What is Airsoft?

Airsoft is a modern combat sport or recreational hobby in which participants eliminate opponents by hitting each other with spherical airsoft pellets, launched from airsoft guns. Participants typically employ the use of varying types of weapons designed as replicas of real firearms, tactical gear, and accessories used by modern military and police organizations.

Airsoft has its roots in late-1970s Japan where firearms were difficult or impossible to obtain due to local laws and people sought a legal alternative to owning actual firearms. The vast majority of airsoft guns, accessories, and after market upgrade parts are also manufactured in East Asian regions such as Japan, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.^[1] Many of these Chinese guns are dominating the airsoft market. Companies like G&G, Classic Army, ICS, and Tokyo Marui have spread their name quickly with their cheaper and affordable prices.

There is also a growing interest in airsoft in North America and Europe.

Methods and structures of play

Main article: Airsoft game type variations

Airsoft participants organize meetings, either indoors or outdoors, at dedicated airsoft battlefields to play a variety of games ranging from short-term skirmishes, organized scenarios, military simulations, or historical reenactments. Combat situations on the battlefield often involve the use of common military tactics to achieve the objectives set in each game.

Fundamentally, airsoft is a game played within a predetermined area where the objective is to "kill" the adversary. It is generally accepted that when a player is hit, they call themselves out, unlike paintball, which leaves visible marks on clothing. Some common game variations include Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Close Quarters Battle (that attempts to simulate real life Close Quarters Battle).

MilSim

Main article: MilSim

MilSim (Military Simulation) generally combines airsoft play with some military live action role-playing elements. Several goals or missions are assigned to each team, along with a basic loadout of ammunition (6 millimeter pellets), rations, batteries, and other suitable equipment. The teams will remain in the field for the duration of play, only returning to a staging area or "safe zone" for medical emergencies, or other such circumstances. MILSIM-games often last several days, for example the large BERGET-event in Sweden lasts 6 days in a row, with NO breaks. In larger scale MilSims vehicles as simple as painted vans and trucks will be used. But in some cases, such as Operation Irene, real APCS and tanks will be used.

Police games

Today's police units use Airsoft games to train for real life scenarios. For example clearing rooms SWAT style and also like Milsim, because the police use very realistic M16 and M9 Airsoft guns, pipe bomb replicas which use smoke, and many more different weapons. The weapons primarily use full metal parts which are a very high quality and use the blow back action for more realism. They normally are very expensive.^[2]

Game modifiers

Special rules are often incorporated into airsoft games in order to make basic games more interesting or to increase "longevity" with seasoned players. These may include Medic rules and rules regarding hits to one's equipment, artillery units with bazookas, mortars, grenades, and many more mods. ^[3]

Backyard airsoft

The term "backyard airsoft" refers to a battle that is held in someone's backyard that is not heavily wooded. Backyard airsoft usually incorporates various yard items such as lawn chairs, children's toys and so on. These games are usually preferred by beginners with lower grade weapons. Backyard airsoft is illegal in some cities and has occasionally been the cause of incidents involving the police.^[4][5][6][7]

Origin

Airsoft was developed in Japan in the late 1970s^[8] to provide an alternative for gun hobbyists because local laws prevented individuals from privately owning firearms. A heavy emphasis was therefore placed on making accurate replicas of real firearms. In contrast, paintball was developed in the United States in 1981^[9] as a variation of hide and seek tag, through the use of utility companies' paint marking guns, which mark power/utility poles, and continues to focus more on their function than their form or aesthetic qualities. Paintball has quickly gained greater popularity than airsoft in the United States. However, in East Asia, airsoft is much more popular and paintball is nearly non-existent. In the interests of a more family-friendly image, paintball as an industry usually avoids direct analogies to the military and war (seen by the movement towards spectator-friendly speedball). Similarly airsoft has taken a dual route, moving away from this (as seen in Airsplat) as well as embracing them. This sometimes extends to full MilSim play.

For more information, see Public acceptance of paintball.

