Some Airsoft guns aren't quite what the package or advertisement makes them out to be. This guide will help you ensure you're getting the right one for your needs.
Steps
- Determine what you will be doing with the gun. Are you going to be target shooting or actually playing with others?
- For target practice, a good spring pistol or rifle will work well. Spring guns also tend to be cheaper.
- If you are looking to play with others, gas guns and AEGs are going to be your best friends simply because they are able to fire repeatedly without the hassle of having to cock it every time it is fired. Keep in mind though that if you plan on playing in a very cold area (outside when it is snowing), a gas gun will not work. Realistically, an AEG is probably your best bet, especially when more than 10 people are playing.
- Consider the FPS (Feet Per Second) Rate. This is what tells you at what speed the pellets leave the barrel. The higher the FPS, the faster and further the pellet will go. But keep in mind that the higher the FPS is, the more the pellet will hurt, too! A gun with an FPS of about 200 - 300 probably means you shouldn't shoot anyone within ten feet of you or you could break skin and leave very painful welts. Anything around 400 - 450 FPS and you will be breaking skin even if you are about thirty feet away! Anything 500 FPS and up and you're lodging pellets under people's skin.
- A good assault rifle should typically be an AEG with an FPS of around 400 - 500 depending on the size of your battlefield.
- A pistol sidearm, gas, with an FPS around 350 - 450 is good.
- Spring shotguns that are around 300 FPS are common.
- A support MG (Machine Gun) should have a high capacity magazine and at least 400 FPS.
- Sniper rifles need to have at least 550FPS to be any good. snipers should also use heavyweight .25gram bb's or heavier - it improves accuracy a ton. The graphite coated ones work best
- Ask yourself all these questions now that you've got the basics down.
- Characteristics of the gun:There are numerous factors of a gun to consider. Here are the main ones:
- Reliability- How long will the gun last with proper maintenance?
- Quality- How well is it put together? How much of the gun is metal, and how much is abs/plastic? Are the materials made of decent quality?
- Upgrades- What upgrades can one purchase for the gun to improve it? Are they commonly available and affordable? Upgrade parts have another benefit as well. When a part of the gun breaks, an upgrade part can be purchased to avoid having to replace the entire gun. be sure you know what your doing before you upgrade. you can seriously damage your gun by taking it apart the wrong way. if you're not that experienced but want an upgrade, many sites offer a mail- in service.
- What kinds of extra magazines can be bought for the gun, and how expensive are they? a great m16/m4 mag. for the price is an a&k box mag. holds 5000 rounds. electric winding or manual.
- Precision- Different from accuracy, precision of the gun is determined by the bore, length, and quality of the inner barrel. Do bbs return to the target in the same place with each pull of the trigger? The barrel of the gun is a big factor in precision. Precision inner barrels, also known as 'tightbore' inner barrels, may be purchased in many different lengths and bore diameters to improve the tendency of the bb to return to the same targeted area with each pull of the trigger.
- Consistency- Does the BB go the same place every time? The hop up system is responsible for this, and to a lesser extent the barrel. A high quality hop up is a great upgrade to improve consistency. A gun with adjustable hop up is preferable, as the amount of "hop" put on the BB may be adjusted by the user for shooting at different ranges.
- Velocity or Muzzle Velocity (Feet Per Second)- This is what most new players look at first in a gun's characteristics. However, it is not the most important. A higher FPS will cause more strain on a gun and cause it to break earlier if other parts of the gun are not built and put together well. It will not necessarily cause more range if the gun suffers accuracy problems, as those problems will only increase with higher FPS. It increases the amount of force that the target takes when hit.
- ROF (Rate of Fire)- This is the amount of rounds can be fired from the gun in a certain amount of time. Automatic guns, of course, have the highest ROF. This factor is often overrated. By putting more rounds on the target, the chance of a hit increases. However, more ammunition is used.
- Types of guns:There are three main types of guns available- gas, electric, and spring- and several types of each.
