Chock

Good choice. As with everyone else, I too will say that a G&G M4 is a great choice for a first main weapon, being inexpensive, reliable, and with plentiful spares and accessories available for it. Yes they are what a lot of people use and so it is sometimes called a 'boring' choice, but that's a good thing when you are starting out, because it means if you have any issues, help is readily at hand from the many people who have them. I in fact used my G&G M4 last Saturday at a skirmish when the stock decided to come loose on my DBoys M4 and I didn't have a long enough screwdriver with me to tighten it up, so in the boot of my car it went, and out came the G&G M4, and I got plenty of kills with it too, using only the open sights, including one shot which was unbelievably long ranged and which went through the tiniest gap imaginable too, so I can't fault the G&G accuracy or its range, although I would recommend using .25 gram BBs with it rather than the .20g which many people use, as it seemed to do better with those. Pretty much everyone on this forum has either got at least one G&G M4 of some sort in their collection, or has had one, and it is likely that people at your skirmish site will have them too, so if you get issues with it on the day, help and advice will be readily forthcoming. For example, if your mag broke during a game, I'll bet you any money that someone would have a spare M4 mag they'd lend you on the spot (I in fact did this last Saturday when someone had that very issue and borrowed one of my reload mags). You won't go wrong with a G&G M4, and the nice thing is that most airsoft shops know this, so they often have them as part of a 'starter pack' where you get a few other bits and bobs thrown in with the weapon. Considering the fact that they are not too pricey, I'd think about getting maybe a spare high capacity mag for the thing too, because if you have two 300 round mags and stay on semi-auto, there's little chance of you running out of ammo at an awkward time. Where pistols are concerned, I'm going to disagree with people and say that it is kind of fun to have a pistol, and is a useful back up for when you awkwardly run out of ammo or get a feed jam. You don't have to spend a lot if all it is for is back up purposes, i.e. even a cheap springer pistol will do for that, and it does at least make you feel a bit more 'tooled up' which let's face it, is part of the fun. If you do get a cheapo pistol, then it will at least mean you will find out how useful or not useful it is to you, because a lot of that will depend on your playing style, but in not spending a lot of money, it will allow you to find that out without making an expensive mistake. If you find you like having a pistol, then you could perhaps spend a bit more on a fancier affair at a later time. So, here's my suggestion... If you do a search on Google for the Galaxy G15 airsoft pistol, you will find these can be had for about 15 quid from various BB gun sites. That's a full metal bodied Glock 17 replica which holds eleven rounds and shoots at around 250 fps. It isn't semi-automatic, which means you have to cock the slide for each shot, but I can assure you that, whilst not ideal for rapid shooting, is still very usable in skirmishing, since you tend to be up real close and popping out of cover to take single shots anyway when it comes to 'pistol time'. I can tell you that last Saturday, I got four kills with that exact same G15 pistol, so don't let anyone tell you that a springer pistol is no use at skirmishes, because there were four people at that skirmish who would not agree lol. It is extremely accurate too, although to be honest, at the kind of ranges a pistol fight starts at, pinpoint accuracy is not really that important, after all, if you can't hit someone 15 feet away with a pistol by just aiming in their general direction, then it's not the accuracy of the pistol you need to be worrying about lol. I've got expensive fancy pistols, including a gas blowback Colt 1911, a gas Walther PPK and an electric blowback Glock 18 and others, but I've not had as many kills with them as I have with my trusty cheap ass Galaxy G15, so I always take it to skirmishes and only occasionally take the other fancier ones, especially at this time of year, when in these temperatures gas blowback guns are about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike, whereas that G15 is so simple and basic, there's literally no chance of it letting me down when it matters, which is more than can be said for a lot of other more expensive pistols which I have. But if you do get a pistol, then make sure you have a good secure holster for it, preferably one with a retaining strap and which can be attached somewhere on you where it won't flap about and can easily be drawn when you have gloves on, such as on you lower left front. So, with an M4 and a spare mag or two, plus a pistol and some other bits you might want to carry, you'll be needing a suitable rig to put all that crap in, and having just bought a rifle and a pistol, you might be a bit strapped for cash, so, here's another inexpensive but excellent suggestion: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0041300WK?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00 I've got one of those and it is really good, in fact unbelievably good for the price. It comes with a good holster (which you can detach and which fits Glock type pistols like a glove) and which has room for a spare pistol mag, plus three pouches specifically designed for M4 mags, plus a few other pouches. It also has molle system loops on the back where you can attach a bunch of other stuff such as water bottles etc, and it has a good quality belt you can hang stuff off too. I actually only bought mine because I had a thirty quid amazon voucher and thought I'd give it a whirl, but having used it, I would say it is better than my more expensive tactical vests and plate carriers, being easily adjustable, quick to put on, and more than capable of carrying everything needed for a skirmish. As a result, I'm now calling it my main vest, which ain't bad for thirty quid, as it is very well made and the material is very tough too. I had someone drag me by the harness loop on the back of it when they medic'd me the other day, which gives you an idea of how tough the thing is.

