Airsoft Action - October 2017

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LCT RPK ASG EVO CARBINE ASG CAA CARBINE KRISS VECTOR AEG

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WAR RI O RS

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M A G A Z I N E

ARMOURY: ASG EVO CARBINE

AIRSOFT ACTION

EVENTS

ASG NO PHOTOS TOUR R.I.F.T. BIRTHDAY BASH

ACTION AIR

ARMOURY

AIRSOFT SURGEON 5TH ANNUAL CHAMPIONSHIP

LCT RPK ASG EVO CARBINE ASG CAA CARBINE KRISS VECTOR AEG

SPECIAL FEATURE

OCT 2017

WARRIORS

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GIVE IT TO A GEEK

LOW-POWERED SNIPER

LEICESTER AIRSOFT

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B O O K R EV I EW

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R EA L S T EEL

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ARMOURY: KRISS VECTOR AEG

Editor: Nigel Streeter Assistant Editor: Gareth “Gadge” Harvey Graphic Design: Havoc Design Ad Design: Havoc Design Publisher: Nigel Streeter

UK 13-issue subscription rate: £46.50 UK 6-issue subscription rate: £24.00 For overseas prices email: subs@airsoft-action.co.uk

Wyche Innovation Centre, Walwyn Road, Upper Colwall, Malvern, Worcestershire, WR13 6PL Tel: 01684 878 003 Web: www.airsoft-action.online ©Calibre Publishing Limited 2017 Distribution: Distributed to the newstrade by Comag Magazine Marketing, West Drayton, Middlesex, UB7 7QE T: 01895 433 800 Copyright © Calibre Publishing Limited 2017. 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 print.

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EVENT: ASG “NO PHOTOS” TOUR - IRELAND

30 32 PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: UNICORN LEAH

FEATURE: RELOADING 101

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SITE: WMA – HIGH COMMAND

WARRIORS: THE BAND OF BROTHERS

Contents OCTOBER 2017

CONTENTS OCTOBER 2017 6

NEWS

10 ROGUE’S GALLERY Cool photos of Airsoft Action readers.

11 HOW TO AIRSOFT Airsoft Action’s exclusive cartoon.

12 ARMOURY: KRISS VECTOR AEG Four years ago Scott Allan reviewed the much-anticipated (and long-awaited) GBB version of this insane plasticchucker and now gets the chance to see if the AEG version is a good.

16 ARMOURY: ASG EVO CARBINE Self-confessed EVO-nut, Lez Lee, finally gets his hands on the much-anticipated carbine version of his favourite AEG but does it live up to his expectations?

20 EVENT: ASG “NO PHOTOS” TOUR - IRELAND Back in June the first International leg of the ASG No Photos Tour 2017 took place and new Airsoft Action contributor, Sai Kelly, was there to cover the event.

26 EVENT: AIRSOFT SURGEON 5th ANNUAL CHAMPIONSHIP With nearly 200 shooters from all over the World taking part, Nige reports from what has probably become the largest International Action Air event outside of Asia.

30 PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: UNICORN LEAH On her recent trip to the States, Kelly “Femme Fatale” Hardwick was the guest of one of the World’s most popular Airsoft YouTubers and had the chance to ask her a bit about herself.

32 FEATURE: RELOADING 101 Reloading is something many players take for granted but few practice away from the airsoft field. Tom Hibberd gives us some tips based on his personal experiences.

36 KIT: 5.11 BAIL OUT BAG Self-confessed “bag tart”, Frenchie, takes a look at a multi-purpose piece of kit that is much at home in the city as it is on the airsoft field, or a real frontline.

38 GITAG: LOW POWERED SNIPER In the world of airsoft, snipers are constantly striving for more power, greater range and of course pin-point accuracy but what happens when you

look at the role of the airsoft sniper from a somewhat different perspective?

Jerry Noone delves deeper…

41 IT’S A CLASSIC: CHICOM CHEST RIG Gadge looks at a classic bit of kit that can cost as little as a tenner off eBay but works as well for a soldier as a £100 tactical rig, it’s the underdog of a dozen “small wars” - the chi com chest rig.

42 SITE: WMA – HIGH COMMAND Kelly “Femme Fatale” Hardwick takes a trip westwards to visit a brand new CQB site run by West Midlands Airsoft.

45 BOOK REVIEW: FROM D-DAY TO VE-DAY This month Gadge has decided to take a retrospective review of a book that’s been in his collection for a while now and has earned itself a place as the WWII “Brit Kit Bible”.

46 ARMOURY: LCT RPK74S In Issue 76 of Airsoft Action Jerry None got his hands on the stunning RPD support gun from LCT. Now he looks at a more wallet-friendly model that will let you take an LMG onto the field without breaking the bank!

50 EVENT: R.I.F.T. 5th BIRTHDAY BASH Les Lee reports from R.I.F.T. Airsoft’s Fifth Birthday Bash, which was also a stop on the ASG “No Photos Tour” calendar.

What more could a fun-loving EVO fan want?

54 INTERNATIONAL: NETHERLANDS Bill Thomas spoke with Ronald from NLAIRSOFT, a former NABV Board member, to get the full picture of how things stand in the Netherlands.

58 FEATURE: WARGAMING All airsofters like playing at being soldiers but at Airsoft Action we’ve noticed more and more skirmishers are turning their attention to playing with toy soldiers! Gadge Harvey takes up the story…

62 INSIDE AIRSOFT: LEICESTERSHIRE AIRSOFT Les Lee continues his pilgrimage around the airsoft shops of the UK, with a visit to a fairly new but rapidly growing retailer in Leicester.

66 UKARA: DATABASE ISSUES Frenchie recently wrote about UKARA and the defense that allows airsofters to buy realistic imitation firearms and made a passing reference to recent issues with the UKARA database. Airsoft Action has been contacted by readers asking us to the bottom of what’s been going on. Over to Frenchie…

68 ARMOURY: ASG CAA M4 PROLINE Jerry Noone finds an M4 model that’s just more than a little different from the herd in the form of a CAA licenced rifle that has everything going for it.

72 WARRIORS: US PARACUTE INFANTRY – D-DAY In his continuing series, Gadge writes about a group of airborne warriors that will forever be synonymous with D-Day and the ferocious battles that followed.

76 LOADED OR UNLOADED: CANNAE PRO It’s always great when you find a new manufacturer of tactical gear and clothing, especially when the story behind the brand is a strong and credible one. Jerry Noone t akes a look at the “new kid on the block”, Cannae Pro and tells us just what they have to offer.

80 REAL STEEL: THE STEN Britain entered the Second World War as a fully mechanised army but was sadly lacking in one aspect – an effective domestically produced SMG. Gagde Harvey takes up the story…

82 AIRSOFT ACTION STOCKISTS Where to buy your copy of The Players’ Choice Best Airsoft Magazine before it goes on sale in newsagents.

85 BOOK REVIEW: THE AK47 BY GORDON L ROTTMAN Regular readers will know that Gadge is a bit of a Russian and Soviet kit fan so when we asked him to review Osprey’s “Weapon: The AK47” title he nearly snapped our hands off!

86 SITE DIRECTORY & PRACTICAL PISTOL CLUBS Looking for a skirmish site, or your local Airsoft Practical Pistol Club? Then we may have the answer, with pages of sites and clubs throughout the UK.

s w e N t f o s Air

COFFEE COMPANY RAISING MONEY FOR BEREAVED ARMED FORCES CHILDREN OSWESTRY AIRSOFT RETAILER, Airsoft Imports, has launched the world’s first coffee company targeted at the Airsoft community whilst also raising money for bereaved Armed Forces children in the process.

Airsoft is an energetic sport in which participants eliminate each other with plastic BBs via airsoft guns. The non-lethal shootout is often likened to paintball and has a cult following in the UK and across the world.

Nick Woodhead, a passionate player and a figure that works in the industry, has launched One Shot Coffee Co., the world’s first coffee company aimed at this community while also pledging to donate 50p of every bag of coffee sold to Scotty’s Little Soldiers, the charity which supports children who have lost a parent in the Armed Forces.

Founded by war widow Nikki Scott in 2010, Scotty’s supports children across the UK who have lost a parent while serving in the British Armed Forces. The charity was set up in memory of Nikki’s husband and father to her two children, Corporal Lee Scott, after he was killed in Afghanistan in 2009.

One Shot Coffee Co. promises to bring the best coffee beans and grinds to its customers for them to be alert throughout the working week and ready for Airsoft matches at weekends. The idea came to Nick after reading a blog post online, after which he decided he’d make the jump

and start a business alongside his partner Tori Orritt and friend Todd Foulger.

After learning about Scotty’s Little Soldiers from a friend, Nick felt he simply had to support the cause.

On his new venture, he commented: “Starting the coffee company is something that I’m proud of and supporting Scotty’s Little Soldiers is a big part of this. We decided that we’d give it a go and we feel there’s a demand there for high quality coffee within the airsoft community.

Hopefully people love our coffee and can rally around Scotty’s Little Soldiers, knowing that by purchasing, they’re helping children who have lost a parent in the Armed Forces.”

Nick and his partner Tori have both friends and family members who have served.

Charity founder, Nikki Scott said: “We’re overwhelmed when we hear the fantastic lengths fundraisers go to support our cause. The coffee company is a great idea and we’re so grateful that the charity is involved in some way.”

To learn more about the One Shot Coffee Co. visit its website: https:// www.oneshotcoffeeco.co.uk/ And to discover how you could help Scotty’s Little Soldiers, visit: http:// scottyslittlesoldiers.co.uk

Nick Woodhead

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October 2017

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Airsoft News

UKARA UPDATE

Player Check System and UKARA work on Police and Crime Bill 2017 AIRSOFT ACTION RECENTLY RECEIVED THE following Press Release from UKARA, with an update on the situation regarding the UKARA database (see also Frenchie’s article starting on page 66 of this issue), plus a progress report concerning the work UKARA is undertaking in regard to the PACA 2017.

UKARA DATABASE First of all, we are extremely sorry for the problems with the UKARA player database.

The reason for the outage was UKARA had a sustained and continuous Denial of Service (DoS) attack, which took place over several months and resulted in the server admin people having to turn off the server. To prevent a repeat of the problem we had to find, employ and design a new more modern hacker-proof system.

As a result of this, the player self-check system has been removed as this was one of the means of abuse that caused us problems.

None of the data on the system was compromised To counter any rumours the database is still available and being used. There is a new system in place which has all the old data on (and more) and there are over 50,000 players, 200 sites and 50 retailers using the new system.

All sites and retailers in the scheme now should have access and if they do not, should contact admin@ukara.org.uk immediately.

The main issue with the new system is that it is not emailing sites about insurance renewals and not emailing players when they have been added or when they have expired. Until this is rectified, players should contact their site to get their membership renewed and sites should send insurance proof to UKARA if they have not already done so.

Post code and player lookups now work as well as the old system.

SLR audit codes are not generated at the moment but the lookups are logged and stored on the system for later use.

A big change is that sites can now add their own players to the database, so players no longer need to send forms to retailers and wait to be added.

Any player information changes can now only be completed by the player’s site as retailers have no access to amend player data.

New players should complete UKARA forms, available from this page: http://www.ukara.org.uk/ Players-Skirmish-Validation-Form.pdf UKARA are very sorry for any problems this has caused to sites, shops and players Please remember that to be a valid airsoft member of a site, the site should have current 3rd party liability insurance and should the site insurance lapse, then players at that site loose the ability to buy RIFs until the insurance is renewed.

POLICE AND CRIME BILL 2017 Behind the scenes, UKARA has been working tirelessly for the industry to get the best out of this change in the law.

The Home Office, since before the VCR ACT, 8

October 2017

had it in their mind that the safe limit for airsoft was 1 Joule. No one in the industry ever agreed with this but it was never an issue as a limit was not in the Law. Then we were notified in 2015 that the Firearms laws were going to be changed and our work started at the beginning of 2016, when the Law Commission advised us of 6 parts of the law that were being reviewed.

UKARA paid for the services of a Firearms Consultant, the ex Assistant Chief Constable of Dorset Police Force, who was involved in writing parts of the VCR Act and who was the Chairman of the Police Firearms and Explosives group (FELWG). So a very important and influential man in the firearms industry, with a wealth of knowledge of the laws and how they are applied.

UKARA first met the Consultant in 2011 when he as still the ACC Dorset Police, when we successfully persuaded him to get the Forensic Science Service (FSS) to test the lethality of 6mm BBs. This test was necessary as the Home Office was pushing even then for a 1 joule limit.

The tests produced results in line with what the industry already knew were safe limits but the FSS suggested that 1.3 joules (373 fps on .20g) full auto and 2.5 joules single shot (520 fps) should be used because it was just under the limits and allowed for inaccuracies in testing and weighing BBs. These tests were only carried out on 6mm BBs. UKARA met with the Law Commission several times and then attended the Symposium on the subject, where our Consultant was invited to sit on the Panel with the Law Commissioner, the Home Office and several other important industry figures. Unfortunately, it was decided by the Law Commission that the lethal limit for replica guns should be set at 1 Joule - for any form of a replica using any type of power.

UKARA managed to obtain an agreement to have a definition of an airsoft gun written into law and, assisted by UKAPU (The players Union) then successfully got the lethality of 6mm bb airsoft guns written into the Act as an exemption.

However, we realised that we had not included 8mm BBs (it wasn’t included because there were no test results for 8mm BBs) and thought it a simple job to get the definition changed… it wasn’t!

After several unsuccessful meetings with the Home Office UKARA decided to build 2 x 8mm BB guns capable of firing over the limits and on single shot and full auto. This was no simple task and required expert gunsmith skills and the use of CO2powered paintball engines to achieve this.

UKARA had to then commission a renamed FSS to test these weapons, to prove that they were not lethal at the energy limits set for airsoft. The whole process cost over £8,000 but at the end of it we had results that showed 8mm was safe.

After further discussions with the Home Office an amendment was made and 8mm was included in the definition of an airsoft gun.

Through the work of UKARA and UKAPU we managed to get a definition of what an airsoft gun is and an exemption for airsoft guns to shoot higher than the defined lethal limit, written into the Draft Act. The Act then had to go through the

Parliamentary process to become law, upon which it hit various obstacles.

Several groups, at various stages of the Bill, suggested amendments to remove the exception for airsoft lethality to be higher. These were defeated or rejected by the Parliamentary process.

The biggest threat to the airsoft exemption was an amendment tabled by Lord Shrewsbury. Lord Shrewsbury was then contacted by various people in the industry and lobbied by UKAPU and others who persuaded him to remove his amendment. It should be noted that the amendment stood a very good chance of being defeated, even if it was put forward, as the airsoft exemption had the backing of the Government and also the Home Office. But it was removed at the last moment because of industry pressure which was best for everyone in airsoft.

The Bill then passed through the Parliamentary System to become Law at the beginning of May 2017.

There are several issues that remain unresolved, one of which is what happens when a full auto gun shoots over 1.3 joules. We know that a single shot gun shooting over 2.5 joules becomes an air rifle, the law then deals with it as an air rifle.

However, what a full auto gun over 1.3 joule becomes is still unclear, some say a Section 5 firearm, the Home Office say only a Court can decide.

The advice is keep your airsoft gun within the limits and if you import a gun ask for it to be suitable for UK Laws.

UKARA are still working with the Consultant (regarding airsoft guns over the limit and those that can be converted or adjusted to be over the limit) who is using his contacts in the UK Border Force and Crown Prosecution Service to try to get some answers about importations, prosecutions and readily conformability.

UKARA has also held meetings with the current Chairman of the Police Fire Arms and Explosives Working Group (FELWG), the Assistant Chief Constable of Durham Police Force, to see what the Polices view on the situation is. The discussions with the Police, HO, UKBF and CPS are still ongoing.

UKARA continues to use the funds accumulated through offering a “free to player and site” registration service, that is paid for by the UKARA retailers to fight for the industry.

The money that UKARA takes each year from retailers funds approx 20 hours a week of admin time (dealing with enquiries from UK Border Force, players, sites, retailers and more often, the general public). The server, hosting, email system, development, all take time and money and because the money has been used wisely to date, the funds were available to defend airsoft without the industry being asked to provide extra funding.

When there are more updates UKARA will issue another Press Release.

Until then we apologise for the database registration problems and continue to fight the system for the benefit of all of us.

UKARA www.ukara.org.uk

AA GALLERY READERS’ PHOTOS

ROGUE’S GALLERY

tain for Andy, the Team Cap ages an the Sussex team eng ge in the enemy at close ran tag village. Taken at Dog st Airsoft, Horsham, We tler.

Shu ry Sussex. From: Har

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Information Fancy seeing yourself in Airsoft Action? Send in your photos via email (nige@airsoft-action.co.uk) or share on our Facebook page (/AirsoftAction), plus a few words describing what’s going on in the image.

AA GALLERY READERS’ PHOTOS

Photos from Airsoft Surgeon 5th Annual Championship, 2017

CARTOON

www.airsoft-action.online

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ARMOURY KRISS VECTOR

AEG HEAVEN? FOUR YEARS AGO SCOTT ALLAN REVIEWED THE MUCH-ANTICIPATED (AND LONG-AWAITED) GBB VERSION OF THIS INSANE PLASTIC-CHUCKER AND NOW GETS THE CHANCE TO SEE IF THE AEG VERSION IS A GOOD. IT ONLY FEELS LIKE FOUR YEARS since I last reviewed the first Kriss Vector…. Oh wait, it was!

If you haven’t heard of the KRISS Vector by now, you have probably been living under a big Airsoft rock for the past lifetime. It’s been called a “nail gun” all too often by those who like to bash it, so is this a sci-fi tool you’d leave in a box, or is it the forbidden words… a “game-changer”?

Hold on! Hasn’t Kriss already released a Vector?

A lot of the readers may have forgotten all about the original Vector, made back in 2012. It was awesome, in fact I still own one (Number 11 off the production line, to be exact)!

Built in a partnership between KWA and Kriss Arms, it was (and still is) one of the best gas blow back SMGs ever made.

But then Kriss and KWA had some kind of weird fall out about something and production stopped completely.

A couple of years later, Kriss launched “Krytac” as their Airsoft brand and started their very own factory in Taiwan, with former KWA USA Allen Lau at its head – and what Allen doesn’t know about Airsoft guns isn’t worth knowing!

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Normally, trademarks are hindsight or added as a little extra with an Airsoft gun and occasionally the trademarks are entirely wrong with the item they are on. The Vector is very different. It was built with not only just trademarks but actually

by KRISS Arms, in every part of the design phase right the way through to the end product. KWA built the original GBB version (under the watchful eyes of KRISS) but now with their own factory, KRISS Arms have full control. If only more firearms manufacturers put in this level of effort, we would have a massive range of top end, fully endorsed products instead of overpriced underperforming Airsoft guns.

THE REAL STEEL VERSION

So what is so special about this SMG? Well, the real steel KRISS system advertises a “total reduction in recoil and muzzle climb”, a pretty impressive claim I think you will agree. So how have they succeeded where so many had failed before?

The answer is their patented delayed blowback KRISS

ARMOURY KRISS VECTOR

Super V System. In essence, it is a simple yet genius design, redirecting the bolt off axis down behind the magazine (which is why it has a unique body design). Because the bolt travels down toward the ground at around 30 degrees, it redirects the recoil and the muzzle climb. I’ve fired them quite a few times and it does climb a little, mainly due to the insane rate of fire but it isn’t as savage as you would think. Even better, it is now available in multiple calibres with a 0.22lr UK version apparently on the cards at some point in the future too.

The bodywork is polymer for the most part and this makes it very tough and lightweight - that’s always a priority for modern firearms. The days of heavy blocks of steel and wood are largely gone, in favour of modern materials that give you more performance. The design as a sub machine gun (SMG) the Vector fires a pistol round, in the original case, the ever-popular 45 Automatic Colt Pistol or ACP (11.43mm x 23mm), which is the same round the 1911, UMP and the M1A1 Thompson uses.

With a long and a short magazine available, it holds either 13 or 30 rounds which is a fair amount of lead. The 45 ACP is not a new round considering the state of the art design of the Vector, in fact it is over 100 years old. I have fired both the 45 and the 9mm version at Shot Show and enjoyed them both immensely! You’ll often see them in films such as Resident Evil: Retribution and the excellent remake of Total Recall, not to mention the ever popular Call of Duty, Farcry and The Division computer games.

ON TO THE REPLICA

Strangely, the finish is quite different from the original GBB version that was modelled on the Gen I Vector. I hadn’t really noticed it so much until the AEG version arrived and I compared them both, it’s smoother all round. I’m not sure if I like the slightly rougher original better or not.

The first thing you notice when you pick it up is the overall size and weight, coming in at 2.6kg which is 200 grams lighter than the GBB version, about the weight of a T1 Red Dot. The airsoft magazine issued is the long 49 round magazine

style and it holds 100 BBs. There will also be a high capacity magazine that will offer more capacity for players. The styling of the AEG is different from the GBB as this is the new Gen II design, not hugely different but different none the less.

The original magazines were metal and they were very heavy, thankfully the new types are polymer and that saves a lot of weight.

The bodywork is very solid (as you’d expect from the box design) and the folding stock is solid and firm with no wobbles to speak off. Admittedly, I doubt I would ever fold it for any other reason than to store it, as it is fairly compact as it is. Each Vector comes with removable folding Defiance (a KRISS brand) top sights, a 20mm top rail and 20mm side rail. This allows you to customise your SMG to your preferred load out - although not perfectly, as I’ll touch on later.

It’s all nice on the numbers front, certainly it’s got to be one of the best performing AEGs ever made this small. Once I had the chronograph testing out of the way, I wanted to try some heavier BBs to see how good the hop was on this tiny barrel. I opted for RZR 0.30s and was utterly astonished that it hopped them up. Spending a little time I got it dialled in and was easily (and I do mean easily) hitting out to 45 metres and slightly less accurate at 50 metres. I even went for a bit of a lob and could rain them onto the target about 60 metres away!

So the performance couldn’t be better… or could it?

MOSFETs are a bit of a sticking point for me. Too many manufacturers chuck them in thinking they’re putting an upgrade into a rifle but really, in my eyes it’s something to go wrong and doesn’t really offer that much more performance.

The Vector does definitely perform very well but it doesn’t have an active braking MOSFET that gives you that snappy trigger you get on a Systema. Why not add an Active Brake MOSFET? Because they hammer your motor life that’s why. Much like a Ferrari requires a more expensive service than a bog standard diesel Vauxhall, tuning and performance creates wear and tear. You want a gun that never breaks? Buy a Marui and do nothing to it and it’ll last a very long time. You want something

“IF ONLY MORE FIREARMS MANUFACTURERS PUT IN THIS LEVEL OF EFFORT, WE WOULD HAVE A MASSIVE RANGE OF TOP END, FULLY ENDORSED PRODUCTS INSTEAD OF OVERPRICED UNDERPERFORMING AIRSOFT GUNS.”

www.airsoft-action.online

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ARMOURY KRISS VECTOR

“I OPTED FOR RZR 0.30S AND WAS UTTERLY ASTONISHED THAT IT HOPPED THEM UP. SPENDING A LITTLE TIME I GOT IT DIALLED IN AND WAS EASILY (AND I DO MEAN EASILY) HITTING OUT TO 45 METRES AND SLIGHTLY LESS ACCURATE AT 50 METRES. I EVEN WENT FOR A BIT OF A LOB AND COULD RAIN THEM ONTO THE TARGET ABOUT 60 METRES AWAY!” super tricked up? Expect parts to wear out quicker. Sadly the consumer wants the cake and to eat it, so the manufacturer has to protect the customer from himself or herself.

IN USE

On the game site I didn’t have the luxury of many spare magazines (they hadn’t arrived yet) so my involvement with the games was rather limited. Nonetheless, during the games I used it I was quietly confident after the initial testing that every time I shouldered the Vector it was going to snap a round rapidly toward my target. I had 100 rounds and two speedloaders, no player was safe! It wasn’t particularly loud, it was deadly accurate and it is compact, meaning I could move around quickly without getting tied up with a long barrel.

While I know I shouldn’t have been, I was still surprised by the performance, solid build quality and feel. I think I wanted it to be worse for some reason, maybe because it’s taken so long to get here. For myself, I really love the two round burst as it is a near instant double tap, the odd occasion I got three but it wasn’t anything I would worry about. Both left-handed and right-handed players are going to feel at home with the ambidextrous controls but I still struggle with the magazine changes, due to the location and the size of the magazine. The only other issue I found is mounting the side rail on the left was great but using the Haley Strategic WML wasn’t possible, as the charging handle (which only opens the ejection port for hop up adjustment) got in the way. I was a bit surprised by this as this is a likely issue on the real version too.

CONCLUSION

With a RRP of £440 it is a whopping £110 more than the original gas Vector and that is a real shame, I feel it is a chunk on the expensive side as I had hoped to see them around £350-£375. While it is excellent, it isn’t perfect and for that money I’d expect a bit more, especially given that the EVO (as a comparable AEG) has a higher spec, is also fully licensed, has 14

October 2017

mag detection, an AB MOSFET, it’s manufactured in Europe and it’s still almost £150 cheaper!

I really do think the Vector is one of the most solid performing SMGs I’ve ever seen for its size. The quality, range and accuracy cannot be called into question and personally I like the Vector more than the EVO to look at – but that is just personal taste. Maybe I just wanted it to tick every box, like the gas version did for me all those years ago?

