12 Hour Game Noob Gear Checklist

[Gallo]

Hello everyone. I and a couple friends are looking to attend a 12-hour Airsoft game. We want to make sure we have all the gear we need. I made a list below. I don't have ALL the gear but I am trying to figure out what I would absolutely need and what would be recommended. Please let me know if I am missing something and feel free to comment on the usefulness of the gear I have posted.

Absolute
--------
Gun
Multiple mags (at least 5 mid-cap)?
5000 bbs or more?
Multiple batteries. Two 7.4 Lipo 1000mAh ok?
Battery Charger
Proper boots
Camo gear
Tactical Vest
Goggles, fully enclosed
Radio
Red Kill rag, Red kill light/glow-stick
Watch

Case of water
Folding chair
Food

Recommended
-----------
Paper + pencil
Whistle
CamelBak Hydration
Binoculars
Mouth protection
Flashlight
Neck protection
Knee-pads
Gloves
Compass

Also, how do you guys charge batteries while at the matches? Is there a neat way to charge a Lipo using your car?

Thanks and hope to see you guys out there!

[lurkingknight]

Camelback is convenient, but not imperative... what's nice about one is that it can balance the weight on your chest rig, vest or pc front/back depending if you wear a lot of stuff or not. As long as you can carry it on your gear, you don't need a camelback.

Neck protection... not super important, the face protector is more important as your teeth are valuable.

Flashlight.. handy to have.. not necessary unless it's a milsim that goes deep intot he night. It could be considered a safety item though so it would be a good idea to have some sort of light with you if you are playing in the dark. Same with radio, an frs one is handy, or a whistle if you're playing in the bush... if something ever happens you need a way to be found.

I kneel a lot, so I need kneepads... depends on your play style and your tolerance for pads that may or may not stay where you put them.

Gloves are handy for the same reason that neck protectors and pads are handy. But not a necessity.... but being shot in the knuckle sucks.

Unless you are doing a multi day field op in the middle of the ass end of ass end of nowhere's ville, a compass is useless. If you get lost, a whistle or radio is more handy.

same with binos... usless unless you're at a bigass field op. Use your eyes. Your guns can't shoot farther than you can comfortably see anyways.

paper and pencil are handy for milsims or games with passwords, taskings, problemsolving puzzles and whatnot... not super useful in a skirmish.

Only you can answer your battery question.. How much do you shoot? Can you charge on location? Same with mags. If there's no limit, carry as much as you care to carry for 12 hours. If there's a limit then go with that. I generally have spares that I leave loaded at the CP so I can get back out in a hurry if needed.

Bring snacks and 1 meal. or enough snacks to last you 18 hours. Why 18? cause you're going to be AT the location at least that time. Arrive, shoot the shit, bomb mags, register, chrono, brief, etc.. shit takes time. Same with after the game.. police your garbage, organize your shit, pack your shit, etc.

[666]

You forgot toilet paper and e-tool just in case you need to go in the field

[ShelledPants]

I like lists, you and I are getting off to the right start. Bold is changes I would make.


Absolute
--------
Gun [[Correction, GUNS. You will want a backup at long games.]]
Multiple mags (at least 5 mid-cap)[[ Plan 500 rounds per sortie. Thats more than enough to kill everything and hold out for reinforcements for most games]]

5000 bbs or more? [[4,000 rounds is more than enough to keep anyone up for any game and share, generously.]]

Multiple batteries. Two 7.4 Lipo 1000mAh ok? [[Depends on the gun. Think of 1mAh = 1BB. If you plan to dump 5,000 BB's, you will need 5000mAh total in Batteries.]]

Battery Charger [[Don't bother unless it's super compact and works with DC plugs.]]

Proper boots [[Most hiking shoe or boot is good to go. I would take cheap hiking boots from MEC any day over 90% of combat boots on the market.]]

Camo gear [[Specifically, BDU top and bottom, sweat wilking shirt and briefs, wool socks (x3 per day) I'm super serious, if you over pack socks you will not be sad.]]

Tactical Vest [[Get a light chest rig and don't load it heavy.]]

Goggles, fully enclosed [[Goggles are nice, I prefer balistic glasses. Super light, harder to fog, about as likely to get a BB in the eye as with goggles.]] [[NOTE: Get a light modular face mask. I hate the mesh masks which are popular, there are good plastic ones out there]]

Radio [[If you're new. Pack it. Carry it. And turn it the fuck OFF. New guys notoriously get their PTT caught up on their gear and cause hell for everyone. Use it for emergencies and wear it where you want to wear it when you're a big boy, and note if you constantly put pressure on it.]]

Red Kill rag, Red kill light/glow-stick [[E-Glowsticks. Real glowsticks don't turn off and will get you shot by guys with NVG seeing your glowstick through your clothing. Seriously. Gets you ded.]]

