Tag Archives: airsoft

How to Make a Airsoft Mortar

Posted on by sirbuffalosushi
4

Mortars are very common over in the Middle-East (among other places), not to mention very effective. Bringing the concept of the mortar to an airsoft field is outright destructive. Unfortunately no one makes airsoft mortars; which means you’re stuck making one yourself. Making it yourself isn’t all bad, though. By making it yourself it’s cheaper, if it needs maintenance you know how to fix it, and it can be plain fun.

This is what you need:

  • A plastic bottle (a small 20oz-ish bottle is perfect)
  • A 1-1/2ft long, 1/2in diameter PVC pipe (the diameter depends on how big the mouth on your bottle is; the PVC pipe just needs to fit snugly into the mouth of the bottle)
  • Electrical tape (or any kind of tape, for that matter; it just has to be able to be peeled off and on multiple times and still work)
  • A latex glove (like the ones doctors use; real thin and stretchable) (you can find ones like these at BJ’s or a automotive store)
  • Spray paint (It’s up to you what color to make your mortar; black is default, but OD Green looks awesome, or you can make it a fun color, it’s up to you)

Step 1 – Take your latex glove and cut a good sized square out of it (3in x 3in will do). Now take that latex square and stretch it over one end of your PVC pipe. Completely cover the hole on the one end. Stretch the latex until it’s close to breaking and tape it firmly in place. It should look something like this:

Step 2 – Slide your PVC pipe with the latex square taped onto it into the mouth of the bottle (latex side first). Slide it about 1/2 an inch into the bottle and then stop. With another piece of tape, secure the PVC pipe into the bottle by wrapping the tape very tightly around the mouth of the bottle, making a airtight seal. It should look like this:

Step 3 – Now all you have left to do is paint it. I recommend using a spray paint that’s meant for plastic, so it won’t peel off when you step on the bottle or peel the tape on and off. This is the final product (I painted mine in a dual-tone black/OD Green kind of thing):

How you shoot your mortar is you put airsoft BBs (7-10 of them) into the open end of the PVC pipe. Then you step on the the bottle with your foot. Stepping on the bottle will automatically raise the PVC pipe in the air a little bit. Put all your weight on the bottle and finally the latex will break and send a surge of air through the PVC pipe and project the BBs. Do not stomp on the bottle, just slowly put more and more weight on it until the latex snaps.

The only down side of this mortar is that to reload you have to unwrap the tape, pull out the PVC pipe, unwrap the other tap, pull off the popped latex, replace it with a new piece of latex, tape it up, put the bottle back on, and re-tape that again. Believe it or not, though, if you get a couple of teammates helping you, you can have it reloaded in about a minuet.

For accurate aiming you can even have a friend lift the PVC pipe up/down a little bit for greater/lesser distance. Although it looks pretty far from a real mortar, it fires just like one; all your BBs should rain down within a 10ft area. The mortar has a effective range of about 50ft. The BBs won’t hurt too bad, but you should be able to tell if you get hit. If you want to take your mortar to the next level (and make it look more like a real mortar), you can take a two sticks and tape them near the front of the PVC pipe (almost like a bipod).

Please give all credit for this project to SirBuffaloSushi and AirsofterUnited.wordpress.com

How to Make a Airsoft Claymore

Posted on by sirbuffalosushi
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The only airsoft claymores that you can find are over $100. So, unless you’re willing to shell out big bucks for a simple claymore, you’re stuck making one yourself. Making it yourself isn’t all bad, though. You can construct a decent airsoft claymore with some around-the-house items pretty easily. Plus, you know how it works if it ever needs maintenance.

This is what you need:

  • A cardboard box (it doesn’t need to be huge, but don’t make it too small)
  • Fishing line (or invisible thread)
  • Duct-tape
  • Some bendable wire (the wire needs to be manipulable, but sturdy enough so it won’t bend under some light weight; wire from a old clothing rack is perfect) (if you don’t have wire, then you can use a couple skinny sticks)
  • A mousetrap
  • Spray paint (OD Green or some type of Camouflage is best, but it’s to try to make it blend in with the environment, so if you live in the desert use brown and khaki, or for winter/snow use white or gray)
  • Cutting tools (to cut cardboard, string, and wire)

Step 1 – The first step is to prep your box. As stated above, you want a medium sized box, it also needs to be pretty deep. Take your box and cut the flaps off, so it looks like this:

Step 2 – After you’ve cut off the flaps, you can discard them. The next thing you want to do is take four pieces of wire (about 2 feet long) and poke them through the bottom of your box near each of the corners:

Step 3 – Now bend a little part of the wire that is poking up inside the box down and then pull it out the bottom of the box. Then bend the wire so it won’t come back up. Basically you want to make a hook-shaped thing, then pull the hook back through the bottom, leaving about a inch of cardboard left between where the wire initially went in and where the hook comes out (if you’re using sticks, you can skip this step):