Not suggesting you buy this one I've linked to, but for reference, get a cheapo airsoft copy of the PASGT helmet (about 15 quid off ebay) and paint it up like this one: http://www.vestguard.co.uk/helmets/press-helmet.htm Cheap M88 PASGT here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M88-SWAT-Tactical-Military-Army-PASGT-Helmet-Airsoft-Painball-Skull-Mask-Set-/141453048269?pt=UK_Collectables_Militaria_LE&var=&hash=item20ef4239cd Or if you prefer, here's a UN Blue cover for PASGT M88 helmet: http://www.asmc.de/en/Clothing/Headwear/Miscellaneous/Helmets-accessories/Helmet-cover-UN-blue-p.html Then stick these on your flak vest: http://www.globalmilitarysupplies.co.uk/products/Embroidered-%27PRESS%27-badges-Velcro-backed-for-Body-Armour.html or just on something like this if you want a cheap option: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mens-Regatta-Bodywarmers-Tobias-Blue-/371171999298?pt=UK_Men_s_Activewear&var=640322104445&hash=item566b933e42

Welcome aboard. You can get stuff to protect funsight optics, there are ones specific to airsoft which mount on your weapon in front of optical sights to prevent them being smashed by a BB (it does happen, seen Tac Lights get shot out a few times in CQB). But for a camera, unless you chose to adapt one of those, then I'd go for something like this for a quid: http://www.cutplasticsheeting.co.uk/clear-acrylic-sheeting/clear-polycarbonate-sheeting.html That's 3mm thick optically clear polycarbonate with 90 percent+ light transmission, so you can just open up the aperture another ten percent to counteract that minimal light loss, or go for a faster ISO setting. All you then need to do is put your lens over the sheet, draw around it with a waterfast pen to mark it out, then cut out the shape with a Dremel or similar. You can fix it on the end of your lens with black pvc electrical tape, which makes it easy to remove if you need to clean it. If it does take a hit and gets marked, just make another one with what you've got left of the sheet. Should get four of them out of an A5 sheet if it's a typical SLR lens size, or it would be enough to do your standard lens, a telephoto and a wide angle or whatever. Everything should still fit in your cases okay since the size increase is minimal, as is the weight increase.

The order above for that AKS74U and the mags totaled 1.917 including postage and packing, but if you paste that into a currency converter of the kind you get by typing 'Czech to sterling' into Google, it comes up with a price of five pence, which is clearly not correct, and that is because the decimal point in their website pricing screws things up. What you have to do is remove all punctuation from the price, i.e. '1917', which gives you £53.99, which was the price I paid for that gun, plus those mags including P&P (think the gun was about 23 quid if I recall correctly). So yes, it is inexpensive to buy stuff from there, and in fact it was literally the only place in the world that I could find which stocked UHC AKS74U mags, even AEGCartAsia doesn't carry them, which is why I ordered from Bohemia, I threw the gun in on the order to test if it would make it here ok since it was only cheap and makes a nice wall hanger. To compare pricing for example, I bought an SRC Gas Blowback AKS74U from Airsoft World on Black Friday for the special offer price of £149 (it usually costing around £300 in the UK), but you can get the same SRC AKS74U from Bohemia Airsoft for £128.88 right now. The only concern would be that you'd have to ensure a gas blowback gun was being couriered by a company that allows them to be carried, which of course was not an issue with the above AKS74U on that order from Bohemia, as that one isn't a GBB, in fact it isn't even an AEG, its a springer although it takes the same mags as my AEG UHC AKS74U so the mag it came with was a useful addition. Nevertheless, because it is a RIF (being black/wood coloured), I did make sure they put my UKARA number on the package, but it got here to Blighty no bother at all, took about three days in total I think.

