AEG | BOLT AKM!

Hi all! 

Welcome back to the blog! Today I’m back with another review. I know we’ve been waiting for a while for this but it was worth the wait! In this review, we’re going to be looking at the new AKM by BOLT from Extreme Airsoft! BOLT has said they’ve utilised a brand new internal design to improve on past imperfections that we saw previously in the BOLT range, but let’s see for ourselves! 

Photoshoot image - replica is unloaded with no power source.

BOLT’s new AKM has been designed to have the strongest recoil simulation system in the world - their patent-pending BOLT Recoil Shock System or the B.R.S.S for short. This AEG is mostly constructed from stamped Steel, Aluminium, Zinc, with a real wood handguard and fixed stock, and a bakelite grip to make it more realistic and give it a good weight. It weighs in at around 3.4KG so she is a hefty gal! As for length, she’s also packing - she measures in at 91cm! There isn’t that much information available on the internet for this AEG so I can’t give you a full rundown of the internals, but we know it has the B.R.S.S system to give a realistic blowback, it has an adjustable hop-up to aid in accuracy, has 3 firing modes (safe, semi and automatic) and it is recommended that it runs on an 11.1V Li-Po. 

Upon opening the box, we are presented with a bright red inner, and the AKM is there in all her glory alongside a boxed mid-cap magazine, an unjamming rod, and the all-important manual. The replica is secured down but is easily released. As soon as you have the AKM in your hands it feels high quality and durable - this isn’t a flimsy, cheap polymer airsoft gun. The real wood handguard and stock give it a feeling of authenticity. The Bakelite grip is textured to give the user more grip even when using gloves and in wet/cold conditions. Due to the weight and the length of this AEG, it’s not the ideal replica for CQB, and would definitely be more suited to an urban or woodland environment. 

In terms of usability, it is pretty easy to get set up. The battery is housed in the stock and all you have to do is swivel the butt plate and the compartment is revealed. Included in the box is a 130 round mid-cap magazine which is what I used for the fire test - it is pretty nice that this comes with a mid-cap rather than the usual high capacity magazines that are usually included with airsoft guns. It is also compatible with high-cap magazines. As I have quite a small frame (5”4 for context), it was a little awkward for me to shoulder at first but this wouldn’t be a problem for someone taller. It chronos pretty consistently at 340 FPS which is more than enough for most sites in the UK. It fires with no issues on both semi-auto and full-auto (and has a good rate of fire too). You can check out my fire test on TikTok here! The recoil is pretty impressive, it gives a good solid kick to the shoulder with each cycle of the piston and is much more realistic than the kick you would get from an electric recoil gun. So I think this is definitely something to take a look at if you’re looking for a replica that will add a little more realism to your gameplay. The recoil definitely adds another element of fun to your game as well. In some previous BOLT models, they had a tendency to sound like they were literally shaking themselves apart but this sounds and feels solid. 

Long gal in the hands of a short gal 😂

One thing I did notice about the AKM however after recording a slo-mo video of the recoil system, the force of the recoil is so violent that it makes the rear sight jump up and down. This isn’t really noticeable to the naked eye, but it is there. I don’t think this impacts the use of the sight, it just looks pretty funny. 

This isn’t on the Extreme Airsoft website just yet, but is available in-store! As I’ve said, in the box you get the BOLT AKM AEG, a midcap magazine, an unjamming rod and the manual. It is pretty pricey - which isn’t surprising given the technology within it. It retails for just shy of £600. I think this AEG will be perfect for a collector or someone who was to add a hint of realism to their game 

You can save 5% on online purchases with the code ‘femmefatale21’ 

Post sponsored by Extreme Airsoft

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AIRSOFT 101 | WHAT IS AIRSOFT?

Hi friends!

Welcome back to the blog! Today, we're going back to basics. ‘What is airsoft?’ is a question that we in the hobby hear all the time so, in this new ‘Airsoft 101 post’ we’re going to break down what exactly airsoft is and what the different styles of airsoft are. 

Airsoft, simply put, is a game of simulated gun combat that is played around the world by people of all ages, genders, backgrounds, etc in which the objective is to eliminate their opponents using plastic BBs.