Honor system

An "honor system" is employed whereby the players rely on each others honesty to admit to being hit, because unlike paintball, the plastic pellets stop on hitting clothing. Depending on the muzzle velocity of the gun and distance from which a person is shooting, the person on the receiving end of the shot will usually feel the impact but the pellets will sometimes not be felt by a player at very long ranges, hence the importance of Marshals.

Kinetic energy

Kinetic energy transfer is relatively minimal in airsoft compared to that of paintball. A airsoft projectile weighing .2 grams and traveling at 300 feet per second (90 meters per second) transfers about 1 joule of energy. A paintball projectile weighing 2.84 grams and traveling at 300 feet per second transfers 11.8 joules.

Although there is a considerable difference between airsoft and paintball energy levels (1 joule verses 12 joules), the type of collisions that occur (elastic airsoft vs. inelastic paintball) must also be considered (refer to Pellet Ballistics).

Most airsoft guns are capable of shooting from 250fps to 400fps. A hop-up unit, if present, puts backspin on the pellet giving a slight upward arc. This gives an airsoft gun more range than an airsoft gun without a hop-up unit. Airsoft playing fields usually have rules specifying what velocity is allowed for each player position. This makes the game much more realistic, as an airsoft pellet will not travel as far as a real bullet.

Cost

To a new player choosing between airsoft and paintball, a beginning package for airsoft is much cheaper in terms of hardware, but for apparel they can be roughly equivalent. Average 120$ USD|date=October 2007 One major difference, however, can be seen in the cost of ammunition and upkeep of the packages - due to the type of ammunition used, airsoft guns are less prone to "jamming", and airsoft pellets are considerably cheaper to manufacture than paintballs.

Guns are usually the most expensive piece of equipment. Low-quality electric guns, commonly called LPEGs (low priced/powered electric guns) can cost from $10-60 depending on the quality, the MPEGs(Medium priced/powered electic guns) can cost in the range of $80-180 dollars USD, while a higher-quality AEG can be more than $200 USD. The overall average for a high quality electric gun such as a Classic Army or Tokyo Marui, is around $200-$500 USD, depending on the model. Some custom guns can cost more than $2,500 USD.

Safety

Although airsoft guns operate on completely different principles to real firearms and are not lethal, basic airsoft safety should be followed to prevent the random chance of injury during play. The four fundamental rules of firearm safety are:

• Treat all firearms as if they are loaded and ready to fire.
• Always point the gun away from anything and everything that is not intended to be shot.
• Keep fingers away from the trigger and outside the trigger guard until ready to play.
• Always be sure of the target and what is behind it.

A close range shot from a BB through clothing from a gun with a velocity over 400 FPS will usually break the skin and cause bleeding. Shots from over 100 feet may or may not cause bleeding, but will leave welts and cause pain, depending on the power of the gun. A BB can easily cause serious damage to the eye of a person not wearing eye protection. Therefore, a standard of safety guidelines and equipment has evolved in the airsoft community. Like many competitive sports, airsoft inherently involves a certain risk of injury.

Eye and Face Protection

The minimum safe level of gear required to participate in most games includes a pair of fully-sealing impact-rated goggles to protect the eyes of the participants. Traditional prescription glasses and sunglasses are almost never accepted as they will not prevent serious injury. Goggles not designed specifically for use with airsoft or paintball guns may break or shatter upon being struck, causing eye damage.

