Category Archives: Fun

Barrie Paintball

Yesterday I went to Barrie Paintball to play my first outdoor game in like 12 or 13 years, along also came Brandon, Eddy, Mike, Mario, Tom and his two boys.  The field is nice, though very hilly and I was already tired walking up a large hill to the first game area.  Unfortunately we were playing a walk on game and the person who was very familiar with the place took up hosting duties, putting us & all the newbs on one side while the regulars played on the other.  Everyone was wearing green camo and we were differentiated with arm bands.

Needless to say I believe we lost every game, losing is not a big deal but things were definitely very unbalanced and not enjoyable.  At one point I was in a small structure and had my pistol out since it’s easier to manipulate in those tight quarters, I saw my BBs bounce off an opponents thighs as he was entering only for him to come in and then shoot me afterwards.  Generally I don’t like playing against HPA players mainly because every HPA player I’ve played against has always been a jerk and well my opinion still stands.

The heat and humidity was definitely difficult, I started out wearing my LBT 6094 but quickly changed to a chest rig.  Brandon was ok using the Eagle vest the whole time and in the safe zone I made sure he drank a lot, even if he wasn’t thirsty.

I brought a new gun to the range, I recently purchased an A&K M16A4 STW which is a Systema PTW clone.  It was cheap, I’ve always liked M16 type rifles and wanted to see how it would perform.  Overall it shot quite well, trigger response is a bit slower than the Systema but the A&K M16A4 is very heavy!  After a little, I quickly changed back to my MK18 Mod 1 PTW and that thing is much easier to handle.

While the A&K M16A4 STW performed well the sling on the stock pulled the buffer tube plug out of the lower receiver.  Thankfully the receiver threads are just fine, it’s the threads on the buffer tube plug that were soft and got damaged.  Unfortunately it uses a plug that allows an airsoft A2 butt stock to be installed instead of using a a full length rifle buffer tube, the A&K STW is discontinued so I’ll have to figure out a way to secure it.  Maybe I’ll just buy a real A2 stock set and Dremel where necessary.  Annoying but not the end of the world and I’ll post a review on it later.

It’s not a great way to introduce airsoft to new players, Tom & his boys did enjoy themselves but not as much as they did at Urban. I think my next outdoor game I’ll try and get enough people out so I can host something private so we can introduce new players to a more friendly environment.

I did quite enjoy playing with Brandon, we were on the same side and played together a lot which was great and I’m glad that this game didn’t turn him off on outdoor play.  Ahh well they can’t all be good, the locals at Barrie aren’t the nicest so I don’t think we’ll be playing with them in the future.

Soon!

While I’ve played airsoft twice now indoors, it’s been forever since I last wore camo and the team patch.  Weather permitting, it’ll come out on Sunday and I can’t wait!

It’s a day game so I’m not actually bringing my binos or COTI, it’s just for the picture and I think it turned out pretty well.  Those old excited feelings I use to get before every game are coming back and it feels pretty damn good.

ASG Storm Apocalyse Impact Grenade Review

With my son interested in airsoft, I recently got back into things and have played 2 indoor games so far.  One thing I always love having around are tossable grenades, so handy for getting people in difficult positions.  When I played previously, well before the pandemic I’d run around with 6 Airsoft Innovation Impact Tornado grenades but seeing as how they’re now 12-15 years old, 2 are permanently out of action, leaving me with 4 to split between Brandon and I.  After the first game, another one of my Tornado Impact grenades went down and with Airsoft Innovations out of business, I don’t think I’ll be able to to resurrect the dead units.  That’s alright it’s been a long time and they’ve served me well, I’ll keep the broken grenades as a memento and for spare parts for my remaining grenades.

Looking around I saw that Action Sports Gear (ASG for short) based out of Europe had a few different models.  There’s the slightly older Storm Apocalypse and the D-Tonator series, well my local airsoft store had the older unit in stock so I bought 2.

The retail package comes with the grenade itself & a small brief instruction manual.  Physically, the grenade is 10 x 4.8 x 4.8 cm in size and is slightly smaller than the AI Tornado Impact grenade.

Since the dimensions of the ASG Storm Apocalypse is close to the AI Impact Tornado (minus the pin), it fits in all the same pouches I used back then like the Eagle Smoke grenade pouch.  The ASG grenade has a bit too much girth to fit in the 40mm grenade pouches that I have though it’s possible it could fit in others where the elastic is more stretchy.

