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Aye, that's what caught me off guard. I've always been blessed with very good eyesight, and honestly thought red dots always looking shit was down to poor quality replicas and thought nothing else of it. Picked up a fancy one, still looked terrible, did a google and following camera test on the optic... turns out it was my eyes all along! Next on the 'have a ponder' list is figure out what you want the optic for. My personal preference on a magnified optic wouldn't go any further than a 4x and I like a decent field of view, makes tracking shots when it gets windy a bit easier, but I only tend to run magnified on 'sniper rifles'. Primary reason for the magnification is more identication than anything else, again, felt more needed when creeping around being sneaky beaky in the woods. Nothing worse than pulling off what you think is a superb flank... which turns out to be on your own team. If you don't feel like you need any of that, a red dot or irons should see you right. Just useful to have for quickly getting on target before you start tracking the BBs as they leave your barrel. Next consideration is the amount of weight you're willing to add to your RIFs, how well spread that weight is across the rail you put it on and how much that effects the balance of your RIF (if that's something you particularly care about). Then there's the fun subject of mount height and what height feels comfortable/natural when you're wearing whatever eye/face pro you use. For example, I run a repro Unity mount when wearing my Dye mask, and a replica Geissele lower 1/3rd co witness mount when I'm not using said mask. But I'm very much at a point where I'm trying 'optimise' what I have on hand, for many the additional considerations and expense simply aren't worth it. Again, all just food for thought... from someone that tends to overthink everything, something restrictions/lockdowns have only made worse. Got to fill the time somehow 🤷‍♂️.

I don't have any recommendations per se in terms of the 'form' that is generally person preference, I generally veer towatd T1/T2 replicas because I like the look... not much more thought has gone into it than that. With the general theme being inexpensive I'd probably advise giving a hint toward your preferred look and then folks with experiences of various replica of that type can share their thoughts. One thing I would consider which caught me off guard, are you aware of whether you have an astigmatism at all? I was gutted when I picked up a fancy reflex sight only to discover what should have been a lovely crisp dot looked more like a firework going off. I've found using similar optics with both eyes open (which was something entirely new to me) lessens how bad it is and makes it entirely workable. Just food for thought, I'd gone through 30 years on this Earth having no idea I had anything going on with my eyes... because there is seemingly very little an astigmatism actually effects in day to day life.

I guess it entirely depends on: A) How much the company care about their reputation. B) How slick the set up is for the folks handling correspondence to their senior team/board. (I'm open to being wrong, but I highly doubt Mr Cook ever actually read your message) C) What anyone in the company can actually do about the situation. (Someone 'at the top' facilitating a resolution of your issue is likely much easier than trying to pluck one parcel of out of millions which in the exact same situation) Based on everything you can see on the internet regarding UPS at the moment I dare say their hands are somewhat tied for resolving anything that's going on. No, moderately intelligent, company would sit back and have their name dragged through the mud if their was something they could effectively do about it. Generally agree with what folks were saying earlier in regard to under-staffing and 'business decisions' which have been made in regard to furlough and the like being the most obvious root cause. Nevertheless, if this thread has demonstrated anything to me it's that irrelevant of how keenly you're chasing after UPS none of it is actually making anything move faster... so the path I'd advise taking doesn't change.

I imagine writing to a CEO of pretty much any large company with something that, to them, would be so trivial is largely just a waste of your time. I personally probably wouldn't be spending any time chasing after UPS, I'd attack it from the otherside of looking at options of extending my active UKARA by contacting the site I hold it with, explaining the situation and going from there. To my knowledge you're never actually removed from the UKARA database, it's simply a case of whether it's 'active' of not, though I could be wrong. Other options are to look into acquiring another defence which doesn't have the same requirements as UKARA. There are a few, but I can't remember what they are because I've never had a need for any of them.

Aye, I wasn't commenting on your own personal preferences. Was merely pointing out that a seller being thorough when carrying out the checks and balances (shit, now I'm saying it) shouldn't, in my opinion, be something that's looked at in a negative light.

Proof of age should be a bare minimum that folks selling RIFs should be requesting ahead of accepting payment in my opinion. The exact defence folks want proof of may vary, but knowing that the buyer meets the age requirement should be non-negotiable. From the classifieds forum rules: 'The Law Your sale must be in compliance with Great British law, especially relevant; the VCRA, which has laid down various restrictions on the trade of Imitation Firearms (IF) and Realistic Imitation Firearms (RIF). Remember, the seller is responsible for checking and verifying the legality of a sale. Please see the UK Law section of the forums if you need any guidance on this and open a topic if you're unsure. None of the below is legal advice. In short: As a seller you are liable for who you're selling to. No airsoft gun can be sold to someone under the age of 18 irrespective of whether it's 2-tone or a RIF (i.e. black/realistically coloured) As a seller you must take precautions to satisfy yourself that who you're selling to has a valid defence against prosecution for owning an airsoft gun - for the majority of cases this means the person you're selling to should be an airsoft skirmisher. Some things you can check are: Skirmishing site membership UKARA database membership Photographic proof that a member is a skirmisher (i.e. pictures of them playing)'

All of the best financial decisions are those made past your bed time. Even better when you make said decisions, completely forget you made them when you wake up and get a lovely surprise parcel in the next few days.

