, being scrupulously well made with a carefully machined action and breech block, and indeed one feature of the Lanchester that stands out from the “blueprint” MP-28 is its brass magazine housing that is an absolute thing of beauty when it comes to weapons design! It also featured a bayonet mount and shortened stocks from Lee Enfield bolt action rifles!

The Lanchester used either 32 or 50 round detachable magazines and was chambered for 9mm Luger! They were produced in two models, the Mk.1 and the Mk.1*. The Mk1* was a simplified version of the Mk1, with simpler sights and lacking a selector switch (thus it was fully automatic only). Roughly 96,000 were produced, most of which were issued to the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy. A number were also issued to the Royal Air Force as well…. Nice to know they actually got some of the weapons that they ordered in the first place, isn’t it!

REPLICATING A CLASSIC!

Jeez, I do like writing about firearms history, just as I did recently with the Lee Enfield, especially when it’s a “foundation model” that set the tone for so much that followed! We talk a lot at the moment about how the lessons of history should never be forgotten, and the MP18 serves as an abject lesson in how a piece if technology changed fire and manouever doctrine fundamentally! Gone were the days when “a well-trained infantryman could fire 15 rounds a minute” as with the MP18 the cyclic rate was 500 rpm! And those rounds could be laid down accurately to the effective range of the weapon, and the MP 18 proved to be a first- weapon. Its concept was well-proven in trench fighting, and that fundamental concept directly influenced later designs and showed the superiority SMG over the regular infantry rifle in urban, mobile, and guerrilla warfare.

And so to the Snow Wolf replica! Rumour has it that Chinese manufacturer Snow Wolf came into being as its own company after some changes a few years back at STAR airsoft; whether this is true or not, I can’t confirm, but what I can tell you is that they make some really interesting historical replicas like the PPSh and the M1938 sub-machine gun, along with a not-bad-out-of-the-box version of the “Aliens” M41A. I’ve tried all of these models and they function well, so given that they obviously like to work on older styles the fact that they’ve created “The Daddy of SMGs” comes as no surprise to me, and oh boy, have they done it well!

The Snow Wolf MP18 is a beautiful and thoroughly faithful replica the venerable “Maschinenpistole 18/I”.

Weighing in at a hefty 3929g with a spotless metal body that includes that distinctive signature vented barrel shroud, somewhat rudimentary “iron” sights, sling swivels, a steel 130BB midcap magazine, and one of the very nicest real wood stocks I’ve come across as standard in airsoft terms this is not just an AEG to own, but a piece of history in 6mm form to cherish!

Everything on the outside appears to be scrupulously www.airsoftaction.net

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ARMOURY SNOW WOLF MP18

replicated, and the only things to me that feel even slightly fragile are the sliding fire selector and safety catch, but only time and use will tell on that front.

I’ve not been inside the MP18 myself but after speaking to a number of tech friends who have I understand that the gearbox and trigger box unit (yes, they are separate and I’m told they operate via a simple metal rod linkage!) are pretty much bespoke as I’ve discovered with other Snow Wolf models, but should be V2/V3 compatible. Other than an internal design which has been created specifically for this AEG there’s nothing really more to shout about, other than that components are all pretty standard and workmanlike; I’d love to see what Jimmy would make of this though, as I’m sure that he could perform marvels with the basic inline motor and rotary hop!

DOWNRANGE

Given that internally everything is pretty “AEG standard”, and that’s not a bad thing to be honest as there’s less to go wrong, once everything is set up correctly the MP18 is actually a lot of fun to shoot; the 130bb magazine feeds very nicely, and once you’ve got the rotary hop set I was sending BBs out to the end of the 30m range with a nice, flat trajectory, which I hadn’t expected from a short 215mm inner barrel! The accuracy overall is very good indeed, with nice tight groupings achieved out to 25m prone on the open sights, as new. I chrono’d the MP18 using .20g RZR BBs and came out with an average velocity of 0.84Joule/301fps which is perfectly respectable and pretty much site friendly from the get go. The MP18 is absolutely perfect as a CQB tool given its length of 825mm and the fact that unlike some SMGs it does have safe and semi settings as well as full auto; I can totally see why it would have been so devastating in trench-fights compared to a long, bolt-action rifle!

So, is the MP18 an ideal skirmish-ready replica? I’d have to say that with that overall weight of 3920g it’s a bit of a beastie to lug around all day, especially if you’re of smaller stature, and there’s also that long, side-feeding magazine to factor in if you’re in any kind of enclosed space. But I’ll backtrack to it having serviceable internals as standard, good, easy-to-change-out battery storage (it’ll swallow a medium capacity 7.4v LiPo!) in the butt, solid range and accuracy, and superlative externals that will undoubtedly turn heads, so overall it’s a winner as far as I’m concerned, and as it has both semi and a safety setting this would make a great CQB AEG with some real character and panache! For those who are actively involved in “WWI/II” type gaming then the MP18 is a must have.

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I believe that Snow Wolf have again made a really bold statement to the marketplace and to players with their MP18, that they do things differently, and long may they continue to create the “unusual and esoteric”! Although we may not know much about them as a company I don’t actually care, as each and every one of their creations that I’ve tried to date has both enthralled and entertained me, and in this case caused me to further my own firearms knowledge. I love the MP18 for what it is, and what it has meant in the history of military firearms and tactics development, and therefore although I have no immediate NEED for one, the WANT for one of these gorgeous looking AEGs is actually very strong indeed!

Many thanks to Tim at www.iwholesales.co.uk for finally finding me an MP18, and please do pay a visit to their website to check out all the other goodies that they offer from Snow Wolf and a veritable cornucopia of brands! AA

ARMOURY SNOW WOLF MP18

www.airsoftaction.net

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TOKYO MARUI

L119A2 CUSTOM BUILD

NEXT GEN RECOIL SHOCK CONTACT US FOR DETAILS

THE L119A2 IS JUST ONE POPULAR EXAMPLE OF OUR CURRENT RECOIL MODELS, BASED ON TOKYO MARUI’S FANTASTIC SYSTEM - FITTED WITH THE ANGRY GUN RAIL SYSTEM AND REAL STEEL MAGPUL FURNITURE

KIT & GEAR OUTRIDER TACTICAL

RANGE READY

“YOUR EQUIPMENT IS OUR PASSION!” THAT’S WHAT THE TEAM BEHIND THE NEW CLOTHING BRAND, OUTRIDER TACTICAL, TELL US AND AFTER TAKING A LOOK AT SOME OF THEIR CLOTHING, BILL THINKS THAT THIS IS A CLAIM WELL-FOUNDED, SO LET’S GET THIS (RANGE) PARTY STARTED!

T

acticool is a thing, right? For me it certainly is as the kind of clothing that you might describe as “tacticool” is the clothing that I wear pretty much every day, but as an old git I’m not buying into the “cool” factor as I left that way behind me many moons ago… although I am old enough that clothes I own are coming back into fashion… AGAIN!!!

“Tactical” clothing has taken on a bit of a life of its own in recent years as more and more of us buy from the brands that create an aspirational feel to the way we’d like to think we live our lives, but in reality very rarely do. How many of us spend all of our time on a range, in a gear locker or armoury, or every day on an airsoft site? In reality, very few, but we still like the kit and caboodle that gives the impression that we do, and what’s wrong with that?

In truth, some of us DO live our lives that way, and I’m on my own range in the woods a couple of days a week, every week test shooting and zeroing. If I’m not on the woods range testing AEGs and GBBs I may well be in another set of woods or on a site somewhere doing or directing photoshoots, and indeed a couple of mornings each week I’m on my “short range” at home working on my own “skills n’ drills”. And then of course there’s time in the workshop, and time in the “gear locker”, so in reality quite a large part of my time is centred around “guns n’ gear” each week, and that’s before I head to a

live-fire range or lawd-forbid I actually get out to an airsoft game! Then there’s range days at shows…

Bottom line is that the “tactical lifestyle look” for many of us involved in the airsoft industry is more than just a “look”, it’s the most sensible way to dress… in clothing that was purpose-designed for what we do. Now to me that doesn’t mean wandering around in full “battle rattle” as walking the dog in a plate carrier is best left to the extreme sports crowd who for some reason have adopted this as a “cool training tool”; I kind of get it as you can carry a lot of weight in a well-dispersed and balanced way for endurance training, but I still find it a bit odd when I see someone out with their pooch wearing a 5:11 Tactec, but perhaps that’s just me!

What it DOES mean to me is that I want clothing that’s been designed for dynamic movement and shooting sports without me looking like a Team Six wannabe or the tweed-encrusted lord of the manor.

How many times have you seen the guy at the airport or the train station carrying his MOLLE pack, with a patched-up (and not in a “I’ve worn this darn thing to death” way) softshell jacket, coyote tan boots, and an “insert name of favourite firearms accessory manufacturer here” ballcap and thought “oh my, now THAT’S lo-profile”…

I’m not trying to be snippy, but there is such a thing as a time and a place, and when I buy my own

“I WANT CLOTHING (AND BY EXTENSION FOOTWEAR) THAT’S GOING TO BE WELL MADE FROM DECENT FABRICS, THAT HAS BEEN DESIGNED FOR THE USE TO WHICH I INTEND TO SUBJECT IT, PERFORMS WELL AND IS COMFORTABLE IN ALL WAYS, AND DOESN’T IMMEDIATELY SCREAM “LOOKY, LOOKY! SHOOTER WANNABE HERE!””

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KIT & GEAR OUTRIDER TACTICAL

“tacticool” gear you can bet that a) it’s going to spend most of its life on a range or in a shootingrelated setting, and b) it’s going to get the living bejaysus kicked out of it in short time! Basically I want clothing (and by extension footwear) that’s going to be well made from decent fabrics, that has been designed for the use to which I intend to subject it, performs well and is comfortable in all ways, and doesn’t immediately scream “Looky, looky! Shooter wannabe here!”

And in a nutshell, that’s why I’ve embraced Outrider Tactical, a new clothing brand from Austria.

MADE TO EXCEL

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to their clothing you could look at Outrider Tactical and say “Mmm, just another clothing brand riding on the shooter’s back…” but that’s pretty much true of all tactical clothing brands. What sets Outrider apart for me is that I know the guys behind the brand, know that they’ve been involved at the sharp-end of functional tactical clothing, and know that they work with the right people who have “been there and done that” to ensure that their designs, and how those designs are put together, are 100% fit for purpose.

They tell me that...

“Our design team develops the products and sews the prototypes in-house in our development site in Austria from the first idea to the final prototype.

It consults experienced partners from the areas of special operations, military, intelligence, law enforcement, sport shooting, survival and outdoor for development and worldwide field testing.”

Again, long story short Outrider Tactical makes clothing for the shooter, and they’re very serious in how they go about it. Knowing this, and knowing them, lets me have confidence in what I get from them.

So what do Outrider Tactical produce? Actually it’s a pretty darn tight line of designs that goes from more comfortable EDC wear like polos and hoodies, right through technical T-shirts and base layers, technical mid-layers and fleeces, up to and including technical outerwear. All of it is built right and fit for purpose, and some of it, in my opinion, does indeed look “cool” although I will point you back to the age/ appreciation of cool statement that I made at the outset…

I’ve been wearing three of their garments for a little while now, and yes, I will admit that there’s nothing particularly technical about the first garment as it’s a pretty standard hoodie… and I do love my hoodies which is somewhat inappropriate for a man of my age, or so I’ve been told, although frankly I don’t give a flying… thing… about “appropriate”! I just like what is comfortable and works for me, and the OT Logo Hoodie certainly works.

It’s a simple 70% cotton/30% poly hooded sweatshirt with a big old kangaroo front pocket that you can wear happily on the range, in game, or for a not-so-quiet post-game trip to KFC (sorry, that’s probably just me, and us again…)! It may be simple, but it’s impeccably put together, and the slight brushed finish to the inner fabric surface makes it feel super-snuggly (a technical term for sure!). The Outrider logo is there, but it’s pretty subdued so this is a hoodie I’d feel comfortable wearing virtually anywhere; it’s comfortable, warm, and simple… which again is a bit like me these days so we’re a match made in heaven!

www.airsoftaction.net

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KIT & GEAR OUTRIDER TACTICAL

GETTING TECHY WITH IT

Next up I am going to get a bit more technical; one garment that I do wear every single day is a longsleeve zipneck base layer, and the Outrider T.O.R.D. Long Sleeve Zip Shirt in Ranger Green is perfect (it’s also available in plain back, but I do love my Ranger Green!). This long-sleeved shirt is designed for daily use on the range, but is also ideally suited for outdoor activities and sports. A slim fit was chosen by the Outrider design team to prevent pressure points, to achieve an optimal warming effect and to ensure a rapid transport of moisture.

The fabric is extremely comfortable to wear, breathable and dries quickly. The shirt is great as a base in colder weather, but also takes into account that the wearer is moving a lot and deals with heat dispersion effectively. The collar has been ergonomically designed to the shape of the neck, and the end of the zipper is enclosed in a soft flap of fabric to prevent chafing on the neck; the use of overlocked stitching achieves a multidirectional stretch between the material and the seam, without creating excess bulk which can cause discomfort. The length is just right to allow the shirt to be worn tucked in, so that access to any pockets or the belt is always straightforward, but it can of course also be worn loosely over the pants too. An innovative pulse warmer in the wrist area provides a comfortable and versatile sleeve-end and is optimally tailored for combining with liner gloves. The raglan sleeve allows for a seamless and wrinkle-free fit in the shoulder area, and even the logo has been very discreetly placed on the left chest and is colour – matched to be just visible but not overtly obvious.

In terms of outerwear Outrider Tactical offer some pretty clever solutions! The T.O.R.D. Flex Windblock Hoody LW (yes, in Ranger Green!) is an extremely breathable and uncompromising “mid-season” jacket with a light build and low stowage volume for a wide range of tactical and range applications as well as everyday use. The full-time hood is big enough to go over a FAST helmet, but is volume adjustable if you’re just wearing a beanie or ballcap.

The seam-free shoulder area offers pack/range bag carriage without pressure points and prevents excess wear on this crucial point, whilst an internal baffle prevents cold air getting inside through the zipper, and the cord-adjustable waist rounds off a closefitting and functional design. The Flex is highly windresistant, extremely breathable, and uses a durable water repellent fabric throughout, a 92% Poly, 8% Spandex mix that works extremely well and offers

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a great two-way stretch, and a minimal four-way stretch for added wear comfort.

With an innovative low profile yet spacious pocket arrangement the Flex is extremely comfortable to wear and the modern styling allows a full range of unrestricted movement. The Flex benefits from two mid-position, mesh-lined hand-warmer pockets, a pocket on both upper arms, and velcro patches for team/ unit patches; there’s also an inner pocket which allows routing for comms cables if you should need them!

The Flex is easy to pack and takes up minimal space in a pack, so it’s absolutely ideal if you want to stow it away “just in case”. Overall it’s a superbly designed jacket made of high end fabrics and components, and the finish of it just oozes quality and attention to detail. If you’re in the market for a new performance wind and weather-resistant jacket in the very latest “tacticool” colours then I would thoroughly recommend you take a very close look at the Flex, because I already love it!

So, that’s Outrider Tactical for now, although when possible I’m going to check out their Flex trousers and shorts as well. Thus far I’m really happy with their clothing, and although it’s not the cheapest out there you most certainly do get what you pay for… and that’s comfortable, highperformance “tacticool” gear that you can wear wherever you may be!

For more information on the entire Outrider Tactical range of clothing and accessories simply pay a visit to www.outrider-tactical.com AA

TAP/CLICK IMAGES FOR MORE INFORMATION

OUTDOOR TACTICAL OUTDOOR DEVELOPMENT

THE COMPLETE WEEKEND WARRIOR!

IF YOU’VE NEVER BEEN TO A GAME THAT LASTS FOR 24 HOURS OR LONGER, WE HOPE THAT WHAT HAS BEEN COVERED SO FAR IN OUR TACTICAL OUTDOOR DEVELOPMENT COLUMN HAS HELPED TO POINT YOU IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION! THIS TIME BILL CONCLUDES HIS “PACKING LIST” WITH AN OVERVIEW OF THAT ALL-IMPORTANT GEAR THAT WILL SEE YOU THROUGH!

O

ver the last few months Jon and I have looked in detail at how you can really thrive rather than just survive in a longer duration game setting, and to bring this initial sequence to a close I’m going to bring everything together in one place. What Jon and I have outlined will see you right for games Spring to Autumn, and next month I’ll take a look at how we can adjust our gear for full winter use. I’ve said many times before most of us continue to skirmish during the winter, but it’s the thought of those longer, warmer days and lighter evenings that really get me thinking about which games I’m going to sign up for, and now things have eased in relation to Covid I’m looking forward to seeing some righteous “weekend warrior” action soon, and indeed some of the team are already on this train!

I’ve played weekend games that have encompassed military training areas in the UK, vast tracts of forest woodland, French mountains, and even former monastery buildings on Crete, and a good “weekender” to me is the best possible form for an airsoft game as not only will it usually give two full days, possibly with a night game thrown in, of airsoft, but it will also give me an opportunity to catch up with fellow players from different parts of the world! There will always be a bit of a “social” element to a weekend game with good friends slinging “plastic death” at one another all day long and then coming together for a barbeque and an “ adult lemonade” when play ceases.

Tactics from the day will be analysed, new kit will be discussed and rated, and new RIFs will be drooled over; it’s always great fun, especially if it’s warm

“THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A BIT OF A “SOCIAL” ELEMENT TO A WEEKEND GAME WITH GOOD FRIENDS SLINGING “PLASTIC DEATH” AT ONE ANOTHER ALL DAY LONG AND THEN COMING TOGETHER FOR A BARBEQUE AND AN “ ADULT LEMONADE” WHEN PLAY CEASES.”

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OUTDOOR TACTICAL OUTDOOR DEVELOPMENT

and fair, and the evening is mild. But in the UK of course we must always be prepared for that “liquid sunshine” moment, and the preparation of our gear, what we carry, and how we carry it must always be a primary consideration.

WHAT YOU REALLY, REALLY WANT!

I always pack the same set of gear whether it’s an informal weekender, or a more structured MilSim event; the real things to consider for any weekender are actually quite straightforward and can be broken down into eight key elements; Load Bearing, Hydration, Food , Cooking, Lighting, Sleeping, Hygiene, and Comfort (I’m assuming here that most of us carry some type of First Aid Kit as part of our usual gear), and this time I’ll address the first three.

First up is Load Bearing, and what I mean by this is simply how you’re going to carry your gear, and my last two article have addressed this in some detail.

At many weekenders you’ll be able to camp directly next, or at very least close to the vehicle you arrived in so having your kit packed and organised in a large haul bag, something like the Snugpak Subdivide Roller which gives you separate compartments to

keep everything stored and ready to hand when you need it.

However, there are some games where you can crash out in buildings onsite overnight and this will often mean that you need to carry everything on your back; indeed part of the scenario itself may involve you actually making a march in to a FOB site which will become your “home” for the duration so not only do you need to haul your gear in, but you

need to keep it squared away too. Therefore your very first consideration must be some form of Ruc or backpack.

As I’ve said before, I usually try to look for packs that sit in the 40/50L volume range as that’s big enough (if you pack properly!) to hold everything you need without becoming overly cumbersome.