Setting up the trigger on the AI Impact Tornado Grenade was not difficult but time consuming if you had a bunch of them like me but resetting the ASG Storm Apocalypse is much easier.  There’s a switch at the top that says ON & OFF.  To load the BBs, set the grenade to the ON position load up 155 in the lone BB port, once that’s done move the selector switch to the OFF position (moving it to OFF pushes a nub down that stops BBs from rolling out which is handy), gas up the grenade and you’re set!  To use when you’re in game, simply flick the selector to ON and toss.

When the ASG Storm Apocalypse grenade goes off, the spread of the BBs is very good, well over 15′ (don’t have the capability to test in a larger area) which is similar to my experiences with the AI Tornado Impact grenade.  I have no way to test the power of the grenade but subjectively when I drop the grenade right in front of me, the BBs ejected hurt slightly less than when I do the same with an AI Tornado on my bare legs & feet.  Sorry, I know that’s not an exact science but the best I have at the moment.

When I played CQB at Urban Ops Airsoft in Toronto, the grenades were very effective and I had no problems with people not calling hits after tossing a grenade into the room.  I’ve never had a grenade disappear but I did mark mine with my made up rack number in case one goes missing.

I haven’t used the ASG Storm Apocalypse in an outdoor setting yet but I did drop the grenade in the grass in my backyard, if the grass is tall it either doesn’t go off or gets bogged down by the softness, when freshly cut or on compacted dirt the grenade works a lot better.

The ASG Storm Apocalypse is a pleasant evolutionary step up from the AI Tornado Impact grenade in usability and a great CQB/indoor tool, if you haven’t tried using grenades yet you should get one as it’ll open up a new avenue of gameplay for you.

Oh I do have ASG D-Tonator impact grenades too but I’ll talk about those in a separate review. 😉

Video action

I forgot to turn my helmet camera on for most of the airsoft games on Saturday but I did get some good footage of the first & last game.  Unfortunately I left the camera on while in the safe zone earlier in the day so it ran out of battery just before the end of the last game.  Too bad because we were able to push pretty deep into enemy territory but you’ll have to take my word for it. 😉

Not bad for an old Contour ROAM action camera, footage is only 1080p but with good light the video quality is decent.  I prefer the form factor of the Contour cameras over the boxy Go Pro style, too bad Contour went out of business…  Debating if I should try and snag one of the Contour 4K cameras on eBay but they’re pretty expensive.  I also wish the thing had some sort of image stabilization but I mean the thing is like 14 years old so I’m lucky it even works.

I did have a Contour HD on my rifle but that thing is even older (released in 2009), again the footage was decent but there wasn’t any good gameplay footage unfortunately.

Maggie watched the videos and said it looked like fun, that she is thinking about playing again and that’d be really cool if we could go out as a family!  She doesn’t want to do indoor play because it hurts more and can leave marks (as you can see from my face wounds in the previous post) but she said she may come if we play outdoors which is fine with me!

We already have our next game pencilled in for June 28th, an old friend wants to get out too so I’m trying to boost numbers enough so that we can get another private session. 🙂

Back at it?

I stopped playing airsoft soon after Brandon was born and always told myself that when he’s old enough, that we’d try it and see if he likes it.  Well we played some CQB at Urban Ops Airsoft with some of his friends, his friend’s dad, some of their friends and yeah everyone loved it.  Also tagging along was Mike, Mario & Eddy, all in all there were 14 of us and I booked some private games so the newbs didn’t have to worry about getting slaughtered by random players.

The habit of me packing heavy in the past was true again lol…  I was running my Systema PTW & VFC HK VP9 while Brandon was using a CA MP5A3, the boy didn’t have a side arm as I didn’t want to blow a lot of money kitting him out if he didn’t like it but since he did I guess I have to.  I also carried 3 Airsoft Innovations Impact Tornado grenades while Brandon had 1.

We had a ref but I basically ran the games, not that the ref was bad but when I host games I actively load balance and like to change up scenarios.  I don’t have any in game photos but I did capture some video with my Contour camera, will edit and upload that later.  Brandon was much more aggressive than I thought he’d be (and way more aggressive than the other kids) often rushing the enemy and it was a lot of fun playing with and against him.

