Chock

Just get what you like the look and feel of, it's not like any of them are the real weapon, they're all pulling a spring back and firing a plastic ball, so they're all gonna do pretty much the same thing, and they're all reasonably decent choices. Any minor differences in performance can be addressed by tarting any one of them up a bit, so you might just as well pick the one you like the look of. If looks aren't the only issue, and you see yourself messing about with the thing and tarting it up a lot, then go with an M4, for the availability of parts.

Sounds like a public highway to me (see definitions below). As far as UK law is concerned, there is no such thing as a 'public highway', because the word 'highway' itself means a pathway which the general public can go down. However, the description 'public highway' is used in some laws to clarify that people have a right of way along it. A highway can be one of three things as far as the UK is concerned; a carriageway (i.e. a road which cars can go down), a bridleway (which people, horses and bikes can go down), and a footpath (which you can only go down on foot, such as the pavement alongside a carriageway or an alleyway). So if the alley is somewhere that Joe Public can pass through, then it is a 'public highway'.

At the kind of ranges we're talking about when a burglar is in your house, you don't need a RIF anyway, you could simply tap them on the shoulder and say 'knife kill'

Yup as far as I'm aware they should not be sticking that RS logo all over the page with that SVD, unless anyone knows otherwise, I would say it was an S&T one if I had to guess.

You can do whatever you like to an intruder, you just have to make sure the body is never found

Budget version of the Real Sword SVD: http://www.onlybbguns.co.uk/index.php?route=product/search&filter_name=real%20sword

Yup, GenieStuff is all two tone: I got my A&K SVD Dragunov from there, it was 130 quid as I recall, it's generally a bit more on other sites. I just sprayed the furniture black, painting it was the work of minutes, so I was not bothered about that, even though I've got a UKARA reg. Same with my DBoys M4, that was originally a two toner off onlybbguns, but it was about fifty quid cheaper than everywhere else, and in any case it was only the foregrip and stock which were blue. And like Sitting Duck, I got my A47 off bbguns365 for 99 quid, as well as a gas Sig 226 pistol from there for 24 quid, you'd pay at least forty quid more for that A47 anywhere else and at least a fiver more for the Sig. But the real savings are to be had with a UKARA and ordering from European sites. As far as M4s go, a UKARA will get you a lot more bang for your bucks, so if you don't have one, you might be wise to just use a hire gun for three skirmishes, get a UKARA and then you can order from places such as Bohemia Airsoft, Gunfire Poland, Taiwan Gun, AEG Cart Asia and E Hobby Asia, all of which are craploads cheaper than buying a RIF in the UK, especially the places trading in Euros, since the Euro is on its arse compared to Sterling at the moment, so your money goes even further. Not very patriotic I know, but neither is holding an M4 lol, and you gotta pay the rent and eat, so saving money is no bad thing.

BB gun sites are okay to buy from providing you know what you are looking for, but treat any reviews or product info about stuff you are unfamiliar with on those sites with a big pinch of salt, unless you know from other sources that the product is good. After all, if you know an A&K SVD is what you want for example, and some BB site is selling it cheaper than anywhere else, then why not get them to supply it? They can take a box off a shelf and post it just as well as any other site can. But on the other hand, if they are saying some no name piece of orange plastic cack is the dog's bollox, then you know to avoid it. I've had quite a lot of stuff from several BB gun sites, and never had crappy service, but I've always been buying things I knew were okay and merely chose them to supply it because it was cheaper on their site than on others, which it often is on particularly the 'onlybbguns' website and the 'bbguns365' website, both of which often post stuff for free as well. But as ever, caveat emptor.

I've got two metal M4s, one is the DBoys M4 SIR (which you can find for about 180 quid), the other is the longer of the two G&G MOD0 30th anniversary models (which you can find for 150 quid, minus battery, so about 170 quid with a decent battery). They are both pretty good. DBoys used to have a bit of a reputation for slightly crappy internals, but they improved things quite a while ago, so whilst that reputation persists with a lot of people, the reality is that many of their weapons are actually pretty good - you just have to know which ones lol - it is certainly true of the SIR which I have, so if you do go with DBoys, make sure it is a newer one. The G&G is good too, perhaps a little better than the DBoys one as a shooter, and certainly better when it comes to how it houses the battery, which is a bit awkward on the DBoys. Yeah the 30th Anniv engraving on the mag well of the G&G might not be to everyone's taste, but it's not that obtrusive and in fact you could fill it in with Milliput easily and spray over it if it bothered you that badly.

