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Airsoft International – Volume 8 Issue 12

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Making hard work out of team work…

As we come to put a lid on the issue of Ai that you have before you I’ve been taking the time to ponder a few things about my own airsoft activity and the internal politics of it. The airsoft industry as a whole can and does get quite “political” behind the scenes, just as any industry that is as tight knit as this one, but I’m not really talking about that. I’m coming from and angle that nearly every airsofter will have some involvement with at some point.

Personally, I’m not a massive fan of team sports, I’ve never been drawn to football, rugby, ice hockey or anything. Not that I’m not competitive, but I tend to prefer individual games. Don’t laugh when I say I’m more than a little partial to a round of golf. I’m not sure whether or not we can categorise airsoft as a “sport” just yet, but it goes without saying that it’s something that can get quite competitive. With more than one player on each side, it’s inevitable that teams form. Whether they are temporary teams that only have the colour of the band on their arm that day in common, or they are a more long-standing organisation it doesn’t really matter, teams are essential to the mechanics of the game.

Problems begin to kick in though when teams are formed and they need to be orgainised. Frenchie has pondered the issue of leadership in this month’s “Ninja” feature and it’s something everyone even considering forming a team should read through. Although we all have our own egos and our own motivations there always has to be one person in charge otherwise the principle of the team will be entirely lost. If that person in charge is you, you need to step back and wonder if you are being the sort of person you would listen to in that situation. I’m not the biggest proponent of ranks on the airsoft field but I will concede to the fact that somebody, at some point has to press the button and have the final say.

 

If a well-organized team can take their discipline effectively to the field, they are sure to be a worthy opponent, but the single biggest weakness for any team in infighting. Insubordination is dealt with harshly in the military and for good reason. If infighting breaks out, the enemy can forget about doing anything and simply sit back and watch as the team destroys itself. Again, I’m not condoning a court-martialing on the airsoft field but somebody needs to be in control. This is where the point comes round full-circle to something we mentioned a few issues back… Everyone wants to be something special, it’s natural. Everyone is going to want to be the leader, the commander… Ever heard of that phrase “too many chiefs and not enough Indians”? I’m sure you get my point…

What’s the solution to this then? I can’t give you s straight answer to that but perhaps the best way for you to find out how your team works is to rotate the position of command on a regular basis. The great thing about airsoft is the only consequence of failing is a dent in your pride. You can afford some trial and error and you can afford to let everyone have his or her turn.

One thing is for certain; you best get your team sorted as soon as possible. At the end of summer the Ai 5-Man returns and it’s sure to be the most strenuous test of your squad’s ability to achieve an objective. Why not book in and spend the summer sorting out your own pecking order before the big day on August 3rd? Just please; try not to fight amongst yourselves!

Ai Volume 8 Issue 10

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A long and winding path…

As I sit amidst the contents of three or 4 AEGs with their gearboxes split open and their internals gears and springs spilling out over my workbench I’m forced to hark back to what it was like when this all began. No, I’m not talking about the beginning of existence or even the creation of the first AEG, but rather thinking about when this airsoft thing began for me. I’ve been playing and participating in the hobby we all share a love for for merely a blink of an eye in comparison to many, but I’ve just experienced Tier 1 Military Simulation’s lastest game that took place at STANTA in Thetford, East Anglia, that I must profusely thank Mr Ed Denson for. Little did I expect all that time ago that I would be experiencing -10C and a driving blizzard during the course of my weekend’s airsoft, but I guess that’s called progression!

I remember my first game, a walk-on game at a woodland site with a borrowed AEG that I’d managed to secure use of because said friend was too hung over to play himself, saving me from the horrors of the dreaded rental AK. A few weeks later I remember saying to my good friend and contributor to Ai, Jack Baxter that “I wasn’t really interested in getting all this camo and loads of guns” and that I just wanted one decent gun that worked. Shortly after that the decision on camo was overturned and the necessity of a solid uniform was compounded as I found a sheep tick clamped perilously close to my Gentleman’s region, which was incidentally the first of a few times that airsoft has been the cause of me ‘phoning my mother in a inconsolable panic. The gun thing was also eschewed not that long afterwards after I got my first taste of urban site gaming and I discovered the sniper rifle I had been using wasn’t going to cut it in the confines of buildings. I continued to kid myself though, just a couple of uniforms and a couple of guns for woodland and urban was the upper limit… That was already starting to slip though and I bowed to the allure of a decent sidearm.

