Airsoft Equipment: Gorgeous Gun!

I took a trip down to my local airsoft site earlier today to pick up some cash from the sale of one or two guns and as I walked into the shop, there on top of one of the clothing display stands was something I've been waiting to see arrive on the market for quite a while now

I was looking at an airsoft version of an iconic light machine gun of the second world war, the German MG34. If, like me, you've had your head in the sand recently when it comes to airsoft, and you've yet to learn of the release of this formidable WW2 replica weapon, then you might want to 'read' on. To be honest, there's not a lot here to read but there's a video clip and some piccies and if you want to actually read some more rather than simply drool over your keyboard, then go to the manufacturer's website or look it up on one of the forums. Enjoy!

 uk.redwolfairsoft.com

       



       

Airsoft Arms and Equipment: New Toys

As part and parcel of the general overhaul of airsoft equipment I’ve been embarking on recently I have been getting rid of a number of my Chinese made guns and replacing them with a smaller number of better made Japanese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong made models

The other day I posted about the King Arms Thompson M1A1 I recently acquired and today it’s the turn of another recently purchased gun to have a moment in the spotlight, the G and P MOE CQB M4 variant. Hardly a catchy, ‘just rolls off the tongue’ kind of a title but it nevertheless describes what’s hiding inside the box pretty well

Made in Hong Kong by G and P this is a shortened version [by about 11cms] of their M4 carbine and comes customised with lashings of MOE, or Magpul Original Equipment. Virtually everything dark earth on the outside of this gun is made by Magpul. Available in a variety of shades I decided to plump for the dark earth model to match my multi-cam and tan coloured Warrior webbing, and because I already own a number of dark earth PMag style magazines

As with the Thompson I posted about the other day, I’d been planning on getting a ‘Magpuled up’ M4 for sometime and a few weeks ago decided that the time was right to do so before getting hold of them started to become a bit tricky now that Magpul have pulled out of supplying gear to the airsoft market

As I hope you’ll be able to tell from the photos, she’s a little beauty with decent range out to 40 plus yards and a respectable rate of fire

The fire selector switch has a very positive feel to it and functions perfectly, as does the incredibly solid Mbus rear sight which comes fitted with an extremely powerful spring loaded mechanism! It comes with two changeable sighting holes and is fully adjustable for windage and elevation

The cover on what would be the shell casing ejection port on a real steel weapon flips up but doesn't actually close, it is permanently open and aesthetically might not be to everyone's taste

Surprise, surprise [not]! The cosmetic ejection port hides the adjustable hop mechanism, accessed by pulling back on the bolt release lever at the rear of the upper receiver

Since taking this photo I've added an ASAP to the rear of the receiver to facilitate the use of a single point sling but have decided to keep the Warrior sling attachment on as well

As you can see here the battery fits in the stock tube making for a very tidy looking job as well as adding a little bit more weight to the rear of the gun. The Magpul stock is a little fiddly to get on and off but with practice and the aid of a long shafted, flat head screwdriver all is well!

It's certainly worth mentioning that the gun comes wired with a Deans connector so you may have to adapt some batteries or buy some new ones to use with it. You could always put a Tamiya connector on there but why would you when the DC is more efficient, not to mention smaller? There's just about enough room in there for the small Lipo you can see above but a stick battery might be preferable

The gun comes packaged with a single 120 round Pmag which works perfectly well, as do the 360 round King Arms Pmags pictured above.....

.....and the 75 round Beta Project mags pictured here

These Green Label 75 round Pmags on the other hand are a little loose in the mag well and don't feed all that reliably unless they are held forward as you're shooting

The addition of a self adhesive Velcro spot, preferably in a matching shade if you happen to be anal about such things, will soon have that sorted out

All in all, I'm very pleased with my new toy and am looking forward to taking her out on the field. Thank you to Firesupport for supplying the gun and kindly sorting one of my batteries out with a DC!

