The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread

[MAX DICKER]

2 hours ago, Floperator said:

no limit to the amount of shiny shit I can buy...

 

No missus then?

[Floperator]

1 hour ago, MAX DICKER said:

No missus then?

 

We don't police each others leisure spending.

As long as I've got enough left over to keep her wined and dined she doesn't care what I buy 😉

[Cr0-Magnon]

A fun half-day with the TM MP7 GBBR. My first time using it and I guess especially because it's warm but it got through mag after mag, without the slightest hint of a splutter.

 

Being limited by 50 round mags and knowing I have to keep them filled with gas, really made me feel like that's the way Airsoft should be played. 

It just feels so stupid, that people can get kills on others they don't even see, purely by firing hundreds of rounds in a teams general direction.

[Nick G]

Cracking day today. Only 20 odd players so we played a load of 30 minute games . All very punchy and hard faught but all extremely good natured. I do like low number days, play tends to be much more tactical 'cos we all know each other and naturally fall into working together properly. 

 

Had a clear demonstration of why sight protectors are a good thing when the protector on my 552 took a hit and broke. Sight was fine though. And the GBBR's were really rocking 😁

Edited July 10, 2022 by Nick G

[Rogerborg]

47 minutes ago, Nick G said:

Cracking day today. Only 20 odd players

 

Huh, 'tis the season, we only had 14 at Area-66, I guess everybody's on holiday.  Really surprising, usually it's packed.

 

Cracking also though. The marshals all got to play, the games were kept small and tight, and were all really fair, good natured and light-hearted, but still closely fought.

 

Less can be more.

[Dan Robinson]

Just got back from AWA.  It was their Big Skirmish event which was pretty good.  Although the other team apparently couldn't communicate properly so ruined the way the combat was supposed to happen, meaning a lot of walking around looking for someone to shoot. 

 

Still, 100 people turned up so when the fighting did happen it was pretty good fun. 

 

 

Only thing that really put a downer on the day was the dust cover of my svu fell off..... Thankfully found by the boy in a rather obscure place.... And my Osprey armour has taken the skin off my waste through rubbing, which is now very sore. 

 

Still ran, nearly 7 miles, so feeling good about the exercise 👍. 

 

Camelbak hydration kit certainly paid for itself too.  I got through at least 6 litres of water.  Can't believe there were people playing with just little bottles of water. 

 

 

Looks like AWA are going to rename these events Battlesim Lite and running more of them, which as they get used to how thi gs like these play out should only make them better. 

Edited July 10, 2022 by Dan Robinson

[Rogerborg]

29 minutes ago, Dan Robinson said:

I got through at least 6 litres of water.  Can't believe there were people playing with just little bottles of water. 

 

Mmm. I called it at 2pm after going through 3 litres, with a 5l backup in the car.  It is astonishing that folk try to do a whole day on a few cans of Monster or Irn Bru, and surprising that sites don't emphasise the importance of water along with batteries, BBs and eye-pro.

[Sneaky]

1 hour ago, Rogerborg said:

 

Mmm. I called it at 2pm after going through 3 litres, with a 5l backup in the car.  It is astonishing that folk try to do a whole day on a few cans of Monster or Irn Bru, and surprising that sites don't emphasise the importance of water along with batteries, BBs and eye-pro.

I don’t get that either them with their sugar drinks and me with my basic water. When my body says stop, I stop. I have seen players pass out, even though the marshals say drink plenty of water. No sympathy from me there.

[Floperator]

Good thing about the Reforger site, they dish out free bottles of water all day.

[Dan Robinson]

Same at Special Ops.  That's possibly my main criticism of AWA as they don't have mains drinking water to the site. 

 

Really they should have slabs of water bottles for people.  However, people are stupid..... And at Spec Ops there's always a shit tonne of half empty bottles strew about the area for some poor sod to pick up. 

[Rogerborg]

It's a tricky one.  I mean, it can be viewed as a medical necessity and they'll want some on hand to administer. But water is heavy and nobody wants to be hauling hundreds of litres of it around just to give it away to people too lazy and unprepared to bring their own.  Everybody playing is an adult, or supervised by one, and should be able to understand the need for hydration.

 

But, you know, airsofters.  Overheard conversation:

 

Dumb: "Damn, I forgot to bring any water, I usually bring a whole litre."

 

Dumber: "Oh, I brought a litre, you can have half."

[Jacob Wright]

I was going to say, great for sites that provide it and I am impressed when I turn up and see there is free water. 
 

However, I completely understand why sites wouldn’t for the reasons above. 
 

Maybe we’ll see more sites starting to offer water with regard to the ongoing and forthcoming high temperatures!?

[Speedbird_666]

27 minutes ago, Rogerborg said:

 just to give it away to people too lazy and unprepared to bring their own.  Everybody playing is an adult, or supervised by one, and should be able to understand the need for hydration.

 

This sums it up rather well.

 

Whilst it's a nice gesture for sites to hand out free bottled water, it is our own responsibility to keep properly hydrated.

[Jaylordofwaargh]

Plumbed mains? Amazing well done that site, but how many sites can get or have access to or even the cash to get plumbed in. 

