Dan Robinson

Went to Bespoke today as I was working half an hour away and had underlings to do work whilst I looked important.  So I pulled rank and ducked out for a bit with my faulty from new AA G36 GBBR.  If you remember the other thread, it is firing a shot at 500 ish fps, then everything subsequent to that just rolls out of the barrel.  I bought it from them at the end of last summer, then had trouble getting in touch, and then work/travel commitments made getting to their then Slough based store tricky.  Talking to them today, I am willing to grant them the communication issues were down to them preparing for the move.
 
New shop is looking pretty damn impressive.  They have a fairly big unit on a small trading estate.  I assume a warehouse downstairs, then a large open office upstairs with a new shop area that is going to be quite big too.
 
They answered the buzzer and let me in unannounced.  An incredibly polite staff (I think the owner) took my pew, which is now well over 6 months from purchase, listened to the description of the fault and said he'd take it down to his tech whilst I had a look around.  I was then given a tour of the new office, shop, firing range, pistol showroom and Air gun showroom.  There was not much in stock at the moment as they're still bringing things up from the Slough premises.  But they had, amongst other things, the Walther WA2000 along with some very nice looking pistols that I had to fight very hard to resist.  I wish I had £780 to spend on a wall hanger.
 
Had a good 30 or so minutes left to my own devices whilst the nice lady behind the counter helped some dude pick out a pew for his daughter, then the guy came back to say that they could see the problem I was having, and would keep the pew for a few days to fix it as they didn't have another in stock, implying to me, that he would have been happy to give me a replacement - so top marks there.
 
They also confirmed that once they're finished setting up, they will be doing all kinds of repairs, upgrades, and customisations in house as well as sales.  This should take them another week or two, but i have two or three non essential pews that need attention that no one else seems to be interested in (or that I'd trust), so they'll be heading there once the G36 is proven.  
 
Sooo....  If one were to take everything at face value, and assuming they fix my RIF, then I am a happy bunny and they deserve all the success after what must be an eye wateringly expensive investment.  Can't blame the shop for a faulty RIF out of the box, but unlike Only Airsoft in Stevenage, where there seems to be an attitude of "warranty is up to them" once you leave the shop, Bespoke seem to just want to keep you happy.  Although to be fair to Only Airsoft, they have honoured the warranty when required - it's just the perception that they give off that is unnecessary.
 
Certainly can't fault Bespoke for care and attention so far!  Standby for updates.
 
 
 
 
 

Perhaps I should be more specific.....   Transporting a RIF sensibly to a skirmish (or home, shop)....  I don't mean walking around as if you think you're John Wick.
 
If you're pulled over by the fuzz with a load of RIFs in your car and you act like a dick with or without a reason for them being there....expect to get tazed and arrested.
 
 

Perhaps I should be more specific.....   Transporting a RIF sensibly to a skirmish (or home, shop)....  I don't mean walking around as if you think you're John Wick.
 
If you're pulled over by the fuzz with a load of RIFs in your car and you act like a dick with or without a reason for them being there....expect to get tazed and arrested.
 
 

I'd say masking tape, plus Greggs sausage-roll grease.  Either way, a very optimistic ask for an obviously well used pistol with zero working mags.

Has he handed it to his dog to chew? 🤣

In public?  It is.  Sorry to bang on about it, but this is a far bigger concern for us than obtaining a RIF.
 
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/27/section/19
 
19 Carrying firearm in a public place.
A person commits an offence if, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse (the proof whereof lies on him) he has with him in a public place [...] an imitation firearm.
 
Realistic or otherwise.  See this conviction for possession of a £4 bright orange springer pistol which even the prosecution described as a toy. The Sheriff set the bar for "reasonable excuse" very low, for example "children playing cowboys and Indians", which would presumably cover our infantile antics, but the proof whereof lies with us.
 
Whether having a RIF/IF inside your car counts as having it in a public place is less obviously clear, but coppers think that it is. PACE 1984 Section 1 makes a distinction between a vehicle that's in a public place versus the grounds of a dwelling, which implies that the vehicle itself does not create a private place in public.
 
