For a while I didn’t think any more about it, until a new variety of Red Gas became available on their site, it was still quite expensive to ship over so I decided I would wait and add it to a bigger order. In the meantime, Irish retailer AirsoftEire got the ET2200 gas in stock. I noticed this last Wednesday, prompted by a post on boards.ie’s Airsoft forum and decided to order a can. Many thanks to the lads from AirsoftEire for their great service, ordered late Wednesday night, shipped Thursday and arrived on my doorstep Friday morning, very well packaged too.

I set about testing the gas to see what kind of power it would put out, I’ve only tested it in one pistol so far (KSC Glock 18), so the results are by no means conclusive, however I will update later with results using a couple of different pistols.

To set a base line, the following are the results from normal green gas using 0.20g Excel BBs:

Testing with the ET2200 Red Gas gave the following results:

As can be seen, there is no significant difference in the power output when using the two gases.

Also noteworthy, in the “Technical References” information printed on the back of the canister, the main ingredient is listed as Propane, there is also no mention of HFC22 (which is what Red gas supposedly is).

Verdict: ET2200 appears to be nothing more than normal green gas, which is in turn, primarily propane. I’ll conduct some further testing in a few different pistols later today, however I am not expecting any differences between this and ordinary green gas.

Pretty soon after, I got my hands on a Scott Paintball Mask, this was a great mask, nice big mouth guard which was not too close so as to restrict your breathing and also extended back to protect your ears. Eye protection was provided by the in-built goggles which have thermal lenses which have never fogged on me and the mask has a nice peak to provide a little bit of protection from the sunlight. It’s a truly great mask however it has one major flaw, it’s big and black, many times people were able to spot me hiding in a bush merely by the mask, I needed something smaller.

While on holiday during the summer, my prescription sunglasses broke, so I bought a pair of SH+ RG4200 sport glasses with the intention of using them for airsofting when I got home, they came in a nice case with a couple of pairs of spare lenses (Clear, Amber and Grey) and a head strap, the head strap unfortunately broke during my first skirmish but I continued to use the glasses as they stayed in place fairly well without it.

Recently though I wanted to get a pair of glasses with a foam backing due to a certain site owner making me paranoid about the tiniest little gap around my glasses and the possibility of that gap enlarging in awkward positions, a very slim possibility of being in the wrong place at the wrong time but I’d rather buy a new pair of glasses than get hit in the eye.

So just last week, user JonAnderton on the boards.ie Airsoft forum posted a pair of brand new, never used Guarder C4 glasses for sale, I snapped them up straight away for €25, they can also be bought from ehobbyasia.com for the same price. I got them a day or two later and my first impression was good. The glasses come in a soft neoprene type carry case which contains the following: Frames, Blue, Grey, Amber and Clear lenses (all anti-fog), soft drawstring bag, foam frame backing and headstrap (a cleaning cloth would have been a very nice touch, but can’t complain).

The glasses on their own sit quite comfortably on your face with or without the foam backing, which simply pops in and out. The lenses similarly are very easy to change, just pull the frames slightly away and pop the lense out. Without the foam backing, there is only a small gap around the frames, with the foam backing, even less, however for absolute security, it’s best to attach the head strap.

To attach the head strap, the arms of the glasses unclip via a small button on the side of the frame and the head strap clips in, this provides a very secure fixing for the headstrap and turns the glasses into goggles. With the headstrap in place, you can adjust it by a buckle on the back which is easily reached while wearing them if you find they are a little too tight or loose during a skirmish.

I wore these at a skirmish all day yesterday for the first time, and they did not fog once on a very rainy day. They are comfortable enough to wear for long periods of time with the head strap and foam backing in place, so much so, that I even found myself leaving the glasses on while in the safe zone between games, it just never occured to me to take them off.

Just as an extra re-assurance to myself, I tested these glasses by firing at them at close range, a single shot at point blank range left a bit of a mark on the lense with some possible slight deformation lines around the point of impact.

