anyone do airsoft?

My son has had a cheap little airsoft pistol for a few years but today his new one arrived from Amazon. I'm not a gun guy but that thing is serious looking. It is a full size AK47 with a banana clip. He proudly told me that it does 300 fps and will put a hole in a pop can. Should I be worried about him drilling his friends with that? Seems like the airsoft battle for supremacy is escalating.

Nope—been there, done that. The better guns hurt more, but assuming he has real eye protection I wouldn't worry. We used to have giant battles with those (think multiple acres, resupply runs, and fortified positions), and I'm still around.

Oh, do buy extra eyewear. Like 4 or 5 pairs of good stuff. His friends might show up in 3D glasses or something stupid, otherwise.

Don't let them touch them or even bring them in the house. We have a almost perfect bulls eye in the middle of the TV screen from a accidental ricochet.

Edit: They will put holes in vinyl siding, so if you house has vinyl, beware. They also leave beads everywhere, you might want to make sure you buy a color that will blend in with your yard. Red and yellow beads everywhere is a little annoying.

Luckily, they didn't play with them long. Probably because I started making them pick up all the beads.

What happened to the good old days of just shooting each other with BB guns?

02Pilot wrote: What happened to the good old days of just shooting each other with BB guns?

And bottle rockets. Artillery is just as important as infantry.

300fps is pretty weak .

Do some basic gun safety with him - finger outside the trigger guard, awareness of where the barrel is pointing, assume it's always loaded, etc.

Eye protection for everybody - I did like Tom said and bought a bunch of goggles.

Also - be sure he knows to leave the orange ring on, and how to interact with the popo when some alarmist anti-gun person calls the police during a war.

Last - don't ever, ever mention, while consuming bourbon during an AMC Rambo series marathon, that airsoft is a fun and effective way to clear out ding-dong-ditchers who think his younger sister is cute .

Friend and I went to a couple Halloween parties as the boondock saints. We each bought 2 airsoft pistols for the costume. It was hilarious shooting holes in people's Dixie cups so the beer would drain out.

I took a 400fps shotgun at point blank range. Hurt like hell but it was worth it. Some of the airstoft guns can get pretty wicked.

Bio degradable pellets.

Well thanks for the input. Those pellets are everywhere already because the cheaper guns have been around for a while. He loves guns and has already had some training so I don't think he will take out the TV or a brother by accident. Are they supposed to come with the orange wrap on the barrel? This one does not have it and I was going to add something.

Add that orange immediately! Cops frown upon that and there's no reason to get popped by a cop with an itchy trigger finger cause the toy now looks incredibly real. Not to be a Debbie Downer, but airsoft is supposed to be fun.

Orange is an import requirement IIRC. Good sense to have it intact.

Between concerns of litter, property damage, and weapons confusion, might I suggest paintball?

Toyman01 wrote:

02Pilot wrote: What happened to the good old days of just shooting each other with BB guns?

And bottle rockets. Artillery is just as important as infantry.

That, plus we used firecrackers as grenades.

Regarding airsoft, sounds like a good opportunity to discuss gun safety. My (much) younger brothers were big into it. Just be really careful where you let him play. A nervous neighbor calling the cops could end badly.

bearmtnmartin wrote: My son has had a cheap little airsoft pistol for a few years but today his new one arrived from Amazon. I'm not a gun guy but that thing is serious looking. It is a full size AK47 with a banana clip. He proudly told me that it does 300 fps and will put a hole in a pop can. Should I be worried about him drilling his friends with that? Seems like the airsoft battle for supremacy is escalating.

The "serious" guns are the sniper rifles, or when you've got an idiot out there with too much money arming himself to the teeth with some of the more expensive equipment, such as a Classic Army AEG M249 with a battery-powered feed magazine. My friend used to simply cycle the magazine to scare people away during Airsoft competition. He was a big guy, and carried two heavily-modified M249 saws (which cost and weigh about as much as the "real" M249's), which could empty a magazine pretty freaking quickly...but also broke often as well (electrics...the green gas guns are the way to go, but didn't last very long on a gas charge). The only drawback to running this type of gun was that the magazines were pretty noisy, so you could hear him clattering through the woods in most directions...and they were freaking heavy.

The "scary" guy in our group was pretty hard core, and brought an arsenal in a box van whenever he came to compete. His evil gun was a custom-built "typewriter" MG-42, although he had probably twenty-something guns to choose from.