The Airsoft Experience
The Airsoft Experience
Historical Battles Reimagined: WWII Airsoft Reenactment with Ian McNish and Jakes LaRouche
Step back in time with us as seasoned airsoft reenactors Ian McNish and Jakes LaRouche guide us through the trenches of historical reenactment with a distinctive World War II focus. They bring with them a wealth of knowledge, sharing over 27 years of collective experience. This episode is a treasure trove of insights, from the rush of battle at Flag Raiders to the thrill of handling a fully functional airsoft Browning M2 machine gun.
Dive helmet-first into the rich array of upcoming events and the meticulous planning behind each reenactment. Our conversation spans continents as we explore the camaraderie shared by reenactors from the U.S. to Canada. We also address the challenges of organizing large events, balancing historical fidelity with player engagement, and the potential for partisans to revolutionize gameplay with their unexpected moves and significant impact on the battlefield.
Ensuring the past is not merely remembered but vividly lived, we discuss the essentials of promoting the WWII airsoft community. We're on a mission to capture the public's imagination through immersive photography and videos, tapping into the narrative power of social media to draw more enthusiasts to our ranks. Through laughter and the clink of authentic gear, Ian, and Jake celebrate the dedication of our community and look ahead to the future, where the lines between history and reenactment continue to blur. Join us as we keep the spirit of historical reenactment alive, honoring the past while forging new memories on the battlefield.
@29thofontario
29thofontario.com
29thofontario@gmail.com
Action Airsoft Club
www.actionairsoft.ca 905-615-7757
Ballistic Prints
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089181244866
SlingX
www.slingx.ca
Lightfighter Milsim Airsoft Team www.facebook.com/lightfightersmilsim
Nsceibelab Laser Designs
www,facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089285134479
Army Issue Surplus Inc.
www.armyissue.com 905-271-1665
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Rental advisory. Now welcome to the Airsoft experience Six one way up. Contact left side 70.
Speaker 2:Coming to you. Contact left, contact left. We're flanking left side. Suppress, push, push, push. We're moving, we're moving Right side, right side, got him, they're pulling back now.
Speaker 1:Alright, and welcome to the Airsoft experience. I'm your host, michael Mascot, also known as Magic in the Ontario Airsoft World, and today I got two amazing guests from a part of Airsoft I guess not too many people have heard about, and we're here today, live at Action Airsoft, to change that. So welcome, ian McNish and Jake's LaRouche. How are you guys doing?
Speaker 2:Great, great Thanks for having us. Yep thanks for having us.
Speaker 1:Awesome, welcome to the Airsoft experience and let's just kind of do a brief background. So these fine gentlemen are in the World War II reenactment and I guess of Airsoft or the whole thing, I guess blank firing the whole nine. But I guess we'll get into that. So we'll kind of slow roll a bit. And Ian, when did Airsoft start for you, like, how long have you been playing kind of background?
Speaker 2:About 15 years now and almost only thing I've ever done is with the World War II group. I've been to half a dozen public games in that time. The biggest one was 120 or so people at Flag Raiders in Kitchener.
Speaker 1:Love that field.
Speaker 2:That was. It was a great. It was a great day. It was September, it was raining, it was a big pile of mud. I had a crack in for anybody who remembers those things from Bass Pro, and that that was my introduction to it, nice, nice. What about you, jake?
Speaker 3:I've been playing for about 12 years. I got into modern Airsoft first and I always felt like this would be really awesome. It was like old school Call of Duty. I eventually found the group and got involved that way.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So you guys have played Airsoft for a hell of a long time. That's pretty awesome, Like back back in the day, that's cool. I wish I was in it that long, but I just discovered it. I think about five years ago, believe it or not. And yeah, now I'm just obsessed. You guys started regular Airsoft. You said you played about a dozen walk on games. And what about you? Did you go out to any walk on games or any modern events, anything like that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mostly do a couple of local fields.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 3:I regularly play Scurm days and stuff like that. I did maybe two or three larger scale milsim stuff. I tended to lean towards the World War II stuff because like, if you don't have the budget for like night vision or stuff like that, it gets kind of stacked.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure, especially at night. We're trying to, we're trying to to put some training out there and kind of change that kind of whole thing. But I I know, speaking from a guy that has night vision, I understand where you're coming from it could definitely change, change the ties of the game. Okay, so you started playing modern or when, when we say modern we mean more modern weapons, airsoft weapons, relaxed liberals, and we kind of go towards you know, period correct, more wood and stuff like that. So how did you kind of get the World War II bug, like where did it start? How did it start? Where did you get the information from? Cause, like I said, I've been doing this for five years now and until the airsoft expo last year, I mean other than a little bit of Brian uh Macklemorel talking here and there from the Deadfall series. I had no fucking idea that this even existed, like not at all, and it's the coolest shit in the world. So how about you explain to the listeners, like how did you guys stumble upon it?
Speaker 2:So way back in the day, after I'd finished college and I was looking, I'd finally had a little bit of free time and I wasn't so incredibly broke. I wanted to do actually World War I initially, but then I realized, wow, real firearms are very expensive. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, on the uniforms, and though I so, I found, uh, at the time, lee, he was doing a World War II group and this was not long after Bandit Brothers had come out. So there was, and there still is, a number of airborne units that were out there doing their thing and really airsoft wasn't all that popular in it and all you really ever had was people with everybody at a Thompson on the Allied side and everybody had an MP40 on the German side and that was it. So it was a spray fest. It's come a long way since then. Now it's there's a whole mix of weapons of all kinds. We actually have a 1919, the Browning M2, the machine gun that has. It needs a crew of three. It has the detachable tripod. We have to put it down, we have to carry the thing in there.
Speaker 1:So uh, and it runs airsoft. Oh yeah, is it a custom build or it's from an actual industry manufacturer?
Speaker 2:Uh, it's an industry manufacturer, I think we also. Well, we have two of them actually. Jake knows a little bit more about these things than I do.
Speaker 3:So I believe they're OEM by EMG. So yeah, they're. They're mostly based off of a kit that was available back in like early late nineties, early 2000s.
Speaker 1:So you probably couldn't pick this up today.
Speaker 3:Today. Yeah, you can pick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can Wow, that's awesome. I guess I got to look a little deeper into the airsoft and I know G and G started putting out all the all wood and the M1 series and, uh, I think, aries as well. I think those are the two majors that I know Like. Personally, I do have a SEMA, uh, thompson myself, so I'm I'm guilty of that as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think we have eight or nine of those kicking around.
Speaker 2:Eight, that was my SEMA Thompson that I had that for eight years before it finally broke. I never opened it up, never touched it, never. Nothing worked pretty fine.
