I suspect that a lot of youngsters want an airsoft sniper rifle because they imagine that it will be like a game: that you put the cross hairs on your target and, from sufficient range that they cannot shoot back if they even see you, pop them in the forehead. No, it's not like that. At all.
Even with a £700 upgraded gun the air conditions affect the trajectory of the BB so much that, at long to extreme range (whatever that range is for that gun) the BB has slowed so much and is so light that a good fart makes it drift off target, let alone a breeze. Also to get to extreme range the trajectory of the BB is a pronounced parabola, which sounds complicated but really isn't... if you imagine that your sight is zeroed for targets at 70m, in still air the BB leaves the muzzle and rises to the peak of its trajectory then drops and hits somewhere on a level with your cross hairs, but if the target is even 10m closer the BB would sail over their head, if the target were as little as 5m further away the BB could have dropped so much that it has hit the ground in front of the target, or the cover they are hiding behind.
Obviously you can learn the characteristics of your gun and get good at using it, but it takes a fair bit of practice. In the meantime, while a 420FPS L96 may have a 10-12m effective range advantage over most of the AEG's in the hands of the opposition, even a knackered old sod like me can rush that distance in 1 second, but a novice sniper cannot recock their gun and reacquire me as a moving target in that time, and as soon as I'm in range I will fire a full auto burst before diving for cover - at least 1 of my BB's will hit... and this kind of thing will keep happening all day long.
The up to 80FPS extra we are allowed from bolt action sniper rifles (BASR's) will increase that effective range advantage, although not by as much as the difference between 270 & 350FPS for eg, but the moment you increase the power of the spring, the trigger mechanism is put under more strain and fails much sooner, so you need upgrade parts for that too, and once you can fire 75m crouching-man-sized-target-accurately you will come to the attention of opposition snipers, and it's likely that at least one will have other upgrades which allow 80-90m accurate shots - so you'll get picked off early all day long again... so you need more upgrades, and at this stage, when you swap out one part for a better one, you are kind of locked into needing to upgrade several parts to get the best from the first, if you see what i mean...
Trying to learn the game under those circumstances would be extremely difficult. I mean 'trial and error' only works if you get some successes :lol: With an AEG your son will have sheer volume of fire on his side until such times as more tactical awareness and marksmanship sinks in.
TBH I would discourage anyone from messing about with even crappy BB guns on private land, unless it was literally in the middle of nowhere: the chance that you may accidentally shoot some random passer by may be miniscule, but the consequences of such a mishap are potentially so bad that the risk is just not worth taking. There is also the fear of being shot - people react really badly to feeling afraid and become vindictive. What really concerns me about unsupervised teens shooting each other with BB's though is the tendency youngsters have to be reckless and how 'uncool' it seems if you're the one thinking about saying "hold on a minute these things will have someone's eye out if we're not careful."
But... but... but... nobody is daft enough to shoot each other in the face, right? Obviously you know what 'ricochet' means. The following took place at one of the UK's best marshalled sites:
These things happen when people are wearing good protection, under trained supervision. That's not to say that airsoft is really dangerous - it isn't, but it is an adventure sport/hobby so you should expect to pick up small injuries periodically under the best of circumstances. Under the worst circumstances... and i'm by no means saying that your lad is a dick, but let's have it right, we all dicked around when we were 15, didn't we?
Besides, assaulting/defending purpose built positions with a bunch of likeminded people has gotta be more fun than a few mates in some random field, right?
