Chock

Yeah, I guess you could say 'My-Ka', and it would be a bit clearer. They should have stayed with the old 'Monkey'/'Mother' from WW2!

You can certainly get airsoft dummy gas masks. See this thread: http://www.airsoft-forums.co.uk/index.php/topic/23347-airsoft-ready-gas-masks/ This would be preferably to a surplus Russian one, since some of the filters in older Russian gas masks which you can buy contain asbestos, so whilst they are fun to have for collectors, I wouldn't want to be wearing one for prolonged periods! All the rest of the gear can usually be had cheap if it is Soviet-era stuff, or even cheaper if it is Chinese knock off Soviet-era stuff, i.e. a Type 56 rather than an AK, etc.

Yup, you are correct, Roger does literally only mean 'received', but I hear people all the time on the radio in aircraft using it to imply meaning 'received and understood', 'wilco' etc, so in practical terms, it does get used as that even though to do so is technically incorrect, which is why I generally use 'copy' or 'copied', so there is no doubt as to me meaning that I heard it and have 'copied' the info, i.e. in my case, scribbled it on my kneeboard if it is something like a magnetic heading to steer or a flight level I'm supposed to maintain. Actually, 'Mike' is another single syllable letter in the phonetic alphabet. :-)

Sounds like you had a great time, and picked up a few pointers as to what gear works and what does not. Yup, the grenades can be a bit loud, but they can be a game changer in the right situation, so if you have the money, you might want to get one or two. Note that a lot of pyro stuff can't be sent through the mail, so if you are considering getting some things which go bang, you might have to go in person to the shop, and some shops may even withhold selling that kind of thing to you unless you are all UKARA'd up, so call them first before you travel a long way on spec. Glad you enjoyed it. Hope you got a few kills.

Well, ROF is measured in more than one way. You've basically got four different types, so pick which one you like... Cyclic Rate: This is the mechanical rate at which a gun can fire when the trigger is held on, disregarding stuff such as magazine capacity, mag changes, overheating etc. So despite the fact that the cyclic rate is usually expressed in RPM (rounds per minute), it does not mean that the gun in question could actually keep that rate of fire up for a minute. Sustained Rate: This is what it says, i.e. the rate at which fire can be put out continuously over an extended period, taking into account things such as reloading, changing barrels (on things like an M60, for which the crew are provided with an asbestos - or similar - heat-resistant glove), replenishing water on a water cooled machine guns (there are records of Vickers MG gun crews urinating into the water jacket of their machine guns during prolonged engagements. In 1916, some Vickers MGs were fired almost continuously for ten hours apparently, necessitating multiple barrel changes and a lot of water, since the Vickers MG boils off about a pint and a half of water for every 1,000 rounds put through the thing. Rapid fire rate: This is the 'ignore everything else, this is an emergency' rate of fire, which could not realistically be maintained on most guns, since it would likely damage them in some way. Semi-automatic rate: This is the rate at which you can put rounds out using repeated single trigger pulls, disregarding mag changes and such, on guns with a low automatic cyclic rate, this figure is usually pretty close to the full auto rate assuming the firer can pull the trigger fast enough, and there are tricks such as 'bump-firing' (i.e. using the recoil to help pull the trigger again) which can make this figure misleading sometimes, since firing like that is unlikely to be very accurate. As with most things, the 'brochure figures' are usually the fastest one the makers can quote, and not always the most practical guide, but usually quoted in order to give it the 'wow factor'. This is the same as when aircraft manufacturers say their fighter plane 'can do Mach 2' when what they don't mention is that it'll have to be in full afterburner to manage it, and will as a result run out of fuel in five minutes, so will probably then crash if it isn't near a suitable airfield lol. Back with airsoft guns however, a decent chromo will tell you the ROF from a few shots, or you can time how long it takes to empty ten rounds and then take that up to a minute to give your a rough guide on ROF.

