Madhouse

Another shooting Time for the good ol' US of A to roll out 'thoughts and prayers' before doing the square root of nothing about the problem. They don't corner the global market on mental health or extremism, but they do appear to corner the market on guns per capita, ease of access to weapons and, of course, mass shootings. Take the UK, we don't exactly have the strictest laws on shotguns (hell I've had one!) but there is no appetite to have them, we have no need. If someone's interested in guns then there are shooting clubs and even our beloved airsoft to scratch that itch (yeah, yeah, nothing like a real gun etc etc - I hear ya). America hit critical mass a long time ago so now everyone's like, 'well if everyone else has one, I need one' at which point it descends into a spiral of 'his is bigger than mine' and suddenly you've got people in towns owning ARs because they can. America has it's gun laws based on the off-chance the people need to overthrow a corrupt government, unfortunately that backfired when the people came out in support of the corrupt government, so maybe a rethink is in order. There is a difference between gun culture and mass shootings and you can absolutely have more regulation of weapons and keep gun culture healthy but that will never happen until the voting public agree. Change can't happen unless the people want it and it seems upwards of 34,000 lost lives so far this year alone is simply collateral damage where it comes to gun ownership. So I guess the question that so many people around the world want answered is why are Americans happy to send their kids to school in the knowledge that at any point in time a random member of the public could just decide to execute them, their friends and their teachers? Same applies to going to the shops, work, restaurants ... is the entire country not just living in fear of being shot? I'm very aware that the rest of the world is outside looking in. How would you go about preventing the population of a small town in the UK being murdered every year? Does it even register in a country with a population five times bigger than the UK? - it is a tiny percentage after all. Do mass shootings just happen in someone else's town? Is it just that we don't understand the scale of the US and what we think is a lot is insignificant when applied to the US's numbers? Surely to protect the gun culture that you love, you need to be part of the solution to stop the mindless shootings from happening? Do you even want a solution to mass shootings? are we just going back to the collateral damage argument, it's 'just' the price of 'freedom' - but are you truly 'free' if you are constantly under the threat of being murdered? Or does all this end in a raging civil war and the self-destruction of America as we know it? I don't know the answer, I'm fairly sure no-one has that figured out. But the debate will go on far longer than the years any of us have left on this planet.

Hello & welcome. All bar 4 - what's been said before. 4 - you might want to narrow 'south' down a bit, you'll get recommendations that will be useful then. There's a site list website but I can't think of it right now. Would heartily recommend you rent for a bit and get your UKARA (56 days ain't long). That way you don't spend a ton of cash and decide you don't like it, you also get to chat to other people and get advice on game days - you can always get an airsofter talking about their RIF, the challenge is getting them to stop 😂. Do all that and you'll have a much better idea of what you actually want to buy when the time comes to pull the trigger on your first RIF. Just don't spend all your money on kit & accessories before the 56 days is up!!

If he's the only one selling it then he can charge what he likes. I guess your main question is 'if I buy it will it turn up' and it seems from the above that it will. As to whether the price is one you are willing to pay, that's entirely your decision.

Tell me about it. A few more weeks 'till my UKARA's sorted and I dread to think what a RIF's gonna cost by then! Of course that's if there's any stock...

Liked the vid of him playing at Spartan Airsoft he’s posted recently, amusingly with a tongue-in-cheek click bait title. In reality it’s just a load of people enjoying their hobby and having a laugh, which is how it should be.

actually LOL'd at this 😂 We use those PAX wardrobes as ... well ... wardrobes, they must be 7 years old and still look like they were put together yesterday. The drawers are also good but you need to be wary of door hinges as they'll foul them - although they may have sorted that issue since we got ours (baskets are fine).

Every day's a school day. Thanks for setting me straight on that one.

Hi & welcome. I played last week at my local CQB and their rentals are Specna Core CQB Carbines - not sure if that's any use whatsoever but hey, it is what it is. If it's indoor CQB with poor light make sure you get something railed for a torch (the rental I was using wasn't). In terms of working with a full face helmet, I believe that'll be more about how you position your sight (risers etc) rather than the weapon itself but there are plenty more knowledgeable than me here who will no doubt be happy to correct me (every day's a school day). I've been looking at Specna for my first AEG too and if you're looking for something with a mosfet installed there are options available but they're not your favoured AR36. That said, in my searches I've found various maintenance parts and the microswitch triggers aren't exactly expensive, although you'd need to be confident to take it apart. I've also had a brief look at other AR36's and didn't come across one with a mosfet fitted out of the box so you might want to look at the offerings from Gate / Perun but again they'll need fitting and you'll be voiding your warranty when you open the gearbox, some retailers offer to fit them for you but all this puts the price up. In terms of being good for indoor & outdoor play then the only real difference is going to be barrel length and therefore accuracy at distance. A CQB rifle is simply shorter to make it more manoeuvrable. You could get around this by getting a longer barrel and using a mock silencer to hide the fact your inner barrel is now longer than the outer, I'd doubt you'd be the first to do as such too.