Speaker 1:Nice. I think I've used it once in this field and, uh, I kind of switched to a modern M249 and never went back.
Speaker 3:Personally, I ran one of those for a number of years. Yeah, super fun. It's hard to go back, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Mine's a. Mine's got a Daytona kit in it, so it's just yeah she shakes real good. I love it. It's, uh, it brings that realism and that kind of ties into your end. Like is there, is there live fire, like any blank fire or anything like that at a World War two event.
Speaker 2:So there have been experiments on mixing a couple of blank fires into there as well as um, airsoft. It's not incredibly popular because a lot of people don't necessarily cross the two boundaries, uh. So sometimes it's kind of it's difficult to get people into this. But once they start playing this and they realize, hey, you actually bring force to take cover rather than standing in the open and somebody goes bang and you have to just oh there, I am there, he is Okay, Now let's hide. It's a whole different animal. So how would you.
Speaker 1:how would you classify a hit from a blank player, though? Or is it just for like, for us, like we'll throw, you know AF sixes and bangs and and and explosions and stuff like that, to kind of add to it? Is that all it, or do they actually count as a, as a hit if somebody aims towards you?
Speaker 2:In my experience I found that usually when you see somebody has a clear muzzle shot, or on you like, you see the muzzle flash pointed at you or you know, you hear a shot to your 90 degrees to your left and you turn around. He's right there. Well, you know, I don't know you're dead?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's. It also depends on if it's like a private tactical event where we're like fully immersed. There's like we're fully immersed in the situation and we're not like performing for a crowd Like we do a lot of museum events. It's like pretty heavily scripted, Like they tell us oh, we want you to come up here this far, and then some of you guys take a hit and then proceed to the next objective.
Speaker 1:So is there a lot of that going around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's it. Obviously during last couple of years it's picked back up, but it comes and goes to different events. Sometimes they're sponsored by, as an example of Noshua. There's a the interior regiment has a big, big museum event there that's sponsored by World of Tanks. That's the Aquinas, right? Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, and so that that's a really big one. Obviously that's all blank fire, but yeah, it depends on where you go. There's a little a small museum that we go to in Georgina. They're having one in March and they're having one in July that we've been going to Nice. It's just a one day event and they have the movie armaments group comes out and they loan us. Well, I should say they'll allow people to use really fun toys. So last year I got to use a full auto Thompson, Wow, and without airsoft they never would have been able to experience that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. Are you guys a legal gun or how holders and our power holders, or are you just airsoft.
Speaker 3:I'm an ARPAL and a PAL.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:Nice, I did the course. I just waiting for the paperwork.
Speaker 1:Sweet. We actually offer it here and we do want to every month and I feel like that's very important for anybody that kind of is in our spectrum of the industry because basically for us, like airsoft is, you know, a good, safe entry into that next level shooting. I actually went backwards and started real steel and then went to airsoft Thank you, liberals. But now we're here and talking about it. So how? So you start these reenacting events and you start going for museums and and I'm sure some are remembrance days and stuff like that how did airsoft start to tie into all of that?
Speaker 2:Well, at first it was. It's obviously like it's a lower barrier to entry because real steel firearms will. An M1 grand is $3,000.
Speaker 3:Yeah about that. Yeah, yeah, give it a take, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's if you know an armor who can help you with that. And Airsoft Tom's is what $400 or $500 to start off with.
Speaker 1:Yeah about that, yeah, yeah, pretty close.
Speaker 2:So there's the barrier to entry is much lower. For that it is generally safer too. How did it get tited? It has been around for quite a while. It's just the availability of newer weapons and the proliferation of different types of types of things have come out. It just made it a lot easier and more accessible. And, of course, the internet has. It's not only changed everything, but changed this as well, because I've met people when we were at living history displays who have been doing this since the 70s and they say, oh, is this person there, is that person there? And they've told me, up until the 90s and the early 2000s and the internet became everything, they were using original equipment and they all just had to know the guy.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's crazy, yeah. What about vehicles? Would you like?
Speaker 2:to tell us, tell them about the Crossroad Vastaker oh yeah, so this was probably 2022.
Speaker 3:We were able to kit up two period Willy Jeeps Wow and one of them had a pedestal mount for a M249, a 1930 Cal Browning, and we had one. Really, oh, I wonder if it fits.
Speaker 2:Throw it in there, oh shit.
Speaker 3:So we rigged up a homemade box mag that I had 3D printed in an ammo bag and hung it on the pedestal. That's awesome. Okay, everybody load up Tommy's grease guns, full auto, everything. We're hitting this last objective. And so we head out down this trail and we had scouted the location about like an hour beforehand. Like nobody was there, like we know that's where the final objective is going to be. So we're like, okay, we'll blow through the Crossroads, we'll go this way and the other Jeep will go down and we'll enter into this town that they're defending. So we get up close there and I spot a position like immediately I'm like, oh shit. So I start firing and I'm like we do like a classic drive by and I fired and I, as I was turning the machine gun, I clip the windscreen on the Jeep, fire directly into this position. I see this one guy jump up like oh my God, and he runs back and I lit him up.
Speaker 3:And then we spotted the other three MG 34s and 42s and we're like shit, oh no, and they ripped us to pieces.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:It was like the whole thing was over in like maybe 45 seconds.
Speaker 1:But you know what? It was probably a hell of a time.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:How like specific are the kits like for this Very?
Speaker 2:So we typically have a couple of different research websites and research books that we've draw everything from. We do use photos, but we try to keep it as standardized as possible because we don't want okay, you found something once in a photo of that you can find it towards the end of the war. So we're not going to let everybody necessarily do that. So if we're doing like a D day impression as an example, we're not going to have double buckle boots because it was a later war thing. Well, I have an M 41 uniform, not an M 43. So we do have a kit list and we have preferred vendors on top of if you can find originals on eBay and Kajiji things like that. So it is pretty specific and we do kind of enforce that fairly heavily.
Speaker 1:So if I were a new player. I know how to play airsoft. I went and bought a G and GM one and I want to get into this, but I have no idea what to wear, who to contact or where to buy the shit from. How do I go about doing that? Well, we have our website.
Speaker 2:This is also why we try to show up with things like airsoft conventions to get our name out there. But it's. This is obviously a challenge and it is a bit of a niche, so you have to find the people that are really willing to do this.
Speaker 1:You want to throw the website out there. So everybody knows.
Speaker 2:Yeah, on 29th of Ontario. Give it the exact.
Speaker 1:I'll post it as well in the description at the end of this episode and you guys can click, click straight from there as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 29th of Ontario, dot com to nine to nine of Ontario dot com to nine TH of Ontario dot com.
