TacMaster

A few steps to buying your first gun: Choose a few guns you like the look of If you see anyone with one of those guns at a skirmish, ask them if you can handle or have a go with it. Most people will be more than happy to show their weapons off. After deciding on a type of gun you want, look around on retailer's sites for the manufacturers who make that type of gun- there can be multiple manufacturers who do this, there are great multitudes who produce M4s, G36s, AKs and the like Ask what manufacturer is best for the model of gun you're looking at. Some manufacturers are good for some models of gun and bad for others The most money you'll be looking to spend on your first gun is around £130 or more RRP. For more info, check this guide: http://www.airsoft-forums.co.uk/index.php/topic/17294-ians-guide-to-noobism-on-a-tight-budget/

If you have never played before, I would suggest going to a game and renting a gun & kit for a day. Reason being you don't have to spend hundreds on your own gun and gear just to find that you don't like it.

I've seen gun clips used on the M870 breacher before. It's quite expensive for what it is, though: http://shop.ehobbyasia.com/blade-tech-ambi-military-remington-shotgun-holster-small.html#.VWBq2WCprzI I suppose it would be cheaper to have a kydex one made through Facebook or to make it yourself. A carbon fibre one wouldn't be too difficult to make either, carbon fibre kits are about £40 from Carbon Mods in Stoke-on-Trent

The Mac11s are usually a great option, I've had a play about with various makes and they've all been pretty nice. Although if you're truly after a secondary, something like a Mac11, MP9 or MP5K may be a little on the large side. A TM or WE G18 would be more suitable as a smaller secondary, while still retaining the full auto capability. I'm not sure about the TM hi-cappa, however be warned that adding a heavier metal slide will reduce the gun's gas efficiency. I'm also not sure about the gas capacity of a hi-cappa's mag vs other M1911 style GBBP's mags- that will definitely be something to consider. Ultimately it depends on what you want- if you don't mind having your movement hampered and you'd like something that can be used as a primary as well, go for the Mac11, MP9 or MP5K. In choosing between these it's mainly down to what you like the feel of, all 3 tend to be good (especially if the MP9 has KWA's NS2 system, I've heard good things about it). Airsoft-Ed has had a go with one of his friend's WE MP5s before, if you check his video of it you'll see it in operation. Things like a G18 would be more functional as a secondary- I've heard of people fitting carbine kits/buttstock kits to G18s with moderate success and using them as a primary with 30rnd mags- there's a lot of holsters and other bits around for Glocks too- holsters may be more difficult to come by for any of the SMGs you're looking at (although they do exist). And lastly, there's the Hi-Cappa- this could only really be used as a secondary or backup unless you play in a site with CQB elements. While there are lots of really nice bits around for Hi-Cappas, you have to be conscious of cost vs performance- there's no point spending £££ on upgraded internals and external parts when there are guns about which are more functional and open up more options. Personally I'd go for either the G18 or the MP5K. It's entirely up to your preference OP, it just depends if you want anything else out of the gun besides it's use as a secondary/backup gun.

It's about 450 signatures away from being noticed

Before anyone suggests anything I would like to make a point about the material of certain pistols- just because it's plastic, it doesn't mean that the gun's bad. Tokyo Marui (possibly the best GBB pistol manufacturer) mainly make their guns out of plastic, however that's what gives them their amazing gas efficiency. This is the reason why you shouldn't touch any metal M1911s- the gas reservoir is so small that it is depleted fairly quickly when a metal slide is fitted.

Last time I played BF3 (sometime last year before I sold my PS3) there was pretty much no one populating the hardcore servers or the servers running expansion packs like Armoured Warfare. Just a word of warning there. I know it was PS3 and we're talking about XBLive here, but it's something to bear in mind- you won't find a great deal of players on most older online games. That being said, I used to have Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 on my PS3 (came out in 2008, 3 years before Battlefield 3) and there were a lot of people still playing- although it was a really good game, one of the best in the tactical FPS genre IMO. You could customise your character's kit entirely, with a metric fuckton of camos, gear and apparel to choose from. A decent selection of weapons to choose from as well, just not a lot of customisation options- and the cover system! My god, it was absolutely brilliant! Here's a screenshot if anyone doesn't know what I'm on about: You could blind fire, flip around corners and open up on the enemy, change stance while stacked onto a corner, reload, switch weapons, attach suppressors while in-game, shuffle along the cover and all sorts! Here's a look at the customisation system too: It was absolutely mega! You could choose shoulder, chest and leg armour, helmets, caps, bandannas, sunglasses, balaclavas, respirators etc for your head as well as a plethora of combat uniforms (no official names but some look very similar to real life clothing) and in so many patterns- it really puts a lot of modern shooters to shame, even now. BF4 is close to it in customisation, but not quite close enough as every faction's character model in it has to wear sufficiently different clothing in their own countries patterns to differ from the other teams.

