TheFull9

Have to say... if your ear ever got in the way of the reciprocating cocking handle, I could only presume you sights were mounted on the side of the gun and your cheek weld was somewhere on the magazine. Despite what some internet commandos out there tend say, you can shoot the real thing left handed without losing teeth. Just only in a very specific, awkward stance and you'd not hit much past 15m I don't think, not without a lot of practice. But anyway, OP, long as it's from a reputable, trusted retailer and brand you cannot go too far wrong; if possible just go in to a shop and get hands on with whatever you can and you'll very quickly figure out what you really like. Half the time these threads end up being more for the old-salts than the new players anyway and it ends up going a bit too in depth, but ergonomics are an entirely individual thing that can't be experienced though the internet. For example, I was always certain that I'd really love the handling characteristics of the P90... handled a real one a couple of weeks back... not a fan it turned out, so you never do know.

The Tac Tailor Fight-Light is cheaper and, IMHO, a lot better.

VFC M&P9 with some custom work by a buddy of mine state-side.

IMO, by the time you've bought all those parts (and this is airsoft, they may or may not fit, you roll the dice) you might as well have bought a G&G combat machine. They have the proper threaded section on the front of the upper for mounting various freefloat handguards.

Arc'teryx LEAF Talos trousers in MC to go with the matching shirt (only about a 2 year gap between purchases). Like wearing the finest silks...

After you make 1 post, there's an 'Edit' button down by the Quote and MultiQuote, idea is you use that. Or if you're posting 2 minutes apart just write it all in to one initially.

Have to be honest I'm skeptical of 417 mags going in a 762 FASTmag. 417 are already fatter than M14/FAL and then have ridges that protrude as well.

Quadruple post? First time I've seen that...

Long term, the 'best' kneepads are the ones that go in to your trousers I've found. Either foam inserts or Crye style, all works and is 100% guaranteed to never ever fall down because it's physically impossible; also removes any requirement for straps going round your leg (which personally I never liked).

The belt has a strip of loop along the inside and the MALICE on the mag pouches are kept in place with these which have corresponding hook: http://www.first-spear.com/product.php?productid=17527 The loops on the dump pouch also have some velcro. The keepers don't because I bought them in a rush and all I could find in this country were somewhat old-school ones that are more aimed at police use, but that wasn't an issue. Given the thickness and rigidity of the belt and how tightly I had it adjusted, it wasn't shifting around anywhere.

I've been using padded PALS/Warbelts for 4-5 years now so I'm going to try out the direct attachment method that's popular with a lot of civvie shooters in the states. This is the sort of transition setup, doesn't get threaded through the belt loops (use keepers instead) but doing away with any padding or modular attachment. Worked fine in the game I tried it, though the 4 layers of webbing and 2 layers of plastic going through the holster was functional but forced the belt in to an awkward shape that was noticeably (when not actually in game) digging in after a while.

The main point to my mind is that torso hits are not the thing to worry about, they're comparatively the least painful (if painful at all) the vast majority of the time. As mentioned, normal/slight over sized clothing will take all but the tiniest bit of sting out of most hits, it's the ears, teeth, fingers etc that are the concern. Worry about getting the right protective gear for the head area and extremities, a vest is really not a big issue at all in this context. Also a paintball is a very different animal, a BB will realistically just sting for a couple of second most of the time.

I think you'll be well catered for: http://www.uktactical.com/c-349-elite-ops-a-tacs-au-mag-.aspx http://www.uktactical.com/c-342-elite-ops-a-tacs-au-mag-pouch.aspx

It's fairly bright green, so best used for sites with a grass covering and/or a lot of light green coloured foliage. Not much in the way of dark brown in the pattern, so not very suited at all to the sort of woodland with a lot of exposed earth and tree trunks with little plant life at low level. But if you're playing somewhere with a ton of bracken/ferns, evergreen plants and the like it makes sense; similar to MC Tropic overall. It's all about analysing the general 'palette' of the site if you're playing outdoors, for the darker areas with more brown than green there's lots of options like temperate MARPAT, flecktarn, solid coyote and some of the darker arid patterns (obviously soil will change colour a fair bit throughout the course of a year). Not that it has to matter even if it doesn't blend in that great where you are. Don't think anyone was ever killed by a 6mm plastic ball going 300 FPS.

Needs more red dots mounted on to the rails.

Glad it works for some people because personally I will not see any of the dot at all if I don't close my left eye and it's a royal pain. Not only is it annoying and a tactical disadvantage but I constantly have to explain the fact to other people. But I guess there's different degrees of the imbalance, my eyes are clearly f***ed from spending a ridiculous number of hours avoiding the sun and playing C&C as a teenager.

Just as an FYI, the CS in UBACS stands for Combat Shirt. UBACS is just something the MoD made up and the yanks carried on using the term that Crye originally coined. #TLAFTW

It is a well known fact I can't hit the broad side of a barn with a sniper rifle.

That's a great philosophy if you're not cross dominant, doesn't work for toffee for me. All I'd see is the left hand side of the outer casing of the optic. This is something they made us all check in basic and obviously it wasn't a scientific cross section of the population, but at least 20% of people across the 2 flights had the issue.

Ha, nice. I might well use that, I can see it catching on.

Something roughly in the region of $210 from a custom tactical sewing dude I know in the states. Obviously that's the base cost before the usual shipping and taxes and it'd be more with a cummerbund.

Nobody was making quite what I wanted, so I had a custom PC made up. Just the plate panels and shoulder straps here obviously, the cummerbund is a stock product. I've built it up with pouches etc since this picture, not taken a shot of that just yet though.

Took a little while but compared to the shipping from the big gear retailers in the states it was substantially more affordable for sure.

Few bits from a company called Whiskey Two Four, who seem to be a bunch of paintballers but they design some really good and innovative stuff. The hypalon straps do the same job as MALICE clips but they're much lower profile, removing the potential to jab and dig in to you. The multicam loop pieces I didn't actually order but they dropped them in anyway; they slot between any PALS webbing so you can have velcro absolutely anywhere on your modular gear. The smaller bits are hypalon zip pull replacements, again I only ordered the two plain ones but they chucked in a set with UJs. My main interest are the MALICE replacements, if they work when I try them I'll be ordering a LOT.

To say there's a million variables would be an understatement. IMO, teach 'em young, with highly stringent 100% supervision. Everyone's brain is different so nobody can say for certain what any given stimulus will output in terms of behaviour, so it's all a fudge factor. I know personally my parents hate 'guns' and 'war' but they're entirely ignorant of anything to do with either subject and constantly cause me to face palm hard. I was banned from having any toy guns until I was at least 14 or so then eventually got a springer airsoft gun when I was about 16, also completely banned from any first-person shooter games until about 14; guess what I really like now? Heck I ended up thinking that joining the military as an armourer would be the best plan, can't go much further the other way than what they intended. The stuff my parents tried to push me and my brother to do we ended up hating, the stuff I was banned from I'm massively in to. I guess the question about when they can handle a RIF is whether they can be trusted to take safe handling seriously and be trusted absolutely to keep the weapon pointed in a safe direction at all times if instructed to do so. If the answer's yes then nobody's going to get shot, if the answer's no well then obviously that's a different matter. Personally I say take away the mystery and any false ideas they might develop in their minds. I think children taught properly and strictly early on are more likely to be safest in the long run, long as it's all entirely supervised until they're much older, substantially more trust worthy and able to comprehend the consequences of their actions fully.