Speaker 1:All right, you heard it here first on the airsoft experience. If you're into the World War two, reenactment stuff which the more and more I'm listening to this, I am you can. You can hit that website up and I'm sure all the steps are on there, everything you need, or yeah, there's.
Speaker 2:there's just ways of contacting. You'll see what events, events we've done in the past, you'll see future events with dates, and it's just a simple contact, because then it's the best way to get in contact with one of us through an email and then introduce yourself. Same much experience you have, what kit you do have, what questions you have, and we can start from there. And we always have a loaner kit. We have loaner weapons, we have loaners to get people out to see if they're really interested, because it's very difficult to ask somebody to spend, you know here, spend $1,000 to see if you like this thing.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and I say that all the time, like personally, I own an airsoft store right out those doors and I'll have a first time person come in and they want to, like, buy a rifle. They want to buy this by that, by this. I'm like you know what? How about you just go and rent, rent a rifle, go in there and play and come back and see me at the end of the night? If this is something that you actually enjoy doing, then invest in it. But if you're not, like if you're just excited because you see a bunch of guns on the wall, it's not a good decision. You need to know whether this is for you or not. And with such a specific kit list, I would definitely suggest hitting up that website and starting your career in World War II reenactment the right way, not just kind of, you know, buying fake shit off of Amazon and hoping that it's going to pass.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we advise against that. Yeah, their khaki colored stuff is more like banana yellow and really hot.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. It goes the same for modern Like you just want to. You want to stay away from that Now to find stuff like I guess you really got to hit a specific vendor because even with the like army issue, like one of our sponsors, like they don't really cater to that air of stuff because there's really there's fuck all left.
Speaker 3:Actually I picked up an M 43 jacket there a couple of years ago. Oh, did you yeah?
Speaker 1:There you go, jeroen, you heard it right there. You actually just proved me wrong. You do sell pants, I'll tell you that much. Yes, he does. Okay, so like vendor, wise, like like where would you go to buy something?
Speaker 2:So the main vendors there are a couple who do reproductions at the front is probably the best one out of California. Or what price glory, depending on what nation you want in specifically what you want, a lot of our stuff like.
Speaker 3:We do have quite a bit of original kit and we find it on eBay. Sometimes you get lucky on Facebook marketplace.
Speaker 1:Now are these people pricing this as if they're, like you know, through the roof pricing wise?
Speaker 3:It's a mixed bag like you get somebody. It's like oh, yeah, I got this really ultra rare army helmet. I'm like, yeah, they made like 10 million. Yeah definitely not rare. It's not not unheard of to be a rare thing, but like more than not. More often than not it's like they just don't know how, and the same respect.
Speaker 1:You get people like oh, it's an old army helmet, like 20 bucks, and you're like oh, that's like $500, like and you guys play with it like it's nothing, like even if it's an expensive stuff, like do you guys do like the medals and the whole nine on your uniforms, or that's more of a dress kind of uniform thing?
Speaker 3:It's more of a dress kind of thing. Certain things like we will allow, like if you like, have your pal course or something like that you could have like a marksmanship badge or something. But we generally say like no purple hearts or anything like that.
Speaker 1:So on this website is there a list, like a, of requirements or basic requirement kit wise that you need, or is that something you kind of get into the group once you kind of we?
Speaker 2:allow people to look at the website and see if this is what they want to do and see if it's something looks like it's interesting to them. And then we prefer that we get in contact with people. We have a kit list we send to people, but you know there's also different levels of kit. List is a very basic uniform and then, if you need you have your basic uniform, we can let you use webman a couple of times and then you can grow it slowly so you don't necessarily have to purchase it all at once, even if you do like it. And we also, like Jake was saying, we have so much stuff now we've accumulated because we know it's getting harder to find that. We do sell that, you know, really below market rates for people who are really interested in things.
Speaker 1:Do you guys differentiate different differentiated units and kit for units so you don't just basically have, you know, all infantry. You'll have, like you know, I guess, a tank unit or mortar unit or whatever they did back then.
Speaker 2:There aren't that many people in it typically, but yes, I know the Germans have had some cavalry units. There's, I think John Woods is making a what is it? A scout car, something like that? Yeah, two, two, two scout car armored.
Speaker 3:Armored car with a 20 millimeter cannon on the top.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:So I'm. I'm certain that he has a very specific impression that he's doing for that, even with the other factions. The allies have a Perth regiment that we know of. That's in southern Ontario, and there's a one can para unit, so it's a paratrooper unit and they have a very specific set of equipment.
Speaker 1:So what are the most like?
Speaker 3:obviously, most popular would be American and German, or you have others, or there's a bit of an M and flow to it, so right now it's mostly German and Allied for the airsoft side of things.
Speaker 2:There is a Japanese unit that's just started up, so there's five of them and one of the guys has. He brings out the real story and he, he, he trains them to scream at us and things like it's crazy, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I think I think I see some of your guys group at the Deadfall series because they're a lot of the Germans, just from their affiliation with Brian, I suppose, are playing there.
Speaker 3:Play there just because it's his event and I was going to say a good event.
Speaker 1:I shot a lot of Germans this year. Oh, that was a good event. Okay, so like technically, ballpark Off the top of your head. How big is your community?
Speaker 3:Well, the one big event that we do, it's like Operation Woodsmen. It's in Ottawa Valley, not all of the valley, but Kempville area. I think the biggest event was like 70 or 80 people. Yeah, about 80 people. Nice, that's maybe not necessarily everybody that's involved. That's like the big event that everybody tries to get to.
Speaker 1:So let's use Operation Woodsmen as an example and let's break down an event. So it's from Friday till Sunday, or is it Saturday till Sunday? It's Thursday till Sunday. I love that Thursday till Sunday. So I got all my kit, I got in contact with you guys. Well, let's back this up. I went on the website, got in contact with you guys, got my approved kit list, got my marker, my airsoft gun or whatever the Liberals want us to call it, and I show up Thursday. What do I do from there?
Speaker 3:Well, Thursday is usually just mostly travel time and set up. We have a lot of tents and field gear we got to set up and period Correct.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh, wow, that's awesome yeah.
Speaker 3:And basically like there are orders for Thursday night. So as soon as you have enough people to do like a recce patrol, you can start like moving men in the field and checking things out. It's usually very structured and it's mostly it's a slow burn. So it's like you're going to be doing recce and scouting positions and doing all that kind of stuff for probably most of Thursday, friday and Saturday morning, and then the main objectives and assault happens on Saturday mid-morning to afternoon. Cool.
