Anyone into airsoft?

[Quixon]

I've been playing paintball for a couple years. Nothing to hardcore, just going out with a bunch of friends in the woods to play some 4 on 4 Woods Ball.


We've kind of gotten bored with it to be honest. For some reason though, I just started looking into airsoft today at work.

I see some pretty sweet shit here, I'm sure gimicky..... but still pretty cool looking.


For those that are familiar with the gear:

-What kind of protection is needed to play safely? Are protective goggles/glasses enough? Or do you want a full mask like in paintball? I've gotten hit bare skinned with paintballs plenty of times, so compare them to that I guess lol.

-What are some good brands to look into that are "woods" friendly. By that I mean, I can hit them into a tree every now and then without them breaking. We all like the mil-sim type guns.

-I see some guns that are $40, and some that are $400. The main thing I would want is reliability and accuracy. Price is really not a factor, if the gun is worth the money I'll buy it.

-How the hell do these guns even work..... I don't see any CO2 tanks or anything?

[Jotaru]

Much prefer paintball, as airsoft is a lot less 'accurate'. People are going to cheat, even just games with friends. Pellets dont fly as far or as accurately most of the time. You dont need any real protective gear except for a pair of goggles or something; you can get shot point blank and, while it will welt / perhaps break the skin with a higher powered gun, its nothing paintballs won't do.

As far as brands go, idk, I tried it for a bit but prefer paintball vastly.

[Quixon]

Really less accurate?

That was one of the reasons we wanted to switch to airsoft.

We all have fairly expensive guns, and shooting anything shy of competition quality paint was almost not even worth playing.

The competition airsoft ammo is much cheaper than the same quality paint.

[Jotaru]

They're lightweight, which means any wind (and incidentally just the air resistance) moves them off target pretty easily

[Fr34k]

Unless you're buying a pos plastic $20 gun, accuracy is actually a lot better.

Here in Hawaii the general rule was that you needed a paintball mask and shoes. Anything else was up to you. Some guys would wear shorts and a tanktop, others would wear full camo. If you really wanted to you could go with just safety goggles, but I've seen high powered guns crack them. Personally I had an SR-15 shooting ~550FPS and I wouldn't shoot anybody within 100 feet, I'd use my pistol.

As for good brands, I haven't played for about 2 years but one of the better brands for a "stock" gun was Tokyo Marui. The only downfall was that they all came with plastic bodies vs more rigid metal ones. You can buy metal body replacements usually between $100-$150. Tokyo Marui guns come stock shooting around 300 fps and are really reliable, but if you have the money to spend look if there are any shops in your area. Here's a link to one of the popular local shops:

http://www.epowersportsllc.com/

There are a few different types of guns. Most automatic rifles are AEG (Automatic Electric Guns). They have a motor in the pistol grip powered by a battery that's anywhere from 8.4 - 12v. This turns 3 gears in the gearbox and pulls back a piston.

Here's a basic gif of the gearbox at work.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...s/4/44/AEG.gif

As for the ammo, the most expensive bb's I remember were Tokyo Marui .30g sniper grade. I believe it was around $15 for 500, where as I used to buy Guarder .25g for around $15 for 2500.

Any more questions let me know

Edit: Forgot to add they have a "hop-up" system which basically puts backspin on the bb. This helps with distance and lets more powerful guns "float" bb's past 300+ feet. The longest shot I've ever made was about 250 ft with a friends sniper rifle shooting 620 FPS. We were in a huge warehouse and the guy was peeking around a corner at the opposite end exposing himself about 6-8 inches. I nailed him in the chest in one shot.

[FNH]

More expensive guns will allow you to beat a bit more. Some of the cheap ones are spring pneumatic, others are electric as mentioned above. Different weights of pellets affect accuracy, heavier will be more accurate(.20g or above) and the lighter(12g) vice versa.

They sting a bit and can break the skin or chip a tooth. Usually only used eye protection, but then again only time I played with them was working in a sporting goods store before we opened, had department wars. I'd recommend a cup to I imagine it sting catching a pellet on the cock.

[Aesctaa]

Protect your eyes well, and your temples.. full mask is a good idea. They only sting a little or break the skin depending which grade gun and ammo you buy, but without quality eye protection(no glasses or crappy goggles wont do) treat them with the same respect as you would any firearm.. taking a pellet through the eye is 90% going to be fatal.

As much as i used to enjoy them when i was younger.. i would actually support banning them now, you can have just as much fun with paintball guns, and the high quality airsoft replica guns make it way way too easy for kids to do a multitude of stupid shit.

[Fr34k]

People are pretty right on with the pain. It's "usually" just a sharp sting that will go away in a few seconds. I had one incident where I got lit up full auto by a gun shooting 450+ fps at point blank range (protect the president) and I had 19-20 bleeding circles on my arms. Don't know how many times I got hit in the vest / mask / gun that was just shots that I felt. I still have scars to this day ~4 years later.

[aduidarnenye]

I used to do a lot of airsoft but all indoor target shooting. We only wore goggles but the pellets will leave nasty bruises if they hit you.

