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As I’m on a pretty strict “one in -one out” ruling which is governed by SWMBO I’ve actually not done too bad this year due to selling a couple of RIF’s to help turn things over. Wish I could do a pie chart, maybe better that I can’t ! Out went: TM Scar H bundle (£450) APS Cam 870 bundle (£950) TM Scorpion (£100) Incoming: Tm ngrs 416 bundle (£350) GHK SG553 (£650) TM Scorpion (£100) Spent a few quid on bits from Samoon, of which shipping was ridiculous! spare 553 parts cheek riser Manta cover Probably around £200 all in Bought a few ancillary bits for my loadout from Ali Slings x 2 , IFAK , Phone pouch, DNC top, Tigerstripe, HW eotech and a few bits n bobs So around £300 Went to NAF, which isn’t a cheap trip from scotland (say £600) Played about 10 times this year, visited a few different sites too (£450 incl fuel) Ammo & pyro’s maybe £100 Fresh Battery & Charger £75 New boots (£40 on sale) So I recon it’s cost me about £1350 this year Then I just remembered forum purchases!! 🤦🏻‍♂️ Fuck this, I’m deleting my account here , you guys just tempt me! 😂

So as 2023’s airsofting is over I thought I’d embark on the masochistic ritual of tallying up the year’s expenditure. We only started in May this year, but it’s quickly ascended to being a primary hobby with an outlay to match. I’ll preface this by pointing out this is for two as I’m covering me and my son, so you could reasonably expect to halve this for a single player. Overall, perhaps unsurprisingly, I’ve spent more than I thought over the year, but I’m still happy with the deal I get for time out with the boy doing something we both enjoy. There’s also chunk of discretionary spend in here. Things like the Hi-Capa, optics and some other addons were birthday presents for the boy. In effect that money was going to be spent regardless, if not on airsoft then some other interest or hobby. Wearables could have been far higher I suspect. He already has a full compliment of MTP gear from cadets and I just wear a mix of sports wear and black combats. Most of this spend has been on face-pro and carriers. If I was going to go down the full cosplay loadout route I expect this would be much higher. As it is I’m happy with my current I-Use-This-For-DIY-&-Decorating Terrain Pattern loadout. The weapon upgrades were entirely unnecessary. Certainly nice to have but not made a huge practical difference game to game. Both AEGs got motor upgrades, plus a new hop unit, bucking and nub for my M4 and a MOSFET for his G36. No regrets, I like to tinker but I doubt I could claim its changed the course of any battles. Biggest waste of money were two pairs of surplus Revision Bullet Ant goggles. They were bulky, uncomfortable and constantly fogged up. Replaced with Bolle Trackers for £8 a pair and they’ve been perfect. Best buy has been my Bulle chest rig from Flecktarn. Super cheap, super comfy, exceptionally well made and makes a vast difference to a game day. I think my number one recommendation to new players after weapons and face protection is some kind of carrier. Two AEGs and a pistol for a shade over £400 seems like a sensible spend for the year. Too soon to speak for the Hi-Capa as it’s new, but my Double Eagle and his Cyma have chewed through around 10,000 rounds each without complaint. Being sensible, 2024 could be much cheaper. We don’t need any more gear and if I bulk buy some BBs the ammo expenditure should be reasonable. However we’ve both got GBBRs on our list of interest so in reality it’s probably going to be another expensive year. I regret nothing.

I'm refusing to get involved with this thread, it's downright foolhardy & dangerous, what if my missus got hold of my phone, let's just say it'd be a closed casket service ⛪😬

No new rifs for me this year, but I've invested in kit. 1950s Belgian Congo era stuff that will genuinely hold or improve its value. Bought an unissued Afghanka too. I don't think that I really need three sets of Afghan era kits; and my Berezkha fixation seems to be getting worse. Thing is, I've had some kit for 30+ years, worn it a fair bit and its still worth far more than I paid for it. Still using the bulk BBs I bought last year, did buy a couple of new Li-Pos at £7 each on offer. Bought the AFUK classic recommendation Bulle MLE webbing, not actually worn in game yet in favour of archaic Soviet gear/Chi-com 56 crap. Think I must have spent £1300 odd on tickets, at £225 per game weekend for the three of us. Diesel and scotch and a new tent probably add up to a fair bit, but I've had the best airsoft year ever. Operation Paramount was particularly stunning. Saturday night post game, I ate steak and new spuds almost too tired to chew. Stunning amount of fun. I've memories that I think I will value as long as I'm coherent so bollox to the cost. Bloody good post @Gunboat Diplomat, we've sat here for a couple of hours reminiscing about what a damn good airsoft year its been. Here's to the next!

