Impulse

I hear you there. When I was in Spain it was the same, we just all showed up to an abandoned urbanisation and played BB wars. It was a simpler time... In the UK it's all organised sites with all the correct insurances and permissions from the local council, so you have to pay to play. Showing up to a disused location and playing BB wars will get you arrested here. Now, that organisation isn't a negative because you typically get higher quality games, actual marshalls to help the games along and more advanced gameplay experiences. Yes, it costs a bit in addition to our incredible, unrestrainable desire to buy ALL THE THINGS, but it's worth it in my opinion. I will admit though that it's a shame we don't have the option for more freestyle BB wars too. And yes, the urbanisations we played at in Spain were abandoned, because they were built illegally and nobody wanted to pay money to demolish them, so they just sat there. Lots of that in the south of Spain

I hate that rule. You should definitely be allowed to run from grenades. Picking them up and throwing them back, on the other hand, shouldn't be allowed and I'm glad my local site runs it that way as that's dangerous; if it goes off in your hand (which has a decent probability) then that's going to do some real damage.

Just play as a sniper, then looking like billy-no-mates is advantageous as no one will follow you around and give away your position In seriousness, go by yourself and within a few skirmish days you'll have a group of players that you'll befriend and hang out with. When I got back into airsoft about a year ago I went by myself and within 2 skirmish days I had a group of players I would typically hang out with through the day, chat with at lunch and sometimes even play together with when I'm not being a sneaky bush monster. For all the toxicity and drama that YouTube and the online space can produce, I must say that in person the vast, vast majority of airsofters I've met have been amazing people. Drama-llamas are definitely a minority!

I don't offer surrender. If I have the drop on someone, it's one to the back with the mk23 or a tap with a rubber training knife and a whisper to let them know, regardless of whether they're a teenager or an adult; a single shot from a 1J gun isn't exactly life threatening, and I'm a sneaky sniper who doesn't want to risk them opening up with an AEG and alerting everyone to my presence. I've only had someone try to surrender kill me once, but they didn't notice I had the mk23 in hand and I just shot at them; they almost seemed surprised that I didn't take it, but they also didn't moan about it as it's within the rules to not accept surrender. They should've just shot me. I think it's a good rule to have, as long as people realise that not everyone will offer it and not everyone will accept it. If I was in that kid's position and surrendered someone (assuming I for some reason just grunted instead of saying it loudly and clearly), I'd just shoot if they didn't accept it. At the end of the day, surrender is a courtesy, not a requirement. Knife kills are just like getting hit by a BB, though. If someone manages to sneak up behind you and give you the tap of death, you should quietly take it and head back to respawn. I also don't think there should be MEDs for 1J guns, whether that's your rifle or pistol. I think bang rules shouldn't exist and if you have an MED you should transition to a gun without an MED if you're caught in that kind of situation; it's why I tend to move around with the mk23 out and the VSR slung on my back if I'm moving about the site, as if I do get into a scrap I'd rather be able to just raise the gun and shoot than take the time to transition and then start shooting. If you're in America running a 1.5J AEG with an MED, keep a 1J gun handy for close engagements. Sidearms are fantastic as they rarely go over 1J unless you actively try and push them to, and everyone can carry a pistol in a holster. The issue with the bang rule is you can say bang, they say bang, then people get into an argument over who said it first. Also, people try to bang kill from really far away sometimes, which is dumb. When I first started airsoft back in the mid 2000s, there were a lot less rules about bang kills (they existed, but weren't universally used) and there was no such thing as a surrender. When I first started, I was about 14 years old too, so I don't really see it as a safety hazard to have close engagements for teenagers either; I was much more likely to injure myself on the rugby team than I was playing BB wars. At the risk of sounding like a terrible, old-fashioned, empathetically-challenged human being, I think the current generation needs to harden up a bit if they're getting into a hissy fit over getting shot by a 1J BB gun too close. Fortunately, a lot of the younger players at my local site aren't like that; they play harder than most of the older regulars and are a lot less scared of getting shot at than the 40 year old tacticool milsim dudes xD

That damned Polarstar F2 for my TM m14. I want it so bad xD I hate being a responsible adult with debts that need paying off first...

