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TacEval 4 - It’s a state of mind Well as many of you know I was invited to attend Lincolnshire Airsoft Club’s 24 hour event. For all that would like to know more about this event I have been tasked with creating 2 reviews. This one is going to ask the question what the heck is a TacEval? and why have I only just heard about this? The second review is going to be written from my own personal point of view. I will be talking about what I managed to do during this event, I will also talk about my kit. So that tuned for the second review coming up in the next few days So onto the first question, what is TacEval? Well quite simply put TacEval is a military word meaning Tactical Evaluation. There are many ways for the military to test it’s personal and equipment, there are TacEval and MinIval. A MinIval is a smaller test of a squadron, group or section. A TacEval is a test of an entire air base, a group of squadrons or a complete inter force test with groups from either the RAF, ARMY or NAVY or a mixture of all of the above. In short MinIval = smaller and TacEval = bigger. So where does this fit into airsoft? Well I am glad you asked. The LAC club boss who used to be an armourer and has probably been through a few tests in his military career decided he wanted to take the normal airsoft events that he and his club had been running and make them better. He wanted to make them have a harder challenge, to make them more realistic. TacEval was created. In these events it's not just a case of shoot the enemy and take over a base. You don’t have as much ammo as you can carry like in a normal event. In TacEval teamwork is everything, thinking actually is a valued skill. Map reading and grid coordinates need to be understood and used. Plans have to be formed and carried out even though the first casualty of war is the plan. Yes you could link milsim events to a TacEval event but there is a slight difference in the two. Now I have never been to a dedicated milsim event but I get that the general idea is for a military force (a team) is to identify and engage the enemy of a map. The other team (the bad guys) are there to stop them. In TakEval yes there are teams but usually a lot more then in a milsim, yes there are objectives/missions but they usually revolve around collecting objects and scoring points with them at the end of the event. There are a lot of similarities between TacEval and milsim events when the daylight is gone because the events don’t stop. In both events you have to patrol, raid resources/objectives, sleep and basically stay out in the field. This in my view really moves TacEval and milsim events away from the normal day airsoft events. TacEval 4 As you can guess by the fact that there is a number 4 in the title there have been a few of these events, well 4 of them lol. They are usually ran once a year by the guys at LAC and they usually need to be run on big match areas. You can’t really run an event like this at a small site. They are also limited to a few players. TacEval 4 was limited to just 40 active players, all though by the end of the event “active” is not a word I'd use lol. You might be asking why limit it to such a small number, I mean LAC usually hold events where 120+ players attend an event. Now you would think that more numbers equals more fun but not at a TacEval event. The challenge is to survive out in the field and believe me less numbers make it more of a challenge. There is a kit list and a limit of ammo that the active players have to abide by. Firefights become more of a risk, can you afford the ammo to engage the enemy or would you rather gather intelligence? Once you have signed up for the event you will be issued with the kit list. You will then be able to make up your team, in this events case teams were allowed to a maximum of 4. Along with the whole kit list there is also the fact that ammo and weapons and optics will cost you from a total amount. I believe the total for the players was $1000 for there weapons. Usually the heavier ammo costs more and therefore limits you. If you are a sniper then your rifle is gonna be pricey and the ammo is not going to be cheap either, and yes your scope will cost you too. What’s the mission? Well the mission is actually quite simple. Throughout the site there are packages ranging from food, sweets, ammo and magazines. Now these can all be eaten, used and and set up as traps for enemy teams ( just don’t eat the ammo lol) All these packages are worth an amount of points and at the end of the event all the totals are totalled and a winner is announced. If I really honest all the teams are winners in these events. They all enjoy the fact that they are allowed to take part in a sport that they enjoy and are allowed to play it for longer then the normal events. They enjoy the challenge of staying out in the field for 24 hours. A conclusion I started this review with the title of TacEval 4 - it’s a state of mind. I really do think that you have to have a different mindset with this event. It’s a different sort of challenge then the normal airsoft events. There is a real sense of achievement in getting to the end of the event.There was the small local teams who knew the site very well and just wanted to hunt other teams. There was the semi professional teams who use tactics and coms to achieve their goals. And there is the other teams made up of younger and older players who both came back with smiles on their faces after taking objectives and killing off other players. A big thank you goes to…………. The guys who run The MAW. I have featured this site before but I have to mention you guys. You have an amazing site and I think I am not the only person who wants to say a big thank you for letting LAC take over the site and run this amazing event. Another big thanks goes to the LAC management for staying on top of the event and showing off just how good you guys really are at running a big event and making it look easy, I know it wasn't lol. CraftySniper Photo credits go to......
