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"Pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name,
But what's puzzling you, Is the nature of my game..."
Hi there, and welcome to my guide to Airsoft. Re-reading these pages, I've just realised that I haven't updated the site for *three years*. This is a bit scary as I didn't know I'd actually had it for that long, but there we go. Looking at my notes the site actually got its own domain on 4th October 2001, so that's over 5 years it's been running, not including the time it was on Demon before then. Crickey. I plan to update it as and when I get time (which is in short supply at the moment) and add a few features, but we shall have to see how this goes. In the meantime my apologies for any broken links or outdated info.
I decided to write this guide after trying to explain to people what it was that I went and did every other weekend, and why there's enough tactical gear in my wardrobe to successfully invade a small republic. Most people who know me didn't see anything unusual with that.
So, the results of my efforts are to be found here. To the left you should see a selection of buttons that will take you to different areas of the site and some of the pages have selection tabs at the top as well. Enough of that, let's get started.
Airsoft is fun, or it should be if you're doing it right. The easiest way to describe it is that it's similar to paintball. Two teams attempt to complete various objectives (such as capture the flag, defend the base, etc.), which invariably end up with them shooting each other. The shooting in question is done by Airsoft guns (or models if you're trying to win favour with the local council) which use either spring or air power to fire small plastic pellets at the opposition. These pellets do not cause any lasting damage, or break the skin. You feel a stinging sensation, but it soon fades. Unlike paintball, these leave no mark (unless you're shot from a very close range) and the game relies on personal honour prevailing in order to keep things running. No surprise there, as the game started off in Japan.
In my opinion, it's a great deal better than paintball for several reasons:
I'll expand on those a bit;
When I first went and played paintball, it was great fun. I came home muddy, bruised, full of action tales and about £70 lighter. Needless to say, I went and played again. Similar results, but I came back nearer £100 lighter. Okay, I was working to the principle of "Accuracy through volume", but even so, 100 rounds of paintball ammo is about £5. For the same money you get 1000 rounds of airsoft ammo. |
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This brings me on to the weapons. A paintball gun (marker) looks like a gas bottle, with a piping-tube barrel and a large tub of paintballs on top. An Airsoft gun (model) looks like a gun. It looks *exactly* like a gun. The trademarks, the selector switches, accessories, magazines, etc. are all identical to the real thing. In many instances the real steel equipment fits on the Airsoft guns. |
| A bag of 2200 0.25g BB's. Slightly heavier than the standard 0.2g. | ||
With this level of realism, tactics become a lot more important. Whereas in paintball you can rush a position and sometimes get through, if you try the same stunts in Airsoft you'll get cut down in a hail of automatic fire before you've made ten yards. This adds another level of thought to the game and brings into play things such as fire and movement, sniping, camouflage, radio communications and building clearance. Some of these are covered in other areas of this site. Additionally, with Airsoft you can just turn up, pay and play. Every time I've gone to play paintball we've had to get a minimum of 20 people together, which is like herding cats.
Not at all. It's like anything, it's only dangerous if you're stupid. Think of it as Darwinism in action. First thing you should have is protective gear, check out the button to the left for more details. If you've got a set of goggles then the worst you're going to get is a wounded pride. Naturally you need to be careful when playing, woodland sites are full of places to trip up, trees to run into and the like, but we're all adults here, right?
Your best bet for your first skirmish is getting yourself along to your local friendly playing site. They will rent you a weapon and clothing, provide or sell lunch and give you an extensive safety briefing before you set off. This is all basic stuff. No magazines in in the safe zone, goggles on at all times except when in the safe zone, etc. The magic word if you have any problems whilst playing is "Marshall!".
Trust me, the law will win. They are about the only other problem you may run into. Now, I know that what you're excitedly showing to your friend is just a realistic looking model, and so do you, but if you start waving it around in public then passers by won't know that and neither will the Armed Response Unit that gets called in. Switch your brain on before you go anywhere near a gun. If you're renting, you shouldn't have any problems as you'll be on site all day. If it's your own gun then I shouldn't need to be telling you this, but: If you're out in public, keep the gun locked away, preferably out of sight. Not only will this stop passers by from thinking that the local bank is about to be held up, but it also keeps it away from the prying eye of villains who would seek to part you from your very nice and very expensive toy.
Get yourself across to the links section. From there you can go and find out the nearest site to you. Then, get down there and have a game. Be warned that this is highly addictive and will lead to a loss of weekends from now on in. Enjoy!