As you probably know, most people will tell new players that it's not a good idea to start out with a sniper rifle, and that's for a good reason, well, several actually.... First up, it's not like real life sniping, where you are generally out of range from return fire, have a spotter helping you, who also has short range defensive capabilities, and you don't have all the other stuff a sniper can do, such as a radio which can call in artillery and air strikes etc, nor can you tab it the feck out of there if it looks like you've been compromised and have chopper evac you from your pre-arranged rendezvous. In airsoft, you're gonna be on your own, so you have to spot and shoot, your range is much shorter, and people will be far more inclined to try and assault your position, since unlike in real life, the worst that can happen to them, is a 500fps BB in the nuts. In real life, they'd be dead, because you would have set up with clear open ground killing zones out to 1200 metres in any direction a threat was likely to come from, which would pretty much make you impervious to anyone with an assault rifle, since they wouldn't be able to get anywhere near you, and would probably call for artillery support to take you out, if they spotted your location. So, not like airsoft at all, where an AEG rifle could indeed hit you, since you won't outrange people by much. If there really is a sniper about in real life, people are sh*t scared to even pop their heads up out of cover, much less run towards where they think the sniper is. Do sniping in airsoft and they will come for you. In addition to that, in airsoft, you've got basically four things you could be doing, CQB indoors, Woodland outdoors, attacking, and defending. Out of these four, sniping is only ideally suited to one or two, namely woodland and usually defending. It's kind of tough to snipe on the attack, the role is more suited to finding a decent spot and awaiting attackers, who will probably not be able to close you down or flank you too easily if you pick a spot also covered by some team mates with regular rifles, but there's no guarantee of that of course. So, to get the best out of a sniper rifle in airsoft, it's generally not a bad idea to have skirmished at the site a lot of times so you know the typical attack routes people take, and the decent defence locations, so you can pick your concealed spot accordingly, and if you are new, then none of that knowledge is likely to be available to you. On the other hand, an AEG assault rifle is ideal for a starter, because it can do CQB, woodland, and is suited to both attacking and defending. Then there is the additional expense as well. Yes you can get a spring airsoft sniper rifle for 120 quid or so, but that is the basic package. You are going to need to tart it up a lot to give you as much range as possible, as much accuracy as possible, as much consistency as possible, and the ability to put stuff onto the target with as little noise and conspicuity as you can manage. So, we are talking souped up hop up, souped up barrel, souped up spring, souped up piston (which you might even drill ports into), then decent bipod, decent scope, expensive quality ammo, good camouflage (i.e. a ghillie suit or similar, which admittedly, you could make yourself for not much money). Then you'll need a decent back up weapon, smoke grenades to enable you to conceal your withdrawal or repositioning moves, frag grenades to stem an assault on your position, and ideally, some team mates and a radio so you can work in concert with them, to try and make the enemy get driven toward your killing zone. In other words, a shitload more than simply a 120 quid G&G M4, which is all you need to get going in the regular skirmishing role. I'm not trying to put you off the notion of sniping, it can be good fun, but if I were you, I'd make a few friends doing regular skirmishing, see whether you prefer CQB or woodland, and then if circumstances suit, buy a sniper rifle as a 'project' that you can work toward implementing somewhere down the line when all the required knowledge and extra bits and bobs are in place and you have the spare cash to be able to indulge in making the thing fancy. The last thing you wanna be doing when you start out, is taking your one and only brand new rifle to bits, awaiting parts for it, etc. That sort of thing is far more fun when it isn't urgent that you get the thing working in time for your next skirmish. What might possibly appeal to you, is Designated Marksman Rifles (DMRs), which are more like a 'mobile assault sniper/support gunner', who stays with the squad of regular riflemen as they assault the enemy, but can pop the odd shot which has more accuracy. Aside from being a less 'lonely' role, there is more scope for variety in the kind of weaponry you can use as a DMR, and most of the true DMRs can - at a push - stick up for themselves in a stand up firefight. It's quite common for people to get things such as the longer barrelled gas blowback WE M16A3, and make that a DMR, by upping the fps to 400, locking it to semi-auto fire only, and sticking a fast acquisition optic onto the thing. Again, since DMRs take a bit of work and lack some flexibility, I wouldn't say they were a great choice to start out with, but might possibly be something you could try after a while, since you can kind of regard DMR as 'sniper light'. In short, stick with an AEG assault rifle to start out with. You'll find it suits you better.

