Old Hand from Sussex

[RamonAllones]

Hello all,

 

Old time airsofter here. Started playing in the late 90’s/early 2000’s very regularly at Combat South and Elite Airsoft back in the day. Haven’t picked up an airsoft gun in anger since joining the Forces back in 2006.

 

Looking to get back into it to enjoy a few games and see how it has changed. Luckily I had the sense to keep my old Marui SR16/Sun Project M203 and my even older Western Arms Wilson Combat .45 (well, 6mm). No idea if either still work mind you so might need a few pointers on spare parts/batteries etc.
 

Any site recommendations around Sussex/Kent would be greatly appreciated. Hope to see you in the field.

 

Ramon

[Cannonfodder]

Welcome back to the madness

 

Not much has changed since 2006, the main things being the VCRA coming into law in 2007 (see threads on the vcra and ukara as I really can't be arsed to go into detail here) and more people are moving to lipo batteries.

 

Chinese companies are still knocking out cheap (not as cheap as in 06 unfortunately) copies of high end guns with varying degrees of quality control

3 hours ago, RamonAllones said:

Western Arms Wilson Combat .45

Now that's a rare pistol these days

[Impulse]

Welcome back to the hobby. I would disagree and say that quite a bit has changed since 2006, but the fundamentals of the hobby are still the same; we still run around in dress up with battery-powered pews for the mostpart. The biggest differences I can think of are that guns shoot a lot further thanks to far better hop ups and prevalence of heavier BBs, there's a lot more HPA going around and you'll see a LOT more people at game days now. Also, consider me jealous of that Western Arms pistol!

 

In terms of sites (you'd be surprised what is still around) in the south, Gunman sites are pretty great and Battle Lakes is also in Kent, though I'm not sure if they do regular skirmishes there; I think it's only filmsim, which is a bit more structured and I would definitely advise you give it a try but it's not for everyone. Outside of that there's Tuddenham in Suffolk and Eversley Alpha and Bravo in Hampshire. You also have Worthing Airsoft (formerly Elite Action Games Worthing) in West Sussex, which has been around since before 2006 and is where I first started playing back in 2005, then you also have Dogtag in Faygate and Driver Wood just outside Crawley. That's all the sites in the area that I know, but that's because I'm in Brighton. I'm sure there are some more sites over in the Kent direction that I don't know about since they'd be a bit far for me.

[Rogerborg]

Ahoy and welcome back.

[JimFromHorsham]

Welcome from another old timer , Combat south Woodland , i had some good times down there around the same time as yourself with @The Waco Kid . 

[RamonAllones]

Thanks Gents!

 

Much appreciated, some great advice there. @Impulse many thanks for the site recommendations. Once I’ve checked over some kit I’ll have to get a game day sorted.

 

@JimFromHorsham Combat South was brilliant. Had a lot of good times there, I was one of the WASPS so I’ve probably exchanged some hot plastic death with you guys!

[The_Lord_Poncho]

Another Sussex dweller here! Within the list of sites above, i frequent Driver Wood (excellent), and have been to dogtag (pretty good). To add to the list if you enjoy CQB in the dark- and with weekday evening games- the Epsom air raid tunnels (every wednesday night), and the Invicta Black Site (some wednesday nights and some weekends) are worth a visit, and good if you can't get a weekend pass from your keeper! I was at Invicta Blacksite last night - absolutely awesome.

[ASP383]

Hi from a fellow Sussex member, Only started playing this year at my local site Driver Wood, so can't add anything regarding the list of sites already mentioned.

[Jedi_Master]

Welcome .

[SheriffHD]

I'm a Hastings player myself - imperium in Whitstable is an awesome site lots of vehicles but it's longer range engagements kinda site.

Dogtag is a brilliant site nice safe zone and the area of play circles around the safe zone usually so you're never too far from a quick pitstop.

Driver wood is a brilliant site for Airsoft. Has long site lines but enough bracken and bush to get good flanks which evens the odds when you don't have range on your gun.

[EDcase]

Welcome back 🖐

 

I didn't play as far back as 2006 but as Impulse said, the toys have likely improved in range and quality since then.  Even the budget options like JG and Double Eagle perform adequately for game use.

(I do remember seeing springer plastic replica gun kits back in the 80s but never got one)

 

Have a look here for sites near you:  UK Airsoft Map — PlayAirsoft