GeorgePlaysAirsoft

Finding a good/"perfect" set up requires trial, error, and money. and that is for those of us without a skin condition or similar. The sad fact is that you are looking for the impossible: something that offers complete face protection, is comfortable, and doesn't interfere with playing the game. i reckon that for the majority of people that play airsoft for long enough go with less protection rather than more. i suggest that you basically have two lines of protection which are modular and allow you "min max" as best you can. firstly you want a pair of goggles or glasses that fit underneath a helmet. i don't know what to suggest here tbh. for protecting your teeth and to a certain extent, nose i would go with this: https://www.tactical-clothing.co.uk/product/laylax-aeroflex-face-guard-black-12671 i would guess that the silicon is less irritating than mesh/cordura or what have you. i would also consider a balaclava, depending on skin irritation you may need to experiment between synthetic (i like underarmour "heatgear" balaclava) or something like merino wool or variants thereof be it smartwool or whatever. I've found these to be more or less essential for wearing helmets for a long period of time as the pads "glide" over the balaclava rather than your hair and follicles or whatever else. after that i think a helmet with visor is probably the best bet for protecting your face. this means that you can flip the visor up or down depending on your risk tolerance and so forth. i think any helmet with a visor would do, but i would recommend getting a decent set of pads and a retention system with a boa (or similar) dial to allow you adjust the tension on the fly. comfort really is king. with a visor you will benefit from a gun with a funky "visor" stock and a sight on a tall mount as has already been mentioned. money aside there's no disadvantage to this really. good luck.

Kicking Mustang did WHAT!?!?!

It's 100% the sight. I gently disagree, I think you can zero optics to airsoft guns effectively provided you have the right expectations. I + others had a little zero sesh not so long ago and we were pinging a dumbell plate (so a bit smaller than a dinner plate) 20-25m (based on google maps) very consistently. Yes, wind effects things but I think having to walk the bb onto target is a bit of a low bar to set yourself, I think you want to do as much as you reasonably can to get the first shot(s) accuracy. Obviously an optic is not going to make up for an inconsistent gun. But if the gun is consistent then it is the optic. I have used many a cheap optic in my time and its not a matter of "holding zero" but seemingly can't be zero'd at all. If they work for other people great there are no prizes here but I have a much better time with budget, "real steel" optics - vortex, holosun and so forth. The most I've paid for a single optic I think was £130. Whilst it's dead now (so old the battery corroded and messed it all up) I did have one of these which is well priced and worked well. I remember spending the time to get it dialed in and having a "yes, this is how it's supposed to be" moment: https://www.opticswarehouse.co.uk/vector-optics-tempest-1x35-four-reticle-dot-sight

Interesting thread. I try to get get a "milsim"/24h(+) game once a month between october-may, with some skirmishes sprinkled in between. Sometimes we'll travel to a particularly cool site and get an airbnb the night before. And I tend to take summer off just because of holidays and that sort of stuff. And real life gets in the way too. I managed to get ill 3 times in a row between october and december last year so had to pass up on some games. For me getting to a 24h game is £200 taking into account ticket, fuel and food. It's about 20hours of play (say 4hrs sleep) and about 8 hours of driving total. The sites near me are around an hour away so i think I get good value-for-money-for-time. But I do notice it leaving my bank account of course. I would like to get to skirmishes more. If the difference is either going by myself or not going at all, I'll go by myself. But if I do go by myself its half "i have the itch" and half "i have a new bit of kit i want to try out but don't want to take it for a first spin at a 24h game". The thread about "fireteams" sums it up really. When your "normal" is playing with your friends in a somewhat organised squad, with a squad and command radio net (even if comms can be iffy!) then my expectations for a skirmish aren't lower as such, they're just different. I would like to do more skirmishes next year though. Mostly because I am moving so I want to check out some sites i've not been to whilst I have the chance. And when I do move I'll be closer to my airsoft friends so easier to do skirmishes with them. (when it comes to the 24h games we are equally far away, just in different directions). I'll also have quite a few really cool sites all within about an hours drive so that'll be nice too. I also hope to have some "life changes" which will probably impact my ability to go away for entire weekends but whatever i think it'll be worth it.

