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Despite Brexit, we still have an agreement with the EU where we don't charge each other customs duties for items produced or manufactured in the UK or EU. But by and large that doesn't apply to airsoft toys and tat. VAT is still chargeable, from anywhere in the world, and the old £16 minimum limit is long since gone. Now, anything up to £135 should have 20% UK VAT added at source. The seller has to register with HMRC and pay over the VAT to them[*], then the item ought to come through without further VAT or duties. Over £135, anything imported becomes liable for customs duties (from the list of ten kajillion types of goods), VAT, and then all the charges that get added on for working out and paying those charges. I can see that getting complicated and risky, e.g. you've got an order containing a mix of items that attract different rates of duty, or if HMRC disagrees with the categorisation or value. [*] I imagine there are ways to arrange things so that VAT and duties end up just resting in your account for longer than might be strictly necessary, or where the basket price that you're charging doesn't always match the value declared to HMRC.

Maybe it's the universes way of telling us that we've got too much Airsoft stuff already, much of which is unnecessary to just play, & every new unnecessary purchase is just a further waste of the planets resources. Namaste 🙏 Yeah, I'll shut my filthy whore mouth now, clearly my thoughts are muddled by pain meds etc 🤯😜

The reason I heard that it's so cheap to ship from China is they currently enjoy a massive discount on global shipping rates, mostly due to the fact they are crazily still classed as an "emerging economy" or something like that, their RMB is famously under valued as well apparently. For Chinese Airsoft products it's can be difficult to export from China due to the product restrictions. Few Chinese brands are allowed to ship directly from mainland China, generally have to ship from Hong Kong. All adds to the cost, so fewer wholesalers, some brands only allow you to purchase 20ft containers so a wholesaler will wait till all stock is gone before reordering. On the note about UK stores not using cheaper shipping. I sent Large Letter products 1st class for 8 years or so for only £1.50, eventually I gave up since I was getting a large amount of customers saying their item didn't arrive since there's no "official" tracking. What customers didn't know tracking did indeed exist but only if you speak to Royal Mail business support directly. I just got fed up with all the hassle from it, an being open to fraud so I moved over to Tracked 24 which is double the price - sucks but has to be the way forward.

Low turn out today at Spec Ops - less than 40 with a fair few rentals. The blue team ended up with a lot of newbies (to the site) and skins ended up with more regulars. The first timers were evenly split, but the end result was a little embarrassing for the blues. They moved a few of us regulars over at lunch which made a big difference to the outcomes and made the day more fun. Overall the smaller numbers were a benefit because it allowed the more experienced player help the first timers. Weather and conditions were also perfect with zero wind, gorgeous sunshine and a nice 12 degrees. Muggins here was responsible for a fair few friendly on friendly kills - but i put that down to having teammates appearing from places I had recently spotted enemies advancing from. I only took 4 pews - Glock 17, DE Honey Badger, ICS L85 and SVU. The latter of which chrono'd too low, and was pewing in a weird arc. L85, when powered by an 11.1 was pretty much an LMG. But didn't like firing on semi. Stick a 7.4 in there and it was fine, if not a little lethargic. Either way the fecker was laser accurate up to 45 metres and with .28s was cutting through the foliage nicely halting the advances of those thinking they were hidden. During a stint for the blues after lunch, I was holding one of the barrels that formed the bridge. Skins made a big push just as I suffered a dead battery. With no time to run to the spawn where my spare was, I switched to semi and pulled out my Glock. Problem being I knew I hadn't had a chance to gas them up at lunch; so it was a case of very carefully selected shots from the AEG and my three glock mags to cover the skins' advanced long enough for backup to come to my calls. End result was a victory for us thanks to the backup from teammates. Which meant too that I had great pleasure in getting the site's resident "runner" three times as he tried to push the objectives - there are a couple of regular teenagers renowned for rushing objectives so quickly that a defending team not prepared has no chance. - hence the marshalls moving me from team to team. LMG mode: Mando (regular mad sprinter) and I getting ready to extract the pilot:

And there is the great irony of airsoft. Offer the army a gun the weighs next to nothing, has no recoil and has miracle 450 round magazines. You wouldn't be able to build them fast enough!

