Milsim West: Jump to Crimea - The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

To be honest, I was not going to make a blog post at all for this event. I had high hopes for this event. Internet famous people were coming like Jet Desertfox and the Crye Pope and I was truly excited for the “jump” simulation that the directors of Milsim West really pride themselves in. After my gun went down and I decided to take up the camera, I realized that I would have a very unique perspective that I really needed to voice.

Friday morning, my SoCal friend, Alphonzo Hall, Zakk Dunn and Garrett Yzaguirre set off at 1000 sharp with trunk full of gear and a very moto atmosphere. Alphonzo, who was running as Australian, already was talking in an “aussie” accent while Zakk Dunn was blasting gangsta beats.  It was an incredibly uneventful drive highlighted by people driving 80 while texting and a Safeway stop in Seaside. We showed up to Camp Rilea near Oregon  around 1330 and just decided to hang out with friends who were slowly showing up. Ben Brison was busy trying to get registration going and I was running in between the Russian barracks and the NATO staging area doing favors and seeing friends. By the way, I apologize for the extremely dry writing. I will admit that I am not the happiest writing this but I feel that it is extremely beneficial for the Milsim West staff to get as much feedback as possible.

After sunset, 1^st platoon (the platoon I was attached to as media), was getting ready to deploy in the “helicopter” that was going to take them to drop point [OPSEC]. It turned out that there wasn’t any room for me to fit in  with 1^st platoon so I stayed behind and watched my friend “fly” away. At this point I decided to walk around to the other platoons to ask if I could join them. The first platoon I approached was 4^th who heckled me with “no press” and “media is for the weak” as well as people who attempted to touch my camera equipment, which is a hard no. After telling them to check themselves, I approached Alphonzo who suggested that I hit up “Jan” who was the platoon leader (PL) for 3^rd platoon, which consisted of the Regiment (Aussie impressionists), Development Team 6 (Navy SEAL impressionists), and War Horse (MARSOC/Force Recon impressionists). Here I actually lost track of time with the amount of fun I had with them. They were all welcoming and were extremely motivated in their role playing. There is nothing like hearing “Aussie Aussie Aussie” and the “OI OI OI” to make you really pumped to do any airsoft related activity. Here I also met Jet Desertfox, who was extremely nice and attempting to stay low key. I noticed that he was doing his normal Youtube related filming so I offered to give him some content. Hopefully 9^th Group’s media makes it on his page since I feel like it would really enhance the viewing experience. 

Anyways, after linking up with the Aussies, our transport showed up a few hours late due to technical difficulties, and we were off. Thank you to Roscoe, a game admin, who was very nice and dropped me off with the Aussies without the need to jump out of a moving vehicle. Speaking of which, I forgot I didn’t go into the jump very much. The Milsim West staff is not new to the “jumping from a plane” aspect of milsim events. They ran various jump simulations at Recondo School, which was a milsim event focused around Vietnam events (I believe – my facts about Recondo School are sourced from various secondary sources of information so they could be entirely inaccurate).  Basically the jump simulation was players to jump out of a large truck going roughly five miles per hour. Participants were taught how to use the “static line” made out of engineering tape, a carabineer, and a rubber band. Participants were taught proper commands to communicate with the jump master, and a red and green light was wired into the truck to act as communication between the “pilot” and the jump master. This was probably the most milsim thing I’ve seen in a long time. It was definitely something else. 

After jumping from the “plane”, I regrouped with the DT6 guys and made our way to the predetermined rendezvous point designated for third platoon. There we waited for a good amount of time for unknown reasons. It was long enough for me to take a good nap and wait up absolutely refreshed. A little past midnight, third platoon (and I) moved out. Here is where it gets exciting. We pushed through a pitch black forest and snuck into east side of the MOUT town. Right on queue, first platoon sent off a large amount of pea grenades, TAG rounds, and anything else that made a boom. Third platoon kicked it into high gear and immediately started clearing buildings and connexes with surprise, speed, and violence of action. It was absolutely madness. One second I was standing next to Spencer Wessels, and another I was standing next to Ducky, then Alphonzo and somehow I ended up standing next to Jet. It was an absolute blur. Buildings were cleared within seconds and the entire town was controlled by NATO/Commonwealth Forces in an impressive seven minutes and sixteen seconds according to my camera which recorded the whole assault. It turns out that third platoon has been training together for quite a while now and really pushed themselves to conquer the MOUT town in as little time as possible. After grabbing my ruck from the staging area, I linked back up with first platoon and went straight to bed.