Look for a pack that offers not only a good harness system with a sternum strap, but also a good, solid belt harness too; anyone who has spent any time hauling a ruc will tell you that you actually want most of the weight distributed onto your hips rather than hanging from your shoulders which becomes very tiring, very quickly.

Hydration is the key to keeping going and keeping alert, especially when things get warmer, but equally important at all times. I’ve been to games in the very height of summer where even in good old Blighty the temperature has been WAY up there, and at one particular weekender in Florida I recall going through some twelve litres of water during the course of the day! Now there’s no way you’ll be carrying all of that on your back and you can usually rely on re-sup, but I tend to have a two litre bladder mounted on my plate carrier, and another inside the ruc. I also carry a wide-mouth Nalgene bottle which I keep filled when I’ve dropped my ruc off; this is a great bit of kit which allows you to get liquids into yourself far faster than a bite valve.

Food is also an essential; many players I know heading for a weekender will always stock up on good, old fashioned ration (RAT for a reason!) packs or MREs (Meals Rejected by Ethiopians!) and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this at all as the packs are designed specifically to provide all the necessary calories and nourishment to keep you going in the field. Camping and outdoor stores are also a great place to find food that’s prepared with hauling it

www.airsoftaction.net

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OUTDOOR TACTICAL OUTDOOR DEVELOPMENT

in mind, and many of the “boil in the bag” meals are super tasty and can be eaten straight from their foil packets. I like to carry a “nosebag” too, basically a Ziploc bag into which I crumble digestive biscuits, nuts and dried fruit (a former SBS guy actually gave me the “recipe”!) which is a good way to give yourself a quick boost without the highs and lows of sweets or chocolate bars!

When the BB-slinging has stopped then you need to be looking at the other elements and one of the best phrases I ever heard to describe this was from an American friend who referred to it as “Snivel Gear” and the first consideration here is hot food and drink so you’re going to need something to cook on. I’ve tried various ways of cooking in the field over the years, but I am settled on a gas system.

My absolute favourite cooker is the “Pocket Rocket” from Mountain safety Research (MSR); this is an ultralight isobutene-propane backpacking stove that weighs just 73g (2.6 ounces) with a flame that easily adjusts from a simmer to a rolling boil; in fact, if pushed, it boils a litre of water in just 3.5 minutes! It’s easy-to-use design needs no priming, preheating or pressurizing, and serrated pot supports accommodate a range of cooking pot sizes (it’s ideal for the classic Mess Tin!) and fold exceptionally small into an ultralight hard shell protective carry case which is easily stowed in a pouch.

Powered by differentsized canisters (small for in your gear and larger for when you’re operation out of a FOB) that are widely available all over the world it’s the ideal solution for a “fast and light” gear setup.

Combined with a simple Mess Tin, if push comes to shove you can always drop your “boil in the bag” packet straight into the water and have sufficient liquid at the end of it for a hot drink as well. If money is tight though there is still absolutely nothing wrong though with a hexamine cooker and that good old mess tin! I do tend to chuck in a plastic mug, bowl and plate, along with a “spork” as it’s nice to eat properly when you get the opportunity, and the knife from my Gerber multitool serves yet

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another purpose here as well.

As darkness falls you’re going to need some light, not only to go about your admin and planning with, but also to find your way around as many sites are not lit. I always carry a micro head torch in my Admin Panel but I beef that up by including a Petzl Tac Tikka in the top compartment of my ruc (as well as a Princeton Tec Switch-MPLS Task Light on my helmet!), as that way I’ve got redundancy should one or the other fail; don’t forget to pack a few spare batteries either!. I also tuck away a Storm Candle which comes in a lidded tin; not only can this provide light but you’d be surprised how much welcome heat one of these will give off in a basha too.

Remember to also pack some waterproof matches or a Storm Lighter (shows are always a good source for these as many companies have these on their show stands as little “giveaways).

The next element to me is a really important one, and that’s how you go about sorting out your sleeping arrangements and my setup works equally well in a tent, basha, or chilly building.

One investment I made many moons ago was a Special Forces Sleeping Bag System from Snugpak.

The complete system gives you the Special Forces 1 Bag for use in above freezing temperatures and the Special Forces 2 Bag for use in temperatures right down to -10°C. Then, when you’re in extreme conditions, you place the Special Forces 2 Bag inside the Special Forces 1 Bag and join them together with the extra zip baffle, so you’re protected in conditions right down to -20°C. Ingenious!

To protect myself from the cold ground, and to prevent losing heat by conduction, I place underneath the sleeping bag a Thermarest selfinflating mattress; mine is ¾ length and weighs in at just 230g, but the streamlined shape makes it highly

OUTDOOR TACTICAL OUTDOOR DEVELOPMENT

packable while continuing to provide the comfort you need. Over the top of both of these I place a Snugpak Special Forces Bivvi Bag which provides an extra barrier to moisture whilst helping to retain warmth.

PERSONAL ADMIN

The last two elements I consider for my packing list are Hygiene and Comfort, and I’ll take the latter first. If you’ve had a long, chilly day playing in the rain and have the chance to get dry then having clean dry socks, thermal underwear, a good fleece hat, neck gaiter, and lightweight gloves to pop on can be complete luxury! I also carry a spare combat shirt (VIPER Mesh Tech) and trousers (VIPER Elite) to change into. Added to that if I know it’s going to be proper chilly I’ll chuck in a Snugpak MML6 smock which gives huge amounts of warmth, packs down small, and weighs in at just 720g in size Medium, and an extra set of Snugpak 2nd Skinz base layers.

Again, dependant of the time of year I’ll also carry a waterproof hardshell (mine is a Wild Things Tactical model), and there’s always a Helikon-Tex Windrunner Windshirt tucked into my hydration pouch on the plate carrier.

Hygiene is one that raises eyebrows for many, but to me it really separates “the adults from the stripling youths”.

Yes, I know that most weekenders are just for a couple of days and that you can rough it out knowing there’s a hot shower waiting when you get home, but I always try and look at it from the perspective that if you set yourself good discipline from the outset then that will aid you for longer periods. When you get into a MilSim for instance that lasts days (such as the “WarZone” 72 hour event I attended in the mountains of Crete) rather than hours keeping yourself clean is a very

good habit to get into, not just for yourself but for those around you! I carry a small wash kit (an old Web Tex roll) that contains the essentials, along with a small microfibre towel. With the wash kit I stow in a tiny sewing kit as you never know when something is going to get ripped or torn.

Once you’ve got all your elements gathered together then it’s time to test-pack everything. Think here about what you’re going to need immediately, like “hard routine” food, and what will get used later, like your sleeping system or your cooker. To reiterate, necessary items stay closer to the top of your pack and in external pouches and pockets, while spare clothing and that “snivel gear” can be packed lower. I break all my kit down into “groups” and then all items used together will go into individual dry bags which I mark with different coloured cableties for ease of recognition.

With everything packed up, get your pack on and go for a walk as you’ll soon find out if you’ve got everything balanced correctly and comfortably. Last but not least there are four essentials you should never head off to a weekender without; paracord which serves a multitude of purposes, gaffa tape ditto, a couple of bungees and… some toilet paper in yet another Ziploc bag! However you roll when it comes to approaching a weekend game, get your kit sorted and believe me, it will be even more fun than you thought possible!

Virtually all the kit featured in this article is available from “one stop shop” www.military1st. co.uk or from www.snugpak.com so go and pay them a visit! AA

“HYGIENE IS ONE THAT RAISES EYEBROWS FOR MANY, BUT TO ME IT REALLY SEPARATES “THE ADULTS FROM THE STRIPLING YOUTHS”. YES, I KNOW THAT MOST WEEKENDERS ARE JUST FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS AND THAT YOU CAN ROUGH IT OUT KNOWING THERE’S A HOT SHOWER WAITING WHEN YOU GET HOME, BUT…”

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IWA 2022 GEAR REPORT

GOOD GEAR TO GO AT IWA 2022

LAST MONTH THE CREW LOOKED AT ALL THE AIRSOFT GOODNESS THAT THEY SAW AT IWA 2022, AND THIS TIME OUR IN-HOUSE “GEARFREEK” BILL TURNS HIS ATTENTION TO THE CLOTHING, FOOTWEAR AND EQUIPMENT SIDE OF THE SHOW, LOOKING AT INNOVATIONS THAT HE FOUND PARTICULARLY NOTEWORTHY!

I

WA is most definitely my very favourite show of the year when it comes to airsoft and new gear; all too often airsoft is an “also ran” alongside the mass of the shooting sports industry as a whole, and all too often we airsofters are relegated to our own little area, thankfully an area that grows years on year in normal circumstances! But when it comes to the “tacticool” side of things we are made very welcome by most companies, and this also continues to grow for numerous reasons that will become apparent throughout my report, but largely down to the fact that they view the airsoft community as knowledgeable and professional these days.

Each and every year IWA gets bigger and better, of that there is no doubt even if 2022 was a little more muted than usual, and both airsoft and tactical have grown with it. It’s a huge show; the Nuremberg MESSE covers 12 floors in total, some of them as big as a football stadium, and the show now covers many of them, even in a “slow year”. To put that in perspective, when I first attended IWA only six of the halls were in use, but the show just keeps on growing!

I know that many of you have a good laugh at us when the topic of any show comes up, but let me assure you… it’s actually bloody hard work! Yes, we do get first look at all the new “shiny things”, but the

schedule is brutal! 0300 get-ups to catch planes and trains for some, and many hundreds of miles under the car tyres for others to and from the show are the norm. Seventeen-plus hour days are standard from start to finish, as just as much work gets done after the show as in it.

One of the guys this year actually tracked their footfall in the show and it came in at over nine miles a day, and that’s just inside the show itself! When you see a picture of your favourite journo, blogger or vlogger cracking a cold brewski and tucking into a MealSim meatfest at the end of the day, believe me, they have bloody earned that, and so has everyone that’s been on stands all day long! Sadly this year due to the continued Covid Restrictions in Germany the social side was severely restricted, and actually meant that Smooth Jase and I had to endure cooking in our apartment and watching a Batman movie in German… we did however manage to find what must rank as one of the biggest steaks (with a little bit of sad salad on the side!) I’ve ever seen though, so it wasn’t all bad!

Suffice to say that we pack in as much as possible to the days we are at the show, because this is our chance to be face to face (or mask to mask this year!) with all the manufacturers and distributors of tactical goodness in person, and the opportunity must be

“SADLY THIS YEAR, DUE TO THE CONTINUED COVID RESTRICTIONS IN GERMANY THE SOCIAL SIDE WAS SEVERELY RESTRICTED, AND ACTUALLY MEANT THAT SMOOTH JASE AND I HAD TO ENDURE COOKING IN OUR APARTMENT AND WATCHING A BATMAN MOVIE IN GERMAN…”

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IWA 2022 GEAR REPORT

embraced in full so we can continue to bring you the stories you want to read all year round.

RECOGNISING THE GOOD GEAR

I’m lucky that after working for so many years in the outdoor performance market with some of the big names in climbing, mountaineering, and general outdoor pursuits I have a bit of a “head start” when it comes to looking at the ideas and technologies that are continuing to finally filter through to the tactical gear market, and 2022 saw this continuation accelarate!

Over the past few years I’ve witnessed some really HUGE steps forward by the tactical clothing, footwear and gear companies, and some of them have really embraced the latest and greatest developments in performance fabrics, technologies and materials. Not only are some of them really using the best materials that are available, but they’re also thinking “way outside the box” in terms of design for functionality.

Whilst for many a “10 £/$/ €” of surplus combat trousers will suffice for a skirmish day every couple of months (and there’s nothing wrong with that at all!) more and more of us are searching for that ideal pair of trousers, that super comfortable pack, or that properly waterproof pair of lightweight boots.

Many will call this “elitist” in some way, but when it comes down to being well-protected and above all comfortable I’m certainly prepared to dump a couple of quid to get a solid set of kit!

My personal mantra is “any fool can be uncomfortable”, and whilst I understand that pennies are always tight when you’re an airsofter, scrimping on the very kit that can help keep you in the game is false economy in my eyes. The “outdoor community”

went through this process years ago, and frankly I see fellow dog walkers with better kit than many airsofters; once upon a time I used to joke about “dog walkers” but now I’m one myself I know that I will be out in all weathers, and it can be horrible or a joy depending on your kit choice... playing airsoft is no different.

Most of the companies I visit at IWA are staffed by folk that I have the deepest respect for, so I do tend to concentrate on them. That’s not to say that I don’t keep an eye out for things that are completely new (some smaller companies may make just a single piece of outstanding kit after all!), but if report on something that you’ll never be able to buy then that sadly is a waste of valuable page space, isn’t it?

DESIGN TWEAKS AND TECH

I do however expect to see innovation from those companies I believe to be good, not just once, but as part of a continuous process, and IWA 2022 certainly didn’t disappoint, even though virtually every manufacturer told us that they were extremely low on stock having sent some meaningful “care packages” out to Ukraine; 2022 was not the year for “swag” for an exceptionally good reason as rightfully everything had gone to those that needed it most, and it was fabulous to see so many companies giving so freely to a just cause!

There was still a LOT to see though; UF PRO are a company who really do “get it” in my opinion, but in the past have been humble enough to not shout about it. This is thankfully changing as both their range of products and their confidence in what they produce grows; their design guru, Armin, totally understands every stitch and every piece of

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IWA 2022 GEAR REPORT

technology they use to achieve their outstanding clothing. UF PRO keep adding new technologies and tweaking their designs! This year the company unveiled its 2022 line up of advanced-technology tactical garments, along with some teasers for other gear coming later! I particularly liked the updated designs, material and features for the Striker X Series as well the new waist flex system on their ULT Pants; more updates will be available on the soon-to- bereleased Gen3 Striker XT Uniform!

Although there wasn’t a lot of information yet 42

MAY 2022

on the new Gen 3 Striker XT gear, the new combat shirt looked awesome, both in terms of fit and the combination of cutting-edge fabrics used. The ULT pants though have been designed from the ground up to be remarkably light in weight and to deliver outstanding performance. These combat pants will excel in both hot and temperate climates, and I spotted right away the enhanced fit at the waist, thanks to the new Waist/Flex system that includes Schoeller side stretch-inserts that adapt to the width of your hips for a perfect fit when you move.

The guys at UF PRO told me that this new design “connects the pants to your waist and comfortably keeps them there as if they were a part of your body”, so no drooping or annoying folds even when fully loaded with gear. Along with maximising comfort through both fabrics used and mechanical venting options, these new pants should help minimise the potential for skin chafing or blistering if you have to stay in your gear for extended periods.

Staying firmly in Eastern Europe Helikon-Tex are always on my “must see” list at IWA, and in the last couple of years they have really been making some headway, not only in an ongoing “re-branding” in terms of their product categories, but in the uniqueness of their designs; they’ve also shown a massive step up in their quality control which in my mind is placing them high in the “tactical rankings”.

Their continued focus on sharing knowledge and “how to” articles and videos also impresses me, and we’ll be sharing more of this later in the year.

This IWA saw them adding a host of new products for the general outdoor and shooting communities, focusing a number of their products in more “civilian” colours and designs, and adding to their “bushcraft kit” range which will be very useful for any of you that love a weekender; they clearly aim to expand their customer base, and by the look of some of their new “tacticool” shirt and gear designs, both male and female fit, they are well on track. The tactical sector are not forgotten though, and the Covert Tactical Pants (CTP) look great for every-day use as well as airsoft! They are more discreet, yet functional, and all the features are smartly hidden.

There are four inner pockets (two front and two sides) for magazines and side arm, along with six external pockets; the pockets are placed in a brand new pattern, to allow you to carry all your ingame necessities comfortably. Wide belt loops will support a belt even with mounted holster, and the combination of design with stretch fabric gives you huge freedom of movement. The pants are made of

IWA 2022 GEAR REPORT

lighter version of Helikon’s own VersaStretch fabric to provide even more breathability in hot days, and the CTP would look equally great with a tactical jacket or a classic hoodie for range work! Helikon also showed some more incredibly neat tactical gloves, as well as advanced tactical and outdoor backpacks, shoulder bags and chest packs, tactical belts and gun carriers, all part of their growing line of nylon gear, and we’ll take a detailed look at all of this in the future.

Once again Pentagon were continuing to press on with their “Tactical Athlete” concept, and they

are a brand that as an outdoorsman I’ve come to appreciate more and more! Whilst their designs are not quite as “overt” as some, they do make a superb finished product; their easily compressible vests and jackets, made with super-soft nylon fabrics and filled with 550 duck down were really nice! The company also presented more advanced tactical jackets, with Primaloft­Eco­filling encased in durable and waterrepellent Nylon Taslan. Also on display were more tactical backpacks and combat uniforms, and a whole spectrum of combat trousers which certainly took my

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IWA 2022 GEAR REPORT

eye. Speaking to them at length they have some great plans for 2022/23 and I’ll be updating on these as soon as is feasible. It must be said that Jase actually fell in love with the Pentagon gear not having seen it close up before, so no doubt he’ll be looking at this brand in some detail!

No trip to a show would be complete without seeing old campaigners 5:11, and although I’ve

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not been “wowed” with any of their designs for a little while it is good to see them firing all cylinders again. Not only had they upgraded their clothing and footwear line, but they look to have tightened up their overall design-ethos with some pared back clothing items for “the range warrior”; I really liked the look of the new Defender Flex Range Pant, along with their “Trail” gear and the Mesos Tech fleece jacket. Their 8’ A/T boots look VERY cool, and the A/T Mid looks perfect for the fast movers! The AMP and AMPC packs really look very good indeed, and as with all 5:11 packs they’re available in a big range of sizes, so there’s something for everyone here. All the new gear looks very interesting indeed and I look forward to finding out more!

I thankfully got the chance to spend some “quality time” with my old mate Chris from the Airsoft & MilSim News blog, and I’m pleased to say that we’ll be collaborating on a number of “gear projects” in the coming year, and I’ll welcome his expertise and unique take on things when we do! Sticking with “Euro” gear folk I always drop in to see Tasmanian Tiger, and as Chris works with them directly he kindly took some time to point out this year’s highlights to me. The company introduced a new line of load-hauling gear this year along with some new designs; showing new packs like the MIL OPS PACK 30 and 80+24 (which the MilSim crowd are sure to love) along with the lodrag SENTINEL, they also had some interesting tweaks and upgrades to some of their existing pouches and equipment. The new lightweight tactical mission backpack, the MODULAR GUNNERS PACK really got my attention though as it offers many options in one net package! Made in lightweight T-Square Rip FD to save weight and make life easier when on a mission,

IWA 2022 GEAR REPORT

the Multicam version and a version with IRR treatment is made of Cordura 500, and has a whole host of unique features; I’ll be looking at this model in more depth in due course!

Chris also gave me the heads up on some superb new gear from industry-veterans Carinthia, that he in turn had been given the nod on by the guys from Soldier Systems… I won’t go into detail as the guys have already covered it on their own blogs, but you can check out pictures and more links to the new Carinthia kit by visiting https://airsoft-milsim-news. com! I do love how we all sometimes work together to search out the best new gear, it 100% adds to the feeling that we are all working together to dig out “good gear for the good guys!”

WRAPPING IT!

