Categories
Beginners guide Gear

6 tips to stop your airsoft eye protection fogging up

Whether it’s your eye-pro or the glasses you’re wearing under goggles, fogging is one of the quickest ways to take an airsofter out of the fight, turning the local woodland into a misty horror like something out of a Silent Hill game.

If you’ve been struggling with the fog, the best thing is to try and work out why you’re fogging up, and then working to combat that. If that doesn’t work, of course, there’s always a few nuclear options for keeping you clear-eyed and on the frontline all day.

Why do airsoft goggles fog up?

Fogging is a scientific eventuality. Stupid science. When water vapour from your breath or sweaty forehead hits your lenses, they’ll cool down and switch from a warm vapour to a cooler liquid. This liquid will coat the inside of your lenses, and voila, you’re in trouble.

There are a few things that can make that even more of a pain. You can’t do much about these, but it’s important to highlight some triggers that could make this problem much worse.

  • Exercise makes you sweat: Bounding from cover to cover, clearing rooms or sprinting across the woodland will cause you to heat up and sweat. This generates a lot of extra moisture and sweat which is bad news.
  • Full seal eye-wear: If your goggles are flush to your head, there will be less air-flow, making it difficult to keep your vision clear. However, this can also keep sweat and crap from your forehead from getting into your eyes, so it’s a mixed bag.
  • Humidity, the vision killer: If there’s more moisture in the air, your glasses are more likely to fog. Running around on a humid day will mess with you.
  • The weather: The temperature of the environment around you is going to massively impact how foggy you get.

Don’t take off your eye pro!

No matter how foggy things get, don’t take off your eye protection. The only serious injury you can pick up in airsoft just from playing is losing an eye to a beeb hit.

It’s the one thing you really shouldn’t mess about with and as a result, no matter how bad the fogging gets, don’t take off your eye protection.

In an absolute emergency, there are a couple of things you can do. I wouldn’t recommend this, but they are safer than taking your glasses off for a clean in the middle of a shoot.

  • Pull your mesh mask over your eyes and then remove your glasses, meaning you still have a layer over your eyes.
  • Crouch down, face the ground and pass your goggles to a teammate to clean while you put your hands directly over your eyes. Keep these in place until your goggles are handed back to you.
  • Use your index fingers to clean the inside of your glasses. This is a temporary solution and won’t work if you have crap on your hands or gloves.

Again, my hard ruling is not to do any of these and to wear your goggles at all times no matter how foggy it gets, but if you’re going to ignore my advice, I’d rather you minimised your risk of losing your vision.

Fog free.

1. Buy some anti-fog (or make do with a household item)

If you’re still having trouble, the single most effective thing you can buy is some anti-fog. Your mileage may vary, so be prepared to tinker until you find what works for you and your eye-pro.

These anti-fog products come in a variety of forms: bio-gels, markers, wipes and even markers that promise to stop fog forever.

Personally, I swear by FogStop. It’s a little tiny 5ml tub that lasts just about forever. To use it, you take a tiny amount on your finger, then rub the product between your finger and thumb and slap it onto your lenses.

Click the above link or use the code BadNade to cut 10% off of your order, although I get store credit whenever people use the link so you would be indirectly helping me to get more FogStop by buying. How you feel about that is up to you.

The negative is that it’s quite difficult to get your hands on, and often has a long lead time which means you need to order well in advance of running out.

To use Fog Stop take a small amount on your finger, then rub the product between finger and thumb.  Massage on to the lenses of glasses/goggles. Then simply polish off with a microfibre cloth, tissue or similar.

I also carry a little cleaning kit in my rig for lending to teammates or cleaning the lenses of my glasses. This is the Bolle kit, but I imagine many kits are similar, but for £9 and fairly dependable performance, I haven’t bothered to look for anything else.

Several people I play with also recommend the Revision Anti-Fog Cloth. These are currently issued to UK and US military and seem to do the trick, although I found that didn’t pan out for me.

If you’re reading this the day before a game, or you’ve run out and won’t be able to get more before slinging plastic, there are some DIY solutions available.