I have one of the M04 type airsoft gas masks, it's not bad but (as it came) I wouldn't have put money on the lenses stopping a shot from my A&K SVD Dragunov (490fps), because although I don't think the lens would have smashed, I suspect the lens could possibly have popped out from its fitting, which would have left the next shot seeing me exposed to no protection, thus I reinforced the lens fitting a bit with some Araldite, now I trust that it will stop anything it ever comes up against in airsoft. Judge for yourself how effective it is with these videos (be sure to watch them all, the last one is a point blank range shot with a paintball gun, and it takes the lens out, which you would expect since it isn't designed for that kind of hit, so don't use one for paintball and consider reinforcing the lens fitting if you do get one): Some further info: Keep in mind that the M04 may look like rubber, but it is in fact hard plastic, so all the rest of it will definitely stop a BB, but that hard plastic means it does not fit like a real gas mask, more like a typical airsoft full face mask, which it of course is. Nevertheless, there is a rubber face pad on the inside, which is sort of similar to a WW2 pilot's oxygen mask in shape and size; that's the bit which actually rests on your face, so it is comfortable to wear and this also means that the mask is not sealed up to your chin as a real gas mask would be, although it does look like it is to observers. The fan in it does do a pretty good job, but to be honest you don't need it most of the time because the rubber insert on the inside keeps your breath away from the lenses, so the fan can simply be used briefly to clear it of fogging in the unlikely event of that occurring, and then switched off, so some duracell batteries will last a long time in the thing and it's more of a novelty that it has a fan than a necessity, although you could actually leave it running since it's basically the same as a PC cooling fan, i.e. it's not noisy. The mask doesn't do wonders for your peripheral vision when wearing it, but it's not desperately bad. It is extremely lightweight though and does not impede breathing at all, so not at all like wearing a real gas mask respirator, which on the contrary, is a pain in the ass. I attached the fan to the left side of my mask (you can put it on either side, or the front), it does not foul my rifles when I pull them in close to aim, as some airsoft masks can do, so that is a plus point in that it is nowhere near as cumbersome as you might think it would be. The other appealing plus point is of course that it looks quite cool - it's a fact that most military/SF gas masks are deliberately designed to look a bit intimidating, for obvious reasons - and it certainly does make you look pretty badass if you have all the rest of the gear to match it, i.e., I usually wear black SWAT style gear with a black PASGT helmet, and with that black mask added to the mix, it really does make you look the part. So if 'looking cool' appeals to you, then it's a good choice for full face protection. With four straps as per a typical mask, it does stay securely in place, and although the lenses do distort the view ever so slightly, it's a negligible amount, i.e. I could easily read this forum page whilst wearing that mask. Shop around for one btw, I've seen them on fleabay for around about a tenner with free postage, think I paid about twelve quid for mine at the time i got it.

Cheapest new one I could find was 94 quid on Only BB Guns, so I'd agree that a decent used one would be around the 50-60 quid area.

Well sadly for us Brits, that's kind of the way things end up going since the Americans have a lot of sway with NATO, and not always in a good way. Witness the adoption of the 5.56mm round as a NATO infantry standard, despite objections from other NATO members. Being a pilot myself, I'm used to using typical British radio procedures, although I've noticed that a lot of Yank stuff is creeping into daily use on the airwaves over dear old Blighty. It's just the way things go. Ten years ago, most people had a coronary if you spelled 'colour' or 'armour' without the U, now people don't even bother mentioning it. Global Village and all that.... For a mission, i.e. CAP, yes, Maverick could certainly be an operational designation, but the chances of it being approved for use as an individual call sign which would need to be used in split-second conversations between members of a flight during combat are, I suspect, slim, as they would be with any other munition name, i.e. Sidewinder, Mark 84 etc. This would be especially true on the F-14 Tomcat, which was redeveloped into a multi-role bomber in its later years (AKA the 'Bombcat') before the F/A18 took over both CAP and CAS duties and the F-14 was retired. Both types being capable of carrying the AGM-65 Maverick, it certainly wouldn't be a great idea to give a pilot such a confusing callsign, although frankly, I wouldn't put anything past the US Navy, I know, I've worked with them too lol.