Right at 0800 Saturday, Abe, a fellow 9^th Group teammate, woke me up to grab some breakfast. The morning started off with great promise as Ben, the first platoon’s PL, shared his biscuit and gravy Mountain House meal with me and the sun was out with no sign of rain. It’s worth mentioning here  that Milsim West has some serious luck/skill with picking out weekends for games. All three events that I’ve attended had threat of rain and cold weather but it would always turn into an 80 degree day with the sun out and about. However, this is a double edged sword, which I will explain later. I joined the company leadership for the briefing which really challenged my knowledge of military terms and strategic planning. For people coming from a military background, it was normal and relatively boring but to me, it was mind-blowing and really impressive. Sadly, the platoon I was attached with had security for the entire day. It was extremely disappointing actually. I felt that it was almost unfair since most of the platoon kept security on Saturday at the last Milsim West event, Darial Outpost. It’s not that they hate pulling security, but it’s that Saturday is the main day of the event. The platoon took security detail with pride though. For the first few hours, people were on post and really tried to keep eyes out. There was the occasional harassment patrol in the form of enemy technicals driving way over the speed limit listed on the TACSOP, armed with an incredible amount of PKM’s raining BB's  but that’s about it. However, around 1300 to 1400, people started to really succumb to the heat. Everyone had already burned through their personal water supply and became dangerously dehydrated. All the tell-tale signs were there. The lack of sweat, sluggish movements, dizziness, weakness, and the fact that no one used the porta potties in hours really made me incredibly concerned. I went from media to S4 and went on a mission to locate water.

While searching around for water, I found that most of the five gallon cans of water were empty. This wasn’t good at all. There were no admins on site at the town and eventually, I really got desperate. I walked into a building adjacent to the Australian controlled three story building and found two cases of water bottles stacked up without any sign of ownership. I still feel ethically conflicted with what I did. I took the water bottles and handed them out to the platoon. If these cases of water were yours, let me know by messaging the 9^th Group Facebook page. I would love to paypal you the money to pay for them. After handing out the water, I caught word that there was a skirmish towards the east on the opposite side of the town. Third platoon had it completely under control and by the time I showed up, they were searching bodies and regrouping to return to base. On this note, I got extremely busy attempting to find them water. With both first platoon and third platoon on base with a limited amount of water, supply started to decrease rapidly. For an hour and a half, there was only a single half-filled container of water between both platoons.  People resorted to getting water from a faucet in town which (I believe) caused a lot of people from first to become ill for whatever reason. Eventually, the Milsim West staff did regain control the water shortage and I got wind of the staging area having an entire pallet worth of water cases. While getting everyone water, I became dangerously dehydrated myself and also injured my legs and back from constantly lifting and carrying awkward shaped canisters of water. Luckily, Nick Day gave me a reality check and had me sit and relax for a while.

Around 1700, shit started hitting the fan. First platoon started taking contact from the south-east side of town. As first platoon made a move to push the Russians out, a section worth of third platoon came rolling in as QRF and provided much needed support. Too bad this was a trick to pull attention away from the north side of town where a platoon or two worth of Cossacks and Russians came rolling in surprising NATO and Commonwealth Forces. First and third platoon came thundering back pushing the Russian and Cossacks out of town. The conflict was intense in a TACSIM sort of way but it lacked essence. I remember being with Andrew Combs, a teammate of mine, who was about to begin engaging forces on a ridge. We saw two Cossacks approaching from the northwest side of the town near the connexes with their guns up in the air with two hands as if they were dead. Andrew distinctively yelled “are you dead?” They ignored the question and continued with their guns above their heads. All of a sudden, they lowered their guns and ran towards the connexes blind firing and spraying in full auto. All Andrew and I could do is roll our eyes. Andrew ended up jumping out of a window while I tried to identify myself as media. I stepped out expecting to get shot, and I did with a face full of BB’s. I waved at them and yelled at the top of my voice “UN media” which resulted in more BB’s to my body and the “call your hits you stupid [insert Asian related word here]”. All I could do is cover my camera and run. There was no spirit of the game with them.

After getting out of the death trap that was the connexes, I ran towards the middle of the town where I witnessed the gruesome death of my teammate Zooka man (Andrew Combs) from incoming artillery. Seriously though, the pyro used by the Milsim West staff was absolutely top notch. I remember one of the big pyros they set off shook the ground beneath me. Since there was no blank fire allowed per range control, Milsim West really stepped up their pyro game. I really questioned if Milsim West was going to be able to match the atmosphere provided by blank fire. I will never again question this again. So. Many. Explosions. The fight took half an hour to complete and people were thoroughly happy.

The Milsim West staff were able to adjust fire and address first platoon's lack of action. They ended up giving first platoon a very crucial night mission. NATO and Commonweath forces were able to capture and detain Russian prisoners. First platoon was tasked with sending out a section sized force to ambush the Russian/Cossack recovery team sent to recover the HVT. A squad sized element was to be left behind as QRF. Since first platoon was extremely short on shooters due to illness, I was asked to step up and carry a glock for “self-defense”. This escalated to a 240 since Abe went out and bought the platoon pizza in an attempt to make people feel better about the day. Seriously though, thanks to Abe for really going above and beyond and trying to really make light of Saturday. Sadly, we didn’t see any combat as the ambush team was able to defeat an enemy patrol as well as eliminate a friendly patrol who engaged the Ambush team. Near bedtime, news went around that “if NATO/Commonwealth forces were eliminated, then we would not be permitted to sleep in the MOUT town”. With this on my shoulders, I decided to go to bed as my injuries and exhaustion screamed “stop and rest”.

