Rogerborg

Same goal, (very) different approaches to promoting it. It looks like your chap isn't registered on https://www.ukrainesupport.org.uk/collection-points - it might be worthwhile suggesting that as well as doing word-of-mouth.

Well, maybe. The only name on our very tenuous defence is "Sam Hardy" in Circular 031 / 2007. What hath been given by a rando can be taken away by a rando. Thanks, @Johndaniel4863, it's good to get a view from inside. Has there been a change in policy, or is it more a case of Border Force just enforcing the existing policy now? We can't control what foreign sellers actually do, and I doubt they're going to do more than put a UKARA on the packaging. It seems like this just isn't cutting it any more (if it ever did), and that if RIFs are spotted (and they might not be), that we're likely to have to go through the whole back-and-forth process. Is that a fair assessment? I mean, is there really any point in having a UKARA number put on the package now? I'm minded to wonder if doing so is making it more likely to be spotted and pounced on.

Indeed, I spotted a Silverback SRS retailer that had the option to put in a spring that would take it over 2.5J, i.e. an air rifle, not an airsoft gun. Perversely, that means that they should be treating it as a "firearm" sale, but not (per arguments made on here, which I don't actually agree with) as a realistic imitation firearm requiring any defence. See also (e.g.) MP5K CO2 airguns which look identical to either the real steel, or to the airsoft versions. The best we can say is that almost none of this seems to be enforced, and I've not found any relevant case law on https://www.bailii.org/ Speaking purely for myself, I'd rather trust Ali Express in the event of a snafu than some rando reseller based in the UK. If you are going to act as a re-seller, the real value you're adding is as a local point of liability when things go wrong.

So I've heard, but my B6 stores at 3.8V per cell which is (somewhat surprisingly) just 40% based on https://blog.ampow.com/lipo-voltage-chart/ 70% would be about 3.95V per cell. I have no firm opinion on what's actually best. The most I'd really venture to suggest that storing at anywhere between 3.6V and 4V is probably better than at under or over that range.

Are you bagging on Army Armament mock-Glocks from personal experience? My AA R17 has been fine for maybe 1,000 rounds, using its own mag or WE mags. If that doesn't sound like much, I'd suggest counting how many pistol shots you actually go through in a day. Paying TM or even WE prices for a woodland hip-hanger has never made sense to me, and my R17 has been fine as a CQB primary. If and when it fails, I'm minded to just buy another (and end up with loads of spares) than sink money into it or pay more for another brand which might fail out of the box.

From your other recent post, can we infer that this isn't a hypothetical desk? I knew it.

It depends on the charger. If you tell us, I'm sure someone here will have some experience with it. If it's using the SkyRC firmware it'll have a specific lithium balance mode, good for lipo or li-ion, and a "2S" i.e. 2... er... cell, or 7.4V settings. This actually means charging the cells up to about 4.2V each, or 8.4V for a "7.4V" battery. You should be able to set the maximum charging current. If I'm not in a hurry, I use 1C, i.e. the current that will charge the battery in an hour. For a 1600 mAh / 1.6Ah battery, I'd charge at 1.6A - you'll see the current drop as the battery gets full. Opinions vary, but you never want to over-discharge lithiums. I used to to leave mine alone unless they were very discharged, in which case I'd charge them fully. However, I've recently been convinced that keeping them at a storage charge level is kindest to them. A decent charger will have a storage setting, which will charge (or discharge) lithium battery cells to whatever it thinks (or you tell it) is an appropriate level. My iMax B6, for example, takes them to 3.8V per cell, which represents about a 40% charge. Some owners prefer higher, say 60-80%. Depending on your charger, this might represent about 4.0V per cell. What I wouldn't do any more is leave them at the full 4.2V per cell for any length of time, although I expect most of us charge to that level the night before a game. They're cheap enough now, especially in the overall context of airsoft costs, that it's not something that bothers me that much.

