Rogerborg

Now closing in on Double Eagle M9XX or Edge 2.0 prices for old tech. They work well, but I really couldn't justify the price for the features - I wouldn't buy an M4 without a QC spring now.

Pretty much. Like a stranger walking into a pub and saying "Hey new besties, this place sucks, come and help me build a rival wine bar next door. Why? Well, it'll be better because it'll be better." Cool story, good luck, I'll love you when you win.

The UK limits for an airgun to be classed as non-firearm airsoft gun are 2.5 Joules for single / semi guns, and 1.3 Joules for auto-capable guns. I'm sorry that we can't say anything with certainty, but every case of individual importation seems to be a little different, depending on where the RIFs (or parts) are spotted, and by who. We've seen everything from them sailing through, to being asked to fill in a declaration, to being asked for a UKARA number, to the police showing up at people's door long after the import in order to check on it. It's a complete lottery.

You generally want to aim for 60-70% of new price for a used airsoft gun in decent condition, if you can find one. Sellers will always ask more and claim that their shagged out bag of loose bolts is "basically new" or "just test fired once", while buyers are always looking for a bargain. If you're after a specific model, you can always stick an ad in the wanted section here - https://airsoft-forums.uk/classifieds/category/17-guns-wanted/ - but you'll need to be very careful about scammers claiming to have just what you want, when all they have is a stolen stock image. Buying used is always a risk, and it's something I'd only encourage if you're willing to work on the gun yourself to remedy whatever it is that's prompted the owner to sell it. Buying in person and testing it first is a better idea, and it's worth asking around at your local site(s) to see what people have for sale. Clean the barrel, dial the hop in, and feed it the heaviest BBs that it will hop and that your wallet can stand (I tend to use 0.28g, other people go heavier), and you'll be competitive with anything else out there.

Ahoy and welcome. We'll see if anyone chimes in, but the great thing about airsoft is that it's a very welcoming hobby. It's absolutely fine to rent and show up alone, and super easy to get talking to people. Just ask anyone about their gun or the site and see if you can get them to shut up.

Tested, or told? I've not noticed anything unusual using a variety of weights and makes, but then I do clean my barrels.

I'm charitably assuming that was deliberate, to invite that reply.

Ahoy and welcome. The Specna is a decent enough choice, there's not much that they want doing to them - maybe a Maple Leaf hop rubber and nub, and an XT or ZCI barrel, although the stock stuff works fine, if you keep the barrel and hop clean. Ah, fog, the bane of our airsoft lives. I run various fan bodges myself, either 5015 based, or small fans on the goggles. Dual pane also really helps, e.g. Pyramex i-Force, or paintball style masks like the Valken MI-3. However, I'm not aware of any eyepro that would strap over a helmet and yet still give anything like a decent seal. One reason I mention the MI-3 (or fancier Dye equivalents) is that the mask itself covers your ears, so should retain, rather than dislodge, your cyborg tech. That would solve one problem, at the cost of creating another, getting a sight picture - I've lopped the bottom quadrant clean off my MI-3 to achieve that. Much of airsoft is try-it-and-see, although at the cost of lost hearing aids, I can see why you'd want to get it right first time. Worst case, can you pop a bit of tape or a plaster over them to keep them in?

Indeed, it's a question often asked and rarely answered. Border Force and the couriers seem have cracked down on this recently and there's a real risk that anything remotely gun-shaped will be seized and destroyed. If you have someone in Canadia who can post them on once you can adduce a solid defence, that's one option. The other gamble is to bring them in person (getting them on the flight is an exercise for the reader) and bring a fat folio of evidence that you have been, and will be, airsofting, i.e. booking information for events in Canada and the UK. Maybe even join the Shooters' Rights Association and wave the public liability insurance documents at them confidently - meaningless, really, but it's a process of convincing them that you're a good egg.

Problem: airsoft is split across too many groups, apps and websites. Solution: add another new group, app or website.

I do feel somewhat sorry for sellers who spend the kids' inheritance on building the gun that they want - which they then immediately decide that they don't want - but it's kinder to nip the fantasies in the bud.

Just when you think you've figured out the rebrandings, a new challenger appears. At this point I assume that I'll have to adjust any STANAG mag to fit and feed in any M4. Although having Specna mags not feeding in Specna guns is a fresh hell.