The next marked step on the ladder to the point I’m at now was dealing with my first gun breakdown. It’s a real coming of age for most players and again and experience I shared with Jack. Being the inquisitive sort that he is he’d already had a dig into the unknown realm of the AEG and began to hone the skills that would eventually become so valuable to us all and despite me being in a total state when my RPK failed to do its business, he coolly and calmly put it right for me. The next time it happened I peered over his shoulder and my learning experience began. This is something you can share with me by way of our “Devil’s in the Details” and “Take Down” features but now I’m happy to embark upon even complex fixes and breaking down a gun to its component pieces is now a routine exercise.

If we fast forward some considerable time, plenty of guns, more wallet abuse than I care to think about and an inconceivable amount of BBs, I find myself in a position where airsoft is now more than something I do once every couple of weekends and it’s now a staple part of my life, my full-time job. I wouldn’t have given you credit for it if you’d suggested this was how it would be back at the beginning but I’m more than thankful for it now. One think that has struck me though is that no matter how many guns and how much tactical kit I have, the enduring memories I have through all this time are of great times, laughing until I cried in the safe zone with people that have become close friends, crashing behind some cover, sheltering from hundreds off BBs whizzing through the air with a guy that has instantly become my best friend and borrowing a speedloader for the weekend off of a dude that I’d only just met at a spawn point. Of course these examples are just points in time I can recall instantly, there’s so many more things I could write about that would fill this entire magazine but without detailing them all, they all have one thing in common… I can’t really recall what I was wearing at the time or even what gun I was using. At the risk of sounding a little corny and dewy-eyed, I’m going to say airsoft isn’t about the kit or the games, it’s not even abut getting kills or winning, it’s all about the guys next to you. Savour all those moments huddled round a camping stove; those explosions of laughter at the spawn point and those cramped car journeys at ungodly hours because you can’t buy them.

I hope you enjoy this issue as much as we did producing it, and until next time, have a great time!

 

CONTENTS

 

Page 6-8 – Gallery – Reader’s images in prints – Send yours to bwebb@ai-mag.com

 

Page 12-14 – SHOT Show Report – Eric Fine reports back from the biggest tactical and outdoor show of the year.

 

Page 16-17 – Local Load Outs – Reader’s real world load outs. Show us what you skirmish in set the trend

 

Page 18-19 – Ready Room – Teams from around the Globe – Show the world how you roll with your team

 

Page 22-31 – Get in character with Phil Duthaler as we showcase two of his favourite load outs
Page 32-33 – On Our Radar – 0241 Tactical is a small manufacturer from the US that we’ve had our eye on from the start

 

Page 34-35 – Shop Check – This month we paid SGAirsoft in Ireland a visit to find out what’s going on over at their neck of the woods

 

Page 38-41 – Gear Zone – Lights, sights and lasers! We’ve gone off the rails when it comes to clamp-on accessories!

 

Page 42-44 – Take Down SRC SR40 – A Budget WW2 shooter gets stripped back. Pay attention because this one has a unique gearbox!

 

Page 48-50 – Celcius CTW MX-3 – The question on everyone’s lips is answered, is the CTW as good as the Systema PTW?

 

Page 52-54 – Head To Head – Two gas giants are pitted against each other. The New KRISS Vector and the equally fresh TM MP7A1

 

Page 56-58 – PTS Masada SV – Cash is tight these days and PTS have responded with a slimmed down version of their acclaimed Masada, has it managed to keep its charm?

 

Page 62-64 – Tried and Tested – We’ve run a selection of kit through the gauntlet so we can tell you what’s worth owning

 

Page 66-67 – Gear Focus – Smocks… An often overlooked but invaluable piece of fighting equipment.

Page 70-71 – That’s Pretty Ninja – What’s old is new so they say, or are we just all blinded by the glitz and glamour of all that is considered “Gucci”…

 

Page 72 – Quick Fix – Give your barrel a thorough cleaning with the help of Abbey Gun Solutions products

 

Page 74-75 – Workshop – Jay forges on with his insanely ambitions project. Things are really starting to shape up!