Ah, I see where we're going. Yes, if you ever do get into the RIF selling business, you'll doubtless want to get access to the UKARA database by jumping through the eleventy-nine hoops at http://www.ukara.org.uk/#retailer It seems somewhat circular as you have to show that you're in the business before you can get in the business, as a UKARA member. It's not a "licence" though, it's really just getting access to their database - which itself just records site membership - in order to adduce a defence. Other defences are available, although UKARA is the most popular and well known way of checking site membership. I can't see where they mention being a registered firearms dealer, and something that leaps out from the guidance is that your local force should reject the RFD application if "the chief officer of police is not satisfied that the applicant will engage in business as dealers in firearms to a substantial extent or as an essential part of other trades, businesses or profession." All just speculation on my part, mind. Like most of our firearms / replica legislation it's as clear as mud what the intention is regarding airsoft sales, and I imagine it'll come down to the local force whether they want you registered or not. I actually only raised the issue to speculate on whether the BBgunz4U style blue-and-orange tat-dealers are actually RFDs. If so, the bar must be set quite low.

How smart are we talking? SkyRC or similar, with a display? NiMH is a bit of an issue for chargers. With lithium (or lead) batteries, you can tell a charger what voltage the battery is, and it will know what voltage to limit itself to, as well as limiting the charging current. With NiMH, the charger doesn't actually know the voltage, or at least I've not seen one that does. It just charges until it sees the battery resistance spike / charging current drop, which indicates that it's (probably) full. You generally want to charge batteries at a low current, as heat damages them, but that makes it harder for a charger to spot the current drop when a NiMH is full. They can do it, but it's a slight risk factor, and some "smart" chargers - I'm looking at you Nuprol - are fit only for throwing in the bin, before they burn your house down. A 1600 mAh, i.e. 1.6 ampere-hour battery charged at 1 amp will take at most 1.6 hours to charge from completely empty to full, plus a bit more for heat losses. At 1.6A it should take an hour, At 2A, it will take 0.8 hours or 48 minutes, and so on. But batteries rarely get that empty, so those are upper limits. Keep an eye, or rather a hand, on the battery while it's charging, and if it gets uncomfortably warm, stop charging rather than pushing it too hard. Or skip all that and get yourself some lithium-polymer or lithium-ion batteries.

It's an interesting model, but I can't see it working in the UK. We're a cramped, crowded island with few areas of secure, isolated land that aren't in regular use, or subject to having public randos rambling onto them. Sites here sadly tend to get kicked off the land as soon as the landowner finds any other way of making money from it. Even if you could find a bit of land that's unused on a given weekend, landowners might not want to have it covered in plastic, or take on any vicarious liability. Indemnity for players might be do-able, Shooters Rights or similar could cover it. I say "could" because their underwriter will be set up to cover people shooting at things or beasties, rather than at other people who are shooting back. Still, it'll be fine on paper until it's not.

Do you have any more details on that? You'd of course need / "need" a VCRA Section 37 defence for each sale on a case-by-case basis, as do private sellers. Keeping a record of the sale would help you adduce that defence. But the definition of "firearms dealer" in Firearms Act 1968 S57 (4) only applies to firearms, shot guns and air weapons. Airsoft guns are not firearms, nor air weapons, for the purpose of that Act (or else we'd be screwed in Scotland). Chapter 15 in the guidance doesn't go any further than S57 (4), and FA Section 40 only requires keeping records for firearms. Neither S40 not S57 (4) mention imitations. It might be a sound idea to get yourself registered anyway in case you ever get asked why you have a bedroom or lockup full of replicas. However, I'm not sure why you'd need to be registered, and I can't see any obligation to keep any records or do paperwork beyond the S37 defence.

Heh, I was just watching Negative's EBR build and thinking "I bet that gets propped on a tree branch and not moved during each game".

Wow, that really is good value. Does the £28 include BBs? If so, the gun rental is close to being free.

