The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread

[Baser]

Back to Apocalypse in Kent on Sunday after last weeks, slightly disappointing, game I really enjoyed myself. Maybe I rolled out of the right side of bed this week.

Took the trusty RPK16, freshly updated with a Prommy purple hop rubber and nub and polished inner barrel. With my trusty Sig 226 on my hip I was ready to go, just about got the RPK through chrono but Ive picked up a new spring to lower the power to be safe. I went to site on my own again but joined a group of regulars so felt like part of a team rather than tagging along. around 140 players on site made it a little quieter than usual but it was supposed to rain which probably had something to do with it.

First game was carry. Players are divided in two teams and a brave Marshall stands in the cross fire. The aim is for the Marshall to carry a case through the site, they can only move with 2 players escorting them, with the other players either supporting or stopping the movement. checkpoints and spawns move as the Marshall moves. I really enjoy this game play and it's the first time I've played escorting rather than stopping the Marshall moving. This game is always intense as the ambushes and pushes are fluid and have a very focussed 'kill box'. Shout out to our rentals who ran at the other team with no fear putting a lot of us to shame. I emptied a 1650mah battery, 2 drum mags and 3 stick mags totalling nearly 6000 rounds. We lost but everyone put 110% into the game with some great positioning and cross fire keeping us pinned back.

Second game after lunch was move the bomb from your base to your enemies base. Again game play was intense with a lot of action somewhere in the middle (no mans land) we got our bomb to the other teams base through distraction, again great play by the rentals going full highlander with a charge worthy of William Wallace shouting 'FREEDOM' to the right of village while the bomb was snuck in on the left. Sadly the bomb was found and thrown out of village while the other team got into our base stockade. After this the snipers/ghilles/DMR players found their fox holes and slowed the game right down. Again we lost this one but not for a want of trying.

Didn't stay for the third game as I'm working away from home this week and needed to get home and get everything cleaned and put away.

Surprising how it only takes a few small things to change a meh day to a great day.

Touring the UK this week so already been into Bespoke Airsoft on Monday to pick up some parts, then off to Patrol Base and Urban Airsoft Mega Store tomorrow for similar before picking up a used LCT AKMS on Thursday.

Gratuitous photo below, held this spot for about 20 mins, the barrier helped keep me protected and took most of the weight of the RPK.

 

[Colin Allen]

There seems to always have been at least one cat at Battle Lakes; the one that was there when I was marshalling was a very friendly little chap.

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The Battle Lakes cat, 2017.

 

[Impulse]

Went to Worthing Airsoft on Sunday to play airsoft. Though I'm not sure I'd count it as "playing airsoft" with how I played this weekend. I only played half the day, as I needed to make sure guns were working for next weekend at rift, but in the morning games I fired a grand total of... 0 shots. Yes, you heard right. 0 shots. So... how did this happen?

First two games were a king of the hill style game on the new base, a killhouse at the bottom of the site, with sides swapped. It's a really nice base, but it's... not exactly the territory of bolt actions or DMRs, and with me using my mk12 MWS set to 1.8J. I decided to try a cheeky flank, using a route that I knew nobody else would go to. As it turns out, there was a good reason why nobody was using it. Getting to it was hell, as I had to make my way through incredibly thick brambles and stinging nettles that came up to my chest height (and I'm 6'5, so they were some TALL nettles...). Then when I finally managed to get onto this route, the route itself was mega-overgrown and I had to fight my way through some really thick foliage. With the game only being 20 minutes, it took me the whole game time to get through, literally getting off the path as the "30 seconds remaining" was called. Damn it.

Anyway, second game where we flipped sides, surely I am smart enough to not try that again, right...?

Wrong. I did the same thing in the 2nd game to the same result because I'm both stubborn and stupid; I also assumed it'd be easier since I had already pushed through the thick foliage part, and I was correct, but... I got to the point where I went up in the first game, but it was way too close to the enemy respawn and I didn't want to either spawncamp or get spotted, so I had to go further along this horrendously overgrown route which basically meant the 2nd game ended the same way as the first game for me. Definitely got a good workout in, but no shots fired. If both games had been 30 minutes, I could've done some serious damage, but with only 20 mins for each game I just... ran out of time. Just about. Damn it...