Think brevity and clarity; that's the key to good radio discipline. Identify yourself and who you are calling, i.e. 'Red One to Red Two', that sort of thing. Use the phonetic alphabet to spell stuff out if it's noisy. Most of the phonetic alphabet letters are more than one syllable (not all of them though) in order to make it clearer if a crackle or pop obliterates some of the sound. Also note that in addition to the regulation Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, etc for letters, numbers are pronounced differently than in normal speech in order to make them clear over a radio, so they go like this: Wun, Too, Tree, Fo-Wer, Fife, Six, Sev-Ven, Ate, Nine-Er, Zee-Ro. Codenames should be two syllables in order to make them clearer through static and should not be anything confusing or synonomous with what they represent, since that would defeat the object of them being codewords of course. Thus, in the terrible movie Top Gun, Tom Cruise's character would never really have been allowed to use 'Maverick' as a callsign, since callsigns have to be approved, and the US Navy would never have approved a callsign which was the same name as the air-launched AGM-65 Maverick missile, which is in their arsenal of weaponry, since that might lead to confusion over the radio. In fact, to avoid confusion, US forces don't even use the word Maverick on the radio when they really are launching a Maverick missile, they use the codeword 'Rifle'! Give your team a unit callsign and designate each member as a number, so if your team's callsign is 'Breadbin' for example, then you will have 'breadbin 1', 'breadbin 2' etc. The only deviation from this system is the leader, who uses the callsign followed by the word 'actual', so he or she would be 'Breadbin Actual'. The numbers are used in sequence when the leader wants a status report, so if Breadbin Actual requests ammo status, Breadbin 1 answers first, then Breadbin 2 answers, etc. Remember that 'Over' means 'I have stopped taking, and expect a reply', whereas 'Out' means I have stopped talking and do not expect a reply. Thus in movies when you hear people say 'Over and Out' they are talking utter b*ll*cks, and sound like total amatuers, because one is a contradiction of the other. If you need to communicate with two people quickly and the nessages are seperate commands, you use the word 'break', for example: 'Breadbin One from Breadbin Actual, move fifty metres east. Break. Breadbin Two, maintain overwatch on your position. Acknowledge.' Breadbin One would then acknowledge he understood by saying something like 'Breadbin one, understood, on the move.' then Breadbin Two would also acknowledge his order. You can use other common brevity phrases such as 'Wilco' which means 'will comply', 'Roger', which means 'yes, understood', Negative, which means 'no' obviously, affirm, or affirmative, which means 'yes' (two rapid clicks on the transmit key is also commonly used to acknowledge stuff, or can also mean yes), 'Mike' means 'metre', 'oscar mike' means 'on the move', 'Winchester' which means 'out of ammo'. Google will turn up a lot of others for you if you wanna go all super authentic with code words. Codewords are more common in everyday life than you think, for example, I was at St Pancras Underground Station a couple of weeks ago and heard 'Will Inspector Sands please report to the security office' being played repeatedly over the tannoy. Sounds innocent enough, doesn't it? In fact, most passengers on the platform were jokingly saying things like 'ooh, I bet he's in trouble', little realising that 'inspector sands' is code on the London Underground for a fire. Me on the other hand, was on the first train out of there lol. There are other codenames they use for bomb threats and such too, such as Mr Gravel and Mr Jones, so if you hear them on the Tube in London, get the feck out of there rapido lol. If you have to report stuff, don't blurt out useless things such as 'look out, he's behind you!' because everyone who hears it will duck. Report it calmly, indicating who you are referring to. If you have to report a location, identify it from a landmark or location which everyone knows, and then give the distance in feet or metres, and bearing in degrees, assuming everyone knows which way north is (they probably won't), or if you are all advancing one way, you can use clock positions, i.e. three o'clock is right, nine o'clock is left, six is behind and twelve is in front etc. If it's a WW2 milsim, you might wanna use the older phonetic alphabet, and be aware that this differed between nations, i.e. the Americans used Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy etc, whereas the RAF used Ace, Beer, Charlie, Don, Edward etc, the RN had Apples, Butter, Charlie, Duff, Edward etc. Needless to say this was confusing, so they now all use the ICAO/Nato one which most people know, i.e: Alpha through to Zulu. Hope that helps.

