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Topics - luke213

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31
Off Topic / Holiday Traditions
« on: December 11, 2016, 11:16:08 PM »
So guys I'm curious and this isn't airsoft related at all hence off topic;) I'm curious to hear about your family Christmas traditions. Since I've got two small kids I'm always looking for ways to make the holidays fun for them, as well I'm just curious to hear how people celebrate the holidays.

So I'd be curious to hear what you guys do with your family during the holidays.

Myself after years of working the holidays now we as a family don't leave the house for Christmas family are welcome to come over and we cook a big ham dinner and just spend the day with family etc.

Luke

32
Airsoft Discussion / MOVED: Right section I hope? Kwa ATP questions.
« on: November 15, 2016, 07:31:01 PM »

34
After Action Reports / AAR Irene Yooper point of view
« on: October 27, 2016, 01:27:27 PM »
Well this is my AAR of Irene along with more less the story of making it down. So it all started with a buddy of mine twisting my arm the last few years to make it out. Once the location was let out that it would be at the Packard Plant I knew I was in. So I ordered tickets and started prepping guns and gear since the way Lion Claws plays requires some changes from what we normally play up here. Needed midcaps since we run allot of high caps, changes in velocity to match rules, setting up semi auto for guns etc. We run pretty loose around here for rules because we’ve got plenty of room being mostly outdoor and a small group which seldom has any problems with players. So we got all our gear ready bought the stuff we needed etc. Then there was the mad dash to get my motorhome ready for the 10 hour drive each way to the location.

I ran into quite a few problems there I didn’t expect like my generator not working etc. Most I solved before we left, then 5 miles away from my house loaded and in route we had the serpentine belt fail. Stranding us, I live in the woods, so we’re around 40 miles from the nearest parts store. So two of the guys rolling with us ran to town for parts so we could get back on the road. Then instead of staying at a buddies outside of Detroit we ran to Gaylord and stayed for a few hours. Got pretty cold, and the heater wasn’t working properly. Replaced the batteries in the thermostat and got that back up and running but with little sleep we headed south to Detroit and managed to get there 10 minutes early after a straight drive.


We got setup without much issues, started charging things and walked through the AO got a chance to meet up with a bunch of guys I’ve known online and haven’t met in person which was excellent. Getting to put faces with names and shake hands was honestly great I very much enjoyed meeting everyone down there. I also got a chance to shake hands with Col McKnight and everyone else there which I gotta say was also very nice.

So we walked the site, and my jaw was on the floor honestly. I knew what to expect because I had researched a lot leading up to this. However it’s like researching the Grand Canyon, until you're standing at the edge it’s really hard to realize the scale and all the details. So I took some pictures(in that other thread) and started to try and wrap my head around how to move and shoot in the environment. I also knew going in that it would be quite dangerous, it exceeded that expectation, however that’s part of what made the event. We knew going in that the AO was going to be dangerous and it played into the game itself in my opinion. I will say though any more dangerous and I wouldn’t have played. It was right on the line for my level of acceptable risk, but everyone is different. Enough so that I skipped the night game, I had a hard enough time being relatively safe during daylight I wasn’t risking a night game on that AO. And I want to say this isn’t a complaint just an observation, the AO was the biggest draw to the event in my opinion and it didn’t disappoint but you also had to keep good situational awareness or it could go badly.


That night after much BS’ing around the campfire, and charging batteries etc for the next day we finally got to sleep late. Got up early and started getting into the game after all the formalities. Myself and my guys were still sort of jaw on the ground I don’t think any of us were ready for the number of places you could be shot from and the elevation component. We’re used to woods, and mostly flat without multiple floors etc. So this was a huge wake up call we had to play differently. The only time I was really comfortable was hiding in small scrub brush off to the side of the field for a while;) Otherwise I was pretty on edge the rest of the time with so many lanes of fire.