 

Page 77-80 – DitD – I gone done broken my AK motor and Jack had to help me fix it! We suspect it’s a common problem, so listen up and learn some new skills!

 

Page 82-83 – Weekend Warriors – Guns for show, knives for a pro, as the saying goes, but Jay is here to give you some pointers on all things pointy.

 

Page 84 – Mythblasters – Can an AEG really have PTW trigger response? Is it really as easy as throwing in an £85 upgrade part, find out inside!

 

Page 86 – French Letter – Is innovation all it’s cracked up to be, and do we need to complicate everything with new-fangled technology? Frenchie gets a bit grumpy about all us whipper-snappers in this month’s French Letter.

 

Ai Volume 8 Issue 9

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As I write this we are well into January of 2013 and it follows that by the time you read it, we’ll be even further into the month. All is well and good though and it turns out the Mayans were either wrong or at least inaccurate about the impending apocalypse which meant that instead of being sucked into a fiery void, I was able to make my way over to Swindon to visit the fledgling site called “CQB Tactical”. You can read our full report of this very promising facility elsewhere in this issue but what I wanted to write about in this short passage was the matter of reputation.

 

A single event that occurred during the course of the day made me think a little about how reputations work in airsoft and how a little careless bending of the truth can be magnified greatly, with rather disproportionate consequences. Despite having an overwhelmingly positive day at CQB Tactical, before the last game, I overheard a player a few people down the queue to get back into the safe zone say, “I’m not surprised the other team are cheating, half of them are the Ai @$&£?” (four letter expletive beginning with “C” removed)… Now, since I’ve been doing this job a little while now I’ve become somewhat accustomed to dealing with things from left-field, airsofters can collectively come out with some quite bizarre statements and mind-bending questions but the completely unfounded nature of this somewhat accusing tirade really struck me. At the time I brushed it off, somebody was obviously having a bad day but as we drove a couple of hours home I began to reflect on it. What had caused this outburst?

 

Airsoft is odd in the fact that, due to everyone generally wearing a rather similar outfit, it sometimes being quite dark and also the fact you’ll generally only catch fleeting glances of other people, anonymity is reasonably easy to retain. Although I’m no shrinking violet I hadn’t made any particularly overt announcement that I was “Ben from Ai”, I’m plainly not that egotistical and secondly, I didn’t really want to identify myself as “walking target A”. By the same token, when I’m playing airsoft under the banner of the magazine, I make sure I do so with nothing short of impeccable behavior for the very reason of reputation. The person responsible for brandishing such expletives obviously hadn’t thought of the consequences of his actions. If he thought I, or somebody in my party had been cheating he should have told a marshall, although upon investigation this didn’t happen.

The consequences of you simply deciding somebody is a cheat are pretty deep. You tell the players around you, they tell the next player they meet and before long, the entire opposing team has the same impression, an impression based on what? It’s an impression based on one person’s generally unjustified snap judgment. I’ve marshaled enough airsoft games to know that there are two sides to every dispute and I have to say, at least half the time that fateful call of cheat is unfounded, based on an over-estimation of a players’ ability to shoot or the range their weapon achieves. Face it, as the shooter you are in a pretty bad position to see what a 6mm BB is doing at 20m, let alone further. The law of Chinese Whispers then dictates that within a week the site word will have spread and the site will now be tarnished with a reputation of being frequented by cheats. Unjust at best, damaging to the livelihood of the site operators at worst, all because an individual isn’t able to accept the fact he may not have hit his mark.

I’m not going to say I’m an angel, there have been times when I’ve been hit by a BB and been unaware until I was told, but I can honestly say I’ve never brazenly cheated.  Cheating and not taking hits need to be dealt with in turn, but believe me, I’d rather deal with those that make unfounded accusations first. Fortunately the instance outlined here was isolated and I’m able to brush it off, the owners of CQB Tactical are proactive enough to put it past them but next time you decide to brandish somebody a cheat, please consider the consequences of what you are about to say, the may last a lot longer than the heat of the moment.