A little dish soap mixed with water and applied to the inside and outside of your goggles with a soft sponge can do the trick, although you will need to dry it properly. Washing up liquid and baby shampoo will both do the same, but all three of these products share the same issue, you’re not likely to have them on the field with you.

Your own spit will often work in a pinch, although it’s a little gross, and really if the alternative is spitting on the glasses you’re going to be wearing all day and buying a cleaning kit, I know what I’d choose.

Edge Tactical’s Fast Link goggles

2. Buy glasses that won’t fog up

I know, silly title: “just buy something that doesn’t fog” as if it’s that simple.

But there are a few pieces of eye protection that have gotten a reputation for not fogging up.

For the longest time, I’ve sworn by simple metal-framed Bolle glasses. However I’ve recently made the jump across to Edge Tactical glasses, which have “vapour shield”, which I’m clueless on, but they really do seem to handle themselves well, and I don’t notice any issues.

I use the FastLink glasses in Tiger’s Eye and clear, and I’m happy with them. I’ve just bought the Acid Gambit glasses. The FastLink glasses don’t seem to steam up, even held over a kettle. While I occasionally get issues with my sweat getting on the inside, generally the performance is better than anything I’ve encountered elsewhere.

Elsewhere, several people I play with swear by the ultra-ventilated Bolle X800 goggles. I have a pair myself but don’t like full-seal eye protection because I don’t like too much clinging to my face. They’re an expensive option, but as fogging can ruin your day, it could be an option if nothing else seems to work.

Myself and the boys of Reaper Crew

3. “Parrot breathing”

This advice will sound silly but someone from my first ever site, KGB Airsoft, once told me to avoid fogging up by “parrot breathing”. It will sound silly, but it’s worked for me.

Basically, you bring your top lip forwards and breath downwards. This keeps your breath away from your glasses and in theory will stop it from fogging up.

This works nicely when you’re moving slow and steady but this won’t help you when you’re moving fast and sweating a bunch. If you can remember to do this in combat, you’re better than me.

Charging forwards, covered in sweat

4. Cover your forehead

So, one of the biggest problems is sweat and forehead grime getting over your lenses. This one is quick and simple: whether you use a sweatband, baseball cap or even a balaclava, anything that wicks sweat will give you fewer issues with your lenses.

Base CQC, 2020

5. Let your eye-pro adjust

A special tip from BadNade pal The English Rambo, and it’s a good one.

Put your eye-pro on from the second you hop out of your car at the game, and even earlier if you can manage it. This will allow the eye protection to adjust to your body temperature and that should result in less fog on your lenses.

This might not work out on a boiling hot day, but a lot of the time this will help, especially if you pair it with an anti-fog product. This costs nothing to try, so why not have a go and see if it works for you. It’s free, after all.

Friend of BadNade, Fenrir, wearing mesh and kicking ass

6. Buy mesh goggles

One way to sidestep the fogging issue is to go mesh.

There are positives and negatives to this approach. Don’t listen to what other players say, but make your own mind about whether they might work for you.

On the plus side, by ditching the plastic lens you’ll never fog up. No matter how much humidity you’ve got, this

There are negatives: they look worse in photos, for a start. However, more realistically mesh masks have a reputation for cheap BBs shattering against them, getting shards of plastic in your eyes.

This is not the case. However, beeb impacts can occasionally cause the paint on cheaper models of mesh to shed paint. These flecks of paint can still irritate your eyes, which is less than ideal.

I’ve also encountered issues with the kill flash on my Vortex Crossfire while wearing mesh, with the two mesh surfaces making it hard to see what is what.

You can avoid the paint flaking issue by buying a decent set of goggles. Most people swear by Heroshark, who does some great mesh goggles, although they are made to order and can take a little while to arrive. My emergency mesh goggles are by Nuprol, and I’ve encountered no issues, even with up-close BB impacts.

If you run hot and you can’t deal with fogging with any of the tips above, save yourself the hassle and pick up a decent pair of mesh goggles. Remember that if you’re also wearing a lower mesh you’ll need to make sure the two pieces fit well together.

Categories
The Site List

The site list: The Outpost – Sentinel Airsoft

Hidden away in Edlesborough is one of CQB’s secret weapons. The Outpost might seem small — and it is — but a dedicated team and some creative construction make this an ever-changing battleground with ferocious up-close firefights.