We started out as 1-2 Bravo under a guy we hadn’t met(good guy), and it worked but it was tough since we all knew each other and what strengths guys had etc. So I helped to keep guys doing the right task etc, since I know each of their play styles as well as what guns they ran and everything else down the line. We made that work for us, but we also were just getting used to the style and feel of the event. After a while our Squad leader ended up having to call it with back problems and I took over 1-2 Bravo and ran it for most of the rest of the game. Since it was mostly all my guys we did quite well with some mistakes by me of course but I think overall we worked well together as a team. Often we didn’t know what we were supposed to be doing in the broad portion of the scenario so we did allot of hunt/kill missions in an ad hoc nature. But we were pretty effective moving around and taking out enemies and working towards some of the objectives.


We did run into a fair amount of difficulty identifying friend/foe with Delta running multicam at a distance it was tough to tell it from other camo and civy. I think tan generally was pretty easy to tell apart, but with the lighting there I know there was allot of friendly fire. I got killed nearly as much by enemy as friendly. I even shot one of the guys I brought down with me because I didn’t see him move into a building, saw a guy there who in my head was moving towards my guys took him out in the shadows. Well it was one of my two guys on that side, thankfully we had a medic handy and got him back up. But there were times when you were taking fire from someone and if there was a question if they were on your team you ended up shooting back if they shot at you. So I would have liked to see a little more differentiation between team colors. Likely this would have worked fine outdoors, or in most AO’s but with the darkness and size of the area, it really make target ID difficult.


I’ve heard some reports that I trust of overshooting from Tan, I don’t think it was my guys or I didn’t see it, I tried my best not to overshoot as well. But that said I’m sure it happened by the guys I heard it from. I know there was a guy I shot from around 55-60 yards out from one long building through a courtyard into another building. He complained I overshot him and I probably did shoot him 5-6 times however with the low FPS and the flight time I had those BB’s in the air already and couldn’t do much about it. As well once the first shots hit over the ambient noise I couldn’t hear a hit call until I saw a red rag come out, I kept putting shots towards him. Granted I doubt with that distance that most hit since he had half his body behind a pylon but I don’t know and I was too far away to talk to him afterwards. I guess all I can say is I did my best to try and not overshoot guys, and I wasn’t overshot that I can recall or at least no worse than any normal game for me. I will say I do believe there were some hot guns running around, I took some hits I would guess were hot but not too too bad. I’ve been shot allot at various distances and I’m pretty dang good and telling you FPS based on a hit and distance. So if I had to guess there were a few guns shooting 30-40fps over the 400fps approx. limit. Especially true since in the morning I was running extra layers, close to my winter loadout of layers and I know with that setup how much lighter hits are, and some of these were tagging pretty hard. Either way not bad at least for me, or my guys from what I heard.


We finished out the day with the Sunday game, after very little sleep from my habit of staying up BS’ing far too late, then charging etc. I showed up after the formalities in the morning, got a sit rep from my guys and all of the pertinent info on where the spawn was etc. Honestly I didn’t have much action and it felt less organized. Really what I should have done in retrospect was sleed Sunday so it would be easier driving home but I did play it through. Overall Sunday was lack luster for me, I spent allot of time guarding an area that didn’t get action. Built out a nice little sniper hide I didn’t get to use in an abandoned bathroom(without my sniper rifle mind you), it led into a room that was around 40 yards across so I didn’t need the range of the sniper rifle to make use of the hide. I took a short nap in my hide since most guys didn’t know I was in there, and there was zero going on outside. Figured if something popped off I’d wake up and shoot some guys. Eventually I went off path and snuck outside the building and headed towards the action but it was too late and the event ended. I should have done that earlier but I was tired and didn’t mind sitting.


Game ended we as a team didn’t win any cool swag, but we enjoyed the game. Local guy did win something so that was cool. And we got a chance to start packing and say goodbyes to all the cool guys we got to hang out with for the weekend. I still feel badly that they didn’t have the same experience I did, but at the end of the day I can only say what I saw with my guys and can only fix that part. So I wish that everyone would have had the time that I did because I had fun but the tan guys who were a problem made it a problem for some of the other side.


