Tommikka

Yes The cylinders own regulator has a valve pin in the top, this gets pressed in to release the air Once you remove any secondary regulators, remote lines etc the valve pin is released and seals the bottles regulator If everything is left assembled then all the valves are open and you rely on every seal along the way If you have difficulty unscrewing then there is pressure that is resisting, you can use brute force but it is much better to purge what you can along the way If things really don’t want to move then begin to worry about whether you are doing something wrong - and in the worst case something is so tight that you begin to unscrew the main regular from the bottle (don’t worry as it won’t fly away - the threads are tapered to allow release before getting it so far off that it becomes a rocket

If he was importing stock for a shop then he wouldn’t need a UKARA number

Any offence was committed at the time that it was painted (Modification of an IF into a RIF) In the first drafts of the VCR bill this was a standalone offence, in the final VCRA it’s arguable that the intent of airsoft skirmishing becomes a valid Defence to the original offence of painting it Gifting is a grey area - It’s a technical work around normally applied to players under the age of 18 as they cannot purchase either an IF or RIF He could sell it to you if he wishes, as you are over 18 so can legally buy an IF or RIF You don’t have UKARA membership to document yourself as an airsofter, but if he can satisfy himself that your intent is to play airsoft skirmishing on insured sites then that is all the law requires, and a sale of a RIF is legal However nobody will know or care how you came to be in possession of an IF that has been painted.

Possibly …. As long as it doesn’t breach any policy of the channel tunnel etc (It should be suitable to carry in its original box, covered up, secured in a car boot etc) Fine print on booking terms etc should be checked … and of course as long as you don’t fall foul of customs staff being awkward if ‘random person’ with no VCRA defence arrives with a RIF and they don’t accept “I’m bringing it for @Karinexmachinawith their UKARA details here”

It’s an option when there are issues with the post. Not essential if another carrier will take it

The Brexit ‘issue’ with it is just the crossing of a border out of the EU single market and into a ‘third country’ - it’s being exported from France / EU and imported to the UK You also end up paying VAT twice - 1) French VAT as you purchased in France, but nobody gets to reclaim French VAT as an export 2) UK import VAT, and the handling fees You also pay for multiple sets of postage The current problem is with things getting held up on the border. In your case UPS don’t want to be stung with the hassle of your friend claiming compensation if it dissapears into a black hole, and the extra expense that UPS incur sitting on it using space in secure warehousing awaiting processing and for you to pay import charges A slightly ‘easier’ method is for either you or your friend to drive across via the channel tunnel, bringing it across and declaiming to customs on the way through Complete with travel expenses & covid procedures

This is technically possible as the UKARA scheme runs on top of site membership. Its up to the site though as to whether they will endorse the pre 18 games and finalise on the final game If he plans to play those games anyway then there’s no loss and he could gain earlier UKARA status, if he can’t ‘risk’ the cost of playing pre 18 games and possibly having to do 3 post 18 games then he should ask for reassurance at the site

That depends on if there is a bear there to shit itself because the tree got shot down

Or magic chrono tree If you can’t reach the tree then you need to ramp up the power If you hit the tree you’re good If the tree falls down you’re hot

As above, and take a look at the tales of woe here: Theres a lot of grief that could be had when importing today, or it could sail through with no issues Costwise if you spend up to £135 with an overseas retailer and if they go to the trouble of registering with HMRC then you pay UK VAT as part of the purchase with no additional charges on arrival Under £135 and if they don’t register with HMRC then it may get stopped for charges or may slip through Over £135 and you will owe 20% import VAT, potentially import duty as well and then a handling fee to the carrier it goes through on arrival. Actual fees vary between companies and may be fixed or a percentage of the total. Buy from a UK retailer and they are your point of contact to resolve any problems, plus you know what your paying with no surprise extras