In this case, for example, a chap (who comes across as a prize wanker) was arrested and charged for having a baton in his car.  I can't find details of how the case went - some commenters suggest that he was acquitted - but the process is enough of a punishment.
 
tl;dr version - yes, it's illegal, and we have to prove otherwise.  I keep details of the site to hand, and ideally booking emails, when travelling to or from it.

£140 new, not leaking and not two-toned masked by an iffy camo tape.

Camo tape? Looks more like parcel tape

So the insurance policy is pointless in and of itself - WTF kind of incident are we as airsofters going to be involved in that needs a payout - it would be covered by the site insurance/waiver (arf) that we signed that day.
 
Carrying a RIF isn't illegal in and of itself unless you are doing something stupid with it..... 
 
So it is a scam/rouse to allow unscrupulous pew purveyors to flog RIFs with a £20 surcharge on the first purchase and lock the buyer into buying only from them.
 
I might contact Patrolbase/Bespoke Airsoft and see what their policy would be towards a previously validated purchaser returning in the future without UKARA.
 
BTW see other thread on Bespoke Airsoft - I went to their new pad today.

Went to Bespoke today as I was working half an hour away and had underlings to do work whilst I looked important.  So I pulled rank and ducked out for a bit with my faulty from new AA G36 GBBR.  If you remember the other thread, it is firing a shot at 500 ish fps, then everything subsequent to that just rolls out of the barrel.  I bought it from them at the end of last summer, then had trouble getting in touch, and then work/travel commitments made getting to their then Slough based store tricky.  Talking to them today, I am willing to grant them the communication issues were down to them preparing for the move.
 
New shop is looking pretty damn impressive.  They have a fairly big unit on a small trading estate.  I assume a warehouse downstairs, then a large open office upstairs with a new shop area that is going to be quite big too.
 
They answered the buzzer and let me in unannounced.  An incredibly polite staff (I think the owner) took my pew, which is now well over 6 months from purchase, listened to the description of the fault and said he'd take it down to his tech whilst I had a look around.  I was then given a tour of the new office, shop, firing range, pistol showroom and Air gun showroom.  There was not much in stock at the moment as they're still bringing things up from the Slough premises.  But they had, amongst other things, the Walther WA2000 along with some very nice looking pistols that I had to fight very hard to resist.  I wish I had £780 to spend on a wall hanger.
 
Had a good 30 or so minutes left to my own devices whilst the nice lady behind the counter helped some dude pick out a pew for his daughter, then the guy came back to say that they could see the problem I was having, and would keep the pew for a few days to fix it as they didn't have another in stock, implying to me, that he would have been happy to give me a replacement - so top marks there.
 
They also confirmed that once they're finished setting up, they will be doing all kinds of repairs, upgrades, and customisations in house as well as sales.  This should take them another week or two, but i have two or three non essential pews that need attention that no one else seems to be interested in (or that I'd trust), so they'll be heading there once the G36 is proven.  
 
Sooo....  If one were to take everything at face value, and assuming they fix my RIF, then I am a happy bunny and they deserve all the success after what must be an eye wateringly expensive investment.  Can't blame the shop for a faulty RIF out of the box, but unlike Only Airsoft in Stevenage, where there seems to be an attitude of "warranty is up to them" once you leave the shop, Bespoke seem to just want to keep you happy.  Although to be fair to Only Airsoft, they have honoured the warranty when required - it's just the perception that they give off that is unnecessary.
 
Certainly can't fault Bespoke for care and attention so far!  Standby for updates.
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks, Dan. I'm planning another visit soon as I went to the new premises for a collection before they did the soft opening.
 
I understand they'll be doing a cerakote service in the customisations they offer.

Went to Bespoke today as I was working half an hour away and had underlings to do work whilst I looked important.  So I pulled rank and ducked out for a bit with my faulty from new AA G36 GBBR.  If you remember the other thread, it is firing a shot at 500 ish fps, then everything subsequent to that just rolls out of the barrel.  I bought it from them at the end of last summer, then had trouble getting in touch, and then work/travel commitments made getting to their then Slough based store tricky.  Talking to them today, I am willing to grant them the communication issues were down to them preparing for the move.
 