Step 4 – So now you have the legs almost done. Now just put some Duct-tape over the inch of cardboard, ensuring it won’t tear causing the leg to come out (if you’re using sticks, then you’ll want to find some way to glue or tape your sticks to get them to stay in place. But, you want them to be able to swing back and forth) :

Step 5 – Now cut two vertical slits in the middle of the bottom of the box, about three inches long and four inches apart:

Step 6 – Take your mouse trap and tie multiple strands of fishing line/invisible thread and tie it to the part of the mouse trap that snaps down and would normally hit the mouse. Tape the other end of the string to bottom of the mouse trap. Make it long enough so if the mouse trap went off it would stop half way, like this (in this case I used yarn so you can see it. It really doesn’t matter what kind of string you use for this step, as long as it’s strong enough, because you’ll spray paint it anyway):

Step 7 – Now take your duct tape and cover the mouse-hitting thing, making a little sort of pocket:

Step 8 – Place the mouse trap (mouse-hitting side facing out of the box) between the slits you made in step 5. Tape the mouse trap down by threading a long piece of tape up through one slit, over part of the mouse trap, and back out the second slit. Make sure that the mouse trap will still fire half way, and that you didn’t accidentally tape the mouse-hitter thing down:

Step 9 – Next, take two pieces of wire (the size of the length between the front left to front right/back left to back right legs) and then bring both of the back legs forward past the front legs and connect a wire between them. Then connect the front legs. Use tape and string to lash the wire between the legs. So now the legs are crisscrossed, just like a real claymore:

Step 10 – Tie a 10ft piece of fishing line/invisible thread to the trigger part of the mouse trap (by “trigger” I mean the part the mouse steps on to set off the trap; sometimes it’s a cheese shaped piece of plastic, or sometimes it’s just a little piece of metal). Tie the other end to a 2ft tall piece of wire/stick. Then you can go ahead and spray paint the whole thing. As stated in the directions, you want a color that will blend into the environment that you’re going to use it in; the point isn’t to make it invisible, just not appear so obvious. This is what the finished product should look like (I made mine OD Green because I live in a sort of woody area with lots of Evergreen trees and bushes. The wire that has the string attached to the mouse trap is black. The image came out a little blurry, but the legs on the claymore are also OD Green):

How your claymore works is you stick it in the ground and stick the 2ft tall wire/stick that’s attached to the mouse trap about 9ft away, giving the line in between the wire and the mouse trap just enough slack that the claymore won’t go off on accident. Now set the mouse trap just like you normally would. Put 10 or so airsoft BBs on top of the duct tape pocket that you made on the mouse-hitter thing. Now your claymore is set. If someone bumps into the fishing line, the mouse trap will go off and stop abruptly half way, which will send the BBs sitting on top of the mouse trap flying into whoever hit the fishing line. If the BBs hit bare skin it’ll sting just a little bit, and if they hit fabric, you’ll feel them but they won’t hurt too bad.

The best way to use your claymore is in airsoft matches; put it around a corner where it’s hidden and when someone comes running past they’ll hit the fishing line and the claymore will get them. Your paint job camouflage will come in handy if you plant the claymore in high grass or brush.

Please give all credit for this project to SirBuffaloSushi and AirsofterUnited.wordpress.com

How to Make a Airsoft Silencer/Suppressor

Posted on by sirbuffalosushi
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Silencers/Suppressors really don’t silence or suppress anything in airsoft, they’re mainly for looks, although they increase accuracy. This post will show you how to make a simple airsoft silencer/suppressor from around the house items. In order for this silencer/suppressor to work, you need to put it on a airsoft gun that has a long-ish safety tip that your silencer can fit over, like this:

This is what you need:

  • A cardboard paper towel roll
  • Foam pipe instillation (1/2 inch diameter is fits the average gun, but you can buy 3/4 inch and up, depending on how large your orange safety tip is. It’s better to end up with a loose fitting one than one that won’t fit at all)
  • Tape (duct tape is best)
  • Bright orange tape (again, orange duct tape is best)
  • Spray paint (it’s up to you what color you want your silencer; black is standard, but you can make it match the color of your gun, or you can use a fun color, or OD Green looks pretty cool)
  • Cutting tools (to cut your paper towel roll, the instillation, and the tape)

Step 1 – The first thing you do is take your paper towel roll and the pipe instillation and cut them both to a length of 8in. You can make them shorter for CQB, but just make sure they’re the same size (also, save any piece of cardboard paper towel roll that you cut off to use later):

Step 2 – Next, fit the pipe instillation into the cardboard roll; it should be a snug fit:

Step 3- Now tape both ends up with tape so the pipe instillation won’t come out. Tape one end with the normal duct tape and tape the other with the bright orange (just make sure that you don’t cover up the hole of the pipe instillation):