On mesh in front of your eyes, my opinion is don't do it For random internet goggles - my opinion remains the same - don’t do it (There are video links elsewhere in this forum with tests by PBM paintball magazine showing these types of goggles failing). For the Valken MI7 - they are a decent set of cheap, rental grade, basic goggles. I have a set myself. They are perfectly fine and meet all paintball safety standards. However they are made of hard plastic, if they fit your head and feel right then they are great, if they don’t fit/feel wrong then they are rubbish The most popular paintball goggles in airsoft appear to be the Dye I4. These are ‘premium’ goggles, are made of rubber and are flexible with excellent airflow. However they are ‘compact’ and don’t go well with big heads such as mine. For me my forehead, chin and bottom lip are exposed in I4s. I have a set of very elderly I3s which are the smallest that can practically cover my head - still with exposed forehead & chin New I4s aren’t likely to be available, and the current I5s are out of your price range My preferred goggles are the VForce Grills. Also a ‘premium’ rubber goggle, good space for glasses, plenty head cover. My forehead is vast so still has some of it exposed, but my chin and mouth are safe. These are normally just over your price range. But if you hold on they usually have a few colour choices on sale prices through Autumn/Winter - but didn’t price drop majorly last year. There is a large choice of colour schemes in the Grills range hence price drops if retailers are clearing stock for the next season Shop around and you should find grills at your budget. The main factor with goggles is how well they fit you and how comfortable they are. If possible get yourself to a retailer to try some on or ask someone to try on theirs (less likely in the Covid era)

There’s a lot of science stuff that I’ve forgotten that would relate to this. Theres a ball being blown out of a tube, that then comes out and gets exposed to the open atmosphere. In this case the ball could be flying in the air whilst still enclosed by a bigger tube. Gravity will have an effect but if it’s fast enough it won’t drop to hit the bottom of the big tube before it gets out. If you move will it hit the side, be unaffected because the air it’s in moves with it, or still manage to make it with any effect too small to notice ? My guess is that you won’t notice any difference between exiting barrel and exiting extended dummy suppressor. Next is whether or not there is any effect on its final accuracy / consistency? My guess again is that you won’t notice anything. But there is something in the science about easing barrel air pressure before full exposure to the atmosphere and that can be beneficial to consistency - but it’s likely to be unnoticed and not on the scale of real firearm ballistics. I can concur that with high pressure air that I have working paintball supressors that make the exit quieter, and also that I have attempted to make suppressors that ended up amplifying the barrels exhaust air

https://m.facebook.com/UKPSF/posts/532643633518379 This was back in 2015, and covers a few questions so it does drift, and also precedes extra airgun certificates in Scotland and the joule changes in airsoft On the matter of lookalike firearms, we’ll disagree But I do get your point

…. And of course all subject to interpretation in court. A Home Office circular can always be removed and no longer be current, or replaced by different interpretation In paintball we have two differing official interpretations: 1) Association of Chief Constables (or whatever it was called at the time) considered that every paintball gun they saw during a visit to a retailer was potentially a RIF. (This retailer didn’t sell bling speedball, but it did include black hopper fed paintball guns) They took no action, but suggested that the retailer ‘do something’ in case they came back formally and went to court. The company created their own membership scheme Therefore you can argue that paintball guns are IFs or RIFs depending on whether then comply with VCRA colours 2) Home Office in response to the UKPSF held that in principle paintball guns are low powered air weapons and therefore not imitations, but with lots of caveats subject to court interpretation and also raised the option that if the VCRA was found to apply then UKPSF membership might be accepted as a defence. The LPAW ‘exemption’ contradicted with airsoft guns as the newer firearms act definition exempting UK legal airsoft from firearms legislation didn’t exist. Now that definition is there then there is a distinction to support LPAW non imitation. All quite grey, and I’m always happy that offenders with dickhead activity get dealt with under other suitable legislation rather than ‘responsible’ players falling foul of a court day turning into a test case. I don’t worry too much about legislative elements - it’s the rug being pulled out in circulars or court interpretations that are more likely to have an impact, which could be sudden

@Rogerborg Interesting that they have referenced paintball in permitted activities along with airsoft. The Home Office have covered off similar interpretation with the UKPSF, (along with many caveats of subject to being presented and tested in court) but the skirmishing defence document explicitly states airsoft. I shall retain that in my library of useful stuff the purposes of organising or taking part in certain “permitted activities” relates generally to “airsoft” events but can also include paintballing.