CONTENTS

 

Page 6-8 – Gallery – Reader’s images in prints – Send yours to bwebb@ai-mag.com

 

Page 12-14 – Site Report – Read our After Action Report from the new site in Swindon, CQB Tactical

 

Page 16-17 – Local Load Outs – Reader’s real world load outs. Show us what you skirmish in set the trend

 

Page 18-19 – Ready Room – Teams from around the Globe – Show the world how you roll with your team

 

Page 22-31 – Mix Up, Look Sharp! – Mixed camouflage patterns and the use of camo in general is the cornerstone of Kit Up! This month.
Page 32-33 – On Our Radar – We take a look at the story behind the innovative RAMP from Gear 4 Grunts.

 

Page 34-35 – Shop Check – This month we paid JD Airsoft a visit and were blown away by their amazing set-up

 

Page 38-41 – Gear Zone – Fire Support let us run riot in their stock room and we pick out a selection of low-cost gun gadgets!

 

Page 42-44 – Take Down RWL Nighthawk – A custom 1911 with a difference. This one is CO2 powered and will blow your socks off!

 

Page 48-50 – ACM BAR – A budget friendly BAR was something that we thought would come clutched in the trotters of flying pigs, but it’s here and we’ve reviewed it!

 

Page 52-53 – TM M9A1 – Marui finally get round to putting an adjustable hop in their M9 replicas, was it worth the wait?

 

Page 56-57 – TM PS90 – Frenchie eyes up this weird looking P90. Will its performance excuse that narwhal style barrel?

 

Page 58 – Staff Shooters – Bill shows up the ins and outs of his venerable MC51. It’s a total franken-gun but it shoots like a monster too!

 

Page 62-64 – Tried and Tested – We’ve run a selection of kit through the gauntlet so we can tell you what’s worth owning

 

Page 66-67 – Gear Focus – We take a look at the gorgeous TAD gear line-up and find out what happens when fashion meets function!

Page 70-71 – That’s Pretty Ninja – Away games… Frenchie discusses away games and why they are important for your sanity.

 

Page 72 – Quick Fix – Apply a cold blued finish to your steel parts with a little help from Abbey Gun Solutions

 

Page 74-75 – Workshop – Jay forges on with his insanely ambitions project. Things are really starting to shape up!

 

Page 77-80 – DitD – 40mm shells or moscarts as they are often know can be great fun but often leak. Jack shows you how to fix them.

 

Page 82-83 – Weekend Warriors – Jay continues his focus on pyro and deals with remote detonation this month.

 

Page 84 – Mythblasters – Trade with confidence with part three of our guide to online selling

 

Page 86 – French Letter – Are you dressed appropriately? Frenchie mulls over the point and wonders why it seems so difficult to turn up dressed in the right gear.

Ai Volume 8 Issue 8

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AIRSOFT INTERNATIONAL VOLUME 8 ISSUE 8

Welcome all and sundry to this issue of Airsoft International. Unless you are living under a rock, or perhaps one of our readers close enough to the equator to enjoy all year round warmth, you’ll have been stricken by the plummeting temperatures of wintertim

e. Aside from it stopping our gas guns in their tracks and freezing our little tootsies off

, Airsofting in the wintertime inevitably brings lower numbers to games. Running around in the outdoors when it’s just above zero just isn’t as appealing to the masses as when the sun is high in the sky and it’s hard to keep a shirt on your back.

Sure, it keeps the stag parties away but these slim-pickings and low attendances can lead to games being cancelled and ultimately less Airsoft. It makes you take a step back and really re-evaluate what you enjoy about the game. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but sometimes what I think it does is really make you desperate for a good shoot-up. If your game day falls a bit flat, you can be left feeling rather disheartened. If you’ve been playing for a while and managed to avoid having some kind of mental breakdown in the process, you’ll have no doubt realised that with airsoft, you have to take the rough with the smooth.

Some days go better than others. The decision to go left instead of right at that corridor sometimes results in getting half a mag in the arse-cheek and sometimes other players don’t seem to take hits. Does that mean you can’t have fun though? If you are only motivated by winning, perhaps maybe, but if you appreciate the finer points of airs

 

oft, the camaraderie, the strategies and perhaps even the odd post-skirmish pint, with the right level of expectation, you can come away with a great feeling of satisfaction every time. People wear more layers in the cold, that’s a given so don’t be shocked whe

n the guy with his back to you at 50m doesn’t take the hit on his Puffa jacket.