Afterwards we packed and rolled for home. Got 30 miles north of Detroit and the automatic brakes in the transmission on the motorhome locked dead. Couldn’t move an inch, no easy way to pull a fuse to disable. So I grabbed my bag of tools, chocked the wheels raised the jacks and got underneath. Managed to disconnect the brakes from the transmission after a while, and unfortunately with no cog in the transmission that meant the rest of the way home Park is neutral basically. So when we stopped for anything someone had to hold brakes or chock the wheels. I drove north to around Gaylord got tired, crashed for an hour, got back up and drove to Escanaba. Crashed for another hour, woke up and burned the rest of the trip home. I was beat, not enough sleep few thousand mg of caffeine and not enough sleep but we made it and we had a good time.


Learned a lot of lessons that will be applied to the next trip down whenever that may be, but despite some issues on the whole we had a good time and loved the AO despite it’s best efforts to injure us;)


Luke

35
The Gallery / Operation Irene Pics - Warning massive data hog full images
« on: October 26, 2016, 12:35:21 PM »
So guys here are the shots I took at Irene walking through the Packard Plant in Detroit the day before the game. My photography didn't turn out quite as I expected because if I'm honest I was just jaw on the floor thinking about playing at this location. As well trying to plan things out and learn the site, so the photo's weren't my top priority. But none the less I think some turned out cool and for those who weren't able to make it out here are some shots of the location.









































And rather than link the entire list here is a link to the folder on my site:

http://adamsholsters.com/forumimages/airsoft/IRENE/

I'm sorry they aren't in gallery format they may be if time permits but I don't have any gallery software installed and running on my site at the moment so yeah I took the time to do the edits but won't likely get around to gallery software since I've gotta get back to work;)

Take care!

Luke

36
Tech Questions / Motor winding questions
« on: October 10, 2016, 08:21:22 PM »
So guys I've got a question that I've been thinking about. Backstory time for another motor for one of my builds however back in the day motors weren't nearly what they are today. I've got a couple Neodymium motors, which are awesome for power etc. But I've run into some questions I haven't been able to dig up answers for or at least not exactly what I'm looking for.

So motor strength the way I understand it is tied to the strength of the magnets as well as the gauge and number of wraps of wire around the armature, and TPA is basically a measure of wraps on the armature. So more wraps is higher torque and lower speed, and more wraps is faster speed with less torque. However what I'm curious about is how the gauge of the wire effects both power use and durability along with torque and speed. So building something like a frankentorque motor which is typically a high TPA armature in a neo can, which seems like it would leave thinner gauge wire which would be more prone to failure.

I'm considering wrapping my own armature just to do it so I can understand it, but I'm trying to figure out I guess if there is a benefit to trying to go with the largest gauge wire possible while getting the wraps I would like as well. Or I guess more details on how those things work together. I'm sure there has to be some info out there I just haven't been able to find it. But I mostly want to understand more deeply how all of the components of our motors work and what causes what functionally within the motor. IE Torque vs speed etc, and how various changes effect that balance.

This may be beyond the normal knowledge of guys here not sure how in depth guys have gone into this side of things but even a point in a direction where there is more info would be appreciated. I've been reading some on Airsoft Mechanics and getting some info, but still can't really figure out who gauge plays a role in the equation.

Take care!

Luke

37
Accessories & Ammo / Fog Grenade?
« on: October 03, 2016, 06:24:27 PM »
So I had this idea well more so I'll give some back story to explain my thinking.

So couple years back I quit smoking after many years and started with ecigs, which I'm still using and much healthier and happier. But in doing that I learned allot about PG/VG(Polypropylene Glycol/Vegetable Glycerin) and their use in other stuff. So recently I got the idea of using some props for airsoft games that I host, and I got on the idea of a Zombie themed game, which would lend itself nicely to some fog for atmosphere. So that led me down the smoke/fog machine research and I've been looking into building a couple of those for specific games as well as for the kids with Halloween etc. But that whole project led me down the thought process of would it be possible to build a portable smoke grenade that would actually operate in the same manner.

So advantages, smoke indoors is a hazard, and you've got the burn risk etc. Lots of downsides, so often times it's not allowed. This however is cool well cold compared to any actual smoke, and the fog is basically the same as a fog machine which is VG/PG/Water mixed and basically steam of sorts and pretty much inert. The theory though in practice might not work, it may not be big enough or be able to put out enough smoke/fog in a reasonable time etc.