In terms of footwear there was again not a huge amount to report; seasoned campaigners MAGNUM still seem to be having a real push, and who couldn’t love their “show special” (sorry, even we are sworn to secrecy on this one!)! Salomon and Lowa are still

forging forwards, taking their excellent “mountain heritage” and incorporating it into their tactical ranges, but for them it was mostly colour updates rather than new models, although I have to say the Salomon “low cuts” look great and the addition of extra-wide fitting options in some models is a positive move. The upgrade to the INNOX boot (one of my favourite LOWA boots!) along with the roll-out of the new Lowa colours means they are going to work perfectly with your “urban grey” and Multicam/MTP gear, so… WIN! As always I will make my “honourable mentions” before I conclude, but this year it’s really a mention of those that I would usually see that for one reason or another were absent for the 2022 show; I missed meeting with my old mates from Clawgear, VIPER, and Direct Action especially as they always have something cool to show me, but rest assured that I speak to them regularly and they’ve all promised to keep me updated on their developments. I also have to comment here, as I do for every IWA, that “Camo of the Year” was undoubtedly Polish MAPA this year, as it was everywhere; kind of lucky that we have Part II of our look at gear in that pattern right here in this very issue!

Each year I head to IWA hoping to be impressed, and I have to say that 2022, although strange year still, proved to be a great show in relation to some of the brands we work closely with! Rest assured that we’ll be covering many of this year’s releases as they come to market, and you can also rest assured that in the hands of the AA team they’ll all be thoroughly “used and abused” by the time we report back on them!

And to end my report there’s one shout out that I simply have to give…

MealSimmers, you were missed, and I for one look forward to reconvening for MEALSIM 2023! AA www.airsoftaction.net

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THE CAGE OPTICS

Photo courtesy of Krios Photography: www.kriosphotography.com

THE CAGE:

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I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW!

A NICE SHINY OPTIC LOOKS JUST THE THING ATOP AN AEG OR GBBR, AND THESE DAYS EVEN ON A GBB PISTOL! ULTIMATELY THOUGH ARE WE JUST PUTTING THEM THERE FOR SHOW, TO MAKE OUR “GATS LOOK GUCCI”, OR ARE THEY THERE FOR A SOLID REASON? BILL CHECKS IN WITH THE AA LEGIONNAIRES TO FIND OUT MORE… MAY 2022

THE CAGE OPTICS

D

o optics add to your performance when you’re playing airsoft, or are they just Gucci accessories to make your RIF look cool and you feel even cooler? The real answer to this question in my mind is “a bit of both”… personally I do like a “real steel” optic as they come with an assured level of performance, my personal faves being EoTECH holosights, and as I’ve followed the “Vortex Story” pretty much from the beginning I do have a bit of a leaning towards this brand, and tend to recommend them to my friends in the category of “money well spent”.

The THETA OPTICS QD Holosight and Magnifier set I got from the guys at GUNFIRE some years back is still one of my favourite combos and holds zero well on the heaviest of GBBR recoils, and I do run a number of clone RDS on AEGs, but they’re from brands that I’ve learned to trust over the years. When it comes to magnified optics these days I really run just one

model, the NP OPTICS - 1.25-5X26 IR which is a great bit of glass for the money… this sits atop my DMRs and works very well in this role.

Many moons ago I learned my initial (prone) shooting skills largely on iron sights, and to be honest in most situations and with airsoft engagement distances being what they really are I still tend to use just the sights that are built into the rifle/carbine or flip-ups mounted on the rail. To give an example of this I have a pretty poor replica PSO-1 that I bought to dress up my gas SVD, and I find that this actually reduces the effective range of the rifle… with it I’m lucky if I can hit a target at 70m, but using the rudimentary “irons” on the SVD I’ve taken a running target at 100…witnessed too..YAY! This leads to an interesting question though about optics in general though, one that I know most marshals reading this will nod sagely at. You have your favourite AEG, and you’ve tested it out to XXX metres www.airsoftaction.net

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THE CAGE OPTICS

so you know it has legs. Then you fit a real-deal short-dot scope that you know has effective range WAY beyond XXX metres, and this must surely be a marriage made in heaven, right? Proudly you hit your local skirmish the next weekend, get eyes, and optics, on target and let rip… and the beggar doesn’t call their hit!!! Annoyed as hell you rightly call in the marshal to check your hit and well, how embarrassing, the marshal confirms that you’re dead on-line but your BBs are falling WAY short of the target… red-faced mumbling ensues…

The fact of the matter is that it’s all well and good dressing up your rifle, carbine, or pistol with an optic, but PLEASE do practice and train with your setup to ensure that it really does have the range and accuracy that you think it does!

Also, if you buy an optic for a few bucks online don’t expect that to give you the performance you might think it should, as often they are out of kilter before you even start, especially once you factor in the reciprocation of a thumping gas system!

Do buy an optic, either real or a good quality replica, and learn to work with it; train with it, learn about how optics work, and work out just what range you can tweak from your chosen package. Do by all means buy that 20 buck replica but realise it ain’t gonna qualify you as a “Team 6 Shooter” any time soon, although it might look kinda cute on your Insta feed!

TEAM TALK

So, once again I got together with the AA Legion and asked them “What optics do you use on your AEGs and GBBs (both primary and secondary)? Why do you like these optics, and how do they enhance your shooting/gameplay?”

Miguel: For me, a good red dot is a must. I don’t like to shoot and see where my BBs are going before correcting it to the target. Of course, one needs to calibrate the red dot according to the replica and even our shooting position, but I like to know that if I place my dot on a target the BBs will go there. Sometimes I also like to use an ACOG style scope (4x32), especially for games where we are playing recon or running scouting missions. It’s important to be able to see a bit further for mission purposes.

Jimmy: I have tried and tested a plethora of optics and dots to date. They have all played a part and done the job in hand and I have discovered that you don’t need to spend a huge amount. Yes, it’s nice to be able 48

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to say I have the latest Vortex but for airsoft it isn’t a prerequisite.

Okay, so if you’re using a recoil AEG or a heavy recoil GBB then yes, the need to spend out on something may help but for a regular AEG it really isn’t necessary to be honest. I started off using an Aimpoint M2 clone in CQB and it was fine; the aperture was perfect for the scenario and it never needed to be adjusted! It was a solid build from G&P but after a while I felt it looked a little dated compared to something like the 552 holo which I was starting to see more and more, so inevitably I made the decision to change to the 552. With its fairly bulky body and large field of vision it was brilliant for both CQB and outdoors and I built up quite a collection, but one thing that fast became apparent was it sat just a little low for me. I hated the look of it sat up on two risers, it just didn’t look right. They work just fine but I found I needed to tip my head in order to find the reticle so something needed to be changed.

That’s when I discovered the T1 style red dot; the T1 offers so much more and is far more easy to use. They tend to sit far higher allowing you to bring the rifle up into the shoulder and find your line of sight without having to move your head. This is something I have learnt, bring the sight to your eye, not your eye to the sight. The T1’s generally have a large dial to turn the device on and select settings which is great if you wear gloves, and

THE CAGE OPTICS

most airsofters do. I have been using Feyachi T1 now for some time and they are actually very good for the money. Great quality, easy to use, very clear view and due to the slimness of the body it doesn’t block what is in front of you as a result of its slim build makes for fast target acquisition. As I am now a fan of the T1 style red dot I decided to spend out a little extra and get something a little more Gucci; I purchased a Vector Optics Maverick 1x22 and a repro Unity mount; not only does it look the part it works incredibly well and I think I have finally found the perfect red dot setup for me. I like the Unity mount as it is made of solid

aluminium and the finish is exceptional for a repro. I like the fact it has integral adjustable iron sights built in so should your dot got down you have a backup that doesn’t take up any rail space.

The Vector Optics Maverick is the Gen 3 version which is covered in a rubber protective coating, comes with a screw on killflash and the dot is a dot and not a blurred red light.

Pricewise it’s perfect at around UK£45 it even comes with a 5 year manufacturer’s defect warranty!

Robbie: I run a T1 on my AKM (Ultimak rail scout style) as it allows me to run both eyes open at very high speed (CQB style) and matched my real firearm setup too. On the 700 style sniper I had, I had a 3-9x40 front parallex adjustable air rifle scope; this let me “po man” estimate distances 0-100 yards pretty accuratly which seriously helped get on target first shot. I also run an RMR clone on my training Glock that matches my real G26; worth every single bit of pain top install and setup!

Stewbacca: Optics-wise I use EOtech 552/558 replicas for my AR/Carbines like the G36C, HK416, T91, ELCAN for the L85, and T1/T2 reddots for the MP5A5, MP5k PDW, PP2K and USWA1, and an ACRO for the USW Glock, Docter for my HK45 and RMR for my M17. They definitely increase reaction

time and accurate shooting in my experience as I have worn all my hop units in well for consistency, use heavier ammunition and have everything zeroed well. I definitely think a well-adjusted optical sight of some form is a must have, especially for CQB. I’m only just getting back into the habit of using 4x or more scopes for the L85 and PSG-1; those do reduce your situational awareness somewhat with not being able to keep both eyes open and looking much further away at a narrower field of view. I definitely think the EOtech looks best on a G36C, but maybe that’s just having grown up around them in use with the UK Midlands police; I’m not a fan of them on MP5s, MP7s or the PP2K but have tried them on those, I just think it looks a bit over the top for such small guns.

Boycie: Recently I have used the SIG SAUER Romeo 5 and, when needed, the Juliet 3 magnifier. Most of the time I had cheap dots on rifles but never had a battery in them as the range was so close it hardly seemed worth it. The Romeo 5 however will turn on when I pick up the rifle and when I put it down for more than two minutes it will turn itself off. I also have Vortex Sparc AR II and Eotech 552 (genuine) which seems to “fit” on some builds but not on others.

Dan: I’m a big fan of red dots myself. It’s the difference in speed between making that first round hit in an engagement or walking your fire over the top of the rifle like they’re tracer rounds; you simply cannot argue the first option is faster. For what I personally use, I tend to favour and use real optics and mounts myself as they’re simply more reliable. I have a variety of Aimpoint’s: T2, M2 and Pro’s. There’s still a lone EOTech that doesn’t see much use (outside of photos) as I don’t really care for the large reticle for airsoft use. I also have a few Holosun HS403R’s which are great little inexpensive T2 clones that are nicer quality than most, and feature a rather crisp and bright reticle too; I don’t feel bad about beating them up either. My Real Sword SVD runs a genuine 4x24 POSP and is the only magnified optic I presently use. The Glocks are running RMRs. AA

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49

KIT & GEAR MAPA GEAR - PART 2

PART TWO IN ISSUE 135 BILL TOOK A DEEP DIVE INTO THE CREATION OF THE POLISH MAPA PATTERN, AND A FIRST LOOK AT SOME OF THE NEW CLOTHING AND GEAR TO BECOME AVAILABLE FOR AIRSOFT USE; THIS TIME, HAVING SPENT SOME “QUALITY ALONE TIME” WITH THE GEAR HE LOOKS AT THE INDIVIDUAL PIECES IN MORE DETAIL!

O

kay, yet another new camouflage pattern to talk about, but one that I honestly believe will please many players who need a full-on concealment package for use in more temperate woodland environments. I’ll preface everything by telling you that MAPA or the Multi-environmental Adaptive Pattern, from Poland was without doubt THE camo at this year’s IWA… it was everywhere… and very obvious given it was in a show hall and not in the woods!

It seems that every year there is one pattern that really dominates IWA, and MAPA was certainly IT for 2022! However, having garments and gear at a show does not necessarily mean that the pattern is widely available, and all too many times I’ve seen a fully-gucci’d mannequin on a show stand, then

subsequently struggled to find the “total solution” anywhere!

What do I mean by a “total solution”? It’s a simple phrase that means that every piece of clothing and equipment that you need, from combat shirt and trousers, through load bearing equipment to accessories is easily found. I’m talking about first, second and even third line gear here, as having a pair of pants and a t-shirt does not a loadout make!

Some may say I’m being super-picky here, as not everyone wants “the full set”, but after many years of creating my GreenZone loadout and improving on it step by step, piece by piece, I can tell you that it can be pretty frustrating if you’re searching, for instance, for a certain type of pouch in a specific pattern and its unavailable (ie, it doesn’t exist!)… I’ve even

“WHAT DO I MEAN BY A “TOTAL SOLUTION”? IT’S A SIMPLE PHRASE THAT MEANS THAT EVERY PIECE OF CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT THAT YOU NEED, FROM COMBAT SHIRT AND TROUSERS, THROUGH LOAD BEARING EQUIPMENT TO ACCESSORIES IS EASILY FOUND.”

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resorted to having custom pieces made for me when I couldn’t find them commercially.

But with MAPA I’m pleased to tell you that there is already a wealth of kit to go at, and over the past couple of months I’ve been working with the lovely chaps over at GUNFIRE (in Poland, natch!) honing everything down into that “total camo solution”, with everything in place now other than performance outerwear… this I can forgive as the creation of decent “weatherproofs” requires both a lengthy development process and VERY deep pockets on the part of any potential manufacturer!

Just finding the right performance fabrics that will “take” the pattern correctly is hard enough, but then you need to look at the technologies behind each and every garment and have them agreed by multiple parties! I’m sure outerwear will come in time as the range of gear widens and matures, but as I said… lengthy and very expensive process…

However, there’s enough MAPA gear available right now to cover pretty much all of our basic gear needs, and certainly enough to create a very solid set of gear, pretty much up to and including hardcore MilSim level! I outlined the initial clothing in my first look at MAPA, so let’s start there and get into some detail.

FIRST LINE

“First Line” refers to all the clothing and gear that is ALWAYS with you; what you wear in terms of clothing, and your basic belt kit “IRL” it’s the kit that you’d keep with you when everything else went to RS; fundamentally think of the classic “SAS Belt Kit” that would allow them to escape and evade, to survive, along with the clothing worn, and you’ll be in the right ballpark!

Clothing thus far from MASKPOL is pretty straightforward and to the point, and GUNFIRE (along other select retailers who are offering parts of GUNFIRE’s comprehensive range) have you pretty much covered in every respect. In the range offered con their website you’ll find: • T-Shirt • Combat Shirt 1 (UBACS-style) • Combat Shirt 2 (Traditional style) • Combat Pants • Softshell Jacket • Boonie Hat • Patrol Cap • Ballcap (4 styles) • Gaiters As I said, this pretty much covers your basic

clothing needs other than specific performance weather gear, and from the pieces that I checked over carefully everything is very well put together.

As I said in my initial overview in Issue 135 (where features for individual garments are also detailed) all of the “cotton” garments are actually made of a rugged yet lightweight 50% cotton / 50% polyester ripstop mix. The attention to detail in terms of construction is excellent, with lots of overlocking and box-stitching in stress areas. Fabric is doubled-over in high-wear areas too, and feature placement is first rate. Overall the pattern dispersion is even across the face of the fabric, and after a couple of hot washes colour-fastness appears to be good (I’d normally wash cool, but wanted to force it a bit to find out how much fading might take place!).

On the Combat Shirt 1 the plain green main body fabric is very comfortable indeed, with good four-way stretch properties.

It’s also a good wicking fabric as it should be as this style of shirt will be worn under a plate carrier, and thus far I’ve experienced very little “pilling” with wear.

The Softshell Jacket is more of a “comfort cut” than a truly technical one, but again there’s been good use made of a comfortable and warm plain green “core” fabric combined with the tougher MAPA pattern mix in hard-wear and stress points. Overall the fabrics and construction are of the highest order, and although

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the MAPA fabric does feel “light” and more suited to late Spring to early Autumn use, it certainly feels tough enough to stand up to some “skirmish abuse”!

Now of course none of us are going to have a true “survival belt kit” for airsoft use, but to round out the “First Line” GUNFIRE are offering an excellent two-piece “shooters belt” in three different sizes; I’ve become a convert to this style of belt over recent years and I have to say that the one chosen

by GUNFIRE is top notch! Fitted with a COBRA FC45 buckle and featuring laser-cut MOLLE, the outer belt is made of Cordura combined with a dense-weave

polyester tape, and the combo feels absolutely bombproof! Within the MAPA range there’s a whole host of pouches and accessories, but I set mine up in my usual configuration (muscle memory, folks!) combining two primary magazine pouches, two secondary magazine pouches, a dump pouch, tourniquet holder, a secondary pouch holding my Gerber multi-tool, and utility pouch (for use as a FAK). The belt also carries my KYDEK Customs Glock Holster perfectly, and when combined with the inner Velcro belt there is masses of support and zero deformation apparent even when fully loaded. Once again the pattern dispersion is super, and the overall finish is impeccable.

SECOND LINE

The “Second Line” of gear is ultimately your “fighting kit”, and it’s the equipment that keeps you rolling in-game! This line encompasses your plate carrier, chest rig or pouch setup, and patrol pack, and through the guys at GUNFIRE I managed to get hold of an excellent plate carrier with some very cool features!

The Maskpol “tactical vest” (read plate carrier) carries on the superb pattern dispersal of the clothing in the unique MAPA “B” camouflage, and is

made of massively durable Cordura 770! Although the carrier has been designed for the civilian market, it is 100% up to “professional user” standard, and when Jon and I picked over it there was absoulutely nothing we could find even the smallest fault with; it’s a RIGHTEOUS piece of equipment!

Thanks to the use of laser-cut MOLLE mounts on the front and back of the carrier, it’s possible to arrange pouches and other accesories according to your personal preference, and again I set mine up as I have done with my other “full spectrum” carriers; this is not a low profile “SF-style” skeletonized affair, but more an “infantryman’s” carrier! Adjustable side cummerbund “pockets” are in place for side-armour, but even these are also covered with MOLLE tape.

And to add to the “full on” feel of this carrier you even get Rapid Open Connector Tactical Quick Release Buckles (ROCs!)! Due Emme’s ROCs are the European answer to the “others” from America, so you can put on and take off your gear fast and without any hassle. These quick-release buckles are used for example in ballistic plate carriers instead of classic side-release buckles or velcro closures.

The ROC 80 is attached to the cummerbund through two 40 mm/1.5 inch webbing straps. The ROC 40 uses a single 40 mm/1.5 inch piece of webbing to integrate into the shoulder straps. The ROC system eliminates the time-consuming and tedious readjustment of the plate carrier to the user’s size, each time the vest is put on. The release-lever of the ROC system is designed to be used with 550 Type III parachute cord, which the user can

“THE MASKPOL “TACTICAL VEST” (READ PLATE CARRIER) CARRIES ON THE SUPERB PATTERN DISPERSAL OF THE CLOTHING IN THE UNIQUE MAPA “B” CAMOUFLAGE, AND IS MADE OF MASSIVELY DURABLE CORDURA 770! ALTHOUGH THE CARRIER HAS BEEN DESIGNED FOR THE CIVILIAN MARKET, IT IS 100% UP TO “PROFESSIONAL USER” STANDARD”

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grab and pull, in order to swiftly and safely release the vest in case of emergency. This is cutting-edge stuff my friends, and this is one SOLID bit of kit! Combined again with pouches of your choice this can end up as a VERY personalised carrier, and it’s all the better for that!

Although there is a simple 18L sustainment pack, made again in Cordura 770 DTEX, in terms of true patrol packs the guys behind MAPA have been super smart by teaming up with one of my favourite pack manufacturers these days, and that’s WISPORT! I wrote about WISPORT as a manufacturer way back in Issue 109 and have the highest respect for them as pack-makers, and by including their durable and lightweight SPARROW 30 GEN II pack in the range means you have a model that is perfect for carrying all you need to a full days skirmishing, and serves perfectly well as an overnight MilSim patrol pack too!