On the subject of smoking: Just out to shops earlier in my car and found out where the end of my cig went that fell off when I was driving back from skirmish yesterday: This occurred whilst I was trying to avoid some dickhead in a shiny new black Range Rover, who was driving like a complete tit on the motorway. He was about two inches off my back bumper flashing his lights onto main beam repeatedly, apparently because I was doing fifty mph on the section of the M61 with a speed limit of, you guessed it, fifty. Little hole burnt in the edge of the sun visor. No big deal, ditching that car in about two months anyway. Guess that driver in his shiny new sixty grand RR was another case of 'all the gear and no idea' lol.

I've had stuff off 'BB gun' sites and literally never had any problems, in fact, service has been pretty good actually from both Only BB Guns and Just BB Guns. Although I would only recommend buying off them if you know that what you are after is actually a decent product, because they do sometimes talk up mediocre products, and the reviews on the sites are not to be relied upon. But if you know the product is okay and the price is good, then all you are really doing is shopping around. Specifically, I've had all these items off BB sites with no issues whatsoever: a DBoys M4, a Well GBB MP5K, a Black Viper AK12, a Unicorn Hobbies AKS74U, a Kimber GBB 1911, a Well D69 carbine, a springer SKS (that one is crap, but I knew that when buying it, because it is for a project), a Mossberg 500 tactical shotgun, spare GBB 1911 mags, green gas, 5,000 .2g Bulldog BBs (those BBs weren't that great admittedly, I wanted to check the brand out. They weren't terrible, I did actually use them, but wouldn't get em again as there are certainly better brands out there).

Agreed, wouldn't do that, couldn't anyway what with all the lower face mesh etc. I do smoke, but Christ on a bike if you can't wait until the game's finished then it's pretty desperate.

You got unlucky by the sound of it. As with all walks of life, obviously there are some knobheads who take it way too seriously, some who don't take it seriously enough, some who take the piss and - in airsoft - some who don't take their hits. But I would say that the people on this forum are a better typical cross section of the type of people you will meet at most skirmishes, that is to say, generally personable, helpful and not dickheads when it comes to understanding what you should be doing. Needless to say, if the skirmish you were at was anything like the one I was at today (First and Only up at Bolton), it was snowing and pretty cold, so to at least some degree you could forgive the odd hit not being taken, as nearly everyone was layered up to keep warm (at least in the morning anyway before sweating takes over). You can't always hear hits even if you don't feel them either. Having said that, I certainly did hit a few people numerous times and very obviously so, as did other guys I was with, and we were observing players quite blatantly not taking their hits, as evidenced by clocking the typical 'ouch' reaction of the hit, followed by seeing them ducking into cover and then furtively looking about to see if a marshall saw them, which you get when someone blatantly doesn't take a hit. But as I said to some other guys I was with, if somebody wants to win that badly at a GAME, then f*ck em, there's no point getting pissed off about it, just let the marshalls deal with them and be honest with your own hit calling. To be fair though, there were certainly players there too who were taking hits that they could quite easily have not called (i.e. when a shot comes through a bush). I did in fact call a few such hits of that type on myself, as I hope everyone would, even if such hits are often more luck than judgement, i.e. there are decent players out there too. It's not that uncommon to see someone with a lot of cool gear who hasn't got a clue about tactics either, but, if they are having fun and playing honestly, then that's their business, just don't make the mistake of thinking that because someone looks like they should know what they are doing because of all that fancy special forces gear, that they actually do know what they are doing. You'll pretty soon work out who the bullshitters are and who are not, and be aware it's not always the military veterans who know best either, so don't take that as a guarantee of tactical genius either. As for people staying back and doing nothing, be aware that you don't always have to go charging up to the enemy's position like Audie Murphy on speed to be doing stuff that is useful, so occasionally people might look like they are doing nothing when they might actually be in radio contact with someone and executing a plan or whatever, although obviously some people do hang back and not play their part on occasion, especially toward the end of the day when everyone is a bit knackered. But, people can twist their ankle and be taking a breather, or be holding position whilst others try to drive enemies toward them, or be waiting for someone to join them, or sorting out a weapon malfunction, borrowing ammo etc, so what you see isn't always someone not pulling their weight. Having said that, when I see people with an assault rifle just hold position and lean against a tree taking potshots at a silhouette 150 yards away, hoping a miracle is going to unblock the stalemate, it does make me wonder why they even showed up; I prefer to try to push up. When you do get people who understand tactics, even basic tactics like covering fire, fire and maneuver, using smoke, using cover and concealment, calling out contacts, covering the flanks etc, and you do push up, it makes it more fun and is after all what you've paid to play. In fact, it was because I was pushing up on the enemy's base today with some people who did know what they were doing, that I managed to get a bunch of kills with my cheap ass back up springer pistol (since my M4 had a stoppage at an awkward moment), three in fact (four if you include the guy who shot me as I shot him, and we both took the hit) much to the amusement of the marshall who was right next to me at the time and who complimented me on getting a bunch of kills with a springer. In other words, maybe it was just a day where there were a lot of dicks at that site, maybe it's not a great site and you should try another, or maybe you should just avoid some of the tools, but whatever it is, don't let it put you off, most people in airsoft are pretty decent and realise that it is up to them to make it enjoyable by being an honest team player. But like any new endeavour you get into, it's occasionally a bit of a learning curve, and sometimes you gotta kiss a few frogs so to speak.