Third game was a larger game, with loads of objectives around the bottom of the site that needed capturing. Items that needed to be brought back to our base (and could be stolen), as well as some flip cans that needed to be controlled. I spent this game on base defence, watching that same path I used in the first two games as it was a super easy route into our base, but nobody came along that path. I eventually left with 15 mins left of the game, after having sat there for over an hour, and sure enough 5 mins after I left someone tried going along that path and got hit by the others defending the base. Because that's how timing works. I did essentially get a surrender kill at about 70m though; saw someone coming along the other flank I moved to, but when I pointed my rifle at him, he just called out. When he walked past, heading in for an early lunch, he said that he couldn't be bothered fighting me with his pistol at that range, and wasn't going back to respawn with only about 5 mins left of the game.

So that was that. A morning of airsoft, not a single shot fired, and got 1 kill. I will say I'm incredibly happy that we're finally playing the bottom of the site again. It's been literally years, and even though it sucks for sniping since it's so overgrown, I'm really happy that we're using it. The top of the site was getting very samey.

 

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

Took the trusty RPK16, freshly updated with a Prommy purple hop rubber and nub and polished inner barrel.

Gratuitous photo below, held this spot for about 20 mins, the barrier helped keep me protected and took most of the weight of the RPK.

View attachment 28153

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I play with an RPK most games. I remember the tedium of cleaning the aftermarket barrel all too well. Rodded about half a kitchen roll soaked in meths through it.

What's the weight of that beast like? Looks like a lower back killer tbh.

 

[Baser]

I play with an RPK most games. I remember the tedium of cleaning the aftermarket barrel all too well. Rodded about half a kitchen roll soaked in meths through it.

What's the weight of that beast like? Looks like a lower back killer tbh.

Click to shrink...

5.5kg without batteries and BB's. 1kg+ of BB's, 1650mah lipo, 3x AA batteries, 2x CR123 must push it close to 6.8/7kg.

I don't feel it in the lower back more shoulders and upper back. Makes carrying a standard AK74 or MP5 feel like nothing.

Usually don't play a whole day with it as a LMG, as numbers thin out and games get more CQB in the afternoons I swap to something else or feed it with stick mags which takes over a kg out of it.

 

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

5.5kg without batteries and BB's. 1kg+ of BB's, 1650mah lipo, 3x AA batteries, 2x CR123 must push it close to 6.8/7kg.

Click to shrink...

Hats off mate. That's not dainty!

I use my standard RPK all weekend on filmsims/milsims. It weighs about 4.2 - 4.5kg. I agree that it makes a standard AK feel like a stick. Strangely it feels lighter than my CYMA M14 which is actually lighter by a kilo. All down to balance I suppose.

Absolutely love the way your setup looks. Really purposeful!

 

[Impulse]

Got home from this weekend's Shift Your RIFT event and holy hell was it a scorcher. A not insignificant number of people went down with dehydration, heat exhaustion or sunstroke because it was basically 30c all day on both days with very little wind and limited shaded areas. Fortunately for me, I have experience from my time living and playing in Spain, though I'm definitely not acclimatised as much as I was back then as I was feeling it. My 2.5L hydration bladder was definitely the winning piece of kit for me this weekend and got refilled many times.

The drive up was hell. I typed it into google maps and followed the route. It was on the M25. There was a huge accident on the M25 on the Friday that closed the entire road going north up the west side of London. I literally turned my engine off and people were out of their cars as we just had to wait for ages for them to re-open. Then when they did re-open, someone broke down so they had to close 2 lanes again. The trip was supposed to be 2 hours with no traffic. I am no fool and anticipated it could take up to 3 hours 30 mins because the M25 is cancer. It actually took us 5 hours. Driving back I went on a load of smaller roads instead to avoid the M25 because fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...

Anyway...