New shop is looking pretty damn impressive.  They have a fairly big unit on a small trading estate.  I assume a warehouse downstairs, then a large open office upstairs with a new shop area that is going to be quite big too.
 
They answered the buzzer and let me in unannounced.  An incredibly polite staff (I think the owner) took my pew, which is now well over 6 months from purchase, listened to the description of the fault and said he'd take it down to his tech whilst I had a look around.  I was then given a tour of the new office, shop, firing range, pistol showroom and Air gun showroom.  There was not much in stock at the moment as they're still bringing things up from the Slough premises.  But they had, amongst other things, the Walther WA2000 along with some very nice looking pistols that I had to fight very hard to resist.  I wish I had £780 to spend on a wall hanger.
 
Had a good 30 or so minutes left to my own devices whilst the nice lady behind the counter helped some dude pick out a pew for his daughter, then the guy came back to say that they could see the problem I was having, and would keep the pew for a few days to fix it as they didn't have another in stock, implying to me, that he would have been happy to give me a replacement - so top marks there.
 
They also confirmed that once they're finished setting up, they will be doing all kinds of repairs, upgrades, and customisations in house as well as sales.  This should take them another week or two, but i have two or three non essential pews that need attention that no one else seems to be interested in (or that I'd trust), so they'll be heading there once the G36 is proven.  
 
Sooo....  If one were to take everything at face value, and assuming they fix my RIF, then I am a happy bunny and they deserve all the success after what must be an eye wateringly expensive investment.  Can't blame the shop for a faulty RIF out of the box, but unlike Only Airsoft in Stevenage, where there seems to be an attitude of "warranty is up to them" once you leave the shop, Bespoke seem to just want to keep you happy.  Although to be fair to Only Airsoft, they have honoured the warranty when required - it's just the perception that they give off that is unnecessary.
 
Certainly can't fault Bespoke for care and attention so far!  Standby for updates.
 
 
 
 
 

Went to Bespoke today as I was working half an hour away and had underlings to do work whilst I looked important.  So I pulled rank and ducked out for a bit with my faulty from new AA G36 GBBR.  If you remember the other thread, it is firing a shot at 500 ish fps, then everything subsequent to that just rolls out of the barrel.  I bought it from them at the end of last summer, then had trouble getting in touch, and then work/travel commitments made getting to their then Slough based store tricky.  Talking to them today, I am willing to grant them the communication issues were down to them preparing for the move.
 
New shop is looking pretty damn impressive.  They have a fairly big unit on a small trading estate.  I assume a warehouse downstairs, then a large open office upstairs with a new shop area that is going to be quite big too.
 
They answered the buzzer and let me in unannounced.  An incredibly polite staff (I think the owner) took my pew, which is now well over 6 months from purchase, listened to the description of the fault and said he'd take it down to his tech whilst I had a look around.  I was then given a tour of the new office, shop, firing range, pistol showroom and Air gun showroom.  There was not much in stock at the moment as they're still bringing things up from the Slough premises.  But they had, amongst other things, the Walther WA2000 along with some very nice looking pistols that I had to fight very hard to resist.  I wish I had £780 to spend on a wall hanger.
 
Had a good 30 or so minutes left to my own devices whilst the nice lady behind the counter helped some dude pick out a pew for his daughter, then the guy came back to say that they could see the problem I was having, and would keep the pew for a few days to fix it as they didn't have another in stock, implying to me, that he would have been happy to give me a replacement - so top marks there.
 
They also confirmed that once they're finished setting up, they will be doing all kinds of repairs, upgrades, and customisations in house as well as sales.  This should take them another week or two, but i have two or three non essential pews that need attention that no one else seems to be interested in (or that I'd trust), so they'll be heading there once the G36 is proven.  
 
Sooo....  If one were to take everything at face value, and assuming they fix my RIF, then I am a happy bunny and they deserve all the success after what must be an eye wateringly expensive investment.  Can't blame the shop for a faulty RIF out of the box, but unlike Only Airsoft in Stevenage, where there seems to be an attitude of "warranty is up to them" once you leave the shop, Bespoke seem to just want to keep you happy.  Although to be fair to Only Airsoft, they have honoured the warranty when required - it's just the perception that they give off that is unnecessary.
 
