TheFull9

Literally just a TM.

If it helps at all; trying to shoot the No1 in the standing unsupported like that is very much on the harder end of the shooting difficulty scale. Looks like the range wasn't that long but the target was a tiny little round plate? Pretty tricky. World War era bolt-actions are long with all the weight out the front by comparison to modern military carbines and the open/notch sights on that variant are, imho, far worse and harder to use than the aperture on a No4 (or indeed most guns that came later) - which you probably realised by comparison to the .22. Obviously it's only a short clip so I don't know, but if you spent the whole 70 seconds up in the aim, you'll have gotten less steady as time went on, you're only human there's no beating that. That's a standard issue that people run in to when learning and is worst in the standing position. You can get away with it for longer as your stance gets lower, but even then it's usually better to relax and only spend as long aiming as is necessary to get your ducks in a row before firing. Not massively transferable to airsoft of course, but peeps who can shoot usually at least manage to look a bit better in candid site photog pics I find.

Back when my grey Scorpion was fresh out of the box, made for a good platform to build on. The hype for these has obviously thoroughly died off compared to a few years ago, but I features-wise I really like these as something inbetween the NGRS and a standard AEG. Definitely 'feels' close to the real thing and takes real handguards etc with usually minimal work.

Very pleasant yeah. Well once I got there anyway, there was that tube strike which made the travel a 'mare and the current middle east situation caused the usual protests outside to get cranked up a notch. Very enjoyable once I was there though. I could be slightly biased since I've always got in for free though. No the gun world defo stole that idea from.. I dunno whoever was doing sew/iron on patches, but they added velcro, then the airsoft companies started knocking off those designs and it spread from there (just like basically everything in airsoft).

An older config of the TM SCAR-L. Has a different stock and forend kit now, but this setup was pretty decent all things considered.

On the one hand, to be expected, on the other hand most of the comments like "join the real army you walt" are either from anon accounts or will 99% come from fat kevins who failed selection as a raf cadet instructor, but spin endless dits down the local about how they 'were gonna join the paras' as they sip their piss lager.

Not bought but swag haul from DSEI the other week. Most of my guns don't have QDs but I'll give the Spiritus Reverso a try at some point.

Bang, you're dead.

*submits anonymous report to HMRC* A large, asthmatic man called Kevin who wears glasses with dirty lenses and talks entirely through his nose will be knocking on your door shortly.

Wouldn't worry about that, there's probably 10000 packages a day coming in to the country where the declarations aren't correct. Been that way forever. Though everything I import personally I of course 1000% ensure the declaration is perfect and inscrutable in its' validity and precisely accurate on valuation to the 1/10th of a penny. If necessary I sneak in to the processing facilities with correctly printed forms like Sam Fisher, use a nano-laser cutter on the little adhesive transparent wallet, extract the dirty, lying paperwork, insert the beautiful correct paperwork then heat seal the plastic again using a micro glue that's invisible to the human eye or even indeed any scanning machines.

I never get bored of seeing an issue grab bag, ha. If you sit and look at it, there's a significant carrying capacity there. Like you'd need a decent sized chest rig to have 3 mag pouches, 2 frag, a smoke and maybe 2 med-large GPs and an admin pouch for the generic internal space of it. Might have to start being one of the recommendations for newbies - one and done gear purchase right there, no assembly required.

It's a topic that gets discussed often in any good forum/arena of airsoft talk, end of the day safety is the #1 priority in anything and most certainly in this hobby. I know I'll always say the same things others have said here any time it comes up, partly for the people involved but also for the many, many lurkers who just read the forum but don't post (usually on most sites there are actually way more pure readers than posters). The hobby has a real 'churn' of new players and people leaving, so any time eye pro comes up I find that most people with an enthusiasm for airsoft will want to get involved with conversation even though it's been said a lot before, because it always needs bringing back up to the forefront to stay in people's view; as it were.

Do they have licenses from Reptilia and B5 Systems? (No clue on that myself) They obviously have their sister companies for the added metaphorical/legal 'distance' for various other releases, not sure that's what's happening with this one. Feels more like they just went off early press release pics for the grip and I don't get the stock choice. Not that it matters because anyone who's trying to copy a setup will slide the knock-off Bravo right off and most likely slap on whatever else they saw in a military pic (which is basically always a CTR).

