Rogerborg

My AB++ has it as well, and I should really turn it on. Sadly, my local doesn't require it, and you're lucky if you even get checked for semi-lock at chrono. But that's a different, and more general, rant about the uselessness of pre-game chronoing for catching chancers.

Yarp, it's entirely up to your local sites, you'll need to ask them. It's one of the most LARP-ish aspects of airsoft, as functionally, the BB doesn't give a stuff about what it came out of. Locked-to-semi is both a site issue and a legal issue, as anything capable of auto and over 1.3J is a Section 5 firearm, not an airsoft gun. It's easily enough achieved on most guns just by filing a small amount off the fire selector so that it can't push on the semi-auto cutoff lever. My local is fine with me running a long barrelled M4 with a scope and solid stock as a DMR. They are indeed super-exploitable, and enforcement is essentially non-existent. With the best will in the world, when you're presented with a juicy target in the open, it's hard to resist the reflex to send two[*] BBs at them in short order. My other local disallows them entirely, and only allows sub 1.2J auto guns, and bolt actions up to 2.2J, nothing in between. I actually agree with this. [*] Ten.

Sorry to hear that. Exceptions exist, but as a general rule of thumb, anyone wanting to be paid other than by PayPal Goods and Services is planning to screw you. All airsoft MP5K guns that I'm aware of use a V3 gearbox, with that looooong trigger pull. Easy enough to check, using the pictures on the page above, or a guide like this one. With the caveat that nothing in airsoft is standard, a G&G or Guarder shell might suit. The other alternative is to look for a boneyard MP5K, AK or G36 that's cosmetically wrecked, but it's always tricky to find a real bargain, honestly described.

A particularly gopping 2-tone at that.

You mean you want to reach 1.13J. I stress this because thinking and talking in terms of fps (implicitly with a 0.2g BB) is legacy thinking. The only way you're going to get it tuned for the ideal amount of power for the BBs that you actually want to use is to test with them, properly hopped. I know that this isn't practical for kitchen-table teching, but there's no magic solution other than going through a few iterations of actually shooting it in the field. That said, those numbers do look low for an M105 spring, so I'd be thinking air-seal now. This is how to test for end-to-end airseal, then if it's not perfect, you'll start working backwards to find where it's leaking.

[Much typing deleted, I just do this] I'd stress being careful to heat only the last coil, and just enough squish it, as the heating will de-springify it. If you only want to lose a small bit of energy, you can just heat and squish a coil without cutting it at all. [EDIT] Right, basically what @Pseudotectonic said.

Perhaps we might prepare young people for the society that we'd prefer to live in.

[citation needed]

Well, I've read the law. It's not secret. Yarp. Excellent news! As above, retailers want to sell, and are really just checking a box in their records.

Huh, then that's surprisingly high power for a stock VSR-10. I'm guessing that it Joule-crept up to there on the 0.28g and might have come out under 1.14J on 0.25g. If your son is enjoying using it, I'd be minded to leave it as stock, other than dropping the power very slightly so that it's just under 1.14J with the heaviest BBs that it can lift (I'd hope 0.32g wouldn't be an issue). You'll keep the light pull, not stress the components, and lose the MED. Just dropping in 0.25g might bring it under the MED limit.

There's no offence committed by purchasing[*], or attempting to purchase, within the UK. If you can persuade someone to sell you one, then it's legal for you to buy it. It's entirely up to sellers what they accept as a defence, as they're the one committing the offence of selling. Sportsman Association / Shooter's Rights / JustCost are all bogus non-defences, but that's their problem, not yours. Or some sellers accept Military Vehicle Trust membership to adduce the re-enactment defence. The other thing you can do is contact a retailer directly and provide some evidence that you have a history of playing airsoft. It's entirely up to each seller what they accept. [*] Somewhat bizarrely, it is an offence to modify a non-realistic imitation firearm into a realistic imitation firearm, but not to buy it. But you'll never find anyone who cares.

There is an argument to be made that if you're not going to do anything to a stock boltie then you might be unable to fully hop a heavier BB, or you have to apply so much hop pressure that you drop the muzzle energy to the point where a lighter BB would end up going further. Which is why I was careful to say "starting with the same energy at the muzzle, and assuming that the hop can impart enough spin". The thing is, a stock Tokyo Marui VSR is likely to be shooting at something comically low like 0.72J (280fps with a 0.2g). I'm not sure if OP is rocking a VSR10 clone, or if it's pre-meddled, or if it Joule crept upwards rapidly with heavier BBs. Either way, there's only really two sensible ways to go with it: tune it down to under 1.4J, or up to 2.3J shooting the heaviest BBs that it will hop at that muzzle energy.

Yes, I recall both laughing and being horrified about it then too.

Haunted by the spirit of the original magic dust?

I like that it lists the price of the original TM Hi-Capa, then every single part that's been replaced, which appears to be... every single part. Trigger's Hi-Capa? 🤷‍♂️

Airsoft, in general.

Raven is a sub-brand of re-brander Nuprol. You're at least two re-sellers away from anyone who cares about their reputation. WE is the better choice out of those two. If you want a pistol as a primary, I'd push the budget to a Toyko Marui. If you want something as a casual use secondary (although I've used mine a fair bit in CQB), the Army Armament R17 can be had for less than the Raven, and works well enough.

The i4 is fairly minimalist for a full face mask. But the i5 doesn't appear to be substantially larger, and I'm not at all clear on what justifies the huge price increase over (for example) a Dye SE or Valken MI-7, both of which have good coverage and dual pane lenses.

There are legitimate concerns with not being able to hear or convey safety-critical information. These can be overcome, but it's hardly patronising to consider and enumerate what adjustment need to be made, and the reasonableness of them (and I think they are reasonable, and it is doable). Perhaps it might be an idea to ask the chap what information he needs, and how he'd prefer to receive it. As you say, he's been dealing with this all his life.

And people outside the Church of HPA will decry it as heresy. (Because it is).

CQB would be a mare but woodland might be do-able. Kid-wrangling rules would apply: you'd need to be with him all the time, and if he's out, you're out (although not necessarily the other way around). If they don't have a written safety brief, this would be an opportunity for them to remedy that. Heck, you could write down what they've been telling you and give it to them. Overshooting might be an issue, he'd need to be made very aware of the need to look out for bands, hands and postures. Cease-fire / man-down shouts would be my big concern. You'd want to agree some unambiguous signs for the safety critical stuff. Individual game briefs, get a small whiteboard and write down a precis. Heck, it'll be useful to remind the marshals what's going on. A little preparation can go a long way.

Ahoy and welcome. Just to check, do you want an M4 / AR-15 platform? Nothing wrong with that, most of us have one (or two (or three)), but there are few really bad choices in the current market. AK, G36, MP5, P90, M14, pistol-calibre-carbines, they all work. Airsoft is a heart-over-head hobby, the only real regret is being too sensible.

Surely that should be V.A.T.S. included?

Yarp, £250 for a £190 gun (plus some stuff you probably already own) is beyond wildly optimistic. However, I think the most egregious sin is that half the beige two-tone has been blue two-toned. 🤢

M4/STANAG mags are all over the place. I've measured up to 1.5mm difference in front-to-back dimensions across my collection, and, vitally, in the location of the feed. It's a wonder that any of them feed at all. Having to add shims, or even file or sand down the mags, isn't unusual.