£800 for a butchered MP5? The reason it's had the sights hacked off is a real boozy too. I'll take 2 of whatever he's been smoking

https://airsoft-forums.uk/classifieds/item/43794-price-drop-specna-arms-sa-j03-with-mosfet-and-modified or £244 new from PB...

Yep - I know that feeling.

Maybe if products were coming from the EU but importation from China hasn't really changed. Royal Mail prices have increased however. They're seriously pushing all retailers to their Tracked solutions. On October 1st they raised their Large Letter prices by nearly 30% in one go, this has really hit eBay sellers. Back in 2015 1st class Large Letter was £0.80, today it's £1.95 😞

When you agree to try and sell your gear, but have no intention of it? https://prefired.co.uk/ads/airsoft-bundle-complete-collection/

My local shop is selling a natural plant based alternative to vapes. They're called cigarettes.

Brexit probably has a lot to answer for unfortunately. Try this when searching for kit: https://www.airsoftdb.com/

Dave's Custom Airsoft: ripping people off since 2014.

Only one fitted with a gate mosfet .

We didn't have much as kids but I remember one birthday was spent down the launderette. The highlight of the day was playing pass the Persil.

That’s the classic……. ”Yes dear, it’s up for sale , but nobody is buying it” listing You know, the one to get your Mrs off your case 😉

Vibration of the GB can alter it. Personally I'd choose an mp5 with slider hop-up like ICS, Cyma, G&G. Whichever is the cheapest and offers the most internally.

Is the hop-up based on the old Marui design? Don't touch it with a 10 foot barge pole. That lever thingy isn't gonna stay in place and can snap eventually. For a bit more money ICS would be a better choice.

Yes, I saw a video explaining about China's 'special' rates because it classes itself as an 'emerging economy' I believe all the low stock is due to all the problems China has been having in the last few years. Covid lockdown was an utter disaster for the economy and then the sudden 'back to normal' when it wasn't eradicated caused millions of deaths. (Their vaccine didn't work at all) Then the floods this year. And their economy is seriously tanking I think it'll be a long while before stock goes back to previous levels.

They both also work with the other GBBs I like using is definitely part of it. The Warrior Assault Systems one is amazing for my HK45 and decent for the p226 and the Amomax is great with everything (but not quite as nice as the WAS one). Both still work with a suppressor, which is my main thing because I like putting suppressors on everything. But in all honesty, I just don't really like the CTM as much. I prefer the retention releases on the other two (WAS one is best in my opinion as it's the same push as a mk23 DTD holster) and the CTM is a sort of lever mechanism. It also takes more molle strips than the other two as I have mine mounted on a Blackhawk mount. Also need to have it done up very tight on that mount, which makes the retention lever to release it a little sticky. People probably have better setups than me, but I'm just not a fan. I'd probably be more of a fan if I had my AAP in some sort of body kit that gave it a stock and made it more of an SMG, but it isn't. I either run it as an older fashioned Ruger .22 for Vietnam games, or a modern Ruger .22 sneakyboi pistol for modern kits; I use the same lower but just swap the uppers.

It’s really not that bad. As long as you wear a long shirt or something similar that’s not too tight you’ll hardly feel it. If you’re like me though and roll with shorts and a t-shirt, pain is just part of the game. 😉 I’ve never seen it myself. In my area we usually don’t have to worry about people being extreme full auto trolls. Honestly, I’m the only one who even has that capability, and I shoot semi-only with anything over 28.