Step 4 – Now all that’s left is to spray paint the whole thing. Just do not paint over the orange duct tape; this with serve as a safety tip (it’s illegal to have a airsoft gun without a bright orange tip on the end of it):

Step 5 – Now simply slide your silencer/suppressor over the orange safety tip on your gun. If it’s loose then you can take the little piece of cardboard roll that you saved earlier and cut it so you can open it up. Then roll it as tight as you can and glue it to the inside of the silencer. What this will do is make a smaller hole for your tip to fit in. This is what it should look like when it’s on your gun:

Like I said, it doesn’t silence or suppress, but it will increase the accuracy and look really cool. If you have problems with the silencer falling off then you can take the extra piece of cardboard and make the suppressor hole smaller, as explained above. Or, if you know you want the silencer on your gun for a while, you could even glue or tape the silencer onto your gun, although the cardboard trick should keep the silencer in place.

Please give all credit for this project to SirBuffaloSushi and AirsofterUnited.wordpress.com

Crosman Auto-Reset Airsoft Target

Posted on by sirbuffalosushi
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Simple enough; if you hit one of the targets it goes down. Then you hit the target on the very left and they all pop back up. Unfortunately it’s never that simple.

For starters the Crosman Auto-Reset target’s a pain to put together. You have to pull the mesh netting over some metal bars and hook it over the plastic frame. But, since the netting is so tight, the metal bars want to fold inward. Even when you successfully get it all put together,  the netting still fights the bars and you have to prompt the bars back outwards every couple minuets. Also, the little stand that the actual targets are on snaps to the inside of the plastic frame, but it keeps wanting to pop out and mess the whole thing up.

After you finally get the Crosman Auto-Reset target all put together it still has problems. For one, the targets are extremely small. So unless you’re shooting it from under 20 feet, it’s near impossible to hit. And even when you do hit, unless you hit one of the targets dead center, it most likely won’t go down.

The target is also supposed to stop the BB and catch it in the net so you can reuse it. That’s also not true. The net is so tight that the BB hits the net and bounces right back out. So basically don’t be expecting for it to contain your BBs.

To pile more negative feedback on top, it breaks. If you miss the target and hit the plastic frame it’ll chip off. Even with low FPS (Feet Per Second) guns it still chipped the plastic if it hit it.

The Crosman Auto-Reset target isn’t all bad, though. You really can’t beat the price at the $10-$15 it goes for. Plus, when you actually do knock a target down, the reset works perfectly. If you want a cheap target that you can just fool around with on a rainy day, or even if you have a accurate rifle that you want to shoot at close range, this could fit the bill.

So, in closing, the Auto-Reset airsoft target from Crosman is far from perfect. But you have to remember that it’s only $10 or so.  If you’re looking to save ammo by reusing caught BBs, then stay away from this target, but if you just want a cheap alternative to a paper target I wouldn’t write this one off.

Crosman Gel Trap Airsoft Target Review

Posted on by sirbuffalosushi
1

Depending on what type of airsoft gun you have, you go through a lot of BBs. The Crosman Gel Trap not only stops the BBs and is a great target, it catches them and drops them into a tray for you to reuse.

As far as the look of it goes, it’s much like a dartboard. This is useful because
you can also play two-player games, in addition to just trying to hit the bulls-eye.

The Crosman Gel Trap is about 12in wide and has a clip on the backside, so that you can hang it on a wall. You can also set it up on a table by lifting the target up from the tray, and inserting the legs of the target back into a slot in the middle of the tray. But, because the target is on the smaller side, it fills up fast, then you have to manually clear the target because it takes to long for all the BBs to fall into the tray.

It’s very durable, too. I’ve had mine for two years, and besides it getting a little less tacky and it chipping in a couple places, it’s held up very well. Although, getting grass stuck on the face of it is a fast way to ruin it. Also, the plastic around the gel part and the tray itself can get hit and chipped by higher FPS (Feet Per Second) guns; but that’s to be expected from any target.

Crosman claims that BBs hit the target and slowly drip down into the tray. For the most part this is true, although depending on the FPS of your gun, the BBs hit, stay for a few minuets, then suddenly drop into the tray. Either way, this target can save you thousands of BBs, and lots of money.

In a wrap, for the $9-$15 the Crosman Gel Trap costs, it’s well worth the money. I don’t really recommend anything over 300 FPS shoot this target, though, because they can damage the plastic on the target. Also know that this target is meant for airsoft guns, BB guns will damage the target.

Stinger P311 Airsoft Gun Review

Posted on by sirbuffalosushi
5

The Stinger P311 airsoft gun is a look-alike of the famous Colt 1911; from the block iron sights, to the simple look of the gun. At only $10-$20 (depending on where you buy it), this pistol also packs a punch.