Speaker 2:That's the way it's supposed to go. Sometimes we end up bumping patrols a little bit early and then.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's always, you know, little hiccups along the way.
Speaker 1:That sounds like airsoft to me. So command structure, is it serious? Command structure Like, how does that work on the field?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there is a leader on either side, another faction. I've led the Allied side a couple of times myself, nice. I am given written orders with specific timing, so I adhere to that. But yes, I say to the people okay, we're going to go out and we're going to meet the partisans. I don't, there's seven of us, we only need three, because we don't need a lot of people. Who wants to stay on Firewatch first and who wants to do this? Who wants to do that? So there are orders, but it also at the same time. You know, we are looking to have fun. I don't want to push people too hard, and so it's a bit of a give and take, but there's definitely command structure. There's definitely okay, this is what we're doing and this is how we're doing it and this is how we're going to execute it. Nice, who hosts?
Speaker 1:the game that one Brian does, so Brian hosts. And where is that held? You said it's at? Is it just a private field or is it actual field in Kemphill, someone's house? Someone's house, they're farm Nice, nice, that's cool. So Brian is, so he writes the script.
Speaker 2:Yep, he creates the serial and designs it and it's obviously sometimes it's a struggle with any airsoft or with anything really is to get people to commit to numbers and know ahead of time. So he has to write a couple of different scenarios, as I understand it, and he tries to change it up every year to year to year. So, as an example, one year he had a there's a partisan faction to are basically civilians without any regular gear as the allies. You can choose to help them if you want. And one year he had a partisan faction member who was not helping us. He we thought he was helping us, but it turns out he was basically capturing allies and he was more or less killing them. And it was based on this Frenchman that they read about, where he was pretending to be a doctor, but he was just a psychopath.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That was my next question. Like, are these period correct war stories that you guys are reenacting or is this something that and I'll tell you, Brian writes some really good shit. Is this something that just comes out of his head, or is it a mix of both?
Speaker 3:It's probably a mix of both.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like probably based on some historical story that he heard or so originally operation was based on operation in Pinamunda, so that was in towards the end of 44. They are figuring out where the V2, which were the first ICBMs made and being fired on London they're. They're figuring out where these firing sites were because they're in mobile and it was based on an airborne event of the airborne people, american and Canadian, because that was popular, that when the first words Wisman came along we're being dropped in to take out this launch site because it was bombing London, cool. And so it's evolved from there to kind of shape based on what the units are and just the numbers and all kinds of things. Is there?
Speaker 1:a winner and a loser.
Speaker 2:There's no set winner or loser.
Speaker 1:So it's just, you basically play it out and as it goes, it goes and that's it. There's no like clear victory, like nobody.
Speaker 3:I finished, you know plan A, b, c, d and E, and then now the game's over, I win and you lose, or something like that there there are set objectives that you can accomplish, but at the end of the day, we're just having fun, so like we're not taking it super serious, that's really good to hear. I'd rather take a hard fought loss than a easy victory.
Speaker 1:So it's just fun For sure, what do you guys like? Do you feel like your community should grow Like? Is it something that you guys are looking into or is it something you're trying to keep at a level where you can maintain the discipline that you guys are trying to maintain?
Speaker 2:We definitely want to grow. I'll like go ahead.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like we are trying to grow, like we've been trying to get more notice in the public airsoft scene over the last couple of years, they're going to they're going to hear about you.
Speaker 1:now, my friends, I'll tell you that much.
Speaker 3:But we're also looking to like who is willing to like. You know, we have like set grooming standards, Like obviously I have a beard, but you didn't when I seen you last year.
Speaker 2:That's for sure. Not even this is acceptable.
Speaker 3:Yeah, when we're in care you have to shave like no goatees, no beards, no, you just got to follow what they did. You can have a little porn star mustache if you want.
Speaker 1:What do you guys, what do you guys have planned for 2024 season?
Speaker 2:Well, we'd like to go to the airsoft convention again, for sure.
Speaker 1:Have you talked to Patricia yet?
Speaker 2:They have reached out. I understand there's a date, but I want to let them sort of, because I know that planning conventions and things like that can be very complicated. They said that there's definitely a spot for us, nice. We're actually talking about having a coming out with a Jeep and being able to sit out there and, you know, bring the crowd in, because if people see a Jeep from the road they're like oh, what's that?
Speaker 1:For sure. That's a great idea. I know it is April 6th. Yeah, that's the date. It's at a different arena this year, a bigger one.
Speaker 2:Oh good.
Speaker 1:Just cause the expo actually has grown exponentially this year. So good to hear it's going to be good. I will be there again, obviously floating around, and hopefully we can get you guys to maybe come out to the compound and walk the new field, because some of the ideas that I've implemented there come from Mr Brian McLean himself. So there's some stuff that we're kind of building to try to entertain maybe having a World War II event there. That would be pretty cool to experience myself. So we're hoping to get you guys out there. But as far as events go, what do you guys got on the docket?
Speaker 2:this year. So obviously Woodsman is one of the bigger events. We've branched out a little bit more into blank firing. So last year we went to something called D-Day Ohio, which is actually the biggest World War II event in the world apparently, and it was thousands of us. So we actually got to land in a duck W on a beach in Ohio, but there was hundreds of us advancing up the beach. Mg42 is firing on us, thousands of the crowd marching, the whole thing just sweating to death. We plan on doing that again. A number of other events, aquino. Possibly we were also looking into a couple of other longer two or three day events, maybe one or two more in the year. But it's really easy to overload people too, for sure, and so we're trying to be careful with that too, because people have lives. You know, one of our guys has five kids.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you're talking to me. There's 22 events right now booked at the compound for 2024. That's just one field. So you can imagine the, the, uh, the amount of airsoft is going to happen this year. But with PRZ closing it needed to happen because we needed to do. I found and I know I'm just some rookie, I've only been around for five years but I've noticed a severe downtick in our community when it should be going the other way. So with creating places like action airsoft in the compound, we're trying to get that positive flow out there again. And I think that having the public hear about, uh, world War II reenactment and and following kit to a T and bringing out Jeeps and and possibly implementing blank fire and just carrying that all wood five shot weapon and stuff like that, you know that that type of shit, just it, really it's really cool, like, honestly it's cool. As a modern dude like I have a big team, I've commanded some of the major events in Ontario airsoft like modern wise and it's just like this really, really, really intrigues me.
Speaker 1:And I think you guys are onto something cool and I think everybody just needs to hear about it. So, going back to the Ohio thing, so I guess this is way more prevalent in the States.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, oh yeah, night and day, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so is there like massive, like massive airsoft World War II events in the States that you know of.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there is, I think, two major ones. There's one, that's, I think, siegfried breakout.
