jonnycalavera asked: That's a good question my friend. I have been curious myself as well. Many of the guys I know and work with are a little apprehensive when it comes to using them because of the release mechanism. Sometimes they fire when you don't want them to and others times do not fire when you need them to. I haven't had a chance to really try it and make my own opinion. Hmmmm, I will get back to you on that! The only thing that has ever really concerned me is loading them. You have to pour them into a port where the bb's rest on a spring loaded blanket. It would seem to me that they would not effectively stay in place on blanket. But now you've got my own wheels turning!
I had the same concerns as you about the locking mechanism and the loading, surely when you fill it the BB’s will go to the bottom of the firing mechanism? However I have read that, the further back that you set the angle the better range you’ll get, so I guess they don’t all fall right to the bottom.
Also, the locking mechanism is supposed to be a bit funky, it needs a bit of grinding to make it 90 degrees to lock fully. I’ve been tempted to get one because if it worked well it’d certainly be a great area denial piece of kit. At the site I play at, they have a castle with 2 floors where you have to stop the other team getting in. There’s a lot of opportunities for rigging traps etc in that kind of environment, especially either manually controlled or via a tripwire. Anyway, I might get one, I’ll do a review when I do and let you know of my findings!
It is ready! Everything has been fixed and it’s ready for it’s next outing.
Comrades,
The EBR took its first step at warfighting on the 19th of June. After the paintwork was redone the gear box was worked on and outfitted with new parts which included new bushings, spring guide and shims.
These fixes have greatly improved the consistency of the inner workings and no doubt extended the life of the gearbox components. The problem that I now face is that after crono’ing the gun it was discovered that it was shooting at 160fps! Which was very very low. So next up, is to upgrade the spring to an m100 which should kick out a lot more power, hopefully giving a range increase.
Either way we can say that the EBR performed well and with a little more tinkering will be up and ready for battle.
Interestingly on another note it turns out that my AGM M16 A3 is shooting at 270fps, which again is fairly low, however the good news is that it easily outranges every other gun on the skirmish field. This even prompted the guys to crono our guns to check that they weren’t too powerful!
Out…
Hello everyone,
A very quick update on the M14 EBR, We have now stripped the parts back to bare metal and repainted them with black Krylon Fusion camouflage paint and I have to say it looks awesome!
I have stripped the gearbox down after it locked up one day, due the the anti-reversal latch flipping the wrong way but all is well now. Interestingly I found that it has nylon bushings and a plastic spring guide which now need to be replaced.
The hop unit is still wiggy, after stripping it down at the same time as the gearbox it is now not working again. I found that the grinding sound was due to the loading nozzle jamming against the hop rubber, which was eliminated by enlarging the opening very slightly with a scalpel. The hop just simply needs a bit of fiddling to get it aligned properly but I am confident that it will be working as soon as I get the chance.
But for now my focus is on my university work and exams next week, after then I’ll be busying myself with airsoft for the summer!
Catch you all soon!
Hello everyone out there in airsoft coo coo-ville, we are back and ready for some new posts. I’ve been away for a while, mostly because I am one busy dude at Uni right now and also, partly due to the fact I am lazy when it comes to doing this stuff!
Okay so, updates-wise, the Thunder B grenade is still going strong but has suffered an unfortunate dislocation of the screw threads. I took the grenade out of my pouch the other day to, well just to look at it because I’m awesome like that and found that the threads that take the C02 cylinder had broken off at one place leaving around a 1cm gap in the screw threads! I tried the grenade however and it still works so I have to put it down to the pressures involved within the grenade when it goes off. Not a fatal design flaw but it is a shame, it makes you wonder why they didn’t make that body out of aluminium instead of plastic as it is the main part that is going to take all the stress!
Moving on from the grenade, we have acquired a G&P M14 EBR second hand and will be tweaking it shortly. The gun is in overall good condition however I seriously doubt the guys claims that he only used it 3 times. “He” may have only used it 3 times but whoever had it before him used it a hell of a lot more!
When we got to testing it initially it didn’t shoot well at all. Very inconsistent with shots dropping after around 20 feet (being generous), the hop wasn’t working at all and a bizarre grinding sound being thrown into the mix! I’ve eliminated the grinding sound from being gear related as the gun operates fine, but it would misfeed and make the grinding sound. I tend to put that down to the air nozzle hitting something or other that it shouldn’t causing it to misfeed.
After I stripped the gun down as far as I dared I got the hop unit working properly and it now shoots pretty consistently, the grinding sound is all but gone for now, which is a great stress reliever. I will be fitting a Madbull Black Python tightbore and my new favourite thing, H hop bucking.