You should always keep in mind that the VCR Act is named that for a reason; it is intended to aid in the reduction of violent crime. The CPS and the Police are not concerned with people who use RIFs responsibly within the stated suitable defences of the VCR Act, it's the scumbags who would use a RIF to hold up a sub post office that they are after. Thus by definition, having your RIF at a skirmish is a legit reason for having it. Don't confuse UKARA with the law, UKARA is a system set up by a bunch of airsoft retailers, and was principally designed to aid those retailers in determining if a mail order purchaser is legit, and to have a database of legit importers of RIFs. UKARA is not mentioned anywhere in the VCR Act, since it isn't part of the law, merely a system designed to assist retailers in staying within the law.

Yup, it's worth getting a radio, for two reasons: First up, cheap PMR radios can be had in sets of two or four for not much money at all, which means you can gear a team up for next to nothing. Even if you play on your own, can be handed out to scratch team members to aid coordination, which is especially useful in CQB, where people on your squad can easily be out of sight. Cheap PMRs are often bright colours, since they are often marketed as kids toys or for fell walkers to whom high visibility colours would doubtless appeal, but if that bothers you, it is easily solved with a blast from some matt black or olive drab car spray primer paint and a bit of careful masking of display screens etc, and hey presto, looks like special forces micro radio gear. Second, even if you don't have several PMR radios, they will enable you to monitor people who are using them (both friendly and enemy). Anyone who knows anything about warfare knows how much trouble militaries go to in trying to listen in on the enemy, and for good reason. Since this is the case, if you play regularly with others and use radios, some practice on brevity, code phrases and things such as the phonetic alphabet might come in handy.

I have no qualms about telling people that it's basically dressing up and playing war for fun, because unlike some blokes, I'm prepared to admit that we never grow up. I don't really give a crap about what anyone thinks about any of my activities, I'm doing them because I like it, and I'd never be so insecure as to feel the need to seek approval for anything I do from anyone. If they don't like it, great, if they do, I'll tell em more

Some outdoor sites have bunkers, and even if they don't, could probably be persuaded to build one if it was helping someone who is disabled, as this would be newsworthy and massively good PR for them, and you only have to point this out and they'll almost certainly agree, as it would be free advertising. If they did that, you could easily man such a fixed position with this as an objective for the opposing side. Tool yourself up with an M60 and an M79 or some such and you'd be a badass hard as nails addition to things. And yes, you can get an M60 for less than 400 quid: http://www.actionhobbies.co.uk/searchresults.aspx?searchterm=M60 Or you could go really mental and put a Hades 70mm airsoft mortar on your chair, or site one or two next to you (actually you could get three and still be under your budget, then you'd literally be a firebase lol). 100 metre range on that baby and it can easily fire over any cover. Get a radio and have people call in fire missions from you as they push up and pin people down, whilst you sit back and enjoy a brew well out of range of return fire, safe in the knowledge that you are getting multiple kills on people you can't even see. Three skirmishes and Bob's your uncle, you'd have a UKARA registration, not to mention that you'd be a freakin legend in the airsoft world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1E8-ATt5Ig#t=228

You could try thrashing it against the wall a few times, or 'stonewash' it (i.e. literally stick it in a bucket or barrel of water with some gravel in it and move it about with a big stick to scuff it up), but frankly, after three skirmishes if will start to look used anyway. Don't overdo the wear and tear, these days soldiers do not live for months on end in trenches like they did in 1916 at Verdun, so equipment never gets really really crappy. Some equipment starts to get ropey in tropical climates of course, you could simulate that by washing it on fairly unforgiving settings in a washing machine, or holding it over a boiling pan or kettle to steam it up, but you don't want to go around looking like you've been on active duty fighting the Japanese in Papua New Guinea for two years, do you?