We all got shot up, I probably came out worse for the wear as there was a small gap between my eye and lower face protection and happen to get shot between that and another just outside my eye pro.  The boy had an Eagle vest that a friend gave me many years ago and that kept his torso safe but said he has lots of arm & leg wounds.

So I’m going to have an airsoft renaissance and have Brandon join me on the field.  I wonder if I can get Maggie to play again too, that might be asking too much but hopefully this marks some more quality time with the boy. 🙂

Fun weekend

On Saturday I took Brandon to have lunch at Gyi-Kaku, a Japanese BBQ restaurant close to my work.  On the odd occasion I have to go into the office, I almost always go there to grab a bite to eat because it’s just so damn good.  Should have known but the lunch special is not available on the weekends, no matter we ordered a bunch of food and it did not disappoint.

Brandon enjoyed cooking on the grill and yeah it was amazing, my favorite meat option are the angus beef cubes mmm…  Cooked well, they’re very juicy in the middle and absolutely delicious!

Brandon, his friend, friend’s brother and father are interested in playing airsoft which is great because I kind of wanted to get back into playing and would love to share the hobby with him.  Last year I bought Brandon a CA MP5 A3 but didn’t end up playing because some health issues and the accident but this year looks like it’s a go!  About 10 years ago when I stopped playing, I gave my friend Jason a VFC MK18 Mod 1 AEG airsoft rifle and he mentioned he still had it when I asked if he had any guns I could borrow to help Brandon’s friends out so it kind of came back home since he no longer plays now.

My Systema MK18 Mod 1 PTW is ready to go and now that I have the VFC I feel the urge to accessorize it lol…  I already bought a handgrip (which I use as a handstop), had an extra repro Surefire M300 flashlight and now I want to buy a set of backup iron sights (don’t know where the original went).  I don’t think I’ll put an optic on it, it’s a loaner and even if Brandon wanted to use something in the AR platform he’d use the other PTW but still it’s fun.

Sunday afternoon I went to Hero Army Surplus, a store in Oshawa to pick up a spring and when I was swapping it out, I couldn’t help but feel some nostalgia from working on guns in the past. It now shoots a solid 350 fps, up from 300 and all of us are scheduled to go play at Urban Ops in Etobicoke on June 7th.  Hoping to drag a few more friends out so we can get a private session but yeah this is going to be f un and I can’t wait to play airsoft again!

Long weekend

The May long weekend is always nice, weather is finally decent and everything is starting to bloom.  I was off on Friday so i went to get a trailer hitch installed on my Lexus RX, then went to pick up a trailer hitch cargo carrier.  We like road trips and previously we found the space in the car a bit tight (though we had smaller cars) so this can be useful.  I also needed a trailer hitch installed so I could use my bike carrier.

Saturday we did a bit of yard work but took the day light, Sunday we did a day trip up North.  I look on Google maps for fun roads to drive, so we went to Sundridge then drove West on highway 124.  From there we went to Parry Sound for lunch then took highway 518 East to highway 11 then back home.  All in all it was about 7 hours of driving, highway 124 is ok quite scenic and pretty but highway 518 is so much fun with its twists and turns.

Today Brandon and I took the cover off the pool and performed a bunch of pool maintenance.  We’ll need a new cover in the fall as ours tore in multiple spots which allowed pollen and other plant materials to get into the pool unfortunately.  Frankly the water looks like diarrhea right now but that’s how it goes and in about a week and a half, it’ll look great.  I need to call a few places tomorrow to get quotes on replacing the sand in my sand filter so I’ll do that in the morning.

Sad my weekend is over but I mean I WFH and enjoy my job so I’m lucky there. 🙂

Enjoying the sun!

Brandon, a friend of mine and I went to Silverdale and what an absolutely beautiful day it was, I love sunny light jacket weather!  My friend Andrew got his license last year and I helped him zero the optic on his Ruger 10/22 at 10 then 25 yards.  Even with bulk ammo, it was shooting very well and he was happy with everything.  Brandon enjoyed shooting the handguns and our Ruger 10/22, sigh I wish I could shoot my AR15s but that doesn’t look like it’ll happen anytime soon. 🙁

Love capturing the brass eject out of the handgun!  Brandon prefers the Glock 19 over the HK SFP9, bah what do kids know lol…  If handguns are ever unbanned (not looking good with the Liberals leading in the polls but we find out tonight) I’ll get a full size Glock 17 again in the future as well as bunch of other guns.

