Returning to airsoft

[cojkor]

Hello everyone, I have recently decided to come back to the beloved sport of airsoft. It has been 6 years since I last played. Unfortunately all my guns are destroyed from rust and bacetria build up of being kept in the basement for so long. 7 of us are returning back and feel as though we have lost all of the knowlege we had built up in the 7 years period we played. We need some advice please. 

 

1. We are looking for a decent starter guns, preferably not more than £300. We don't know what brands are good at the moment on the market. Also of course all our UKAARA has expired and I am guessing that leaves us with two tones Unfortunately for now? 

 

2. We have been looking at radios and thinking for buying the baofengs, however if I recall accurately they required some sort of programming procedure that seemed complicated to us at the time. 

 

3. Also where is the best places to purchase MTP outfits. We would prefer the MTP type. Some advice for the clothing accessories would be greatly appreciated. 

 

[EDcase]

Welcome back 🖐

Pity about your old toys being destroyed.

 

1. Do a search on the forum as there have been many discussions about 'best starter gun'

In brief I would suggest to look at JG, CYMA, SpecnaArms and (Double Eagle for certain models)

Painful as it is, we would always recommend renting for your first 3 games to get UKARA registered again.  It will also let you see (and probably try) some other toys to get an idea what's out there now.

 

2. Yes, I think most Baofengs need to have their frequencies adjusted to legally use without a license.  But most sites have a radio license which kind of covers you I believe.

I'm sure someone will give more detailed advice.

 

3. Not sure on this one. Google search?

I'm sure others will chime in...

 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by EDcase

[Rogerborg]

Ahoy and welcome back.

 

1. If you've been out for 7 years, I would have to wonder how likely it is that all 7 of you will stick with it the 2nd time round.  So I'd agree with the suggestion to rent, at least for a game or two, to see if this is a renewal of your vows, or a quick booty call.  Renting can look expensive, but when you consider that you'd be buying the BBs anyway, it's only actually £10-£15 for renting the gun, plus support for it, for the day.  That's cheap compared to trying to sell on any RIF, or worse, an IF.

 

2. If you do want to buy, I agree with the list above.  The cheapest M5xx M4 CYMAs have very cheap plastic bodies (although robust internals), anything above that from those brands will be fine.

 

Baofengs UV-5Rs are decent but contain more functionality than needed.  They can be programmed by hand, although it's somewhat time consuming.  A £7 programming cable (eBay can provide) makes it easier, and allows downloading the same frequencies to multiple handsets. If you want to skip all that, they do a simpler range that's locked to the PMR frequencies.

 

3. Dunno, DPM is best P.  

[BigStew]

Destroyed is a pretty strong word. Unless a gun has been snapped into several pieces i would never consider them unsalvageable. It would be worth looking for a Tech near you to fix the guns. That won't run fowl of the VCRA as you already own them, it should be cheaper than having to rent then buy new guns and if you don't get back into airsoft you have sellable guns. 

[Galvatron]

I would have to third the recommendation to take the rental path for a couple of months to get your UKARA defence. Two-tone may cost you more in the long run as they tend to depreciate more than a RIF so you'd spend less money renting than you stand to lose buying and reselling a two-tone.

 

Some of Double Bell's modern RIFs may be worth considering as they've improved greatly from older generations. If you can find them at the right price, G&G isn't a bad option either.

[Cannonfodder]

Welcome back

 

1. As others have said, rent first to get your site membership as no matter how much you paint a 2 tone it'll get scratched and the bright colours will show through. Although if any bits of your old guns are salvageable you could always swap them around. If not then I also recommend the brands mentioned by Edcase

 

2. No idea about radios, sorry

 

3. MTP is easily available from any surplus store but if there isn't one near to you then these are the ones I usually use

https://www.flecktarn.co.uk/index.php

https://forcesuniformandkit.co.uk/

http://www.gbfmilitaria.com/

https://www.military1st.co.uk/

 

Alternatively if you're not fussed about your camos being genuine issue stuff then most airsoft shops sell copies

[Rogerborg]

1 hour ago, Galvatron said:

If you can find them at the right price, G&G isn't a bad option either.

 

They've long since priced themselves out of the budget end of the market, and I'm not sure why I'd want to look at them in the £200-300 range when EDGE 2.0s and Double Eagle M9XX exist.

[cojkor]

Thank you all for the great advice, rogerborg we was in the sport for several years. However suddenly we all got married and had kids and etc. Now that we are stable we can finally return to our airsoft.

 

Big stew, I'll upload soke pictures of my old rifles and.maybe you can advice me further with them? 

Thank you 

[gavinkempsell]

I can't really add much to the advice above but if your pews are knackered (in your eyes), list them for sale in the classifieds here, some of us (ok, me) buy for a collection and never expect to use them in game.

I'm probably a typical newbie to airsoft and bought too much stuff (no regrets), I found clothing & kit easy enough to find on fleabay and cheap enough to buy (I'm a big fat lad & still found clothing in my size).

Edited December 19, 2023 by gavinkempsell

[Rogerborg]

2 hours ago, cojkor said:

suddenly we all got married

 

I can barely keep one wife happy, let alone six! 😮

[Tackle]

Lol, happy wife, that's an oxymoron if ever I heard one😏

43 minutes ago, gavinkempsell said:

I can't really add much to the advice above but if your pews are knackered (in your eyes), list them for sale in the classifieds here

Yep, we all like a project every so often. 👍

[gavinkempsell]

5 minutes ago, Tackle said:

Yep, we all like a project every so often

My projects are still projects, even the rattle can one's.

[OTH21]

I might be able to help with MTP clothing, you're welcome to ping a private message. I'm trying to get the ball rolling on an online military surplus store, to help me alongside being a poor mature student. Mainly looking to shift stuff at a smidge above wholesale prices to get my processes polished. Offer is there for anyone else. Cheers. 

