[Closed] airsoft - anyone know about it?

An arisfot gun is a bb gun.

I dont think its the next big thing, its been about for ages and from what I can tell its quite a serious/sensible sport that seems to be played alot by adults.

Its basically like real life countrer strike by the looks of it. You go out to an airsoft arena and shoot each other. Never played it properly myself but have messed about with mates before. Getting shot with a bb gun on the ear does hurt.

You just run around acting like special forces with real looking weapons and shooting at each other, so I guess that bit is like paintball, but the pellets are smaller, made of solid plastic and don't go as far.

It has a rep for being a little sad and walty...

Think carefully about starting him on the journey.

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Typically, enthusiasts will be somewhat well upholstered 45 year old men with jobs in accountancy or middle management looking for something that affords them the opportunity to get muddy with other men in rural locales and forget about the dull grind of the 9-to-5.

So, nothing like STW then. 😛

Let him go for it, better than being sat at home playing gun games on an xbox. You arent going to kill anyone with a bb gun, they sting a bit if fired directly onto your skin though. I think theres a limit on the power of them anyway.

One of my neighbours has recently taken this up as a hobby and I must say that (even as a 40+ chap) I'm tempted to go along for a look.

Supervised games are all over the place - this is my nearest centre: [url= http://www.urbanassault.org.uk/ ]http://www.urbanassault.org.uk/[/url]

haha, class picture

You need to be aware of this though:

http://www.xsiteairsoftshop.co.uk/The-VCR-Act-a-buyers-guide-4-w.asp

The basic guns are powered by electric motors, but they fling the BBs at an astonishing rate. The BBs are bright yellow plastic though, not metal.

Done properly it's harmless fun - lots of old factories etc. get rented out for it, with organised games, and it's as the poster above said, a bit like real life counterstrike.

The flipside is that airsoft guns are often VERY realistic replicas of real life firearms, and generally the meatier ones - MP5s, M14s, AK47s, Glocks etc. They should be fitted with Orange things on their muzzles to make them look like replicas, but I expect they get taken off pretty quickly.

This means there can be big problems if he's daft enough to walk around in public with one. I basically would view it as requiring the same level of responsibility as a .22 air rifle.

The sting.

A friend used to run an airsoft/paintball centre.

After a few whisky's we always ended up playing airsoft t-shirt free in shorts - male bonding 😳

Used to come out looking like a thousand mozzies had eaten us.

An organised game of soldiers with bb guns, I'd be happy with. Him and his mates getting up to mischief with one - not so good.

It sounds to me like he should be encouraged to go to organised meets rather than start running around with his mates with them.

Where are they gonna use them for a start????

Mate of mine's heavily into this.

The guns my mate has are replica guns, they look very realistic. They are, pretty much exactly, BB guns; The only difference is, they use 'soft' plastic ball bearings rather than steel ones. I could be wrong here, but I don't think there's anything stopping you loading these things with steel balls instead, if you were so inclined.

So the question is, is your lad a sensible chap or not? If he's generally trustworthy then I can't see any harm in playing soft-air at an organised. If he's the sort who delights in sticking bangers up cats' arses, then I'd respectfully suggest that you steer clear.

A bit of a google suggests that you can hire the airsoft guns at some of the places that do it. That would be my choice. If I had a good replica of an M16 knocking about the house, and a teenage lad, I'd want to put it in a gun cabinet like a real firearm.

The other thing, of course, is if you say no, he's probably going to do it anyway and either borrow the guns or save up himself and not tell you. So at least if you agree he won't have to lie to you and you'll know what he's up to.

So at least if you agree he won't have to lie to you and you'll know what he's up to.

I can see that such an activity, like paintball, could satisfy the warrior urges in people, but I'd be a little concerned about treating 'war' as fun. Even playing Call Of Duty type games leave me feeling a tad disturbed; the real version surely cannot ever be considered 'fun' by anyone bar utter psychos. I'm not saying a bit of glorified cowboys and indians is all that psychologically damaging for young people, but maybe to purse such an activity on a regular basis might not be the healthiest option for a teenager. Depends on the individual temperament, I guess. Maybe for some it's the planning, strategy and use of cunning and guile that's the fun part, rather than the killing. Such activities do seem to be popular with frustrated office types however, which is a slightly worrying thing.

I do find it disappointing that many youngsters (and indeed adults) find the idea of destruction more appealing than creating something, I must say. Not that a person should necessarily spend [i]all[/i] their time kitting or making scale models of the Houses of Parliament out of matchsticks, but the balance does seem to have swing toward 'destroy' rather than 'make'. Bit sad really.

I suspect I'd probably love a game of paintball/airsoft. One good reason not to do it, perhaps. I dunno.