SRC AK47 AEGs are not bad actually, they do about 330 fps. It is a pretty good model of the real thing, has a metal gearbox, so is not likely to fall to bits, and would be easy to fix even if it did, since it does use fairly standard bits inside it which are easy to source. I know a few people who have them and they are quite accurate, with a decent rate of fire and seem to work reliably enough, since I've seen them show up week in week out at skirmishes, which means they must be at least okay. As far as I'm aware however, they are ABS plastic ones. I've got a full metal SRC AKS74U with a folding stock (although mine is a gas blowback as opposed to an AEG), so externally mine is probably similar to the one you are talking about in terms of construction and quality of parts, i.e. it's pretty good, made from decent (painted, not blued) metal and with an okay (ish) wooden fore grip. Although being a 74, mine will not be exactly identical in appearance, since the 47 has a different gas return tube to the 74 and a few other minor detail differences. The only thing I think is a bit cack on my SRC AKS74U, is the wooden fore grip, which doesn't look that great in terms of its profile, it is functional, but I'm going to swap mine for something a bit better looking at some point, and to be honest, that's more of a personal thing than an issue, and certainly does not affect how it works. I think SRC AK47s go for about 150-250 quid when new, depending on whether they are metal or ABS, gas or electric. In other words, if it's newish and in good nick, and less than say.. a ton, then it is probably worth having. A lot less than a ton and you should probably snatch his hand off, since it's a pretty good gun.

Just bought a Sig 226 Gas pistol. It was cheap but decent, I'll probably give it to my mate, who's just getting into airsoft; the Sig 226 is his favourite pistol.

Just bought three two point slings, and two one point bungee slings. Will be trying a few different load outs and arrangements of weaponry, so I need a few options. Going to try some mixing it up: dual wielding MP5Ks, dual wielding AKs74Us, a PSL/SVD with an MP5K, and might even try dual wielding M4s for a laugh

Welcome

Welcome aboard

Welcome aboard Whereabouts in Manchester? I used to go shooting at Cheadle Rifle Club, which is not too far for you. They do (or at least did used to) field target shooting at the weekends, which is not bad fun. Their website: http://www.cheadle-rifle-club.org.uk You might also contact Cheshire Gun Room, which has shops at Stockport and Bolton. They have a lot of links to shooting clubs on their web page, but they'd probably be worth a call to see if they know of more places. Good gun shop actually. Does air rifle and pistol stuff too, including a lot of the Umarex CO2 pistols that most practical shooters use, they have spares for those too: http://www.cheshiregunroom.com That's a load of bollox about being too old to do CQB and woodland stuff, loads of older people do airsoft at my local site in Stockport, including me, who will be 50 this year, and there are a lot of decent airsoft sites in and around Manchester.

