NickM

Get yourself a 6shooter and turn up as billy the kid in their regular flying lead series. Nothing like a wild west sim. I keep joking about it but really I want to give it a go quite badly!

No reason you cant treat your average skirmish a bit more milsim than everyone else. Think of them as training for milsim, partly physical fitness wise partly building up skill. When you skirmish start to limit your ammo, and use semi predominantly. Think about movement, concealment and observing. Take shots carefully, think about the situations where you are probably going to lose and think carefully about if you could actually take the shot or move and try again. Work at reducing the number of times you head to respawn, by using the skills above rather than just ignoring hits. You will find that many milsim organisers are also skirmish organisers (I can only think of one that isn't) and get known as a good honest player. You may find that by the time you are 16 you have some older friends and the organiser will be happier letting you come along with them. Some don't use 18 but 16 although you may have to travel a bit.

hahahaha, seems someone would do ok if they could get a decent stock of the bits. I sent them a message saying I would be willing to get 3 minimum but probably 4 or 5 so I have some spares on hand. They have said they have been having trouble getting them but to put myself on the mailing link bit. As it happens Evike have a reinforced type in stock at a reasonable price but the postage is insane, $60 for 5 of them to be posted, they only cost ($7 -8 each) I've also found something similar at patrol base but they don't look like the ones I have taken out, also says out of stock. I have emailed and they say they think they have a few and the website may be having issues not allowing them on. It would sort me out, but hopefully they will confirm the fit. Fingers crossed.

Amazing news, unfortunately Firesupport are out of stock. will email them to find out if they will be getting more. Will try looking for the M9 ones cheers.

Typical, I just typed a long response to you MMN and the computer just had a fit and deleted it. My understanding of the safeguarding responsibilities, as outlined in many documents but you could check out Safeguarding vulnerable groups act of 2006, the children act 1989, and the safeguarding act 2014, I haven't read it all, most of my understanding comes from teacher training. Vulnerable groups relates to children, young people and vulnerable adults. As for the exact legislation you ask for, no I can't. But: In England the law states if you work with young people you have a duty to keep them safe. My understanding of the things I have read over the years are that: if you are staff or volunteers (or a supervisor overseeing the previous two groups) running "activities" for "vulnerable groups", for 4 or more days out of a 30 day period or overnight then keeping them safe means a safeguarding system needs to be in place in order to fufill the requirement above. But it could be my interpretation that's hinky. I wouldn't want to be the lawyer trying to defend a private business from an allegation when it's discovered they were supervising young people and their staff hadn't been checked out properly. Shops don't run activities or supervise children. Almost all of the airsoft companies I've seen simply don't allow unaccompanied young people and therefore aren't needing to supervise the young people themselves. If it helps, to get a taxi licence you need a DBS (the new version of a CRB).

I know of at least one site that allows/used to allow parents to drop off under18's and the parents could then leave them for the day. However they barely passed the requirements for UKARA which was public liability insurance. It had been pointed out that unless they had someone or a group supervising the under 18's all day with a CRB/DBS certificate then they really wouldn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to the law. If you operate a service that has under18s without parental supervision you require a nominated safeguarding officer, a safeguarding reporting procedure, and all staff to have safeguarding checks. I would take this all incredibly seriously as it's very easy for someone to make an allegation which could tie you up in legal issues and without the safeguarding training you'd be in a world of pain! My DBS cost £50 originally although that may include a handling fee, and now costs me £13 a year to have the automatically updating one that should mean I never have to fill out those gawd awful forms ever again. Make that £50 for each employee/marshal every 3 years unless they get the updating kind and all of a sudden its starting to get very expensive. Add to that the fact that some insurance companies might have a problem with unaccompanied minors and it's now too much hassle and too much of an expense to bother with.

I'd suggest most milsims will be 18+ unless you have a supervising adult with you at the time in which case it might be 16. The main reason might be safeguarding , if they had under 18's not with their own parents/guardians/supervising adult the staff (and if I'm honest anyone who would be alone with you potentially, which could be anyone playing) would have to be CRB/DRB checked. That's just common sense and realistically £40 per person is an unrealistic expense for most organisers. You may have to wait a little while or get some friends involved who are old enough and responsible enough for organisers to count them as your supervising adult and get your parents/guardians approval.

