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"So what do you need, besides a miracle?"
"Guns. Lots of guns."
On this page you'll find an overview of airsoft guns and my attempt at a beginner's guide to them. I've been thinking of doing this for a while, but been put off by reasoning that it's bound to be covered somewhere else. Still, I figured I might as well try to make my site as complete as possible, so here we are. It should also be noted that I'm a little vague on the inner workings of gearboxes and the like, feel free to enlighten me. Comments to the usual address.
You also have the option of going to read about my G3 SBS and my backup pistol, a Glock 18c, click the tabs at the top of the page to find out more.
Firstly, let's start by taking a look at some of the different weapons available and how they work. They can essentially be broken down into three distinct categories; Springers, AEG's and Gas Guns. Each of these has their own advantages and disadvantages, and you'd be well advised to think about them before spending your hard earned (or not, as the case may be) pennies on them. Once that's out of the way we can think about how to choose your first gun.
In the beginning there were springers, and these were good. Well, they were more adequate than good, but they were all there was. They're still around today, but aren't really a viable option for gaming. That said, there are a couple of types that are. Most sniper rifles and shotguns (including the Tokyo Marui M203 grenade launcher) still use good old fashioned spring power to operate. This means a bit of muscle work on your part to pump shotguns or cock bolt actions, but it's all good exercise. Due to their simplicity there are far fewer upgrades available for them, with the possible exception of the sniper rifles. The upside to this is that there's less to go wrong.
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A couple of modern day springers |  |
Then Tokyo Marui introduced Airsoft Electric Guns, or AEG's for short. These follow the same basic principle as their springer predecessors, but use battery power, motor and a gearbox to do the work for you. They also fire full auto, enabling you to lay down some serious fire. The fact that there are more parts means there's more to go wrong and their price also reflects the complexity of manufacture. Still, they are pretty reliable (more so when looked after) and are the type of weapon you're most likely to see on a day out skirmishing.
There are several key components in an AEG, and needless to say these can be upgraded. They are;Batteries - control both the amount of time you can power the gun for without recharging, and to a lesser extent the rate of fire. Some guns can only take small batteries, and these won't last as many shots before they go flat. If you do opt for a gun like this, a spare battery would be a wise investment. Batteries are rated both in volts and Milliamp hours (MaH). In general, go for a 8.4v battery with the highest MaH that your gun can hold.
Motor - There are 4 types of motor. The EG560 FAMAS, EG560, EG700 and EG1000. These are in order of speed. The faster the motor, the quicker you're going to throw out BB's and the more money you'll need for ammo. The EG560 FAMAS is a special high torque motor for the FAMAS and is not compatible with any other gun. The EG560 was the first generation, and isn't used these days. EG700 is the one you'll find in the majority of guns, with a few sporting the new EG1000 motor. The EG1000 really puts them out. Turns any gun into a BB hose.
Motors are an easy and obvious upgrade to do, but you have to be a little careful. Each of the three main gears of the AEG unit has a pair of white plastic sleeves at the ends of the gear axles. These serve as mounting and friction pads for the gear axles. Due to friction/heat build-up when firing the AEG at sustained periods, any one of them could literally snap - anytime. When that happens, whichever gear is affected will wobble out of alignment, jump its meshing with the adjacent gear(s), and most probably strip a cog (tooth) or two. It is better to replace the stock bushings with high-grade high-temp plastic or metal bushings, or better yet, with ball bearings, than have to replace gears too. Of course, if you can contol your trigger finger then this isn't such a necessity.
Gearbox - I'm a little vague on the inner workings of gearboxes. I'm of the belief that they shouldn't be messed around with unless you know exactly what you're doing. The standard one is fine. Leave it alone. Possible upgrades on these are to replace the somewhat brittle metal gears with some Systema ones. These come in a variety of types, but standard or High Speed ones are best. The Torque Up gears are for seriously uprated springs, which you shouldn't be using.
Spring - There are several ratings of springs, which determine the power of the gun. The higher the level of spring, more power you'll put out. Care should be taken when upgrading springs, both to stay within the legal limit (see Law section on left) and to ensure you don't fit a part that's too powerful and trash your gun. I believe M80 is equivilant to a standard spring, and M90 is about as high as you can go over here.
Barrel - Barrels come in a variety of lengths. Obviously the size of the gun is a factor in this, but it is possible to fit a silencer and then run a barrel through that if you're desperate for more length. Needless to say this makes the silencer cosmetic only, as well as a permanent fixture. The reasoning behind increasing barrel length is that it enhances the accuracy of the gun. It won't make it shoot any further, but it will increase the effective range of the weapon. You can also fit tight bore barrels which do the same and also increase the power marginally. This is due to less air escaping around the BB as it travels along the barrel. Some people claim that a tight bore barrel causes jams, but this is only the case if you use substandard ammunition.