I use Revision Sawflys with prescription inserts. They're fantastic, and don't fog much when combined with catcrap anti-fog. Also, if you change your mind on mesh, Heroshark does prescription inserts for his Mako frames. I've got a pair and they're fantastic, again I pair them with catcrap anti-fog and I never have any issues fogging because air flow is a lot freer with mesh. Which I choose to use is usually dependent on how I feel. Anyway, having a backup pair of eyepro never hurts!

@GAMBLEpretty much hit the nail on the head. I started airsoft around the same time as your 14 year old and the best way to start is just bring some friends that may be interested. For me, it was one of my friends in school who introduced me to it, then it expanded to a group of 4 of us and eventually all four of us ended up joining up with a team. That beind said, you don't need a team in airsoft, at least not from a formal perspective. What will probably happen is your 14 year old will bring friends and/or make new friends at the local airsoft site and hang out/ work together with them through a skirmish day.

John Wick 2. There's always outliers

3.6/10? Sounds like my kind of movie

Because most after market threaded outer barrels are steel and I must put suppressors on EVERYTHING!

I've been doing a lot of muscle endurance circuits in my room and I don't think I've ever had such a solid core (shame it's still under a layer of fat for now!). I used to go "ugh, 10 situps..." but now it's more like "ugh, 28 situps..." so it must be working. Since the sun started poking its head out, I've been getting back into cycling too, and did a month of running before my shins reminded me how my body type is not built for running; even when I was a teenager and super fit, in both the rugby and swimming team for my school, I had to stop rugby because shin splints are a thing. I'll probably try and get to some shorter runs in the next two weeks to get the cardio side up in line with the muscular endurance; the latter is more useful for me as I spend more time crawling around and trying to remain still in sometimes awkward positions, but being able to run is a nice extra. Just got better from covid vaccine side effects over the weekend and I'm back to airsoft on the 4th, so two and a half weeks should be enough to ensure I'm not hit too hard by the return. I'm still overweight, so I don't want to jeopardise my joints by going too hard, but I've left obesity behind at least. I will say that I'm about 15kg lighter than when I last did airsoft in December, and I want to drop another 2+ before April, so I'm actually looking forward to seeing how it feels to be lighter. Again. This weight loss journey has been a year going so far, and I've likely got another few months of it to go. Airsoft reopening is definitely going to help that.

Yes, I believe so. 1.0 is 144a, 2.0 is green, 3.0 is red and 4.0 is black

Yeah, I got confirmation, but I was also one of the people with a draft written up that I sent as soon as bookings went live. It's good to see that there's so much interest, as lockdowns aren't good for business, but I feel for the staff who have to trawl through the email inbox and sort all those bookings 😬 They've already answered a bunch of emails and the 4th (which is limited numbers) is already full up.

I booked in this evening for all three of the April game days at Worthing. 4th, 11th and 25th all booked in and can't wait to get back out there!

