Patrol Base Blog

Recently we have had several customers coming into our store here at Patrol Base due to having guns lock up or are having excessively squeaky sounding gearboxes.

Today we just fixed another and have identified it as being due to customers fitting “fake” Magpul pistol grips on the likes of M4s and M16s and other variants.

The main problem is that the base that is secured onto the gearbox motor entry with 2 or 4 screws is warping. This causes the motor to not sit into the gearbox flush resulting in several problems;

• Incorrectly aligned gear contact
• Overheating motor
• Grinding of the gears

To identify a fake there are several key areas as shown in the photographs below. Signs of a fake Magpul pistol grip include:

• Seams on the sides of the grip
• Small printed text on the side
• Incorrectly positioned stamp on the lower
• Different sized cut-outs on the base

The simple solution is to fit a genuine Magpul pistol grip or risk paying out for a new motor at least!

You can find our range of genuine Magpul by clicking here, or following the link below:
http://www.patrolbase.co.uk/products.asp/SubcatID/131/magpul-pts-airsoft.htm

Hope you enjoyed this blog.

Karl

Recently I was in the market for some new boots but had a budget of £120 and was looking for something:

• Waterproof

• Full Gore Tex

• Very comfortable

• Excellent grip

• Didn’t look like a pair of space boots on me

The Jack Pyke Hunters boots grabbed my attention instantly as soon as I opened the box. I had been contemplating getting some new boots for Airsoft and general use for quite a while but was often put off by the high price demands for a goot pair of boots.

However, my old surplus boots were becoming too worn and warped so I took the plunge and went and bought a pair of the Hunters boots.

Initially I had doubts due to having size 12 feet and most people recommend getting half or a size bigger too but I couldn’t get any bigger than a 12. As previously mentioned the main use of these boots are for Airsoft. A sport that can get very intense and lasts for several hours a day running and climbing through a mix of environments and terrain.

With an Airsoft game coming up at the weekend after purchasing, the boots were going to be tester thoroughly in cold wet, muddy, slippy and snowy weather conditions.. quite extreme really compared to what I’m usually used to.

From initially putting the boots on my feet, they were supported within the boots with strong yet flexible ankle support and excellent comfort without the boots looking like something a space-man would be wearing. I also have a slightly wider than normal foot but these boots caused no irritation at all.

As with all boots, they do take some bedding in but these were fine straight out of the box.

With a quick fastening lace design you can get the boots on in seconds. So after wearing the boots for a couple of days in an around the house and going too and from work the weekend finally came to go Airsofting and put the boots to the test.

There was a light ammount of snow on the ground but everywhere was slippy and running up and down hills all day was looking like fun.

Throughout the day The boots were being caked in mud, snow and being drenched in water to the very top. After a good 8 hours of torture the boots had amazed me.

As seen below the boots were submerged (whilst on my feet) fully under water for a good 5 minutes whilst my feet remained perfectly dry. Thanks to the thermo-insulating interior too they were very nice and toasty all day long.

Whilst walking within streams, the boots were very boyant so there was no drag in the water and moving arround was such an ease.

Running in the footwear was also very easy, I was able to run faster than wearing normal boots due to the large grip and surface on the bottom of the boots that would lock my feet into the ground but release easily when I lifted my feet off the ground.

There was also one particular moment in the day where myself and a team mate had to practically run down a near vertical hill made from loose mud for a good 15 to 20 metres. Myself I ran straight down with ease and no fear of slipping, however my team mate was side stepping all the way down in his old surplus boots nearly landing flat on his behind.

Once home the boots were very mucky with some scuffs on the leather surface after being beaten with tree roots and loose stones and bricks in the ground. With a quick rinse in the shower and dry off they were clean again and ready for next time.

Overall the boots were perfect, no pain, no blisters, no wet and cold feet and got me out of some tricky situations with no let down at all.

I highly recommend these boots for people who are into outdoor activities either it be a hike or something more demanding like Paintball or Airsoft. Below are a few more pictures of hte boots in action:

You can find the product with more details on our website here (Click the text of follow the link below).

http://www.patrolbase.co.uk/details2.asp/ProductID/993/sid

Hope you enjoyed the review and buy a pair for yourself or a friend.