Another weekend, another game day at Worthing Airsoft and it was a bit of good and a bit of bad, all things considered. We turned up and I had not one, not two, but three m14s with me! All of them were different in almost every way. My TM m14 is full length and HPA, my Cyma m14 was a socom with an EBR outer barrel (so I can run a suppressor and still have a front iron sight) and the G&P was a relic in the DMR stock. Anyway, I knew I needed to test them all and at least one would work, surely... Surely, right? Well, fortunately the first one I took up did. The TM m14 was set to 80psi, passed chrono at 1.11 - 1.13J, but it's still doing the weird jamming thing, but not as much and not as bad. It is still a bit weird when I take the mag out and clear it, but it doesn't jam itself open to the point where I need an unjamming rod to fix it, and when the mag is in and it runs out of BBs it's generally fine. Was hopping the .32s out to a lovely distance, so that was good. Then I took the two AEG m14s up to get them through chrono as well, then I could decide which one to use. I picked up the Cyma, put the hop on and... the power took an absolute nosedive from 0.9J to 0.2J. I picked up the G&P m14, put the hop on and... same thing. Dropped from 1J to 0.3J. Fortunately, one of the local techs that I trust was around, so I spoke to him and have now given him both to have a look at. It's probably just tired o-rings or something, since the G&P is a relic and still has stock internals, and the Cyma was only available from a European warehouse so it's likely been sitting around for a while. I don't do AEG gearboxes though, so off they went to the tech. Now I need to buy another rifle bag, as that only left me with my smaller rifle bag (still fits the m14s in, but I can only bring 1 gun at the moment and no way am I turning up without a backup). First issue I noticed was at the brief. There were a lot of regulars and they almost all went on the yellow team, so me and my friend made a point to go on blue. A few regulars also went on blue, but it wasn't a very even split. Sure, we had some experienced players on our team, but not site regulars, so while they know how to play, there were a lot who didn't know where anything was. We also lost the rental lottery, with yellow getting the hard-pushing aggressive rentals and we got the passive hide behind barricades out of the fight rentals Anyway, I had the HPA m14 mostly behaving, so I took that out along with my new £60 ghillie cape that I put together. It worked an absolute treat! First game we had 3 flip cans in the Tower / village area, one in the tower itself, one in front of the church structure and one in front of the stables. However, they started with 5 on each team already in a building, but here was the issue. Other team put 5 regulars in, our team had 5 rentals in and they got annihilated as soon as game was on, giving the other team a very firm foothold in the village. Moreover, we were on the rubbish side, so pushing in was an absolute pain. I managed to crawl up and take a position that I like and it happened to have an angle on the stable building where a bunch of the regulars were and I completely shut them down... Until I got shot in the back by someone on my team while I was clearly firing at the enemy. Ugh! Anyway, I went back to respawn and came back, but this time I pushed up even further, taking another spot that had vision on the back of the stables, but also had line of sight down a long path and to a few other barricades and caused some havoc from there, shutting down the back of the stables again, but also screwing with their reinforcements coming in. Game eventually ended and we lost 2 cans to 1. I have yet to see a team win from that side! Anyway, we swapped ends and it was largely uneventful for me. I managed to push to a position to cover the church can (which was enemy controlled and no way I was going to get up there to flip it) as well as the stables flip can which was controlled by us. Just sat there, plinked a few people trying to push for the stables can and the game ended with 2 cans to 1 in our favour this time. I have yet to see a team, even with the teams not amazingly balanced, win from the other side! Next game was the sands of pain. The box was set up in the open on a table and both teams had to get to it and press down their coloured button. I was going to take a position to cover it, but basically our entire team went in that direction and me being a sneakybeaky ghillie boi today, I didn't want any of that, so I took a flank with my friend. We pushed down into a thick part of the site and my friend heard two of the regulars on the other team. He took one out, then ran out of ammo on his pp2k and got taken out by the other. I took a wide angle and... got a bit annoyed. The player he hit walked off without calling dead man, so me thinking he was either cheating or