I'm a fan of simple designs. I like really clean, minimalistic products, so naturally I like the look of Glocks- I haven't gotten round to buying one yet, however I have quite big hands so some models don't feel natural enough for me. I was looking at a G18 for the versatility of both semi and fully auto, so the natural sidestep for a full size select-fire pistol is the M93 Raffica- the M92Fs crazy burst firing brother. I'd rather choose the KWA M93R because my wallet will hurt a lot less, despite costing more there are less external mods and parts i would end up going crazy with

As a lot of people have M4s, it would be extremely ironic as well

It's not worth paying the extra cash for the poor quality mosfet in the G&G gen 3s. It's far better to get yourself a gen 2 and fit a nice Gate Nano or Pico FET or BTC Spectre FET (the Spectres are far rarer though). I have a Gate Nano in my DMR and I get a cracking trigger response. A word of warning though- everything else feels really clunky and slow to fire after you have a go with a 'Fetted gun!

WE make an electric line of guns as well as gas, this has already been said in this thread

Personally I think using rank slides in airsoft is a bit of a no-no, along with wearing other symbols such as the Para wings as you need to have earned the right to wear one. Aside from that, CS'95 isn't much of an SAS or UKSF set of kit- I've seen dog walkers tramping around in '95 smocks or trousers. Mixing and matching kit like in ronin's photo is definitely an easy way to get a better SAS loadout impression. I'm not even going to comment on that photo of the Japanese cosplayer's loadout...

There's quite a few differences between the M16A1 and A3, you'd need to change a lot (including the upper receiver as the A1 didn't have a removable carry handle) personally I'd just outright buy an A1, but if buying the A3 and all the replacement parts is cheaper than buying a new gun, go for it

There's also folding stocks available on ehobby asia, if you don't mind the wait

The A&K SVDs take AEG size springs, if that's definitely an AEG spring then it should be ok

If that's factory standard, then they can't even get a Vz.58 right....

New =/= great, most new guns will only have 1 or 2 batches out of the factory and may still have issues that need sorting out. I believe G&G do this fairly quickly with their more popular models.

....what? Trying to decipher this, but it seems like you want something that's impossible to make. Only a few airsoft sniper rifles are decent without upgrades, and none of them could hit targets accurately at 70m. Trying to make an airsoft rifle like the .22 in The Day of the Jackal would be extremely difficult- or nigh on impossible. Here's a photo for anyone who doesn't know what the TDOTJ rifle is: There are some cheaper rifles like the A&K SVD and M24 which are decent out of the box and can be made even better with only a few upgrades, but it would take serious modding, upgrading and tuning for that level of performance.

KWA are more popular in the US because of different FPS restrictions, they're generally not as good as G&G's AEGs. ICS are another brand you could look at, and if you can stretch your budget there's some cheaper G&P M4s- G&P stuff is usually really nice externally and average internally, a bit like the opposite of G&G

TBH unless you really really want it, the metal bodied version will be no better- a lot of metals used in airsoft replicas are pants unless you spend loads more on higher quality brands.

The only difference between an AEG and a DMR is the internal spec. It doesn't matter about how the gun looks at all. If you're thinking about barrel length, it really doesn't make a difference unless you reduce it below the standard M4 barrel size- you can get DMR performance with anything over 363mm in length. Barrel diameter is a different story, a 6.01 or 6.02mm TBB is the best to use in a DMR setup. Internals wise, here's what I've got in my M27: Prometheus TBB w/R-Hop and Maple Leaf rubber SHS Gears SHS Hi-Torque motor Lonex compression parts Air-Lab Sorbo Pad to correct AOE Prometheus M120 Spring Nano Gate AB Mosfet It's also been locked to semi via the selector plate. Currently kicking out at 415-420 FPS on 0.2gs. This setup gives me really nice trigger response- not extremely important, but it feels and operates much nicer than a standard AEG- I can really feel the difference when I leave the safe zone with a normal AEG!

Mine is fine with standard M4 mags and Troy Lancer L5 midcaps, however it's really difficult fitting G&G 120rnd midcaps into it. I have yet to test any other brands out, but as long as the mag is no chunkier than a standard M4 mag then it should be fine.

That's a massive amount of money we waste on an unnecessary deterrent. If the money was redistributed fairly and we invested in out own version of the USA's Strategic Defence Initiative then we would have more funds for the rest of the UK's military and other essential services, as well as being defended from ICBMs. If hostilities between us and another country came to a point where nuclear missiles were launched by them, the missiles would be targeted at our nuclear missile silos as well as major population centres. If a nuclear missile were to hit a Trident silo, there could potentially be a massive secondary nuclear explosion. Jambo's right to be concerned about his proximity to one of the known Trident facilities, as his town would be well within the blast radius.