begginners guide to airsoft

[Marksman556]

Beginners guide to airsoft.

In this guide I will be writing to try and help people who are new to the sport and help them to make the correct decisions.

Your gun.

Now it is first important to understand that getting a specialist rifle, such as a sniper rifle is not a good idea as you may quickly become bored or annoyed at not having the adaptability of other assault rifles.
This is undoutably the part of your kit that you want the most, and its important to choose the right one for you.
There are many types of guns, as you should already know, but choosing a good gun to start with narrows it down a bit. Ideally you need one where you can easily get spares and upgrades very easily. The best for this are M4's, G36's, MP5's and AK47's.
You should not get a gbbr (gas blowback rifle) for your first gun as they require more maintenance and looking after than AEG's (automatic electric guns)
These are guns recommended to new players.
The low end, cheap recommended makes are:
For M4's: classic army sportline, ICS plastic series, SRC, g&g
For G36's: SRC, jing gong (jg)
For MP5's: Cyma, ICS plastic ca sportline, jg- if you can find one, g&g
For AK's: Cyma, g&g

These are all good versions of each of the guns that won't hurt the wallet, but be aware that they won't be up to the same standards as their more expensive versions.

If you have a larger budget I would look for metal versions of the g&g, ca and ICS guns for m4's but i would personally recommend the g&p aac It's brilliant.
For mp5's the new ICS mx5 pro are brilliant
And Kwa g36's are godly.
Anything tm is a good choice too, although expect it to be plastic.

When you choose your gun you should also think about what you want to do with it.
You need to decide what mags you want- low, mid or high capacity.
High caps have wheels on the bottom that you have to wind but you get much more rounds in them normally between 300 and 450
Mid caps range from 75 to around 170
And lows are around 30-50

Batteries may also be taken into consideration, do you want a larger one that'll last all-day but need a large place to put it or smaller ones that don't need a full stock or to be seen.
Your physical size maybe a point to look at, if your small, an mp5 maybe better for you than a full stock m4.

If however you must have a sniper rifle then the only gun.worth having as a beginner is a Tokyo marui VSR 10/jg bar 10 which are basically identical.

That's enough for rifles for now, let's move on to pistols, and handguns

Pistols

To be honest there is only one make that's worth looking at here, and that of course is Tokyo marui. Pretty much all of there pistols serf brilliant but for a beginner I would stick to a hicapa- 5.1/4.3 or a 1911 because of the number of parts available for them. I would suggest that one or two mags are enough but if you think you will need more, then that's fine.
Dont be fooled into we pistols because they are full metal, this, if anything is bad. It gives a harder kick but also means that gas runs out quicker and they are less reliable.
The best thing about the hicapa and 1911 series are the sheer amount of parts available, you can do almost anything with them.

Glasses, goggles and face protectors.

This is the single most important piece of kit you will own, do not buy cheap.
We were all new once, so I understand people not wanting to fork out on expensive face protection as it can be expensive.
Do not be lead down this road, you only get one pair of eyes, in my first game my £10 glasses, I can't remember the make cracked. Another shot they would have smashed.
People need to understand that there are some dangers to this sport. On a lighter note I recommend
For glasses ESS ice, 2.4, or 3.0 both are brilliant and not too expensive.
For goggles ESS V12's are great too
Masks, I don't think masks with plastic Windows are helpful, they tend to steam up and be a right pain, I suggest using the black bear mesh masks as I have seen them shrug off multiple high powered shots in quick succession and that is what a good masks should do.
Other good products are herosharks mesh equipment which are brilliant.
I am not biased to ESS, but they are issued to our army in Afghanistan and are the best I have seem on the field.

Boots
These are another extremely important item that should not be skimped out on, they will save your ankles someday, I believe that everyone has different tastes in boots etc, so I can't say the single best make.
What I would do is try waking boots, anything with good ankle support and/or head to your local army surpluses store and check their stuff out,
I find magnums to be of very good quality

Tactical vests, rigs and equipment.
If you are new and just starting, the best vest for you I think will be a viper vest, they are cheap at less than £30 but will do the job until you fork out for a higher end product.
I have seen many of the older players using these and I have used one myself, I believe these easily sort out this problem.

Holster
When it comes to holsters there are many designs to choose from, viper make a few which are surprisingly well made, another option are the blackhawk molded ones which are good too, its best to look and choose one that has the style you like for these I think.

Combats/bdu's
Quite simple really, head to your local surplus store and pick up some dpms which can be found very cheap, look on ebay too.
If you want a specific type of camo, Google is your friend.
Look on land warrior airsoft too as they have some very uncommon unique camo styles on there for decent prices.

Radios
Radios can be a really useful asset to a team but choosing a good one can be hard. I find that the Motorola tlkr series are good and the t5's-side which i believe are the cheapest at £50 for two. These are good and will be all you need.

Gun Bag/Case
The cheap viper double gun bags seem to be quite good so I recommend them.
These are quite important if you are going to be moving your.gun in public.

This is all you need for your main set of equipment.

However you may want a helmet, or other things, in this case it is more or less up to you as there is probably a certain style you want. Although there are some good looking makes on ************.



Please be aware this is a wrok in progress and so, there may be a few errors, I will update it a lot and if anyone else wants to help then your welcome to.
This took a few hours so far- bare in mind in typing on a phone

My goal is to try and create the most concise airsoft guide complete with links and pictures so expect a lot of updates
And comments are welcome.


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[tpelling]

Re: begginners guide to airsoft

A few things to note. Ammo used should be .2 for anything usually between 250-320 fps and .25 over that. Also remember that FPS does not equal range.

And one more thing, I don't think the mods will like you mentioning the name of a rival website, so better blank that out.

[Bluegill]

Re: begginners guide to airsoft

A good guide for the absolute beginner indeed. Not sure about the Pistol bit though- I know TM's reliability is second to none but other brands do have good reputations too!

[tpelling]

Re: begginners guide to airsoft

A good guide for the absolute beginner indeed. Not sure about the Pistol bit though- I know TM's reliability is second to none but other brands do have good reputations too!

I agree, in my experience although TM do make a well rounded gun! But you cant go wrong with a KWA or a WE!

:p

[Ajhayter]

Re: begginners guide to airsoft

Nice little write up.

First place I came across was Hatchet's "Tea and Medals" website. Little outdated now but still plenty of info.