I love SYR. It's a proper airsoft festival. The vibes were immaculate, there were loads of great retailers there, and the gameplay was pretty enjoyable, though there were some of the standard-issue Airsoft Problems(tm) that reared their ugly heads. I suppose I should talk about the gameplay first

Kudos to the marshall team, they run a tight ship at SYR, and organising an event of this magnitude takes some doing, so props there. They re-chronoed all gas guns at lunch because it was significantly hotter and people had guns running a bit spicy. When I chronoed my mk12 MWS at the start of the day it was only 1.7J, so I was okay as I had 0.6J of wiggle room, but I saw other players getting sent back to the safe zone to either tune their guns down or swap to something else as they were now over the limit due to the weather being so warm and gas guns now running way warmer.

The teams weren't the most balanced, and blue team generally dominated the weekend from start to finish. The key difference between red and blue team wasn't necessarily skill gap or luck or random bullshit. It was aggression, plain and simple. I always say, as a sniper myself, that it's not the snipers who win games. It's the aggressive pushers who win games, and blue had waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more of those than red did. I was on red and frequently found myself the last man standing on the front line, and don't get me wrong I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and had some cracking last stand moments where I bagged a metric shit tonne of kills, but it was somewhat soured when I eventually got hit and found that support was absolutely nowhere to be found, even after I had done a good job being an absolute menace where I was. Red just... didn't push anywhere near as much or as effectively as blue, and that's what had blue dominate the weekend. Honestly, well played to them, though they did have to get moved off as there was a bit of spawncamping that ended up happening because of it.

I actually swapped to my SRS after lunch. Not because my MWS was hot, but because my MWS was jamming. Asked around some of the retailers later that afternoon and it sounds like my nozzle return spring might be on its way out (unsurprising, I've been running this mk12 as a DMR for a while now and the nozzle return spring is still the stock TM one). Much of the same happened in the afternoon, but this time I only got taken out once as the spot I found was absolutely diabolical (had a lot of people shooting in my general direction, but not sure where the shots were exactly coming from, and all the 1.14J guns were falling well short of the mark anyway). I only got taken out when the enemy team had once again pretty much pushed to our spawn and thus could see me a lot easier from that angle. Got whacked by a trigger-spamming HPA DMR that I'm pretty sure was hot though; I've got a nasty welt on my neck and a painful bruised nail from it and it was at about 70m. Laced me up all down my side, which I wasn't too happy with, but you're always going to get those players at these large events; unfortunately it's part and parcel of them.

Overall with the airsoft, I had a cracking time. The last stand moments interspersed between long distance shots (longest I confirmed with my rangefinder this weekend was 114m, still not my record but satisfying as hell nonetheless!) was an absolute blast, even if it was a very sweaty one. My ghillie is only a cobra hood, but leafy boonie + cobra hood + shemagh + chest rig + backpack + shirt (sleeves rolled down because while I have very olive skin, that's a LOT of UVs over 2 days!)... it all adds up! There was definitely the classic 3 o'clock syndrome, but it was accelerated due to the rather toasty weather and players obviously being dehydrated and moody; hit calling deteriorated, tantrums were thrown, your usual airsoft skirmish day blues. Fortunately it wasn't too widespread and when informed about it, the marshalls were on it, but with that many players it's bound to happen, and it's going to be hard to police everyone carefully.

Outside of the airsoft, as I said the vibes were immaculate. There were a lot of vendors there and once again I took some time to chat with the guys at Empire Airsoft (they're great), as well as telling SniperMechanic that his buckings are fantastic. Also had a chat with the guys at White Sphere Tactical about why VFCs are so goddamn pricey in the UK (basically, vendors have to pay a huge premium on them to import, and they usually go through multiple companies, all of which put their own mark up on to make their money, before getting to the shop that wants to sell them to us. I wanted a VFC G17 Gen5 MOS, but I was told to import it because it'd be easier and cheaper. Also went around the car boot to see what others were selling and picked up a few nice items from them, as well as some spares / upgrade parts from Empire Airsoft (some Flamingo and 4uantum buckings, and some MWS nozzle return springs). From other players I only bought an SCG autumn rifle wrap (I already have and love the spring/summer one) and a big ol' Vietnam style L shaped flashlight

I think the vendor that made the most profit though was...