Best advice would be to take your time when deciding what loadouts to go for and use hire stuff at first, otherwise you might buy something you later regret. Although to be honest, as long as you realise that with airsoft, as with everything else, you generally get what you pay for, then it will be difficult to buy something you really hate or have absolutely no use for, since if something is no good for CQB, then it'll probably be good for longer ranged stuff outdoors and vice versa. Even so, it's tempting to get tooled up like crazy when starting out if you have the money, but it's often smarter to keep things simple and think carefully about what you want after a couple of skirmishes with hired gear, since this will also mean that you can mail order black RIF weapons instead of having to buy two-toned stuff if the site you visit helps you to become UKARA registered. Be aware that what goes in the real firearm world doesn't hold true in airsoft much of the time, for example, longer barrels do not mean longer range, nor vastly greater accuracy, nor more downrange speed in airsoft, as they often do with firearms. Similarly, real world combat techniques have a lot less relevance too, since we are talking about much lower muzzle velocities and vastly shorter ranges, not to mention lots of people with no real combat experience, so for example, whilst it is indeed bad practice in real firearms combat to 'chicken wing it' since it exposes more vulnerable parts to fire and hinders safer movement, in practice there's little wrong with doing it in airsoft, other than the fact that people might slag you off for doing so, although to be fair, if you were going to join the military, it might be a bad idea to do it in the sense of it giving your body poor muscle memory for proper military stances when moving about, although if you look at a lot of competition shooters, you will see them chicken winging it because that stance allows better breathing control, so if you want to try sniping in airsoft, you might want to emulate that in spite of what people might say. It's also tempting to 'be different' with your loadout, and whilst there is of course nothing wrong with that in principle, in practice that's easier to do that when you know a bit more about stuff from having a bit of experience under your belt, so it's worth noting that there are plenty of good reasons why a lot of people go for the M4 and the MP5, such as the amount of available spare and custom parts for those two weapons. As it is with real soldiers in real combat, much becomes obvious after a couple of skirmishes, for example, high capacity mags are less likely to leave you hanging out there with no ammo when things get hot, but where airsoft is concerned, they do rattle and make being a sneaky b*st*rd tougher in CQB. Long-length 'banana' mags are handy, but they make lying prone more difficult, which is why you don't see them on sniper rifles, and this is also why bullpup rifles tend to be the thing these days with the military, although the other advantage they confer (a longer barrel on a weapon of conventional length) is not really much of an advantage with airsoft, since airsoft weapons don't have rifled barrels, and a BB travelling down a long barrel does not pick up more energy like a real bullet does with expanding gasses behind it speeding it up. So in other words, you'll do pretty much just as well with a really short MP5K replica as you will with a replica SVD dragunov if they had a similar muzzle velocity. But these things, and what you end up preferring will be best decided from experience and your style and personal preference. Unlike in the army, where you get what you're given, you get the choice of what to use in airsoft, so let experience be your guide. A tactical vest is a good idea. Not simply because it looks cool and can hold a bunch of stuff, but also because there is a good chance it is where you'll get hit with a BB a lot of the time, and so you only have to own up to being hit because you hear it rather than feel it, since a BB can hurt quite a lot and can break the skin and bruise you. A bunch of mags in pockets on your chest will often stop that BB before it hits you and stings. With being hit in mind (and you will get hit), it's a good idea to cover up as much as you can, but don't go mad with that, as you will end up getting very hot, especially on indoor CQB sites, where trust me, you will sweat a lot (carrying water is highly recommended). I'd recommend a decent set of thin gloves (I use modern-day RAF issue pilot goves, which are very nice thin leather designed to enable jet pilots to operate fiddly cockpit controls easily, and being that they are a gauntlet type, they also cover my wrists, although they do cost about 30 quid, so you might find nomex USMC gloves are cheaper to acquire, some people prefer fingerless gloves though, so pick what you prefer). Neck protection is good too, something like an Arabian keffiyah scarf is good for that (most UK soldiers call them shemaghs, even though they really should be referred to as keffiyahs, so if you wanna buy online, you'll get more joy searching for a 'shemagh'). Keffiyahs also have the advantage of looking a bit military anyway. Traditionally, soldiers such as TE Lawrence and the SAS in WW2 are noted for having adopted them, and for a long time this was officially frowned upon, but tolerated, these days British soldiers are issued with them in a tan colour when serving in Afghanistan. US Army soldiers were expressly forbidden from wearing them during the 1991 Gulf War, but they too now are tolerated since they are very practical in desert climates, practical too in airsoft, where they can wrap around your neck and stop a BB from hitting it, which trust me, can really hurt and will bleed if it's anywhere near 300 fps or more, since your skin is pretty thin in that area. Eye protection is mandatory at airsoft sites and even if it wasn't, is a good idea, since a 500 fps BB from a sniper rifle will take your eye out, and even at much lower speeds, could easily blind you, so don't go cheap on eye protection, shooting glasses can fog up in hot CQB, so if you are likely to be doing that, either get a mask with cooling fans or get a mesh mask, which lets the air in and won't fog up. Most airsoft sites will let you skirmish without lower face protection if you are over 18, but all of them will make you sign a waiver anyway, so if you get a tooth shot out, then tough. A 350 fps BB will easily take out a tooth, so I'd recommend lower face protection too, since it's a lot cheaper than major dental work. Personally, I think a helmet is a good idea too, as a BB in the head can hurt, airsoft replica military helmets can be had for about a tenner upwards and can attach a number of accessories too. I use the PASGT helmet (typical in SWAT loadouts), although many prefer the IBH and FAST helmets, which look a bit more modern and can generally attach a lot more gear. A cap will do if you get too warm in a helmet, but at least wear something on your noggin. Some kneepads and elbow pads are not a bad idea, at the very least I would put one kneepad on your 'kneeling' knee for taking aimed shots from concealment, although pads on both knees and elbows will reduce the chance of injury if you dive for cover. Also, being shot in the elbow is very painful, so it'll prevent that hurting you as well. These too are common with the real military anyway, so again, it looks the part. Decent boots are a good idea of course and will protect you when leaping about. Get some proper boots from an army and navy surplus store, they are cheap and designed for the task. Likewise with combat pants, tops etc. Having that stuff adds to the fun. Some sites only let you use a pistol at close CQB ranges or on stairwells, so you might want to consider getting a pistol, as they can't always be hired. Even a cheap springer pistol for 20 quid is better than not having anything at all when things get close and you can't use your rifle, so it doesn't have to be expensive, although make sure you get a holster which you can easily draw and stow the pistol in quickly, or it will defeat the object to some degree. Failing that, you could get a rubberised knife for those up close and personal moments. Again, all these things 'look the part' and make things a bit more fun, in addition to which, a pistol belt or tactical vest will also let you carry a decent water bottle, as they rarely stay in combat pant pockets when you are leaping about all over the place. Whatever you end up getting gear-wise, make sure you are familiar with it and try moving with it before using it in anger at a skirmish, some stuff can be quite constraining and may need experimentation to work well for you. Experiment with different ways of slinging your weapons and find what works for you. But above all, have fun and be honest in calling your hits, airsoft relies on honour in owning up to being hit, and if you don't do that, then it all falls down. .