It is bloody brilliant, it’s just not quite perfect yet. Fix the price and include an AB MOSFET and it’d be on my Christmas list!

features Overall Length (Retracted) = 44.5 cm Overall Length (Extended) = 66.5 cm Inner Barrel Diameter = 155 mm Weight = 2.6 kg Motor: Short type Magazine Capacity = 100 Round Vector Magazine Barrel thread: 14mm Negative Velocity = 340FPS/1.07J Blaster 0.20g Firing modes = Single, Double & Fully Automatic Fire Selector = Ambidextrous Safety Catch = Ambidextrous Unique serial number Fully licensed

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ARMOURY ASG CZ SCORPION EVO CARBINE

SELF-CONFESSED EVO-NUT, LEZ LEE, FINALLY GETS HIS HANDS ON THE MUCH-ANTICIPATED CARBINE VERSION OF HIS FAVOURITE AEG – BUT DOES IT LIVE UP TO HIS EXPECTATIONS? READ ON TO FIND OUT…

CARBINE EVOLUTION UNLESS YOU HAVE BEEN LOST deep in a South American rain forest, or stranded on a desert island for over a decade, then you will know that ActionSportGames (ASG) of Denmark are one of the biggest names in airsoft. When I say that ASG are one of the industry leaders, you will almost certainly be nodding your head whilst reading this and if you look in your gear bag or airsoft armoury, I would be very surprised if you didn’t find an ASG or related product. From (almost) everyone’s favourite BBs (Blasters) to the actual shooter that sends these plastic projectiles down range, chances are that if the weapon itself isn’t an ASG product, then the sight, scope, sling, silencer, gas or battery might be of ASG origin.

It is rather unusual to find an airsoft company based in a country other than somewhere in the Far East, which is where the majority of “the big guys” are based. One of the advantages of this is that UK retailers have closer-to-home support, which means sales and service efficiency levels are high. For example, there are a small number (approximately seven) of accredited ASG technicians in the UK that can carry out warrantee repairs with full ASG support, having undergone rigorous training at the headquarters in Denmark. That is just one of many positive benefits of buying an ASG product, with the confidence of knowing that providing you have adhered to after-purchase usage according to the warrantee, you can rest assured that your purchase will be professionally repaired or, if necessary (i.e. a manufacturing fault), replaced.

16

October 2017

ASG GUNS AND GEAR

Of course, we are only really interested in ASG airsoft products but for any “plinkers” out there, it is probably not a total surprise to discover that this company has also been producing 4.5 calibre air weapons and related pieces of kit, so they have experience in so many areas of the shooting field work and that all leads me to the same conclusion… that these guys get it right!

But it ain’t all guns... Take a trip to their website (www. actionsportgames.com) and you will be staggered at the sheer size and range of products they offer and I’d be very surprised if you couldn’t find what you are looking for.

CZ SCORPION EVO 3 A1

The CZ Scorpion EVO 3 A1 is a compact submachine gun in 9mm Luger. With a blowback-operated action, the Scorpion can empty its (30+1) magazine in less than 2 seconds. Equipped with a folding, adjustable stock, accuracy can be achieved out to 250 yards. The stock can be removed completely to create a surprisingly controllable machine pistol. To make the Scorpion more user friendly, the charging handle is reversible and the mag. release is ambidextrous. The EVO’s frame and trigger guard assembly are made of a lightweight polymer with monolithic top rail and accessory rails on sides and bottom.

Field strip is made simple with two captured pins that allow the removal of the trigger guard assembly, enabling easy removal of

ARMOURY ASG CZ SCORPION EVO CARBINE

the bolt and all moving parts but for anyone that would like to get their grubby mitts on one of these babies, you will have to sign up for military service or law enforcement because that will be your only way to do so.

THE AIRSOFT VERSION

Right, now that’s the “small talk” out of the way, let’s talk about the ASG CZ Scorpion EVO 3 A1, which found its first shoulder in 2014 and to this day, is highly acclaimed as the best AEG on the market... probably. However, before I start, I need to make a disclosure…

This is likely to be my one and only AEG/GBBR review and why is that, you may ask.

Those of you that know me, will be aware of my love affair with the Scorpion EVO since my first acquisition of one, which was given to me by our very own weapon guru, Bill Pryce-Thomas, who suggested that I might like it due to its “wieldabilty” and relatively lightweight build (knowing that I have had post shoulder surgery issues) and wow! How right he was!

Admittedly, my first handling of this rifle had me questioning myself because I have always preferred a gun to feel like a gun in every way and that especially includes weight, so first impressions “pre-use” were not blowing my socks off. It wasn’t until I took it along to my first game that everything changed. I was very quickly falling in love with this little plastic “dark destroyer” because whatever I asked of it, it

did everything that I wanted - it was and when I really got to grips with it, tuned the hop, etc. I found myself in some bushes with a sniper (no comments please) and was out-ranging him and hitting three to his one. Even he was stunned with the performance, especially the accuracy of this unassuming little AEG and I was “owning” that area. I was somewhat in awe of what I had discovered because before now, I was typically in denial about the quality and performance of this little puppy but how happy I was to be proved wrong!

To this day it is my gun of choice for a regular skirmish and whenever I take a second gun out (perhaps a GBBR or a sniper rifle just for fun), I almost always return to the safe zone shortly after start of game and grab my Scorpion to use for the remainder of the day, knowing that it does it all and won’t let me down. It shouldn’t come as a surprise when I say that within a couple of months of primary use of my EVO, I felt an uncontrollable urge to buy another one as a spare, which is now all dressed up for the prom (customised) and taking pride of place on my wall!

EVO CARBINE 3 S1 & BET

Launched at Shot Show 2017 in Las Vegas, this had been nothing but a tease from ASG. We all knew something special was coming but it was kept heavily under wraps... until then!

Yes! We had a new EVO Scorpion and in two variations. The Scorpion EVO Carbines feature longer barrels and redesigned fore-ends (complete with long overdue M-LOK compatibility)

www.airsoft-action.online

17

ARMOURY ASG CZ SCORPION EVO CARBINE

which is sure to help with routine maintenance but of course, I don’t need to tell you to keep to the warranty conditions because there are several UK qualified ASG technicians that are as passionate as you are about this wonderful weapon of BB destruction and are eager to help you.

A few features which have always impressed me are the aesthetic lines of the gun. It kind of reminds me of stealth technology, with its angular design giving it quite a unique and futuristic presentation and even when the folding stock is locked to the side, the EVO makes for one beastly looking pistol. The extra length may not be as durable as the classic model but even so, once the stock is locked back, it is a rocksolid and rattle-free fit!

I would also like to comment about another good feature; that of the ECU-controlled gearbox.

Through this inclusion, there were fewer needs (in other words, less to go wrong) but it still enables that beautiful, crisp trigger response that more experienced ‘softers like, through

“IT SHOULDN’T COME AS A SURPRISE WHEN I SAY THAT WITHIN A COUPLE OF MONTHS OF PRIMARY USE OF MY EVO, I FELT AN UNCONTROLLABLE URGE TO BUY ANOTHER ONE AS A SPARE, WHICH IS NOW ALL DRESSED UP FOR THE PROM (CUSTOMISED) AND TAKING PRIDE OF PLACE ON MY WALL!” increased battery and motor efficiency. One point I would like to make you aware of (if you didn’t already know) is that as soon as you connect the battery, the gun is effectively “live”!

That’s not to say that it is in any way a danger to handle or store but it will drain your battery if it isn’t disconnected after use and we all know how much Lipo batteries love to be fully emptied... NOT!

PERFORMANCE

and an aggressive styling to match its high performance. The 3 S1 has a more “standard” outer barrel, whereas the BET has a suppressor type finish, however, both have a longer inner barrel of 208mm with a 6.03 bore which will, of course, improve the already potent accuracy (dare I say it?) by a long shot!!

The CZ Scorpion EVO Carbine, like its predecessor, is solid from the ground up. Built to the same strength and standard (as near as possible) of its real steel 9mm counterpart, the fibrereinforced polymer makes it one of the toughest airsoft guns around. It’s hard to believe that a gun of this status is actually kept pretty basic in its build quality, 18

October 2017

Even though the spring is designed to be easily interchangeable, I stuck with the standard M95 version which gave me a respectable average of 320-335fps on .20 (approx.

1J) which, when tuned correctly with the hop, gave me the same prevailing accuracy as my original go-to gun. Now that is not saying that the accuracy isn’t good, because the accuracy is absolutely outstanding with EVOs, but if I’m honest, I was expecting something a little more.

I concluded that this was down to this author’s subjective error because I was “expecting...”? I don’t know what I was expecting really but I had been a victim of my own excitement and anticipation which had completely overwhelmed me and I think that subconsciously, I was surmising that I would be able to shoot an ant in the butt at a thousand metres! However, contrary to popular belief, I’m human too and thus susceptible to the same pre-empted visions that we can all become a victim to at some points in our lives - but the important thing is, was I disappointed”?

CONCLUSION

I’m sure that once the new carbine model has a few hundred rounds put through it, the hop will bed in nicely and that extra barrel length will prevail. The stunning characteristics of this enhanced model offers extended dexterity, crushing firepower if needed, the redundancy of need for the compartmentalised army of snipers (perhaps) and, of course, the personal choice that we all own and for not a lot of extra money.

And as for me?

All I will say, is For more information about that the love affair the ASG EVO 3 range, or any continues! other ASG products, contact: Lez OUT! www.actionsportgames.com or your local ASG retailer.

onSportGames Acti

Team ASG & HALO MILL presents:

ActionSportGames® and partner HALO MILL will be hosting the first ASG EVO Owners Club event in the UK. September 10 . 2017 at HALO MILL the “Proving Grounds”.

ActionSportGames® is a worldwide leader in the business of replica firearms and accessories manufacturing – including Airsoft guns, Airguns, CO2 guns and firearms replicas.

0048-0717_AirsoftAction_EVO-Owners.indd 3

0048-0717_July2017

More event information can be found on the Official ASG EVO Owners Club Facebook page or HALO MILL's website: www.halomill.com/booking/4589789101/pvg---evo-exclusive/9979950

12-07-2017 16:10:47

Event

BRIDGING TH ASG NO PHOTOS TOUR

BACK IN JUNE THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL LEG OF THE ASG NO PHOTOS TOUR 2017 TOOK PLACE AND NEW AIRSOFT ACTION CONTRIBUTOR, SAI KELLY, WAS THERE TO COVER THE EVENT. 20

October 2017

“IT’S ABOUT AIRSOFT”. I stood there, irritated, with the audio recorder suspended between us, waiting for elaboration that wouldn’t arrive. I had lost count of this phrase over the weekend. Like some frustrating conspiracy, every-time I cornered a player, vendor, marshall or rep, they would pause, take a breath and respond, “…it’s all about airsoft”. As irritating as a scratch below the gums I could not leave this sweeping statement to hang in the air, undefined. I was drawn in and enticed. For the next 47 hours and over several hundred miles I pursued these words over international borders to unpack and discover their true meaning for my first article for Airsoft Action.

Brainchild of parents Paul Wignell (ASG/ICS) and Gav Sneddon (Viper Tactical), The No Photos Tour 2017, a teamed up event covering the UK and Ireland, completed its first International weekend event in June by paying visits to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland for two colossal days of skirmishing, community and craic. “The response and turn out has been phenomenal,” exclaimed Paul, “I’ve never seen so many EVOs in my life!” Nearly 300 airsofters, hailing from both North and South, turned out to meet and greet our travellers.

Also to get their hands on the merchandise and sling plastic, of course. I followed Paul and Gav around like a scrap-fed kitten trying to get to grips with the heart behind the movement and to understand what it was they wanted to achieve.

Predator Combat Games in Drumaness, NI was the first site to be invaded by the mainland representatives. Site owner Míceal Maguire and local store owners Thomas and Emma Tucker from Bullseye Country Sport informed me that not only was the day shared with representatives from ROI and NI but also from Scotland, Portugal, Lithuania, Wales, England and Switzerland. It was wonderful. A real melting pot of cultures, accents and battlecries. Serious fun had by all. But not only fun, it had a tangible effect on the community, as, between the raffle tickets and donations from Predator Combat and Bullseye the Saturday event had raised £1,200 for the Southern Area Hospice Service.

Situated in Northern Ireland approximately 20 miles south of Belfast, Predator Combat offers over 22 acres of mixed terrain to play with including trenches, towers and a tunnel complex. Props include the likes of a missile site, artillery guns, communication equipment and happens to be one of the largest airsoft sites in Ireland.

I cornered Viper Tactical Brand Rep. Gav Sneddon and ASG Evo pioneer Paul Wignell to ask them first hand, what the tour was all about. “Paul and I realised that we were hitting the same mainland UK sites, so we decided it would be a great idea if we teamed up and aimed to hit the core sites to support them and the retailers already established and affiliated with those sites. It offers the player a chance to get a look at the new gear, get our ear to the ground and listen to what people are saying. We can take notes for new products or existing lines that we may be developing. Gaining this feedback is invaluable for our market research. Viper Tactical and ASG/ICS have the same clientele.”

The Bedfordshire based unit has been around since early 2000 but Viper has recently come through the crucible. About 4 years ago, Viper was rebranded into Viper Tactical, since then they have invested heavily into the development of the brand itself and into the product lines which include affordable clothing, luggage, gear, accessories and now elite military

Event

THE GAP footwear. Getting out there to meet the boots on the ground has been a huge factor in the company’s metamorphosis.

Bringing the products to the player to let them get their hands on the gear helps them make an informed decision on where their money is going. “Events like this are viable because people need to know what they’re buying. A lot of retail now is an online culture,” Gav explained.

With Chinese companies flooding the market with cheaper alternatives delivered to your door why would consumers bother ever leaving their home to shop? But it is this consumer’s belief that this has been costing the sport in three main areas; quality, community and support. The penny starts to drop.

Gav went on to express his heart behind the tour.

“We’re constantly looking to get out there to talk

ASG NO PHOTOS TOUR

to the guys using the kit.

We want feedback. To find out what the players want; designs, camo patterns, luggage etc, we’ve been given some great ideas at these events to take home and consider. Price-point ticks the box for the average airsofter and we like to pride ourselves as a brand and a company that gives value for money.” Paul added, “…we do this week in week out, we travel 1,000s of miles, we’re not bothered about if we get a sale or return, its about the end consumer and supporting the sport.”

The next day in County Meath, Ireland, Sim-Tac Airsoft was invaded by just shy of 150 “camo-clad” warriors all eager to meet the team. Not just content with winning games, the day was about earning honour and props from fellow players, showing off their load-outs and grabbing some free swag. The boys from the mainland, alongside Liam Doyle and Stephen Hickey of Airsoft Eire, deployed their camps, laid out their wares and met the crowds head on as they swarmed around the logo emblazoned easy-ups. Personally, it was a sight to

“NOT ONLY WAS THE DAY SHARED WITH REPRESENTATIVES FROM ROI AND NI BUT ALSO FROM SCOTLAND, PORTUGAL, LITHUANIA, WALES, ENGLAND AND SWITZERLAND. IT WAS WONDERFUL. A REAL MELTING POT OF CULTURES, ACCENTS AND BATTLECRIES. SERIOUS FUN HAD BY ALL.”

www.airsoft-action.online

21

Event ASG NO PHOTOS TOUR

behold. Witnessing Paul and Gav listening to exciting tales, swapping stories and being talked through various “load-out parades” it was like being backstage at a rock gig; watching fans getting to meet their idols. Paul and Gav are the genuine article, it doesn’t take long in their company to figure out that they truly love the sport and its players. They didn’t disappoint; handing out praise, advice and encouragement and even the odd side-arm to a punter in distress. Between the gaming and pistol competitions, the raffles and ice-cream; grins and laughter were plentiful. The craic was truly ninety. Jonathan Leonard, owner and marshall of Sim-Tac Airsoft, paused the day’s proceedings to properly introduce the lads from Airsoft Eire, ASG/ICS and Viper Tactical while revealing the winners of the raffle and present gob-smacking prizes to the lucky players.

“This is the first time that this has been done in Ireland,” Gav told me, “a co-branded operation with manufacturers and retailers coming to meet the players. Between Paul and

myself we’ve all the boxes ticked; guns, consumables, clothing and gear; all in the one place.” Players and retailers are able to actually get their hands on the products and new lines and clearly see and feel the quality compared to their cheaper counterparts, making for much more confident purchases.

Located around 40 miles north west of Dublin, Sim-Tac Airsoft boasts land containing an old victorian settlement(?) at the heart of its location. With a mix of urban and extra urban arenas, the battlescape is truly something reminiscent of a post-apocalyptic movie. “Downed helos” and old 4x4s litter the site with much needed cover for that daring raid or oh-soneeded suicide run, which adds a sense of realism that your average palette stack or plywood wall just cannot simulate.

The experience is truly immersive. A series of games were played throughout the day; some short, some long, with poker chips sporadically scattered into no-man’s land at random intervals representing prizes for acts of valour displayed by

“WE LOVE TO SHOW HOW INDIVIDUAL WE ARE OR TO TRY AND COME UP WITH SOMETHING NEW OR DIFFERENT AND EARN OUR PROPS FROM OTHER PLAYERS AND THOSE LIKE-MINDED. FROM THOSE FAVOURING HEAVY SUPPORT WEAPONS OR SNIPER RIFLES TO OTHERS WHO PREFER HPA PISTOLS AND CLOSE COMBAT APPLICATIONS, LIKE SNOWFLAKES WITH ATTITUDE; NO TWO AIRSOFTERS ARE ALIKE.”

anyone with the cojones to attempt their retrieval.

Always available for a chat, I quizzed Paul about the reason behind such an enigmatic title for the tour. He laughed saying, “Its reverse psychology. The phrase is just a bit of fun, we wanted to create intrigue, for people to start asking questions.” Fair enough. Smart move. One thing I’ve noticed about “us airsofters”, is that we put a lot of effort into personalising our set-up. We love to show how individual we are or to try and come up with something new or different and earn our props from other players and those like-minded.

From those favouring heavy support weapons or sniper rifles to others who prefer HPA pistols and close combat applications, like snowflakes with attitude; no two airsofters are alike. It was truly wonderful watching players gathering to show their set-ups to the very people who represented the company(s) that designed their gear and, in-turn, seeing Paul and Gav’s response.

A touching highlight towards the end of the day, was when site owner Jonathan Leonard presented a plaque to Paul that had been made especially to send to the relatives of fallen

22

October 2017

comrade, Mark Rasmussen. You may remember hearing about the tragic passing of the Danish player of Airsoft Denmark in November of last year. His family are in our hearts and thoughts.

“It’s about airsoft”. So after all of this, what does that statement actually mean? The best way I can describe it is to say that it is about encouraging the sport to grow. It is about educating players and manufacturers alike. It is about dispelling the myths to non-players and it is about supporting local retailers. Paul summed it up for me at the end of the weekend with: “…it is about helping the airsoft community, even if we can somehow influence the attendance by getting to these sites on the Tour.”

In my opinion, the Irish leg of the No Photos Tour‘s success can be defined by one specific moment. As we wrapped up the day at Sim-Tac, remembering Gavin’s comment about wanting to meet the players, allowing them to interact with the merchandise and getting feedback, two young lads sidled up to him to give their thanks. I asked them what it was they liked most about having Paul, Gav and Airsoft Eire come to them

Event ASG NO PHOTOS TOUR

and they answered: “Getting to meet the people at the other end of the spectrum and seeing where it all comes from and also getting to play with the gear and see it up close, not just in a magazine or website.” I turned to Gav who, frankly, might as well have had “hero wind” blowing through his cape with the grin he was wearing! But he humbly shrugged his shoulders and simply said “fantastic”, while shaking their hands. Mission accomplished!

I spent some time snapping, interviewing and playing over the weekend of the 24th and 25th June at Predator Combat Games and Sim-Tac and whether or not I was shooting guns, cameras or just chatting to a fellow enthusiast, one thing became very apparent. Airsoft as a sport may have an expensive outlay but it gives so much back to its players and their surrounding communities. Certainly there are worse things a young delinquent (like myself) could get up to at the weekend! But to me, airsoft gives us something

crucial. It offers the opportunity to grow, to become better than we currently are. In such a competitive environment there is no room for insecurity and identity crises to remain unchallenged. To continue in this sport for the long haul, personal change or adaptation must occur and if needs be; healing. Taking our baggage onto the field, running into the fray with our insecurities and wounds fully exposed in all out competition can only lead to conflict and confrontation at the slightest injustice and, inevitably, what we end up facing is that pressure to change. Which is just great! Where else can you get this wonderful accountability where our poor conduct gets to be challenged, or called into question and corrected? The whole thing is a wonderful blender of brokenness where buttons are pushed, tempers glow and yet hands will be shaken, best wishes given at the end of the day. We leave each day with the chance to become better people. To me it’s everything church and family was supposed

to be. But it’s still a choice. We to choose to accept rebuke get some exercise and grow together, both as players and as sons and daughters of a country recovering from civil war. and choose to change and heal, lest we run the risk of losing more than our temper and simply wasting another day off Keep close to Airsoft Action and social media for upcoming dates for your area. With plans to visit Essex, from work.

Norfolk, Yorkshire, Dorset, Devon in the future, the No Linking the divide, the No Photos Tour 2017 managed to bring both Northern and Southern Irish skirmishers together Photos Tour 2017 will power forward. in a shared experience when this island has seen much segregation and prejudice. With the current global state of affairs, perhaps some excitement about culture integration is exactly what a fearful world needs. These two nations on that particular weekend Sim-Tac Airsoft Predator Combat Games showed there is much to be gained by getting off the Gibstown, Meath, Ireland 49 Newcastle Road internet, leaving the baggage at home and crossing Drumaness BT24 8NF t: 086-4118610 / 086-2675070 the lines that have divided us for a long time. t: 028 9756 5651 “It’s about airsoft!” The more I ponder this e: simulationtacticalairsoft@gmail.com phrase the more I start to disagree. I think it’s about e: info@predatorcombat.com www.sim-tac.com something so much bigger. Especially in a country www.predatorcombat.com @simtacairsoft where division and difference has been part of our @predcgm daily routine for decades. To me, airsoft is about having a place where tribes can gather with passion,

Contact Details:

www.airsoft-action.online

23

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03/08/2017 16:57:06

Event AIRSOFT SURGEON 2017

AIRSOFT SURGEON TH 5 ANNU A NIGE REPORTS FROM AN EVENT THAT CAME OUT OF A CASUAL CONVERSATION FIVE YEARS AGO AND HAS GROWN INTO A TRULY INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION WITH COMPETITORS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

SHARP-EYED REGULAR READERS MIGHT HAVE spotted that I have left the word “European” out of the title of this report – and there is a very good reason for it but before I get into that, a quick recap for our newest readers…

“Practical Shooting” is a discipline that tests your ability to shoot both rapidly and accurately with a handgun, rifle or shotgun and can trace its roots back to “quick draw” competitions in the USA, where contestants would emulate “wild west” gunslingers. This lead to the formation of the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) in 1984 and since then practical shooting has become a worldwide phenomenon (except in the UK, of course), with many believing it to be the fastest growing international target shooting discipline.

The 1997 Firearms (Amendment)(N0.2) Act banned the private ownership of pistols (almost) completely in the UK and effectively destroyed a very active part of our shooting heritage; competitive pistol shooting.

However, as the quality and supply of weapons has improved an ever-growing number of shooters are turning to airsoft as an alternative, including an everincreasing number of “real-steel” shooters.

For the first two years the event was held at The 26

October 2017

Grange but is rapidly became apparent that a larger venue was needed to cope with increasing numbers and in 2015 it moved to StrikeForce CQB in Gloucester, where the vast, indoor space was almost perfect for practical shooting.

Back in 2013 it was hoped that there would be 35 to 40 entrants …and 84 shooters booked in! Three years later, when I spoke to RedWolf Airsoft’s Chris Kong (the driving force behind the event), a few months after the 2016 Championship, he said he would be delighted if there were 150 shooters in 2017 … and just under 200 booked in, making it the largest Practical Airsoft Shooting event ever held outside of Asia!

So what is Practical Shooting all about?

My introduction to practical shooting was when I went down to the East Barnet Shooting Club and watched a guy called Mark Hurding draw, aim and hit five individual targets in just a smidgeon over 2 seconds - and be upset as he normally did it in about 1.8! Talking to him later, I asked him what his advice would be to anyone coming into the sport. His answer was simple: “Shoot fast and don’t miss!” and I guess that sort of sums it up but, in truth, it is much, much more than that. Sure, you have to shoot as fast as you can and yes, the objective is not to miss but it is the balance of these factors that make it so challenging. Let me see if I can elaborate…

In airsoft, nine times out of ten you will be playing as part

event AIRSOFT SURGEON 2017

N U AL CHAMPIONSHIP “THE ONLY TWO THINGS I DON’T WANT TO HAPPEN ARE TO GET DQ’D, OR TO BREAK A NAIL!”

THE 2017 CHAMPIONSHIP

of a team/side/squad and although you are an individual, your actions will always be dictated by others. We all know the adage “no plan survives contact with the enemy” and that’s because the enemy doesn’t always do what we hope, want or expect them to do. On the flip-side of that, if you make a “mistake”, or something doesn’t go quite right, the effect is often mitigated by those around you. In other words (hopefully) your team mates will always “have your back” – and you, theirs.

