BrightCandle

Those gloves Oakley gloves sure look like they do the job. I have mechanix fingerless and personally I don't fingerless is a good idea. So far every hand shot I have had has been to the tip (unlucky) and I have some 3-4 week to heal welts. I verge on advising more protection, especially considering how much it hurts to get shot in the fingers. I have seen a couple of guys at my local using these gloves. I haven't ever asked about them and its 3 weeks until I will see them again which is probably too long but they haven't complained about them.

You need the defence and UKARA is the way to do it, so 2 months minimum and 3 games. Then when you do ship your guns from abroad make sure the UKARA number is clear visible so customs can confirm your address and you are covered by it and it should get through customs. If you don't put your number on there its got a good chance of getting stuck or bounced back so make sure to do that.

I have had good luck with desert locust goggles with a fan. The fan really does help reduce the rain out (they don't fog as they have a good anti fog coating but they rain out) quite a lot and I found it good enough to play where normal goggles were simply not. I sweat like Niagara falls, definitely the sweatiest guy I know and its been a challenge finding a solution but those desert locusts work pretty well.

For a backyard plinker I have to agree, that budget is a bit high you can get good accuracy out of something a lot cheaper. http://www.proairsoftsupplies.co.uk/acatalog/m4_and_m14_variants.html would be my advice, they have CM16 transparent in stock which will meet your two tone requirement (they look better than black and yellow!) or you could pay a bit more and get one painted if that is what you want.

Personally I am not a fan of the mesh masks and I have two issues with them. The first is that there is no standard to which they are tested for safety so you can't before you buy know what level of defence it provides. Secondly mesh masks have been tested by a lot of people and on getting hit they do get shards penetrating. Its all about your personal level of risk, if you are willing to risk loosing an eye or damaging an eye in order to avoid fog out then a mesh mask might very well be suitable, but I honestly don't know a good way to test if its any good oither than to buy 2 and fire at the first one with paper behind it and determine its failure point. So for me face masks are not really about looking good, its about keeping my teeth and my eyes and so I buy the kit that has been tested to the appropriate standards.

Bolle never got back to me and having had two games with total 100% no vision I decided to try fans. Specsavers in all their amazingness lost the nose clip for the prescription carriers (sigh) so I had to play tonight with some contacts and my new Goggles - Desert locusts with a Fan. These work, simple as that. The fan kept the grand majority of the fogging at bay, it wasn't 100%, I did at times have a bit of rainout on the glass but the contact + desert locusts + the fan running did the job. Really happy with that solution its basically solved my problem. Now I need to go to desert locust and see if I can get just a nose clip without spending even more money correcting specsavers stupidity. Maybe they will find it but I don't hold out any hope there.

I have looked at other stock options but having not found any that came out lower it is obvious why. The buffer tube on the M4 comes straight out the back and the stocks are just designed to go over that. What I actually would need is a custom buffer tube that went down at an angle and then a custom stock designed for that angle. I don't know if there would be an issue with having an angled buffer tube. On the G&G CM there is a screw that goes through straight from the buffer tube into the upper receiver and gear box to hold it on, and that would not be practical with an angled buffer. But on other M4s using the realistic fitting method I suspect it could work, but I haven't come across any yet. If anyone finds one do let me know. So for now I am considering a couple of different options. One is to get a G36C variant, it has a nice low stock and I could most likely use that without problems with a normal or medium ring on the scope. The SCAR-L is close enough to be an M4 and its sort of used in the military but because of the cheek rest you get a bit of space off from the stock and having tried it a couple of weeks ago its quite a bit easier to get a lower cheek weld on it instead of a high one like the M4 which is easier with the lower face guard. Obviously the AK has a nice low stock as well but I really don't want an AK, it does not go well with multicam and overall western army look I have going. My transparent Combat machine was always meant to be temporary and end up as a back up gun anyway until I UKARAed and worked out what I wanted to get. Ideally I wanted an M4 (SOPMOD or CQB silenced) but that stock is driving me crazy. I have spent hours cutting up that mesh mask to go under the goggles perfectly and no amount of bending can solve the problem, its going to irritate me all evening because where I play its dark and CQB, so sights are kind of important as its hard to see the BBs.

