Historical Battles Reimagined: WWII Airsoft Reenactment with Ian McNish and Jakes LaRouche

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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
[e-mail]

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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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rental advisory.
Now welcome to the Airsoftexperience Six one way up.
Contact left side 70.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Coming to you.
Contact left, contact left.
We're flanking left side.
Suppress, push, push, push.
We're moving, we're movingRight side, right side, got him,
they're pulling back now.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Alright, and welcome to the Airsoft experience.
I'm your host, michael Mascot,also known as Magic in the
Ontario Airsoft World, and todayI got two amazing guests from a
part of Airsoft I guess not toomany people have heard about,
and we're here today, live atAction Airsoft, to change that.
So welcome, ian McNish andJake's LaRouche.

(00:48):
How are you guys doing?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Great, great Thanks for having us.
Yep thanks for having us.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Awesome, welcome to the Airsoft experience and let's
just kind of do a briefbackground.
So these fine gentlemen are inthe World War II reenactment and
I guess of Airsoft or the wholething, I guess blank firing the
whole nine.
But I guess we'll get into that.
So we'll kind of slow roll abit.
And Ian, when did Airsoft startfor you, like, how long have

(01:15):
you been playing kind ofbackground?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
About 15 years now and almost only thing I've ever
done is with the World War IIgroup.
I've been to half a dozenpublic games in that time.
The biggest one was 120 or sopeople at Flag Raiders in
Kitchener.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Love that field.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
That was.
It was a great.
It was a great day.
It was September, it wasraining, it was a big pile of
mud.
I had a crack in for anybodywho remembers those things from
Bass Pro, and that that was myintroduction to it, nice, nice.
What about you, jake?

Speaker 3 (01:42):
I've been playing for about 12 years.
I got into modern Airsoft firstand I always felt like this
would be really awesome.
It was like old school Call ofDuty.
I eventually found the groupand got involved that way.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Awesome.
So you guys have played Airsoftfor a hell of a long time.
That's pretty awesome, Likeback 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 regularAirsoft.
You said you played about adozen walk on games.

(02:20):
And what about you?
Did you go out to any walk ongames or any modern events,
anything like that?

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah, I mostly do a couple of local fields.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Nice.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
I regularly play Scurm days and stuff like that.
I did maybe two or three largerscale milsim stuff.
I tended to lean towards theWorld War II stuff because like,
if you don't have the budgetfor like night vision or stuff
like that, it gets kind ofstacked.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah for sure, especially at night.
We're trying to, we're tryingto to put some training out
there and kind of change thatkind of whole thing.
But I I know, speaking from aguy that has night vision, I
understand where you're comingfrom it could definitely change,
change the ties of the game.
Okay, so you started playingmodern or when, when we say
modern we mean more modernweapons, airsoft weapons,

(03:12):
relaxed liberals, and we kind ofgo towards you know, period
correct, more wood and stufflike that.
So how did you kind of get theWorld War II bug, like where did
it start?
How did it start?
Where did you get theinformation from?
Cause, like I said, I've beendoing this for five years now

(03:33):
and until the airsoft expo lastyear, I mean other than a little
bit of Brian uh Macklemoreltalking here and there from the
Deadfall series.
I had no fucking idea that thiseven existed, like not at all,
and it's the coolest shit in theworld.
So how about you explain to thelisteners, like how did you
guys stumble upon it?

Speaker 2 (03:53):
So way back in the day, after I'd finished college
and I was looking, I'd finallyhad a little bit of free time
and I wasn't so incredibly broke.
I wanted to do actually WorldWar I initially, but then I
realized, wow, real firearms arevery expensive.
Oh, yeah.
Well, on the uniforms, andthough I so, I found, uh, at the
time, lee, he was doing a WorldWar II group and this was not

(04:13):
long after Bandit Brothers hadcome out.
So there was, and there stillis, a number of airborne units
that were out there doing theirthing and really airsoft wasn't
all that popular in it and allyou really ever had was people
with everybody at a Thompson onthe Allied side and everybody
had an MP40 on the German sideand that was it.
So it was a spray fest.
It's come a long way since then.

(04:35):
Now it's there's a whole mix ofweapons of all kinds.
We actually have a 1919, theBrowning M2, the machine gun
that has.
It needs a crew of three.
It has the detachable tripod.
We have to put it down, we haveto carry the thing in there.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
So uh, and it runs airsoft.
Oh yeah, is it a custom buildor it's from an actual industry
manufacturer?

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Uh, it's an industry manufacturer, I think we also.
Well, we have two of themactually.
Jake knows a little bit moreabout these things than I do.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
So I believe they're OEM by EMG.
So yeah, they're.
They're mostly based off of akit that was available back in
like early late nineties, early2000s.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
So you probably couldn't pick this up today.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
Today.
Yeah, you can pick.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, you can Wow, that's awesome.
I guess I got to look a littledeeper into the airsoft and I
know G and G started putting outall the all wood and the M1
series and, uh, I think, ariesas well.
I think those are the twomajors that I know Like.
Personally, I do have a SEMA,uh, thompson myself, so I'm I'm

(05:40):
guilty of that as well.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah, I think we have eight or nine of those kicking
around.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Eight, that was my SEMA Thompson that I had that
for eight years before itfinally broke.
I never opened it up, nevertouched it, never.
Nothing worked pretty fine.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Nice.
I think I've used it once inthis field and, uh, I kind of
switched to a modern M249 andnever went back.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Personally, I ran one of those for a number of years.
Yeah, super fun.
It's hard to go back, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
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 thatrealism and that kind of ties
into your end.
Like is there, is there livefire, like any blank fire or
anything like that at a WorldWar two event.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
So there have been experiments on mixing a couple
of blank fires into there aswell as um, airsoft.
It's not incredibly popularbecause a lot of people don't
necessarily cross the twoboundaries, uh.
So sometimes it's kind of it'sdifficult to get people into
this.
But once they start playingthis and they realize, hey, you
actually bring force to takecover rather than standing in

(06:45):
the open and somebody goes bangand you have to just oh there, I
am there, he is Okay, Now let'shide.
It's a whole different animal.
So how would you.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
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 andexplosions and stuff like that,
to kind of add to it?
Is that all it, or do theyactually count as a, as a hit if
somebody aims towards you?

Speaker 2 (07:12):
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 oryou know, you hear a shot to
your 90 degrees to your left andyou turn around.
He's right there.
Well, you know, I don't knowyou're dead?

