Guide to Airsoft

The Beginner’s Guide to the Airsoft Galaxy
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Table of Contents
A. Playing Locations

B. Your Gun and Accessories
1. Purchasing a Gun.
2. Basic Accessories
3. Upgrades and Becoming a Tech

C. Your Gear and Accessories
1. Purchasing Essential Gear
2. Modifying Your Gear with Accessories


A. Playing Location
I begin this post with playing location because your position in the community of Airsofters around you will dictate most of your interaction with the sport of Airsoft. So, if you like the idea of Airsoft, understanding this community will be very beneficial to you.

Head on over to Google, you’re going to want to do a few separate searches. First, search the name of your state, and the word Airsoft. Look at the first two pages of results. Bookmark any forums, blogs, YouTube pages, retailers, and ect. that are in your state. Then, repeat this search substituting the name of your state for the name of your city and any larger cities around yours.

Ok, now go to the local forums or blogs, and make an account. You will want to make an introduction thread, even if this does not seem commonplace. Be sure to use good grammar, and follow any and all rules of the forum. Uploading a picture or avatar will also be good, as well as filling out any information about yourself that you can. During your time as a novice on this forum, keep your mouth shut a while. Read the sticky posts, as well as any threads that interest you, but don’t post yet. Observing the core posters and their opinions will help you fit in, or argue the correct points one you have the experience and knowledge to do so.

Ok so now you’ve read on the forums, do not ask any of the questions that you probably have, we will get there. So, now you’re going to search the forum to find out about all the fields and groups of people who play within a reasonable distance around you. This reasonable distance is either however far you are willing to drive, or how far your parent will drive you. Find out if any of the fields around you will own or lend guns. If there is such a field, that is the one to check out first. You’ll want to go out and spend a day with a rental gun, just getting to know the field, the people, and your rental gun. Be quiet, be respectful. No one wants to hear about your superleet training. Figure out who the regulars and perhaps the officials are, and introduce yourself. Observe how the successful players are successful, and try to emulate their behavior.

Now you want to go to the stores. Meeting your retailer will help you in the long run. Have a good time, handle some guns, and now you can ask some questions. Ask where they play, what guns they use, what they like, all that. Hopefully it will be fun for both of you. If you have multiple shops, try to choose a favorite. If you only have one, decide whether you like them or not. If you don’t, no need to worry. There are plenty or reputable retailers that you can order from. We will get into that soon. If you do like them, cool, that’s awesome. Take everything they say with a grain of salt, they only like you for your money. No, you can’t buy your gun yet.

Ok, now it’s time to reflect. Do you like the people you met, the places you went? Are you satisfied with the styles of play (CQB, Field, MilSim) that are available within your reach? If not… I’m sorry. I want Airsoft to be more popular too. However, you have a couple options to consider. You can try to get some people to play with you the way that you want to play, you can consider extending your driving range, or you can think of the next time you are going to move, considering you may be a student or child. Ultimately what I want you to ascertain from this is the requirements you will have of your weapon system in order to be successful in the situations you want to play Airsoft in. This will be very important momentarily.

B. Your Gun and Accessories

Second only to your eye-protection, your gun is obviously the most necessary piece of your equipment in order for you to play Airsoft, and as such, many many questions asked on forums are about what gun to buy. Hopefully this can serve as a sort of beginner’s guide on how to purchase ones first gun. I hope that through your reading on the forum and your talking with the guys at the local store, you have realized that the most common primary weapon in Airsoft is the AEG, Automatic Electric Gun. If not, there ya go.

B1. Purchasing You Gun

Ok, so you’re in the market for an AEG now. You’re going to want to identify a few things before we even start, those being your price range, and the models that you like. When I speak of models, I mean the real rifle that an Airsoft gun is modeled after, like ARs, AKs, M14s, ect. In Airsoft, you get what you pay for. If you can stretch your price range to $400, you can purchase from the upper echelon of stock Airsoft guns. If your price range is less than $100, you are going to want to save up more money, and buy a higher quality replica.

So, now you are going to think back to the fields that you decided you were going to be playing at, and think of the type of rifle that you are going to need. An environment like a CQB arena is conducive to a smaller, more maneuverable weapon, because of its small rooms, tight turns, and small range demands, while MilSim or Field play is more conducive to at least a full sized carbine. So, with this knowledge, pick your top 3 or top 5 models that you are interested in.

With your model, and price range determined, you are going to want to shop at various retailers to see which companies (JG VFC ect) produce the models that you are interested in. Don’t bother making a forum post to ask if a dealer is reputable, it has already been discussed. If a gun you are interested in does not have a manufacturer listed, or the name of the production company is the same as the name of the company that makes the Real version, you most likely do not want it. Oh, I was hoping you figured this out during your early research period, but if you did not, just go ahead and disregard the velocity of the guns you are considering buying, unless they shoot too hot for your field’s limits. The velocity of the gun has almost nothing to do with range if you’re talking about the difference between 300 and 400 in stock guns.