Speaker 1:And these are like hundreds of players. Yeah, nice, massive vehicles, the whole nine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think so. There's some that have vehicles as well.
Speaker 1:That's pretty cool For those of you out there. You can legally cross the border with your airsoft gear. You just got to fill out a form. Treat it like it's a real firearm, make sure it's locked, all that stuff it can happen. You can go across. Don't think that you can travel with your stuff. So if you want to go, try the States, go try the States. But we're going to try to bring more events to Canada if possible. But, like you guys said, everybody has a life and it takes a lot to organize event. As a game host myself, like we have a big vehicle game this year and we started organizing it last year and we still have so much to do to just be ready for it. Like it's crazy, and ours is a 300 person event. It's crazy, but it's good to hear. So the States is a lot. You guys could you say that maybe the World War II reenactment scene came from the states?
Speaker 2:originally, I'm gonna say probably more. So yes, realistically, it was certainly inspired by the states.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like I know, in the states like Vietnam and World War II are really big.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Vietnam, you guys, that's just completely not done. Actually, I see quite a few Vietnam dudes at some games, but there's not really like an organized group for them, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it doesn't seem to be a cohesive group. Years and years and years ago, there was one that would show up fairly consistently in country I believe they were called, and there was gonna be the same five to eight guys that would show up and they'd show up with living history events with us and they'd spend six hours digging, digging, digging and filling potholes and they'd have like a whole hooch there that wasn't there when they arrived. And so it exists. It's just it doesn't. Yeah, it seems to be a lack of cohesion as to who's organizing it.
Speaker 1:Would you guys entertain hosting your own event?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely Like we've talked about doing like an intro to World War II day where you can, you know, just have like an open invite. Everybody can come and check out our kit and maybe do like a couple of exercises with like tactics that we use.
Speaker 1:That's a great idea, and if there's actually any way I can help facilitate that, don't hesitate to ask, Cause, like I said, we have the structures, we have the camping facilities, we have the trenches, we have the roads, we have everything that you guys would need to do it. So that's what I'm trying to kind of push for Now that I got you in my studio. I just want I want you guys to know that there is another footprint for you guys to be the artists in front of a canvas. So we're not just creating this field for modern airsoft. It's for everybody, like including, you know, the police and the military and stuff like that that train on it currently and stuff. So it's, it's definitely an option out there for you guys.
Speaker 2:That sounds, sounds excellent. In March we're doing a three day event at one of the members houses a little bit further out east of here and we have I've been putting together from the training manuals how to use the hand signals properly, how to stay together, all these kinds of things, so we can use that as a footprint, for sure as to cause we're onboarding three or four new members now, so we can use that as a footprint, as a blueprint. I should say to definitely look into that in the future If anybody would be interested in taking a look at it.
Speaker 1:Sweet, I know who my guys would be and I have a team of 20. So that's right off, the hop will be 20 for sure. You actually bring up a good point. So your kits from from World War II, so 40s, right? How does playing in the winter go with your guys kit?
Speaker 3:Embrace the suck. Yeah, it's not good yeah, definitely not good we did one event, I believe last year, where we slept in a barn and it was like minus 15, and it was not good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can imagine once you're wet, you're wet right, yeah, cause you don't have any of the the modern uniforms 20 pounds of wool.
Speaker 2:Yeah 20 pounds of wool.
Speaker 1:And hopefully a fire and you can't really have a fire, you'll get seen. I can just imagine. So it's definitely a lot. It's a lot tougher. I can imagine even like your, your magazine satchels and stuff like that, Like I'm sure they're just leather and you got to flap them open. It's not like you know, the Gucci quick pole M4 mags and all that stuff. Heavy steel helmets.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's even worse for, like the M1 Grants because they have like a internalized mag system.
Speaker 2:Oh well.
Speaker 3:Instead of like loading it from the top like a real one, you have to fumble around with this clumsy thing and try and jam it inside the rifle and it's like, oh nightmare.
Speaker 1:Actually, I can just imagine Even in the summer. It must just be terrible.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, oh yeah. Long sleeve wool in the summer, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and you guys can't like, you can't break any sort of uniform code.
Speaker 2:Within reason. I mean, if it's 30 degrees outside, I'm not going to ask you to be wearing your wool under shirt, your wool sweater and your jacket, if you really, if we're especially for on an assault. You know you stripped down to your wool shirt, which is very common. You see all kinds of people doing this, because it's a reality, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how goes? How does like reloading go Like, because I know you don't want like a bottle of BBs being seen or anything like that. So how do you guys deal with that? Like, do you go back to your capture point or control point and have to reload there and not reload in the field, or how does that work?
Speaker 3:Usually we have, you know, 10 mags and they're like 30 round mags.
Speaker 1:So it's not. It's not a lot. It's not like like a modern airsoft game where you got 220 mags or 220 rounds in one bag.
Speaker 3:Nope, yeah, but when you figure like the real M1, garand has eight rounds.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So one mag has 30 rounds. So you're like, okay, that's like more than enough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or five mags, right? How does it work when someone gets shot?
Speaker 2:Depending on. Usually there's a medic rule, so sometimes if we don't have a medic, we will do the count to. You know, count to 300, or you sit there and then you bled out. But usually if you've been hit, somebody else has to come along and medic you and they have to pull you out as you can't go to full run. So you're hobbling along.
Speaker 2:We have had it in the past a few times where we experimented, where we had a wound card system.
Speaker 2:So right now we actually have a dedicated medic and I would like to try this out where you get hit, you go down, the medic will come up, pull the wound card out of your pocket and say congratulations, you've been shot in the arm, you can continue, but you're in a sling.
Speaker 2:So I've actually had it in the past where I was sitting at a roadblock with my Thompson, which reloading with one hand is not fun but I was sitting in between these two big, long logs that were across on either side and I was back to back with somebody. We were holding this thing and he was blind in one eye, so he had these big goggles on. Sorry about that. He had the big goggles on and he had a big bandage over one eye and so he was looking around and he could on top of the steel hammer that comes down almost to your eyes anyway. So it kind of depends. We get a little bit more fun with it, but usually it's you get hit, you get tagged, the medic will come up and medic you and you can kind of keep fighting.
Speaker 1:So do you use a tourniquet or I guess they didn't have tourniquets back then but do you wrap some sort of A field dressing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, our medic will grab you and drag you like he's a big guy, literally drag you in the cover, and then he'll tie a field dressing on you and then you can be back in what happens when he gets clapped. Then we're screwed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, same as modern. So, yeah, that's pretty cool. I really like that. What do you guys got for grenades, if any?