At around 0200, I woke to people running into the building screaming “help! Russian forces have taken out half of NATO forces.” I was angry. To me, this was where airsoft stops and safety begins Everyone had to drive to the AO. If people don’t get enough sleep then people are going to be driving home drowsy. I decided to channel this anger to “I’m not freaking sleeping in the forest.” My buddy Zakk Dunn drowsily woke up and geared up in a daze. As he walked towards me, I slapped him a couple times yelling “I need you to wake up”. I grabbed Garrett Yzaguirre’s 416 and a few spare mags and prepared my angus for a real fight. I expected the place to be crawling with Russians and Cossacks with NATO MCE’d. Instead there was no enemy combatant in sight and no one was dead on NATO. I was extremely ticked. Abe went up to me and we decided to stay up and keep fire watch for first platoon. For a good thirty minutes, we saw no contact and witnessed the people, who woke us up, sneak away and go off to bed.

Waking up was totally worth it. In boredom, Abe mentioned jokingly that he wanted to use his NOD’s so bad that he didn’t care if we sat in the forest. Next thing you know, we were setting up an LPOP on the hill overlooking the north side of the town. After setting up, I looked back at one of my mates who was on line and I, luckily, spotted four or so Cossacks. I turned back to Zakk whispering “Zakk contact! Zakk!” At first he didn’t believe me because the LPOP was meant to be a joke and something to relieve the boredom but as he turned to me he gasped “Khang, what… oh my god!” We snuck back to Abe and Ryan Mudd’s position and moved against the Cossack harassment patrol. We watched as they entered a connex, pull out maps, plan out their attack, and exfil from the connex. Abe and Zakk were able to get within 20 feet of the Cossacks while I flanked around to create a really two sided ambush. We were able to quickly and menacingly eliminate the harassment patrol. While searching the Cossacks, I went up to the leader and asked to search him. He gave me an audible “yes”. I asked if he had maps, a notebook and BB’s on him. He responded “no.” I, then, asked if I was allowed to search his jacket breast pocket (which we saw had the map, and notebook). He gave me an audible “no”, stood up and left even though I told him I wasn't done searching. Again… the spirit of the game was definitely missing.

Abe, Zakk and I stayed awake until 0700. After some time, I sent Mudd off to bed and was eventually joined by Drew Kazanis, who assisted in eliminating the same Cossack from earlier but this time, he barred himself in a Connex. We engaged him when he randomly and suddenly ran down the hill into the Connex. Upon entering, Drew and I were immediately taken out. After taking time side to check the large bleeding welt I got from his “hot” rifle, Abe was able to revive me and along with Zakk, we were able to trick the Cossack to retreating by throwing an empty magazine and yelling “frag out” then immediately breaching and spamming every corner of the connex until they surrendered. After that, the enemy force slowly decreased their harassments. We owned that night. At 0700, we went to bed and I ended up sharing an unzipped sleeping bag with Abe since someone was occupying my sleeping bag.

We woke up at 0900 or so in a groggy daze. We were beat. After thirty minutes of getting ready, I realized that my Nikon batteries and my charger were missing. There was no way they got up and walked away and I have yet to find them in my ruck. There goes about 80 dollars worth of batteries. As a result, I was not able to get any footage on Sunday and ended up acting as the UN observer attached to first platoon. As everyone began making breakfast, two technicals and a deuce and a half raced up the MSR carrying a large force of Russian combatants. Chaos ensued It was shoot or die. I ended up grabbing the 9^th Group LAW tube from the floor and after yelling a very theatrical “back-blast clear”, I sent a TAG round right in between two technicals a large amount of Russians. The resulting firefight was the most intense firefight I have ever seen at a Milsim West game. Since it was a Sunday, it was the last day for the staff to set off pyro… so they dropped as many as possible. There were so many explosions it wasn’t even funny. The fighting eventually stalemated at the courtyard but the back and forth between the two sides was incredible. Eventually NATO forces were able to regain ground and push the Russians back out of the town.

Right after pushing the Russians out of town, first platoon was sent on a mission to go around the lake and eliminate any enemy forces that we encountered. It turns out that first platoon only had 15 people out of the original 30+ but we made it work. Led by Warren, a Milsim West Director, we were able to push all the way to the rendezvous point mentioned at the beginning of the game. Here I decided that I needed to end in glorious manner and akimbo’d a 1911 and and glock 19 while screaming “UN Media” and defending Task Force Nessie patches.

Even though I really touched on the gloomy portions of the event, I felt that the event was really good. Minus the water issue and the lack of honesty and integrity in some individuals, the event deserves a strong 8/10 with me. Sustains would include the amount of pyro used, the quality of cadre, and the quality of firefights due to excellent planning. Some improves would be the supply (with water and BB’s – Garrett Yzaguirre checked in expensive white 0.43’s and they were never seen again… even after the event), stronger emphasis on integrity and enjoying yourself rather than seeing the game as a “win-lose” scenario which leads to dishonesty and lack of integrity because even though it isn't the staff's fault that players were gaming the system and not being honorable, the responsibly lies on the staff to promote a more honorable culture and the "spirit of the game", as well as making the game a bit more dynamic and wholesome. What I mean by this is that the entire experience felt somewhat hollow, as if it was missing something. I feel like if a town is utilized then maybe consider having role players to make the game more interactive and to encourage the “spirit of the game” more.  Again, overall this was a really fun event. I might sound really salty or crusty in some sections but that was in relation to the fact that I am exhausted while typing this. This was meant to help the Milsim West staff pinpoint sustains and improvements while also really flexing my opinion on the game.

