Ghilling out with Wookies, Volume I

On this part I will talk about my own experiences as sniper and tell you tactics I've been using past three years as I have played as an sniper. I have Maruzen APS-2 SV with power around 3 joules and WE M1911 GBB as back-up. During these three years I've made three ghillies and I'm working now with the fourth one. I always just figured out way to improve my ghillie suit so I sold former one and started another. In volume one I'm going to talk about tactics I've been using as an sniper and on following part(s) how to make an ghillie suit.

First of all you got to be patient, patient, patient and observant. Remember that your cutting edge is to make the first move and you got to make it right or you're FUBAR'd.

When you make the first move you got to be sure that you're going to hit him. If you miss, it's all gone. If you success you can enjoy that "where the fuck did that came from" -look on his friends' faces. That really is one funny moment. Then again you got to be patient enough to wait when you got realistic chances to shoot another guy. There might not be chance to shoot another enemy if they're smart enough to stay behind cover, but I can tell in 95% of the cases they're not... And don't you dare to move, just keep absolutely still. An eye is incredibly good at detecting movement. If you move you will be spotted. I can tell you. It's comical when there is no way you could've seen the sniper until he just happened to move a bit. When he's alone and spotted, he's an very easy target for couple of skilled player with AEGs.

Though sometimes when you are "where you shouldn't be", like way behind enemy lines etc. Enemies sometimes are so surprised to get shot that they first just can't understand what is going on and just stand still and look around. Then you got to take the advantage of the situation and shoot guy after another until they realize that they're getting shot at. That does sound stupid but it happens all the time. Once in a scenario me and my friend flanked behind enemy command bunker to the edge of the game zone and I found a good sniping position and I shot three guys (including enemy commander) before they realized that there is a sniper shooting at them. Lucky me, the fourth guy just happened to show up in the wrong place at the wrong moment so I got him too. After him there was only one guy left and he was easy to shoot when he was all by himself.

Well back to the subject; when you have made the first move and the unlucky one is walking to the off game and the others have jumped behind cover you got to be observant and usually is good to count down enemies before you make the first move. Therefore after they've jumped behind cover it's easier for you to notice if some of 'em are trying to flank you. If you see that they are trying to flank you, you got the keep the distance to the enemies 'cause if they get too close it's easy for them to "run and gun" over you. I've tried it myself and it totally works. You see it's pretty hard to hit moving targets with bolt-action rifle when you're dodging bb's at the same time. In that case best thing for you is to run away and set up a new ambush. Again, most of the guys are stupid enought to follow you.

When your enemies totally outnumber you and they are too close that you could rapidly strike and then fall back you simple got to stay cool. Most of the airsoft snipers just shoot one enemy and then got shot by rest of 'em. I suggest you to stay in your cover (assuming that you got one, if you don't your'e pretty fucked up...) specially if you're using ghillie. You should just trust your suit and hope that it will hide you well enough. First time I used ghillie I just tried to run away like a coward and got shot. I tell you, it sucks. After that I've tried to stay where I am and hope that enemies won't spot me and it's been working much better. I tell you that when dozens of enemies flow over you, it's just a great feeling. Feel the adrenaline, hear you heartbeat, simply awesome. And in case there are around five enemies only, it's much smarter to let them walk over you and then strike. Shooting them to their backs very much increases your chances to shoot all of 'em. And they might get pin down to a crossfire if friendlies are around. Or you could knife them if you got a chance. I guess then you even wouldn't mind getting shot 'cause even knifing one enemy is so smooth for you and humiliating to him. And even though they spot you they usually give you some respect "How hard was it spot you" ...and so on. It's nice and the best respect is gain from your enemies, right? If you like to you could ask them how why did they spot you so you can maybe learn something and do it better next time.

To be continued... =)

PMAGs

I ordered few Magpul OD PMAGs for my G&P M4 Defender. Mags itself look cool and are made of polymer so they are very durable and light. The problem is without some tuning with electrical tape the mags won't feed at all. After all MAG, G&P and Marui's mags fed without any problems and go smoothly in and out, unlike these. Even before I made any tape tuning PMAG's were bit clammy when I tried to put them in and when I pressed mag release mags did not drop like they should.

It's tragicomic 'cause some shops actually sell G&P M4 Defender with Magpul's mags. Fuck the logic. There is nothing wrong with the actual mags, they just won't fit my gun. But I got to say that those mags look so awesome on modern M4s, like mine! So if you're planning to buy PMAGs be warned that they may not feed on your gun without some DIY tuning.

Here's a pic about the electrical tape tuning I made. It definitely wasn't hard to do this, but the problem is that changing mags after this is bit clammy.

Arctic Warfare

After a long break from Airsoft, I rolled myself to the PKS-Airsoft's gamezone in Korpilampi... Nothing special about the games itself, they were great (...though they ended too soon...) if we don't count in how much snow there was. It's like one step and you drown into it... But hey, it's Finland and here is a LOT of snow!

But let's go to business ->

I want to speak littlebit about Airsoft in winter, "Arctic Warfare", like my friend says. First thing in winterplaying is clothing, really... just put more clothes on, when you get warm, it's much easier to remove clothes than add them, particularly if you weren't smart enough to bring some extra clothes to the field. Mainly you got to focus on your legs, because there is nothing more annoying than freezing toes. Afterwards on the field, there is nearly nothing you can do to warm 'em up. Combat boots with wool socks, a warm hat and gloves are going to make your gameday better. Hot drink or food like hot chocolate or soap is also important. Warm clothing really helps you when it's -10 degrees Celsius.

And why I'm talking about this kind of obvious stuff? Because there really are people who does not take warm clothing seriously, believe me, it saves your day in winter ...But remember you also get warm while moving, and moving in Airsoft is swift, and swift moving mixed with large amount of snow... that's gonna make you really warm.

Second thing to remember is that snowcamo is much different to the normal camouflage. First of all forget snow ghillies, ghillie does not work in snow the way it works normally. Normal white snow camosuit with bit of OD/black spot is a perfect choice. I myself prefer BW-snowcamosuit: it's quite cheap and it definitely works! Plus it look awesumely cool :)

Third thing in winterplaying is about your weapon, get a good battery, seriously, I mean it... Mini-type NIMH batteries are just gonna make your head explode in winter when they die only after couple of hours. Large type batteries with more than 3000 mAh and 9.6v are good-to-go, but the best choice in is LiPo-battery, -10 degrees of Celsius, and they're rolling the gun asking: "wtf is winter?"

Also check out your inner barrel that there is not snow in there, because that's gonna make you see red when bb's fly like drunk flies. It's normal that your accuracy is littebit fucked up in winter, but the reason in that is cold air, which affects on rubber parts of your gun like Hop-up and piston head's o-ring, and there ain't much we can do about it. It's also normal that your fps suffers a little drop in cold.

Be careful not to stick your gun's barrel into snow, use proper battery and wear warm clothes and you can enjoy Arctic Warfare! And of course, have fun! :D

...Because Airsoft is just fun fumbeling after all ;)