The ice cream truck.

Yes, there was an ice cream truck and he was making bank with how hot the weather was. Every time I walked past it there was a queue of people there.

Me and my friend left at lunch time on the Sunday. It was hot, I wanted to get home and fit in a swim at my local outdoor pool after this scorcher of an airsoft event, and my friend... isn't fit enough to do two full days of airsoft, especially not in the heat; he doesn't deal with hot weather well. Got home in good time, went for the swim as planned (which was gorgeous), but I haven't unpacked anything yet. Only thing I've unpacked was my dirty clothes (as I wanted to put a laundry on straight away!) and my hydration bladder as I wanted to make sure that was hung out to dry asap. All my camping stuff has already aired because I didn't sleep in my tent on the Saturday night so it was basically just out to air from 6am on Saturday until about 11am on Sunday. Slept in my car instead as our group was watching a movie on a projector and no way was I getting to sleep with that going on. I think my car might be more comfortable than my 1 person tent anyway...

Definitely going again next year. This is just going to be a regular occurrence for me with how much I enjoyed the first one I went to and now this one as well. Next year though, I said to one of the guys in our group that I'd join him and his friend in the CQB tournament they run on the Saturday evening each year; seems like a bit of fun, and if you can't humble yourself, then you have an issue. I am a sniper / DMR player. I generally stay away from CQB as much as possible. Apparently a lot of the teams who entered were proper speedsofters with the rash guards and the HPA pistol ghostbuster guns, so you know I'm going in with my plate carrier (with weighted training plates), heavy helmet, and MWS GBBR. I think it'll be a bit of fun; I doubt I'll be great at it, but who cares?

TL: DR - Shift Your RIFT is good. You should try it if you haven't already.

 

[Punisher3990]

Had a fun but very hot day out at Ambush Activities on Sunday.

Absolute scorcher of a day. I went to try out the new configuration on my TAC-41 and, rather foolishly, decided to ghillie up in that heat. I started getting really annoyed because my shots were flying off in completely random directions. I spent ages trying to sort the hop and figure out what was wrong, only to finally realise the actual issue , the camo cover I’d put on the suppressor had shifted slightly forward and was hanging just over the barrel. That tiny bit of material was altering the spin on the BBs and sending them off wildly.

Safe to say I was very relieved to discover the issue wasn’t the RIF itself. As soon as I adjusted the cover back properly and tested it again, it was shooting perfectly.

Had a great time running the MK23 as well. It chronoed at 1.12J in the morning using Abbey Ultra gas, so I had to pick up some weaker Abbey green gas for the afternoon to bring the power down slightly. Thought it was pretty funny when the marshal asked what BB weight I was using and, as soon as I said 0.40s, he instantly knew it was an MK23 without even seeing it.

I also managed to hide up near one of the objectives and pick a few people off while they were trying to carry the two-man carry objective away, all while tucked into the bushes with the ghillie on. Honestly, that’s probably the best way I’ve found to properly test how effective the ghillie cape is, plus it gave me a nice excuse to lie down and cool off for a bit.

Overall, it was a brilliant day. No complaints about non-hit takers, and the marshals were great as always. A few people struggled a bit with the heat and felt unwell during the day, but aside from that, everything seemed to go really smoothly. Definitely investing in a water bladder for the next game so I can always have some water on me if it's that hot again. A canteen was just not quite enough

 

[Baser]

Took a trip ago Apocalypse in Kent on Sunday morning, didn't expect to play the full day given the heat as I'm built more like a gravy seal than a navy seal. Wanted to treat this more as a weapons test morning as I have been tinkering with a couple and bought a new (used) AKMS.

Travelled lighter than usual so packed the AK12 and new to me AKMS to try on the range. Left the RPK, pistols, most of my tools, batteries, most mags and all the other stuff I usually take to shed a few KG only to add them back in with 3 L of water.

