Rogerborg

Well, they do now. I didn't see a resolution to that case one way or the other, I'd assume their insurers settled at the courtroom door. And reminding people to fire until clear? Barrel socks will come to every site eventually, after the dry-firing fun and games turn into someone losing an eye. I've taken to wearing basic ballistic glasses in "safe" zones now too. No chrono, even after being on the sharp end of a negligence suit, is astonishing. While I'm the first to point out that pre-game chrono is largely just theatre, not doing any sort of chronoing at all is appalling, and I would have no doubt that some regulars will be rocking Section 5s or billion-Joule snipers. And I'm the last to suggest escalating situations, but I think that might result in a roundhouse swing with whatever RIF I had to hand. Did you bother even bringing it up with the site?

I'd always suggest a Maple Leaf 50 degree bucking and 0.28g minimum in any AEG these days. Omega nub, no omega nub, I'm back and forth on those, but all of my AEGs can over-hop 0.28g, even the MP5K with a somewhat ropey hop unit.

Nice one, I'd love to see what you come up with. I agree with keeping the bulk down, I trimmed quite a lot off of my original templates in order to get full mobility and articulation. In particular, torso armour needs to be truncated or articulated if you intend to crouch or bend. Me, or the horny xeno-girl? You know what... let's preserve the mystery.

Why do I get the feeling that you're under 18? Either way, you're fine, with or without supervision. He can loan or gift it to you without any issue. Ownership or possession in private has never been an offence and so doesn't need a "licence" (and he doesn't have one). Possession in public (i.e. you're on your way to or from an insured airsoft site) always needs a "reasonable excuse" (i.e. you're on your way to or from an insured airsoft site). In practice, what @EDcase said: don't let it be seen, and it won't be an issue. No larking around in the woods, or climbing on your roof for a photoshoot.

They will be, until they're not. Given that the purpose is to create a dakka-dakka-dakka noise, is there any argument for doing that using devices that can and have killed people, when you could achieve the same result with an mp3 player and a speaker? If the critical immersion element is that they're creating muzzle flashes out of an open barrel, they can get sodded right off, because that's the bit that kills you when a pebble, shell sliver, wadding, or rogue live round joins the game. For context, I was at an English Civil War reenactment when a small smoothbore black powder cannon cooked off while being rammed. Poor show on the sponging, but the rammer was lucky/smart enough to be using good technique to "throw" the ramrod down it without gripping it tightly, which is why he didn't lose his hand entirely. However, the wad of grass that he was stuffing it with came out fast enough to turn his hand into cooked hamburger. Clear barrel "blank" firers are bloody dangerous, and I have no desire to be anywhere near them.

Well.... I am developing very mild tinnitus, and it's not from work or concerts. It's either from motorcycling air noise or from airsoft pyro. I almost always wear (and have almost always worn) earplugs when setting out to ride at over 40mph. Still, it could be that. Or it could be pyro. I don't wear ear protection in airsoft, but I'm coming round to think that I should. Personally I think that a .209 primer or Mk3 is sufficient indoors. If folk don't hear and take those, they're unlikely to take a 9mm or Mk5 either. That's earball overkill. And 9mm or Mk5 is all you need outdoors. Even then, a 130dB-at-1-inch Mk5 going off right by your ear outdoors will do just as much irreversible damage as if it goes off indoors. I will now tune back in to my scheduled "eeeeeeeeee" sound.

Mmm, he does seem very optimistic. £120-ish worth of JG/GE G36C, abandoned, with some random spray paint on it (is that an attempt to two-tone a RIF?), plus a novelty-purposes red dot and a repro-vest. Battery has likely never been charged. A bargain at only £200, doubtless plus fees and postage.

Those faaaabulous rainbow tracers really do look pretty good, and I particularly like the side visibility on the bright muzzle flash. The bar's just been raised a bit higher there. Just a pity that it doesn't claim to light up red tracers, those are next on my list of wants.

More pictures have just gone up on my site's site, reposting here for dopamine hits (and because the weird lighting on the last one made my face look like Red Skull). Damn, but I look so purposeful, and so expendable there. Horny xeno girls all want Guardsman-senpai to notice them.

I'd also have to note that he's only claiming 1.8J from a 2.55J spring, so the air seal is suspect. And a laser though. Has he got the only scope ever made without crosshairs? Given the minimal chance of them staying zeroed together, which one is he using for aiming? Dazzle pattern camouflage. Oh, sure, it means the other team will spot him a mile away, but they won't know what range his gun is at, or which direction it's moving (I guess they could just aim straight it it, like everybody does, at everyone, all the time). Or if he's wearing a ghillie, maybe they'll think it's a spooky ghost gun just floating along, and get too scared to shoot at him. Really though, if that tape is easy to get off, why wouldn't you take it off before listing it?

That's the thing, I'd be astonished if most airsofters don't know that. I'd be pretty certain that site owners will, and the gun owners certainly will, so why they're allowing it boggles the mind. I imagine it's: "My intention is to aim over their heads, it'll be fine because accidents never happen." Fortunately we don't have a profusion of live firearms here from which to shoot blanks. Even if someone does turn up with a blank firing gun, it should have a blocked barrel and the best they can do is to blow their own nose off through a top vent. But I completely agree, keep that well away from airsoft fields. I don't even like TAG rounds, as on a back of the envelope calculation of the claimed 32m/s and 30g I make that 15.36J, running pretty close to the 16J air gun limit. They are certainly not airsoft guns by any stretch of the imagination (so need an air gun licence in Scotland), and are far beyond what EN166F eye protection is rated for. I await "But, but, I only intend to lob them, and accidents only happen to other people."

