My absolute dream in airsoft is to have my own SL8 replica, but from what I've been searching it seems like there's no good replica like that?

The two manufacturers that come up the most are Ares and Novritsch with their SL8/SL9/SL10 and SSR63 A3 lines respectively. The problem is that while Ares has very good externals, their internals are proprietary dogshit, for lack of a better word, while Nov has godawful and inaccurate externals and average-at-best internals.

Is there really no SL8 airsoft replica that has accurate externals and at least somewhat decent internals? It also seems that SL8 custom builds with a regular G36 replica as the base are also not possible simply because there aren't any SL8 externals up for sale anywhere.

I'm currently running Lineage with GApps, but I'd like to degoogle before the whole developer verification thing goes into effect in 2027. As always, bank apps present a problem.

My current bank's application refuses to run without Google Play Services and I was thinking of simply switching to a bank that does. Question is, are there even any left? I can't say I'm looking forward to calling each bank in my country and asking them stupid questions, so I'm just wondering if anyone has done the hard work already. I know from others that ING blocks degoogled devices, so that one is out of the question from the start.

EDIT: I'm interested in particular in Polish banks (particularily ones that support BLIK transactions), but asked the question in the context of the EU so that maybe others could benefit from this post as well.

This is a bite valve from a hydration bladder. I'd like to disassemble it so that I can clean it out and let it dry properly. Is there any way to do that? I tried searching online but the results were either AI garbage or did not apply to this bite valve in particular. Pulling with mediocre force on any of the parts doesn't seem to do anything, and I don't want to pull any harder in fear of destroying the valve.

I have a CM.700 airsoft sniper rifle replica that started slam-firing^[1]^ recently, likely due to a stripped sear. Is there anything that I could do about this, short of buying a specialised trigger box that costs as much as the gun itself?

I was thinking about making my own sear, but I took the trigger box apart in order to see what part could be the sear, and frankly I've still got no clue to this day. Despite taking apart quite a few airsoft guns before, this trigger mechanism is still a mystery to me.

I'm currently away so these images (1) (2) (3) are the best ones I have. The first one is the inside of the trigger box, sans the bar used to connect it to the bolt and outer barrel (it is positioned in between the two bars sticking out of the top of the box). The second image is of the bolt itself and the third image is of the assembled trigger box, showing three bars coming out of it (+ safety lever partially obscured by the bolt handle), and the outer barrel with the bolt inside. The bars sticking out of the trigger box slot into the holes in the outer barrel.

If it is the sear that's being the problem here, would it be possible to somehow mold it back into shape, or would I have to make an entirely new one? Again, I could buy an upgraded trigger box, but my financial situation currently prohibits that, so having a cheap fix would be really nice, even if it would be temporary.

I would greatly appreciate any help.

[1] - The CM.700 is a sniper rifle with a rotating bolt action. The bolt is rotated up, then pulled back. At the apex of the pull, the sear locks, making an audible click. Then the bolt is pushed forwards, chambering a BB, then rotated downwards to lock it and make the gun ready to fire. Slam-firing happens when the sear does not lock back at the end of the pull - releasing the bolt will make it slam back shut. Sometimes the bolt will stay in the pulled-back position, but even a slight disturbance will make it slam again. (Video on reddit showcasing the issue)

Shot these two photos of white storks on a whim in late April, which is roughly when white storks are the most numerous here in central Poland. They like to create their nests on electrical poles in small towns or in the outskirts of small cities - most poles have special platforms on them so that the nests won't interfere with the power lines.

Shot with a Nikon Z30; left: 50mm ISO 800 1/500s; right: 50mm ISO 800 1/1000s - makes me wish I had a better lens because these photos are just about the extent of my 16-50mm's abilities.

Came across them for the first time while playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly, and found them interesting.

Most of these seem to be from the late Soviet Union era. Could be wrong, though. Uploaded the .zip to catbox: link

From the very very little digging I did, track_15.ogg is Spokoynaya noch by the band Кино (Kino). Some of the other tracks here might also be from Кино. Anyone able to ID the rest?

I wanted to replay the BF4 campaign for a good while now, especially after the release of BF6. The last time I played BF4 was back when I was still on Windows, so I wasn't as privy to the whole DRM thing, but now it's seriously putting me off. Hell, even back during the Windows days I remember how annoying was having to launch Origin every time I wanted to play.

Is there a way (legal or not) to play BF4 without DRM and the 3rd party account requirement or am I gonna have to brute force it and just play from within a VM and deal with all the crap?

EDIT: Getting a FitGirl repack of BF4 and running it via Lutris works just fine!

I remember reading that there was a lot of controversy around the dev team of Organic Maps misusing their donation funds and being very sketchy in general.

I was planning to switch to CoMaps because of that, but life got in the way and suddenly it's the end of October and I'm still using OM as if nothing happened.

So I just wanted to ask if there were any significant updates on that whole controversy? Is switching to CoMaps warranted, or was this entire thing blown out of proportion?

I noticed that Ubuntu Touch now supports way more Xiaomi devices than it used to last time I checked (it was like 2, and now its ~10!), and I've wanted to try out UT since now they've got support for some nice models like the Poco X3 or the Redmi Note 9.

Thing is, I remember hearing that Xiaomi was cracking down on bootloader unlocking recently. Did anything change in that regard?

For the record, I've unlocked dozens of Xiaomi phones, so I'm used to the experience of finding old archived Mi Unlock versions, using Mediatek exploits, week-long waiting times, and other endless jank. I'm just wondering if any really bad changes have been implemented since then, or maybe if unlocking is still even possible.

Now I know Lemmy's airsoft community is tiny, but I figured it's worth a shot, since I can't really find anything about this issue anywhere else, even on r/airsoft.

I have a CZ SP-01 GNB pistol, and lately it's been having an issue where the gas output when firing would be very inconsistent.

Its worst point was usually when first firing the gun after either inserting gas or not having fired it for a few minutes if gas was already inserted. The gun also had gas issues outside of those circumstances, but not to such an extent.

I've disassembled the gun completely to look for any issues, but couldn't find any, and even after reassembly the problems persisted.

This makes me think the issue might be inside of the firing pin chamber, which is the only part you can't disassemble, as the firing pin is inside of a welded plastic housing.

The gun's basically useless as long as this issue persists. Have any of you had a similar thing happen? I can provide images and video of the gun in question if needed.

EDIT 1: Here are the images:
all internal parts
assembled mechanism: right side
assembled mechanism: left side

magazine gas seal

a picture of the whole gun taken from the internet: right side
same as above but left side (this one in particular is chambered for airgun pellets, but the external appearance is identical)

dry firing the gun in slow motion
the gun firing correctly (filmed while trying to film it firing incorrectly, oh well)

EDIT 2:
The gun works perfectly fine now. Not sure what happened. Just ran through 8 mags on one cartridge without any major issues.

I will confess that the gun hasn't had proper maintenance in a good while, and it's likely that fully disassembling, cleaning it, and reassembling removed some gunk (probably from old lubricant) that was stuck in the firing pin chamber, which made it run smooth again. I have no clue if that's what actually happened, it's just a theory.

EDIT 3:
Nevermind, the gun is alive and it hates me. Started malfunctioning in the same way just now.
Lubricating the magazine feed rail did not help either, so I'm basically out of options that don't involve taking apart the firing pin or replacing the hammer spring.