Watch [[Super important and rarely carried. Get a little $10 compass attachment for the watch strap, works a treat in a pinch]]

Case of water [[ 500ml bottles of water are awesome. They fit in pouches, pockets, bags... and they crush to 1/8th their size. good alternative to camelbacks.]]

Folding chair [[Waste of weight. Don't do it. Sit on the ground or build a chair from wood.]]

Food [[Get a jetboil ($100) and mountain house bags ($10 each). Best hot meals EVER. Cooks water in 60 seconds. Meal ready in 5 minutes. We have litterally cooked these under fire and swapped out guys to eat and stay in the fight. Suppliment real meals with Jerky, Cliffbars, and snickers.]]

Recommended
-----------
Paper + pencil [[Nope. Won't be used. If you want a writing utensil, sharpie or go home, now everything is your pad of paper]]
Whistle [[Not unless you do some deep backwoods shit. If you can't scream and get someone, a whistle ain't gonna help.]]
CamelBak Hydration [[I like em. they are hit and miss. and freeze easy in the winter ]]
Binoculars [[Nope, dump it.]]
Mouth protection [[Yes. Especially in CQB areas or known heavy engagements like a defensive position.]]
Flashlight [[Get two. One on your gun LOCKED to off. One on your gear locked to off. If you need it. You will never need it so fast... and being THAT guy who's light turns on during a sneaky bit of the raid... will get you known.]]
Neck protection [[Nope. Grow a beard.]]
Knee-pads [[Personally, nope. Unless I'm at a field with a known fuck-off amount of rocks / shale. You can put a bit of foam in the liner of most BDU's to take the edge off.]]
Gloves [[Yes. 2 pairs if it's wet or cold. Mechanix Gloves are the be all end all of airsoft gloves. Get the Original type. Hard to burn, hard to freeze. Get one size larger than you need and wear wool under it in the winter.]]
Compass [[Wear it on your watch. More speicifically, get a Fortrex 401 GPS. You can get em for $100 on some sales and they will save your ass for navigation at night or during the day on a new field. No fancy graphics, just a bread crumb of where you have been with markers you can set (camp, enemy base, parking, etc...) ]]]





THINGS YOU HAVE MISSED

Backpack - 3-Day Assault pack. Pack it small and light with 2L-4L water, 2 Snacks. Jetboil, 1 meal, BB Loader, BB's in loader. Goretex RainGear. Pair of socks. This comes out with you on the field and either fought with, or left at a FOB or regroup point.

Rain Gear - Goretex. Any color. Cheap as possible. It goes OVER gear only in a rush, and UNDER BDU as soon as you get a chance to do it. This way your BDU stays on the outside doing it's job of keeping you camouflaged and the goretex on the inside doing it's job of keeping you dry.

Toilet Paper - More specifically, the magic of Baby Wipes. Get the extreme pain version, or acetone veriety. I know I'm not the only one. But seriously. It's the best thing ever. Packs small too when the alternative is a wad of toilet paper... which also sucks to get wet.

Leatherman Multitool - You can strip most guns with one, and fix most other problems. Keep it on your chest rig.


(18-24 hours added kit)

50ft Paracord - Useful at fixing shit, putting up covering etc...

Tarp - 5x8 Useful in Hot summer games. Do this at base. It's now a small shaded area. Also keeps the rain out. Cool guys use SilTarps but they are expensive.

Tent - Save up for a LiteFighter. Sleep in your Sleeping Bag and Bivvy until you can afford one. Literally no other tent is worthy to mention here.

Sleeping Bag / Bivvy - US Marine Issue Sleep System. Can be found on Ebay for $100. Comes with Cotton Liner, Light Bag, Heavy Bag, Goretex Bivvy, and Compression Sack. Dump the Cotton Liner and Leave Either the light or heavy bag at home depending on the season. Treat the goretex shell like it's a god. Sleep in this outdoors without tent and wake up fresh. With the LiteFighter, I have slept through a flood and came out dry as a sheep on shear day.



More to come when I think of it.

[Gallo]

Awesome stuff so far. Thanks!

[lurkingknight]

dude he's going for 12 hours not a week.

[GR]

Is this Dawn of Olympus we're talking about?

A few things I might add to the list:

- Flip knife (depends on the game rules and if you don't have a multi tool, which is not the case here): useful in all kind of situations (and no, not for stabbing).
- Tape... Electrical, duck tape, etc... If you can't solve something using tape, you're not using enough.

On the same topic:

1) Worth packing a sidearm (Glock 17) with 3 mags, as a back up?
2) How useful would a taclight be during the night part of the game?
3) Is red filter for a flashlight recommended?

[Red Dot]

Some great stuff has been offered up but I'll add my 2 cents.

Enough water for the day, I go 1 litre per 2 hours activity and it's been working.

