[L473ncy]

Well, you're in luck then I believe you live one of the more AV rep dense areas.

As for guns, wait till AV gets through. There's no point in buying mediocre if you're willing to spend the money.

For the price you could easily get fitted up with a full set of gear for $550-600.

I'm guessing you already have some gear like hiking shoes and such however $550 for a gun, battery, a few mags, and maybe a cheap red dot isn't too much of a stretch.

You're probably going to want to borrow some gear (eg. PB mask, and possibly a vest) the first few times cause it's a lot of money to drop at once. Things you should definitely show up to the field with though are: lunch, water, snacks, BDU's (as little as $40 for surplus OD and as much as $200+ for non issued real stuff), good quality boots (no running shoes or anything like that, it's a safety issue and rolling your ankle can ruin a good day in a matter of seconds).

EDIT: Don't buy crap stuff like that if you don't like the sport they don't retain their value at all and are probably better off in the garbage. On the other hand high quality guns like TM hold their value really well and you might only be out $25-50 if you decide to sell it.

PS: The only reason why you see people with clearsoft guns and they're happy with them are usually because they're gundocs and bought them as project guns to work on. eg. You could buy a 350Z but someone else who knows their ways around cars could buy something like an AE86 and fix it up/modify/tune it and achieve comparable performance. If you're not comfortable "under the hood" of an airsoft gun then just start off with a higher quality gun that you don't need to mess around with.