Airsoft is similar to paintball (as much as airsofters protest!), in the way that people team up at a dedicated, insured airsoft site to shoot small projectiles at each other for fun and sport. Where airsoft differs, however, is that airsoft is intended to be much more realistic than paintball, in the clothes we wear and the replicas that we use. Whilst paintball markers typically don’t look like “real” guns (unless you are playing Magfed), airsoft RIFs (Realistic Imitation Firearms) are, 99% of the time, modeled after genuine firearms and are almost indistinguishable from the real thing. The players, depending on their style of airsoft are also more likely to wear realistic military gear, including plate carriers, chest rigs, helmets, etc to look more ‘realistic’. 

As there is no paint in Airsoft, how do we know if we’ve been hit or are out? Airsoft is a game of honour. When you’ve been hit by another player, there’s no visible mark, so it’s down to the player to call themselves out. Not calling a hit is classed as cheating, and cheaters aren't welcome in our hobby.

Now of course there are different styles of airsoft as not everyone wants to dress realistically or even wants to shoot at/be shot at by other players, so let’s chat about those: 

Skirmish 

Primarily there’s skirmishing. An airsoft skirmish (otherwise known as a game day/walk on/pick-up game) typically consists of two teams, shooting at each other whilst in a combat scenario - these scenarios can simply be a team deathmatch or have more complicated objectives such as capturing a flag. This is how most players get started in the sport. 

MilSim 

‘MilSim’ is similar to a skirmish but it is more focused on the Military Simulation aspect. During a MilSim, players will be organised into teams, that have command structures and they will be given taskings/objectives to complete. MilSims are usually longer - running anywhere from 24 hours to 72 hours of continuous play. 

BattleSim 

Battlesims are essentially shorter Milsims, think all-day events that are usually played for 8 to 12 hours, although can be longer.

AIPSC 

AIPSC is a target shooting sport. AIPSC shooters use airsoft guns to shoot at paper and metal targets whilst being timed/scored according to particular rules. There are shooting clubs around the world that compete in AIPSC competitions. 

Speedsoft 

Speedsoft is the airsoft equivalent of paintball’s speedball. A fast-paced tournament-like game that disregards the military aspect and instead focuses on fast shooting, fast movement in “arenas”. Whilst this style of airsoft is relatively new, it is growing in popularity. I don't have any speedsoft pictures, so here's a pic of me in a paintball mask.

The Rules 

Safety has to be the number 1 priority when playing airsoft. All players over 18 must wear a MINIMUM of high-impact rated eye protection, if a player is under 18, a site’s insurance will usually dictate that they also must wear a lower face mask (or a full face mask such as a Dye paintball mask) although it is recommended that everyone wear lower face. 

All airsoft guns need to be tested with a chronograph before each game by site staff to ensure they are under the legal limits, as we have restrictions on their power in the UK. Most sites in the UK operate a site limit of 350 FPS (feet per second) for pistols and AEGs, up to 500 FPS for bolt action sniper rifles. 

Although different sites/game modes have different rules, some rules are universal such as ‘dead players don’t talk’ meaning that if you’ve been eliminated, you can’t give away another player’s position to a live player, and no blind firing meaning you must be able to see where your BB is traveling to.

Post originally written for Extreme Airsoft

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ACCESSORIES | ACETECH BIFROST TRACER UNIT!

Hey friends! 

Welcome back to the blog! Today I’m back with another review - of a product that many of you will have seen on the internet! In this post, we’re going to look at the Acetech Bifrost Tracer Unit from Extreme Airsoft and find out if it really is all that or just a gimmick.

The Acetech Bifrost Tracer Unit is a tracer unit that is unlike any other tracer we’ve seen in airsoft so far. We’ve all seen red and green tracers, but until now, we’d not seen a tracer unit capable of giving us a rainbow! Yes, you did just read that correctly! The Bifrost from Acetech is designed to not only simulate muzzle flash with a multi-colour flame effect but also provides us with a rainbow BB flight path.