If you have to go for a plastic airsoft gun, then you could always pick something like a Heckler & Koch G36, which is a bit like a cross between the AR15 and the MP5. The real G36 isn't metal either, except for the bits that have go be, such as the barrel, granted it isn't technically plastic (it's carbon reinforced polymer) but that's more like plastic than metal so an airsoft one would feel pretty much like a real one to handle. And just to be clear, technically, you don't need a UKARA to buy an Realistic Imitation Firearm (RIF) as far as the law is concerned. UKARA was formed after the Violent Crimes Reduction Act of 2006 (VCR). It was a response to that Act to allow retailers of RIFs to have an easy way of verifying the intent of a RIF purchaser. Thus what you actually need in order to buy an RIF, is a way to prove to a retailer that you have a legitimate reason for buying one. This is so that they can sell you one without fear of prosecution under the VCR Act. In practice, the easiest way to prove this is via the UKARA scheme, since if not actually anything to do with the law, the UKARA list is used by the United Kingdom Borders Agency to track sales and imports, so it does have some gravitas and faux-legal status, thus most airsoft sites regard the formation of the UKARA scheme as a fait accompli in terms of legitimacy and go along with its three skirmishes over two months methodology (although in my experience, many of them are less than in love with that situation). So, you may find a retailer who would take some other form of proof of legitimacy, but they would have to be sure, and since they don't want to be left open to having their collars felt, then that proof would have to be pretty damn good, for example, it you could prove you worked in the special effects department of a movie prop company and that was beyond doubt, or perhaps worked at a military museum and could prove that unreservedly, they'd probably sell you one. But for most, it ends up being UKARA.