But what I've got in mind is a small grenade of sorts that would contain at least in theory an 18650 Lipo cell, hooked to a circuit that would discharge when impacted through a coil of kanthal wire just like an ecig, but a large one. Then it would also power a small fan to put the air into and across the coil propelling the smoke/fog into the room. Looking at the things guys do within ecig stuff with "cloud chasing" I suspect it's possible with the right coil and the right delivery mechanism. It might require some fiddling to make the duration safe time wise. IE not completely discharging the battery, so maybe a time circuit though I'm hesitant to fiddle with that side of things I'd rather it be super simple and reliable build wise.

So that's the general idea, or theory. I'm curious guys who have used smoke/fog machines since my experience is non existent with them. I've got a couple years of building coils for ecigs etc, and I know a fair bit of the tech side. My concern is the ability to scale the amount of fog/smoke to a level to make it effective rather than just another non useful item for CQB.

So I'd like to hear ideas and input etc, if you have any on the idea as a whole. As well as smoke/fog used as a part of games outside of signaling. More so the use of it as a set piece so to speak in a game.

Luke

38
Airsoft Discussion / Airsoft ROF - Which do you prefer and why?
« on: September 27, 2016, 02:25:32 PM »
So I was thinking about something while I was working on a new gun build the other day. I'm typically an AEG guy when it comes to primary guns, though a little bolt action spring gun too. But generally I work on and use AEG's as my primary guns. Since I've been around from the old days, back then a 9.6v battery made for a fast ROF at least to most guys and we're talking maybe 20rps or less usually less. There were guys playing around with 10.8v stuff but it was rare, and mosfets weren't really a thing at all. So most full auto guns were very slow fire rate compared to even the most bare bones stock guns that are released these days and it's common to see 11.1v lipos which can drop allot more current and voltage than we ever thought really possible back in the day;)

So here is the question part, over the years I've always been a fan of a pretty moderate to slow ROF. A couple reasons, I like the slow consumption of ammo which makes it easier to not run out on the field. But I also always felt it was overkill in the sense that it takes one BB to get a hit on someone why shoot them with a burst of 10.

Now since I've been playing I know a few guys who build high DSG ROF style builds 30+RPS but even higher at times. Which I will say on the field does have an intimidation factor to it, when you hear that thing buzz it does make you duck and cover a bit more. But I can't help but think it's still a waste of ammo for our application.

And that gun I mentioned in the first part, well it's a medium ROF gun, higher than anything I've built or owned in the past. It's running approximately 25RPS maybe a bit more. And that wasn't an intentional thing, I mostly was building a semi auto trigger response type of build which makes for ROF.

So I'm curious to hear what you guys opinions are, do you like high ROF stuff if so why? Low like what I described above? Mostly I'm curious since allot of this is fairly new to me, in the sense that it didn't exist like this in the past and there might be a part of it that I haven't considered. So far I'm enjoying the quick trigger response on this new build, but when going to auto I'm amazed at how quickly I can dump a mid cap mag;)

Take care!

Luke

39
Real Steel / Carrygun/handgun thread.
« on: September 26, 2016, 08:15:09 PM »
So guys I noticed we don't have a real handgun thread. Since I'm a CPL guy and carry all the time along with making carry gear for a living. I figured this was as good of time as any to remedy that problem;)

So I'll start it off with my gun I'm carrying today, my old 1911. This is an Argentine Colt, made around 1948ish from memory. It's seen allot of carry since I've owned it, and before that as well. But overall most of it's wear and tear are from my normal carry. This gun was a gift from my dad, and one of the few that has a sentimental attachment to it because of that. I changed a few things to work with my hands, they've gotten very thick from holster making daily. So the original grip safety had to be modified so I wouldn't get hammer bite. Swapped to a commander hammer for the same reason. Changed the trigger to a longer adjustable version and added three dot sights. Since I noticed shooting indoors the old school bladed sight was very difficult for my getting older eye's to pick up in low light. Other than that I also slapped on an ugly set of Hogue grips. I like them and run them on all my 1911's despite being ugly, they are super functional and fit my hands well. Other than that it's original and functions great, nice and worn in. It's a tool, but a great tool;)



So let's see your carry gun, or just your handgun if you don't have a CPL.

