Travelling to the UK Experience

[BrightCandle]

As part of Okto milsim I had two friends travel from abroad to come to the game. The one from Denmark had some issues flying and I thought I would share our experiences and what we found out.

My friend flew with SAS and having spoken to them and heathrow security months before flying all that needed to happen was to tell them what was being carried to the airline and then it could be brought in for the weekend so long as it was in a locked hard case in the hold, they gave no further requirements.

On the day however turning up into the airport in Copenhagen the airline was unsure, xrayed it (the inner barrel doesn't even appear and the outer barrel is clearly not strong enough to survive a round being fired) and then required it have a firearms tag attached to it and have it shipped as a firearm in the plane which cost £50 as they were unsure what UK customs would do with it. Then when it got into the UK customs security checked it and found a RIF instead and wouldn't let it pass without details of the insurance of the site we were going to. We provided all the sites information and they let it through but that actually didn't contain proof of insurance, I don't think I have ever seen a site say anything other than the fact they have insurance but regardless the site details were sufficient. I think it passed the attitude test more than the letter of whatever rule they had in place however, it was touch and go. The security guy did say this was only the second time he had seen a RIF come through security in 6 years.

On the way back there was no problems in Heathrow the RIF was allowed onto the plane without further incident. In Copenhagen my friend went into the "something to declare" red zone and showed the RIF and the security guy took one look at it and laughed and asked why he was declaring a toy and sent him on his way.

 

[shortman]

Guess thats the issue with our rif "toys" is some times people see them as "toys" and some times people see them as a exactly as they look and so treat them with far more caution and uncertianty. I guess we cant have it all al the time. We want realism in our guns, some times they seem just to real for some.

 

[Shizbazki]

I suppose it depends as well as who you get at security.

An example was:

I was recently sent to a call from neighbour of a young lad, the neighbour was panicking because the boy was shooting fully automatic pellet guns in his back garden, knowing that air guns in the UK are very rarely automatic I quickly summed up that it was an airsoft AEG or GBB.

He was a nice enough lad when i met and spoke to him, his parents were home too and I didn't disclose immediately that i too was an Airsofter and was lucky that i responded to the call as had it been another officer not in the know of Airsoft the lad would have had the police helicopter, Firearms etc would have bared down on his home address before he knew what had happened. That said several of my team members also play airsoft regularly and our team knows this.

Nonetheless he showed me what he had (all within limits) and showed me his setup for chronoing and testing. TBH he had a pretty safe set up to ensure no BBS left his back yard, heck he even showed me his Mancraft SVD Dragunov which got me thinking and i got the Mancraft parts for my TM VSR-10, lol.

Spoke to his neighbour and gave him re-assurances and had a hard time trying to explain (might have been a bit patronising to him though) that Airsoft guns are legal even in full auto.