All the sites I have played at I looked at independent video before I went there. The highly cut or advertising video gives you no idea of the game types or pace of the gameplay or a sense of presence like a good head cam and gun cam does. Watching a game from a dedicated recording guy is all wrong, you can't tell what is happening because he is looking at the people close to him. All then have is a guy with a gun shooting, with no idea what they are facing or what the site otherwise looks like. Its not just dumb, I have no interest in going to a site where I can't see before I get there how the site is basically laid out. if that means I don't ever play MOD sites well then so be it, but its important to me to have some clue what combat there is going to look like before I pay them money.

So initially I was using the basic Iron sight. Right now I am using a G&P aimpoint 30mm red dot scope. Its on an extended ring and that is also on a riser as well. The scope centre point is about 15mm higher than the co-location point for the iron sights (I can just see the front sight at the bottom of the scope). Makes the gun pretty inaccurate close up because of the amount of distance from scope to barrel and its workable with some head tilt but far from ideal. I wouldn't want to try and raise the scope up any higher I already have issues with zeroing at different ranges as is.

I just started turning up to my local site on my own, my friends aren't really into getting shot (I can't think why but hey some people are weird like that). In 1.5 months of attending games I already have a group of 10 guys I am on first name basis with and a group of 4 others who I team up with and play with every game. All I did was turn up, rent a gun and some kit and speak to a load of people and just make some new friends. You might be able to convince some of your existing friends to go once they see your RIF and camo in a couple of months but for now just go and enjoy and you'll find your team cooperates automatically anyway. You don't need a team to play airsoft, going it alone is a way to find a team if that is what you want. Most airsoft games they just split everyone into 2 teams for the length of the game anyway so you'll get some team mates to play with in the first few minutes of play and be with them the rest of the evening/day.

Maybe its just me but I find getting down onto the sights of an M4 awkward. The way the stock comes out the back of the gun so highup in alignment with the rails means that the sights sit very low and I find I have to get my cheek bone onto the stock. This might be great from a point of contact and holding the weapon straight point of view but its a real pain in the backside for airsoft. The issue I have with the high on the face cheek weld is that with a mesh mask on I can't push the gun in far enough to get straight on the sights with my head straight up. What I find is that I have to rotate my head a bit and not be quite straight on to make it work properly. If I push it in too far my mesh mask moves which pushes my eye wear up and well we all know where that leads. I have been heavily customising my mesh mask this last week with a dremel and hot glue gun so it fits perfectly under my goggles rather than sitting below or above, but in the process its meant its less amenable to being moved about by the gun. I have squeezed the shape so its face snug but that isn't snug enough to get on an M4. Its already uncomfortable and leaving a nice mesh shape on my skin, its not reasonable to go tighter. I have thought long and hard about the next gun I intend to buy and while I would like to go with the ranger look I do not want to go anywhere near the M4 again, I really dislike my G&G M4 for this reason, I have tried to accommodate that high stock and it surprises me so many people like the M4 because to me the really high stock is a big issue.

He did mention a PEQ box version at the end they are working on, which is a lot more reasonable in terms of size. But I also suspect its going to be heavy, mostly battery to drive it all as speakers do suck a lot of juice especially when loud.

But if your mum/dad/other responsible adult doesn't have UKARA then they can only buy you an imitation firearm. They can't use your defence of skirmishing (which you can't really get until your 18) so unless they have their own you are not going to be getting a RIF.

Here is Cheshire councils guidance on RIFs and IFs, its quite interesting: http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/business/trading_standards/business_support/product_safety/imitation_firearms.aspx