Both rifles got through Chrono OK.

The AK-12 made it to 1.23J on .3's, site limit is 1.3J for no MED full auto and it was 1J exactly out of the box. Happy with this as it gives me headroom for a better hop rubber, nub and barrel in the coming months as it lifted .3's ok but they didn't always fly straight and true. Think with a bit more tinkering this will become my main rifle for Apocalypse along side the monstrous RPK 16.

AKMS was just under 1J and will probably be left alone and used for CQB focussed games apart from a hop rubber and nub as BB's were a little inconsistent in their flight path. I always get a little nervous shooting 1.3J when it gets up close and personal as I know it stings like a mo-fo so drop to my pistol when entering buildings and this will be perfect primary rifle for the job.

Weather was scorching, around 22 deg C during the game brief rising to 30 by lunch time. 120/130 players on site ment it was a little quieter than usual but half term combined with beach weather probably saw a few off doing other things.

First game was classic pole flip, 3 poles in play, 1 in stockade, 1 in no mans land and 1 in village. I played on the blue team and we got to stockade and held it as the reds arrived, I went out the back of stockade to stop the reds from flanking us and with 5/6 other players we held it well. When I eventually go hit I swapped to the other spawn point to try and push village and no mans but similar to us in stockade the reds were dug in and we just couldn't get through. My AK12 ran out of battery power (assume it used more power due to the bigger spring) about 10 mins from the end so I wandered back to the safe zone grabbed a spare battery and had a play on the range.

Was going to stay for the afternoon game but was sweating BB's at this point, I had achieved what I wanted to so packed up to come home. A lot of others did the same as it was getting uncomfortable.

When I got home I stripped both riffles gave them a proper clean, then ordered a not so short list of barrels, hop units, hop rubbers, nubs, springs to bring them and a couple of other guns in my collection up to scratch.

 

[Galvatron]

Like @Impulse, I went to Shift Your Rifts as well. It was bigger and even better than previous years. I'll try to repeat as little of what he said as I can't think of anything he said I disagreed with.

I don't think I could stress enough how stifling the heat was as he said. The marshal doubling up as the MC rightly advised people to keep hydrated and wear sunscreen but a lot of people still suffered the effects to varying degrees. With that said, I couldn't praise the host, marshals, security catering staff and the on-site paramedic enough. RIFT Airsoft's Blackstone CQB site and the White Sphere Tactical shop were both closed down temporarily so all the staff could be consolidated at Redcon for Shift Your Rifts.

When signing on, in addition to the wrist band you were given depending on the day(s) you weer attending, there was a goodie bag with a site map of the traders stands and the gaming area, some stickers, a pin badge, a pen and a bottle opener.

I didn't just survive the heatwave. I also survived Tony's brief (if you know, you know). As a weekend player who attended the Saturday briefing, I didn't have to go through the briefing on Sunday. I had to chrono my guns on both days.

There were a lot more vehicles at this year's event so there were Snatch Land Rovers and CVRTs at our disposal (passengers only) for the total war game on both days where Red Team started in a convoy that had to stop at 4 locations to deploy a mortar and flag, holding position for 10 minutes each until all 4 locations were secured. Red Team also had a side mission to set capture laptops across the site and return them to their hard respawn. Blue Team had to hinder the progress of the convoys - a smoke grenade in front of a vehicle would force the convoy to stop where the players on board could either surrender or make a last stand to protect the fuel cans in each vehicle from Blue Team who would seize a can (only one can could be retrieved per vehicle per ambush) and return it to their hard respawn. Blue Team also had the objective of protecting the laptops Red Team was tasked with capturing. In the afternoon the roles were reversed but before the afternoon game started, gas weapons were rechronoed. I was just barely within the limits on green gas in my primaries (I didn't adjust the NPAS) and I had to use my white gas for my pistols as both were too hot on green. Several players couldn't use their gas rifles or pistols were too hot and white/duster gas was sold out everywhere on site.

