OP: Red Dawn – Field Report and Experience

So this month I had the pleasure of attending  OP: Red Dawn. A multi-day Milsim run by the Aces and Eights out at the Tranquille Sanatorium in Kamloops BC.

Photo courtesy of my teammate Loops (Jon) who played the part of a press photographer throughout the weekend. He makes us look badass.

Read on below for details on the event and my experiences.

Japan Parts Order

I recently had a friend and former local player “Sopmod” do an order for me from Airborne-shop.com from Tokyo – my favourite shop during my trip to Japan. I didn’t order anything too crazy – I unfortunately just missed an in stock TSS Flat Hop for PTW (different option that used slightly different geometry and just replaced the roller cushion, as compared to the Orga version), nor was I feeling particularly adventurous with the latest and greatest Airsoft technologies from Japan that Google Translate could not coherently unveil to me. I honestly ended up just picking up (mainly) Japanese-produced parts that have proven track records, as these domestic products are much cheaper in Japan. More to come on (some) of these parts… eventually.

After having another friend and former player “Tatsu” compose an entire email message for me in Japanese to send of to Airborne, I did manage to discover a MS Barrel Nut for Daniel Defense style rails that will fit Prime threading. Once again, this proved that the guy at Airborne really does know what he was talking about – in gist he told me which barrel nut would fit Prime receiver threading and that the barrel nut was designed for DD rails, yet he was honest in that he could not verify himself whether or not it would fit the Madbull DD RIS II that I had mentioned. Personally, I had spent a couple of hours sifting through many varieties of DD style barrel nuts and they all pretty much could be made to work with my MK18 rail (with more or less shims); so this was not a concern for me. After all, I really just wanted a shorter upper with MK18 rail to use a spare Dytac 10.5″ outer barrel that “Jetlag” had traded to me a while back, as the weight savings as compared to the Systema steel 14.5″ barrel were just too much to not make use of.

I’m still working out the kinks with this new upper wearing a Madbull MK18 rail, which I had purchased as soon as I could find one, after reading The Reptile House’s post about Madbull’s newer colouring on their Daniel Defense series of rails. First, there’s the overly tight fitment between MK18 rail and lower receiver that prevents shotgunning the PTW receivers open. And after receiving a few other internal bits (Orga 264mm barrel pictured above, FCC Advance Hop Chamber Gen 2, Dytac 10.5″ outer barrel) and putting everything together, I can tell that things are still going to need work. For example, the FCC Gen 2 Chamber requires modification to the Systema OEM charging handle in order to allow for suitable clearance and operation of the dial. Not to mention that the Dytac outer barrel isn’t that great of a fit with the FCC hop chamber or Orga inner barrel, the resulting play will probably skew any benefits I would be otherwise getting out of the upgrade parts.

That being said, I’m hoping that all these issues should be worked out by the time I’ve managed to fix the electrical issues going on in my PTW lower. I kind of miss my days of having a working PTW – seems like those have become pretty rare recently.

Airsoft Shopping in Japan – Days 3 & 4

I am currently visiting Kyoto – Airsoft specific stores are much harder to find here than the previous Airsoft-specific shopping days I spent in Tokyo.

Airsoft Shopping in Japan – Day 2

A couple less stores visited as I was short on time yesterday evening before the shops close up – though I did spend more time in each, perusing their selections of parts.

First, I attempted to find Mil-Freaks, only to discover that the address was not in fact a walk-in retail store (I later re-read the contact info on their website to discover that they are online business only). Mil-Freaks was of interest due to the producr line being mostly ACM, Flyye, Hong Kong brands and some US-made tactical gear; just the kind of stuff I’m usually shopping for when on my own free time. As with many of the locations I found with Google maps for the keywords “airsoft tokyo” for First Japan, this was a residential address as well from the looks of it.

Airsoft Shopping in Japan – Day 1

These stores are nearby Akihabara Station in Tokyo. Unless stated otherwise, the staff spoke little to no English – and certainly not enough vocabulary to talk about Airsoft. I have the links to these shops and Japanese names on my person right now, but entering them on WordPress mobile app is way too hard to figure out at the moment. I can edit those in when I’m back home later.

Radio and other small elecfrical components in bazaar like shops in multilevel buildings – I was looking for connectors for my radios and antennas, but apparently the adaptors I’m looking for must not be that common.

Read on after the break for the actual airsoft stores.