Reading some of the responses here, I feel personally attacked. Y'all hate snipers that much? 😅 As for me (beware, I write a lot. I have strong opinions when it comes to airsoft...): 1. Why did you start airsoft I've always enjoyed shooting. My father was big into handgun shooting when it was still allowed in the UK and taught me gun safety with air rifles from a young age. I really enjoyed playing FPS games too, as a big Counter Strike: Source fan at the time, so when my friend discovered airsoft and suggested I go with him, I was immediately hooked. Plus, it was something active as opposed to my other big hobbies at the time being Warhammer 40k and gaming, which are not so active... 2. What do you like about airsoft Making (a lot of) friends I wouldn't normally make. I've met so many people through airsoft that I wouldn't have otherwise met in a million years. The community, or at least the good parts of the community. The amount of people willing to help newer players is honestly heart-warming. Especially compared to video games where being a newer player typically gets you (and your mother) called all manner of awful things. Self-improvement. It gives a set of skills that I enjoy and can work on. Yes, I'm the type of person who will take my guns to the range and practice proper firearms drills with them between skirmish days, as my local site only operates every fortnight. Fieldcraft, or how I learned to love nature. I live in a city (hopefully not too much longer), so having a hobby that gets me out to the great outdoors is a really nice contrast to everything else I do. Being a sneaky bugger. This is just fun. I don't really have much more to say about this. Seeing the surprise on people's faces is gold. Especially since I'm not small of stature, so you wouldn't expect me to be good at hiding. The adrenaline rush that comes with many aspects of the game. A good reason to be fit and healthy, as well as helping me achieve those goals. Sort of loops in with the self-improvement aspect, but extends outside the hobby. Since getting back into airsoft in late 2019, I've dropped almost 50kg (still 20 more to go. I was obese before, and I'm not a small person) and I'm just generally enjoying life way more, since basic tasks like walking up the stairs is no longer difficult. Plus, one of my other newer hobbies is martial arts, so getting fitter is really helping both of my favourite hobbies! 3. What don't you like about airsoft (not including KM or non hit taking, something more substantial please) The community, or at least the bad parts of the community. This can be toxic milsimmers, clickbait content creators, elitists etc. The community is far from perfect. People who moan about snipers. A larger number of us are ditching bolt actions now to use HPA anyway; an MTW paired with a ghillie suit and the knowledge of how to use it is far more frustrating to play against. I'm going the semi-auto only HPA m14 route, and keeping my bolt action around because I love bolt actions, but hopefully you get my point. I could go on about this for aaaaages, so I'll just leave it at that. The massive abundance of bolt actions in the field compared to when I first started. I think everyone should play how they want, but when you've got 10 bolt actions on your team, you typically just get demolished and can't push objectives. Especially when out of those 10 bolt actions, only 2 or 3 might actually be tuned well. D R A M A. Seriously, a lot of airsofters are massive drama queens. The fact that it's often criminalised and how RIFs are viewed as laser-death-destroying-ghost-guns by many outsiders People who moan about headshots. Seriously, if someone is poking just their head over a barricade and that's all that's visible, guess what's getting shot. Don't present it as the only target, then get mad it gets hit. People who go for headshots specifically / people who go out to hurt other players. There's no need. Body shots are easier to pull off anyway and are less likely to cause damage. And over-shooting is easy to avoid unless you're running some sort of 50rps wanker-gun. The wind, twigs and leaves. These things are the bane of any sniper's existence, and can cause an AEG user to light up a position and hit nothing but foliage. You line up that perfect shot, pull the trigger, watch the BB fly... then it hits the edge of a leaf and spins way off target. Or a gust of wind catches it and causes the shot to veer off target. They're tiny, lightweight plastic balls; anything is going to cause your shots to go off course. 4. Do you think airsoft has any health benefits I.e keeping you fit etc Yes. 100%. At the end of the day, you're carrying a bunch of heavy gear and moving around an airsoft site all day. It's a very active hobby, so I'd say it definitely has health benefits. Plus, if you go to a woodland site like I do, it's a day spent outdoors. Beyond the physical side, I think it helps mentally too. As a very active hobby, your body is going to be releasing endorphins into your system as you play, which are natural stress relievers.

Not yet, as my local site hasn't opened bookings yet as they want to play it safe and April is still a good few weeks away, but I have booked in for a 24h event in June and an 8h E&E event in July >:D

Nuprol 2.0 should be fine with a TM Hi-Capa. Green gas is great for TM pistols in the UK, but I would switch to 144a for any temperatures of 20+ celcius, as it's more than sufficient and will increase the longevity of the gun.

