Adolf Hamster

yeah, kind of shitty if there's enough interpretation in the governments guidance that that's the only way to actually find out. i don't know about you but i'd rather know what the law is so i don't break it, rather than find out after i've already done it......

tbh i'd say airsoft is as deserving of being called a sport as any other shooting sport, sure you could argue that it relies on equipment but then so does motorsport. it can be both a hobby and a sport, but the main thing is regardless of which it is there still needs to be representation. i think druid summed it up perfectly: at the moment it's just a few weeks stuck indoors (well, for you lucky buggers on the mainland at least), but there are other issues for our hobby, everything from the small scale confiscation of individual parcels as @Asomodai has had to deal with, through to fighting the next wave of "ermegerd bern erll der gernz" movement which is an ever present problem for any hobby involving gun-shaped objects. we haven't really had one because initially it's a grassroots industry, which is great for ease of access and initial growth, but as has been discussed makes for instability and has issues where site quality is basically luck of the draw. not sure about the lottery argument, i suppose it would be nice to reach a level of recognition where such things can happen but it's not what's motivating me into wanting some oversight. in the long run a well established governing body can set standards such as chrono practice, fps limits (where applicable, such as where dmr's are in relation to rifles/basr's, or lower cqb limits etc), ratio of players to marshals, training for site staff, standardized game rules, how to deal with rule breakers, it could negotiate bulk insurance deals, organize larger events, get involved in larger scale charity work, manage PR and fight both the big and small legal battles. that's in the future of course, rome wasn't built in a day and all that, but i'd rather we were dictated terms by a governing body that we had some input for than be ripped apart the next time a politician with an axe to grind reads about little timmy who took his 2-tone justbbgunz special into school and decides to drop the banhammer.

I aint arguing against hpa, would be a big hypocritical given how deep i went down the air line rabbit hole. But m4 mag on a pistol is a whole different level........

don't encourage him! he can still be saved!

kind of a vicious circle, a body won't have that power until enough people sign up to it, once they represent enough of the uk airsoft scene (not just players but sites and retailers too) then they'll have weight. which leads us to: it does seem they're the best option we have, and arguably better to bolster their ranks to get it moved in the right direction quicker.

my bad, wrong quote agree with that, there is a big difference between a private game with a few mates, and those few mates deciding to run a site, the danger of course being that they'll run things so they have fun, rather than the paying public. staff being players is a tricky one, on the one hand experience as a player might help, but additionally it might hinder especially if they're bringing bad habits from their own playstyles into their work. of course this is part of what a governing body could do- guides on best practice, what to do when dealing with a cheater? what behaviour should constitute a ban? how to follow up on complaints etc.

a very valid question, and i suspect the single biggest barrier any organisation is going to have at the outset. once it's established, well known, and has the majority of the player/site/retailer base behind it then it'll be an organisation with weight like the fia or (i don't know football so just pretend i put a football appropriate acronym instead of this long-ass bracket) as you say initially such an organisation is going to have no power, no weight, and very little efficacy when it starts out. hence the initial questioning of what organisations already exist that perhaps could be transformed into the role rather than starting afresh.

you can't, i realise it's been a slippery slope to this point but you can still be saved, just stare into the light my brother:

interested to see how it goes, it's gonna be hit hard with active brake and precocking- i am not a kind man to motors. gonna have a very similar build to my akm too, so a good side by side comparison. tbh i'm glad someone's taking a serious go at bringing brushless to the airsoft world, i mean brushed motors were old hat in rc when i started and that was over a decade ago. but then this is a hobby where nimh's still exist (nicads even)......

are you meaning sites that are run by airsoft players as opposed to businessmen? because from what i've seen those kinds of sites can have issues of becoming cliquey/unwelcoming to folks outside the core group. there is value in the owner/marshall staff of a venue having a certain impartiality to the player base. as i mentioned in the op it's more than just the lockdown issue, although that is a symptom that highlights the problem. the main thing (for me at least, others will have their own opinions) is the airsoft lottery where sites can be pretty decent to woefully bad, with the most common symptom being very weak organisation/enforcement of rules with chronic lack of marshalling. there's also the issue of fighting the legal battles, say the government decides a flat 1j limit would be a good idea- who have we got to fight that? if they see one too many daily fail article about some chav and his pew being dumb and decide to bring in all the 2-tones, that kind of thing. in the long run a site should want to sign up to the governing body, make it a badge of honour, if you're part of that network is means you're site is going to have systems in place to be consistent, and players will want to play at your site because they know you're able to offer them a good time. additionally a body representing hundreds of sites that follow a consistent ruleset will probably have a better chance of getting a good insurance bulk deal than a bunch of independants. i for one don't like walking off-site before lunchtime because a group of arseholes has picked to play at that field and the site won't or can't do anything to address the issue. that's kind of our point, currently every site owner is his own cook, does things his own way. what we want is mcdonalds- it might not be the best, but you know what you're getting. i hate how much i agree with this