Okay guys I fixed it and you're all going to laugh at me lol! It turned out that I had over tightened the motor adjustment screw and it had jamed the motor in! I thought it was just a screw to hold the motor in 😆 🤣. The gun now shoots spot on

Ouch. I've been looking for a good few months now (thankfully still gainfully employed but have some doubts over longevity next year) but the market has seemingly tanked compared to a couple of years ago for my line of work. Where did you get these? That's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. That is a very healthy haul of goodies. I've had a look at Action's boneyard a few times and it's either empty or anything decent has already gone. I think I know who the culprit is now.

LMT MWS GBB guccid I guess

That’s a good point, I certainly want to maintain that bias. I’m guilty of having a few hobbies where the time and money spent sourcing kit has far exceeded that spent on actually using it. I’ve got some truly egregious examples from cycling that, thankfully since this an airsoft forum, I don’t need to document.

You can reach that point when you've got so many guns you don't use half of them even if you play on a regular basis. You spend easily hundreds if not thousands before you realize it though. 🧐

If my wife asks, about £20, and i won a lot of raffles

For internal and external parts it doesn't have to be expensive for most GBBRs (at least not the ones I've bought). However, when mags are anywhere between £40 - £60 per magazine, that's where it starts getting really expensive, since you typically need a fair few as they're 35-50ish rounds per mag, depending on the gun. I don't want to think about how much I spent on RIFs alone. This year was a year where I basically almost completed my collection of "all the guns I want, within reason", including a couple of hard to get items. I'll get the rest in 2024 (2 GBBRs and 3 GBB pistols), but I think next year will mostly be me getting scopes, extra magazines, lights and other external bits to 100% "complete" all my guns, plus a helmet setup to go with a CQB kit. I don't think I have any massive regrets from my purchases this year though. Trying to make my 1911 super-efficient and basically making it not work was probably the worst, but that wasn't too expensive all-in as pistol builds are fairly easy to do on a light budget (and I bought another one 2nd hand so I still have a nice 1911 that works flawlessly and I stuck the entire upgraded hop and barrel setup in that one, so that wasn't wasted money). A few really good purchases came out of this year though. KWA mac11 is a disgusting little beast of a gun, and the Modelworks mk12 parts for my MWS and m40 stock kit for my m700 have basically made them mainstays of my collection. All I need to do is resist the temptation to do a silly HPA build with the tank in the stock, like an SR-25 or some sort of MTW built like a mk12 with a wraith X stock. Or buy something like a thermal scope. That stuff's expensive.

Oh fuck just remembered that I bought a 5.11 CAMS too theres another wad spunked Im better off not playing this “how much did you spend” game 🤦🏻‍♂️

Excellent! And an understandable mistake. I mean, it's a screw, why wouldn't you wind it in all the way?

Just seen this update, good idea, I’ll drop you a PM. The irony of starting a thread to track Airsoft spending leading directly into more airsoft spending does not escape me.

wrapping up my sons gun for Santa I found this in the box. Looks like we are good to go!

I should read these things properly. There's a squarish seal in the bottom of magazines you can get to if you unscrew the bolt in the bottom. A metal block can be removed then to expose the seal. Lube that, make sure it seats correctly or get a new one. You can safely ignore the rest of this reply. You can try a drop or two of silicone oil in the hole and blip a little gas in. I suggest purging out the oil after this with gas. Or remove the valve and do the same ( my preference) Or finally get new valves.