Speaker 3:We have the Mola Gay smoke grenades and we also sometimes use Thunderbees.
Speaker 2:I love my Thunderbees. Yeah, great saying I get close enough, I love them. Yeah, I love Thunderbees.
Speaker 1:What about? Have you guys gotten into the new taggons yet?
Speaker 3:I've been looking at them. I haven't had a chance to get any.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna tell you guys right now, they're amazing Ear protection for sure, which I don't know. I guess you guys just gotta wear the inner buds.
Speaker 3:I guess, if you wear it at, all right, but I usually just stick a couple cigarette butts out of my pocket in there. There you go, and you just have to go.
Speaker 1:They do burn clothing. Oh, wow okay, so just keep that in mind if you're wearing your $700, you know whatever you got on.
Speaker 3:I really don't care, but like I've had reenactors in the States come up to me like how did you get that so dirty? Like it looks so good.
Speaker 1:Oh nice, yeah, I guess you want that, right, yeah if anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's almost a bit of a stigma in the hobby. If you show up and you have 100% clean uniform, you're very clearly new yeah for sure, what about in-field communication?
Speaker 3:So we do have a BC1000 backpack field radio and we have, I think, three Motorola brick phone handy-talky radios. That's pretty cool, and I've the two the handy-talky radios I've. They're reproductions. I've modified them to run Balfangs and I've also modified the original tube radio to accept a Balfang as well with an original handset.
Speaker 1:It's super cool, dude. You're pretty talented dude, eh yeah.
Speaker 2:Jake is the heart of our mechanical abilities. When guns go down, when we come up with these things, we would be dead without him, that's that's.
Speaker 1:That actually raises another point. So I can imagine that teching these guns must be just a serious pain in the ass.
Speaker 3:Sometimes it can be like some of the German guns are kind of a pain because they have like proprietary gearboxes and stuff. Like I've actually had to like 3D print and model parts to replace like proprietary hop-ups and stuff for the German guns. Most of the American stuff is, like you know, standard 1911 gas guns. Like that's simple enough. And then you have the M1 Grants which are basically a version seven. So if you've worked on an M14, it's basically the same thing, same thing. Yeah, the only real pain in the ass is the Thompson with the version six. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And I guess there was no drum mags in World War II. Right Everything was stick.
Speaker 3:For British. They did have a version of the Thompson that took the the drum, the drum.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, really right.
Speaker 3:All of the American Thompson's were the M1A1, so they took the sticks Nice.
Speaker 1:And you guys are you guys sticklers about that?
Speaker 2:Yes, we we. Because, sadly, one of the things that the Airsoft did, for whatever reason, they decided to make the Tommy gun with, like, the four grip and the drum mag, well, they made it the M1A1 bolt. So it's on the side instead of the top. So it's we just look at that and it's super farby.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just, it doesn't match.
Speaker 3:No, well, it's like it triggers you because you're like that's wrong, it's just, it's not right.
Speaker 2:So there's, there's a term that I love to, I love in the Airsoft. Well, in the Air Marine Aquarium that everybody should know, it's called FARB. It's an acronym, it stands for fucking eight, right boy.
Speaker 3:I like that a lot actually.
Speaker 2:So a musician friend of mine said like AI generated music, that's just farby, yeah, yeah, so you can take your pick. I would love for everybody to start using that term.
Speaker 1:I think, I think it will. It will definitely take on In a game. How's the night night time go?
Speaker 3:Terrifying. Yeah, we'll use the woodsman as an example. Like it's usually scheduled to be coincided with the full moon, yep, and we're still like pitch black, like arm on the guy in front of you, like walking and like you can't see anything. So, no, torch is nothing right? Nope, like you might have a signal lamp to like if your objective is to make contact with somebody.
Speaker 1:You do like a little that would be so so cool Creeping through the woodsman.
Speaker 3:Like, yeah, so in 2022, we had another like same same area that the Crossroads massacre happened. And the night before we're like scouting that area and we're like, okay, like this is like we can't see shit. And we come to this Crossroads and there's this big white sign, when that's all we can see and we're like, what the hell is this? So our point guy goes and leans against the sign. All of a sudden, we hear a German challenge code. There's a pit right next to the sign. We didn't even we couldn't see anything. Oh no, they're shouting at us in German. We're like, uh, and I think you said some try to said something in German. They're like I'm like hit the deck and they opened up on us and we had to like Aussie peel out of there.
Speaker 1:So they do stick straight in character with their speaking German as well, as much as they can.
Speaker 3:Some of them. Some of them, their commands would be in German, but they're not like sitting in the trenches like oh yeah, talking German.
Speaker 1:It's funny, the German guys that I mentioned earlier that came to the Deadfall series at the compound this year. The Friday night they were in the woods digging foxholes for like nine hours.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, we just sat there like idiots waiting to get attacked and it never came. But then I found out what they were doing and when I looked at it I'm like, holy fuck, you guys put some work in just to get slaughtered. But you put some work in, oh, it was good. So you're at an event, you got all your stuff. Can't see shit at night, which I find cool as hell. That's like one of the biggest complaints in modern airsoft, even though you can use a flashlight. But use a flashlight, you're dead, like I mean, this is gonna happen. At first it was night vision and then night vision is nothing. Now it's the year of the thermals, like now, everybody's running a well, everybody that can afford it is running a thermal and it's just. There's no fucking hiding.
Speaker 3:That's why I was drawn to this, because it's like who remembers their training better, like who can navigate the woods better, like how how does even playing field even playing field.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you follow orders, you stick to a certain fuck. You shave your face. So it's that serious, which I like. I like stuff like that. What happens when you're in a for sure firefight and you hit somebody and that fucker doesn't call us hit? How's that go?
Speaker 3:We usually just kind of shrug it off.
Speaker 1:And just keep playing. Hit him again, hit him again, hit him again, do you?
Speaker 3:have a problem with that? Not so much just because it's such a niche community and everyone spends like thousands of dollars on kit and stuff. Nobody wants to be labeled like the bad guy that doesn't call us hits and like like don't come back.
Speaker 1:So is there, is there a certain set of like teams, or you're just like you know the hundred of them first and blah, blah, blah, do you have like set airsoft World War, two teams that come out and play?
Speaker 2:Oh no, we're based on units.
Speaker 1:Units.