So, if one manufacturer or more makes a model that you like that is in your price range, great, you’re lucky. If not, you’ll need to either adjust your price range, the models that you are interested in, or both. Either way, once you’ve settled on one product, you have even more ahead of you. Now, you’re going to use Google, the forum, and YouTube, to read and hear every single thing that you can about the product you are interested in. The knowledge that you get during this research will either guide you to purchase a new product, or it will set your priorities after the purchase of the gun. Only after reading everything already available are you allowed to make your own post on a forum. If you need to do this, make sure to follow any rules and formats that are present at the forum, share all the information you already know, and as always use good grammar and be polite. Do not ask if the gun is good, ask specific questions.

After gathering all this information, you are prepared to buy your gun at the retailer of your choice.

B2. Basic Accessories

I’m assuming you have read about the differences in magazine styles, basic AEG care, the effects of battery voltage and capacity, and hopefully a little bit a bout BB quality before you advanced to this point in the thread. If you have not, go do that now, perhaps I will add sections on those things later on. So, now you have your gun. Feel good? You should. Congratulations for getting this far into this thread. Now that you have the gun, you’re going to need a few things just for the sake of shooting the gun. The four main things are: magazines, batteries, chargers, and BBs. They’re all pretty simple.

As far as magazines go, they will be determined by your playing style, your weapon system, and the restrictions of your field... Some fields require midcaps and some do not. Some players prefer midcaps because they are quiet, and some player prefer hicaps for well, higher capacity. Unless you have a SAW, you will probably want to avoid box magazines. So, pick out whether you want Hi-Caps or Low-Caps, and buy a couple. Go for metal bodies if you can, unless you’re going for Magpul, and do a little more research to make sure they feed well and are durable. Buy however many you want, 4 midcaps, or 2 hicaps wouldn’t be a bad way to start.

Some cheaper AEGs come with a battery, and that battery is ok. It certainly will not hurt your gun, but will not give you as good of performance as an aftermarket battery of the same specifications. This one is pretty simple. Avoid LiPo until you are more experienced, you get what you pay for, 9.6 is generally better than 8.4, go with the largest capacity that you can fit, if you need to measure the dimensions of the battery compartment, go ahead and do so.

Those same AEGs that come with batteries come with wall chargers. They’re fine for the stock battery, but if you’re going to buy nicer batteries, buy a smart charger so you don’t throw your investment away. If you think you’re ever going to want to use LiPo batteries, go ahead and spend a little more, do a little more research, and get a charger that also has the capability to charge and balance LiPo cells. Yata yata. You know the drill, read some reviews, just to be sure.

The quality of the BB makes much more of an impact on accuracy, consistency, all that jazz, than most novices imagine they would. The weight, consistency, and smoothness all affect your gun’s performance dramatically. Don’t write it off, buy yourself some nice BBs.


B3. Upgrades and Becoming a Tech

There are a few main tenets, or upgrade paths of Airsoft performance. Whenever you upgrade a gun, you should be aiming to improve in one of these areas. They are: Range, RoF, and Durability. No, velocity is not one. This is so because Range, while being affected by velocity, is affected more by the hop-up, the quality of the barrel, the compression, so on and so forth.

In order to improve your durability, you can replace inherently flawed parts of your GB. You can replace nylon bushings with metal, replace your piston with one with a metal rack, and so on. You can also modify the GB or, tune it, by performing slight modifications on specific parts. Examples of this would be shimming, AOE correction, or the addition of a MOSFET unit. Modifications like these are crucial if you want to push the extremes in the range or RoF department.

In order to improve upon RoF, you are going to want to use a higher voltage battery, use a high speed motor, and possibly replace other parts of the wiring system. If you are going extreme, you may want to use gears of a different ratio, or attempt a DSG.

The most important factor in determining the range of an AEG is the hopup. This is proven by the AEGs that shoot 300 FPS with a stock barrel and R-Hop that shoot 200 feet. It does seem that the current ultimate modification in Hopup is the R-hop. Unfortunately, the R-Hop is fairly difficult to install, so, other ways to improve upon range include barrel stabilization, upgrading the barrel, upgrading your bucking, upgrading your nub, upgrading your hopup assembly, and improving on compression.