in the long run it would be nice to have a kind of minimum standard for sites, but initially sites just won't listen so anything the governing body does initially needs buy-in from the sites or it won't work. edit: to clarify i don't have an answer for how to go about getting it setup, i'm just pondering on what i'd like to see eventually because it sucks not being able to predict if a day is gonna be utterly amazing or completely shit when the quality of play is almost entirely down to the caliber of players who decided to pick that site on that day.

sounds like they're wanting to get an official body setup, which would be good if they can do it right. i can see the biggest hurdle is going to be awareness and buy-in, i mean i've been to sites that don't bother with ukara (as in they cant be bothered setting themselves up on the system so they can get their members/regular players registered) and i can see it being hard to persuade them to go for something like this.

just putting it out there but pretty sure captain price has been a character in the COD franchise since the WW2 stuff

somewhat topically relevant given todays news with regards to returning after lockdown. figured it might be worth discussing what our thoughts are in general when it comes to the subject of a governing body for airsoft, what options are out there, what we think we'd like to see it become, etc etc. seems the de-facto candidate would be ukapu but i'm curious if they have any competitors, or perhaps if there's scope they don't currently cover that might be worth them looking at. the vrca was before my time but afaik wasn't it ukapu who managed to prevent us from 2-toned oblivion? i guess for me i'd quite like to see something that provides not just representation in the legal/political sphere, but also guidance for sites, ideas on best practice, even things like training for site owners/marshalls (eg consistent rules on how/when/why a player should be banned) one of the big annoyances with airsoft (at least my experience of it so far) is the lottery of sites, it's seemingly anywhere from sub-sections of larger businesses that have airsoft as part of a range of activities such as paintball, assault courses, teambuilding events etc, right the way through to farmer joe who's more than happy to let a bunch of folk run around his land of a sunday evening for £20 a head. problem is with no real formal guidance these places can be anywhere from one or two "marshalls" (read: couple of the site owners kids doing marshalling for pocket money) and a laughably open chrono setup (or even none at all) right the way through to places that try their best but get stuck in bad practice (such as the ol' 1fps over with the hop turned off on .2's and you're gone no we don't care that joule creep is a thing) types. needless to say the grassroots nature of airsoft has it's charms, ease of access being one of them, and i realize that this sort of thing isn't going to happen overnight, but it would be nice to dream of a world where you can rock up to a governed site with reasonable expectations on what the place is gonna be like.

yeah, really surprised me to see just how cheap those things are. not the worst guns out there, it's basically a bullpupped aksu with a rube-golberg fire control setup and m4 mags.

aww man, awesome games, defo worth a playthrough. the storyline might be a bit, errm, russian, though

i think carpet would be a much better option than foam, a bedsheet would work however might be a bit on the weak side if you're shooting up close.

isn't it the other way round? ie we need a governing body to lobby for airsoft being a sport? i do think a governing body would be a good thing, someone to set standards for sites to aspire to and make things a bit more consistent than the complete lottery it is at the minute. edit: done been ninja'd

isn't that basically the kalash 2012 from metro?

welp, just caved and bought all the things, but the most notable is decided to take a punt on the warhead brushless motors so have an order in for the standard short-shaft version.

druid beat ya to it:

owch, wonder what got them doing that? shame really as if everyone is acting sensible airsoft is a good option for maintaining social distancing outdoors, certainly compared to an indoor gym...... still suppose it's good to be clear about where it stands rather than playing the guessing game. remember hearing that being used as the excuse last summer, can't remember how the interpretation went, something to do with it being skill-based

this sounds very much like the "mcbuckshot" shells a fella on here was fond of making out of mcdonalds gravy pots. as long as it's lightweight materials that will either shred or fall away when fired so you're not smacking someone with a single big mass i can't see it being that bad, certainly not compared to impact tag rounds which scare the bejesus out of me.

it's a shit one, but the plan here seems to be hold onto the current lockdown for much longer in the hope that we can avoid closing down again. hopefully it works. owch, you're gonna want some ice on that burn

think he mis-spelled mosfet. black talon is the company that makes them rather than the name of the mosfet itself.