Is Airsoft More Popular Than Paintball

[kriegar]

The one time i went paintballing there a few guys with their own guns, and i used to share a house with a paint baller he had a full rig of his own, customised guns, padded clothing so paintballs had less chance of bursting, masks even ammo pouches.

[CaptainSwoop]

Less chance of bursting? So if he is hit but the ball doesn't burst and mark him it doesn't count?

[evilfree]

Paintball to me is more of a day out for an event. Airsoft however is a hobby.

[Moose87]

yer swoop the ball has to burst to count.

[CaptainSwoop]

I suppose that makes sense, no mark no proof.

[kirvesuk]

paintball turnover is massive compared to airsoft, like someone earlier in the thread said, paintball is an event - airsoft is a hobby.

 

Skirmish Exeter which is one of my local sites is a paintball business that does airsoft on the side a couple of weekends a month, the walk ons are always busy with 60 ish players but that's only once a fortnight. Their paintball numbers are so much larger, 60+ players a day, 5 days a week. Skirmish admittedly are a big operation that have been going for a very long time but I can't imagine that they're much off the norm for a commercial paintball enterprise.

 

With that in mind, while Airsoft is undoubtedly a growing hobby, there's a lot of growth required to even begin to challenge paintball for numbers/popularity.

 

A friend of mine plays at Skirmish Exeter with his sons, he is full of praise for the site!

 

Anyway, to the point, down here in Devon there are definately more paintball sites, and they have been established for a good many years. If you want to play Airsoft you basically share a paintball site for the day. There is one dedicated airsoft site near Plymouth, but is a very small enterprise.

[sp00n]

Hull used to have a paint ball site in the 90's, but it closed down.

 

Hull has we only just got an airsoft site, on its first day there was 8 players ... Last Sunday (2months later) there was 16

[Zyras]

Yeah, you can get "Bounce vests", they are classed as body protection for tourney players, but it is pretty well known that certain types are valued (by a certain type of player) because they a tendency to make rounds bounce instead of break.

 

Nice to see it isnt just me with the whole camo thing Reptile, i play in dark cargo's, long sleeve t-shirt and cut off shirt.

[jcheeseright]

A friend of mine plays at Skirmish Exeter with his sons, he is full of praise for the site!

 

Anyway, to the point, down here in Devon there are definately more paintball sites, and they have been established for a good many years. If you want to play Airsoft you basically share a paintball site for the day. There is one dedicated airsoft site near Plymouth, but is a very small enterprise.

The dedicated on you're talking about I assume is Mad Mommas in Saltash (near plymouth for those who are unfamiliar with the area), while a small enterprise (50 players max) it is hands down the best airsoft site I have ever been to. Excellent marshals who are all volunteers and airsoft players too, £10 walk on fee which includes free tea/coffee, a wide variety of games played which are pitched at the level of the players attending to make things interesting and a general lack of dickheadedness.

 

There's plenty of other dedicated airsoft sites though, MIA in north devon (ironfoot.co.uk) do a decent enough game with decent marshals, cornwall airsoft assault and KGB airsoft cornwall both run excellent sites further down the county and brit-tac run the bolt head bunker a bit further to the east. If anything in the south west we're a bit spoiled for choice with dedicated airsoft sites.