Colin Allen

Well played! Sorting out a RIF is always satisfying. The lad is thinking of getting a 552 but midcaps are damned hard to find.

Indeed, monsieur.

I very definitely have an issue boots issue, and I don't care:). I have worn black tie with black issued German boots; nobody seemed to notice.

It would have been the traditional way: throwing blancmanges at each other from the baskets of hot air balloons. It is how I repeatedly duel with my mortal foe, Roger the Welshman (that isn't an instruction). I am pleased to hear about the boots. Go and play, and tell him what a brilliant day you had :). Hope he recovers rapidly.

Fair enough. I will be near Milton Keynes on Thursday; ask your second to contact mine to make the arrangements.

I did some quite extensive data analysis on South African crime rates a few years ago as part of a wider research project into violent crime in South Africa Generally accepted reasons for the high violent crime rates include: A failed policing criminal justice system that is under equipped, ineffective, inefficient, highly politicised and corrupt. Massively unequal wealth distribution. Zero prospects for advancement for a large percentage of the population. Disadvantaged young people being drawn into violent crime through a normalisation of violence, the growth of violent subcultures, poor parenting, poverty etc. Brutalisation of young people growing up in poverty, resulting in the above mentioned normalisation of violence. Large numbers of guns being readily available, often having been sold to gangs by police officers on an almost industrial scale; for example, Colonel Christiaan Prinsloo was convicted in 2016 of selling more than 2000 guns to criminal gangs. As well educated and skilled South Africans, predominantly white, leave the country in ever increasing numbers, with most giving the level of violent crime as their main motivation for doing so, it is unlikely that the situation is going to improve as their departure is negatively impacting business and the economy, leading to further reductions in opportunities for the underprivileged. As with the USA, it does look like South Africa may be well and truly fucked when it comes to violent crime and, in particular, murder.

I think they are a mixture of the two. Unfortunately, there will always be a percentage of people in this hobby who like to create controversy or are attracted to authoritarianism. There are also some who lack the intelligence or awareness to understand what wearing such insignia, be it Z, Wagner, SS or whatever, represents.. They are the same group who use the "It's just banter" defence. I have only seen two or three players wearing Z or Wagner patches. One was asked to remove a Z patch by a site owner, refused to do so and was told to leave. Maybe you need to find a different site; however, such people are spread across airsoft and you will encounter them at most sites. The best thing to do is to ignore them as much as possible, play your game and, if you do encounter them in the field, make sure it hurts.

To be fair, you deserved it and it was not written in anger.

Anger and self control issues; hopefully, he does not have a FAC.

Grow up, child. Either that, or stop posting when drunk.

Pull your head in, old boy; your angry man syndrome is showing. AI legislation and firearms legislation are two completely different situations. The former is a new and rapidly developing area and all governments are looking at its potential impact and how to prevent it growing out of control; it is not a case of "follow my leader". Do you really think that a US requirement to have markings on imitation firearms and some form of testing programme for the same is going to impact your right to own a firearm in the UK? I did NOT say that nobody needs a firearm; I said that, outside a few legitimate reasons, nobody in the UK needs a firearm; if you are going to argue with me, at least try to argue with what I have said. I stand by what I said; there are very few people in the UK who need a firearm. Your car argument is utterly infantile; cars serve a useful purpose in transporting people. As such, they are useful tools. In the UK, firearms are only useful tools for very, very few people. Comparing airsofters with Dietrich Bonhoeffer is utterly ridiculous and massively insulting to someone who had the guts to stand up to one of the most vile regimes in modern history. Give your head a shake.

I cannot quite see how US regulations regarding imitation firearms will impact shooting hobbies in the UK. I expect new legislation will make ownership and use of firearms more difficult; given that we still have incidents such as the ones that you describe, that is almost inevitable. To be honest, outside a few legitimate reasons, I cannot see why anyone in the UK needs to own a firearm.

That is neither a ban on imports nor a requirement for them to be either transparent plastic or non-real looking colours. A 6mm orange band on the muzzle meets the requirements. As for the testing regime, a "reasonable testing program" is required but what constitutes reasonable is not defined. It is up to the manufacturer or "private labeler" to certify that the product meets the requirement of having the required marking. This would probably not be an onerous requirement.