Hope you enjoy it. Have fun

It should hide the blood nicely. Bit over bright for UK woodland, except possibly at the height of lovely autumnal colours, although it will definitely break up a silhouette even in more muted woodland colours

Keep in mind that included protective clothing may simply be a face mask (possibly only goggles), maybe chest armour of some kind or a webbing rig that may serve as one, and possibly gloves. It is unlikely to be much more. You should probably wear decent boots or some tough high ankle trainers if you don't have boots, wearing combat pants and a thick long sleeved T shirt is not a bad idea, take thin gloves if you have them and maybe a scarf to protect your neck and lower face, especially if they only provide goggles and not full face protection, as a fast BB can break a tooth and bloody hurts if it hits you in the neck. As far as I'm aware, most sites insist you wear full face protection if under 18, and they will make you sign a disclaimer, so err on the side of going equipped for the eventuality that they do not give you shedloads of protective gear. It's not terribly dangerous, but it's no hassle to take a bag with some extra bits and bobs in it just to be sure you are covered up, as a BB on bare skin can sting a lot and break the skin if it is doing much over 300 fps, and some single shot snipers will be doing 500fps at exterior sites.

Hop up is effectively 'back-spin'. The barrel of the airsoft weapon has an adjustable rubber stop inside the top of it, this induces back spin on the BB. This is the hop up mechanism, which is perhaps more correctly known as a 'bucking' device, but it is rarely called that. The hop up device can be adjusted up and down to contact the passing BB more, or less, thus the amount of back-spin can be adjusted. Putting back-spin on an BB in flight induces the Magnus Effect, named after German physicist Gustav Magnus. The effect itself is broadly similar to the way a wing creates lift, i.e. with a pressure differential between the upper and lower surfaces of the wing as the air flows past its curved shape. Similarly, putting backspin on a sphere as it travels ballistically, forces air upwards and over it, causing less air pressure above the sphere than there is below it. This pressure differential pushes the sphere up, and prolongs its flight (in other words, backspin reduces ballistic drop). So the BB with some hop up backspin is basically 'flying' rather than simply following a ballistic trajectory.

Yes, barrel length does affect range; a longer barrel has a good chance of reducing the range on an airsoft weapon, and possibly reducing the accuracy as well. It's common for people to confuse the attributes of firearms with those of airsoft when it comes to ballistics, thinking everything is equitable, but it's a mistake to do so. With firearms, the reason for extended barrel length is to allow more of the charge to build up the projectile's speed as the propellant gas expands behind it, and to put a sufficient spin on the projectile via the rifling. Beyond these two physical behaviours which the barrel length is imparting on the projectile as it travels down it, the longer barrel itself has little to do with how accurate the projectile will be, unless one considers that a long barrel might assist in pointing the thing in the right direction. There is no 'build up of gasses behind an airsoft BB and no rifling either, the only thing in there which assists with range is the hop up mechanism. In fact, the turbulence the BB encounters as it travels down the enclosed space of the barrel in an airsoft is likely to render it slower due to aerodynamic drag, and less stable due to buffeting; the sooner a BB is in free air, the less of that it will encounter.