Quality time with the boy is always  good. 🙂

Get out of here

These types of articles drive me nuts, it’s been well known for decades that criminals get their guns from the US and don’t bother with the licensing system we have in Canada yet the only solution the Liberals ever have is banning guns from legal owners.

The data from GTA police is in line with what research has shown for many years, says Jooyoung Lee, a professor of sociology at the University of Toronto who studies the underlying causes and long-term consequences of gun violence.

“One thing we’ve known for many, many generations is that the U.S. is a global exporter of firearms and the vast majority of crime guns in Canada are originating in a very small kind of handful of U.S. states that have much more lax and porous gun laws,” he said.

Source: CBC

If our news organizations were truly objective, they’d question the powers that be why they’re enacting policy that doesn’t do anything and is all for show.

There’s no way I’m voting Liberal (probably ever again) but I take a lot of pleasure to see all the candidates in the leadership race to replace Trudeau are running as fast as they can away from his stupid policies.

TOUGHSOUL TF9044IR Review (kind of)

I was browsing Amazon for some random stuff and the TOUGHSOUL TF9044IR showed up on my recommended list so I took a look and man, $105 for an IR laser/light combo seemed cheap, I wanted to get some IR devices for my GSG-16, perhaps this would work out.  Thank you Amazon Prime, it got to me in 2 days from Florida and I didn’t have to pay customs. 🙂

The TOUGHSOUL (shortened to TS moving forward TF9044IR came in an non descript box with the brand’s name on it and inside was the unit itself, two CR123a batteries, M-LOK accessories and a small manual.  The TS TF9044IR is made of aluminum, has two buttons (one for the laser & the other for the IR illuminator), on one end is a battery cap and slot for two batteries and on the other were the IR is emitted from.  Overall it’s ~200 grams so it’s pretty light and has a pretty small formfactor.

As you can see next to my Steiner DBAL-A3 civilian LAM (boo, I know) it’s very small and if it’s mounted on the top rail, would not be visible to any optic you may be running.  The aiming laser is IR only so you’ll need night vision to zero the device, but that’s not too difficult as the laser is inline with the mount so the offset should be minimal and easy for people to take into account.  The illuminator is fixed so it can’t be focused and designed to be used at close ranges.

I don’t know how legitimate the IR laser numbers are on the sticker as we’ll see a bit later the laser is significantly more powerful than my DBAL-A3.  The mounting mechanism is M-LOK only and initally I wanted to install it on the left side of the GSG-16 but then it’d interfere with the charging handle and I already have a Surefire M300 on the right side.  At the moment I’ve mounted the TS TF9044IR on the bottom, may move it later but for now this will work.

I’m sorry not the best photos and even though there’s no moon at the moment, it’s still an urban area with a lot of snow cover.  When the weather is better I’ll update or post new photos of the unit in a darker area, I just wanted to get something up.  In the first two photos you can see the power of the IR illuminator, in the second photo specifically the illuminator doesn’t work well beyond the fence though again the environment is not very friendly.

The 3rd photo shows the laser (in the center), the 4th shows the dot difference between the TS TF9044IR and my civilian DBAL-A3, I don’t know if the TF9044IR is eye safe…  5th and 6th pictures show the difference between the TF9044IR and the DBAL with illuminator and with laser/illuminator on.  Note the DBAL A3 is at its widest setting and again the environment sucks for taking photos right now.  Finding a good LAM up here in Canada is difficult but there are a lot of compelling options coming to the market and some are making it up here too. 🙂

I can’t talk about how the TS TF9044IR handles recoil as my AR15s and GSG-16 are currently banned by the federal Liberal government but they should fall soon and hopefully we’ll have sensible gun laws again soon.  That’s a story for another time so the review really is incomplete but when I can shoot again, I’ll definitely talk about my experiences and if the TS TF9044IR could maintain zero.

For $105, even if it sucks I really can’t complain too much but I do have some high hopes so crossing my fingers and will keep this thing mounded on my gun till I can bring it to the range. 🙂