SO I finally got around to removing the feed lips, 2 of them have a very small piece broken off on the inside which is obviously where bbs are catching. I could sand them down but it appears the follower has been damaging the top of the feed lips which means bbs spray out of the top. So now I'm on the hunt for 3 feed lips for a KJworks/ASG Mk23 socom magazine, ( at this rate probably more really), I also need a fill valve for one and have only found them in stock in Ireland.

So, rather than just watching the video and saying ooo how stupid are they, what should be done is Go to the button marked more, it's under the subscribe button, there is a report button. You should report this, point out to the youtube monitoring staff that their actions are illegal and can result in jail time. The original video was reported to the police by Ian I believe. If people want I will try and dig out the relevant section of uk laws that they have broken. It isn't worth commenting on the video, most of their fans are so stupid they resort to hurling insults they don't understand. Their favourites revolve around mum insults and calling you homosexual.

OH FFSake! These are the dicks that Ian and I were reporting to youtube and I believe Ian contacted the police about for their video threatening people with a paintball gun a year ago. It got their original channel closed and the video removed from youtube and they simply posted it again with a new channel name. What a bunch of cockwombles!

There are times it does, end of the days all three teams fight to be in control of the village at the centre of the site. It's a massive blatfest. I can't post links but youtube "Largest Paintball Battle - Living legends 6" By HK Army, and you'll get an idea of what the village is like at 5pm Sat and Sun with 1000 or so airsofters playing for a space about 50m across. Obviously minus the stupid dayglow clothes and baggy trousers. I've done it once and don't feel the need to do it again, full face definitely recommended, as is a helmet, one guy carried his around all day just for the final battle. It's a laugh, don't take it seriously, but don't lower your personal standards of play even as those around you might lower theirs. You also get all spectrums of players, complete noobs who have never held an airsoft gun to fairly well organised and very well kitted out teams of experienced players. My biggest two bugbears are the number of respawn points are limited so sometimes there are epic walks to regen, and second some people use the fact that there are so many players to let the rules slide a little. As I say give it a go, it's worth going for the experience at least once. Then make up your own mind about if you like it or not.

Yep, the last post was a month ago but again I will point out that the OP's questions in this thread were not simply what you do (although that's kind of the wording of the title) but how did you get there and is uni worth it.

Are you sure DX115FALCON? The one you linked to is 4 years old, by a different OP and asking a different set of questions. Much of the info on that post may well be out of date seeing as in the last 4 years I have gone from training to be a teacher, to being a teacher, leaving teaching for a rubbish temp job at an insurance company after relocating, being a supply teacher and now back being a full time teacher again. The answer to the OP's question, I am a teacher (as if the paragraph above didn't give that away) I teach secondary science, it pays the bills and I use the degree I got at Uni on a day to day basis. However, I would never expect someone to be forced to go to uni if they didn't want to. As most have already said: think very carefully about what you want to do, and look closely at how you get there. There are often multiple routes to get to any position, some academic like uni and graduate schemes, others apprenticeships followed by training later on, some just starting at the bottom and working hard. Eg hairdressers are unlikely to need a degree, farmer is unlikely to need a degree both have vocational courses or on the job training routes. My fiancée is an oceanographer, she got her job after 2 years of a foundation degree then 2 years at uni topping it up to a full degree, followed by a further year doing a masters. She now works for a large ish company after 3 years of working at smaller companies getting experience. For her the degree and masters is very useful. However she works along side some people who just did 3 years of uni and are in their first post. She has also worked in the past with a guy who started as a deck hand on the survey vessel with no real experience of oceanography only his sailing experience and love of the sea. He would do his crew duties then help out the oceanographers, after a while he started being asked to do overtime as an assistant when they were short staffed, after about a year he got employed as an engineer doing much the same stuff as those with degrees and was sent out on jobs on his own. Me on the other hand, while free schools are now allowed to employ anyone with the subject knowledge and no teaching qualifications to teach kids. Realistically I couldn't do what I do without 3 years at uni and a year of teacher training. I went to uni because I really wanted to be a paramedic at the time, but the ambulance service in my area didn't take you till you were 21, so I had 3 years to kill and didn't want to sit around doing temp jobs or working in factories etc so I applied to uni and got in, I took the course because I really enjoyed the subject. By the time I finished I really couldn't think of doing the training and becoming a paramedic so I applied for teacher training. Only go to uni if it interests you and you can see how you would use the qualification at the end. That doesn't mean it has to be in your subject area, plenty of people on my course took up jobs that are seemingly unrelated but the Uni quals show your ability to learn new things and complete work to your own timetables. Only 3 of 40 are actually working directly in the field we were studying. If the cost is putting you off remember that you apply for the loans and stuff, they are the best rates you will ever get, they come out of your pay packet much like taxes, national insurance or pension contributions. I think I get about £50 a month taken. Each year I get sent a statement saying how much I have paid and the amount of interest, it's actually not going down very fast but it's not like they send bailiffs round to take stuff. Also banks couldn't really care less in terms of credit ratings etc.

