Cranking Them Out !!

Although I often use high capacity (hi-cap) Airsoft magazines for a days skirmish shooting with friends, I do like to use mid caps for MilSim games.

Having tried the plunger type speed loaders without much success, I switched to using what I call "Pea-Shooter" loaders which consist of a long hollow tube through which you ram BB's into your magazine using a loading rod. The latter is slow and it's very easy to spill BB's especially when the magazine vomits them back at you.

So, when I saw the Odin Innovations M12 Sidewinder Speed Loader, I was intrigued.

Odin is a Colorado-based company and they have produced this Speed Loader primarily for M4/AR15 5.56mm size Airsoft magazines. There is talk of adapters for AK mags and all that, but one step at a time.


WHAT IT DOES

It enables you to fill about 1600 BB's into its sizable hopper, push the business end of an empty M4 Mid-Cap mag into the bottom of it until it clicks and then crank BB's into your magazine at the rate of around 12 BB's per crank revolution.

DOES IT WORK ?

Yes it seems to. I've successfully used standard metal M4 mid-caps, PTS EPM and Evike BAMF mid-caps with it.
The theory is that when the magazine is full, an integral clutch will signal this to your cranking hand. I tried filling an EPM to the max and sure enough I felt resistance on the crank after twelve or thirteen revolutions. Generally though, I tend to only fill my mid-caps to about 60 rounds and treat them as low-caps, so they don't get a hard life with me.


THE COOL BIT

What I really like about this speed loader is the following in order of preference:

1. The crank is normally folded in and flush for storage, but when you fold it out and start cranking, the 12BB's per rotation allows you to measure pretty accurately how many rounds you are loading.
I wanted about 30 rounds in my EPM so gave the crank three rotations - emptying the mag manually after, I had 31 rounds inside and 2 dropped out from the loading nozzle when I disconnected the mag for use, so what should have been 36 was 33, but it's close enough.

When I filled the EPM to capacity, I manually emptied it and counted. It had contained 155 rounds before the clutch gave me the good news.

2. It's fast and there is little spillage. You can load a mag in about 30 seconds. The two-BB spillage per load is pretty consistent. Great for Milsims where you need to reload your four mags back at the FOB or ammo cache and the OPFOR could be breathing down your neck any second or you get redeployed and your patrol is about to move out.

3. The beige clip that you can see on the loader in the top photo is the magazine release. The mags click in firmly when pushed up and is held securely while you are crank-loading. Depressing this clip afterwards, allows the mag to be removed from the loader.

4. The loader has a large aperture and sliding door on the feeder entrance so its really easy to pour BB's in when you are filling and close it afterwards to stop spills. The door is a bit like a sliding hi-cap one only this one is a lot bigger !

5. It will fit in a double M4 pouch so you can carry it with you (if your game rules allow). I probably wouldn't use this feature but its handy to be able to store it in your kit pouches when you're at home, so it doesn't get left behind.


IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER

Keep the Speed Loader and magazine vertical when cranking, so gravity can do its job. Got caught out by this when I couldn't work out why the BB's weren't going into my mag.


WHAT'S IT NOT GOOD FOR ?

* - Hi-cap magazines
* - AK, 9mm and non-M4/AR15 shaped magazines
* - 7.62mm magazines


HOW MUCH DOES IT COST ?

At the time of going to press, one of these costs about £60-65 in the UK including mainland delivery.

Real Steel Headsets at Airsoft Prices

Frustrated by the high price of Tactical Headsets (typically £400+ here in the UK) and wishing for something a little better quality than the far eastern copies of the great and mighty, I did a little research on forums and Facebook groups and decided to purchase a Peltor Pro Tac Hunter headset to act as a back-up headset for MilSims and skirmishes.

Peltor have a good pedigree and manufacture the well known and expensive top end tactical  COM TAC XP range. The Pro Tac is their civilian hunter headset manufactured in Sweden.

This is a sensible work-around compromise that gives me a real steel shooting headset with active ear protection (to protect my lugs from loud bangs like pyro), that reproduces directional ambient sound from two small external "electronic ear" microphones (so I can still hear instructions and movement from those around me) and which allows me to use my radio to talk to my team mates, without an open speaker squawking away and alerting the enemy to my position or received message contents.