Close-up of the impact point.

A burst at 15ft left a good few marks across the lens, not as bad as the single shot, but still enough to leave a bit of residue on the lense and a slight mark, however the mark cannot be seen while wearing the glasses.

Burst shot close-up.

The short burst also popped one of the lenses out of the frames, so it is very important to ensure the lenses are secured properly when changing them out.

All in all, these are very good glasses/goggles, the only thing I could fault them on is the fact that you they do not have a prescription lense insert, however there are other options available if you require these and I am comfortable playing without prescription lenses.

Me sitting on the pier in Trieste, Italy

Didn’t get a chance to play any airsoft while I was away unfortunately, the closest I came to it was a store in Marseille which sold airsoft guns, it wasn’t exclusively an airsoft store as it also sold computer games and model cars and such, but they had some semi-decent stuff inside, albeit overpriced. Also found out that the owner of the hostel I stayed at in Bled (Slovenia, beautiful place by the way, definitely recommended) ran an airsoft site, but we were there midweek so there wasn’t really enough people to play against. Ah well…

Anyway, on with the show….

This will be a brief review of the Dboys M4, to be honest, there are plenty of reviews out there already on this very popular AEG and there’s not really much I can add to that….

The team weapon for Na Taibhse (The ghosts in Irish) is the M4, so I decided it was about time I picked one up. The m4 is quite a popular weapon in the airsoft world and you can barely turn your head at a skirmish without seeing one. Likewise, the DBoys (or Boyi as they are sometimes known) replica of the M4 is quite popular and this is for good reason.

I opted for the M4A1 with the metal body from rsov.com. As always, their service was excellent. On initial testing of the M4 out of the box, I wasn’t particularly impressed, some misfeeds and quite poor accuracy and range. As with most clone AEGs, the barrel was absolutely filthy at first, so I spent quite a bit of time cleaning the barrel, then finetuning the hopup and I also sprayed some silicone oil into the mags (where would we be without silicone oil eh?).

After cleaning the barrel, the accuracy and range improved greatly, the magazines were also feeding alot better now too. I didn’t bother with the Hi-cap magazine that came with the gun, instead opting for the 90 round mid-caps. After using the P90 for so long where one single wind will empty 90% of the magazine, I’ve gotten tired of having to wind in the middle of a firefight.

The rate of fire was good, although maybe a tiny bit slow in comparison to some other AEGs with the stock 8.4v battery, I decided to test it out with a 9.4v 1400Mah Intellect battery I had spare and found it to be a bit better. I didn’t think a 9.6v would fit in the foregrip of the M4, but I found it would fit in, although it is a little tight at first, once you figure it out it’s quite easy to install.

More on the RoF in my next post, where I will compare the stock DBoys M4A1 running with the stock motor, a Tokyo Marui EG700 Motor and a Systema Turbo Motor

Since it didn’t cost too much, and I’m currently using a TM P90 as my main aeg, the mp5 has become my project gun. I think I must have stripped and rebuilt the gearbox at least 20-30 times now, and that’s no exaggeration. The first of my many upgrades on this gun was a Systema 6.04 tightbore barrel, one of the downsides of the Cyma is that the hopup unit is a little weird and non-standard, so a bit of dremel’ing was involved to make it fit, but this wasn’t too hard to do, taking about an hour or so to complete. All went well and I brought it to my next skirmish the following weekend at hrta, before the first games of the day, I was out in the firing range and had my first experience of “THAT horrible grinding noise”, yup I’d stripped a gear, I cursed the gun and ended up using a Galaxy mp5k for the day which was a rental gun, I also had my HFC m190 pistol at this stage, but not the P90.