One of the cool features of the Stinger P311 is the hammer. Most airsoft guns don’t have hammers, but lately Crosman (the maker of this gun) has been incorporating them into their pistols, adding to the realism. When you pull the slide back the hammer gets cocked back also, just like a real gun. You can manually pull back the hammer, too, and it’ll just snap back in place when you pull the trigger; although it won’t fire if you do that, since you have to pull the slide back to get it loaded. So, really, the whole point of the hammer is just decoration.

This pistol also packs a punch, for what it’s worth. It shoots 325 FPS, which is just about as high as it goes with spring pistols (without modifying it, that is).

A problem, though, with the Stinger P311 is the hop-up is nonadjustable, which means you’re stuck with however tight it was wound in the factory. Basically, at ranges over 30 feet, the Stinger P311 tends to shoot straight for about 20 feet, then take a dramatic turn either go left/right/up/down. You can’t really count this as a “con”, though, because almost every pistol is going to have the same problem, more or less. A solution to this problem is to shoot .20 gram BBs; they’re heavier than the regular .12 gram, so they tend to curve less. In really bad cases of curving BBs, you could even use .25 gram.

Another flaw is that it’s big, which would be a problem if you wanted to stick it in your pocket or something. But, this is another non issue, because you can get a holster for under $10. Besides, in the world of spring pistols, in order to have high FPS, it has to be a big gun.

For it’s price, the Stinger P311 has very nice workings. The slide pulls back quickly and cleanly, which results in shorter time between shots. The magazine also ejects out very quickly. With some airsoft pistols you have to push the magazine release while shaking the gun to get the magazine to fall out. The Stinger P311’s magazine springs out, which also makes for quick reload times. The flaws in the magazine are that is has no reserve, which means you might want to buy extra clips, due to not being able to refill from the magazine itself. Also, if you can’t do tactical reloads, because (if you take out the magazine while it still has BBs left in it) a couple BBs will fall out, all over the ground.

And, another part to think about is the safety. It’s located on the left side, just above the grip. It’s shaped like a triangle, and it pivots on one of the points. You flip it up and down to turn on and off the safety. Because of its weird design, not many people are used to it, so it doesn’t feel natural to turn off/on the safety. Some people like the design, and some people hate it, it’s up to your personal preference.

To conclude, the Stinger P311 is a great sidearm for both target shooting and airsoft matches. It boasts a high FPS, but is best used at ranges under 30-40 feet. Also, think about buying a holster and some heavier ammo along with this gun. Factoring in the price, performance, and overall utility of the Stinger P311, it’s one of my favorite spring pistols to use.

Specs:
Feet Per Second: 325
Accuracy: Very accurate at 10-30 feet
Power: Spring (you must cock it back before each shot)
Caliber: 6mm
Recommended BB Weight: .20 grams
Magazine Capacity: 12 BBs
Manufacture: Crosman

Video Review:

Crash-Course in Airsoft (The Basics of Airsoft)

Posted on by sirbuffalosushi
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Airsoft is as close to real combat you can get, without putting your life in peril. Airsoft is usually a team sport, and people of all ages everywhere are getting in on the action. The whole point is: take out the enemy and don’t get shot doing it. The rules are different everywhere, and depending on how many people are playing, the rules can vary from all out war, to if you get hit you must sit out for the rest of the round until a team has won, to capture the flag, to just friendly backyard skirmishes. There’s almost infinite ways to play, and there’s not a right or a wrong way.

The most important and most basic thing you need for airsofting is a airsoft gun. Basically how a airsoft gun works is, in some fashion, a spring is compressed along with a little pocket of air, which propels a BB (BBs are small plastic spheres that airsoft guns shoot. They usually have a diameter of 6mm, so they’re pretty small).  There’s several different types of guns, here’s a little list of the three different types:

AEG (Automatic Electric Gun) – This is battery powered. You must charge a 7-12 (sometimes greater) volt battery and hook it up to the gun to give it power. As far as batteries go, there’s two measurements that come into play: Volts – volts measure how powerful the battery is, the more volts, the faster a gun will shoot, and also the higher rate of fire and velocity there will be (even a small upgrade in battery can dramatically improve a gun). The only down side is that if you have to strong of a battery, it might overwhelm the gun and break it. The second measurement is mAh – this is how much power a battery can store. For example, a 1200 mAh battery can last a (let’s say) 10 hour battle; a 1800 mAh battery can last a 14 hour battle. That’s just some basic examples of different battery terminology.

The upside of an AEG is that it is usually fully automatic, which means with a single pull of the trigger multiple BB’s can be fired. AEG’s are the most popular type of airsoft gun for fights because of this. Out shooting the enemy is the biggest advantage you can have in any kind of gun fight. AEG’s usually have relatively good FPS (feet per second; I’ll talk about FPS later) which is also a benefit.

