I've played competitive paint ball and really love it, but the grandkids are too young to play PB so I bought them a couple of cheap Sig Saur airsoft pistols and a Stinger "rifle" and pistol. They love it and now all the adults want to play. Before I sink a lot of money into this, because we know that in a couple of years they'll be able to graduate to paintball, what's the basics of buying equipment?

Where can you get good deals? What should we stay far, far away from? Where can you get a little more accuracy? We aren't looking for automatic fire. We want to teach them the importance of learning to hit what you are shooting at, conserving ammo, and make them have to learn skills. This will also stop some of the whining from the girls when they get lit up.

Are battery operated ones a pain with the batteries going out at the most inopportune moments?

I have a nice wooded area that, while slightly too small for a really good paintball field is just right for airsoft.

One thing I had re-inforced was the benefit of a yellow mask. It is amazing how much more definition it gives up under the trees. My son's brown shirt looked a little flourescenty and allowed me to pick him out every time.

I'd check with the local sporting goods shops and see what they've got first. You're hardcore airsoft sites like Red Wolf, are going to have a great selection but be expensive pricewise (I've seen airsoft guns go for more than their real counterparts). I know the Hobby Town USA's in the DFW area carry a small selection of airsoft guns, maybe your's does to if you have one. I can't speak to battery life as I've only got a springer. There have been several I've lusted after, but just couldn't pull the trigger and spend the money.

I'm in the DFW area so I'll check them out. So far all I've hit is Walmart.

I've got two Smith and Wesson clear replicas that I play with in my backyard.

I'd say be careful to check the velocities and so forth, some of those guns can really leave a mark. Spring pistols are about the only thing I'd use in my backyard.

I'd recommend sticking to spring guns anyway. Teach the kids to make their shots count like you mentioned earlier. Also, if one breaks, it doesn't cost much to replace.

My "back yard" is a little bigger than most, probably almost 2 acres of playable area and it's heavily wooded.

But are you saying that some aren't spring powered? I know some have batteries but I figured that was for cocking.

Are there any pellets that are more accurate than others? We've been using Colemans.

carguy123 wrote: I'm in the DFW area so I'll check them out. So far all I've hit is Walmart.

Where in DFW are you? The best Hobby Town for airsoft that I've found is the Dallas location at Walnut Hill and 75. Go at the right time and you can hit Red, Hot and Blues for lunch or dinner. Don't know of any pellets being more accurate than others. The battery powered guns function like their gunpowder counterparts, you can go semi or full auto. These are usually long guns. There are also gas powered guns, but they are usually pistols. If you don't mind a drive, Cheaper than Dirt in Fort Worth usually has a good selection of inexpensive airsoft guns as well. Not to mention an interesting supply of firearms as well.

Usually the best bbs are the ones bought online from airsoft supply stores. Better quality and cheaper too.

Basic rule of thumb is heavier pellets are more accurate, and lighter pellets have longer range.

I like .20g bbs myself. I have a big bucket of .12 bbs that I got for free, and it's very difficult to hit anything with them if I'm not at very close range.

I would love to try out a store called Cheaper Than Dirt!

I have window shopped this place but have not gotten anything from them so the service may suck. But they do seem to have good prices on things.

http://www.rsov.com/index.php

Lewbud I'm in FW so Cheaper Than Dirt will get a visit from me.

3Door4G Thanx for the tips on the pellets. I didn't know they had varying weights. I'll shop around. Aircraft supply stores have airsoft pellets? Why? And do you have any tips for ones that do?

81gtv6 I'll give rsov a try today as well.

OK, I was curious.... now someone explain this to me:

http://www.rsov.com/index.php?target=products&product_id=6327

An Airsoft RPG!?!?!

And BTW, you would really want to be careful running around with some of the guns on that site, they are very realistic looking.

One of the strange things about these airsoft guns, at least coming from the paintball world, is the fact their magazines hold so few pellets. Also they are really hard to load when compared to paintballs.

Just about everything I see on rsov shows to be out of stock or discontinued.

But on the bright side I've just found out that I only live about 10 minutes away from Cheaper Than Dirt. My wife came in all excited because she said she'd always wanted to go to Cheaper Than Dirt. Shopping is shopping when it comes to women. Doesn't matter if it's for shoes or guns, it's still shopping!

