New Arrivals

Hello again guys and gals! I know this blog has been as dead as a doornail for the past month or so, but it's about to change. The rapidly fluctuating weather and other business have seriously dug into my airsofting, so pretty much nothing has happened since the last update. I don't think I've even been to a weekend skirmish since the last post in January.

The spring, however, is not only in the gearbox but also around the corner (yes I know that's a horrible way to use these particular words), and thus I'm looking forward to reactivating in the BB shooty business. To help things along, I went and bought new stuff to play with. Yes, both in the field and on my workbench. I obviously have some pent-up punning in my system, sorry.

I have read so many praising words on reddit's airsoft sub about the Galaxy G.5 that when I saw it on sale, I just had to grab one for myself. It's a replica of the H&K MP5K PDW, and I just love it. I seem to have a thing for H&K guns, since I'm also drooling over the G3 and the HK416. When money decides to depart my wallet, you'll hear about it on this blog.

The Galaxy MP5 in question ended up offering more than I expected. The box not only contained the gun, hicap magazine, cleaning rod, charger and a battery as usual, but also some extras such as a second magazine, a speed loader and a carrying strap.

That's a lot of stuff for a gun that cost well under 100 euro 

In short, it seems like an ideal starter gun for someone wanting to get into the sport. For now, it seems and feels really great, especially for the price. I'll get more into the details and specifics in a future review post.

I couldn't obviously just get the gun, so I went all out by getting a bunch of extra MP5 mags (I never liked hicaps), mag pouches, a radio headset and PTT, some M4 magazines and a belt attachment for a Serpa holster I had bought for my P226 earlier.

MAG midcaps in the 90 round range. Got a great bulk offer for 8 mags and just had to take it.

Triple mag pouch attached to the leg panel I got for Christmas. Takes in 6 mags, staggered slightly here for easy access. I'm seeing in my mind a very light QCB loadout incorporating this for the coming summer.

Z-tac Bowman Elite II and Z-tac Peltor PTT. They work very nicely, although I had a short moment of panic before I realized I hadn't pressed the jack all the way into the PTT and thus wasn't hearing anything.

King Arms M4 midcaps (120 rd) with the Battleaxe mag well conversion kit I got for the G36C earlier. Will be writing about these a lot more once I install the kit and field the gun and magazines.

Last but not least, the non-brand belt attachment for a Serpa knockoff, here already attached to the authentic holster. I got the holster used, and it only came with the paddle attachment seen on the right. Hoping against hope, I bought the belt attachment simply based on the similar look of the holes, and luckily the copy job has been very accurate!

I think this is all for today. As I said, there's a lot more to come. I will be reviewing the MP5K in depth, doing the mag well conversion for the G36C, recounting my field experiences with it and the Z-tac headset and much much more! In the words of my spirit animal, Bender Bending Rodríguez: "I'm back, baby!"

Monday Night Throw-Down

It was supposed to be game day yesterday, but it was sadly cancelled. Determined not to lose the whole day, I borrowed the team chronograph so I could actually measure all my guns once and for all.

Nothing magical, really, I set up a cardboard box filled with a couple of pillows to catch the BBs and shut myself in the study so the cats would stay out of the way and be safe. I stood the chronograph up on a smaller box, gathered my guns and loaded one mag each with 0.20 g BBs.

I also had 0.25 g BBs which is what I normally use in games just for comparisons sake. And it's a good thing I did, because I got some interesting results.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the AUG has a ported cylinder whereas it should have a non-ported one. After shooting with the ported cylinder, I took out the gearbox, cleaned the outside of the cylinder and put a piece of thick foil and duct tape on top of it to simulate a non-ported cylinder.

In another post I mentioned that the G36C has a screw-adjustable power setting, so I tested it with both the maximum and minimum setting.

I shot around 10 shots per each gun and BB weight and calculated the average. The results of my shots are collected below.

Gun	0.20 g	0.25 g
AUG ported	93 m/s (305 fps)	74 m/s (243 fps)
AUG non-ported	97 m/s (318 fps)	87 m/s (285 fps)
G36C min	109 m/s (356 fps)	96 m/s (315 fps)
G36C max	125 m/s (410 fps)	106 m/s (348 fps)
P226	91.5 m/s (300 fps)	N/A

I find most curious how the AUG performed with the ported and non-ported cylinders. The ported seems to give very very different muzzle velocities dependent on BB weight, whereas with the non-ported (well, jury rigged) there's a much less noticeable difference between the BB weights. It's still underperforming a lot when compared with the other rifle. Even on the low power setting the G36C wipes the floor with the AUG, not to mention when turned all the way up. So does the green gas powered P226.