Take care!

Luke

40
Airsoft Discussion / What was your first airsoft gun?
« on: September 26, 2016, 02:45:26 PM »
Well guys I had an idea you guys might get a kick out of. What was your first airsoft gun?

So I'll start and I've actually got two since I don't recall which I bought first. Back in the early 2000's I got interested in airsoft and with no local players or scene. I decided to buy a TM M16A2 and a KWA Glock 19, both great highly recommended at the time. Both good guns, I kept and ran the M16 for quite a long while, worked excellent and eventually sold it to fund a CA M15A4 since I was drawn away with the metal body at the time;) The KWA Glock 19 is still in my collection though it's pretty tired I rebuilt it a while back and it will be going to Irene with me this year as my sidearm;)

Luke

41
Airsoft Discussion / MOVED: WE TECH M4 - UMAREX VFC 416D
« on: September 25, 2016, 09:28:19 PM »

42
Airsoft Discussion / Chat Function
« on: September 25, 2016, 01:37:44 PM »
Here I posted that I added a chat feature to the site: http://www.miairsoft.org/index.php?topic=981

This is the thread I mentioned to talk about it, give opinions if you like it or don't. You can always disable the chat if you hate it, but I thought it might be a good way to send a quick message to someone on here. Something I felt was missing.

So feedback welcome!

Luke

43
Forum News / New Feature - Chat system
« on: September 25, 2016, 01:35:54 PM »
So lately I've found myself kicking out of MIA to send a quick message to people on MIA about various things. So I started looking into a chat function/feature. I found one that is very close to the way facebook handles it and it's running and testing it out here. So see what you think of it, it should be showing in the lower right hand corner. It's individual chat doesn't do group chat etc. It's pretty lightweight and doesn't have allot of extra features but it's quicker for back and forth than using PM's.

That said there is a downside, the information in chat isn't long term. IE it's not persistent or I'm not sure how persistent it is. So for right now we're going to leave that alone. But the brunt of that is don't send something via chat that you need to retain. IE shipping address or something for a transaction.

Right now it's a test of this, it may or may not work out but I thought it might help guys out. I'll also post a thread in Airsoft Discussion about it where you can give feedback etc on what you think of it.

Take care!

Luke

EDIT: Changed a few things since the initial post, there is also more features as well as a chat room available. Depending on popularity we'll see if we keep it around etc.

44
Tech Questions / M4 Nozzle/hopup shimming
« on: September 23, 2016, 06:41:21 PM »
M4 Nozzle/hopup shimming
This is a simple little mod, it's been discussed allot over the years. However I'm still seeing guns commonly with this issue on the field. And I'm surprised how often it's an issue with m4 based guns. Some other guns solved this with various design fixes, but allot of m4 based guns have this issue. If your not familiar with it give it a quick read and you might find a way to make your gun a bit more consistent.

So first things first if this is an M4 or a variant of an M4 I’d check the way the hopup meets up against the gearbox. Typically there is a small spring there which is supposed to help hold the hopup against the front of the gearbox which keeps compression between the hopup and nozzle extending from the gearbox. What happens is certain mags which are out of spec, or mag wells that are out of spec, can push the hopup chamber forward. Which causes a massive compression leak between the hopup and nozzle when fired. I’ve seen this cause a drop of over 100fps on some guns. Most seem to be 10-50fps depending on the magazine and how bad it is.

Diagnose, easiest way to tell is to reach into the mag well without a mag installed in the gun. See if you can move the feed tube forward towards the muzzle easily. As well look in the dust cover at the point where the hopup touches the mech box. Put a mag in the gun and wiggle the mag, you normally will see the hopup unit move off the mechbox. Any time that hopup isn’t snug to the mechbox your loosing FPS. That causes inconsistent shooting, and accuracy. Also it may explain some mags liking certain guns and others causing massive issues.