Ash Toyne Chris Watchorn Dan Toyne Jen Cardosi Nick Pratt Ian Lawrence Mark Law
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When it comes to the sport of airsoft I think I speak for most if not all players when I say bringing any weapon replica to an event is one of the better parts of the sport. It just does not matter what you bring to an event, bring an M4, AK, M16, G36 or any other weapon that has existed in the real world and you are pretty much guaranteed fun. We all have differing tastes when it comes to what we want to use. We all have different levels of finances when it comes to what we buy. But the most important thing is that we will have fun. Most events allow you to bring whatever you want, as long as it passes the chrono test then you have a green light to use it. I have been in the middle of the battlefield fighting off the enemy along side all manner of AK’s, shot guns, machine guns and the odd sci fi replica. So what happens when the choice is taken away from you? What happens when you have an event that is limited to only gas and spring powered weapons? You have even more fun. I had the chance to attend the last Gas & Spring event at Lincolnshire Airsoft Club and it was like a breath of fresh air for me. I had chosen to bring my GHK G5 assault rifle and a wholes heap of pistols. Even when I was getting ready the day before I could tell this was going to be a great event. It’s not my first event with these restrictions on weaponry but in every previous event it has been a laugh. These events are a little different from the norm and as such attract less players but this just adds to the whole feel of the event. I turned up at my usual silly early time, I normally do this cause I have a lot of kit to get set up including my media gear but I knew that this would not be the case with this event. I was ready in a few mins lol. I waited for the other players to show up and it did not take long for them to turn up. All of them were excited for the event. Once my rifle had passed chrono it was time to mingle. There was a few different sorts of players at this event. Some of them I knew and some of them I did not, but I noticed that they were all eager to get the show started. There was only 25ish players at the event and so the safety brief was given in the safe zone. It was time for the fun to begin………...match time. We had the usual styles of matches, attack and defend this area. Clear out another area. But all the matches felt like they worked well. With an event that has few players you have to change the matches. You have to play to the limitations that gas gives. Everyone that was running a GBBR had very limited ammo counts and had to think about every shot. The shotgun players were also limited by their shells only holding 30 shots. And as for the snipers well they had to deal with limited ammo counts and less targets then a normal event. With all things being considered it was a cracking event with everyone working well together and having a laugh. The special match For as long as I can remember myself and the club boss of LAC have been running a special match. We only run it at Gas & Spring and Piston & Shotgun events but we have been running it for a few years now. All of these matches have been excellent and a real laugh for all those who take part. We have the 2 separate teams with starting points at different locations on the village map. Myself and Ian are locked in the center compound. Obviously the teams will fight against each other but the only way either team will get any points is for them to kill both me and Ian and escort us to the starting point of that team. When that happens that team gets a point. We then walk back to the center compound and start all over again. The real fun part is that me and Ian can and will shoot anything on either team. It’s a very hectic match for me and Ian and I hope we make both teams work for there points. I hope that you have got to the end of this blog with the thought that these limited types of events are fun cause they really are. I was really feeling the strain of work and juggling airsoft together.