Airsoft might be competitive, there’s no denying it’s rewarding to emerge as the victor, but when temperatures and numbers are low there’s something else that’s altogether more rewarding about the game, something that makes it greater than the sum of its parts, something that sets the game apart from kicking a ball about on a field, or screaming at some guys racing cars around on the TV on Sunday morning. If you keep playing through winter remember you are part of the hardcore, savour those moments,get stuck in and above all remember to enjoy it.

See you on the skirmish field in 2013 guys!

Ai Volume 8 Issue 7 – All Terrain Tiger!

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Hello and welcome Ai Volume 8 Issue 7,

As you flick through this issue, or perhaps digitally scroll through the pixels that make up the pages of our newly improved digital version that’s available for iOS, Android, Mac and Desktop PC platforms, you might notice we’ve launched something of a fresh new look. The pages of Ai should now be cleaner and easier to read no matter how you choose to digest your monthly dose of Ai.

The outward image of airsoft is something we do take great pride in here at AiHQ. Although we are only a small team, airsoft is dear to the hearts of every single member and we do our damned best to cram each issue of Ai with as much value as your £4 will stretch to. It’s true, we are only a hobbyist title and many of our contributors write for us in their spare time outside of their day jobs, but that doesn’t mean we do anything by halves. As you no doubt notice the pages of your favourite airsoft magazine are furnished with high quality, vibrant and professional images of the latest and most exciting kit we can track down. After all, if you wanted to see blurry images of somebody wearing some surplus DPM at the bottom end of somebodies back garden, you could probably do that yourself with a quick browse on Facebook. In fact, Frenchie discusses the matter of airsoft photography in his regular “Ninja” feature on pages 70-71.

Airsoft isn’t all about image though, and neither is Ai, we pride ourselves on in-depth reviews of not only guns but also the associated and essential equipment you’ll need. In this issue you’ll find our “Gear Zone” section has now been upped to a healthy 4 pages and features more new gear than ever before. If it’s worth knowing about, you’ll find it on pages 38-41.

That’s enough about us though. The nights are drawing in here over the UK and thoughts have no doubt been turning to those “Winter Projects” that will keep us all sane through the coming months. Something that has caused a bit of a stir is Jay’s ambitious DShK Machine gun project that’s getting underway. If it were anyone else attempting to make this gun in airsoft form, I’d probably be a bit wary of the outcome, but since it’s Jay masterminding the handiwork we can’t wait to see ho it turns out. If you are planning something equally outrageous, hair-brained or zany, we’d love to hear about it. As always you can feel free to drop me a line on bwebb@ai-mag.com! Let me know about your latest games, your biggest skirmish-field frustration or even your most recent epic failure. Get in touch!

Until next time, enjoy this issue and see you in the safe zone!
Ben Webb

Ai Volume 8 Bonus Issue

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Foreword thinking…

 

In the world of publishing we are always looking forward. It can have a very inspiring effect at times, but at others, always peering into the future can be a little demoralising.  As I write this we are barely into the month of October but by the time it’s been designed, printed and distributed to all the far away places it will eventually be sold and read, it’ll be nearly Christmas. As such we’ve had to cast our net out to snatch you a few stocking filler ideas, which you’ll be able to find in our expanded Gear Zone section on page 38.

 

That’s not where our forward thinking stops though, as soon as we wrap up this issue, I’m heading off to the infamous Copehill Down Training Village  for Tier 1 Military Simulation’s “Operation: White Knight”. Not for the faint hearted, White Knight is a 36hr continuous Mil-Sim game, pitching ISAF forces against a guerilla OpFor team including role players as civilians and double agents. Because of the time frame involved the game is going to encompass two full nights and being in the middle of October, poses a few more challenges than your average skirmish. Fortunately I’ve been reading up on Jay Kenton’s Weekend Warrior features in this very magazine to help me prepare.