At a glance

  • Website: http://sentinelairsoft.co.uk/
  • Address: The Outpost – Sentinel Airsoft, Edlesborough, Dunstable LU6 2EE
  • Price: £35 for a full-day walk on, £15 for an evening game walk on
  • Rental gear: Prices here, a G36 or an M4 depending on package.
  • Lunch: Included in daytime green fee, usually pizza.
  • Frequency: currently every Saturday/Sunday, evening games every second Wednesday.
  • How to book: https://www.facebook.com/SentinelAirsoftUK
  • Toilets: Two portable toilets, located outside in the game zone.
  • Car Park: Decent sized, no fuss for parking
  • Safe zone: inside with desks
  • Shop: Full service. Anything from RIFs to bangs to shemaghs.
  • Card accepted: yes
Sentinel Airsoft, 2020

What to expect

Games at The Outpost tend to be close and in your face. Props are common, with players asked to keep control of a case or a rocket, while some high concept games tasked you with loading a missile launcher and pushing it forwards under fire.

The outside area is full of wooden structures, and dynamic movement is key to play. While there are a lot of defensive positions, each of them has multiple flanks, meaning the team that moves the fastest and covers each other will often dominate. A two-story building overlooking the first quarter seems impregnable until you see people charging up the stairs and clearing it out.

The inside is a horror show, in the best possible way. Tight corners and a lack of light make it difficult to navigate, while players who know the site will charge around comfortably. Engagement distance in here tends to be within 1-2 metres, meaning shots hurt, and the amount of dead corners mean you could be fighting defenders with nowhere else to go. It’s a unique experience.

Outpost 2020

The crowd is generally good-natured too. One of the player marshalls on one visit apologised profusely after shooting me up the nostril, and I just want him to know that there are no ill-feelings, even after I had a spontaneous nosebleed that night. Many of the players are regulars, and in the years I’ve been playing there I’ve only once encountered a problem with another player once, and as he was a rental charging around corners firing his gun sideways and refusing to go to regen before coming back into the game, I’m not going to lay the blame at Sentinel’s feet for that one.

The marshall team tends to be decent, and the site owner Liam is a good bloke that seems interested in making sure everyone is having a good time. This is nice because while the marshalls can be a little bit gruff, there’s the sense that everyone involved really cares about you enjoying yourself and they’re keen to help the gameplay stay exciting and competitive.

My favourite game is Four Quarters. The site is an RAF listening post and the exterior is a square, divided up by the cross-shaped building that served as the listening post. The attacking team will have to power through from quarter 1 to quarter 4, beating the enemy back as they move through the site.

Usually, this is reversed so players can have an attempt at both attacking and defending, and a recent update has seen the game turn into a “fallback” game, with players respawning and entering play on a marshall stood a few steps behind the frontline. Every time a player dies, the marshall takes a couple of paces backwards, meaning there’s a constant and fierce firefight for around 40 minutes. Bring a speedloader.

Outpost 2020

What to bring

The site has a no DMR, no snipers rule as the site is so small. Generally, I run a short M4 and a Scorpion Evo here, but if you’ve ben waiting for a chance to use an SMG or even a machine pistol like the TM Gas MP7, you’ll be well served here.

Pyro is invaluable here. A dump pouch of cardboard pyro will help you progress outside, but inside reusable pyro is going to be the difference between taking a corridor and walking back to respawn.

Outpost, 2013

As a CQB site, consider a mesh lower mask and a pair of gloves. Don’t be this guy above. It’s me and my face hurt all week.

Categories
Beginners guide

Why cheat calling is ruining your game

“Airsoft is a game of honour,” is a phrase that will pop up in pretty much every site briefing you attend. In the UK, it’s the pre-skirmish mantra, talking about how everyone should be taking their hits, playing fair and holding themselves to a high level of honour. 

Everyone nods and agrees, but right after “game on!”, people start screaming at nearby bushes to take their hits, complaining about how the guys 20 metres further than the range of their gun are “clearly not taking it.”

It’s exhausting. 