Spring/Bolt Action – Spring/Bolt Action powered means you must cock something back before each shot. On pistols you usually cock the slide back, rifles usually have a charging handle on the top or on the side, and revolvers you must cock the hammer back. Either way, what it does is compress a spring and capture air that will then help propel the BB. This type of gun is the most common type because of its simplicity, cheapness, and because it will fire under extreme heat/coldness where the batteries inside AEG’s or the CO2 inside Gas Powered guns might fail in extreme weather. You can even get spring guns wet and muddy and they still will fire (although, you should clean and dry them if they get wet because the springs will rust). But, as stated before, spring powered guns require you cock back the slide/cocking mechanism which make them slow to shoot, so they just can’t compete with AEG’s and Gas Powered guns.

Bolt action is the same thing as spring powered; basically you compress a spring to shoot the BB, it’s just in a different form. With bolt action, you take a handle and rack it back then forward again to compress the spring and get a BB in the chamber, exactly as you would with real guns (except with real bullets, also). But bolt action can compress stronger springs which results in higher FPS. This is why bolt action is almost exclusively used on sniper rifles. If you’re confused, the main difference is that with bolt action you pull a big bolt back, and with spring action you simply rack a charging handle. But, bolt can produce higher FPS than spring.

CO2/Green Gas – This type of gun requires a CO2/Green Gas power outlet to work. All you have to do is screw in your power outlet and you’re ready to shoot. With CO2 and Green Gas powered guns the emphasis is on power.

An example of CO2 power outlets

Since CO2/Green Gas is doing the work instead of springs (AEG’s and Spring/Bolt Action require springs to work), the BB can be shot at much higher velocities (C02 and Green Gas still use springs, they’re just not so vital). And like AEG’s, you don’t have to cock back each time which means you can fire as fast as you can pull the trigger. Usually Co2/Green Gas are only semi-automatic which means with every pull of the trigger one shot is fired, but there are a handful of fully-automatic Co2/Green Gas out there. Fully-automatic means with one pull of the trigger, multiple BBs can be fired.

*

Now for some terms you hear a lot in airsoft:

The difference between full-automatic and semi-automatic – if you didn’t understand fully/semi-automatic guns from the descriptions I gave above, I’ll explain it further. Semi-automatic means that every time you pull the trigger, one bullet/BB will shoot out. Fully-automatic means that if you pull the trigger, multiple bullets/BBs can be fired. As long as you hold down the trigger with fully-automatic, a steady stream of BBs will be shooting out. To give you a idea of which type of gun usually does what (this is just a general overlook, there can be exceptions):

AEG’s – usually have both fully and semi-automatic features
Spring/Bolt Action – neither; you must manually pull some sort of charging lever back before each shot
Co2/Green Gas – Usually semi-automatic only. Although, there are a couple of fully-automatic models out there

Now, for those who are completely new to airsoft or any type of gun, what the “safety” feature is. Every gun has safety, every single type and model; it is both unsafe and illegal to have a firearm without a working safety. A safety locks the trigger into place, so that a gun won’t go off by bumping into things. When a working safety is on, it is impossible to discharge the gun. It’s just that simple. Every airsofter (and firearm owner, for that matter) must always have their gun on safety when not in use.

ROF (Rate of Fire) is how many BB’s a gun, usually a AEG, will fire per minuet. Pretty simple. So if a gun had a ROF of 800, that means, that it will fire 800 BBs in one minuet.

There’s also a couple different types of “Blow-back” airsoft guns. Blow-back just means that when you fire the gun, the slide will blow back, just like a real gun. Blow-back airsoft guns can be Co2 or Electric (AEG). The benefits to a blow-back gun is that it looks realistic, and it chambers a BB each shot, so that it shoots as fast as you can pull the trigger, unless it’s fully-automatic, which would basically make it a blow-back AEG. GBB (Gas Blow-Back) is basically a Co2 powered blow-back airsoft gun. EGG (Electric Blow-Back) is a Electric powered blow-back (although electric powered blow-backs are pretty rare, and usually have horrible FPS and accuracy. So, chances are that you’ll never really hear the term “EGG”). The down side of a blow-back airsoft gun, while it’s semi or fully-automatic, it costs much more money than a Co2 or AEG, plus Co2’s and AEG’s already are semi/fully-auto. And, since the slide comes back, it drains batteries and Co2 cartridges much faster than normal. So really, blow-backs just look cool.

Another term you might hear in airsoft is “CQB”. All that stands for is “Close Quarter Battle”. Basically, all that means if a gun is good for CQB, is that it’s good for close-up fighting (usually 20 feet or under). Another way you might hear CQB is a type of game mode. It’s the same thing, any shooting taking place when your target is 20 feet or closer; most of the time CQB is indoors, just because indoors are usually smaller spaces, but it can also be outdoors. Lower FPS guns are best for Close Quarter Battle, because higher FPS guns hurt to much at short range.