Certainly can't fault Bespoke for care and attention so far!  Standby for updates.
 
 
 
 
 

Went to Bespoke today as I was working half an hour away and had underlings to do work whilst I looked important.  So I pulled rank and ducked out for a bit with my faulty from new AA G36 GBBR.  If you remember the other thread, it is firing a shot at 500 ish fps, then everything subsequent to that just rolls out of the barrel.  I bought it from them at the end of last summer, then had trouble getting in touch, and then work/travel commitments made getting to their then Slough based store tricky.  Talking to them today, I am willing to grant them the communication issues were down to them preparing for the move.
 
New shop is looking pretty damn impressive.  They have a fairly big unit on a small trading estate.  I assume a warehouse downstairs, then a large open office upstairs with a new shop area that is going to be quite big too.
 
They answered the buzzer and let me in unannounced.  An incredibly polite staff (I think the owner) took my pew, which is now well over 6 months from purchase, listened to the description of the fault and said he'd take it down to his tech whilst I had a look around.  I was then given a tour of the new office, shop, firing range, pistol showroom and Air gun showroom.  There was not much in stock at the moment as they're still bringing things up from the Slough premises.  But they had, amongst other things, the Walther WA2000 along with some very nice looking pistols that I had to fight very hard to resist.  I wish I had £780 to spend on a wall hanger.
 
Had a good 30 or so minutes left to my own devices whilst the nice lady behind the counter helped some dude pick out a pew for his daughter, then the guy came back to say that they could see the problem I was having, and would keep the pew for a few days to fix it as they didn't have another in stock, implying to me, that he would have been happy to give me a replacement - so top marks there.
 
They also confirmed that once they're finished setting up, they will be doing all kinds of repairs, upgrades, and customisations in house as well as sales.  This should take them another week or two, but i have two or three non essential pews that need attention that no one else seems to be interested in (or that I'd trust), so they'll be heading there once the G36 is proven.  
 
Sooo....  If one were to take everything at face value, and assuming they fix my RIF, then I am a happy bunny and they deserve all the success after what must be an eye wateringly expensive investment.  Can't blame the shop for a faulty RIF out of the box, but unlike Only Airsoft in Stevenage, where there seems to be an attitude of "warranty is up to them" once you leave the shop, Bespoke seem to just want to keep you happy.  Although to be fair to Only Airsoft, they have honoured the warranty when required - it's just the perception that they give off that is unnecessary.
 
Certainly can't fault Bespoke for care and attention so far!  Standby for updates.
 
 
 
 
 

Went to Bespoke today as I was working half an hour away and had underlings to do work whilst I looked important.  So I pulled rank and ducked out for a bit with my faulty from new AA G36 GBBR.  If you remember the other thread, it is firing a shot at 500 ish fps, then everything subsequent to that just rolls out of the barrel.  I bought it from them at the end of last summer, then had trouble getting in touch, and then work/travel commitments made getting to their then Slough based store tricky.  Talking to them today, I am willing to grant them the communication issues were down to them preparing for the move.
 
New shop is looking pretty damn impressive.  They have a fairly big unit on a small trading estate.  I assume a warehouse downstairs, then a large open office upstairs with a new shop area that is going to be quite big too.
 
They answered the buzzer and let me in unannounced.  An incredibly polite staff (I think the owner) took my pew, which is now well over 6 months from purchase, listened to the description of the fault and said he'd take it down to his tech whilst I had a look around.  I was then given a tour of the new office, shop, firing range, pistol showroom and Air gun showroom.  There was not much in stock at the moment as they're still bringing things up from the Slough premises.  But they had, amongst other things, the Walther WA2000 along with some very nice looking pistols that I had to fight very hard to resist.  I wish I had £780 to spend on a wall hanger.
 