[thetruepandagod]

I would stick with paintball, why not go to a local field and do speedball if u are tired of playing in the woods. Also airsoft is kind of shit unless u are inside a house, and gl finding someone who doesnt care about having 100's of tiny holes in their walls.

Also getting hit in the fingers hurts like a bitch.

[Kayatani]

Generally, you get what you pay for as far as airsoft guns go.

Tokyo Marui make solid and reliable guns, just they tend to have low FPS out of the box (sub-300) I think due to the lower limit in Japan, also alot of the models are mostly plastic and can be creaky as hell (hello AKs/G36). Classic Army are decent out of the box as well, slightly higher FPS (320-330) and usually full-metal bodies so harder to break on stuff. I wouldn't recommend trying to upgrade or tamper with a first gun unless it breaks first or you really know what you're doing.

More recently, there are alot of cheap chinese copies of Japanese/Taiwanese manufacturers which some people swear by, but they tend to have poor quality control, so there's alot of dodgy ones about. Plus they can often come at 400+ FPS which is technically illegal in some countries, and you have to downgrade them.

wgcshop is a Hong Kong retailer that has a fairly comprehensive catalog of stuff, it's good to look there for stuff you like, google reviews of it and see if you can get it locally if it's cheaper than importing.

I can't really compare airsoft and paintball since I've only been paintballing once, but if the hire guns are anything to go by, airsoft ones are more comparible to privately-owned guns in my experience (although UK FPS limits restrict how much you can upgrade your stuff). I personally don't prefer urban airsoft, unless it's a huge place or there's several buildings and outdoors space to move around because it often ends up with people shooting up and down a couple of corridors for hours and nobody gets anywhere unless you're sitting on a heap of grenades.

The major plus for airsoft for me is you can spend more on gear and not get it covered in bright paint, but obviously eye protection is important so it's always worth spending more there.

RE: Cheating; The vast majority of people I've played with are good sports and play fairly, don't shoot you in the face at point blank, go out when they are hit, etc. There is occasionally that one guy who thinks he's some kind of action hero/jesus hybrid who refuses to die, but that's what full auto is for (and people who run sites tend to look out for people like that). With that said, in woodland especially, some people genuinely don't notice getting hit at long ranges if they are wearing alot of gear or they don't notice being shot at, so it's simply a matter of shooting them again until they notice.

[Quixon]

Thanks for the heads up everyone.


Looks like I'll be picking a cheaper AEG starter gun that is highly recommended on a few airsoft forums.

It's a CM028 AK47 by Cyma.

[nondachi]

Thanks for the heads up everyone.


Looks like I'll be picking a cheaper AEG starter gun that is highly recommended on a few airsoft forums.

It's a CM028 AK47 by Cyma.

heh I was gonna suggest the same gun since it was my first gun as well. From my experience the gun is likely to make anyone bleed in the head if shot less than 40ft. Great beginner gun competitively. The only thing I don't like is the fact I can't mount any scopes, lasers, etc
btw, I got mines at airsoftgi.com, free shipping and they seem to have a discount going around.

[Quixon]

Airsoftgi is where I'm ordering it from lol!


Only reason I haven't pulled the trigger yet is because I just found another forum and people are recommending KWA AEG's. Also the fact I can't add any sights or anything to that model AK.

They are saying if I buy a KWA I won't ever need another "woods type" medium distance gun. Of course I'll want to add to my arsenal with a CQB gun, a sniper rifle, and a side arm at some point.


They said that AK is fantastic, but I'll eventually want to upgrade (thusly having to buy a new gun). With the KWA I can just upgrade the internals when I feel the need to upgrade, and I'll be good to go.


The KWA's are in the $250-$300 Range. Anybody have any experience with that manufacturer?

[Fr34k]

I had a few pistols made by KWA, I believe 1 Glock 17 and 2 Glock 19's. I'm not sure if they made AEG's back then but maybe I just never noticed. The build quality on the pistols were pretty good overall, and really good quality for a gun made in Taiwan. If the same holds for their AEG's, I think you'll be happy.

After reviewing some of the specs, it looks like the KWA has a "basic" upgrade done to it versus a normal gearbox. All it looks like it has is a 120% spring and an 8mm gearbox. For the price I'd probably go with a Tokyo Marui AEG and have an a normal "basic" upgrade done which would also include the piston head, spring guide, and maybe the piston itself I forget.

As for gun types, if you are looking for something that is upgradeable I would stick to one of the M4 / AK variants. Basically there are 6 different common gearbox designs. The M4 variants have a V2 gearbox, the AK's have a similar V3 gearbox. The V2 is the most common and therefore has the biggest selection of upgradeable components. I've had about... 4-5 different M4 variants. M733, M4, SR-15, etc.

As for all the guns you're looking to buy, honestly unless you are planning on going really gung-ho you won't need 4 different guns. Personally I carried my main rifle (SR-15) and a sidearm (Maruzen P99) with me on the field, and when it came to CQB I'd sling my rifle over my back and use my pistol. Carrying more than 2 guns on the field is going to be really cumbersome, but it's really up to you I guess.