Today, the lad and I, with some trepidation, pootled down to the wonderfully named Featherbed Lane, which is home to Tactical Warfare Airsoft (TWA). As some may know, this site has a somewhat mixed reputation for a range of reasons, most of which relate to its proximity to the chav haven that is Croydon. Having had both good and bad experiences there in the past, we had set our expectations accordingly and were prepared to be disappointed. Attendance was low at around 40 players and, as the site also does morning and afternoon bookings, the lineups changed throughout the day. Players were a good mixture of the experienced, the relative newcomers and the complete beginners, that latter being a group of eight. Even Father Christmas turned up but left by lunchtime, leaving a candy cane on everyone's gun bags. TWA has a rather decent safezone, although the wind kept finding ways in. The old and rather disgusting dunny had been replaced by what appeared to be decent toilets, although we did not check them out. After chronoing and a nicely short but complete safety brief, we went out for the first game, which was in the CQB village. We were the attackers and had to reach and defuse a bomb, which required holding down a button for 20 seconds; any interruption reset the timer. We had infinite regens on our starting point, while the defenders had two lives. Our attack was a little disjointed and we failed to set off the timer, mainly because the chap who eventually reached it got shot after about 15 seconds. This game was then turned around and, to our shame, the other team completed the mission quite handily. After this, we went into the woods for a fallback game; we were the defenders and had one life in each of Badger Base, Jungle Base and The Pit, the latter of which is not another name for Croydon; it is literally a large pit with structures in the bottom and halfway up one side. Attackers had infinite lives with a 30 pace fallback each time they were hit. We put up a decent fight and fought hard for each position, but were eventually and inevitably wiped out at each location. In the return, we struggled to take Badger Base and just about managed to take Jungle Base before we ran out of time, leaving the Pit unmolested. Luncheon was then taken, consisting of cold pizza for us (Yum!) and veggie or meat burgers and chips for those who did not bring their own food. After lunch, there was a rather silly and pointless game of "everyone against the unkillable marshal" in the CQB village which, while amusing, was somewhat a waste of time. We then moved back to the area around Badger Base for a game of domination, with the aim being to have a player or players in the Foxhole at the end of the game. Neither team could advance past the Foxhole. Regens were infinite and involved returning to your starting point. This was great fun, with lots of action and several great runs at the Foxhole by players from both sides; I have no idea who won. This was then turned around and was even more fun because I prefer playing from the far end. On one occasion, while returning from regen, there was a distinct sound of real gunfire from just over the next hill; it was too close to be from Croydon. Again, I have no idea who won; I was too busy enjoying myself and shooting people. After this, we returned to the CQB village for a game of "Hunt the Barrels"; the attackers had to recover three barrels from the village and get them back to their regen. Attackers had infinite lives on their start point and defenders had two lives on a buddy regen. This was a great game, with lots of action and good play by both sides, which ended with the attackers stealing three barrels from us, as they were intended to do. However, by this stage, a few players were becoming rather salty and we decided to leave before the game was turned around. Overall, the day was far better than we had feared it might be; it was a fun day of old fashioned airsoft. The approach to marshalling seemed to have changed for the better and the only real issue was some appalling hit taking by a small minority of players on both sides, which saw the marshals resorting to taking test kills. The day was well run and the games, with one exception, were well thought out and appropriate for the numbers present. On the basis of today, we would definitely go back, which was a slightly surprising, but rather pleasant, outcome to our last game of 2023.

Batteries shouldn't make any noise and after 6 years of no use might well be useless now. In any case I'd be getting a new battery which may be all the problem is. Take the motor out and connect the power back to it and see if it runs. Try to stall the motor by hand, use a rag to hold pinion otherwise if is does have some torque you'll lose some skin.

Then definitely locked up gearbox. Could be something broken blocking the gears or rust

Software QA / automation. Was in demand a couple of years ago, but I think the affect of higher interest rates drying up the liquidity in the tech world means there is less to go round, so most houses would rather spend on development than QA. Doesn't help when out of work developers are taking test automation roles - I can't compete with their skills yet! Expect you have made the right choice. I did something similar some time ago, took a very hefty pay cut to go from being a hardware engineer to software. Certainly paid off financially but far less satisfying. If I'm going to royally screw something up, I prefer to use tools to do it rather than a keyboard. AI tooling is going to make it much harder to stand out soon I think, various LLMs are producing solid (if not production ready) code already. Ah splendid, much obliged. At least if I stock up now I'll have enough to play with if I end up on the job hunt next year! You've probably saved me £££s!

It could be either. Does the motor make any noise when doing a quick trigger pull? (like its trying to turn) If yes then gearbox is seized. Either way they will both need cleaning and lubricating to see if they are still viable.

That does look quite rough. Definitely don't keep trying if it doesn't want to move. You'll have to open up the gearbox to clean and see what the problem is. Since its old and in poor condition its perfect to have a go at tinkering without risking breaking a working one.