Sorting out M4s for tomorrow:

Seems like a lot of trouble to go to just to end up with something which wouldn't look that great anyway:

Welcome aboard

Welcome aboard

Actually it's good in one respect, you buy a bracelet for about a ton, then every birthday or other occasion it's easy to buy something for it, and those bits are never more than about 50 quid, in fact, most of them are 20-30 quid, so present ideas are a no brainer. Having been someone who made silver jewellery in the past, I can at least appreciate that they're pretty decent quality even if some of the bits and bobs you can get for them are a bit of a chav magnet.

Just load em like a thirty round bog standard mag, but they hold 160 rounds. Yeah I know, I was a bit puzzled about that, but it does work. I'm presuming the BBs double stack like a pistol mag and go around in a curve at the bottom, the spring feels pretty solid as you load them, i.e. there is noticeably more resistance when loading the thing, but it's not actually hard to load em. Obviously with that kind of arrangement, I think it'd be wise to unload em asap at the end of a day's skirmish. Only got em recently, so time will tell on how they perform in action over the long term, but for 23 quid I figured it was worth giving em a go.

Might have one when they get em back in stock. As far as site rules go, frankly, I'd regard a bayonet as just a bit of pose value, a bit like the Real Sword Type 56 you can get with a folding spike bayonet, which looks fecking scary but is apparently not that hardwearing, although it does look good when you see one close up. If someone tapped me with an ordinary gun barrel with no bayonet on it and said 'bayonet kill', I'd take the hit as though it was a knife kill, although I might be tempted to do the Wilhelm Scream for a laugh. I've seen people use light sabres, stuffed toys, the palm of their hand, plastic axes and machetes and all manner of other daft things as their knives. At Trojan's mill site, one guy had them create a special rule where he used a stuffed toy furry dolphin, but the rule specified that he had to make a squeaking dolphin noise instead of saying knife kill. I do carry an M4 bayonet and get that out if a knife kill seems a possibility, but to be honest it's mostly to make my get up look more authentic, and if it was a rush, I'd just do the shoulder tap, and have done that on four people once who were stacked up waiting to infiltrate a room when I came up behind them lol. Theoretically, I think the shoulder tap is more to point out that you shouldn't really go for jabbing moves, but rather tap people somewhere that it won't hurt with the flat of your blade, and I've done that too, at a site where a hit on the gun counted as a kill, I tapped the end of someone's pistol barrel and said knife kill as they sneaked around a corner, which i suppose replicates what i might have done if it were real life, i.e. grabbed their pistol barrel and dragged them around the corner onto a knife in the gut or whatever. As far as throwing a knife goes, every site I've been to has specifically said in the briefing that it is underarm throws only.

