little update

anyway, things have kinda fallen by the wayside for me.  I hadn't had internet for awhile, nor been able to get out and play.

I'm settling down not though and have quit a few things to write about.  I haven't been really active with airsoft lately,  i moved a little further out of town and all the groups are on the opposite side of kc from me.  the long car ride and gas prices sometimes set playing just a little out of reach.

truspec 24/7 pants.

I haven't done any clothing yet so here goes.


truspec details page here.
I've had a couple of pairs of truspec 24/7 tan pants for awhile, the first pair i bought in cotton and have had them for over a year.  the second time around i gave the rip stop poly cotton blend a try.  i think i ordered them in October when the first pair gave out.

I'll admit, I was pretty nervous to purchase these.  Being a big guy I've been stung in the past.  We all know that frequently pants don't run true to your waist measurement.  lately i've gained a bit from the switch to 10 hour days at work, and i wear somewhere between a 44-46 in my normal carhart jeans, last time i measured i actually have a 52 inch waist.  some pants follow this sizing, some don't.

I sent off an email to truspec's customer service to ask about the sizing,  the lady I spoke too was incredibly helpful but had never even heard of that phenomenon.  I live in rural KS, so obviously she wasn't able to find a local brick and mortor store i can try some on at.

so anyway, after some long consideration, i bit the bullet and ordered a pair of size 44 short.  For comparison, i usually wear size 44*28 carhart carpenter jeans.

I was pretty surprised when they got here.  they arrived packed in plastic, neatly folded and pressed.  the fit was in a word, amazing.  The waist has some elastic in it,  not cased elastic like in sweatpants,  but more of a sliding elasticised panel.  the quality and workman ship both seemed on par with a decent pair of jeans.

Let me talk about pocket's here for a bit.  the Pockets are great.  your large side pockets have some velcro in the bellows, so they naturally lay flat and against your leg unless you fill them with stuff.  they'll hold a couple 30rnd magazines and even have small pockets inside of them to keep them in place.

I found the smaller cargo pocket to be a great fit for my blackberry.  the rear knife pockets where a perfect fit for my torch and multitool.  my multitool did star wearing some holes in the pocket, but it was pretty shortly after that the fabric in the knee gave out.  so, general life span issue i'd call it.

I've got some issues with one of my knees, so i do where knee pads in mine.  they're not super noticeable   if your looking for them, you can see them, if not they really aren't.  i'll confess i haven't tried it when they were new and sharply pressed.  the side pockets pockets are great, they're deep and i didn't have any problems with things falling out.

they look great, professional.  my normal day to day job i wear decent jeans and a polo shirt, occasionally khaki pants.  I got a lot of comments from co-workers and even my boss when i first got them as to how nice they looked.

generally they wore well, didn't have any issues with them staining, even playing in the grass and mud with them.  I was pretty pleased overall and would recommend.

durability.  My cotton pair finally gave out about knee level along the thigh.  it started the day as a small snag and just ran from there along the end of the cargo pocket.  I got a little over a year out of them.  Keep in mind I tend to pull an Anderson Cooper and wear my jeans daily usually washing them every week or so.  so, for me, that's a year of daily where.  that compares pretty favorably to my carhart jeans, which have gotten to be a traditional Christmas present.  they usually start looking ratty after a year.

for some quick notes on fabric.  I'd recommend the cotton over the ripstop.  the ripstop should hold up better, and may be a better choice if you spend a lot of time in the field, but i found they were just never as comfortable.  I wore the cotton ones out,  they ripstop ones i rarely wear.  the fabric is stiff,  and sounds a little to plasticy when you walk.  it doesn't breath as well, it doesn't have the give the cotton does.  So, go cotton and move on when they start to show some wear and tear on them.

the negative.  man, when they rip, they rip.  They held up admirably to everything i did in them, but when it was their time to go, they went.  I was hoping to get a few more uses as "work pants," you know, changing the oil and what not,  but the washing machine really turned a small hole into a big one quickly.  my only other complaint would be the belt loops.

I tend to clip my keys on my belt-loop with a carabiner at work and then tuck them in my pocket so they don't jingle.  these pants have wide belt-loops and that just didn't work that well.  I'd like to see a D ring added.  that would be awesome.

anyway, if you have some sewing skills, they're available in up to a size 54 unhemmed.  hemmed lengths only go up to 44.

shop around, i got my first pair from i believe a place called code 3 tactical.  the big guy size was backordered but it was a good price.  the second pair i got from a shop through amazon.  It seems like you can usually pick them up for the lower end of the $30 range.