Airsoft Arms and Equipment: New Toys

Airsoft and I haven't fallen out, but suffice to say skirmishing has been placed on the back burner for a little time lately while I immerse myself in one or two other shooting related hobbies that are totally new to me

I've also reached the stage with airsoft where I've decided to pare down the amount of guns and gear I've stockpiled over the years, partly because I need some cash to inject into the above mentioned new interests, partly because I need to free up some space in Dad's Den, and partly because I simply don't love it enough to want to keep it any longer

Leaving aside my WW2 German replica uniforms, which I don't intend ridding myself of anytime soon, I've decided to concentrate on two 'modern' looks, namely German Flecktarn [woodland pattern] and the ubiquitous [at least in airsoft skirmishing circles] multi-cam teamed with Warrior webbing and other accessories from quality manufacturers like Blackhawk, IMI and Magpul

Consequently, I now have a number of black, plastic bin liners up in the loft, stuffed with clothing, bits of webbing and other sundry items waiting until I can find the time to upload it onto ebay or take it along to the next Arms Fair

It's a similar story with guns. I've decided to jettison all my Chinese clones and limit myself to guns I really, really love, made by companies in HK, Taiwan and Japan. Which brings me on to the real reason for this post, one of the new guns I've just bought to replace the half dozen China types I parted company with recently

So, here it is. The King Arms Thompson M1A1 [military version]. It's an iconic WW2 gun and I've wanted one for quite a while. It comes with a single 60 round magazine so when I bought it I also purchased a box set of 5 King Arms mid cap magazines holding 110 rounds each

Whenever I play a WW2 game I always portray a German soldier, so this will be a 'captured' weapon, hence the addition of the MP40 leather strap which is a perfect fit and a darn sight easier to put on than the webbing sling designed for the gun

The 'wooden' furniture is actually made of plastic but, if you can live with the fairly obvious mold lines when up close, it looks pretty respectable from a distance. You can get real wood kits for it and I'll more than likely do that at some point

The magazines [made of ABS] are absolutely solid when engaged in the receiver. We're talking zero wobble!

Five 110 round magazines, in addition to the 60 round low cap mag packaged with the gun, and pictured below, will give you the 600 rounds you're permitted to take on to the field at any one time in a lot of WW2 themed games

There's plenty of room in the battery compartment which is very easily accessible by means of a swivel plate at the rear of the stock, but.....

.....it's worth mentioning that the battery connector is a large Tamiya connector rather than a small one. At the moment I'm using the adapter lead that came with my battery charger and a lipo battery. I don't actually have any batteries with large connectors on them! Out of the box, the gun shoots at over 400 FPS with .20 gram BBs so I will need to get the spring changed. When I do, I will get a Deans connector spliced onto the battery lead at the same time!

All in all it's a cracking little gun with good range, a respectable rate of fire and decent build quality, and I picked it up brand new for a penny shy of £100. Can't grumble!

Airsoft: Arms and Equipment

I've been toying with the idea for quite some time and the other day I finally succumbed to temptation and purchased the item pictured below

I've been looking for a gun that's well built, reliable, with good range and a fairly rapid rate of fire. Whilst surfing the net for a suitable weapon I happened to come across this and set about finding out to get hold of one in the UK

I eventually found a dealer prepared to let the package I wanted [the gun and 8 additional hi-cap magazines] go for just over £520, including next day delivery. Not cheap, I know, but I was working on the premise that I ought to be getting what I was prepared to pay for!

I know it's not always the case, but the first thing that hits you when you tear through the brown paper is the quality of the packaging which is reassuringly expensive looking and suggestive of the fact that on this occasion it just might be

Inside the box you will find a gun, a high-cap magazine, a few BBs, a red plastic barrel cover, a cleaning rod tucked away underneath the gun and an instruction booklet, together with a few paper targets, cleverly secreted away in the lid of the box, which also has a couple of polystyrene blocks strategically stuck onto it for added protection

The magazines are predominantly made of metal, so are reassuringly weighty, very easy to fill with the 500 rounds they comfortably hold, and are absolutely solid as a rock when slipped into the mag well of the gun

The gun itself, being a TM, is unsurprisingly made of a mixture of ABS and metal making it fairly light, but by no means flimsy. The adjustable stock is easy to operate and pretty solid with very little movement even when fully extended

The fire selector and magazine release catches are all comfortably positioned, as they are on the real steel version, and access to the incredibly easy to use hop adjustment is achieved via the cocking handle on the front left hand side of the gun

Access to the battery compartment is a little trickier but by no means complicated or even fiddly once you've practiced it once or twice. Remove the flash hider at the front, release a small catch on the front of the cover whilst at the same time holding the cover, and simply slide it forward. The compartment is designed for 8.4V mini batteries but, as you can see from the photos below, it will easily accommodate a 7.4V Lipo

Other fixtures and fittings include a standard adjustable iron sight at the rear, a single rear steel sling point on the left hand side, and threaded holes on either side of the battery housing ready to take RIS rails should you wish to pimp it up some!

