Colin Allen

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.

Do you have a plentiful supply of trousers? You might have found a new way of making an expensive hobby even more expensive.

Yes, I really hope that @Impulse gets his issue sorted out asap; it is not hugely uncommon and there are a range of treatments.

This morning, the lad and I once again set off for Airsoft Plantation, one of our regular sites. The morning started with a game in which we (red team) had to assault across the mortar pits to reach a siren which was located on the far side in front of one of the landing craft. The attacking team had infinite regens on a marshal, while the defenders had two lives. Assaulting out of the woods, the big surprise was that the double decker bus had moved from the centre of the mortar pits to the edge nearest the woods; apparently, this is in preparation for their upcoming two-dayer over the bank holiday weekend and completely changed the dynamics of fighting in that area. We were badly held up trying to get out of the woods, but eventually wore the enemy down, forcing our way through the mortar pits and setting off the siren. The game was then switched round and we realised why it had taken us so long to break out; shooting fish in a barrel came to mind. After being hit, I moved back to a position in our left rear, where the enemy were starting to apply pressure after engaging in a wide flanking manoeuvre. We held them up for a while, but they eventually reached the siren, taking one minute longer than we had. Unfortunately, during this game, one of the lad's BFGs went missing after he had used it in a very well defined area; when he went to recover it 3-4 minutes later, it had vanished, After the game, we searched for it, but could not find it. After a break to mag up, play switched to the other end of the site in a game wherein the attackers had to transport a stretcher from the far end of the woods to the wobbly bridge and kill house; once they had arrived there, a casualty had to be placed on the stretcher with an band applied to each limb and then transported via the Border to the town hall in the village. Attackers again respawned on a marshal, while defenders had one life at each of the wobbly bridge, the border and the village. If the casualty was hit, they had to leave the stretcher and a new casualty had to don the bands and be transported forward. The lad and I, along with several other players, occupied the ditch on the far right of the site, working well as a team and taking out a lot of attackers in the light woodland. Eventually, my rifle received a hit from a sniper rifle or DMR; calling a gun hit, I drew my pistol, only to be hit again by fire from my left, sending me back towards the border, where I settled into a favourite position and waited for the enemy, who arrived rather more rapidly than expected. I took out a bunch who were exposed to my right and then another group who appeared in the same place; while I was doing this, a fellow defender to my front fell gallantly when faced by overwhelming numbers and I found myself facing a lot of enemies to my front and right flank. After holding them back for a few minutes, I was hit and went back to the village, where an unfortunate friendly fire incident ended my participation in the game. I decided to have another look for the lad's grenade and was later joined by him; we still could not find it. We met an enemy player who had been there when it was lost and he stated that he had seen it in on the grass in clear view. As this was now lunchtime, we mentioned the grenade to the site owner; at the end of the afternoon briefing, he mentioned it and stated that whoever had picked it up should hand it in at the site shop/office. A player did so, claiming that he had picked it up (why?) and put it in his dump pouch, but had then completely forgotten about it and then spent one and half games and all of lunchtime completely oblivious to having a large and heavy BFG banging against his hip (yeah, right!). Anyway, the important thing was that the lad got his BFG back. After lunch, the stretcher game was reversed; a group of us, including the lad and I, assaulted the ditch that we had defended earlier, driving the enemy out in fine style. We then attacked the border, which is always difficult as it is a very strong position, but eventually broke through after a fierce fight against a superb defence; poison gas and flash bangs were much used. Rolling up to the village, we stormed it en masse, getting our casualty to the town hall more quickly than the enemy had. After this, the final game saw a return to the mortar pits, with both sides attacking across them to set off a buzzer at the enemy's start point. All players had two lives and my participation was somewhat limited as my two lives each passed quickly. Despite the grenade incident, it was a really good day, with us running some of our less used weapons. AP already has a 30m minimum engagement distance for full auto and, as last week, there seemed to be an effort to persuade players to use semi all the time, which is something that I applaud; it makes play so much more interesting. Next weekend, we are probably going to an outdoor CQB site that is completely new to us. Weapons used: Me: King Arms PDW Double Bell KAC PDW Milbro M1911 Classic (CO2) The lad: JG G3 SRC MP5 ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

That sounds like an unpleasantly painful experience; is there anything that can be done to prevent it happening?

Yep, that pretty much describes Croydon.

He's been trying to shift them since May; strangely, nobody seems interested.

If you trim the hinge off, there is not enough material on the dust cover to fit into the curved slot on the back of the CM028 trunnion. However, the one that BIGwat has linked to 'should' work; my son has one fitted to a CYMA 04x series AK105.

Maybe email them and ask? Based on their statement, I would assume that they do ship to the UK.

You have not included a picture; however, if it is a railed cover for a CM045 it will not fit on a CM028U. The 045 dust cover is hinged at the front.

My Ares VZ58 has the same setup; I believe it is common across many of their models.