Eager to get my mp5 back up and running, I ordered a Guarder Full Tune Kit from ehobbyasia. I had a few problems getting the FTK installed in the Cyma gearbox, it would often jam up after several shots or jam before even firing one shot. After several days of frustrated rebuilding, I eventually found the problem to be the Guarder upgraded piston, I swapped out the piston with the original Cyma one in the gearbox and had the mp5 up and running quite well for a while with the stock spring and piston and the rest of the gearbox upgraded. At this stage, I’d had my p90 a few weeks and the mp5 became a little less used, it was under-powered and nowhere near as fast as the p90.

About two weeks ago I decided it was time to give myself a reason to use the mp5 again. I went ahead and ordered a PDI 120 spring, which is good for 300-330fps and also a Systema Turbo motor. I’d read some information on the Systema Magnum and Turbo motors, they offer high speed and high torque in the one motor, ordinarily it’s a choice between one or the other. They are pricey motors at approx USD$80 without shipping, but I figured why not? While I was browsing, I decided I’d throw a 9.6v battery into the order for good luck, I was still using the 8.4v that came with it and needed a new battery anyway.

Last Friday I installed the new motor and spring with the rest of gearbox as it was, holy shit are those motors fast. With the stock motor and spring in my mp5, I was getting around 12/13 rounds per second, with the new motor and a 1 Joule spring it was pumping out an amazing 24 rounds per second, pretty damn fast I have to say.

After my initial excitement about the rate of fire, I started actually listening to the gearbox between shots, it didn’t sound good at all, I knew what the problem was at once, the stock piston just couldn’t handle the upgraded power and speed, I left the piston in and decided to go ahead and bring it to a skirmish at hrta the next day. After some initial showing off of the rate of fire (people have commented on the speed of my p90 at 17rps), I attempted to chrono the mp5, unfortunately the semi-auto has never really worked all that well since I got it and no longer works at all, so firing a single shot is a matter of being very quick on the trigger, it was impossible to get a proper reading. I also noticed after my showing off that it didn’t seem to be firing very well at all and the gearbox noise had gotten worse, I left it in my bag knowing I would have to rebuild it when I got home.

Got around to opening the gearbox tonight and it was not a pretty sight at all. Eleven (yes, that’s right 11) teeth are stripped off the piston, and the next one is not looking too good either.

The sector gear didn’t look too good either, a few of the teeth (around 11 I would guess ) had the gaps in between them filled in with a collection of the plastic from the piston and the grease in the gearbox.

I spent a few mins cleaning the gunk out from between the gear’s teeth and grabbed the upgraded piston that came with the full tune kit, I had decided I would dremel the piston if necessary to fit it in, the problem appeared to be caused by the rails not sitting correctly in the gearbox, I had a look and it seemed there was a bit of plastic which had been badly formed on one side of the piston rails, although it was barely visible to the naked eye, I could feel it if I put the piston into the rails inside the gearbox. A few rubs with a sharp screwdriver and the extra bit of plastic was gone, the piston now slid freely inside the gearbox.

So fast forward a half hour and I had the gearbox rebuilt, re-greased, the PDI 120 spring installed and the gearbox mounted back into the lower receiver with the motor installed. Now where the hell did I leave that bloody battery…

They say a picture paints a thousand words, so below is a video of it firing, at this stage I was just testing so just had the gearbox mounted in the lower receiver:

As you can see, it’s pretty fast, with the new piston in, it’s getting 20 rounds per second now, still not too bad at all, the reason it has slowed down is because now all the piston teeth are intact, it’s not releasing the piston early anymore, if I was to remove a tooth or two on the piston, the rate of fire would increase again, probably back up to around the rof it was with the original (damaged) piston in place.So there you have it,

Cyma mp5-j = Great clone/starter gun

Systema Turbo Motor = Bloody fast motor

Cyma mp5-j + Turbo motor = CQB Support Weapon

Now I just have to find a box-mag for an mp5.

Oh and incase anyone asks, yes the original mag can handle the higher rof just fine, no jams or misfeeds with it yet. Below is a video of it firing at a target net.