Naturally, but neither do E&C or the many chinese airsoft brands that knock-off magpul; becuase nobody has the license since PTS lost it (unless something changed recently?). Possibly they have a US based arm and hence actually care about litigation.

Does VFC avoid knocking-off magpul stuff usually? The stock and pistol grip seem an odd choice, all the pics of issued 403s I can see have a CTR and MIAD.

I see you're a man who likes to live life on the edge.

I think it's safe to say that this 'comes with the territory'. Airsoft is not a big business comparatively speaking, so you combine the fact there's not much money in it with the other fact that we're running around with 'guns' and throwing fireworks and hence need to be away/segregated from anyone not actively participating, then the sites are generally going to be in locations where nobody else is regularly travelling to. Unless someone sticks to the rare examples like Precinct 13 and Z-Mart that are actually in the middle of a fair sized town, then having a car and license is (close to) a requirement for entry for the hobby I'd say. First time really thinking about it, but I'd almost say that if you're new/getting in to this and can't drive or get lifts, then either put the time and money in to driving before even getting eye pro and a gun or buy one absolutely barebones loadout then hold off further purchases until the driving is sorted. Bearing in mind of course that some people who've already commented here don't fit this category and do use public transport, so it clearly can be done. Personally though I wouldn't ever play if I had to spend hours on trains/buses and then potentially hike a long way with a heavy bag; then do it all again on the way home. Not knocking that method, it's perhaps the only option for some folks for various reason and the effort is impressive frankly, but not for me.

I think this is worth mentioning when it comes up; what @Anonymoose said I would very much echo. I can recall seeing a laser used once ever at a game, which was at a woodland site and it just perfectly highlighted where the person trying to shoot me was crouching. They can potentially have some utility in IR form if you have proper night vision to see it and play a game where that combo is allowed/relevant, but we're getting in to small niches at that point. Obviously if someone wants to deck out their shooter with a PEQ or whatever for looks then go for it, they are important devices for the real firearms we're replicating, but airsoft utility is slim to none. A simple white light that's got an ergonomic momentary activation switch can be useful very often (again depending where you play) and apart from anything is great for.. you know just seeing where the heck you're walking and not tripping over and breaking yourself. I'd wager the most common airsoft injuries beyond little bb welts are probably the results of trips, slips, falls, collisions etc.

In order to have the option of running sans any actual gear, I've been looking around for products to fit the above criteria and I'd like to hear folks' findings and experiences. Not looking to have a giant drum or anything and use an M4 as a machine gun/bb hose, but I usually have about 5 mid-caps on me with 120 each so looking for similar capacity but at minimal weight. Since the gun in question will also be a specific lightweight build and obviously mags are part of that. Couple of options so far as examples, plastic hi-caps are the obvious initial choice here. Trying to get that best result in terms of the ratio mentioned but also look at least fairly realistic and be built to a sufficient quality such that my ammo feeding device won't let me down (as the plan is not to be wearing a rig to carry any spares). A flash mag would be ideal too, since to my knowledge they're the fast winding hi-cap? Haven't really used one since about 2007 so again experiences and other input would be great. A couple of these linked together seem like perhaps the top option: https://www.evike.com/products/52410/ This is the best ratio of weight to capacity I've seen, but the real ones are notoriously unreliable which I think would probably carry over to an ARES product which I'd best is made of thin and flimsy plastic (but interested to hear any related experiences of course): https://www.redwolfairsoft.com/magazines-ares-aeg-ares-900rds-magazine-for-m16.html

Any opportunity to put my hands in my pockets.

Decent faux gas tubes longer than carbine length aren't super commonly available relatively speaking, so that's a good find to add to a proper M16. That said, in theory it really shouldn't be the gas tube that keeps the handguards tight. Airsoft guns are weird sometimes, but the presence (or otherwise) of the tube shouldn't change the fitment of the handguards at all one way or the other. Was your barrel nut loose and rotating around on the front of the upper receiver per chance? In the lower image, the delta ring spring does look like something is a bit awry perhaps, though it's always hard to tell from a still image of course. I mean if it's fixed now and that's you satisfied then hey that's the end goal, all good. The circumstances there just intrigued me.