Speaker 2:So our unit is the 29th Infantry Division. They still exist in the States but in World War two they expanded and they were actually one of the units that landed in D-Day next to the first Infantry Division. The Germans, I believe, are doing 9th SS mostly. Yeah, there's also up in Ottawa. There's an engineer unit, I believe no Canadians, though there are a number of Canadians. They don't participate in so much at airsoft, partially because there really haven't been that many weapons. I'm going to say, about 10 years ago Sten started coming out. I had one of the earlier ones. I loved it because it was absolutely tiny I mean thinking like MP5 tiny it's. It was great and with a side loading mag you can let right down in the ground. But Enfields there, if you can find an airsoft Enfields, probably what? 1500 bucks maybe? Yeah, it's up there for sure. And it's like the bright orange, horrible stock on it, like you have to do a lot of work to make it look decent. It needs still a bolt action rifle. That's not for everybody.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But there's a number of Commonwealth and usually when people are looking at the Facebook group or whoever they're joining, if they want to do Allied, they're immediately saying I want to do Commonwealth.
Speaker 1:OK, let's go Cool. What about the sniper end of World War two?
Speaker 3:is it prevalent or I Wouldn't say like designated snipers. Like a lot of the Germans try and gravitate towards the car 98 bolt actions. So Basically their doctrine is they'd have a machine gun and everybody else is just supporting the machine gun. They'd have a lot of bolt action guys. But I don't know if anyone's actually like rocking a scope or anything and like specifically Shooting, so it's not like prevalent in in kind of your reenactment.
Speaker 1:You're not gonna have like a some dude with a viper hood hiding in the woods popping somebody off.
Speaker 3:No, Definitely not. You'll have like a partisan, like hiding in a bush and jumping out and ambushing people, but you won't have like a whole squad of guys like in ghillie.
Speaker 1:So partisan is civilian. Yeah basically I like our game. We have, like, at the compound, we have a town right, so there's restaurants, there's a mechanic shop, there's Casino, there's mayors town, all that stuff. So you physically have people doing stuff in there during the game. So that's the same type of thing.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we've had various properties we had, I remember, years ago up in Muskoka we had the partisans are in that particular scenario were actually equal number to the Germans, and so there was three, three buildings where they're continuing consistently like hiding pistols, and so they would have to come around and search the building and they'd find the pistol and lock everybody down. But to lock everybody down, you see, needing a certain number of bodies to hold that area. So then the allies would come and attack an area and they take bodies off of guarding, and then the guys would get out, and it was this whole cycle. So can you?
Speaker 1:take prisoners. Yes, yes, yeah, do you do the? You are bound and gagged, kind of thing, or kind of Usually they'll like have like a holding area like and at the woodsmen event.
Speaker 3:They have like a little town built up so they have like a designated room that they put you in. That's cool and they take your, your rifle and, like your, disarmed whatever and you can be as loud as you want, and yeah. Well, there was one year I got captured and they didn't do like a full search and I had a little two-shot derringer pistol. That's awesome. Like there's no way I'm fighting my way out of here, I just threw it on the table like you guys got to do a better job.
Speaker 2:Could have taken two of them, though I had a. We were at actually up at Borden doing a blank fire event not too long ago in October and they took us all prisoner and they searched one of the guys and then one of the guys held a rubber grenade in his pocket it was like upper left chest pocket and they took it out of it out of the pocket and they're all laughing at him. Well, they didn't search him properly and he's still at a pistol, so they were marching us off and he just turned and got two of them and then we all just scattered. It was just so. Yeah, there's definitely prisoners. Sometimes prisoners are actually part of the scenario too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. Like you got to rescue them or stuff like that, yeah. And then the partisans today Play an important role in Intel and false Intel.
Speaker 3:Yes, kind of like lead people in so yeah, there was one year we had some German plants in the partisans and we had no idea and we're like talking like oh yeah, we think the Germans went this way like we don't have any weapons, so we armed them and then we walked ahead of them and then they shot us in the back. They were still wearing their German dog tags.
Speaker 1:That's the giveaway. Yeah, so little things like that. I really like that. It's really detailed, like you got to really pay attention to what you're doing, yeah, so what happens because this happens in in everybody's Guy, I guess community what if you get a bad apple, like during an event? What if somebody gets loud, gets angry, starts Becoming a real nuisance? How do you guys handle that in the community?
Speaker 2:so on the on. When it's happened on field and this does happen and if somebody's getting really mad a Couple years ago, to example, I tossed a Thunder B at somebody I got two people were in a position. It hit the guy in the helmet and he was not happy about it and he starts going off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the helmet on. Yeah, exactly yes.
Speaker 2:He kind of went off Everybody, the exchange of fire happened and afterwards, okay, we calm them down. We had a talk with him. He said, okay, yeah, you're a little too angry, I apologize, but we shook hands and it was okay. But you know there is that hold the no duff rule does exist. Oh, yeah, something happens, somebody gets injured or somebody just getting angry and they're not having fun. Okay, we'll stop the scenario for and just like calm this down. But thankfully we really don't run into that too much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you don't like have an open tally on. You know people that are Causing a continuous problem at events and you can think of not really a Continuous problem. That's good to hear usually isolated incidents. Yeah, like it's hot and people are a bit, yeah, yeah bit frustrated and maybe a little too into the game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there have been one or two people at some events that have been told you're uninvited, you're not allowed to come back, but it's a very rare thing very rare.
Speaker 1:That's cool. It sounds like you guys have Really well organized machine.
Speaker 2:We try, I mean.
Speaker 1:What, what do you want to see changed, even a bit, changed completely? Or you know something you guys are planning on improving on in 2024?
Speaker 3:I'd like to see it grow like. You know, there's there's been times where we show up to an event and there's like 30 Germans, we got seven allies. It's like, well, we're still gonna do it. But it's like this is kind of stacked.
Speaker 1:Are you guys members of the Ontario airsoft community Facebook group?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yep, you need to post on there as well. Yeah, that's something that you should start doing. I know that it seems like not a lot of stuff happens on that, but being involved on the back end of that, I see how many people actually see the post and it's actually quite impressive. The thing that you guys are we're talking about earlier on just getting people to come out and get their feet wet that's fucking huge. Because, like I said, I Haven't even heard about any of this until I seen you guys in your drip at the expo, like other than you know here there and like that was a big thing and right off the bat I'm like, fuck, I got to get you guys on the show. It only took 365 days.
Speaker 1:When you're here, stuff like that, if you are thinking about doing like a day here, a day there, where you just get people to come out and and kind of Experience the weapons experience, the clothing experience, you know your handiwork with your, your 1919 and and all that stuff, that'll go a huge way with the community. She's just a day to get their feet wet, even to pull the fucking trigger once at a steel target. Just a, just a feel. You know, like a part of that that, I think, is gonna help the community Really see what you guys are trying to do, right, because if they don't do it, they're never gonna do it. Yep, you know what I mean? Yeah, they've got to experience it like Pictures and stuff are cool as fuck, and I'm sure you guys have some pretty epic fucking pictures because of your cat?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're still waiting on some of the D-Day Ohio photos. Yeah, the ones we've seen, oh my god.
