Gunboat Diplomat

Surprised they lasted 6 hours to be honest!

This one is a week late as it was last Sunday that me and the boy visited the Gaol in Oakham. With news of their precarious future I rushed to get a booking in for November, fortunate that I did since most (if not all by now) of their remaining dates for 2025 are full. It has always been on our list, but the common refrain of ‘we should go there one day’ meant we never got round to it. We arrived later than planned due to bad planning and the place was packed as it was a sell out day. Nonetheless we found a space to set up and the staging area (in what I assume are the old administrative buildings of the prison) are well equipped, even if they do look like the backdrop to a public information film from the 80s. The games started with by far the longest briefing of any airsoft site I’ve been to. As it was my first visit I didn’t mind too much but I could imagine as a regular it would drag. Still it must work for them as the general conduct of play was some of the best I’ve experienced and everyone whether new or regular knew what they were doing. I’m not a snooty mil-simmer, but everyone knowing the basics of cover, movement and controlled fire really helped to sell the immersion when sweeping through corridors and clearing rooms. Mix of games revolving around moving and static objectives were played. I won’t describe them in detail as it never comes across as well in text, but I will say that the Gaol is a really challenging site. Most airsoft games tend to be won by force of will as much as by tactics, with the most aggressive play usually resulting in the win, but the Goal requires a lot more planning and coordination. There are a myriad of routes around the site and in and out of buildings, some incredibly hard to breach defensive positions and a maze of corridors to navigate. Ambush, flanking and friendly-fire are all likely, sometimes simultaneously. The skill ceiling is sometimes pretty low for airsoft sites, but I think the Goal would encourage you to become a much better player as a regular. I took my Ghetto Blaster which ran flawlessly despite being chilly, switching to my backup M906 in the afternoon just because I’d charged the batteries I didn’t want to bring them home full. The boy brought the £20 boneyard Double Eagle (that’s now 4 Double Eagle products we own!) shotgun I bought him a couple of days earlier - surprising it ran like a champ all day and now seems to be his new favourite.

Love this, might suggest it at my local site.

Mariu's take on a GBLS DAS then? Since becoming a cork-sniffing elitist GBBR user I've lost any interest in AEGs, but I must admit this does look interesting. I'm not going to hope the blow-back is any better than the NGRS but I could go for a 'mechanically correct' AEG with Marui workmanship as a winter backup to gas guns or for days when I just want a quick run-around and can't be bothered with the faff.

I was on the fence for a while but in the end thought fuck it, every airsoft collection needs some colour in it. I’ve seen a Tiger stripe one already as it happens and it looked great. Once mine gets a bit beaten up from use I plan to do the same.

In an endless sea of multicam-SF-bros that photo is the coolest thing I’ve seen in weeks. Kudos dude. Yep - been playing for a couple of years but it’s only in recent months that I’ve come to regard slings as more hindrance than help, so unless the game dictates that I’ll need my hands free at any point I’ve stopped using one. (They are still nice to have for long game days where you spend as much time walking as fighting though). Airsoft in a nutshell I’m afraid. Pot metal and hand-wave tolerances are the engineering standard we’ve come to expect.

Cheers, good suggestions. Warrior 901 with the back panel add on looks like all the capacity of a plate carrier without the bulk so that has gone to the top of my list. No stock of Ranger green so I might end up with boring multicam though.

The short version is I want carry capacity for 4-6 M4 mags, a grenade, radio, speedloader and odds and sods with the facility to carry a HPA tank on my back. Plate carriers naturally fit this bill, but I dislike the idea of their bulk and heat retention, plus if I’m honest I find them a bit silly for Airsoft since I don’t need armour. Any decent chest rigs that have a rear mounted pack for a tank?

Assuming you’ve already checked motor height that really sounds like something is tight in the gearbox. I can use mine all day and the grip never even gets warm. Might just be a case of opening it up and removing a shim or two to get it spinning freely. Is the Falcon completely dead now? Imagine the Classic Army one should be a drop in fit though if you were going to go that route. Or if you want to convert your DE gearbox to an analogue trigger I’ve got the entire contents of my HPAd Specna’s gearbox if you want them (everything bar the shell basically) including analogue trigger contact bar and harness. Not sure if it will fit the shell of the DE though.

Not so much just bought, but certainly new in the last month. This has more or less instantly become my favourite RIF. Stock apart from a Waldo Dynamics hop arm. Was a bit of a basket case when I got it, the manufacturer had managed to glue the hop adjuster shut in their attempt to thread lock it into the upper. After removing all of that I fitted the Waldo arm and a 4UAD bucking, but got terrible nozzle sticking so swapped back to the original bucking. Despite that it shoots great. At my local CQB site I can easily one shot all of the Attack Sense targets dotted around the arena.

Reforger has been on my you'll-enjoy-this-if-you-put-the-time-in list for a while. I mean it's basically a milsim day from the comfort of my office. However, I can never be arsed to put the time in!

Nov 2nd me and the boy will be there.

This is a good one, I’ve only ever played my local sites and the Gaol thread has prompted me to book there next month. Its been on my list but ironically its potential closure is the thing that has gotten me off my arse to actually plan a visit.

I’m pretty sure I’ve got some of those resettable hand warmers in and old sock draw so could stuff those in my mag pouches.

Cheers I’ll give them a watch and no, I will not be entertaining any thoughts of skirmishing in those sorts of temperatures. I’d frankly have doubts even were I in a real conflict quite frankly. I’ve got the later DE stanags and some GM Pmags. My old Bulle chest rig has internal M4 pouches so I tend to put them in there when it’s cold. Although the Pmags are rather brilliant at resisting any attempt to warm them up thanks to the polymer shell.