Airsoft....

[grahamsy2k]

I've seen tons of people who have all this tactical gear online and then find out they are just going to play airsoft. Almost to the point where they just look silly.

I'd rather put my money into a real gun and real ammo and practice with that. Would playing airsoft be good practice for the real deal?

Or they just wasting their money trying to look cool? Because that's what it seems like.

 

[LEaSH]

Paintballers probably have more fun blasting each other out there, but no doubt training tools that look like exact replicas are not a good idea. And some replicas are as expensive as quality actual firearms.

The popularity of the airsoft replicas are probably due to the prohibition of the real deal in places like Japan and the UK.

Whenever I do a google image search and find something interestingly cool, there is a 50/50 chance that the image that caught my attention is a kid's toy with rich parents or an adult that has a fascination with modern firearms but live in a place where it is out of the question to get the real thing.

 

[TheWabbit]

I've played Airsoft and it is actually a lot of fun. The use of automatic BB guns is the appeal over paintball.

 

[Sailor]

It can be a good training tool.

We have done room clearing in dark warehouses.

Gets your adrenalin going for sure.

 

[Sgtusmc]

My take on airsoft: I went to an event one time and found myself surrounded by kids, teens and a few my age all dressed up and ready to go. Most were talking trash and balking about the specs of their pellet gun. During play there were some whomwere just in it to scream their heads off "MOVE IT, GET UP THERE, MOVE, BLAH BLAH BLAH"

I found myself wondering why I should be listening to this 18 yr old kid who's never been to combat, scream at me and others. It was dumb, i was disenfranchised by the whole experience so I left.

I played paintball back in the 80's and having a 68caliber ball hit you adds a little bit of excitement to it. I couldnt even feel these little 6mm pellets. Yep, alot of kids with an excuse to get geared up like the characters in the movies. YMMV.

 

[danielson]

I was a big paintballer, I liked hunting humans, but didnt want to kill anyone. Its very fun when you play milsim paintball in the woods. I still have most of my stuff, which was ALICE gear from surplus stores, and my paintball gun was dressed up to look like a CAR. We used to play 2-7 days a week, same group of 3 or 4 guys. Little 10-20 man skirmishes on the weekends.

A buddy and me went to oklahoma dday back in 2007, its a week long deal out in the middle of nowhere, you live in a tent, get up early and get trucked around to battles, in the distance is nothing but 5000 people all shooting paintball.. It was great, I loved it..

I had an airsolf pistol I used when going into buildings, paintballs are not safe at close ranges.. If I had it to do over again, I would have went full airsoft.. theyre accurate, easier to maintain, and clean, more realistic.

The actual reasons are alittle more in depth, but the simple answer is, I didnt have the balls to join the military..

 

[Sailor]

For room clearing and FOF, really your only practical solution is simunitions or airsoft. Airsoft is cheap and readily available. When we do FOF scenarios with local LEO, we use airsoft.

It is a good training tool.

 

[BKExpress]

Air soft pellets are great for rear shooting bags.

 

[BogWalker]

Airsoft is fun for when the friends are over. Allows for backyard skirmishes without worrying about paintballs damaging anything. Plus, they don't leave the bruising and are cheaper than paintball.

I never did get why people dress in full tactical gear during airsoft though? Seems really goofy to me.

 

[grahamsy2k]

I was a big paintballer, I liked hunting humans, but didnt want to kill anyone. Its very fun when you play milsim paintball in the woods. I still have most of my stuff, which was ALICE gear from surplus stores, and my paintball gun was dressed up to look like a CAR. We used to play 2-7 days a week, same group of 3 or 4 guys. Little 10-20 man skirmishes on the weekends.

A buddy and me went to oklahoma dday back in 2007, its a week long deal out in the middle of nowhere, you live in a tent, get up early and get trucked around to battles, in the distance is nothing but 5000 people all shooting paintball.. It was great, I loved it..

I had an airsolf pistol I used when going into buildings, paintballs are not safe at close ranges.. If I had it to do over again, I would have went full airsoft.. theyre accurate, easier to maintain, and clean, more realistic.

The actual reasons are alittle more in depth, but the simple answer is, I didnt have the balls to join the military..

Not saying anything about you at all. I Feel like this is something a lot of full tactical airsofters feel too.


I can see how it would be fun, I've tried paintball once and had a blast.

 

[Sgtusmc]

I'd like to get one of these to hang on my wall to commemorate what I carried in the Gulf War:

But not for over $300

 

[rhino]

I've seen tons of people who have all this tactical gear online and then find out they are just going to play airsoft. Almost to the point where they just look silly.

I'd rather put my money into a real gun and real ammo and practice with that. Would playing airsoft be good practice for the real deal?