Had a good 30 or so minutes left to my own devices whilst the nice lady behind the counter helped some dude pick out a pew for his daughter, then the guy came back to say that they could see the problem I was having, and would keep the pew for a few days to fix it as they didn't have another in stock, implying to me, that he would have been happy to give me a replacement - so top marks there.
 
They also confirmed that once they're finished setting up, they will be doing all kinds of repairs, upgrades, and customisations in house as well as sales.  This should take them another week or two, but i have two or three non essential pews that need attention that no one else seems to be interested in (or that I'd trust), so they'll be heading there once the G36 is proven.  
 
Sooo....  If one were to take everything at face value, and assuming they fix my RIF, then I am a happy bunny and they deserve all the success after what must be an eye wateringly expensive investment.  Can't blame the shop for a faulty RIF out of the box, but unlike Only Airsoft in Stevenage, where there seems to be an attitude of "warranty is up to them" once you leave the shop, Bespoke seem to just want to keep you happy.  Although to be fair to Only Airsoft, they have honoured the warranty when required - it's just the perception that they give off that is unnecessary.
 
Certainly can't fault Bespoke for care and attention so far!  Standby for updates.
 
 
 
 
 

I think he said lunches are going to happen but he's still building his kitchen area.
 
Extra toilet facilities getting installed too.
 
 
I think I'll suggest £25, that makes a half day or evening session more of an impulse purchase.. if he wants to keep the games running regulatory mid-week with plenty of visitors it can't be priced as a once or twice a month "special event" thing, which is what feels like now. 
Or maybe he could throw in a bottle of ammo with the price, it might not hit his profit so much, and would still reduce the cost to the player.
 
I don't know, maybe I'm mentally framing this from my personal currently skint "can't afford to go very often at that price" viewpoint

Yes, I'm still considering the pricing, but to be fair, he's invested big bucks on that place and also trying to recoup cash from the fuckeries with the council.
 
I have a day in hand, so will probably try the cqb next gameday, but having played at Sentinel (hybrid cqb/outdoors), I think I'm an outdoor player.  Partly because I need the space for stopping and turning distances.
 
Have they moved they gee gees a bit further away from the building? 
 
Couldn't work out if they're doing lunches there too.
 
For those looking at the pictures and videos....a lot of those walls are made out of scaffolding boards, pasloaded onto both sides of pallets.  They're not going anywhere
 

Special Ops' big first day of the year: the new CQB site opened!
Saturday was a 'test game' with, we heard, ~7-a-side.   Sunday was the first official game with 16-a-side.

Well, a picture paints a thousand words, so this'll save me a metric shit-ton of typing then, won't it?
https://www.facebook.com/SpecialOpsSeniors/?locale=en_GB

Lots of pics and videos to peruse - I'll let you guys be the judge of how good it is a new CQB site, because this was my first ever CQB experience (outside of laser-tag!) so I have absolutely no idea if it's good. It has been very well put together, there's a big 'club room' and reception area upstairs, a decent safe zone that was a bit tricky to navigate through due to the desks and people and gear filling it up - and the benches are a bit narrow (which Carlos admitted), but it's all impressive to my untutored eye.   Carlos and his volunteers have obviously worked very hard and I hope it's a success.

I've had a long day at work, so rather than writing out a War And Peace on all the stuff, I'll give you the bullet points (if you'll pardon the pun)
 