Karl

Pictures were taken by Chris Doodson at First and Only Heywood Airsoft site – Huddersfield – Honley.

Recently we have been questioned “How good is the silencer?” and “Is it really worth the price tag?”. Well today we went and took one of the “Magpul AAC M4-2000 Fast Attach Silencers” to pieces to see how it worked and what made it different to any other silencer on the market.

First of all we needed to test how it performed. Magpul claimed a 30% improvement on its previous model on making your AEG more silent from the muzzle of your AEG. We went and used the “Magpul Beta Project AK47” to test the sound output with and without the silencer. Between a group of store staff and customers there was an instant noticeable decrease in sound.

Airsoft silencers are known for decreasing the high pitched crack you get when firing your AEG. The Magpul AAC M4 series fast attach silencers do this and more. You will also get a decrease in FPS just as you get with a real steel silencer. The Magpul Beta Project AK47 lost up to 20fps with the silencer attached which luckily brought it to just under 350fps making it site legal to most sites in the UK (check with your site to comfirn your FPS limits, sites can vary from 330 to 370fps).

So after a confirmed test with a group of regular airsofters, engineers and staff we could confirm the silencer definatly worked and more so than a regular £20 to £50 silencer. The next investigation was to how it was made and what really made it Worth the high-end price tag.

First of all, as oon as you pickup the silencer you can tell it is a quality piece of kit. With a substancial weight behind it and an attachment flash hider that is robust and thick threaded you know you have spent your money well. You are not buying Chinease cheap quality metal.

The silencer is filled from the front with foam down to about half way if not a little more of the silencer. The internals are completely removable and if you wish to, customisable too.

There are four main areas that effect the silencers performance:

1. End cap – slightly milled out larger centre hole than its previous version to avoid any BB collision when firing your AEG
2. Removable ring foam (one piece rather than separate pieces that can clog up and catch BBs as seen with other silencers!)
3. Centre spring – Used to centralise the foam and absorb any recoil/vibration
4. Chrome dispensing o-ring – Used to split air output and secure the internals. Dependent upon the length of you inner barrel, this chrome o-ring splits air into the centre of the foam and, into the outside area as pictured below due to the 4 holes drilled into the metal.

All of the internals are quality metal and foam. The foam is a soft form with plenty of pocket holes to capture air and sound!

The pictures tell a thousand words really, you can see more below to see how the silencer is built and what you can find inside it. There is little to no room for improvement from user testing and feedback from our own staff and customers.

There is no significant difference between the M4-2000 and the SPR version apart from the length from initial investigations.

We hope you have found this breakdown review interesting and informative and look forward to answering any questions

Thanks for reading,

Karl

Recently delivered to our shop at Patrol Base in Huddersfield West Yorkshire we got our hands on a couple of the new “Magpul Beta Project AK47” Airsoft AEGs. Currently only stocking the Dark Earth versions though.

Sunday just gone (18th December 2011) the staff at Patrol Base all went to the Cerberus Complex site with the boss Chris proudly wielding the new Beta Project AK shown below:

In the box content:

• 1x Magpul Beta Project AK47
• 1x Mid capacity magazine
• 1x Cleaning rod

The rifle comes in at a slightly lukewarm 360/370fps out of the box but with the new “Magpul AAC M4-2000 Fast Attach Silencer” fitted you get a spot on 349/350fps using Blaster 0.2g BBs with a Madbull V2 chrono.

The trigger responce is nice and crisp with an impressive rate of fire too when installing a “9.6V 1600mAh NI-MH Mini Battery“. The battery storage in the gun is excellent too. You can slot the stick battery all the way down into the front end. This could make to provide excellent capabilities for fitting custom batteries to provide more game play time, saying that though the rifle worked all day long with plenty of juice left for a few more hours game play.

The internals of the gun are as expected, excellent quality. The hop unit is full metal and easily adjustable from the right hand side of the AEG. Trigger response is crisp and smooth thanks to a well shimmed gearbox.