Or they just wasting their money trying to look cool? Because that's what it seems like.

It depends on how you're using the Airsoft replicas and what your goals are. Some people are having a lot of fun playing tag with them, and there is nothing wrong with that. Some use them as an economical choice for force on force training to learn and practice tactics with live adversaries that you can't do with real guns. The latter requires that the participants immerse themselves in the scenarios and drills for it to be of real use, though.

 

[Stubz]

I've seen tons of people who have all this tactical gear online and then find out they are just going to play airsoft. Almost to the point where they just look silly.

I'd rather put my money into a real gun and real ammo and practice with that. Would playing airsoft be good practice for the real deal?

Or they just wasting their money trying to look cool? Because that's what it seems like.

Have played airsoft off and on several times over the last 10+ years, I've hit all the reasons that've been mentioned: "Hey I get to shoot my friends." "This is cheaper than paintball". "Hey this would make a nice training tool". "Wow all this tac gear is awesome."

Other than finding land to play on, the general community has driven me out more oft than not. Tired of listening to a 14 y/o giving directions, ignoring any safety restraints (no shooting with in 10') and having idiots not following any sort of honor system on hits.

I left the last time, liquidated my gear and bought into the real steel side. Have been much happier since

 

[Sgtusmc]

It depends on how you're using the Airsoft replicas and what your goals are. Some people are having a lot of fun playing tag with them, and there is nothing wrong with that. Some use them as an economical choice for force on force training to learn and practice tactics with live adversaries that you can't do with real guns. The latter requires that the participants immerse themselves in the scenarios and drills for it to be of real use, though.

Exactly. It requires the participant to emerse themselves, to pretend. I couldnt emerse myself because it just stank of being a mockery of what one may experience in a combat situation. I wasnt surrounded by my brothers who I knew and trusted to have my back, I was surrounded by a bunch of trigger time wannabe's. Again, I failed to pretend that wasnt the case.

The airsoft weapons have a very limited range, so tactics actually go out the window in a skirmish if you were pretending to be employing any to begin with.

It was more or less, lets see how many times I can run up this hill, get shot and do it over again after I walked back and "respawned".

 

[rhino]

To be clear, when I said "immerse," I was referring to people who are using airsoft to engage in training activities to complement their training with firearms because real firearms would result in injured and dead training partners. I was not referring to the sporting or gaming aspects of Airsoft.

If you attend a "legitimate" force on force class and are surrounded by "trigger time wannabes," I would be surprised. Using airsoft to practice defensive techniques and tactics is a lot of fun, but those (at least most) who do it take it very seriously when engaged in a drill or scenario. It can be an invaluable training aid when used with the right attitude.

Another thing to consider it that in general, there is a significant set of differences between the types of tactics learned, practiced, and used by civilians (both private citizens and police) for personal defense and those used in military applications. If you're expecting a one-to-one correspondence, it's not going to happen.

Exactly. It requires the participant to emerse themselves, to pretend. I couldnt emerse myself because it just stank of being a mockery of what one may experience in a combat situation. I wasnt surrounded by my brothers who I knew and trusted to have my back, I was surrounded by a bunch of trigger time wannabe's. Again, I failed to pretend that wasnt the case.

The airsoft weapons have a very limited range, so tactics actually go out the window in a skirmish if you were pretending to be employing any to begin with.

It was more or less, lets see how many times I can run up this hill, get shot and do it over again after I walked back and "respawned".

 

[Sgtusmc]

To be clear, when I said "immerse," I was referring to people who are using airsoft to engage in training activities to complement their training with firearms because real firearms would result in injured and dead training partners. I was not referring to the sporting or gaming aspects of Airsoft.

If you attend a "legitimate" force on force class and are surrounded by "trigger time wannabes," I would be surprised. Using airsoft to practice defensive techniques and tactics is a lot of fun, but those (at least most) who do it take it very seriously when engaged in a drill or scenario. It can be an invaluable training aid when used with the right attitude.

Another thing to consider it that in general, there is a significant set of differences between the types of tactics learned, practiced, and used by civilians (both private citizens and police) for personal defense and those used in military applications. If you're expecting a one-to-one correspondence, it's not going to happen.

I truly wanted to have fun and I imagined I guess a little too much about what to expect. My expectations ran too high. I'm aware of its uses in certain training environments. Hell, its kinda better than when we (usmc) used blanks in our weapons in simulated force on force training. You gotta train somehow. Still though, it didnt work for me. To each his own.

 

[Shwaisey]

Airsoft depends on who you decide to play army with, and how you do it.

I am not in this particular video, but I have attended this event twice.
this is Zussman training center designed by Disney for $11.1 million complete with moving trains, tunnels/sewers, role players (acting as somali locals) trucks driving around shooting .50 cal blanks and explosions set up by some dude in a control tower that shoots large loud as hell bottle rockets everywhere.