I think in future 24hr is out of the question. I’ve used it a couple of times, but the vast majority has been 48hr, so I’ll stick with that. The removal of enhanced compensation is more concerning. Being in the North East, collection only seriously reduces my customer base as most buyers tend to be further south. As far as couriers go, Parcel Force are the most reliable and the only one seemingly willing to transport airsoft guns from private sellers. So I guess I’ll have to stick with them and hope for the best. So far, I’ve had no issues with them, so fingers crossed. I guess if there’s an issue, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I had to look back at all my previous posts this year, to work out when I bought stuff, and to remind me of the smaller bits and pieces. Given I've been out of work for 7 months of this year (got a job now, just started a couple of weeks ago, thankfully!), I'm pretty much stunned to find out how much I'd spent... All the new gats were bought either used or from Action Hobbies boneyard RIF's... VFC HK416 GBBR DE M904G JG G3 CA Scarab Rossi Sniper G&G G36 KJW Glock 17 Total: ~£850 I got 'em all at good prices, but still racked up a bigger total than I expected to see 🙃 I so very nearly bought a new VFC MP7 with HPA-tapped drum mag recently. That would have added another £400, but sense prevailed (unfortunately!) Accessories... Balystk regulator Sotac Eotech clone Warhead ammo bulk purchase (10kg 0.28s) m-pact gloves desert boots rucksack mtp combat trousers 416 odin adapter 2x g36 mags 3x 416 mags FCU for DE906 barrel extension masking vinyl spray paints misc stuff for building garden backstop Total: ~£450 Gamedays... ~10 visits? more ammo (0.28's from site, 0.20's and 0.40's from eBay) gas Total: ~£400

You'll be sharply reducing your potential market. Mmm. It is hugely frustrating that the story changes depending which which policy of Parcel Farce or Royal Fail you read, or who you speak to. What I would suggest is that you should describe the item as a "low powered air weapon", not an imitation / replica firearm; and that if you manage to pay at a Royal Fail counter for increased cover the you've formed a contract with them that you should be able to claim against if push really comes to shove.

This has made me add up my expenditure too. Seeing as I only started in September, I didn't think I'd spent that much but £885 is more than I'd realised. Main costs are £380 on 2 AEGs, and a shade over £200 on playing fees! Why did no body tell me how expensive it will be?

I'd be scared to do this for my 'raffle prizes', however now that the idea is out there I 100% want to. 😐

A modern V2 should have no issues with cracking below an M150. I know a lot of very low quality boxes do end up having issues… **cough cough** Ares **cough** …but that really shouldn’t be the norm. The V2 design as a whole is susceptible to strain on the front corners, but a lot of cracking issues are caused more by tolerance issues. For example, aftermarket cylinder heads with bumpers on the front are notorious for ruining shells. Or the issues with shells themselves, like many of the RA CNC shells have had, where pegs are in the wrong places, etc. But now to the actual question… For me, it looks like a lot like a P90 with a very slightly longer inner barrel (300mm), and an internal mid cap/hopper system, where you pour BBs in, wind about 2,000, and don’t touch anything for the rest of the game. Electronic trigger, throw a few rails on there. Design a hop system that’s screwed into the frame and is actually stabilized with good tolerances. Add an adjustable rubber clamp to the end of the outer barrel to hold the inner steady (just a grub screw would do well). And I’d use standard bushings just for simplicity. Brushless motor + potentiometer to finish it off.

They've not provided extra cover at least the last 3 years, since I first sold a RIF. Doubt they probably ever have. Any compensation charged at the counter by staff is probably due to ignorance to their rules or the generic questions they have to ask as to value. Personally I've always prepaid online and just dropped it off to be scanned. And had no dramas so far.

They will insure RIFs/Package items to their minimum insurance level for PF48 which IIRC is £150, any additional/enhanced insurance is null and void in the shipping of RIFs with them. Last time I read through their T&Cs they will only ship "Low Powered Air Weapons" using their PF48 service, so not sure how they'll respond to the use of PF24 etc for shipping. Below image from their T&Cs.

No the airsoft gun may not scare the fox of but the Armed Response Unit that would surely turn up if anyone saw you probably would. Hope the admins have by now banned the tosser that resurrected this thread.

I’ve not had to claim for a lost rif yet, fingers crossed. But, they specifically state they are willing to carry RIF’s as long as they are taken to the post office and the staff are informed of what it is. Also, they should be sent via the 48hr service, although a few times the staff have recommended sending it via 24hr. The biggest hassle is explaining to the counter staff what an airsoft gun is. I usually say it’s similar to paintball. And when they ask the value, I’m always honest and pay the extra for the insurance cover. I have had an issue this week with a rif that was sent out via 24hr service on Monday, but didn’t arrive until today. So I’m potentially going to put a claim in for that. As far as Parcel Force not paying out on a claim for anything gun shaped, I can’t really comment. It’s definitely something worth looking into more. Is that confirmed or just hearsay?

I always use Parcel Force, mostly the 48hr service and they’ve always provided insurance up to the value of every gun I’ve sent. The most expensive was around the £800-£900 mark. Not sure if they insure stuff valued over £1000, but I don’t see why not. So far, Parcel Force have always delivered, usually within the 48hrs, sometimes quicker, and I’ve had no issues with items getting damaged or lost. I’ve never used DPD or any other courier to post RIF’s, so can’t comment on how willing they are to carry airsoft guns from private sellers, but I know some of the stores use them as well as UPS.