This event allowed me to relax and enjoy the sport. Thank you to all who attended. CraftySniper It’s been a while since I created a written blog entry but I thought I’d give it another go. The main reason is that I have just got myself a new keyboard and I am itching to take it for a test drive lol. As many of you know I am a woodland player, I am at my best hunting other players when I have room to roam. My loadouts all suit this play style, my prefered weapons also suit this style too. I am a huge fan of the big bolt action rifles and whether it be my SRS, Striker or VSR I am just loving hunting other players and teams down. How did I come to be like this? Well that all started with Lincolnshire Airsoft Club and there old woodland site at Kirton. This site was amazing, it had it all. Huge open fields, dense woodland areas, ridge tops and salt flats. Terrain could be as good as a field or as bad as a muddy salt flat. All those that can remember the site also remember the salt flats and getting stuck in them. I remember being that new player with no idea of what I was doing. I had an M4 and this huge site was spread out ahead of me. I didn't have a clue of where I was or were the objectives were. To say I was lost would be an understatement. Skip on a few events and I started to get a grip of the lay of the land and I started to feel more at home. Even though I had my trusty G&G M4 which had okay range and questionable accuracy at best, I started to make my way around enemy teams. It’s probably at this point when I should introduce you lot to a person that has shown me and is still showing me the tricks of the trade when it comes to being sneaky. Mr Ian Lawrence is the boss of LAC. A slightly strange individual with a taste for hobnobs, but his knowledge of being sneaky can still not be beaten. There have been other people who have turned up to events at LAC all saying that they are the sneakiest person at airsoft. Needless to say they may have there moments but they still are not up to the job of being quiet in an event when compared to Ian. Ian showed me how the weapon is not always the most important thing in a soldiers inventory. If you move extremely quietly and slowly and have a good understanding of the land which you find yourself in then you can get into very good shooting positions. Skip on to the point where I have my bolt action rifles. I now have the tools that can reach out and touch someone at ranges that they with sub 350 fps rifles can only dream of. A well set up sniper rifle that is accurate, quiet and easy to cover distance with is the holy grail. My VSR was good at this and in my view still is more easier to live with on the battlefield then my current sniper rifle. The Striker was along the same lines of the VSR in how it handled but and this is a big one for me was not as accurate or quiet. Step up Silverback with there SRS. Now I know I have mentioned a few times just how much I like this rifle but there is a method in my madness. It’s all true, if you setup the SRS with a good well built set of internals then it will out range anything and I mean anything on the battlefield. It’s quiet, easy to work on, and deadly accurate with heavy weight ammo. In short put a well built SRS in my hands, take me to a huge woodland site that I have intelligence on and let me put a few of the lessons that Mr Lawrence has shown me and I will have a lot of fun. CraftySniper Welcome to part 2 of my review blog. In part 1 I was reviewing airsoft companies, well lets dive straight back in with this blog entry. CYMA…… Wow where did this come from? I was under the impression that CYMA was not up to scratch, that there internals and externals were naff. Well it seems that I was wrong. A lot of you guys are saying that CYMA are indeed a good company but with maybe a checkered past. There AK’s are very much up to scratch but some of their M4’s are maybe not that good. Internally speaking they are okay with maybe a few more bad things then good things. Price wise this quality issue is reflected in there prices. They are not that expensive when compared to some of the other bigger companies. I did find that because CYMA don’t make any or even some of their products for the UK market that they can come in a tad hot with powerful springs that go over the limits. But there are some shops that will rectify this issue for you for a small cost of course. King Arms….. Well this is another company that I have had limited contact with. I have held some of their products when visiting airsoft retailers and was generally quite impressed. They have come along way in the years that I have been an active airsofter. They do seem to do an average job. All though this might do them a disservice. They have created one of my favourite replicas in the SLR/FAL. I look forward to checking out some of there replicas in the future. Ares…… Another company that has grown over the last few years. They have a quite large catalogue of replicas including electric and spring powered toys. Now I have seen there Amoeba rifles which introduced the world to every different style of M4 you could possibly have or need. This is not necessarily a bad thing but it feels like they are reinventing the wheel. There internals can be pretty bad and sometimes they can be pretty good, it’s just how lucky do you feel. Now let's get onto the elephant in the room……...Striker. As you know I do like to dabble in the world of sniping and I do have a Striker AS01. There was a few small things that I liked about this rifle and a few huge things that I did not like about it. The cylinder is a 2 piece part and if you put a 450-500 fps spring inside the cylinder it will break, not might, will. And this leads me onto other aspects of the internals not being up to par. There is a pretty big following for the Striker and a lot of companies have stepped forward to try and fix the issues with the Striker and other models. Now Ares themselves have released the AS03 sniper pistol. I can only say these words to that thing……..what was you thinking lol. G&P……. This company have been around for what seems like years. They have been in the background of other airsoft retailers quietly doing a good job. They have a huge collection of replicas in there catalogue. There expernals are brilliant across most models. They do seem to command quite high prices here in the UK but most of the time the high prices are reflected in the products that they churn out. I had an G&P M16 and I loved this rifles externals. It felt amazing and even though it was just an electric rifle to me it felt like the real deal. I kinda think the G&P have slipped down the pecking order in airsoft companies but this is just because there is more choice for us airsofters. G&P have been always doing a good job. Well I think this has been one of the hardest pieces of work that I have ever had to create in the past few years, almost feels like doing my GCSE’s all over again. I have really enjoyed creating this piece and I hope you have enjoyed reading it.