FPS (Feet Per Second) is a measurement used to describe how fast the BB will be traveling as it leaves the barrel. For example, if a airsoft gun has a label “375 FPS” it means when the BB exits the barrel of the gun, it will be traveling 375 feet per second. This can be calculated to better understand it to 256 Miles Per Hour. So, 375 FPS = 256 MPH. This may seem fast, but keep in mind this is barrel velocity. As soon as the BB leaves the barrel it starts slowing down. It will lose at least 25% of its speed by the time the BB actually gets to your target. Also, manufactures try to look better by trying to get the highest FPS out of their gun; so what they do is take a .12 gram BB and calculate how fast a .12 gram BB (we’ll get to what the ‘grams’ matter in a moment) is traveling right as it leaves the barrel. The bottom line is, when you’re looking at a gun’s FPS, take at least 75 off of it right away. The manufacturer’s FPS is always higher than the real thing. The effect of FPS in the field is, the higher the FPS, the faster the BB will go, the more accurate it will be, and the longer it will travel.

Now for what “grams” mean. A gram is a measurement of weight. Obviously a .12 gram BB will be lighter than a .20 gram; a .20 gram will be lighter than a .25 gram, etc. The weight of standard airsoft BB’s are from .12-.45 gram weight. The heavier the weight, the more accurate. That’s why most players use .20 and up for almost every gun. The drawback of a heavier BB is that it will dramatically decrease the FPS. Usually the general rule of thumb is, the higher the FPS, the higher gram BB you should use. 200 FPS and under is best with .12 gram; 200-400 = .20 gram; etc. Also, guns with their hop-up wound to lose should use a higher gram BB (Hop-Up, I’ll explain next). Or if the gun is fully-automatic then you should use almost strictly .20 gram because anything less/more could jam. So, you should weigh out the accuracy to power ratio to find the best weight BB for your gun.

And now for hop-up. Almost every gun has it now. Hop-Up puts a back spin on your BB, making it more accurate, and a whole lot better distance. At close range, hop-up can be annoying because the BB will tend to go upwards and be less accurate. But at long ranges, hop-up is vital, adding distance and accuracy. The “tighter” a hop-up is wound, the less backspin will be put on the BB. The “looser” the hop-up is wound the more backspin will be put on a BB. Looser = more hop-up, and the the BB will tend to float up after 50 feet. Tighter = less hop-up, and the BB will sink after about 50 feet. (When a BB will either float or sink [50 feet, 60 feet, 70 feet, etc.] depends on the velocity of your gun) If you’re target is 30 feet away you probably want less hop-up, and if your target is 70 feet away you want more hop-up. It all depends on the situation. All-and-all, hop-up is good.

A alternative to hop-up is BAXS. BAXS is relatively new to airsofters, and has gotten a so-so reception because of airsofters’ loyalty and comfort level with hop-up. BAXS is in no way bad, though. With hop-up there’s two points of contact on the BB while it’s in the chamber, the top and bottom. With BAXS there’s three points of contact, two on the top and one on the bottom. Basically, BAXS gives you more control over the BB, so instead of floating up or down after 50/60/70 feet, the BB will continue going straight. BAXS is mostly on cheaper guns because they tend to have less FPS and it would be inaccurate to have hop-up. Although, it’s not totally uncommon to have BAXS on higher end airsoft guns.

Well, that’s the end of the “crash-course” on airsoft. Congratulations on reading the whole thing. If you have any further questions regarding airsoft, email me at (sirbuffalosushi@gmail.com) or leave a comment.

(This is a posted copy of Airsofter United’s page, “Crash Course“)

Tips to Reloading Airsoft Guns (How To Get More Shots Per Magazine)

Posted on by sirbuffalosushi
5

You can’t have a gun without ammo. You can’t have a airsoft gun without BBs. It just won’t work. That’s why the biggest hassle in any gun fight is reloading. In this post I’m going to show you how to get more shots per clip, which may not sound like a big deal, but when a friendly airsoft fight turns into a war, a couple extra shots can kill/tag a couple guys on the opposing team. Think about that, less players shooting at you, that’s a pretty big deal. Find your type of gun below, and get your guns locked and completely loaded.

AEG’s (Automatic Electric Guns)

AEG’s usually have big reservoirs that are pushed into the chamber via spring that you crank by turning the wheel on the bottom of the magazine. Take a completely empty magazine, and fill up the reservoir just like you normally would. Now I know that you’re suppose to put the magazine into the gun and then crank the wheel, but this time crank the wheel on the bottom of your magazine just until the BBs reach the top of the chamber. Then open up the reservoir again and there should be room for at least five more BBs if not more. Fill the space up, and then insert the fully loaded magazine into your gun and then crank the wheel all the way taught. This has now given you a average of 10 more BBs in your magazine.

