Complete Newbie in Bromley.

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Stainesy86

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First of all Hi, and sorry for starting a new thread lol.

I am completely new to Airsoft and want to get into it with my son. I am based in Bromley and know a couple of sites local to me. (Chislehurst and Croydon)

I'm hoping to make this a new hobby of ours if we both enjoy it and looking to go a few times a year depending on budgets, time etc.

Potentially even becoming registered to purchase replicas as well. I have read the requirements too.

My main question is, what can I expect? I have done paintballing and that was fun, but found on the day, it was very expensive.

Also, I understand the requirements for purchasing your own guns, but is my son allowed to use one of my purchased guns (providing it is two-tone coloured) at skirmish sites, he is 13 years old.

Thanks, hope to see you on the battlefield at some point

 
Welcome!  :)

Airsoft is similar to Paintball in many ways and your experience won't differ too much if you're renting. Airsoft can be cheap, but it can also be fairly expensive too. I would expect to spend about £30 per person if renting, but I'd bring extra cash in case you want more services such as food or ammo. Each site is different so it's best to check in beforehand and see what they have to offer. 

On the day you'll be provided with a weapon and eye protection as default as well as enough ammo to last the day. What your package includes will, again, depend on the site. 

You'll be given a weapon handling demonstration and a health and saftey brief. Its important to listen during this. You don't want to be 'that guy' who ignores the briefing and then 10 minutes later asks how to eject a magazine.  ;)

Before you go out and buy your own kit I would highly recommend playing beforehand to make sure it's something you two enjoy. If you're playing in a woodland environment a pair of ankle support boots with good treads are a must. 

18+ can buy a Two tone gun

18+ with a defense can buy a RIF

You can buy either and let your son use them provided that criteria is met. 

There's plenty of useful info in the pinned posts which I recommend reading, as well as a bunch of previous threads with replies just like mine. Any further questions let us know. 

 
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Welcome :) . As I always recommend, read the pinned (sticky) topics in each section for some good advice and to improve your knowledge.

Initial outlay on guns, eye-protection (under 18 needs full face protection) and gear can add up in price, depending on what you decide to buy. The more you play, effectively it gets cheaper because you have the gear and only need to pay for BBs (£5-8 bottle of 3k) and the days site fees.

I would recommend getting site membership so that you can purchase a realistic gun instead of a two-tone one.  Your son can use any of your guns on site, and is not restricted to only playing with a two-tone, which means you could buy two RIFs and he gets to use one of them.

 
Welcome for the third time  :)  

*is going to pretend I wrote all the stuff in above posts because they all have great things to say*
 

Gepard said:
You'll be given a weapon handling demonstration and a health and saftey brief. Its important to listen during this. You don't want to be 'that guy' who ignores the briefing and then 10 minutes later asks how to eject a magazine.  ;)
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I was very nearly "that guy" my first time, I listened to the brief and everything! Just my goldfish memory tried to let me down lol.

Anyway, welcome to the forum (for the fourth time). Hopefully you love your first day out on the field (I know I did), and hopefully you stick with it :D

 
Thank you all for the welcome posts.

initially I’m gonna try it out but have a feeling I will enjoy it. I know my son will too, he is almost obsessed with call of duty and other shoot em ups, so to do it in real life he would love even more haha.

I have read up on a lot of sites and also websites for the skirmish sites too. So looking forward to getting out there.

 
Hello :)

I saw you mentioned Croydon. I'm a member at TWA in Croydon and so are a few others on here. It's a friendly, fun, small venue. It's Woodland and outdoor CQB... sometimes a mix of both. All sorts and all ages turn up. New & seasoned players. Can be upto 120 players.

You mention your son likes Call of Duty too. Some of the games I've played there can be very similar in principal... BUT ... lol... it's physical :D and a million times better!

At least 3 of us will be there on the 30th Dec for the last game of the year.

Otherwise games are every two weeks.

 
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I am looking forward to getting involved and the more videos I watch, the more I want to start lol.

I am not looking to purchase any of my own equipment as of yet. But I have seen guns from the company "Bulldog" and wanted to know what you guys though of this brand.

Bulldog is a name this is used in my family as part of family businesses, so it would seem fitting to own Bulldog Branded items too lol. But wouldn't just buy if they are not great.

Any recommendations on where to get the best clothing. I am on the chunkier side of life so can't be anything slim fit haha.