The external quality is just as good as the internals if not better. The Bet Projet AK47 is full metal with a “Magpul PTS CTR Carbine Stock” pre fitted. The front end is of a considerable weight too allowing for a more solid grip and better control however we do suggest fitting a “Magpul AFG2 (Angled Fore Grip)” to aid in controlling the weight especially when you have installed the “Magpul AAC M4-2000 Fast Attach Silencer“.

So now the all important information, the range and accuracy of the gun. Straight out of the box we went and took the gun straight to the chrono range of the Cerberus Complex site and on the first shot the BB went straight to the floor… after two more shots the BBs suddenly went flying straight forward, this was with no hop applied at all.

We can only think there was a tiny amount of oil on the hop rubber initially from production until it got swept out by a couple of BBs. After about 10 shots we applied a little bit of hop and ended up with about a third of hop applied resulting in an impressive 60 to 70 metre flight of a 0.2g BB!

As the day went on the BBs were shooting mildly further but the accuracy and consistency massively improved. We highly recommend using 0.25g BBs in this rifle (we didn’t have any left on the day so stuck with using 0.2g BBs). Everyone was eying the rifle up and was a great weapon especially with the ability to use normal AK magazines! At the moment we have used cheap China-soft AK magazines and had no feeding issues, we have not come across a magazine that doesn’t fit and work properly so far.

To wrap up this review, the gun is of excellent build quality inside out. Fps is high but just legal dependent upon your sight but lowering the FPS can be achieved easily due to a relatively simple gearbox design. Customisation is limitless and performance is excellent hitting targets all day long at 60 metres plus accurately.

One of the new internal upgrade products we have and are proud of using is the “ASG Ultimate Hop Unit”. We currently stock M4/15/16 style and AK47/74 style of hop units.

The units are made from metal and both have a high quality finish with a range of little extra perks that most other hop units don’t include. Each hop unit has several o-rings to create a tighter air seal from the second the BB leaves your magazine. The back end of the hop unit also has an o-ring that goes into the gearbox around the air nozzle in your AEG.

These two additions allow for a tighter air seal and slightly higher fps than usual however…. We do recommend that you remove the o-ring that goes into the gearbox around the air nozzle. We have found that the consistency of the FPS is slightly better but you do loose a couple of FPS but this does vary between AEG and different gearbox type!

The Ultimate hop units also are a lot tighter on the mechanical wheels and spindles with no side to side movement. They are initially hard to adjust but soon soften up a little but when the hop it set it will not move unless you adjust the hop your self. As with any new hop unit and hop rubber you need to bed it in. This can take anything from 1000 BBs to 3000+! So don’t be dis-hartened if at first you have BBs going straight then up in the sky the next shot, take some time out to pump a few thousand rounds through it such as our cheap but excellent quality ” ASG Blaster 3000rnd 0.2g BBs” before you go out on the field.

We hope you have as much fun with the hop unit and your AEG once being fitted and see just how good they are. Be sure to take your time when assembling and ensure everything is lined up perfectly. We also recommend using either a Tokyo Marui hop rubber or the “ASG Ultimate hop rubbers” we stock with the hop unit for best results.

Recently we stocked three new AEGs, the Blackwater King Arms range consisting of the “BW15 Sniper”, “BW15 Carbine” and the “BW15 CQB”.

All three rifles are full metal with the obvious plastic sliding/adjustable stocks produced by Magpul Industries excluding the Carbine version. All three use a bolt locking system perfect for keeping your hop accessible at all times to easily adjust on the spot. Each gun also includes one high cap P-mag style magazine except the sniper version which uses a Vietnam style M4 magazine. Please note no batteries are included!

The rifles them selves all come out sub 370fps and deliver a pleasing rate of fire. With a minor downgrade or settling of the FPS the ROF will pickup. Each gun has plenty of battery storage space however the sniper variant is lipo only taking a small to medium length lipo stick type battery.

The Blackwater range suits all Airsoft players who are looking for a visually stunning rifle with little room for improvement. The rifles are surprisingly lightweight but fully customisable with the ability to swap over stocks, optics and more. Below you can see something we whipped together using the sniper version as a base to work from.