So you allow it, he gets a gun, he gets bored of the 'approved' places he can use it, he takes it into town for a laugh, he gets arrested. I personally think that approach is dangerous.

Not all 15 year olds are morons.

hmmmm thanks chaps. i suspect he's planning on running around the common or a field or somethings with his mates, in which case that looks like a no-no then.

dont think id have a problem with organised games.

thanks 🙂

Of course, if you applied the Daily Mailesque 'smoking a joint once at a party leads instantly to Crack addiction' type reasoning, then it's a sure-fire(!) way into a life of gun crime.

Question to ask yourself: Is your son the next Raoul Moat/Derrick Bird/member of the Met Police Firearms unit?

Not all 15 year olds are morons.

But most 15 year olds will push whatever boundaries you set so you give more, they inevitably take more.

Also have a friend heavilly into this and one word of advice is if he gets into it then i hope you have the cash to sustain his now expensive hobby. like bikes it starts with the basics and soon spirals into "needing" all the gear which for airsoft nerds includes all the other military stuff like cammo, night vision, bloody throat mics and on and on....he spends absolutly thousands on it all and his house is like a commandos closet now.

At the higher levels of the organised events, people in the armed forces use it in their off time to keep training up for urban combat, so i'm led to believe. One of the places in the SW even does it in a little-used Army base.

I've done this.

As others have said they're basically very realistic automatic BB guns. There is a place near Peterborough which does organised events, which is great for watching portly middle-aged blokes doing Saving Private Ryan impersonations.

It doesn't hurt much unless the fat barsteward "mate" you go with decides to fire point blank into your knackers for a laugh.

We don't talk anymore.

I can see that such an activity, like paintball, could satisfy the warrior urges in people, but I'd be a little concerned about treating 'war' as fun

It's not war though. It's war with all the bad stuff removed, so it becomes a simple sport. If people did get hurt, people wouldn't do it. I suspect people only enjoy it because they know no-one's going to get hurt.

Same reason I play GTA - no-one gets hurt. Doesn't mean I WANT to do it in real life.

incidentally, whats the legal stance on this? hes just told me they want to play it on a bit of common land thats difficult to get to, so only they would be there.

im thinking that would be illegal?

cheers

I agree with Molgrips - kids play war games from an early age - it is all about combat and proving yourself - all genetic urges inbuilt into us all. Done safely in the proper environment there is nothing wrong in it IMO.

I would say he could get in trouble but no more than a slap on the wrist unless he injures someone then potentially you would be in trouble too for allowing him to have the gun (which I assume you would have to buy, him being a minor and all).

If it were me I would steer well clear of allowing him to have his own gun unless he was a member of an organised team and doing it on private land with proper adult supervision.

We don't talk anymore.

...except in high-pitched voices?

whats the legal stance on this?

I suspect that running around in public with replica firearms might be frowned upon, no matter how 'difficult' it is to get to.

Don't even think about it. I've heard of people shooting legitimately on private land, with "ordinary" guns having the police helicopter suddenly turn up.

A few lads with realistic looking assault rifles on public land is a recipe for disaster. Some are transparent or half painted orange, which helps, but there's nothing stopping a can of black paint being applied, and even without, it still has the silhouette of a real weapon. All it would take is one person walking past to phone it in on the basis of better safe than sorry and your lad would find himself surrounded by live weapons. Given the context, it's not unlikely that he could be swinging the thing about. Not a good idea. As far as I'm aware, it's pretty rare for the Police to get shot, because they're quick on the draw.

thanks all

dont think there was any intention of him doing this supervised, so ive just told him its not going to happen.

cue one sulky teenager with a bit of chuntering going on. "you never let me do anything" etc etc etc 🙂

thanks (for ruining his life) 😉

Best decision, if you ask me. I'm just not comfortable with the 'going round shooting each other' thing really. I'm sure it's 'fun', but there's other fun.

Get him into mountain biking! Fun, healthy, exciting, inexpensive....

Oh, hang on....

how very sad, grown men playing in the woods

Wikipedia suggests it's not legal outside of a proper "site" with insurance anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_in_airsoft#United_Kingdom

how very sad, grown men playing in the woods

cue one sulky teenager with a bit of chuntering going on. "you never let me do anything" etc etc etc

as long as you understand saftey and the law i'm not sure you need to prevent your child from owning one. I had an Pellet rifle as a kid and loved it. Had no problems, ever. Never shot anyone, never got in trouble with the police, never broke anything unintentionally. But then i never left the garden with it. Being in public is a different matter alltogether i feel. If you set bounderies and have clear understanding and trust with your kid there's a good chance you won't have any problems.

Oh and one more point about this activity is that as far as i can tell you have to be quite into it and honest as you are firing tiny little yellow or white plastic balls at each other and it's quite difficult to see if you have actually hit any one so unless they fess up and leave the game you can get alot of cheating which then makes the thing a bit pointless.