Looks like a replica of an Eotech 553 to me, precisely zero idea on the brand of said replica though.

I dare say you've landed on the answer yourself in the question. When us... more matured chaps were growing up the influences around us were very much in the 'present day' category, ARs, AKs, 1911s, Glocks. It's certainly no coincidence that these are still the most commonly produced replicas. Cinema, TV, video games... it was all largely depicitions of weaponry that was in present use that time. Take a look at the same media now, geared toward that audience, the aesthetic of popular modern media to the younger crowd is shifting toward this look (refering to whatever that weird JG thing is). Especially in video games...Fortnite, Apex Legends, Overwatch to name just a few. Like it or not folks get conditioned to think this looks nothing like a 'cool gnu' because we learned what we perceive a gnu to look like when we were younger, the young 'uns nowaday likely have a slightly different idea of what makes a 'cool gnu'. Side note, my opinion lines up with yours. I think it looks wank... but I was trying to present an actual answer to your question, despite the fact I suspect it was rhetorical.

Hahahaha, regrettably I don’t think I ever spent more than 5 minutes at a time ‘ghillied up’ indoors (largely because the dog was not a fan of it at all). Generally just threw it on to make sizing adjustments and get my long suffering girlfriend to take some photos so I could check for halo screen/raffia coverage. And now the vast majority of my ‘leafy boy’ stuff has new homes. Throughout it all I’ve definitely found a additional use for chest rigs and plate carriers with ‘emergency doffing’ capabilities. It’s been a close shave with answering the door to delivery drivers in the full ensemble on a few occasions 😅.

Hell, the fashion show side of things is the only part of the hobby we’ve been able to engage in over here for the past few months. I’ve been ‘slaying the catwalk’ (read as, walking around my office bored out of my mind trying out various setups for general comfort) more than I care to admit. I’ve typed out many a thread on here in the evenings fully kitted up sat in the desk chair feeling very sorry for myself (and my bank account)... whatever gets you through at this point 🤷🏻‍♂️.

I also had the phone call and subsequent email to fill in a form and send over a ‘proof of value/cost’ (or words to that effect) earlier today. Certainly not expecting much to move anytime soon, mine is in Dobra Strykow like others above and has been for a few days. But having known the form would need to be filled in I’m glad it’s out of the way so I can go back to ignoring it until it shows up or I’m contacted again. Did find it funny that the email alongside the form mentioned if I hadn’t provided the required details within 3 days I’d be charged £13 a day for it being stored until details were provided... like it’s going to have moved anywhere within the next 3 days as is... cheeky cnuts 😂.

Certainly not something I’m an expert with when it comes to GBBRs, but as far as I’m aware mechanically there is very little difference between GBB, HPA and AEGs when it comes to loading/loading nozzles. A BB running down a barrel with the hop off is entirely normal in many cases. It’s not so much to do with the ‘air seal’ as it is the lip tension in your hop unit. Some hop rubbers will have more tension, some will have less. I could be entirely misremembering but I believe Maple Leaf buckings have more lip tension than most stock buckings... but I’ve been through so many different brands of bucking on so many different RIFs at this point I get lost. If the rubber has a lower amount of tension on the lips it’s often the contact patch alone being depressed into the chamber that prevents them rolling down of their own free will. Conversely, too much lip tension can wear out/break a loading nozzle prematurely. You have all the tools available to you to verify your results. Rather than speculate ‘I don’t think this happens with the stock components in place’, check them. Don’t be lazy, reinstall the original parts and see how it’s performing.

I wouldn't change anything until you've had a run out with it. You'll pretty quickly figure out what you like and what you want to change for your own preferences and tweak from there. There isn't (for the most part) a right or wrong way to run your gear, as long as it works for you then it's doing what you purchased it to do. Only thing I would consider, as you're running midcaps, is have a speedloader on you (the Marui AR mag style ones are very good, but there are cheaper clones)... which means making sure you've got somewhere to put it, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with using pockets as long as they're secure. For my personal preference I'd ditch the black mag pouches and replace the one on the left with a fold up dump pouch (doesn't have to be fold up, I just like keep it small and out of the way until I feel need it). I tend to run 5 midcaps on me, 4 on my gear and 1 in the RIF. As I say, don't change anything until you've had a run out, just food for thought.