All of this is my opinion, so bear that in mind. I come from the "buy once, cry once" camp of thought which typically means I prefer shelling out a bit more for good quality kit that I know will last me for years and years and years and years. I know others definitely prefer getting cheaper kit and see great success with it, so my opinions below are coming from the perpsective of someone who typically buys less kit, but buys premium kit. I've heard poor things about the WE Hi-Capa Dragons. As in, I've heard they don't shoot well and typically shoot hot at like 1.6J, but I don't have any direct experience with them, so take that with a pinch of salt as it's very much second hand information. Get a TM Hi-Capa 5.1 instead; they're fantastic pistols and only about £120. Really can't go wrong with one. As for the other questions... What type of BB should I use? 0.25g or 0.28g, in both the rifle and sidearm. I prefer Geoffs or BLS BBs as quality ones. Which green gas? Ummmm... I use WE green gas and it works great. However, I think it depends on your pistol. If you get a Tokyo Marui pistol (do it, they're the best on the market) then you'll only need green gas and using red/black gas is a great way to have your sidearm destroy itself. Heck, with a TM pistol you can also get away with 144a for most of the year too. However, any GBB pistol will struggle in the coldest months of the year. Which lipo and how many? I don't know much about lipos, but you wanted my opinion so here it is. I hate lipos. I way prefer Li-Ion batteries instead, because they're way more user friendly than lipos which require a far greater deal of care to avoid ruining your batteries. However, I'll always advocate for getting a good charger, regardless of the batteries you get. Also what do you recommend to get as extras for either RIF? I'll do this in stages as I don't know your budget, starting from most important to least important (in my opinion) At first? Good eyepro and some decent boots. Revision Sawfly glasses are fantastic eye protection and you can get inserts for them if you're a speccy like me who doesn't want contact lenses. Boots, just make sure you get some that fit and are comfortable. Local army surplus shop will be your friend here as surplus boots are usually decent enough quality and not too expensive. If you want to be extra safe, pick up a mesh lower face mask too, as getting shot in the face will happen and the mesh face mask could be the thing that stops a tooth getting knocked out. That being said, I rarely use lower face protection and I still have all my teeth 14 years later, but I also do the whole ghillie suit sniping thing, meaning I'm typically doing my job wrong if I'm getting shot at. Lower face isn't a requirement, but it's recommended. Some camos, if you don't have them already. Again, surplus stuff is more than adequate and won't break the bank. Also, get a boonie or a cap when you're picking up some BDUs, as taking a BB to the head can sting! Plus, it's good for camo to have a camo boonie as opposed to a bare head. Next, a way to carry your guns. Get a good sling for your rifle and a holster for your pistol. I wouldn't advise skimping on these, as a crap sling will give out, potentially causing your rifle to fall and break, and a crap holster will either not hold your pistol or press on the mag release when you run, jettisoning your pistol magazine which you'll only realise about 10 mins later. For slings, I recommend Magpul MS3 (or MS4 if you've got QD sling mounts), as this sling can be switched between 2-point and 1-point with ease and it's fantastic quality. For holsters, I'd recommend IMI style holsters on the cheaper end, and a custom kydex holster at the slightly pricier end. After that, I'd advise a few extra mags and a way to carry them. Cheaper end for mags might be a spare pistol mag and one or two spare hi-caps for the rifle, while the more expensive end would be going for two spare pistol mags and half a dozen midcaps to help eliminate battle-rattle! I way prefer midcaps as they don't rattle and don't need winding, but you will have to reload mid-firefight. However, having to reload is a positive for me because immersion (and pulling off a sweet reload mid-firefight feels great). For ways to carry them, you could get a set of PLCE webbing and/or a surplus assault vest from your army surplus store; that's how I started out and I still have my PLCE webbing because it's great kit. At the more expensive end, I prefer going for real-steel equipment over airsoft clone stuff, so Warrior Assault Systems load bearing gear has been my go-to for over a decade now. It's fantastic quality and is really built to last, but you do pay a premium for it and it's on the cheaper end of real-steel stuff. Crye gear will literally make you cry with their prices, but it's great if you want multicam stuff. Anything else is purely on preference. Could get a moscart launcher, a red dot/holographic/telescopic optic, a light or PEQ etc. The reason airsoft is so expensive is because of just how many combinations of stuff we can do as a loadout there are. At the start of the year I was thinking "ah, I'm mostly done on what I want..." but now my kit / RIF project list is massive again, filled with all manner of wonderful ideas my mind has cooked up.

