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Seasons Greetings! American moving to England!


Castleheart

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Hello everyone! After years of lurking, I've finally decided to create a username on this message board. What prompted me to do so was the news that I received today -- I've been notified that I'll be making a permanent change of duty stations to RAF Mildenhall next year! As an American who has been serving abroad for the past six years, the news of returning to Europe is music to my ears.

 

Anyhow, a little bit about myself is probably in order -- As I mentioned, I am a member of the armed forces, but I am in no way a hero, operator, nor a battle tactician . . . this probably explains why I love this sport so much -- I'm just a squire! I've been playing this great game for almost a decade now. I began as a young buck, took a long hiatus, and eventually found myself immersed in the airsoft culture in Japan. After living, working, and playing here for the past few years, I've just recently received an assignment to England. Previously, I spent two fantastic years in Germany, but I didn't have the capability to keep my hobby up throughout my time there. On the brighter side, while I've been in Japan, I've read many promising things about our thriving subculture of airsoft in the UK. This brings me to a question of mine; I'd like to bring my AEGs and GBBs along with me to the UK, but I want to ensure that I'm doing it in a manner that won't put me in any sort of bind with the either local authorities or lawmakers. I read a little bit into the VCRA, so I'm already partially familiar with the joule limitation that is being imposed, but is there anything else that I need to know? In other words, what must I accomplish prior to bringing my belongings along with me to England?

 

Looking very forward to hearing back from this community. Thanks in advance for all of your advice.

 

Lastly, here is a link to my loadouts -- http://imgur.com/a/ryAxE | As well as my WE AK-74M -- http://imgur.com/dbcYVGp.jpg | Maruzen vz.61 Skorpion -- http://imgur.com/hwUWgw4.jpg | My primary :)http://i.imgur.com/dLWBwjz.jpg

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Don't worry about power 'limits' in the UK, if your guns are legal for play in Japan they're absolutely safe here.  Importing them could be another matter though, technically to import a RIF into the UK you need to be able to prove a defence against the VCRA.  The easiest way to do that normally is to have your name added to a database run by an organisation called UKARA (no legal standing, it's just an easy way to prove you're an airsofter) and then to have your membership number handy when bringing the guns through customs, sadly, this isn't going to be an option for you as you won't be able to get onto the database until you've been here for at least 2 months.  

 

Safest way to do it (IE, won't get your guns destroyed by customs) is to leave them in Japan with a friend then move to the UK and become a member of a game site here in the UK, this will allow you to get your name onto the UKARA database and your friend can then post the guns to you from Japan (with the number written on the box in BIG LETTERS).  

 

Of course, if you're coming in via a trooping flight just chuck them in your bag and go!

 

***EDIT***

good work on the Phoenix Connexion load out, sadly there's a whole new generation of players out there who won't know what the hell it is!

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Don't worry about power 'limits' in the UK, if your guns are legal for play in Japan they're absolutely safe here.  Importing them could be another matter though, technically to import a RIF into the UK you need to be able to prove a defence against the VCRA.  The easiest way to do that normally is to have your name added to a database run by an organisation called UKARA (no legal standing, it's just an easy way to prove you're an airsofter) and then to have your membership number handy when bringing the guns through customs, sadly, this isn't going to be an option for you as you won't be able to get onto the database until you've been here for at least 2 months.  

 

Safest way to do it (IE, won't get your guns destroyed by customs) is to leave them in Japan with a friend then move to the UK and become a member of a game site here in the UK, this will allow you to get your name onto the UKARA database and your friend can then post the guns to you from Japan (with the number written on the box in BIG LETTERS).  

 

Of course, if you're coming in via a trooping flight just chuck them in your bag and go!

 

***EDIT***

good work on the Phoenix Connexion load out, sadly there's a whole new generation of players out there who won't know what the hell it is!

Thanks for the heads up! I should've specified; I'm bringing some AEGs from the States along with me. These guns shoot slightly hotter than the joule limitation that I read about within the VCRA guidelines. I'll be toning them down prior to shipping them with my other household goods. The bit you mentioned about arriving via "trooping flight" isn't too far off -- sending my belongings from one base to another is typically a process that does not involve either host nations. This should ensure that my rifles and such make it to England in once piece. Once settled, I plan to get the process started with the UKARA agency. Also, thanks for the compliment! I'm currently working on a "Guerrilla Warfare" mockup :)

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Welcome to not so sunny England

 

Are US bases still classed as US soil? If they are then you may find it easier to get your guns sent to you on base (assuming you'll be living on base) and so avoid the hassle of UK customs

From what I understand, the Royal Air Force bases which US personnel work on are owned by the RAF and are entirely operated by the US. So, there is some truth to your speculation -- mail and such is handled by US personnel in conjunction with the host nation customs agency.

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Yeah, in that case just chuck them in with everything else, UK customs won't get to see it.  Depending on space / allowance for how much stuff you can send, it'd probably be worth picking up some of the harder to get items when you're in Japan and selling them on for a decent profit here in the UK.

 

Guns getting shipped over from the states shouldn't be an issue either, providing of course you've got your number on the box, customs have no facility to test the power of a gun so I wouldn't worry about that.  Obviously you'll need to get them downgraded to use them here but owning a 400fps full auto airsoft gun is completely legal, just useless!

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actually, looking at echigoya, even not-hard-to-get items could be used to make a decent profit:

http://echigoya-guns.com/guns/index.php?route=product/product&path=36_35&product_id=518 - in Japan, $490

http://www.fire-support.co.uk/product/marui-recoil-416d-airsoft-gun-ebb-aeg - in the UK $878 (£530)

 

Looking at that difference, I wonder why I buy these things in the UK when I could have them shipped from Japan for much less, learning experience!

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Yeah, in that case just chuck them in with everything else, UK customs won't get to see it.  Depending on space / allowance for how much stuff you can send, it'd probably be worth picking up some of the harder to get items when you're in Japan and selling them on for a decent profit here in the UK.

 

Guns getting shipped over from the states shouldn't be an issue either, providing of course you've got your number on the box, customs have no facility to test the power of a gun so I wouldn't worry about that.  Obviously you'll need to get them downgraded to use them here but owning a 400fps full auto airsoft gun is completely legal, just useless!

Could you elaborate on what you mean by a "useless" 400 fps AEG? My plan was to bring my rifles down to 1.2J and to get my Dragunov toned to the maximum sniping limitation.

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What he means by useless is that sites don't allow fully automatic guns over 370 fps with a 0.2 g bb. Most site limits are lower, generally around 340 fps, so you will have them, but you won't be allowed to use them on any site i have heard of. Most sites do allow higher fps limits for DMR's on single shot only and bolt action sniper rifles but not on any gun that can be fully automatic.

 

There are a few guys who attend the local site who live on american airbases and they seem to be able to ship RIFs to them from amazon and avoid the vcra stuff, so I think being onsite you could dodge a lot of that red tape.

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What he means by useless is that sites don't allow fully automatic guns over 370 fps with a 0.2 g bb. Most site limits are lower, generally around 340 fps, so you will have them, but you won't be allowed to use them on any site i have heard of. Most sites do allow higher fps limits for DMR's on single shot only and bolt action sniper rifles but not on any gun that can be fully automatic.

 

There are a few guys who attend the local site who live on american airbases and they seem to be able to ship RIFs to them from amazon and avoid the vcra stuff, so I think being onsite you could dodge a lot of that red tape.

 

what he said!

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