I am thinking that this may become a regular piece, maybe even adding more companies, so if you have any other choices for me then lets have em. I love doing media in airsoft and would really like to create more posts on this subject. Piece out guys, CraftySniper time to get your thoughtsWell here we are, it’s taken me a few days to gather all the data that you guys gave me regarding what you thought about some airsoft companies and their products. But before we delve into what I have found maybe we should start with what this is all about. A few days ago on my Facebook page CraftySnipersAirsoftPage I asked for your thoughts on different airsoft companies. We all have been buying their products for years, but just how good are these companies and do some of them have issues that only us customers have picked up on over the years. Let’s start with a few of the comments that was mentioned on the post…… Best consistent brand : Cyma, I've got G&G and it’s never failed me, Ares - truly shocking Krytac all day long Now this question was asked on my page, it was also shared across to the Lincolnshire Airsoft Club page. Plus it was shared to a page on Instagram. Safe to say there was a lot of answers and comments regarding this subject. I myself have been airsofting for around 6 years and I love the sport. Even though I have some pretty awesome replicas in my collection I too have received some lemons. I have seen reviews from other YouTube channels showing off bad replicas. Some from companies that they were expected to come from and some from companies that should of known better. In my research for this blog post I have come across the same comments from some well established companies, and I have been pointed towards some companies that I have had very little to do with over the years that I have been involved with in the sport. So let's jump straight in and share what I have found. Tokyo Marui…… What can I say about them that has not been said about before? They have been around for years, they have created the field and then dominated it. They were around in the early days of the sport and they are still here knocking out new designs. I too have lots of their products, I am rocking a SCAR-H recoil rifle as my primary electric rifle. A lot of you guys feel the same way about Tokyo Marui as I do but that doesn't mean that there is not some very small issues. They can be a tad pricey especially the recoil series and there gas blow backs. This could be put down to the quality but you can not get away from the fact that they are very pricey. G&G…… This was the company that started it all off for me and I dare say I am not alone in that fact. My first replica was the G&G Carbine M4. A staple rifle of the new airsofter and a very good rental option for clubs up and down the country. They have been steadily churning out new models of old replicas as well as creating new designs. If it exists in real steel then I am pretty sure G&G have created an airsoft replica. They create almost every type of airsoft replica including electric, gas blowback pistol, gas blowback rifle. Silverback….... A relative newcomer to the airsoft show and a very small company when compared to the above companies. They so far have only launched the SRS bolt action sniper rifle. However this has turned out to pretty much blow all other sniper rifles clean out of the water for quality and end result. There customer support is legendary, always answering people questions and going as far as replacing parts of rifles very quickly. I don’t need to tell you guys that I am a huge fan of the SRS and Silverback, they are simply awesome. The only slight issues are that there products are very expensive and they only make the SRS rifle so far, this will be changing very soon with the soon to be released HTI 50bmg sniper rifle and the MDR later in the year which will be an electric rifle. Krytac…… This is a company that I have had very little to do with. I do not own any of there replicas but I have used a few of them for small amounts of time at events. I was very impressed with there internal quality and external qualities. I was very very impressed with the Kriss Vector. This is something that is familiar yet different, a hard trick to pull in airsoft. The Kriss Vector is a small product but it also looks different then the normal breed of airsoft replicas. That been said I did hear of Krytac owners having issues with some of the build quality of their products. This was a few years ago and I am sure that this has been fixed. This is the first four companies that I have worked on for this post. Do not worry their are others. These will be added to a new post which will be released very soon. I hope you have enjoyed this first half of this article as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it.
