Today I....

Get on with your exam.

Oooh, new shoes time...

I couldn't resist the reversed German low boot-ish look but I promise I will resist the urge to slap on dubbin. (but they are fashionably 'distressed' which I shall undo as soon as I get home and crack open my boot/shoe care box. )

they look great if you don't mind me asking how much were they?

Heh, not cheap but meh, still cheaper than my German low boots!

Good old amazon, got my kindle sorted out at the same time thanks CW

Today i fired my custom made M1 garand for the first time and was great! Hit a target at 20 yards on my first shot. After about 200 rounds the Hop rubber started to bed in nice with the PDI barrell which i installed. Never really had a "rifle" in my airsoft collection before being more of a sprayer using tommys, grease guns and mp40's. But was nice to look down the iron sights and hear a ping off a steel plate, or a crunching sound as it destroyed a coke can pinned up on the fence.

With full guarder tune up kit and the sweet PDI barrell it chroned at 370 FPS, perfect! Just need to strip the horrible paint off and start blacking the parts up as well as doing another slight modification to the cocking lever to get it to function.

Stu

it chroned at 370 FPS, perfect!

Or about 20 fps beyond perfect?

I can remember reading in previous game rules that a 370 fps single shot rifles was allowed (game dependant ofc) by organisers. 350 for Full auto, 370 for single shot without engagement restrictions and high powered FPS single shot as "snipers" but had engagement restrictions or sensible usage? Has this changed? If this is the case whats the point of making a garand have the same power ("range") as a thompson? If were pusing for realism my garand should be able to fire over twice the distance of any aeg.

Stu

The games I have attended had a 350fps limit for all AEGs, single shot AEGs at the highest. Some even stipulated 320fps, but then it looks like we have only been at the same event twice (judging by our ribbons) so maybe the others had a 370ps limit. Actually, now i think about it that might just be a Gunman rule and I have only been to a couple of those. If you are planning to use it at other people's events you might have less of a ball ache keeping it under 350 fps.

I can remember reading in previous game rules that a 370 fps single shot rifles was allowed (game dependant ofc) by organisers. 350 for Full auto, 370 for single shot without engagement restrictions and high powered FPS single shot as "snipers" but had engagement restrictions or sensible usage? Has this changed? If this is the case whats the point of making a garand have the same power ("range") as a thompson? If were pusing for realism my garand should be able to fire over twice the distance of any aeg.

Stu

It is entirely up to the organiser/site rules what fps is allowed for anything. Personally, though going a little over 350 would be OK on single shot, I would still impart a minimum engagement range for 370 fps... Though I dunno, it would depend how I felt on the day.

This whole culture of 'rifles need to be higher powered' is another airsoft hangover, so I stamp on it's metaphorical head with my boot. The 'point' is that soldiers were armed with rifles. You had to fight with a long, cumbersome piece of wood that fired one shot at a time. Yet you also had to assault, and work close up with it. It is for these conditions that the tactics of the time originate, and these conditions that must be emulated to allow the use of these tactics if any aim is 'realism'.

So, how do you compete with Thompsons? Personally I have never had a problem when using a Garand firing at under 350. I have used it at open days, with 8 round mags, where it is out-ranged by every M60 wielding etc, but still had fun.
In WW2 Airsoft however? You have to limit the SMGs, either by ammo allowed, or the numbers present. I have come to the conclusion that it is the only way; legislation, and the infamous 'banning'.

Oh, so I should conclude: The problem is that if some games have no (serious) limitations on Ammo and SMGs, and are composed of a playerbase where higher powered rifles are the norm, then a rifle that works as you have will fit well, whereas the rifle that I have will be seen to 'under perform'.
On the flip side in games where there are limitations on SMGs and and rifles are supposed to be used as a primary infantry weapon, then your set up will have you operating at a disadvantage (maybe even not allowing it) whereas the sub 350 rifles with fit perfectly.
So, how you choose to set up a rifle is your option. Admittedly at the moment the way you have set yours up will allow it to be used, and be "usefull" (in inverted commas as I consider this usefulness a phantom) as a greater proportion of games. But given that you already have an SMG for these games, it feels a shame that a rifle couldn't get used where it would really shine best.

Anyway, sorry if I rambled - I just spied general 'rifle based power questions' and though I would share the mad twitchings of my grey matter.

Thanks for your comments guys, i got the idea of 370 from these forums. So it could be used in longer distances but also as Wladek pointed out to be assaulted with and used up close. The reason why all my guns are upgraded to 350 (in the case of the garand 370) is that i enjoy engaging over a longer (and possible more realistic) distances. But i also would respect organisers who run events at only 350. Which would either give me the choice to downgrade it which is a bit of a ball ache or just simply leaving it at home and taking another 350 weapon out.

Photos will be soon, going to spend my next free day re wiring it with Angel wire and isntalling the mosfet. re installing the real steel butt plate as the stick battery can now be accesed through one of the cleaning kit holes.

Higher FPS does not mean higher range. For more range, a good hopup unit is much more effective than cranking up the fps.

serviced the bren ready for greenback but im not carrying it this time almost spot on 350 ,cant believe how crappy and dirty the barrel was,took loads of cleaning but its last two games were in quarry's ,i think the two types of rock made a perfect cement down the barrel,never seen anything like it.i wonder if the stone from the rock and ucap do react ,anybody else had really dirty barrels after ill giogo and Sevastopol?

No but at the end of corridor my MG started spitting out bbs just 20 yards after cleaning the barrel it was fine. I think even a blade of grass in the system f**ks it up.

had a bit of fun with my mouser m712 broom handle,shortly after i got it a part broke and the good people at rsov sent me the whole top half of the gun to replace it.anyway i've had it in mind to repair the broken part for a while and today was the day ,so i did,i've also had it in mind to try and mod it to fire full auto,so i did what a blast...its really easy to do if anybody is interested but not for longevity ,the only reason i did it was because i have a spare.

Made over 500 Mk5 thunderflash and cut bickford fuse for more.
I did fail miserably on the cracker filling test. One job the girls wont give me again....

Just thought, some sites only allow Mk5's so would 500 MK5's taped together be OK I wonder?
Might fall foul of the 'don't be a cock rule' though...

Just thought, some sites only allow Mk5's so would 500 MK5's taped together be OK I wonder?
Might fall foul of the 'don't be a cock rule' though...

Sounds like that'd go well -

Today (and last night) I spent a good few hours slowly filing down a set of VSR SHS sears to fit the trigger mech. Lovely quality metal and finish but the dimensions were quite a bit off, which would explain the rash of people selling them as new on zeroin. Drop in and play they are not. Other than that polished the rest of the trigger housing up and thoroughly cleaned the whole gun.

Currently waiting on the new spring, considering this was a free and broken Bar-10, total expenditure to bring it up to working standard so far has been £33 for the two sears, two extra mags and a spring. Oh and a Bic biro which I pinched the spring out of to replace the mag catch spring.

Now to decided what to turn it into.

Today, I have purchased my first post 1960's era airsoft gun for about 7 years!