“complete concealment solution” that had been promised, and I’ll report back again when I’ve run it all out. For now though, if you’d like something modern and functional, clothing and gear in a pattern that will let you fade out into the woodland, then I’d most strongly suggest that you check out the MAPA range available at www.gunfire.com! AA

THIRD LINE

Now “Line 3” gear is all about in-the-field sustainment for longer duration “ops” (see my “Tactical Outdoor Development” article this month), and although I love this level of detail when it comes to my own gear, having a specific MAPA set is not necessary as your existing gear for cooking, sleeping, and personal hygiene can be carried over. One thing that I do like though is a bigger “load lugger”, and even for me, a proponent of minimalist, lightweight gear, the SPARROW is going to be struggling to swallow all the kit I need unless I’m going to have maximum support and a hefty logistics train behind me!

I have noticed that WISPORT have started sneaking in a few key models in MAPA already, amongst them the excellent RACCOON 45 that has their FAS PLUS ERGONOMIC suspension system, so I hope that they’ll continue to expand the pattern into other models for those of us that want a larger pack for longer immersive games!

Overall I’m extremely pleased thus far to see so much MAPA gear already available and I’m overjoyed that it’s of such GREAT quality! Maskpol have obviously chosen their manufacturing partners with a great deal of “due diligence” to ensure that what is on offer is fit for purpose in terms of both design and durability. I’ve already reported back to the guys at GUNFIRE that I would like to see a helmet cover and hydration sleeve (for fitting to the back of the plate carrier) added to the line when possible, as for me this would complete the initial setup.

I am definitely looking forward to trying the MAPA gear in game this Summer to see if it does offer the www.airsoftaction.net

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RED CELL

BRING THE HEAVY RAIN! WE OFTEN SEE THE QUESTION RAISED IN ONLINE GROUPS AS TO WHY ANYONE ACTUALLY WANTS AN AIRSOFT SUPPORT GUN AS THEY ARE USUALLY BIG AND VERY HEAVY COMPARED TO A CARBINE OR RIFLE MODEL, AND OFFER NO REAL ADDITIONAL BENEFIT OVER THEIR LIGHTER-WEIGHT BRETHREN WHEN IT COMES TO RANGE AND EVEN MAGAZINE CAPACITY; AN AEG FITTED WITH A 2500/3000BB DRUM MAG OFFERS THE SAME RANGE AND FIREPOWER ON THE FIELD AS A TRUE SUPPORT GUN, AND IS ACTUALLY FAR MORE HANDY! SO WHY IS IT THAT MANY OF THE RED CELL TEAM LOVE A SUPPORT GUN AND WHICH MODELS DO THEY LOVE?

T

hese days it’s actually pretty easy to get even a basic AEG up to a ROF that’s going to be “suppressive”, and with numerous manufacturers providing not only Hi Cap magazines, but also boxes and drums for your “AR” or “AK”, if a high ROF combined with virtually unlimited ammo is your bag then go for it dear friend! However, if you do decide that you want to run full-auto and heavy then a good support gun might be the thing, but although you’ll undoubtedly have a big old box or drum with in excess of 2500 BBs at your immediate disposal don’t think for a moment that this is quite the panacea it might appear to be at the outset.

Ultimately your BB-spitting monster will be at the same power level, with the same range, as most AEGs out there, and a well set up carbine could easily outrange you, let alone a DMR or bolty… sometimes more is most definitely less!

As I’ve said many times before though, there is a time when you can have both the firepower AND be

a valuable team player though, and a decent support gunner who knows what they’re about will be the friend of every other player on their team! If you’re prepared to put in the “gruntwork” both in terms of physically carrying a support gun AND properly learning the “gunner’s trade” then you can be an invaluable force multiplier both in attack and defence.

The key word here of course is “support” and if you are using your “LMG” to effectively help the rest of your team to achieve objectives, to lay down accurate, effective, and controlled suppressive fire whilst your teammates either advance, retreat or flank, then you’re doing the job right and you’ll be an asset that everyone wants to have play alongside them. A good gunner needs to securely park their ego in the safe zone, and in play they need to get work done, and this is equally true in a skirmish setting as it is during a MilSim. I have to say from a personal perspective that in the realm of the support gun, the AEG is most definitely,

“...HELP THE REST OF YOUR TEAM TO ACHIEVE OBJECTIVES, TO LAY DOWN ACCURATE, EFFECTIVE, AND CONTROLLED SUPPRESSIVE FIRE WHILST YOUR TEAMMATES EITHER ADVANCE, RETREAT OR FLANK, THEN YOU’RE DOING THE JOB RIGHT AND YOU’LL BE AN ASSET THAT EVERYONE WANTS TO HAVE PLAY ALONGSIDE THEM. ” 54

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100% still king when it comes to laying down massive amounts of suppressive fire in any airsoft setting, even up to and including the very highest levels of MilSim. More and more I see even basic skirmish sites putting up restrictions for the use of standard AEGs that are used as “support guns” by simply adding a “C-Clip” or drum mag; bluntly put the average Hi-Cap mag carries 450+ BBs and if that ain’t enough then in my world something has gone a bit awry! If you’re going to be a true support gunner then shoulder that pig and do it right!

There’s definitely just something about “rolling out the big guns” at the right game that sets my excitement level to maximum, especially when a proper support gun is set up in ambush, to protect an overnight position or a compound, or on a vehicle; they just look and feel right, and if you’re going for full BattleSim or MilSim “immersion” then there’s nothing better than being behind the big boy when your OPFOR comes a-calling, and nothing more satisfying for them than taking out or capturing the support gun that’s been giving them grief!

“ IF YOU’RE GOING FOR FULL BATTLESIM OR MILSIM “IMMERSION” THEN THERE’S NOTHING BETTER THAN BEING BEHIND THE BIG BOY WHEN YOUR OPFOR COMES A-CALLING, AND NOTHING MORE SATISFYING FOR THEM THAN TAKING OUT OR CAPTURING THE SUPPORT GUN THAT’S BEEN GIVING THEM GRIEF!” www.airsoftaction.net

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LAYING DOWN THE FIRE!

With all that in mind, let’s get right on down to it and look more closely at the models that the members of Red Cell favour, some of which have been doing sterling service for many years, and have had many thousands of BBs down their barrels! This is what The Cell is all about; when we put Red Cell together we knew that we had a lot of long-term knowledge among the members, but it’s times like this that we realise just how much, and how deep that knowledge is, and just how committed the guys are to creating something pretty darn special!

Bill: I do love an M249, but to date I’ve hated lugging around a heavy support gun for skirmishes as I don’t really feel it brings any amazing benefit to my game other than to look “tacticool”; as I said in my intro there’s no real plus points for the added “embuggerance” given that a regular AEG with a box mag can fulfil the same role at a fraction of the weight and bulk, and I guess that’s why I was really taken with the KRYTAC TRIDENT LMG. Since their first introduction to the UK airsoft market at IWA 2014, KRYTAC have really made some inroads with players, and every time they seem to come into stock they sell out quickly, especially the elusive LMG model! Weighing in at just 3530g and with an overall length of 750/835 mm, the Trident LMG Enhanced actually combines the firepower of a full-sized LMG with the portability and the controls the traditional “M4”platform; I view it as a bit of a modern- day Stoner! With a Keymod handguard and shortened barrel the LMG is even more usable than before; the size and weight mean that even the smallest player can comfortably carry and LMG for extended periods of time, and with its large 3000 BB box magazine, the Trident LMG is ideal for laying down copious suppressive fire. For a skirmishable LMG the Trident really does tick all the boxes for me and with a sensible retail price for a support gun it’s one hell of a beast. If you fancy yourself as a support gunner then the KRYTAC could well be the very thing you’ve been searching for!

One positive thing I see though is the move by many manufacturers to now produce their support guns with high strength polymer bodies to keep the weight down. This is nothing new to be honest, but the strength and durability of the latest reinforced polymers does mean that not only do these LMGs look great and weigh very little, but they’re also durable enough for the rigors of regular skirmish use!

There are a number of manufacturers following this path right now, but at the head of the pack for me is the SPECNA ARMS SA-249 PARA CORE. 56

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The CORE line makes good use of polymer, alloys and steel in combination to create a solid and durable AEG that in the form of the PARA weighs in at a not insubstantial 4970g with the empty box in place. It feels superb when you first pick it up though, and although the main body is polymer it doesn’t feel at all “plastic”; some elements in the CORE LMG have been purposely made of polymer in order to reduce their weight and make them more “user friendly”, and the polymer parts include the receiver, top cover with a RIS rail, front sight with a base, stock, magazine and the pistol grip. On the flip side alloy parts include the outer barrel, magazine well (which can at a push use a STANAG mag), buffer tube and the flash hider, and several steel parts are in evidence in the form of the bipod, external barrel lock, stock support, trigger guard, transport handle as well as all pins and assembly elements.

After a couple of minor “hiccups”, which I’ll put down to a newly-fitted spring, the SA-249 chronos very nicely, and pretty consistently, at 1.07 Joule/340fps on .20g. I was very pleased to find that the box mag fed very evenly as this can sometimes be a downfall of even the most expensive support AEGs. In terms of accuracy I’m actually more than happy just on the iron sights; this is supposed to be a “full-auto support-beast” and be able to spit out BBs consistently and give an area-dominating effect rather than being nail-on-the head accurate, but I will tell you that it’s no slouch in this respect as at 30m prone I

RED CELL SUPPORT GUNS

was easily able to put all my BBs on steels, and it kicks them out past 70m without a problem too!

Boycie: Over the years I’ve owned a number of support guns but always seem to have got bored with them as they were not too accurate and I didn’t like pushing out a rod of plastic with high ROF, so I decided to go more to employing an LMG for the purpose it was designed, to create a cone of fire and a reasonable beaten zone. I had the opportunity to get a KRYTAC TRIDENT LMG and this seemed to fit my needs really well. I didn’t have to lug about a huge long RIF and could even use the LMG indoors on sites where semi-auto rules apply. The KRYTAC also allows me to use mags from other team members if I run out of ammo, much like the Classic Army M249 does, but the Trident feeds in the same way that an M4 type rifle does. I’m currently working on it to create more of a spread at 40-50m so tight bores are not needed; I’m likely to be running a 6.08 or bigger, along with a mix of .20, .25, .28 and .30 BB’s to help with the spread and have the hop set for .25s.

I really enjoyed the SPECNA M249 when Red Cell had chance to try one out; it was accurate but with a good little spread at longer distances, felt solid and handled really well, yet lightweight to the point where I was firing it one handed like a pistol...

Stewbacca: Having gotten hands on with VFC’s shiny new Mk48 LMG AEG I was very impressed with its user friendliness and all the mod-cons incorporated into it. The usefulness of a quick detach barrel unit for ease of cleaning and maintenance of the hop as well as accessing the feeding port is something that will

no doubt be beneficial for long term users; similarly the hop adjustment being right above and easily accessible with or without the top cover lifted aids in sighting in and zeroing when the gun is new or you’re setting it up for your preferred ammunition weight.

The fact the whole thing is so light and easily handled and manoeuvred is undoubtedly a major selling point as well, given just how cumbersome some guns can be to handle when prone; the three position adjustable bipod was also easy to use and change the length of even one handed while supporting the gun on the pistol grip as per my own use of it during my video introducing the Mk48. Oh, and with the deluxe version sporting the electrically fed box magazine that links up with the internal gun battery as well as the on board internal capacity you have a total of 8800 rounds... That’s ELEVEN minutes worth of solid cyclic rate firing, although I’m not sure dropping it all in one burst is wise or even possible!

Jimmy: My Classic Army M249 started its life as a MK1 but I’m now converting it into the Para style.

Quite frankly out of the box it’s a disappointment as it fell flat on its face sadly. High hopes were had for this but those hopes were fast dashed. On the outside it looks fantastic, sporting a full metal build and rocking the FN Herstal trademarks, but it’s on the inside where it matters. A RIF which carries this price tag should be worlds better in my opinion.

Early on it stripped the piston and this is mainly due to a very bad AOE (angle of engagement), the point at which the sector gear picks up the piston. The motor is a high torque motor with a very slow ROF even on 11.1v. Power was low due to a poor airseal across all of the compression parts. It soon developed major feeding issues, which was largely due to poor tolerances between the hop unit, barrel and gearbox to hop unit alignment. The cast hop unit offered little adjustment and when it did work barely lifted a 0.25g BB. Overall this platform has demanded over a further UK£100 and around five hours of my time (so far!) in order for it to be an affective support platform.

Things I needed to replace were the piston, piston head, cylinder head,

“SPORTING THE ELECTRICALLY FED BOX MAGAZINE THAT LINKS UP WITH THE INTERNAL GUN BATTERY AS WELL AS THE ON BOARD INTERNAL CAPACITY YOU HAVE A TOTAL OF 8800 ROUNDS... THAT’S ELEVEN MINUTES WORTH OF SOLID CYCLIC RATE FIRING” www.airsoftaction.net

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CLASSIC ARMY M249 Price: iro UK£300.00 Age: 18 Months Weight: 6300g Length: 1050mm Magazine Capacity: 300BBs but drums will fit Cold Chrono:1.07 Joule/340fps Hot Chrono: 1.01 Joule/330fps Optic Compatibility: Good Suppressor Compatibility: No Available From: www.taiwangun.com SPECNA ARMS SA-249 PARA CORE Price: iro UK£280.00 Age: 18 Months Weight: 4970 g Length: 790-920mm Magazine Capacity: 2500BBs Cold Chrono: 1.07 Joule/340fps Hot Chrono: 1.07 Joule/340fps Optic Compatibility: Yes Suppressor Compatibility: Yes Available From: www.gunfire.com KRYTAC TRIDENT ENHANCED Price: iro UK£500.00 Age: Two Years Weight: 3530g Length: 750-835mm Magazine Capacity: 3000BBs Cold Chrono: 0.95 Joule/320fps Hot Chrono: 0.89 Joule/310fps Optic Compatibility: Good Suppressor Compatibility: No Available From: www.landwarriorairsoft.com VFC MK48 MOD1 Price: iro UK£900.00 Age: New Weight: 3950g Length: 1009mm Magazine Capacity: 800 (internal)/8000 (box) Cold Chrono: 1.07 Joule/340fps Hot Chrono: 1.07 Joule/340fps Optic Compatibility: Good Suppressor Compatibility: No Available From: www.redwolfairsoft.com G&P STONER MK63 Price: iro UK£580.00 Age: OLD… like its owner!!!

Weight: 4620g Length: 930mm Magazine Capacity: 1200 BBs Cold Chrono: 1.07 Joule/340fps Hot Chrono: 1.07 Joule/340fps Optic Compatibility: Only on the yucky railed version!

Suppressor Compatibility: Yes Supplied By: www.fire-support.co.uk

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A&K M60VN Price: iro UK£450.00 (average) Age: Not as old as Bill’s Stoner but old!

Weight: 7600g Length: 1110mm Magazine Capacity: 3500BBs Cold Chrono: 1.07 Joule/340fps (after Spring Change) Hot Chrono: 1.07 Joule/340fps Optic Compatibility: No Suppressor Compatibility: Yes, but why?

Available From: Most good airsoft retailers!

LCT RPD Price: iro UK£920.00 Age: Two Years Weight: 7000 g Length: 1043mm Magazine Capacity: 2800 BBs Cold Chrono: 0.99 Joule/328fps Hot Chrono: 0.99 Joule/328fps Optic Compatibility: Hell NO! Suppressor Compatibility: Yes, but NO! Supplied By: www.nuprol.com CYMA CM052 RPK Price: iro UK£195.00 Age: Three Years Weight: 4500g Length: 1080mm Magazine Capacity: 800 BBs (AK drums will fit nicely!)

Cold Chrono: 1.07 Joule/340fps (after Spring Change) Hot Chrono: 1.07 Joule/340fps Taclite Compatibility: No on the “classic” Suppressor Compatibility: Yes Supplied By: www.gunfire.com A&K PKM Price: iro UK£450.00 (average) Age: Four Years Weight: 7350g Length: 1185mm Magazine Capacity: 5000 BBs Cold Chrono: 1.04 Joule/336fps Hot Chrono: 1.04 Joule/336fps Optic Compatibility: No, but accessories available Suppressor Compatibility: Yes (Spetsnaz reasons only!)

Supplied By: www.nuprol.com LCT CK-16 (RPK-16) Price: iro UK£500.00 Age: New Weight: 5940g Length: 835-915mm Magazine Capacity: 2000 BBs Cold Chrono: 1.09 Joule/343fps Hot Chrono: 1.09 Joule/343fps Optic Compatibility: Yes Suppressor Compatibility: Yes Supplied By: www.nuprol.com

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cylinder, nozzle, hop unit, spring, motor, and micro switch. I replaced the hop unit for an AirsoftPro Gen1 unit but that wasn’t a straightforward fix as the barrel needed modding in order to sit in the correct place to allow BBs to feed. The inside of the gearbox needed some refinishing as there was some imperfections on the piston rails from casting, and the quick release spring guide was sticking so it was difficult to remove it. I would highly recommend the Bullgear hop unit over the stock OEM or the AirsoftPro units as it is a popular upgrade and has proven to work well. Gears needed reshimming properly due to a very half-arsed attempt. All in I’ve been very disappointed with the Classic Army 249 internals; that said the gearbox case is a pretty solid, a very heavy design which has the added bonus of a quick change spring. On reflection, as much I am now starting to love the CA, I think if I were to recommend an M249 to anyone “out of the box” it would be either the A&K or the SPECNA versions.

Stewbacca: In terms of the M60, I had the pleasure of borrowing my team mate’s at one of our Copehill games for doing attack buggy runs in; it’s perfect for vehicle use with its side-mounted box mag and general heft, although as with apparently many AEG LMGs it had some feeding issues with the connection hose thing, still bags of fun. As for the old LCT version, it must be a very accurate replica, as the TWAAA have one as part of a militaria display at their headquarters and Mr Zhang was telling me how they exhibited it at a gun show years back and an enthusiastic American buyer was making joyful plans to purchase a whole load of them until he was finally informed they were not, in fact, real steel guns!

Iggy: I had the Ares M60E4 for a couple of years, and it was a great little MG. the box carried 3000 - 4000 BB’s, and removing the barrel and attached hop was easy. Simply twist the bolt and unlock then guide it out holding the carry handle. Performance was pretty good. It had a nice range and scatter as an MG should. Its Achilles heel was the boxmag; when it worked it was great but every single one I bought died and I had to repair and alter to feed well and not kill the mag motor. After my “home” repair/upgrade to the inside of the box mags they worked. They fed on demand as you fired.

The highlight of my support-gun world though has

always been the M60 Vietnam (VN)/ the OG/ the PIG! During attending a Ground Zero NAE event I spotted a guy acting as sentry with the A&K version, before that I had only known and dreamed of the Inokatsu version that was WAY out of my budget! I approached him to admire and look at this fabulous M60 Vietnam only to have him turn around and say he was selling it to get an SA80 as it was too big and bulky to play. I snapped up his offer and bought it that night only to use it the following day lugging it from objective to objective on the Sunday, loving every second. I sold my Ares M60E4 to a team mate the same night, so between us we had our squad covered with both M60’s.

The A&K M60VN I owned right up until I emigrated to Australia and it still hurts that I parted with it today.

