Archive for the ‘Retailer’ Category

…when you find a new Airsoft store. This one happens to be on my doorstep too. Oops.

Was in the process of helping out a Raptor wannabe with a part he was buying, and trying to save him some postage. Turned up to pick his purchase up expecting a small a ratty unit just doing mail order stuff but no!

I found a very neat, well presented store with a wide variety of gear and more importantly parts (lots of retailers nowadays have racks of viper fluff but no shiny CNC parts, springs, magic foofoo parts that you can’t find etc)

Upstairs was even better. An Aladdin’s cave full to the brim with rifles, pistols and aeg’s, barrels and an MMA style cage containing the shops two native techies.

Busy away on someone’s aeg they were only too happy to help out when I asked about obscure ASG Scorpion parts (shiny new stock adaptor to open up the M4 Soomod range of stocks to my Scorpion & the new high cap)ASPUK cover a lot fonts ASG range including the new scorpion.

As well as Derkas bit of kit, I’m after upgrade parts for my new VSR CO2 WellMB 10 Stocked sniper rifle bastardisation. Knowledgable support….I gave them the usual grilling, prices, alternatives, modding etc. All came up trumps and even learnt a new trick that I’d never thought of for modding barrels. So not just a mail order outfit but an informed operation.

So thanks to Richard, Paul and Matthew. I’ll be back soon for the second hand hop unit and a brew! Holding you to the price.

Almost forgot. They also have their own site. BlackDagger Airsoft out of Dronfield running on Saturdays. No website just an invite only Faceache page. So if you aren’t a twat I’m sure they’ll let you in.

Swampy.

Oh and they all have beards. Got to be legit then.

+++UPDATE+++

Because Swampy is crap at links…. here’s their FB page …Spider

As part of this years fashion upgrade I was pointed in the direction of a nice piece of kit from everyone’s favourite Gucci supplier UK Tactical. Renowned for being a bit pricey, their service and quality justify this price in my mind. Yes I’m a geardo and yes you can get 5.62 pouches from China but that’s not why I do the Airsoft.

The holster is relatively low profile, ATACS all over and importantly adjustable for lots of different frame sizes. It has overlapping Velcro panels that allow you to get the fit and retention you want. A neat thumb action unlock allows for a smooth draw. Very happy.

As part of my recent M4 refit I decided to replace the mag release catch and hop unit. Didn’t look very hard and trusted to the gods a bit as I was in a hurry at the time and plumbed for a nice loooong CNC hop and a standard catch from Poison Apple Airsoft via eBay. Arrived the next day – free. Prices were good. Deffo shop there again. Thanks.

Well its been a long long long time since I was on here.  My daughter can now answer me aback and give me cheek its been that long!  Last time I was on I think she had managed to open her eyes a bit….

So to make it up to the Spiderloon, a few reviews and write ups methinks.  Starting with a recent trip to First & Only Retail in Swinton.  I happened to be passing by the area so called in for a chat and a look at some new kit as I hoped to be hitting the field again.  New TM and ASG aeg’s on the wall oooooh.

Got chatting to Dan the store manager about airsoft in general including import issues retailers are facing (making CYMA a bit harder to get hold of…) and had a look around the place.  They’ve a cracking tech centre and shooting range for short arms, plus a well stocked pistol cabinet.  Most gear tends to be on the mobile store however (if you frequent F&O sites you’ll be familiar with the beast) so if you want something in particular give them a call first.  First rate staff who know their stuff and how to run games.

Dan took me through the next gen TM with recoil and the new ASG Scorpion CZ Evo 3A1.  Both of which are cracking pieces of kit.  The TM showed the best recoil setup I have seen on any attempt to date, and the ASG comes with mosfet prefitted and three round burst on the selector as standard…… oh dear. Both are midcap options but with dead gun on mag empty.  The scorpion requires the forward release to be operated before gunning can continue.

I bought the ASG on another trip a couple of weeks later…. review to follow.

Jamie turned up a short while later and I was pleasantly surprised that he recognised me and mentioned the Spider,  given the hiatus and frequency of our trips to F&O sites.  I/we have always rated and enjoyed F&O game days and weekenders – they seem to lack the crap that sometimes comes with big site and multi day operations.  Just shows that listening to your players and looking after your customers pays off – a sale sir?  Why not.

A pleasant hour spent mooching and talking about softin’.  Can recommend a call in if you are a noob or seasoned player.

To balance out todays previous bad news it occured to me that we did not say cheers to Stitch me up for their excellent patches we took delivery of at christmas.

Coveted & sexy…

They do loads of work for airsoft teams and I’ve yet to hear a single bad word about them. Our’s was certainly delivered promptly and in great packaging protecting the patches – at a very reasonable price! You can check out their facebook page for loads of examples of their work and they’ll do batches large and small…
Well done Swamps for picking them!
BZ

Anyone who reads our game day reviews knows we try to be as positive as possible and highlight the best points of sites, so this is one of those rare occasions we have to report something definitely not so good.

Recent Raptors returnee and resident grenadier expert Derka was looking to book a private game day for a special occasion, having played all the local north east sites and having had good experiences on the whole at all of them we had no hesitation in recommending the most local one to him to cut down on hassles with travel. So he contacted NTAC at Shildon.

He contacted them to ask if they could take 30+ full hires with a some additional walk ons (airsoft regulars with own kit) on a Saturday as part of his brothers stag weekend. Well over a £1,000 worth of business, when you figure in extra BB’s, pyro and drinks and munchies probably closer to over £2,000. Having had the booking confirmed and even offering to make a deposit he was informed no deposit was necessary and “pay on the day”. Off he went to inform everyone and book transport…

Fast forward to T-4 days when he was asked by the site if he knew a name in his party. When the name was unfamiliar it became apparent to the site that they had double booked the day and told Derka he would have to have another weekend. On the Tuesday before his brothers stag weekend. I’m sure you can imagine how this news was greeted.

