ruskitseller

Yeah some really good points. It sort of makes me think I take it all for granted a bit. I just turn up nowadays and expect it all to be nipped, but I always make an extra effort to not piss staff off (yapping in briefings even though we have all heard them a million times is a bit of a pet peeve of mine) lol. I have ran some big games in the past and booked out sites for exclusive use, that was hard enough. By the sounds of it I think one thing that we can all agree that makes a "good" site is: Staff/Management - who operate a tight ship. No favouritism among the regulars is a key operational show of excellence to me, as well as a firm and fair way of managing fair play (aka hit taking) - at Spartan, the staff carry rifs and will test you. Tackle is quite right, you can have the coolest site ever like Longmoor which is used by MOD still for FIBUA - but if you get some not so great staff, then that can ruin the day no matter where you play. And yeah Galvaton, again I think you hit nail on head. I think I know why Spartan does a pay to book only now! 😁 My philosophy is that we play the game for the enjoyment of others, in that - taking hits is about ensuring your fellow player has a decent day, this is of course philosophised in perhaps the naïve sense that others will agree with this lol. I am sure I am not the only one who has seen a patch in the woods somewhere and thought "hmmm maybe I should start an airsoft business"...I can barely run a bath these days! 🤣

Yes possibly. I suppose we should have started off by setting some universal definitions as in: What constitutes a "crap" site? What constitutes a "good" site? There seems to be a lot of factors in determining this. Is a cheap to run site defacto crap, or are they doing something right elsewhere on a shoe string budget...and of course vice versa I wonder if they do a "site of the year award" somewhere. 🤔

Hi mate, I remember UCAP Sandpit shutting down to be built on and I was gutted. But to me its mostly just a matter of business metrics as in - surely only the ones that continue to draw in good crowds and provide consistency (as much as is possible within airsofting) tend to stick around? (Outside of things beyond control e.g the landlords turfing out I suppose) I think there are a lot of decent sites that have stood the test of time (Skirmish Exeter and Warminster Airsoft are some good examples) because people will simply keep on returning, but also there will be other factors such as just bad luck and going on a day where all planning goes to s*** and where you will experience non hit takers etc. and forever brand the site as rubbish. Outside of repeat custom I suppose the rest is very subjective as to what constitutes a "good" site. Cheers

The photo rule has been working a treat so far and is a great addition. I have not received any dodgy scam messages since. Now we seem to have voucher pushers using the small hours of the morning to try and post bizarre and extremely boring long messages in German about Basil Fawlty or something! (My German isn't what it used to be haha!!) 🤣

A very warm welcome to the old git club. I am a younger old git who enjoys the highs and lows of cutting about in ridiculous amounts of kit and taking things like comms with an frustratingly serious dedication at times haha! But..."at the end of the day" the hobby is just a bit of fun and in no way to be taken too seriously. My advice (for what it's worth which is normally approximately zero) is to start as you mean to go on in terms of site etiquette; it is better to over call your hits than under call them out of the uncertainty of being hit. You can never go wrong if you do that, apart from frustrating team mates who may say "that didn't even hit you (expletive)!" lol. Oh well, I'll be back in a minute...(in my head as "dead men can't talk"...) 🤣 Cheers

Yes I am not surprised, I was going to try making one myself and using the Lancer Tactical - 32 13" Gen 3 as a base but it would need a lot of work and money to get it close...if you half shut your eyes and look at it through binos the wrong way around...KS-1 from Wish

Good research mate, very interesting. How is the build going?

Ah cool - out of interest, how much would one expect roughly on recreating such a thing of beauty please?

That is a great job - thanks for sharing. I see some premium models coming out that are rather expensive... You have nailed the look. Is any of it 3d printed?

Great question mate, I love a bit of philosophy. But do/did I regret buying a new shiny RIF against my better judgement, the communities guidance and my wifes? In the words of Sean Connery: Absholutely! 🤣 And in the words of me that I thought about it last night. I was once doing some NLP training and the guy said "there's no such thing as failure, only feedback." Perhaps regret is the prerequisite to gaining wisdom and incite. Or that is how I make myself feel better about everything! 🤣 Cheers chaps! Off to work now.

