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Messages - luke213

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76
Accessories & Ammo / Re: AK Optics
« on: September 26, 2017, 04:20:15 PM »
Another thing you can do to test of sorts is run on a timer and see what it shakes out to be, speed wise. Most of the shot timer apps will pick up the noise and you can get some data to see what the difference is in use as well. I know I used that testing things with holster design in the past and it led to some interesting results. More than anything though it was interesting to see data to show a difference.

Just as an example my draw from concealment changed depending on hand placement. If I hang my hand with thumb on the rear pocket of my jeans I can drop a good .3 seconds off my draw time compared to hands in front. That led me in situations when we traveled when I felt things just weren't right to start putting my thumb on my rear pocket of my jeans in those cases. Never needed it mind you, but my wife also knew so if she saw me do that, which wasn't an odd movement other than it wasn't typical for me. She knew I had seen something that raised my neck hair so to speak;) But it's interesting to find those little things that make a difference. And while a third of a second isn't allot of time in airsoft or real firearms it can be a huge difference in actual time to action and changing the outcome especially at close range etc.

Either way just something to think about and fiddle with that I've noticed over the years;) And for other guys reading this, I'm no secret squirrel guy. Just a normal guy that probably thinks about things differently than allot of folks, but I've also been deeply involved in firearms for years now;)

Luke

77
Airsoft Discussion / Forums lets talk about them as a whole
« on: September 26, 2017, 01:58:24 PM »
So guys we all know that currently forums are not in vogue I think there are allot of reasons they should be myself. But this is a weird topic but I think it has merit. What I want to know is why you came to MIA, what drew you here functionally or feature wise. I'll post below to give my own example, but I think knowing what drove you here initially may yield some interesting things that may tell us something about going forward as a community.

So I came to MIA because I was at the time wanting to get into paintball. I couldn't find a gun or guns that I really liked. I had played paintball in the past non-seriously and was looking to take it up a notch. But as I researched I just didn't like the guns. Then I got into the cost, at the time I was a young guy without much extra income, the cost of CO2 and paint was just a bit investment for the amount I wanted to play which was all the time. So somehow in my searching(I say searching because crazily enough I don't think I was using google yet), I came across airsoft, and started just digging into it deeply to learn about it. The guns drew me in, I've been a gun guy my whole life and I loved the idea of realistic guns and particularly guns I couldn't easily own like full auto's and weird guns like the P90 etc. I'd owned and shot allot of typical centerfire rifles like AR's, and AK's but they were semi of course. So the idea of these cool guns was a draw, and the cost wasn't that much when compared to the real deal. I mean I TM P90 used would be a couple hundred dollars, a PS90 which didn't exist to my knowledge at the time was around a thousand if not more.

So in searching I learned a bunch, joined forums because that's where I found myself searching for information. I may have even joined Airsoft Players or one of the other larger forums at the time before MIA. Then stumbled into MIA and found a community. The players and the scene as a whole was quite a bit smaller than anytime since then, from memory MIA had a couple hundred players when I started on the forums. But they were a tight community of guys traveling around the state on the weekends to play games on someone's property. There was one Michigan retailed, Wolverine Tactical long gone now. But at the time the guy who ran it was named Mike, and I actually bought some stuff from him at my first game downstate. But overall it was a good group of guys who loved playing airsoft. Sure there was drama but generally not from the admin/mod side of things, they seemed to just like playing and trying to further the sport as a whole.

And when you asked a question, pending it wasn't a stupid question or in the wrong area etc. You got an answer, and while there might be discussion about minutia you could find someone who knew the answer. Come to find out many years later guys weren't always right but they were right for the time. For instance gearbox timing, at the time somehow that made sense, it was the excuse honestly we used to explain midfeeds in gearboxes likely related to either hopup, nozzle, or other issues we'd not figured out at the time. And you have to realize this was before youtube, I Learned to take apart a gearbox from a series of photos/text from Airsoft Players forum, and then jumped in.

But overall for me it was the game, love for it and the community that came up around it with a good dose of knowledge from guys who'd been taking apart their own guns. Typically at the time fixing guns rather than tuning, tuning tended to be more common later. At the time shooting 400fps on a stock TM without it eating itself was pretty much everyone's goal. RPS wasn't on anyone's radar that I'm aware of, at least not at that point.