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Yeah, it's.
It also depends on if it's likea private tactical event where
we're like fully immersed.
There's like we're fullyimmersed in the situation and
we're not like performing for acrowd Like we do a lot of museum
events.
It's like pretty heavilyscripted, Like they tell us oh,
we want you to come up here thisfar, and then some of you guys
take a hit and then proceed tothe next objective.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
So is there a lot of that going around.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, it's it.
Obviously during last couple ofyears it's picked back up, but
it comes and goes to differentevents.
Sometimes they're sponsored by,as an example of Noshua.
There's a the interior regimenthas a big, big museum event
there that's sponsored by Worldof Tanks.
That's the Aquinas, right?
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, and sothat that's a really big one.

(08:13):
Obviously that's all blank fire, but yeah, it depends on where
you go.
There's a little a small museumthat we go to in Georgina.
They're having one in March andthey're having one in July that
we've been going to Nice.
It's just a one day event andthey have the movie armaments
group comes out and they loan us.
Well, I should say they'llallow people to use really fun

(08:34):
toys.
So last year I got to use afull auto Thompson, Wow, and
without airsoft they never wouldhave been able to experience
that?

Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah, for sure.
Are you guys a legal gun or howholders and our power holders,
or are you just airsoft.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
I'm an ARPAL and a PAL.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
Nice, I did the course.
I just waiting for thepaperwork.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
Sweet.
We actually offer it here andwe do want to every month and I
feel like that's very importantfor anybody that kind of is in
our spectrum of the industrybecause basically for us, like
airsoft is, you know, a good,safe entry into that next level
shooting.
I actually went backwards andstarted real steel and then went

(09:12):
to airsoft Thank you, liberals.
But now we're here and talkingabout it.
So how?
So you start these reenactingevents and you start going for
museums and and I'm sure someare remembrance days and stuff
like that how did airsoft startto tie into all of that?

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Well, at first it was .
It's obviously like it's alower barrier to entry because
real steel firearms will.
An M1 grand is $3,000.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yeah about that.
Yeah, yeah, give it a take, ohyeah.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
And that's if you know an armor who can help you
with that.
And Airsoft Tom's is what $400or $500 to start off with.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah about that, yeah , yeah, pretty close.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
So there's the barrier to entry is much lower.
For that it is generally safertoo.
How did it get tited?
It has been around for quite awhile.
It's just the availability ofnewer weapons and the
proliferation of different typesof types of things have come
out.
It just made it a lot easierand more accessible.
And, of course, the internethas.
It's not only changedeverything, but changed this as

(10:17):
well, because I've met peoplewhen we were at living history
displays who have been doingthis since the 70s and they say,
oh, is this person there, isthat person there?
And they've told me, up untilthe 90s and the early 2000s and
the internet became everything,they were using original
equipment and they all just hadto know the guy.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
Wow, that's crazy, yeah.
What about vehicles?
Would you like?

Speaker 2 (10:39):
to tell us, tell them about the Crossroad Vastaker oh
yeah, so this was probably 2022.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
We were able to kit up two period Willy Jeeps Wow
and one of them had a pedestalmount for a M249, a 1930 Cal
Browning, and we had one.
Really, oh, I wonder if it fits.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
Throw it in there, oh shit.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
So we rigged up a homemade box mag that I had 3D
printed in an ammo bag and hungit on the pedestal.
That's awesome.
Okay, everybody load up Tommy'sgrease guns, full auto,
everything.
We're hitting this lastobjective.
And so we head out down thistrail and we had scouted the

(11:26):
location about like an hourbeforehand.
Like nobody was there, like weknow that's where the final
objective is going to be.
So we're like, okay, we'll blowthrough the Crossroads, we'll
go this way and the other Jeepwill go down and we'll enter
into this town that they'redefending.
So we get up close there and Ispot a position like immediately
I'm like, oh shit.

(11:47):
So I start firing and I'm likewe do like a classic drive by
and I fired and I, as I wasturning the machine gun, I clip
the windscreen on the Jeep, firedirectly into this position.
I see this one guy jump up likeoh my God, and he runs back and
I lit him up.

(12:09):
And then we spotted the otherthree MG 34s and 42s and we're
like shit, oh no, and theyripped us to pieces.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
It was like the whole thing was over in like maybe 45
seconds.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
But you know what?
It was probably a hell of atime.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
How like specific are the kits like for this Very?

Speaker 2 (12:33):
So we typically have a couple of different research
websites and research books thatwe've draw everything from.
We do use photos, but we try tokeep it as standardized as
possible because we don't wantokay, you found something once
in a photo of that you can findit towards the end of the war.
So we're not going to leteverybody necessarily do that.
So if we're doing like a D dayimpression as an example, we're
not going to have double buckleboots because it was a later war

(12:54):
thing.
Well, I have an M 41 uniform,not an M 43.
So we do have a kit list and wehave preferred vendors on top
of if you can find originals oneBay and Kajiji things like that
.
So it is pretty specific and wedo kind of enforce that fairly
heavily.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
So if I were a new player.
I know how to play airsoft.
I went and bought a G and GMone 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 (13:32):
This is also why we try to show up with things like
airsoft conventions to get ourname out there.
But it's.
This is obviously a challengeand it is a bit of a niche, so
you have to find the people thatare really willing to do this.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
You want to throw the website out there.
So everybody knows.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah, on 29th of Ontario.
Give it the exact.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
I'll post it as well in the description at the end of
this episode and you guys canclick, click straight from there
as well.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yeah, 29th of Ontario , dot com to nine to nine of
Ontario dot com to nine TH ofOntario dot com.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
All right, you heard it here first on the airsoft
experience.
If you're into the World Wartwo, reenactment stuff which the
more and more I'm listening tothis, I am you can.
You can hit that website up andI'm sure all the steps are on
there, everything you need, oryeah, there's.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
there's just ways of contacting.
You'll see what events, eventswe'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 wayto get in contact with one of us
through an email and thenintroduce yourself.
Same much experience you have,what kit you do have, what
questions you have, and we canstart from there.
And we always have a loaner kit.
We have loaner weapons, we haveloaners to get people out to

(14:44):
see if they're really interested, because it's very difficult to
ask somebody to spend, you knowhere, spend $1,000 to see if
you like this thing.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Exactly, and I say that all the time, like
personally, I own an airsoftstore right out those doors and
I'll have a first time personcome 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 atthe end of the night?

