This will create some discussion for sure. Actually, this article will hate on many things. But I have to start somewhere. I know hate is a strong word and “haters” are frowned upon these days but it’s OK to have an opinion and it’s OK to not like stuff. Well, there are some people in airsoft who do seem to gush over every new release as if it’s the best gun ever to hit the shelves…

I’m going to rewind a little bit to a game a few years ago with a friend who had a VSR. Now, this VSR at the time was about a decade old anyway and hadn’t had any upgrades since the stone age. I did ask what was inside and was surprised by the answer. It was a bit “shit man…you’re still running THAT old setup?!”

And yet, it shot well. As well as most sniper rifles on the field that day (it was a sniper only event and there were a few to look at). And afterwards, I got home with my newly upgraded VSR and took it apart. I wondered, have we actually made any major advances in rifles down the years in terms of sheer performance, or have we just accepted that every expensive, shiny new upgrade is worth as much as we pay for it? I doubt it. Do we just believe the hype and the adverts? If a new cylinder comes out for £100 and says you’ll gain an extra 12.8fps because of the improved tolerances during manufacture, are you actually going to notice that in the field?

Some guy says he’s got a new bucking and it’s “way more accurate” than the previous model, do we know how he measured “way more”? Same weather conditions, scope still perfect, same distance? It’s hard to quantify, and I know a very small minority will do scientific testing in an indoor environment but even then, we’re not using our guns in those conditions.

How does a cheaply modified, ten year old rifle possibly compete with a newer, fully upgraded one? Well, the problem is that we’re not measuring side by side with different setups and taking the same shots anyway. The shot you take is a combination of unpredictable factors such as weather, terrain, and random enemy movements, even if you can control your own which even then is dictated by enemy movements, as to where you find yourself. The target isn’t 90m down a range, it’s at maybe 44m to your left, or 68m to your right.

So what does all this have to do with the SRS? Well, as I’ve covered before, players’ expectations stray wildly from reality. The SRS when it was released was heralded as the gun to beat all others, and if I recall correctly would cost you at least double the price of the next one, and yet you weren’t getting double the performance. Against an average setup, there was maybe a 10-20% increase in range. Only with upgrades to the “perfect out of the box” sniper rifle could it get to the level of an upgraded “crap out of the box” VSR, for example. And some of those upgrades are getting very expensive for what they’re claiming to deliver.

Yes I’ve shot an SRS. One good one, one that had absolutely shit itself internally and was putting out only 20m of range. Sure, the externals feel nice, and I wonder if that’s how we’re actually judging the gun?

“It feels so solid”, “really well put together” were some of the early praises but that doesn’t translate to anything once you get your ghillie on and get out in the field. Last week I got to pick up the ICS tomahawk, which I swiftly put back down again. It’s new, it’s expensive, but are you really getting anything extra for all your extra investment?

“theres this crazy finnishman who claims that sniping is attitude… I must say, he must know what he is saying” :——-D

It’s not just limited to sniper rifles either, there are some ridiculously expensive AEG builds appearing out there. I’ll discount the collectors pieces that are built to be as close as possible externally and that justifies the cost. On performance, it’s perhaps easier to measure because we can look at the full auto function;

1) How many bb’s is it firing per second?

2) How quick in milliseconds is the trigger reacting to a pull?

3) How many rounds will the mag hold before needing reloaded (ie how long can you hold full auto to put hundreds of bb’s towards an opposing player)

Players spend an absolute fortune chasing these. I’ve seen AEG’S costing over £1000, some of which will burn motors out or lock up because of the stress of operating too quickly, purely as a way to brag in the safe zone using these figures to compare. But here’s the thing.

Actually here’s the player. Yes, it’s Bubba as usual. Simply because if you put him in a cqb arena against any other player, my money is on him winning 90% of the time. He’s my example of a damn good player. Now, I know if I gave him a £99 stock, plastic Cyma m4 and gave the other player £2000 to do whatever build they like, all that trigger response and rate of fire is going to do fuck all for the other player. Bubba’s tactics will ensure he gets the shot in first. And this is what so many players still don’t get – they will try and compensate by buying more expensive internals, for faster trigger response again, and still suck.

The SRS to me at least was probably the first time that kind of mentality slipped over into the sniper side. It claimed to be better and was advertised as such in a way no other rifle has before, and started some sort of arms race. The ssg24 appeared which was the perfect sniper rifle without the need to upgrade, then the tac 41 came out which was better out of the box, then the steyr scout which was “actually the best out of the box”. Then the ICS tomahawk. Then…well, the VSR one didn’t really get noticed in all that. But I know I could give, for example, Point6 an old spring Dragunov and you could go up against him with that perfect out of the box whatever, with upgrades to make it more perfect out of the box, and my money is on Point6 every time. (Unless Spider is reading this).

And this is my personal beef with all the upgrading and improved new parts. Yes, there are factors like reliability, and having your scope set up correctly etc that do make a genuine difference. Yes, I’ve had parts like the scorpion piston and modify xrange that have improved my rifle on the range but none of that made me any better as a player. And I’d still be hitting those shots with my old setup. It’s just all the dick measuring that bothers me, especially seeing comments on social media saying you have to spend a lot to be any good, and those same arseholes on site belittling new players with stock rifles. A good bucking with hop centrally and evenly applied is all you need. Have we actually evolved the performance of rifles since the days of DIY mods? No, we just release those mods as products instead. Have we gained another 400m of range to justify the extra price? No. Does it look pretty on your wall? Yes, but you’re still going to cover it in tape, paint and Haloscreen anyway so it’s irrelevant.

Do I hate the SRS? It’s probably more the culture behind it. Use whatever you want, whatever fits your arms, but don’t think that you’re any better than anyone else if you don’t have the tactics to back it up.

Oh, and check Dan’s out. His is massive.