Overall we are very impressed with the build quality of the rifles and already selling since the first day of release. Check out some of the “customisation” we have made below:

Surprisingly not everyone is aware of our in door Airsoft shooting range.. Well we thought we would make a quick blog on this.

We currently have a 15-ish metre shooting range down the side of our storage area in-store with several targets. Designed to test the FPS of your Airsoft rifles and setup your sights. Currently we hold two main target areas high and low and every so often mix things up a bit with a moving target and extra hidden ones.

We are currently undergoing planning to create a range/testing area within the roofing of our store too for double if not triple the size of what we have, perfect for sniper rifle testing

Below are a few photographs of the chrono/range testing area. Anyone is welcome to come and use the range for test or fun whilst browsing our store

Recently we have stocked up hugely on Airsoft AEG internals due to popular demand. With a boom in recent repairs being carried out in our in-store workshop, we have moved on from the old and now in with the new ASG Ultimate range of internals for a range of Airsoft guns.

The new internals include:

• Piston heads
• Tappet plates
• Gears
• Hop rubbers
• Hop units
• Shims
• Spring guides
• Pistons
• & More!!!

All of the upgrade parts are suitable for a range of Airsoft guns too including M4/15/16 range, P90′s, AK47s/74s and many more, all of which can be found on our website – “Click here”.

One of the biggest favours of using the Ultimate series is cost. You can afford to create a near 100% airtight setup in your gearbox and in turn making the mechanical function significantly quiet with the use of ASG’s Ultimate “Piston head” and “Cylinder head”.

All of the parts can be thrown straight into any Airsoft AEG providing they match up to your version gearbox however we do recommend that if you go for a full “Ultimate Gear set” that you also consider purchasing the “Ultimate Cut off lever”. Using ultimate gears with a different make of a cut off lever can cause some selector issues.

All the part are finished to high quality too and either polished silver or anodized in vibrant colours too which is a nice touch. Each replacement/upgrade part are produced to an excellent standard with high quality features.

The cylinder head alone has extra o-rings compared to more expensive alternatives and also has sorbo pads on the inside to dampen impact between it self and the piston head, extra little benefits for no extra cost.

After a few recent problematic AEG’s with trigger contacts burning out and customer requests on them wanting to use higher voltage power… We have decided to create in store MOSFETS capable of handling up to 11v.

Each MOSFET is designed to lower the voltage going to your trigger contacts to a mere 1v rather than a constant 7, 8.4, 9.6 or 11.1v. The benefits of this are simply prolonging the life of your AEG whist still delivering full power to your motor. You may also notice an improved trigger response!

Each MOSFET is easily removable as we have the three wires going from the MOSFET into your gear box connected separately so if anything does go wrong with the MOSFET it is instantly replaceable without having to take your gearbox apart!

So, if you are looking for a compact, low cost and perfect running MOSFET we can help you out. These are available in store and soon to be available to purchase online. At current we are taking over the phone orders. So if you are interested don’t hesitate to contact us on:

t: 01484 644709
e: info@patrolbase.co.uk

So far we have tested our MOFETS on a range of guns including King Arms M4′s, Tokyo Marui M14′s and currently in the works of fitting them into Magpul Masadas and many more. Below are a few pictures taken in our in store workshop of a MOSFET being assembled by our engineers Jonn and Darren.

Recently we have discovered that a few people are having difficulties re-fitting their stock on both PTS and AKM.

The solution is simple! When fitting the stock be sure to fit the upper locking pin first! Below is a guide to how to fit the stock on the AKM and PTS Magpul range of Airsoft guns.

As ever it is best to work in an open and lit area to keep an eye on any small pieces that may fly out of your Airsoft gun during disassembly and assembly.

First of all, line up the stock with the lower receiver using the cut out grooves as shown below:

Next, simply slide the stock down into the receiver ensuring the holes line up. Then close the upper receiver firmly for the upper locking pin holes to line up too as shown below:

The next step is to push the locking pins back through until you get a clicking noise (don’t worry if you don’t get a clicking noise, just push the pin in firmly). REMEMBER TO PUSH THE UPPER LOCKING PIN IN FIRST! as shown below:

Congratulations, you have just successfully re-fitted your stock.