CraftySniper Well I thought I’d make a blog entry regarding this topic as it is kinda important to me. A few months ago I was speaking with fellow media guy Zoidwolf about photos and other media in airsoft. We both came to the same conclusion that a tour of the local airsoft sites would be a great idea. We would have a chance to go out into the airsoft community and meet you guys and girls, plus have the chance to see a lot more airsoft sites in and around the Lincolnshire area. But I am getting ahead of myself, maybe a little background information about CraftySniper and Zoidwolf would be best. You all know about me, I started airsoft 6 years ago and never really looked back, I like media and both hobbies kinda gel well together. Zoidwolf is the name (not his real name lol) of a good friend I met a few years ago through the coming together of a few slightly strange individuals. We all like airsoft and have become good friends through the sport. Now when it comes to myself and Zoidwolf the photographer we kinda just started to work together with taking photos and recording videos at Lincolnshire Airsoft Club and I think I am safe in saying we work well together in the media world of airsoft. Skip a few months on and we start to chat about a tour of airsoft sites. A plan was formed that both of us was going to be attending a lot of new airsoft sites and clubs. It quickly dawned on us that this was going to be big. We planned to make 2 visits to each site and there was possibly going to be a second tour in the second half of the year. We made our first few trips and it dawned on me just how much footage and videos that we was making at each of these sites. I was working the vast majority of the video work and quite a lot of photos whilst Zoidwolf was doing the opposite. It was not uncommon for Zoidwolf to come out with over 1000 photos at each event. I on the other hand was filling 2 and sometimes 3 SD cards with video clips. Needless to say this was going to require a lot of reviewing and editing to make the final pieces of work that you all was going to see. We both have full time jobs and editing as anyone will tell you is a sod!! It takes time and a lot of effort. With both of our jobs this was going to be a lot of work. Some of our visits would be on the following Sunday so we would have to get all the work from a previous trip all finished and uploaded throughout the week before the next trip, a daunting task to say the least. I was looking at my SRS sniper rifle and thinking when was I going to get to use it again. I managed to grab some game time with my TM Scar H which only reminded me of just how much I love actually playing the sport.
It was at this point that my job stepped in and gave me a boat load more work. This was pretty much it for me and the tour. Something had to give, I was getting to the point that I was going to hate the sport of airsoft. It was at this point that I quit the tour, leaving Zoidwolf to carry on. Now before some of you start to think that I left him on his tod for all of the work on this tour that’s not quite true. I am the one who is editing all of his videos. I am also sharing as much of his finished work on my Facebook page. And don’t think that I will never get to go on a tour trip to a site because you never know what might happen in the future. CraftySniper Welcome to my latest blog entry. As you all know it’s been a while since my last written blog. I have been thinking of starting these up again and whilst I was thinking of how to make these a tad bit different form the last blogs that I made. I have come to the conclusion that they need to be a bit smaller in length and I need to feel like they are not massive essays. No need to make me think like I am back at school hahaha. So what is different? Well I have been working very hard with my Silverback SRS sniper rifle. I have been working on some internal upgrades and also working on its externals. I am now at the 90% with the rifle and how it shoots. I have a full Edgi internal setup which is working great with me. I have applied some camouflage colours to try and make the rifle blend into the background. A hard task due to its length. What about making you disappear?
