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She’s obviously a keeper. ?

Hey folks! Another update that went out of testing: 5-day weather forecast for each location. Now, you can check whether to pack gaiters or shorts! Enjoy!

If you’re looking for some more info on each site (game types, facilities, prices, weather, location, etc), you can find it here: NSC Airsoft No Limits NTACentre Dirty Dog Airsoft District 23 Adrenalin Airsoft If you happen to find any more that aren’t on PlayAirsoft, feel free to send your suggestions.

I started marking my gear with UV pens two years ago. Each RIF has an inconspicuously placed mark that serves to identify it, in case it gets stolen. Touch wood ? I hope it never happens, but this can help speed up detection and recovery. Nevertheless, it’s a shame people prefer to steal instead of going to work to earn a few good quid, especially when there’s such a huge demand for low-skilled workers (stealing doesn’t require any skill). My mate says the company he works for pays £15/hr for picking and they’re short on staff, so may go up soon. It’s the best time to get to work.

☝?This. Most LiPos are designed to retain optimal performance around 70-80%, when you store them at this level. Unless you want to decommission your battery, I suggest you keep some juice in it between games, and charge them fully before each game. This should give you the best compromise without consciously trying to “optimise my battery’s life at the cost of being constantly on edge.” Average lifespan of a lipo is about 3-4 years, depending on the storage conditions and number of cycles put through it. Some will start to puff a few charging cycles in (like shitty Nuprol ones) or it may last you 5 years when on good terms. I recently had to buy a spare one and realised my current mini-stick has been with me through 4 years and my charger shows me still about 85% capacity available. So yeah, don’t waste time on magic tricks and keep it simple. Unless you go through batteries like tea or coffee, then there’s no point in overkill. Also, invest in a really good charger. ISDT does marvellous gear for RC/Airsoft. Exactly. If you were to fork out £6k for a battery replacement (cheapest battery for Renault Zoe), or £12k (BMW i3), or just scrap your car because fuck paying £30k for a replacement (Tesla), you’d think about charging cycles. Paying £20 for a good RC battery once every few years is par for the course, so don’t sweat it.

You’re missing one big sticking point here about TM RIFs: they’re made for a specific market only (Japan) with super fine tolerances due to the specifics of said market (regulations). Picking up any TM gun with the intent to upgrade it is akin to taking a finely crafted katana and trying to add bits of steel to it “ to improve its performance”: it’s pointless and will ruin the reliability of said weapon. As long as you know what you’re buying and you’re fine with it (out-of-the-box performance and reliability), then TM is a perfectly fine choice. It won’t throw 100m but it’s not exactly why people buy them in the first place.

Hey @Vellum, welcome back to the rainy Blighty! I hope there's more airsoft sites around, as Dogtag seem to be a bit of a drive from Brighton. There's also Driver Wood and Battle Lakes not much further away than Dogtag, but if you discover any new ones, feel free to send your suggestions through the site.

While we’re here, would it be an overkill to run anything but green gas on TM pistols? I keep hearing that they don’t tolerate more powerful gas well due to their plastic builds, but I want to verify before stowing my HK45 for the winter.

Yeah, I’m going to ditch Nuprol as well, it’s been all over the place. Their batteries are shit. Bought three identical sticks for my PTS CM4, and one swelled then stopped working after 3-4 cycles, so I had to “decommission” it using my charger’s “destroy battery” mode... BBs seem to be all over the place quality-wise. No major issues per se, but loading them I keep seeing weird tiny defects, so time to empty my mags a bit quicker and switch to something better. Recommendations? I have recently decided to add “Bio BBs” as an attribute to PlayAirsoft for precisely this reason. Some sites seem to require the use of bio ammo, so it would be good to let players know about it. Normally, it’s something that you get to find at the end of a lengthy “rules” section or “FAQ” or something similar, if at all. Trying be mindful about trashing our lovely nature with plastic is not hard. The price difference isn’t wallet breaking either, so there’s all the more reason to do our bit.

Hey folks, just a quick one to say that as of today you can browse and filter airsoft sites with this nifty little page. Read more about the whole autumn update on the blog: https://playairsoft.uk/blog/playairsoft-autumn-update/

@Rogerborg I understand where you’re coming from. My SG553 had shit wiring and overload on contacts was causing it to lock up. I’m not sure what batteries the motor or wiring was rated to but anything above 25C in G&G AEGs used to be problematic according to the guy who handled my upgrades. Unless you know exactly what’s in your AEGs and you know what to do with that knowledge the above information would likely do the trick with a margin of safety. I doubt a lot of us here know enough about electrical wiring to play the game of “let’s put the biggest, beefiest battery and see what happens”… What you suggested about rewiring has actually happened to my SG553.

Hey Buck, welcome! I think you’re making the right choice by sticking to rentals for your first few events. ? If you’re looking to see what’s close to you or overall around the UK, give PlayAirsoft → a go and see if you can find a suitable site to play on, in addition to all the recommendations that you will likely find from people here. I’m from North West, so can’t help you with your location specifically, but hopefully more local souls with chime in below. Good luck and enjoy your first time! ?

Generally, no issues with 7.4v LiPos up to 25C discharge, however some guns have sensitive wiring; my G&G SG553 was a victim of this, and I had to fit a mosfet to get rid of it getting stuck in single fire. Every time this has been happening, I had to switch to auto, discharge, then switch back to semi. Annoying, but made me send it for a full Titan v3 upgrade along with everything internally, and it’s now my most reliable weapon since 2018.

I’d throw in MK1 DBOYS SCAR-L with its shitty locking hinge plate that broke often, and they replaced it right after shipping a few hundred units. You could never find a fitting buttstock to fit the gun. Was easier to replace the gun than the stock. Annoyed the shit out of me.