Of course from the the other player's viewpoint; you expected them to cover you, but did not say that this was the plan, merely assumed they were on the same wavelength as you. They could equally be on some forum saying something along the lines of: 'We saw these two guys on the inside bit, but we moved to a better position to ambush the entrance if it got rushed, and we thought those two'd come with us to give us more concentrated firepower, but they just sat in there with no cover and got shot, and we didn't have enough firepower to prevent it because they didn't join us in our ambush position.' So the lesson more than anything, is talk to one another if you have a plan. Because other people might have a plan too, and the chances are, it isn't the same plan as yours.

Umarex is a legitimate arms manufacturer based in Germany with a US subsidiary, in fact they are probably more legitimate than most in that they own the Walther Arms company, and you can't get more legit than the company which make's James Bond's weapon of choice lol. They also own the Rockwood Specialities Group, which is a chemical company that amongst other things produces stuff to create specialist coatings for weapons. So they certainly do make some quality real weapons and also make some very good air rifles and pistols too, even some marketed under the Walther name, with the kind of quality one might expect with that logo on the side. I have one of their Walther CP88 pistols (the long slide variant with the muzzle compensator), and it is indeed a very good weapon with a beautiful anodised metal finish which is really second to none (evidently some RSG input there). However, the Umarex brand stretches far and wide and is often encountered when marketing other airsoft brands you've heard either nothing, or little about, such as Combat Zone, Tactical Force, Well etc. Some of the products under these names are okay but most are not that great, because if they were, they'd be happily using more well known logos on them, considering that Umarex make civilian versions of M4s etc. Where the Well brand is concerned, their stuff is a mixed bag, some of it is good, some bad, but in general it is 'budget' gear, which means parts/spare are not always easy to come by/swap and one wouldn't expect most Well weapons to last forever. You get what you pay for of course, although having said that, there are some Well weapons out there which are surprisingly good in spite of the low price, for example, the Well D69 is not a bad WW2-style M1 carbine which can fire semi and fully automatic and is far better than you've any right to expect for an AEG costing sixty quid.

Even though they are presently too young, it's good that they are interested in it, as it presents an opportunity to share an activity with them and perhaps more importantly, teach them about responsibility, since even an airsoft gun could hurt someone. Set up a range in your back yard and do it there. That will still be fun and by the time they are old enough to have a go at a skirmish (if they have not lost interest in it as kids sometimes do), then they will be very good shots and will act responsibly with stuff too. Since there's two of them, you can teach them other stuff beyond shooting itself, such as the correct way to move with a weapon, as well as things such as bounding overwatch, fire and manoeuvre, centre peel etc. If they learn all that, they can kick everyone's ass on their playstation lol, and then they'll think you're the coolest dad in the world. Which of course you will be if you teach them all that stuff. In the meantime, if you still feel the need to shoot your kids (in the nicest possible way of course), then you might want to consider an event with Nerf guns. Take a look at this site for more info: http://britnerf.co.uk/index.php

Lot's of aviation-related interests on here it seems. Add me to the list too; got my pilot's licence back in 1997, but I much prefer flying gliders to powered aircraft, since they are generally stressed for aerobatics and keeping the thing up there is very much about your skill in flying well and finding the right air mass, learning to fly a Cessna spam can was an itch I had to scratch, but having done so I found it less interesting and more constraining than the freedom of flying a glider, not to mention the fact that flying glides is sh**loads cheaper as well. Got a couple of model aircraft too (P-51 Mustang being my favourite one) but don't get out and fly those much. Flying is just one of many hobbies I have though, I do all sorts of stuff: building models, got a big US-themed model railroad in my attic which is my 'winter hobby', making movies, gigging with guitar and vocals (got away too many guitars, play a few other instruments too), dabble in a bit of martial arts, all kinds of things really.