being mediced, I shot him in the back and got taken out by the same guy who took my friend out. He then told me to "watch my full auto"... on a gun that is locked to semi-auto and can't spam the trigger because the Hydra engine doesn't seem to like it and throws a tantrum at me if I do. That sweetened the sourness of the encounter a little as I always enjoy a bit of salt, especially since I knew who it was (and his gun is incredibly spammy and has a very fast full auto that he runs .36s through). Anyway, I went back to respawn and the guy who hit me got taken out when he tried to make a play, but I had a devious plan. We would go all the way around the bottom of the site and come up behind the enemy team, making sure not to spawn-camp, but shooting them in the back after they pushed down a path a bit further from their base. Unfortunately the game wasn't long enough and we couldn't get to our intended positions as the flank was long and for the last part we had to move slowly and carefully to avoid being seen. No idea what the time on the clocks were, but we swapped it around and again I intended to cover the box but everyone went that way so I went the other way. It worked out phenomenally as I pushed around to the side and lay down by a tree as I saw the bushes in the Clearing moving, so I knew someone was coming that way (ironically named now. It used to be clear, now it's a woodland killhouse). Turns out a ghillie on the other team was pushing through, but I didn't have a great shot on him. I knew he would push out because nobody on our team was watching, but he stayed for a bit. Eventually he pushed out and I got him with the mk23 and I found out at lunch time that he was literally having a piss when I saw his head moving about when he wasn't pushing out, which I found mildly hilarious 😂. Fortunately, didn't see anything indecent! Anyway, after I took him out, I heard more voices from that way, so after telling some young'uns on my team who had pushed up to where I was, I crawled through a ditch to get under a holly bush and I got spotted by another regular. Fortunately there was a tiny defilade, so I managed to get low enough and crawl behind this tiny tree to the point where they couldn't hit me. I waited for a bit, then I saw my team making a big push just in front of me, so I took the opportunity to slowly raise up and shoot between the V shape in the bottom of the tree to hit the guy who was still there (the regular who had spotted me had moved on). With that taken care of, I managed to crawl a bit further and get properly under the holly bush with a line of sight down the path. I hit so many people playing around that path, including getting a few shots underneath the holly bush on the other side of the path and hitting peoples ankles. There were a good 7 or 8 people looking for me, but none of them could find me and I kept taking them out with the silent HPA m14, which had no MED, and mk23 pistol. Ah, it's moments like this that make sniping so much fun! I decided to call it at lunch time. Don't want to push it with my heart issues still around and decided to do some testing with the HPA m14 on the range. First I tested it at 1.88J, putting it to 120psi and getting a nice 1.84 - 1.87J with every shot. I also upped the weight to .4s and set the hop and... it was sooooooooooooo good. I was aiming at the head of the 75m target and hitting just below it on where the torso would be (it's a man-sized target), and as it wasn't very windy today I was hitting that almost every shot. I was genuinely impressed; I didn't expect it to perform that well! I then put it to 1.64J (Worthing Airsoft's DMR power limit), getting 1.61 - 1.63J at about 105psi and... the difference was noticeable. I could hit the 75m target, but I was struggling a lot more. Aiming at the head of the target I was generally hitting the bottom of the tree, hearing the distinctive sound of impacting on wood compared to impacting on the metal of the target. Managed to get a few on target, but had to aim above it and arc them down. Considering on 1.1J I was hitting the 60m target with pretty much every shot, taking a 30m MED for 1.64J just isn't worth it at all. 1.88J is a different story, so that HPA m14 is going to be a Driver Wood gun as they use 1.88J as their DMR limit, but 1.64J was just lacklustre. I was super impressed with the 1.88J performance though, and the weird jamming on empty issue, while it was still present, was less of an issue with the higher psi. I think next game day I'll bring the m40a5 with the SR-25 as a backup. With autumn well and truly here, the leaves are starting to fall and sight lines are opening up slowly. Yes, I think the staff are actively trying to dissuade snipers with how they're building up the site (one of the site owners was on one today about ghillie snipers), but heading into winter my m40a5 is going to start coming into its own.