 

However bootfairs can be a good shout for picking up kit. 

[Galvatron]

22 hours ago, Rogerborg said:

 

They've long since priced themselves out of the budget end of the market, and I'm not sure why I'd want to look at them in the £200-300 range when EDGE 2.0s and Double Eagle M9XX exist.

 

Like I said "if you can find them at the right price". I saw a decent in-store deal at Extreme Airsoft a few months back on a batch of stock of a G&G Combat Machine (I can't remember which model specifically or the handguard length) they were selling for below £200 as one of their suppliers wanted to clear its surplus.

 

I'm 100% with you saying they're not a competitively priced budget vendor any more when you can buy RIFs with more features at the same price point from G&G's competitors now.

[Rogerborg]

Well, I'm going to agree with you more than you agree with me.  

 

I think they're solid performers that tend to work really well out of the box, and have great quality plastic.  A decent dial hop is better than a sloppy rotary.  If you can find one that's competitively priced, they're still worth a look, it was just shocking when the price went rocketing up while (e.g.) Jing Gong and CYMA stayed down, and Specna and Lancer Tactical started adding rotary hops, QC springs, mosfets and such.  I hope they come back down in price again.

[JamesAirsofterAgent]

On 19/12/2023 at 11:19, cojkor said:

 

 

2. We have been looking at radios and thinking for buying the baofengs, however if I recall accurately they required some sort of programming procedure that seemed complicated to us at the time. 

 

3. Also where is the best places to purchase MTP outfits. We would prefer the MTP type. Some advice for the clothing accessories would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Unsure of 1, but re/ 2 friends and I all use the baofeng UV5R and the ear piece it comes with. No programming required just pick a channel and go. Also has a handy lock key so when youre sliding around you don't end up on someone elses channel. 

 

For MTP outfits, literally any car boot will have loads going cheap, same for virtually any milsurp store. 

 

Just had a quick look at G&G CM16's which is what we all got as our starting rifles and holy fuck theyve increased in price. 

Edited December 20, 2023 by JamesAirsofterAgent

[TheFull9]

eBay definitely the best source of MTP uniforms I've seen.  I've not really looked at MTP but you can get surplus DPM trousers or shirts for under £5 each pretty often; surp MTP seems to be a smidge more money but not by much given there's so much of it out there.  It's an order of magnitude better value than any of the commercial copy stuff out there.

[Egon_247]

Get the guns to a decent tech, while he/she/them/they/toaster is sorting them out, do your rental thing and away you go with regenerated old school cool. 👍😁

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

7 hours ago, Rogerborg said:

If you can find one that's competitively priced, they're still worth a look, it was just shocking when the price went rocketing up while (e.g.) Jing Gong and CYMA stayed down, and Specna and Lancer Tactical started adding rotary hops, QC springs, mosfets and such.  I hope they come back down in price again.

I just logged in to Zero One to check...  My CM16 was £124.95 on the 17/09/17.  

 

The few places that have them in stock, hold them at £220-30ish according to a brief online peruse.  Even with the 20% Brexit dividend that's quite mental.  

 

Having said that, I've spent far more on far worse gnus.  I expect even if I'd paid today's silly money, pound per BB the G&G would be ahead on value.  The challenger on price per pop would be my trusty CYMA RPK, and that has left half of it's inessential bits strewn across eastern and southern England.   

[Badgerlicious]

If you're not fussed about your mtp being crisp and clean, go to a surplus store and look through their grade two stuff. It should only have minor cosmetic damage (ink stain, small hole etc.) but it's worth double checking. Grade 2 stuff is generally really, really, cheap. And since you're gonna be throwing yourself around on the ground anyways, worth saving on. 

[The_Lord_Poncho]

17 hours ago, JamesAirsofterAgent said:

Unsure of 1, but re/ 2 friends and I all use the baofeng UV5R and the ear piece it comes with. No programming required just pick a channel and go.

 

Unless your radio came pre-programmed on PMR446 channels (unlikely), I'd recommend when you get some spare time that that you re-programme your radios onto those licence free frequencies. Not that I am personally fussed about licences etc (and lets face it, the Baofengs don't comply with most of the other PMR446 rules) , but as the Baofengs have such a broad frequency range, there is a possibility that your signals could be interfering with other licenced frequencies that are used for somewhat safety critical operations (not the emergency services these days, but maybe e.g. hospital porters, warehouses, public transport, event security etc.). PMR 446 frequencies found in the bottom of this page if interested: https://www.radiotrader.co.uk/news/facts-about-licence-free-radios.htm#PMR446 Frequencies

[ak2m4]

@cojkor get some pictures up of the AEG's and let us all have a look 🙂  You'd be surprised at what can be salvaged.  

[cojkor]

Hello everyone thank you all for the great advice and responses, I managed to clean my rifle all up but now I have a operational issue. When a plug the battery and and try to shoot it doesn't shoot. However I feel like the motor wants to go but it doesn't. I can feel the power running through it if you know what I mean. At the same time it makes the battery build up a hissing like sound. 

[EDcase]

That does look quite rough. Definitely don't keep trying if it doesn't want to move.

You'll have to open up the gearbox to clean and see what the problem is.

Since its old and in poor condition its perfect to have a go at tinkering without risking breaking a working one.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by EDcase

[cojkor]

5 minutes ago, EDcase said:

That does look quite rough. Definitely don't keep trying if it doesn't want to move.

You'll have to open up the gearbox to clean and see what the problem is.

Since its old and in poor condition its perfect to have a go at tinkering without risking breaking a working one.

 

 

Do you think it sounds more like a motor issue or gearbox issue? I was thinking maybe the motor?