I'm giving these the fatman seal of approval.  The biggest plus for we was just how damn well these things fit and how comfortable they are to wear.

sorry about lack of pictures.  I moved a few months ago, and there's still alot of stuff that's AWOL.  the cable for my camera being one of them.  I'll try to add some as soon as I can find that.

Lancer Tactical mk 18 cqbr

Right off the bat I'm going to come out an apologize for the lack of pics with this review.  I recently purchased one of the low priced lancer tactical cqbr's for a buddy as a birthday present.  This will be his first AEG, so Welcome to airsoft Sam.

Anyway, before I handed it off I went through the internals.  I'm really pretty impressed with these for the price.  externally there's nothing special.  It's solid plastic, buffer tube, outer barrel, all of it.  I was surprised thought that it does have a full length gas tube.  I lot of sportline models don't.  This is a nice bonus because the bull length tube helps to stabilize the delta ring.  With a rail and a vertical grip you have a lot of leverage on the delta ring to loosen it up.

The only piece externally that was disappointing is the rear sight and the vertical grip.  With the rails on it, you won't have any trouble mounting aftermarket grips and optics though.

internally this AEG is pretty much on par with any other sportline out there.  I'd say it's just as good as any classic army sportline or stock JG.  The spring guide is a ball bearing one, but mostly plastic.  the bearings seemed a bit iffy, but it'll take any standard 7mm bearing.  The mechbox itself is WAY ahead of a classic army sportline costing twice as much.  Some shimming and AOE adjustment and it seems pretty good to go. The only other issue I had is the motor.  Lancer Tactical uses the same motors as some of the JG guns.  unlike most airsoft guns though the pinion has a set screw on it.  this one was missing the little set screw so nothing was holding the pinion on.  quick trip to the hardware store will solve that for about 75 cents.  I just replaced the motor with one out of my parts box.

anyway, the really amazing thing about this is the weight.  These things are super light weight.  I mean, this gun probably weighs in at half of what my custom m4 does in cqbr mode.

1 additional minor grip.  the mag release is plastic and seemed a bit less than solid with some mags.  I just replaced it with another mag release out of my parts box and that really helped it out a lot.

bottom line, even with over $1k invested in a custom m4, i'm still considering one of these.  the full plastic will take krylon camo paint well and with the reduced weight i think one of these would make and awesome backup and lower fps cqb gun.

I recently purchased my first new AEG in several years.  I’ve been wanting a lmg for awhile, and also wanted something new and better for my mujihadeen loadout so I went with the Cyma rpk.

I have to say, I’ve been really pleased with this one.  Mine chronoed in at 375 at my local field, so great usuable velocity.  Most reviews I’ve read have clocked it closer to 420.

Anyway, I’ve played a few games with it, so here’s the break down.

The battery is a huge disappointment.  The battery compartment is short and oddly shaped so, pretty much only a custom battery is going to fit in there.  It comes with a 1200 pack.  I rebuilt a small type 1600 mah pack, but still wasn’t very happy with that.  It should get you through the included mag,  but I picked up a large drum to go with mine and was planning to use it.

I drilled a small hole in my stock, and have been using a 7.4v 30c 5000mah hardcell lipo by ecopower.  It’s pretty much the house brand for Amain hobbies.  They’re cheap and come set up with deans plugs.  I like the hardcell packs for airsoft because they hard case gives the pack some protection from hits, bumping into things, etc.  The ecopower batteries are horrible.  One pretty much failed on me right away.  I've been running this in a external battery pouch and have been really happy with that setup.  In the future I'm planning to switch to Venom Racing's new battery with built in monitor.

Rof has been decent, nothing to write home about, nut nothing to sneeze at either.  It’s a pretty good usable rof for an lmg.  Just moderate.

Range and accuracy is really where this gun shines.  It has a 500mm barrel in it, and honestly should be able to easily accommodate a longer 650mm barrel.  Using the stock barrel and hopup the lmg can practically serve as a dmr.  I think with some upgrades including a scope, a long tight barrel and good hopup, you could easily build a solid dmr out of this.