It performed flawlessly for three years, spitting out BB’s at a variable fire rate, using an adjustor on the

“AT MY LOCAL SITE (OTT IN NORTH WALES) OTHER PLAYERS ON THE ENEMY SIDE WOULD OFTEN CHECK TO SEE IF I WAS USING THE “PIG” AND MOANED IF THEY SAW IT. NEWBIE’S WOULD FEAR IT IN THE SAFETY BRIEF AND LITERALLY RUN AWAY WHEN I OPENED UP ON THEM IN GAME.” 60

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replica gas tube to alter the ROF. Then the wiring going down the gas tube broke, so my friend and I rewired it bypassing the ROF adjustor meaning it only fired at the last mode it was set… that classic chugchug of the M60. It wasn’t ever pin-point accurate but it didn’t need to be. It ranged 50-70 meters effectively on 0.20g BBs… I used 0.25g and higher on my battle rifle platforms as accuracy was important but the “PIG” I fed on 0.20’s as it was cheap but still gave range and covered the enemy as they attempted to advance or escape from the hell it would unleash.

At my local site (OTT in North Wales) other players on the enemy side would often check to see if I was using the “PIG” and moaned if they saw it. Newbie’s would fear it in the safety brief and literally run away when I opened up on them in game. It was a PIG to carry but I loved every game I had with it, firing from prone position and even standing, unsupported it was just ridiculous fun. If I was tasked as a support gunner role in my squad for the MilSim/skirmish I would often be at the back with the other guy carrying the E4; we each had backpacks with bags of BB’s and extra batteries to keep the beasts pumping. The scouts would reach the objective first, stir the enemy in time for the riflemen to join the chaos then we would roll on in and lay down suppression allowing our guys some breathing room and mopping up the enemy that were brave enough to stick their heads up. When possible I would definitely go another A&K M60VN or even the G&P Stoner Mk63 as every owner I know loves the G&P... GET SUM!!!

Chris: The G&P Stoner, where do I start, well a good place is with my attraction to the real steel firearm. I picked up a copy of Navy SEAL Veteran Darryl Young’s “The Element of Surprise” back in 2001, and it started from there. The Stoner, what a cool looking and sounding bit of kit it was. The want for one to be made in airsoft was strong as soon as I had finished the book, and to my surprise one had been made by KM; some time in the late 90’s KM made a Stoner powered by 2 EG700 motors (one for the gun one for the box mag), but sadly my hopes of getting one were dashed by the reports of the rarity and the prices upwards of UK£3000!

Many years went by until G&P announced

their version was in the works, and after released I was teased with one at a military show here in the UK by none other than this magazine’s Bill. Sadly at the time I couldn’t afford one and had to wait an agonising two years to finally have my own, second hand, but my own. I can’t say much more than I think it is iconic, light, comfortable, although it’s not the real thing I can see the genius behind Eugene Stoner’s design. Airsoft-wise G&P made it solid (although some early releases had delicate stocks) with a reasonably good V2 gearbox, hop and barrel setup that for an out of the box gun is thankfully very admirable.

As with all things airsoft these can and have been upgraded and changed to suit your needs.

The only small gripe I have is the box mag auto winder, this, is very noisy so I’ve opted to disable mine (black tape over contacts) and re- route the minute box mag winding button to just above the foregrip so I can press it with my thumb instead of being hidden away under the ammo feed chute. Another bijou gripe purely from a collectors stand point is that there are no other parts available on the market to maybe turn it into the long barrel version, or top mag fed (Bren style) feed cover. For an support gun it certainly takes some beating though!

(Note: If the classic look isn’t for you then there is a “modernised” version available with railed fore end and top cover; if that sort of thing floats your boat on a Stoner though you need professional medical help!)

OPFOR SUPPRESSION

Dan: In my role as a tech and as a player I’ve got lots of mileage on most the models in the “big list”, but I’ll fill in for the A&K PKM since that’s what I’m currently overhauling. Aside from LCT’s very uncommon and expensive PKP, the main contender and most prolific PKM on the market is still firmly in the grasp of A&K. There are several variants produced under the A&K umbrella in different trim packages, including wood and polymer equipped versions as well as the modernized PKP and PKP bullpup model sold through TWI, both of which are fully A&K OEM under the hood.

Like many other LMG/GPMG variants, this one

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RED CELL SUPPORT GUNS

holds true to the real version in having a quick-change barrel assembly, which in the case of the replica, allows for easy access to the hop up unit. The large box magazine boasts a massive 5000 round capacity, which exceeds that of any competitor design. Only the Echo1 M240B or Ares M60E3 comes close at 4000 rounds respectively. Overall the body is quite stout and solid, with the weight surprising many who pick it up for the first time. That being said, it benefits one to go about applying threadlocker to the majority of visible screws as they will inevitably vibrate free and become lost to the field.

For better or worse, A&K’s internals have remained largely unchanged for decades now. While other manufacturers will undergo routine product improvement processes, the most we’ve ever seen from A&K in this arena is a microswitch with a higher amperage rating. Ultimately, the veteran Airsofter will find the internals on these to be disappointingly uninspired and lacklustre and likely will only be interested in the platform as a base to build upon and improve. Fortunately, these enjoy much part commonality with existing Version 2 AEG’s, and there are good aftermarket components available for the proprietary bits; namely the excellent Bullgear box magazine insert and CNC hop up chamber, to list off a few. On the externals side, there are plenty of optics mounts, rails and various cosmetic options to either modernize the platform or make it more bespoke Bill: Although I own and cherish my G&P Stoner, and have had a number of M60 models (VN and E4) and M249s (oh my, that STAR plastic gearbox!) over the years, it’s my OPFOR fetish that brings out the support gunner in me and there are three models that I particularly love for different reasons, and the first is the A&K PKM. This AEG has been with me about four years now, and it is one of the very few AEGS that I have been “gifted” after I completed a review; the guys at A&K supplied one to me for testing via my mates at NUPROL, and when I went to return it they told me to hold onto it and really give it some beasting and report back… which I have continued to do at regular intervals! In fact, if pushed it was

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that proactive action on the part of A&K that first gave me the fledgling idea to create Red Cell, to test our beloved platforms over an extended period and bring our findings back to other airsofters before they spent their money!

And the PKM has never failed to bring a HUGE smile to my face! It’s big and heavy (heavier than you might think!), and is a serious amount of metal to lug around all day, but just like Iggy’s M60VN it never fails to impress those that lay their eyes upon it in the safe zone! The internals of the gun are thoroughly workmanlike as Dan pointed out, but you do get a bore-up cylinder and cylinder head, 8mm steel bushings, hi-torque motor, ball bearing spring guide and low resistance wiring throughout. There’s also an adjustable MOSFET which allows you to change the ROF. The self-winding green metal box on this gun holds an almighty 5000 BBs, allowing you to bring down the “heavy rain” on you opponents to your heart’s content, and the box can be filled by splitting it as per a drum or via a neat fill port on the right hand side should you need to reload “on the fly”.

The box also holds the battery and connection for the self-winding mech, and there’s lots of space for a big battery inside.

The PKM is not a new model, and A&K have been with us for years, but sometimes it’s genuinely worth looking at a model more than once, especially as they’re now going to be easier to find, and also because the prices appear to be stabilising. I’m seeing the PKM models in my home market around the UK£450-£470 mark, and for a big support gun that gives solid performance and oozes “OPFOR Cred” that’s a great price!

And the RPD? I’ll start from the beginning when it comes to my personal relationship with airsoft RPDs. This replica has been one of my “holy grail” models out in airsoft-land; whether you be a Cold War Russian player, a ‘Namsoft commando, or indeed a modern day OPFOR MilSimmer then it’s way high on the list of “things I must have”. Nearly fifteen years ago I became involved in a project to create a functioning airsoft RPD, and after taking mouldings from De-Acts, sourcing real RPD drums, and some serious fettling the group concerned finally

RED CELL SUPPORT GUNS

got one to work. My financial input to the project was somewhere iro UK£350, but there were ten of us in the group plus the developer himself who all contributed equally. Yup, that’s right, developing our “baby” cost us collectively the best part of UK£4,000!

I still have that RPD but to this day it’s never been skirmished as it’s just too darn fragile, but it’s a fine “wall hanger” and conversation piece. Other friends through the years went down the RPD route and I have to admit that I saw some great full-metal examples created by clever engineers from real RPD parts, but once again these cost serious, SERIOUS money, and involved some pretty cutting-edge engineering talent.

So, my point here is let’s not be TOO harsh on the pricetag of the drop-dead gorgeous LCT RPD! What makes the LCT RPD so special then? Well, simply put LCT have made a true 1:1 replica of the RPD with stamped steel and wood, the same way the original guns were made during the Cold War! The RPD just absolutely oozes quality with absolutely impeccable steel (NOT alloy or “monkey metal”) metalwork and superb, highly burnished woodwork. The attention to detail is utterly staggering wherever you look; muzzle?

Absolutely spot on! Folding steel bipod? Yup! Three position gas regulator? Yup again! Nowhere and nothing on the RPD looks as if it has been rushed or bodged and I’d go as far as saying that it’s probably better made than the real thing ever was.

Internally things are equally impressive as the RPD benefits from an all-new 9mm bearing Gearbox, a High-Strength Polycarbonate Piston, CNC Aluminium Hop-Up chamber, Steel Gear set, Quick Change Spring and a MOSFET wire assembly design for lower resistance, saving power for the 23,000 rpm motor!

If like me you like your “Cold War” or OPFOR airsoft then I have to truly say that you WILL want an LCT RPD. Yes, it’s big, it’s heavy, and it is indeed expensive, but oh my goodness, this thing just looks fabulous and it performs like a beast. LCT have really created something quite staggering here, something that many of us have been waiting years for!

If you’re on a budget though and you want an alternative that will still let you perform that OPFOR support gunner role with a price that’s not going to make your eyes water then you could do far, far worse than to check out the CYMA RPK models. Whilst not quite so iconic as the PKM or RPD, the RPK still ticks and awful lot of boxes when it comes to longevity and timeline; introduced first in 1961 as a successor to the RPD in the same 7.62×39mm calibre as the AK47 and AKM, the RPK is still very much in service around the world to this very day, albeit in the updated

5.45×39mm calibre used by the AK74 family. If you’re an OPFOR player that wants to grasp the support gun role then the RPK should be a model that craves your attention!

Overall the external features of the CYMA RPK are excellent for the money as it comes with a full metal receiver and barrel assembly, a well-achieved wooden fore-end, wooden pistol grip, and a rocksolid side-folding wooden stock, all of which look A1 with a little bit of re-finishing. Enhanced by good quality externals (apart from a weak point around the receiver/butt connection), solid internals and attention to detail, the RPK is a strong, reliable, and extremely attractive AEG. The CYMA CM052 has all the benefits of the full-stocked variant with the added versatility of the side-folding stock, and covers off many, many years of service life. If you’re a MilSim player then with the supplied 130 BB magazine it’s absolutely ideal, and by chucking on a 2,500 BB Drum Mag you’ve got yourself the perfect “skirmish slayer” without breaking the bank; in fact we have two CYMA RPKs in the AA armoury, and what’s not to love about them!

To conclude this month I won’t recap too much on the LCT (LCK) RPK-16 as I only looked at it relatively recently (my full review can be found in Issue 122 in BACK ISSUES on the AA website), but as I said at the time LCT have a great reputation for durability and long-term performance so I’m thinking that things will stand up well even when you’re talking about an AEG that’s going to be used on full-auto the majority of the time. I’m seeing the LCK-16 being used “in game” now, and for a thoroughly modern support gun that has an outrageous amount of “OPFOR Cred” it really is just the thing!

Having had one in my hands for review and on the range I am most seriously considering adding one to my own personal collection, and that’s the very best recommendation I can give you. AA

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FRONTIER JACKET ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Chin guard Full length two-way front zip Zipped pockets Hook and loop ID patch on left arm Fully adjustable hood with elastic draw cords Vented mesh underarm panels Elasticated waist band / cuffs Stow bag

Sizes: S-XXXL Black / Dark Coyote / V-Cam / SRP: £69.95

VENOM BOOTS ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Lightweight Rubber toe protector Moulded TPU heel stabiliser Internal nylon stabiliser shank Integrated EVA midsole Aggressive, multi-directional grip, rubber sole Moisture wicking lining

Material: 1000D Cordura upper Sizes: 7-12 Black / Dark Coyote / SRP: £89.95

TECHNICAL PKM UPGRADES

THE TIME OF THE BEAST! AS WE’VE TAKEN A CHUNK OF SPACE CHECKING OUT SUPPORT GUNS IN THIS ISSUE, WHAT BETTER A TIME TO LOOK AT WHAT CAN BE CREATED TO MAKE THE “BFG” MORE FIELDABLE AND EASIER TO USE IN GAME. DAN GETS UNDER THE HOOD OF THE MIGHTY PKM TO CREATE SOMETHING THAT TRULY WILL BE A “BEAST” ON THE SKIRMISH FIELD!

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f you’ve been playing Airsoft for a number of years now, you might occasionally find yourself looking to try something different to spice up your hobby. So it has been with me, where I typically play the role of sniper, I have now become quite interested in fielding something on the opposite end of the spectrum: a General Purpose Machine Gun! With the bug firmly planted in my head now, the debate came down to what platform to settle on.

As I am possessed of the stature and size relative to a Hobbit, weight and size considerations were forefront in my mind. If I couldn’t easily handle it, I wouldn’t use it. This naturally excluded larger and more cumbersome designs such as the M240B and MG 42, both of which are a beast to attempt to fire from an unsupported or standing position. Naturally the venerable M249 comes to mind, but everyone 66

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has at least one 249 in their squad. I had always been keenly interested in chopped and lightened LMG / GPMG concepts, so something that could be externally modified without too much trouble was also important. As it happened, one of my friends mentioned he had an A&K PKM he was considering offloading as he rarely fielded it. This just so happened to fit perfectly within what I was beginning to envision in my head…

TECHNICAL PKM UPGRADES

EXTERNAL MODIFICATIONS

Now, the PKM isn’t exactly a featherweight itself; and one could rightly argue the length of the gun is right up there with some of its longer brethren too.

In stock form I definitely agree with this sentiment and wouldn’t be too inclined to operate such a beast outside of supported conditions. I enjoy a good challenge though, so with that in mind, we’ll see about how much weight we can trim off and see about shortening her up considerably to make the gun more man portable.

Bone stock, the A&K PKM weighs 7320g (16.14 lbs.) with the box magazine and is a whopping

1180mm (46.45 in.) long. Most of that length is made up in the barrel assembly, which comes in at 635mm (25 in.) end to end. The stock and receiver are roughly approximate in length to one another if excluding the gas piston housing. The stock itself trends on the long side, which is perfectly fine for prone use, but doesn’t help with shouldering and maneuvering the gun while standing; especially if you’re of smaller stature, such as myself. While there do exist some aftermarket options for alternative stocks, they are typically quite

expensive (in the case of real ones), very difficult to source, or rely on the age old standby of just slapping an AR-15 buffer tube on everything. Most of these do not actually reduce length of pull much, if any. In my mind, the ideal solution would allow for a dramatic reduction in length, but also have the ability to fold to the side. While not absolutely necessary, folding stocks are a nice luxury for moving in and out of vehicles or tight structures.

Consequently, the first step in my project started with binning the OEM stock. As it happens, I’m a fan of SIG’s 1913 rail interface for stocks, so the idea of an alternative stock eventually morphed into creating a 1913 interface for the PKM. Incidentally, the stock I chose to use for this was also SIG’s collapsible folder as usually found on the MCX. Rather than attempt

to make something fit the existing stock mounts, which consists of a pair of rather long AK-style tangs extending from a bracket that’s riveted to the receiver (and thusly would have constituted needless bulk and weight), I opted to cut both off flush with the back of the receiver.

The rest of the bracket was kept intact with the top rivets drilled out to make room for some M5 screws to secure the insert I would be fabricating. Then, a small block of 7075 Aluminum was slowly milled out on my ancient Unimat SL1000 to fit within the bracket. This would become the new base for a short 1913 rail.

I installed the rail with a deliberate slight-left offset to account for allowing the stock to lay folded flat against the receiver. Fully retracted, this modification accomplished a 101.6mm (4 in.) total reduction in length compared to the original stock. The rubber buttpad also grips the shoulder much better than the slick metal buttplate that was previously there - and it folds beautifully out the way knocking off a whopping

“THE PKM ISN’T EXACTLY A FEATHERWEIGHT ITSELF; AND ONE COULD RIGHTLY ARGUE THE LENGTH OF THE GUN IS RIGHT UP THERE WITH SOME OF ITS LONGER BRETHREN TOO. IN STOCK FORM I DEFINITELY AGREE WITH THIS SENTIMENT AND WOULDN’T BE TOO INCLINED TO OPERATE SUCH A BEAST OUTSIDE OF SUPPORTED CONDITIONS.” www.airsoftaction.net

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TECHNICAL PKM UPGRADES

285.75mm (11.25 in.) in length versus the original stock!

With the stock out of the way, attention was then turned to the other end of the gun. I was able to do some of this modification myself – specifically the shortening of the gas tube housing. It was reduced in length by 76.2mm (3 in.). I wanted to keep this looking like a “functional” gas assembly rather than completely omitting most of these parts. Additionally, the mount surface for the bipod still exists here should I ever opt to use it.

The actual chopping of the barrel was hired out to Sharps Airsoft Chop Shop who was also tasked with remounting the gas block and front sight post and rethreading in 14mm CCW. Overall, this was a total of nearly 304mm (12 in.) in length removed from the barrel. I’ve installed a Dytac SLR Rifleworks Synergy compensator to handle our hypothetical recoil and ensure it will rattle teeth and light vegetation on fire with the muzzle blast from a short barrel firing mock 7.62x54R. I was going to remove the carry handle in the interests of saving weight, but decided to keep it on a solely aesthetic choice. At just a few grams of additional weight, it wouldn’t have budged the needle much.

One of the other considerations for me was optics mounting and some method of handling the front end of the gun. The first was accomplished by simply installing a short picatinny rail section on the top cover. The second 68

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part was to take another section of picatinny and mount that to the flat bottom of the gas piston housing. This became home for a Zentico B-25U 45 degree adapter and an LCT RK-2 grip. The 45-degree foregrip makes reaching around the wide box mag a lot easier and more comfortable than trying to use something mounted inline. To finish it all off, I also installed a Noveske QD sling socket adapter and some additional screws to eliminate the traditional wobble in gas block area.

Suffice it to say, there’s no movement in the front end on this thing.

The stock PKM comes fitted with an AK style grip; in this case, it’s very much like the real version as it doesn’t house a motor, so is instead retained via a long screw. I personally am not a fan of the relatively skinny nature of the grip, so I modified the more ergonomic Magpul K2 AK grip to fit. This has a slightly more vertical grip angle and the thicker grip feels much nicer in the hand.

The final touch was to purchase some inert linked 7.62x54r . I drilled a hole through one of the cartridge cases and threaded the feed tray so I could keep it affixed via a screw. This is a more elegant solution than simply zip-tying it in place.

INTERNAL MODIFICATIONS AND UPGRADES

A gun this far modified should not be content with

TECHNICAL PKM UPGRADES

mere stock internals, and thusly will be given the full internal treatment!