Exactly like in a skirmish, the majority of individual shooters will be part of team and will represent their team at competitions but, unlike in skirmishing, they are only ever actually competing against one person… themselves! When you are out on a stage you are the only person responsible for every action, movement and shot you take. It is your responsibility to decide the best route through the course, which target to shoot and when, whereabouts you are going to reload (if needed) and where you will finish – all under the watchful eyes of a Range Officer and (usually) the rest of the squad you are shooting with. There is no “hiding” if you get something wrong or make a mistake but let me tell you (from personal experience), when you make it through in a stonking time and with a 100% score, it feels abso-bl**dy-lutely brilliant! Shoot fast, don’t miss… damn right!!

I mentioned the word “European” earlier, or rather the lack of it and that is because The Airsoft Surgeon Championship, although still predominantly made up of shooters from Europe, with teams travelling from as far afield as Hong Kong and Brazil and with Europe being represented by shooters from Belgium, Hungary, GB, Bulgaria, Spain, Slovakia, Netherlands, Finland and Poland, it has become a truly International competition.

The twenty stages for this year’s event were designed by Paul Courtney and Justin Copper, from Watford Practical Pistol Club (WPPC!!!) who, I have to say, really excelled themselves with stages ranging from short and simple, right up to long and technically challenging – with a dose of “fun” thrown in for good measure. Mind you, I also heard the word “diabolical” used about one in particular - in a nice way, of course…

There was also a 21st stage, built purely for fun and to raise money for “Maggie’s”, a cancer care charity that “provides free practical, emotional and social support to people with cancer and their family and friends, following the ideas about cancer care originally laid out by Maggie Keswick Jencks.” Throughout the weekend anyone could have a go and the shooter with the highest score would win “The Maggie’s Challenge Trophy”. The Airsoft Surgeon also donated two of his stunning creations, jointly worth over £3,000, to be raffled off.

With nearly 200 shooters having to complete 20 stages in just two days, it was important that everyone worked together and Bart Verwijst, from the Belgium IPSC Action Air Team, kindly offered to assist by bringing their wifi-enabled pads across, so that scoring could be completed quickly and efficiently. This meant all scores were recorded on the pad and shooters simply had to tap a button to verify their score www.airsoft-action.online

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Event AIRSOFT SURGEON 2017

and send it off to the website that was doing all the work of calculation and collation (ain’t technology grand!).

The weekend kicked off with a Shooter’s Briefing and by 10 o’clock the sound of plastic hitting targets could be heard throughout StrikeForce. From end to end, StrikeForce is about 170 metres long and the space had been utilised to provide plenty of “Gun Safe” and “Gas & BB” stations, so that shooters did not have to continually walk back and forwards to re-load mags, or work on their guns.

Each stage is controlled by a “Range Officer”, I guess the “airsoft equivalent” of a marshal and, as with a marshal, their decision is final, however, occasion sometimes demands that a decision needs to be verified by “the boss”. At an airsoft site it is usually the site operator and at an Action Air match it is the Match Director that holds this responsibility, a role superbly acquitted on this occasion by Justin Cooper (who is also Captain of Team GB at next year’s Action Air World Shoot in Hong Kong). The Range Officer starts the stage with a “shot timer” and follows the shooter through, holding the timer in such a way that it records each shot, with the time of the last shot taken as the time it takes to complete the stage. This gives the shooter the opportunity to have a quick look round to make sure they have completed the stage before declaring that they have finished but, should they take a further shot, that becomes their final shot and the time to that shot then becomes the time to complete the stage, so they must balance the extra time taken against the potential to improve their score. This is important as their overall score for the stage, along with the time taken, is used to calculate each shooter’s “Hit Factor” and the shooter’s score (with the highest Hit Factor) is taken as the 100% score for the stage. The other shooter’s Hit Factors are then worked out as a percentage of the highest and that is then applied to the 100% figure to determine their score.

This may all sound overly complicated but it does mean that being fast isn’t enough, you have to be accurate too – and the converse is true also. It is a combination of speed and accuracy that is required to win and not just on one stage, you also have to have consistency and keep your level of performance at its peak throughout the competition. It is quite possible to go all the way through a match, shooting absolutely brilliantly, only to cock it up on the last stage and throw it all away!

It also means it really is “a level playing field”, as everyone, no matter their age, gender, stature or ability, shoots to the same rules and has just as much chance of winning as any other – and this year’s Championship was a perfect example of that, with shooter’s ages ranging from 9 to 70+ and, in certain divisions, more female than male shooters.

Thankfully, the system brought over by Bart made scoring simple and with just a tap of the screen, scores were calculated and recorded automatically on “shootnscoreit.com” – so much better than mountains of paper and having to type every score into a computer!

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event AIRSOFT SURGEON 2017

THE RESULTS

After two days of superb competition, it was time to find out who had won – but not before the “Chris and Clarence Show” (i.e. Chris Kong and Airsoft Surgeon, Clarence Lai) had drawn the raffle prizes kindly donated by the many event sponsors, along with the two pistols for Maggie’s and thanked everyone who had helped make the event such a success.

These are the final results…

Open Division: 1st – Nicholas Wong – Hong Kong 2nd – Matt Wyborn – GB 3rd – Maciej Piwowarski – Poland 4th – Max Noble – UK 5th – Jurgen Ronsse – Belgium Standard Division: 1st – Pak Lam Lai – Hong Kong 2nd – Paul Wyborn – GB 3rd – Alasdair Mustard – GB 4th – Joeri De Haas – Belgium 5th – Nick Towndrow – GB Production Division: 1st – “OB” Tanansen – GB 2nd – Jesse Nio – Finland 3rd – Matt Reed – GB

Open Super Senior Division: 1st – Paul Van Den Bosch – GB 2nd – Norman Humphries – GB 3rd – Stephen Birtwhistle – GB

Custom Division: 1st – Rafal Tomanek – Poland 2nd – Dave Rose – GB 3rd – Troy Morris – GB

Standard Lady Division: 1st – Barbara Roslanowska – Poland 2nd – Jessica-Jade Dove – GB 3rd – Eluned Pritchard – GB

Open Lady Division: 1st - Marianne Gundayao – GB 2nd – Tina Palmones – GB 3rd – Victoria Fellows – GB

Standard Junior Division: 1st – Paul Wyborn – GB 2nd – Lee Buswell – GB 3rd – Thomas Coquelle – Belgium

Open Junior Division: 1st – Nicholas Wong – Hong Kong 2nd – Franscisco Honrubia – Spain 3rd – Harrison Courtney – GB Open Senior Divison: 1st – Tim Wyborn – GB 2nd – Jon Cull – GB 3rd – Steve Taylor – GB 4th – Bart Verwijst – Belgium 5th – Gerrard Timmers – Netherlands

Standard Senior Division: 1st – Nick Towndrow – GB 2nd – Baryl Cleevely – GB 3rd – Pete Thornton – GB Standard Super Senior Division: 1st – Guy De Backer – Belgium 2nd – Mark Van Den Bosch – GB 3rd – Dave Rossiter – GB

SUMMARY

This barely scratches the surface of all the action that took place over the weekend and it does nothing to convey to superb atmosphere that pervaded throughout the two days. I think the Airsoft Surgeon himself summed it up at the very beginning, when he said: “We are one big community, welcome to my family.”

All that remains for me to do is to congratulate each and every shooter for taking part and making this the most successful Airsoft Surgeon Championship so far, along with all the many, many people behind the scenes for both supporting and ensuring that this was the biggest and best practical airsoft shooting event I have had the pleasure of attending.

However, before I close I want to single out two individuals… First of all, Chris Kong who, despite the fact that RedWolf Airsoft burnt to the ground just a few short weeks before the event, dealt with the phenomenal pressure this must have brought with a super-positive attitude and never stopped smiling.

The other person I want to mention is my daughter, Elizabeth, who started shooting just a few months ago and for her first tournament chose to enter the biggest ever. She didn’t win but she made her dad very proud – and is already looking forwards to competing next year!

Who knows, maybe I might just join her… www.airsoft-action.online

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Profile UNICORN LEAH

ON HER RECENT TRIP TO THE STATES, KELLY “FEMME FATALE” HARDWICK WAS THE GUEST OF ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST POPULAR AIRSOFT YOUTUBERS AND HAD THE CHANCE TO ASK HER A BIT ABOUT HERSELF.

THE

TACTICAL UNICORN IN AIRSOFT, YOUTUBE IS A GREAT resource for product reviews, informational videos and entertaining gameplay and the popularity of the “Airsoft YouTuber” has grown enormously in the last few years. Here we speak with Unicorn Leah, a fierce Slaydie who has spearheaded the way for women in Airsoft and become one of the World’s most popular Airsoft YouTubers (not to mention the most followed ladysofter in the world).

FF: Hey Leah! Thanks for taking the time to speak to us, our readers would love to know more about you! Can you tell us what got you into Airsoft and how long you’ve been playing?

Leah: “I was actually introduced to Airsoft through working for an Airsoft distributor called Spartan Imports. I decided I should play a few games so that way I could be a more effective sales person and be more familiar with our products. I actually ended up having so much fun playing that I started to play every single weekend and helped to push the company to be more active in the community. I’ve been actively playing Airsoft for almost 4 years now.”

FF: Can you describe your playing style for our readers?

Leah: “It depends on the situation. As I’ve matured as a player, I’ve become more tactically aggressive. When I know that I’m in unfamiliar territory, it takes me a bit to warm up because I want to get a feel for the field/AO/playing style (whether it be a skirmish, MilSim, or Speedsoft event). However, I have a hard time being patient and am always worried about being labelled a “camper” - so I tend to move around a lot. I’ve had to learn that it’s okay to remain in place when it makes tactical sense, such as in MilSim games. I enjoy pushing the objective as much as possible and try to maintain a balance between being aggressive and being reckless. When it’s a skirmish, I am much more likely to try new things and make riskier movements to challenge myself.

However, I also really enjoy playing as part of a team - and try to 30

October 2017

do so whenever possible.”

FF: In regards to loadouts, what are you running?

Leah: “I have a loooooooooooooooot! I’ve done a few (incomplete) impression kits (Russian FSB, Spanish Army, US Army Ranger) but I honestly prefer to run light/militia style kit whenever possible. Chest rigs are my go-to (unless I’m playing CQB).

“My favourite chest rigs are my Blue Force Gear micro rack and Tasmanian Tiger MKII. For plate carriers my go-to is an LV MBAV and an LBX 0300S. I prefer to run without a battle belt whenever possible but when I do, I use the LBX assaulter’s belt.

My favourite BDU’s are Russian partizan suits - because it feels like you’re wearing pajamas. Plus, they come with a vented hood!”

FF: Your YouTube channel is one of the most popular channels for Airsoft, can you tell us a little bit about it?

Leah: “Sure, I’d be happy to!

“My YouTube channel is much like me - eclectic, to an extent.

I love showing the “behind the scenes” stuff. To me, it’s always cool to see what people are like when they don’t have a script in front of them. I’ve had the channel for 3 years now and it is the largest female airsoft channel in the world.”

FF: What content our readers can expect to see?

Leah: “To me, candid moments tend to be the most genuine, so vlogging is a big part of my channel. I also have a lot of personal gameplay, as well as featuring games from a spectator point of view. In addition to those, I do gear unboxings, video game live streams, Q&A, as well as firearm videos.”

FF: As well as having a successful YouTube channel, you have spearheaded the way in Airsoft for women around the world and also founded Women of Airsoft. Can you tell us a little

Profile UNICORN LEAH

about the vision behind it?

Leah: “Getting into a male dominated sport/hobby can be very intimidating and overwhelming for a lot of women. When I first started playing airsoft, I would see maybe one or two other girls at a field or AO. I wanted to find a way to connect with more women who played airsoft and figure out how to get more women into the hobby, so that those of us who were active players wouldn’t feel like we were the “only ones”, so to speak.

“The vision was to create a supportive place, where women could encourage one another, give advice to one another - for example: what gear works for different body types, how to handle “that time of the month” when you’re at an op - stuff that other men in the hobby wouldn’t want to talk to us about - or things that only other women would be able to understand.

Additionally, when I first got started in the industry, I faced a LOT of harassment. I didn’t want other women to have that experience and I wanted a support network for those women who endured harassment. In a nutshell; Women of Airsoft is a democratic group designed to get more women into our sport/ hobby, while also supporting and empowering one another. “ FF: What are your plans for the future?

Leah: “Travel internationally as much as possible! I’ve travelled quite extensively in the US for airsoft and would like to experience airsoft in other parts of the world.

“I will also be producing a line of gear, clothing and patches this year, which will be available on DesertFoxActual.com” FF: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us Leah. I also want to thank you for the awesome work you have done (and continue to do) within the airsoft community to make female players more visible and for consistently proving airsoft is a sport for everyone. See you very soon girl!

You can find Leah’s videos on YouTube at: www.youtube.com/ theairsoftunicorn and be sure to follow her on her Instagram @ thetacticalunicorn and on Facebook “Unicorn Leah” for updates, awesome gameplay and general airsoft shenanigans.

www.airsoft-action.online

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feature RELOADING

RELOADING IS SOMETHING MANY PLAYERS TAKE FOR GRANTED BUT FEW PRACTICE AWAY FROM THE AIRSOFT FIELD. TOM HIBBERD GIVES US SOME TIPS BASED ON HIS PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. Photos by Gadge Harvey

RELOADING 101 RELOADING IS A FUNDAMENTAL skill of gun fighting and can be fun to practice. Reloading under pressure is much harder than in your house, so it can be good to put yourself on a timer or practice with your teammates. If you do practice at home always assume your airsoft gun is loaded and live at all times and wear appropriate eye protection.

Don’t train till you get it right. Train until you can’t get it wrong!

MAGAZINES

Strong Hand – This is the hand that holds the pistol grip and operates the trigger.

Support Hand – This hand holds the front grip of the rifle.

Release Latch – The button or lever that releases the magazine from the rifle. Can also be known as mag catch or release button.

Magwell – The area on the rifle into which the magazine is placed.

Hi-Caps These are the “normal” magazines used by airsofters, they typically hold upwards of 300 BBs and feed the rifle with a clockwork type mechanism.

Pros. Lots of BBs, you don’t have to carry lots of magazines Cons. Can rattle and be noisy, they need to be wound before and during use. If you go prone they can be in danger of getting their mechanisms dirty

Midcaps These are spring fed and usually hold 70-150 BBs and are typically fed with a speed loader.

These are what I use. I load a 3-1 ratio so 90 BBs in a mag that would hold 30 bullets.

Pros. Reloading is fun! They don’t rattle, generally reliable.

Cons. You may have to carry upwards of 6 magazines.

Locaps/Realcaps If realism is your thing then “Realcaps” are for you. They are loaded with a 1-1 ratio of BBs to bullets, plus how many your rifle leaves unfired in the feed tube (30 plus four in my LCT AK).

You have to be really careful with your fire discipline. They are also fed with a speed loader.

Pros. Reloading a lot is fun, lots of “operator” points.

Cons. Very easy to run out of ammo, you need a lot of magazines.

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MAGAZINE LOCATION, RETENTION AND ORIENTATION There are many possible places to put your spare magazines. This somewhat depends on your load bearing equipment but as many are modular this ultimately leaves the location up to you. Typically, whilst in woodland or jungle they should be on your hips. In CQB or when carrying out operations from vehicles, they should be on your front or chest.

Think about the path that the magazine will take to the weapon. In most cases it is more efficient to have the mag placed top side down in the pouch with the base plate pointing up.

This also means that you are less likely to get mud and dirt into the magazine. This works fine for mid and low-caps but for hicaps there is a danger that the reloading door could open during extraction. To avoid that happening hicaps should be placed in the pouch with the top side up.

The next question is which way round the mag should be. You don’t want to have to turn it around during the reloading operation.

It should be extracted from the pouch in the orientation in which it is placed in the gun. If you reload with your left hand then the magazine should be pointed towards the left. If you reload with your right hand then point the mags to the right.

However this isn’t always the case so try both and see what you prefer.

DUMP POUCHES Most airsofters are understandably reluctant to throw or drop their magazines on the ground. The tax payer isn’t providing new ones for them! However not doing this will cost you time during a reload. Rather than trying to fit the spent mag back into the pouch from whence it came a good solution is a dump pouch. These are used to conveniently store empty magazines. They are usually large and relatively floppy. This makes them very useful for carrying other items too.

Feature RELOADING

IMMEDIATE RELOADS

DELIBERATE RELOADS

1) The firing hand moves the rifle into the “workspace” by twisting outwards and dropping the stock into the crook of the arm.

2) The support hand is going for a mag from your fastest reload location 3) The spent magazine is removed from the rifle.

4) A new magazine is put in the rifle.

5) If needed the weapon is charged or working parts released (extra cool guy points if you do it regardless)

1) The firing hand moves the rifle into the “workspace” by twisting outwards and dropping the stock into the crook of the arm.

2) The support hand goes for a magazine from your slowest reload position 3) The spent mag is removed from the rifle.

4) A new magazine is put in the rifle.

5) The partial mag is placed back in the LBE in a slow location.

This type should be used when you run out of BBs during a gunfight. In this situation it’s important to get your rifle back into the fight as soon as possible.

This type should be used during a lull in fighting, especially if you are unsure about how many BBs are left in the magazine. Normally the mag will still have bbs remaining in it. It is slower than the emergency reload.

TRANSITIONS Switching to a pistol is faster than trying to change a magazine. If you are in a really tight spot it could save you from taking a hit. Your primary weapon should be on a sling and can either be dropped or swept out of the way with the weak hand while your strong hand goes for your pistol.

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Feature RELOADING

ROCK AND LOCK RELOADS

INSERTION RELOADS

Modifying for AK, FAL, G3

Modifying for AR, G36, L85

These rifles are loaded by placing a lug at the front of the magazine into the magwell on the rifle and then rotating the rear of the magazine into position. Typically the magazine does not drop free when the release latch is pushed. They need to be manually removed from the receiver of the rifle.

These rifles are loaded by sliding the magazine straight into the magwell. In general with this type of reload the mag will drop free when the release latch is actuated. This can make for faster reloads if you are prepared to have your magazine hit the ground.

Immediate Reloads

The magazine can be released as the rifle is rotated into the workspace. This flicks it out and makes it easier for it to drop free.

You can use the new mag to sweep the spent one out of the rifle. The side of the magazine is indexed against the trigger guard and then swept forward first engaging the release latch and then removing the spent mag. The new magazine is then rocked and locked into the rifle.

Immediate Reloads

Deliberate Reloads

Deliberate Reloads The new mag is placed alongside the old one with the base higher up. The thumb of the support hand activates the release latch. The old magazine is removed and the new mag rocked and locked into the rifle. The old mag is then stowed back in a slow reload position.

The new magazine is held at 90 degrees to the partial mag. This is then released and removed manually from the rifle. The new mag is rotated 90 degrees and inserted into the magwell. The old mag is then put back into a slow reload position.

MAG ADMIN

During a lull in the fight after you have done a deliberate reload it is a good idea to perform admin on your mags. This means replacing your immediate mags with ones from slower locations as well as moving magazines from slower to faster locations. I tend to place any partial mags top up in pouches so I know that they are not full.

TAPING MAGS

Typically seen in movies and in low intensity conflicts is the practice of taping mags together to give a readily accessible reload. The upside of this is that you have an immediate reload at hand. The downside is that you can very easily end up with mud and dirt making its way into your magazine. It can also make it very hard to go prone effectively. For reasons beyond me Russians use blue tape for just about everything.

Hopefully, that has given you an insight into what I do with regard to magazines but, as with everything else in airsoft, it is entirely up to you what you do – after all, your life doesn’t actually depend on it!

www.airsoft-action.online

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feature 5.11 TACTICAL BAIL OUT BAG

SELF-CONFESSED “BAG TART”, FRENCHIE, TAKES A LOOK AT A MULTI-PURPOSE PIECE OF KIT THAT IS AS MUCH AT HOME IN THE CITY AS IT IS ON THE AIRSOFT FIELD, OR A REAL FRONTLINE.

L I A B !

T U O

IT IS A TRUTH UNIVERSALLY acknowledged that Frenchie likes bags. Given that Mrs. Frenchie also likes bags, you may fairly assume that the Frenchie household is awash with the damned things. This means that I have a more than a passing interest in “tactical bags”, as they combine the utility of bags in general with the undiluted cool factor of tactical. Ideally I look for tactical bags that permit everyday use because, let’s face it, if you’re going to shell out your hard earned cash you want to get maximum use out of your investment. For me that means no cammo and ideally no black - coyote brown for the win.

I have owned and used the 5.11 Tactical Bail Out bag for some years - I’m on my second but only because my first was black and I have since moved it on, having acquired a Flat Dark Earth (brown) one. As a bag tart, I own (and have used) loads of similar bags but the 5.11 is my daily carry and the one that is closest to the ideal of a tactical bag that can also cope with the urban jungle without looking out of place.

The concept of the “bailout”, or “bug-out” bag goes back a while. According to Wiki it originated in the Korean War, where fall back positions were designated for units that expected to be overrun. They would “bug out” and a bug out bag was

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October 2017

designed to carry everything that would be needed for a limited period. The idea is that everything that the user needs can be carried in one convenient bag that is immediately to hand.

The idea of a bail-out bag probably comes from more modern times, where the idea of having to rapidly leave a vehicle or aircraft is more prevalent but the underlying idea remains the same - to have enough of what you need immediately to hand in a handy package. For the military this will mean ammo, first aid kit, comms, personal equipment. For Preppers and survivalists it’s likely to include similar items but less (or no) ammo! For airsofters things are different, as even MilSim players don’t expect to have to survive for up to 72 hours without a break from the action but Bail Out bags can be a viable alternative to the more common load-bearing kit. I ran a rig based around SpecOps kit for years, which held eight mags and everything else I needed while playing and had the advantage of being simple to drop if required, especially if working a fixed position where I could have mags and ammo right beside me but without the restrictions and weight of carrying it.

They aren’t a perfect solution as they almost demand that they are free to move, which you may find irritating. Most bags have a provision for anchoring them to a belt but I always felt that the freedom outweighed the need to swing the bag out of the way occasionally.

That’s the theory, or some of it, now back to the 5.11 bag and why I rate it so highly.

I was a huge fan of Maxpedition kit, it is so solid as to be nearly bulletproof but that can make it a bit inflexible. I mean

Feature 5.11 TACTICAL BAIL OUT BAG

the materials rather than the design and I confess I always found my VersiPack a little uncomfortable. 5.11 use a 1050D nylon which is hardwearing but much more flexible, this makes the bag more comfortable to use without giving away anything in toughness. When I sold my black version it was in nearly new condition despite years of use.

The design of the 5.11 bail out bag is simple - there are three double AR15 magazine pouches on the front of the bag, all with Velcro closures. On each end of the bag are identical zipped pockets with external MOLLE strapping. Internally these pockets have no dividers or MOLLE. The main pouch is accessed via a double-ended zip and lacks dividers but does have MOLLE strapping across the full length of the back. On the rear of the bag is a velcro belt loop - this lasts about 3 seconds with me before the knife comes out. I don’t use it and it catches on clothing and belt-mounted gear like a leatherman multi-tool.

I also cut off the shoulder pad - that’s a personal thing, I just don’t like the damned things. The shoulder strap is fixed at one end the other has a buckle for length adjustment and quick removal. This has a hefty bit of elastic covering it to prevent inadvertent unlocking. All the zips are as good as I have ever used - strong and smooth and the build quality is as good as I will ever need.

While it would be a great airsoft bag, that’s not what I use mine for, it’s my everyday carry. I have pens and a pen torch in the external MOLLE straps where I can easily get them without fishing around inside the bag. Being a perennial spectacle wearer, two of the mag pouches hold reading glasses and sunglasses where they can again be easily accessed. The third mag pouch holds either a camera or an airband scanner (I know, flying trainspotter…)!

My favourite feature of the Bail Out bag is the big, unfettered main pocket. It will hold notebooks, batteries, cables, dog bags, bottles of wine, bricks, tablet (although not a laptop sadly) - basically anything you can fit in there. The flexible nylon only enhances its “stuff-ability” and the internal MOLLE is perfect for holding more pens, nail files or knife. The end pockets are ideal for wallet, passport, ink cartridges, drugs (entirely legal of course) and stuff. Lots of stuff, ALL the stuff.

The 5.11 bag doesn’t go in for internal dividers or trying to

dictate how you store, carry and access your stuff and I love them for that. Ok, maybe love is too strong a word but I deeply respect them. I want to choose what I carry and how I carry it, I need the bag maker to give me the option to do so as I see fit. Too many manufacturers think that they are adding value by being clever, when what they are doing is limiting the user. Not everything can be simple, a simple CAT scanner would probably not really work and a simple car gives you the Trabant - but simple bags work really well because they are all things to all users. If you want to conceal carry with one of these you can fit a MOLLE holster inside securely and that the belt loop that I disposed of will make sure that your access and draw is safe and fast.

It would be easy to overlook the 5.11 Bail Out bag’s many advantages because it follows a traditional bail-out bag design.

The previously mentioned VersiPack look funkier and cooler and 5.11 do make their own version of that design but, for me, the simplicity of the Bail Out bag wins. It’s not so tactical that it looks out of place when out and about. It’s not so large that it ever becomes a nuisance. It is large enough to do all that you can reasonably expect of a bag you would carry at all times, whether that’s in the city, on an airsoft site or on deployment.