Solution, or the way I prefer to fix this is to remove the upper receiver from the gun. Pull the hopup/inner barrel from the upper. Then the only part needed are some small orings, just larger than the inner barrel. Take an oring and stretch it over the muzzle end of the inner barrel and slide it all the way to the hopup chamber. Then put the barrel back in the upper and put it back together. See if you can move the feed tube again like mentioned in the paragraph above. If it’s pretty snug IE very little movement. Your probably right and done. Note, you can get this too tight and can cause gearbox issues. You want this snug not tight, there is a fine line here but you want it snug enough mags aren’t going to move the hopup chamber away from the mechbox.

Once you figure out how many orings you need to get the pressure you’re done. You can remove the little spring if you want from the top of the hopup chamber. But typically I leave it there despite it not really doing anything anymore.

Hope that all makes sense, if guys are confused feel free to post and I can include pictures, or find a video likely of someone doing this on Youtube. Mostly I just wanted to make people aware that this is a simple mod that most anyone can do, that often works very well to make your M4 based gun more consistent especially with various magazines.

Take care!

Luke

45
Accessories & Ammo / XCORTECH X3200 MK3 Review
« on: September 23, 2016, 06:26:09 PM »


So a few months ago I bought an XCORTECH X3200 MK3 chronograph. I’ve in the past used the 2nd generation and while it was pretty accurate I did have a few complaints. I’ll cover some of that below afterwards.

Setup:
None the less lets start with the simple stuff, this will run off a micro USB cord, or you run with AA batteries. I’ve never really used the power cord setup(not included at least for me), I have been running it happily on AA batteries. I’ve used it a fair amount and I’ve been running fairly cheap rechargeable AA cells which aren’t super quality. As a result they likely don’t have a high mah rating and are lasting less than a set of primary cells would(AKA Duracell or the like alkaline cells). That said I’ve only changed them once so far in several months so really I can’t complain it seems find on battery consumption.

Use:
The menu’s are slightly harder to figure out compared to the previous version it’s just slightly different. I can’t give exact specifics since it’s been a while since I used the previous version. But the menu is slightly different. And for instance for a month I didn’t think you could change the weight of the ammo in the chrono to a custom weight to get joule calculations. Only later did I realize I actually could click the power button on a weight and change it. Where from memory the old version you have a specific menu where you set the weights. So different, not bad but different if you’re used to the older version.

Function:
So function it’s excellent, I very seldom get a shot that doesn’t register. Usually it’s when it impacts the wall of the chrono. I mentioned at the start I had complaints about the previous version that was one of them. The old version was plenty accurate from what I saw and this one reads within 1fps with the same gun which is virtually identical since the gun I tested is +-1fps. With the old one I’ve had several guns where I had to fire say 5 rounds and only 2-3 would register. Or worse my bolt action I’d shoot maybe 10 rounds to get one to register. So the consistency of registering shots I’d say is greatly improved. From what I’ve read this one has more sensors than the MK2 causing its higher detection rate.

Source/Price:
I bought mine on BrillArmory for $75+shipping. Those not familiar with Brill shipping is quite cheap and I had other things on the order. So I don’t know exactly the shipping but it was a buck or two. I got it quick and had zero issues. Also I did consider the old version when I got this one, but it was only $5 or so cheaper and I decided to go with this model and in retrospect I’m quite glad I did. I will say this one feels slightly cheaper than the old version but it’s a toss up, close enough I can’t say it’s really a con.

Conclusion:
For the dollar amount it’s excellent. For the accuracy I’d say the same thing. If you’ve been considering a chrono I can’t recommend this one highly enough. I’ve spent allot of money over the years on parts and guns in airsoft. One of the things I always lacked was a way to check my work so to speak on guns. So I’d borrow a chrono or guess what a gun was shooting until I got to a game to check it. Now I can change something with a gun and test. Get a result and determine if it makes sense. I’ve had a ton of things this has identified as a problem since I started using it. Guns that I thought were shooting fair but hadn’t chrono’d. Only to find out that they were shooting very low FPS because of a compression leak I had to track down etc. So great chrono and a great addition to anyone’s gear who works on guns at all.

If anyone has any questions or things I forgot to mention feel free to post and I'd be happy to help.

Luke

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