One area we can shed some nice weight from is the gearbox. The A&K’s gearbox is a heavy chunk

of mystery metal that tops in at portly 1310g (2.9 lbs.). By using a Retro Arms CNC 7075 ALU gearbox, I can drop that down to 257g (9.1 oz.). But mainly I wanted this gearbox because of the generous shimming room and concentric 8mm bushing holes, something the A&K boxes often come up short on.

Like most GPMG and LMG platforms, the PKM does not have a semi-auto function and only fires in full auto. The aim here then is to build a nice and efficient full auto setup that can be run hard without heating up. In this case, the excellent Warhead brushless motor will get me to the bottom of that 5000 round box mag with little effort. A set of SHS 16:1 gears gives it a slight, but not excessive, increase in rate of fire over conventional 18:1’s. Local field velocities for GPMP/LMG’s is 450fps with a .20g, so this will be outfitted with a Guarder SP130 spring to get it field legal.

The compression parts consist of a Lonex cylinder head with a ¾ ported cylinder from ZCI and (trialing) the Aztech Xtreme piston and piston head combo. FLT 8mm bushings and a Lonex anti-reversal latch finish it out. I’ve installed a higher amperage rated trigger switch and rebuilt the wiring harness assembly out of 16AWG Alphawire Ecowire. Moving to the accuracy side, we’ve got a Lambda Five SUS304 cold-forged stainless steel barrel with an R-Hop fitted and installed into the regular hop up chamber.

Finishing out our internal upgrades is the Bullgear PKM insert for the box magazine. This is a nicely assembled 3D printed chassis that houses a new and much improved motor with a CNC rotary arm and greatly improved wiring. A rheostat dial is also fitted that allows for adjusting the speed of the motor as well, which is definitely a bonus when increasing your base rate of fire. I’ve also added in a bit of thin rubber

sheeting on the inside of the box mag to dampen the traditional rattle made by the “tactical maraca.”

After much extensive work has been done, I feel I’ve definitely met the goal of having my “Ultimate PKM” built. I’ve managed to shave off a total of 2260g (5 lbs.) in weight and reduced the length of the gun by 330mm (13 in.) or 513mm (20 in.) with the stock folded. The ergonomic improvements and reduced length of pull makes this handle like an entirely different gun now. It is easily run off the shoulder and on the move, while the folding stock assembly compacts the build even further, allowing easier ingress and egress from vehicles. Without turning to more exotic and expensive materials, such as carbon fibre and titanium, this is probably about the lightest and shortest setup possible. For now, I’m quite happy with the massive improvements and am looking forward to hitting the field with this beast! AA SPECIFICATIONS • A&K PKM • Dytac SLR Synergy Mini-Compensator • LCT RK-2 grip with Zenitco B-25U 45 degree adapter • Noveske QD socket • Magpul K2 pistol grip • SIG collapsible stock • Blue Force Gear VCAS sling • Lambda 6.05 SUS304 inner barrel • Prometheus purple bucking • R-Hopped • MAXX 21mm CNC air nozzle • Guarder tappet plate • Lonex double O-ring aluminum cylinder head • 70D AirPad • Aztech Xtreme CNC aluminum piston head • Aztech Xtreme piston • SHS 16:1 gears • FLT 8mm bushings • Guarder SP130 spring • Warhead standard torque brushless motor • Retro Arms CNC gearbox shell • Retro Arms CNC spring guide • Reinforced trigger switch • 16 AWG Alphawire Ecowire • Bullgear Custom PKM box magazine insert • Joules: 1.84J / 446 FPS • ROF: 22 RPS w/11.1v • Weight: 5.48kg / 12.10 lbs.

• Length: 838.2 / 33 in.

• Length (folded): 66.75mm / 26.25 in.

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TECHNICAL GATE STATUS

WE’RE CRAMMING MORE AND MORE ELECTRONICS INTO OUR AEGS THESE DAYS, BUT HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT THESE ARE UPPING YOUR GAME AND NOT JUST ADDING MORE POTENTIAL GRIEF FOR THE FUTURE? MIGUEL HAS BEEN LOOKING CLOSELY AT THE GATE STATUS AND NOW TELLS ABOUT HOW THIS CAN HELP YOU MAKE SURE THAT EVERYTHING YOU ADD TO INCREASE YOUR ON-FIELD PERFORMANCE IS WORKING IN HARMONY!

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his is how the story is told...

“Get full data in real-time directly from the GATE STATUS screen to reinforce your tactical decisions and get the confidence and the advantage necessary to win. No more surprises with an empty magazine or a discharged battery. Take aim with precision thanks to the replica’s angle indicator. Just connect your TITAN or ASTER Electronic Trigger Units via Blu-Link and use complete data as well as dozens of functions at your fingertips!” ...but how about a slightly different analysis? How about we talk about a less common replica accessory?

You probably already have an idea of what I’m talking about from the photos.

Well, I had the opportunity to test the new Gate Enterprise Status in the field and I can say that it was an interesting experience. During almost fourteen years of airsoft, nothing like this has ever passed through my hands but it’s good to see airsoft evolving in several different areas (in addition to replicas and equipment).

Well, what is the Status? This small box is a display that makes a connection to the well-known Titan or Aster mosfets also from the Gate brand. This connection

is possible through a third accessory, the BlueLink, which is connected before the battery and allows all components to be paired via BlueTooth to the Gate App for a smartphone. It seems a bit complicated, and the first time it was because the instruction book is not very clear at this stage, but after about 10 minutes of testing, I already had the Status connected to the Aster of my Specna Arms H20 (model HK416) and operating at 100%.

And what is it for? This display shows the player a huge amount of information about their replica and not only that, its main function is the cycle counter, which whenever we shoot, it subtracts a number equal to what was fired from the number on the

“I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO TEST THE NEW GATE ENTERPRISE STATUS IN THE FIELD AND I CAN SAY THAT IT WAS AN INTERESTING EXPERIENCE. DURING ALMOST FOURTEEN YEARS OF AIRSOFT, NOTHING LIKE THIS HAS EVER PASSED THROUGH MY HANDS BUT IT’S GOOD TO SEE AIRSOFT EVOLVING IN SEVERAL DIFFERENT AREAS“ 70

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TECHNICAL GATE STATUS

screen; this value can be customized according to the capacity of the magazines we use in our replicas (midcaps, lowcaps, etc). It is important to bear in mind that it is not a 100% real counter, as it only counts the cycles performed, so if we shoot “dry” it will still count!

But it still gives you a general idea of the amount of BBs we still have from match to match, and as a team leader it sometimes comes in handy.

One of the stats that is also shown on the display but that I didn’t find useful is the number of magazines we still have available (also a configurable value); I just look at my equipment if I lose track! On the other hand, we can see how many km’s we go through during the game, which for me is always interesting. We can also see other small details like the ambient temperature, whether the replica is levelled, and the battery Status.

There is also information that is only shown if necessary; in this case, I am talking about warnings such as a low battery, problems with the replica, or even overheating of the motor, all of which of course can e very useful to

ensuring that your replica runs right, and for longer!

Now, is the Gate Status for everyone? In my opinion, no, it is an accessory with a somewhat high price and turns out to be another aspect that we have to worry about or pay attention to on the field.

However, if you’re looking for something special to light up your loadout, for those who build different loadouts (futuristic for example), or for fans of replica technology then the Status should be on your list.

For more information please go to https://gatee.eu/ products/statuss AA

“...IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING SPECIAL TO LIGHT UP YOUR LOADOUT, FOR THOSE WHO BUILD DIFFERENT LOADOUTS (FUTURISTIC FOR EXAMPLE), OR FOR FANS OF REPLICA TECHNOLOGY THEN THE STATUS SHOULD BE ON YOUR LIST.“ www.airsoftaction.net

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TAP/CLICK IMAGES FOR MORE INFORMATION

TAP/CLICK IMAGES FOR MORE INFORMATION

EVENT MOA CAMPFEST 2022

DESPITE RECENT SPIKES IN THE ONGOING ‘RONA PANDEMIC IN TAIWAN ERIC CHU AND HIS TEAM FROM QRF MAGAZINE, AS WELL AS NUMEROUS LOCAL AIRSOFT INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS, PLAYERS AND ENTHUSIASTS, MANAGED TO COME TOGETHER AGAINST ALL THE ODDS TO HOLD ANOTHER IN A LONG LINE OF EXCELLENT EVENTS IN TAIWAN THAT WE’VE COVERED FOR SOME YEARS NOW! WITH STEWBACCA “IN COUNTRY” AND ON THE GROUND FOR AIRSOFT ACTION WE’RE VERY PLEASED TO BRING IN HIS REPORT ON MOA CAMPFEST 2022!

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aving had hopes of holding MOA2021 at the usual Taipei 101 International Convention Centre dashed due to pandemic restrictions relating to indoor event capacity limits and cleaning requirements, those behind this important even, Eric Chu and his team, persevered and managed to organise the first MOA ‘Campfest’! Making use of the recent developments of the local industry and TaiWan Airsoft & Airgun Association’s management of the riverside camping park in Shulin, a large scale event could still be held using a giant marquee with plenty of ventilation and pandemic prevention measures!

In spite of the odds, and the inability for our international friends from manufacturers, distributors and media partners to join in the fun in person this time, the event was nonetheless a surprising success; I imagine after two years of basically being trapped

within our own protective bubble and last year’s short quasi-lockdown people are just looking for any game in town to get involved in, myself very much included.

So, from Friday the 1st of April through Sunday the 3rd, a wealth of big name manufacturers, smaller scale independent outfits, local distributors, surplus and custom product purveyors (and of course their followings and customers!) descended upon the outdoor event campsite in the Southwest of Taipei” Despite it being somewhat of a trek out of the city centre by local standards, and near continuous heavy rain for the Friday and Saturday, the footfall and general mood seemed defiant and enthusiastic; nothing’s going to dampen OUR spirits.

With the continued rains also came some flooding of our end of the marquee however, and poor Unicorn Airsoft got pretty thoroughly washed out as the water

“IN SPITE OF THE ODDS, AND THE INABILITY FOR OUR INTERNATIONAL FRIENDS FROM MANUFACTURERS, DISTRIBUTORS AND MEDIA PARTNERS TO JOIN IN THE FUN IN PERSON THIS TIME, THE EVENT WAS NONETHELESS A SURPRISING SUCCESS”

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“EVENTUALLY AFTER BAILING THE DELUGE INTO BUCKETS AND ERIC EVEN PERSONALLY TAKING A FEW SWIGS OF THE MOST HORRENDOUS BROWN WATER TO TRY AND GET A SIPHON GOING TO DRAW THE POOL TO A NEARBY DRAIN, A PUMP WAS EVENTUALLY SOURCED WHICH HELPED CLEAR AWAY THE PROBLEM” slowly built up throughout the first day and night, so we arrived on Saturday to a bit of a Greek tragedy!

Eventually after bailing the deluge into buckets and Eric even personally taking a few swigs of the most horrendous brown water to try and get a siphon

going to draw the pool to a nearby drain, a pump was eventually sourced which helped clear away the problem, and throughout it all, the show went on… the things I’ve seen the man suffer through lately… props to him for keeping chipper and making it all happen at any cost.

WHAT HAVE YOU GOT?

This year I was helping out my good friends at Archwick and grabbing a ride with them each day in their Abduction Wagon of doom, dealing with the basic setup and logistics of moving a decent amount of their product line, prototypes and general infrastructure to the venue as well as doing the filming and photographic assistance that’s part and parcel for the show. For them this event saw the continued release and promotion of their L119A2 GBBR platform which I covered in depth back in Issue 129 of September 2021; having sold out of all their GHK based models they’re now focusing on fulfilling the Marui MWS compatible kits as well as announcing the intent to provide full turnkey MWS platforms in future through a

partnership with their Japanese friends over at Guns Modify. Players won’t have to sacrifice a donor gun in future with their release of further models which will be pre-assembled, taking out all of the inconvenience, risk and guess work, and hand-assembled by their well versed team.

Also on show was their recently re-worked and fully licensed (through Action Sport Games and their sub-licensing) final preproduction prototype or their B&T SPR300 urban sniper platform, something which seems to have gained a great reception and is really a move towards a more mass market and economical but still high quality platform better suited to the players rather than the collectors.

With dual interchangeable feed mechanisms allowing for use of standard VSR magazines in the typical forward position, or the use of a bridge system and more realistic proprietary magazines in the same location as the real one this looks great.

They were also exhibiting their ‘PCC’ Hi Capa kit, which also gained a lot of attention, as a variation on their popular B&T USW-Glock chassis carbine kit (which yours truly has been enjoying his personalised laser engraved G18C model of!) the PCC version has basically the same outline but will be compatible with the vast majority of Hi Capa platform pistols, making it ideal for the SpeedQB community or anyone who

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wants to field their 1911 or 2011 format sidearm in a more practical and force multiplying format.

Their modular silencers with Acetech tracer module compatibility and dual 14 & 16mm reversible thread adaptor was also on show, along with a variety of their new sub-brand ‘Mechbox Pro’ AEG upgrade components to suit discerning end users, and supported by their recently acquired in house expert gunsmith who has decades of experience.

Across from our stall were PAF Airsoft, exhibiting a range of their M2HB AEG/EBB/GBB heavy machine guns, as well as their crank handle and automatic grenade launchers, a Striker Shotgun system they’ve been toying with, and of course their own imagining of the Carl Gustaf M3 recoilless rifle, along with an array of the compatible ammunition on display, able to fire typical 40mm/37mm plastic projectiles, shower shells, and a variety of other objects depending on the outer casing you load in its rear. Also teased was their next upcoming project in the form of posters and T-Shirts sporting the FIM92 Stinger outline.

Next to them Joanna of Slong Airsoft was showing off her latest products again; along with her recent release of classically styled wood furniture bolt action sniper rifles, she also has a folding stock compact modernised sniper rifle, as well as now providing 90 degree sear system trigger boxes after receiving market feedback that that’s what the players demand these days to avoid wear or piston override when tuning bolt actions up. She told me that hers will be good at least up to M190 spring powers, so I can’t imagine anywhere in the world allowing power levels that would challenge her new internal components.

Alongside this was an array of her other existing product lines including a nice looking and feeling Glock carbine kit that includes a standard AR buffer tube as a fixed stock option as well as her original KRISS Vector style front handguard grip which also holds your spare magazine at the ready for fast reloads and features a full-length top rail for mounting optics or other accessories.

To her side was local custom components outfit Unicorn Airsoft; Mr Kuo is a fairly recent addition to the manufacturer base here but is already making waves with his high grade internal components such as high polish AEG & GBB inner barrels of numerous lengths and hop rubbers pre-fitted for convenience, as well as separate hop nubs of varying shore hardness,

gas magazine fill valves and other components or consumables such as greases and QD inserts as well as even full custom gun solutions.

On the other side of Archwick, towards the front of the show and entrance (and more importantly the bar!) was Northeast Airsoft, rocking their typical understated but well-presented stall, complete with their comfy couch that steals the show for many!

Stephen, Sebastian and their production team (which seems increasingly to be comprised of my SPPT Action Air teammates!) were making a big splash with their much-awaited release. Despite their arguably small footprint at the show and in the industry, they continue to make their presence felt with the release of not only further STEN GBB SMG models to fill the entirety of the variants based on their open bolt system, but more importantly in spite of all the trials and tribulations of the supply chains and pandemics they can finally answer the baying masses with the production samples of their Uzi GBB SMG platform.

It somewhat stole the show and was announced in both earlier Secret Service style wooden stocked models (their prototype featuring a real stock as they just hadn’t had time to produce their own as yet; this model will be the best part of a year after the initial offering) as well as the collapsible stock variant. I couldn’t wait to get hands on with it, and the surface finish and colouration, as well as the general handling and recoil experience are excellent – they’ve really put together another well considered and executed niche product that’s bound to please. Available from May 2022 (just in time to be my birthday present gun to myself!) and with 32 round green gas and 25 round shorter CO2 magazines planned alongside an initial run of 1000 units, be sure to get your name on their waiting list or your nearest distributor’s, I can’t wait to get mine!

Opposite their stall was the organiser’s QRF Magazine stand itself, selling a variety of event patches and paraphernalia and also militaria model kits ranging from ground vehicles to aircraft of various nationalities; with an impressive US aircraft carrier filling a long table and providing a nice centrepiece and talking point to enter the show to, their allimportant Yongjin beer pump unsurprisingly helped fuel me through the long weekend, the only thing better than a hard earned adult beverage is maybe four…

“ON THE OTHER SIDE OF ARCHWICK, TOWARDS THE FRONT OF THE SHOW AND ENTRANCE (AND MORE IMPORTANTLY THE BAR!) WAS NORTHEAST AIRSOFT, ROCKING THEIR TYPICAL UNDERSTATED BUT WELL-PRESENTED STALL, COMPLETE WITH THEIR COMFY COUCH THAT STEALS THE SHOW FOR MANY!” 76

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Besides QRF were Acetech, showing off their latest targeting systems which included a very interesting omni-directional illuminating orb target which can register hits from basically anywhere, and more importantly is on a modular track system with separate track pieces being clipped together between two end sections that have contacts that register the end of travel and send the target truck back and forth, adding an interesting challenge and yet more modularity and adaptability to their already popular APP driven system of targets. Also on display was their impressive QUARK tracer unit. This may seem like a bit of a niche product at release due to its inclusion in a specifically modelled outer casing which makes it proprietary to the KSG gas shotgun (it matches the front end geometry and stylisation of this platform well), despite it being a less prevalent gun, but knowing Acetech it’s a bold move and technology demonstrator to signal the arrival of a shotgun tracer unit that will no doubt be made more mainstream and likely as a separate module in the same vein as their existing pistol and rifle compatible lines, allowing other third parties to produce silencers or housings to adapt the technology to myriad other platforms.

COOL FOR OLD SKOOL

On the other side of the wall was a long display stand and gun wall featuring an array of offerings both old and new from our good friends at LCT Airsoft. This year’s centrepiece was a trio of their Christmas 2021 announced Dragunov SVD AEG; available in both traditional wood and modern polymer furniture, and with bipods also in production, this was definitely a highlight for me! Having owned the Real Sword version back in the UK I was very interested to see how their imagining stacked up. It felt familiar, to be sure, but the execution of course has LCT’s signature obsessive attention to both detail and functionality.

I’m sure Dan, our US contributor, who also runs the Real Sword version can attest to the mind-numbing misery of trying to tinker with it and having to dismantle the entire damned gun around the gearbox, something I did fifteen times the first night I had mine to downgrade the power to reasonable levels.

Well, LCT have added the creature comfort of a quick-change spring system to enable much less painful modification of their own offering. They also had on display an example of the receiver in both its

final form, but also how it begins its life, as a near 4 kilogram lump of forged steel. Yes. Their obsession with realism has now extended to the manufacturing process as well… just like you’ll find in a real steel factory, a lump of metal is pounded into a general shaped forging and then heavily CNC processed to remove a massive amount of the material to provide a perfect replication of the real gun’s production method and durability. They also announced a second generation upgrade which will follow the completion of their initial run of a thousand or so units, with the factory inclusion of a MOSFET system which allows for prodigious trigger response that they were demonstrating during their livestream show, and of course being LCT the external dimensions are as close to perfect as possible, so if you have real PSO1 or other suitable Russian optics, they will fit right on just as the real examples they had on their display examples did.