Laws: If it is a UK legal airsoft gun as defined in Firearms legislation then only the VCRA applies to the type of RIF/IF The VCRA requires a defence to import RIFs. Eg airsoft skirmishing. One method of proving that is the UKARA, and that is recognised by the Home Office/Border Force etc UKARA is a third party retailer scheme, under which players are registered via site membership schemes If its an IF then no defence is required The other concern is financial, and whether import VAT or import duty are required, which relate to the item classification and value In the Eurotunnel/Euro shuttle there may be carriage policies. They require firearms to be declared, all the relevant documentation and that it is secured https://www.eurotunnel.com/uk/legal/carriage-of-firearms-and-fireworks/ As hinted above an airsoft gun used to be a ‘low power air weapon’, but a revised definition was made in firearms legislation which took UK legal airsoft guns out of that definition. Euro tunnel may or may not treat it as an air weapon / firearm. If they do then you could carry it but needed to declare it They might or might not. That’s the game that smugglers play with Border Force. They may randomly check, check on a targeted basis or check that things are in accordance with declarations If by ‘the car that you brought it in’ you mean that you have taken a RIF abroad and are returning then they may still check. You would not owe import VAT or import duty as you have taken something out and returned - but if it looks new and you didn’t declare it when exporting then they may charge you for an import If you are unable to justify why you are importing a RIF, and can’t show ‘intent to use it at insured skirmishing sites’ then it could be confiscated

Paintball guns are ‘low powered air weapons’ (and fire frangible projectiles) Airsoft guns were, but there was an amendment to firearms legislation in which if they fall within the new definition of IF / RIF including the joules limit then they are no longer air weapons under firearms legislation and are covered only by the VCRA

It doesn’t necessarily show in text but the intent of my posts was meant to be the opposite (valid strawman there of how you read them) on the basis that doing a CQB course could be: 1) Just a days out experience of doing doorkicking Nothing wrong with that in itself but it won’t give number 2 (I’ve watched person number one go left scanning their zone and person number two going right scanning their zone with both of them getting shot by the defender in the middle - just blinkered going through the motions) 2) Learning doorkicking & room clearing in context - why do this and that, and refined into gameplay situations - are you happy to sacrifice yourself for difficult clearance and quickly respawn or medic heal, or is it a major ballache to walk half a mile to the safe zone so you prefer a steady slow clearance My questions were aimed at how to choose training / experiences and what an individual wants out of it The speedsofters have skills to offer too. (Unless they have dressed up and are all the gear no idea running around in circles) then they are applying a tactic In paintball I’ve done some competitive tournaments, fun on those occasions but not my kind of thing to pursue or to put in the commitment to keep it up. However I still took part in training sessions to learn and relearn skills and to iron out bad habits from years in the woods. I’ve done a fair bit of doorkicking & CQB myself - run by training companies of ex soldiers, and also run some CQB sessions ourselves - close up, indoor & outdoor and in context of gameplay

That’s the thing. If it’s ‘eliminate everyone because it’s airsoft’ then 9/10 times the speedsofter will win. If I’ve designed the mission as ‘rescue the VIP’ then the speedsofter will fail the entire mission in two seconds, and the defenders will have the advantage over gamers who think they can stack up in doorways. The group who’ve prepared for rapid sacrificial CQB can draw out the defenders from their shadowy hiding spots and have one final player alive to bring out the VIP The conjecture with nothing to do with airsoft is about understanding the tactics - knowing why they are what they are and how to apply them to situations It’s also why there is a generation of ex soldiers with valid CQB experience. CQB isn’t just the realm of special forces, it was the bread and butter of quite a few ‘ordinary’ infantry for a few years recently clearing compounds and buildings.