 

Bottled water is expensive, even by the palate, 

 

Sure give out a few bottles as part of your rental package as some might not expect the exertion on a skirmish day, but for every other fecker? Charge them a little over cost to cover fuel and time taken to get said palate of water.

 

I am firmly on the "personal responsibility" side if this argument I use public transport most of the time and will still find a way to get 5lt+ to site on hot days like these.

[Dan Robinson]

15p for a 500ml bottle of Costco mineral water isn't going to break the bank, especially when you can get a pallet with free delivery - these are customer facing businesses, and while personal responsibility is a thing...  Why not make sure there is drinking water available for free - or cost?  Especially in this weather.

 

Bottles can split (as happened to us last time), get forgotten, knocked over.  All sorts of reasons other than lazy for someone to not have water with them.

 

One of the reasons I took extras yesterday. 😋

[Rogerborg]

42 minutes ago, Dan Robinson said:

especially when you can get a pallet with free delivery

 

Once they've been up the bombed out goat track to a typical airsoft site, I suspect that "Further postcode delivery restrictions might apply to this item" in future.  

[Dan Robinson]

Of the three sites I've been to there's been either a van, or pickup truck there with general stock and materials being transported to site.  Wouldn't be hard to get the stuff delivered to wherever the rest of the stock is taken. 😜

[Rogerborg]

It can be done, but 2 litres of water per person adds up quickly, and that's all weight that the site owner (or a minion) is going to have to haul around, along with the usual consumables and rental gear.  It's not a burden that I'd want to put on sites.

 

They wouldn't need to bring enough for everyone - at first.  Just the lazy forgetful clumsy unfortunates.  But there's an endless appetite for free stuff, and if you knew your site was giving it away, would you keep bringing your own?  It's far easier to inculcate dependency than wean people off of it. Bit of politics on the stage there.

[Dan Robinson]

Logistics are demonstrably not too much of an issue as demonstrated by Spec Ops. 

 

Where laziness is an issue I can't argue against is that asshats leave the bottles for staff or we'll minded individuals to pick up.  Plus ensuring recycling plastic bottles.

 

I just have a thing about drinking water being available.  This isn't restricted to the world of airsoft 👍.   If you operate a business where fluid intake is essential to the safety of your punters, provision should be made.  

 

But of course I'm British,  so I can happily stick to grumbling online and sort myself out.

[Floperator]

A few times I've been to RF the rentals have been sold out, or close to. It's unrealistic to expect rentals to know what a full day of spring/summer airsofting is going to be like, they aren't going to be turning up with camelbaks, you're doing well if they don't turn up in trainers ffs. So as a sensible business owner who doesn't want their customers and potential new regulars to keel over in the middle of a game it makes sense to provide water for them at least.

And if you're doing that you might as well spring for another couple of quid and eliminate the possibility of at least one type of medical emergency across your entire player base.

[Rogerborg]

All right, all right, I'm down, stop kicking.  

 

I really can't find any strong argument against sites providing water, except Darwinism.

[Madhouse]

2 hours ago, Floperator said:

A few times I've been to RF the rentals have been sold out, or close to. It's unrealistic to expect rentals to know what a full day of spring/summer airsofting is going to be like, they aren't going to be turning up with camelbaks, you're doing well if they don't turn up in trainers ffs. So as a sensible business owner who doesn't want their customers and potential new regulars to keel over in the middle of a game it makes sense to provide water for them at least.

And if you're doing that you might as well spring for another couple of quid and eliminate the possibility of at least one type of medical emergency across your entire player base.

 

For new players add a quid or two to a rental price and include a couple of litres of water. Anyone playing their fourth game should be aware of the physicality and their hydration needs.

 

It's a sales opportunity for a site though, buying water by the pallet's relatively cheap (15p/bottle) so if you sold it as low as 50p you'd still make a healthy margin, added bonus is you get an extra pallet to make defences/obstacles/seats out of.

[RostokMcSpoons]

21 minutes ago, Madhouse said:

It's a sales opportunity for a site though, buying water by the pallet's relatively cheap (15p/bottle) so if you sold it as low as 50p you'd still make a healthy margin, added bonus is you get an extra pallet to make defences/obstacles/seats out of.

Re: selling water: you'd still have the unfortunate situation of people who forgot to bring means of payments (or too stingy to pay anything) collapsing due to dehydration. 
 

[Speedbird_666]

20 hours ago, Jaylordofwaargh said:

Plumbed mains? Amazing well done that site, but how many sites can get or have access to or even the cash to get plumbed in. 

 

I don't think I would want to drink any tap water on a site that happens to be plumbed in personally.

 

I'd rather stick to bottled - free or bought, and not have thoughts of Legionnaires whilst drinking it.

[Tackle]

Agree, I'm a bit of a water snob anyway, i only drink the tapwater at home if its boiled in a cuppa, most tap water seems to have a "taste", & usually gives me a sore throat ?, wtf that's about I don't know ?. 

But most supermarkets own brands are more than palatable, especially when ice cold, so I usually chuck 8 litre pack in the chest freezer the night before, time I need it on site it's started defrosting nicely🥶

 

While site owners have a reasonable duty of care to clients, it's shouldn't leave them out of pocket just to protect the Darwin award winners amongst society (all your doing is delaying the inevitable lol).