Hi. I've put a fair amount of time into tinkering with my CYMA CM.123 AEP - they all use essentially the same internals. What you can do with them is limited by the tiny cylinder volume, and the battery space. With the stock nimh battery that comes in the older style AEPs, the semi auto trigger response was dreadful. Just switching to a tiny 7.4V 300mAh 35C/70C (notionally 10.5A / 20.1A) battery with a mini-JST connector helped significantly. It looks like you have a bigger 500mAh with a Deans connector, I don't know what C / amperage it can notionally supply, but you should already be seeing good response - for an AEP. When I gutted mine and shoehorned in a much bigger 1200mAh 25/50C (30/60A) in, using a full sized Deans connector, trigger response got a lot better. If you can find an 11.1V that fits, great. You've already got a mosfet which should take the trigger contacts out of the equation. Neither the Sigma nor the Jefftron say they support pre-cock, and I'd be surprised if they could given how the cut-off system works in an AEP. So I wouldn't bother changing the stock mosfet. Mine doesn't have one, and from what I've seen, current flow is limited by the battery, not the trigger contacts. Sorry, no idea about the motor, I have no experience with RC or 370s. I would note that even fractions of a mm of a difference in size can mess up your build, whether it's length, girth or shaft (snigger). On power, all AEPs come in around 200fps on 0.2g / 0.37J, i.e. weaker than a politician's promise. With the tiny cylinder volume available, and the curious nozzle design with a somewhat suspect sealing mechanism, it's hard to get much more out of them. The best I managed with an Eagle M90 spring and everything lubed to extremes was 240fps / 0.54J, at the cost of a noticeably slower trigger response. I mention this to agree that it's not worth trying to squeeze more out of them. Also, the gearbox is a bit of a chore to get back together, especially with a stronger spring. You're not going to want to hear this, but honestly, I'd fit the biggest battery that you can, and leave it alone. The best that I can say about AEPs is that they perform consistently.

Genuine "wut?". Do you mean some sort of loicence to import them? Given the shitshow of trying to do individual imports at the moment, is there some commercial track for getting RIFs past the fun sponges at Border Farce?

I'm surprised that airsoft remains so cheap. My two regular sites are £26.50 outdoors and just £25 for a full day of indoors. Neither do "free" food, but I'm fine with not having the price of a tepid hot dog costed in. The Depot 2.0 is now up to £36 a day, which is when I start to question the value for a site still under development. Although I'd be amazed if their income comes close to paying the rates on the building - I'd assume they're doing some sort of "sports charity" wheeze again. As just noted elsewhere, I reckon the real rate of inflation is running at well above the headline 4.9% CPI, given the hundreds of billions of new fiat that we've shaken from the magic money tree. That necessarily reduces the value of what's in our pockets. It's amazing that prices haven't risen further and faster. On that, if you're waiting for RIF and consumable prices to come down before buying, I wouldn't. Money printing and now sharp rises in fuel and energy are only going to drive prices higher. True, not when comparing site vs site. However, when comparing playing versus watching Netlix, it's a real consideration. At 50 to 70 mile round trips to the nearest sites now, I can't ignore the costs of fuel any more. Of course, this is all in the context of a hobby where we think £100 for a toy is bargain-basement. I'm sure many of us could find a season's play just by thinning our collections a bit. I've got RIFs in baskets at two retailers, but in both cases I've hovered over the buy button and thought "Wouldn't you rather spend that money on playing instead?"

Narp. GBP has been creeping up slightly against the Euro for the last year, but it's a small wibbles and wobbles either way. I'd assume it's just the long awaited price hikes coming down the chain. Most countries printed billions++ of $CURRENCIES over the past couple of years. This necessarily devalues the purchasing power of fiat, and everything is going up sharply. Food, energy, housing, transport, I reckon the headline 4.9% CPI is very optimistic.

Looks like he's already here and has played twice. I'd have no doubt that he really is a regular airsoft player. The issue is proving that to whatever fun sponge is warming the desk at Border Force when his Predator enters the UK.

I will never cease to be astonished at the enthusiasm for airsofters to hand our hard-earned over to some complete rando for a non-binding intention to possibly perhaps supply us with something not entirely unrelated to what we paid for at some indeterminate time in the range of next-week-to-forever.

He has been, he was convicted of fraudulently stealing money ostensibly going to Help For Heroes. As to why he hasn't been done over and over and over again since then...