So I'm curious for you guys what drew you in, feel free to repeat even if someone else already posted I'm interested to hear.

Take care!

Luke

78
Accessories & Ammo / Re: AK Optics
« on: September 26, 2017, 01:45:02 PM »
I will say this, years ago like 15 years ago;) When I started playing we all used iron sights, we were new players and didn't have much budget for optics. It was a pretty level playing field, all running stock TM guns, all iron sights. I picked up a BSA red dot, nothing special got it in a trade I believe at the time. I slapped that on my M16A2 and all of a sudden I was ahead of the action curve just slightly, fractions of a second faster. And it was enough that almost immediately everyone else had a red dot because they almost needed them to compete. Not to say you couldn't run without but there was an advantage if you both got to guns at the same time and it was noticeable especially in that small scale of guys who played each other every weekend and knew each other's actions like the back of their hand. I don't think it's as noticeable in larger games etc, but I do believe it's still there.

Now that said after that I didn't start chasing the best optic, but I did keep it in the back of my mind. And as a result virtually all my guns over the years have carried some sort of red dot or scope, but typically for airsoft ranges a red dot. And it's actually driven my dislike for a few guns like my MP5's because even more than the red dot I've found certain sights just don't work as well or fast for me. MP5's and HK sights on the whole tend to be slower for me, could just be my own whatever and what I'm used to. But I've tried, and I'm still slow on them, put a dot on there and it's pretty much equal.

The idea of an independent option to get long distance looks isn't a bad one at all, I've considered it myself but typically I think the times it would make the most sense for me is when I'm sniping. And in those cases I pretty much always have a scope that will go around 9x anyways and it's allot easier than carrying another piece of gear.

Either way I'm curious what you find because I think optics are one of those things that can be important for airsoft as a whole, sure you can get by without them. But it's interesting to see their effects on play as well. And I think despite the fact that airsoft isn't a great training analog for real firearms some lessons do cross over quite well. And the speed you can acquire a target and shoot is one of them.

Take care!

Luke

79
Accessories & Ammo / Re: AK Optics
« on: September 26, 2017, 11:15:23 AM »
Not directly AK platforms but I'll tell ya I've found optics once you get above a light red dot quickly make a fairly light rifle allot more bulky and heavy. Just the nature of the beast to some degree. I just threw that low zoom scope on my M4 and that typically is my nice mid weight platform, though it also has a 203 on it. Combination of that scope and the 203 has made it quite a bit more bulky. Probably going to have to decide if I'll keep the scope on there since it replaced an EO Tech and that setup worked fine.

Either way I'm not sure you'll lower the bulk without going down in size of the optic itself some to offset that bulk. Sort of like handguns that I deal with in holsters, a small amount of size/weight can make a big difference in carry for allot of guys. In general sometimes it's surprising how much difference it actually makes when you try it out.

Take care!

Luke

80
GAS / Re: GHK AK-74M
« on: September 26, 2017, 11:09:48 AM »
Nice I've been curious since I got back into airsoft how some of these newer GBB systems were working for guys. I know in our colder climate GBB is often frustrating during the colder months, but I've always felt the realism compared to AEG platforms was just such a cool addition;)

Maybe in the future I'll have to pick up a GBB AR platform to play around with and see how I like it;)

Luke

81
Accessories & Ammo / Re: Short zoom level scopes or short dots
« on: September 24, 2017, 07:48:46 PM »
Maybe that's more what's throwing me. I didn't really pay that much attention when mounting it to the eye relief being different than normal. But I seem to think your right that it's sitting further forward than would be normal.

I need to do more testing to see but I think maybe it's that more than blocking vision. Though maybe it's both but since it's further out it's blocking more visibility.

That's interesting though now I'll have to compare;)

Did you find it took much time to get used to or did you find it worked pretty well right out of the gates for ya? I'm still a touch slow but I've spent little time with it. But so far it still feels a bit clunky compared to a red dot or irons. Or really an ordinary scope but I think it's just getting used to it.

Take care

Luke

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk


82
I think at the end of the day the biggest thing we all as a community need to do is reach out to a degree to players and be accepting of what other guys do for fun within the hobby. Everyone that plays airsoft gets different things from it and enjoys it differently.

And I think to that end it's going to require boots on the ground so to speak at events getting to know guys and trying to get guys involved in the community as a whole.