Newspaper and locals (including the shop selling army surplus and deactivated firearms) say he was charity fundraising. Doesn't stop it being a stupid move!

I've been twice, it can be a great laugh, the first year game play was much better than the second. But the social side of it was better the second time. The team running it are great but there just aren't enough marshals to keep a good watch on the game, the site is huge and terrain varied enough to make things interesting. There are aspects of the day that are fun, when you can get away from the huge crowds and have some good quality firefights with likeminded opposition, but it wouldn't take much for someone who isn't feeling the spirit of the game to be a dick and ruin things, they are then hard to track and deal with just because of sheer numbers of people. The first year I went with about 10 guys from the team, the second year there were about 15 or 20 of us. But there lay the problem. There were so many people there last year that game play suffered, it was hard getting involved in the objectives and taking the game play seriously. I would say go at least once for the experience, where else will you see 1800 airsofters all playing together. If you like it go back again another year. Myself and many of our team are unlikely to go this year, we just didn't enjoy the gaming as much. But in the year between 13 and 14 we have moved away from mainstream blatfest skirmishing and towards Battlesim, Filmsim and soft Milsims. Your questions about propane I believe relate to the fact that it isn't safe to use in guns (they claim), presumably it's because it isn't a propellant that the guns are actually tested or designed to use. Also I have heard mention of the inconsistency (again nothing to back this up) of propane and the fact it can sometimes make the guns hot (in terms of power). It may also have something to do with a fire risk or explosions. They don't allow hot burning pyro, so that's smokes, flash bangs and other mainstream pyro out due to fire risk, most of the site is coniferous forest with lots of dead material, in the middle of summer its a tinderbox just waiting to go up. They claimed to have found fires there days after events. That's not to say there aren't huge bangs, they are just all marshal controlled.

Which BrightCandle is why I said it has "some CQB". Yes you can end up fighting your way around at maximum range or you can use some of the blind spots and get up and fight through the buildings. The thing I have found is that it can end up with fights around the same places but I always come away tired and with a huge smile on my face, it's why this weekend I will be making a 4 hour round trip to play the pit with my teammates. You are right it's probably closer to FIBUA, I certainly wouldn't claim it's CQB of the same scope as any of the underground bunkers, like Epsom Tunnels, Bunker51, or either Red1 The School or the Mall. I've only played the school to be fair, it offers something different from the normal woodland skirmish. But I found the school to be a bit small, with a fairly unimaginative layout that causes bottlenecks that can become total stalemates. It might just have been the day I went as it was a wet Sunday so there were around 60 players which I would say was probably too many.

There is UCAP Sandpit with some CQB but so much more!! 2 APC's, 2 "armoured" snatch landrovers, a wmik, a truck, a RM Snowtrack, some quads and a dune buggy. There are buildings but fighting takes place between them, around them, and through them. You can be medic'd once before returning to respawn. The games are longer 2.5 hour affairs, and they are playing this weekend! £30 includes lunch which is a hot dog, some beans, nachos and cheese, and a minimum of 100 players most sundays its on. Oh and I forgot Dora the explorer!

