New airsofter... What am I missing? What coes first?

[NH Shooter]

You dont need ukara to buy kit, you don't need it to take part, you'd be much better off learning what you need & like through experience rather than sitting writing lists is kind of what I mean.

I'm still new to all this & the one thing I wiash i did was not rush into spending cash, I've already got stuff I don't need because I got over we excited & bought stuff I thought I needed.

Best advice I can give was my original post, get out in some cheap kit, take part & build your load out with what you need, rather than what you want.

For instance go & rent an M4, second time an Ak, third time a G36 or even ask if you can try different RIF's.....during the day. Don't worry too much about kit. That's secondary to the fun of just doing it.

Oh no... I just meant use the ukara "time limit" to get experience of kit. My rifle type is all but sorted for various reasons. The whole question was just an exercise in interest.

 

Interestingly though... I've just found out that my work glasses will also do me for airsofting. There some saved cash!

[Happy]

Always worth spare eye protection mate as nothing spoils your day more than broken eye pro. It's why I replaced the lense on my fast helmet wih a stronger one so it gives me two layers of eye pro in case one breaks.

[NH Shooter]

Always worth spare eye protection mate as nothing spoils your day more than broken eye pro. It's why I replaced the lense on my fast helmet wih a stronger one so it gives me two layers of eye pro in case one breaks.

I was just looking at those Emerson helmets... Are they any good?

[Happy]

Depends really: the real deal are brilliant but set you back a fair bit. The china clones depend on the factory that made them. I lucked out and got a decent clone helmet off a seller on eBay which works well with actual Emerson accessories. Like I said the only thing I changed was the lense that flips down, but that was only because I'm paranoid about my ballistic glasses breaking (which they shouldn't based on their safety rating but meh).

[jcheeseright]

the flip down lenses on those Emerson FAST helmets are borderline dangerous, I wouldn't use one if you paid me to do it:

 

A guy from Arnies Airsoft forums did a test on them, the full write up is here: http://arniesairsoft.co.uk/forums/index.php?%2Ftopic%2F159597-helmet-pictures%2Fpage-82

 

My 2p on it is that if you're wearing that as protection you'd be better off with a couple of layers of cling film, at least it won't shatter when the BB comes through it. If your eyepro is ANSI z87.1 rated then it'll withstand birdshot from a shotgun, airsoft won't even leave a mark on the lenses.

[Ian_Gere]

Yeah, but while we're on the subject of shooting glasses and/or workwear with kite marks coming out of their arses, let's just remember that someone got hit in the eye not long ago wearing this type of eyepro. Fortunately it seems he will be ok: fucking fortunately. It happened because these are not designed for airsoft. If they were there would be no/next to no gap between the frame and the wearer's face no matter from which direction a projectile approaches, because, as happened in this case, a ricochet can come at you from a direction which a direct shot cannot, such as directly below the frame if the BB bounces off a mask or, depending on the shape and angle of your head, off your gun or rig.

 

£900... well, I'm another one who thinks the better part of valour lies in not adding up how much I actually spend on airsoft, since that way I cannot be asked to justify a figure which I do not have by any significant other/s. Although last week or so I attempted to buy a 3" piece of 1.6-ish mm stamped mild steel with literally no other redeeming features than its shape for over £30 posted and was not relieved but gutted when it turned out to be out of stock after all. I did have the good grace to know and fully admit that it was the kind of extravagance at which whatever passes for my snook is habitually cocked however and i'm here to echo other's advice regarding trying the sport before you spank your wallet and to tell you that if you plan to spend that much money in/around the time it takes to get UKARA registered and not long thereafter, you had best budget for a lot more as your annual spend because a good deal of what you get will turn out to have been stuff which is good, but not so much for airsoft, good for airsoft but not good for you, or entirely inappropriate and/or just shit.

 

We've all done it, some more egregiously than others, and no doubt you will too*... thought something looks brilliant and how could it possibly not be good, only to discover that actually what works in films, or on real gunfighters in Afghan or wherever, is either not much use for airsoft or actively a pain in the arse...