It’s tough enough to ensure that it doesn’t let you down while not making you suffer by its inflexibility. Finally it’s cheap for what it is. RRP is £55.00 and, as I write, Landwarrior Airsoft (where I bought mine) are selling them for £48.99. I cannot promise that the 5.11 Bail-Out bag will last you a lifetime but I wouldn’t bet against it either. What I can tell you, speaking as a constant bag-user, is that this is the bag that I always come back to. I have, as mentioned, many bags and I do use others but eventually I’ll come back to the sheer convenience of this bag and its ability to carry my life for me.

www.airsoft-action.online

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GITAG LOW POWERED SNIPER RIFLE PROJECT

LOW POWERED SNIPER IN THE WORLD OF AIRSOFT, SNIPERS ARE CONSTANTLY STRIVING FOR MORE POWER, GREATER RANGE AND OF COURSE PIN-POINT ACCURACY BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE ROLE OF THE AIRSOFT SNIPER FROM A SOMEWHAT DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE? JERRY NOONE DELVES DEEPER… I’M VERY LUCKY, LIKE MANY of you out there reading this, to have some other local players that I work with regularly, often coming together on a project build with different ideas and directions that ultimately end up with something just a bit special being created!

If you do follow this somewhat eclectic column of mine, wide-ranging in its remit as it is, you’ll know that I quite often team up, or at the very least have similar build on the go with my good mate Chris P. So it transpired that I’ve been reading this great book about “real world” weapons technology that started yet another “geeky” exchange of ideas between Chris and I. According to author Mark White in his excellent book “Tactical Use of Low-Signature Weapons for Military and Police” (ISBN 978-1610046466), current-day tactical marksmen are employing low-signature firearms, fitted with one or more devices to reduce both the sound and flash of the gunshot, more and more worldwide. When used with subsonic ammunition, a suppressed low-signature rifle presents the ultimate in covert stealth for a wide range of missions.

Reading “Tactical Use of Low-Signature Weapons for Military and Police” is like getting an exclusive look at the notebook of one of the eminent experts on subsonic ammo and cutting-edge suppressors. In his slim yet utterly informative book, White dispels the myths about silencers and reveals the true nature of firearm suppression, including an illuminating examination of subsonic ballistics, a topic that usually gets short shrift in terms of research and development. In clear and precise terms, he explains the science behind the use of subsonic ammunition and suppressed weapons for both military and law-enforcement applications.

Now this is all very well and good but you may well be asking yourself how this applies to the arcane art of airsoft sniping… so I’m going to tell you. As we are all aware, many bolt-action sniper rifles are seriously upgraded to give the best possible performance and a good airsoft sniper is 100% worth their weight in gold (if they know what they are up to). Many specialist companies provide a whole raft of upgrade parts and shops such as Airsoft Sniper Parts UK (www.airsoftsniperparts.com) offer superb services to help you get your rifle where you want it; their “Sniper One” kit comes ever closer to fruition and I’m seriously looking forward to getting “hands on” as soon as it’s available!

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The downside of the sniper though, is the long engagement distance involved, which is superb in a woodland or open urban setting but not so great when things get “up close and personal” as most sites will insist that said sniper revert to the secondary at close range (so as to avoid any injury to other players) and rightly so. Mark Whites’ book looks at the role of the sniper in exactly that close range setting though, especially in terms of police and law enforcement personnel and how important supreme accuracy is in that environment.

So it was when I was discussing this subject with Chris when out of the blue he announced “Well, that’s kind of what I’m working on right now” and when I asked him he went on to tell me: “Many years ago I spent a fair amount of money tuning a VSR 10 G-Spec to shoot 90+ metres at about 490fps, it was a nail driver and although it was good fun to reach out and touch people at range I’m more of a close in sneaky git. This led me to wanting to develop a close range, accurate rifle. I also see it as a way of play that can enhance my patience and stealth, as being well within AEG range I knew I would have to pick my targets and my fights carefully.”

Taking his previously upgraded VSR as a starting point, Chris went on to tell me that in terms of parts it was a very short list, as being low powered means you really don’t need to go into upgrading the sears, spring guide and the like as there is less stress on the internals. Parts he used for the build were pretty straightforward; basically being a Laylax SP100 spring kindly donated to the project by Fire Support (www.fire-support. co.uk) giving the rifle 1.01 Joule/330fps with a .20g BB, a Laylax precision inner barrel which was already in hand and a PDI W hop rubber with PTFE tape wrapped round the hop rubber to give a better air seal.

Chris went on to say: “The only part I might change in the future would be a new cylinder head to give slightly better air flow, though I’m a big advocate of ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’”.

With the rifle set up it was time to move on to some accessories and again these were kept very simple and straightforward.

“I wanted the classic hunting rifle look (remember that Chris and I are involved in an ongoing Post-Ap game series locally with Darkwater Airsoft) so I opted for a leather sling with a quaint “deer and woodland” scene embossed into it with a simple 1-4x20 optic on top; again being a low powered rifle designed for close-in work there is no need for a huge magnification scope.”

GITAG LOW POWERED SNIPER RIFLE PROJECT

Now you might think that this rifle is a tool designed more for MilSim style play rather than for full-on skirmishing, as in a skirmish setting with everyone hooning about the place in a HiCap frenzy losing the sniper’s advantage of range would seem to be a real minus but Chris decided it was in this challenging setting that he would give the rifle its first real “baptism of fire”. I asked him how the rifle performed and how it changed the dynamic of his game and he told me: “Well I was certainly right in my assumption that I would have to pick my fights! I’m used to being well within AEG range, just not with a bolt action as a primary!

“That being said, range is about 60m with a .28g, the hop still needs bedding in but accuracy is good. I think I need to test it with some .30g BBs but with the power being what it is any higher than .30g and I may start to see heavy rounds drop off too soon. As a big bonus the bolt having such a low power spring means follow up shots are quick and effortless.

“Kills-wise, not many but managed to get some really satisfying close range shots into a few people’s centre mass during a defensive scenario and then a couple of shots close in on a sniper that made me see the potential of this build. I am certainly looking forward to taking this out again.”

Having now had a chance to get my hands on Chris’ rifle I have to say that it’s a thing of beauty, performs really well and oh boy, the bolt certainly is smooth as silk! Even without a suppressor it’s also insanely quiet, which coming back to my reference book is an absolute key component to being a “close range, low signature” sniper.

To get away with this rifle in a woodland setting I’d have to say that your field-craft skills are going to need to be absolutely exemplary, otherwise you’re going to go down in a hail of BBs very, very fast. That’s always something to aspire to for any airsoft player worth their salt but I have to say that the joy of this build for me is in the mind-set behind it; when everyone is

going in one direction it only takes one inspired player to step away from the herd, inject a bit of “geekiness” and come up with a solution to a problem that very few even realised existed.

My sincere thanks go to Chris for the loan of the finished rifle for testing and also to Frank at Fire Support who kindly provided the Laylax spring. I just wonder though what unique project my friend is going to come up with next!

www.airsoft-action.online

39

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It’s A Classic CHI COM CHEST RIG

GADGE LOOKS AT A CLASSIC BIT OF KIT THAT CAN COST AS LITTLE AS A TENNER OFF EBAY BUT WORKS AS WELL FOR A SOLDIER AS A £100 TACTICAL RIG, IT’S THE UNDERDOG OF A DOZEN “SMALL WARS” - THE CHI COM CHEST RIG.

IT’S A CLASSIC

CHI COM CHEST RIG AS IT NAME SUGGESTS THE “chi com” is a chest mounted webbing system originally made for the SKS and AK47 rifles in the 1950s by, unsurprisingly, CHInese COMmunists as a cheap and practical way to carry ammunition for their licenced copies of these soviet small arms.

Fabricated from sturdy webbing the AK47 variant became the “classic” looking webgear of the Vietcong in the Vietnam War, the Mujahidin in the Soviet war in Afghanistan and numerous insurgent groups in Africa’s many bush wars of the 1960s and 70s. While the guerrilla forces used them because they were cheap and easy to obtain, it’s a testament to their practicality that both US Special Forces and Spetsnaz operators would use these loadcarriers themselves in preference to their “superpower” fabricated tactical kit. Most rigs featured three main compartments for magazines with smaller additional pouches close to the sides for oil bottles, boxed ammunition and even grenades. Some models featured four “cells” for the ammunition and many users would soak and then stretch the fabric to enable two magazines to be carried in each cell rather than one. By the time of the Soviet Afghan war soviet troops were fashioning their own “chi com” style chest rigs out of groundsheet material and custommaking the “cells” to better fit their personal weapons.

FROM COLD WAR TO SMALL WARS

It would be easy to dismiss the Chicom chest rig as a cold war relic bit nothing could be further from the truth. During the 90s urban guerrillas in the Balkans would sport Chinese style chest rigs, while hundreds of miles away in Chechnya, Afghan War veterans on both sides of the conflict could occasionally be seen

reloading their AK from a vintage chicom.

Fast forwards to the modern day and the conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq have unleashed a new lease of life for this bombproof, battle-proven bastion of load-carrying equipment and equally, as in conflicts past, the free world fighters have not shied away from equipping themselves with the enemy’s kit, both for its sheer usefulness and to blend in and appear from a distance to be an insurgent.

For the airsofter, it’s almost a sin NOT to own a ChiCom. For the price of a couple of pints and a packet of crisps you could be the proud owner of one of the most well-designed and useful bits of tactical kit ever created. As a player you’ll soon find that stripping down your loadout to what you can fit in a chest rig (with a little bit of wrangling and sewing you can even get a pistol in one of the pockets!) is an incredibly liberating airsofting experience. The carry space might seem limited but you’ll soon find out that it can carry everything you might possibly need to carry the fight to the enemy... perhaps you don’t believe me but I’m sure the Vietcong, US MacSOG, Mujahaddin, GRU Spetsnaz,Vostok Battalions, SBS, Navy Seals, Taliban and many other “end users” will back me up!

www.airsoft-action.online

41

site WEST MIDLANDS AIRSOFT - HIGH COMMAND

KELLY “FEMME FATALE” HARDWICK TAKES A TRIP WESTWARDS TO VISIT A BRAND NEW CQB SITE RUN BY WEST MIDLANDS AIRSOFT.

WEST MIDLANDS AIRSOFT

HIGH COMMAND ON SUNDAY 23rd JULY, I TOOK A DRIVE into The Black Country to visit a brand spanking new airsoft site run by West Midlands Airsoft, called “High Command”. From where I’m based in the East Midlands, High Command is around a 50 minute drive up the motorway depending on the traffic. The site is situated within an industrial estate that’s tucked into a small suburban housing estate, in the heart of Rowley Regis. Despite its unlikely location, the industrial estate and the site itself is clearly signposted from the road to make it easier to find.

As you follow the signs into the estate and drive into the car park to the site, there are around 20 car parking spaces so it’s good to get there early to bag yourself a space. The safe zone is a short walk up a flight of stairs and is a central corridor with rooms branching off that are full of tables and chairs for players to organise their kit. As there are stairs leading to the safe zone you may want to pack lightly but the safe zone is a spacious room – just in case you do fancy bringing the kitchen sink!

The first room houses the official onsite shop, which is run by West Midlands Airsoft and supported by Staffordshire Militaria, which sells a variety of RIFs, ammo, pyro, scopes, sites

“AT THE END OF THE DAY, WE ALSO PLAYED A SUPER-FUN VIP EVACUATION GAME, WHERE THE VIP IS GIVEN A FORCE OF 6 BODYGUARDS TO ENABLE THEM TO MOVE THROUGH THE SITE AND REACH THE EVACUATION POINT …BUT THERE WAS A CATCH, THE VIP GOT TO USE THE NEW CLASSIC ARMY MINI GUN ON A TWO SECOND BURST FOR SUPPRESSIVE FIRE…”

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Site WEST MIDLANDS AIRSOFT - HIGH COMMAND

and plenty of accessories that you could need on the day. The site also has two other retailers onsite, supporting their game day shenanigans, which we’ll talk a little bit about now: The first supporting company is SIXMIL. com, who are an independent airsoft hire company based in Staffordshire, which offers a huge range of not only rental weapons, but rental loadouts too! From their “Recon” and “Ghost”, to “Assault” and “Tank”, the predesigned loadouts SIXMIL offer gives new/ beginner players the chance to facilitate a variety of play styles and looks, without the hassle of getting all the gear themselves!

I love this concept as it helps new players feel more involved in the game. The second supporting company is a retailer called Targetszone. Targetszone is a retailer based in Birmingham that specialises in field sports equipment from major brands including Armex, Anglo Arms and more but also have a large selection of military surplus and airsoft gear.

THE DAY

The day starts with a comprehensive safety brief from owner Paul and his team of marshals. The site runs a limit of 350 FPS max, semi auto only (except in the odd game that is agreed by all players before starting) and with a pyro limit of a 12 gauge magflash round, however, due to the amount of wood in the building strike-able pyro is not allowed.

The site itself is a 13,000 sq ft warehouse space that is set on the second floor of the building. It is a mixture of bright long, open areas, dark corridors and even darker kill housestyle rooms. It is exceptionally close CQB and with no minimum engagement distance, you can bet it is intense. The staff are constantly working to improve the site so it changes from week to week with new rooms being added, new doors and more permanent structures being built.

What about gameplay?

The games are capped at 30 players – 15 a side and that is a perfect amount for the site’s total playing area. The game modes played are varied to include death matches and objective-based game modes that keep the day fresh. We started the day off with a collapse and defend game to balance the teams which was then switched around. Other games during the day included an objective game where teams fought to dominate the killhouse to activate a target system and eliminate as many targets as possible in 30 seconds. At the end of the day, we also played a super-fun VIP evacuation game, where the VIP is given a force of 6 bodyguards to enable them to move through the site and reach the evacuation point … but there was a catch, the VIP got to use the new Classic Army Mini Gun on a two second burst for suppressive fire (of course all players agreed before game on and the mini gun was used by an experienced, trusted player). Everyone had a great day and the feedback from the games was excellent!

I have always said that one aspect of a site that is really important to me personally is the staff – this can sometimes make or break a site! The hospitality that I was shown from Paul, Kelly, Rob, Joe and the rest of the staff onsite was second to none. They were all super-friendly and chatted enthusiastically with all of their customers throughout the day.

The marshals had a great sense of humour during gameplay and this added to the atmosphere. One thing that impressed me during the day, was that Paul was consistently checking with his customers whether they were having a good day and asking if there was anything that could be improved – this shows me that he is not only passionate about his site but that the customer’s experience is paramount!

So what’s the walk on fee?

The walk on fee for members is £25.00 and for none-members is £30.00 each, including a hot lunch (which is a rarity at sites nowadays). Hires are available from SIXMIL starting at £25, so it is in line with game day fees at other sites.

Are there any issues with the site? There are only a couple of issues that I noticed whist on site and they are issues that are isolated to other tenants of the building. The site has 26 allocated car parking spaces, however, a few of them are taken up by abandoned cars – whilst it doesn’t cause a massive problem, although it is a little bit of an annoyance. The other issue lies with the men’s toilets other tenants in the building unfortunately do not look after the facilities, so West Midlands Airsoft has combatted this by opening up the women’s toilet that has a lock on it. Players and attendees of the day can ask at reception for the key to enjoy a pleasant, clean bathroom. Props to West Mids for taking such positive action regarding this!

Overall I had an absolutely fantastic day at West Midlands Airsoft High Command, the site itself (although not the biggest) is well laid out and the gameplay flowed well. The games that were played were varied and balanced. The players, marshals and staff were fun and enthusiastic to be around and made everyone feel welcome!

I’ll definitely be back!

www.airsoft-action.online

43

Book Review FROM D-DAY TO VE-DAY

FROM D-DAY TO VE-DAY – THE BRITISH SOLDIER VOLUME 1: UNIFORMS, INSIGNIA AND EQUIPMENTS

BY JEAN BOUCHERY

THIS MONTH GADGE HAS DECIDED TO TAKE A RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW OF A BOOK THAT’S BEEN IN HIS COLLECTION FOR A WHILE NOW AND HAS EARNED ITSELF A PLACE AS THE WWII “BRIT KIT BIBLE”.

JEAN BOUCHERY’S ENCYCLOPAEDIC work on British Army uniforms and equipment used during the latter part of WWII (the exciting part for Brit airsofters to be honest!) isn’t perfect but it’s pretty damn close. I originally bought this book on recommendation by a friend as “the book” to have when painting up my army of WWII British Airborne soldiers but before long I got into WWII airsofting and was so glad I had this tome.

Put briefly, Bouchery has collected and catalogued pretty much everything the WWII Tommy could have carried and been issued; from a Tommy gun to a tin opener, steel helmets to shell dressing and battle dress to blanco. But it’s much more than just a catalogue of kit. Most items are accurately reconstructed on authentic-looking real life models. So if you wanted to look like a D-day assault engineer for a game, then you can clearly see what kit was worn, what colour it should be (useful when buying reproductions which can often be the wrong shade) and most importantly, HOW the equipment was used and worn. To add context, recreations are often accompanied by large black and white archive photographs and unlike many “re-enactor books”, the examples in D-Day to VE-Day show the standard, normal and everyday soldier and not the weird and wonderful “exceptional” pics.

Alongside historical reconstructions the book also has a comprehensive guide to cap badges, unit insignia (including

diagrams of exactly where those badges and flashes should be on your battledress), campaign medals, rank badges and all the other tiny details that we start off not caring about but “need to know” once the WWII gaming bug hits us.

The book does have some minor faults. For a start it has clearly been originally written in French and while the translation is adequate, it’s not perfect every time. Secondly, as a picture tells a thousand words it can be a little light on text “explanation”. Information is presented concisely and in the form of captions, side bars and diagrams rather than the traditional “essays” found in titles like the Osprey series and so the reader may have to do further research if, for example, they want to know the origins of the parachutist “denison smock”.

If on the other hand you, more realistically, want to know what colour it should be, how it should look, just how baggy it should be etc., well you’ll find it all here.

Without a shadow of a doubt in the last decade of reenacting and airsofting British units in WWII this has been by “go to” book when building up a new loadout and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Many a time it has stopped my accidentally buying the wrong item because it looks like a bargain on eBay but when I checked my “bible” it turned out the eBay item was the wrong colour for WWII, the wrong pattern or (in one case) even a Belgian model!

Other WWII airsofters need not despair. Histoire and Collection have a range of these titles so whether you’re a Screaming Eagle or a Waffen SS warrior you can find a “kit bible” just for you! www.airsoft-action.online

45

ARMOURY LCT RPK74S

RUCHNOY PULEMYOT KALASHNIKOVA IN ISSUE 76 OF AIRSOFT ACTION JERRY NONE GOT HIS HANDS ON THE STUNNING RPD SUPPORT GUN FROM LCT. NOW HE LOOKS AT A MORE WALLET-FRIENDLY MODEL THAT WILL LET YOU TAKE AN LMG ONTO THE FIELD WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK! OH, THAT RPD! I THINK I HAVE bored the whole Airsoft Action team to tears by now because I just keep going on about it but what a piece of work it is! That said, it’s also the best part of a grand so I honestly believe that it’s a model that is destined for the armouries of the airsoft collector and hardcore MilSim player, rather than us simple skirmishers and BattleSim dabblers. I personally fall into a wide camp in styles of play and as much as I absolutely adore the OPFOR role, especially in a

fully-immersive MilSim setting, I still gulp when I look at that price-tag.

I mentioned in my review of the RPD that if 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 stick with the LCT range and take a gander at their RPK models. Whilst not quite so iconic as the RPD, the RPK still ticks an 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!

PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT

The RPK (Ruchnoy Pulemyot Kalashnikova or “Kalashnikov hand-held machine gun”) was developed by Mikhail Kalashnikov in the late 1950s, in parallel with the program that led to the updated and improved AKM assault rifle. It was created as part of a program designed to standardise the small arms inventory of the Red Army.

The RPK functioned identically to the AK-47 and the AKM and made use of the same 7.62×39mm ammunition so that, both in terms of understanding and commonality of ammunition, it was in many ways the ideal squad support weapon, it’s doctrine a continuation of magazine-fed support 46

October 2017

ARMOURY LCT RPK74S

guns such as the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) and a precursor to the likes of the much-scorned L86.

It had an almost identical design layout to the AK-47 and AKM series of rifles, with modifications to increase its effective range and accuracy, enhance its sustained fire capability and strengthen the receiver. The RPK featured a heavier and longer barrel than the AK/M which allowed for the weapon to be fired for extended periods of time without major loss in accuracy due to the barrel heating up.

The bolt and bore were both chromium-plated and the barrel itself was permanently fixed to the receiver and could not be replaced in the field, somewhat limiting its effectiveness as a truly suppressive weapon (back to the L86… why did we not learn?). It was fitted with a new front sight base but the gas block lacked a bayonet lug and an under-barrel cleaning rod guide necessitating a separate cleaning and maintenance kit to be carried. The barrel was pinned to the receiver in a modified trunnion, reinforced by ribbing and was slightly wider than the trunnion used on the standard AK/M type rifles. If you’re an AK fan like me and belong to any of the popular AK users pages online, then you’ll know that in the real world the trunnion is often a point of failure so this “beefing up” seems perfectly logical for a weapon that would put more “rounds down” than perhaps the average assault rifle.

The RPK also had a slightly longer receiver, by about 20mm.

Online sources tell me that “this was done to decrease the fire rate slightly but not significantly enough to lower it any less than 600 rounds per minute (RPM). The U-shaped receiver is stamped from a smooth 1.5 mm (0.06 in) sheet of steel (compared to the 1.0 mm (0.04 in) sheet metal receiver used on the standard AKM rifles. It uses a modified AKM recoil spring assembly that consists of a rear spring guide rod from the AK and a new forward flat guide rod and coil spring.”

The RPK featured a thick laminated wood foregrip and a fixed laminated wood “club-foot” buttstock, similar to the stock used on the RPD, which was designed to allow the user to fire from the prone position more comfortably. It used a standard AKM pistol grip and could also use standard AKM detachable box magazines but it was most commonly used with a 40-round box magazine, or a 75-round drum magazine.

STORMING FORWARD

The RPK-74 was introduced in 1974 together with the AK74 assault rifle and chambered for the new 5.45×39mm highvelocity cartridge - although the West took longer to recognise the changes in the support variant as it so closely resembled its predecessor. The RPK74 also uses a longer and heavier chromium-plated barrel, which has a new gas block with a gas channel at a 90° angle to the bore axis and a ring for the cleaning rod and it is equipped with a folding bipod and a different front sight tower. The muzzle is threaded for a flash suppressor or blank-firing device. The rear stock trunnion was further strengthened again and the magazine well was reinforced with steel inserts. The rear sight assembly, forward handguard and receiver dust cover were all retained from the original RPK. The RPK74 feeds from a 45-round steel or polymer box magazine, interchangeable with magazines from the AK74; drum magazines similar to those used on the previous RPK models were tested during its development phase but were discontinued in favour of the 45-round box magazine.

However, recently the production of a 97-round drum has started.

In both calibres there is also the RPKS, which is a variant of the RPK with a side-folding wooden stock that was intended primarily for air assault infantry (the S for “Skladnoy” or Folding). Again, online sources inform me that “changes to the design of the RPKS are limited only to the shoulder stock mounting, at the rear of the receiver. It uses a trunnion riveted to both receiver walls that has a socket and tang, allowing the stock to hinge on a pivot pin. The trunnion has a cut-out on the right side which is designed to engage the stock catch and lock it in place when folded. The wooden stock is mounted in a

pivoting hull, which contains a catch that secures the buttstock in the extended position.” The rear sling loop was also moved from the left side of the stock body to the right side of the stock frame to facilitate carriage with the stock in the folded position.

FULL COVER

With the timeline for the RPK established I think you’ll be able to understand what I mean by its “longevity” of service. With minor cosmetic changes that baffled even the experts for some considerable time back in the 1980s I think you’d have to come up against a proper “stitch bitch” to call you out on using the RPK for any loadout from the mid-1960s onwards and simply changing out the profile of the magazine from an AK/M style metal version to an AK74 style “Bakelite” would be enough in my mind to differentiate that timeline.

The LCT RPKS is an absolute beauty in its own right. I’ve become a huge fan of the LCT brand since I tested the first model to land in the UK with Fire Support, which in turn led

www.airsoft-action.online

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ARMOURY LCT RPK74S

to me buying one of their AKMS replicas for my own use. This has proved to be a reliable AEG that looks great and is a real performer in its own right! As with the other “AK” variants they produce, the RPK features the same high-quality internal build I’ve come to expect from LCT products, utilising 9mm bearings, a 22,000rpm motor, a brass, chrome-plated cylinder and both the cylinder and piston heads are CNC Aluminium Alloy. The wiring throughout is high quality 18AWG, which will give good, reliable long-term performance and the inner barrel as standard is a 610mm brass 6.02 performance model.

Overall the external features of the RPK are excellent too as it comes with a full steel receiver and barrel assembly, beautifully achieved wooden fore-end, wooden pistol grip and a rock-solid side-folding wooden stock. Enhanced by high quality externals, scrupulously achieved internals and extreme attention to detail, the RPK is a strong, reliable and extremely attractive AEG. With all that technical information in hand I really wanted the RPK to be a beast so it was time to grab a battery and some BBs and head to the range. LCT recommend an 11.1v Li-Po as the power source for their AKs and given that the battery sits neatly under the top cover (with the fixed stock RPK it goes into the stock) you really need to find the right one. As you can imagine this is quite a narrow, short space and I found that a NUPROL NP Power 1450mah 11.1v 30c LiPo Nunchuck Type could be sequenced in with care.