That'll be Kingdom of Airsoft then, he has worked on a load of guns belonging to my team mates and he does some fantastic work. I have an R hop fitted by a previous owner in my Gspec Bar10 and it's a beast. Range and accuracy are great but as I haven't tested it with any other barrels or hops I really have nothing to compare against.

You want a game that resets when there isn't activity for a while and that will signal the end of the game when you reach a certain score or something. If hit you put it down and it resets the next player to pick it up has to start again.

Yeah I like it although I would prefer something more realistic, ie defuse this device, it could work along the same lines as operation, ie don't let the part touch the sides. I know of a site that used codes, these were written in random languages taken from sci-fi or fantasy books like elvish from LOTR as part of an escape and evasion game.

I got a cheap replica of that stock pouch from ant supplies, type in stock pouch in the search down the left side. Unfortunately I cant post links directly into these pages any more, probably my crap computer more than anything else.

Worst comes to the worst you can go to trading standards and get your money back. I'd always be careful about sites claiming to be the biggest and best with no evidence of how they came to this conclusion. Arguably ZED would be the biggest seeing as they run about 5 sites across the country and have a far better reputation. Other sites have run things like this before and there are plenty of different versions of the same style of game. Good luck with it and fingers crossed all goes well.

Kitchen porters and pot washer is often one for a younger person. Speak to your local pubs and restaurants, tends to be evening work, so Friday, Saturday and Sunday lunch will be the busiest times you may find vacancies. Although I think if they take on someone under 16 you need to have a form filled in by school to make sure they are covered.

I'm looking at ours now currently pride of place next to the fireplace. My parents got two and were the last group of volunteers to "plant" them and one of the teams that removed them for cleaning at the end of their display. They were a wonderful idea well executed. I only have two things that I would have liked to have been done differently, although logistically I can see why they didn't. First I would have liked to see all of the dead represented perhaps a different flower or design for each nationality, not just the British forces, simply to make the point that war affects all. Second it was put in place at the 100th anniversary of the start of the war, not the end, perhaps the poppies could have been placed out 100 years to the day out as and when people died. Logistically I can see why they didn't but.... To those making threats it's a sad sad day, they must lead particularly pathetic lives. There will always be some who can't be respectful for whatever reason, I for one have always felt remembrance and respect for those who never returned. I had deal with the two Notification officers for a casualty in Afghanistan, he was only 19, it was a horrible experience, but far worse for his mother who was a colleague of mine. She is always in my mind on 11/11.

Unfortunately AirsoftgoesAli you'll find people like that everywhere. You have a few choices really, 1) stay away from those players intentionally. Ignore them and their stupid comments, they really aren't worth the hassle. Enjoy your day and what you are doing. Essentially Mr Monkey Nuts comment but more polite. 2) Alternatively, if the comments are about your skill level and the fact you are using a rental etc you could make an effort to reach out to someone. Perhaps have a quiet word with the marshal team, I wouldn't suggest complaining about the guys being idiots but asking for advice, how to set the hop etc is always good, it took to my 3rd game renting for someone to show me how the hop worked on the rental I was using which made a huge difference. I would, if I was in your situation, be looking for someone outside of the group that are being rude, who seems to know what they are doing, and has a decent set up. Not the guy with all the gear and no idea, you are probably looking for the quiet one who just shows up, owns the game and disappears without too much fanfare. Approach them and ask about their kit then ask them if you could maybe pair up for a game or two. Learn from them. Don't just tag along without asking, you'll find many are happy if you want to join them but if you were to start following me around without having a chat with me first I'd be a bit put out. Look at how they move, what cover they bypass which they use. Shot choices etc. Think about your position in relation to them and ask how you can best support what they are doing. After a few games like this you might find yourself being asked to join up with a group, it's pretty much what happened to me. I threw so many spanners in the works for a group of guys when I was on the opposite team they asked me to join them.