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What sort of airsofter you want to be is really up to you: skirmish supremo, milsim master or a sublime speedsofter – the sport is for everyone. But if you’re calling people bellends or swearing and shouting, you’re creating a shitty atmosphere and making yourself look like a dick.

Airsoft is really a game about attitude and it’s important to try and have a good one. 

Before we get into why that is, one big caveat. 

Rift Airsoft, early 2013

If you’re not taking your hits in airsoft, you’re a baddie

The only important part is that if a BB leaves the barrel of an airsoft weapon and comes into contact with you or any part of your gear (dump pouch, sling, stuffed animal threaded into your molle), you’re hit. 

This is the one golden rule of airsoft and without it, the entire game falls apart, and we’re just people with toy guns trying to inflict pain on each other. You know, like paintballers. 

Nothing else matters. If you think you might be hit, take the hit. If you’re not sure whether it was a ricochet, take the hit. You don’t want to get a rep for not taking hits, so if there’s any doubt in your mind about whether you’re hit, take it and shuffle back to regen/scream for a medic as appropriate.

If you ever intentionally don’t take a hit, you’re a knob. it’s just the fact of it. You’ve put your fun over other people’s on the field and it’s disrespectful to everyone involved. This includes the cry of “if they’re not taking hits, I’m not taking hits,” because toddlers aren’t allowed to play airsoft, so don’t act like one. Rise above it and be the better player. Airsoft is a game of honour and all that.

The Outpost, early 2013

Tell a marshall

Here’s what you should be doing. If you’re close enough to see your rounds landing, you’re close enough to see what they’re wearing and what they’re holding. Take this information, call a marshall, let them know what the deal is.

It’s not a big deal. A decent site/marshall will take your information and file it away, maybe marking the player or keeping a closer eye on them. They won’t be annoyed that you’ve calmly told them about a player you believe you’ve hit. My favourite sites are Airsoft Plantation and the Rift Airsoft outfits, and at both of them when I’ve reported players that seem to be Kevlar-coated, the marshalls involved have apologised that my day has been impacted and taken the information. 

Two things are important here: 

  • It isn’t the staff’s fault that players aren’t taking their hits, so being respectful is important. Sometimes you can be worked up, Airsoft is a combat sport and adrenaline is all over the place, just try to remember that they want a clean and effortless game too. If they don’t appear to be doing anything about it immediately, they could have called it in by radio and another marshall is looking into it. 
  • The description is everything: “That guy in Multicam” isn’t useful, “the guy in Multicam with an MP5” is better, but “the guy in Multicam with a tan vest, MP5 and black helmet with a GoPro” is A-grade, and should make sure they can keep an eye on the player.

Also, complaining about people not taking their hits after the day is over is largely useless, as your descriptions will be no good and there’s nothing that can be done. Just let a marshall know the next time you pass them. 

Sometimes, you won’t get a decent resolution. As a last resort, just pack your stuff up and go home. If a marshall is bad, calmly tell the site owner as you leave, and the owner can look into it. One head marshall I spoke to while running this admitted that his team of marshalls has sometimes been weaker than he’d like, but that he’s always going to side with one of his staff over someone screaming and shouting. 

Splatoon Airsoft, 2020

Flipside: You should tell your mates when they’ve been hit

When it comes to your friends, you can just tell them. Sometimes people don’t feel their hits, sometimes it hits a weird bit of their clothing. The best way to manage this problem would be if everyone politely tells their teammates if they notice they’ve taken a hit and if your friends are really your friends, they’ll be happy you told them. Friends don’t let friends not take their hits!

This keeps the games clean and helps your unwitting mate from getting marked by a marshall because he was unlucky enough to get a BB in the fold of his trousers or on a rucksack and not felt it.

“Don’t be a dick” means not causing a scene, not overreacting, understanding you or your weapon may not be as good as you think, talking to marshalls, policing your own teammates and making sure everyone’s having fun. 

Anyway, here’s why you shouldn’t be getting shouty.

TWA Airsoft, 2020

You’re a bad shot and your gun isn’t as accurate as you think it is 

The number one reason people think that the opposing enemy team isn’t taking their hits is that they’re simply not hitting them. 