For this reason many organized groups of airsoft players and fields require that eye protection fully seals the area around the eyes, and also meets or exceeds ANSI's Z87.1-2003 goggle standard for eye protection: the ability to resist 3 joules of impact energy without damage. However, it is not uncommon for players in less organized games to use shooting glasses, which do not provide complete protection from projectiles. It is worth noting, however, that Z87.1-2003 rated goggles are specifically intended for use in industry and manufacturing and are not for use in sports. Some players instead opt for paintball goggles, which are held to higher impact rating standards, ASTM's F1776.^[10]

According to ANSI publications as of June 2006, The ASTM is currently developing a more specific standard for airsoft - ASTM Z1535Z - Standard Specification for Eye Protective Devices for Airsoft Sports.^[11]

The best overall protection is currently offered by paintball masks. These masks provide an additional level of protection by covering the face, teeth, and ears, reducing the risk of injury to these body parts and the chipping or complete loss of teeth. The lens is a solid piece of impact resistant plastic. Some airsoft masks are made with mesh screens, though these screens do not offer protection from cheaper or bio-degradable BBs that sometimes fragment upon impact of hard objects.^[12]

Other Safety Precautions

Some other rules such as a maximum BB velocity and distance guidelines are used in different ways by groups depending on their location. Various locations often offer similar safety rules with slight variations. In order to encourage the mixing of segmented communities into a larger community that can more easily engage each other, certain organizations have created safety rules and guidelines for players to share the field under common understanding and to band together in safe environments. ^[13]

Safety zone for airsoft guns is 1fps-399fps, that zone is probably the safest zone to play in, whereas the closest strike from a gun with 399fps would only make a welt, while anything below 200fps probably would feel like nothing at all. Any gun over 400fps can injure someone. For more information regarding velocity limits and BB ballistics refer to airsoft pellet ballistics.



When not actively playing, many fields require "barrel bags," which were first introduced in paintball. Many airsoft guns, especially AEGs, come with small red plastic barrel blockers that fit over the muzzle, but these can be shot off the gun, and don't provide the quick visual check that a barrel bag does. The magazine is usually removed as well, and the gun fired to clear the chamber. Many fields also require players to leave their guns set to the safety position when they are not shooting, even during active gameplay. This is a practice taken from real firearms training, in which one never puts a finger on the trigger or takes the weapon off safe until ready to fire.

Blind Man

One commonly adopted practice is for players to shout the words "Cease-fire, Blind Man" or "Walker" and halt an ongoing game if a player or bystander is seen in the designated gameplay area without proper eye protection, proper eye protection being goggles and helmet. Any player hearing the words must, in turn, stop and also shout the words, resulting in a chain reaction which halts and alerts the whole game. Once the situation is resolved by properly removing the person from harm, the game is usually resumed at the same point at which it was stopped.

A player is required to keep their face mask/goggles/shooting glasses on at all times. This is basic safety upon an airsoft site and this law is always enforced by the marshal in charge to ensure that all players remain safe and no accidents occur during the gameplay.

Snakes and wildlife

Because airsoft games are most often played in natural surroundings, animals can often interfere with these games and potentially be hazardous. In the Southwestern United States snakes offer one of the most significant threat especially the potentially deadly Diamondback rattlesnake. Many games in California institute a "snake call", whereby players have to yell "snake" when one is encountered to mark the location and warn other players. After a snake has been identified, that section of the field may be marked as out-of-bounds, or the game may be delayed until the threat is dealt with.

Legal issues

Main article: Legal issues in airsoft

Airsoft guns and playing airsoft is legal in most parts of the world, but not all. Some countries have specific restrictions such as maximum muzzle energy, rules against using the trademarks of real firearms, and orange tips to disginguish them from actual firearms. They are legal throughout the U.S, however due to high crime rates are not legal in certain cities such as Camden, NJ, Newark, NJ, Chicago, IL, and Detroit, MI. The states of New Jersey, Illinois, New York and Michigan do however allow airsoft guns to be used and handled publicly because of Federal and State laws that regard airsoft guns as toys.

Hazards of being mistaken for a real firearm

There have been a few highly isolated cases of airsoft guns being mistaken for real firearms, and some cases where armed law enforcement units have responded to tips of unlawful firearm use. This is the main reason that laws require orange tips to be present on all "toy guns" (including airsoft replicas) imported into the United States

15 USC Sec. 5001 is the law 15CDR1150 is the Rule as implemented in the Federal Register -CITE- 15 USC Sec. 001 01/16/96 -EXPCITE- TITLE 15 - COMMERCE AND TRADE CHAPTER 76 - IMITATION FIREARMS -HEAD- Sec. 5001. Penalties for entering into commerce of imitation firearms .