About a month ago, myself and some other’s on boards.ie’s Airsoft/Paintball Forum were discussing hand grenades for use in Airsoft, someone posted a link to airsofthandgrenades.com and I had a look at it, they make hand grenades for airsoft (Duh!) but they are slightly different to the usual gas type and significantly cheaper too. The basic principle is a chemical reaction between citric acid and bicarbonate, when these two chemicals mix (along with some water), they produce CO2. The chemicals are harmless (except maybe if you get citric acid in your eye, it might sting a little!) and the reaction is similar to mixing vinegar and bicarbonate soda (search youtube if your curious).

I read through the site, found out what information I could about them and watched the video’s, I decided to order some.

The grenades have an amount of citric acid powder in the bottom, which you mix with water. Then in the detonator section, you place some bicarbonate and put a small cap over it, when you press the plunger, these mix and the reaction begins, but I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here…

The AG-01 Grenades

Unfortunately explosive grenades can’t be purchased in the Republic of Ireland due to restrictions on fireworks and I liked the idea of these hand grenades compared to the expensive gas versions. For a pack of 6 grenades, it’s just €24, which is alot cheaper than the gas versions.

I placed an order on their website and was told I would receive a shipping quote the next day. I did not. It was a full seven days later that I received my shipping quote, I decided to forgive them for this and figured maybe they have never shipped to Ireland before and had to do some research on shipping costs. I paid the full amount straight away via paypal, shipping was €12 by the way, bringing the total to €36.

In the shipping quote, I was told I would receive a tracking number within 24 hours. I did not. After two days, I decided to email them and find out what was going on with the order, at this stage I wasn’t too bothered, but I didn’t even receive anything to say they had received my payment and so I thought maybe my payment had gone missing.

There was no reply to that email and another two days later, I emailed again asking what was the status of my order. Again, there was no reply.

The weekend passed and on Monday I decided I would atttempt to contact them once more before getting onto Paypal or my credit card company to cancel the payment. This time I decided to use the contact form on their website, I politely informed them I would like a tracking number in 24 hours or I will have to contact Paypal. The next day I finally received a reply, oh what humble apologies and excuses lie within?

Hello, this is the reference number: xxxxxxxxxxxx www.ups.es

Best regrast

I was not impressed, at the very least some form of excuse would have been nice. Thankfully I had the intelligence to work out that I should visit the ups.es website and input the given reference number to find out where my package was .It still hadn’t left for Ireland. A day or two later, the ups website updated and the order was scheduled for delivery on the 24th, woohoo, finally!

The 24th came…. and went, checked the tracking website that night and apparently

“The Package Was Missed At The UPS Facility”

Silly UPS, oh well, they’ll deliver it tomorrow…or maybe not, the next day it was:

“The Receiver Is Not Listed On The Building Directory.”

I’d like to know exactly what building directory they expect to see at a residential address? So this was Friday and I was pissed, mildly annoyed that I wouldnt have them for Saturday’s skirmish in HRTA. No big deal, can always use them next week. So Monday came along and I checked the tracking again around lunch time to see if my package would be delivered, apparently they managed to leave it at the UPS facility again, my poor package must be getting lonely, at this stage I was quite annoyed at UPS and decided I would go collect the bloody thing myself. Arranged to go and collect it at their depot (on the opposite side of the city) and did so this morning, Tuesday 29th, a full 22 days after I placed my order online, if the package was coming by ground from some obscurely named city in Russia, I might expect this kind of delivery period, but Madrid?

So granted the mix up with UPS when the package left Madrid was not the fault of airsofthandgrenades.com and I realise this, but even before it was shipped, their service up to that point was terrible, no replies to emails, promising things in 24 hours and then taking a week to do them. It’s just not a sign of a good retailer, but alas.. they may be redeemed yet if the product lives up to the hype on their website.

I’m sorry to say it does not, the downhill slope of this review just continues from here.