I just noticed that too. But I did find this:

RSOV Enhanced Agency Service 2010 by OptimusPrime on May 10, 2010 02:39 -0500in News It seems that RSOV.com is bent on totally overhauling their customer service, which is one of the better services operating from Hong Kong. Now if you need something at RSOV.com and can only find at other competing retailers, you can just inform RSOV.com and they will try to get their own stock and offer you a cheaper price than other competitors. So check this "enhanced service" at their site.

"What is 'RSOV Enhanced Agency Service 2010' ?

There are over hundreds thousand of different kind of airsoft products in the world from some spendy Japanese brands to cheap ACM (All Chinese Made) stuffs being released in these years.

Everyone knows it is absolutely impossible for a store to stock 100% of every single piece of products in the world so we have established our 'RSOV Unique Agency Service' at 2008 serving our customers to seek for airsoft products that we didn't carried so to save your time, postage and effort to place orders in different stores and wait for individual package to arrive.

With the success of the 'RSOV Unique Agency Service' we are pushing the service to higher level and standard with a new web integrated system named 'RSOV Enhanced Agency Service 2010'.

With the help of the new web system you just need to tell us basic information of the product then we will check and confirm the availability of the product from the manufacturer / suppliers and list it on RSOV.com / RSOV Express® for your purchase.

Furthermore we are not just listing the product but will even check against other web stores to compare their price so to guarantee your price is the best. In most case 3-5% discount should be able to granted and sometimes even more if the product has been overpriced.

Also a lot of new products will be added to our RSOV.com / RSOV Express® inventory in the near future to maximize our customers choices. We have added 'Magpul PTS' tactical products, 'Firefox' battery packs, 'Flyye' tactical nylon products as well as 'Fenix' tactical flashlights a while back and more to come for sure!

As promised we are always try our very best to improve our RSOV services to serve you better and better so any feedbacks and suggestions will be very much appreciated and helpful. We hope you enjoy our new 'RSOV Enhanced Agency Service 2010' and found you like it ;-)

Keith C.E.O. www.rsov.com

How 'RSOV Enhanced Agency Service 2010' works ?

You may suggest us the product that you want to purchase in rsov.com You have to provide us the product website, product code, and the quantity you would like to buy. After we receive your request, we will check the availability of the item. If it is OK, we will add this item to our rsov.com Unique Agency Category We will send notification to your email for the checking result."

Crossman Air Mag is easily the best deal in Airsoft. It is better then a lot of $100 guns and it is around $40. It shoots at 400 fps.

Edit: It is CO2 and not spring loaded and it is fairly durable. Only downside is it is non-blow back.

pfffft why would anyone want to play airsoft, sounds dumb! I can shoot rubber bands off my fingers like a gun. same principle.

pansys

4cylndrfury wrote: pfffft why would anyone want to play airsoft, sounds dumb! I can shoot rubber bands off my fingers like a gun. same principle. pansys

You didn't read the first post did you? I have grand kids too young for paint ball. While my wife plays paintball my 2 daughters won't but we have gotten them to play airsoft.

And then there's the fact that the neighborhood kids all get together to play urban wars in the neighborhood and the airsoft pellets don't break windows.

The problem with the new RSOV program is that I don't know enough to know what guns to tell them I want. Reliability and quality are 2 things I know nothing about in the airsoft world. I do know we don't want $400 guns because they will only be used for a couple of years, but I do know we want something better than the Stinger or Sig Saur guns from Walmart.

carguy123 wrote:

4cylndrfury wrote: pfffft why would anyone want to play airsoft, sounds dumb! I can shoot rubber bands off my fingers like a gun. same principle. pansys

You didn't read the first post did you? I have grand kids too young for paint ball. While my wife plays paintball my 2 daughters won't but we have gotten them to play airsoft. And then there's the fact that the neighborhood kids all get together to play urban wars in the neighborhood and the airsoft pellets don't break windows. The problem with the new RSOV program is that I don't know enough to know what guns to tell them I want. Reliability and quality are 2 things I know nothing about in the airsoft world. I do know we don't want $400 guns because they will only be used for a couple of years, but I do know we want something better than the Stinger or Sig Saur guns from Walmart.

Reliability and quality is all you are looking for, go get the Crossman Airmag from Wal-mart. My friend who has several $400+ airsoft guns uses a Crossman Airmag as his side arm because it is damn good.

actually, I read the whole thread. my comment was a joke....hence the smileys (thats what theyre there for).