Also no matter where the community ends up(while I do think there is a strong case for forums, especially because of search and indexing). I think we need to do more things to involve the community. One suggestion I made before was AAR's after action reports. Basically a BS session about a game or a particular kill in the game. But those types of things are not only fun, but they engage guys who weren't even at the game. And if other guys see that a bunch of guys had fun they wonder what they missed out on and may make more of an effort to go to the next game.

To be honest we're all in the same boat to a degree. As players you want to go to a game with the right amount of players. If you design a game for 50 guys and 10 show up, it's hard to make that a good game. The hosts need the players as do the fields to drive the financial reasons for doing airsoft. But at the end of the day we all need players no matter their team, and the best way to keep players and by them enjoying themselves playing the game.

Luke

83
Accessories & Ammo / Short zoom level scopes or short dots
« on: September 23, 2017, 07:33:51 PM »
So I've used red dots for years, I've used scopes for years. But now the cool kids seem to be using short dots and other low magnification stuff which you can then twist and get say 4x. So I'm curious what you guys using them are thinking of them in practice.

I just started testing a Bushnell 1.5-4x scope on my own sort of DMR M4 and I'm not sure what I think of it yet. But I haven't had it long enough. I'm not sure I like 1.5x vs. Iron Sights or a 1x red dot. I don't like when shooting both eyes open that the scope occludes more of my vision compared to a red dot or it seems to.

This all might be things I'll get used to, but I'm curious what you guys think of it. Is it a fad, or is it the best thing ever or something in between.

Take care!

Luke

EDIT: I should mention I was planning on putting that Bushnell on my real AR but like allot of things I like to test them with airsoft first and see how I like them moving/shooting etc. Gives me a chance to shake things out before I change something on a platform that slings lead rather than plastic. And I'm not a super secret squirrel or anything my AR is home defense and plinking critters around here. But I still like to insure I'm not changing something before testing it fairly well first and making sure it works for me.

84
Local and regional events / UP Airsoft Channing MI - OP Frost
« on: September 23, 2017, 07:20:08 PM »
Location: UP Airsoft Channing MI

When: 10-21-2017 11:00-18:00 CST

Facebook event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/145289129406659/

MAP: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Adams+Holsters/@46.2082177,-88.0897517,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x4d518023f687487b:0xe1b8c96a8873771c

Scenario:

As winter approaches, more than just leaves are falling on the Korean peninsula. As nuclear tensions mount between North Korea and the United states and its allies, displays of military power have become commonplace. The US and South Korea are flying numerous bombers and fighters over Pyongyang in ever-increasing frequency while North Korea positions its forces closer and closer to the DMZ. North Korea, growing weary of an impending air attack, secretly plans to shoot down an American bomber in a reckless display of aggression.

North Korea’s plan in downing a US Air Force B-52 proves to be successful, but the plane was coincidentally carrying an unexpected piece of cargo: a high-yield nuclear device. Many times more powerful than anything the secluded country could produce with antiquated Soviet-era technology, the device could completely wipe Seol off the map. The bomber was never supposed to be carrying anything other than conventional ordnance, resulting in the US and South Korean forces being slow to realize the gravity of the situation. By the time the news has spread through military channels, North Korea has already mobilized in an effort to capture whatever the plane was carrying. To make matters worse, the plane went down inside North Korea.

The North Korean Military doesn’t know exactly what was aboard the bomber they shot down. The bomber crashed in an extremely rural area of their homeland, one inaccessible by major roads and too thick with vegetation to safely land an aircraft. So their solution to recover the weapon as well as any technology they can salvage is to mount an expedition to the crash site. Once they secure the weapon, site, and technology they will have to extract with everything to a waiting plane on the tarmac.
 
The US(CIA) and South Korean underground forces need to infiltrate that location and destroy the crash site with a purpose built bomb before it falls into the wrong hands. Once the target is destroyed their cover is blown as a result they need to get back across the border into friendly territory with any intelligence they can recover during the operation.

Rules of Engagement/FPS Limits:

FPS with .2g projectile(calculated based on Joules of energy with the BB weight used) 001-350fps 5ft.    CQB/Assault role, full auto permitted.

