TheFull9

Thanks. Lost me with that middle line though, unless you've been on my photo storage? I deliberately don't link to that tbh.

Not exactly a thing I've purchased in the usual sense, but the latest wallet emptying takes the form of getting the core components of my LM4 cerakote'd with some engraving and lathe work on the barrel.

End of the day, VAT is VAT, 20% is a fixed value, customs can't change that. There is some lee-way in the Import Charge code they use but not very much, few quid either way. If anything they're more likely to be looking for 'guns' inside packages from HK because that's where the vast majority of RIFs will be coming in from, there's not going to be much difference. I've had RIFs from HK stopped and had maximum charges whacked on, same as I'm getting with a RIF from the states right now. Personally I'd say the main reason not to buy airsoft from the US is the general xenophobic attitude to sales that so many stores over there exhibit and the fact the prices are quite often worse.

2 x ARS Split barrel bases for Marui EBB ARs Soon as you take off the darn silly stock TM barrel nut of your SOCOM/SOPMOD the outer barrels ends up way on the piss when you rebuilt the front end, much worse/more noticeable with a freefloat handguard. Expensive for something so small but worth it to make your gun shoot straight, a couple of my SOCOMs have been winging shots off to the right for literally years and obviously I'd assumed it was the hop-up work I'd done.. turned out to be the externals causing the issue of all things.

Cheers. Stock condition, that particular model looked like this; still working on the other gun. Ta, M_P pretty much nailed it. The War Sport bungee does various little things, primarily add more grip to a very smooth/slick handguard, which is important for me personally since I've gone off using foregrips. Also be using the same product in future for guns with remote switches, it's the best option out there for cable management IMO. Also.. becoz airsoft.

Avalon(VFC) Bravo Company gat all nice n' lightweight. I've had guns with far shorter barrels and handguards weigh far more than this thing does now, super fast and easy to point.

QFT. Saying a certain gun had trouble without naming the brand is pretty moot. Saying "my M4 had tons of problems then exploded and killed my hamster" doesn't exactly achieve anything, there's hundreds of models of ARs from dozens of companies out there. If the gun in question was a £1200+ PTW then yeah that's a very big deal, if it's an ACM LPEG (or indeed a brand like JLS) then it's basically to be expected, there's a reason nobody ever advises anyone to buy those super low-end guns after all.

I get what you're saying, but end of the day you can't look at the value of something like that when it comes to shipping, it's the size/weight, and it does cost to send stuff over the atlantic. Do some companies charge too much? Yes, but not all and MSM is one of the better ones I have to say. The MSM store itself doesn't actually carry the magwell slaps or mag wraps as that's all on the USNV site, but if you're after the normal shaped stickers from Monkey there's lots of stock in the UK. Pretty much everywhere that sells a lot of (decent) tac gear and many airsoft stores carry the stuff.

With the new system they have on your user account front page there's no reason not to go on there really. You punch in a few categories/items that you're interested in and it just brings up the best results with the basic info and a thumbnail soon as you click on the site, all in one place, no trawling or repeatedly typing in the same searches every day. Surefire lights for example, would be very hard to get caught out on. Yes there are ACM clones but many of those will be easy to pick out from the pictures and all the lights I bought came in the complete, sealed retail packaging. If you wanna play it on the same side then if the listing doesn't have decent close-up pictures and/or its' now new in the box you just don't buy it. Only takes a few seconds to check and you won't have even had to search using the new system.

No secret, just eBay. But it was American eBay on a couple of them which I sent to a mate there and he shipped, which works out a lot cheaper for various reasons. Between eBaying and lots of time looking on forum classifieds, combined with the patience necessary to wait for what you're after to pop up, you can save yourself a fortune. Still buy most stuff from retailers but when it comes to the really pricey gear like RS lights, optics, high end jackets etc you're much more likely to see the stuff you want come up for sale second hand, very often never/barely used. It's the expensive stuff that people are more likely to put the time and effort in to selling on because they can then free-up the funds in that item when needed and it's more 'worth' their time as it were writing up the ads and sales thread. If you wear a Large or XL in jackets for example you can deck yourself out thoroughly in Arc'teryx for not much more than 5.11 or even Helikon prices, there's tons of that stuff on the bay.

Overpriced from a hobbyist perspective maybe, but they're not aimed at airsofters it just happens that some airsofters like to use real-world kit. As evidenced above it's not like you even need to pay retail price, I paid less than 50% of the MSRP for all 4 of my SF lights, which if anything makes them underpriced for the quality quite frankly.

Err.. afraid I've never owned a DD rail, not really a fan of their designs personally to be honest. The 'burnt bronze' I see a lot of on ar-15.com looks pretty close but DD more than likely have their own special colour considering the size of the company and the fact it's put on a military contract item. I think the sort of people you'll want to ask will be on RS AR forums, but the original item is anodized so I guess if you want a dead on finish you'll want to go that way instead of cerakote.

Not new, that's for sure. That rail's been floating (hoho) around for years. Lots of american civvies get entire guns done that colour.