(15:11):
If this is something that youactually enjoy doing, then
invest in it.
But if you're not, like ifyou're just excited because you
see a bunch of guns on the wall,it's not a good decision.
You need to know whether thisis for you or not.
And with such a specific kitlist, I would definitely suggest
hitting up that website andstarting your career in World

(15:37):
War II reenactment the right way, not just kind of, you know,
buying fake shit off of Amazonand hoping that it's going to
pass.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
Yeah, we advise against that.
Yeah, their khaki colored stuffis more like banana yellow and
really hot.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yeah for sure.
It goes the same for modernLike you just want to.
You want to stay away from thatNow to find stuff like I guess
you really got to hit a specificvendor because even with the
like army issue, like one of oursponsors, like they don't
really cater to that air ofstuff because there's really

(16:15):
there's fuck all left.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Actually I picked up an M 43 jacket there a couple of
years ago.
Oh, did you yeah?

Speaker 1 (16:21):
There you go, jeroen, you heard it right there.
You actually just proved mewrong.
You do sell pants, I'll tellyou that much.
Yes, he does.
Okay, so like vendor, wise,like like where would you go to
buy something?

Speaker 2 (16:35):
So the main vendors there are a couple who do
reproductions at the front isprobably the best one out of
California.
Or what price glory, dependingon what nation you want in
specifically what you want, alot of our stuff like.

Speaker 3 (16:49):
We do have quite a bit of original kit and we find
it on eBay.
Sometimes you get lucky onFacebook marketplace.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
Now are these people pricing this as if they're, like
you know, through the roofpricing wise?

Speaker 3 (17:06):
It's a mixed bag like you get somebody.
It's like oh, yeah, I got thisreally ultra rare army helmet.
I'm like, yeah, they made like10 million.
Yeah definitely not rare.
It's not not unheard of to be arare thing, but like more than
not.
More often than not it's likethey just don't know how, and
the same respect.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
You get people like oh, it's an old army helmet,
like 20 bucks, and you're likeoh, that's like $500, like and
you guys play with it like it'snothing, like even if it's an
expensive stuff, like do youguys do like the medals and the
whole nine on your uniforms, orthat's more of a dress kind of
uniform thing?

Speaker 3 (17:39):
It's more of a dress kind of thing.
Certain things like we willallow, like if you like, have
your pal course or somethinglike that you could have like a
marksmanship badge or something.
But we generally say like nopurple hearts or anything like
that.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
So on this website is there a list, like a, of
requirements or basicrequirement kit wise that you
need, or is that something youkind of get into the group once
you kind of we?

Speaker 2 (18:07):
allow people to look at the website and see if this
is what they want to do and seeif it's something looks like
it's interesting to them.
And then we prefer that we getin contact with people.
We have a kit list we send topeople, but you know there's
also different levels of kit.
List is a very basic uniformand then, if you need you have
your basic uniform, we can letyou use webman a couple of times
and then you can grow it slowlyso you don't necessarily have

(18:29):
to purchase it all at once, evenif you do like it.
And we also, like Jake wassaying, we have so much stuff
now we've accumulated because weknow it's getting harder to
find that.
We do sell that, you know,really below market rates for
people who are really interestedin things.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
Do you guys differentiate different
differentiated units and kit forunits so you don't just
basically have, you know, allinfantry.
You'll have, like you know, Iguess, a tank unit or mortar
unit or whatever they did backthen.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
There aren't that many people in it typically, but
yes, I know the Germans havehad some cavalry units.
There's, I think John Woods ismaking a what is it?
A scout car, something likethat?
Yeah, two, two, two scout cararmored.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
Armored car with a 20 millimeter cannon on the top.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
So I'm.
I'm certain that he has a veryspecific impression that he's
doing for that, even with theother factions.
The allies have a Perthregiment that we know of.
That's in southern Ontario, andthere's a one can para unit, so
it's a paratrooper unit andthey have a very specific set of
equipment.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
So what are the most like?

Speaker 3 (19:39):
obviously, most popular would be American and
German, or you have others, orthere's a bit of an M and flow
to it, so right now it's mostlyGerman and Allied for the
airsoft side of things.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
There is a Japanese unit that's just started up, so
there's five of them and one ofthe guys has.
He brings out the real storyand he, he, he trains them to
scream at us and things likeit's crazy, it's a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
Honestly, I think I think I see some of your guys
group at the Deadfall seriesbecause they're a lot of the
Germans, just from theiraffiliation with Brian, I
suppose, are playing there.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
Play there just because it's his event and I was
going to say a good event.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
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 (20:35):
Well, the one big event that we do, it's like
Operation Woodsmen.
It's in Ottawa Valley, not allof the valley, but Kempville
area.
I think the biggest event waslike 70 or 80 people.
Yeah, about 80 people.
Nice, that's maybe notnecessarily everybody that's
involved.
That's like the big event thateverybody tries to get to.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
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 tillSunday.
So I got all my kit, I got incontact with you guys.

(21:19):
Well, let's back this up.
I went on the website, got incontact 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 (21:33):
Well, Thursday is usually just mostly travel time
and set up.
We have a lot of tents andfield gear we got to set up and
period Correct.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yes, oh, wow, that's awesome yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
And basically like there are orders for Thursday
night.
So as soon as you have enoughpeople to do like a recce patrol
, you can start like moving menin the field and checking things
out.
It's usually very structuredand it's mostly it's a slow burn
.
So it's like you're going to bedoing recce and scouting

(22:06):
positions and doing all thatkind of stuff for probably most
of Thursday, friday and Saturdaymorning, and then the main
objectives and assault happenson Saturday mid-morning to
afternoon.
Cool.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
That's the way it's supposed to go.
Sometimes we end up bumpingpatrols a little bit early and
then.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
Yeah, there's always, you know, little hiccups along
the way.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
That sounds like airsoft to me.
So command structure, is itserious?
Command structure Like, howdoes that work on the field?

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah, there is a leader on either side, another
faction.
I've led the Allied side acouple of times myself, nice.
I am given written orders withspecific timing, so I adhere to
that.
But yes, I say to the peopleokay, we're going to go out and
we're going to meet thepartisans.
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 Firewatchfirst and who wants to do this?

(22:59):
Who wants to do that?
So there are orders, but italso at the same time.
You know, we are looking tohave fun.
I don't want to push people toohard, and so it's a bit of a
give and take, but there'sdefinitely command structure.
There's definitely okay, thisis what we're doing and this is
how we're doing it and this ishow we're going to execute it.
Nice, who hosts?