Sorry, but it’s true.

This is a bitter pill for a lot of players because you have to accept that it’s a problem with you or your gear. 

A confession: I’ve had games where I’m genuinely not sure I’ve actually hit anyone.

My first day of airsoft was at the Cornish site KGB Airsoft, playing with some dependable-but-bashed-about ICS L85s. After the entire day, my friend and I stood excitedly talking about the time we thought we might have hit someone.

It’s hard to do when your adrenaline is ramped up but if you really pay attention to the flight of your BB, you’ll notice they’re kind of garbage. A single leaf can be all it takes to knock your BB off course, but there arealso things like the maximum range of an AEG, the settings of your hop and the fact that even with an optic, your BBs can go all over the place if you’re not shouldering your rifle properly, ensuring your barrel is straight.

But OK, say you’re watching the BBs bounce off the chest of your target. It’s still worth keeping quiet because…

Running light at The Outpost, 2020

People get defensive when challenged

Has anyone ever come up to you after death claiming you’re not taking your hits? What’s your first thought? I guarantee it’s not “oh, maybe I was hit”, it’s to double down and claim that you’re not hit or you would have felt it.

It’s a natural response, so there’s nothing necessarily wrong with it. I’m mostly referring to people screaming at each other and getting salty. I’ll actually say that if you are certain you’ve hit someone and you want to quietly tell them – respectfully and without calling them out in front of everyone – that they took a round to their plate carrier and didn’t feel it, I think that would be OK. However, you never know how people will react and it could end up being a pretty negative interaction.

With that in mind, why would you want to put yourself in the middle of that? That’s what the marshalls are there for. Short of a citizen’s arrest for bad airsoft, you have no more power on the field than any other player.

Sneaking in at Base CQC, 2020

Screaming shouting (and cheating to beat cheaters) makes you look a knob

Airsoft is a pretty small community. Reputations follow you from site to site. With the growth of huge social media followings for airsoft and the fact that most players will often go from site to site, one big tantrum could mark you out as a troublemaker. 

Personally, as soon as I’m in a firefight where people are shouting at each other, I’ll move to a different flank when I regen. I don’t really want to spend my leisure time listening to people shout at each other because they haven’t realised their guns don’t have range on each other yet.

The problems here are pretty deep; all that swearing will often mark you out to marshalls as someone to watch and may make them take you less seriously in future. However, you’re also making people less likely to want to play with you again and creating a toxic atmosphere, because all of this stuff is likely to become reciprocal by players on the opposing team. 

You can watch this in play, where shouting and swearing leads to a situation in which an entire site is sure the other team is cheating and the standard of play goes out of the window.

Cheating is pretty rare and often unintentional. But as every player has their blood up when they are on the field. Don’t blame yourself too much if you lose your cool for a bit.

Categories
Beginners guide Gear

Everything you need for your first game of Airsoft

Getting started in Airsoft can seem like a daunting proposition. Other players boast of their guns, gear and grenades, but the good news is that having an enjoyable first skirmish doesn’t mean worrying about all of that.

So, here, without omission, is everything you’ll need to play your first game as a “rental” player, to ensure you have a good time. Some people might tell you these are optional, but I would strongly advise the lot. If you really don’t want to spend too much money, view the stuff in this list as an aspirational collection of things you can ramp up to in your gear bag.

This guide will serve you from your first day of Airsoft up until the part where you’re looking into getting your own gear. Buy this stuff first: my advice for everyone is that if you only have £100 to spend on airsoft you should be spending it on eye protection and boots. There’s plenty of time to buy RIFs later.

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Edge Tactical Fastlinks, my go-to eye prot at the moment.

Eye-protection

Not to get all Dad about it, but the only scary thing about Airsoft is doing damage to your eyes. A good pair of eye protection (or “eye prot”) pretty much negates this risk, and it’s not even that expensive to get a cracking pair of eye protection.

Some sites will offer eye protection as a rental, but as it’s your eyes you’re protecting, I’d always recommend picking up your own.

There’s three types of eye protection.

