Colin Allen

I remember seeing reports of other kit being stolen in safe zones, including helmets and pistols; should those be banned as well? After all, they could equally be considered “flavouring”. Banning BFGs because people might steal them is perverse. I disagree as to why we are at Airsoft sites. We are there to play a game; bangs, whether they are BFGs or paper pyro, are very much part of that game at sites where they can be used.

So sites should ban them because thieving cunts sometimes steal them? The "logic" behind that is somewhat worrying.

Bravo are the new HPA. Are you really complaining about getting hit on the lenses? That happens. I suspect that you are massively overestimating the accuracy of airsoft toys and the ability of those who use them. You really should take up a more suitable hobby; maybe you could try macramé.

Damn right; anyone who has stolen from other players should not be welcome at any site. I don't know if it still exists, but there used to be a FB group where site owners/managers shared details of the more problematic players, who tended to find themselves unwelcome wherever they tried to go.

Interesting to note that they still cannot manage to brief the teams properly. Still, you had a good day and got your UKARA sorted out!

Verily, you speak truth! As a certified sneaky bastard, my armband sometimes gives away my position, no matter how much I try to position myself so that it cannot be seen. I cannot see any reason why bush wookies should be able to sidestep that particular problem.

I believe that Imperium has quite strict rules on who can wear ghillie suits. i would like to see them restricted to snipers.

Indeed; a proportionate response to someone potentially wielding a real firearm would not be out of place.

Having raised these issues here, I think that Cr0-Magnon and JinxDuh should name the sites so that the rest of us can avoid them.

The sad thing is that the playing area is really rather good; it has lots of interesting structures, including a great trench system.

Yep, that about sums it up! My eldest, who used to work there, described it as a death trap with regard to the wiring.

The less said about Red1 Chislehurst, the better. In my opinion, it is a potentially excellent site which is ruined by very poor management, organisation and marshalling. The boundary with the sports field is a case in point. The site owners need to put up a proper barrier to prevent BBs straying onto it; it is their responsibility to take every action possible to ensure that it cannot happen. Not only is there a potential risk to the football playing children and their families, but shooting BBs onto or over someone's property without their permission is potentially a criminal offence. Unfortunately, airsoft does seem to attract a fair few people whose knuckles drag across the floor when they walk and who struggle with basic morality and empathy. A little while ago, I was berated by a group of players for pointing out that one of them had just pulled the trigger in the safe zone for the third time in a few minutes, after I had already told him not to on the previous two occasions. Apparently, pointing it out in a rather pissed off tone was disrespectful and out of order, but repeatedly pulling the trigger in the safe zone was not. Having encountered barrel socks, I am also convinced that they should be mandatory.

No, which is why sites need to deal far more robustly with the fuckwits. At one of my regular sites, part of the safety brief warns players not to shoot towards the few adjacent properties and sets out the consequences. They can only be shot towards from a very small area of the very large site and are situated such that they are not in the line of fire for any games; you have to make a conscious decision to shoot at people's homes. Just before the last game, a player started shooting towards them; a very angry site owner told him rather forcefully to leave the site. One of the things that I like about the site is that they are not afraid to throw out people who are behaving like idiots or ruining the day for other people.

Probably because a lot of site owners/managers would be incapable of looking after a piece of gravel. It really is quite easy, isn't it? There is the safe zone and areas where BBs might be flying (chrono/range and game zone). All of my regular sites manage this well; there is good signage and the delineation between the areas is very clear. In addition, the transitions between safe and non-safe are designed such that a random BB shot towards the safe zone gate from non-safe cannot make its way in without making at least one 90 degree turn. Which is absolutely reasonable if that is made very clear to players and there is highly visible signage.

Very harsh; I have never been to a site that penalises players for shooting in the game zone.

You did; sadly, some do not. I had something similar happen; I plugged the battery in while the RIF was on a table in the safe zone and the mosfet failed, resulting in it going full auto. I quickly disconnected the battery and explained the situation to the site owner, who did not have the look of a very impressed chap and is not someone you would want to mess with. Once I had explained what had happened, supported by other players, he was cool about it. Sometimes, things like that happen and it is not the player's fault. On another day at the same site, a player was being a dick (thus breaking the first rule of airsoft) and let off a round in the safe zone which pinged off the wobbly tin; the owner came storming over and told him to pack his gear and leave. His mates tried to remonstrate with the owner and were told that they could also leave if they disagreed with his decision.