Thought the exact same when I got my TLR-1 a few years ago, the difference in the output and the unit itself is astronomical. It's not like it's even a budget thing, with the amount I wasted on Element stuff that literally fell apart all by itself without any external input, I could've bought another real light.

The goggles? Not a mega crazy amount or anything, something around $450 which is about the cost of a mid-range AEG over here once you do the conversion. ASGI was the only place I could find with the LM4c, so I picked up that the magpul grip panels, a sling attachment point and the flute valve. The GBBr was the only thing above 25 bucks.

New batch of stuff. Revision Desert Locusts (free with an Airsoft GI order, can't knock that) FirstSpear Double M4, 6/9 Attachment HSGI Soft TACO Arc'teryx T-Shirt Arc'teryx BA Cap in Wolf Novekse AR QD Rear sling plate DangerWerx Flute valve for KWA LM4 2 x Magpul 1911 grip sets Novekse KeyMod QD sling attachment point Seekins Precision button MSM Skull headover/neck wrap Patchez Stickerzzz

It's 3 if you count the hat, 4 if you count the socks, he's probably not even in the army either?!??!???1!1oneone Personally, I'm usually wearing at least 3 different colours or camos every game day.

Cheers. It's called a Magwell slap, made by US Night Vision, same 'reusable sticker' idea as their mag wraps and other vinyl stuff. The design's by Mil-Spec Monkey, but USNV make various others.

SOCOM 3 of 3. Still a fair bit of stuff to change on this one but once the barrel's had some machine work it'll be pretty much there.

Says 'Sold' in the corner so someone really had a lot of cash to burn seeing as there's well under $1000 of stuff there. If all those optics were RS then maybe.. but even then you're talking like $7000 unless the sniper scopes were S&B or something.

At airsoft ranges and with the ''accuracy'' of airsoft guns, an irons setup for speed over grouping is far preferable I'd say. Airsoft guns in general are only capable of firing as accurately as the real thing (i.e. where your zero'd sights point is where the bullet goes, every time) within a small distance. A good quality AK can put 762x39 within about 3-4" at 100 yards, I'm not sure what the max distance would be for an AEG to attain that tight of a group as I'm just not interested in barrels/hop parts/internals, but I'd wager something very roughly around 20m (gun dependent obviously), followed with a max range of about 55-60m for a 350FPS gun that's been extremely thoroughly tuned by a very gifted tech. That ties in to the proliferation of red dots within airsofting, how many people do you even see that don't run a dot sight? I mean when I think back it's a very rare sight for me personally. Get a few guys with 4x ACOGs/Specters and obviously there's the marksmen/snipers. Few older style guns (often AKs) just running irons, but more often just because they don't have any picatinny on top of the rifle. But outside of that, everyone I personally see with a gun that can easily mount a dot seems to have one and it does makes sense realy. In the real world if you're an awesome shot with a lot of training you can shoot someone at 700m with a dot, but it's a whole truck load easier with magnification, even a biff like me can hit a man at 500 yards with zero prior practice shooting at that range at all, long as I've got a SUSAT. However the concept of red dots was really tailored for close range encounters (10-200m ish, opinions and SOPs vary a lot) and the standard airsoft combat ranges of about 10-50m fit in that bracket very nicely indeed. You only have one point of reference which in the iron sight world would just be crazy, nobody does that, but we're so close in airsoft and the average carbines most people carry just don't shoot shoot anywhere near tight enough to worry about maximising sight radius and spending ages perfectly zeroing optics. Whereas being able to get a bead someone that's close very quickly is very useful indeed. A quick zero with a reasonable quality (or for AEGs even low quality) red dot works great I find. Usual caveat that obviously all the above is just based on my own experiences, your mileage may and quite possibly will vary.

That's very unfortunate, how old was the gun/rounds fired?

Some choice bits on there, nice. Be interested to see some more outdoor shots.

I think you're kinda looking at it in the wrong context, need to try and (just very temporarily) put yourself in a different perspective. If you still disagree that's obviously absolutely fine. Apologies if this is egg-sucking to anybody but to address the forum at large/in general: It's based on/made popular by the 4 safety rules that are prevalent with american civilian shooters and it assumes that you actually haven't cleared your gun at all, because if you use their rule set there's no need to and it's perfectly safe. The military way you and I know (completely unloading after every single string of fire) is designed for and around the lowest common denominator, the dumbest recruit/admin'er/PTi/med centre receptionist that can't physically get their head around safely handling a loaded gun and cannot be trusted with them in general, but the government is still obliged to employ them. As with everything in the forces it's got its' basis in someone's past screw-up, these things always have a historical basis that need to be born in mind, because it wasn't always done that way. Discussed this with a few different ex-US forces guys and they say the same thing about their lot. Nobody here's telling anyone else what they have to do or how they have to behave, it's literally just a discussion going on about different experiences and perspectives. If you think different that's fine you're welcome to your thoughts same as anyone else, but I don't think anybody here is being pretentious. Especially when it'll only take one kid's lost eye reported to some rag to get airsoft in an even more precarious position than it is, I think we should all very much welcome people being as safety conscious even if we don't actually agree with their thoughts, it all makes the hobby in general look better to the outside. But again that is just my view.