Further product lines were also announced in the form of more derivatives of their AK lines, including a very nice looking all stainless steel finished AKM that took the fancy of my teammate who’s already an avid fan of his own LK74 that he’s regularly seen fielding, and I got hands on with numerous different models including the LK53 HK SAS derivative carbine which was a very handy but sturdy package, among their other sterling offerings. I also had the chance to finally meet the lovely Benita, the face of their LCT Fresh YouTube channel, and discuss plans for a factory tour the week after the show, so watch out for a much more in depth company profile Island Insider article coming soon!

Over the other side of the main corridor was a similarly imposing stand sporting the latest goods from our friends at VegaForceCompany (VFC) with their typical panache and presentation standards in full force, their tidy looking display units emblazoned with their latest high grade showstoppers were flanked by an attack buggy sporting a bunch of their own heavy weapons offerings, as well as presenting an obvious photo opportunity and an impressive gate guardian for the front entrance.

Alongside their somewhat epic Mk48 AEG LMG that I got hands on with in great detail and tested for your adoring eyes in our March issue No. 135, they were also displaying their M110K1 Semi-Automatic Sniper System (SASS) replica which has all the latest

“ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL WAS A LONG DISPLAY STAND AND GUN WALL FEATURING AN ARRAY OF OFFERINGS BOTH OLD AND NEW FROM OUR GOOD FRIENDS AT LCT AIRSOFT. THIS YEAR’S CENTREPIECE WAS A TRIO OF THEIR CHRISTMAS 2021 ANNOUNCED DRAGUNOV SVD AEG” 78

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trimmings such as their much appreciated guide-hop adjustment system as well as an ultra-durable surface finish in flat dark earth which I was discussing with Ryan from their team at length, along with many other products and manufacturing techniques and woes – when engineers meet…

Their BCM Air AEG & GBBRs still took centrestage with a huge display wall footed with a table of examples of both, as well as one of the separate stand units displaying all of the currently available additional BCM licensed accessories such as front handguards and grips, as well as their compact carry M1911 and the larger full framed IDPA branded variant. To the front of the stand in an amusingly presented ‘emergency break glass’ style case was an array of VFC’s own Carl Gustaf M3 offering which is entirely separate to the PAF version and has a different system of unitised ammunition and firing mechanism, with numerous shells and tubes also adorning the front of the attack buggy which also had Mk48s mounted on the roof and side seat with some very interesting mounting systems, it was certainly an impressive display of arms.

Of course the majority of people attending and watching remotely were best pleased to see not only their announcement of the first of no doubt boundless possibilities for retro AR carbines in the form of their Colt Commando M733, but also to hear that their much awaited LAR/FAL GBBR should be with us before the end of the year, likely just after the midyear point. What’s that screaming? Oh. The sound of my wallet! It’s going to be an expensive birthday gun season for me this year…

Alongside a good conversation with Ryan I also managed to finally get around to introducing myself to the top man Vega himself and elaborated on our activities and desire to provide more inside coverage of what each company is about and what they are looking to bring to market and the end user and how; hopefully we can find time to make that happen too…

Modify occupied the other corner of the marquee with their well-presented booth; of course their ASG licensed Steyr Scout was centre-stage for them, with great sales and reception reported already (and a number of our own AA Legionnaires and my teammates investing in their own) they clearly got that one right, but nonetheless have released the Elite

variant with an ultra-fine adjustment dial wheel hop unit as well as enlarged magazine and well, and a full length uninterrupted picatinny rail system to avoid any scope mounting issues of the original layout.

Beyond that, their existing range of XTC AEGs will also be joined by further AR variants building off the same solid internals they made their name developing, while their flagship MOD24 bolt action sniper and gas blowback PP2K and its OTS carbine variants were also on display. I got to chat with Jane and Nelson for a while and even went over some feedback from my personal experiences of the PP2K (covered back in March 2021 Issue No. 123) as well as realising it’s in fact been over four years since I first visited them for TacticalTwo, and I should really schedule another site tour and update article for Airsoft Action. Eyes peeled.

Opposite Modify and the other side of the wall to VFC was everyone’s favourite power couple; Clarence Lai and his partner in crime Katherine were showcasing the latest in his and hers holster and belt gear for competition revolver division use, with magnetic retention spindles to hold CLPD custom moon clips in either double or even six clip belt kit setups, as well as moulded holsters for 4” and 6” wheel guns, all making use of Blade Tech attachment hardware to allow for fairly industry standard cross compatibility and ease of attachment. The moon clips themselves are of all steel construction to avoid the denting and resultant misfeeding typical of other brands which are inevitable when they are dropped during competition usage, thus ensuring your continued pain free usage.

Of course of greatest interest to myself was the continued expansion of the ASG licensed KJ Works CZ75 Shadow SP01 and Shadow 2 line of accessories, being that it’s where my own competition shooting love lies; with nearly all the components complete and bestowed upon me to completely refit my own ageing example, expect me to be singing their praises soon, while the new top slides are also available in optics cut ready variants to sport the likes of SHIELD red dot sights for use in production optics or perhaps open division depending on what’s available in your local club or circuit.

While I was hanging around the booth the room was once again lit up by the arrival of local influencer and shooter ‘Military’ Anny Wu, who was mentioning her envy of our competitive pistol exploits and who

“THEIR MUCH AWAITED LAR/FAL GBBR SHOULD BE WITH US BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR, LIKELY JUST AFTER THE MID-YEAR POINT. WHAT’S THAT SCREAMING? OH. THE SOUND OF MY WALLET! IT’S GOING TO BE AN EXPENSIVE BIRTHDAY GUN SEASON FOR ME THIS YEAR…”

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I was very much imploring to take up a Shadow 2 and come and join as well; presented in civilian garb and even short heels for the first time in all my years knowing her she was standing almost as tall as me and obviously looking much nicer behind the guns, so hopefully we’ll see more of her running and gunning sooner rather than later.

Sharing CLPD’s stand was also local outfit Narcos Airsoft. Fronted by ‘JeffTheKid’ one of our local YouTube personalities who presents testing of guns, he also produvces his own custom line of components, particularly for the Action Army AAP01 in the form of custom grip panels, entire lower frames and upper accessories, as well as HiCapa slides and even custom GBBR M1 Garand en bloc clips which give you a better ‘ping’ sound than the originals thanks to his material selection and geometry modifications.

THE GREAT OUTDOORS

With the main hall pretty much covered in the first day or so I ventured outside and braved the elements to see the militaria and independent stalls; next to the main marquee the local armed forces of both the RoC Army and Marines were displaying some of their vehicles and equipment with their Para jumping SF in full digital camouflage garb and a variety of paraphernalia on offer as well as videos of their training regimes playing.

Across the other side of the campsite was an array of independent sellers and smaller scale outfits. In particular I spent some time at Poseidon’s stall being briefed in depth by their engineer Fred on their latest Glock compatible accessories and full turnkey solutions in the form of their Orion pistols which have a hidden select fire option actuated by sliders underneath the rear of the top slide that avoids the typical Glock 18C selector lever that can cause issues with holsters or carbine kits, and their ‘engine’ system has an enclosed bottom to avoid excessive wear on the gas and ammunition feed nozzle that prevents damage.

Their adaptor systems for use with Glock or Hi Capa magazines and pistols allow the SpeedQB oriented crowd as well as Gel Blaster users to have higher capacity AR format magazines as well as HPA adaptor routing for their pistols. I also checked out their partners CSI and their futuristic looking AEG

platforms very reminiscent of Tom Cruise’s ‘Oblivion’ film and its featured carbine, as well as an innovative power tool like interchangeable battery compartment handguard which allows rapid changeover of standard LiPo batteries held inside them, but also features an electronic LED power level readout-built in.

FACETIME!

Over the course of the three days I also helped out administering the livestream feed system, which was making use of a mixture of Google Meets and Twitch streaming, featuring presentations from Modify, PAF Airsoft, VFC (yes, Bill and Ray were on at it again, especially about the new 1911 Ultra Carry… so much “bro love” right there!), Archwick, LCT Airsoft, CLPD and Northeast and saw folks from the UK including our own Bill, Vic from popular Airsoft, Tom of AATV and Ben of The English Kiwi tuning in to field questions following the presentations; it’s always a pleasure to see people, even if it has to be “virtual” for the moment… hopefully not for long!

After surviving on a diet of ice cream, M&Ms, coffee and beer for the best part of the weekend we quickly broke down the Archwick stall as soon as the livestreams were done with and along with the majority of other exhibitors said our goodbyes and congratulations for everyone’s great efforts and cleared site, Nelson and I grabbing dinner after dropping off all of the equipment back at Archwick HQ. Once again I’d like to extend my thanks to Eric and his team for enduring all the hardships to put on such a good show, and to all our industry partners and firm friends for showing up and making such superb presentations of so many exciting new products!

Lots to be done… AA

“AFTER SURVIVING ON A DIET OF ICE CREAM, M&MS, COFFEE AND BEER FOR THE BEST PART OF THE WEEKEND WE QUICKLY BROKE DOWN THE ARCHWICK STALL AS SOON AS THE LIVESTREAMS WERE DONE WITH AND ALONG WITH THE MAJORITY OF OTHER EXHIBITORS SAID OUR GOODBYES” 82

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THE HAND YOU’RE DEALT!

ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER CHALLENGE! 2022 IS ALREADY… A COMPLICATED YEAR THUS FAR, FOR MANY PEOPLE AND FOR MANY REASONS. FOR STEWBACCA IT’S ALREADY OFF TO A VERY BUSY START IN TERMS OF A MENAGERIE OF SPINNING PLATES OF INTERESTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES, TRYING HIS BEST TO MAKE TIME FOR ALL THE THINGS HE WANTS TO DO AND ALL THOSE HE HAS TO!

W

ork-work has been throwing some curveballs at me to juggle and I’m just churning through my final contract before I can apply for permanent residency here in Taiwan and be less beholden to my present day job and more capable of spending time on the stuff I enjoy doing, namely designing, testing and writing about airsoft guns and accessories, and training in competitive shooting to put my skill sets to use.

So having made those excuses for my own lacklustre performance compared to my overall second place last year… how was the first Shooting Centre Shooting Cup of this year? As with last year we will have three competitions on home turf that my team, Setup Practical Project Team, and Team Yamars, share our training ground in West Taipei, with separate prizes for each individual competition heat, and an overall score aggregated from the heats combined, with further heats planned for August and November time as per last year.

In terms of my own training I’d had an entire month of missed sessions due to short term private lessons running late into the evenings; Chinese New Year shutdowns and design work during my Tuesdays

off eat into my training times in general, all of which means I tend to only make Friday sessions to practise stages without focusing on the speed and accuracy drill training we usually cover on Tuesday sessions.

So, going into the competition I felt somewhat underprepared and didn’t ‘snap into it’ like last time where I heard the buzzer and went ‘man possessed’ with the high speed target drilling of targets.

Nonetheless, it’s all a great learning experience, and many of my compatriots from my own team and others had similar feelings of lacking in their skills or performances, with some just having bad days or situational things like equipment failures or fumbling reloads which ate into otherwise excellent stage times and runs. Regardless of my malaise and others, we all seemed to be getting back into the swing of things after a somewhat dire year in 2021 due to COVID cancellations of one of the three heats, as well as the Penghu island shoot and other competitions elsewhere in Taiwan. Indeed it seems as of late the Shooting Centre Cup has been the only game in town!

All that said, on Sunday March the 13th we all rose fairly early into a very bright and sunny

“IN TERMS OF MY OWN TRAINING I’D HAD AN ENTIRE MONTH OF MISSED SESSIONS DUE TO SHORT TERM PRIVATE LESSONS RUNNING LATE INTO THE EVENINGS; CHINESE NEW YEAR SHUTDOWNS AND DESIGN WORK DURING MY TUESDAYS OFF EAT INTO MY TRAINING TIMES IN GENERAL” 86

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morning (- somewhat of a trend I have found, for our competition days) and I’m always sweating by the time I even get to the shooting centre as every time it seems to coincide with a searing weekend!

Functioning as usual on a mix of caffeine, M&Ms and adrenaline, I signed in around 09:00 and we began prepping our equipment, donning our belt rigs, pistols and loading & gassing up magazines, as well as our individual shooter number cards.

With this competition, as with the tail end of last year, we had reduced numbers to around 20 shooters total following earlier competitions where two groups of that size had to be dealt with, so again we managed to fit everyone into one sitting so to speak, albeit still split into two squads to undertake medium stage 1 and short stages 2 and 3 in the now typical format of the morning half of the shoot, arranged in three bays along the length of the upstairs training room.

WALKING THE PLANK

Squad one,- with my team SPPT, and Team Spring Rain visiting from their training ground in central Taipei, as well as a handful of independent shooters, took on Stage 1 first. This was the longest of the first three stages; six papers, one with a no-shoot obstruction, five poppers, and the ending plate.

Seventeen shots total, 85 points available, and starting in condition one, mag in and a BB chambered, on-safe but ready to rock on the draw!

All sounds simple enough right? James Zhou, who along with the centre owner and operator Chris Leung is responsible for hosting and planning the event, had warned me on our final practice session the Friday night before that none of the stages were particularly long range, but nonetheless were not easy by any measure.

Always a foreboding omen…

Stage 1 involved ‘walking the plank’ during any movement; with an inverted Y arrangement of quadruple laterally stacked wooden batons tie-wrapped

together in composite planks end to end, and shooting had to be done from a stationary position anywhere along these, with procedural errors and penalties for every instance of the shooter’s feet touching the floor… this took me back to the old ‘shark infested custard’ command tasks of my cadet days, but with shooting and balance alongside a time constraint thrown in.

I started off fairly well, straddling the neck of the inverted Y and taking out the paper and twin poppers on the left quite slickly, then moving right with my fire taking out the central popper in the rear bay at the foot of the Y, and on to twin papers in the centre right, then having to crab shuffle my huge canoe feet carefully along the planks to get the twin poppers and single papers visible from the far right position, before cheesing it back the way I came and damn near falling into the rear bay to engage the rear right hand paper, and sweeping left to the final no-shoot obstructed paper and ending plate next to it.

17.36 seconds, 16 alphas, one charlie. Very happy with the marksmanship aspect of things, but I was just slow and shaky; I was admittedly, the first shooter called on to undertake it, so I guess I was showing people how not to do it as such? Sharp shooting, but slow moving, only 3 of the 21 shooters were slower than me. At least I shot well and didn’t get DQ’d, I guess!

“STAGE 1 INVOLVED ‘WALKING THE PLANK’ DURING ANY MOVEMENT; WITH AN INVERTED Y ARRANGEMENT OF QUADRUPLE LATERALLY STACKED WOODEN BATONS TIE-WRAPPED TOGETHER IN COMPOSITE PLANKS END TO END, AND SHOOTING HAD TO BE DONE FROM A STATIONARY POSITION ANYWHERE ALONG THESE” www.airsoftaction.net

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THE HAND YOU’RE DEALT

Stage 3 was next for us, as the remaining members of squad 2 filtered through Stage 2 before moving to Stage 1 we’d just vacated. This was one of the typically fun and interesting creations of James & Chris; four papers, three no-shoot obstructions, two poppers, and the ending plate. Ten shots total, 50 points available, and starting in condition one with the shooter beginning seated at a table, gun stored within either the left or right bounding boxes taped onto the table, with a handful of playing cards taped together as a prop in hand, elbows off the table. When the starting buzzer goes, you angrily and indignantly throw your cards on the table (but don’t let them hit the floor, that’s a procedural error!) grab your gun and get to work, standing and moving into the stage if you so choose, I myself worked from the rear of the table given my height advantage.

To the left was a high paper target, a low paper target obstructed by a no-shoot, with two poppers on the floor in the middle rear of the stage, the left of which activated a left-right sliding non-disappearing target on a trolley, with a further low no-shoot obstructed paper on the right centre and a far right no-shoot which the moving target came to rest partially obstructed behind, should you miss it during transit. This one was a very rapid and enjoyable stage with many of the competitors jockeying for the most ridiculously rapid shootout time, with ‘Tom Lau the machine gun from Macau’ laying down everything

in a hair over 4 seconds! My own time was a more modest 6.32 seconds, but again all clean aside from a single Charlie, which was not on the moving target, strangely enough.. I really seem to drill A-Zones better when the targets are trying to run away, perhaps a holdover from all those years spent skirmishing!

That felt fast at the time, but I was second from last overall on speed it seems; again, the competition is increasingly stiff especially with some people having a penchant for moving around divisions between competitions, or the attendees varying from time to time. I think I lucked out with an easy time last time somehow, or I just haven’t been putting in enough time to shave off the precious seconds with all my focus on chasing perfection in terms of tight groups and accuracy.

TAKE A KNEE!

Stage 2, shot third by us, was undoubtedly the slowest and worst performance of the day for me, as it was just deliberately awkward given my height and difficulty with my knees. Four papers, two with no-shoot obstructions, two poppers, and the ending plate; ten shots total, 50 points available, and starting in condition three. Starting on a wooden plate to the right centre of the bay, the shooter had to run rearwards and left to behind a table where their pistol was stowed inside a closed clamshell box; you had to retrieve and load it, as well as bust open twin swing open doors above this table to get sights on the targets in the main bay behind.

However the noshoot obstructed swinging target on the mid-right of the main bay was activated by a dropping popper on the right outside of the bay within a short and narrow window, with a further popper and high paper target on the right of the main bay, but most awkwardly, a further front centre paper which was only

“WHEN THE STARTING BUZZER GOES, YOU ANGRILY AND INDIGNANTLY THROW YOUR CARDS ON THE TABLE (BUT DON’T LET THEM HIT THE FLOOR, THAT’S A PROCEDURAL ERROR!) GRAB YOUR GUN AND GET TO WORK, STANDING AND MOVING INTO THE STAGE IF YOU SO CHOOSE, I MYSELF WORKED FROM THE REAR OF THE TABLE GIVEN MY HEIGHT ADVANTAGE.” 88

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session lunch break and went across the road for Italian food before chilling out with ice creams and energy drinks in the 7-11 nearby while the guys re-set the shooting centre for the fourth stage after lunch.

KILLING HOUSE

accessible by getting down and sighting under the table through a shooting window there, hence my snail pace getting on my knees and accurately letting off two rounds into this paper target before shooting the activator popper on the right outside, as well as the high paper at the rear right and standing up to clear everything in the main bay before swinging out right to get the ending plate!

14.04 seconds, 8 alphas, one charlie and one miss/ failure to neutralise; that happened to a few people on the left obscured popper and Tom even got a reshoot after a calibration shot. I should have piped up and asked for the same previously during my turn I suppose, but I hadn’t thought about it at the time as such; I guess I got JJ Racazza’d eh? 6th out of 9 production division shooters on this stage, not the slowest at least, and would have been higher on points if it wasn’t for the popper fail. Such is life.

With everyone cycled through the first three stages we took our customary mid-

We returned after a good feeding feeling somewhat more at ease having digested both lunch and our performance and problems in the stages beforehand. The fourth and longest stage was the now typical monstrosity that filled the entire running floor of the shooting centre. For this competition it was a ‘killing house’ style multi-bay run-around with a rectangular ring of fault lines to run within, around the central main bays section, as well as cutting through in front of the separate rear bay at the far end.

