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Post by 2ndbat2 on Jun 25, 2022 21:44:16 GMT -5
Every serious airsofter should do what they can to fully appreciate the capabilities (and limitatiins) of their airsoft guns at engagement ranges. The trajectory and effects of enertia with a light weight sphere that is back spinning as it flys through the air is easily misunderstood. I see players taking shots at opponents that they think are in range when in fact they are not. When a back spinning BB reaches the end of its flight it pretty much just drops straight down. Looking through your sites you think the BB is travelling further than it is. From afar it looks just like you hit your opponent and they didnt call their hit. ( Truthfully sometimes that's exactly what happened). And thats another conversatiin altogether. At extreme ranges at the end of the enertia there is precious little power behind the shot so with adrenalin and thick clothing they legitimately may not have felt it at all. To get used to ranges and the performance of my widely assorted airsoft guns I use tin targets made of pie plates and at the top of a square tin cookie sheet. place them at various distances with some high and some low often times positiin then behind light brush. I like tin targets because they make a distinct sound when hit. I feel like a barely audible ping while a hit might not be hard enough to register. A pie plate sized target. (I mount then on top of a square cookie tin forming a half sized silhouette. This represents the typical amount of target opportunity one has when two teams engage. By using this set up (even by myself). I can improve my effectiveness with quick aims, reloads and later in actual gameplay this improves my target choices and decisions. What I have learned is these BBs are not going as far as I thought and I am not the skilled marksman I thought I was. Incidently with hop up its hard in fact sometimes impossible to hit folks downrange who are low to the ground . in fact I have occasionally had to turn my rifle upside down to hit them. Likewise I have sometimes had the wind hook a BB around cover and make a hit. That was awesome. Brush (even light brush) will often redirecpt a well aimed shot that will completely miss your target. If youre firing at an exposed target behind even light brush do an extra long burst of full auto or a radid succession of five semi auto shots when 3 would normally do. If you have a single shot, springer, consider hard before taking the shot. Firing at night with tracer BBs is great fun and really highlights the bizarre effect even light brush has on the flight of a BB. Round projectiles make strange reactions and bounces. Tracers reveal just how strangely BBs bounce. Think pool table initial breaks! This type of training is both fun and effective. Give it a try.
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Post by 2ndbat2 on Jul 4, 2022 21:29:40 GMT -5
To further examine how BBs fly I took multiple types of airsoft weapons with widely assorted FPS. I used assorted BB weights in the same gun and went to my friends lakefront home when there was no wind and the water was mirror smooth. As such I could see just where the BBs ultimately landed and apart from a few interesting skips they mostly stopped immediately upon contact with the water. Unless you have a significantly upgraded gun 130 feet is about as far away as you're going to want to target an opponent exposing half their body mass. You can score elimnations farther than that but not consistantly unless your position has significant elevation or a wind to your back! In nearly all cases .25 gram BBs though generating a lower FPS will travel about 12 to 15 feet further than .20 gram out of the same gun. Adjust your hop up to reflect as close to a level trajectory as possible. Hop up that causes a BB to climb significantly looks like it is going further downrange BUT IT DEFINITELY is not! With straight on hop up elevating your aim well above your target will carry the BB much further but impacts will be light and may not register as a hit. Full auto or rapid succession semi auto fire here helps a lot. With springer, semi auto. I have arrived at a new tactic for team members armed with springers. Have multiple team mates target the same opponent simultaneously. Choose your targets carefully. Engage close unless you have a very powerful springer then do exactly the opposite. At long range have several shots " in the mail" before your initial shot hits. Have fun! Conclusion use the heaviest BBs your hop up can manage.
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Post by 2ndbat2 on Jul 5, 2022 20:53:20 GMT -5
Adjusting hop up is a critical element in improving the consistency of shots. I clearly mark my containers and speed loaders to indicate the weight of the BBs contained in them and try hard to never mix them in the same container. I go so far as to try and keep uniformity of brands as .20, .25 .23 grams etc from different brand can perform differently. Indeed some BBs are better than others. I never reuse BBs in an airsoft gun even when they look fine. I do load used BBs in boobytraps and indirect fire ammo but otherwise throw them out. Bio degradeable BBs and tracer BBs are typically not as precise as conventional BBs based on my testing but just marginally so. Incidently biodegradable BBs take a long time to degrade. I find their most positive trait is they usually are more subdued so dont show up as readily on the ground.
Each gun seems to have a perfect weight BB that ideally suits its power and hop up. When adjusting your hop up I always start with it completely off. Then adjust until the flight is perfectly parallel to the ground. If you load heavier BBs to achieve this you'll need to add more hop up and for lighter BBs reduce the amount of hop up. Keep trying heavier BBs in a given gun until the hop up can no longer achieve level flight for that weight of BBs. . I recommen using the heaviest BBs the particular gun can manage. The muzzle velocity will drop but will quickly exceed the lighter BBs FPS within about 20 feet due to enertia. Heavier BBs will fly farther and are less impacted by crosswinds and light brush. They also tend to be more noticeable when they hit. A heavier weight BB makes a louder ping on my tin targets. Practice and experimentation will make you a better airsofter and in this case practice is fun.