As might be expected, there's a huge after-market in accessories. Metal parts, laser sights, scopes, flashlights, magazine holders, tactical slings, Rail Interface Systems, stocks, handgrips... the list goes on and on.
Gas guns get around the need for a big spring to compress or motor to drive it by using pressurized gas as their primary means of propulsion. Whilst you can get gas powered shotguns, sniper rifles and even grenade launchers, the most common variety of gas gun are handguns, including some submachine guns. These break down into Non-blowbacks (NBB's) and Gas-blowbacks (GBB's). GBB's are more prevalent, but they essentially work in the same way, the only difference being that NBB's have a fixed slide whereas GBB's have a slide which recoils.
There are also different types of gas to power these guns with. Your choices are HFC134a or HFC22. The former is used in the majority of cases and provides adequate performance. However, for you power junkies there's HFC22, also known as Toy Jack Gas or Green Gas. This has a bit more kick to it and is useful in preventing performance from deteriorating if you've fitted a metal slide to your GBB. It should be noted though that not all guns can handle it, and those that can't tend to die a death of leaking seals and exploding parts. If you're not sure if your gun can take it, play it safe and stick with HFC134a. A brand of gas called American Eagle seems to sit midway between these and is fairly widespread here. Worth a look.
There are some features that are standard across the different types of gun. HOP up and ammo.
High Operating Power up, or hop-up as it's known, is a rather clever system that lets your gun shoot further. Essentially, as the bb travels through the barrel it passes by a little rubber "bump". The bump causes the bb to have backspin. The backspin does something clever with the Bernoulli principle, which I don't entirely understand. It imparts an uplift to the underside of a BB, in much the same way a plane's wings do. If you adjust the hop up to be just right the amount of lift will negate the effect of gravity, at least until the power begins to drop off. In this way the bb's will travel the maximum distance before dropping off. The exact method of adjusting hop-up varies from gun to gun, so check your manual. If you don't have enough hop-up set your BB's will drop short, and if you have too much they will travel straight before mysteriously flying skywards. It should be noted that the backspin is put on relative to the gun being upright. If you fire it on it's side your shots will curve round.
BB's come in the same shape and size (hopefully!) but differing weights. The selection is, 0.2g, 0.25g, 0.3g , 0.34g, 0.43g. As standard most people fire 0.2g's. Some go with 0.25 and anything above that is reserved for sniper rifles. The heavier the weight, the less distance they travel. However, they are less affected by wind and travel straighter. You pays your money, you takes your choice. You set your hop up according to the weight of the BB, so it's not a good idea to mix ammo types or you'll end up with wildly varying shots.
Of course, you'll need a magazine to hold these in, and they come in two basic styles. The standard magazine, which you load with a loading rod, usually holds 40-70 rounds. These are generally only used by people who enjoy realisim. The rest of us opt for High-Capacity magazines, or high-caps for short. These have a trapdoor in the top for pouring bb's into and a clockwork mechanism which is wound up and keeps the bb's feeding into the barrel under pressure. They need to be wound for a few minutes initially until they click, and then at periods during the game. Rumour has it that Tokyo Marui are working on a high-cap that only needs to be wound once and will empty its entire contents from there. We live in hope.
Now the fun part. Buying guns, like so many things, is a battle between head and heart. If the head wins, you end up with a FAMAS, and if the heart wins you get an M60. If that makes no sense, don't worry. Basically choosing a gun means compromising between various features. These are generally; Looks, accuracy, battery, ammo capacity and practicality.
A gun with a short barrel means less accuracy, but can make it better for close quarters work where a large gun would be too unwieldy. Smaller guns (or those with extending stocks rather than solid ones) tend to have a smaller battery, which means carrying a spare. Ammo capacities range between 170 rounds and 600 rounds. Finally there's looks. We all know the FAMAS is a great gun. Long barrel but short gun, big battery, reasonable ammo... but it looks like a dog. Sorry, but there you go. Oh, and cost comes into it somewhere too, but that's last on my list. Why do you think we have credit cards?
In an attempt to help with this, I've made a list of some of the basic guns you'll come across, together with their details and comments. At the end of the day though, you have to decide which gun you want. Just try and get a go on the one you're after before you spend any money. The pictures here have all been lifted from Den Trinity's site, mainly because I don't have enough money to have all these guns! They're on the links page.
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