It really does vary wildly. Large events are rarer than typical game days. Generally speaking, everybody should have their guns chronoed once in the morning before playing. Typically there will be a set time for everyone to chrono, followed by a safety briefing before the first game, then (regardless of what the site has said about it) late arrivals will get chronoed and hold everybody up before the game starts. At a typical game day with 30 - 100 people, you'll be lucky to see two chronos. They're typically cheap Xcortechs, knock offs, clones, or feature equivalents of them. I've never seen sites check their chronos against each other, so if they're using multiples, it's a lottery which one you'll get. I bring my own (cheap, generic) chrono, check myself before the site does it, and then compare my reading to theirs to self-calibrate against that specific site. Sadly, I take it a lot more seriously than most sites really do. Some do, some don't. CQB sites tend towards it, as they're more likely to have a weight limit, typically 0.25g, so feeding 0.2g isn't too far off. I've seen CQB sites keep M4 mags with 0.2g BBs to hand, as many players use M4 style guns that will take them. Otherwise it's a case of the site putting BBs into the mag (often having to eject some first because players don't listen worth a damn). However, feeding 0.2g into guns tuned for 0.28g+ isn't particularly useful. You mention "Joule creep", so I take it you're aware that some (not all) airsoft guns, particularly full cylinder / long barrel guns like DMR and snipers, and gas guns, can impart significantly higher energy to heavier BBs as they linger in the barrel longer than a 0.2g would. The sites where I play now all just ask us what weight of BB we have loaded, which is fraught with issues, as players can get it wrong, sometimes genuinely - a fair number of people use borrowed guns and just get handed mags - and sometimes maliciously. The variety of BB weights in use is somewhat of an issue. People can and do show up with 0.2g, 0.23g, 0.25g, 0.28g, 0.3g, 0.32g, 0.36g, 0.4g, 0.44g, 0.45g, and others, more than a typical Xcortech knock-off can be pre-set to calculate for. Some sites will keep an fps / weight / Joules chart handy, some will re-program the chrono, some will shrug and guesstimate what the Joule figure might be. Typically 3, and the highest matters. Although if you're fractionally over, some marshals will ask you to put more through and see if it was a freak. If you're slightly over, they might suggest running some mags through as springs can soften slightly as they warm up. There are different energy limits for different types of gun. Typically these are: Automatic guns, or anything that you want to use up close without a minimum engagement distance: 1.13J - 1.2J (depending on the site) DMRs locked to semi and which have a minimum engagement distance and a restriction on rate of fire (notionally, it's rarely enforced): anywhere between 1.5J and 2.3J, with 1.88J being fairly typical. Bolt action snipers, with a minimum engagement distance: 2.3J - 2.32J Legally speaking, the limits on what define an airsoft gun are 2.5J for single shot guns, and 1.3J for anything auto-capable. So sites aim to come in comfortable below those. There are regular issues with people shooting on the piss through the sensor, or gas guns throwing it off and needing to be shot from further back, or having to take a few shots to vent excess gas, or tri-shot shotguns producing wild readings. A lot of it is muddling through, and sites don't really want to be telling players that they can't use a gun, or play at all. Yes, and typically sites will put a coloured cable tie somewhere on the gun to indicate that it's passed. This is itself open to abuse as cheaters can just bring a bag of ties, and guns tend to accumulate a rainbow of tags which are sometimes - but not always - snipped off. To ameliorate that problem, I've seen sites put the tie on, but not clip off the excess until everyone is walking on to the first game. One of my local sites is now recording the figures against your name on the sign-in sheet, but that has another issue in that it doesn't indicate which gun has been chronoed. I tend to bring three or more as spares or for variety, and sites are inconsistent on whether green gas pistols should be chronoed - even though there are some that shoot hot. CO2 pistols generally should be chronoed, but as side-arms tend not to get tagged, it's trivial to not bother. Now, with all of the above said, my personal position is that pre-game chrono as described above is a complete waste of time for the purposes of catching malicious and dangerous players, because it's so trivial to game or avoid it. What it does is to let honest players know that they're hot, so they can do something about it before they play. But honest players aren't the big risk. The only way to catch a hot gun in game is to catch it in game, using site BBs of a known weight. Despite what sites may claim, this very rarely happens. I've only been chronoed in-game once, and was just asked what weight of BB I was using. I'd like to see it happen a lot more.

Now, that's interesting, they're talking about feeding issued with their own OEM mags, and implying that the nozzle is going too far forwards. That looks like a plastic or pot-metal washer rather than rubber one. The thing is, the hop unit has to slide to align with the magazine feed, not the other way around, so I'm not sure why pushing it further away from the gearbox would solve the issue. It might very well do, because airsoft. They're saying it's the tappet plate, but I'd be curious to measure up 2024 mags and hop units against my 2021 examples to see if anything has changed there.