So. How does it shoot? Well, firstly let me qualify this by saying that I haven't yet taken it out into the field but shooting it in the garden the other day was a blast. TM weapons have a reputation for the quality of their hop units, giving the guns consistently good range without the need for excessive power

According to the sticker on the end of the box, put on by the dealer who tested it before it was shipped, the gun is shooting at around 275FPS out of the box, so universally site friendly and convenient from the customer's point of view since there's absolutely no need to mess around with any of the internals

Standing on the decking just outside my patio windows it easily reached the fencing at the bottom of the garden approximately 100 feet away, that's about 30 metres for all you youngsters that might be reading this, and the rate of fire on full auto was, well, grin-inducingly good! Watching the following short clip won't be anything approaching the fun of getting to hold one of these in your sweaty paws and then unleashing hell when you pull the trigger, but it might just give you an inkling of an idea!

Happy hunting!

A Date For Your Diary

Next year, Saturday and Sunday 9th and 10th February to be precise, sees The British Airsoft Show and The British Shooting and Countryman Show coming together for what promises to be an epic two days of 'gun fun' and 'shooting related shenanigans'

Two airsoft buddies of mine, who used to shoot with me regularly as part of the team I'm in, and both of whom have recently moved down south due to work commitments, mentioned that they were planning to come up for it so chances are I'll be there along with the rest of 'the squad'

Both partners in the enterprise have a website you can easily check out. Take a look at the screenshots below and see if you're tempted to find out more

Not that I'm wishing my life away or anything silly like that, but I can barely wait to be there! See ya!

Airsoft: Events

DATE : Saturday 26th May 2012

LOCATION : Orcop, Herefordshire

RV : Orcop Village Hall, Orcop, HR2 8ET

HOURS : Start 1000 hrs. End 1700 hrs approx. Check-in from 0900 hrs. Safety checks 0930hrs.

PRICE : £80 (£5 discount to Troopers who have completed any previous Training Wing course)

BOOKINGS/PAYMENT : Please make payment in one of the following ways and email contact@soldieri.com, or send us a message via facebook, to reserve your place.

Direct transfer to: -

A/c name: Rock 'n' Roll Embassy

Sort code: 30-92-06

Number: 02196350

Cheque payable: Rock 'n' Roll Embassy

Mailed to:

Rock 'n' Roll Embassy

PO Box 129

Boston

PE20 2ZD

Or payment via Paypal sent to email address faith@rocknrollembassy.com

NOTE: if paying via Paypal please add £3 surcharge to the prices stated above (ie £83 / £78) to cover Paypal fees.

ABOUT: Be prepared for an intensive day of training. Following a brief introduction it'll be straight into a full day of practical work, including: dry training - stance - accuracy training - turns - shooting on the move - confidence training - fast draw.

A great course in its own right but also the first step in CRW/Black Ops.

KIT REQUIREMENTS: Participants will need to have own airsoft pistol, hip or shoulder holster (or both), BBs and safety glasses/mask. [we can provide hire weapons if needed - price on request - please contact us ASP to book hire kit].

OTHER: Hot brews provided all day. Bring own lunch/provisions.

Camping overnight we suggest : www.burhopefarmcampsite.co.uk

 
Terms:

In the event of a cancellation on your part: 
 
The course fee is non-refundable (and not transferable to another course). Your booking is transferable to another person if you wish to make arrangements for someone else to take your place (full fee payable), as long as we are informed in advance.
(Note: We would help as much as we can to fill any cancelled places and look to issue refunds where possible).

In the event of a cancellation on our part: 
 
Due to the nature of our Instructors' line of work there may be unavoidable circumstances which mean we have to postpone a course at short notice. We reserve the right to cancel a course for any reason. If this happens you will have the option of either a full refund or you can carry booking forward to next available course date.

A safety briefing and FPS check will take place prior to the course commencing, usually at 0930hrs. You must attend said briefing and adhere to site rules at all times.

For all you WALTs and WANNABEES out there, have fun!