There's not really a fuss as such I don't think. I've filled in two of them and don't get me wrong, I'd rather not fill in a form, I'd rather not pay customs charges but it is part of the game and I didn't have a "bad service" from UPS. I think its easier to understand the fuss if you've had to complete the form for parts only, not a RIF. If you import a RIF I imagine it would be fairly straight forward. If you just import parts, it's a bit more of a pain to get your head around. It's not that UPS are intentionally asking you for UKARA for parts, it's just not a very good form. Admittedly this was a few years ago it might have changed. But imagine you are me and you have ordered a torch mount from evike. You'd fill in section A saying you're a private individual. In section B RIF parts fall under "RIF" so you have to complete section C. It's not a RIF, so you select "no" for that. But then when you tick "RIF parts", it asks you to complete the RIF section anyway, including the event you're using it for, your UKARA number..velocity declaration etc. Not to mention the form then asks you about RIF parts again, except this time they want you to complete a section about unrealistic, realistic imitation firearms! It is / was just a bit of crap form. I've had people PM me after seeing my post on the first page and I've had to walk them through it a bit. It's not they are stupid, the form is. I get the impression it was written by one person, perhaps in a hurry, and noone else checked it.

i am going to out myself as being on the left of that pic...fwiw your idea of "reasonable" may shift if you get the nods bug. We try to get to a 24h game once a month which is around 8hrs driving total and £200 or so for fees n fuel with night games here and there especially in autumn-winter. Maybe not for everyone, but it's very much for us! Also without checking their website i am pretty sure warzone do/did evening games on saturdays too. Whether or not nods are worth it to you is another matter entirely and is not something that anybody can really advise on. For me it was just a gut feeling.

Interesting idea. I have been trying to think of ways i can make cheap targets for "practical plinking". ideally ones that give a nice ping on impact. I was thinking of buying some cheap baking trays and sticking them on canes. Does anybody have any better ideas? thank you.

I have used these which are firmly "ok", they are let down by the molle strap with the push button - the strap is slightly too long, and because its a push button not one you keep threading through does mean it dangles a bit and sits offset from whatever you mount it to... a small thing but is annoying as timed bfgs are a bit heavy. https://www.flecktarn.co.uk/sdtop4nx.html I also used the HW holsters which are great at what they are supposed to, though ultimately I don't think they are well suited to anything outdoors as they can slip out. I think some extra elastic retention would be good for added security. The malice clips also had the same issue as above - maybe i am just being fussy. Finally I came across this: https://thegeardocrow.com/2021/03/18/review-cellar-gear-flashbang-pouches/ I asked Cellar Gear to make me two of these in the form of a dangler that attaches to chest rig/plate carrier. I've attached a picture. I think its pretty cool. As you can see there's some fraying of the stitching which isn't ideal. I think this cost me £45 which is pretty good for a bespoke bit of kit. It was certainly cheaper then when I was window shopping to do the same thing using a molle panel, molle pouches etc. One improvement that could be made is a slot/channel to accommodate the pin whilst letting the grenade sit deeper inside the pouch.

not playing "devils advocate" but depending on the venue I would probably be interested. I've heard the horror stories so rest assured if it was total crap then i've only myself to blame. I get the point about voting with your wallet which is fair but on the other hand there is clearly a market for this. Despite all the bad reviews, people will come back, or in my case, consider going for the first time. Why is it only ai500 securing cool places to play airsoft? Why is no other site operator communicating with developers and landowners? Is that you can only make such events economically viable if you cram as many customers as you can in? Perhaps!

yes very impressed with gunman tuddenham it has now become my "local" - they basically seem to do everything right which is very refreshing. the saturday night game was very good fun though (and feedback was provided so this isn't a totally unproductive moan) i thought our little squad of "the leftovers" was somewhat penalised for playing the objective as we didn't get any contact for 1.5hrs. fine for a 24h "milsim", less so for a 3hr "mini-sim". I wasn't sure if that was because the enemy team had no reason to intersect our path or whether they were just unable to. On the otherhand, its a testament to how fun nodding about at night is as that 1.5hrs went very quickly and felt more like 30 mins, if that.