Deek

Hi and welcome from Doncaster! Local sites within easy reach are probably the Skirmish sites (CQB at Wentworth in Rotherham, The Stan in Sheffield or Woodland in Worksop) or Yorkshire Tactical Airsoft or Brit-Tac both operated from Bawtry paintball fields. I don't get much chance to play at the moment, but I normally play at either Wentworth or The Stan. Don't worry about going along on your own - the vast majority of people at these sites are very friendly and don't mind anybody joining in As for your kit, there are a couple of local places to get it serviced if needed - there is Yorkshire Tactical Airsoft who have a shop in Rotherham, and there is Ops-7 who have a shop in Sheffield. Both offer servicing / upgrades, etc. and have a range of kit for sale as well.

No probs

Way back before the VCRA the sale of airsoft weapons was unregulated as they were viewed as toys, and in the beginning these toy guns really did look like toys. Then we saw the introduction of realistic looking weapons from the likes of Tokyo Marui. Again, in the early days, these things were expensive and generally had to be imported directly from Japan. Single-shot springers soon gave way to electric automatic weapons and before long Soft Air evolved into Airsoft and it became viable to use these sorts of weapons to skirmish. Airsoft started to become popular, and once this occurred the Chinese saw an opportunity to market copies of the TM stuff or to produce their own versions of the cheaper springer weapons. Before long a lot of retailers, including market stalls, were selling toy guns that looked like real weapons. Because these weapons were pocket money priced a lot of children were buying them and running around the streets with them; the so called 'springer kiddies'. This was at a time when there were big problems with the gang culture, and soon gang members were carrying these as they were almost indistinguishable from a real firearm unless examined closely. This let to a lot of high profile cases of Police firearms teams being deployed to people walking around with 'guns' only to find them carrying toys. There was a big movement nationally, following on from the trend in the USA, where mother's groups were campaigning to get guns banned - I can't remember exactly, but I think one of the groups were called 'Mother's Against Guns'. These groups put pressure onto the Government to take action. So, as part of a wide review of the powers to deal with violent crime, the Violent Crime Reduction Bill was proposed. There was lots of involvement from Airsofters to try and get the hobby recognised, but at the time our voice wasn't very strong, and the view that it would be safer to annoy a small niche group rather than allow these realistic looking toys into the hands of gang members who commit crime. The bill became an Act, and overnight retailers were no longer able to sell realistic looking toy guns and a problem was solved; Thankfully though airsofters were persistent and our voice became louder and a specific defense was introduced allowing airsofters to continue using such 'toys' for our hobby. As a side note on paintball markers. At the time paintball markers didn't resemble realistic firearms at all; it is only in recent years they have started to look like realistic weapons. As far as the law goes I would suggest it all depends on which legal person is looking at the legislations - personally, I feel that these realistic looking paintball makers would come under the VCRA, but this has not been tested in court as yet.

I'm not a sniper, but I have a TM Glock 18c AEP - very nice pistol and you can get 50rnd magazines for it was well (Cyma ones). I have actually gone into CQB games with just that and a couple of 50rnd mags and have been fairly competitive. Not sure of the quality of the Cyma copies though, but if you can get your hands on the TM one I would highly recommend one

Definitely wasn't dry firing; I was using my little AEP and saw the BB's bounce of him - even demonstrated to the marshal that I wasn't dry firing, but as I said, because the marshal didn't see it he couldn't call it. I wasn't the only person he stated was dry firing when they were shooting him...

I will echo the statements regarding clothing... at one game there was a player wearing a large, heavy leather jacket; he ended up taking it off at one point because he just couldn't feel his hits. At one CQB site I frequent which is single shot only, I rounded a corner and fired at a player who was a known 'teflon warrior' - we both shot, which should have been a 50/50, but he refused to take his hits stating I was dry firing. Sadly the nearby marshal didn't see my shots so couldn't call it. This situation was soon remedied after I respawned as he was still in the same place and got the Boomstick; there is no way he could deny that firing, as it is normally loaded with a 168 round moscart shell

Section Medic: it is a role that is given to the smallest, most agile member of the section. Hmmm... Being 6'2" and over 16 stone probably rules me out of being 'small and agile'... I actually like the idea of LRPing though as opposed to actual airsofting. Might volunteer to do the role of Doctor though... I have plenty of 'props' I can use...

Looks quite an interesting event... I am actually off work that weekend... wonder if they would accept me as a medic...