From my experience of watching kids play football on our street, where the rules seem to be that someone kicks the ball and then everyone else calls him a c--t, I suspect that the honour system is doomed to failure.

Again though, at an organised game, the cheats will be found out pretty quickly.

But then i never left the garden with it.

I had an Pellet rifle as a kid and loved it.

Same here. But, I was taught all the business about it being a potentially lethal weapon, never ever pointing it at things I didn't want dead etc. It also pretty obviously looked like an air rifle. And of course, it never left our land.

The thing that I really don't like about the airsoft guns is that they're decent replicas, and they're not quite real firearms. So the tendency is to show them off, shoot your mates in the arse and so on. It dramatically increases the chances of someone getting hurt - you could easily damage someone's sight with them, and you could easily have the armed squad out.

If I had kids, I'd personally be much happier with them having real airguns than airsoft.

I play airsoft regularly (once/twice a month) and it's a great hobby as long as you don't take it too serious.

I gives me a chance to run around pretending to be Jack Bauer, shout things like "Tango down" and just forget about the weekly 9-5 job.

Yeah sure it's geeky, but then i've been known to wear lycra.

Games are held on private land and are very well supervised, there will be an extensive safety briefing, and strict limits on the power of the guns (marshalls will remove and ban anyone caught with a gun over the legal limit).

However, be careful about buying him a gun. The law has changed in recent years (violent crime reduction act 2007) and buying a replica/airsoft gun is now illegal. The only way to legally buy an airsoft gun is to prove that you regularly play airsoft, this is usually done by attending several games and getting them signed off by the marshalls (google UKARA for a better explanation than i could give you).

This might help you find a local site
http://www.airsoftmap.net/UK/

You need to treat them like an airgun, pretty much the same laws apply.

But it is against the law to paint them.

My son has one, and its basically a copy of the Police machine-pistol (G?). It fires bb's at an astounding rate, and pretty accurate over short distances.

You though need to ensure that boundaries are set and that he realises that breaking these could end up with you collecting him from the Police Station...

But as kids we use to go ratting with our air rifles...

The only way to legally buy an airsoft gun is to prove that you regularly play airsoft,

AFAIK, that only applies to replicas; there's no restriction on buying airsoft guns if they're bright orange or otherwise obviously not real.

😆

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It's what I do for a living. I run 2 sites, one in a WW2 underground bunker in Portsmouth and another in a closed hospital in Milford.

[url= http://web.mac.com/crackingday/UCAP-UGHQ/Welcome.html ]UCAP Airsoft[/url]

The VCRA has made it very difficult to but a Realistic Imitation Firearm (RIF) whilst doing little to affect the chances of criminals getting hold of real ones. However it now means that under 18s cannot buy at all and over 18s must prove they have a reason for exemption from the law, either by being a registered airsoft skirmisher, reenactor or member of a theatre group.

Most sites will have rental guns available and it's the only easy way for an under 18 to skirmish. They are not allowed to buy, and the various ways around this (adult registering then buying and gifting etccc) are not exactly in the spirit of the law.

Also consider that having an airsoft weapon out in a public place is probably one of the best ways to experience the work of a Police ARU and rightly so.

I love it. It provides a great adrenaline rush, the ability to work as part of a team or on my own whilst pretending I'm a leet speshul farces warrior! (Most of the airsofters I know are fully aware that they engage in a faintly ridiculous pastime, but they enjoy it so who cares?) My customers range from a millionaire property developer through company directors, desk jockeys & IT consultants, builders, students through to quite a few servicemen. In fact I'm off to Ted Baker's house tommorow to run an event for Exeter FC!

Feel free to contact me for more information, although TBH just like MTBing there are enough online resources to while away hours.

Is it not just like LARP but better and less stupid? 🙂

Just because someone has an interest in something that shoots doesn't mean when they grow up they'll end up killing someone or doing something stupid. I started shooting when I was legally old enough, soon got my firearms licence and my dad was a bobby and he hated my interest in guns. I went on to compete nationally and internationally in competitions and I think I came out ok and made him proud in the end. Obviously shooting is very restricted these days so the airsoft scene is growing very quickly and I hope your son enjoys the hobby.

Elfinsafety - Member
Best decision, if you ask me. I'm just not comfortable with the 'going round shooting each other' thing really. I'm sure it's 'fun', but there's other fun.
Get him into mountain biking! Fun, healthy, exciting, inexpensive....
Oh, hang on....

So the question is, is your lad a sensible chap or not?

I was searching for a new rifle and came across this airsoft beastie...

http://www.gunstar.co.uk/Airsoft/CAW-Echo-1-Minigun-gun-for-sale-gs8521.aspx

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3000 rounds a minute! That's gotta sting at close range.