 

At these events not only do you have to worry about guns running, batteries holding charge and going in the right direction, but because of the time involved, food, water, insulation and protection from the elements all need to be factored in, and above all, carried in. Without proper preparation, White Knight will be a battle to stay warm, dry and on my feet as much as it is against the enemy. I’m looking forward to the challenge and I’ll consider myself beaten if I have to resort to traipsing back to the car until the game is over!

Whether you are playing big Mil-Sim games this winter or just heading out to the odd skirmish here or there, Ai is with you all the way. We’ll help you buy your first gun and kit, we’ll help you learn about it and maintain it and we’ll help you fix it when it does go wrong and that’s because Ai is the only magazine written for airsofters, by airsofters.

 

See you on the skirmish field!

Ben

Ai Volume 8 Issue 6 – Navy SEALs

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Our Greatest Respects

Here at Ai, we love to recreate load outs and impressions of real world military forces. We try to do so with as much respect as possible, and this month we’ve chosen to recreate two US Navy SEAL load outs, one from the Vietnam War era and one more recent. In a cruel twist of fate, as we were writing and photographing this feature, the deeply saddening news of the deaths of former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods broke. We would like to take this opportunity to offer our condolences to those this tragic event has affected and also to remember all those that made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

 

Elsewhere in this issue we have the long awaited Ai500 after action report and a selection of the best images captured over the weekend, see if you can spot yourself amongst the action! We’ve also reviewed the 2012 Systema PTW MAX2 in all it’s glory and detailed the improvements over the previous models. There’s no wholesale changes but a few tweaks have been made to improve the package. The classic Tokyo Marui M14 also gets a going over for old times sake and we ask can it still hold its own on the field?

 

Guns and the Ai500 aside, we’ve also got a couple of game reports this issue, one from all the way over in the USA where our man on the ground, Eric Fine took part in Operation: Lightning Strike, Part of Jon Lu’s Lion’s Claws series. We also have a report from Tier 1’s Operation Sandstorm, from the MoD STANTA site in Thetford, UK. We are also looking forward to covering the next part of the series of games in our next issue. On October 12th we will be taking part in Operation White Knight at Copehill Down, a 36 hour intense mil-sim experience. We can’t wait!

Now that the temperatures are dropping and the nights are drawing in a little, we can be sure a few fair weather airsofters will be putting their guns away for winter, but we’re looking forward to a winter of action so whether you choose to brave the elements this year or not, stay tuned to Ai for your fix!

See you next issue!

Ben

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Ai Volume 8 Issue 5 – Hollywood Heroes!

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As I write this I’m still aching and recovering from what will surely go down in the books as one of the best Ai500 games we’ve ever had. All those that joined us for Ai500 Op: Cobra Strike at Rype Village will know what I’m talking about. Intense, exciting and enjoyable gameplay was had by ALL and I’m sure there are many of you out there that feel exactly the same after the event. Not only were we lucky enough to secure one of the MOD’s most expansive training facilities for the weekend, we managed to strike a deal with Mother Nature who bucked a trend of providing appalling weather this summer, and blessed us with the hottest weekend this year. This may have been something of a double-edged sword as keeping energy levels and hydration up was a constant struggle in sweltering heat, buy hey, at least the conditions suited our fictional African-based scenario!

 

Before I move on to my next point, please let me say thank you to all you loyal readers that came along and made the game what it was, thank you to all the staff and player marshals that helped things run smoothly, including Dave Turner and his team, Graham Horner and Mikey “Dusty” Reynolds, Stephen “Demo” Demagalski, Matt Breckons, Nick Goddard, Alex Griffin, Richard Mitchell, Ryan Taylor, Dave Ball, Jamie Fox and Ben “Toastie” Lindsay. Also thank you to the man who devised the gameplay and saw it through to the finish, Mr John Clancy and this crew.

With that out the way, I must move on to the only negative point. Due to the immense strain of running the game and the huge clean-up effort required afterwards, we were unable to attend the National Airsoft Event and Ground Zero on the bank holiday weekend. As I have mentioned to many of you on the Zero In forum, I’m gutted about not being able to attend, but rest assured, we are working on the 2013 calendar already and promise to do our damned best to make an appearance!

 

See you on the skirmish field!

Ben Webb,

Editor.