 

I'll take gloves as a glaring example. In ordinary airsoft they have 3 functions: keeping your hands warm; protecting your fingers from hits, which sting there a lot more than you'd imagine and girly screams go a long way towards ruining function 3 of looking cool. A lot of us wear hard knuckle gloves, because we want to look like the kind of operator who may decide that, rules of engagement with weapons being what they are, punching someone is on the agenda. I have a pair myself, although mine are clones and, since 1 thumb got shredded by being between me and an exploding BFG which I incautiously leant on, are also heavily modified to cushion my fingers when cocking my spring sniper rifle and take some of the following experience into account:

 

Most of them are made for the kind of places soldiers are currently likely to go - hot and/or dry environments and so breathability is far more important than waterproof... not so on a cold wet Sunday in some muddy hole in Yorkshire.

 

If a soldier gets shot in the hand, a piece of flexible moulded plastic held by its shape a few mm's away from his fingers will not save them, but this design is far and away the most effective protection from BB hits, beating even Pyrohide & Kevlar despite costing only a fiver, however even worse, for most of us, than looking a bit namby pamby, they look a bit paintball-ish!

 

Military kit tends to be made with tough situations in mind, made to be operable just as well when roughly grabbed by desperate hands caked in shite as when being demonstrated calmly on a range, so anything a soldier may need to get hold of in a hurry will not have its operation hampered by the wearing of gloves through which the wearer can feel 3/5ths of fuck all... not so in airsoft: things that spring to mind are the flap/slide which keeps the BB's inside a hicap mag, speedloaders for mid/lo caps, blanks and loading tools for BFG's, the striker tabs/caps of pyros, and everyone who has ever paid £6+P&P to replace a lost one's favourite... AEG body pins of which some designs require the removal in order to change batteries.

 

Now imagine if you had just spanked £65 on a pair of Southcombe Bros'? No matter how unsuitable they turned out to be, how much would your unconscious need to justify the expense to yourself, and others if we know about it, goad you to take issue with what I have just written? Ah but these ones are special... yeah whatever; tell it to yer missus when you next see her eyeing up shoes.

 

I wrote this guide mainly for people who want to get into the sport/hobby but do not have your resources with which to proceed, but I reckon there's a lot to be said for starting out with forum and fleabay fifth hand specials while you rent guns, then buying a wombat machine and doing your best to make them work for you - you will know what features of expensive kit you want most ie the solutions to actual problems that you personally have had, what are not so important, and what don't matter at all, despite hiking the price up. Like many of us who bought cheap but good guns to start off, you will probably find that you will want to keep it even when you have plenty of more expensive options to pull out of your arsenal.

 

 

*However we can but hope that, whatever your particular style of Nobheadery© and/or flavour of Emperor's New Clothes™, it doesn't cost you more than a month's enjoyment of the sport due to lack of funds for something which would have done the trick cheaper/better/with less anxiety over whether you will lose or break some part of it/etc. and in the absence of that, that someone lurking may read this thread and take note.

Edited April 9, 2014 by Ian_Gere
Oh yeah & u can still get everything u need for less than £200

[NH Shooter]

the flip down lenses on those Emerson FAST helmets are borderline dangerous, I wouldn't use one if you paid me to do it

 

A guy from Arnies Airsoft forums did a test on them, the full write up is here: http://arniesairsoft.co.uk/forums/index.php?%2Ftopic%2F159597-helmet-pictures%2Fpage-82

 

My 2p on it is that if you're wearing that as protection you'd be better off with a couple of layers of cling film, at least it won't shatter when the BB comes through it. If your eyepro is ANSI z87.1 rated then it'll withstand birdshot from a shotgun, airsoft won't even leave a mark on the lenses.

 

I was actually thinking of using the eye pro on those! Thanks for the info... Proper stuff, it is...

 

The work ones are these... http://www.honeywellsafety.com/Products/Eye_and_Face_Protection/Honeywell_Millennia.aspx?site=/uk which says Z87+... Not sure what that is next to Z87.1? Any idea?