Pulling the trigger should result in the player's day ending immediately. Eyes are too valuable to take chances and there is no valid reason to take a gun off 'safe' and pull the trigger in the safe zone.

Hi! It was a good day; both teams fought really hard! I had heard of it, but never encountered it before. I do like it; it gives extra reassurance in case some muppet pulls the trigger in the safe zone.

Today, the lad and I wandered off to Splatoon, a smallish airsoft and paintball in deepest Essex. I had been once before for a boot fair, but this was to be our first time playing there. The safe zone is pretty large and well appointed with remarkably good toilet facilities, a tap for water, a decent food stall selling the usual range of drinks, snacks and burgers (actually including vegetarian!) and HPA filling points. It just about absorbed the 90-100 players who were present. All weapons except pistols must wear a muzzle sock in the safe zone. After finding a table and chronoing (which opened early and ran very efficiently), we were ready for the first game; this was a simple domination using the four available playing areas (two are being upgraded), two of which were wooded with lots of small structures, while the others contained a variety of larger structures, mostly built from old shipping containers, a kill house and a couple of wrecked helicopters. This was a good, fun game which provided us with a good opportunity to explore the areas that were in play. Hit taking seemed to be very good and the game ran well; apart from the last five minutes of the day, all weapons except support weapons were limited to semi auto, which meant that the latter actually had a distinct role. After a quick trip to the safe zone to reload, we went back out to play a game were our team (red) had to transport a bomb across the site (at 90 degrees to the direction the first game had been played) and place it in either of the two helicopters. If the bomb carrier was hit, they had to drop the bomb, which could then be picked up by another member of the team; the opponents could not touch it. After a very good set of battles across the site, we got our bomb in with about 7 minutes to spare. Yay! Go us! This game was then reversed; a well organised defence resulted in our opponents being unable to get their bomb into either helicopter. Yay! Go us, again! After lunch, about which I cannot comment as we took pizza, there was a fun team deathmatch, which was manic, slightly chaotic (in a good way) and a good way to blow off the post lunch lethargy. We then moved on to a fallback game; as the attackers, we respawned on a marshal who was a reasonable distance behind us, while the defenders had three lives in each of the four zones. We pushed them out of the woods quite rapidly and then got stuck attempting to break into the first of the container structure areas, thanks to a gritty defence by our opponents. Eventually, we managed to break into the area, although many of our team were taken out by a superb pyro throw which sailed over one of the helicopters and exploded, taking out all of the players who were clustered behind it. We slowly pushed up and were just starting to move into the final zone when we ran out of time. As so often seems to happen in the afternoon, a few players became quite vocal about alleged non hit taking and other alleged misdemeanours so, when we returned to the safe zone, the site owner gave a rather impressive "motivational talk", reminding everyone that we were there to have fun shooting each other with plastic balls from toy guns and it really was not something to get aggressive about; this was very well received. As it was now getting close to the end of the day, we went out for another team deathmatch, albeit with a slight twist; the first ten minutes would be team v team and semi only, while the last five minutes would be all v all with full auto allowed. The lad announced that he would be keeping as far away from me as possible towards the end of the game; I can't think why. The last five minutes were as chaotic and fun as might be expected with lots of people taking the opportunity to shoot their mates. Thus ended the day; it was great fun, was well marshalled and made the best use of the four areas of the site that were available. We left very satisfied and will definitely return. As the lad is off to train for Cambrian Patrol and then back off to university, while I have rehearsals for our third festival gig of the summer and the festival, our next game will be at Op-Tac's The Kingdom near Stoke in early September. Weapons used: Me: LCT PP-19-01 APS UAR Milbro M1911 Classic (CO2) - until it died just after lunch. The lad: CYMA AKS74U LCT AS-VAL ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

Back in my marshalling days, a group of players were becoming annoyed that a chap that they were shooting at was not taking his hits. I went over to where he was lying to observe; their BBs were falling about 3m in front of him. Similar things happened so many times. It sums up the quality of marshalling at many sites.

I would have, if I had seen it in time. It was a very good price.

I am intrigued as to how he managed to post a sales ad so soon after joining, without making any posts.

Consider the possibility that the tree loses the man.

Aye, that can be problematic. Best of luck with the procedure when it happens; until then, take it easy.

Which are at least better than holy trousers.