FPS Table:
 351-400fps 40ft.    Assault role, full auto permitted.
 401-450fps 60ft.    DMR role, full auto permitted but limited.*
 450-550fps 100ft.    Semi auto or bolt action only.**

Joules Table:
 0.01-1.14 5ft.        CQB/Assault role, full auto permitted.
 1.15-1.49 40ft.        Assault role, full auto permitted.
 1.50-1.88 60ft.        DMR role, full auto permitted but limited.*
 1.89-2.81 100ft.    Semi auto or bolt action only.** 

*DMR Role full auto is permitted, but short bursts only max of 4-5BB’s  per burst.
**Sniper class rifles do not require full auto lock out, however if caught using full auto in game you will be asked to leave and not return. Airsoft is a game based on trust, and I trust this won't be an issue.

Food etc: Food will be available on site, planned Chilli, I do need a headcount on how many guys would like lunch there will be other things to go with it. But it will be $5 a head for lunch, those who aren't familiar with this area, it's remote. As such you will need to either bring lunch, or buy lunch here. There is no place close by to eat especially under the time frame we're going to shoot for with lunch.

Water is available from the house, we will have cups etc but it's always recommended to bring a bottle, or camelback to make sure you're hydrated even in cooler weather.

Approx. timetable:
1000-1100 CST - Chrono and setup for game, loading mags etc.

1100 CST - Scenario 1: Recovery

1400 CST - Break for lunch(this may vary, it's based on the primary objective, also since this is a late lunch you should probably eat breakfast before coming)

1430-1500 - Scenario 2: Extraction

1700 - This is also up in the air, depends on how long scenario 2 takes to complete, if it ends quickly and guys are willing we may do some basic pickup games afterwards. But typically that's not the case.

85
Local and regional events / UP Airsoft Events
« on: September 23, 2017, 07:11:26 PM »
So events in this section occur within the UP. If you're not familiar with the area and airsoft scene be aware it's quite a bit smaller than what you're accustomed to in lower Michigan. Most of the fields are privately owned, and are not "for profit" type of businesses. As such the events are typically smaller(though MTU's games do sometimes draw quite a few guys in the 50+ player range).

Generally though games posted in this section as of writing this are fairly small 15-30 player games. It's unlikely that it's worth guys traveling up to our games unless you happen to be in the area and would like to play. Or are planning a trip and would like to stop by. Either way you're more than welcome to contact the host and get more information or around what the current player count is etc. But if you're planning to travel please contact the host before to insure it's worth the trip.

I'm not knocking our games here at all, but I want realistic expectations for those who might be interested in attending. Typically it's all local players that are traveling between 30-200 miles for these types of games. Overall though it's a far smaller community of players though some of us with allot of long term experience as well.

Also since I organize UP Airsoft's Facebook group which is where most of the individual fields and teams are organized, if you've got a particular question about a game, field, or the state of the community in the UP. Feel free to contact me here or where ever I'm pretty easy to get ahold of and happy to help whenever I can.

Take care!

Luke

86
Forum News / Image upload changes.
« on: September 22, 2017, 11:58:01 AM »
So I've opened up some storage for images on the site. We always ran that quite limited but I've opened it to around 2mb per image that can be directly attached to a post. You also can attach images via Tapatalk when doing it that way it actually uploads the image to their servers instead.

So I'd recommend trying to use this rather than the "Add image to post" link that hosts them off site for a little while more of a trial. And we'll see how it effects the site and hosting. But I think it's going to be just fine and should make it a little easier to post photos.

Additionally, you'll see more of these posts. Prior to our conversations on Facebook and here I had already been planning to roll out a bunch of new stuff for the site. Just was waiting on time to do it, so I'll be changing some things. Making mobile browsing a little easier and generally trying to improve the user experience. If someone out there reading this has experience with SMF(Simple Machines Forums) and would like to make suggestions for plugins etc that they would like to see feel free to shoot me a note. If you don't have experience there you're still always welcome to make suggestions it just may not be possible to implement within the framework.

Take care!

Luke

87
I think that may be part of the problem is confusion about what that style of event is like, and as mentioned could be hosts using terms incorrectly or differently. I know for certain that what MSW does, compared to Lion Claws are completely different critters. Only common in the sense guys are shooting airsoft at one another. But if I didn't know the difference and knew approximately what to expect from Lion Claws and showed up at MSW it would be a shock to the system.