@Khyber I’ve been taking on board some good advice about kit. Nothing wrong with being a rental and no-one looks down on you for it (as long as you’re not a dick), if you ask me it’s a great conversation starter as people generally want to help the newbie and it’s a great excuse for them to show off their kit. I’ve been loving it TBH! The way I looked at it was eyepro, mask etc are relatively low cost, so if I bailed after two games then so be it but at least I’ve had a comfortable couple of games. Getting a RIF early was unnecessary pressure to like it and that’s without all the issues that’d go with buying one without knowing much about the sport - hell I’d have probably got a DMR for CQB before I started playing! 😂 My rifle wish list has changed many times (pistol not so much) and I’ve learnt a lot about what I like and don’t like in terms of aesthetics. I’ve also learnt more about my playing style and the game itself. Accessories I have so far are weapon lights and tracer units. Optics are a whole other minefield!

The youth of today …… 😂 Welcome back. Price of everything’s gone up, hell I ordered a weapon light from one site, two months later they cancelled the order and now it’s £10 more expensive everywhere! Not to mention having a shortlist of RIFs I’m thinking of buying that have all gone up by a small fortune in the last couple of months. Bloody supply issues and the weakest £ we’ve seen in decades ……

Played at Z-mart again last night and it's fair to say everyone had a ball. There were only 9 players so all the marshals joined in too, so after the first couple of infection games were out of the way and everyone had their bearings, we spent the rest of the night in a players v marshals format for all the games. It was a great atmosphere and while we all arrived in groups we fast just became a group of 14 people (head marshal included) that were just having a laugh and a pew on a Thursday night in an old Debenhams store. Games were fun, varied and fast-paced - which you'd expect from the numbers - turning all the lights off for the grab the objects game was a new one for me and was a real learning curve in torch usage, tracer fire was a sight to behold! Just in case anyone had any doubt with regard to eyepro, mine took a direct hit and I even watched the BB shatter! My Bolle glasses weren't expensive but they did their job perfectly. All in all, a great night, need to book my next visits to get my UKARA sorted out (t-minus 55 days - not that I'm countng 😉) and then I can get something to attach all these accessories I've been buying to.

Hello & welcome. Personally I'd suggest renting for a bit, definitely use your own other kit but I've found that renting has forced me to spend time to work out what I actually want from my own RIF. It's also allowed me to check out what other people use and let's face it, airsofters love talking about their kit! It's only 3 games and 56 days before you can sort UKARA and if nothing else it'll mean you don't have to re-spray a two-tone. In terms of a case then anything your kit will fit in will do, obviously if it's camo then you'll be drawing attention to yourself so I'd suggest anything that's plain looking and forgettable will do just fine.

Welcome! Went to the snowdome in Tamworth a few times but that's all I can help with in terms of your area. Plenty of knowledgeable and friendly people here, you'll hopefully find the peeps at your local site are equally as friendly - go as a rental but play fair and you'll soon earn some respect as a player rather than a member of a stag do. Oh, definitely rent for a bit as it helps in so many ways - a) to make sure you actually like it, b) to sort your UKARA out and c) it stops you impulse buying a two-tone Ares and then regretting it. While I'm on, best get a plug in for @GAMBLE's YT channel 👍

Doesn't want someone coming to his house so using the local shop as a meeting point? Either way, you'd want more than 'has a leviathan' to justify that kind of price for a RIF that costs a lot less than that new and needs the charging handle fixing.

Hello & welcome. I'll let @Shamal tell you about @GAMBLE's YouTube channel 😉 Glad you had fun, you'll stop aching eventually! Good plan on renting, it'll stop you making an impulse buy and then regretting it later. If you're itching to buy stuff then I'd recommend getting other kit like eyepro, boots etc - it's certainly what I'm doing right now.

Straight talking and no BS. What's not to like? I also like that while he's willing to tell you what's a load of junk, he won't recommend anything because it's just not worth the hassle. Apart from maybe a Gate Warfet, he does seem to think they're worth the money.

Hello & welcome 👋 @GAMBLE on here has a YouTube channel and IIRC it's got some useful beginner stuff on it. So have you played your first game yet?

Problem is the clickbait and drama provides these people with an income, so gets worse/more extreme until we get to where we are today. Then new players wanting to see what they're letting themselves in for can be either put off or encouraged (depending on their disposition) which could lead to more of this bellendery and less new players that you actually want to share a field with. At least if new players find their way here they'll get a (relatively) sensible view of what actually happens on a game day. It's not just our sport though, my mate's boy rides an MTB like a youtuber thinking it's cool - no, it's slower and you're wrecking the trails for everyone else.

I get that. But in my head that doesn't apply to a two-tone. If you're buying two-tone you've not got UKARA so you're new to the game. New enough to have either liked playing and be so stoked you've gone out and got your own kit or you've been so keen that you got your own kit before your first game. If it's the former then you're likely to have gone to a game to try your kit out, if the latter you've probably gone to a game and found you didn't like it. Neither fall into the 'never been skirmished' bracket. Also failed the username / date in the photos test too, so does it even exist?

Seeing as we’re talking all things UKARA … when mine finally gets sorted can I use a different delivery address? I tend to get stuff delivered to work as it’s easier to get it in under the radar of Mrs Madhouse 😉

Give it a couple of years months and there'll be plenty of shopping trollies and burnt out cars to add to the post-apocalyptic theme too.

I was watching TV and they said there's a documentary about the clitoris on the red button ....... but I couldn't find it

thanks! I searched Bristol airsoft before posting on here but somehow managed to miss those! Sounds like the Bristol one is super close, may visit the Gloucester one first.