Speaker 1 (23:15):
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 oris it actual field in Kemphill,
someone's house?
Someone's house, they're farmNice, nice, that's cool.
So Brian is, so he writes thescript.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
Yep, he creates the serial and designs it and it's
obviously sometimes it's astruggle with any airsoft or
with anything really is to getpeople to commit to numbers and
know ahead of time.
So he has to write a couple ofdifferent scenarios, as I
understand it, and he tries tochange it up every year to year
to year.
So, as an example, one year hehad a there's a partisan faction
to are basically civilianswithout any regular gear as the

(23:53):
allies.
You can choose to help them ifyou want.
And one year he had a partisanfaction member who was not
helping us.
He we thought he was helping us, but it turns out he was
basically capturing allies andhe was more or less killing them
.
And it was based on thisFrenchman that they read about,
where he was pretending to be adoctor, but he was just a
psychopath.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
That's awesome.
That was my next question.
Like, are these period correctwar stories that you guys are
reenacting or is this somethingthat and I'll tell you, Brian
writes some really good shit.
Is this something that justcomes out of his head, or is it
a mix of both?

Speaker 3 (24:27):
It's probably a mix of both.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, like probably based on some historical story
that he heard or so originallyoperation was based on operation
in Pinamunda, so that was intowards the end of 44.
They are figuring out where theV2, which were the first ICBMs
made and being fired on Londonthey're.
They're figuring out wherethese firing sites were because

(24:49):
they're in mobile and it wasbased on an airborne event of
the airborne people, americanand Canadian, because that was
popular, that when the firstwords Wisman came along we're
being dropped in to take outthis launch site because it was
bombing London, cool.
And so it's evolved from thereto kind of shape based on what
the units are and just thenumbers and all kinds of things.
Is there?

Speaker 1 (25:09):
a winner and a loser.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
There's no set winner or loser.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
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 (25:19):
I finished, you know plan A, b, c, d and E, and then
now the game's over, I win andyou lose, or something like that
there there are set objectivesthat you can accomplish, but at
the end of the day, we're justhaving fun, so like we're not
taking it super serious, that'sreally good to hear.
I'd rather take a hard foughtloss than a easy victory.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
So it's just fun For sure, what do you guys like?
Do you feel like your communityshould grow Like?
Is it something that you guysare looking into or is it
something you're trying to keepat a level where you can
maintain the discipline that youguys are trying to maintain?

Speaker 2 (25:59):
We definitely want to grow.
I'll like go ahead.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
Yeah, like we are trying to grow, like we've been
trying to get more notice in thepublic airsoft scene over the
last couple of years, they'regoing to they're going to hear
about you.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
now, my friends, I'll tell you that much.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
But we're also looking to like who is willing
to like.
You know, we have like setgrooming standards, Like
obviously I have a beard, butyou didn't when I seen you last
year.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
That's for sure.
Not even this is acceptable.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
Yeah, when we're in care you have to shave like no
goatees, no beards, no, you justgot to follow what they did.
You can have a little porn starmustache if you want.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
What do you guys, what do you guys have planned
for 2024 season?

Speaker 2 (26:44):
Well, we'd like to go to the airsoft convention again
, for sure.

Speaker 1 (26:47):
Have you talked to Patricia yet?

Speaker 2 (26:49):
They have reached out .
I understand there's a date,but I want to let them sort of,
because I know that planningconventions and things like that
can be very complicated.
They said that there'sdefinitely a spot for us, nice.
We're actually talking abouthaving a coming out with a Jeep
and being able to sit out thereand, you know, bring the crowd
in, because if people see a Jeepfrom the road they're like oh,
what's that?

Speaker 1 (27:07):
For sure.
That's a great idea.
I know it is April 6th.
Yeah, that's the date.
It's at a different arena thisyear, a bigger one.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
Oh good.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
Just cause the expo actually has grown exponentially
this year.
So good to hear it's going tobe good.
I will be there again,obviously floating around, and
hopefully we can get you guys tomaybe come out to the compound
and walk the new field, becausesome of the ideas that I've

(27:36):
implemented there come from MrBrian McLean himself.
So there's some stuff thatwe're kind of building to try to
entertain maybe having a WorldWar II event there.
That would be pretty cool toexperience myself.
So we're hoping to get you guysout there.
But as far as events go, whatdo you guys got on the docket?

Speaker 2 (27:58):
this year.
So obviously Woodsman is one ofthe bigger events.
We've branched out a little bitmore into blank firing.
So last year we went tosomething called D-Day Ohio,
which is actually the biggestWorld War II event in the world
apparently, and it was thousandsof us.
So we actually got to land in aduck W on a beach in Ohio, but
there was hundreds of usadvancing up the beach.
Mg42 is firing on us, thousandsof the crowd marching, the

(28:20):
whole thing just sweating todeath.
We plan on doing that again.
A number of other events,aquino.
Possibly we were also lookinginto a couple of other longer
two or three day events, maybeone or two more in the year.
But it's really easy tooverload people too, for sure,

(28:41):
and so we're trying to becareful with that too, because
people have lives.
You know, one of our guys hasfive kids.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
Yeah, so you're talking to me.
There's 22 events right nowbooked 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 neededto happen because we needed to
do.
I found and I know I'm justsome rookie, I've only been

(29:09):
around for five years but I'venoticed a severe downtick in our
community when it should begoing the other way.
So with creating places likeaction airsoft in the compound,
we're trying to get thatpositive flow out there again.
And I think that having thepublic hear about, uh, world War

(29:33):
II reenactment and andfollowing kit to a T and
bringing out Jeeps and andpossibly implementing blank fire
and just carrying that all woodfive shot weapon and stuff like
that, you know that that typeof shit, just it, really it's
really cool, like, honestly it'scool.
As a modern dude like I have abig team, I've commanded some of

(29:54):
the major events in Ontarioairsoft like modern wise and
it's just like this really,really, really intrigues me.
And I think you guys are ontosomething cool and I think
everybody just needs to hearabout it.
So, going back to the Ohiothing, so I guess this is way
more prevalent in the States.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, night and day, yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Yeah, so is there like massive, like massive
airsoft World War II events inthe States that you know of.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
Yeah, there is, I think, two major ones.
There's one, that's, I think,siegfried breakout.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
And these are like hundreds of players.
Yeah, nice, massive vehicles,the whole nine.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
Yeah, I think so.
There's some that have vehiclesas well.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
That's pretty cool For those of you out there.
You can legally cross theborder with your airsoft gear.
You just got to fill out a form.
Treat it like it's a realfirearm, make sure it's locked,
all that stuff it can happen.
You can go across.
Don't think that you can travelwith your stuff.
So if you want to go, try theStates, go try the States.
But we're going to try to bringmore events to Canada if

(30:56):
possible.
But, like you guys said,everybody has a life and it
takes a lot to organize event.
As a game host myself, like wehave a big vehicle game this
year and we started organizingit last year and we still have
so much to do to just be readyfor it.
Like it's crazy, and ours is a300 person event.

(31:16):
It's crazy, but it's good tohear.
So the States is a lot.
You guys could you say thatmaybe the World War II
reenactment scene came from thestates?