Through the chrono the RPK came in perfectly for the UK market at a site-friendly and fully legal mean of 1.03 Joule/334fps using .20g BBs. With this out of the way it was time to set up my falling plates and see what the RPK

was capable of. After correctly setting the hop at 30m, to the extent of my testing range, on semi-auto using some lovely NUPROL RZR .28BBs, the thing was absolutely devastating straight out of the box; with that long 610mm/6.02 inner barrel it was definitely a case of shoot and hit. Switching the safety lever to its full-auto mid-point (the replica RPK still works just as the real thing does in this respect) I was soon knocking over those plates on controlled three-round bursts.

If you like your Russian gear, are a regular OPFOR player, or just want something different in way of a support gun then the LCT RPKS could be just the right RIF for you; it has all the benefits of the fullstocked 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 loathe as I personally am to say it, by chucking on a 2,500 BB Drum Mag you’ve got yourself the perfect “skirmish slayer”!

My sincere thanks go Fire Support, who kindly supplied the test RPKS, which I have to admit is destined to be bought and added to my OPFOR armoury. Fire Support currently have the RPKS available for sale at an extremely attractive £339.00, with the standard RPK at £325.00. Check them out by visiting the LCT page on www.fire-support.co.uk

Technical Details Colour: Black

Weight: 4.52kg

Main Material: Steel and Wood

Gearbox: 9mm Bearing

Min. Length: 840mm

Battery: 11.1V battery, AK Type (not supplied)

Max. Length: 1060mm Inner Barrel Length: 610mm

Power (.20g BB): 1.03 Joule/334fps

www.airsoft-action.online

49

event R.I.F.T. 5TH BIRTHDAY BASH

LES LEE REPORTS FROM R.I.F.T. AIRSOFT’S FIFTH BIRTHDAY BASH, WHICH WAS ALSO A STOP ON THE ASG “NO PHOTOS TOUR” CALENDAR. WHAT MORE COULD A FUN-LOVING EVO FAN WANT?

NO PHOTOS AT R.I.F.T. BIRTHDAY BASH

“

50

”

RIGHT OFF THE BAT I WOULD LIKE to thank Paul Wignell of ASG fame for inviting me to what was, without doubt, THE most fun day that I have ever had with my clothes on (generally speaking of course) during my airsoft career... and I didn’t even squeeze a trigger!

This wasn’t “just another” airsoft event though, this was an airsoft festival hosted by one of the UK’s most reputable and respected airsoft organisations, R.I.F.T. Airsoft, who are known for their efficiency and attention to detail - amongst so much else.

The day also included the ASG/ICS “No Photos Tour” promotion, ably manned by Jake Lacey, ASG area sales Manager for the South of the UK and thoroughly decent chap. Also present with a huge marquee of awesomeness was Combat UK, selling just about everything airsoft apart from the combat ready kitchen sink (these are available in various camouflage and tight-bore plug hole by special order only!). Not only were these VIP guests present, this just happened to fall on R.I.F.T.’s 5th birthday, so cake, cake and more cake was gobbled by the caked crusaders. The usual lunch, snacks and refreshments were available and there was also a hog roast and an ice cream parlour on site. Out in the game zone, the briefing included a bunch of presentations to various people for their loyalty and commitment to R.I.F.T. over the years.

October 2017

As if this was not enough already, there were four separate competitions being held. A revolver duel, Russian Roulette “R.I.F.T. style” (to the butt cheeks for safety reasons), Marksman target shooting for DMRs and snipers and a pistol and shottie timed target competition were included for those with a competitive nature. With a contingency of around 200 attendees, this was set to be a day to remember… and it most certainly was!

Let’s start with a little about R.I.F.T. Airsoft and the family behind it, Tony, Hazel, Steve, Lisa, Deanna and Hayley, plus the vast array of marshals, all wearing uniform, comms and carrying significant first aid kits. Jo-Jo the medic was present (thank you for treating my hot stuffing burn Jo-Jo), fire-fighter Kev and just about every health and safety application was secured. Tony’s briefing was, to be frank, extremely comprehensive and left no stone unturned. The R.I.F.T. policy is “If it’s going to be done, it’s going to be done properly” thus leaving no room for error or misunderstanding, however amongst the serious briefing material, Tony always managed to keep his audience captivated by including the occasional chunk of humour thrown in which kept it interesting

event R.I.F.T. 5TH BIRTHDAY BASH

and the shooters focused. Tony’s maxim “A detailed brief saves a load of grief” is perfect!

Today’s “ASG No Photos” tour was held at R.I.F.T.’s premier site, Com’s Site 3 (one of the six R.I.F.T. sites) which is at Chipping Warden near Banbury, Oxfordshire and is nestled in an area which was formerly a commissioned RAF WWII site so, as you might expect, it is awash with underground bunkers, brick trenches, buildings, barriers all surrounded by lush woodland and a good amount of proper roadways which conveniently surround the game area and create great orientation and “dry-under-foot” comfort if you don’t like getting muddy. This in itself isn’t a problem either, as the dense woodland creates a natural canopy, helping to keep players dry, making this an all-weather site but not forgetting vast areas of open fields with tactical cover in place, some original and some added but done with incredible authenticity to keep the theme alive.

As you would expect with any of the R.I.F.T. sites, the fringe facilities also offered are of the highest standard. Hard parking, toilets, quality food, sheltered kit-up area... the list could go on.

Com’s Site 3 had been selected to host one of the ASG “No Photos” tour venues and ActionSportsGame’s Jake Lacey had this to say when I asked him about today’s event: “The No Photos Tour was created so we could directly support our retailers at events by showcasing our products to the end users. By screaming and shouting about the event it attracts more players and therefore widens the audience for both parties, ultimately to help our retailers and strengthen brand awareness. The term “No Photos” is reverse psychology.

We may have new and exciting products with us and of course everyone can take photos. These then get put on social media or shared around with friends. This is a great advertising method.

The fact we state that it’s “No Photos” will immediately attract customers and people try and take sly pictures of things because they don’t think they can.”

I also asked Jake for his candid opinion about the venue to which he replied; “Where do I start? RIFT Airsoft… Wow! It was their 5th Birthday celebration of Com’s Site 3 and with nearly 200 players it was a fantastic day.

A great family feel to the site with more than just a skirmish happening. Jam-Packed full day of marksman challenges, Russian roulette, timed target shooting and much more. Thank you to Tony & Hazel for having us and putting on a cracking event. ASG will definitely be back next year.

Bring on 2018”!

For those of you that have not had the privilege of meeting Jake yet, let me give you the heads up on this formidable addition to the ASG team. Jake is the Area Sales Manager for the South of the UK at the age of 22. He has been airsofting since 2010 and caught the airsoft bug straight away whilst playing an event at Shadow Opz Airsoft in Dover. Jake has also been with Stirling Airsoft for 3 years and shares my view that who can complain about working within the industry when it is such a huge hobby to begin with. He runs a Scorpion EVO kitted out to the max with a P-09 as his sidearm uses Devil Blasters when he is out in the field.

that warmth throughout the day, so let’s meet the family: Hazel – Wife (Admin, Catering, Marshal Organiser and Tony’s boss!)

Steve – Son (Site Manager) Lisa – Daughter (Marshal) Deanna – Daughter (Catering) Hayley – Daughter (Happy Helper!)

JoJo – Steve’s Fiancé (Paramedic Marshal) Com’s Site 3 was originally “Communal Site 3” and served RAF Chipping Warden.

It was basically the main area where all the Ladies and Gents in the RAF would go to “Chill Out” with a bit of R&R. During the war it was very busy indeed and hundreds of RAF service men and women would use the site daily. The site had its own shops, barbers, fuel depot, post office, shower block and baths and was selfsufficient with its own power plant and pumping station.

After the War it was sold to private owners who used it for recreational and agricultural purposes. The “YMCA” building was restored over 40 years ago and made into a very nice house in which a lovely couple still live today. Many locals used to play at Com’s Site 3 when they were children; they would run around and hide inside the bunkers and brick trenches probably playing war games… so no change there then!

R.I.F.T.

One of the huge advantages that R.I.F.T. have over many other airsoft organisations is that it is family run, and you can “feel”

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event R.I.F.T. 5TH BIRTHDAY BASH

There is a very close link with both R.I.F.T. and Combat-UK and I was curious to know more, so during interrogation, Tony explained: “I was introduced to Edward Leo by one of my Head Marshals (Terry) back in 2013. Ed had a small military surplus stall in Stevenage Market under the name “Combat-UK” and as a TA Serviceman he had a lot of interest of anything and everything military. I believe he knew about airsoft but he had never attended an event. I invited Ed to come up and display his goods and promote his business – he accepted and we still recall how this event really forged a direct path forward for Combat-UK. “Com’s Site 3 has also had the privilege of Pro Airsoft Supplies and M4 MASS Retail Shop on site – it really has made a difference. Combat-UK hold a raffle every game day and usually offer fantastic prizes, such as the ASG EVO Scorpion, which is an amazing prize indeed! (Author’s note: Combat-UK are soon to be the subject of an “Inside Airsoft” feature in Airsoft Action).”

Anyway, back to today’s “ASG No Photos Tour” and birthday celebration… This 5th birthday festival of fun and games was certainly something to be proud of and Tony was determined to make it a day to remember!

Com’s Site 3 usually books in between 120-150 players every two weeks and they knew that the booking numbers would be higher than usual, so in preparation he expanded the car park and added extra “mini games” for players to take part in - and in typical R.I.F.T. style hospitality, all of the events had prizes to be won or found. However, above all that (and probably the most cherished moment of the day) was that over ONE THOUSAND POUNDS was raised during the day and donated to the Fire & Rescue Service.

As the day was coming to an end, I managed to catch up with Tony for his final thoughts on this festival of firepower, frolics and fun, along with a few words of reflection, to which he replied: “I believe EVERYONE deserves recognition from the Birthday Game! The players were AMAZING! Such great sportsmanship, Approx 18 acres friendly and happy!

“My marshal team Undercover safe zone with is, in my opinion, one concrete parking of the best in the UK Combat-UK On-Site shop and (Author: I concur). Their tech work dedication to assisting 70 metre shooting range players, looking after the players and their 5 buildings safety is second to 5 underground bunkers none. All members of (Stanton Shelters) staff at R.I.F.T. Airsoft 17 brick trenches (original work really hard to give WWII) the customer the best Tarmac roads experience possible!

Rubble piles (Stalingrad!)

Site Features:

“And not forgetting the media megastar, Les from Airsoft Action - a “Celeb” on site! Everyone gave him a big cheer and he was very busy all day taking photos and chatting to the players. Thanks Les! ASG, ICS, Combat-UK, Airsoft Monkey (Tech), Hog Roast and Ice Cream Van were all on site to make a fantastic experience even better and I would like to throw a massive THANK YOU to Ed at CombatUK for his steadfast support and great ideas.

He has made such a huge difference to R.I.F.T. Airsoft and relieves me of my hard earned cash as often as he can! The 5th Anniversary Day was the best airsoft experience I have had since I started playing in 1994 and, quite simply, it couldn’t have gone any better.

“Finally, I would just like to say that R.I.F.T. Airsoft isn’t just a business that I run to make a living. R.I.F.T. Airsoft is my life and I am so proud of my family, marshals and all the 100s of friends I have R.I.F.T. Airsoft Ltd. made along the way. THANK YOU ALL www.riftairsoft.com FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART.” Thank you Tony. Your comments are info@riftairsoft.com heart-warming and most welcome and, 0775 158 6781 for the record, it gives me great pleasure to say that this has been one of the best days of my airsoft life. I am sure that you will achieve your personal goal, to organise and host a massive airsoft event - it’s just a matter of time.

Even though I didn’t get to play, this festival was just incredible. I made new friends, met old battle buddies, the atmosphere was just alive with miles of smiles and I got to do what I do best - socialising with my fellow airsoft family members.

Nice one Tony!

Contact Details:

Fuel depot Concrete paths Natural slopes/ditches/ grassland and lush woodland.

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53

International NETHERLANDS

GOING DUT

WITH RECENT CHANGES IN UK LAW IT SOMETIMES FEELS AS IF WE’RE A LITTLE HARD DONE BY BUT AIRSOFT IN THE NETHERLANDS HAS GONE THROUGH SOME REAL TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS BEFORE BECOMING LEGAL AT ALL. BILL THOMAS SPOKE WITH RONALD FROM NLAIRSOFT, A FORMER NABV BOARD MEMBER, TO GET THE FULL PICTURE OF HOW THINGS STAND NOW. WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING the real lowdown on how airsoft is in another country, I’m really blessed that over the years my international contacts have just stacked up and continue to do so. Ronald is the owner of NLAIRSOFT.COM and AirsoftMeetup. com and has been since 2002. He’s also one of the main guys behind annual meeting at IWA where the “Players Choice” awards are presented. Plus he is also the co-Founder of the Dutch Airsoft Association (NABV) which started back in 2004 and, on top of that, also a co-Founder and Board member of 54

October 2017

the European Airsoft Association. On a personal note he’s been into his airsoft since 2001, so you could say that he knows a thing or two about what we all do!

I’m lucky enough to be married to a wonderful Dutch lady myself and therefore have been acutely aware of the state of airsoft in The Netherlands, or until very recently the lack of it due to an historical ban. I have, however, been privileged to play airsoft alongside some great Dutch players at big games here in the UK and in my time even helped them out with kit

International NETHERLANDS

when they have travelled here; the commitment shown by Dutch players to airsoft is undeniable.

To say that Ronald knows “a bit” about airsoft in both The Netherlands (Holland is a part of The Netherlands just FYI ;) ) and across Europe in general, would be a huge understatement and he’s another of that committed band of “quiet enthusiasts” that has campaigned and fought for airsoft time and again. That said, I really wanted to know about “our great game” in The Netherlands itself and therefore targeted my interview accordingly.

AA: Hi Ronald! Please can you tell me a little about how airsoft has developed in and the current state of things in the Netherlands?

“Sure! Airsoft was actually banned in The Netherlands till 2013. Starting in 2004 I founded the NABV together with Joachim Dekkers to lobby for our beloved sport and make it possible in our home country. And since 2002 I have run my website NLAIRSOFT.COM to provide the latest airsoft news and promote the sport worldwide though.

“Before 2013 we travelled a lot towards Belgium where there were just several skirmish sites and a handful of Dutch players. We had to store our Airsoft replicas in Belgium and even maintenance and upgrades all had to be done remotely.

At the same time with the NABV we had a long fight to get

UTCH

airsoft legitimised and we were getting closer and closer to our goal. Then finally at the end of 2012 we received the good news that Airsoft would finally be legal in our country soon. On January 15th 2013 Airsoft in our home country was a fact! Since then a lot has needed to be arranged to lead everybody in the right direction. We started with almost 4,000 members and currently have nearly 15,000 active members and we’re still growing rapidly at about 300 new players a month!

(Background: https://nlairsoft.com/en/home/item/breakingairsoft-legal-in-holland.html ) AA: Do you have many established outdoor sites in the Netherlands now? Could you tell me a little more about them?

“Yes we do, please come and visit The Netherlands and check out some really cool terrain! We have now got skirmish sites all over The Netherlands. We certified “Balls & Arrows” as the first recognised site. Rapidly many new sites are spreading all over The Netherlands. Recently the NABV officially opened the National Airsoft Centre; this is a big 2,940m2 indoor playground, with IPSC, CQB, 5x5 MET and 3x3 competition elements so it’s really worth a visit! The NABV National Airsoft Centre is located in Geldermalsen which is bang in the centre of the country. Please check for a nice map here: http://www.nabv.nl/airsoft-in-nederland. Filter on ‘locaties’.”

AA: Do sites and players have any legal restrictions to contend with?

“Sure they have! The NABV certifies sites and basic requirements like a decent safe zone, insurance, medical support, etc. need to be in place. Regarding players, they need to be at least 18 years old and they can have a certificate of good behaviour and an NABV membership. In this way players are able to store and play with Airsoft devices at certified sites perfectly legally.

“In relation to safety and power levels all players are required to wear at least ballistic safety glasses with an EN/CE rating. Site power levels are usually set at max 1.2 Joule/360fps for a regular AEG/GBB and 2.31 Joule/500fps for a bolt action sniper rifle. Not all sites run a semi-auto DMR rule but those that do will ask for a max of 1.48 Joule/400 fps; of course this is all measured using a .20g BB. All sites publish their power requirements, so as always it’s best to check in advance with them direct, especially if you are visiting from the UK!” AA: Being fairly central within Europe what opportunities does that offer in nearby countries for you?

“Well we at last are able to play airsoft in our home country, so this has become greatly important and is our focus, so please feel free to visit and have fun! As far as the legislation and professional sports association the NABV is, we can be a great example for the rest of Europe.”

AA: What’s a normal game day like for you?

“I have to admit I play less these days since we have a small kid. When I play it’s nearby Tilburg and with as many old friends as possible. I still have to visit a nice site named “Wild Mountain” in Weert. It’s on my bucket list. *Smile*.”

AA: What is a popular style of play in the Netherlands, regular skirmish, MilSim or both?

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“Actually both! We have great skirmish and MilSim games. Not to forget those indoor CQB area’s we have. “H.E.L. Shooter” is for example a unique concept! See for more details: https://www.helshooter.nl/ “ AA: Do airsofters train either as individuals or teams? What avenues are there for training?

“Most play with their team. However there are many individuals or freelance players not committed to a team.

Which is just fine; The National Airsoft Centre is a great place to train and test your equipment. Also maintenance and adjustment can be made and tested on a 60 meter indoor range.”

AA: Like us you have a huge range of annual temperature and weather conditions to contend with; what’s important to you in relation to your gear?

“Just dress properly. Winters can be really cold in Holland and summer can be extreme. I’m more a good weather player haven’t used my Arktis smock for years! Regarding equipment AEG and AEP are most reliable in our country. You need to be careful with GBB RIFs in winter times, just as you do in the UK.“

“RAPIDLY MANY NEW SITES ARE SPREADING ALL OVER THE NETHERLANDS. RECENTLY THE NABV OFFICIALLY OPENED THE NATIONAL AIRSOFT CENTRE; THIS IS A BIG 2,940M2 INDOOR PLAYGROUND, WITH IPSC, CQB, 5X5 MET AND 3X3 COMPETITION ELEMENTS SO IT’S REALLY WORTH A VISIT!” AA: What is the situation with airsoft and tactical gear in the Netherlands; is it easy to get hold of?

“Airsoft surplus stores and high quality stores are plenty available here in Holland. From low end to very high end is easily available.“ AA: Are there particular brands and models of airsoft replica that are important to you?

“Well in the past year I have seen a lot of RIF, M4 models, different brands and AEG/GBB variants. My first AEG was a CA M15A4 Rifle and there is quite a collection by now (this probably sounds very familiar to all airsofters).

“Currently I really appreciate the out of the box quality of Krytac and the unique items RWA Group is bringing to the market. I’m lucky to test the Vector AEG as we speak and have shot the real steel version at SHOT SHOW 2017. This item will definitely make it to my personal collection!”

AA: Do Dutch sites have rental facilities if someone is visiting from overseas?

“Sure, do register as a foreign visitor via the NABV and you are more than welcome to visit and use rental services to play at a local site.”

AA: If anyone is visiting the Netherlands and is interested in visiting a site for a game day, where should they head for information?

“Do contact the NABV or the local field you would like to visit. We are happy to help and welcome everybody who is interested to play in Holland.”

AA: Thanks for answering all my questions Ronald and as always I look forward to seeing you at IWA in 2018!

“Looking forward to meet again! We will rock on for another 15 years with our airsoft news website NLAIRSOFT. COM and we hope to share more news on the European Airsoft Association at the Airsoft Meetup!”

Stay tuned ‘softers!

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57

feature WARGAMING & AIRSOFT

SMALL UNIT TACTICS ALL AIRSOFTERS LIKE PLAYING AT BEING SOLDIERS BUT AT AIRSOFT ACTION WE’VE NOTICED MORE AND MORE SKIRMISHERS ARE TURNING THEIR ATTENTION TO PLAYING WITH TOY SOLDIERS! GADGE HARVEY TAKES UP THE STORY… PERSONALLY, I’VE ALWAYS HAD AN interest in all aspects of wargaming but I was surprised to find just how popular tabletop gaming seems to be with skirmishers across the country.

During my travels as a regular correspondent with Airsoft Action I get to visit a lot of sites around the UK and most of these sites have a pretty decent array of stock for sale. Now normally this stock is what you’d expect; it is pyro, BBs, snacks and the odd bit of tactical kit but at a recent visit to Combat Ready in Derby I noticed something unusual behind the till – Games Workshop models and an array of paints and brushes!

AN ANCIENT AND NOBLE HOBBY?

But perhaps this is not so surprising. For centuries “combat” and “wargames” have gone hand in hand so why not “simulated combat” and “wargames” as compatible interests?

If we look back to antiquity, Roman and Greek commanders would learn their craft at the “sandtable” and fight mock table-top battles before being allowed to risk their own men in real combat (the sandtable being literally a mocked up mini battlefield on a sculpted board of wet sand). And up to the 21st century the German military utilised the “krieg speil” (war 58

October 2017

game) to try out possible tactics and strategies and “what ifs” of enemy reaction and counter attack. British officers well into the modern era would also ply their trade moving fictional formations on a map or mocked up battle board, before moving to the exercise fields to conduct “tactical exercises without troops” and, under the watchful eye of umpires, move make believe platoons against an invisible enemy.

So we can clearly see a good reason for the army to muck about with toy soldiers, so why not us ‘softers? For my own part, I had always fancied being a bit of a military commander but my chances of winning a Field Marshal’s baton were scuppered by a training injury that put paid to the chances of me ever entering Sandhurst. So dejected and wounded I settled for the next best thing, airsoft and wargaming and sometimes even being able to mix the two together, as a “tactical commander” at big weekender games.

As one of the co-ordinators of Gunman’s range of FilmSim events I found my airsoft game was almost like playing a table-top wargame with real people at times. While recovering from spinal surgery to fix the damage done in the army I was unable to be as “gung ho” as I’d normally be in a game and

Feature WARGAMING & AIRSOFT

was forced to take something of a back seat. It could have been the end of my airsoft gaming but my comrade Evo and I would direct the movements of the teams of players in their respective sections and platoons as they battled across the site, marking their positions with pins in a map and directing them by radio to respond to attacks, feints and counter manoeuvres by the other team. It was possibly the best “wargame” ever and certainly the closest I’ll ever get to conducting a military operation!

But it’s not just me with a connection to wargaming and roleplaying. Our editor himself started off in the wargames industry via his old magazine “GM”. GM was all about roleplaying games and live action roleplay and one month featured paintball as an option for playing out combats in live roleplay systems. As an avid reader of GM mag, I decided to dip my toe into paintball (and the editor himself later would get heavily into paintball) but from the off it was clear there was a link between table-top roleplaying games and paintball and in particular paintball larp type games… So why shouldn’t the same link exist in airsoft?

GUNS FOR GEEKS

Unsurprisingly it does! Nearly all of my airsoft mates are also wargaming geeks as well!

Before I discovered airsoft, for a good few years I worked as a manager for Games Workshop’s UK studio. I planned their open days and their weekend tournaments. I wrote the rules

packs for massive campaigns and even coordinated their 8,000 person “Games Day” event. You could say wargaming is firmly “in my blood” and it’s a short step from writing a table top wargaming scenario to writing a MilSim weekender for my local airsoft site. While at Games Workshop I made the mistake of taking receipt of a new AEG at work (way back in the day when that sort of thing didn’t raise an eyebrow with the boys in blue) and suddenly had a crowd of the lads round me. The geek crowd clearly found toy guns as exciting as toy soldiers and before long we had a team of 50 of us from the Lenton Head Office rocking up to airsoft sites around the country on a regular basis.

Now all of that is pretty understandable to be honest but the same close relationship seems to exist the other way around. In my mistaken youth, as a big Games Workshop fan and way before my time working there, I had a shoulder tattoo of the “Space Wolves” Space Marines logo. I was a bit embarrassed for a while, at being permanently marked with a toy soldier design (things you do in your teens, eh?) but at airsoft weekenders when changing my kit, some people outside of our GW team would notice it and go “Oh cool! I love Warhammer 40,000!” Clearly Sunday skirmishers enjoyed the potential to try out flanking manoeuvres, pincer movements and head on attacks in the comfort of their own home, as well as in the woodland.

The presence of a fair few “Warhammer 40,000” themed loadouts, one or two unofficial Warhammer airsoft events and even a whole team in Germany who dressed us as “Cadian

“WHILE MANY OF US OLDER GAMERS GOT INTO OUR TABLE-TOP GAMING IN AN AGE WHERE GETTING A NEW GAME MEANT A TREK TO A MAJOR CITY AND DELVING INTO SOME MURKY GAMES SHOP DOWN A BACK STREET STAFFED BY STONED HIPPIES AND BIKERS, FOR TODAY’S GAMER IT’S AS SIMPLE AS POPPING DOWN TO THE HIGH STREET OR SORTING YOUR ORDER OUT ONLINE.” www.airsoft-action.online

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Feature WARGAMING & AIRSOFT

Infantry” from the 40k game (complete with over the top huge shoulder pads and “laser guns” made from G36s!) makes it pretty clear that this symbiotic relationship between airsoft and sci fi wargaming is here to stay.