Thank you for reading!

Tech Tip: Joule and FPS - An Explanation of the Differences and Joule Creep

This video was meant to educate airsofters about joules and FPS, the differences between the two and joule creeping. It also explains why gas guns and HPA powered guns (such as polarstars) joule creep as well as the need to joule creep in DSG builds.

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Tech Tip: How to Install an Rhop (Z-Kit Method) - Part 2 – Flat Hopping and M-Nub Installation

This is a video on how to install the Rhop z-kit with the z-kit specific method. This video will focus  on how to flat hop and m-nub install while part 1 covers how to install the actual rhop patch (the z-kit).

Note: I apologize for the out of focus video. I use a manual macro lens that doesn't have any autofocus. I will double check my setup next time!

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Tech Tip: How to Install an Rhop (Z-Kit Method) - Part 1 - Patch Installation

This is a video on how to install the Rhop z-kit with the z-kit specific method. This video will focus on the actual rhop patch itself while part 2 covers how to flat hop and m-nub install.

Clarification about Range:

I realized that I never explained more details about my "330 foot" claim. This range was not flat or even skirmish-able. This was obtained through arcing the gun then dialing up the hopup until it arced a large amount. This is the absolute farthest I could get it to shoot. Its not skirmish-able since it arcs incredibly high at 250 feet. This range was obtained through the Simmons LRF 600 Laser Range Finder with tilt adjustment. This range finder doesn't account for elevation very well which may skew the numbers (the area was pretty even but it's still a variable).

K-21 Tech Ramble: Hop-Ups and the Magnus Effect

Working On a Mk43 Hop-Up

Introduction

I’ll be bold and say that in my two years in teching airsoft guns, I have found that the most important gun’s internal system is not the gear train or the air compression system, or the electrical assembly but the hop-up. The term “hop-up” refers to the system attached to the inner barrel that provides BB’s flight. This flight is traditionally amplified by a rubber or silicone bump or patch that is designed to make contact with the BB in order to make it spin counterclockwise. In layman’s terms, this counterclockwise motion is known as backspin. The hop-up’s result is most tangible when you watch your BB’s either soar and float in the air a great distance or when you watch your BB’s go limp fish and poop out of your barrel. In other words, the hop-up is the most important factor when it comes to increasing range and accuracy The hop-up is one of the most assessable systems in your gun (mostly – dependent on the system you are running) and is often one of the first places someone begins teching. Mastering how to manipulate and modify your hop-up is one of the key steps to becoming a solid tech. I mean you could master shimming to the point that your gearbox is virtually silent but that’s absolutely pointless if your BB’s are dropping 100 feet from you with five foot groupings.

Prowin Hop-Up System

Magnus Effect and How a Hop-Up Works

The key to understanding the hop-up is to understand the underlying theory behind how the hop-up works and how it provides your BB flight so let’s just jump right into it. When your BB is projected from your barrel, it instantly meets resistance in the form of air. The air’s effect on a spinning projectile is known as the Magnus Effect (or also known as the Magnus Force). This Magnus Effect is the fundamental physics theory behind projecting airsoft BB’s. To save you, the reader, from a lot of unnecessary reading and headaches, I am going to sum this up to a few key ideas:

• If the object is spinning clockwise (top spin), the air’s force is pushing the BB downwards causing the BB to drop quickly and dramatically.
•  If the object is spinning counterclockwise (back spin), the air’s force is pushing the BB upwards causing the BB to arc and rise before dropping
• In airsoft, the Magnus Effect can be amplified or deteriorated by how the contact point makes contact with the BB, how long the contact is for, and how much positive pressure the contact point has.

Remember that when we refer to the Magnus Effect, it only refers to the hop-up and the hop-up alone since the hop-up actually provides Magnus Force for the BB. The barrel is not truly part of the Magnus Effect and therefore the effects of barrel length and inner diameter isn’t part of this discussion.

Classic JG Guide to Adjust Hop-Up

When a magazine is loaded into a gun’s magwell, the BB’s are forced into a tube known as a feeding port. From the feeding port, BB’s are single stacked and pushed into the hop-up chamber, one at a time, by an air nozzle. This air nozzle pushes the BB past the lips of a bucking – a rubber or silicone (or any other soft material) cylinder that is designed to provide backspin for a BB as well as provide air compression to ensure that the air flow is single directional. After passing the lips of the bucking, the BB will pass another portion of the bucking known as the bucking’s bump. This bump is a lump of material that is designed to make contact with the BB to force backspin in order to take advantage of the Magnus Force. This bucking bump is assisted by the hop-up arm (or lever) which is normally a polymer arm that can be adjusted to the user’s preference. At the end of the arm is an object known as a nub. The nub is any material that puts positive pressure on the hop-up bucking. By adjusting the arm, you can determine how much positive pressure you want on your bucking.