Speaker 1:If I can make a suggestion, what I would do is I would do a reel with that slideshow, because that will show a lot about what you guys are about and what you get into and it'll show the audience More of what you do like. Getting the information out is one thing, but a lot of people are real visual right, they need to see it. And I don't see it out there unless Now I have the information, because I put it out there. But if you guys were, maybe you know, put a couple more pictures, or you know, hey, we're going for coffee here, we're gonna go and we're gonna talk about this and that and this and that that might be something worth looking into. Like hell, I'll fucking go for sure. I'll tell you that much because I'm interested in learning it. Like, after this, I'm gonna start googling World War two shit because it's just.
Speaker 1:I'm pretty excited, like my grandfather he was. He fought in World War two in Europe. A lot of medals. He went through some shit and I always wanted to Kind of not relive it, but relive it in a way where I'm not gonna die. Yeah, you know what I mean and that would be a cool way to show homage to my grandfather who fucking busted his ass you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like a lot of times we show up at an airsoft event and like it's a modern mix thing and we get people coming up to it's like oh my god, that's so cool. My grandfather fought. Like this is so neat.
Speaker 1:Like I am, one of those guys. When I see somebody wearing old kit, I am like you know, I'm straight straight there. I'm like dude, that is some drip man Like I. I you know what. For you guys fighting in the temperatures that we fight in, wearing those clothing, that clothing like winter, summer, like we talked about before, like Takes a lot of balls man. That takes a lot of balls because I'll tell you, I PRC, I'm wearing fucking shorts and a wifey with my Watered modern gear in the summer, man that's for sure.
Speaker 2:It certainly changed how I'm. It certainly toughened me up a lot as a city person my whole life it's. It's certainly really change it what I'm able to tolerate the cold, the hot, just being hot and sweaty, and not necessarily have to drink water for another six hours because you know I'm used to it. It's certainly toughen me up a lot and it's allowed me to Do it, understand my boundaries a lot more for sure, physically and even mentally, to being able to just endure it.
Speaker 1:It's not it's not something to to to scare away new players either. Oh, there's a lot involved Kit wise and stuff like that, but in modern airsoft, so there's massive kit requirements too.
Speaker 1:Yeah like you get into the milsim 18, 20 hour games, like you're not coming there with three mags, one battery and you're fucking running shoes. Let's put it that way. So Both types of airsoft have the same buy-in. Let's say yeah, but if you're not sure that World War two reenactment is for you, you can contact these guys. They're gonna kick you out for an event or Whatever you guys have and meet and greet. They'll, depending on you, know the type of character you are. I'm sure, yeah, they'll help you out. But if you're gonna go up like a chauvinistic asshole, fuck, that just is gonna be a douchebag. You know you're not gonna get in and that's just something that I Commend you guys, for.
Speaker 2:You're protecting something that you're you're trying to build in yeah, we have a whole interview process that we go through.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's. It's not like, you know, like you're paying your 40 bucks and you're coming here and you're playing for four hours, no matter what you're wearing. You've got to, you know, pass a interview and and I think that's pretty cool to keep things legit and it doesn't really let things, you know, morph away from the purity that you're trying to put out there exactly, which is pretty cool Any last minute thoughts or anything that you guys want to get out to the community. Before we Shut this this episode down.
Speaker 2:Can't think of anything in particular. Did we want to touch a little bit on maybe C21? I think maybe last year it was a little bit more scary.
Speaker 1:Let's let them go. Let the community know on your end how it affected you guys.
Speaker 3:We were basically facing extinction because Blankfire, like Damwon Grand, was specifically mentioned in the amendments to C21 that they were proposing and it was basically going to be a direct kill for a lot of reenactors.
Speaker 1:A lot of reenactors and this building you're sitting in right now and the 200 acre field that we just purchased, that would be gone. My team, actually this right here. There'd be no point of having an Airsoft experience podcast if there's no Airsoft. So yeah, we still have a long way to go, though.
Speaker 3:I agreed. I would suggest that anybody who is passionate about Airsoft or firearms in general to continue to oppose all these legislation changes 100%.
Speaker 1:Just stay informed. Airsoftincanadacom, Massive website spearheaded by Brian and Jeremy. Jeremy's using the World War II with you guys.
Speaker 3:He's a partisan fighter, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a partisan fighter, right, he loves it, he's very good at it. I got to kill him on that deadfall.
Speaker 1:He retired from the deadfall series. This was his last year. There'll be a new leader next year. We will get you again, c21, it's not gone. 2025 is an election. I am not going to tell you how to be political. Just take a look at the last eight years under a liberal power and take a look at our country. That's in shambles right now and you make the call and just know that every vote affects each and every one of our lives directly and it's very important to get out and vote for the Conservatives. I'll just put that out underneath no vote for whoever you want, just as long as they're not wearing red and, on that note, anything else, guys?
Speaker 2:Other than our website. You can find us. We do have an Instagram at 29th of Ontario, if that works for you too. We're on Facebook as a group for ourselves 29th Infantry Division, ontario. But there's also the general, the more broad World War II reenactors Ontario. World War II reenactors you can find them.
Speaker 1:So even if you wanted to do Commonwealth because your grandfather was that and that's what you want to go for Even if you just want to guide how to find the kit and what the period correct kit is, that's a good resource for that too, and we will post everything Ian just said in the description of this episode so you can click and go and get all the information that you need to get to get involved in World War II reenactment on the Airsoft end, which I think is cool as fuck and I really appreciate you guys coming out and I am looking forward to seeing you guys April 6th and I hope I can get out and see what you guys are all about.
Speaker 2:We'll definitely be in touch. We would love to set up an introduction day with your team and anybody else who wants to come out to your complex. We can walk through it, we can do it, we can figure something out for sure.
Speaker 1:Let's do that Like. I mean you're hearing it now World War II reenactors and magic. We're going to get together and we're going to show you guys how to bust some ass World War II style, as plain as day. And with that I thank you, ian and I thank you Jake. Thank you so much for coming out to the Airsoft experience and I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:And let's keep this open-ended, because I think we should do another episode based on growth. Maybe at the end of the season we can talk about some cool events you guys went to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sounds good.
Speaker 1:Sounds good, awesome. Thanks a lot for coming. Guys Appreciate it, thank you.