  • Glasses
  • Goggles (closed frame full-seal)
  • Mesh

It’s up to you how much you want to spend here, Bolle have metal framed glasses that are absolutely the business and cost less than a tenner, but you can also pick up a pair of Edge Tactical FastLink glasses, which are what I wear for pretty much every game. They stop you “fogging up” generally, which is a problem for people who are a little bigger, those that sweat a lot and everyone when it’s humid out on the field.

These are lightweight options, so if you’re going to wear them, put them on in the mirror first and check there’s no direct access to your eye externally.

my advice for everyone is that if you only have £100 to spend on airsoft you should be spending it on eye protection and boots

If you want full-protection or you want to wear glasses underneath eye prot, you can get full-seal eye protection. This essentially means goggles that make a solid seal against your head, meaning there’s a “full seal”. These are a little more expensive and more prone to fogging but closed-frames offer the most protection possible. These Bolle goggles are decent, and although I can’t recommend buying this more expensive pair for your first game, if you decide goggles are your bag, they’re very solid.

Finally, there’s mesh. These are cheap and don’t fog, but they can occasionally shed paint, which makes people claim BBs shatter on impact. the BBs don’t shatter on impact, but it’s still not great to get flecks of paint in your eyes.

If fogging is a problem, Heroshark does some great mesh goggles, but as all of their kit is made to order, it’s probably for down-the-line rather than ahead of your first game.

Whatever you buy, it’s up to you. Remember to keep it on at all times in the game zone, and if you notice any damage to your eye protection at any point, replace them immediately – not at the end of your game – immediately.

Lower-face protection and lower face model’s own.

Lower-face protection

I don’t generally wear lower face protection, but this is a do-as-I-say-not-what-I-do thing. Also, ten years ago I knocked myself unconscious with the butt of my MP5 so I probably should wear lower face protection, but I only really wear it for CQB games.

For your first game, you’ll be wearing lower-face or full-face protection. If you’ve come from paintballing, a Paintball dye mask will work and will cover your eyes too, meaning you can skip reading all of my stuff above… the stuff you’ve already read.

Elsewhere, there are a lot of different face masks you can get. A Shemagh will look the bit in a pinch, but let’s be prescriptive to keep it simple. This Nuprol mesh mask will keep your face safe from impacts; buy this, shape it so it fits comfortably on your face and wear it for your first game.

There’s a lot of weird masculinity around wearing a mesh mask. I’d say that if you don’t like to be shot in the face, wear a lower mask. If you find that it’s unwieldy or uncomfortable and that’s more inconvenient than taking BBs to the face, stop wearing one. As many sites will tell you, you do it at your own risk, so to avoid you losing a tooth while trying out a new hobby, wear a mask for your first game.

Later, if you want something more serious, Delta Mike Face Pro is well regarded. I can’t pass judgement because I just r recently placed my own order, and they’re expected to arrive in a couple of weeks as there’s a long wait time. I’ll update this when that happens, though.

I wear Viper Venom boots because they’re silly comfortable. These ones aren’t laced properly, but look more presentable than than the ones under my desk caked in mud.

Footwear

This one could get long, so I’m going to skirt around it: wear some good boots that you don’t mind getting muddy or scuffed. A military surplus place can probably sell you decent boots for 20 quid, but if you already have some excellent boots with solid ankle support, feel free to wear those.

If you’ve never worn boots properly before, you should lace your boots to the halfway point and then jump to the top of the boot and lace downwards, tying the bow in the middle. Your ankles will thank you.

Categories
Gear RIFs The Arsenal

The Arsenal: G&G UMP

The G&G UMP is probably one of the best AEG’s I’ve ever used. For an airsofter, the UMP feels like an MP5 with all of the kinks ironed out: there are hassle-free 530 round hi-cap magazines, rails all over the place for attaching torches, grips and optics, solid externals and one of the very few silencers that dampens the noise of the gun, right out of the box.

G&G’s UMP is so good that I can even forgive it the awkward UMG name: standing for the copyright-free Uber Machine Gun.

Why buy a G&G UMP?

G&G have only been on the Airsoft scene for 20 years, and only really been taken seriously for ten. Despite this, their aftercare is brilliant, G&G’s Combat Machine and Top Tech ranges both offer great performance at their price point, and usually you can use their guns straight out of the box, with minimal tweaking.

