Airsoft For Recreational Fun & Firearms Training
Walking through plywood hallways barely lit with rope lights, you carefully peer around corners looking for your next victim while trying not to get yourself shot. Thus is the life of an indoor airsoft player. Whether you’re looking to take a friend out to the range for a little payback, or you’re looking to prepare yourself for an armed encounter, airsoft offers a lot of fun and training at a reasonable price.
While a vast majority of airsoft players do it as a fun hobby, we’d like to explore a little more on how it can be used in a more practical way; as a firearms training tool. The similarities between real firearms training and airsoft greatly outweigh other training methods, like paintball. The first, and most obvious way that airsoft outdoes paintball in realism is that the weapons used in airsoft look, feel, and function like their real-life counterparts. While the kick might not be as much as a real firearm, gas powered airsoft pistols still blow back the slide, require magazines, and sometimes even disassemble similar to the real thing.
The similarities between airsoft pistols and real firearms is what makes them great training tools for police departments across the country. Having the ability to load magazines with gas and the same amount of pellets used in their every day carry weapons, allows officers the realism of having to reload after their mag is empty (mag reloads require lots of practice to become proficient. Practice makes muscle memory faster, which equals less time without ammo, a great thing to have when in a gun fight). If realism isn’t enough of a reason to train with airsoft, maybe the cost would interest you.
Where else can you get 10,000 rounds training ammunition for only $15? That’s just $0.0015 per round. Even if you practice with .22 calibers (typically $0.05 per round), you wouldn’t come close to the savings that airsoft can bring. Airsoft pellets can also be used time and time again if collected.
— CORRECTION: “In my opinion you should NEVER re-use an airsoft BB, as after it has been fired, it will receive extremely small nicks or scratches that can damage your inner barrel. Also, if the BB impacted on a hard surface, it’s construction will be weakened, which means it might break in the gun or magazine and damage gas or electric internals.” – C. Collier
If you’re into airsoft already, you’ve probably caught one slight fault in the ammunition costs mentioned above… we forgot to mention the cost of the gas! Gas prices vary by location and the amount of gas used per pellet is dependent on the gun, so you’ll have to research those costs yourself (sorry!). If you happen to know some costs, please share with us in the comments.
Training aside, many people just play airsoft as a hobby. If you’ve ever been to a match, you’ll see all types of people. Some will be decked out in military-type outfits, with multiple spare magazines, and some will simply wear normal clothing and go in with only a pistol and maybe a spare magazine. You’ll find people as young as 7 years old having fun, and others over 50 who enjoy using their wisdom to get the upper hand on the teenagers. The strategies of play are numerous, but the basic concept is simple: Have Fun, Win & Be Safe!
Special thanks to So Go Airsoft. Jon, Evan & Adam were very helpful.
Comments (1)
In an airsoft gas gun, you have two main choices in gas. if you buy Green gas, made specifically for airsoft guns($10-$15 a can), you get a ready-made mixture of propane and silicone oil to keep your gun running right. Or you can buy a propane adapter($20-$25) to put on cans of propane from Wal-mart or camping stores($3-$5 a can). But then you have to lube your magazine every several fills. The savings are worth it if you want to work at lubing the mag yourself.