Anyone still use standard mags?
 

This will probably come across as a rant... you have been warned.

This mostly applies to skirmishes and pick-up games, which are the majority of airsoft games, and not to full blown milsim events. I know I've written about this before but the general response I've gotten on ASC doesn't seem to match what I see on the field.

Does anybody use anything other than midcaps and highcaps anymore? The last game I was at I actually ran out of ammo in a skirmish.. yet everyone around me is happily bursting away in full auto for 10+ minutes. I use a DMR.. I'm in semi 99% of the time.

When I first started playing airsoft I remember hicaps being shunned like they were the spawn of satan. I'd say in my first 2 years about 70% of people I played with used standards or realcaps, maybe 20% used micaps, and people generally only used hicaps if they were using a new gun or didn't have the equipment to carry a bunch of mags on them. Now this seems to have shifted.. I'd say at least 50-60% are using midcaps, 30-40% hicaps, and maybe 10% using standards or lower (also, interestingly enough, I see more games now where there are ranged, stand-off gunfights rather than people actually moving in). I also notice now that significantly less hosts state or enforce any kind of ammo limit in games. Sure, I know people come to games to shoot, and shooting is fun... but isn't 4 G36 hicaps or 5 AK hicaps a little excessive? (yea, I constantly see both of those). Maybe people don't like the fact that their assault rifle's ROF will empty a standard in 2 seconds... I guess the solution to having the ROF twice what the actual real version of it shoots is simply to up the ammo stowage instead of not hosing.

Even retailers seem to not stock standard magazines in any quantity anymore. A couple don't even carry them. I haven't seen G36 standard magazines in stock anywhere for nearly a year (granted, I haven't been looking constantly, but every time I have I haven't found them). I just did a quick look at 2 different retailers.. one only sells hi-caps and mid-caps, and the other, out of 47 magazine types listed, only 7 are standard or real caps. Now, I'm not blaming this on the retailers, they'll get in what people will buy, I was just using it to illustrate my point. Standard mags used to be a lot easier to find (yea, I know STANAG mags are still easy to find.. but guess what.. not everyone uses a STANAG rifle...).

Maybe it's just me, and maybe the majority of airsofters don't care. Personally I don't like being pinned down like I'm under fire from an HMG by someone with a submachinegun or assault rifle. I always felt a big part of the fun in airsoft was proper trigger control, and properly picking your targets so you didn't run out of ammo with no result.. now it seems it doesn't matter. 'There's a guy somewhere over there? Oh ok.... fire bursts in that direction for the next 10 minutes.. maybe you'll hit him.'

Does this annoy anyone else the way it bothers me? Or am I just unrealistic and picky?

I only use hicap with my masada cause I havent bought midcaps for it yet, I have all midcaps for my AK, and lowcaps just dont carry enough ammo when you gotta cut through brush to get somebody, not as many BBs get through, so you need more :S

Standard mags all the way. If an event doesn't have ammo/mag restrictions in place it probably isn't a game I want to be at anyways.
Now, I own a couple of high caps, but I only use them if the game or place I am at has an end of day skirmish or whatever that has no ammo limit.
For example Claybank 2, I am am going to run 8 standard mags for the milsim day, but the day after is the skirmish day, I will probably use a high cap as my "first mag in gun", and then will have my standard mags full to go to if I need them.

I use a combination of MP5 low and mid caps, just because that's what i have and have limited carry ability. I do have a full set of 'real caps' which i carry in my range bag and fill up on when needed, but is rare, especially since I loaned them all to a buddy last year and havent' gotten them back yet. Lol

Lowcaps are best. (68) I use mostly realcaps. and am starting to hate them. traded a few for 4 mids (100) till i get around till loading out with straight metal lowcaps. Only use my Highcap with my MG36, when my Cmag is down.

I think the large influx of new players is contributing to this highcap frenzy.
They are not yet comptetant or confident enough to use lowcaps and probably don't have the means to use lowcaps. (gear and money wise).

The move toward lowcap sometime come later, after a year or two of gaming.

But since the average airsoft player play for about 2 years, you get the impression that everyone is using highcaps.

I think we need to focus our effort on mentoring new players toward the milsim mentality. Not that milsim is only what should be played, but because it's the mentality that separate airsoft from the mainstream paintball games.

68 rnds lowcaps all the way! I carry 8 on my CIRAS, 6 on my RRV and 4 on my H-Harness.

I make sure I specify to any new player I know/introduce that hicaps are evil, and that if they buy an halfbreed.... Paint it!
In most cases, that works. Others are usually the Action500-only players.

Especially considering the cheap as fuck lowcap packages on eHobby!

The thing I hate the most on the field: an invincible reallife counter-strike player using a clearsoft stubby with a drum mag.
And sadly... it happens.

14 Stars loaded to 30

14- 30 round mags for me. I joined airsoft for the milsim aspect, sticking with it.

See this is the funny thing.. these are the kind of responses from ASC.. yet I see the exact opposite on the field.

I have something like a dozen G36 midcaps. My logic is that it takes about 3 BBs to get the effect of one bullet in terms of accuracy and brush penetration, and I fire in short bursts where I would imagine I would be using semi on a RS gun.

The thing I see, is that most people using midcaps (the higher capacity ones.... 150-200 rnds) are doing so only because they don't need to wind them, not because of their "less unrealistic" (since it's still not realistic) capacity.

If course, there's still exceptions.

My KWA S-System unfortunatly will only accept the highcap it came with has feeding issues with other mags but all my other AEG's i run with 90 rnds mids usually 6-10 mags depending on the ammo cap. Personally i like reloading and swapping out mags it adds to the realism well for me anyway.

I have 1 high cap, 5 midcaps? (68 round) and 2 low caps (30 rounds)

I use them all depending on the situation

i carry M4 mid-caps on me. i usually under load them tho. i find that real-caps are useless. in general, one BB does not have the same effectiveness of one bullet, making real-caps ineffective. low-caps are also good, but i use mid-caps so i have the option of under loading them in a more millsim environment or full loads in a scrim