For those that are unfamiliar with tracer units and tracer BBs, let me give you a quick rundown of what they are and how they work! An airsoft tracer unit is a device that uses airsoft tracer BBs (the kind of BBs that glow in the dark) to enable players to see the BB's flight path by causing the BBs to glow in the dark. These units come in a few different forms but the flash hider/threaded tracer units are the most popular. Inside the tracer unit is a sensor that detects when a BB passes through and when one is detected, a flash of light is triggered that illuminates tracer BBs as they pass through the unit. Special tracer BBs are required. Tracer BBs differ from regular BBs because they are coated in Phosphor. The flash from the rows of lights in the tracer unit “excites/charges” the Phosphor making the BBs glow meaning we can see where the BBs travel.

Now that we’re familiar with how they work. Let’s chat about the features of the Bifrost! The Bifrost simulates muzzle flash with a multi-colour flame effect, coloured flight path function which can be achieved by using standard BBs with the built-in RGB Flame LED, two tracer modes available - Standard/Sniper, 11 different colour modes and intelligent power control - power on by shaking, and it enters sleep mode while idle for over 5 minutes. It has a rechargeable Li-Poly battery that charges via a USB-C cable which is included in the box. It functions with regular BBs and green tracer BBs and can tolerate a rate of fire of up to 35RPS. It has a 14mm counterclockwise thread and does come with an adapter.

Aesthetically, it is a mix between a tracer unit and a flash hider. It is super compact and lightweight, weighing in at just 61g without the adapter so it doesn’t add that much extra weight to your rifle set-up. As it looks like a flash hider, it is more aesthetically pleasing than other units I’ve tried in the past and it doesn’t look out of place on my rifle set-up.

Before the first use, the manual says to charge the unit, which I did with the USB-C cable that came in the box with it. I put it on charge for 3 hours as the manual suggested and it was good to go with a green light to indicate it was fully charged. The controls are located in the same place as the charging port and whilst they took me a minute to master, the instructions are easy to work through. It has 2 buttons - flame and mode. The mode button is the on/off button, although it does have sleep mode so don’t panic too much if you forget to turn it off after a skirmish. The mode button controls the tracer function: Standard - which illuminates every shot, Sniper - which illuminates every third shot and doesn’t have the ‘flame’ effect and the tracer off function. The flame button controls the colour of the ‘flame’ and it has the following colours/functions: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink, purple, RGB (where the flame flashed red, green and blue), rainbow and dynamic rainbow.

I went straight to rainbow because if I’m honest that’s the only mode I was REALLY excited about and do you know what? It works! Now the BB still glows green but for the first few feet, there is a rainbow flash so it does look like a rainbow BB. That description isn’t the best so I’ve taken some stills from my product tests and you can check the videos out for yourselves here! As you can see from the picture, the BBs flight path appears red, yellow, green, blue and then green again as it travels.

Next, I tried a couple of the single colour modes - blue and purple. As you can see from these screenshots when I tested the single colour modes with white BBs, the blue has a much brighter flash than the purple, but both BBs did glow the designated colour for the same distance.

From Extreme Airsoft, the Bifrost Tracer Unit by Acetech retails for £89.99. This is a very fair price for a tracer unit, as you would usually expect to spend anywhere between £60-£120 on a good unit and this has a few more features than you would find on other units, it is also rechargeable eliminating the need to buy batteries. You can use the code ‘femmefatale21’ at the checkout to save 5% off your purchase!

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NIGHTVISION | NIGHTVISION FOR UNDER £600?! NUPROL HELMET MOUNTED NVG!

Hey friends! 

Welcome back to the blog. Today I’m back with another review, and in this one, we’re going to be looking at something which a lot of you were intrigued by when you saw it on my socials a couple of weeks ago - The Helmet Mounted Night Vision Goggles by Nuprol from Extreme Airsoft. 

The Helmet Mounted Night Vision Goggle from Nuprol is a single monocular digital Night Vision device that has been designed to be used in helmet mounts and has 3 directional adjustments enabling it to fit the users' line of sight. This unit comes with a FAST Railed Helmet. 

Let’s chat about the features: it has an x1 Optical Zoom, x2 / x4 / x6 digital zoom, 3 IR settings, a minimum focus distance of 20 cm, an IR wavelength detection of 850 nm, a camera resolution of 1920 x 1080 HD and a screen resolution of 1280 x 780. It has a HUD (or Head-Up Display) that displays a directional compass (which is a really cool feature, but more on that later), the unit's Wi-Fi connection status, what IR setting it is on, the time, and its battery status. On the back of the unit, there is a 3-button command panel that allows the user to turn the unit on, operate its menu and choose either the black/white image or green overlay option (which can help improve the image contrast). 

