Instructions Page

Instructions Page

Due to the high velocity of the BBs, many players opt to wear military BDUs for more than just cosmetic reasons. These thicker clothes help protect from potentially painful welts that might be caused by the impact of a BB from a "high" (400-550 ft/s) velocity gun at shorter ranges, but may somewhat hinder one's ability to determine if they've been hit by a "standard" (275-350 ft/s) velocity gun at longer ranges. Also, protective glasses or goggles are a minimum requirement to play in most games and virtually all players absolutely refuse to play without proper eye protection. If one is shot in the naked eye with an airsoft gun, it will almost assuredly seriously injure their eye, and the player runs the risk of permanently losing their vision.

For this reason, while a very few fields have less stringent requirements for eye protection, nearly all organized groups of players, and fields that allow airsoft require that their eye protection fully seals the area around the eyes, and also meets or exceeds ANSI's Z87.1-2003 goggle standard for eye protection (resists 3 joules of impact energy without damage). Some players will buy paintball goggles, which are held to higher impact rating standards, ASTM's F1776. Note that Z87.1-2003 rated goggles are not intended for use in industry and manufacturing, and are not specifically intended for use in sports.

According to ANSI publications as of June 2006, The ASTM is currently developing a more specific standard for the sport - ASTM Z1535Z - Standard Specification for Eye Proctective Devices for Airsoft Sports.

Some other rules such as a maximum BB velocity and distance guidelines are used in different ways by groups depending of their location. Though not required at all fields, a facial covering such as a balaclava or a paintball mask (paired up with the set of goggles) is commonly used, as there have been a few cases of players having chipped teeth due to direct hits by airsoft pellets.

There is not yet a world wide consensus between Airsoft players regarding muzzle velocities, and different limits may apply depending on the airsoft field. For security reasons majority will use limits far below skin penetration level assuring that the game is as safe as possible. These limits are based on muzzle velocities measured using BB’s weighing 0.20 grams, although BB’s of other weights are allowed for play, 0.20 as become a standard when performing measurements

Comparisons with paintball

Most people do not realize that airsoft has been around significantly longer than paintball. Paintball first came on to the scene in the United States in the mid-1980s through the use of utility companies' paint marking guns, which mark power/utility poles. Paintball has gained greater popularity more quickly than airsoft in the United States. However, in Asia, airsoft is much more popular and paintball is nearly non-existent. It should be noted that while airsofters and paintballers are serious about their sport, the debate between them is often not.

Many question how airsoft players know they hit their target or have been hit by an opponent. Unlike paintball, which leaves paint on impact (depending upon shot distance and if the ball breaks), it is possible that airsofters take a hit and because of their apparel or gear, are not able to feel the BB strike. Other methods like the audible sound of a hit or seeing a BB bounce off are also clear tell-tale indications. But in all cases, an honor system is required to be used among players which (when properly enforced) is known to work very well. In many cases, paintball requires the same honor system, as paintball hits can be hard to see in the heat of battle and can be wiped off.

Kinetic energy transfer is relatively minimal in Airsoft compared to that of Paintball. A standard 0.68 caliber paintball averages a weight of 2.84 grams. Paintball fields limit the maximum allowable muzzle velocity to be 300 feet per second in most events. A paintball projectile weighing approximately 2.84 grams and traveling at 300 feet per second is able to transfer approximately 11.8 Joules of energy. Although there is a considerable difference between airsoft and paintball energy levels the type of collisions must also be considered (refer to Airsoft pellets#Pellet ballistics for more information).

The guns used in airsoft are typically replicas of real firearms that compress air by a variety of means to fire a lightweight plastic pellet. Airsoft guns can be loosely divided into three types based on the method used to generate the required pressure: spring powered, electric powered, and gas-powered. Firing lightweight plastic pellets at moderate velocities, airsoft is a fairly safe military style game when appropriate precautions are observed. The minimum safe level of personal protective gear required to participate in most games is a pair of impact-rated goggles to protect the eyes of the participants. Even where this requirement is not enforced, it is almost universally considered extremely foolish and needlessly dangerous to play without this minimum level of protective gear.

Spring-powered guns are manually cocked by the user, which compresses a spring inside a piston, which will make an airtight seal against its chamber when released. Once cocked, the piston is then held in place by a sear until released by pulling the trigger of the replica. The trigger releases the sear, which releases the piston, which is in turn pushed back into its original position by the action of the spring. The airtight seal of the piston against the chamber wall creates a high-pressure area behind the pellet, projecting it down the barrel and towards the intended target. Spring guns are often the cheapest of airsoft guns, as they have a minimum of internal parts. In competition play, the most popular form of spring guns are replicas of various bolt-action rifles, as the manual cocking of the spring mimics the action of the bolt on a real sniper rifle. Spring pistols must be cocked by pulling the full top portion of the gun back, while rifles usually have a lever of some sort to pull.

Electric airsoft guns (generally known as an "AEG" for Automatic Electric Gun) are the most commonly used type of replica found at airsoft skirmishes. The AEG gearbox utilizes the same principle as a spring gun to propel a BB, but the cocking action is automated through the use of an electric motor (similar to those found in remote control cars) used to drive a gearbox assembly that is capable of fully automatic fire at rates equivalent to those of the real automatic weapons the airsoft gun is a replica of. AEGs are typically powered by rechargeable battery packs, composed of 7-8 cells similar to those found in remote control cars.

Gas-powered guns operate by storing a pressurized gas in a liquid form (similar to storage of propane, butane, or carbon dioxide as a pressurized liquid) inside a chamber, and releasing a small amount of the liquified gas into the firing chamber (where it expands dramatically in volume) in order to propel the pellet, and usually (but not always) some of the gas is also used in "blowback" operation in order to cycle the internal mechanism and reset for the next shot. Gas-powered pistol replicas that also "blowback" the slide similar to a real pistol are typically more expensive than "non-blowback" replicas that don't do this, due to the complexity of the blowback action. Pistols are the most common form of gas blowback guns, as the blowback creates very realistic slide action on the gun. Early airsoft rifles were gas (typically CO2) powered as well, but nearly all modern rifles are of the electric type.

Each of the three types of airsoft replicas has an aftermarket for upgraded internal (performance and durability) and external (cosmetic and ergonomic) parts, and many serious players upgrade their guns with parts (which may collectively cost as much or more than the original purchase of the gun in it's stock form) for a variety of reasons ranging from personal aesthetic preference to increased reliability/durability to increased accuracy/performance of their airsoft replica on the field in competition/recreation.