It is normally used to help train special forces, matter of fact the event was pushed back from its original date because a seals group decided to use it that weekend before deployment.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCdAY4PicKU[/ame]

Yes, it cost me alot of money that I could have used for Real guns
Yes, there were idiots and trigger finger wannabes (but tell me where those types aren't? I will go to that hobby ASAP)

But I will tell you this, crawling through a sewer tunnel to get into the enemy building in the middle of the night while looking up through a drain grate to see flares/lights and watching a truck driving by shooting .50 cal brass that was falling down on me and my squad as people are yelling and shooting their bb guns was worth every damn cent I payed.

 

[Sgtusmc]

Airsoft depends on who you decide to play army with, and how you do it.

I am not in this particular video, but I have attended this event twice.
this is Zussman training center designed by Disney for $11.1 million complete with moving trains, tunnels/sewers, role players (acting as somali locals) trucks driving around shooting .50 cal blanks and explosions set up by some dude in a control tower that shoots large loud as hell bottle rockets everywhere.

It is normally used to help train special forces, matter of fact the event was pushed back from its original date because a seals group decided to use it that weekend before deployment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCdAY4PicKU

Yes, it cost me alot of money that I could have used for Real guns
Yes, there were idiots and trigger finger wannabes (but tell me where those types aren't? I will go to that hobby ASAP)

But I will tell you this, crawling through a sewer tunnel to get into the enemy building in the middle of the night while looking up through a drain grate to see flares/lights and watching a truck driving by shooting .50 cal brass that was falling down on me and my squad as people are yelling and shooting their bb guns was worth every damn cent I payed.

Yeah, I did lots of research before I decided to buy into it and play. I saw lots of videos covering these extensive events that covered days and you had to carry what you needed for the couple of days you were going to be engaging in the op. I saw the cool night vision videos with airsoft tracers flying all over.

I basicially spent six years crawling through the mud and sand and getting gassed and humping 60 miles with alice packs, etc, etc. Not to mention playing in the dirt all over the globe in and out of the water, trying to navigate in the pitch black in the middle of a jungle, blah blah blah, going to war and seeing my buddies get blown to pieces, humping 120 lbs of gear across an endless desert, charred burning vehicles with bodies hanging out, I could go on.

The point is, the boogie man doesnt scare me any more cause I've survived it. Getting dirty is just getting dirty and listening to blanks and fireworks is no more exciting than any other 4th of July on my street. The incentive is not there in these games. After its over you get to go home and take a shower and think about all the cool little moments of your fantasy. If airsoft pellets felt like bullets and they were as loud as real gun fire and the explosion shockwaves knocked you on your ass and you somehow knew you probably werent going to survive it all, then maybe the inentive to truly immerse yourself would be there for me.

I thought trying airsoft out might help me with my . No dice.

 

[Dragon]

Most of these opinions are given by people who really don't have much of a perspective. The "I tried it once, 14 year-olds were yelling and...." and the "Didn't have balls to join the military" are just terrible arguments.

If you go to backyard games or skirmishes then you will run into children. If you choose the right place and time to play, you'll often find there are no children on the field. I guess simulation games on MOUT's like Ft. Hood, Ft. Drum, MUTC, Zussman, and Anaconda really don't do much for that argument.

Now, I'd guess maybe 1/4 or more of the adults who play are active or prior service. Matter of fact I know several Marines who play including one who was MARSOC and the other LAR. They're not the only military either considering I've personally been at games with former SEALs, Rangers, Delta, you name it operators because of the AO's in which some games are hosted.

Like anything else there are levels far beyond the facade that you see, but making negative comments about the sport in its entirety is just due to ignorance of fact. I thought it was all kids stuff until I saw pictures and footage from operations like Irene, Pine Plains, Redemption, and similar events played on MOUT facilities, in prisons, defunct malls, steel mills, etc,..

One final thought. If it's only a childs game then why are men like Colonel Danny McKnight, M.Sgt. Max Mullen, S.Sgt. Kenny Thomas, S.Sgt. Matt Eversmann, regularly involved in major events? I mean no offense to anyone commenting on this thread, just trying to give a small glimpse into what it can be, rather than what you think it is. Oh and the training value can be high, technology is getting better and normal style rifles can make shots at 100yds rather than 100ft.

 

[Sgtusmc]

I'm not casting condemnation upon the sport overall and I'm aware there are adults who enjoy this activity. My experience should be taken with a grain of salt since it is but one persons experience. I do have a voice and a right to voice an opinion though. Plain and simple. My words are but one persons opinion of an experience. Dont listen to me, I'm not seeking an audience. Have fun.