The part that I highlighted is incredibly simplistic; it is the classic argument that guns are not the problem and that "an armed society is a safe society". Guns may not be the whole of the problem but they are a very large part of it; having an armed society hasn't worked out particularly well for you, has it? Has it created a safer society? I don't think that there is anything that ordinary Joes like you can do; the situation has reached the point where you just have to accept that dead schoolchildren are the price you have to pay for an obsession with owning guns and a devotion to every word, comma, full stop etc of an outdated constitution that prevents people from accepting that the conditional clause of the second amendment is now obsolete, thus voiding the right to keep and bear arms.

Most of the developed world moved way beyond that incredibly simplistic view a long time ago. Unfortunately, I suspect that there are so many guns in circulation in the USA that you are truly fucked. You have created an armed, aggressive and fearful society with appallingly poor education and mental health provision, resulting in a situation where a reasonably large number of schoolchildren are going to be killed in mass shootings every year. But hey, that's a price worth paying for Billy Bob to own his penis extension.

Excellent! I have been wearing mine today. I only own one pair of shoes, which are for when I have to wear black tie. I own 17 pairs of issue boots.

1000 mile socks are great. As an alternative, I have been using these for walking, airsoft and everyday use for years and have covered an awful lot of miles in them: https://tuclothing.sainsburys.co.uk/product/tuc141251954

Best desert boots: Iturri, by a very long way, but they are not good in the wet without sealskinz socks. Best patrol boots: Iturri. Light, comfortable and pretty much waterproof if treated properly with waterproofing wax.

Don’t! They are very old fashioned boots; awkward and uncomfortable when worn over any length of time. These are quite similar to the YDS boots; old fashioned, awkward and not particularly comfortable.

Removed

Oh god! Those things! Awful boots; heavy, uncomfortable and very basic. I bought a pair once; they went back whence they came very rapidly.

The ankle support on the Iturri desert boots is good; they are great boots as long as you keep them away from anything that vaguely resembles water. I would not use the issue AKU Pilgrim for anything more than everyday around town use; they are very comfortable and reasonably supportive but are not particularly well made. They are also not very waterproof and are quite narrow. They are very popular in my eldest son’s reserve unit because they do not need polishing for parade. Just to throw another option into your considerations, the Meindl black Bundeswehr boots are excellent; really good soles, goretex lined, comfortable, supportive, light and quite wide.

They are not unduly heavy, but I guess it depends on what you regard as heavy. Given your feet, you might struggle with them as they are not the widest boots. Karrimor SF cold wet weather boots, which you can pick up on eBay, are quite wide.

Yes, Sports Direct took over the civilian Karrimor brand, while another company, Karrimor SF, made some very good cold wet weather boots for the MoD; I recently sent quite a few pairs of the latter to Ukraine, where they are very popular. The Sports Direct Karrimor walking boots are very poor; the Iturri desert boots would be better or, ideally, Iturri Cold Wet Weather boots, which are the best boots I have found in more than 40 years of wearing issue and commercial boots over various gnarly bits of the UK and beyond. My son describes them as: "Incredibly comfortable and have what I am calling "the down duvet effect", despite not being too hot at all when tabbing or doing platoon attacks, I also didn't have cold feet the whole weekend, even when it started snowing." However, you do need to go a full size up on them; for example, if you normally take a 10L, you need an 11L. The Iturri patrol boots are very light and very comfortable but, as I wrote earlier, do not provide as much ankle support. On reflection, I would not use them for airsoft.

Iturri desert boots are excellent; very comfortable, very supportive and they have the superb Defender sole, which is now replacing the Vibram sole on the main British army issue boots, the Altberg Defender, as they provide better grip on hard surfaces, while being as good on softer surfaces. However, they are definitely not in any way waterproof, even after being properly treated; even mildly long wet grass is a problem. The Peruana jungle boots are nice, but the soles do not provide adequate grip on hard or solid surfaces; they are designed for muddy conditions where they can sink in. However, they are somewhat iconic. I have to admit to being a military boot geek!