So I picked up the package on my way to work this morning, when I got into work I opened it up and had a look, 6 grenades body’s, 6 little bags containing the components for the detonator, 6 small bags of bicarbonate and 2 Power Boost tubes (more on these later). The box is nicely presented, made of recycled brown cardboard and has some various images of the AHG-01 on the outside. There are also some instructions in English and Spanish which explain how to put the whole thing together and some diagrams to go with it. I put one together and left it on my desk for the day, unfortunately I dont think exploding grenades go down so well in an office environment, although I was very tempted .

What mystical treasure lies within?

The grenades in their packaging.

Got home and tested them out, first you pour some water into the bottom of the grenade body and mix it with the citric acid, once you have the detonator assembly put together, pour in some bicarbonate and put the cap on, when it’s all put together, the grenade looks quite nice.

The assembled grenade.

So here we go, camera ready and recording, pull the pin out, give it a shake and throw it onto the patio outside. And hiss… splutter… gurgle… not quite the boom I expected. Turns out the detanoter wasn’t screwed tight enough and the CO2 was just escaping through the top. Their is an o-ring to seal it too, but obviously this wasn’t working.

Take 2: The detonators are re-usable so I cleaned it out and put some more bicarbonate in. Got a fresh grenade body and added some water. Here we go again, being sure to tighten the cap as tight as possible this time. Pull out the safety pin, press the detonator, shake, throw and………………..nothing. No boom, no hissing air escaping either. I waited a minute to see if the pressure would build and then maybe it might blow, it didn’t. I hesitantly approached the grenade and unscrewed the top, only to let out a gust of CO2. Whoops…

Take 2.5: At this stage I was getting worried I would run out of citric acid and decided to try using vinegar instead, this didn’t go so well either and I just ended up with more hissing and gurgling, only this time it smelled like vinegar too.

Take 3: Ok, this time it’ll work, this time it better work. Same procedure as above, shake it, throw it and…… nothing again! WTF?!?!? God Dammit, I walked away for a minute and wondered would it blow as I turned my back, no such luck. I walked over and picked it up, it was pretty solid with the pressure built up inside, but no boom, so I stepped back and threw it on the ground….. BOOM!!!!!! Finally!! Woohoo!

There’s actually quite a nice bang of these, especially for something that is just a very basic chemical reaction. The entire body of the grenade was blown to pieces and spread out over about a 10ft diameter, definitely not re-usable, add a few bb’s into the body and you could definately use these for room clearing.

But I still wasn’t happy, the video on the AHG website shows a AHG-01 being placed on the ground and it detonates seconds later, no throwing it hard against the ground, just wait and boom. I wanted to replicate this. I decided to try again.

Take 4: Guess what? It didn’t work again, the seal wasn’t tight enough, so I thought maybe the detonator had been damaged and decided to try yet again.

Take 5: Built a fresh detonator this time around, but yet again, I got plenty of white foam and hissing and gurgling, but no boom.

I decided I had wasted enough for today and put the grenades away. I now have 1 grenade body left with citric acid still in it, 4 body’s with no citric acid, 4 unassembled detonators, 1 broken detonator and 1 working detonator.

The one time they worked, I was actually quite surprised by the noise of the grenade going off and would have definately gotten a few kills had I put bb’s in and used them in a skirmish. The second time I tried it, when I released all the gas by mistake, it would have actually blown up had I thrown it on the ground, but like I said earlier, this does not replicate how they are shown in use, having to throw them against a hard surface may not work in the middle of a skirmish.

Unfortunately, I dont think the AHG-01 is going to revolutionize the airsoft grenade industry the way it’s creators envisioned. It’s a great idea in theory, and when it works it’s impressive, but the hit and miss nature of the product coupled with their rather bad customer service has left me rather dismayed. I really would have liked to see this product work since gas grenades are so expensive and explosives cannot be used in Ireland, but I think I’ll be putting my money into a gas grenade now instead.