How to Take Advantage of the Magnus Effect

So the question comes down to “how do we take full advantage of the Magnus Effect”. To take advantage of the Magnus Effect, we need to fulfil the following criteria:

• Type of contact on the contact point
• Quality of contact on the contact point
•  Length of contact on the contact point
• Quality of positive pressure on the contact point

Now, airsoft gun manufacturers will not go out of their way to produce a good that isn’t cost effective. In fact, it is cost effective for them to only take advantage of incremental innovations such as the V-Hop or the H-Hop purely so they can lower marketing costs (beyond the financial – searching, and resource). As a result, most hop-up innovations can be sourced from the community. There are a lot of DIY projects that is focused on taking advantage of the Magnus Effect. Below are some of the most popular and famous types of modification, both DIY and mass produced. Note that this list is not all inclusive and that this is my opinion of the most popular and famous hop-up modifications.

• U-Hop

• The U-Hop is the most fundamental and basic hop-up design on the market. It is literally a bump of material on the hop-up bucking. The positive pressure on the hop-up is normally provided by a cylinder shaped rubber nub. This design is fundamentally good but lacking modern innovation. All airsoft companies produce these in varying degrees of quality.
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  Standard bucking and nub configuration

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•   V-Hop/Nubs

• The V-Hop looks like a U-Hop with a split down the middle of the bump. The focus of the V-Hop is to center the BB to maximize stabilization and eliminate variability in the BB’s flight. This elimination in variability helps amplify the Magnus Effect.  
  
  

  

  Classic V-Hop

  
  

  

  
  

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•  H-Hop

• The H-Hop focuses on the nub rather than the bucking. The nub looks something like an hour glass. The idea of the H-Hop is similar to the V-Hop. It is designed to center the BB to maximize stabilization and eliminate variability in the BB’s flight. This elimination in variability helps amplify the Magnus Effect. However, the H-Hop is designed to curve around the BB rather than having two rigid contact points which gives it more contact surface.
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The weaknesses of these two methods are the contact period with the BB. The amount of time the BB actually spends in contact with the hop-up is extremely minimal. This results in a shift from circular groupings to oval shaped groupings. The multiple contact point’s idea causes more centered backspin, but a less consistent amount of backspin leading to more vertical groupings.

Flat Hopping a Bucking

• Flat Hop

• The flat hop focuses on increasing the length of contact. By elongating contact, the BB’s flight is amplified since the elongated contact adds faster backspin. This results in long range and the Magnus Effect being amplified. This modification can be done by flipping your current bucking inside out and removing the bump. After this, you need to install a rectangular nub. This will even the amount of positive pressure throughout the entire contact space. In fact, whenever you elongate contact, you must use a flat hop nub or something of the sort. As of recent, there are mass production attempts at the flat hop with decent success. The Maple Leaf bucking is one that comes to mind but further detail will be saved for a future review down the road.

Prometheus Purple DIY Flat Hopped Bucking (Work in Progress)

Maple Leaf's Decent "Proprietary" Design

• G-Hop

• The G-Hop is essentially gluing pieces of bucking together in order to make a longer contact patch. This is one of the first uses of “patches” that went into the barrel windows. The patch would be made of different buckings. I won’t go into this too much since I only attempted this about three times and I found that this type of hop-up was prone to install inconsistencies and reliant on each piece staying glued. 
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Finished G-Hop

• J-Hop

• The J-Hop is actually one of my favorites. The J-Hop traditionally uses materials such as silicone filament in order to fill the barrel window. The goal of the J-Hop is to create a customized mold to perfectly install a contact patch. This patch theoretically will make the BB more accurate since it's shaped exactly to the barrel. The only issue with this is that it is time consuming and the traditional materials are not very durable.
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J-Hop Work in Progress

• R-Hop

• The R-Hop is the most popular and famous among the highest of teching sub-communities. After experimenting with the G-Hop, Hunterseeker5 created a patch made out of certain materials that elongate contact as well as provide concave contact for the BB. The exact material is unknown (but close estimates have been found) and the R-Hop has spawned its own theory known as the “wobble hypothesis” to explain its success. It's important to note that the wobble hypothesis borrows heavily from the Magnus Effect. 
  The R-Hop is a durable way to separate the air seal component of the hop-up bucking from the contact component of the hop-up bucking while still drastically increasing range and accuracy. To sum up why HS5 believes the R-Hop is so successful, “when fired the R-hop's extended contact and concavity prevent the round from shifting side to side or up and down.” This shifting that HS5 is referring to is from the variability in each BB. Each BB is not made equally (as in each BB has a sizing and weight variance) which has led to a fundamental issue with range and accuracy. HS5 believes that he has minimized BB “wobble” with the R-hop’s design.
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R-Hop Work in Progress

Now, realize that I went over a ton of information so don’t feel bad if this is blowing your mind. It is a lot of information to soak in at once. However, realize that your understanding of the Magnus Effect will effectively make you a better theoretical tech and it will allow you to more appropriately tech on your airsoft guns better. 

Milsim West: Darial Outpost - 2nd Platoon Medic Perspective

My experiences at Milsim West's Darial Outpost

Milsim West. The premier host of milsim activities in the Pacific Northwest. With successes such as Breakout Barbaria, Darial Gate, and Crimean Crisis (to name a few), how does Darial Outpost stand on Milsim West’s impressive repertoire?