2 weeks? You know nothing of the pain of waiting for stuff to turn up from HK. I ordered something at the start of December and it isn't here yet, such is the nature of wanting things that aren't readily available anywhere else!

Ordered a few bits for a project I'm reigniting over the past few days: From Taiwan Gun: CM045a CYMA Enhanced Safety Lever 6x CYMA Midcaps CYMA AK EPG Replicas of the following various other places: B11-U B19-N Rails to fit the B11 RP-1 Charging Handle PK-4 Front Grip/Hand Stop A-1 Sling Mount DTK-2 No prizes for guessing what's going on here. And no, I'm not expecting to see any of it anytime soon 😅.

Ohh for sure, I like to think I made it fairly clear I think UPS are hopeless. But I, alongside many others in this thread, placed my order knowing UPS was the courier... and knowing UPS are pretty low on my list of couriers I think are any good. Venting frustrations is entirely fine, but checking in daily praying something will change isn’t actually going to make anything arrive any quicker. On top of that, if my brief experience in customer service positions has taught me anything it’s that insistent request from particularly irritated customers tends to slow down the entire customer service train. If I have 5 customers that I needed to respond to in an hour, but then I get a phone call or email from a single customer that I have to spend an hour resolving those 5 customers just got bumped back. The more frequently that happens, the more things get bumped back, the more broken the regular chain of operations becomes and frankly the more fucked the whole ordeal becomes for everyone involved. Is this the route of everything being a bit knackered? Probably not, but it’s at least worth thinking about. Is this a defence of the level of service, not at all, it’s piss poor and that should be unacceptable (but it isn’t because they still see an awful lot of business). Is it the ramblings of someone that’s simply very bored? Yup. I placed my order knowing I was in no rush at all for the goods to arrive, and with the current climate of logistics that would need to be the case for anything I was ordering outside of the UK irrelevant of precisely where in the world that is.

I tend to agree with Luke here, their customer service is absolutely dire. It may be me being ‘old fashioned’ but a company shouldn’t have a means of contacting them which they literally ignore. On the whole if I’ve ordered something that was in stock I’ve received it in a timely manner, but for general queries or chasing things up that weren’t in stock they’re awful. I shouldn’t have to contact a company for updates on something I’m waiting on, let alone have to specifically chase it up via a phone call because they can’t be bothered to reply to anything else. As for the actual thread topic, I popped in an order on the 25th of Feb and expect to be waiting a while (and would have done whether I’d read through this thread or not). I get why folks are irked, but when the flood gates opened on orders were you really expecting it to be expedient? Irrelevant of the fact UPS are generally useless we’re in a transitional period and logistics all over the world have been shagged for months. I ordered a face pro mask from the Netherlands at some point in early January and that eventually turned up mid February, it’s hard for me to look at it in any other way than ‘it’s takes as long as it takes’. Outside of making sure I’m keeping up on the correspondence from UPS there’s not much else I can do 🤷🏻‍♂️. Some folks will get things fast than me, and some slower. It’s so up in the air at the moment that trying to attach any degree of logic is largely a waste of time, and that’s before you add in that the courier in question is Useless Postal Service. At least their uniform colour is appropriate to the level of service they deliver... or don’t as the case may be.

My best guess would be they can't be bothered dealing with the customer service aggro of having things stuck in the mess currently left on global logistics. I imagine constantly replying to impatient folks wears thing after a while, to the point it's not actually worth taking orders requiring shipping to those locations. At least that'd be my suspicion, not so much something they have to do, simply something they're choosing to do until things normalise a bit.

'I know there are kits out there for lots of money, but I am happy with just a M-Lok handguard plus the shorter outer barrel to go with it.' There are a variety of clone rails of both the BCM MCMR and various Geissele rails out there. Ultimately depends on how much you want you outer barrel protruding out of the handguard, once you've picked your ideal length then you'll have a better idea of what's available to you. Angry Gun MCMR clones come in 8", 10" and 13" if memory serves correctly. The clone Geissele rails run from 7" up to 13.5" (I think) from a whole host of brands in a variety of flavours. HAO seem to be regarded as having the best MK16 (9.3" and 13.5") rails out there for a decent price. Though I don't believe HAO are currently shipping to the UK due to COVID. I'm sure there are plenty of others, theese are largely just what are 'hot' right now. No idea on outer barrels for the MWS specifcally I'm afraid, and depending on which rail you go for as mentioned by @AlphaBearyou'll possibly need an adapter to get a rail made for AEGs to fit it (the adapters are essentially just a shim which keep everything locked in place).

My best guess is he's the proud(?) owner of a HSGI Weesatch [shudders] but they didn't have 13 (12 in the Weesatch, 1 in the RIF) in stock 😅

Me: "Hey, yeah I can give you advice on boots but I'll PM you so I don't take over the thread." Also me: "Begun, the meme war has."