Agreed. Before even opening the thread my first thought was that it would be either a Vorsk or Raven

A few lessons learnt from tinkering with my TM MP7: If you want to use propane and its shooting too hot, you can buy a pack of these as replacement rocket valve springs to cut them down to size to get the fps you are looking for: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B076M27VH2 much cheaper and easier to source than buying individual originals from TM. Changing from stock to a Laylax purple hop rubber and 6.03 barrel somehow lowered my fps when the hop was set for .25s. I assume this is because the hop rubber is softer. With a T2 + unity high mount clone you can get a decent cheek-weld and sight picture even with a full mask like a empire EVS. I found overfilling the mags with bbs causes the the mag to put pressure on the nozzle and not feed the first round - this could just be a tolerance with my gun though. Changing the barrel sucked, I kept knocking the trigger bar out and I wish to never do it again. I was going to put a silicon ML hop rubber in my MP7 but after seeing so many bad reports I left it out and went with the Laylax purple one instead. Also red dot recommendations: Vortex Crossfire is good and you can get custom protectors for it on ebay from red_dot_engineering

Wouldn't you want more recoil rather than less. I know I would if I was getting anything gas blowback.

No comms, no bombs, right **edit** forgot to say, I ordered these from the Earmor store. I put everything in my basket, then got distracted, went to do something else, and by the time I returned, they'd emailed me a 15% discount code, so, you know, save yourselves some money 🤙

Picture of a guy who got shot by a 50mm weapon: *This page left intentionally blank* Barrett have done a handful of bullpups actually well worth a look in to. M95, M99 and the M82A2 prototype off the top of my head. The M95 I mainly know about because it was the main unlock for the Sniper class in Battlefield 2 and I once sniped a heli pilot out of an Mi-28 mid flight and that was perhaps the highlight of my teenage years (I was too scared to ask a girl out on a date).

finally managed to get out to play again after a couple of months due to various circumstances, and booked in at RIFT REDCON-2. got to site and got booked in early made sure i was at chrono early in order to set up my VFC M249 (having fitted an adjustable velocity valve in the nozzle, it needed dialling in... due to the cold temperatures i was only able to get 0.7J out of the gun, but once the temperatures rose, i rechronoed and was getting 1.1J) then off for a cup of tea to warm up, chat with friends i haven't seen for a while and then load up for briefing and team assignment. i ended up on red team first half of the day was a 2 hour total war, with red team having to secure "data recorders" and the blue team needing to capture laptops and each team having use of a "snatch" Land Rover driven by a marshall that we could direct where we wanted it to go. i decided i would board the land rover and after conferring with the marshall/driver and the others who decided to board as well, we decided the best option was to use the land rover to take our fireteam to the opposite side of the land in a snatch and grab before the enemy team could reach the data recorders and lock them down. we were successful in seizing the objectives and returning them to our respawn before heading off for a second set of data recorders at the top of the land which were captured, but i got shot out before the objectives were secured and had to walk back to respawn, where i realised my red dot had been shot out. on our way out to both objectives i had been operating as top gunner and managed to keep the enemy's heads down, and i believe i managed to get 2 or 3 kills on our way out to the second objective (having not seen a soul to and from the first objective) before being hit and had to be replaced as top gunner while i got mediced by one of the rest of the fireteam. definitely a fun experience, though next time i will probably run smaller weapons, as the M249 with the box mag gas tank coupled with the high roof of the land rover meant i had to stand on the front pair of seats to get a decent aim and not appear to be blind firing out the roof hatch the rest of the morning was spent moving between different firefights trying to provide support as best as i could, before needing to duck out for 20 mins to reload mags and grab a drink from my car and then returning for the last 30 mins of game time, where i also decided to drop down to my GBB Skorpion to enable me to move through one of the CQB areas much easier. lunch break was spent tinkering with my guns, reloading mags, chatting and browsing the onsite shop before back out for the afternoon which consisted of two 50 min games where attackers had to activate beacons at set locations then defend them for as long as possible while defenders had to turn them off. first game red team was attacking and i joined the attack on one location, got shot out and by the time i returned we had captured the location, so a group of us headed to the next location thinking it was going to be a tough nut to crack. the location was a fenced compound with only one gate as entry and the inside of the fence had an earth bank with tall bushes running around the inside edge which made getting a look inside impossible. this, combined with the fact it was close to the blue team respawn meant that a group of us spent almost 10 mins sneaking around the fence line and ducking down whenever we saw movement ahead and praying we didnt get spotted all while listening to the voices of the players inside the objective compound. we finally reached the gate and were about to launch a massive assault, only for one of the group to take a peek and realise that the voices from the compound belonged to a group of fellow red team who had already captured the objective and were holding it. having seen a large group of blues heading back to their spawn half of us decided to hang around with the other defenders in case blues should try and swarm us, but no one appeared after a quick break to rearm, the game was reversed and blue team became the attackers. this game i definately felt i was spending more time walking back to respawn compared to the other games, but i was able to set a good ambush on a group of enemies. while moving through the bushes between respawn and one of the heavily contested areas i heard voices approaching and i ducked behind a bush on top of a small ridge and waited for the voices to get nearer, and they turned out to be a blue patrol trying to flank the red team attacking from their rear. from my position i was mostly hidden and able to fire through a small gap in the bushes, and took out all 5 of the enemy players with a few bursts from the 249, while the few shots in return all missed wildly or were caught by the branches of the bush. staying in the position i was then able to take out two more enemies that came out to try and medic the patrol before i heard my team mates moving up again and i decided to join the assault, where i got shot out. by the time i had respawned and begun heading back to the fight, the game was over. definitely enjoyed myself, and i hope to be able to get out more regularly in the near future