You are all experts on pistols and the various models of them presumably, which models do the OPs pictured pistols resemble to you? If the answer is anything but "nothing real" then its an imitation firearm, because it resembles a real firearm. To me the left pistol is a 1911 and the right pistol resembles a 357 revolver. They are clearly designed to imitate real weapons. The fact they are brightly coloured is the one of the major points of the VCRA, its what distinguishes a realistic imitation firearm from an imitation firearm. The fact its bright blue doesn't make an airsoft pistol resembling the same guns a toy, it makes it an imitation firearm. You could paint it 40% orange and 60% blue if you liked and that airsoft pistol would still be classed as an imitation firearm and look mighty similar to these water pistols. Otherwise we would have the 100% two tone gun that anyone of any age could buy. If we take a look on justbbguns (the one place I could think of that has air guns with such colours) we can clearly see guns that look very similar to these water pistols, an example - http://www.justbbguns.co.uk/product/518/2-TONE-BB-PISTOLS/344/GAS-PISTOLS/444/HG106-PISTOL. Notice on the right on that page where it requires you to confirm you are 18....they think it counts as an imitation firearm under the law and I agree with them. Morrisons is wrong, its selling IFs to minors (presumably since no one has confirmed if it has an age restriction on its sale) in breach of the VCRA. They have probably raked up 100's of accounts of breaches of the law if not thousands at this point, there is a lot of jail time that is going to be served when they get caught. I think the law is pretty clear cut on the point, if you want to make a pistol it must not resemble any realistic weapon in use today or that has been built in the last 160 years or so. Which is why Tesco is using futuristic clearly nonsense shapes for their water pistols. I am deadly serious, I think Morrisons is breaking the law, and if they aren't breaking the law then the whole two tone 18 year old requirement we have for airsoft guns is nonsense as well. I think reporting Morrisons is potentially good for Airsoft, having a company with deep pockets try and argue its way out of thousands of years of jail time and fines could ultimately get us another type of defence or set a useful precedent in law. Or it will confirm what we already know, that two tone guns like these can't be sold to minors.

My local Tesco is being more responsible, all of the their waterpistols are clearly futuristic and not imitation:

In all seriousness the guns picture in the OP should be classed as imitation firearms as I understand the law. They are brightly coloured enough to loose the realistic tag but other than that they are modelled on real world guns in shape and features and hence despite the fact they don't fire real projectiles they would be classes as imitation firearms. Given that these would have a minimum age of 18 year old and yet I don't see an 18 sticker on them. Could Morrisons in all seriousness be breaking the law by selling these to minors? Seems likely. Can the OP see if they can get a kid to buy one of these guns and record the whole thing, because such a breach of the law needs to be addressed seriously. Edit - Infact the commencement order specifically mentions toy guns and the need to be bought by an adult. But just bare in mind testing if Morrisons breaks the law is itself an offence for the minor, they made both the purchaser and the seller liable there.

Looks just like the one in the picture I provided.

I also saw recently on youtube (I can't find the link now! grrrr) that was making a flashhider that flashed like a gun would. Adding back in the sound and the flash would add a lot of realism.

Had it happen on my very first game. Had a fragment come through the mesh and sit on the inside of the mesh right in front my eyeball. Various youtube channels have tested mesh and all of them have found the same thing that there is a reasonable chance that a BB can shatter and penetrate. Airsplat tested the Black bear full head thing (which is in the newbie guide as a recommendation) and they found penetration at all FPS levels. So yeah it definitely can happen and its the reason I now solder on with fogged goggles instead of using mesh, because the risk IMO is too high.

If you get my hobby banned I will have your balls in a vice!!!!

lol? In all seriousness don't post that to the dailymail. Bringing their attention to UKARA and VCRA and our hobby will bring nothing good. Making them look silly with obvious bogus firearm names wont be something any of the general public will get, just imagine them taking that 100% seriously and them being outraged. We might laugh, they will lobby the government in mass with their morale panic and we'll loose our hobby. We'll still be laughing right up until the point RIFs and IFs are completely banned. While we might chuckle about how ridiculous the law is in many ways the general public does not understand our entirely safe and consensual use of imitation firearms and would just prefer the entire thing was banned. Those of us that attend rifle clubs and such know full well that when asked what is behind the gate to say anything but "A rifle club". Its a womens institute, its a gay man speed dating session, even its an abortion clinic! None of those will have protests outside of them in the way a rifle club would if it was found out. Below the radar, always.

The gopro black is £360

The weight listed must be wrong - 2.2 pounds is nearly 1 KG. it does not look like its 8x heavier than a gopro!

Polarstar manage to get the gas for the gun integrated into the magazine somehow, then we get some KWA externals combined with all the magic accuracy of a TM all rolled into one, for £100 :-)