Spring Pistols, Shotguns, and Sniper Rifles

Unfortunately, there’s not much extra room in pistols/shotguns/sniper-rifles magazines for extra BBs due to their slim, tidy design. However, you can add just one more shot. How you do it is, take a empty magazine from your gun. Then load it with just one BB. Now insert the magazine with the one BB in it into your gun. Now simply cock your gun just like you would to get one in the chamber. Then take the magazine back out and it should be empty. Now fill the magazine up just like you normally would and insert it into the gun. The single BB you loaded earlier is now in the chamber, giving you a extra shot. Just be careful to keep the gun on safety until you’re ready to fire because as soon as you pull the trigger, it’s loaded and will fire.

Gravity Fed Hopper Guns

Gravity fed hoppers are the most simple design out there, making it the hardest to manipulate. Basically, BBs are stored above the chamber, usually in a scope or a compartment. To juice some extra rounds out of these you’ve got to get creative. What you need to do is take a piece of construction paper and roll it into a giant straw thing and tape it so it wont unroll, make it just small enough to fit into the hole where you pour BBs into to fill up the scope/compartment. Shove it into the hole about a half inch in and tape it into place so it wont fall off. Now fill it up with BBs so it fills the compartment and the funnel you made up to the top. It might look ridicules, but it gives you a average of 50+ extra BBs. This is to give you a idea of what it would look like if you cut your gun right down the middle with your funnel inserted:

Spring Rifles

All spring rifles have different magazines, which makes explaining this part hard. There’s some guns were you have no room to “top off” (I’ll show you how to top off in a moment), and for those guns (a example is the Mossberg M590 shotgun from Soft-Air USA), the only thing you could do to get as much ammo as possible is to “get one in the chamber”. Scroll up to “Spring Pistols, Shotguns, and Sniper Rifles” to learn how to get one in the chamber, it’s the exact same concept. But some rifles (the Stinger R34 from Crosman, for example) has a little more room to work with. To give you a idea of what kinds of magazines can top off, take a look at the picture below. You need one like that, with the outward notch:
The notch usually isn’t that dramatic, but the bigger it is, the more ammo it’ll hold. On magazines like this you usually pull a spring down on the front of the magazine and you usually lock it into place some how, then you either pour the BBs in from the notch, or if you have a reservoir that you shake to make the BBs fall in from the reservoir.  As seen below, the BBs fall into a sort of chamber in the magazine. The BBs don’t take up that whole chamber, the notch up on top is empty, so you can just manually drop a couple BBs on top of the others. A idea of what you’re seeing below is the “before” is a normally loaded magazine. The “after” is a normally loaded magazine with three extra BBs on top (the extra BBs are shown in red):

Just make sure to keep the magazine up right while you insert it into your gun becuase the BBs on top are loose and could fall.

That’s about all the different ways you can extend your BB count. While these methods do take longer to load than just a regular load, you never know, maybe those few extra BBs might save your hide and keep you in the game.

Mossberg M590 Airsoft Gun Review

Posted on by sirbuffalosushi
30

The Mossberg M590 is a very versatile, powerful, light weight, combat shot gun. Soft-Air USA  took all these key features and turned it into a purebred airsoft shotgun.

The Mossberg M590 airsoft gun comes in three different styles: Full Stock, Collapsible Stock, and Pistol Grip (seen above). It’s great to have that kind of options, and every style fits each person differently. For example, if you’re a smaller kid and still like the stock, I’d recommend the collapsible stock. If you’re looking to use for CQB (Close Quarter Battle), I’d probably buy the pistol grip version. And finally, if you were looking for a true combat shotgun to own the battlefield with and hold nothing back, I’d purchase the full stock. There’s just so many different scenarios, so just think about which one fits you best and give that a try.

The Mossberg M590 is a true regulator. It shoots 355 FPS, and is pretty accurate (within five shots you can hit a squirrel from over 100 feet. I don’t recommend shooting it at any animal though, squirrels or otherwise). Obviously the pistol grip version might be less accurate though, due to it’s small format, just keep that in mind. As for different weights of BBs to use, I recommend .25 gram if you want a accurate shot, although .12 and .20 gram work fine if your goal is just to go all kamikaze on the other team. But if you’re looking to target shoot or be more conservative and accurate in a fight, I’d stick with .25 gram.

One of the reasons that the Mossberg M590 is so accurate is because it boasts the BAXS system. The BAXS system is a cousin of hop-up, and claims to be more accurate. Basically with BAXS, the BB doesn’t float/sink like hop-up does. In the case of the Mossberg M590, the BAXS system works like magic. Also, the BAXS is adjustable, to give the BB less/more backspin.