At least the new nozzle is making an obvious difference on the AUG, which was shooting so poorly in the beginning. Still, I'm looking forward to finally getting the spring and the new cylinder. They should finally make the AUG perform the way it should. I'm thinking I might make it into a Designated Marksman Rifle just to see how that works out.

G36C Field Day

Another fun-filled game day behind me, I now have some first-hand experience of the JG G36C in action. I arrived an hour early with the friend who first got me into the hobby, in order for us to zero our sights. I could immediately tell there's a lot more power than there is on the AUG. The default hop-up seems to be doing its job quite nicely too, I'm getting great range. The short barrel of the G36C does seem to have some effect on the accuracy, so my shots aren't quite as consistent. I was expecting that, though, and the trade-off between accuracy and handling is more than acceptable in my opinion.

I know I complained about the distance between the bore and the sights regarding the AUG earlier, but this thing has it double. At one point I was pinned down behind some trees and rocks, and decided to crawl a bit to get to a better position. I manage to ninja my way forward about 5 metres and not be noticed. I get the drop on the guy that was suppressing me, but sadly as I took aim and fired prone, I only managed to shoot up some leaves and dirt in front of me. Naturally I got spotted by him and caught an expertly planted BB on the shoulder.

That is some serious distance ("Serious distance" defined scientifically today as "about 10 cm or so")

I called the hit, got up and started walking back to the off-game area. That's when I noticed my drop-leg holster with the P226 in it had twisted forwards around my thigh and had dragged along the ground as I crawled, netting me a nice collection of dirt, pine needles, twigs, leaves, squirrels, and other typical forest ornaments. Maybe it's time for a different holster? I'm starting to notice this hobby is very good at creating shopping needs.

Otherwise I was quite happy with the day. The G36C has some sideways wobble on its stock, but I'm thinking there's a pretty easy fix for it. I'm definitely stoked with my purchase.

Shots fired

So, I managed to put the AUG back together without too many problems. Since I ruined the set screw securing the outer barrel, and the threads went along with it, I had to look into some alternatives.

First of all, since the outer barrel was originally somewhat wobbly, I decided to pad it a bit. Duct tape was my material of choice.

Some layers of duct tape later the outer barrel fits snugly into its housing

I added one layer at a time and tested until I reached a good fit

I also took care of the flash hider not sitting straight. As you can see above, the outer barrel does not have any sort of alignment notches or the like, so you're free to spin it any way you want. The flash hider has a retaining set screw (see, I'm learning), which I loosened and then screwed the flash hider on properly tight. It has a 14 mm anticlockwise thread (usually referred to as counterclockwise, or CCW on shop descriptions), as do apparently most other airsoft guns. Why the unusual left-hand thread, I don't know. In short though, the flash hider was now tightly on the barrel and I secured it with the set screw.

Flash hider installed properly

I was now free to install the barrel into its housing. The final stumbling block was the ruined thread.

Yup, it's gone

As I had noticed earlier that the metal was not of the toughest quality and I had loads of short, small wood screws on hand, I decided to give it a go.

Helping the screw into its tight spot with some tweezers

A bit of force and some twists of the screwdriver, and I had re-tapped the set screw hole with a completely different thread. Shows you how sturdy the metal is, I guess. I don't really mind, though, because now the outer barrel could be tightened back on again.

The final simple step was to align the barrel so that the flash hider was in right and then tighten the screw.

Finished

Afterwards I took some shots with both the AUG and the P226. Both are performing well in my opinion. The pistol especially was very fun to shoot and had some serious kick. I even invited my SO to join me in the study for some shooting practice. She's not admitting anything, but I have a sneaking suspicion my exuberance regarding all things airsoft, every waking moment, might start to be rather annoying for her. 

I have stuff!

The angled foregrip, the reflex sight and the P226 arrived today! I need to put the AUG back together and slap these bits onto it as soon as I can, and also shoot the pistol somewhere in the apartment. Most likely the study, because there I can keep the cats out of the way. There's some real weight to the pistol and I love how it looks and feels. Can't wait to put it into action.

The reflex sight has four different reticle choices; from a single dot through two crosshairs and onto a dot in a circle.

In addition there are two choices of colour, either red or green, and three different brightness settings for each.

Shopping

I've lurked by bit around reddit in the past, but now I found an airsoft subreddit that seems to have all sorts of neat stuff. I ran into some suggestions regarding European online retailers and it didn't take me too long to put an order in.

I now have on order an angled foregrip (as an alternative for the straight one), a four-mode red and green reflex sight and... A gas blowback pistol with an extra magazine. Oops! I saw the KJW P226 highly praised on the reddit threads, and it's been my favourite sidearm ever since Fox Mulder was armed with one all those years ago. I even remember playing Counter Strike way back when, and having better success with the game's P228 when I replaced the skin with a P226 one. It's a beauty, and soon it will be mine!

Now all that's left is wait for the UPS guy to show up.