Speaker 2 (31:27):
originally, I'm gonna say probably more.
So yes, realistically, it wascertainly inspired by the states
.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
Yeah, like I know, in the states like Vietnam and
World War II are really big.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Yeah, Vietnam, you guys, that's just completely not
done.
Actually, I see quite a fewVietnam dudes at some games, but
there's not really like anorganized group for them, I
guess.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
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 countryI believe they were called, and
there was gonna be the same fiveto eight guys that would show
up and they'd show up withliving history events with us
and they'd spend six hoursdigging, digging, digging and
filling potholes and they'd havelike a whole hooch there that
wasn't there when they arrived.
And so it exists.

(32:11):
It's just it doesn't.
Yeah, it seems to be a lack ofcohesion as to who's organizing
it.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
Would you guys entertain hosting your own event
?

Speaker 3 (32:22):
Yeah, absolutely Like we've talked about doing like
an intro to World War II daywhere you can, you know, just
have like an open invite.
Everybody can come and checkout our kit and maybe do like a
couple of exercises with liketactics that we use.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
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 thestructures, we have the camping
facilities, we have the trenches, we have the roads, we have
everything that you guys wouldneed to do it.
So that's what I'm trying tokind of push for Now that I got

(33:00):
you in my studio.
I just want I want you guys toknow that there is another
footprint for you guys to be theartists in front of a canvas.
So we're not just creating thisfield for modern airsoft.
It's for everybody, likeincluding, you know, the police

(33:23):
and the military and stuff likethat that train on it currently
and stuff.
So it's, it's definitely anoption out there for you guys.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
That sounds, sounds excellent.
In March we're doing a threeday event at one of the members
houses a little bit further outeast of here and we have I've
been putting together from thetraining manuals how to use the
hand signals properly, how tostay together, all these kinds
of things, so we can use that asa footprint, for sure as to
cause we're onboarding three orfour new members now, so we can

(33:50):
use that as a footprint, as ablueprint.
I should say to definitely lookinto that in the future If
anybody would be interested intaking a look at it.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
Sweet, I know who my guys would be and I have a team
of 20.
So that's right off, the hopwill be 20 for sure.
You actually bring up a goodpoint.
So your kits from from WorldWar II, so 40s, right?
How does playing in the wintergo with your guys kit?

Speaker 3 (34:18):
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 wasnot good.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yeah, I can imagine once you're wet, you're wet
right, yeah, cause you don'thave any of the the modern
uniforms 20 pounds of wool.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
Yeah 20 pounds of wool.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
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 surethey're just leather and you got
to flap them open.
It's not like you know, theGucci quick pole M4 mags and all

(35:05):
that stuff.
Heavy steel helmets.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
Yeah, it's even worse for, like the M1 Grants because
they have like a internalizedmag system.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
Oh well.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
Instead of like loading it from the top like a
real one, you have to fumblearound with this clumsy thing
and try and jam it inside therifle and it's like, oh
nightmare.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
Actually, I can just imagine Even in the summer.
It must just be terrible.

Speaker 3 (35:26):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Long sleeve wool in the summer,yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
Oh yeah, and you guys can't like, you can't break any
sort of uniform code.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Within reason.
I mean, if it's 30 degreesoutside, I'm not going to ask
you to be wearing your woolunder shirt, your wool sweater
and your jacket, if you really,if we're especially for on an
assault.
You know you stripped down toyour wool shirt, which is very
common.
You see all kinds of peopledoing this, because it's a
reality, right.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
Yeah, how goes?
How does like reloading go Like, because I know you don't want
like a bottle of BBs being seenor anything like that.
So how do you guys deal withthat?
Like, do you go back to yourcapture point or control point
and have to reload there and notreload in the field, or how
does that work?

Speaker 3 (36:13):
Usually we have, you know, 10 mags and they're like
30 round mags.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
So it's not.
It's not a lot.
It's not like like a modernairsoft game where you got 220
mags or 220 rounds in one bag.

Speaker 3 (36:27):
Nope, yeah, but when you figure like the real M1,
garand has eight rounds.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
So one mag has 30 rounds.
So you're like, okay, that'slike more than enough.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
Yeah, or five mags, right?
How does it work when someonegets shot?

Speaker 2 (36:41):
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 yousit 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 topull you out as you can't go to
full run.
So you're hobbling along.
We have had it in the past a fewtimes where we experimented,
where we had a wound card system.

(37:02):
So right now we actually have adedicated medic and I would like
to try this out where you gethit, you go down, the medic will
come up, pull the wound cardout of your pocket and say
congratulations, you've beenshot in the arm, you can
continue, but you're in a sling.
So I've actually had it in thepast where I was sitting at a
roadblock with my Thompson,which reloading with one hand is

(37:23):
not fun but I was sitting inbetween these two big, long logs
that were across on either sideand I was back to back with
somebody.
We were holding this thing andhe was blind in one eye, so he
had these big goggles on.
Sorry about that.
He had the big goggles on andhe had a big bandage over one
eye and so he was looking aroundand he could on top of the
steel hammer that comes downalmost to your eyes anyway.

(37:44):
So it kind of depends.
We get a little bit more funwith it, but usually it's you
get hit, you get tagged, themedic will come up and medic you
and you can kind of keepfighting.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
So do you use a tourniquet or I guess they
didn't have tourniquets backthen but do you wrap some sort
of A field dressing?

Speaker 3 (38:04):
Yeah, our medic will grab you and drag you like he's
a big guy, literally drag you inthe cover, and then he'll tie a
field dressing on you and thenyou can be back in what happens
when he gets clapped.
Then we're screwed.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah, same as modern.
So, yeah, that's pretty cool.
I really like that.
What do you guys got forgrenades, if any?

Speaker 3 (38:30):
We have the Mola Gay smoke grenades and we also
sometimes use Thunderbees.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
I love my Thunderbees .
Yeah, great saying I get closeenough, I love them.
Yeah, I love Thunderbees.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
What about?
Have you guys gotten into thenew taggons yet?

Speaker 3 (38:45):
I've been looking at them.
I haven't had a chance to getany.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
I'm gonna tell you guys right now, they're amazing
Ear protection for sure, which Idon't know.
I guess you guys just gottawear the inner buds.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
I guess, if you wear it at, all right, but I usually
just stick a couple cigarettebutts out of my pocket in there.
There you go, and you just haveto go.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
They do burn clothing .
Oh, wow okay, so just keep thatin mind if you're wearing your
$700, you know whatever you goton.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
I really don't care, but like I've had reenactors in
the States come up to me likehow did you get that so dirty?
Like it looks so good.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
Oh nice, yeah, I guess you want that, right, yeah
if anything.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
Yeah, it's almost a bit of a stigma in the hobby.
If you show up and you have100% clean uniform, you're very
clearly new yeah for sure, whatabout in-field communication?