And there is a lot to be said for it. We can’t always be out there in the field but sometimes when you’ve seen a great action movie or played an epic first person shooter, you want something a bit more “hands on”.

What better than challenging a mate in a contest of skill and tactics over the kitchen table with respective forces, be they Xwings and Tie fighters, Orcs and Elves or Napoleonic French and British infantry.

As I’ve previously mentioned, I’ve been into all of this in a big way since my teens. I’ve played Dungeon and Dragons, advanced squad leader, Napoleonic battles, Xwing... you name it I’ve played it but the “big fish” in the pond (and the one that is close to my heart in a love-hate relationship…

I love it but when you work there for so long you get to hate it!) has got to be Games Workshop – and besides, I quite literally have GW under my skin!

For many people Games Workshop is the first contact they have with “wargames”. They’ve got a huge high street presence and with a “drop in and have a game” attitude, it’s easy to pop in as a novice and walk out with a boxed game under your arm. While many of us older gamers got into our table-top gaming in an age where getting a new game meant a trek to a major city and delving into some murky games shop down a back street staffed by stoned hippies and bikers, for today’s gamer it’s as simple as popping down to the high street or sorting your order out online.

Without a doubt Games Workshop getting out there on the high street, into computer games and even collaborating with high street board games like Hero Quest and Space Crusade in the 1990s made gaming, if not cool, then certainly acceptable.

Nowadays it’s hard to find a town that doesn’t have a gaming shop and more and more cities and towns even have gaming bars and cafes. That’s right you can be social AND a gamer and, what’s more, you can even get drunk while doing it!

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61

Inside Airsoft LEICESTERSHIRE AIRSOFT

LES LEE CONTINUES HIS PILGRIMAGE AROUND THE AIRSOFT SHOPS OF THE UK, WITH A VISIT TO A FAIRLY NEW BUT RAPIDLY GROWING RETAILER IN LEICESTER.

INSIDE LEICESTER EXCUSE THE ANALOGY BUT I do get somewhat excited when I hear “there’s a new kid on the block” because it is a true measure of just how popular airsoft is becoming and a new and/or improved retail outlet is a good testament to this. So when Phil Savidge from Leicestershire Airsoft contacted me via the office, I was all over it like a rash!

One particular aspect of this “Inside Airsoft” feature is that irrespective of the size of the shop they are all unique in their own way and nearly every time I see something that I like/want/ need or don’t need but I typically buy it anyway! Let’s face it, not many ‘softers have the same excuse as I, to spend hours in shops just absorbing the wares on offer in great detail. Show

me an airsoft journalist that doesn’t get excited about airsoft and I’ll show you a person that is in the wrong job!

Anyhow, the rise and rise of Leicestershire Airsoft has been quite a journey for Phil, from the grass roots of his initial airsoft sales until the present day and I’m happy to report that every step has been in the right direction in terms of meeting the demands of our needy brothers and sisters-in-arms of weapons of minimal destruction.

I managed to catch up with shop owner, Phil and let the information gathering exercise begin...

Les: Thank you for inviting Airsoft Action along to your shop and it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I have been hearing good things about Leicestershire Airsoft so perhaps you might like to tell me how it all began?

Phil: “Well thank you very much for taking the time to meet us and doing the interview, it means a great deal for us to be in a well known and loved airsoft magazine.

“It all started at Melton Mowbray, a small cattle market, whilst I was working at a local jewellers. I was doing Sundays with my dad on a car boot stall, selling archery items with the odd clear BB gun, nothing any decent player would even look at. We stayed on the cattle market for about a year until we had the option to rent a small unit on the same market place.

It was very small, made even smaller by the fact that we split it down the middle. My airsoft stock increased while I was located there, offering a small selection of the basics along with some starter RIFs. We soon reached a point where we had too much stock and decided to split up. We moved to Birstall which, while although it was a great base to further improve my stock, it was a bad choice for business. It was tucked down an alleyway and was often very hard to find for first timers and even harder to park. After a year there I called it quits and

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moved to my current location. Things are going very well and are definitely on the up.”

Les: Can you tell me about the staff, motivation and agenda behind the business?

Phil: “The team is very small, we’re a family run business so it’s just me and my other half, Sarah-Jayne.

“Our strategy is to keep both sides of the fence happy.

Great prices, stock and customer care with a small profit to pay our bills at the end of the month. That’s the game plan so that it’s a win-win with everyone happy.”

Les: Are you a one stop shop, for example, can you supply everything a player might need for a weekender?

Phil: “We certainly aim to be, no pun intended. We stock a large range of everyday essentials from protection, clothing, tactical carry gear, batteries, chargers, BBs, gas, and of course a selection of (by the time we have finished as we have only been here for 4 months) a total of close to 100 guns. We value all customers but love it when we get a fresh player and he/she walks in and walks out with everything they need all at once.”

Les: What brands do you stock and why and can you give me some general information on best sellers, what is trending at the moment, plus any preferred brands and your reasons?

Phil: We have, over time stocked many brands, some with great experiences and others with terrible tragedies although I won’t name and shame. We can order in a huge range of items from most brands but in store we focus on G&G, Nuprol, Ares, ICS for the guns and then a token of other brands if it’s an unusual model. I want to trust a product and know that when I see it leave, chances are I won’t see that same rifle again. I

only sell brands I know that I am happy to use myself.”

Les: Do you have anything exciting planned for the future, such as stocking new brands or expansion?

Phil: “It’s very hard to say with the store being as new as it is.

At the moment I’m working on filling the walls full of shiny goodness but once that is done and to be honest, we’re not far off, I’ll see what direction I go in. I do have a few ideas in the pipeline, one of which includes the sale of upgraded rifles, with the “fox” logo engraved on the lower receiver, maybe even custom anodized colours. Another is a possible expansion in terms of size. I also intend to look into obtaining my own active site sometime in the future.”

Les: Can you give me a little more info on your gun repair facility. Do you have a gunsmith and their experience and do you two tone?

Phil: I don’t ever act like I’m god’s gift to airsoft and I won’t try to be something I’m not so when a customer asks about repair work and upgrades, I am the first to say I don’t do it myself.

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Inside Airsoft LEICESTERSHIRE AIRSOFT

walking pound signs as the customer is looking around the store, we see people that love the sport, love the items and most of the time are just as interested in making friends.”

Having said that, I do have two guys on board that can do gun work if needed so it’s always best to give us a call and we will do all we can to help and offer sound advice. Also worth a note is that our very own Sarah-Jayne is looking into filling this gap as well giving us three options - but that’s something for the future. “ Les: What is your after sales policy?

Phil: “We offer a 6 month guarantee for manufacture faults but, having said that, we are not as strict as some. If it dies a few days after then of course we can still help, even if it’s a little past the guarantee we can come to some agreement but that is of course at our discretion. If we look at the item and it’s been dragged through a mud bog backwards then you’re on your own.”

Les: Do you have any connections with any other parties such as sites, any local teams or organisations, charities, etc.?

Phil: “As far as connections go there’s not a lot to say. We have a few friendships with a few sites, Matt Skirmish and Justin from the Gaol for example, both great guys with great sites so check them out. As for teams, we have our own team “Among the Elite” It’s fairly new so still needs to get noticed but keep a look out for the “fox patch” during your next game!”

Les: Well Phil, tell me in your opinion, why should airsofters buy from you?

Phil: “In a nutshell, as mentioned above, we try to be the one stop shop offering a price, stock level (for the store size) and customer care that cannot be beaten. We’re a friendly bunch happy to have a chat about airsoft or anything else. We understand airsoft is a community in itself so don’t just see

Les: Okay, If an item isn’t in stock, how long before it can be sourced and sent to the customer, and also some info i.e. turnaround time for internet orders?

Phil: “If an item is out of stock we can get it in, however, the speed depends on where it comes from. As an example, we have a supplier that can drop-ship so that will shave time off. Others don’t so it has to come to us before we can send it out. Worst case is we aim to get stuff in and out in a 5 day turn around. If it’s actually in store we process the order on a Wednesday and it turns up Thursday so next day delivery.”

Les: And lastly regarding the shop, is there anything that I have missed or more importantly, that you would like included in this Inside Airsoft feature, particularly of a unique nature to your shop?

Phil: “I think I’ll let one of our customers answer that for me, with the testimonial he wrote: “I visited the store on Thursday 26/01/17 seeking information about buying my 12 year old son his first airsoft rifle. Phil Savidge spent the best part of 4 hours talking me through all sorts of information about the sport and patiently answering all of my questions, without trying to sell me anything. Having watched Phil’s online reviews and Mystery Box package deals on You Tube, I returned to the store with my son the next day and was so impressed with the price, package and service that we both bought rifles and safety equipment in order to play together at our local skirmish site. We traded in our old air rifles and got a great deal. However, once I had got everything together on Saturday evening I realised that the magazine on my rifle was not functioning correctly and I would not be able to play the following day. Although Phil had closed the shop, finished for the weekend and taken his partner out for a meal he still offered to come to my house and get me sorted for my game the next day. He subsequently came to my house and helped me resolve my problem and today 29/01/17, I have played airsoft all day with my son and his friends. We have met loads of great people and had a brilliant time and I simply could not have done that without Phil’s help and wanted to thank him by telling everyone what a great service I received. I had never been to the store before Friday or met Phil and to go that extra mile to really help me out deserves recognition and my loyalty as a customer. I will tell everyone what a great service I received, thanks Phil!”

Well that wonderful finale pretty much winds this feature up and I would like to say a big “thank you” to Phil for that candid insight into Leicestershire Airsoft. As I stated in the beginning, Airsoft Action is always keen to support our own UK airsoft Leicestershire Airsoft businesses whether that is a retail Unit 3 Queniborough Ind. Est. shop, a site or anything that is (Behind the BP garage Branstons) home grown because each and 1487 Melton Road every one of us here at the AA Queniborough office are totally airsoft bonkers Leicestershire LE7 3FP and we will do whatever it takes to promote and enhance our own Tel: 07526 372108 family of airsofters... because we www.leicestershireairsoftonline.co.uk too are a part of this awesome www.leicestershireairsoft.co.uk family.

Leicestersports@gmail.com Les OUT!

Contact Details:

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UKARA DATABASE ISSUES

IT’S ALL ABOU FRENCHIE RECENTLY WROTE ABOUT UKARA AND THE DEFENSE THAT ALLOWS AIRSOFTERS TO BUY REALISTIC IMITATION FIREARMS AND MADE A PASSING REFERENCE TO RECENT ISSUES WITH THE UKARA DATABASE. AIRSOFT ACTION HAS BEEN CONTACTED BY READERS ASKING US TO THE BOTTOM OF WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON. OVER TO FRENCHIE… NEVER ONE TO DUCK A CHALLENGE I spoke to Frank Bothamley of Firesupport, the current Chair of UKARA about the database and about the efforts to safeguard airsoft within the Policing and Crime Act (PACA), which I wrote about a couple of issues ago.

To flesh out the information that was given to us I spent some time talking with Frank. This conversation presented me with a bit of a quandary - Frank was most forthcoming about what had happened and what was being done to resolve the issue, part of which I can’t use as it goes to the heart of the attack itself and might therefore aid anyone minded to try and repeat the incursion. I fully appreciate that there might be some out there who will be reaching for the “conspiracy” button on their social media feed and there is probably nothing I can

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do to convince them otherwise. The simple fact is that the importance of security cannot be overemphasised and given that I have a background in IT Security I’m possibly a bit more sensitive to this than others.

I will, therefore, tell you what I can about what I learned and ask your indulgence for the decisions I make about what to include and what not to include. If this riles a few of you, please direct your opprobrium towards me and not at Frank and UKARA. The UKARA database was subjected to a prolonged DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack. This attack lasted for several months; one of the attractions of DDoS attacks is that they are largely automated and don’t actually require the perpetrator to be glued to their keyboard all hours of the day.

The attack didn’t compromise the data held on the database, generally DDoS attacks aren’t intended to directly compromise data rather they aim to make it unavailable by swamping the server on which it resides. I’ll concede that if you cannot make use of your data because it cannot be accessed then your system is undoubtedly compromised, my point is that all the information contained on the database concerning players, sites and retailers was untouched and protected by backups. In this the attacker(s) succeeded insofar as the company hosting the database server made the decision to pull it offline after numerous attempts to stop the attack. I was curious why the hosting company hadn’t been able to better tackle the attack and I was told that it ultimately boiled down to the question of how much time and resources they were having to dedicate to resisting it for the sake of a single client. Not an ideal result but as someone who once pulled the network cable out of the

UKARA DATABASE ISSUES

OUT THE DATA server being used by a large firm of expensive (and arrogant) consultants, a decision I can sympathise with.

UKARA have no idea who was behind the attack and whether or not it was specifically targeted at them rather than being wholly opportunist.

It’s probably important to state at this point that the data on the system was regularly backed up and is currently in the possession of UKARA and no-one else. It’s this which has allowed UKARA to offer a number of workarounds to enable the checking of players to continue, albeit in a comparatively clunky manner initially. Contrary to some rumours flying around the fringes of airsoft, no one else has the data, no retailer has access to it, it continues to be subject to the protections offered by the Data Protection Act and the Information Commissioner’s Office and it isn’t being used for target marketing of airsofters in the UK. At the time of writing I am not aware of masses of airsofters being targeted by dodgy marketing emails.

I cannot go into why the database was vulnerable but I can say that in part it was due to its age - it was written 10 years ago - and although it has been maintained and updated it was simply no longer able to resist current attack techniques.

Where do UKARA go from here?

By the time you read this the database should be fully up and working again. It is currently being re-written from the ground up on current protocols and it is being redesigned to ensure its security and fitness for purpose into the foreseeable future. Retailers, sites and players may see some minor differences in the front end but they will find that the functionality is largely unchanged. At the back end there will be major changes, some driven directly by lesson learned from the attack, others occurring because of the opportunity to resolve some outstanding issues.

It goes without saying that the database shouldn’t have been vulnerable to attack but that is to an extent victimblaming. No one invited the attacker to target the UKARA

database and the ultimate responsibility for the problems caused lies with them. Could UKARA have done more to improve the integrity of the database? In all likelihood they could, IT environments aren’t static as anyone involved will appreciate and I would be surprised if more active management of the database might have ameliorated the damage done even if it didn’t stop the attack in its tracks.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and although UKARA comes in for a fair old slagging in some quarters, the vast majority of airsofters accept it and are happy to make use of a system which has by and large worked well and costs them nothing. It would be no exaggeration to say that some very hard lessons have been learned and as a direct result money is being spent to ensure that there is no repeat of this outage.

One issue that often comes up in my conversations with Frank is that of communication, or more accurately, lack thereof. Frank will admit that he tends to offer information when he has something concrete to say, an approach with which I have some sympathy, however, I personally feel regular updates might have made sites and retailers feel a little better about what was going on as they struggled to authenticate players. I’m not suggesting a constant presence, nothing good would come of that, but communication has to some extent always been UKARA’s “Achilles heel” and I would urge them to find a happier compromise to the current state of affairs.

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ARMOURY ASG CAA M4 14.5 PROLINE

AIRSOFT IS UNDOUBTEDLY DOMINATED BY AR AND M4 STYLE REPLICAS AND THAT SHOWS NO SIGN OF CHANGING ANY TIME SOON! JERRY NOONE FINDS A MODEL THAT’S JUST MORE THAN A LITTLE DIFFERENT FROM THE HERD IN THE FORM OF A CAA LICENCED RIFLE THAT HAS EVERYTHING GOING FOR IT.

CAA M4 14.5 PROLINE A SOMEBODY THAT HAS BEEN reviewing airsoft replicas for a considerable time I have to admit that I do sometimes give a little shudder when I hear from a manufacturer that they have a new model they would like me to take a look at, especially when asked they use a phrase something akin to “Well, it’s basically an M4 but…”

If you have even the most perfunctory of glances at airsoft models online, or indeed even in your local shop, you’re going to see a lot and I do mean A LOT, of “M4/AR” replicas. Things do change a little when it comes to longer SPR and DMR models but essentially they will still have pretty much the same “guts” as their carbine siblings driving things along.

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In one way you can view this as a positive, as it means that there is a plethora of accessory upgrade parts, both internal and external, for the M4/AR as it is such a popular choice for players but bolting aftermarket parts into and onto your AEG or GBB means that you can soon run into spending more than the gun cost in the first place. Once upon a time this was the way you would have to go if you wanted something even vaguely unique but as time moves inexorably onwards, manufacturers are adding more and more parts to “out of the box” airsoft replicas than ever before.

Attending both SHOT and IWA earlier this year, the “race” between manufacturers to add more and more “value” to their offerings without having to up prices, was especially noticeable.

Bespoke stocks and pistol grips, specialist one-off rail systems and funky flash-hiders were on show in abundance but I have to admit that one model caught my eye both in the USA and Germany and that was the “CAA” version of the AR offered by ActionSportGames (ASG) as a 7 inch, 10.5 inch, or 14.5 inchbarrelled carbine.

Founded in 2004, CAA is a long-established designer, developer and producer of first-rate tactical accessories, optics, tools and upgrades targeting the Armed Forces, Law Enforcement and firearm enthusiasts across the globe and have actually come up with many modern tactical accessories that have become the benchmark for the firearm industry.

According to their website; “CAA outfits firearms for maximum performance in any environment. Our innovative products improve your accuracy, grip, aim and enhance balance and performance. When equipping your firearm with our range of accessories, the user’s daily operations will become fluid and consistent.”

Their team has years of experience in the Israeli special forces. Moshe Oz is the founder and president of CAA Industries Ltd. and served for nineteen years in the most elite

ARMOURY ASG CAA M4 14.5 PROLINE

Special Forces units of the Israeli military and police, gaining first-hand knowledge, experience and understanding of the real operational needs of the user.

Based on his long years of experience, Moshe Oz founded CAA and went on to develop the CAA line of iconic modern tactical accessories, such as folding pistol grip/bipods for firearms and the RONI Pistol Carbine Conversion system.

Coming from and working with the most elite military forces, CAA has evolved into an international company that supplies truly rugged and reliable mil-spec equipment for firearm enthusiasts worldwide, ranging from users operating in the most hostile environments, covert operations, through to civilian use.

A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM!

In 2013 CAA made an announcement which stunned many: “Being one of the most powerful company manufacturing the leading products in the weapon accessories and parts for real firearms, CAA is very pleased to announce that we are going into the airsoft industry, to provide you, our customer, the best airsoft products you can get in the market.”

I’d spoken to CAA on many occasions at shows before this announcement was made and I have to say that, like many “real steel” manufacturers, they’d always shown some ambivalence towards the airsoft market. Putting things into context though, they obviously saw what accessory industry giant MAGPUL was up to with their PTS line developed specifically for RIFs and took note of that success!

CAA then, in my opinion, made a very sound move by linking their “Airsoft Division” with King Arms. King Arms, much like CAA, was founded in 2004, creating precision products and outstanding services. Making a bold move themselves in 2015 they moved their headquarters to Taiwan and have continued to provide excellent products of the highest

quality. I’ve had a number of King Arms AEGs over the years and personally rate them highly.

By combining AEGs of top quality with some of the most cutting-edge firearms accessories available, King Arms and CAA seems a match made in heaven and the products we’ve seen from this alliance thus far have been spot-on. With the extended partnership with ASG to distribute these models everything seems to be in place to ensure that we, the players, get full access to the newest variants as soon as they come available.

CHANGING IT OUT

For once I’m going to start with the internals of this replica rather than the externals. The quick spring change system Ver.2 gearbox helps to adjust shooting power easily and quality 8mm bearings are used for all the variants. On

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CYAN, MAGENTA, YELLOW, BLACK

PATROL LINE #Airsoft Action, JUNE 2017

WWW.HELIKON-TEX.COM

ARMOURY ASG CAA M4 14.5 PROLINE

get is a very, very distinctive full-metal replica “CAA” EMULRA-A upper and lower receiver married to a “CAA” X4MSD 12 inch quad rail. Rear-wired for ease of battery storage and changing, this M4 also benefits from a six position “CAA” SBS Skeleton Style buttstock and a great replica of the “CAA” UPG16 Interchangeable Pistol Grip; sadly this does not have the interchangeable backstrap of the “real deal” but it is most certainly very comfortable and ergonomic.

The flash-hider looks very similar to a Precision Armament M4-72 Severe-Duty Compensator, which is a great choice as the real thing is said to provide recoil reduction of up to 75% and its closed bottom construction, combined with upward biased venting, effectively eliminates both muzzle rise and dust signature. The carbine comes fitted with both front and rear “flip-up” sights which are unbranded but a dead-ringer for the CAA FRS and FFS. Even the 360 BB Hi-Cap magazine that comes as part of the deal is a spot-on replica of the CAA 30 round .203/5.56 MAG Magazine!

“I’M PLEASED TO TELL YOU THAT AS WELL AS MAKING USE OF TOP-QUALITY COMPONENTS AND LOOKING JUST PERFECT STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BOX, THE CAA ALSO SHOOTS LIKE A LASER!” the variant I received for testing there’s a 375mm inner barrel, fully adjustable hop-up as you’d expect and a MOSFET fitted as standard.

I’ll take a moment here just to comment on the MOSFET for new players that may not be conversant with this technology and why it’s important in AEGs, as most reviewers just mention it and move on.

Simply put, a MOSFET, or metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor, is an electronic “gateway” between the trigger and motor in an airsot gearbox and its role is to preserve the trigger contacts in your AEG. It does this by regulating the current going from the battery into the trigger assembly; when the trigger is fully depressed and full contact is made, the gun will cycle. A MOSFET will not allow you to fire until the electrical circuit is 100%, as a weak connection creates arcing, which creates carbon build-up on your trigger contacts and can cause more serious damage internally if things overheat.

Whilst not strictly necessary I have to say “top marks” to the manufacturer for fitting this as standard!

With things nice and workmanlike internally, I’ll turn to the externals and this is where the CAA proves that it is most definitely NOT just another M4!

It would have been extremely easy just to throw on a sliding stock and pistol grip from CAA along with their trademarks and say “job done” but oh no, this baby goes the whole hog.

Although they are clearly marked “For Airsoft Only” what you

JOB DONE!

So, here we have an AEG that works incredibly smoothly, looks the absolute mutt’s bits and is absolutely solid as a rock but, as always, that’s all well and good if the performance doesn’t match the rakish looks!

Well, I’m pleased to tell you that as well as making use of top-quality components and looking just perfect straight out of the box, the CAA also shoots like a laser! I chrono’d initially with .20g BLASTER BBs using an ASG 11.1V LiPo and as a “straight out of the factory” gun I got a reading at over 1.48 Joule/400fps! Now this will drop slightly as the hop beds in but given that the 2017 Policing and Crime Act is now law I needed to action things swiftly so as not to be found holding a Section 5!

Luckily the CAA, as I stated earlier, benefits from a quick change spring system which is fully detailed in the provided User Manual, so it was simply a matter of installing an M100 spring and with a little “fettling” I soon had the CAA in line with the new legal requirements, firing at a completely consistent 1.13 Joule/350fps on a .20g. With the spring changed and using a 11.1V battery this CAA was as snappy as, with superb trigger response and a great ROF. Accuracy-wise, with the relatively long inner barrel, the CAA is no slouch either, easily reaching out 40m+ and on target each and every time!

Word has it that these ASG Proline models will be hitting the UK stores with a retail price iro £350–£370 and it’s my firm opinion that at that level you would really be buying into a little gem of a RIF; with sound internals, stunning externals and great performance from the get go. The latest CAA M4s are really, really worth a look!

For more information on the full range of CAA Licenced models and much, much more please do pay a visit to http:// actionsportgames.com

Technical Details Colour: Black or Black and Tan Main Material: Aluminum Min. Length: 820mm Max. Length: 900mm Inner Barrel Length: 375mm Weight: 3.62kg Gearbox: 8mm Bearing Battery: 9.6V / 11.1V battery, Buffer Tube Type (not supplied) Power (with M100 Spring and .20g BB): 1.13 Joule/350fps

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Warriors THE BAND OF BROTHERS

IN HIS CONTINUING SERIES, GADGE WRITES ABOUT A GROUP OF AIRBORNE WARRIORS THAT WILL FOREVER BE SYNONYMOUS WITH D-DAY AND THE FEROCIOUS BATTLES THAT FOLLOWED.

THE BAND OF

BROTHERS

US PARACHUTE INFANTRY: D-DAY 1944 72

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Warriors THE BAND OF BROTHERS

decision to differentiate the uniforms of the men caused much ill feeling among the “glider rider” airborne who wanted to share the trappings of the parachute troops and felt that they took the same risks but had a lower status.

Members of the airborne forces were volunteers who had to undertake strict medical examinations to check they could handle the physical strain of airborne warfare, before attending the airborne warfare schools. Most paratrooper training was conducted at Fort Benning in the USA and split into two main phases: The first fourteen weeks conducted training at the squad, platoon and company level, while the second phase was two weeks in length and focused on battalion level operations. Comparatively, the training program allocated little training time to battalion operations. Prevalent in both phases of training was training parachute units to depend only on organic equipment and supply by parachute. A heavy emphasis on “self-reliance” meant that physical training for the recruits was arduous in every stage of training, as the men would need to be able to move significant distances carrying all of their airdropped supplies on foot, or by handcart and with only a small amount of glider-dropped jeeps.