I wouldn't pay that for a brand new one given the problems owners have had with them. Still, kudos for his honesty that the early ones were bags of spanners made from turds. Also, I get to swipe this from Negative Airsoft.

I'd trust Nuprol glasses to protect my eyesight every bit as much as I'd trust Nuprol chargers and batteries to not burn my house down.

Huh, that is peculiar from an experience seller. I guess "mounted once never fired or skirmished" means it's... better than new?

The family that sprays together stays together. Like much of airsoft, it's an "impression kit", just from the future rather than the past.

Do eeeet. We're all LARPing to some extent, we might as well do it with gusto. EVA foam really is super easy to work with, and cheap too. You can find patterns online: pepakura templates, Facebook groups, or buy them on Etsy if you can't find anything free. I just did my own templates for that using parcel paper and sticky tape, the only shaped joins there are on the shoulder pieces, and that just takes a bit of trial and error to figure out the curved cuts required. The whole thing is painted using about £2 worth of acrylic, you can do it on the super cheap.

Thanks. It's home made, everything green except the helmet is EVA foam. It's great stuff for airsoft use, super light, easy to work with, and takes all the sting out of hits while still letting you (mostly) feel and hear them. I did have one chap "cheat" call me yesterday, very politely, with my thanks, as I'm always super-careful to call hits while wearing it. The helmet is an M88 with a fan box on the back, piped to the goggles - it can get a bit sweaty in the foam. I'm constantly pondering doing a more "authentic" one out of foam, although having BBs whang off the plastic is quite satisfying. The "lasgun" is a G36C stuffed inside an EVA foam shell, running short M16 mags though a magwell adaptor. That big silver barrel is a dummy with a 3W red LED in it wired to the trigger. The real barrel is that small lower tracer unit. The "iron" sights are just hacked out of the foam using a bit of trial and error, and are accurate enough for CQB use - the whole outfit is really very practical. Most cosplayer add "weathering", but I'm constantly painting over damage - I've just spotted that there's a BB embedded in the stock.

Finally a decent picture of my Authentic Battle Damaged 40K Imperial Guard costume. So many deaths for the Emperor yesterday.

Pretty good Hallowe'en event at Biohazard, equipping a friend-of-a-friend with loaner gear. He wasn't expecting to be loaded with with M4 and pistol (both with spitfire tracers), and grenades. He had a blast, got right into it and was pushing like a proper speedy boi - sometimes even still with BBs in the mag. Biohazard have the top floor open now, which really increased the length of a whole-site fallback game, and it's got a fair bit of potential for further development, kudos to them for that. We had the usual barely audible briefs in the echoing safe zone (bad), mostly very fair and good natured play (good), and laissez-faire marshalling (good or bad, depending on what you were there to do). Some rental blind firing and trigger spamming was in evidence, and I Had Words with a Sergeant McShouty after an earful too much following a zinger in the face. All hugs and back slaps before the safe zone though. Much amusement from a wee lad who was about 4 foot high and ran around the whole day with a pistol and backhand knife, coming around corners fast, low and stabbing. The costume competition was obviously a fix, being won by shop bought efforts rather than my hand crafted pretend space soldier rig. Granted it was hilarious being shot by knights, bananas, and a squad of Telly-Tubbies, and I don't grudge the winner in his inflatable T-Rex costume, firstly for even getting into the play area, but then for actually playing pretty well - you wouldn't think an 8 foot dinosaur could be sneaky, but he actually managed some great ambushes. Clearly a natural predator.

And a rape dungeon is pretty damn good for struggle cuddles, but it's not anything to be proud of.

Full seal is more of a paintball thing. Some airsoft sites mention it, but you'll generally see plenty of people wearing glasses, sometimes not even wrap-around. You'll likely go through loads of eye protection before you find a set that really works for you. I currently go dual pane goggles + Revision antifog wipes + fan ventilation.

Which is the one that featured a picture of a player not wearing any eye protection?

Reasonable enough choices - I mean for a daft hobby where we play with toy guns. You might find that you can fog up any eye protection, plenty of us more padded gentlemen have that issue. You can try dual pane / "thermal lenses", various anti-fog potions (I like Revision wipes), or fan solutions, either DIY or Ex-Fog. Worst case, mesh is available, and we love HeroShark custom mesh goggles. See how you get on first though, just be aware that even with the magic of hop ups and heavy ammo, airsoft guns aren't as accurate or consistent as air guns. Mind you, if they were then nobody would ever emerge from cover.

This is pretty common, but it's a very welcoming environment. We had a thread on this a while back with a really great post covering what to expect in some detail, which can help with social anxiety. So many hugs in that thread. Your fitness / fatness level is neither here nor there. If you can walk, you can play. Heck, folk play in wheelchairs. What I would note is that a couple of hours of actual action every fortnight isn't really going to do much for your health, but it will give you something to train for if you're that way inclined.