Category Archives: Airsoft

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!

Getting closer

Last weekend (yeah I’m behind) I went to Toronto Airsoft to pick up some BBs.  I still have some of my old BB Bastard stuff but most fields now require bio BBs so I’ll try some of TA’s house brand to see how it goes.

Hehe Slinky always has to investigate when I’m going to take photos and made himself at home laying on his back and taking a nap while I did my thing. 😉  Picked up 0.28g BBs for myself and 0.25g for Brandon to use with his CA MP5, I also got a bag of 0.2gs for chronying.  The CA MP5A3 came in at 388 fps which is perfect for outdoor play while the PTW with the blue cylinder shot 390.  Glad after all these years of storage it still has a good seal…

There’s a local airsoft outdoor field within 30 minutes of my house and the next time they have a newbie game, I’ll attend with B.  Can’t wait to share the hobby with him, it’s going to be great. 🙂

Old is new?

The Canada day long weekend has been going well, I’m still recovering from shingles, the rash has gotten much smaller but the pain has remained and sometimes there’s a sharp stabbing pain from the right side of my toros which is pretty annoying.  Hopefully when the disease subsides completely I’ll be back to normal.  Friday & Saturday Brandon had some friends over, end of the school year and he did well academically so it was hard to say no.

Yesterday we didn’t do much, went out for lunch then relaxed at home.  Since I’m not sleeping well, I’ve been taking naps but not being a nap person, I sleep too long and am groggy afterwards. 🙁  Today Maggie went to play badminton and we all met up to have some dim sum which was great.  I guess I’m the biggest reason we didn’t do anything, driving is difficult due to the abrupt bumps in the road, when I hit one there’s quite a bit of pain so I’m trying not to go anywhere really.

In other news, I picked up a Classic Army MP5A3 for Brandon.

He’s turning 13 in August and I wouldn’t mind playing airsoft with him, he seems interested so why not.  There’s a local field in Clarington that’s around a 30 minute drive and they have newbie days, when I’m fully recovered we’ll give that place a shot and see how it goes.  The MP5 was one of my first guns (albeit I had a TM) and I really love that platform so it’s quite nice to hold one again. We’ll see what the future brings but I stopped playing because of my fatherhood duties, perhaps now that he’s older I can get back into the hobby. 🙂

Thank you

I received this email yesterday and it was such a nice touch.

It’s been a while since I talked about the hobby airsoft and I had some great times showing new players what I’ve learnt over the years.  With airsoft getting a reprieve from the government (it was slated to be banned), I’m glad people will still be able to enjoy the hobby.  In fact I’ve been thinking about getting back into it myself, Brandon is old enough to play now and some of his friends have been talking about it, what fun that would be to experience with my boy.

Needless to say the sender made my day and thank you, I’m happy I made an impact and glad that you can share this wonderful hobby with your boy too!

Thank you airsofters, more to do

So the Liberals are pushing the ridiculous Bill C21 which only addresses legal guns and with the help of the NDP, airsofters were able to get an exemption for the hobby.  Score one for common sense but we have so much more to do, C21 should be scrapped altogether and my hope is that the bill fails to become law before the next election, I guess we’ll see.

One set is free, the other is still banned so yeah there’s still more work to do.  As a legal gun owner (and former airsofter), I am tired of being used as punching bag, whenever criminals use guns the Liberals try to placate the masses by adding more rules or banning guns that are used by legal owners.  It’s a farse and I hope that people realize that the Liberals have absolutely no answers to any of society’s problems.  They’re pushing gun control because at a time of high inflation, an economy teetering on the edge of recession, Chinese political interference (that benefits the Liberals) and their governing record is abysmal and they have nothing to run on.  Their last 8 years has been a complete failure, they’re personally corrupt and only have wedge politics, that’s it.

The next election can’t come soon enough and I would love nothing better than the total destruction of the Liberal party.  It doesn’t stand for anything and this incessant team politics will ruin Canada.

Oh to anyone calling me a simplistic Conservative, feel free to look through my previous blog posts and you’ll see that nothing could be farther from the truth.