However, the effectiveness of such measures remains open to debate, because these tips can be easily removed or painted away. Furthermore, their use means that criminals can attempt to disguise real firearms as toys by painting the tip of the barrel orange, or vice versa.

A measure that is often employed by airsoft players is informing local law enforcement officials where and when airsoft games will take place, so that such misunderstandings can be avoided. The worst known case occurred in Longwood, Florida when 15-year-old Chris Penley threatened students with an airsoft pistol at his middle school and was subsequently shot to death when he aimed it towards an officer. The orange tip mandated by US Federal law had been painted black.^[14]

In many jurisdictions, using an imitation firearm to commit a crime (which often includes the generic term of "brandishing") carries the same penalty as if a real firearm were used because of the intent to kill.

In the United Kingdom, the use or possession of any kind of replica weapon, loaded or otherwise in a public place is an offence which can carry heavy penalties except under specific conditions.

Airsoft equipment

Airsoft equipment encompasses many types of equipment used in the sport of airsoft, including the airsoft gun used to shoot airsoft pellets at opponents, safety goggles, and all sorts of tactical gear including vests, equipment holders, and gun accessories.

Airsoft guns

Main article: Airsoft guns

The guns used in airsoft are typically replicas of real firearms.

Airsoft guns are classified according to their operating principle which can be either: spring–, electric– or gas-powered. An airsoft gun is selected according the level of performance (battery life, range, magazine capacity) or realism the player requires.

Airsoft guns have three broad classifications depending on their use in the game which in turn determines the pellets speed and energy generated. Besides the normal ranges or class, there are weapons designed for longer ranges, typically sniper rifles and shorter ranges (also called Close Quarter Battle (CQB) and usually of 200 feet or less). CQB situations include close range confrontations such as "house entry" where maneuvrability is more important than range or power. The airsoft guns used in these scenarios typically fire less than 360 fps to ensure safe operation. Some high-powered and well-upgraded airsoft sniper rifles can fire 6mm pellets at velocities of about 600 fps. So, most airsoft guns typically fire 200-450 fps, since they are used outdoors for most operations, balancing good speed and range with energy generated.

Grenades and launchers

Players can use grenades, grenade launchers, mines, and claymores that utilize explosives (pyrotechnics). Most of these "pyro" devices are powered by a gas. The hand grenades have many faults and therefore not as popular or common as grenade launchers like the M203 which launches a large number of pellets or foam slug rounds using green gas. And while most players, if they do at all use grenade launchers, will simply use an underbarrell launcher such as the M203, some players purchase heavier support weapons such as replicas of the Heckler & Koch 69 40mm grenade launcher, or a CAW revolving launcher, which can hold up to 6 40mm gas powered pellet grenades, (the pellet capacity of each grenade varies by its producer, and specified use, though grenades by MadBull Airsoft have been known to be able to fire over 200 pellets in a single shot), and shoot them in a semi-automatic mode. By using the Caw launcher, support gunners can get off up to 1224 rounds of 6mm ammunition in about 3 seconds. Mines are not popular in some cases either, because most only produce a mushroom cloud when activated without actually firing pellets, but an equally large amount of mines do fire 6mm pellets in large masses, similar to an M203 launcher. The airsoft claymore mine are more expensive in some cases, but popular due to their effectiveness. Anti-tank weapons exist such as the M-72, but they are not common or popular due to their weight and greater expense. These are rarely used in casual play but can be implemented when playing on an official airsoft field.