After being stationed in the UK in Wiltshire and Berkshire to build up and train for invasion the, 101st would eagerly await the “go ahead” for the invasion of Europe with numerous false alarms before finally being assigned to drop into France on the evening of June the 5th. Companies of the 101st were dropped miles behind enemy lines on the eve of the D-day landings to seize key crossroads, bridges and strongpoints before the seaborne allied armies arrived to try and alleviate the effort on the bridgeheads and delay German reinforcements en route to the beaches.

Our paratrooper wears the US army’s M42 paratrooper jumpsuit. These cotton jumpsuits were originally unreinforced

AT THE FOREFRONT OF 1940s airborne warfare, the US Army’s “Screaming Eagles” of the 101st Airborne division would earn their place in the annals of history. Honing their fearsome battle skills at the knife edge of the D-day invasion and in the hardfought battles to liberate Europe that would follow.

WWII saw the birth of parachute warfare and while it was the Russians who pioneered the techniques, nearly every major power soon saw the value in airborne forces. The advantages of having highly trained light infantry able to ignore the limitations on mobility normally caused by difficult terrain and silently strike deep into the heart of the enemy were obvious.

In June of 1940 the US army created a test platoon of parachute infantry. The US army were not at that time involved in the Second World War and were able to analyse the successes and failures of other nation’s airborne combat missions and ensure that their formations learned from their future allies’ and enemy’s mistakes.

While all nations had been intrigued by the Russian pre-war airborne trials, it would be the lightning strikes by the German Luftwaffe’s paratroops that would stun the world and prove the worth of airborne infantry. Tests of the experimental unit proved successful and before long the army authorised the 1st parachute Regiment in September of the same year. Soon after the 82nd infantry division (raised in April ‘42) was made a wholly airborne unit and later the 101st airborne division was added to the airborne roster in August 1942. The 82nd and 101st are among the most well-known units of WWII but the US army also raised three other airborne divisions, the 11th, 13th and 17th. US airborne divisions consisted on the main part of parachute infantry but heavier equipment such as pack howitzers, mortars and heavy machine guns were often carried in by a glider infantry. Interestingly, while UK airborne divisions equipped their parachute and glider infantry with the same uniforms and webbing across the division, the US equipped its glider troops with the same kit as its “leg” infantry. This

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Warriors THE BAND OF BROTHERS

but early combat and training drops revealed that the suit was prone to wear and tear when the pockets were full to capacity.

To remedy this, reinforcement patches were often sewn onto the edges of the uniform, around the pockets and across the knees and elbows. These reinforcements were often darker than the uniform fabric and created a patchwork effect. Other “field fixes” to the uniform included stitching pockets from a spare jacket onto the sleeve to increase carrying capacity of the jacket. To stop heavily-laden cargo pockets of the trousers bouncing around when the soldier ran, leg tapes could be tied around the thigh to keep the pocket and its content secure.

The 1942 jump suit could be worn alone or, in colder weather, over the standard US army wool uniform.

One of the big bones of contention between parachute and glider infantry was (oddly enough) their boots. While glider troops wore the infantry’s rough out boots or service shoes with fiddly lace-up high leg canvas gaiters, the paratroopers were issued the far more practical brown leather Corcoran jump boots (as shown here). The Corcoran boot was quite revolutionary for combat footwear of the time, being strong, fairly water resistant and having a rubber-treaded sole, unlike the leather and hobnailed soles used by most armies of the 1940s.

Protecting our trooper’s head in combat is the airborne version of the well-known US M1 steel helmet. While superficially similar to the M1 helmet, the M1c and M2 airborne versions had modified liners and chin straps to prevent the two parts separating during a jump (the standard M1 helmet has a detachable liner that is largely held in place by friction and gravity). The chin strap was also, by 1943, fitted with a swivelling “bale” where the strap attached to prevent breakage under the stress of a parachute jump. Other noticeable differences with the infantry variant were a pronounced leather chin cup on the strap and, as seen here, many paratroopers wore more scrim on their helmets than line infantry and often attached emergency field dressings to the helmet net. Just visible under the helmet net are white tactical markings to enable other paratroopers to quickly determine which sub unit the soldier is in and also his officer or NCO status (a horizontal or vertical white bar on the back of the helmet).

For the lightly equipped paratroopers without ample mechanised transport and expected to fight unsupported for up to 72 hours, carrying capacity is everything. To this end the airborne forces would not only add extra pockets to their uniform as previously mentioned but also strap additional pouches to their improved M1910 webbing – many soldiers even having the units parachute riggers make up extra webbing pouches to slot onto their straps to enable them to carry a large amount of ammunition on the drop. In this example our man’s webbing is comparatively lightly laden but he is prepared for all eventualities and sports a wide array of weapons and tools.

A leather holster is worn on the belt to carry his Colt 1911 .45acp pistol and for close quarter fighting a “knuckle duster” trench knife is worn on a leg scabbard. Additional equipment on his webbing belt include a “carlisle dressing” with woundtreating sulphamide powder (as seen in Saving Private Ryan)

in a metal tin in its web carrier, a hand axe, his water bottle and a pair of wire cutters, while a map case is worn slung over the shoulder. Combat rations and even more ammunition are carried in his field pack worn on both shoulders and his final accoutrement is a marching compass suspended from a jacket pocket.

In addition to his pistol and knife, our soldier is armed with the US M1 Garand rifle. The Garand was perhaps one of the finest semi-automatic rifles of WWII. Able to be fired rapidly and accurately from its eight round “enbloc” clip, the Garand had the edge in rate of fire over German bolt action rifles at the cost of accuracy - although it is still a very accurate rifle in its own right.

For many airsofters interested in WWII gaming, US Airborne is often the first port of call. Its accessible and its exciting with great movies and TV shows like Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan allowing the relative newcomer to quickly see how the kit was worn and used, it’s also relatively cheap and comfy with a so many suppliers making excellent repro uniforms and original webbing still being available at sensible prices.

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Loaded or Unloaded GOING PRO

GOING PRO

IT’S ALWAYS GREAT WHEN YOU FIND A NEW MANUFACTURER OF TACTICAL GEAR AND CLOTHING, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE STORY BEHIND THE BRAND IS A STRONG AND CREDIBLE ONE. JERRY NOONE TAKES A LOOK AT THE “NEW KID ON THE BLOCK”, CANNAE PRO AND TELLS US JUST WHAT THEY HAVE TO OFFER. MANY OF YOU MIGHT THINK that the Airsoft Action Team head off to major shows around the world on a bit of a “jolly” but let me tell you from the get go, that as much as there is a social element with any industry gathering, everyone that heads to SHOT, IWA or the like is going to put in some serious “boots on the ground time” and cover literally miles of show floor in an effort to dig out emergent brands and stories.

Sometimes though, things just appear in front of you a lot closer to home and so it was at the Northern Shooting Show earlier this year that my attention was drawn to the eyecatching stand belonging to Cannae Pro which was situated next to that of Scott Country International who are distributor for the brand in the UK. I’d heard rumours and rumblings about Cannae Pro gear from other friends in the USA but until the show in Harrogate I’d not had time to get “hands on”.

So you may well ask, who are they, where have they come from and why should I be interested?

Valid questions all which I’ll endeavour to enlighten you on...

Cannae Pro Gear is now one of the fastest-growing tactical brands in the USA, producing superior quality gear, apparel

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Loaded or Unloaded GOING PRO

and accessories. Based in Long Beach, California Cannae Pro works with active operators from specials operations units, law enforcement, first responders and enthusiasts who specialise in the tactical, hunting and active/outdoor markets to develop a cutting-edge, practical and diverse product line.

Cannae Pro Gear was founded

by Robert Hollander, Chairman and CEO, a noted brand builder who has created and successfully launched numerous products, including those for the automotive industry and NASCAR, in addition to his ground breaking marketing of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Cannae’s experienced team is led by the company’s COO Andrew Work, who has built an international reputation for product development, sales and merchandising of consumer products ranging from outdoor, tactical, extreme sports and lifestyle accessories.

Named for the famous battle at which Hannibal defeated a vastly superior Roman force in 216 BC (historians consider “The Battle of Cannae” one of the most brilliant military victories ever!), Cannae Pro’s stated mission is to provide the best possible products that utilise quality materials like Cordura Nylon, YKK Zippers and Duraflex Buckles and are designed to meet the gruelling demands of combat while appealing to the modern urban user.

Robert Hollander has stated; “We targeted the tactical, shooting sports and active/ extreme outdoor market with an innovative product line of clothing, backpacks and equipment, because research showed that there is a real need for a range of technically superior products at a truly affordable price that deliver on the promise of performance.,” The company’s increased brand awareness has captured the attention of a number of industry professionals who have begun to use the products and recommend them due to their balance of features, quality and value. Cannae Pro’s unique designs and well thought out functionality have resulted in the company being approached by several firearms manufacturers interested in developing co-branded products.

It has been an incredible start for Cannae Pro and I find it incredible how quickly awareness of the brand is increasing inside and outside the core industry. Cannae Pro have already brought on a host of well-respected dealers and distributors to help meet consumer demand and the needs of military and law enforcement customers around the globe. And now they have now expanded their international reach considerably.

“BATTLE READY”

One of Cannae Pro’s first products, the Legion Day Pack, was designed to meet the needs of military and law enforcement operators while being comfortable and feature rich enough for daily use by recreational shooters and even businessmen looking for rugged packs. Designed and engineered for everyday carry, The Legion Day Pack meets the highest standards of Cannae Pro Gear. It’s ergonomically built to provide maximum comfort while carrying a light to heavy loads; with exceptional features, maximum durability, large wide body cavity, easy-access and more, this pack is ideal for all situations. This simple yet innovative pack really tells you all you need to know about Cannae Pro but in their words “this was just the start”.

With all the capabilities and features of the Legion Day Pack, the Legion-Elite Day Pack with Helmet Carry is designed for the heavy hitting professional operator. Ergonomically built to provide maximum comfort while carrying heavy loads, it also

has a helmet-carry/quick-access open compression pouch and a side 9” x 6” magazine zipper pocket pouch.

Moving into some detail with my favourite model in the lineup the Phalanx Helmet-Carry Duty Pack is designed and engineered for the extreme professional operator. Again ergonomically built to provide maximum comfort while carrying light-to-heavy loads, this is a pack that can be used for days at a time; it has a helmet-carry/quick-access compression front pouch, 9” x 6” Side Magazine Zipper Pouch, Enormous Easy-Access Main Body, Removable waist belt, an is Hydration/ Concealed Carry Capable. With exceptional features throughout the Phalanx is the prime Full Size Duty Pack for military and law enforcement and for us will make a superb MilSim “lugger”. Features on this pack include: • Strong Duraflex Buckles and Hardware • Reliable YKK Zippers • Full Zip Body for Complete Access • Helmet Carry Capable which can also be used as compression quick-access pouch • Quick-Access Zipper Pocket on Front • 9” x 6” Side Zipper Pocket Pouch (Can hold 4 M4 Magazines) • Quick-Access Protective Laptop/Tablet Compartment • Easy Grab Top Handle • “Super-Grip” Zipper Pullers • Back Zipper Compartment for 2-Liter Hydration Bladder and Concealed Carry Capable • 45 Mil-Spec Molle Attachment Points for Modular Customisation • 6 Exterior Heavy Duty D-Rings • 6 Exterior Compression and Tie Down Straps • Quick Access Side Pockets for Water Bottle, Magazines, etc.

• Exterior Earphone Port • Removable Waist Belt which can be also separately utilized as load-up belt • Internal Admin Organizer w/ 5 Open or Zip Pockets • Quick Access Soft-Padded Protective Eye wear Compartment • Fabric: Cordura® Nylon • Capacity 30 Litres (Main Body)/37 Litres (with Helmet Carry at maximum)

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Loaded or Unloaded GOING PRO

In addition to their dedicated “tactical packs” Cannae Pro also offer a number of models ideal for every day carry and use such as the Urban Prefect, Urban Cohort and Optio Sling Pack. These are also chock full of features; designed and engineered for the hustle and bustle of the urban environment, these packs meet the highest standards; with maximum durability, large wide body cavities easyaccess and more, whether you are battling the enemy, elements or the streets, or just want a pack to put books in these are absolutely ideal!

And there’s one item that all of us need and that’s a good, solid gun bag and Cannae Pro have the answer to this in their range too in the form of the Triplex Acies 3 Gun Bag. Named after the Roman battle formation that Hannibal faced in most of his battles, the Triplex Acies was one of the most flexible and adaptable formations on the battlefield. Cannae Pro believe in bringing that tactical brilliance to the gun bag market.

Whether you are competing in three gun competition, taking a class at a range, heading to your local site or simply need a case that can do it all the Triplex Acies is the bag for you. Complete with eye protection carrier, ear protection pouch and enough room for 2 long guns plus two pistols and their needed magazines, the Triplex Acies can do it all as the features are first rate!

• Strong Duraflex Buckles and Hardware • Reliable YKK Zippers • Locking Zippers for Secure Transport • Full Zip Body for Complete Access • Quick Access Soft-Padded Protective Eye wear Compartment • “Super-Grip” Zipper Pullers • Over Sized middle pouch for hearing protection storage • Compression Straps • Top and bottom Easy Grab Drag Handles • External Velcro Field • Carries up to 4 AR magazines in External Pouch • Carries up to 8 pistol magazines in External Pouch • Full frame concealable shoulder yoke • Removable shoulder sling • Removable divider mat inside of bag • 48 MOLLE points for individual customization • Securing straps inside bag for firearm transport • Concealable Barrel Extension for long barrelled rifles • Fabric: Cordura® Nylon

READY TO WEAR AND GOOD TO GO!

zipper pocket, wide and deep abdominal side zipper pockets for heavy objects/concealed carry, side zip openings for side holster, generous sized inside pockets and an easy-access left arm zipper pocket. In addition, there are patch fields on both arms to customise your ID or team patches and velcro cuff straps help keep the heat in and the cold out.

This is a really super bit of kit which really shows what Cannae Pro are capable of when it comes to highly functional yet comfortable clothing and I certainly hope that there will be more to come from them in this repsect! Scott Country International are currently busy sorting out retailers in the UK and I’m absolutely certain that we’ll be seeing a lot about Cannae Pro in the immediate future. I for one am looking forward to really putting the test pieces through the mill and I’ll report back in more detail when I’ve done so!

For more details on Cannae Pro gear, along with stockist details please do visit www. scottcountry.co.uk and simply type “Cannae” into the search box!

Although you might think that the gear is the high point of what’s on offer from Cannae Pro it would be remiss of me to not mention their excellent clothing range too. It’s a tight, meticulously thought out collection that right now amounts to just six items, Operator Tactical Polos both long and short sleeve, the Centurion Performance Pullover and Rig Fleece Performance Pullover, a superb Battle Ready Tactical Hoodie and last but by no means least the Shield Soft Shell Jacket. I’m not going to go into detail on these items today as we have models inbound for individual testing but the details of the Soft Shell jacket will at least give you some idea as to what you can expect.

The Shield Soft Shell Jacket is a comfortable, flexible jacket which has been designed for the professional operator. Made from water and wind resistant Poly Soft Shell with a bit of Elastic makes this a lightweight, all-weather jacket and provides soft and durable warmth with the flexibility to “move and groove” in extreme situations.

Features include an easy-entry chest

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Real Steel THE STEN GUN

BRITAIN ENTERED THE SECOND WORLD WAR AS A FULLY MECHANISED ARMY BUT WAS SADLY LACKING IN ONE ASPECT – AN EFFECTIVE DOMESTICALLY PRODUCED SMG. GADGE HARVEY TAKES UP THE STORY…

THE STEN

A VERY BRITISH SMG AT THE START OF THE Second World War the UK’s shortage of short range squad firepower was causing serious problem.

While many Thompson sub machine guns had been purchased from the USA, they were expensive, somewhat heavy with their wood furniture and there were simply never enough to go around. In the desert war the shortfall had been made up somewhat with hundreds of captured Italian Beretta M38 SMGs but there was no ignoring the fact that Britain had a serious gap in its Arsenal.

Enter weapons engineers Major Shepherd and Mr Harold Turpin. Taking elements of inter-war SMGs like the German MP18 Bergmann and the British Lanchester (the Lanchester itself heavily borrowing from the design of the MP18), Shepherd and Turpin stripped away the well-made and expensive brass and wood elements of these weapons and instead, put the same functionality into a much more austere

A sten-armed British soldier captures two Germans 80

October 2017

creation of stamped and welded steel. Creating the first prototypes of the new weapon at the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield, Shepherd and Turpin would add their names to the factory sites - and the STEN SMG was born.

The Sten was designed with some very clear priorities in mind. Firstly it had to be simple to make, robust and cheap. At the time, Britain was on the back foot and awaiting a probable German invasion and the initial idea was to be able to quickly supply the Sten to sabotage troops, resistance, partisans and secret agents in occupied Europe. For the end users, it was essential that the new SMG was able to use German ammunition and (at a pinch) German SMG magazines to reduce the need for the British to resupply their allies. However, many of these “desirable features” soon turned out to be as much of a handicap as a boon.

Chambered for the popular 9mm parabellum round

French Resistance Fighter with Sten in Paris ‘44

Real Steel THE STEN GUN

British Infantry with Stens in North West Europe

favoured by the Germans, the designers also copied the magazine for the German Mp38 (erroneously known to the allies as the “Schmeisser”), which created even more problems as the double stacked 9mm 32 round magazine disliked feeding while in a horizontal attitude. Problems for the Sten were compounded by the low-powered ammunition and an open bolt. While this meant the weapon as less likely to overheat, it was also woefully inaccurate at ranges over 50m and practically useless past 100 metres. Furthermore, the bolt being held open between shots and after initial cocking meant that if the weapon was dropped or jarred it had the potential to accidentally fire. While by the middle of the war most of the misfiring issues in the Sten had been fixed, its reputation during its early days for catastrophically malfunctioning stuck with it for the duration of the war. It may have been crude and mistrusted by the troops but it did, however, work – most of the time!

CHEAP, SIMPLE… AND USUALLY WORKED!

British Glider Pilots search a Dutch school. The lead man has a Sten MKV

after an incredibly short shelf life and in 1944 at the battle of Arnhem the British would trial a new improved replacement SMG, The Patchett. Eventually the Patchett could lead to the Sterling SMG that would arm the British Army up until the 1990s but the Sten was still in the running. 1940s Britain had produced over four million Sten guns that the War Department still saw as being perfectly serviceable and there was no pressing need for the new and improved SMG. It would not

“IN THE 1940S THE STEN GUN COST AROUND $10 A UNIT TO MAKE, WHICH WOULD BE AROUND $130 TODAY. BY COMPARISON, THE THOMPSON 1928 MODEL THE STEN REPLACED WOULD COST A STAGGERING $2,300 PER UNIT IF IT WERE MADE TODAY!”

The early Marks of Sten gun were, however, ridiculously cheap and simple to make and Britain was able to produce thousands of SMGs in converted car garages, light industrial workshops and bike factories, with some models taking less than five hours to make from start to finish… essentially if you had a lathe, a welding torch and a workshop you could probably make a Sten! The weapon’s cheapness and ease of production earned it a raft of nicknames, such as the “Woolworths gun” , “plumbers nightmare” and “stench gun” to name but a few and when you compared it to the workmanship present in the small arms of other nations you could see why. In the 1940s the Sten gun cost around $10 a unit to make, which would be around $130 today. By comparison, the Thompson 1928 model the Sten replaced would cost a staggering $2,300 per unit if it were made today!

During the war the Sten was modified numerous times and evolved from its basic, all-metal, welded Mki and Mkii construction, through to the exceedingly cheap stamped Mkiii model, through to the late war Sten MKV used by airborne troops with its wooden stock, pistol grip and foregrip - but it was still clearly a “make do” solution. In fact the Sten MKV was, in many ways, just much heavier with no noticeable increase in performance. (Ironically at around this time the German’s, themselves now on the back foot after the reverses of D-day had started to produce their own copy of the Sten MKii, the MP3008, albeit with a vertical rather than horizontal feeding mag well). As well as these later airborne models with improved stocks and handgrips (as well as other minor changes to the operating process), special operations Stens had been produced for commandoes, the SOE and the SAS that muffled the report of the shot, with a long suppressor around the barrel for clandestine missions.

It would seem, however, that the Sten had had its day

be until the mid-1950s that the ageing MKV Sten would be phased out, although British soldiers in hot spots around the world would be seen toting Stens for some time to come.

Even after Britain resigned the “Woolworths Gun” to the history books the Sten’s days were far from over. It’s simple and cheap design made it a perfect choice for many poorer nations looking to arm their military forces. To date over 30 different nations have used the Sten gun as a “weapon of choice” since 1942, despite its austere nature, in dozens of conflicts across the globe.

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Support your local airsoft company!

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The Gaol Events Oakham Enterprise Park Ashwell Road, Oakham Leics, LE15 7TU 07976 457602 www.thegaolevents.co.uk

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Invicta Battlefield Airsoft Pook Hill Wood Farm Wilden Park Road, Staplehurst, TN12 0HP 07876 263290 www.invictabattlefield.co.uk

Johnsons of Leeds 2, Vulcan Foundry Haigh Park Road Leeds, LS10 1RT 0113 277 5237 www.johnsonsofleeds.co.uk

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Sell Airsoft Action in your shop or on your site and get a FREE ADVERT on these pages!

Contact Nige on 01684 878003 or by email: nige@airsoft-action.co.uk for details.

Buy Airsoft Action from any of these shops or sites - and get your copy before it goes on sale on the High Street!

Combat-UK 13-15 Market Place Stevenage Herts, SG1 1DH 01438 362922 www.onlyairsoft.com

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Budby Road Cuckney, NG20 9JX 07956 587213 www.phoenix-airsoft.co.uk

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Looking for somewhere to buy Airsoft Action?

Your local Newsagent sold out?

Then why not visit any of the fine airsoft companies listed here?

They all keep Airsoft Action in stock and while you are there, don’t forget to have a good browse round to see what else they can tempt you with...

Book Review THE AK47 by GORDON L ROTTMAN

THE AK47

BY GORDON L ROTTMAN REGULAR READERS WILL KNOW THAT GADGE IS A BIT OF A RUSSIAN AND SOVIET KIT FAN SO WHEN WE ASKED HIM TO REVIEW OSPREY’S “WEAPON: THE AK47” TITLE HE NEARLY SNAPPED OUR HANDS OFF!

OSPREY HAVE BEEN A BIT of a “name” in the military history scene for some time now and are beloved by re-enactors, armchair historian and military modellers alike. While cracking books on the whole, often they have to be quite “general” on a subject for space constraints and if you’ve bought a book on US Marines in the Vietnam War, for example, you might find that only a few paragraphs go into a particular favourite aspect of yours. Not so in the case of their excellent “Weapon” series, each instalment in the collection goes into fantastic detail from conception to end user and “Weapon: AK47” is no exception.

To be fair though, the name “AK47” for this title is a little bit of a misnomer. While it is packed with facts, figures and info about the rugged Kalashnikov AK47 it’s got so much more in there as well and covers later variants of the “kalash”, like the AKM, AKSU, AK74 and RPK, as well as post-Soviet Union models like the AK105 – and that’s before we even begin to look at licensed copies and AK variants from the communist bloc and China! Not content with giving you the comprehensive lowdown on the “most popular weapon of all time”, Rottman also delves into the weapon’s many accessories, from optics, to bayonets, to grenade launchers.

While this great book is focussed primarily on the technical aspects of the AK47 family, Rottman provides a valuable insight into the cultural impact of the “antiimperialist gun” around the world and also compares and contrasts the various models of “Kalashnikov” against comparable western assault rifles. With the eye of a man who has used the M16 and the AK47 on the “two way range” in combat, ex 5th Special Forces Group officer Rottman gives a frank and honest appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the two platforms.

Further value from “Weapon: The Ak47” comes in the form of an excellent “user guide” detailing the process of loading, cleaning and field-stripping the rifle, which most airsofters will find interesting when compared against their less lethal versions. These simply explained guides, when coupled with the excellent photographs and cut away illustrations, allow any reader to instantly understand why the AK series is so popular with soldiers and insurgents across the globe… there are no frills, no nifty features, no rails. Just a simple system that works first time, every time.

As usual here at Airsoft Action we’ve found this title from Osprey up to their excellent standard. We recommend “Weapon: The Ak47” as a great read for any firearms enthusiast and If you’re a sovio-phile like myself, well then it’s practically an essential!

Publisher: Osprey Author: Gordon L Rottman ISBN: 978-1-84908-461-1 RRP: £12.99

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HALO MILL

SITE DIRECTORY

Taking you beyond 350fps!

Tel: 01484 840554

FIND SOMEWHERE TO BE THIS WEEKEND…

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Email nige@airsoft-action.co.uk to add or change a site listing

ATROOP AIRSOFT

AIRBORNE 101 AIRSOFT CLUB

ALL ARMS AIRSOFT

ARENA AIRSOFT

ABER AIRSOFT – THE BUNKER

AIRSOFT ASYLUM

ALPHA 55

AWA HERTS

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

Allt-lywd Wood Farm, outside Llanrhystud, nr. Aberystwyth, Wales.