1) Yes I can afford and can get hold of plenty pyro (However I do have a sponsorship relationship with a pyro company) 2) This is key, and reflects some of the earlier posters comments. What is ‘CQB training’ for? Playing games is different to real life, a rapid run through often wins and when it doesn’t you just go back and respawn Is the ‘instructor’ just going to teach and run through some drills, or are they going to teach the strategy behind those drills so that you can understand them and apply the right ones at the right time? Additionally the abundant use of pyro might actually be the wrong way to do it Why are you going in? Do you want to kill/eliminate everyone you encounter? Are there friendlies that may be coming in other doors? Are you rescuing someone? If you go too slow will the hostages get executed? If you go too fast will the hostages get caught in the crossfire? In real life - why are you bothering to do CQB when you could just bomb the place and drive tanks over the rubble? The answer today would be because of the innocent civilians, the answer in Stalingrad was that by destroying the city without immediately defeating the Russians inside it that the Germans created the perfect defences for the Russians to hide in

Some of these SAS urban reference photos will be less useful than others:

I’m more likely to be in jeans & t shirt, but when it comes to dressing up I have preferred to be with the underdog or bad guys. Couple this with my fondness for wood I have a few AK47s and historically would have been for Russia Being in Salisbury and being friends of a particular local family I’m not going to be representing anything Russian However if wearing something might upset a branch of Russian SF then I may be inclined to do so

You made a statement that turned out to be wrong On further research though, 50% of UK shootings were by a gun club member with legally owned pistols The other 50% were also with a legally owned pistol but took place (probably) before gun clubs existed and about 50 years before the push to encourage organised shooting ranges for the general public to improve capability ready for whenever the Army needs more people for warfare https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:School_shootings_in_the_United_Kingdom

Well, the most obvious / significant / possibly only school shooting in the UK resulted in many measures including the banning of most handguns and further controls on getting a firearms certificate was conducted by the member of a gun club.

There is no such thing as ‘stolen valor/valour’ in the UK There is ‘walting’ ((There are parts of the Armed Forces Act that cover using uniforms to impersonate the services, and fraud legislation for the undercurrent of what someone is up to - eg conning people)) You get the ‘out rage’ clubs and walt hunting hobbiests, but they may be looked on as more sad than some of the ‘walts’ they hunt down. (Eg local care in the community individual that likes to wear a beret being hunted down and ‘exposed’ by keyboard warriors Any ‘normal’ service person or ex service person doesn’t care about people who dress up to play games (actually they care about the ones who pay extra on eBay for their kit) They do care about people who are bigging themselves up as someone they aren’t, or are conning with fake ‘hero’ charities (or ‘real’ hero charities with excessive ‘admin expenses’) As far as airsoft is concerned if you aren’t allowed to wear patches then why to you need RIFs? The entire justification to add an extra skirmisher defence by statutory instrument above the explicit defences in the core VCRA legislation is for the realistic immersion. Dressing up has been recognised as a core element to airsoft. Take that away to a bare uniform without patch’s and you can just use a coloured IF Don’t be a dickhead and pretend that you are something that you aren’t Do dress up with good ‘fancy dress’ if that’s what you like to do Don’t make yourself a personal security risk * * our paintball team logo is based on a genuine US unit. One of our founder members is a former Royal Marine and our original clothing came from a company who does unit clothing. If you don’t look at the detail it looked like a unit t shirt etc. I warned off a team mate on the way to a game. We stopped off at a garage, and he walked back out in ‘unit style’ t shirt, DPM trousers, boots, with short haircut, newspaper tucked under his arm, coffee in hand …… coming out of a garage at a garrison town. Perfect fodder for an opportunist. Even for someone who is going to pick someone to monitor and watch the individual and their car, follow them the next morning driving onto a military base - a ‘confirmed’ valid target with little awareness A soldier ought to be briefed on current alert states, any local risks and being aware of their surroundings. A bloke out for a sunday game has no idea what current risks are to service personnel and has little awareness Only if you’re prepared to buy my lunch when I trump your cadet corporal rank slide with my DCGS challenge coin On a sensible note - I’d recommend that anyone who wears uniform for a real purpose doesn’t go out playing in their work uniform, unless you have plenty of sets. Just more washing to get yourself back to standard after playing in the woods (Of course combat uniform is meant to get battered and dirty - but you try saying that when you walk into barracks or the cadet hut in a dirty crumpled uniform)