Speaker 3 (39:38):
So we do have a BC1000 backpack field radio and
we have, I think, three Motorolabrick phone handy-talky radios.
That's pretty cool, and I'vethe two the handy-talky radios
I've.
They're reproductions.
I've modified them to runBalfangs and I've also modified
the original tube radio toaccept a Balfang as well with an

(40:01):
original handset.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
It's super cool, dude .
You're pretty talented dude, ehyeah.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
Jake is the heart of our mechanical abilities.
When guns go down, when we comeup with these things, we would
be dead without him, that'sthat's.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
That actually raises another point.
So I can imagine that techingthese guns must be just a
serious pain in the ass.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
Sometimes it can be like some of the German guns are
kind of a pain because theyhave like proprietary gearboxes
and stuff.
Like I've actually had to like3D print and model parts to
replace like proprietary hop-upsand stuff for the German guns.
Most of the American stuff is,like you know, standard 1911 gas

(40:45):
guns.
Like that's simple enough.
And then you have the M1 Grantswhich 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 theass is the Thompson with the
version six.
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
And I guess there was no drum mags in World War II.
Right Everything was stick.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
For British.
They did have a version of theThompson that took the the drum,
the drum.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Yeah, oh, really right.

Speaker 3 (41:12):
All of the American Thompson's were the M1A1, so
they took the sticks Nice.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
And you guys are you guys sticklers about that?

Speaker 2 (41:19):
Yes, we we.
Because, sadly, one of thethings that the Airsoft did, for
whatever reason, they decidedto 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 ofthe top.
So it's we just look at thatand it's super farby.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
Yeah, it's just, it doesn't match.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
No, well, it's like it triggers you because you're
like that's wrong, it's just,it's not right.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
So there's, there's a term that I love to, I love in
the Airsoft.
Well, in the Air MarineAquarium that everybody should
know, it's called FARB.
It's an acronym, it stands forfucking eight, right boy.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
I like that a lot actually.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
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 tostart using that term.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
I think, I think it will.
It will definitely take on In agame.
How's the night night time go?

Speaker 3 (42:16):
Terrifying.
Yeah, we'll use the woodsman asan example.
Like it's usually scheduled tobe coincided with the full moon,
yep, and we're still like pitchblack, like arm on the guy in
front of you, like walking andlike you can't see anything.
So, no, torch is nothing right?
Nope, like you might have asignal lamp to like if your

(42:38):
objective is to make contactwith somebody.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
You do like a little that would be so so cool
Creeping through the woodsman.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
Like, yeah, so in 2022, we had another like same
same area that the Crossroadsmassacre happened.
And the night before we're likescouting that area and we're
like, okay, like this is like wecan't see shit.
And we come to this Crossroadsand there's this big white sign,
when that's all we can see andwe're like, what the hell is

(43:05):
this?
So our point guy goes and leansagainst the sign.
All of a sudden, we hear aGerman challenge code.
There's a pit right next to thesign.
We didn't even we couldn't seeanything.
Oh no, they're shouting at usin German.
We're like, uh, and I think yousaid some try to said something
in German.
They're like I'm like hit thedeck and they opened up on us

(43:28):
and we had to like Aussie peelout of there.

Speaker 1 (43:31):
So they do stick straight in character with their
speaking German as well, asmuch as they can.

Speaker 3 (43:44):
Some of them.
Some of them, their commandswould be in German, but they're
not like sitting in the trencheslike oh yeah, talking German.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
It's funny, the German guys that I mentioned
earlier that came to theDeadfall series at the compound
this year.
The Friday night they were inthe woods digging foxholes for
like nine hours.
Yeah Well, we just sat therelike idiots waiting to get
attacked and it never came.

(44:13):
But then I found out what theywere doing and when I looked at
it I'm like, holy fuck, you guysput some work in just to get
slaughtered.
But you put some work in, oh,it was good.
So you're at an event, you gotall your stuff.
Can't see shit at night, whichI find cool as hell.

(44:35):
That's like one of the biggestcomplaints in modern airsoft,
even though you can use aflashlight.
But use a flashlight, you'redead, like I mean, this is gonna
happen.
At first it was night visionand then night vision is nothing
.
Now it's the year of thethermals, like now, everybody's
running a well, everybody thatcan afford it is running a

(44:55):
thermal and it's just.
There's no fucking hiding.

Speaker 3 (44:59):
That's why I was drawn to this, because it's like
who remembers their trainingbetter, like who can navigate
the woods better, like how howdoes even playing field even
playing field.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Yeah, you follow orders, you stick to a certain
fuck.
You shave your face.
So it's that serious, which Ilike.
I like stuff like that.
What happens when you're in afor sure firefight and you hit
somebody and that fucker doesn'tcall us hit?
How's that go?

Speaker 3 (45:31):
We usually just kind of shrug it off.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
And just keep playing .
Hit him again, hit him again,hit him again, do you?

Speaker 3 (45:36):
have a problem with that?
Not so much just because it'ssuch a niche community and
everyone spends like thousandsof dollars on kit and stuff.
Nobody wants to be labeled likethe bad guy that doesn't call
us hits and like like don't comeback.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
So is there, is there a certain set of like teams, or
you're just like you know thehundred of them first and blah,
blah, blah, do you have like setairsoft World War, two teams
that come out and play?

Speaker 2 (46:03):
Oh no, we're based on units.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
Units.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
So our unit is the 29th Infantry Division.
They still exist in the Statesbut in World War two they
expanded and they were actuallyone of the units that landed in
D-Day next to the first InfantryDivision.
The Germans, I believe, aredoing 9th SS mostly.
Yeah, there's also up in Ottawa.
There's an engineer unit, Ibelieve no Canadians, though
there are a number of Canadians.

(46:26):
They don't participate in somuch at airsoft, partially
because there really haven'tbeen that many weapons.
I'm going to say, about 10years ago Sten started coming
out.
I had one of the earlier ones.
I loved it because it wasabsolutely tiny I mean thinking
like MP5 tiny it's.
It was great and with a sideloading mag you can let right
down in the ground.
But Enfields there, if you canfind an airsoft Enfields,

(46:48):
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 tomake it look decent.
It needs still a bolt actionrifle.
That's not for everybody.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
But there's a number of Commonwealth and usually when
people are looking at theFacebook group or whoever
they're joining, if they want todo Allied, they're immediately
saying I want to do Commonwealth.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
OK, let's go Cool.
What about the sniper end ofWorld War two?

