Experience playing in the cold?

[NIN]

Airsoftrelated what does the less experienced need to know about playing in +10/-10 degrees?

AEG/Springer- Both?

How does the PTW act in cold?
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[Kyle]

Here in Alaska, we play occasionally in the winter. Usually AEG's don't have as many mechanical problems as you would think, but batteries die very quickly. Even a large battery will not last all day, especially at a mil-sim event like OAL08, as it gets cold. If you can keep your battery warm, or have a second one that you keep inside your coat liner and keep hot, then change out every few hours to make sure it doesn't get too cold, you should be OK.

Avoid letting snow collect in the barrel/flash-hider/magwell, as it tends to freeze quickly.

On the note of batteries, I have completely given up on getting anything other than a large-cell battery to work. I have Inokatsu AKS74U (rod type battery in upper receiver) and AK74 (mini 9.6v battery in buttstock.) Neither of them last me all day unless I change batteries about every two hours or so.

And don't even bother with gas-powered guns for the most part... maybe NBB models that don't use much gas, but anything else will get too cold.

The winter games that we have are usually around 10F to 20F (-12C to -6C)

I don't know anything about the PTW in cold weather, nobody has one up here. I'd say that your biggest issue is going to be battery life.

Hopefully you guys have a good game! I'll keep watching this thread to see if I can pick up any cold weather tips from anyone else too =D

[Spitfire]

aeg do work, batteries die fast.
springsnipers do work very well, just take care that it does not contact snow in the bolt area... frozen bolts wont work no more...

gas snipers will not shoot well expect you keep the mag inside of your pocket before/after the shoots... co2 might be an exeption.

gbbs and nbbs have the same problem as gas snipers. CO2 does work in cold weather aswell.

take care that snow does not short curcurit your aeg (especially ptw)

cheers

[SwedeX]

As previuos stated, battery life is reallly short...

GBB's kinda work, i have seen TM Hicapas work really well in -+0ºC (very much depending on the type of gas though)

[Berget-events]

I think a good way to avoid battery problems is to make a custom cable extension from your gun. The point is to have the battery inside you jacket to keep it warm while playing (like kyle said). Remember to have atleast one connectpoint outside gun/jacket so you can disconnect your gun quickly if falling or working.

And oh... i think a springer shotgun would be a very good and cheap backupweapon at wintertime.
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[Doff]

Another trick with the battery is to
have 1 or 2 kemical handwarmer on the stock in some poutch

[stalin]

yes like Doff said kemical handwarmer works very nice.
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[RRP Taksi]

Theres no bad weather only bad equipment..

The problem is that around -10C or colder weapons tend to break due to the fact that the metal gets brittle when it freezes. Gears chip and pistons crack.
An other problem is condensation all over. (Barrels, mags, bb:s, mech..)
Dressing warm and camping is not an issue.
Although experience in arctic camping is necessary. "Firewatch" in the tents etc. Spare clothing.
Its hard to discuise a warm camp for obvious reasons.
Its also important to know when its time to give up and get warmed up.

But its great fun. A warm tent is unbelieavebly cumfy after a cold day in hell..

[Anrax]

shoutgun on firewatch

[whale]

I have taken part in organizing and playing in one bigger scenario-type wintergame (PFOR 3 - Winter war). There were about 250 players and the game lasted for two days. I have also played numerous smaller games in the winter.

Playing in +5C >> -10 C temperatures, in my opinion isn´t a problem. If you have the right gear (warm enough clothes and shoes), the right batterys for your aegs (enough of them), you shouldn´t have problems.

In the game mentioned earlier the weather got a bit too tough, when the temperature dropped below -25C during the night. Then there were alot of broken guns and men =)

During winter the problem is, that you never now what the weather is going to be. In the summer you can always manage with the weather, but if its +-0C and it rains water and snow, you are constantly wet and its usually dark (depends on how north you are playing), the conditions can get too rough on players. Or it could be just dark, wet and no snow (at least in southern parts of Finland for the last two years

On the other hand, if there is 50cm of snow, -5C cold and the sun is up it extremely nice to airsoft. But you cant now the weather conditions when planing the game during the fall.

[OviDiuS]

-10 / 10 C is okey to play in batteries hold up rather good if you have some action from time to time (Not like B6 Un side if you need an exampel).