Just got back from Academy and they do have a pretty good selection of guns. Of course they had no one there who knew anything at all about them other than they were on the wall and some were more expensive than others.

I took some pics but since I'd have to hotlnk them to get them to post here I'll just leave them in my iPhone and use them to compare prices and models to the ones at Cheaper Than Dirt tomorrow.

EDIT: Cheaper Than Dirt says they are getting out of the airsoft business. Since they specialize in the more lethal ways to kill people and things that doesn't surprise me. He recommended Academy.

Many of the guns say a Hop Up is available or something to that effect. What does that mean? Coming from paintball I've been taking that to mean that you can adjust the speed, but none of the guns seem to have a way to make any adjustments.

carguy123 wrote: Many of the guns say a Hop Up is available or something to that effect. What does that mean? Coming from paintball I've been taking that to mean that you can adjust the speed, but none of the guns seem to have a way to make any adjustments.

Hop-Up is a system that puts backspin on the BB as its fired to increase their range.

There's a wide variety of airsoft guns out there with various mechanisms. The cheapest are the non-repeating spring guns that you have to cock after every shot. Above that you have gas guns powered by a special type of compressed air (looks like a spray paint can) and automatic electric guns that use battery powered motors to drive a piston propelling the BBs. These two systems can be semi-auto or even full-auto. Some of the gas powered guns use the compressed gas to cycle the action (commonly called Gas Blowback guns). Some of the guns, particularly the gas blowback guns, are shockingly realistic, not just in looks, but also function. Some minor parts can occasionally also fit on real guns.

Western Arms is probably the top of the line for gas blowback handguns. However, they're really expensive and you're paying a lot for them looking realistic rather than functioning any better.

Personally, I like Tokyo Marui gas blowback handguns and own and Hi-Cap 5.1 (clone of an STI Eagle).

KSC is another popular brand.

carguy123 wrote: 3Door4G Thanx for the tips on the pellets. I didn't know they had varying weights. I'll shop around. Aircraft supply stores have airsoft pellets? Why? And do you have any tips for ones that do?

Hehe I said airsoft not aircraft.

And the reason for the smaller magazines is "realism"

A lot of people like replica guns with the same magazine capacity as their real life counterparts. There are plenty of guns out there compatible with hi-capacity magazines though.

Personally I like small mags as it cuts down on the "spray and pray" strategy.

Single shot, manual cocking cuts out the spray and pray.

If the magazines were as easy to reload as a real gun then I wouldn't care about # of shots but you have to call a time out to reload. Paintball is SOOOO much easier to reload. Real guns are too, but I don't want to be playing with real guns. I've been on the wrong side of a real gun and that's not fun.

Internet Airsoft supply stores? I haven't found a one except RSOV and they aren't all that cheap. Anyway pellets are so cheap it doesn't make sense to pay shipping. As far as accuracy, there aren't that many brands of pellets so I seriously doubt I could find some online that would be worth the wait. The physics of the ammo says they'll never be truly accurate.

1 requirement for a new gun is a large magazine. If it doesn't have a large magazine I ain't agonna buy it - period.

The pump-action single shot guns I use have removable magazines. Pop one out and put a new one in. Takes me all of five seconds.

I like to shop at Pyramyd Air. Not always the best selection but they have great service and a good site. I linked you right to their selection of .20g ammo.

I will say that I don't know what you're paying for your ammo. It may well be cheaper than what I have to pay here in Baltimore. It's said that the ammo available in sporting goods type stores can mess up more fancy guns, but if you're using cheap guns it shouldn't be a problem anyway.

$6.99 for Tactical Force .20 biodegradable pellets.

I think I will to have peruse their site for guns too. I haven't decided what to buy.

As far as removable magazines, I haven't found an extra magazine at any store anywhere at any price!! That has amazed me. We've had to deal with one magazine per gun and with only 12 or so shots that doesn't give much play before you're having to find the neutral zone and reload. Capture the flag is next to impossible to play with one magazine.

One of the guns has a 200 count reservoir that when you run out of pellets you can pull the magazine, run the spring loader back, turn the magazine upside down and shake it really hard until 2 balls fall into the slot, then you bang it around really hard and get 5-6 balls, then you shake it really hard until 2-3 more balls fall into place, etc., etc. But that's preferable to having to leave your position and go reload.