I’ve had the G&G UMP since 2012, buying one of the first models to hit the shelves at the now-closed champions of G&G at Pro Airsoft Supplies. Ever since, it’s been one of my go-to guns for a skirmish, with a solid polymer body, great mag capacity and the fact that it can be taken from a field gun to a CQB monster by just folding the stock. The UMP isn’t unique in any of this, by any means, but there’s something about it that just works for me: perhaps it’s how comfortable it is to shoulder or the solid click as a 500+ BB magazine thunks into place.

Originally, I was looking for something that fit to my 2012 strengths: I was fast, I was a terrible shot, and I didn’t want to carry too much weight. The UMP tied in the small form factor, reliability and low-weight of the many MP5 airsoft variants out there, but then made some improvements. The simplest is the standardised Picatinny rails allowing easy attachment of optics, grips or a torch, but the introduction of ambidextrous controls and stick mags that are a big ergonomic improvement* with hi-caps that often feed better and carry over double the capacity of an MP5 stick to boot.

*Your mileage may vary.

It’s also a great gun for most situations without dropping too much money into it: I bought the suppressor, and have run it close to stock ever since. The internals have remained a sealed-up mystery to me, and I’ve only actually added some external bits to help with ergonomics or to fit a specific scenario.

What should you change?

So, as I said, I haven’t touched the G&G at all. It’s stock, and the only addition I’ve made to the inner workings of the gun is set the hop from time to time.

It’s rare as rocking horse excrement at this point, but G&G’s own UMG suppressor is the business: the gearbox in the UMP is quiet, and with the QD suppressor on I’ve shot people who heard nothing but the rounds hitting their vest. This sounds nonsense, but it’s really true. I don’t know what black magic G&G are doing with their guns (I have a G&G F2000 that’s similarly near-silent in the gearbox) but I can only assume it’s witchcraft.

Elsewhere, I’ve added a Wolf Eyes torch that has been living in my box of kit for 15 years and it’s stayed there since, although I’ve rotated through several different grips and optics before finding a cheap optic at an Airsoft boot-sale that managed to fit the bill. It’s low maintenance, none of the bits need to jump to other guns if I’m not using it, and I don’t mind if anything gets damaged because the UMP is the newest part of the set-up at eight years old. I’ve struggled to find a grip that does the trick, although that’s more on me than anything else.

The Good

  • Version 3 gearbox means it can keep going all day on semi.
  • UMP magazines are incredible to handle: clean sticks with flared grips that lock into shape with a satisfying ‘thunk’.
  • Can outperform several guns out of the box even at range.
  • Nylon fibre body means you would have to be trying to damage it.

The Bad

Most of these will be “mileage may vary” gripes, to be honest. There are a few bits about the G&G UMP that can irritate, but it mostly comes down to how unique the gun is. Read on, but cut it some slack; these issues are only problems if they grind your gears.

  • The G&G UMP is the only UMP seriously worth considering. This means there aren’t many upgrade parts beyond the generic bits.
  • When it comes to putting UMP mags in your rig, you might have a problem.*
  • Low and mid-caps can have some issues with feeding. It seems to be hard to reproduce, sometimes they’ll just double feed.

*They do, weirdly, have compatibility with other weird SMG mag pouches: if you’ve got a P90, MP40 or a Thompson already, your existing webbing will work for UMP magazines. Embrace it. Become the weird SMG guy.

Why I love it

This is the first “review” of an airsoft gun I’ve ever written, but the key thing is that it’s impossible to be completely objective about a RIF. Personal preference, ergonomics and even anecdotal evidence all play massively into how much you’ll dig a gun, including games you’ve played or movies you’ve seen.

I ultimately got sold on a UMP because I’d seen it pop up in a few videogames around 2012 and I wanted something small and light.

However, I love the G&G UMP because it does everything: I’ve used this while jumping out of a Land Rover at mil-sim events, I’ve cleared corridors in CQC sites and I’ve dug in and brawled with this in woodland. Whatever you throw at it, it delivers. Very few other AEGs can say the same, especially for under £250.

Get it now from Patrol Base, if you fancy that.