Darial Outpost was the sequel to Darial Gate and follows Milsim West’s tradition of using a linear story for multiple events. After attending Crimean Crisis (which also followed the Darial Gate storyline), I was quite excited to sign up for Darial Outpost. Sean Lai had boasted about how Darial Gate was the best event that Milsim West has ever hosted (ignoring the fact that the area of operation is visually appealing). I knew I had a lot of planning ahead of me and a lot of work to do on my ruck (and kit) because of my recent admission onto 9th Group as a probie. This included researching and collecting resources to sustain myself for three days (since I have never camped before) and to update my kit to a semi-proper Combat Applications Group Impression. Thank god I built a solid relationship with Alphonzo Hall and Zakk Dunn who were great resources on both subject matters. I felt that I would have been unprepared otherwise.

My Darial Outpost kit (doesn't include my TSSI m9 Medical bag or my ruck)

The week before Darial Outpost, I had finals and graduation. This left me very little time to get ready for the event. After coming home early Friday morning (the day of the event), I should have had a few hours of sleep before my voyage to Leavenworth, Washington. However, this timeframe was used to jerry-rig my USGI sleep system onto my Tactical Tailor 3 Day Pack. Needless to say, I am fed up with the Tactical Tailor 3 Day and I already plan on getting a Mystery Ranch. After an uneventful five hour trip where my GPS decided that taking back roads going 40-50 mph was faster than going 70-75 mph on the freeway, I arrived at the USfor parking area. It seemed that showing up at 1400 was a bit too early since I showed up at the parking area with my driver side window down belching Rihanna’s “California King Bed” to only Matt Robb and Sam Roth. It was great to be around milsim minded airsofters again. After talking for a bit, J. Warren, a member of the company’s leadership and a Milsim West Director, told Beetus, Sam and I to get our stuff together and start on the registration process. I felt like it was a lot more organized this time around. At Crimean Crisis, the registration process was confusing and not very well handled since the registration process was spread throughout an entire complex. At this event, it was condensed into a smaller area (mostly because of working area was smaller and the working area had to accommodate vehicles and gear). This made the registration process a lot more streamlined and easier to run through. It was very fitting that at the end of my registration process, Rushing Russians - Spetsgruppa Alfa, showed up in a white mini-van spewing Potat gossip and sporting their downward pointing “fuck Chechnya” “gang signs” while bottoming out their van in the ditch that separated the parking lot from the road. Why was it fitting? Alphonzo Hall, Alfa Probie and a good buddy of mine, tackled me as soon as the van doors opened. I should have realized that this was the trash dog’s way of foreshadowing the RusFed forces steamrolling USfor all weekend.

Zakk waiting for things to start

After registering, Sam Roth – Baker 2-3 squad leader, taught me very basic land navigation and went through the Milsim West issued map with us. I also ran around getting accountability of people who were showing up since Brown, our platoon leader, was not showing up for a while. After about four or five hours of hanging out with 9th Group guys, and a flat tire on our “helicopter” (a janky trailer pulled by a truck), we finally inserted into the AO at nearly 2100. There was no moonlight at all. It was truly pitch black broken up by a vast array of stars and the occasional lack of light discipline. We made our way up to the COP, losing Baker 2-3 along the way. After a few minutes of confusion, I was tasked to take Zakk Dunn and Garrett Yzaguirre to recover our lost personnel. Long story short, by utilizing our various assets (including Duck Balls – 7’s and Ghost Hunter -7’s), we were able to find our missing squad. Talk about owning the night.

The AO... absolutely amazing

As mentioned, RusFed ran over USfor continuously all Saturday. However, I wasn’t part of any of these. 2nd platoon was not part of this at all. After sleeping for four sporadic hours broken up by the occasional skirmishes staged probe our defenses, 2nd platoon woke up at 0600 sharp and relieved the wary night watch. After a quick tutorial from Ben Brison, 2nd’s PSG, and Nick Day, 1st squad’s ATL, about how to properly fill and stack sandbags and the macro-perspective of forming fighting positions, all of 2nd platoon began the tenuous job of providing security for the COP, which included developing and fortifying fighting positions. To put it in layman’s terms, we dug trenches and filled sandbags. Nick also had the idea of hanging sniper veils using sticks to partially cover certain areas to provide more cover. I ran around with Ben Brison to each and every fighting hole helping with sandbags and making sure no one was slacking off. Eventually, after two hours, the drive to continuously improve our fighting positions disappeared as people were showing signs of boredom and fatigue. It was only 0800. 1st platoon were barely waking and 3rd platoon were still napping in their sleeping systems. This was also about the time when the sun started showing and shining all nice and hot-like. Airframes, and PCU level 5’s were quickly being stripped in favor of boonies and combat shirts. It was warming up fast. My job naturally transitioned from helping coordinate the improvement effort of each fighting hole to making sure no one became a casualty of the heat. As noon started rolling around, I had a nice system going. For four hours, I was making runs every 30 minutes to each fighting position supplying water and offering my personal supply of protein and carb enriched foods to keep motivation and moral as high as possible. From what I saw, one of the 3rd squad bravo team members (the youngest in the platoon) yielded to the heat and was resting in the single tent that provided the COP a single source of shade. I burned through my personal and Milsim West issued “magical medical” water in a span of three hours and I ended up asking people to ration out water to different groups who were short on liquids since they either packed less than what they needed or burned through their own supply. Noon felt different from the rest of the day. The heat was getting to everyone. Besides the occasional break in silence caused by an admin’s ATV, and Ben and the JTAC throwing a Pea grenade at me, no one spoke. It was hot and there wasn’t enough water on base to keep everyone going.