Haha that made me lol. I believe you have just, as the yout say, "won the intranet" old chap. I googled Kicking Mustang and some of his "popular" vids on the Ytube- I get it now. Is it me or are a lot of airsoft vids in general now merely about clickbait that just promotes dramas rather than just a calm day of play in the spirit of good sportsmanship... I suppose controversy and arguments over daft things gets clicks and actually generates money. Odd world. Totally off topic (sorry, well sort of on topic regarding wives) but my wife likes watching that "Married at first site" and all it seems to be is arguments, conflict and drama non stop. It is a very popular programme so I am told. 🤣 Anyway, I may have done (I have) exactly what OP has done myself where I have asked for advice but already committed to doing the thing I want to do anyway, so I do get it, but all of this thread is actually really good advice for anyone considering getting into sniping. I have recently been thinking about getting back into it myself along with getting an SMG as a side arm, the last time I did it lasted 4 games with this custom made VSS where it was an SVD cut down and a really long suppressor fitted over the barrel...but that was 10 years ago. I am very tempted by one of the tac-41 lite's...

Yes mate, it is a very well known phenomena in the psycho-social sphere. The realisation can be used as a model in order to discuss things like trauma and also linked to the great existential questions surrounding free will versus that of determinism. The truth is, we all make up our minds, normally before we seek opinion. We tend to just look for confirmation bias to help us feel more ok with our decision, of course this isn't always the case - but with passions of buying new kit I think it probably is haha. Perfectly normal behaviours by the way - we all do it.

I have reached a point in my life where I am unsure of what is a joke and what isn't lol! Is this satire or legit? Thanks

Haha! Story of my life Mark- "I was doing so well up until" 🤣 He is a bit of a cringey drama queen from what I have seen, but I have only watched around 5 of his vids. It seems he has done something terrible that I don't know about, I am going to google him now. It is a game full of a variety of different players and I have seen some very concerning behaviour and extremely angry outbursts over the years from plenty of different people that makes me question what I am doing running around in the woods pretending to be action man with dodgy knees, bruised ego and back haha. I did watch one of his vids (the last one I ever watched about 9 months ago) and thought - just that. I do like CamMan and also Names Nico who is a vet, but also I really liked Georaga who is also a really top bloke and a gentleman, but I think he has stopped content. I think the moral of the story for my comment is that...Airsoft has a way of bringing out the very worst of people and this gets shown on camera for likes and it is not always a realistic representation of what a normal game day is like...bullseye after bullseye...screaming "take your hits mate" ad nauseum. It doesn't give the game a great image and the reality is, for the most part - I think those situations are few and far between thankfully although that is anecdotal. Anyway, back on subject eh! Hi Andy, Fair enough mate. The thing is, the brain actually makes its mind up way before we consciously realise in some cases. Finding your own way is fine, you never know - you might get a sniper and be set. Now...which gun shall I get next only to sell on in a few months? 🤣 Cheers

The lads chiming in are right... We see it a lot on site where new guys buy all the new sniper gucci gear - 2 weeks later it is all sold and replaced by a TM M4. But we have all done it with other RIFs so its probably more of a "do as we say and not as we do" sort of thing haha! 🤣 It is a totally different type of playstyle and nothing like that level in COD really. Also, it can be quite frustrating with non hit taking where you see the round hit someone's noggin and he won't take it and merely bugs out. Maybe watch some of Kicking Mustangs vids if you haven't already, they are quite entertaining and informative of the issues you may face...or maybe you have been watching too many of these vids...🤔 No dramas haha! But if you must - the Tac 41 lite is a really good one for the price and probably the best out of box budget option. Cheers

Good to know, what sort of range and accuracy are we talking about here from those who have commented? I may well pick one up, its proof that you don't always need to spend millions to have something decent. I remember having a TM springer pistol that was accurate up to 15 whopping gurt metres like a laser haha! Cheers chaps

Yeah thanks for that mate, that is the sort of thing I am going for. I have some of bits for it now. I also have a Camelbak Mule rucksack for hydration, although I do also have an Osprey water grenade.

Great job documenting all of this mate. Very interesting. Thanks!

My wallet says "no". My back says "no" (maybe 20 years ago!). But my mind says "do it anyway".

Nice one Butcher that's a great collection mate and thanks for sharing. I wonder...if you could only be stuck with one for the rest of your life, which one would it be? Cheers mate!

Good interesting vids thanks mate. I used to run a smersh many moons ago when I was in a big team. Good stuff. He is right about fitting the gear to the day/night. I think the old adage sums it up, its the soldier that makes the gear - not the gear that makes the soldier. You don't always need all the bells and whistles to make a good loadout.