As someone who’s owned a few different manufacturers GBB M4’s at one time or another over the years, for me Tokyo Marui is the one to go for. I’m very similar to you in that mine are collection pieces, with a few rounds put through them every now and again. Therefore, looks and feel are more important than performance and Tokyo Marui cannot be beaten. The Cerakote finish is spot on and it just feels right. Both weight and quality are top notch. Also, the performance is better than most. There’s also plenty of upgrades available. Personally I’d leave the internals alone, other than an Angry Gun heavy buffer and HAO steel bolt end to increase the felt recoil if you want more recoil. If it’s only going to be lightly used, the extra pressure from the heavy buffer and bolt end shouldn’t cause to much of a problem. I’ve had no problems with any of mine so far, (touch wood). There’s loads of external options as well. Rail upgrades and the like. As far as other manufacturers go: WE - Decent enough products, cheaper than TM, but if you want trademarks you’ll either have to buy from Asia and hope there’s no issues with customs, or buy a trademarked lower receiver and switch the blank lower out. VFC - Difficult to get hold of a VFC M4A1 these days although MK18’s, XM177’s and the 733 are available. But, it just doesn’t feel as nice as the TM. I love VFC stuff and their internal build quality is much better than it was, but I prefer a TM. GHK - If it’s a standard M4A1 you’re after, you’ll end up with one with Navy SEAL markings on the receiver instead of Colt trademarks. They now do the URG-I version and the MK18 which both have Colt trades, but, by all accounts, GHK’s quality control isn’t as good as it was. Golden Eagle - I’ve not had any experience with. I think they may have plastic receivers. I may be wrong, but I think that’s the case. Also, I don’t think they have trademarks. Double Eagle - I’ve got the Noveske N4 and it is nice. Comes with TM style internals. But, I don’t think they do an M4A1 and I’ve not had a good enough look over it to judge the quality of the internals. The externals look great though. For me, personally, if I’m planning a build, I’ll go for a TM if I know the parts I need are available. If you’re after a GBB that feels great out of the box, that you can just unbox and manipulate and be happy with, but also upgrade if you want, I think you can’t go wrong with the TM. (And no, I don’t work for TM. 😉)

A young man volunteers for airborne training. After one week, he phones his father. “Dad, we had our first parachute jump today, but only about half the company jumped. The others were scared.” Dad: “Well, did you jump?” Son: “No, I was scared.” A week later he calls dad again “We had our second jump today. The sergeant said that anyone who didn’t jump this time would not get a pass for this weekend. All but about ten of us jumped.” Dad: “Well, did you jump?” Son: “No, I just couldn’t”. A week later he calls dad again “We had our third jump today. The sergeant said that anyone who didn’t jump was going to spend the weekend scrubbing the latrines with a toothbrush. Only three people didn’t jump.” Dad: “Well, did you jump?” Son: “Nope. I’m still too scared.” Another week goes by and he calls dad “Today was our fourth jump. The sergeant said he was gonna bend anyone who didn’t jump over the seat and screw him up the rear.” Dad: “OK, so you jumped?” Son: “Yeah I jumped … a little … at first.”