Airsoft Rifles

[stuart1336]

Does anyone use airsoft rifles to practice?

Here in the UK steel challenge is shot with .22 rifles. Our laws don't allow anything larger in semi auto. After seeing all the BAM videos I thought an airsoft would be a good training aid.

Recently I imported a set of BAM steel challenge targets and they are brilliant (although very expensive after import taxes).

My times have come down considerably. The real benefit is the ease of training. I can go out and run a stage 30 times in ten minutes.

What I have found is AEG rifles are not built for this type of use. I bought a mid price (£170) Classic Army M15A2. After a few sessions the trigger burnt out. After a warranty repair the second trigger burnt out after 1k of rounds. I then had an electronic trigger fitted (£100). This cured it but I do find I can only shoot one mag (300) before the motor gets hot. Two mags and it's getting uncomfortable to hold. The motor is in the pistol grip. The airsoft people I have spoken to have never come across either problem as no one fires 600 single shots in their game.

I have seen Keith Garcia uses an airsoft rifle but can't find anything else on the subject.

Edited August 7, 2012 by stuart1336

[stuart1336]

Airsoft Rifles Work!

Yesterday I shot our club steel challenge and won. I took three stage victories as well. On one stage I even beat the major calibre shooters who only fire 5 shots to my ten. I shot the same course back in April this year and came 8th in class. This is the first time I have won any stage or competition. What I have realised as well, is that although I won the competition I think there is scope to improve my times a great deal more.

Results below are winner in Apr, my time April and My time yesterday. The stage wins were 2, 3, and 5.

1 13.06 15.35 14.12

2 13.67 13.68 11.18

3 15.03 17.37 11.36

4 16.68 21.28 25.39

5 15.55 16.51(M)13.31

6 15.53 21.38 15.27

I think the distance we shot on stage 4 may have been increased as all times were higher. It was my worst stage and I shot it first. I shot every stage first in my sqaud as I have a hard time waiting! and no one else wants to go first. Stage 2 was a smoke and hope type and it was this one that I beat everyone including the majors. On stage 3 the next fastest competitor was 85% my score.

I had a five week plan leading up to the competition. As it turned out I didnt do as much as I wanted and I went off track a little with the airsoft after two weeks so there are some things I would change for the future. This is what I did

Weeks 1-4

4 sessions airsoft on steel 6-900 rounds

1 session live fire shotgun (its my main sport)

range night local club 2-300 rounds .22 on 3-4 stages for fun

week 5

2 seesions airsoft on steel 600 rounds

Thursday 1100 rounds .22 live fire on steel challenge course. Wrote course notes and plans

Friday - visualised course and ran it 4-5 times in my head, wrote affirmation to calm nerves and went to bed early after taking care to wind down.

Saturday Competition. Arrived first, walked the course visualising. Went to practice range and practiced first shot dry for 5 minutes.

After week two I went from par timing to timing individual shots after working out how to do this with an airsoft rifle. Then I began chasing times and form slipped. It is very hard to stick to par times the seeklander way when you get distracted by good times. I will be changing this. Also I only practiced shooting 1, 2, 5, 4, 3 and when it came to the competition This only accounted for three stages. If I had thought about it and designed the airsoft course around the stages I could have hammered it. In the US your Steel courses are all the same and BAM have done all that work for you.

Airsoft accounted for the main improvement by I have to say that without the frame work provided by Seeklanders book and Basshams Mental Management program it wouldnt have been half as effective.

[bmiller]

Great post, I have been thinking about buying one.

[stuart1336]

Going for a walk at 3 mph in the basement at work.

[Chaser_2332]

very nice post and the treadmill idea looks awesome

[bmiller]

Going for a walk at 3 mph in the basement at work.

Just ordered a airsoft ar because of this. Can't wait to try it out.

[stuart1336]

This is what it looks like from the other side.

A few tips on buying an airsoft rifle

Make sure you buy from a company that knows how to repair them as high use leads to them breaking.

I am told that one of the best available in the US is the KWA LM4 PTR which is used by Keith Garcia. I have no knowledge of them as they are not available in the UK. It is a gas operated blow back gun. The gas is contained in the mag and it holds 40 rounds. Its a different system to the one I use and I think I probably train in a different way. The LM4 is designed for Police or Military use trying to replicate the real thing as far as possible, hence the similar capacity and blow back. I use an electric gun. The mag holds approx 300 rounds and one battery will last 3 mags. If I remove the mag, the spring pushing out the BB's disengages so its not practical for me to practice mag changes.

I use the airsoft to train transitions and my eyes and it works a treat. As you can see in the video I am now training to shoot on the move (idea stolen from BAM Airsoft). The training is about being able to walk whilst keeping a steady sight picture. Short intensive sessions (5-10 minutes) firing 300-600 rounds. Thats not possible with the real thing or with a gas blow back gun limited to 40 rounds.

I dont know how the trigger operates on a gas gun but on my electric gun it had an electric trigger. It will go shot to shot on average in 0.17 secs. When you start doing that and firing 600+ rounds things start to get hot and I burnt out the first two triggers quickly. I then invested in an electronic trigger (£100 fitted). This has had about 50,000 rounds through it now. I have never cleaned the gun. I use bio degradeable BB's as sometimes I shoot outside at home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5diFn24uzqI

[stuart1336]

I dont know why but I couldn't get the video to embed properly, sorry.

[bmiller]

My airsoft ar came today. I shot more bbs in an hour that I fired my real ar all summer. It is a blast!

[reichebrown]

I used play airsoft a little and have a TM MP5K with the biggest LIPO I could stuff in the gun. With the stock gear box it would pump out 22.5 RPS. It didn't like shooting semi auto. Semi auto can be hard on the gun and gear box and the trigger switch.

I like dry firing on the treadmill it helps me forget im on the treadmill. However to the gentleman on the treadmill you should probably have eye protection on...

[stuart1336]

Yes I should have had eye protection on.

I find it strange that the main comments I get are about eye protection. Time to stop sharing training techniques. I'm obviously too dangerous.