- AEG stands for Automatic Electric Gun. Most of these guns use 8.4 volt rechargable battery. They are a good choice for having real skirmishes with friends or a team. Most commonly, the average AEG has an fps of 250-350 and costs from $230-$350. These guns are made by Tokyo Marui (TM), Classic Army (CA), VFC, G&P, G&G, and ICS. Other companies will sell guns around $600-$1000, but they have a higher FPS and their bodies are usually made of better materials such as steel for metal, fiberglass for composite furniture, and real wood instead of faux wood. Marui is known for reliability, but they have ABS plastic bodies and shoot at approximately 280 FPS. Classic Army guns have metal bodies and shoot higher FPS. There is much debate about the higher end brands, so one considering one of these guns should research them in depth and decide which brand fits the buyer's needs best.
- There are less expensive electric guns on the market. LPEGs, or low powered/priced electric guns, cost around $30-$70. They are inferior to AEGs because their performance is far lower, they cannot be upgraded, and replacement parts are not available. The gearboxes on LPEGs are made out of plastic instead of metal. Mini electric guns look like rifles but are not much bigger than pistols. They are basically the same as LPEGs except cheaper and smaller.
- MPEGs, or medium priced electric guns, are between LPEGs and true AEGs. They have metal gearboxes, and many are good enough clones of the high end guns that they can be upgraded and repaired with the same parts. The earlier models of MPEGs were quite inferior to AEGs and required a lot of work to make them perform well and last for any amount of time. Newer models, mostly produced during the end of 2006 and later, are considerably better. Most problems from early MPEGs do not exist in the new ones. Performance on the latest MPEGs meets or exceeds that of a stock TM, but the higher FPS and lower quality control means that the gun will probably break faster. Manufacturers often market MPEGs as starter guns. In addition to their low prices with good performance, they come with a battery and charger and often some other accessories. However, the fact that it may need work on the gearbox sooner could cause a problem for a new airsofter. There is often at least one thing, whether it is the barrel, hop-up, or a part in the gearbox, that needs to be worked on out of the box for optimal performance or endurance. MPEGs still can be good for starters, but the pros and cons should be weighed first. Also, MPEGs are good for when a buyer plans to extensively overhaul the gun and would be replacing many parts anyway.
- Electric powered pistols are available as well. Electric Blow Backs, or EBBs, shoot at a low FPS and are usually not built well. They have a realistic blow back function similar to that of a GBB. AEPs are automatic electric pistols. They use a very small gearbox similar to an AEG's. While they shoot at a lower FPS than a GBB, they do not have problems operating in cold weather like gas pistols do. However, the gearbox is apparently difficult to work on. Several small submachine guns like the Tokyo Marui MP7 and Scorpion use AEP gearboxes too.
- GBB's(gas blowbacks) are usually pistols and use Green Gas. These guns have a magazine with a resevoir that has stored gas that releases pressure to fire the BB. These guns are usually semi-automatic but some have full-auto features. These guns usually suffer performance in cold weather. NBB's, or non blowbacks, are gas operated but do not have the blowback function. They are less realistic but more gas efficient. There are also a few gas guns for airsoft that use CO2 cans like BB guns. Some GBB's use a less powerful gas called HFC134a, you should not use Green Gas in these as it can damage a HFC134a gun. Green gas GBB's are by far the most common gas airsoft pistols.
- A common choice among beginners is a spring gun. Many spring guns sold have prices ranging from $20-$60. Spring guns are very simple. They fire only in single shots and can vary in performance drastically. Most spring pistols are cheap and fun to have around the yard because they can be loaded and shot without having to use gas or charge a battery. Many people hear "spring gun" and cringe, but not all spring guns are low quality.
- Most of the high performance spring guns out there are sniper rifles. Some common high end sniper rifles are the Tokyo Marui VSR-10 series, Maruzen L96. The Jing Gong BAR-10 is a 100% clone of the VSR-10 that is already upgraded. The HFC USR-11 is a good clone of the VSR as well, but it is not pre-upgraded. The UTG M324 and MP001 are also decent, but they are not compatible with high end upgrade parts. These sniper rifles have a starting FPS of 300 but can be upgraded to 500 or over with spring upgrades and reinforcement parts. Tightbore barrels, which improve accuracy, are necessary upgrades for sniper rifles. Spring sniper rifles are bolt action operated.