 
I get army surplus off eBay or any surplus store/site that has what I need at the best price. Check your size against a NATO size chart, it'll save you a lot of time looking for what may or may not fit (if your after that sort of thing). I haven't bought anything that wasn't army surplus so I can't really point to anything else.

Before any of that invest in the best eye/face protection you can afford. Then look for good boots...

I have no idea about the bulldog brand.

 
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Never heard of bulldog before. Typically you've got 3 brands for budget starter guns under £150: CYMA, JG and G&G.

Don't spend exorbitant amounts of money on your first gun, but don't skimp out either. 

I agree with @Immortal. I'd buy your own face protection first. Rental masks are fine but having your own is definitely a better feeling. As you're over 18 it's up to you what you go with. Paintball mask, goggles, glasses, etc..

I use a pair of ESS ICE. In CQC I switch them out for some good old Bollé trackers and a half mesh mask. 

Surplus stores are great for picking up a cheap pair of BDUs, but also look on eBay. Whilst what you wear doesn't really effect how you play, dressing up is part of the experience and getting something dedicated to getting dirty is always a plus one. 

 
Well I only noticed the Bulldog brand on the well renowned jbbg website, which I have now read up on here to avoid like the plague lol. So will obviously look elsewhere for guns and equipment.

I will defo look ebay for surplus equipment also. I agree that the dressing up for the part is one of the main bits of the experience of being a soldier for the day and I am going to look around for some decent stuff.

Any websites in particular to look at for equipment, guns BBs etc?

 
Patrol Base, Land Warrior Airsoft and JBBG are websites I've personally bought from without any issues.

The forum has a classified section where users sell their gear. Might be worth looking if you're after some cheap second hand equipment.

 
Gepard said:
Patrol Base, Land Warrior Airsoft and JBBG are websites I've personally bought from without any issues.

The forum has a classified section where users sell their gear. Might be worth looking if you're after some cheap second hand equipment.
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Thanks for your help.

I will defo check out the classified section too

 
I do have one question.

For a one day event that you play. How many pellets would you bring with you. I don't know if i would be that trigger happy guy or tactical shoot 1 or 2 pellets at a time. I know it is cheap to buy extra ammo on the day too, which I am not worries about anyway. Just working out a rough guide for it.

 
A bottle of 3000 BBs is about £7. I keep a couple bottles handy, but over the course of a day I wouldn't ever expect to use that much. 

I play quite forward and aggressive and usually end up firing off about 300 rounds per game on semi, sometimes more, sometimes less. Depending on how you play will determine how much ammo you use. Say there's 6x 30 minute rounds in a day, I'll end up using around 2000 rounds. 

I usually carry about 3x 120rnd midcaps, but often double that as I bought a box of 6 plus the highcap which came with the gun. 

I don't think I've ever had to reload more than 4 times in a single round, but that was a fairly long one. 

 
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Ok perfect, so one load of extra bullets on the day would be about right then. Some sites offer an extra 3000. Thanks again for your help

 
Buying BBs in bulk also saves you money. You can get 36000, (12x3000) on PatrolBase for £64.99 which saves you around £1.50 a bottle.

 
Just to show the varied usage of BBS.

A guy at my site brings roughly 15,000 bbs every time i see him there. And he uses a majority of it. Which is an absolutely insane amount in my opinion. (We do 2 long games of about 2 hours each)

Meanwhile, I get 2000 on my hire kit... I think I use about 300 a game at most lol. Although I'm not very forward (not really required by our game types)

Only way to know is to bring your own bbs and find out :D

 
LightningCh said:
Just to show the varied usage of BBS.

A guy at my site brings roughly 15,000 bbs every time i see him there. And he uses a majority of it. Which is an absolutely insane amount in my opinion. (We do 2 long games of about 2 hours each)

Meanwhile, I get 2000 on my hire kit... I think I use about 300 a game at most lol. Although I'm not very forward (not really required by our game types)

Only way to know is to bring your own bbs and find out :D
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I don't mind buying extra when I am there on he day to be honest, as long as I enjoy the day lol. I am already looking at what clothing to wear (camo stuff) and sizes as I am on the larger side of life (love a good dinner lol)

I reckon I will enjoy the day regardless, I also think my son will enjoy it too as he did like the paintballing, but he is also very good at naming guns from games he plays too so maybe being able to fire a replica would be right up his street.

 
Also, this is how Noobish (is that even a word??) I am.

What do you all mean when you talk about a loadout? Is it the equipment you have, gun attachments etc.

 
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