The single tent

However, right at 1200, Warren and his mighty chariot (an ATV) rolled up right at noon with three large packs of Safeway Refreshe Water Bottles (24 Packs). It was like the scene from Lorax, the movie, where they opened the bottles of air and color instantly rushed back into the world. The COP just sprung alive. Ben, the bison, was back up on his feet and our JTAC and SERE Specialist started going at his Skoal with more vigor. Soon, even more ATV’s showed up and water became less of an issue. I ran around to each and every one of the fighting positions throwing water bottles at everyone making sure they force hydrated. Garrett Yzaguirre did make an interesting comment which caught me off guard. I don’t remember exactly what he said but it made me realize that I was the one that was about to suffer from heat CAS. I popped a squat next to Zakk Dunn, Logan Thorning, and Garrett Yzaguirre and just chugged water and had lunch. Our discussions were fantastic and some time had passed. All of a sudden, I hear rustling bushes behind me. I turned to look and saw a yellow object land right at my hand. All I could think of was “oh shit”. I jump right over a trench and a pile of sandbags and took cover. I saw Logan and Garrett land on either side of me as a yellow TAG grenade exploded. Poor Zakk. I think he was taking a nap. I began to make a move towards my blaster as our covert-he-shall-not-be-named JTAC friend and Ben Brison laughing their asses off. God damn it, I swear these two were a bigger threat than the Russians.  

Not sure if Ben is calling a fire mission on me or the enemy...

So you are probably wondering, what the heck was this JTAC guy doing and how he was important to Task Force Archangel’s movement at “Darial Gorge”? Well, you see, this JTAC was in charge of receiving fire missions and delivering indirect fire via 60mm mortar rounds. This mortar was the highlight of my entire event. I would have paid to just sit there and watch this bad boy go off. The tube was incredibly realistic and the sabot was ingenious. I never got closer than five feet but from what I could see, the sabot was designed to hold a 12 gauge shotgun blank and when it was dropped into the incredibly realistic mortar tube, a firing pin would strike the blank causing a very convincing burst of energy and sound. A few seconds later, the “volley of rounds” would land on the designated coordinate that Mr. JTAC had calculated. Just to note, Mr. JTAC had to also calculate angle, and direction that the mortar had to be facing. One of the most iconic moments in the event was when a Russian mortar unit climbed a section of rough terrain known as “Cardinal” and began shelling us. This caused significant casualties which I had to help. I even dived on an injured patient since there were rounds landing near us causing me to become causality as well. Mr. JTAC and the Russian mortar team battled it out for nearly an hour with skill and precision that could only be obtained by attending ten John Lu events (ignoring all the military training that Mr. JTAC had). Eventually Mr. JTAC landed one square in the middle of the Russian mortar team, destroying the mortar and killing everyone but one. I already got my money’s worth right there and I never even fired a single BB.

Mr. JTAC and friends raining freedom with the 'merika cannon

Eventually, 2nd platoon was rotated out on patrol into the “Cardinal” area and everyone was hyped and ready to go. Motivation was high and you could see people ready to “take it to the enemy”. We did have a technical with a mounted 240 that could be used to help with our violence of action against the enemy. It didn’t really help. After moving half a mile down one of the main roads, we came into contact with Rushing Russians - Spetsgruppa Alfa. They were not happy. As I learned after the event, they were apparently eating lunch or some shit when we came strolling by. This angered them and as a result, we got our shit rocked.

It was dead quiet then all of a sudden 7.62 blank fire opened up and BB’s started flying. I saw a few people go down. Ben and I instantly ran to the side of the road and took cover. I dragged a causality into the ditch I was in and told a person passing by to help with buddy aid as I linked up with 3rd squad alpha team who was making a push forward. This was foolish. What I should have done was hang back about an additional 100-200 feet of where I was and set up a casualty collection point (CCP). Instead I decided to be a proper BB war hero and try to go towards the patients rather than having them brought to me. As I made my way to the closest causality that required my attention, I made eye contact with a person in a partisan suit. I knew him. Alphonzo Hall. I made eye contact with my future roommate as he shot me right in between my eyes. I screamed and acted out my kill as 3rd squad bravo team clear out the swamp area Alphonzo was in. 

Garrett getting ready to head out on patrol

Eventually someone passing by finally provided me aid and I was back in the fight. This is where you would think I would sprint back 200 feet to set up a CCP. Nope. I instead sprinted back to the opposite end of the road about 20 feet and set up a CCP there. People were healed and started moving back while a mix of 1st squad alpha team and the 3rd squad leader provided cover. Here I would like to take a moment to mention CF112 who was shot for the third and last time. Rest in pieces CF112, you and your blank fire rifle will be missed.