Twelve papers, two with no-shoot obstructions, eight poppers, and the ending plate. Thirty two shots total, 160 points available, and starting in condition

“THE FOURTH AND LONGEST STAGE WAS THE NOW TYPICAL MONSTROSITY THAT FILLED THE ENTIRE RUNNING FLOOR OF THE SHOOTING CENTRE. FOR THIS COMPETITION IT WAS A ‘KILLING HOUSE’ STYLE MULTI-BAY RUN-AROUND WITH A RECTANGULAR RING OF FAULT LINES TO RUN WITHIN...” www.airsoftaction.net

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one. The shooter began on a wooden plate outside the centre rear of the ring of fault lines, and had to step into the lines before firing, as well as informing the range officers whether they’re going clockwise or counterclockwise around the course to enable them to plan their movements accordingly.

I went immediately left before running the course counter-clockwise, with the dreaded prison bars covering twin paper targets in the front centre, as well as mirrored side bays left and right with high, noshoot obstructed medium and swinging papers, the latter being activated by poppers next to each. The trick being that some of these papers were accessible more closely by gaps in the barricades down either side, but more importantly diagonal poppers on each side that forced you to stop and at least engage them if not some of the papers, depending on the shooter’s choice.

The rear bay comprised two pairs of diagonally accessible papers on opposite corners, as well as four poppers in a line underneath a tent of barricades that were only accessible by once again taking a knee and shooting through a low port. After this the shooter had to return up the other side of the course and get that final diagonal popper and any papers they hadn’t 90

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already, as well as the end plate; I thankfully could get this from the side bay due to my longer reach, some had to run all the way back to the front bay to get eyes on it, so finally, my height and gangliness was useful again.

Once again they called me up first to tackle this, so I set the mood I guess, 33.11 seconds felt fast at the time, but again I ended up sliding down the pack as everyone else got their attempts in; I did shoot fairly clean again, 24 alphas, 5 charlies, one miss (those damned prison bars getting in the way of my BBs!) and one no-shoot (those damned civilians getting in the way of my BBs!), but at least I made up for the no shoot with a further alpha as I saw my hit and realised I had to take a further shot to avoid additional miss penalties.

GONE SIDEWAYS!

So, with everyone cycling through the fourth stage we once again broke down the barricades and targets and they were rearranged to the fifth and final stage of the competition. Again this was to be a reasonably short stage, both in terms of physical shooting distance and the time spent on it, with the stage comprising parallel fault lines left to right to move

EVENT ACTION AIR TAIWAN

within, only allowing for sideways progression through the stage, with four large barricades at the front providing three separate shooting windows between them to engage the targets through before moving to the next, with some wide transitions required to ensure all targets hidden around the stage were engaged.

Nine papers, two with no-shoot obstructions, five poppers, and the ending plate. Twenty three shots total, 115 points available, and starting in condition three. The shooter began on a wooden plate in the centre rear of the fault lines, before choosing a direction to head whilst initially drawing and loading to minimise time and movement.

This was at least a relatively simple affair and my gangly arms and legs had no bearing on my performance as such thanks to the lack of physical obstacles and minimal movement during the shooting! 20.82 seconds, 11 alphas, 7 charlies, so a bit of a mixed bag in terms of shots on paper, but nothing terrible happened at least; my speed put me around a third from the bottom of the overall pack, and actually 4th out of the 9 in production division, my best performance of the day, having spent the other 5 stages in 2nd, 3rd or 4th from the bottom of my division.

With everyone wrapped up on that we broke down all the barricades and targets and tidied the place up ready for the finalisation of the results and their announcement. In the production division, the previous champion Zhou TingYu of Team Yamars ended up taking 3rd place, with Spring Rain’s ‘Bear’ Jan DengXiong taking second place having decided to run in our division this time instead of open (he had a bit of a bad reload in the first stage that scuppered and otherwise great run); he took champion in open last year, but running a stock Glock with production division 15 round magazines! The championship this round was secured by his Spring Rain teammate Zheng JiaHua who I’ve recently seen has been working on his fitness as well as his shooting a lot, judging by his social media feeds, so clearly his hard work has clearly paid off! I should probably follow suit…

Standard division saw our own Dan DingXuan of SPPT take 3rd place, with recent newcomer from Hong Kong Cheng JiXiu taking second place and Tsai YuQi of Team Yamars taking the

championship; a sterling performance from them all and some very fast shooting in their division indeed.

Du HsinPin, also of Team Yamars, once again flew the flag for fast shooters of the fairer sex adeptly, taking ladies standard champion.

Finally for open division; our own team leader ‘Mars’ Liu HanLin took 3rd place, Team Yamars’ ‘Jacky’ Hou BoXian took 2nd place, while ‘Tom’ Lau JiaYu took the championship spot; I’ve nicknamed him “the machine gun from Macau” as a result of his ridiculous trigger speed that makes it sound like he’s running full auto! He at least has youth on his side and remains fast on his feet; an excellent performance and that reshoot was clearly justifiable and ensured his deserved success!

Congratulations once again to all the champions and runners up from each division, and many thanks as always to the excellent and good natured range officer team from Taiwan Practical Shooting Association who always keep things moving forward safely, effectively and in a well humoured manner.

Now I guess I need to take the time to finally detail strip, clean out, refinish and re-assemble my muchabused KJWorks CZ75 Shadow 2 and install all the goodies Clarence Lai of CLPD has gifted me to try out; maybe a fresh look for that, and the apparently pending new SPPT team uniforms, will encourage me to get my backside in a higher gear again! All that of course will be the subject of maintenance videos and photos as well as no doubt a RELOADED article about the upgrades made available by Clarence following my feedback and gripes about the stock Shadow 2.

Until next time, fellow shooters! AA

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FEATURE RETAILERS PERSPECTIVE

THRIVING, NOT JUST SURVIVING! FOLLOWING ON FROM THE ARTICLE ON THE RISE OF DEDICATED DISTRIBUTORS IN THE UK, INDUSTRYVETERAN FRENCHIE SPENT THE INTERVENING PERIOD SPEAKING WITH TWO OF OUR MOST ESTABLISHED RETAILERS IN THE UK TO FIND OUT WHAT THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY IS IN 2022, AND HOW THAT HAS CHANGED IN THE PAST FEW YEARS.

A

s you might expect there’s an element of plus ca change, plus c’est la même chose.

Airsoft retailers come in all shapes and sizes, and their operating models vary quite a bit. Some like to buy in bulk and sell as competitively as possible, in the process tying themselves into a core range of products simply because they have loads of them.

Others tend to be a bit more selective about what they sell, adopting a quality over quantity approach.

Just like retailers across all sectors, there is no wrong or right way to do this.

I spoke at some length with two retailers, Landwarrior Airsoft based near Edinburgh, and Firesupport who are situated in Peterborough. Both have been in the business for years, both have steered their businesses through law changes, Covid and Brexit. The stories they told were interesting and quite different.

Given My proximity to LWA I was able to visit and chat, Firesupport was sadly too far for a quick round trip! Frank and I exchanged emails instead. I was interested in how Brexit and Covid had affected them, expecting these to be major issues. It turns out that neither had as much impact as I suspected.

What changes have you noticed over the past decade?

FS: Lots more manufacturers, Lots more game sites 96

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and lots more small airsoft retail businesses mainly as a result of easy access to wholesale products in the UK facilitated by the appearance of UK located distributors.

LWA: Interestingly, LWA are seeing an increase in the competitive speedsoft side of the sport as opposed to the more ‘traditional’ re-enactment style of play which we all know. (When I get the chance I’ll explore that further. Airsoft Action has had a look at this side of the sport previously and try to find out why this might be).

Have buying habits changed?

LWA: We’ve seen a major change in people’s buying

FEATURE RETAILERS PERSPECTIVE

habits. It is much rarer for us to see one-off large value purchases but this has been more than compensated by an increased number of repeated smaller purchases.

FS: Not particularly Has the nature of products being bought changed?

FS: We are seeing more players wanting to tweak their guns to make them a bit more unique.

LWA: Because of the diversification that’s happened over the past years, we offer a range of products that go beyond ‘traditional’ airsofting gear. So yes, we are seeing increasing sales of things like the Umarex T4E range and firearm related products, whilst also seeing an overall increase in sales volumes for purely airsoft related gear.

This one may be a bit anecdotal but – do you think individual players are still importing guns and gear as was the case some years back?

LWA: Certainly not from the EU! It used to be as easy to buy from Poland as it was to buy from Portsmouth, but that has changed dramatically. There will still be a few diehards out there, but we doubt it’s many.

FS: There are no doubt some but we don’t think the numbers were ever that significant; certainly we never worried about them impacting our business.

Is the market stronger than it was?

FS: In our view it found its level around 2018 and has been steady since then.

LWA: It had been steady for some years but postlockdown we have seen a significant and sustained increase, predominantly in the airsoft side of the company.

SUPPLIERS

Have you changed the way you source products, either because you chose to or because circumstances have forced changes?

Both: No, not really (See the comments below from LWA about reduced manufacturing output).

Are you still importing as much as you used to, either from the EU or beyond?

LWA: The airsoft industry has always imported the majority of its stock and that hasn’t changed.

We import a lot from one of the major suppliers in Europe; that has as much to do with particular product lines, which we also distribute within the UK market.

FS: In a word? Yes. Has the rise of distributors like Nuprol, and the presence of ASG in the UK altered your supply chain?

Both: Not massively. ASG has had a market presence for decades and their products still have to be imported from Denmark to the UK. Wholesalers like Nuprol make it easier to source some product lines within the UK, but the airsoft industry has long been used to importing, mainly from the Far East.

FS noted that UK-based wholesalers made it easier for new companies to enter the market since supplies were local and generally not subject to minimum orders.

BREXIT

Has the UK’s departure from the EU forced changes that you otherwise might not have made to your business?

LWA: It seems to have driven an increase in business!

Whether that is down to the products we stock or the increased difficulties involved in importing goods from the EU we can’t say.

FS: Frankly it hasn’t altered our business, supply lines or market to any appreciable degree.

“ASG HAS HAD A MARKET PRESENCE FOR DECADES AND THEIR PRODUCTS STILL HAVE TO BE IMPORTED FROM DENMARK TO THE UK. WHOLESALERS LIKE NUPROL MAKE IT EASIER TO SOURCE SOME PRODUCT LINES WITHIN THE UK, BUT THE AIRSOFT INDUSTRY HAS LONG BEEN USED TO IMPORTING, MAINLY FROM THE FAR EAST.”

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COVID

While the pandemic will hopefully be a one-off (eventually) how did it affect you as a business and has it led to changes which are likely to persist well beyond it?

FS: We made changes to our shop hours in light of our experiences, but that’s about it.

LWA: Twitchy bottom time at the start of the first lockdown, but in fact we found that sales remained healthy despite players having very limited opportunities to use their gear. We suspect that those on furlough actually had a bit of spare cash to put into their interests as they weren’t carrying the costs associated with getting to and from work.

THE FUTURE

Do you have any concerns as to the future viability of airsoft as a business?

FS: Nothing in particular beyond the expected competition within the market. There is only so much pie there and we’re all fighting for our slice.

LWA: The next ten years, aside from supply issues and reduced production across the board I think the number of players and game fields will steadily increase. I don’t see any reason for it reducing so long as Call of Duty type games keep appearing to pique an interest. We’ve seen big reductions in manufacturing, with the likes of Classic Army, G&P and Real Sword slowing output. I doubt any new manufacturers will appear either, but then how many new AR15s can we need?

As always we’re only a law change away from things being illegal which is always a mild concern but I think the future is bright.

SUMMING UP

Unsurprisingly there is a lot of common ground between the two companies, and knowing the two companies and the people behind them, I can see where the differences might emerge. The general opinion is upbeat. Both expect to see airsoft continuing and growing.

LWA distributes Umarex in the UK and have been handling a lot of their paintball equipment, in particular the T4E range, in addition to their airsoft offerings. This is proving to be exceptionally popular

although it’s been a bit of a slow burner. One of the collateral results of this is an increase in the number of other paintball retailers who are becoming interested in airsoft, and vice versa. Firesupport has remained wholly dedicated to airsoft and continues to carry an extensive range of replacement and upgrade parts.

Both companies serve the same airsoft community in slightly different ways; this has been the case for many years.

I was genuinely surprised that neither Brexit nor the pandemic seemed to have been as dramatic interludes as I expected.

Looking at Brexit, I realised that as mentioned by both companies, importing is a way of life, and the vast majority of that comes and historically has come, from outside the EU. This trade would be unaffected

by Brexit and the changing relationship between Britain and the EU, in fact the effects were more obvious as far as trade from the UK to Europe was concerned. In part that has been adversely affected by the massive increase in shipping costs which have arisen on the back of the pandemic and aren’t being helped by the price of oil these days. LWA has one major European supplier in Umarex, but it will be no surprise that a global player is capable of quickly responding to changes in regulation.

Covid simply doesn’t seem to have affected either company in the way I think most of us would have imagined. The idea that sales would increase during a protracted period when sites were closed is rather counterintuitive however that seems to be what happened. In fairness, at the beginning of the first lockdown two years ago none of us could have foreseen a situation where the government would literally pay people to stay at home. It seems that some of that money has found its way to the retailers.

I was surprised not to hear of more drama from both Firesupport and LWA. The last several years have been interesting on several levels and I suppose I expected to see that reflected in businesses. I have concluded that both retailers are sufficiently mature to weather the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and while one shouldn’t draw definitive conclusions from such a small sample, it would seem that the sector is not just healthy but, in places, thriving!.AA

“I HAVE CONCLUDED THAT BOTH RETAILERS ARE SUFFICIENTLY MATURE TO WEATHER THE SLINGS AND ARROWS OF OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE, AND WHILE ONE SHOULDN’T DRAW DEFINITIVE CONCLUSIONS FROM SUCH A SMALL SAMPLE, IT WOULD SEEM THAT THE SECTOR IS NOT JUST HEALTHY BUT, IN PLACES, THRIVING!”

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last post TIME TO GET REAL!

TIME TO GET REAL!

WHILE HE WAS AT LANDWARRIOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO FRENCHIE WAS FORTUNATE TO BE ABLE TO SPEND SOME TIME ON THEIR “REAL STEEL” RANGE. THIS HAS BEEN IN PLACE FOR A FEW YEARS NOW AND REPRESENTS SOME OF THE DIVERSIFICATION THAT THE COMPANY HAS UNDERTAKEN OVER THE YEARS, AND FRENCHIE CERTAINLY MADE THE MOST OF IT, REFLECTING WITH HIS USUAL PANACHE ABOUT HOW TWO VASTLY DIFFERENT PARTS OF SHOOTING SPORTS CAN SIT COMFORTABLY SIDE BY SIDE…

I

t’s a brave move, building a Home Office approved shooting range, and getting it through the system is no small undertaking! Add to that the fact that attracting shooters is not as simple as you might think, you might reasonably ask if this is a sensible direction to move in… As it turns out, good oldfashioned effort and word of mouth is paying off and both the range and the associated club are growing in popularity. I was surprised to learn that many airsofters were completely unaware that shooting was legal and available in the UK, but you know what they say about assumption!

Since it’s been several years since I shot anything other than an airsoft gun, having some full-bore fun is worth writing about. A little background; between the age of (I think) 11 and now, I have shot shotguns, a full-bore rifle (a No 3 Lee Enfield), several full bore pistols and plenty of .22 calibre guns. I have also spent several years working for or as a Registered Firearms Dealer (RFD) and while I am aware of how little I know compared to many, this is not completely unknown territory for me. I understand how firearms work, I know how to handle them safely and what to expect when you pull the trigger.

I was presented with three rifles to try; a Umarex 416 in .22 Long Rifle (LR), a lever action AR-style 9mm rifle with a sweet suppressor on it and a traditional lever-action carbine in .38 Special, an absolute cowboy classic. These are all calibres I have 100

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shot before, but both 9mm and .38 special were shot through pistols. Yes, it was quite a while ago.

As the law currently stands in the UK, a self-loading rifle can only be in .22LR and must be at least 60 cm in length. The 416 meets those criteria easily and was the only semi-auto fired that day; although a little heavier than its airsoft cousins, the rifle would be familiar to nearly all airsofters.

Fitted with a red dot sight only my varifocal glasses gave me any issues as I had to play chase the dot occasionally!

Shooting a .22LR is always a pleasure. Although it’s a tiny round, it should be treated with as much respect as any other calibre. The human body is not designed to accommodate extra holes and the .22 is quite capable of creating them!

On the other hand it delivers so little recoil that you could genuinely shoot this stuff all day; it’s also relatively cheap at a time when ammo prices seem to be rising constantly. The 416 was therefore a delight to use, easy to aim, easy to shoot and very easy to keep on target.

Onto the 9mm lever action AR. This rifle was specifically designed to deal with the law which bans

LAST POST TIME TO GET REAL!

self-loading rifles in centrefire calibres. The lever sits in front of the pistol grip and has to be cycled for each shot. This gun uses Glock magazines and as mentioned above has a substantial suppressor fitted.

That notwithstanding hearing protection is absolutely mandatory, even the lowly .22 is bloody loud, especially in an enclosed space. Shooting is great fun but it’s not worth losing your hearing over.

The trick with manually cycled guns is not to be too gentle with them; if you don’t work the action with a certain vigour you will have misfeeds and other issues.

It took me a couple of rounds to feel comfortable with this rifle but once you get into the groove it’s great fun. What surprised me was how noticeable the recoil from the 9x19mm round was, even in a full-sized rifle. It wasn’t painful in any way, but I was aware of each shot as it went downrange. Having shot a 9mm handgun years ago, I remember thinking at the time that my Webley air pistol had more kick!

The final rifle was the lever action Winchester-style carbine. No red dots here! I was surprised just how compact this gun was, it truly is a carbine, short and very handy. We were running .38 Special through this, which again I have shot in a handgun.

The cartridge is the same size as the .357 Magnum round

but has a lower loading. Small gun, slightly more felt recoil and plenty of ‘boom’ as there is no option of fitting a suppressor here! I could have happily spent much more time with this little gun, which given that the basic format dates back to the late Nineteenth century, is testament to the original designers, among whom is John Moses Browning, designer of the legendary Winchester Model 94.

shooting while also doing so safely and ranges like Landwarrior’s will ensure that safety procedures are rigorously observed.

Airsofters will be well aware of the dichotomies in British society’s attitudes to guns. On one hand, we all love a good action movie with plenty of gun play. On the other there is a generalised and unjustified fear of guns and shooting in general. It was not always this way and the Twentieth century saw a progressive tightening of the laws governing the ownership and use of firearms. Firearm crime is still exceptionally rare in the UK, and this ironically means that it tends to be reported in quite lurid terms. There have been some tragic events which have dramatically changed the legal landscape for shooters, and I have no intention of delving into the arguments surrounding those here. The fact today is that to legally own and use a firearm in the UK is a lengthy and bureaucratic affair, but it can be done and indeed is being done in greater numbers than previously.

If your interest in airsoft extends beyond skirmishing or speedball, if guns themselves and the art of shooting also pique your curiosity, the two sports can sit side by side. Really the only thing they share are some basic skills, an emphasis on safety and the use of gun-shaped equipment. If you’ve never shot a firearm I highly recommend finding out if you have a local shooting club. Most welcome guests and will guide you step by step through your first experience of sending lead downrange. It’s possible that you may decide it’s not for you, but you may just discover a whole new world to fill your hours and drain your wallet! AA

LEGAL FUN!

Three guns, three calibres and two actions. Shooting sports take their responsibilities seriously, and it is right that they should, however I have always feared that the fun of shooting can get lost in the message. It is entirely possible to have a thoroughly enjoyable day’s

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