Airsoft Arms and Accessories: MP9 and Lonex Mags

Welcome to July

I spent yesterday at my regular airsoft site, Fireball, playing a very enjoyable series of games in near perfect weather conditions and whilst there I came across a couple of items of kit I liked very much indeed

The first was a wind-up mag with a difference. Instead of spending forever winding up the little plastic wheel protruding from the underside of the magazine casing, or using a key, rather like the ones you used to use as a child when you played with your clockwork train set, and which you have probably already lost in some safe zone or other, you simply open up the bottom of the magazine to reveal the winding mechanism and pull a wire a few times. Just in case you can't picture what I've just described, I've included a couple of images from ebairsoft

At over $25 a pop they are by no means the cheapest hi-cap M4 magazine you can buy, but the reviews on the web site are excellent and the handful of guys at Fireball who already own some were similarly impressed when I spoke to them yesterday

Reviews from ebairsoft

This is really a 5 stars one !
Fill it, pull 5/6 times the small rope and you're done.
I tested 4 of them with :
Marui M4A1 933
VFC SCAR L
JinJong M4 CQB
JinJong G36 with M4 magazines adapter
Never failed nor "holes" in short, long and extra long burts.
Real capacity is 357 +/-1 USABLE rounds plus 25 rounds to engage the spring.
The finishing is raw-steel like with that blue effect which is making it great !
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

Bought 2 of these and instantly bought another 2 as they really are that good!
Everyone at my local airsoft site asks about these when they see them and my winding hicaps are purely a back up now I have 4 of these superb mags. Needless to say I'll be ordering a few more!
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

I used my only two Lonex mags at this past weekend's game and was blown away at how well the magazine works. It takes but a few pulls of the metal wire and the magazine is ready to go. I could not believe that it would unload a full magazine; no more pulls of the wire were needed. The magazine only had about a dozen or so BBS left in it. If more pulls are needed or a quick re-load of the magazine is required it can be done very quickly. The construction seems pretty good. I have used them in my ECHO 1 XCR and it fed the BBS perfectly.

Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

The lads at Fireball got theirs from the above mentioned retailer, and they are available on ebay as well, so I'm told

The other item I came across yesterday was a gun, the KWA MP9 GBB pistol. The words 'outstanding' and 'blown away' are used far too often these days but in my opinion they are well warranted where this particular weapon is concerned

Two of the Fireball regulars brought one along yesterday and I was lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to fire both of them. Suffice to say, I had a smile on my face as wide as I don't know what, and I've already decided to put it at the top of my wish list

This is what it looks like, just in case you haven't seen it.....

The KWA version of the MP9, available from ebairsoft

It's also available from Landwarrior Airsoft in the UK

 
.....and this is what it sounds like, and shoots like



The rate of fire is awesome and it sounds tremendous, so expect to get through the 48 round magazine in the blink of an eye. Fill the magazine with your gas of choice and it will shoot 3-4 lots of BBs before needing a top up. You may choose to buy a spare mag or two, but they will set you back around £40 each. The gun itself is around the £200 mark

Spare mag and single point sling for the MP9, also available from Landwarrior Airsoft

More from me later. Happy hunting

Ares and Zeta Labs Join Forces

You may have picked up on this from browsing other sites like, for example, the excellent WW2 Airsoft site that has recently come into existence. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then read on

It seems that Ares have recently acquired Zeta Labs, the company behind the recently released spring powered replica of the Russian Mosin Nagant sniper rifle

 

As such, the two rifles pictured above are being added to their 'Classic Line' range of WW2 weapons which already includes the PPSH-41 and the soon to be released 'Grease Gun'

As Ares themselves say:

Welcome Zeta Lab to become a part of ARES Airsoft company. This is a great opportunity that ARES will gain more knowledge on special feature which Zeta Lab could bring to us, and product range will be extended under ARES's ownership

Ares have a reputation for quality [when I took my PPSH to Gunmunki last weekend to have the spring chopped down a little the whoops of delight were audible for miles!] so let's hope they are true to their word and they extend the Classic Line to bring us more 'must have' WW2 replicas like the ones already on the market

Airsoft Arms and Accessories: Latest Additions

Last week I went to the third AAF [Airsoft Arms Fair] over at the Grange in Balsall Common, and a very enjoyable day out it was, too