Those baby food meal packs, not in glass bottles but flat pack. Not the tastiest stuff but packed with everything you need and highly portable/quickly consumable.

Wet wipes, a God send if you need them. Hand sanitizer as well.

Duct tape binds everything.

Layers for clothing, lots of info out there on how to do this. Consider a boonie cap versus a helmet if it's very sunny.

That's about the main things, I pack enough batteries to not worry about charging... way more convenient then charging in a field.

Always remember you can keep most of this at you base/respawn... a lot of new players (myself included) carried a buttload of too much shit and burn out way to early in the game. Pace yourself, drink all the time, find lulls in the action to sit/lie down.

Is it our game you're coming to?

EDIT: lights are super important, but so is light discipline. A red filter would be good to turn it into a kill light.

[Gallo]

Originally Posted by Red Dot

Is it our game you're coming to?

Yes. Hopefully there are a few spots left. I'll be sending my EMT later today.

[Hectic]

Advising against a pencil and paper isn't that good of an idea.
say it's raining out. You think a sharpie on a dollar store note pad will work? NOPE.
I carry a pen (fisher space pen, cheapish, refillable, writes upside down and in extreme heat and cold) I carry a pencil (never fails so long as there is a knife or rock handy in case of breakage) I carry China markers (great for marking on maps that are in a clear map pack, something changes wipe it off and wrote it elsewhere) and lastly a write in the rain notebook (mec has em, they are self explanatory, I can (with the fisher pen) write while swimming, no joke, and all my notes and diagrams and field sketches of areas hold up in any extreem (it's a sniper thing but still handy for other Intel notes and keeping track of timings and such.
For a 12 hour game you don't need as much. A few MRE's and some heater packs (bring extra for making coffee in water bottles while away from a fire or stove Google combat coffee for info) goretex socks are a savior, over cotton or wool but just extra socks are fine if your not a swamp stalker like me)

[docholiday]

Originally Posted by Hectic

... and lastly a write in the rain notebook (mec has em, they are self explanatory, I can (with the fisher pen) write while swimming, no joke, and all my notes and diagrams and field sketches of areas hold up in any extreem (it's a sniper thing but still handy for other Intel notes and keeping track of timings and such. ...

Write in the rain notebooks failed at Black Oak - too much rain.

[FirestormX]

Originally Posted by docholiday

Write in the rain notebooks failed at Black Oak - too much rain.

Not to hijack, but in what way did it fail? It didn't write, or it fell apart? My year old pad has survived both Black Oak and Deadfall, but I barely wrote anything at either of those events. I'm curious about what problems I should be aware of, so it doesn't fail on me when I need it.

[ThunderCactus]

wasnt there already a thread exactly like this?

Beyond all my normal gear I use for scrims (gun, ammo, mags, batteries, etc, etc), for a full 24hr game I also pack;
in my gear bag:
sunscreen
goretex socks
(always have my softshell for rain)
extra socks
2 meals
extra 3-6L of water

extra stuff on me;
food
night vision
rag for wiping glasses (sweat is REALLY hard to get off with a sweaty shirt)
red strobe dead light (always on me but worth mentioning)

If I do have to take a pack with me into the field, it will contain;
sometimes extra propane
extra ammo
socks (wool and goretex, only peasants wear cotton socks)
softshell jacket
extra food
extra batteries
bugspray, if it's that kind of field
clear and/or dark spare glasses (for day/night)

There's a difference between what you NEED and what you WANT out there.
You can do a 24hr game with nothing more than all your scrim gear, extra food, water, and ammo.
You can bring a tent if you WANT to, but you'll learn you can literally sleep on anything if you NEED to.

The more long games I do, the less I carry.
The second 24hr game I did, I had a USGI sleeping kit, mini stove, full set of goretex, inflatable pillow, tons of extra ammo, goretex socks & gloves, thermal shirt, basically everything I could want out there.
The last 24hr game I did with nothing more than extra food and water, and just carried my night vision on me.

[docholiday]

Originally Posted by FirestormX

Not to hijack, but in what way did it fail? It didn't write, or it fell apart? My year old pad has survived both Black Oak and Deadfall, but I barely wrote anything at either of those events. I'm curious about what problems I should be aware of, so it doesn't fail on me when I need it.

Had it in ankle pocket of BDU's, came out like a regular soaked through paper booklet would look like.

I think Ray's took a beating too - he posted a picture on the OpFor FB group.

Edit: Just put it in a Ziplock bag and you are good to go, or place it in a drier place.

[Hectic]

Odd, I literally have tested it in the shower and submerged in a pond. I keep it in my admin panel and it writes every time. I guess closer to the ground it'll yet wetter. Up high it's protected from all the rain running down you plus the admin pouch is pretty water resistant. They do work quite well tho I guess it's safe to say store it someplace somewhat dry or in a baggie.