I got lost on the way there - Google maps took exception to the location from the web site and kept trying to steer me back to a random location in the middle of nowhere.  I had to stop the instructions and just eyeball the map as I drove.  There's no signage at the entrance either, so easy to drive past it.     It's really not very far at all from the woodland site.
(There's a '3 Words' location that other people used successfully - I'll try to find it)
  Usual rules - 350fps/0.20g, max BB weight of 0.25g.  Bangs (upto and including my new grenade with 0.209 primers) allowed (but not much evident)
  Reasonable car park, close to the entrance, so even though I took all my short guns, and masses of kit with me, it wasn't too onerous to get into the building.   I still managed to leave my toolbox at home - which proved really annoying as I had my Allen keys, speedloader, and my 'nade primers in there.  That proved enough to stop me using my grenade until a test shot at the end of the day, and stopped me using my GBBR (without the speedloader) or my Tippmann (couldn't get the FPS and hop quite dialled in, thanks to having to borrow allen keys and running out of time)
  CQB.   Damn, it hurts getting pinged so often at short range.   The BB's always seemed to find a bit of uncovered or thinly covered skin to hit
  Fog Of War.   Between my goggles fogging up and the variable lighting, half the time I had no idea where my BBs were flying - and thanks to Carlos not having 0.25's in stock, I had to buy and use 0.20s with little idea where they were going.    Time to invest in a tracer unit, methinks!
  I tried a Dye full-face mask I got dirt-cheap, and didn't like it - couldn't get my eye in line with the sights.  Back to the goggles + mesh lower mask
  I also found none of my face protection works very well with my new headset, so bang protection will probably have to be ear plugs for the near future, but luckily the only guys throwing BFG 'nades around were not having much luck getting them to go off.  I begged a primer off one of them for a test throw at the end - and 'bang' went my OhShiBoom.  That'll be fun to use for real.
  A bit too easy to get spawn trapped, even with two spawn exits.  Apparently the site has been designed (or allowed) to have an uneven balance in difficulty.   My team seemed to spend almost the entire session at the difficult side and consequently we got murdered.   Might need some extra cover or another door... or just more swapping of spawns.
  Some of the guys had a whale of a time running around with their rubber knives.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the core gameplay.   Me, well CQB is a very different style.   It wasn't speedy-boi stuff, but still I think I'm naturally more in to the long sneaky flank rather than the bullet-hail around the spawns.   I guess I'll get used to it, if I can afford to play very much. 
  My only real criticism is the pricing.  I have no idea if it's competitive to what the rest of you guys are paying now, though.   

When I was going to Spec Ops' woodland site a couple of years back, it was £25 for a (daylight allowing) 09:30 - 16:30 day.  It got bumped to £30 recently.
The CQB is priced at £35 for a 10:00 - 14:30 / 15:00 - 19:30 session, or £45 for the full day (which I couldn't do, so I took the morning slot)
I feel that's a bit much for the half-day slots, but then again I suppose the safe zone is right there, and so are the spawns, so actual pewing time is probably much greater.  And much less ammo used too.   So yeah, a decently fun intro to CQB, though I didn't totally fall in love with it - I got zapped way too much, zapped others way too little, and thanks to some technical hitches I spent too long meddling with kit in the safe zone.  Next time might go better.
 
Guns taken:
Double Eagle M906C (Old Faithful)
TM AUG HC (always fun to run, but chrono'd very low at 230fps on 0.20's - time for a service, maybe a new spring)
Tippmann M4 HPA (slightly too hot, just missed out on chrono due to fps variance)
VFC HK416 GBBR (no speedloader, left in the case)
G&G G36 (gearbox locked up a few times on semi)
TM D.O.R Hi Capa (used a bit, great as always)
JG SIG 552 (didn't use it, but should have)
 

I'm starting to wonder if this is a misplaced advert for Just-Con?
 
Hell, my plans for semi retirement this year have had a spanner thrown in the works.   For £30 per head I'm sure I can provide a respectable database of data to provide a defense....  any stupidity needs to be done on an already insured site 
 
DM me for details.  🫡

I'm starting to wonder if this is a misplaced advert for Just-Con?
 
Hell, my plans for semi retirement this year have had a spanner thrown in the works.   For £30 per head I'm sure I can provide a respectable database of data to provide a defense....  any stupidity needs to be done on an already insured site 
 
DM me for details.  🫡

Do you have the wording of the policy?   What is it insuring you against?   I don't think hurting someone's feefees is a thing....just yet at least.

She has just joined the site, @sofieb Everyone say hi. 😁

Do you have the wording of the policy?   What is it insuring you against?   I don't think hurting someone's feefees is a thing....just yet at least.

Do you have the wording of the policy?   What is it insuring you against?   I don't think hurting someone's feefees is a thing....just yet at least.

It's a website that doesn't look like it's been updated for 7 years.  I'm not sure I'd trust it much more than I could wipe my arse with it.