Speedy Sloth

I agree that criminals must be caught and punished and common theft seems to be at allmtime high. But just so you know sharing this CCTV and any images may be a GDPR breach and the last thing we want is a reputable retailer the community loves to be punished unfairly. Last thing you want is any subsequent leads being questioned as you've breached the (unfairly protected crimals) data protection rights. Or worse him having a valid case against you. Hopefully local police will recognise him and actually get some work done rather than driving round in high end undercover cars trying to punish your average motorist at every opportunity.

By all accounts even the vfc mp7 AEG didn't last long before it's internals fail. The scorpion and TM mp7 also aren't full size they are smaller than real life counterparts.

Buy proper heavyweight bb's. The short barrel means the heavy joule creep. You should also never test the joules on anything less than your in-game weight as well really.

As an example https://www.combatsouth.co.uk/action-army-m130-type-96-spring/ Side note combat south are a fantastic store and rip their woodland site. Just so you know the stock asg aw .308 uses 45 degree trigger and piston (although reasonable quality) they won't play well with an m150 spring or above. You will want to upgrade to 90° parts of you want reliability as well. The rifle isn't true type96 spec (what the l96 with forward magazine positioning system is called), but can be made to be.

This feels very much like something was wrong prior to charging. Batteries don't go up in flames randomly, it's charging when something is wrong that causes it. I've moved to life batteries as they just seem a battery tech overall than lipo, you lose a little power density but gain stability and a bit of safety back. (But should still treat them like a hazard) Based on the amount of cars I've heard being driven around screaming something is wrong (especially brakes) it's seems like people do forgot to check details when it's obvious even now days. (Not saying your father did but as a country people do seem to not take safety as important)

Any 7mm aps2 sitting will work. Action army are often easily available

I do agree with UKARA existence if it's a way to keep the sport going (which it has done and hopefully will continue until the heat death of the universe.) But being devils advocate the UKARA scheme only exists as a method to sell rifs from retailer's to the public. Once it's in the public's hands UKARA has nothing to do with it anymore. You don't need a UKARA to have a rif. And nobody waving one around in public is being checked on the database. The police won't care where you got it from just why you wanted to get shot by armed response. Having a UKARA simply justifies a retailer selling you something because someone was overzealous with the rules at one point in time. we make it easier to get an air gun than an Airsoft replica in this country, makes no sense.

My latest ukara registration lapsed and I got an email, but didn't during COVID when it lapsed. Looking through the privacy policy very quickly, it also doesn't state they will use the details given to them to contact players . It does seem somewhat funny that whilst a ukara registration only lasts 1 year, the ukara website essentially says they will hold on to your data forever as point 9 of the privacy terms. From a privacy perspective seems overkill to hold data indefinitely.

On a side note Mr hewes restoration of the fv4005 has been fun to watch, wish I could have gone tankfest this year.

The Tac41p Sport is up for sale at £250 at empire Airsoft which seems a really good deal along with the LS. Would be interesting to see if the hop unit has issues as silverback put out a video on making it hop heavyweight bb's better.

Here's a full image from silverback breaking down the material used for each rifle part and various other specs. The LS does appear to be good value. A guy on YouTube has done tests at 4j+ and it holds up without issue so far.

Be warned whilst it works the Airsoftpro has no built in barrel to hop unit alignment so it's 100% on the user to make everything align (i.e centre the hop rubber so it hops straight) I've got one and it works well once it's set correctly but avoid touching it unless needed or you can test again before gameday. I find drawing a line continuing the hop rubber alignment grove up the barrel helps line it up with the mag catch screw mount to ensure it's all lined up well.

Sometimes it's better to keep going unnoticed and maintain the status quo. Honestly don't want attention from the wrong people (politicians), who if they became aware would likely campaign to ban our already often misunderstood hobby.