New to airsoft, a few questions...

[wonderings]

I do not have any experience with airsoft, I have done paintball over the years on private land with friends.

First question is really what is best, electric, gas or spring? I like the realism aspect of airsoft guns. Any playing I do would be out doors, 4 seasons. So dependable and conistent are strongly desired. Would be nice to not need to get "gas". I am assuming this is similar to paintball CO2 or whatever it is they are using now?? I do not care about fully automatic weapons, I would prefer single shot like pump paintball guns. The style my friends and I have always played was that way and we really enjoyed it. Much more sneaking around with no one just going nuts shooting off a few hundred shots in the blink of an eye.

Second question is about the BB's. Are they biodegradable? I would be playing in a forest on private land, so not polluting with plastic pellets is a big MUST.

[ThunderCactus]

Electric is the best all around for cost, reliability, performance, versatility.
There are HPA drop in kits, but they're fairly expensive.
Gas guns are great but tend to work in a limited temperature band. You can mod them to HPA as well, but that's really annoying.
Most guns have full auto, most older players never use it. The amount of full auto used depends entirely on the culture of the group you play with. People more concerned about accuracy and safety tend to do semi-only.
And all BBs are degradable to various extents, the bio's are just safer. Use BB bastards; very high quality, Canadian distributor, stringently tested bio BBs.

Private land is fine, but as the guns are very realistic, just make sure the RCMP knows you're there so they know how to respond to any complaint calls that might come in.

[JumpinJackFlash]

It all kinda depends on your budget.. as far as "best" goes the opinions vary but Tokyo marui has been a gold standard for a long time.. but they are terribly expensive.. so best for your budget would be a better question


if you are just playing with a small number of friend in a back woods and you are against AEGs (automatic electric guns) i would suggest a Spring tri-barrel shotgun or sniper of some kind they are generally pretty tuff and "good" for all season play (depeding on your area).. but if you plan on going to larger events or play with a club then getting a AEG would make you a little more competitive in a firefight

Yes there are plenty of Bio-BBs available and just about all bb manufactuers have Bio-BBs in their catalog

im sure someone here can give more detail then me

[naminator]

Some bio bbs will disintegrate faster. Most will just be innert and not leach plastics into the enviroment. Honestly after a rain fall or two bbs vanish.

Spring/aegs are about the same price but you get what you pay for. Start upgrading and the price changes fast. An entry level aeg with moderate upgrades is very gameable but an entry level spring will cost double after making it gameable.

Gas is a different animal. Usually they are decent priced but mags cost 5-10 times more than aeg magazines easily. Upgrades will run you similar to aegs though. If you want a rock solid gas gun on a budget, get a kc02. It is semi auto, mags arent that outrageous and it is based on the real 10/22 making it very upgradable.

[wonderings]

Thanks for the info guys, much appreciated. Budget, well I am not to concerned with that, mid 30's with a good job allows me some luxuries, though would probably not want to spend more then $300

I can see going for more sniper rifle type guns. The guys I play paintball with are not trigger happy, its the new guys who never play this that are generally the "Wasteful" ones when it comes to ammunition. An idea of how we played paintball, in a 4 hour session I would shoot maybe 30 shots in game, did more between games trying to hit cans and stuff

I watched some youtube reviews and the echo m28 echo1 got some rave reviews. I like that it seems pretty solid and full of good features right out of the box. Not sure if I can get it in Canada though.

Good to know about the biodegradable BB's, thought, or hoped they would all be biodegradable, looks like I will have to shop for specific bio ones.

[naminator]

If you want a bolt action rifle you are looking at 200 for the gun, and several upgrades to get it gameable. A g&g comabt machine will be a much better purchase.

Get av'd and buy used, it opens up many options around 300.

[wonderings]

Originally Posted by naminator

If you want a bolt action rifle you are looking at 200 for the gun, and several upgrades to get it gameable. A g&g comabt machine will be a much better purchase.

Get av'd and buy used, it opens up many options around 300.

What would be something that would make it gameable? Are there key features most guns are missing when buying new?

[RainyEyes]

Originally Posted by wonderings

What would be something that would make it gameable? Are there key features most guns are missing when buying new?

Mostly reliability and quality.

Bolt action rifles are notorious for breaking out of the box. There are after-market parts that alleviate this such as steel trigger parts and tight-bore barrels for increased accuracy.

[Ricochet]

Read this on sniper rifles: http://www.airsoftcanada.com/showthread.php?t=158804

In airsoft; sniping is not sniping like sniping...