Externals are phenomenal.  I really wish more ak’s were built like this.  The rpk really isn’t any more difficult to strip than most ARs so that’s a great plus for this one.  Remove a couple of screws and a large pin and you have the front end off the gun with the barrel and hopup.  Few more screws and you have the mechbox out.  Easy as pie.

The stock does wobble a bit out of the box.  Other reviews have indicated this as well.  It’s really an easy fix though.  Just remove the stock and pad the metal post it screws to with some electrical tape.  Tap the stock back onto the body, screw it on tight and wobble gone.

I’ve already stripped mine completely to have a look at the internals.  Shimming seemed ok.  Not great but not horrible.  Pretty much the same for the AOE.  I picked up a new cylinder set for mine and immediately ran into some issues.  Turns out the RPK uses a version 2 cylinder head, not a version 3.  The only other issue I’ve ran into with mine is the liberal use of red loctite on the barrel and hop-up.  I’m planning to either replace or mod the stock hopup.  In a standard ak, the adjustment slider has the internal upper to support it.  In the rpk, there’s nothing there, so the slider wobbles and shifts pretty badly.

All in all, this is a great gun for the money.  Externals are amazing.  Internals, are on par of a cyma.  It’s doesn’t look like anything is going to fail anytime soon, (I have about 10k bbs through mine so far) but they’re not the greatest either.  I really look forward to the potential of this aeg as a project gun.

I will say, coupled with the electric drum, this gun has become feared locally,  it’s long range and ability to sustain fire make this aeg quite formidable.

Fenix PD30

This Review is dedicated to the small and handy Fenix PD30 torch.  I purchased this from a gun show in April for $70 exactly with a free assessory kit.  The package included the flashlight itself, spare o-rings, a replacement cover for the tail-cap button, a belt pouch, and a wrist strap.  Since it's purchase this has been part of my every day carry.  I'm going to give an overview of the controls, followed by descriptions of each mode of operation, and finish up with my brief review and humble opinions.

I'd like to begin with an the operation of the flashlight.  The included instructions are sadly a bit murky and it took some experimentation to unlock all the secrets.  Essentially you have two main modes of operation, standard and "turbo."  To enter turbo mode you simply make sure that the lens end of the torch is screwed all the way on.  to enter standard mode you lossen it by a quarter turn.  Each of these modes has 2 or more sub modes.  To cycle the sub modes you first click the button to turn the light on,  then you depress and release the button,  but you don't depress the button so far that it clicks.  For normal mode you have 4 submodes: low, medium, high, and SOS flasher.  Turbo mode includes turbo and turbo strobe.  Your final control option is giving the tail cap a quarter turn to loosen it.  This turns the torch off and effectivly locks out the button.

The first 3 normal modes will make up the bulk of your day to day use.  Low power is pretty dim, 9 lumens, but it will maximize your run time.  I find low power makes a great task light as well as a good general purpose light once I've addapted to operating in the dark.  Medium puts out 70 lumens,  this is great for navigating the house in the dark, heading down to the basement, etc.  Medium is about the output of a low end pocket flashlight like you'd find at wal-mart.  High output is 117 Lumens.  High is my go to setting for looking for small parts I dropped.  It's about the same output as the higher end LED lights you'll find at wal-mart.  good and bright, unfortunatly, your run time drops to 4 hours.  This is considerably lower that the peak of a 65 hour runtime you get on low power.  The final standard mode is the SOS flasher.  Activating this mode simply sets the torch to flash and SOS signal in high output setting.  Heaven forbid you ever actually have to use this, but honestly,  after the tornado struck nearby Joplin I realized, this probably isn't a bad setting to have.  A steady pulse of SOS could make the difference in being able to attrack the help of a rescue crew and dying under a pile of rubble.  Fenix makes no claim as to the run-time of this mode, and honestly, I've never tested it.

Activating Turbo mode is simply put, like opening the Ark of the Covenant.  Turbo puts out an impressive 220 Lumens.  If that's not enough for you there is the option of purchasing the PD31 which has an awesome 300 lumen output but otherwise is identical to the pd30.  Turbo mode is actually what convinced me to make this purchase.  I'll admit, I picked one of the display models up shined it into my palm and clicked it on.  After looking at a large green and red spot that followed me around for the next few minutes I pulled out some cash and made my purchase.  There are two main drawbacks to the use of turbo mode.  First your runtime is crummy.  Turbo mode will hold you out for about an hour and a half.  Second, Turbo mode heats the flashlight up considerable.  The manual suggests that Turbo mode be used only in limited duration and frankly I have to agree.  Turbo mode is your self-defense mode.  It works on animals and people.  All you see with this shining in your direction is a massive glare and colorful spots.  If your really in trouble and pairing it with your conceal carry, you have strobe mode.  Great setting for CQB.  In this mode the light strobes rapidly at it's full 220 Lumen output.  If you've ever seen the move "Kick Ass" you'll have a pretty good idea of what this mode does.

