Obsessed about Airsoft...

[Daddy Foote]

Has obsessively googling about Airsoft rifles since Christmas done me any good? Since then I've bored the crap out of my other half talking about it AEG's with my head in my phone. She has been doing a lot of huffing and looking at the ceiling. Bless her... Is this normal?
Let me know if I got anything wrong but I think if I read this when I first got interested it would of helped loads.
 I played a few games CQB and looking forward to getting out into woods once the weather improves.  So I started googling Airsoft rifles to learn what is good, bad and ugly. From what I can tell as long as you are between 300 and 350 FPS and your rof is about 15 or above then you will match most reasonable rifles for close to medium range. Getting consistent grouping doesn't seem that important in CQB. Clearly becomes more important once you get get outside with a lot more range. I'll come back to this in a bit. Then comes your bits and bobs, torches, sights grip etc. Things to make your life a little easier. Then upgrades. Longer tighter bores. Differing types of bucking, hop-up, gear boxes, motors, bateries. Seams like a lot more reinforced plastic is being used on newer guns to keep weight and cost down.
The rental guns I've played with where all metal and had to put up with a bit of abuse which I liked. Although slower ROF and FPS than the others with there own gear.
My previous experience with rifles was as a kid in the ATC using Enfield .303's and SLR 7.62's and a few others, Solid rifles. Getting a good grouping at 300 to 500 yards with iron sights.
So when I looked at a couple of sub £150 Airsoft rifles with metal and plastic bodies and they where all a little bit...well...wobbly...cheap. I could t see them being that accurate at range. Couldn't see them bouncing that well either... I could see myself growing out of a cheap one very quickly.
So what do you need for your new RIF as a newbie to Airsoft?
In my experience don't spend a tonne of money on something you haven't researched, actually seen and held. And don't buy the first thing you see... A life lesson right there. Lol.
Do you want to spend £300 on a Rif to find the same one elsewhere for £150. Or find out that you just don't like the feel of it. I considered getting an AUG as it's very compact. But when I got my hands on one I just didn't like it... Very ligh, felt cheap, awkward to hold... That's just my opinion. Many people love them.
So what does it need to be at a minimum? FPS between 300 and 350 you want others to feel they have been hit. ROF 15 rounds per second or above. Not that you would fire that fast on a semi auto site but that ROF gives you responsiveness. You want that BB on target asap. Strong so a metal body. But be open to reinforced plastic if it feels solid. Sturdy so it bounces well when dropped and can take a bit of abuse.
Iron sights as you can upgrade later. They have to be solid though and not move about as I'd seen on RIF's where the outer barrel could twist with very little force.
Hold a reasonable about of bb's high cap 200-450. The ones you have to wind up. You will waste loads of bb's while panicking and shooting wildly out of fear. Later on upgrade to mid cap of about 120bb's where you don't have to wind the magazine.
Be electric. Simple and will do the job. Don't have to keep gassing your gun or buy all that high pressure air gear...
Inner barrel no less than 200mm. Unless running a very compact RIF for CQB. Turns out putting a longer barrel on can speed up FPS but effects accuracy, reduce range and can actually slow down the FPS. You have to start upgrading the hop-up,  pistons to get more air into the barrel, then look at gearbox, motor... I'll stop there. That's for well later when good enough to actually notice the improvements... But definitely have in mind that there is a good chance you will grow out of your first RIF and want to start upgrading it. Seems to me many standard parts that are easily interchange.
Seams that an easy way to get more accuracy is spend some attention on the bucking and slightly heavier bb's. This all seams to be like alchamy and magic to me at the moment though...
And we are not finished there. I was clearly interested in CQB as I had a couple of games. But had to consider rails to add torches, sights, scopes, handles, lasers, launches....
There seams to be a hell of a lot to take in, and if you are like me, you will look at the cheaper options, £150, then see what's good and your budget goes up a bit, but then that one doesn't have this. Then your budget goes up a bit more.
It wasn't long before I realised that if I wanted a good rifle I was going to have to pay at least £250 just for the rifle then I'd need a case, battery, charger, additional magazines, red dot sight, etc etc. I got up to about £600 then realised if I wanted good for a reasonable budget, as a newbie to Airsoft, I was going to have to go used...
So I did. And it was the best decision I made...
Hope you got something out of this and I'll post a photo of what I ended up with next time. 😁
Pew Pew for now...
 

[EDcase]

Yep, a good general summation of the dilemmas for getting into airsoft. (Then there's eye-pro as a whole section in itself)

 

The easiest way to go about buying the precious pew is to have a particular model in mind.  Something you've seen in films/TV, history etc.  Then find out which is the best make and budget.

 

They generally perform similarly from new unless you get to £300+ and that's no guarantee of better performance.

Being a perfectionist to get absolute maximum range/accuracy will lead to frustration and misery.   For easy fun with most weapons just get sneaky and use tactics to get closer to the enemy.

 

With more experience (and preferably budget to get a backup weapon) it can be time to open up the pew for some surgery and upgrades.  It is a bit of a dark art because there is no 100% guarantee that things will improve with better parts.  They still have to blend well with existing components to get the full benefits.  This is why its best to have that backup weapon if the upgrades aren't ready for gameday or something fails on the day.

 

Buying second hand is not recommended for new players because its harder to recognise if something is overpriced or isn't working right.

 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2022 by EDcase

[Albiscuit]

Makes a change from the “want to play what’s best gnu” threads 😂😂

 

You clearly have done your research, it’s refreshing to see rather than being asked best gun and best place to buy and do I need a license haha

[Daddy Foote]

22 hours ago, EDcase said:

Yep, a good general summation of the dilemmas for getting into airsoft. (Then there's eye-pro as a whole section in itself)

 

The easiest way to go about buying the precious pew is to have a particular model in mind.  Something you've seen in films/TV, history etc.  Then find out which is the best make and budget.

 

They generally perform similarly from new unless you get to £300+ and that's no guarantee of better performance.

Being a perfectionist to get absolute maximum range/accuracy will lead to frustration and misery.   For easy fun with most weapons just get sneaky and use tactics to get closer to the enemy.

 

With more experience (and preferably budget to get a backup weapon) it can be time to open up the pew for some surgery and upgrades.  It is a bit of a dark art because there is no 100% guarantee that things will improve with better parts.  They still have to blend well with existing components to get the full benefits.  This is why its best to have that backup weapon if the upgrades aren't ready for gameday or something fails on the day.

 

Buying second hand is not recommended for new players because its harder to recognise if something is overpriced or isn't working right.

 

 

 

I would agree. It's a gamble when you don't know if something is good or not. That's why I did a lot of research. Even when I saw the gun and thought that looks exactly what I want, I got onto Google and looked at reviews. Turns out the one I got is mostly out of stock everywhere and sells out very quick when it does get back in stock.

1 hour ago, Albiscuit said:

Makes a change from the “want to play what’s best gnu” threads 😂😂

 

You clearly have done your research, it’s refreshing to see rather than being asked best gun and best place to buy and do I need a license haha

There does seam to be a lot of them...