I can just imagine it. Him sitting alone in his bedroom in his ghillie suit with his "Sniper", "Shooter" and "Enemy at the gates" posters on the walls, surrounded by empty KFC buckets, stroking his rifle and muttering "nasty, nasty. We will makes them sorry, won't we my precious?"

Because MP5's are SO FRICKIN' COOL 😍😍😍😍😍😍

I would like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and New Year. It's been an interesting,funny and,at times,fudal year of forum shannigins and banter which all makes afuk the place to be. As of now I am in Christmas mode and shall be donning the Santa apron and putting the Heineken hat on and staying up late.(10.30ish) lol. I shall probably go dark for a while as posting up eats into drinking time🍺🍺. God willing I shall be looking forward to another year of Airsoft and gun fun 😁 Enjoy your festiveness and I hope all your wishes come true x P.s No talking about me while I'm gone👍 Regards

@Rogerborg found out the mystery of why the hop does nothing... Opened it up, had no nub unit in it! Omega flat one on order so should be able to hop it down to 345 or so. Agreed joules makes far more sense but both sites I play at have a 350 with 0.2 limit. I would trim the spring but for 3 FPS it feels over kill and I really don't want to open it up again

If you're not fussed about your mtp being crisp and clean, go to a surplus store and look through their grade two stuff. It should only have minor cosmetic damage (ink stain, small hole etc.) but it's worth double checking. Grade 2 stuff is generally really, really, cheap. And since you're gonna be throwing yourself around on the ground anyways, worth saving on.

I just logged in to Zero One to check... My CM16 was £124.95 on the 17/09/17. The few places that have them in stock, hold them at £220-30ish according to a brief online peruse. Even with the 20% Brexit dividend that's quite mental. Having said that, I've spent far more on far worse gnus. I expect even if I'd paid today's silly money, pound per BB the G&G would be ahead on value. The challenger on price per pop would be my trusty CYMA RPK, and that has left half of it's inessential bits strewn across eastern and southern England.

eBay definitely the best source of MTP uniforms I've seen. I've not really looked at MTP but you can get surplus DPM trousers or shirts for under £5 each pretty often; surp MTP seems to be a smidge more money but not by much given there's so much of it out there. It's an order of magnitude better value than any of the commercial copy stuff out there.

Just throwing in my two penneth to add to your confusion I have had a G&G top tech MP5A4 for years and can't fault it. Plenty of vids of them in action online. Doesn't seem to be many on sale though

Unsure of 1, but re/ 2 friends and I all use the baofeng UV5R and the ear piece it comes with. No programming required just pick a channel and go. Also has a handy lock key so when youre sliding around you don't end up on someone elses channel. For MTP outfits, literally any car boot will have loads going cheap, same for virtually any milsurp store. Just had a quick look at G&G CM16's which is what we all got as our starting rifles and holy fuck theyve increased in price.

Well, I'm going to agree with you more than you agree with me. I think they're solid performers that tend to work really well out of the box, and have great quality plastic. A decent dial hop is better than a sloppy rotary. If you can find one that's competitively priced, they're still worth a look, it was just shocking when the price went rocketing up while (e.g.) Jing Gong and CYMA stayed down, and Specna and Lancer Tactical started adding rotary hops, QC springs, mosfets and such. I hope they come back down in price again.

Like I said "if you can find them at the right price". I saw a decent in-store deal at Extreme Airsoft a few months back on a batch of stock of a G&G Combat Machine (I can't remember which model specifically or the handguard length) they were selling for below £200 as one of their suppliers wanted to clear its surplus. I'm 100% with you saying they're not a competitively priced budget vendor any more when you can buy RIFs with more features at the same price point from G&G's competitors now.

ICS CES-P S3 is one of the best MP5 out of the box in my opinion. Classic Army CA5A3 with built in mosfet wouldn't be a bad choice either if you can source one.

I agree, & I know frig all about vpn's etc, but at the same time trying to advertise the services of a witch doctor etc on a UK airsoft forum doesn't exactly scream "sophisticated", there's always the possibility that this wave of spammers is nothing more than a poor attempt at data harvesting by ill informed chancers who don't have the best masking technology. Now if they had created some convincing looking posts offering cheap tactical kit or gnu's, with pics showing them being modelled by an airsoft god such as myself 😏, they'd have got loads of hits.

New gun day! TM AKX - a lot of fun 😎

Still don't get the point of a GBBR of a real steels gun who's whole justification is recoil mitigation.