Bottom level, reliable gun is a G&G series, they are $200 - $300 for a low level one. It may need some tuning to be a little more effective, so expect a few upgrades, starting with the Hop-up unit. Guns need batteries, batteries need chargers, don't buy cheap or it'll just be a waste of money. Guns also need magazines and magazines need BBs. You'll also need proper ballistic or paintball rated eyewear and depending of your local fields, they may require full seal. I'd also recommend comfortable boots with at least a 6" ankle support. To get into airsoft, bottom level, you'll likely need about $500 after tax, shipping, or whatever may come up. That doesn't include camo, headwear, a mask, gear, a secondary, hydration, etc.

[naminator]

If he has paintball gear he has some of the bases covered. Most likely a mask/goggles, field gear ect.

For a base lie G&G you are looking in the 200-300 above. For starters a couple hicap mags will be fine. Bb's will run you about 20$ and batteries/charger 50-100$ for new/used. I got 2 7.4v lipos and a charger for about 80$.

[ThunderCactus]

Originally Posted by wonderings

Thanks for the info guys, much appreciated. Budget, well I am not to concerned with that, mid 30's with a good job allows me some luxuries, though would probably not want to spend more then $300

Might want to raise the bar a little higher;
G&G gun (best balance of stock performance/reliability/durability/cost)
eye protection (although PB mask would be okay)
mags, batteries, battery charger, BBs
New LBE with mag pouches for that gun
I don't think $500 is unreasonable, especially since you'll probably have $200-$300 worth of gear you can use in airsoft already.

Keep in mind, airsoft has a higher startup cost than paintball, but is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper in the long run.
Charging batteries costs you nothing, it's ~$30/4000 for high end BBs, your biggest cost to play airsoft for a day is either gonna be gas in your car or field fees.

Originally Posted by wonderings

What would be something that would make it gameable? Are there key features most guns are missing when buying new?

Range and accuracy generally leave something to be desired (if you know how good an airsoft gun CAN shoot), but good news; range and accuracy can be greatly improved just by upgrading your hop rubber (which also happens to be the cheapest upgrade of all). And use .28g BBs; heavier BBs are more accurate and fly further. I've got a great writeup on it in this section.

It's advisable to also upgrade the gears and piston, BUT you can usually just wait till they break, especially in a G&G; they're not so bad. And just clean your barrel after every game. Simple as that.

[wonderings]

Thanks for all this info, really gives me a lot to look at. I am completely on board with paying for quality. When I started playing paintball we all used cheap Canadian tire pump guns and they were always trouble, especially in the winter. I eventually upgraded to a tippman and bought a good pump hand gun. So much more enjoyable when you know your gun is going to shoot.

I am looking for something ultimately that is not fully automatic. I do like the sniper rifles for their limitations in this regard, seems like most or the ones I have looked at carry less amo in the clip. From my paintball games, I would only cary about 20 shots on me for a match.

Was checking out G&G's website, like the look of the GR25 and from the youtube videos I watched it seems very solid as well as being upgradable.

In regards to the FPS, how does this work with being adjustable? Do you upgrade the battery or is there something else internally that needs to be swapped out to handle a higher FPS?

Lastly, any good online stores anyone can recommend?

[Handsonic]

I would not recommend sniping to a new player AT ALL. It is expensive and very difficult, both because it's not easy to hit most targets at most ranges and because it gets very boring very fast. You gain 0 advantage as a sniper since any aeg will have the same range as you except youre stuck in bolt action with a maximum 30 round mag while they have semi, burst, and full auto as well as access to 120 round midcaps up to 4000 round drum mags.

To change fps, change the spring or barrel length. To change rate of fire, change the motor or the battery.

[ThunderCactus]

The piston gets cocked back by the gears then released, so the speed of gun the won't have any effect on fps until you start running into timing issues and losing compression.
Depending what gun you have and what fps you want to be at, you may have to change out quite a lot, or nothing at all.
It's not necessary to be over 400-420fps, or 1.5-1.6j (muzzle energy is the actual LIMIT for airsoft fields, the fps is just an inaccurate reference).
At ~400fps you'll be in the 260-300ft range with a fair bit of accuracy depending on your upgrades. Doesn't leave much to be wanted.

And we've got highly varying weights of ammo in airsoft, so when WE say "x fps" we are referring to it's speed on a .20g BB. Heavier ammo will be shot at a slower speed, but have the same, a little bit less, or up to a shitload more muzzle energy.
It's something to be aware of if you're upgrading your gun yourself.
You could chrono in under field limits using .20s, but actually be well over the field limit using .30s.

[Bellerophon]

Don't get a sniper rifle as a first gun. Regardless of the skill requirements and cost of upgrading them, they are specialized tools for a specialized job. There are a lot of scenarios where hanging back and trying to snipe is counterproductive (rushing an objective, fighting in a building etc). If you still want to try sniping, get a sniper rifle as a 2nd or 3rd gun after trying the game out and learning what you like from experience.
For a first gun, I'd say get an AEG. They're usable in any scenario, and don't require huge investment of time and energy just to get working passably.