I think to that end it would be great to get more information out there, or as much as possible. That way guys know the serious level of preparation and gear that will be required. And maybe even host a lightweight version in the case of Mosin/Mike giving guys a little taste to see if it's something they want to jump into a full experience of. IE host a beginner game of some sort, bring some of the elements together to insure guys are up to the full boat experience, and require guys to go through that before signing up to a full fledged event. That should insure less players leaving during the course of the game.

May not be an answer but if it were me I'd give it a shot I think and see how it shook out.

Take care!

Luke

88
Forum News / Social login
« on: September 21, 2017, 11:56:23 PM »
So guys I enabled a function tonight where you can tie your MIA account to your google or facebook account. Allowing you to login with either one directly to your MIA account. So if you're on your phone logged into facebook or google you can click login in the browser and use those credentials to login. You can also register accounts that way as well.

If you've already got an account you can go to your profile and add them to your existing account as another way to login. Basically it's using those sites for authentication. Very much the same as allot of places are using these days, but it gives you another easy option to register and use the site without keeping another password.

Keep me posted if you run into any issues at all with it.

Take care!

Luke

89
So I think you're completely right in your view, however I draw a different conclusion;) I think as a whole airsoft will always been a different hobby than allot of different hobbies. In the sense that there is allot of diversity in what guys get out of the game and the level of interaction with it. In other words, you're going to have more casual players, and serious players and everything in between. I'd say most players are in the middle, just by the odds. And those players may attend a rec game, then maybe do a milsim or scenario style game but might not do a hardcore milsim style game. Or they may find it's not for them, or on the other hand they may find out it's just what they are looking for.

But the biggest thing from my perspective is that milsim isn't going to be for everyone, it's just not. I know guys who play very casually and just wouldn't do milsim. They might see the barrier of entry to a scenario game as too high. New players especially often need to feel out the waters and see if they enjoy it before committing time and money. As well they may decide they like a casual game or both.

So at least from my point of view, I think milsim is awesome but even myself at least now it's not really for me. I prefer something of a milsim lite, I get to sleep in my own bed situation. And I have a hard time dedicating two days on a weekend to anything let alone airsoft. Often I work 7 days a week in the shop and free time is with the wife and kids and it's seldom. My point in saying all of this though is be careful not to exclude players, in the sense that someday they may have the time or interest in milsim even if it's not right for them or they aren't able/ready today to go do it.

I think as a community we need to be inclusive, of all the different ways of playing airsoft. And I think the same goes for hosts, the players are there, or will be if enough guys have an interest in a particular type of game. Good or bad, if milsim doesn't take off in Michigan I don't think it will be for lack of trying and I completely understand. But if it doesn't then there isn't enough players interested, it's not right or wrong just not the way they want to play etc.

Using Pagan as an example since he was mentioned I will say Jeremy has been doing hosting a long time, and he's built a reputation as a good host. That's going to hold weight over a new host, and it should because he's put in the time, effort and money to make his name. With newer groups/hosts they are going to have to draw in players their own way and put forth the work as well. And if they are hosting games guys want to play then they'll go.

I know it's frustrating to put a ton of time, effort and money into something you love and not have it pan out. And I'm not saying milsim is that way in Michigan, I don't honestly think it is. I think it's on the upswing, but I also think it's going to take allot more time and effort before it becomes even more popular. Good or bad I just think that's where allot of guys are at the moment.

As for the whole community though I think we all need to be inclusive and keep in mind that we dress up and run around shooting each other with BB's. And at the end of the day it's a hell of allot of fun no matter how you prefer to do that. Supporting hosts with game styles you like, will drive the game in that direction. If there are enough guys to push things one way or the other it'll be what it is. Even in my area I seldom host rec style games, I do more of a milsim lite or scenario style game. Most of the other play is more of a rec or pickup game. It's not a bad thing, we both coexist just fine. I go and play pickup games because it's fun, and I host scenario's here as time permits. Works out fine and there is an absolute ton of cross over players that do exactly the same thing and play both styles/places.

So just an idea of another way to look at things, and for everyone reading this do keep in mind the majority of guys that host games don't make money doing it. They do it because they love airsoft to some degree or another. So next game go shake their hand and tell them thanks for taking time away from their life/family to do something you get to enjoy;)

Luke

90
GAS / Re: KWA LM4 as first GBB gun
« on: September 21, 2017, 10:16:48 PM »
I'm curious about this also. I've got zero gbb rifle experience and have stayed away because of weather issues. But I'm curious how the newer stuff does in our climate.

Luke

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk


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