Beginner to Milsims

[Pompeyairsofter36]

I am a beginner airsofter and want to go to Milsims, I live in Hampshire and am under 18 so its hard to find ones to go to.

[TheGrover]

Sorry, is there a question in there?

 

[/narky]

[n1ckh]

Sorry, is there a question in there?

 

[/narky]

I think he should've ended with "are there any milsim sites in or around Hampshire ??"

[Cheeky vimto]

Where in Hampshire?

[Baz JJ]

We have a large group who come to ours from Portsmouth. Perhaps you could tag along with them if you are over 16?

[Pompeyairsofter36]

I'm in portsmouth and under 16.

[n1ckh]

That might be difficult as I believe minimum age for milsim is either 16 or 18 depending what site you go to

[NickM]

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.

[Samurai]

The main reason might be safeguarding

I think it's because it's MILSIM as in MILitary SIMulation. And unless the scenario is set in the middle of Africa, child soldiers aren't valid for the simulation part.

[Josh95]

I think it's because it's MILSIM as in MILitary SIMulation. And unless the scenario is set in the middle of Africa, child soldiers aren't valid for the simulation part.

a bit harsh but true

[SeniorSpaz87]

People lied about their age all the time when recruiting. And a lot of recruiters needed the bodies so badly they wouldn't ask too many questions as long as the kid looked passable.

[Mike636]

I think it's because it's MILSIM as in MILitary SIMulation. And unless the scenario is set in the middle of Africa, child soldiers aren't valid for the simulation part.

What about people with massive guts or who can't do the 6 minute miles and do 1000 press ups and pull ups required to be an super special operator? Ban those guys too?

[Samurai]

You know I would. But seriously, milsim is milsim because the players try to immerse in / simulate this military thing and for that things like this do matter. If the fat guy gets the order to patrol the area and can't climb up the hill, or he can't climb into the APC or there are tiny soldiers shouting like on a playground that will ruin the game. That's the same as not allowing high caps, or face masks.

On an average skirmish, everyone is a spec ops operator. On a milsim, you are infantry. You don't need to do 1000 press ups, but you might need to carry your mate.

 

Don't get me wrong, I respect and welcome kids on normal airsoft events, it's just about the milsim.

[M_P]

People lied about their age all the time when recruiting. And a lot of recruiters needed the bodies so badly they wouldn't ask too many questions as long as the kid looked passable.

Yes but most milsims aren't set in the early 1900s.

[beastmode]

Just wait until you are old enough for the mil sims it will soon come round. Meanwhile get some experience playing regular skirmishes. I think it's more the health and safety side for the milsims as they are usually 2 day events.

[BrightCandle]

Just wait until you are old enough for the mil sims it will soon come round. Meanwhile get some experience playing regular skirmishes. I think it's more the health and safety side for the milsims as they are usually 2 day events.

 

Based on scouts and other camping out events with young adults and teenagers, there are legal requirements that assigned guardians must meet for looking after a group with minors. I doubt many milsim events want to take on those sorts of requirements considering they are mostly targeted at adults.

 

It might be possible to meet those requirements and potentially insurance if one of the OPs legal guardians attended as well, but the insurance might not cover it even then.

[Josh95]

you might get away with it when youre 16

[jay83]

I am a beginner airsofter and want to go to Milsims, I live in Hampshire and am under 18 so its hard to find ones to go to.

 

 

Airborne Airsoft is in Hampshire. Longmoor site is amazing. Not sure on age limit.

[NickM]

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.

[Mr Monkey Nuts]

Hang on a moment can you state the specific legislation that states a private business MUST safeguard children?

 

If that's the case then surely every sweet shop , tesco, bus company, bike shop, council gardener and every normal skirmish site would be required to DBS their staff and marshals?

 

Yes it's a very good idea to and in the wake of sir jimmy, but to what extent is it it legislated?

[Spatch]

The other thing to note is quite how seriously milsims are taken and the amount of equipment required, if you are just starting airsoft then you will really to take the advice of playing 'normal' games for a while, milsim is a serious business, serious money and serious kit involved

[NickM]

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).

[clumpyedge]

 

 

Airborne Airsoft is in Hampshire. Longmoor site is amazing. Not sure on age limit.

 

 

18+ mate - not sure about the other groups that book there

[Pompeyairsofter36]

 

 

Airborne Airsoft is in Hampshire. Longmoor site is amazing. Not sure on age limit.

I've been to longmoor Airbourne, but their milsim is over 18

[NickM]

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.