Your local sites might have their own rules, I'd check with them what they think a "DMR" is, and whether they know that the Mk 12 is an actual thing. Precocking, meh, 100 milliseconds might make a difference, but so might Eddies in the space-time continuum. I reckon the default option is a CYMA CM.098 AR10/SR25 toy. I'd be looking for reasons not to start from there.

Hello, and I'm afraid the honest answer is going to be "We don't know" because this exact same question gets asked over and over, but the people who ask it never provide an answer once they've succeeded or failed. Even if they did, it will come down to the Border Force agent who actually handles your RIF. I have asked Border Force how many UKARA checks they perform, and they said that they do not hold that information as each agent handles their own cases, without a central record. What I will say is: JUST COS is not a defence. It is a scheme created by one retailer in order to give the appearance of a defence. Some other retailers now accept it, but they must be aware that cosplay is not one of the listed defences. The closest valid defence is theatrical purposes, but that's not what the (alleged) insurance covers. Of course, you may get lucky, and Border Force may not know that. UKASA, like UKARA, requires you to be a member of an airsoft site. Since most sites use the UKARA rules (at least 3 games, at least 2 months / 8 weeks) before they will offer you membership, I cannot see how UKASA helps you out here. Now, they may not actually really check site membership, but it will cost you £30 to find out. We do not know if Border Force are familiar with UKASA, but in any case the defence is that intend to use the RIF for airsoft activities, which is shown by site membership, not whether that membership is then recorded elsewhere, e.g. UKARA or UKASA. Military Vehicle Trust is the only scheme that I'm aware of that doesn't require evidence of activities, and which actually provides some evidence of a defence, i.e. historic reenactment. However, whether Border Force accept that for a modern imitation like the G&G Predator is again unknown. They shouldn't, because the defence you'd be claiming clearly doesn't apply to that replica. And you don't actually have that defence, which might become an issue if the police come knocking at your door wanting to know why you tried to import a realistic imitation firearm, and you suddenly change your story. Any of them might work though, it really will come down to how lucky you are. If you're really lucky, Border Force might even accept the evidence that you have played airsoft - and ideally receipts for future booking - as sufficient evidence. It would be a huge gamble though, given that it could end up with the RIF being destroyed and/or you being investigated. I would suggest that the safest option is to turn the Predator into a non-realistic imitation, by painting at least half of it (e.g. stock and handguard) in a bright colour. Airsoft retailers in the EU do send painted guns into the UK, and historically this was never a problem. Although again, Border Force may change their mind at any time. Since the VCRA does not mention durability, you could consider using paint that can be removed relatively easily, like Plasti-Dip. If you do this, I would label it clearly and honestly inside the packaging as a "non realistic imitation firearm" and "1.1J airsoft non-firearm" (or whatever energy level you want to claim for it). You could even disassemble it in order to make it clear to any inspection that it's not a real firearm. I'm sorry that we don't have answers to this, I realise it must be very frustrating that the process is so unclear and risky.

I think You Are Paying for all the Capital Letters they have Loquaciously Used in their Real Steel Detailed Description. Points for effort, although I really hope that when they say "Real Steel" that they don't mean that's actually a cannibalised M1903, even if they started with a de-activated JROTC unit. I wonder idly if it actually works in any meaningful fashion as an airsoft gun, or whether it's really just a de-ac that you can hang on the wall and exclaim "Hands off, that's lethal barrelled, that is, you need a loicence to get one." They don't mention magazines, and as we know there's no guarantee that putting a bunch of random parts together will produce anything useful.

The thing is, just between us girls [looks around] businesses that have switched from dedicated servers to internal cloud / on-demand services are now fretting over the costs, and constantly exhorting and inveigling their own staff to use less resources. Smaller binaries, they cry, less CPU, less bandwith, our docker images are out of hand, heavy users are being monitored. Cloudy may or may not be cheaper than having dedicated cable-monkeys and hardware, but it can all be costed now, and the bean-counters want to haggle over every nibble.