Speaker 3 (47:16):
is it prevalent or I Wouldn't say like designated
snipers.
Like a lot of the Germans tryand gravitate towards the car 98
bolt actions.
So Basically their doctrine isthey'd have a machine gun and
everybody else is justsupporting the machine gun.
They'd have a lot of boltaction guys.
But I don't know if anyone'sactually like rocking a scope or

(47:37):
anything and like specificallyShooting, so it's not like
prevalent in in kind of yourreenactment.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
You're not gonna have like a some dude with a viper
hood hiding in the woods poppingsomebody off.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
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 inghillie.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
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 amechanic shop, there's Casino,
there's mayors town, all thatstuff.
So you physically have peopledoing stuff in there during the
game.
So that's the same type ofthing.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
Oh yeah, we've had various properties we had, I
remember, years ago up inMuskoka we had the partisans are
in that particular scenariowere actually equal number to
the Germans, and so there wasthree, three buildings where
they're continuing consistentlylike hiding pistols, and so they
would have to come around andsearch the building and they'd
find the pistol and lockeverybody down.
But to lock everybody down, yousee, needing a certain number

(48:42):
of bodies to hold that area.
So then the allies would comeand attack an area and they take
bodies off of guarding, andthen the guys would get out, and
it was this whole cycle.
So can you?

Speaker 1 (48:51):
take prisoners.
Yes, yes, yeah, do you do the?
You are bound and gagged, kindof thing, or kind of Usually
they'll like have like a holdingarea like and at the woodsmen
event.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
They have like a little town built up so they
have like a designated room thatthey put you in.
That's cool and they take your,your rifle and, like your,
disarmed whatever and you can beas loud as you want, and yeah.
Well, there was one year I gotcaptured and they didn't do like
a full search and I had alittle two-shot derringer pistol
.
That's awesome.
Like there's no way I'mfighting my way out of here, I

(49:25):
just threw it on the table likeyou guys got to do a better job.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
Could have taken two of them, though I had a.
We were at actually up atBorden doing a blank fire event
not too long ago in October andthey took us all prisoner and
they searched one of the guysand then one of the guys held a
rubber grenade in his pocket itwas like upper left chest pocket
and they took it out of it outof the pocket and they're all
laughing at him.
Well, they didn't search himproperly and he's still at a

(49:50):
pistol, so they were marching usoff and he just turned and got
two of them and then we all justscattered.
It was just so.
Yeah, there's definitelyprisoners.
Sometimes prisoners areactually part of the scenario
too.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
Yeah, for sure.
Like you got to rescue them orstuff like that, yeah.
And then the partisans todayPlay an important role in Intel
and false Intel.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
Yes, kind of like lead people in so yeah, there
was one year we had some Germanplants in the partisans and we
had no idea and we're liketalking like oh yeah, we think
the Germans went this way likewe don't have any weapons, so we
armed them and then we walkedahead of them and then they shot
us in the back.
They were still wearing theirGerman dog tags.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
That's the giveaway.
Yeah, so little things likethat.
I really like that.
It's really detailed, like yougot to really pay attention to
what you're doing, yeah, so whathappens because this happens in
in everybody's Guy, I guesscommunity what if you get a bad
apple, like during an event?
What if somebody gets loud,gets angry, starts Becoming a

(50:58):
real nuisance?
How do you guys handle that inthe community?

Speaker 2 (51:02):
so on the on.
When it's happened on field andthis does happen and if
somebody's getting really mad aCouple years ago, to example, I
tossed a Thunder B at somebody Igot two people were in a
position.
It hit the guy in the helmetand he was not happy about it
and he starts going off.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
Yeah, the helmet on.
Yeah, exactly yes.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
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 alittle too angry, I apologize,
but we shook hands and it wasokay.
But you know there is that holdthe no duff rule does exist.
Oh, yeah, something happens,somebody gets injured or
somebody just getting angry andthey're not having fun.
Okay, we'll stop the scenariofor and just like calm this down

(51:42):
.
But thankfully we really don'trun into that too much.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
Yeah, so you don't like have an open tally on.
You know people that areCausing a continuous problem at
events and you can think of notreally a Continuous problem.
That's good to hear usuallyisolated incidents.
Yeah, like it's hot and peopleare a bit, yeah, yeah bit
frustrated and maybe a littletoo into the game.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
Yeah, there have been one or two people at some
events that have been toldyou're uninvited, you're not
allowed to come back, but it's avery rare thing very rare.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
That's cool.
It sounds like you guys haveReally well organized machine.

Speaker 2 (52:20):
We try, I mean.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
What, what do you want to see changed, even a bit,
changed completely?
Or you know something you guysare planning on improving on in
2024?

Speaker 3 (52:38):
I'd like to see it grow like.
You know, there's there's beentimes where we show up to an
event and there's like 30Germans, we got seven allies.
It's like, well, we're stillgonna do it.
But it's like this is kind ofstacked.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
Are you guys members of the Ontario airsoft community
Facebook group?

Speaker 3 (52:57):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
Yep, you need to post on there as well.
Yeah, that's something that youshould start doing.
I know that it seems like not alot of stuff happens on that,
but being involved on the backend of that, I see how many
people actually see the post andit's actually quite impressive.

(53:19):
The thing that you guys arewe're talking about earlier on
just getting people to come outand get their feet wet that's
fucking huge.
Because, like I said, I Haven'teven heard about any of this
until I seen you guys in yourdrip at the expo, like other

(53:39):
than you know here there andlike 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.
When you're here, stuff likethat, if you are thinking about
doing like a day here, a daythere, where you just get people
to come out and and kind ofExperience the weapons
experience, the clothingexperience, you know your

(54:01):
handiwork with your, your 1919and and all that stuff, that'll
go a huge way with the community.
She's just a day to get theirfeet wet, even to pull the
fucking trigger once at a steeltarget.
Just a, just a feel.
You know, like a part of thatthat, I think, is gonna help the

(54:21):
community Really see what youguys 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 experienceit like Pictures and stuff are
cool as fuck, and I'm sure youguys have some pretty epic
fucking pictures because of yourcat?