I can see them having one entrance for peasants, and a VIP lane for "regulars, marshals' mates, and influencers".

@Cannonfodder has nailed it - inviting experience in is an efficient way to make use of it. You'll get honest opinions about the potential of the site, particularly the amount of cover and lines of sight. You can have fun with that area, but it'll need a lot of build work to ensure that people can actually move around without being shot as soon as they take a step - most airsoft guns will shoot the whole length of that site. It'd be an interesting experiment to run it as a themed zombie / horror / LARP experience where you supply low range, low powered, low ammo / rate of fire - and cheap! - springer shotguns and pistols, particularly spring revolvers which are barely above Nerf power levels (but which will still need eye protection). It's actually easier to buy those in day-glo colours from various BBgunz4u style retailers, which doesn't need any sort of defence, then you can paint them any way you like. Getting realistic imitations isn't really a problem either. If you get yourself public liability insurance for the site to run airsoft events there - and you should, that's key - then I don't see retailers having a problem selling to you on that basis. They're in the business of selling airsoft guns, they just want to be able to tick a due diligence box. If you want to get your hands on a few RIFs to start doing photographic sets there, I'd suggest contacting retailers and just asking them what evidence they'd want to see. You only need one to say yes.

Hmm. Biohazard is doing that, they record the chrono figure against your name on the sign-in sheet. I'm guessing this is an insurance requirement, because I can't see any real purpose that's served over a simple pass/fail. "If" is doing some Herculean lifting there. Of course they're going to "differ", especially for gas guns. But why would that matter if the field chrono isn't over the limit? Yet again, a site is spaffing out some words that (probably) don't represent what they actually mean. As we say in Jockshire to confirm that we really believe something: Aye, right. Everybody does. Which is exactly why pre-game chrono should be viewed as a service to help honest players determine that they won't get caught hot in game, rather than a process that has any chance of catching cheaters. Again I'd have to assume that they meant to say "You can chrono again at NAF if you are worried." The sloppy communication just highlights a site representative who doesn't take this at all seriously.

I don't Classify much, but my rule of thumb is to not go down the dark alley with the stranger. You're free to ignore the request - I mean, don't even acknowledge it - and keep communicating here, then asking for or supplying a PayPal G&S invoice. If they're actually interested in buying/selling they'll engage. If they don't, you haven't lost anything.

For one, I'd advise avoiding that (re)brand. Nuprol chargers are notorious for going bang, and while they'll just be rebanding generic cells, they'll be the very cheapest they can source. On storage, there is a physics-based argument for storing at about 60-70% (3.7-3.8V), so you were doing the right thing by trying it. Personally I don't bother though, unless I suspect that I've run a battery very low by forgetting to swap at lunch. I just leave them as they are after each game then top them to 4.2V the night before the next. Lithium is pretty forgiving, I've found batteries and cells that I've misplaced for years and got them back into service, sometimes by jumping them directly to give them a quick boost to the point where a charger will finish the job. Given that an airsoft battery costs about as much as a bottle of BBs, eking every last charge cycle out of them isn't something that really concerns me.

Jockland? 😠 It's Jockshire. 1J is Norn Terror Isl- I mean, Northern Ireland. Jockshire, as above, needs a specific airgun loicence for non-airsoft airgun firearm, which is different from both a FAC and a shotgun cert - although you can apply for one along with a shotgun cert, for reasons that escape me. Where it gets interesting is that it's easy to accidentally turn a boltie into a >2.5J non-airsoft airgun. I've done it myself using a "500fps" spring that resulted in an eye-watering (or eyeball bursting) 3.3J. And remember that the airsoft power limit is with "any missile", so the State could drop in a 0.86g steel BB and watch it Joule creep to the moon. So now I tune to under 2.2J even at sites with a 2.3J limit.

I'm confused too. If those numbers are right, it's testing at 3.92J. Not enough for some super-spicy European countries, but way higher than anything we should be catching in the UK. It's also far higher than EN166 F, which plenty of people wear without issues. Not something I'd do, I always wear a strap-on, but I've never seen or heard of any eyepro actually failing on site. Aaah, now that makes sense. Thanks for reading on a bit.

Ah, OK. I'm just wondering why you'd specify fps rather than saying "1J". Not a big deal as they've released it, I'm just curious. Sorry to hear that you got mugged with all the costs, including the bill for being billed.

They realised the mistake was publishing it, rather than just verbally telling their regulars not to bother chronoing along with the chumps and mugs. But they can't unsay that quiet part out loud now.