How much did this all cost ? - well about £80 excluding the radio.

As you can see from the photo above, it's a simple set-up: the headset, my fist microphone and my radio.

I wear the fist mic on my chest rig shoulder strap or the top of my plate carrier front, so it's quite close to my mouth, but not in the way. With the headset over my ears, I can listen to received radio signals in my left ear. 

I can also hear stereo ambient sound around me via the "electronic ear" microphones. If there are any loud bangs, they pick it up  and before the sound can reach and damage my ears, internal digital electronic circuitry will reduce their volume. The response time is fantastic. If you clap your hands loudly, the noise immediately sounds muted in the "cans". If somebody speaks to you straight after though, it's as clear as a bell again.

There are push-button controls on the side of the right ear shell which allow me to turn the headset on and off as well as adjust the amplification from zero (mute) to maximum in five steps. You hear a beep in your ear when the upper and lower extents are reached. A voice in your ear also tells you when the headset is on, off or your batteries need changing.

R.H. Ear Shell with buttons and Electronic Ear MIC

The Pro-Tac uses two AA batteries which last for around 100 hours. Military Sordin batteries last about 500 hours so this is not brilliant endurance, but you can buy a lot of Duracell's for the price difference.

Changing the batteries is much easier than on Sordins where they are an absolute pig to get out. On the Pro Tac, you just pull the retaining clip down with your index finger, the left ear shell cover comes off (as shown in the photo below) and you change the two batteries - simple.

L.H Ear Shell with battery space and Electronic Ear MIC

If you leave the headset on by accident, it will switch itself off after four hours if untouched.

So what are the downsides ?

Let's face it, there's over £300 difference in price between this and full blown MSA Sordins fitted with a noise-cancelling boom microphone.

There are differences, of course there are.

Sordins seem to enhance your hearing by giving you bat ears. I suspect the Pro Tacs just hear what there is in terms of ambient sound and don't actually amplify very much, if at all. I cant find any figures or data to support this suspicion or amount of amplification; I'm just comparing performance in practice.

When the radio audio plays from the radio, where it goes via the fist mic into the AUX input jack of the headset, the volume in the left ear shell is controlled by the radio volume knob. You can turn it up very loud!

Sordins tend to clip the level so you can't damage your hearing by playing the radio too loud.

The boom mic on the Sordin is excellent quality and allows clear transmission even with background noise. My little Baofeng fist mic is clear but its not noise-cancelling. It's hard to have a conversation with explosions and gunfire going on in the background, but is it that important in a MilSim which uses quieter Airsoft based weapons ?

The size of the Pro Tac earshells are larger than that of the Sordins and you are limited in your choice of headgear - helmets will be difficult. However, baseball caps, balaclavas or just bare headed is fine. Note that the "Shooter" version of this Pro-Tac Hunter headset has even fatter ear-shells (it offers better sound suppression which on a firing range is a good idea but probably a waste for us).

The environmentals are different too.   Sordins will probably take a lot more water and pain, but a headset designed for shooting (outside) should be able to withstand a rain shower.

A footnote here relates to the cable between fist microphone and the headset AUX IN.
Its worth getting a stereo 3.5mm cable - I bought a 30cm one to cut down on excess cable. The mono radio still plays in your left ear so no benefit tactically, but if you want to listen to anything when stood down, its useful to hear stereo music, media etc with your headset plugged into a smartphone etc.

So there we have it -  

Of course, the principle will theoretically work with any headset that has an AUX input jack. The Peltor which is a 3M company, provides a mid priced solution. You can buy cheaper shooting headsets (starting from about £40) or you can even get an MSA Sordin version without a boom microphone for about £160 (all prices correct in the UK at time of going to press).

To put this into perspective, have a look at the Z-Tactical range of headsets. These are specifically designed for Airsoft and produced by a company in the far east. They are certainly not "real steel".

I've never owned one and can't comment on their performance, but their prices aren't that different from the set-up shown here.  Its up to each player to decide how he or she wishes to invest their hard earned in the pursuit of our shared hobby.