Monday, August 10, 2009

Airsoft Guns: Making The Right Selection

By Anthony Carter

There are countless ways to use airsoft guns whether for training or sport, such as plinking, airsoft wars, and team combat. The activities for which you intend to use an airsoft gun should be the main influence on the type and quality of the airsoft gun that you use.

Spring pistols are ideal for simple plinking (shooting targets such as pop cans). Not only are they cheap, they're also very low maintenance. Plinking doesn't require a high speed airsoft gun, so you can base your spring pistol purchase upon price and looks alone if you prefer.

Friendly games like skirmishes and backyard wars warrant airsoft guns that have a higher firing rate than spring pistols. For something like forty dollars, you can acquire a spring shotgun that will fire the pellets as fast as you can fire them, making them the most affordable purchase for this type of use.

Automatic electric guns are very powerful airsoft guns boasting RPMs of authentic rifles. If you think your backyard battles could benefit from faster firing, an AEG will serve all of your sniping needs as well as perform similarly to an assault rifle. The only downfall is the cost of an automatic electric gun in addition to the number of pellets one goes through when using this type of gun.

If you can't afford an automatic electric gun, you can still get a really fast rate of fire with a low-powered electric gun, also call an LPEG. For much less money, the only real difference in performance between an AEG and an LPEG would the number of feet per second at which the fired shots travel.

It's going to cost you a lot more money to join an airsoft team than if you are to hold friendly backyard battles. This is because performance relies pretty heavily on the quality of the airsoft gun being used, warranting team players to invest in the best equipment and accessories for their position. Airsoft teams consist of snipers, riflemen, grenadiers, and support shooters, all of which require different equipment. High capacity AEGs are the airsoft gun of choice for those in riflemen positions while those who prefer sniping generally have high precision sniper rifles with an FPS of 400 feet or more plus the optics needed for distance shooting.

If you want to be a support gunner, you can decide on a machine gun or an AEG with a box magazine to hold more pellets, which is the cheaper of the two. The AEG is a good choice for grenadiers as well, though this position also requires a grenade launcher and lots of grenades. The equipment needed for both support gunning and grenadier positions are more expensive than sniping or being a rifleman. In any case, all positions would benefit from having a gas pistol on them as well.

As you can see, shopping for guns for airsoft use is not as simple a task as one might think. Before heading out to the store, make sure you know exactly what you intend to use the airsoft gun for and what kind of budget you're working with.

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