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Post by volkssturm on Jul 12, 2022 12:24:30 GMT -5
There's a real steel shooting sport, under the generic name "Practical Rifle/Pistol/Shooting", that bases competition on real world combat situations. Shooting silhouettes or steel targets from different positions and ranges, around/ over/ under/through obstacles. To add stress some of them require moving or throwing a weight. If I was younger I'd be seriously interested. These days I could only do it if there was a "bodenstandige" division (stay in your foxhole and shoot until you run out of bullets or die). I've occasionally wondered if something like that couldn't be done with Airsoft. Probably not enough accuracy in the guns and maybe not exciting enough for the young whippersnappers. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH8AsmZcDI0(skip to 8:18 to skip the intro) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp7Rrgxx3m4&t=2s
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Post by 2ndbat2 on Jul 13, 2022 18:02:32 GMT -5
Down in LA and back in Japan there are just such competitions mostly for gas blow back pistols. It looks like fun. Like you my days of running around are over. Pop ups from a foxhole would be fun. To simulate a pop up a lane grader could call out which target to engage or perhaps illuminate it with a lazer? Give you a few seconds to fire.
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Post by 2ndbat2 on Jul 19, 2022 15:51:17 GMT -5
I was plinking in my backyard yesterday shooting at empty Plastic cannisters that once held moist towlets. These are roughly 9 inches tall and perhaps 4 inches across. From 60 feet away they provide a good target for a springer single shot airsoft rifle. A solid hit wont knock them over but shuffles them around pretty good. My converted Garands and the little carbines miss them 1 out of 4 shots which is probably more my fault than the guns. They make a satisfying thwack when hit solidly. On my very first shot the BB somehow ricochette'd all the way back to my sitting position and struck me quite hard right between the eyes. I wasn't wearing goggles since I was so far back but clearly I should have been. BBs are weird! A good reminder to wear eye protection even during practice!
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Post by 2ndbat2 on Aug 11, 2022 12:09:53 GMT -5
I went by Tacoma Tactical and got the guided tour from my old friend Hellmut (Jason Daniels). He has expanded the facility by leasing all the additional buildings and structures in the complex. One large building houses his inventory warehouse, offices and an expansive (beautiful) retail space. As impressive as any I have seen anywhere. It includes a WW2 section with virtually every produced WW2 airsoft weapon. The largest building is his main indoor field which includes staging areas for 100 players, briefing rooms, party spaces and of course the gameplay area which is huge. It has modular adaptable walls, vehicles, bunkers. Cool lighting, smoke machines (all the cool stuff. ) The new areas includes a large 2 story structure with at least 20 rooms, stair wells and even an elevator. He has one area in the new building set up for private sessions and the rest still in development. The possibilities seem endless. Its all very cool. I'm estimating a total of about 40,000 square feet of play area although it might be greater. He has plans to potentially link it al together with enclosed netting providing an outdoor section that will connect the two main structures.. Roughly 300 players participate on a given Saturday and Sunday with 40 to 50 players on a typical week night.
Perhaps the coolest thing he shared is new airsoft technology out of South Korea which includes helmets, chest and back vests that have touch sensors that when struck shut off THAT operators airsoft gun. No cheaters!!!!! Imagine that? In addition also out of South Korea are screen targets about 3' x 4' that have thin rubberized transparent pads protecting touch screen videos or graphics that can be targets or arcade like games. When you shoot at them the touch screen underneath shows where you hit and can score your performance. The pad absorbs the BB so it doesnt richochette back and drops them into a tray at the bottom. There are widely varied targets and games. He has 12 of them so setting up competitions or practical weapons training would be easy. He thinks that for every airsoft battle player there are 20 to 30 plinkers who dont want to get shot but like shooting. These arcade systems could turn out to be the next big airsoft thing. I had a lot of fun messing around with them. He wants to devise two very different target markets. The youth "lazer tag" audience that is frankly his gameplay audience and a more sophisticated game area that is more emmersive. Instead of the modular walls game play area he'll have a large area with actual interior settings with real rooms, furniture and props. He can use these same areas for team "mission" type scenarios. The entire complex once connected with the exterior netting could accomodate large continuous battle events like mini Lion Claws although he isnt especially interested in it.
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Post by 2ndbat2 on Sept 19, 2022 15:34:39 GMT -5
I was able to bring home one of the arcade systems so I could spend more time trying the assorted games. They are designed to use target ranges beyond 3 meters and with FPS below 400 fps. There are single player and 2 player games that simulate dueling trees, randomly exposed targets that stayed up for brief periods etc. The functionality is very good. The graphics are excellent and gameplay is very good. The basic package includes 6 games and a simple silhouette. You can get additional games via Over air updates. I can see these systems being used in a variety of ways. My favorite application will be in "kill room" sweeps and practical pistol type events. With real fire arms there a many limitations due to safety concerns that impede realism and these restrictions would not have to be employed with airsoft.
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