Speaker 3 (54:38):
Yeah, we're still waiting on some of the D-Day
Ohio photos.
Yeah, the ones we've seen, ohmy god.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
If I can make a suggestion, what I would do is I
would do a reel with thatslideshow, because that will
show a lot about what you guysare about and what you get into
and it'll show the audience Moreof what you do like.
Getting the information out isone thing, but a lot of people

(55:04):
are real visual right, they needto see it.
And I don't see it out thereunless Now I have the
information, because I put itout there.
But if you guys were, maybe youknow, put a couple more
pictures, or you know, hey,we're going for coffee here,
we're gonna go and we're gonnatalk about this and that and

(55:26):
this and that that might besomething worth looking into.
Like hell, I'll fucking go forsure.
I'll tell you that much becauseI'm interested in learning it.
Like, after this, I'm gonnastart googling World War two
shit because it's just.
I'm pretty excited, like mygrandfather he was.
He fought in World War two inEurope.
A lot of medals.
He went through some shit and Ialways wanted to Kind of not

(55:52):
relive it, but relive it in away where I'm not gonna die.
Yeah, you know what I mean andthat would be a cool way to show
homage to my grandfather whofucking busted his ass you know
what I mean.

Speaker 3 (56:02):
Yeah, like a lot of times we show up at an airsoft
event and like it's a modern mixthing 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 (56:12):
Like I am, one of those guys.
When I see somebody wearing oldkit, I am like you know, I'm
straight straight there.
I'm like dude, that is somedrip man Like I.
I you know what.
For you guys fighting in thetemperatures that we fight in,
wearing those clothing, thatclothing like winter, summer,

(56:33):
like we talked about before,like Takes a lot of balls man.
That takes a lot of ballsbecause I'll tell you, I PRC,
I'm wearing fucking shorts and awifey with my Watered modern
gear in the summer, man that'sfor sure.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
It certainly changed how I'm.
It certainly toughened me up alot as a city person my whole
life it's.
It's certainly really change itwhat I'm able to tolerate the
cold, the hot, just being hotand sweaty, and not necessarily
have to drink water for anothersix hours because you know I'm
used to it.
It's certainly toughen me up alot and it's allowed me to Do it
, understand my boundaries a lotmore for sure, physically and

(57:08):
even mentally, to being able tojust endure it.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
It's not it's not something to to to scare away
new players either.
Oh, there's a lot involved Kitwise and stuff like that, but in
modern airsoft, so there'smassive kit requirements too.
Yeah like you get into themilsim 18, 20 hour games, like
you're not coming there withthree mags, one battery and

(57:33):
you're fucking running shoes.
Let's put it that way.
So Both types of airsoft havethe same buy-in.
Let's say yeah, but if you'renot sure that World War two
reenactment is for you, you cancontact these guys.
They're gonna kick you out foran event or Whatever you guys
have and meet and greet.

(57:53):
They'll, depending on you, knowthe type of character you are.
I'm sure, yeah, they'll helpyou out.
But if you're gonna go up likea chauvinistic asshole, fuck,
that just is gonna be adouchebag.
You know you're not gonna getin and that's just something
that I Commend you guys, for.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
You're protecting something that you're you're
trying to build in yeah, we havea whole interview process that
we go through.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
Yeah, so it's.
It's not like, you know, likeyou're paying your 40 bucks and
you're coming here and you'replaying for four hours, no
matter what you're wearing.
You've got to, you know, pass ainterview and and I think
that's pretty cool to keepthings legit and it doesn't
really let things, you know,morph away from the purity that

(58:36):
you're trying to put out thereexactly, which is pretty cool
Any last minute thoughts oranything that you guys want to
get out to the community.
Before we Shut this thisepisode down.

Speaker 2 (58:52):
Can't think of anything in particular.
Did we want to touch a littlebit on maybe C21?
I think maybe last year it wasa little bit more scary.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
Let's let them go.
Let the community know on yourend how it affected you guys.

Speaker 3 (59:09):
We were basically facing extinction because
Blankfire, like Damwon Grand,was specifically mentioned in
the amendments to C21 that theywere proposing and it was
basically going to be a directkill for a lot of reenactors.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
A lot of reenactors and this building you're sitting
in right now and the 200 acrefield that we just purchased,
that would be gone.
My team, actually this righthere.
There'd be no point of havingan Airsoft experience podcast if
there's no Airsoft.
So yeah, we still have a longway to go, though.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
I agreed.
I would suggest that anybodywho is passionate about Airsoft
or firearms in general tocontinue to oppose all these
legislation changes 100%.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
Just stay informed.
Airsoftincanadacom, Massivewebsite spearheaded by Brian and
Jeremy.
Jeremy's using the World War IIwith you guys.

Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
He's a partisan fighter, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
Yeah, a partisan fighter, right, he loves it,
he's very good at it.
I got to kill him on thatdeadfall.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
He retired from the deadfall series.
This was his last year.
There'll be a new leader nextyear.
We will get you again, c21,it's not gone.
2025 is an election.
I am not going to tell you howto be political.

(01:00:43):
Just take a look at the lasteight years under a liberal
power and take a look at ourcountry.
That's in shambles right nowand you make the call and just
know that every vote affectseach and every one of our lives
directly and it's very importantto get out and vote for the

(01:01:05):
Conservatives.
I'll just put that outunderneath no vote for whoever
you want, just as long asthey're not wearing red and, on
that note, anything else, guys?

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
Other than our website.
You can find us.
We do have an Instagram at 29thof Ontario, if that works for
you too.
We're on Facebook as a groupfor ourselves 29th Infantry
Division, ontario.
But there's also the general,the more broad World War II
reenactors Ontario.
World War II reenactors you canfind them.

Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
So even if you wanted to do Commonwealth because your
grandfather was that and that'swhat you want to go for Even if
you just want to guide how tofind the kit and what the period
correct kit is, that's a goodresource for that too, and we
will post everything Ian justsaid in the description of this
episode so you can click and goand get all the information that
you need to get to get involvedin World War II reenactment on

(01:02:00):
the Airsoft end, which I thinkis cool as fuck and I really
appreciate you guys coming outand I am looking forward to
seeing you guys April 6th and Ihope I can get out and see what
you guys are all about.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
We'll definitely be in touch.
We would love to set up anintroduction day with your team
and anybody else who wants tocome out to your complex.
We can walk through it, we cando it, we can figure something
out for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
Let's do that Like.
I mean you're hearing it nowWorld War II reenactors and
magic.
We're going to get together andwe're going to show you guys
how to bust some ass World WarII style, as plain as day.
And with that I thank you, ianand I thank you Jake.
Thank you so much for comingout to the Airsoft experience
and I really appreciate it.

(01:02:48):
And let's keep this open-ended,because I think we should do
another episode based on growth.
Maybe at the end of the seasonwe can talk about some cool
events you guys went to.

Speaker 3 (01:03:00):
Yeah, sounds good.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
Sounds good, awesome.
Thanks a lot for coming.
Guys Appreciate it, thank you.