See... it is true men are no good at multi-tasking... I didn't read Sitting Duck's post that you quoted properly and failed to see why you said not to wear his forum name as I was trying to be clever and doing something else at the same time. My bad

Why? Most people who know me know my nickname, which happens to be my forum name... Granted, I don't actually have my name on my clothing, but I do have it on one of my gun bags. Still don't see what the problem is having a nickname on it?

It actually was called 'soft air' when the first guns came out... And another piece of trivia... BB stands for 'ball bullet' and not 'ball bearing' as commonly thought. Whilst it would be nice to try and think of an alternative the sport / hobby has been around for many years (at least 18 I can think of) and has always been called airsoft, so a name change would cause a huge amount of confusion. Personally I don't mind airsoft

That's the beasty - I use one of those in CQB; quite good masks

Full face mesh might be the answer if you are having issues?

I think rank markings look a bit silly in airsoft to be honest, and as said means nothing. For instance, the last 'rank' I held was this: I personally think it would have looked ridiculous if I had worn it on my airsofting gear and as already said it would have meant absolutely nothing...

Welcome to the forums and the world of airsoft. Just one, little, tiny, niggle... you don't need a licence to buy a RIF, UKARA is a way to prove you have a defence to the Violent Crime Reduction Act (VCRA) 2006

Airsoft is a hobby to most, a sport to some and a serious past time to a few; there are no ranks in airsoft, only players, and you can't really 'award' yourself a rank. Some teams have their own internal rank structure, but you would have to find who those teams are, try to join them and then try to fulfil their promotion requirements. Personally, I would stay clear of wearing rank, as it is likely to draw unnecessary attention to yourself, which may not be a good idea especially if you are just starting out.

I think that will always 'rub' some people, especially those that have served and feel like they have earned their ranks and regiment badges. The only thing that winds me up is the people that take it waaaay too seriously, similar to the people mentioned by two_zero - if people want to take it that seriously then they need to sign up. As for offensive patches, that can be very subjective. For instance, one of my favourite patches I wear is 'the Pork Chop Express'. It has been commented that it is offensive because it has been worn by some to annoy Muslims. However, I am a huge fan of the film 'Big Trouble in Little China' and the name of the truck owned by Jack Burton, the films protagonist, is called 'the Pork Chop Express', and as you can see from the picture the logo is the same, hence why I wear it.

Tropic Thunder. Sorry... I'll get my coat...

The big difference here is he is using somebody else's product and marketing it as his own...

If you are really worried about your phone getting damaged you could always buy a cheap pager - you can still get contract free pagers that are accessed via a mobile phone number for about £20 - £30 (this is a typical contract free pager, as found on eBay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MOTOROLA-FLEX-PAGE-ONE-MICRO-NUMERIC-PAGER-COMPLETE-WITH-ACTIVE-NUMBER-/252038496943?hash=item3aaeaa42af ) You could carry the pager and either give out the number to family for emergency contact, or have the number as part of your voice mail message. Leave your phone in a safe place and carry the pager on your person, and if the pager gets damaged / lost you haven't lost a huge amount of money. Plus, pagers are a lot more robust than mobile phones.

The vast majority of Police Officers will not know the details of the VCRA in relation to airsoft weapons. In fact, I would suggest that a lot of Police Officers don't know about the VCRA at all. Unless you go out of your way to draw attention to what has occurred then the authorities (i.e. the Police) won't be interested at all.

The VCRA was brought in to deal with a raft of issues that were prevalent at the time, one of which was 'springer kiddies' (young kids running around with realistic looking springer pistols and pointing them at people causing all sorts of headaches for the local Police ARUs). Whilst is does seem a waste of time the VCRA has reduced the incidents of kids running around with realistic looking guns in public. As already pointed out, you do not need a valid defence to own a RIF, but you need a valid defence to buy one or, more accurately, you need to provide a valid defence to the retailer, as it would be the retailer that would be committing the offence. If you modify an imitation firearm so it becomes a realistic imitation firearm then you are committing an offence unless you have a valid defence. One of the easiest ways of demonstrating you have a defence is a UKARA membership. Sitting Duck puts it in a very common sense way - don't be a dick. Many years ago the 'standard' advice on carrying your weapons to and from a skirmish was simple - weapon goes in a case or bag, is transported without batteries or gas in situ and is transported with magazine removed - preferably stored in a separate pouch. If stopped by the Police inform them what you have in the bag / case (toy gun) and ask them if they want you to open it. In the real world there will be very few Police Officers who will know the in's and out's of the VCRA in relation to the IFs and RIFs, so unless you are being an idiot you are not likely to attract their attention.

I didn't think it was from any particular anime, but it definitely has that near-future / Appleseed look to it. Pity I can't read the poseiden website to see if their stuff is still available...