iggoboom! (or zipp or hiss)

I decided to do something different for this blog, its something that I have enjoyed for a while but its not an outdoor activity in any sense of the word with the exception that it takes place outdoors and that activity is airsoft, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, think of paintballing but with more realistic looking guns, gun?! but you`re from the UK, a country well known for its strict gun controls, yes that`s true, but these guns are not real, they use motors or gas propulsion to fire little plastic ball at less than lethal velocity, usually less that 350 feet per second

although they can, and often do leave some significant bruises.

 I own a variety of replicas both hand guns and rifles, most people who get in to the hobby of airsoft end up getting a replica of the M4 automatic rifle and because of this all I ever see at skirmish sites is M4`s, I was determined that my first gun wasn`t going to be an M4, my first rifle (or AEG, automatic electric gun) was a replica of the Beretta ARX 160 

my collection did inevitably grow and now includes 

a Steyr AUG A2 

a Benelli M3 shotgun, this gun actually fires three BB`s every time the trigger is pulled rather than one and like the real thing has a "slam fire" function meaning I can keep the trigger held down and move the grip backwards and forwards and every time I move the grip forward the gun fires, this does decrease the range and accuracy but...shotgun, 

M14, I am slowly modifying this from stock configuration to make this as accurate as possible as I will eventually be making this my DMR (designated marksmans rifle), thats not to say this isn`t an already accurate rifle I just want more accuracy over the distance it can fire.

my handguns, on the top left is my VP70, this gun is green gas powered with the gas being held in the magazine, this gun can be added to by placing a shoulder stock on it and unlocking a three round burst just like the real thing,

 I don`t have the shoulder stock but I am looking for one, if anyone knows where I can get one, let me know, top right is a spring powered Beretta 92, being spring powered means I have to cock it every time I pull the trigger, very low powered I dont think it even reaches triple figures, why do I use it? nothing more satisfying than a spring pistol kill (except a rubber knife kill), bottom left is my Colt Python, CO2 powered....and tends to terrify people who see it, yes it only has six shots.....but with no slide to push back all the CO2 pushes the BB out the barrel making this one of the most powerful guns I own, bottom right is my Uzi CO2 sub-machine gun, stupidly high rate of fire, stupidly powerful, too powerful really, expensive to run it uses one CO2 per magazine emptied, but sooooooooo much fun to fire.

           Early Sunday morning I left to make the 1 hour journey to the skirmish site, when I arrived there were only the marshalls and a couple of other people there, this would soon change, whilst I waited for the site to set up and get going I prepared my guns, fitting batteries, loading gas, changing capsules and loading magazines with BB`s, before any gun is allowed out on the field it has to have its power measured, known as chronoing, this is to insure that the guns aren`t too powerful and end up hurting people too badly, 

on a side note here, there won`t be any pictures or videos from the day even though I did take my camera as there were under 18`s on site and I don`t want to risk any issues.

          The first game played was a simple conquer the hill, this is a really quick game designed to warm people up for the rest of the day, people on the defending team have one life, people on the attacking team have unlimited lives but have to go back to a respawn point before they can continue, inevitably it means that the attacking team does win but its more about warming up and how quickly the attacking team can take the hill, for those wondering, the team I was on won in just under 3 and half minutes, for this game I used the ARX160 

          The second game consisted of another attack and defend game but with 4 individual positions to take around the campsite, I was on the defense side for the first half and decided to use my M14 in its DMR capacity,

 at the first point I didn`t score any hits mainly because I`d chosen a place and direction from which the other team didn`t come from and by the time I`d turned round it was too late and I was moving on to the second site, at this site I had a better time and managed to hold the other team back, I would like to think it was my effective camouflage that prevented the other team from seeing me until they were practically on top of me, the third site unfortunately the red mist descended, the fundamental rule with airsoft is call your hit, if you`ve been hit or think you`ve been hit call yourself out, more respect is given to a player who incorrectly calls themselves out than one who refuses to take their hit, in this case the other team had started to surround us when I saw one of they`re players moving towards me, I fired and missed, I readjusted my aim and fired, I saw the hit but no hand went up, I became angry and switched to automatic and fired a three round burst, the first BB hit the players gun which didn`t count, the second hit his hand, which does count and hurts.....alot and the third hit the players chest, I was about to fire another three round burst when I was finally hit myself, as I was walking towards the final defense point I could hear the other players on my team chatting about non hit takers, I relayed my story and as we spoke it started becoming clear that it was the same individuals that we were firing at, once we reached our final objective we found and reported the game play to a marshall, it didn`t however stop the same people from not taking their hits during the last section of the game.

          we swapped over after this so I was on the attacking team this time, the M14 would have been too cumbersome for the attacking role so I swapped out to the AUG,

 when I first bought this rifle I was a little disappointed as the BB`s didn`t really go that far however a change of battery and another modification (changing the hop up rubber) has meant that this has become not only my fastest firing gun but for the distance it fires one of the more accurate I own (still not as accurate as the M14 though) with the aggressive team I was on and the amount of firepower we could put down, we cleaned through the targets 10 minutes quicker than the other team.

          the next fight was in a compound where we could only use pistols and semi auto firing weapons only, my only option was a pistol as I hadn`t chrono the revolver or shotgun so I couldn`t use them. 

          I took up position in a corner and waited, I didn`t realise it at the time but I actually had one of the best positions and could not only relay information about the enemy team but could hold the position by myself with just the pistol, or I could until I ran out of ammo.

I didn`t stay the full day as I did have other commitments but to get back into a hobby I enjoy was well worth the time and effort.

number of people who joined me : 0

                

adventure list

Having a list of things I want to achieve is great but at the same time hurts as my negativity bias means that no matter how great the adventure is in my mind something always crops up to bring me back down to the suffering and lack mentality, this is so frustrating as you can imagine so I have decided to write out a list of some of the adventures that I want to go on, not only so I can cross them off as I do them but also having the written down will make them happen without the negativity bias coming onto play, I will probably add to this list as I go on as something like this is never completed.

Trip to Iceland northern lights
Drive to the Arctic circle
Do the Mongolian rally
Paddle the Canal Du Midi
Paddle the Kennet and Avon canal
Take the train from Aberdeen to Penzance, this is the longest single train journey in the UK
Race huskeys
Climb in loads of different places
Take a trip around Europe
Oktoberfest
ride Harley Davidson`s along route 66

most people would say "well its a nice list but where would you get the money?" and thats the problem, as soon as people say that, the lack thinking starts, lack of money , for me this is a secondary concern, not because I have lots of money, I don`t, for me the thought of travelling on my own terrifies me,

"hang on, you`re thinking, didn`t you go to Australia twice?"

yes I did, once was on my own and I was far too excited about the prospect of a new life to care, plus this was before my depression hit hard and the second time my friends sister was on the same flight so I was technically travelling with someone.

So apart from travelling on my own terrifying me and money being an "issue" what else stops me from completing this list?

depression, pure and simple, yes I am fighting and yes there are times I win but there are still times when the depression wins and the thing is, I have to be OK with that, even as I sit here writing this, the sun is shining outside, I want to go out but my mind is going "you can`t, you have Gran to look after and driving instructor training later today, so stay inside and don`t go anywhere"

And this is part of the problem most people don`t understand about depression, you don`t control your thought, they control you.