In the sites defence they have explained that their booking system was overloaded as it could only cope with 100 free messages and so didn’t read any more, and they apologised for “any inconvenience caused”.

Have to say that the inconvenience is considerable, cancelling 40 or so players with less than 4 days to go, for his brothers stag weekend, having had a booking accepted and confirmed and having booked minibuses for transport. For a business taking orders over a thousand pounds the excuse that our free booking system was overloaded and we didn’t clear it is pretty unforgivable. I’m certain that if anyone was spending that amount on any other service you would expect a decent level of professionalism.

So what now?

Well, Derks is faced with last minute panic through no fault of his own. To further compound the disappointment all the other sites in the area say they would have been happy to help if they had a bit more notice to get hold of marshals etc, understandable really.

In all good conscience if you’re looking for a large game day booking we cannot possibly recommend NTAC following this. For a large airsoft booking in the North East try either NSC at South Shields or NAA at Dishforth depending on your location and preferences. A quick look back through our reviews and you can see from our game day reports that we’ve had a warm welcome and many great days airsoft at both.

Back again for some more!

Just a mere 2 weeks since our last visit we were once again at the still new NSC Site, East Boldon.

Another warm day, this time we brought a couple of buddies along to give NSCs new site another bash – and hopefully not get lost this time!

A familiar format started the day off.

Good briefs and chronos all round then off to a limited site game over quite a short range. Plenty of respawns to encourage players to get stuck in and get moving. Simple shoot and scoot also lets new players, of which there were plenty, get used to the AEGs and to getting shot!

Knock Knock?… shortly before the gearbox gave out.

The next game was similar to the sequential fall back game we had on our last visit. On the defence to start with on this occasion. The lack of breeze let us rack up some pleasing long shots into the surrounding long grass as the attackers tried to flank us, but with everyone making good use of pyro on this game day it was a lot harder to maintain a defensive line.

Defending the bunkers especially became more difficult. We had to work hard to keep the attackers away from the breach point into each bunker, sometimes with some judicious use of flashbangs ourselves! It certainly made the game flow a lot faster.

Bugger…

It was during this game that sod’s law cam into full effect. After finding a great low key position to unleash some particularly sneaky shots into the backs of the opfor my Cyma AK105 gearbox gave up (see video!). I cannot really complain about it too much, except over it’s sense of timing. It has weathered much abuse over the last few years, all with a stock gearbox and run on 11v lipo, albeit mainly on semi-auto fire. So my next job before my next game day is decided for me, I suspect a new piston is due, and maybe a mosfet. We will have to see…

To cheer myself up I unleashed a trip mine as we fell back. A quick couple of minutes supported by buddies and the rear of the Garage had a lovely surprise for the attackers in store. Must admit to chuckling quite a bit as one unsuspecting player bimbled obligingly into it – all caught on the gopro for a change as well!

A quick spot of lunch and we were back out for our next game. This time a locate and rescue the hostage type scenario. Heat and post lunch laziness meant we really just spread out as a long straggly line and started covering the site trying to find the opposition. The hostage takers had helpfully clustered together, so once a firefight broke it didn’t take too long for our team to converge on that spot and drive them back towards their spawn. Once there it was pretty much impossible for them to get back into the fight. Hostage rescued, medals all round!

The next game was our turn to attack the fall back scenario. By this point the heat was taking its toil. Rather unimaginatively we resorted to copious amounts of pyro to dislodge dogged defenders. Sometimes it’s the only way…

It was good to get back again. The guys at NSC had done some work clearing out the passageways around the bunkers making progress more certain under foot and therefore a lot faster. It was also obvious players were getting to grips with the site and learning the best ways into areas.

The numbers were well up as well. Probably double that of a couple of weeks ago as word gets out about the new site. Some new young players getting into airsoft for the first time which can only be good for it, and well played to them as well as they got stuck in.

Only things I can think of suggesting from this game day?
It will be great when the large factory building gets brought into play more. No idea what structures could be placed in there, but seems such a shame it’s not utilised more (yet!).

Whilst I appreciate the marshals are learning the site as much as the players, some different games (already promised when we chatted) would be great. Maybe some domination type stuff with opposing team trying to gain control of bunkers? My own preference is for long duration site wide games to sneak about in, but I appreciate that not everyone goes for that – and it was great to hear the plans for night games are already under way, the site should be fantastic for that.

Does my arm look big in this?

One final comment on the game day. Arm bands. With so many new players, and players who don’t know each other pink tape armbands were dished out for one team. I understand why, I really do. I just don’t like them. I love the chaos of players having to check their targets and being able to bluff someone with a wave. Having a bright pink thing on my arm really can make hiding quite difficult. If arm bands are to be used on one team then maybe black? or both teams to wear them if bright? It’s a small niggle I know. But for a self confessed sneaky sod it does feel like it hampers me. It’s not like it even stops my own team shooting me.. Does it Derka? Well? Does it?….

Overall?

Great day, hot, tiring, bust a gearbox, and still enjoyed myself immensely

Intel

For those of you heading to NSC Urban we’ve knocked together a quick map.

And for those awkward situations…

Last comment! We placed a pyro order with a new supplier of all things boom in the north east, Jack Rabbit paintball and airsoft. If you fancy a bulk purchase, maybe you’re playing as a team and want to club together, or you just through pyro as fast as Swampy then get in touch with them. They looked after us well and after blowing almost all of this in one game day I’m sure we’ll be back for more – and they didn’t even have to bribe us for the mention!

Things that make you go boom!…