Got a shiny new IMAX B6 charger off my ex missus (yes, we are still good friends bizarrely for an ex marriage partner). Mind you, I got her some perfume which cost a crapload more than that charger did; season of goodwill and all that bollox, although - top tip here - if you are going to buy your ex missus an expensive present, you best make damn sure you buy something which costs at least twice as much as that present, for your girlfriend. Practically bankrupted myself in that Pandora shop whilst on that mission

Yup, they sure do, but hang on to your wallet because they ain't cheap, in fact, even on aegcartasia.com they still cost 73 quid, so taking postage into account, this is probably as good a place as any to get one, for 75 quid: http://www.zerooneairsoft.com/product_info.php?products_id=2277 Takes 900 rounds apparently, but then again, I got five 160 round M4 mags which require no batteries or winding from aegcartasia for about 23 quid, so for the minor hassle of a quick mag change every 160 shots, I can easily carry 800 rounds with only four pouches, since one mag is in the gun, and that seems to me like a much more sensible solution to me money-wise, being literally less than a third of the price.

That still looks to me like it is pretty stiff rubber, in that it's taking the person four fingers and a thumb placed on either side to bend the thing, and that is quite a point on the end even if it is plastic/rubber. You're not gonna kill anyone with it obviously, but it might still hurt someone if you jabbed em in the face with it. It looks a lot stiffer than my plastic M4 bayonet, you could put your little finger on the end of that M4 one and bend it in half easily. Still, it's difficult to be sure just off a picture, but if it did prove to be too stiff, then I'd simply make a blade for it from this stuff, which can easily be cut with scissors and bends really easily but is stiff enough to hold shape and look like a blade: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Super-Thick-Coloured-Sheets/dp/B00LYXT7WO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1419430357&sr=8-3&keywords=4mm+craft+foam

Airsoft World replied to my ticket after I sent them some pics of the damaged flash hider on my G&G and said they would source a replacement and post it out to me, although it might take em a while, which is good customer service in my book, as the replies to my emails were very prompt, so I replied, that as long as it got sorted at some point, then there's no rush, as obviously it is a busy time for them as it is for all businesses doing mail order at Christmas. Anyway, since it is now daylight, I figured I'd take a pic of the damage so that it could actually be properly seen. Pretty obvious on a pic in daylight:

Fair enough, but as you say, makes little impact on reducing violent crime if it is illegal to wave a model of a star trek phaser about in the street. Ye canne change the laws of physics Jim, but we probably should change the law on RIFs.

If it is hard plastic, then you couldn't use it for airsoft as is, but what you could do is make the kit up, using all the bits other than the blade, then replace the blade part with one cut from 4mm black craft foam, using the kit part as a template, since the blade is a relatively simple shape; the bevelled blade edge would be easy enough to create with a scalpel or X-Acto blade.

Be careful about the retaining strap not holding the pistol securely in the holster, this is especially the case with heavy long barrelled pistols, since they will often not sit very deep in the holster, meaning all the weight is up near the grip. That's asking for the thing to fall out if the retaining strap is not good and snug and you are running about. I managed to completely break a brand new GBB 1911 pistol (which I'd literally only fired three shots from) by doing that exact same thing; the pistol took a swan dive out of my holster and the beavertail safety broke free, spilling the trigger spring et all out, most of which was never to be seen again, rendering the pistol useless without buying a crapload of spare parts.

Yup, it does indeed forbid carrying an imitation firearm in public, but a two toned gun is, by definition, not an imitation firearm, if it was, then you'd need a specific defence for buying one of those too, which as we know, you don't, because it isn't an imitation firearm if it is two toned, since the purpose of two toning it to make it apparent that it isn't a firearm. If this was not the case, then painting a two tone black would not be classed as manufacturing a RIF, since it would, by that definition, already be a RIF. But in any case it's a moot point as far as my point was concerned, since I wouldn't recommend waving even a transparent green plastic ray gun about on the street, because you can guarantee some berk would, via chinese whispers, claim you were waving a .50 calibre belt-fed anti aircraft gun around, and then an armed response unit would turn up and shoot you.