- What category of gun? Gas, electric, and spring are the types of power for the gun, but there are different options of each. The basics of these are listed here and can be researched in depth elsewhere.
- Assault Rifles, or ARs, are common guns. What makes them an AR and not a hunting rifle is the ability to fire automatically, either in Burst or Full-auto, or both. They include the popular M16 family of weapons, Russian Kalashnikovs, M14s, G36, G3, and many others.
- Submachine Guns, or SMGs, are smaller guns used for indoor environments where maneuverability is more important than firepower and range. While SMGs can fire in Single, Burst, or Full-auto like many Assault Rifles and use similar sized magazines, they generally use lower powered handgun munitions, making them ideal for hostage rescue, where you don't want to accidentally hurt or kill a hostage because your round has penetrated a wall or gunman. The higher power of a rifle round is enough to kill any person in close quarters, even if it has gone through a wall. Common SMGs include the MP5, it's .45 cousin the UMP45, the 5.7mm P90, Thompson SMG, Ingrams Mac-10/Mac-11, and others.
- Carbines are basically shortened versions of an existing rifle, assault or otherwise. They are lighter to carry and less visible making them ideal for SpecOps. Like SMGs, the extra maneuverability makes them ideal for use in an indoor environement, however, it's usually limited to clearing a building and not used in hostage rescues where the extra firepower would be a liability in the survival of the hostages. There are also rare Pistol Carbines, where the original rifle fired a handgun round. Examples of carbines are the M4 and XM177, Socom16, and the AK74. In airsoft, Carbines and SMGs can be categorized together, since the only difference between them is the size of the weapon, and not the ammunition (6mm and rare 8mm BBs only).
- Shotguns usually operate differently in airsoft than real shotguns. Most of them fire only one BB at a time, although TM's shotguns are the main exception. Spring and gas shotguns are available. Tanaka's current shotguns are excellent and shoot gas shells that fire 3rds at once. UTG's shotguns are common for a low price, but Maruzen's are excellent as well. Most cheap shotguns are of poor quality.
- Handguns are generally used as sidearms. Most in airsoft are magazine-fed pistols such as the Colt 1911, Glocks, USP, and Mk23. There are some revolvers, but they are often not as good as pistols in airsoft.
- Sniper rifles are always popular to new players because of their use in video games, books, and especially movies. Most sniper rifles are bolt action, although a few, such as the PSG-1 are semi-automatic. This gives them a much lower possible ROF than AEGs. Sniping is not a good option for new airsofters. It is not easy or glamourous as movies would lead one to believe. For most people, it turns out to be very boring as well. Airsofters should only try investing in a sniper rifle for plinking purposes or after several years of airsofting when they have developed their style of play enough to know they are willing to spend most or all of the game without taking a single shot. While snipers are equipped to take an accurate shot from long range, their main goal is to gather intelligence and information and radio it back to the main element of the team.
- Designated Marksman Rifles (DMRs) are given to the squad's Designated Marksman. In the military, where smaller rounds such as the 5.56 NATO are commonplace in assault rifles, the DM is given a higher powered AR, such as one that fires a .308 Winchester like the M14, while the rest of the squad is issued a standard AR. The DM selectively engages long range targets, but not as far as an actual sniper would engage them. In airsoft, the type of rifle for this job is unimportant, but the DMR, whatever it may be, should be upgraded for more accuracy and range than an assault rifle. Optics, usually a scope or red dot sight, may be attached too.
- Bullpups are increasingly becoming more popular among assault rifles, submachine guns and, to a lesser extent, sniper rifles. A bullpup is actually a configuration, wherein the magazine is located behind the trigger and the receiver is in the stock. This allows for a shorter barrel without compromising precision and accuracy of the gun. Because of it's smaller size with a minimal reduction in accuracy, it is also ideal for SpecOps units.
- All that's left is to weigh the pros and cons of possible airsoft guns and decide what will be the best purchase for the user's specific needs.
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