Airsoft Guns Make Grown-up Games Fun

Want to be a warrior for a weekend? Then consider trying the popular sport of games using airsoft guns.

Airsoft guns became immensely popular when they arrived in North America from Japan in the mid-1990s. It was illegal then in Japan to own a firearm, and this ban may have fueled Japanese interest in them. The ever-inventive Japanese manufacturers paid attention to this customer curiosity and developed the first airsoft guns, powered by springs.

Airsoft players compete according to an honor system, in which participants are expected to admit honestly when they’ve been, because airsoft pellets don’t leave marks, unlike paintballs. Airsoft pellets also are light enough that, depending on the airsoft gun’s muzzle velocity and the players’ distance between once another, a targeted player may not even feel the “hit.”

Airsoft guns trace their history to Japan in the early 1970s. It was illegal then to own a firearm, but the Japanese nonetheless were very interested in them. Manufacturers took note of this potential market and created the first spring-powered airsoft guns. The hobby was brought to North America around 1995.

Today, an airsoft gun must carry a blaze orange tip in order to be legally imported or commercially sold in the United States. This marking is to distinguish it from genuine firearms, because the designs of airsoft guns have become so realistic.

Rechargeable batteries in AEGs run an electric motor located in the gun handle. This small motor drives a spring-piston unit that propels the plastic pellets. AEGs are much faster to fire than spring-loaded or compressed-guns. This faster performance has led to the development of a range of AEGs that closely simulate automatic or semi-automatic guns. Because airsoft guns can look so much like real guns, they’re required by U. S. Law to have a bright orange plastic tip on the muzzle to distinguish them as replicas.

While most airsoft gun bullets are rubber or plastic, some are metal. The non-metal pellets usually are too light to injure a player, but metal projectiles have been known to break a player’s skin if fired at close enough range. Usually, however, airsoft guns’ projectiles travel too slowly to do any damage to a player. Muzzle velocities for spring-power or compressed-gas airsoft guns vary from 30 to 260 meters per second (100 to 850 feet per second). Electric-powered airsoft guns fire pellets at 150 and 500 feet per second (60 to 150 meters per second), sometimes firing as many as 3, 000 rounds a minute. True bullet speed ranges from 370 to 1, 500 meters per second (or not as fast as Superman!).

Just as the airsoft sport was making its way to America, Japan was hit with a major economic recession, which wiped out many of the original manufacturers. This led to the ascendance of another manufacturer, Tokyo Marui, which had developed an airsoft gun model known as an automatic electric gun, or AEG.

Whatever its size or complexity, one thing is common to all games involving airsoft guns: the honor code. Airsoft players rely on one another’s honesty in announcing when they’ve been hit (which eliminates them from the game), since the pellets from airsoft guns rarely leave a mark on clothing or skin. While there’s no formal enforcement body supervising this code during a game, a participant who gets a reputation for violating the honor code is likely to find himself or herself only shooting airsoft guns at backyard targets.

Author Information: Anthoy Carter is enticed by everything airsoft and is very knowlegdeable about airsoft guns. Visit this website to find the best place to find airsoft guns.

2 Responses to “Airsoft Guns Make Grown-up Games Fun”

  1. [...] Airsoft Guns Make Grown-up Games Fun [...]

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