The problems comes when it starts to geat colder than -15 and down to almost -25. The batteries will die out rather fast if you dont keep on shooting a little now and then. Lowest we in NAF have bin plaing in is -32 C i think it whas batteries fellt to small if you did go Silence Recon style they did handle like 1-2 mag's and then they die One thing is nice tho you can warm it up in a inner pocket close to your skin just dont have it direktly on to skin you can get skin that geat frosen and geat nasty color changes to skin, Keep a T-shirt betwen the battery and the skin.

Hopup dont work to a start when you shoot but if you shoot a longer burst you will se how the hopup will start to work and lift the BB's up. just so ppl think of it and dont exadently shoots some one in the face when its not needed.

Ye one thing more Geat some good winter boots !! No jogging crap shoes.

hope that ansers some.. oh ye before i forget. I dont recomend High upgraded weapons to play in winter times it is a smaller risk that your gear box breaks and you need to buy new gearbox or even gears cylinders and allot other inner parts. But usualy it only jamms the gears and you cant shoot and mostly you only burn your motor if you try to force a shoot.

For some winter pic's look trou my pixbox
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[Thinker]

In cold games, below +5C the big differences is due to battery chemistry, NiCd works better than NiMH, and higher voltages help to compensate. If you summer time use 9.6V small NiMH, use a 10.8 or maybe 12V when it gets cold, and try to use NiCd too it might work better, ut it depends on the perticular battery cells. The only batteries I recommend for winter games in snow and -5 and below is Large style (C cell, R14 cell) NiCd of good quality, like a 8.4V or 9.6V Sanyo 1900mAh NiCd with 3.5mohm internal resistance is really great during wintergames. Large NiMH works to, but not as good as NiCd.

If you play during the night at autumn or spring in sweden, the temperature can drop to +5 to -5C, and then you will find a lot of people with AEG problems due to batteries that fail, and they dont know it. I compensate for that and use 10.8V small NiMH GP1100AFHR batteries around the year, if its gets really cold I pull out my external battery pouch and uses a 9.6V 1900mAh Sanyo 1900SC.

Tokyo Marui aegs often uses ABS plastic, and that perticular plastic becomes quite brittle the colder it gets, Nylon fiber that Classic Army and more use is better.

There can be problems with hopup, but generally it just becomes harder to adjust it for correct BB path.

And remember, the problem with electronics and plastic brittleness will affect everything electronic like radios and digitalcameras, and the more advance the electronic is the worse of it is. And condensation inside the casing is bad.
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[Pahapaavali]

3600mAh NiMH's works quite nicely in temperatures below zero. Like OviDiuS said, hop-up tends to play tricks. If you have silicone one, it would be wise to change it to normal rubber, coz silicone tends to freeze badly. We have experienced silicone lubricant freezing also in more extreme temperatures. High quality teflon lubricants don't suffer this effect.

For clothing, go for layering. Air between clothing layers works as great insulation. But don't over do it, coz then you get sweaty and you have to for example open your top coat and by doing so your body temperature drops quite fast, which is bad . Remember that water transfers heat 25 times faster then air. Sport underwear, which transfers moisture away from your skin, are very very good when playing in winter. If you don't want to spend money to those sport underwears (which are quite expensive), real wollen underwear is another good option too coz it has one unique feature, it insulates even if it's wet. Also remember to protect your head properly, head doesn't have fat tissue so it gives away heat very fast. Your head doesn't necessarily feel cold coz it gets all the time warm blood but other parts of your body is left out from this nice and warmy blood, so again you lose great amounts of bodyheat.

This is a kinda funny trick for cold hands: if your fingers gets too cold, stuck them to your crotch next to your precious balls (trick adapted from one ice-hockey coach) believe me, first few seconds are pure agony.

Drinking.
There is one positive and one negative aspect for dringing for example hot juice. It gives your body some extra heat, but it might accumulate excess heat which your body has to compensate by pushing it out and there comes sweat again. I dare to say that cold drinks are absolutely forbidden coz your body has to warm it up and it consumes body heat, again.

Sleeping bags.
Might sound quite harsh for some who haven't used one in cold weather, less clothing, more warm it gets. Good trick is to take underwear to the sleeping bag coz it's quite nice to put them on when they are warm. But don't take them with you to the sleepy sleepy bag if they are wet. Some ppl who has done extreme weather survival course in the army could tell lot more and specific about this and way more tricks .

This is quite DAH! stuff for those who are used to cold weather, but I hope it helps some of those who hasn't.
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[RRP Taksi]

Good ideas are never bad dude! Everybody needs a reminder sometimes..
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