As Impulse said, across the weekend Blue Team was much more aggressive in pushing so it led to a very Blue-dominant weekend of play despite some Blue players being switched to Red. On Sunday, pyro was banned except for on hard concrete ground due to the risk of fires with the trees and bushes. In addition to the CQB tournament in the arena near the western hard respawn, there was a pistol duel competition with prizes for players with a 4 hit streak.

There was a hose set up just outside the entrance to the gaming area to produce a mist that really cooled you down. It was a simple but very effective idea.

Scran options were decent across the weekend. For those camping on Friday evening, there was a really good Jamaican chicken (or chick pea vegetarian) curry & rice. There was another ice cream van doing a variety of hot & cold drinks but my attention was on the Oreo or Biscoff frappes. Saturday had RIFT Airsoft catering offering sausage muffins for breakfast with Greggs hot savouries shortly after until lunch time where the lunch menu turn to a chicken burger. Plenty of crisps and confectionery were available from the morning until the evening along with hot & cold drinks. Coming back from last year was Dec's Grill (local Oxfordshire business selling smash burgers, nacho trays and hog roast baps. RIFT Airsoft's bar opened up on Saturday evening with a selection of beers and ciders at £2 a can or bottle or 6 for £10. Sunday scran had bacon & cheese turnovers for breakfast and hot dogs for lunch. The organisation really did save us in the heatwave with the toilet situation as some of the portaloos became... overloaded by Saturday afternoon. There was a set of portaloos reserved for Sunday use so we had less used toilets come Sunday morning. The permanent plumbed toilets in the White Sphere shop were reserved for women for that weekend.

There were about 40 traders selling things from clothing & webbing to RIFs, upgrade parts, airsoft training and pre-owned - Empire Airsoft, Socom Tactical, Double Tap, JBG AIrsoft, Two Four Delta Surplus, Stack Up Airsoft, Delta Action, OG Carbon, Defiant Events, Hades Airsoft, November Foxtrot, Enola, Big Steve Builds, Airsoft Industries, Fujin Airsoft just to name a few. RIFT Airsoft had a plentiful supply of red and green gas (no white/duster by the afternoon unfortunately!) along with ammo and pyro though the latter couldn't be used on Sunday.

White Sphere Tactical had its whole RIF stock out at SYR with some discounted Army Armament and Golden Eagle pistols with Glocks, Hi-Capas and 1911s available for £65 and under (no Vorsk or Raven pistols this year). Nuprol hard premium cases were available for as £60. The Vorsk VMP-1 and VMP-2 platforms were heavily discounted too for the weekend where you could buy the VMP-2 for as little as £110, depending on the model you went for. WST also had an exclusive pre-order with a 15% discount on the up and coming partly MWS compatible Vorsk VMAR GBBR, expected in late June. WST was also raising money for Cancer Research (breaking what it raised last year) though its raffles with some kind donations from the traders, including a Double Tap, an SMG AEG, a GBB pistol, a £250 10 game RIFT Airsoft game pass, a bolt action sniper rifle, a gas sniper rifle, an HPA bundle, an AAP-01 pistol among other prizes across both days. There was a weekend raffle for £1 a ticket where the sole prize was a Tokyo Marui URGI NGRS AEG.
On the edges of the camping spots were boot sellers, clearing their old kit. There were a few bargains to be had with some GBBRs and magazines being particularly popular along with some deals available on used optics. Most of the bargains had been gone by Saturday afternoon.

If you're thinking of doing SYR in 2027, book as soon as possible (likely April 2027). They usually sell out within the day that bookings for live at the start of April though cancellations open up bookings again for individuals and small groups. Only more temperate weather would have improved my time in 2026 as I enjoyed playing, mingling, eating, drinking and walking across the weekend.

Primaries:

• DE Noveske N4 GBBR
• Salvo Precision .300 Rattler GBBR
• VFC AKS-74U GBBR (loaned by a friend)

Secondary:

• EMG Staccato C2 Compact

 

[TheFull9]

Better reviews than NAF gets thus far. Any of you folks (or anyone else) done both to compare?