The Fenix line is made in China.  I wouldn't let that put you off too much though, this isn't a cheap knockoff of a better light.  In the time I've been carrying this torch it has seen daily use.  I use it when I'm working on the car or cleaning gear.  At the laundry mat I use a quick flash on low power to check that I haven't missed any socks in the machine.  It's a small size and convient to hold.  It rides well clipped in my jeans pocket and doesn't stick up anymore than a ballpoint pen does.  The belt pouch includes velcro on the belt loop allowing it to easily be removed from a belt or attached to a MOLLE vest.  The tail cap uses a U shaped design that mostly protects the switch from accidently being pushed but is still comfortable for your thumb.  I've had some problems with the light activating when carried in my pocket.  When placed in my pants pocket and driving my car, the tailcap is perfectly positioned to be activated by the buckle on the seat belt as I lift my foot from the gas to press the brake and viceversa.  This is a small complaint and only happens with certain jeans and not all vehicles I drive.  True a better protected tail cap would prevent this but a quick twist locks the butten out and prevents this just as well.

The Lock out mode is a great feature.  I've been on night ops with individuals with weapon mounted Surefires or cheap UTG weapon lights.  It never fails,  someone will stumble and hit the pressure pad or tail cap and send that beam into the sky looking like the Eye of Sauron searching for the one ring.  It's not uncommon for people to put batteries in backward, leave them out, or even place a small piece of paper in their light to prevent this.  The quick twist of the tail cap is so much easier.  What more is you could set it up so that the light would turn on as soon as you've twisted the tail cap.

The run time has been great.  The orignal batteries are still holding up just fine for me after months of daily use.  With your options of various run modes you can really maximise your battery life.  I was worried that this light would devour pairs of rather expensive CR123A batteries but honestly it's been great.  The flashlight will give you a heads up as it get's low.  The beam will start to waiver before it dies.  I'm not sure how long you have, but it's a good heads up to change your cells.

I don't have much experience with Surefires or other high end tac-lights out there.  I will admit I own a UTG weapon light as well as other cheaper lights.  As such I'm aiming this article at other new mil-simmers or anyone else entering the tac-light market.  I would recommend this torch in a heart beat.  It's going price seems to be about $65.  It's held up well and served me well.

As a final note, Viking tactical makes an offest mount for about $70 that will fit the little pd30 and PD31.  I'm planning to purchase one of these along with a couple of PD31's.  I plan to use the mount and one of the torches for airsoft.  The second I plan to store in the box with my home defense items.

UPDATE:  well my feniz bit the dust last spring.  I was comming home from a camping trip and somewhere in the 14hour car ride it clicked on in my pocket.  by the time I got home it was dead.  I replaced the batteries to no avail.  I'm guessing the full on turbo mode until the battery went dead probably burned something out in the circuitry.  I'm still looking for a replacement if anyone has anything they would like to suggest.

More Updates.

Well I'm officially no longer working 7 days a week at my primary job.  I'll have fridays off so I'm going to stick to a Friday update schedule.  here's a little preview of upcomming articles.

Comm Gear:  I'll be reviewing an MBITR replica along with an Element H250 handset for it.

Internals: I finally have my M4 working properly and will be reviewing the Airsoft Systems ASCU version 2 controller.  It's a cool little microswitch based mosfet.

External:  I've recently mounted a G&P redi-mag on my M4 I'm trying out.  Review to come.

Check back Friday.

Night Vision Mod

This is a pretty simple modification.  I found that the rail grabber on the Classic Army Peq-2 box is a perfect fit.  Three screws hold it on the Peq box.  then you simply cut off the little rail grabber legs on the eyeclops unit and use some 2 part epoxy putty to stick it to the bottom of it.  I used a raser saw and some green stuff from my Warhammer 40k toolbox.  Here's a couple of pics to help.