Hate on the sport and community all you want, but using airsoft for training is legit.
Weird training gadgets, snap caps, and dry fire have never done much for me, so I picked up a gas blowback real steel airsoft gun to see if it was a good training tool. Holy hell, it's so much better.
Manipulation and ergos are identical. Heft is appropriate. Breakdown is similar. Recoil is much, much less but still better than dry fire. I can swap parts and attachments to spec it exactly like my rifle. Gas, BBs, and targets total up to each shot costing a fraction of a penny. And best of all, I can shoot away in my garage at my own pace which is way better and more pleasant than any of the shit indoor ranges near me that stress me out.
Don't get me wrong - actually shooting is always preferred and I still get out and do it some, but airsoft is a game changer. If anything, we should be promoting it as an affordable way to train up.
In agreement. Great wat to practice small unit tactics and coordination on the cheap and safer. Allows you to put force-on-force practice in a way that uhhhhh live rounds won't. Practice weapon handling and reloads with your gear.
"but the chuds"
Every hobby in the world is 99% chuds get over yourself.
You dont have to be a chud to play airsoft, my best gun was an electric tommy gun with the drum. I would pretend it was a PPSH-41.
And FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, please use biodegradable pellets, those plastic ones are awful, and if you use the neon colored ones they'll ruin whatever land you play on
It's a great way to very safely and cheaply train movement through the terrain, taking cover, basic squad tactics, and combat reflexes. I did airsoft for years, and it definitely helped during my actual military training.
Maybe I'm lucky cause I'm in the bay area, but besides 5 military guys, the arena I went to didn't have any outward chuds. Mostly just young people, nerds, and gamers. Was wondering if it will be filled with chuds but everyone I played with for my first game were super helpful and pretty cool
Man I was so ready to get into airsoft as a kid but that shit was too expensive for my friend group so it turned into one mid quality rifle and two to three shit tier spring pistols split between seven guys
I used to love air soft as a kid. You had these realistic looking weapons that you could fire off in your room without the cops getting called
I'm into airsoft enough where I bought night vision pretty much just for it. By far the best way to train force on force stuff under nods and no matter how much you hike around at night with nods it's not the same as sneaking around in an airsoft game with all your equipment on. It's also just a great time and pulled me out of a major depressive slump and gives me a sense of community in an otherwise atomized world. Are a lot of the people there chuds? Sure but there's also a lot of good people involved too and it's important to get out there and actually strike up a conversation with these people. A lot of them are just misguided and can be pushed left at least a little bit.
Did it at an arena my first time a few weeks back and I had a lot of fun. Played paintball for 4 years some time back so I had a general idea of how to play and tactics. I didn't enjoy how shittt the electric gun I used was though, very unreliable in both range and accuracy. I was looking at a fairly basic but not trash gas rifle to pick up soon. I already have a ton of gear I can reuse from paintball so I'm not going to have to drop too much money.
It was a good work out too, lots of sprinting and running. Probably the first time I did that much sprinting since paintball, my legs felt it in the morning lol. About 3 rounds broke skin but they really only hurt for a few hours, did have to clean blood off my shirt though lol
I considered picking one of these up so I could save money on ammo because my custom p80 likes hot, heavy, and expensive +p, but never got around to it.
Check out the Elite Force Glocks. They are fully licensed, which was unheard of until recently - Glock has been litigious against airsoft in the past. Also KWA has the ATP (G17) and ATP-C (G19) which is a very similar design to Glock to get around copyright claims. There are also WE Tech and other brands but that's what I'd recommend if you want a training tool.
I will, thank you. I did find a work-around for target ammo. I'm using a custom G26 (p80 clone of it anyway) with a ported barrel. Ported + extra short barrel = needs hot and heavy ammo. But i ordered a cheapo 60$ no-name barrel and that works just fine with whatever 2cent garbage ammo I can find so.