Airsoft projectiles

Main article: Airsoft pellets

Most airsoft models use plastic pellets ranging from 0.12 to 0.88 grams in weight, though the most popular weights are between .20 and .25 grams. Heavier rounds are used for sniping, because they are totally effective dependent on gun, used mainly for quality airsoft sniper rifles, (especially upgraded ones with powerful springs), have enough power to put the round where they want it, and the heavy rounds have greater mass and are less likely to move off-target due simply to air resistance. It is important to look at the box first to see what kind of ammo to use. Pellets are usually 6mm in diameter, but some guns fire 8mm instead. Often some manufacturers construct them poorly by using cheap plastic parts throughout the guns and thus become deformed. Allowing this sort of bb to pass through the gun could hurt it and the hop up system. There are also small paintball pellets available for airsoft guns;they are prone to breaking in the gun, jamming in the gun, not breaking when hitting the target, and damaging components of the gun which will need repairs to function correctly. While airsoft pellets are often called BBs, the BB gun is so named because it originally fired BB-sized shotgun shot or metric ball bearings of .177 caliber (steel BBs are actually .157 inches (4 mm) in diameter). The price of medium grade pellets range from $3.50, for a container of about 2000, to around $16 USD, for a large tub of about 10,000. Most pellets come slightly lubricated with a silicone spray.

Clothing

Most players typically wear military uniforms known as BDUs consisting of separate pants and shirts or jackets when playing, because it – just as with real soldiers – aids concealment from adversaries. Aside advantage of camouflage, some participants aim to faithfully replicate a specific military (particularly in games such as MilSim).

The choice of camouflage pattern of the BDUs is normally determined by suitability to the playing area, but sometimes simply local availability. Typically military surplus stores are a good source for such items. In the U.S. the most common pattern is "Woodland" camouflage pattern, but recently MARPAT (recently adopted by the United States Marine Corps) and ACU (adopted in 2005 by the United States Army) have also become popular choices in North America, but most European camouflage patterns are suitable with Flecktarn (Germany) being a popular alternative or even strictly commercial patterns such as Multicam.

Similarly in Europe, local military uniforms are more readily available and probably more suitable to local conditions. Popular patterns include the German Flecktarn, British DPM or Swiss alpenflage.

Tactical gear

Players wear tactical clothing and accessories not only for the added realism, but to fulfill practical needs similar to that of a real soldier such as being able to carry spare magazines, water, food or other equipment in specified vests such as the most common are holsters and load bearing vests, such as MOLLE, ALICE and the British PLCE systems. Some players even wear military-style helmets, such as the kevlar PASGT helmet or hydration systems, such as those manufactured by Camelbak.

Pyrotechnics

Some airsoft sites allow the use of pyrotechnics, which are small explosive-driven replicas of ordnance such as grenades. There are several types of pyrotechnics: pellet grenades which fire out pellets to replicate the shrapnel of a fragmentation grenade; smoke grenades which provide cover to move and fire from behind; and flashbangs/thunderflashes which emit a very bright flash of light (often accompanied by loud sound) for the purpose of disorientating and temporarily blinding/deafening the target.

The latest Airsoft grenades have much improved since their first introduction, TLSFX UK have done pioneering work in the development of much tougher grenades using rocket star burst shell cases, allowing them to be thrown much farther, ring pull fuses, and filling grenades with dry peas instead of paint balls or pellets, making them mostly biodegradable. The ring pull allows German stick type grenades for re-enacters and adds to the realism of ball grenades.

Smoke grenades have also been improved with cool burning and much less toxic smoke. Use of old naval rescue smokes should be avoided, as the smoke used was never designed for possible inhalation.

Other equipment

A large amount of equipment exists for real world soldiers which is also usable in airsoft games. Military surplus stores can provide many items currently issued to the player's country but many airsofters go further and purchase other equipment that may have been used by a soldier or private military contractor. Some common examples are scopes, flashlights, picatinny rails, holsters, and silencers. Equipment is generally for increasing combat efficiency, but can be used to provide enhanced realism.

See also

• Airsoft guns
• Airsoft pellets
• Classic airsoft
• Japan Arms Collection
• Legal issues in airsoft
• List of Airsoft Manufacturers
• Paintball
• Airguns
• BB gun
• Laser tag

References