Glad you mentioned that. I am planning on creating a custom ghillie suit, yep that’s right the man who prefers a hammer is going to be let loose with a backing suit and many colours and I am sorry to say who also has no idea what he is doing lol. I am planning on making a series of videos and photo sessions at various stages during the creation of this suit. I can’t promise that the end product will be amazing but I am willing to give it a shot. Sniper videos? They have always been on my mind. I have the cameras and the rifle and the site, what I don;t have at the moment is the know how to create these videos. They are very much more different then anything else that I have created for airsoft. But don’t worry I am watching a lot of videos from people who know a lot more about these multicam videos and how to make them. That is about all I am going to put in this first blog entry. I have lots of other things to speak about but this might end up being a very long entry if I type all those down. Hope you are interested in these blogs and I really do hope they grow. CraftySniper. For the last few months, I have been able to document the development and building of Lincolnshire Airsoft Clubs first ever CQB site. This is a first for me, it's been a journey to watch this site grow from a fully working farm to an actual working airsoft site. How many people can say that they were there at an airsoft sites creation? Some of us have had the pleasure of being at the first ever event of a brand new site but I have been able to sit back and watch the creation from the ground up. LAC doing CQB, you must be mad I have been a member of LAC for over 5 years. I was there when LAC had a huge woodland site and what seemed like an even bigger quarry site, I have attended lots and lots of events at the smaller Combat Zone site as well. LAC has run some huge and very realistic events in there past of which I have had the pleasure to be a part of. Likewise, they have also run some smaller and fun based events too over the years, Zombie events bring back lots of fun memories. At none of these events have LAC ever tried to run a small CQB based site. They have had an event at the Gaol where LAC took over the site and staffed the special event. Now they are trying to make a name for themselves in the CQB sector. So how far have they come? Glad you asked that question. I have visited the site many times over the past few months. I have been able to have free roam over the site and actually see what is happening and what they want to do to the site. At no time have they tried to usher me away from certain parts of the site and only show me the bits that they want to show off. I have had the chance to speak to a few of the staff and the club boss himself on just what they have in mind for the site. I have always come away with the thoughts that these guys and girls have an end game, an actual plan on how they will achieve this. Even though this is something that they have never actually tried they seem to be doing what needs to be done to create this site. It has no doubt cost them a lot in money, time and effort but I can tell that real effort is going into the creation of this site. There are people in the LAC staff group that have special abilities, there are builders, electricians and other people who have knowledge of a trade. All these people are singing by the same song, their mission is simple, to get this site open to all you airsofters. What stage are they at now?
They have a few buildings/sheds converted to airsoft battle areas, they are working out killing zones, they are working out where dead players go to. They have also put a lot of thought into the safe zone and the car park. There has been a test day which I was allowed to video the matches. After watching the players duke it out on a site they have never actually airsofted at before they all came back laughing and smiling. They also noticed where issues were, these issues would only show themselves whilst an actual airsoft match was going on. After every match, there was a mini-debrief over what worked and what did not work. With all these ideas coming from the main players at the site I have no doubt that this site will be successful. Another great driving reason why this site will work is the actual owner. I have met him a few times and he does not seem like the kind of guy who is only after the money. Where ever he can help he has, he has opened up other parts of his property to LAC and has always been nothing but helpful. He listens to all the ideas and has come up with a few ideas of his own, even though a few months ago he probably never heard of airsoft. I have very little doubt after witnessing the drive and passion from Lincolnshire Airsoft Club staff and personal that this site will become one amazing CQB site. CraftySniper I had the pleasure of meeting some great new young players this weekend. I was able to attend Lincolnshire Airsoft Clubs under 18 event. This event was as the title suggests an event for the under 18's. There were a few young players there to take advantage of the being able to use a full airsoft site all on there own. Obviously, there was LAC staff on hand to create some amazing matches for these young players. I am always surprised that in airsoft there are not as many events for the younger players. Now I know that any aged player can join a normal event with all the adults but it would be a bit daunting for these youngsters to join a team of adults that have probably been playing for years. In this event we had young players who had only a few events under there belts, there also were players that were on there first ever event. There were a few adult players here too, these were simply here to make up the numbers and to give the youngsters somebody to work with during the matches. The adults would show the young players how to attack and defend. They were also there to make sure that no harm came to these young players other than being shot lol. I was there as a photographer, but I also had my kit with me just in case. I was using my Tokyo Marui SCAR H Recoil rifle but I never really thought that I'd get a match. I went out with the teams, to say they were eager would be an understatement, these players were itching to get out there and shoot each other. When the first few matches were being played I was walking around the teams taking photos. It's amazing what you see as a photographer. I noticed that even though the weather was not at it's best the players were still having fun and getting on with the job of taking structures and defending them. They were running all over the match areas all eager to get the job done. It was at this point that I was introduced to a young player who was on his first ever match. Now obviously I can not name this young player but he was amazing to watch. He just kept on running, kept on shooting and kept on taking objectives. He never stopped smiling and even though it was his first time with an airsoft rifle he was completely at home. He picked up the rules and showed simply put the finest sportsmanship I have seen. This is not to say that other players were cheating far from it but remember this was a player on his first ever event. After this match, unfortunately, the weather turned from a slight drizzle to a heavy shower. Even though the temps went down slightly the action didn't stop. The youngsters were still just as excited to get out there and shoot each other. The club started to swap the adults around and I had my chance to show what the SCAR could do. Now with me involved in a few matches, I had the chance to see just how good these young players truly were. In between me trying to run shoot and manoeuvre I was very impressed with just how these young players moved and fired. On the whole, their shots were accurate and quite painful lol. Their sportsmanship was without equal. Every confirmed kill shot form my SCAR was continued with a HIT HIT HIT and a flag. This event was not about me or any of the adults who played, it was all about the youngsters. They were simply amazing. I would welcome the chance to play alongside these players anytime.