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Ai Volume 8 Issue 4 – FIGHT LIGHT!

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Welcome to Airsoft International Volume 8 Issue 4!

Taking the RIF…

I had lined up a more positive and up-beat intro to this copy of Ai, especially as we have made it a bit of an “H&K Special” with three officially licensed guns reviewed inside, but something else has thrust itself into the equation and it’s about as welcome as a stripped piston in the middle of a firefight. I try not to focus on the immediate locality I’m in due to Ai’s far reaching readership, but I’m going to have to make an exception here since I think a hugely pertinent issue has been raised, and that issue is of theft. The unlawful taking of another person’s property.

Thanks to the power of Facebook we as a magazine are able to keep in touch with over 10,000 of you readers, but as individuals we are able to keep in touch with our airsoft buddies from all over. I was recently dismayed to read not one, but two reports of a fellow airsofter’s house being broken into and extensive lists of airsoft guns and equipment being taken and frankly, it disgusts me. Prior to now, I can only recall one instance of a theft of airsoft equipment and that was when an unattended M4 went missing after being left on the other side of a site for a while. This is totally different. Somebody house has been broken into, in TWO instances, and airsoft guns have been taken.

 

Whether the crime was perpetrated by another airsofter, we don’t know, maybe it was just an opportunist thief, but either eventuality is as disturbing as the next. I’d always put faith in the fact that airsoft players were a trust-worthy and honourable bunch where honestly would prevail above all other attributes but it seems that might not be the case. If, on the other hand, the guns were taken by a common burglar, we have a different problem to deal with, and that’s RIFs falling into the wrong hands.

As a self-regulating organisation, we owe it to ourselves to act with responsibility when it comes to RIFs getting into the hands of those that are not eligible to a defense, I’ve seen it recently in Facebook “for sale” groups and on forums where new players have attempted to buy guns and have been blocked by the vigilance of older, more experienced and knowledgeable members of the community. Now I’m not calling for vigilante action by the airsoft community, in fact that would be a terrible idea, but what I am suggesting is that we perhaps take a bit more responsibility for the security of our beloved replicas. Perhaps that sprawling heap in the corner of the garage isn’t the most secure storage for them, and maybe now is the time to start thinking of gun cabinets and locks, much like the rest of the firearms community is forced to use, to ensure that even if we do suffer a break-in,  realistic imitation firearms don’t fall into the wrong hands…

 

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Ai Volume 8 Issue 3 – REBEL ATTACK!

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Welcome to Airsoft International Volume 8 Issue 3 – REBEL ATTACK!

Take it to the next level…

I recently had a conversation with a relatively new airsofter who had been playing for a few months, got some kit together and in his own words, “wanted to take his airsoft to the next level”. He wanted to know exactly how much money he should be spending to attain this “next step” of airsoft and what it should be spent on. I felt a little mean when I had to explain to him that there was no higher echelon to be reached through buying kit and the only sure result of that was an empty wallet and a huge heap of nylon and guns.

 

Don’t get me wrong here, one of my favourite post-pay day things to do is find a little treat for myself, this month I finally managed to ditch the throat mic that’s been doing it’s best to strangle me for the last year and pick up a new PTT and headset to replace it. It’s not the most expensive or groundbreaking piece of kit, but it made me scramble for the post like a kid at Christmas when it arrived! My point is that I don’t think there’s any route to airsoft nirvana via spending a fortune on any kind of kit.

 

If you really want to take airsoft to the next level, there’s one way to do it in my mind. Make sure you’ve got a solid and reliable gun in your hands, (check out the G&G and ICS ranges we’ve reviewed recently for some fantastic value), and hit up a weekender. You cannot beat the total immersion and non-stop action you will get at one of these events. As luck would have it our very own Ai500 is coming up and the very next weekend is the NAE Weekender from Ground Zero. Both events are set to be massive and you’ll have the chance to meet and get on the field with new friends and old rivals alike.

What’s the hold-up? Get yourself booked into a big game and experience the variety, the excitement and the new friends that airsoft has to offer. Skirmishing is so much bigger than your local site and it’s waiting for you to get out there and shoot a few mags at it!

 

See you on the field!

Ben

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