A view from the technical

Anyways, as we began moving back, I noticed that people were running past a member of USfor who was shot and down. What happened to leaving no man behind? I voiced this out to 1^st squad alpha team, who rallied together and made our way slowly towards the patient. After some extremely effective bounding we were able to extract him and a few other people with the help of 3rd squad, who provided rear security during extraction.

I don't think they like our decision to fall back

From here, my time at Darial Outpost began dwindling down. After a little while, my team’s leader had to leave because of personal reasons (emergency related) as well as Garrett, Zakk Dunn and Logan (health related). Sadly, I had to leave as well because of personal reasons. I guess someone decided that my unoccupied house would be great to burglarize. All in all, the event was a success. It lived up to its standard of “milsim” and its focus on realism was outstanding. One of the only improvements I would ever offer to the Milsim West staff is to make the chain of command more transparent. I still to this day don’t know who our commanding officer was.

Until next time! 

Kit versus Skill: Why does Impressionism Exist

So as I am sitting here reading an article in the New York Times about “Qaeda Militants Seeking Syria Bases” enjoying my subpar Chinese food in a stereotypical box with stereotypical Chinese architecture plastered on the front and back, and Starburst Jelly Beans, I suddenly remembered that my friend and Task Force Kilo XO, Drew Kazanis, has recently posted a blog about some topic I found interesting but just couldn’t find the time to read. It was scandalous. His “Kit versus Skill” post was not good read and not eye opening. It was full of the standard arguments that any other “speedsofter” has. I apologize for the derogatory and offensive term but I am just livid. He dare questions the majestic nature of the Crye CAGE Plate Carrier (CPC) and the godliness of Project: Odin, a “tricked out” m4 as Drew would put it. Everyone knows that you perform as well as your gear and he dare question that logic that has been standing for thousands of years. Wood beat the fist. Stone beat wood. Bronze beat stone. Iron beat bronze. Steel beat Iron. Gun beat steel and Drew is beaten by high grade polymer from a KWA. 

If you couldn’t tell, most of the above was sarcastic. In fact, the only thing that wasn’t sarcastic was the beginning involving the stomach turning Chinese and Drew writing a post about “Kit versus Skill”. You can find the blog post here:

http://justacrazyairsofter.blogspot.com/2014/03/kit-vs-skill.html

Most of his points are valid. In the end, a $100 dollar Crye Precision vertical 5.56 magazine pouch is a pouch that holds magazines. A CPC is a carrier that is designed to hold plates. However, what I will be doing is defending and justifying the “kit” perspective of the argument just to provide a more holistic perspective.

The “hardcore” milsim world can be categorized to be known as impressionism. Impressionists attempt to recreate actual military kits based on reference pictures. These kits can span any decade or era and any military unit around the world. Some of the most popular kits are modern United States Special Forces, including but not limited to Parajumpers, Rangers, Army Special Forces, Combat Applications Group (CAG), Devgru (Seal Team 6), Navy Seals, etc. Other kits span from Russian kits including FSB based kits, as well as SASR, and UKSF. Hardcore impressionists, attempt to recreate the most realistic kits possible regardless of time and money. This includes getting details right down to the pack and the IFAK.

Drew’s argument focuses on the “gearwhoring” portion of an impressionist. Its true, there are people who collect gear and never play or play so poorly that they are routed by six year olds playing cops and robbers with finger pistols. However, that’s mostly not the case. Impressionists are typically motivated to not only creating the most realistic kit possible but they are also motivated to perform in a very organized and militaristic fashion. This motivation spawns from them performing well above average at various large events that require militaristic organization in order to maintain event integrity. I can attest to this with my experience from Milsim West: Crimean Crisis. Our platoon was all extremely motivated Impressionists who drilled during our “off-time” in order to better ourselves for the event. We, then became an extremely effective platoon that was an asset for the Company and before you even argue that impressionists wear pointless gear, all of my “pointless” gear such cobra cuffs and chemlights were used at Crimean Crisis.

This can also be measured with psychology. The behavioral model (the basis of all behavior) argues that there are two routes to determining a person’s behavior, nature and nurture. Nature is more of the “I’m born with it” aspect where behavior is thought to be genetic and there is Nurture where people believe that behavior spawns from “influences and experiences” throughout a person’s life. Both routes do have a motivation factor. No matter if you are “born” with an attitude or you developed an attitude over time, motivation equates to an amplified amount of desire. This desire, then, amplifies the behavior’s quantity and quality. This means that the behavior from impressionists are amplified from motivation and they tend to be the ones who push themselves the hardest on the field and the ones who listens to orders the most.

This off-time drilling did come off at elitist, which is what I think, is the problem with impressionism. Although most are good people, some do come off as elitist and full of themselves. This could be the reason why perception of performance is skewed. The kit, coupled with the typical type A personality, can give the appearance that the person is cocky and elitist.

As much as I debate with Drew, I realize that he does have a point. Impressionism does have weak points. However, comparing kit and skill is like comparing apple and oranges. You can’t really compare them, you can only find a time and a place for them. Milsim type events every weekend would be dull while always having speedsofting games would be very dull as well. No one ever said that having kit and skill was mutually exclusive. You can have kit and the motivation as well as the skill and the tenacity. If you don't agree... well the picture below just says it all.