There are also two tricks with the Mossberg M590 that you can do. Just as a warning, though, these are called “tricks” for a reason, the Mossberg M590 isn’t suppose to be able to do this, so I’m not responsible for any damage to your gun by you trying this. The first trick is to hold down the trigger and never let it up and pump as fast as you can. That will make it virtually fully automatic. The second trick is to hold the gun so the barrel is pointing up and pump 3-5 times. Then when you shoot, it’ll shoot how ever many BBs you’ve pumped simultaneously, like buck shot. Just make sure to keep the barrel at no less than a 45 degree angle, otherwise the BBs will role out the muzzle. Like I’ve said, those are just a couple tricks you can do with the Mossberg M590 shotgun, they’re not actual features.

The magazine is the only weak-link in the Mossberg M590. It only holds 12 rounds, which might seem like a lot but at the rate you can pump and shoot, you’re out in no time. Most rifles hold 20+ rounds, so the 12 rounds is defiantly a down side. But, to make up for the 12 rounds, there’s a nice big reservoir that holds 180+ rounds. The thing about the reservoir is you pull the magazine spring  back past a hole that BBs fall in from and fill the chamber, just like any airsoft reservoir. The only thing about this one is that most springs can be pulled back and locked into place via notch, letting you be able to shake the magazine and get BBs into the chamber. This one however you must manually keep the spring back, because there’s no notch.

When you’re shooting, and think you’ve run out of ammo, you have to hold the gun upside-down and pump for the last two or three shots. You have to do this because the magazine spring doesn’t push the last few BBs up far enough, and if you were to just take the magazine straight out, a couple BBs would fall out. This isn’t a huge deal, just remember to pump the last couple shots in upside-down.

To conclude, the Mossberg M590 is a fast shooting, accurate shotgun. Great for both target shooting and a good backyard airsoft fight. While the magazine isn’t perfect, the power and versatility more than makes up. And it comes in many different styles, so make you get the right one to fit your needs. I definitely recommend this gun for the 20-$50 it costs (depending what style you get and where you get it from).

Specs:
Feet Per Second: 355
Accuracy: Can hit a person from over 100 feet
Power: Spring (you must cock it back before each shot)
Caliber: 6mm
Recommended BB Weight: .25 grams
Magazine Capacity: 12 BBs (with a 180 round reservoir)
Manufacture: Soft-Air USA

Video Review:

Tac R71 Airsoft Gun Review

Posted on by sirbuffalosushi
13

The Tac R71 is Crosman’s take on one of the most internationally used guns; the MP5k. The Tac R71 is designed for tight maneuvering, quick hip fire, and mainly used in CQB (Close Quarter Battle) due to it’s low profile and light 200 fps velocities. This gun also shines with it’s full auto capabilities.

The more pronounced features of the Tac R71 is the removable stock and the silencer. The stock is fixed, which means you can’t adjust it or fold it, however you can take it completely off. It’s made of light-weight plastic and it shouldn’t give you any problems as far as breaking. As for the silencer, like almost all airsoft silencers/suppressors, it doesn’t silence or suppress it. But, it does add accuracy and much needed velocity.

A big fact to know about the Tac R71 is that the scope and magazine are backwards. What I mean by that is, the scope, while you can see through it, is really a gravity fed hopper. What that means is that all of the BBs are stored in there, and they fall into the chamber by going through a hole in the bottom of the scope. While this allows more BBs to be in the gun at one time oppose to the magazine, the problem is that every five seconds or so you must shake the gun to get the BBs to fall into the chamber. It’s not a huge deal, but it gets annoying if you are planning on creeping along quietly and shaking it gives away your position. All the “magazine” is, is the battery.

It also gives a good fight. For only $40, the Tac R71 can put some plastic down range in a hurry. Although, you do have to shake it frequently. It’s advertised as 200 feet per second, but if you keep it clean and lubricated, you could see velocities of 275 with .12 gram BBs. It can hold ground in a airsoft fight, even up against higher end AEG’s, as long as you’ve got a feel for the gun and know what you’re doing.

The Tac R71 wears over time though. While at first the Tac R71 fires rounds at a incredible pace, after a year and a half of use, it can start losing FPS and struggles to get BBs out the barrel. The average life for a airsoft gun is around two or three years anyway, so it’s to be expected. You can try looking for a new battery which might help, but due to its unique design, it might be very hard to find a new one. You can also try filing down the inside of the barrel; because the Tac R71 has common problems of having rough barrels, causing the BB to get stuck or lose all its momentum and dribble out the barrel.

So, this is a great gun for CQB, or even as a low profile sub machine gun in a airsoft fight. The Tac R71 is good for target shooting, too! This is a good gun for someone who is just getting into airsoft, or for someone who is hesitant about airsoft and wants a good, cheap example of what it’s like, or even a good player looking for a cheap full-auto alternative. Just give it some love and keep it clean and lubed, and it’ll pass your expectations.

Specs:
Feet Per Second: 200
Accuracy: Can hit a person from over 40 feet
Power: Electric
Caliber: 6mm
Recommended BB Weight: .12 grams
Magazine Capacity: 500 BBs (Gravity-fed hopper)
Manufacture: Crosman