I’ve fitted H bucking to my M16 and I have to say that it shoots straight as an arrow with hardly any hop turned on what so ever, so much so that I need to calibrate my ACOG sight to adjust for its new trajectory.
Back to the EBR however it suffered a crushing blow to the cocking handle which totally broke off! So now I need to figure out how to fix that, otherwise I need to buy the ridiculously priced G&P parts set to replace the damaged piece. But for now it doesn’t actually look that bad so I’ll concentrate on getting it working well then fix the cosmetics later.
Keep rocking and keep your eyes on target!
Hooah!
Thunder B C02 Grenade starter pack, purchased from Airsoft World for £24.99
Included in the starter pack:
Grenade core
x2 Pins
x3 Shells (2 pineapple and 1 flashbang)
x2 Spare plastic seals
Also required:
Spare shells as and when needed, £4.50 triple pack or 12 pack £16.99
Required amount of C02 cartridges @ 69p each
My first thoughts when considering a reusable device was the issue of having to retrieve the used device after deploying it especially in woodland, but this was negated by my frequent coming upon situations when gaming where I wanted to use a frag but didn’t necessarily want to use a pyro device. This need came from close quarters situations, CQB in buildings where pyro wouldn’t be suitable or just wanting to hurl a bang at a group of cowering reds in an enclosed space such as a bunker, pillbox or trench.
It was the review by the guys at OpsGear (search Youtube for OpsGear Thunder B) which really sold this device to me for its tactical value as well as its relative cheapness to deploy in game.
What you’ll want to know:
On receiving the Thunder B grenade I was impressed by the quality of the construction. The outer shells, which are replaced after each use are blow moulded from a strong plastic material which cannot be crushed or flexed easily, so there’s no need to worry about crushing your frag when crawling through the undergrowth.
The reusable core is made from aluminium and steel parts with various rubber seals and inserts. The upper metallic coloured part is made from a durable plastic which houses a metal hammer and spring which must be cocked and locked in place with the pin before each use. Further to this the fly off lever is metal and is attached to the core unit so you won’t need to worry about losing it, the lever holds the hammer back when cocked.
The grenade works like this:
When the pin is pulled the hammer is released and hits a plunger which is attached to a sharp pin which punctures the C02 cartridge. The C02 escapes from the capsule and fills the plastic shell until it eventually splits causing the explosion. The explosion is very loud and certainly will be noticed during game, especially if your target is in a trench, bunker, room etc. There’s no missing it!
Setting up the Thunder B:
1. 
First you have to cock the hammer back, you can use the pin to hold it in place once all the way back or just simply put your finger through the hole in the lever and push the hammer down and secure with the pin.
2. Next you have to unscrew the bottom cap off of the C02 chamber and carefully slide the cartridge inside. If you just ram it home you might accidentally pierce the cartridge prematurely.
3. Secure the cap in place to finger tightness.
4. Now select your shell and screw it on tight, but don’t destroy your screw threads with over tightening.
5. You are now ready to go.
Tips:
You can increase the detonation time by not tightening the cap right up, only finger tight as the quicker the gas escapes from the core chamber and into the shell the quicker it will explode. Alternatively drilling a small hole through the aluminium chamber will further increase the detonation time to almost instant detonation (traps perhaps?).
From what I’ve seen you can part fill the shells with talcum powder or even BB’s which will fly out once it splits open, however the pineapple shell only splits in one place so BB’s won’t be going in all directions and may very well go straight into the floor. Your best to use the flashbang shell as it often breaks up into fragments totally separating from the body itself, this will send BB’s in all directions.
And finally I’d recommend painting your handle in a distinctive pattern that, 1 stands out and 2 is easy to identify as yours. If there’s several being used on site and their all out of the box black, you want to make sure you get yours back and no one walks off with your core!
Conclusion:
In review the Thunder B C02 grenade, is certainly useful for up close work, especially when guys are trapped in an enclosed space. The grenade is durable throughout its construction and can be used to great effect.
So far I have deployed the grenade many times in which it has worked flawlessly, detonating in under 5 seconds resulting in an unmistakable bang (so loud in fact that I thought the marshall was going to ask me not to use it the first time I deployed it in game). Extremely effective at CQB games and offers one huge advantage over pyro which is that the grenade doesn’t give off the tell tale smoke and sparks of a lit pyro grenade making it difficult for the bad guys to identify an incoming device. Might I suggest this in conjunction with a pyro grenade or smoke. As everyone runs to dodge the first grenade then rushes back to resume their positions you can almost always catch people out who are eager to resume their positions.
Status:
Fit for duty! Hooah!