Whilst there I picked up a couple of Fast Mags from DingoDogs Airsoft and an IMI belt extension platform for my Sig 226 holster

The Fast Mags are fixed securely to one of my Warrior Molle platforms, and when I say securely, I really do mean it. The rubberised straps at the back of the mag holder slip easily through two Molle loops before reattaching to the bottom of the holder. It takes a little more effort to reattach them than it generally does with the usual press stud arrangement found on most Molle pouches, but once in place they are solid as a rock

I've tried a number of different magazines in them for size, a bog standard M4 metal hi-cap mag, a WE gas mag for my GBB Scar, and a Magpul PTS 'waffle' mag, all of which fit beautifully, extract with ease, and none of which fall out when you turn the chest rig upside down and shake it for all you're worth!

At £18 a pop they aren't inexpensive, but they do exactly what they say they will do, and they look pretty cool. The latest generation of Fast Mags, which these are, are also stackable so you can fit one on top of the other should you want to

The IMI belt extension platform is another rugged and versatile piece of kit which will set you back about £20 and, in my opinion, is well worth the money

It fits perfectly on to a rigger's belt and is designed primarily to be worn in conjunction with a vest or chest rig, the idea being that when fixed to the platform the holster hangs below belt level, thereby giving you clearance to draw your side arm without getting tangled up in your vest. It obviously works just as well without a vest and makes placing your side arm on your hip that little bit more comfortable if you happen to like wearing your trousers quite high, thanks in large part to the fact that it has three different fixing points, all of which give you the option to rotate the holster through 360 degrees

At the moment I generally wear a chest rig and a PLB belt and already have a Serpa drop leg platform. However, I've been toying with the idea of going out with a second side arm but a) didn't want it fixed to my PLB belt and b) didn't want it fixed to my chest rig. The IMI BEP allows me to carry a second side arm suspended from my rigger's belt which drops below both my chest rig and my PLB belt!

And that's not all I spent my hard earned cash on last week. I mentioned in my review that Land Warrior Airsoft were at the show for the first time, and I was delighted they were. A week or two before the show I ordered, and paid for, an Ares PPSH 41 from them and picked it up at the show to save on postage. Ive been wanting one of these iconic guns for some time, and finally decided to take the plunge

The Ares PPSH 41

There are three versions of this gun currently available, the Hexagon, the Ares and the S&T Armaments one, which is to all intents and purposes a lower priced clone of the Ares. I don't usually do this, but on this occasion I decided to go for the most expensive option and buy the Ares, and I'm very glad I did

The build quality is excellent, and it looks and feels absolutely fantastic. Taking the battery in and out couldn't be simpler. Flip down the cover on the butt plate, unclip the false screw at the top to allow the butt plate to swivel out the way and, hey presto, you're there. It will take a small 8.4 battery, or a 9.6 crane stock battery, which is what you can see in the photo below

I can't tell you what the rate of fire is, [but it sounds pretty reasonable] and I don't have a chrono at home but the video below will give you an idea of what the FPS is. It fires on semi-auto [single shot] and full auto, the hop is readily accessible and very easy to adjust, it has an EBB [electric blow back] action and the drum mag it comes with has a capacity of 2,000 rounds! Plenty to keep you out on the field of battle for quite some time, even in a general open day game let alone a WW2 one, without the need for a refill. A good job, too, if you ask me. I have one tiny criticism of this gun, and it may well be one of those things which varies from gun to gun rather than being a design fault, and that's that the magazine cover is very tight fitting. It's a bit of a wrench to get it off, which in some respects is no bad thing, but it would be tricky to refill it in the middle of a firefight. And refill it is what you would need to do, because as far as I know you can't buy spares!

The mag cover [top] is very tight, even with a dab or two of trust petroleum jelly smeared around the edge

This baby holds around 2,000 rounds which is far in excess of the rival Hexagon version

Detail of the hop adjusting mechanism, accessible by pulling the bolt back and locking it into position

A more detailed shot of the repro strap. Unfortunately this doesn't come supplied with the gun, however, real ones aren't that hard to come by and if you have a scout around on a WW2 airsoft forum or two, as I did, you ought to be able to get one pretty easily

That's all, folks, as far as new additions to my collections are concerned for this month. If you fancy one of the guns, I would heartily recommend the services of LWA. What's more, they offer it at the best price for a UK based retailer. Happy hunting