Well, don't get the sh*t stuff off BB gun sites, cos it is generally crap, and even if it is okay, the valve seals on the cans are often a bit sh*t, which will render the contents useless since when you try to use it, it'll piss loads of the gas out over your hand (which is not recommended unless you are trying to cryogenically freeze your hand so you can smash it with a hammer lol). Personally, I would recommend using WE Premium Green Gas, since it has a decent amount of silicone lubricant in it to take care of the action (although you do probably want a can of silicone lubricant anyway to lube the thing up when it is new since it will probably not have any lubrication on the working parts, don't use anything other than silicone lubricant in the thing or you'll f*ck up the mag and internal seals, you can get silicone lubricant aerosol cans at car part shops for about four quid a can, but that will probably last you forever, you can use that stuff on AEGs too anyway). I was using that WE gas the other evening in a fecking freezing cold Trojan mill site, and it was blatting all 25 rounds out of my Kimber Warrior, and the mags still had craploads of gas left in them, probably enough to let another load of BBs go if I reloaded it without regassing it. Actually, I had my M4 in my right hand and my Kimber in my left hand and was taking the piss a bit, dual wielding them, although I did actually get three kills doing that lol. That Kimber Warrior pistol is a Hi Cap (it is a TM clone, but in full metal) with a long metal slide, which are a bit notorious for not being great on gas, so as you can imagine, I was fairly impressed with the performance of WE gas in the thing. It's about a tenner for a 300g can of it, which will probably last you a while if you are only using the sidearm as a back up, and even if it doesn't last you a while, screw it, GBB pistols are cool, and even more cool when you dual wield them with an M4 lol. Oh, and always leave a bit of gas in the mag when you store them, it helps maintain the seal because of the pressure on the gaskets.

That'd be Beretta, by the way. Just took a ruler to my Glock 17 (CYMA Electric Blowback Version, so reasonably accurate model of it, even if it does have shit fps), and knocked this up, here you go (these may be a mm or so out, but it's close enough):

Well in that case, you could call it all kinds of things: look sharp, sharp dressed man, looking good, alpha male, good to go, groomed or whatever, since it is more than simply a barber shop

The XDM Compact is almost the same size as a Glock 17. It is only about 10mm shorter in length and height when the Compact's small mag is in, and it is actually only about 10mm taller than a Glock 17 with its larger magazine anyway. Springfield may call it a 'compact' but that's only because it is about 30mm shorter than the standard XDM, so if you'd be okay with a Glock 17, then there's really no reason why you'd find the XDM Compact too small for you, since the Glock 17 is not exactly a small pistol, being more or less the same size as a Hi cap 1911 and a Walther P88, and I know that because I've just put my Glock 17 next to my Hi Cap and my Walther P88 and there's nothing in it size wise, they're almost identical in dimensions apart from the fact that my Walther is a bit longer because it has a compensator on the front.

You'd need a UKARA Registration number on the box if you were ordering the pistol from abroad, since customs would grab it if not and probably destroy it. The mags can be bought without one though, although to be honest, I usually ask them to put the UKARA number on orders from abroad anyway, even if it is just a mag, since there's no harm in doing that. I've had GBB mags from aegcartasia in the past (MP5 ones), so there was no hassle in them being a gas container being transported, even though that shouldn't really matter much since there is no gas in the things when they get posted, although I should point out that may possibly have been more luck than judgement, since they did get delivered by Royal Mail; and if memory serves they are not happy about carrying that kind of thing.

Are you going to be relying on passing trade, or other means to get business? If you think people might look online or search a directory, something beginning with a letter earlier in the alphabet helps since it puts you higher up the list of places, so things like 'a cut above' etc score some points in the regard. But you probably want to avoid all those 'curl up and dye' type cliches I should imagine. You could always use someone else's name, like for example just call it 'Dave's' or something like that, which is nice and easy to remember. Or go for something a bit less obvious but memorable, like 'the cat's whiskers' or 'look sharp' or whatever, which are memorable and have a bit of a reference to tonsorial goings on.

24 round mags for that are about 18 quid on aegcartasia, but then again, they ain't that much more on Zero One anyway, so that'd save on postage if you got em with the pistol.

Either: Sweeney Todd's Pie Emporium or Jambo Scissorhands, or possibly: A cut above the rest

It will not be back in stock because it's so powerful that you need a firearms certificate for it. All the ones that were for sale on the site were commandeered and have now been sent to Afghanistan for the army to use because it is so awesomely powerful. You can also see it being used in the movie Zero Dark Thirty, because it was the same gun that they used to kill Osama Bin Laden in real life, and they wanted that film to be totally authentic, the only difference is that they had to paint them to look like real guns because the soldiers didn't want to give their positions away with a gun that was so bright that you could see it from space.