[Happy]

the flip down lenses on those Emerson FAST helmets are borderline dangerous, I wouldn't use one if you paid me to do it:

 

A guy from Arnies Airsoft forums did a test on them, the full write up is here: http://arniesairsoft.co.uk/forums/index.php?%2Ftopic%2F159597-helmet-pictures%2Fpage-82

 

My 2p on it is that if you're wearing that as protection you'd be better off with a couple of layers of cling film, at least it won't shatter when the BB comes through it. If your eyepro is ANSI z87.1 rated then it'll withstand birdshot from a shotgun, airsoft won't even leave a mark on the lenses.

And now my paranoia is justified lol, thanks for that mate haha

 

In all fairness I didn't click on to the fact that he was going to use it as eye pro - I thought he was using it just as headwear. Sorry if I in anyway misled you mate

[Ian_Gere]

I was actually thinking of using the eye pro on those! Thanks for the info... Proper stuff, it is...

 

The work ones are these... http://www.honeywellsafety.com/Products/Eye_and_Face_Protection/Honeywell_Millennia.aspx?site=/uk which says Z87+... Not sure what that is next to Z87.1? Any idea?

TBF on her they seem to fit closer to the face than some, but I'm not convinced in the down direction. You know, the part between eyebrow and frame which will be facing forward, exposing your gaigin round-eyes to whatever can fit through, every time you look down at your chest or what's immediately in front of your feet (which you will more often than in ordinary life). The main question remains however, how much like hers is your face shaped?

 

Here's the biscuit taker however:

By all means put a lanyard thingumabob on there to stop them falling off your face when you run, but even if it's tight, unless you have a pronounced dent in the back of your skull into which the string can slot so that it cannot move, then running is going to make it slip introducing slack and those arms, no doubt designed for the convenience of workers who regularly take them off and on again, offer very little resistance to slipping forward when your head is bowed...

 

What you need is goggles which have frames with rubber/foam edges that seal against your face. If you get polycarbonate lensed ones like this, they may well fog easily - that's a different discussion. The important thing to grasp is that just because you see pictures of plenty of people wearing what I have here defined as inappropriate eyepro while airsofting and don't hear of hundreds of accidents, that doesn't mean that the eyepro is in fact safe. It's not that common to be hit in the eyepro at all, although it seems to go in rashes, and those hits will primarily result from leading with your face, which is an unfortunate but necessary aspect of skirmishing since blind firing is universally banned, so the BB's will be coming straight at you, fired from the direction you are attempting to get a look at from behind cover. Of those not all would have hit you in the eye anyway, they hit some wider bit of the eyepro... but the thing with hits which come from the edges, and would have hit you in the nose maybe or the temple, is that the eyepro may actually funnel the BB towards your eye if it's that 1 in a million shot that just happens to get you in exactly the wrong place as happened to this bloke. Don't be the next unluckiest bastard in UK airsoft.

[jcheeseright]

I was actually thinking of using the eye pro on those! Thanks for the info... Proper stuff, it is...

 

The work ones are these... http://www.honeywellsafety.com/Products/Eye_and_Face_Protection/Honeywell_Millennia.aspx?site=/uk which says Z87+... Not sure what that is next to Z87.1? Any idea?

 

z87+ is a newer naming convention, it's for high-impact stuff (shards of metal coming off a lathe etc) and is more than enough for airsoft. Those lenses will deflect BBs without any stress at all. Be aware of any possible gaps round the edge and the top though, unlike at work where things are likely to come from the object you're looking directly at BBs can come from any direction!

[Ian_Gere]

No way would you CQB in those Honeywell's, James, and you know it!

[jcheeseright]

Hell no, CQB is all about full face... my smile isn't all that but it'd look a shitload worse with gaps!

[Ian_Gere]

You got something against my smile?

[DX115FALCON]

I hope that nobody has posted a link to the EXCELLENT "Ian's guide to noobism on a tight budget" yet.

[Ian_Gere]

Only me, DX. But thanks for the vote of confidence