I made some stickers for PlayAirsoft. Just arrived and look pretty good for a trial run!

That’s a good point about improving the uptake of site submissions @DrAlexanderTobacco. Will add it to the list of things to work on next.

I've had this in mind early on, but I am not convinced this is beneficial to the players for a couple of reasons: not every site has a website, Facebook page, etc if they do, most of them don’t give players any info or even a description of what to expect if they do, it’s often hard to find between the fluff and broken layouts if it’s not hard to find, it’s often out of date If you find a site on the map, chances are you will find more info on its location page on PlayAirsoft than on its OG homepage. If you want to book, enquire or visit their website, the call to actions are clearly displayed (where available). This is supposed to save people anywhere between one to several clicks and in some cases a lot of time. You’re free to feast your eyeballs on outdated info and gruesome website design any time, my friend. I realise location pages are missing crucial info such as pictures, but that’s in the pipeline too. Unfortunately, I will have to create a new backend for this purpose, because with its current setup I’d have to pay quite high hosting costs for image storage and bandwidth.

Donation widget is now up and running on PlayAirsoft. Thanks in advance for all your support, and please: don’t feel obligated to donate. I will be looking into better ways of supporting the site than donations. Something that works both ways, as opposed to just “gimme me money”. Changelog: Improved homepage which is now faster and clearer Added newsletter sign-up throughout the site (for later) Created a dedicated map page with proper map controls Blog has now an RSS feed, for those who still remember what it is and how to use it Individual location and region pages load much faster now and look way better, especially on mobile Added a few new site attributes: Site limits (AEG, DMR, Sniper; in Joules) Pyros (allowed/limited) Bio BBs (required/optional) What’s next? Dedicated search page with advanced filtering based on already existing attributes Display the latest three site additions on the homepage to facilitate discovery

@TheFull9 R.I.F.T. seem to have about four (?) sites in total, and they are on my list to verify and add. Currently, I’m working through improving region pages for faster loading and better viewing, as well as having a dedicated search/filtering page for more sophisticated browsing. I do encourage anyone who knows of any sites that aren’t on PlayAirsoft to submit them, even if you don’t know all of the details. Don’t be afraid of submitting just a name and web address, if this is all you know about it. I’ll get to it and try to verify all the details anyway. The hardest part is to provide meaningful descriptions for each site. Most of them have a little blurb about what they offer, but nothing specific about the site features, which would be of most help to players who don’t yet know a given site. I will be going on a little tour and visit some sites that aren’t too far from me for the sake of gathering intel, but it’ll be a slow process. Anything you may know about your favourite site that isn’t mentioned, file a report through the website and I’ll take a look at it.

@Fatboy40 It's a good sanity check, I agree, although the idea in my head is focused around a "recommendation" system. For example, if a site meets certain criteria deemed important by the community (gathered from surveys, etc), it gets a "PlayAirsoft Recommendation" badge on their page and in search results. That's all. No comments, no reviews, no star-based ratings. At least not for now. An example of criteria could be (it's just an example, not saying this is what's important to most players): has on-site shop provides free lunch options has online booking has guns/gear rental has toilets If it scores 5 out of 5 it gets a badge, that's all. The aim is to increase competition for players between neighbouring sites by incentivising site owners to get better at what they offer.

After weeks of hard work, I’m proud to say PlayAirsoft has now a search feature, along with a blog, and over a hundred of sites across UK. I’ve added a bunch of sites going as far as Orkney Islands. As far as sustainability of the site goes, I’ll be looking at something more low key, such as affiliate links etc. I don’t like the idea of plastering ads all over the place just to keep the lights on, so my aim is to get a bit more creative. I want to make sure you guys will actually benefit from it too.

If the seller is being unreasonable you can always take steps to address this. Learn what you can do here: Consumer rights - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). As for FRV Tailoring themselves, last time I ordered was about 2 years ago, and they served me promptly. I'm not sure what's going on but their communication used to be on point. I guess their customer service must have take a covid-induced hit recently. I assume you've tried emailing and calling, as well as approaching them on social media? Poor communication is not an excuse for them to be ghosting people, even if they are in the process of shifting to new facilities.

I got a bag/box full of KWA parts from the USA for my PTS CM4, as I'm converting it from a 10.5" to 14.5" configuration. I'm also an idiot because I broke my upper receiver while trying to unscrew barrel nut ring. PTS is using a shit ton of Loctite on everything; you've been warned! outer barrel inner barrel Centurion Arms CMR 14.5" M-LOK handguard KWA PTR upper receiver some minor spares and bits, just in case Might post pics soon! PS. After Brexit, if you order from the USA, any individual items that do not go above ₤135.00 will not be subject to either VAT or import duty. It's now much cheaper to import airsoft stuff from the US than it is to order from China!

I don't plan to abandon the project. I plan to keep it growing into something more than just a handy list of sites. If I can earn a little while doing it, awesome, but it would have to happen organically, as I don't plan to plaster ads all over it, just to keep the lights on. That's not my kind of game. As soon as I have 100+ sites, I'll be looking at adding a monthly/weekly newsletter which will be covering what's up in the industry, and keeping folks up-to-date about our favourite pastime, maybe a blog section for long-form content, such as reviews, news and community created content (guest posts?). Let me know if you guys fancy any of that, as I don't want to sink time into something that won't be helpful/entertaining. If you've got ideas, I'm all ears too! Can't make any promises, but I'll definitely listen.

Yes, of sorts. Initially, it'll not be a voting system, but rather a simple criteria check to see if a given site is good enough to be classified as "outstanding". I'm hoping to employ the help of the community to define these criteria. If a given site meets them, then it gets a special badge on PlayAirsoft that indicates to players that it's better than most. Baby steps. ?