Tel: 07511554740 www.aberairsoft.co.uk

ABSOLUTE AIRSOFT

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

ACE AIRSOFT WAR GAMES

Holbrook Coppice, Buidwas Bank (A4169), Buildwas, Telford, Shropshire, TF8 Tel: 07786 192832 www.aceairsoft.co.uk

ACE AIRSOFT WAR GAMES

Downpatrick, Co. Down, BT30 Tel: 07718 032541 robinsonm24@btinternet.com

North Lanarksire, ML7 5 www.airsoftasylum.webs.com

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

AIRSOFT KGB

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

AIRSOFT PLANTATION

Goatsmoore Lane, Billericay, CM4 9RS Tel: 07534 636289 / 07771 556395 www.theofficialairsoftplantation.co.uk theofficialairsoftplantation@gmail.com

Tong Wood, Newport Road Wolverhampton TF11 8PN Tel: 07786 192832 www.aceairsoft.co.uk

AIRSOFT SKIRMISH

ACE COMBAT

AIRSOFT SKIRMISH CQB

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

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October 2017

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

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

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

Halkyn Wood, North Wales CH8 8DF Tel: 0845 257 6937 www.alpha55.co.uk

ALPHA ELITE GAMING

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

AMAZON EVENTS

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

AMBUSH ADVENTURES – CHOBHAM Chobham, Surrey, GU24 8SL Tel: 01252 315225 www.ambushadventures.co.uk

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

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

BADLANDS AIRSOFT

Rowlands Castle, Hamps PO9 6DP Tel: 07534 465589 www.badlandsairsoft.co.uk

BARNSLEY AIRSOFT

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

BATTLETEC AIRSOFT

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

AMBUSH ADVENTURES SOUTHAMPTON

BETTER BATTLES

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

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

APOCALYPSE AIRSOFT

BLACKDAGGER AIRSOFT

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

Grasscroft Wood, Barlow Lees Lane, Dronfield, S18 7UR www.blackdagger-airsoft.co.uk

SITE DIRECTORY FIND SOMEWHERE TO BE THIS WEEKEND…

BLUESTREAK AIRSOFT

Westcott Venture Park, Westcott, Aylesbury, HP18 0XB Tel: 01296 658600 www.bluestreak-airsoft.co.uk

BORDERLINE AIRSOFT

51 Green Road, Ballyclare, Co. Antrim Northern Ireland, BT39 9PH Tel: 028 9303 7030 or 07729219341 www.borderlinecombat.com

BRAVO 2-2 AIRSOFT Leisure Lakes, Mere Brow, Southport. PR46JX Tel: 07790 715059 www.bravo22airsoft.com

BRISTOL AIRSOFT Bristol, BS1 2HQ Tel: 07776 288826 www.bristolairsoft.com

CERBERUS AIRSOFT – THE SANDPIT (DESERT)

Bolton Wood Quarry, Bolton Hall Road Bradford, West Yorkshire BD2 1BQ Tel: 07891 469492 www.cerberusairsoft.co.uk

CERBERUS AIRSOFT – RIVOCK EDGE Keighley, BD20 0LS Tel: 07891 469492 www.cerberusairsoft.co.uk

CERBERUS AIRSOFT – SHEFFIELD WOODLAND Sheffield, S6 6JE Tel: 07891 469492 www.cerberusairsoft.co.uk

CERBERUS AIRSOFT – THE WORKS (URBAN)

Off Badger Lane, Hipperholme, Halifax, West Yorkshire HX3 8PL Tel: 07891 469492 www.cerberusairsoft.co.uk

BRIT-TAC AIRSOFT Sheffield, S2 5TR Tel: 07795 631331 www.brittacairsoft.com

CHESTERFIELD IMPERIAL AIRSOFT

Brimington, Chesterfield, S43 1DQ www.cia-airsoft.co.uk

CONTACT! FIGHT SCHOOL

DRAGON’S LAIR

COOL UNDER FIRE

DRAGON VALLEY AIRSOFT

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

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

CORNWALLS ELITE AIRSOFT

Truro, Cornwall, TR2. Tel: 07863 240153 www.cornwallseliteairsoft.co.uk

COTSWOLD AIRSOFT

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

BUSH VALLEY AIRSOFT

Runham Woods, Lenham ME17 1NQ Tel: 07786 448608 Email: bushvalairsoft@gmail.com

COMBAT ACTION GAMES

Combat Street, Felthorpe, Norwich, Norfolk, NR10 4DR. Tel: 07748 023832 www.facebook.com/combatactiongames

C3 TACTICAL

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

CERBERUS AIRSOFT – THE OUTPOST (WOODLAND) HPC, York Road, Flaxby, Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG5 0XJ Tel: 07891 469492 www.cerberusairsoft.co.uk

ELITE ACTION GAMES – WORTHING

Worthing, BN13 Tel: 01784 433023 www.eliteactiongames.com

ELITE BATTLEZONE

CUMBRIA AIRSOFT

EXPERIENCE AIRSOFT

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

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

DANGER CLOSE AIRSOFT

FIREFIGHT COMBAT SIMULATIONS

Ellough Lark Raceway, Benacre Road, Ellough, Norfolk . Tel: 07455 906132

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

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

DARKWATER AIRSOFT LTD.

Mobile: 07947 558433 www.darkwaterairsoft.co.uk Email: darwaterairsofthythe@gmail.com DARKWATER AFTER DARK C.Q.B, (Battlezone Building), Britannia Lane, Kingsnorth, Ashford, TN23 3NA facebook.com/afterdarkcqb DARKWATER SITE, Dering Wood, Church Lane, Shadoxhurst, Ashford.

TN26 1LZ facebook.com/darkwaterairsoftdarkwater

FIFE WARGAMES

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

FINMERE AIRSOFT Buckingham, MK18 4JT Tel: 07976 184897 www.finmereairsoft.com

COMBAT AIRSOFT

Just off the A11 outside Thetford Norfolk follow signs for Combat Paintball Tel: 07703 045849 www.combatairsoftgames.co.uk

CERBERUS AIRSOFT – THE COMPLEX Horsforth, Leeds LS18 4RP Tel: 07891 469492 www.cerberusairsoft.co.uk

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

Bourton Woods, On the B4479, Blockley Near Bourton-on-the-hill www.cotswoldairsoft.co.uk Tel: 07724629140

BUNKER 51

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

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

COMBAT SOUTH URBAN Portsmouth, PO6 3LS Tel: 02392 655636 www.combatsouth.co.uk

COMBAT SOUTH WOODLAND

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

DELTA TEAM 3

Skelmersdale, Lancs WN8 8UT Tel: 07986 053076 www.deltateam3.co.uk

FIREBALL SQUADRON Sutton Coldfield, B75 5SA Tel: 07582 684533 www.fireballsquadron.com

DOGS OF WAR

FIRST & ONLY: ANZIO CAMP

DOG TAG AIRSOFT

FIRST & ONLY: BUNKER WOOD

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

Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 4SE TEL 01293 852 314 www.holmbushpaintball.co.uk/airsoft

Leek, ST13 8 Tel: 0161 727 8863 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

Kidderminster, Worcs, DY11 5SA Tel: 0161 727 8863 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

www.airsoft-action.online

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SITE DIRECTORY FIND SOMEWHERE TO BE THIS WEEKEND…

FIRST & ONLY: KHE SANH

WOODS

Otley, West Yorkshire LS21 2NA Tel: 0161 727 8863 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

FIRST & ONLY: MANCHESTER

WOODLAND

Bolton, BL7 9TS Tel: 0161 727 8863 www.firstandonlyairsoft.com

GASS AIRSOFT – PENN

HUMBER AIRSOFT

North Lincolnshire, DN21 www.humberairsoft.co.uk Tel: 07792 680297

MIDWALES AIRSOFT

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

GASS AIRSOFT – PIDDINGTON

INVICTA BATTLEFIELD

MILITARY OUTDOOR ADVENTURES

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

GRANGE FARM AIRSOFT FIRST & ONLY: THE HIVE

Middleton, Manchester, M24 1AZ Tel: 0161 727 8863

Leicester, LE9 9FP www.gingerliberationfront.com

GRANGE LIVE GAMING FIRST & ONLY: THE ARMOURY Wrexham, Denbighshire, LL13 9RG Tel: 0161 727 8863

FIRST & ONLY: THE ACADEMY

Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32 6QF Tel: 0161 727 8863

Bravo One Birmingham, 93–99 Holloway Head, B1 1QP Tel: 0121 643 2477 info@grangelivegaming.com www.grangelivegaming.com

GREENZONE COMBAT Co. Armagh, BT60 1NE Tel: 07772 919974 www.greenzonecombat.com

Wilden Park Road, Staplehurst, Kent TN12 0HP Tel: 01622 831788 / 07876 263290 www.invictabattlefield.co.uk

FIRST & ONLY: THE OUTPOST Kidderminster, DY11 5SA Tel: 0161 727 8863

FIRST & ONLY: SLEEPY HOLLOW Bridgnorth, Shropshire, WV16 5LS Tel: 0161 727 8863

GUN HO AIRSOFT

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

GUNMAN AIRSOFT – CAMBRIDGE

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

MILSIM UK

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

Checkley, Staffordshire, ST10 4NS Tel: 07523 916607 www.milsimuk.co.uk

LAND WARRIOR AIRSOFT

NCIS AIRSOFT

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

Edinburgh, EH14 4 nick@ncis-airsoft.co.uk www.ncis-airsoft.co.uk

LAC SITE 1

NOMAD AIRSOFT

Gainsborough, North Lincs, DN21 4JH Tel: 07775 877057 www.lincolnshireairsoftclub.co.uk

GROUND ZERO WOODLAND Ringwood, Hampshire, BH24 2DF www.groundzerowoodland.com

The Grange, Frogmore Grange, Balsall Common, Coventry CV7 7FP Tel: 01676 532 384 info@suspensionofdisbelief.co.uk www.giairsoft.co.uk/Skirmish-days

FREE FIRE ZONE

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

FRV AIRSOFT

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

FULL METAL AIRSOFT

Cilyrychen Quarry, Llandybie, Ammanford, Camarthenshire, SA18 3JG Tel: 01269 850404 www.fullmetalairsoft.co.uk

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LAC SITE 2

Gainsborough, North Lincs, DN21 4JH Tel: 07775 877057 www.lincolnshireairsoftclub.co.uk

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

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

LINDSEY AIRSOFT

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

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

MATLOCK COMBAT GAMES Matlock, Derbyshire, DE4 5FW Tel: 07974 507166 www.matlockcombatgames.com

HOMELAND TACTICAL AIRSOFT Spanby, Lincs, NG34 0AT Tel: 07971 560249 facebook.com/HomelandTacticalAirsoft

NORTHERN ALLIANCE AIRSOFT

Thirsk, North Yorkshire, YO7 3LQ Tel: 01845 565465 www.northernallianceairsoft.co.uk

NORTHFLEET CQB

Northfleet, Kent, DA11 9AA Tel: 07968 448475 www.elitebattlezone.co.uk

NSC AIRSOFT

Hetton, Sunderland, DH5 0 Tel: 07983 333521 www.nscairsoft.co.uk

NTAC

Durham, DL4 2ER Tel: 01642 281220 www.ntac.co.uk

OBAN AIRSOFT – ILL ARGYLL

HILTON PARK AIRSOFT Wolverhampton, WV10 7HU Tel: 08000 354490 www.paintballuk.com

Fenwick, Ayrshire, KA3 6AY Tel: 07904 998250 www.nomadairsoft.com

LAC SITE 3

LAC SITE 5 GUNMAN AIRSOFT – MIDLANDS

Wrightington, WN6 9PL Tel: 01942 514724 www.militaryoutdooradventure.co.uk

ISLAND RECON AIRSOFT COMBAT

FIRST & ONLY: THE ASYLUM Kidderminster, DY10 3PT Tel: 0161 727 8863

Abbey Cwm-hir, Midwales, LD1 6PG Tel: 07497 480243 www.facebook.com/Midwales-airsoft

MAW

Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, LE14 Tel: 07793 404346 1midaw@gmail.com

MIA

Cornwall, EX23 9JL Tel: 01288 331748 www.airsoftsouthwest.co.uk

Argyll and Bute, PA37 1 Tel: 07967 710185 www.argyllsurplus.com

OP-TACTICAL UK – TEAN-OPS Tean, Staffordshire, ST10 4JT Tel: 07964 990831 www.op-tac.co.uk

SITE DIRECTORY FIND SOMEWHERE TO BE THIS WEEKEND…

OVER THE TOP AIRSOFT CLUB

RIFT AIRSOFT (COTTENHAM)

PATHFINDER GROUP AIRSOFT MILITARY SIMULATION

SECTION 8 AIRSOFT

Anglesey, LL71 www.ottairsoft.co.uk Tel: 07731 744471

Former RAF Camp Sopley/Merryfield Park, Hants, BH23 Tel: 02380 899369

PHOENIX AIRSOFT

Welbeck Airsoft, Academy, Budby Road, Notts NG20 9JX Tel: 07956 587213/01623 812483 www.phoenix-airsoft.co.uk

PLATOON 1HQ

Rochester, Kent, ME1 1 HQ Tel: 01634 829063 www.ptt-1hq.co.uk

PLAYERS OF WAR

High Bonnybridge, FK1 3AD Tel: 07767 203979 www.playersofwar.co.uk

PREDATOR COMBAT GAMES Ballynahinch, BT24 8NF Tel: 02897565651 / 07825169631 www.predatorcombat.com

RAVEN’S NEST

Suffolk, IP8 4 Tel: 01473 831563 www.ravensairsoft.co.uk

RAW WAR AIRSOFT CUMBRIA Wigton, Cumbria CA7 3SZ Tel: 01900 85645 www.airsoftcumbria.co.uk

RED1AIRSOFT

Chislehurst, Bromley BR7 6SD Tel: 07956 522691/01727846069 www.red1airsoft.co.uk

Cambridge, CB24 8RL Tel: 07751 586781 www.riftairsoft.com

Shotts, North Lanarkshire, ML7 5AB Tel: 07974 026517 www.s8airsoft.com

SG1 COMBAT GAMES Co. Londonderry, BT45 8NA Tel: 07713 273102 www.sg1combatgames.co.uk

SKIRMISH AIRSOFT BILLERICAY

THUNDER PARK AIRSOFT

TA EVENTS

TORRENT WARFARE

TACTICAL WALES AIRSOFT

TROJAN AIRSOFT

TACTICAL WARFARE AIRSOFT

TROJAN AIRSOFT – OLYMPUS CQB

Boathouse lane, South Wirral, Cheshire, CH64 3TB www.swatairsoft.eu Tel: 07703 177756

Hemel Hemstead, Herts, HP2 7QB Tel: 07894 059794 www.ta-events.co.uk

Reynoldston, Swansea SA3 1AS Tel: 01792 473336 www.tacticalwales.co.uk

Billericay, Essex, CM11 2TX Tel: 01277 657777 www.airsoft-billericay.co.uk

Warlingham, Surrey, CR6 9PL Tel: 020 8665 1299 www.tacticalwarfare.co.uk

SKIRMISH EXETER

TECH BRIGADE

Exeter, Devon, EX4 5 Tel: 01548 580025 www.airsoftexeter.co.uk

SOUTHDOWN AIRSOFT

Petworth, West Sussex, GU28 0LR Tel: 07766 770830 www.southdownairsoft.com

SPEC OPS AIRSOFT – BLOXWORTH

Wareham, Dorset, BH20 7EU Tel: 07984 656947 www.specopsairsoft.co.uk

SPEC OPS AIRSOFT– THE ROCK Portland, Dorset, DT5 2EG Tel: 07984 656947 www.specopsairsoft.co.uk

Newgate Street, Hertfordshire.

SG13 8NH Tel: 07841 713356 www.techbrigade.org

STIRLING AIRSOFT

Coventry, CV3 6NX Tel: 07831 429407 www.stirlingairsoft.com

STORMFORCE AIRSOFT

Red1 CQB. Kings Langley, WD4 8RN Tel: 07956 522691/01727846069 www.red1airsoft.co.uk

Rugeley, Staffordshire, WS15 4LD Tel: 07515 937633 www.stormforcepaintball.co.uk

RIFT AIRSOFT COM’S SITE 3

SUSSEX AIRSOFT

Slinfold, RH12 Tel: 020 8150 9284 www.sussexairsoft.co.uk

Luxulyan, Bodmin, Cornwall, PL305FA Tel: 07751808055 www.thunderparkpaintball.co.uk Food & drinks available on site.

Co Tyrone, BT71 4DY Tel: 07922 377131 Facebook: search ‘Torrent Warfare’

Macclesfield, SK10 4SZ Tel: 07428 024874 www.trojan-airsoft.com

Weir Mill, Viaduct Street, Chestergate, Stockport, Cheshire, SK5 7JP Tel: 07428 024874 www.trojan-airsoft.com

UCAP AIRSOFT

Portsmouth, Hants, PO17 6AR Tel: 07590 818881 www.ucap.co.uk

TASK FORCE SKIRMISH Cowbridge, S Glamorgan, CF71 Tel: 02920 593900 www.taskforcepaintball.co.uk

THE BUNKER

UCAP GREEN OPS

Linch, West Sussex, GU30 7 Tel: 07590 818881 www.ucap.co.uk

Aberystwyth www.aberairsoft.co.uk Tel: 07841 462806

UCAP SANDPIT

THE DEPOT

ULTIMATE WARGAMES – FAWKHAM

Glasgow, G45 9SB Tel: 0161 727 8863 www.thedepotglasgow.com

THE DESERTERS AIRSOFT

RED1AIRSOFT CQB

Chipping Warden, OX17 1LZ Tel: 07751 586781 www.riftairsoft.com

S.W.A.T. AIRSOFT

Redford, DD11 Tel: 07751 878175 www.thedeserters.co.uk

THE EX SITE

Mold, CH7 4 Tel:07840 001975 www.theexsitewales.co.uk

THE WARGAMES CENTRE Lundholm Road, Stevenston, Ayrshire, KA20 3LN www.thewargamescentre.com wargamescentre@gmail.com

Bean, Kent, DA2 8 Tel: 07590 818881 www.ucap.co.uk

Fawkham, Kent, DA3 8NY Tel: 01268 796130 www.ultimatewargames.co.uk

ULTIMATE WARGAMES – LIMPSFIELD Oxted, Surrey, RH8 0RH www.ultimatewargames.co.uk

URBAN6AIRSOFT – ZONE 13 Stone, Staffordshire ST15 0QN Tel: 07432 291729 www.urban6airsoft.com

URBAN6AIRSOFT– THE BLOCK Wood Street, Burton-Upon-Trent, Staffordshire, DE14 3AB www.urban6airsoft.com

www.airsoft-action.online

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Email nige@airsoft-action.co.uk to add or change a site listing

SITE DIRECTORY

Email nige@airsoft-action.co.uk to add or change a site listing

FIND SOMEWHERE TO BE THIS WEEKEND…

URBAN6AIRSOFT– THE BLOCK Wood Street, Burton-Upon-Trent, URBAN ASSAULT Staffordshire, DE14 3AB Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, PE26 1 www.urban6airsoft.com Tel: 01733 247171 www.urbanassault.org.uk

URBAN ASSAULT Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, PE26 1 VIKING AIRSOFT Tel: 01733 247171

Welwyn, Hertfordshire, AL6 0UN www.urbanassault.org.uk www.vikingairsoft.co.uk

VIKING AIRSOFTAIRSOFT WARMINSTER Welwyn, Hertfordshire, Warminster, BA12 7RZ AL6 0UN www.warminsterairsoft.co.uk www.vikingairsoft.co.uk

XSITE AIRSOFT OUTPOST WARMINSTER AIRSOFT Dunstable, LU6 2EE Tel: 01494 881430 Warminster, BA12 7RZ www.xsiteairsoft.co.uk www.warminsterairsoft.co.uk

XSITEAIRSOFT AIRSOFTOUTPOST – LANE END XSITE High Wycombe, HP14 3NP Dunstable, LU6 2EE Tel: 01494 881430 Tel: 01494 881430 www.xsiteairsoft.co.uk

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PRACTICAL PISTOL DIRECTORY PRACTICAL PISTOL DIRECTORY AIPSC EBSC The Grange, Frog Lane, Balsall AIPSC Common, West Midlands, CV7 7FP The Grange, Frog Lane, Balsall Tel: 01676 532384 www.aipsc.co.uk Common, West Midlands, CV7 7FP Facebook: A.I.P.S.C Tel: 01676 532384 www.aipsc.co.uk info@suspensionofdisbelief.co.uk.

Facebook: A.I.P.S.C Every Monday night 7pm– 9pm (except info@suspensionofdisbelief.co.uk. bank holidays). £5 or £10 with pistol Every Monday night 7pm– 9pm (except and shooting rig hire. UKPSA-qualified bank holidays). £5 or £10 with pistol coaches. UKPSA-qualified Range and shooting rig hire. UKPSA-qualified Officers. coaches. UKPSA-qualified Range Officers.

COBRA ONE ZERO AIRSOFT Unit 9 Imperial Buisness Centre COBRA ONE ZERO AIRSOFT Mortimer Road, Hereford, HR4 9SP Unit 9 Imperial Buisness Centre www.cobraonezero.co.uk Mortimer Road, Hereford, HR4 9SP Facebook: cobra one zero Airsoft www.cobraonezero.co.uk Facebook: cobra one zero Airsoft

WATFORD PRACTICAL PISTOL CLUBPRACTICAL WATFORD WatfordPPC@gmail.com PISTOL CLUB WatfordPPC@gmail.com DOUBLE TAP PSC StrikeForce CQB, Morelands Trading DOUBLE TAP PSC Estate, Bristol Road, Gloucester GL1 5RZ

MOD-approved gun club EBSC PP, IDPA, IPAS, IPSC, 3GUN MOD-approved gun club UKPSA Coaches PP, IDPA, IPAS, IPSC, 3GUN UKPSA-qualified Range Officers UKPSA Coaches Equipment hire available UKPSA-qualified Range Officers www.ebsc.co.uk Equipment hire available ebpracticalpistol@gmail.com www.ebsc.co.uk 07752 713 970 ebpracticalpistol@gmail.com 07752 713 970

HALO MILL The Penthouse, Colne Valley Business HALO MILL Park, Manchester Road, Linthwaite,

The Penthouse, Colne Valley Business Huddersfield HD7 5QG Park, Manchester Road, Linthwaite, Tel: 01484 840554 Huddersfield HD7 5QG www.halomill.com Tel: 01484 840554 www.halomill.com NORTHERN PRACTICAL

PISTOL CLUB PRACTICAL (NPPC) NORTHERN Tanner Street, PISTOL CLUB (NPPC) Burnley, Lancashire BB11 1NA

Tanner Street, Tel: 07816 992417 Burnley, Lancashire BB11 1NA www.northernpracticalpistol.co.uk Tel: 07816 992417 4 indoor ranges www.northernpracticalpistol.co.uk 4 indoor ranges XSITE PRACTICAL

StrikeForce CQB, Morelands Trading SHOOTING Facebook: www.facebook.com/ XSITE PRACTICAL Estate, Bristol Road, Gloucester GL1 5RZ Fryers Farm Lane, Double-Tap-Practical-Shooting-ClubSHOOTING Facebook: www.facebook.com/ High Wycombe, Bucks HP14 3NP 979585958732937/?ref=hl Fryers Farm Lane, Double-Tap-Practical-Shooting-ClubTel: 01494 881430 doubletappsc@gmail.com High Wycombe, Bucks HP14 3NP 979585958732937/?ref=hl Tel: 01494 881430 doubletappsc@gmail.com

SOUTH WEST PRACTICAL SHOOTERS (SWPS) SOUTH WEST PRACTICAL Action Air IPSC Club SHOOTERS (SWPS) Based at The Tunnel Target Sports

Action Air IPSC Club Centre near Charmouth Based at The Tunnel Target Sports The Tunnel, Centre near Charmouth Axminster Road, The Tunnel, Charmouth, Axminster Road, Dorset DT6 6BY Charmouth, Contact: SWPSClub@Outlook.com Dorset DT6 6BY Contact: SWPSClub@Outlook.com

WETHERSFIELD AIRSOFT TARGET SHOOTING WETHERSFIELD AIRSOFT CLUB (WAT SIC) TARGET SHOOTING Wethersfield Village Hall, CLUB (WAT SIC) Braintree Rd (B1053),

Wethersfield Village Hall, Wethersfield, Braintree Rd (B1053), Braintree CM7 4EB. Wethersfield, https://www.facebook.com/WATSiC/ Braintree CM7 4EB. Open Thursday & Friday evenings. https://www.facebook.com/WATSiC/ Set-up from 6:30pm.

Open Thursday & Friday evenings.

Club shooting commences by 7:30pm.

Set-up from 6:30pm.

Pack-up starts at 9:30pm if you can stay Club shooting commences by 7:30pm. to help.

Pack-up starts at 9:30pm if you can stay Contact via FB or 07939557029. to help.

Indoors.

Contact via FB or 07939557029.

Club offers Action Air plus 2 & 3 Gun Indoors. training and events.

Club offers Action Air plus 2 & 3 Gun training and events.

All these products are hyperlinked, simply tap any image for more information.

All these products are hyperlinked, simply tap any image for more information.