The most common questions we get asked about Airsoft are, what is it and are these real guns?
Airsoft is a competitive team based sport. Participants use Electric, Gas or Spring powered guns that resemble real guns. Airsoft guns are manufactured so close to their real steel counterparts, that even a trained law enforcement agent has difficulty telling them apart from the real thing. Much like other sports, equipment is required to play Airsoft.
Does it hurt?
Getting hit with an Airsoft gun is much like getting a needle poke. It stings at the moment of impact but usually you don’t have any negative side effects. However, it also depends on what fps the rifle you’ve been hit with was shooting and how close your shooter was to you.
In some cases, a bruise or breakage of skin may occur with bleeding. Generally speaking, a gun that shoots under 300 fps is the safest. In Canada airsoft guns are required to shoot between 366 – 500 fps with a 0.20g bb so chances are you’ll be shot at with a gun in that fps range.
What is FPS?
FPS stands for Feet Per Second and is the standard unit of measure for airsoft bb velocity. Many fields have FPS limits to which your gun must adhere to in order to play or participate in events. Make sure your gun meets their specifications before heading to play 🙂
What is Hop-up?
Hop up is a system that’s employed in all competitve airsoft guns. It uses physics to increase the range of your bb and increased consistency of your gun’s range.
There are three main types of airsoft guns. Gas Powered, Electric Powered and Spring/Bolt Powered. All have their benefits and disadvantages so we’ll explain them below.
Gas powered:
Pros:
- Easier to adjust FPS
- Lower maintenance
- Most models have blow back / recoil (More realistic)
- Usually easy to take down
Cons:
- Louder than AEG and Bolt action
- Lower capacity magazines (with the exception of converted guns such as Polar Star and Valken V12 guns)
- Need to refill magazines with gas more often than changing batteries
- Propane/Green gas is flammable and has an odor
- Green gas/Propane guns do not work well in cold weather, basically temperatures below 15 degrees Celsius (CO2 guns are better for fall/winter outdoor use)
- For the most part a leaky magazine will mean your gun can’t be used
Electric powered:
Pros:
- Usually cheaper to start with than Gas guns
- Have high capacity magazines for reduced load outs or reloads
- Easier to use than gas guns
- Lots of available upgrade/aftermarket parts for most makes and models
- Has a wider than gas gun operating temperature range
- Wider selection of models and brands
Cons:
- Lots of battery and charger options, it can be hard to pick the correct one for your gun
- Harder to repair/perform maintenance on when compared to the other types
- Wider selection means battery storage location is not always the same on every gun. Poor manuals from Asian manufacturers do not help
Spring/Bolt Action:
Pros:
- The cheapest to start out with out of the three types
- More reliable than gas and electric guns (Less moving parts)
- Low maintanance
- Very easy to use
- Quiet operation
- Due to the easy design, there’s a wide range of models available
Cons:
- Have to cock the gun to chamber the next round every time
- Depending on the model, some guns such as sniper rifles have very low capacity magazines (15 rds or less)
- Usually lighter weight than their gas/electric counterparts
- Low shot per second, bad versus guns with semi and full auto modes
There are two main types of batteries that are used in Automatic Electric Guns, we’ll call then AEG’s for short. AEG’s are powered by LiPo batteries or NiMH batteries. Both have their advantages/disadvantages which we’ll highlight below.
What is a cell?
A battery cell is responsible for storing the energy. There are two different main cells. AÂ LiPo cell is rated at 3.7V and a NiMH cell is 1.2V.
Is more mAh better?
The higher the mAh of your battery the more shots you can get out of the battery before recharging. However, since the capacity is higher, you must remember that the battery will take longer to recharge and the cells may be too large to fit in your gun’s battery storage. We recommend staying within 10-15% of your original gun battery’s mAh specifications.
How long do I charge my batteries for? What’s the difference between a smart charger and wall charger?
When it comes to battery charging, we always recommend a smart charger. The reason is because smart chargers offer many features over a standard wall charger. For example, most smart chargers come with an auto shut off, consistent charging current and over charge prevention. Where as a standard wall charger will not have any of those features. To calculate charge time for a wall charger, you simply take the per hour output for the charger and divide your battery’s mAh capacity with it. For example:
Charge time = Battery Capacity in mAh / Charger output
So for a battery that’s 8.4V 1200 mAh and a wall charger that has an output of 120 mAh / hour.
1200 mAh / 120 mAh per hour = 10 hours
Storage:
It is important to not leave your gun half cycled for AEGs, this can put excess strain on your gearbox internals and possible weaken the spring in your gun leading to loss of power.
Another important do not for AEGs is leaving your batteries connected and installed. This can cause ghost draining of your cells and can damage the electronics of your gun if not being used for a long time i.e. Fall and Winter storage periods.
You should also keep your batteries at ~60% charge if you’re not using them for and extended period (more than a month) to prevent charge retention loss. This is especially true for Li-Po batteries as you can over discharge them causing them to become unbalanced and unsafe to use.
Do not leave bbs loaded in your mid capacity magazines or keep your high capacity magazines wound up, this can cause the internal spring(s) to loose pressure fail to proper feed your gun.
For gas and spring powered rifles, it’s best not to leave your hammer primed for long periods of time. Not releasing the stress on your hammer spring can cause the gun to not fire properly as the spring tension will be lost.
In some cases, your spring can lose so much power that it won’t be able to hit your release valve/pin hard enough. This will cause your gun to have performance issues.
For Japanese Gas such as Marushin, Tokyo Marui, and KSC airsoft guns, it’s best to use Duster Gas. Propane, Green Gas and Red Gas have higher pressures and the springs installed from the factory may not be strong enough to properly cycle them. While this is a rare problem, it does happen from time to time especially in higher temperature environments.
For lower power or high speed build AEGs, using an 11.1V battery may cause your gun to double cycle when on semi auto mode. We can only recommend using a different battery or increasing the FPS of your AEG to reduce or eliminate this occurrence.
It is important not to over load Mid capacity magazines as this can cause jams within the feeding tube and may lead to misfeeding of bbs
It is also important to use the proper size of airsoft bbs in your mags, do not load 4.5mm steel bbs in them
If you’re using high performance bbs, your magazine should not have feeding issues, however sometimes you may need to drip a few drops of silicon oil in the feeding tube to ensure smooth feeding