I'll second this. The crappy Viper sling I have on my cheap springer shotty used to be on my VSR, until it basically decided to give up for no reason and unclip itself from the rifle. Only some quick reactions stopped the rifle from toppling to the floor for potential damage.

Thanks! This is a brilliant post! The fieldcraft is the main thing I want to focus on, as it doesn't cost me any money to improve my own skills. Fortunately, for admin kit I've got basically everything I need from my cadet days; just need a sleeping bag, bivvy bag and will pick up a basha as they seem pretty cheap, but everything else is sorted. Picked up a Baofeng UV-5R+ as well, as I've been meaning to get a radio for aaaaaaaaaages to use in skirmish games and any events I go to as typically I like to play a recon role in skirmish as well; I didn't because I thought it would be more expensive than it was! I'm quite good at the fieldcraft and moving quietly side, as it's what I tend to practice at skirmish days anyway; people are often surprised at how few shots I actually take through a skirmish day, even the other bolties use way more BBs than I do. It's just how I enjoy playing! The thermal for spotting seems like a good idea though, but a bit pricey for my current budget, however if I do like this style of event I'll probably look at getting some form of either night vision goggle setup or a night vision optic for my VSR in 2022. I've got some white light in the form of a light on my mk23 (not the TM LAM unit. That thing was awful), but I'm thinking a PEQ for the 416 wouldn't go amiss, and they aren't too expensive. I'm taking both the VSR and my 416 to the event, as I expect being tactically flexible should be advantageous. Worst case I'll leave one in the harbour area, but I'm actually comfortable carrying both and have done so before; being 6'5" and built like a house has its perks

I have both a Magpul MS4 for my TM416D (it has QD sling points) and a Warrior Assault System 2-point sling for my long guns (VSRs and M14s). I would wholeheartedly recommend both, as both slings have served me incredibly well so far and I really like them. For the 416 DEVGRU, you can get sling mounts that go on your rail from Magpul, paired with the sling plate on the stock that's all you'll need for a 2-point setup. I personally don't like 1-point setups, but I know a lot of people do; it's all down to personal preference, so I'd say experiment and see what you like best. I totally agree with shelling out for a good quality sling on an expensive RIF. Would suck for the sling to give out and break your gun. The only cheapo sling I have is a Viper 2-point that I've had for over a decade. It's on my cheapo shotgun.

I only know about it since doing night events against guys with expensive night vision equipment. Always looking to improve my armed-hide-and-seek game and feel like I've got a pretty solid grasp on the day, but the night adds the extra layer of IR complexity and not wanting to glow like a Christmas tree under IR illumination. I'm just fortunate I've always been of the "buy expensive, buy once" mindset, so the vast majority of my load bearing gear that I've accumulated over the years is all real-steel and IRR treated. Also, my ghillie suit isn't made of cheap chinese materials, making it still usable at night, though I still need to do some tests under IR light which I can't do by myself due to not having any NVGs myself. I need to get some weapon paints too, so I'm glad I didn't spray my guns yet as now I'll probably shell out for IRR weapon paints for a bit more money, rather than buying normal paints.

I'd say Cyma, because I'm a big TM / TM clone fan, thanks to the abundance of aftermarket parts. Cyma are fantastic out the box and cost between £150 for baseline RIFs and £250 for their more premium ones. Even their cheapest baseline models will perform well out of the box. As has been said by others, both would give you plenty of extra cash to spend on spare mags or load bearing gear. Can't really go wrong there.