It comes in a pretty understated box - a small, square brown box with the design printed on the front. The box inside is padded and comes with everything you need to get started except the 18650 Lithium Battery but these are easy to obtain from any vape shop (or if you have a vape that uses this type of battery already, few free to use that!). Setting up the NV on the arm is fairly simple - it has 6 small screws that secure it to the arm, once these are installed it is secure and can then be inserted into the helmet mount. All of the adjustment points are independent and move as such. 

Once the battery is in, it can be powered on. When it powers on, it displays a white/black ‘welcome’ screen, and then the HUD loads in. As it is digital night vision, it functions differently from standard night vision that has an intensifier tube. In standard night vision, the available light is collected through what’s called an ‘objective lens’ and it then focuses the light through an intensifier tube to convert the energy to electrons. Digital night vision, however, processes and converts the optical image into an electric signal instead of using a highly sensitive CCD (which stands for Charge-Coupled Device) image sensor which is similar to what is found in digital cameras. The device then transfers this electrical signal to a microdisplay, which is a type of LCD flat-panel display screen in which each pixel is controlled by between one to four transistors. The image first displays in black and white but you can use the directional buttons to swap to the green overlay which gives it the green night-vision look we know and love. 

It has options to digitally zoom from x1 to x2, x4 & x6, and when you are transitioning to darker areas, where there is less ambient light (such as going into a room from moonlight) the device automatically increases the brightness to compensate when the built-in IR illuminator is not activated. Although if you pre-select one of the 3 IR settings, it will help improve image quality even further. In the menu, the user can control the WiFi connection, date/time Setting, the auto power OFF setting, language options, LCD brightness, reset the settings to default, and also view the software version number.

I found it pretty easy to adjust the arm and set the unit up for my own eyes. When it was in place, I could loosen it off just enough to move the unit up to its stored position and back down to my eyes. It is easy to use the basic features - you simply push the ‘on’ button and you’re good to go. The image that it produces is clear but does have some noise - the edges and textures of objects can be seen clearly so your environment is easy to decipher. It was really difficult to get a picture that does the display justice. The noise can be reduced by using the IR illuminator, which has 3 settings to choose from. Just like traditional night vision, you can’t tell the difference between colours so telling teammates apart from enemies isn’t the easiest of tasks if they are only differentiated by coloured tape, so like most NV gameplay scenarios it’s a shoot first, find out later scenario. As it is digital night vision there is a lag between the picture displayed and what’s going on however it is minimal and not something that hinders play.

If I had to compare it to traditional night vision I would place it somewhere between gen 1 and gen 2 because whilst it does have noise, it is still a pretty clear picture that improves your vision and situational awareness in low light environments. I think for a price point of £599 it is really reasonable for the unit, mount/arm, and the helmet. I think it would be a great starter unit for someone who is interested in exploring the world of night vision. I am a big advocate of investing in NV if you play a lot of 24-hour games/milsims because the night portion of the event is a big chunk of it and having NV opens up gameplay options. One advantage of digital NV is that it isn’t affected by being exposed to bright light like none autogated NV is, so if someone shines a really bright torch at you, you won’t have any blem issues.

So what don’t I like? The railed helmet is by far the worst part of this product (sorry Nuprol!). It is made from a shiny polymer which gives it a very cheap appearance and the foam on the inside resembles that of a bicycle helmet. That being said, it does function as intended so although I’m not personally a fan, it does its job. My only other gripe with the product is how it mounts. But as with the helmet, it does function as intended. I think it would be awesome if this unit was compatible with other arms and mounts! Apart from those little issues (which aren’t really issues, just personal preferences), I believe Nuprol has done a pretty good job with this piece of kit.

From Extreme Airsoft, the Helmet Mounted Night Vision Goggles by Nuprol retail for £599 and include everything you need to get started except the battery which is fairly easy to obtain. These aren't on the Extreme Website yet, so call the store or pop in!

Post sponsored by Extreme Airsoft. Save 5% on any purchase using the code 'femmefatale21'

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