I hope that other clubs out there also have these events aimed towards the younger players. After all its these young players that will take the sport into the future years. These are the next generation. CraftySniper I think we can all say that we are in the sport of airsoft to have fun, that has always been the first rule of the sport. However, incidents can and will happen where arguments happen. Players will have issues with other players, kill shots can offend some people in some circumstances. I have been quite lucky in my time in airsoft. I can count on one hand and have fingers spare where I have offended someone with something that I have done in the sport. In a sport where adrenaline is flowing, caffeine drinks are abundant there is always the chance that something small or large could flare up and cause an argument between players. I run a sniper based loadout, I have created a system that works for me, it allows me to use a sniper rifle and a secondary that fits the role of a sniper. My main rifle is the Silverback SRS and my secondary is the Tokyo Marui MK23. Both of these weapons have been upgraded over time and they are now able to lift heavy weight ammo. In the SRS I use .48 gram ammo and in the MK23 I use .43 gram ammo. Now obviously there is a good reason for using heavy weight ammo in the sniper but why have I chosen to use such a heavyweight in a pistol? For anyone that doesn't know the MK23 is quite simply put the best secondary for a sniper. It is a very accurate and very quiet non-blowback pistol. It has been around for years and in my eyes has never been beaten. There are companies that have released many upgrades for the pistol and they have only made it a better choice for some people. My MK23 has had a few of these upgrades applied and they have allowed it to send a .43 gram bb out to around 60m. Where most pistols can only manage 30m and are very loud the MK23 is near silent and has twice the range and a lot more accuracy. In my role as an airsoft sniper, the MK23 is the only choice for the sniper. You can reach out and touch someone out at a range where they thought they were safe, you can also take a shot and not give away your position to any other potential threats. Like I said earlier I use heavyweight ammo in my MK23, they give me the best results, but this is all fine and well when your next victim is out at 40m plus, what happens when they come up close? You could carry another normal pistol, maybe a Glock 17. But this would be loud and is another weapon system to carry into the battlefield. I had an experience where I was hidden away in a bush, I had just heard a weapon being fired from behind my position. I had to crouch down and either let the threat pass or take him out. The person made that choice for me by pressing my position, trouble is he never knew I was there. He was also fully focussed in on attacking my other teammates. I set my trap and lay in wait. I had a worry that this person would stumble into the same bush as me so I had a large amount of terrain to watch with just a pistol. I knew after he had just fired his primary that I would be going up against a gas blowback rifle. The person didn't walk into the same bush as me he instead moved very quickly in front of me, I quickly readjusted my pistol and took aim. There was a slim chance that he would have seen me and opened fire, he didn't and as he moved from my left to my right I put a spread of shots out at him, I assumed that because I was swinging my pistol towards him that my first and second shots would miss, I only had a split second to take him down. I fired a further two shots, target down. Then came the fun and games as the player realised what had happened and was not best pleased that I had shot him from around 10m to 15m with a group of .43's. He then suggested that my pistol should have a MED (minimum engagement distance) just like my sniper rifle.
Now I can not recall any airsoft site making MK23 users that run heavyweight ammo use a MED. Oh and because I was crouched down all of the shots that hit him hit in his stomach area, no face shots here. So here I am after having a couple of arguments with this player, I did leave the event early but this was my choice. I hold nothing against the club I was playing at. With time to replay the incident in my mind, I probably think that the player was shocked to realise a sniper was laid waiting for an ambush. I am not in this sport to cause issues with anyone or any club, so I shall march on waiting for the next event. Do I stop using the MK23? Nah not gonna happen. |
AuthorHello, my name is CraftySniper and this is my Blog section. I have been doing airsoft for 5 years and its one of the best sports I have ever played. Archives
May 2019
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