So, if you want to learn to be a technician, for whatever reason, good. We need more knowledgeable technicians. Teching is one of those great things that you can do to whatever extent you want, there is enough information either for you to figure out how to switch out the hopup bucking on your M4, or, if you have the patience and funds, you can become one of the best techs in the world. However, I feel inclined to give a few words of advice in your efforts. When working on guns, do your research, there are videos all over YouTube and threads all over forums showing how to disassemble a gun to extract the GB. So, before you begin be sure of what you are going to do, and what each of the parts looks like, so that you won’t be surprised or confused. Then, know what you are doing once you get inside the box. There should be even more information on this around. Before doing any work, prepare yourself a work space with a brightly colored backdrop so that you will not lose parts, and use the correct tools. I personally find working on my guns very rewarding, but if you aren’t one of these people, there are a number of reputable and capable technicians around, both working independently, and for retailers. If you apply the same scholarship that I have been trying to describe to evaluating these technicians, you should have no problem finding reliable techs to do anything from fixing your gun, to creating a highly customized masterpiece for you.

C. Your Gear and Accessories

Ok, I put this section last, and for the most part that makes sense, you need a playing location and a functioning gun before you need a plate carrier or an impression loadout. However, one piece of equipment you should purchase before anything else is your eye protection. Do not underestimate the chance of you losing your sight to an Airsoft BB, it does happen and it is not pleasant. Also, do not underestimate the utility of a set of gear that is built upon the correct principles. For clarification, I would call “gear” any item that you use for Airsoft that is not a component of a weapon. So, this would include uniforms, boots, safety gear, tactical gear, radios, camel backs, ect.

C1. Purchasing Essential Gear

First and foremost among your essential gear is your safety gear; your face protection, and your boots. It may seem weird to see boots listed as safety gear, but take it from someone who has spent the past 9 months in rehab for the 3 ligaments avulsed off of their ankle, you want some nice boots.

A nice pair of boots can not only protect your feet and ankles, but the rest of your body and gear, by keeping you from falling in inclement or even ideal conditions. I personally have had two good experiences with Magnum Boots. I would suggest doing some research into what boots will fit your needs best.

As for face protection, I would suggest a full face mask. One way or another, you want to cover your lips, eyes, teeth, ears, and nose. Yeah, yeah, it’s the 21st century, men are free to get all the piercings they want, but having some bum at your field do it from 5 feet away with a gun isn’t ideal. There are a number of ways to cover your entire face, from a paintball mask, to a mesh mask or balaclava worn in combination with some goggles. Whatever you do, make sure your eye protection is full seal, and ANZI rated. Apart from that, apply your scholastic skill.

Another part of what I would consider to be essential equipment would be a uniform, or BDU. Usually, you can pick one of these up on the cheap at a local thrift store, either in Woodland or 3 Color Desert. These uniforms are usually actually military grade, and will hold up well to the abuse that they will go through with you. If you do this, you need to form an opinion on whether or not to cut the patches off. I won’t preface you. After you have a little more experience with your environment, you could pick a new camouflage pattern, either to better fit your field, or the guys you wanna play with. There are a number of producers of high quality uniforms of all different patterns.

Transportation and storage of your equipment is an important issue, and should be considered when buying gear. A simple gun bag can preserve the looks of the externals of your gun, and protect from scratches and even dropping. The legality concerning the transportation of your gun is important. You should always transport your gun in a secure and inconspicuous place in your car, marked as an Airsoft gun, and in a secure case. Only have your gun in your car when going to and from the field. Always store your guns in a secure place away from ammo and batteries.

Finally in my rendition of essential gear come MOLLE platforms. The beginner’s tactical gear should almost be MOLLE. Tactical gear will allow you to have a place to house the magazines of your main rifle, your pistol, its magazines, water, extra BBs that you wish to carry, and a wide range of other things that you may, or may not wish to carry on your person whilst playing Airsoft. The color of your tactical gear should probably be decided by the natural colors in your environment, and the colors of the uniform you want to wear. There are a few types of MOLLE platforms, namely chest rigs, which include vests, plate carriers, ect, and harness platforms. Both can be complemented by dropleg platforms and belt systems. As a general rule, chest rigs are higher profile but allow for more storage space, with most of the storage on your chest, while harnesses are lower profile, with less storage space, and most of the storage space on your hips.

C2. Modifying Your Gear with Accessories

Similar to upgrading guns, some of the most fun for experienced Airsoft players can come from purchasing and building specialized sets of gear. Some choose to build sets of gear specifically to be the most efficient or coolest looking, while others build their gear around what a certain organization requires, or in order to do an impression of a real group of soldiers. Specifically in this section of my guide, I want to focus on a few pieces of common gear, which aren’t needed, but can certainly be a valuable aid in the game. I wish that I had more to write about how to do impressions, but I don’t. I’ll link some good threads about it at the end of this guide.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of auxiliary gear is a holster and pistol mag system. These are invaluable if you want to play with a pistol. There are a few different types of holsters, coming in the hip, dropleg, and shoulder varieties, and usually with a choice of colors, and whether you want Kydex or Cordura. All of these systems have their benefits, so I would suggest picking a holster that has the ability to be mounted in multiple places on your gear. As a matter of personal preference, I prefer Cordura to Kydex. You however might prefer Kydex, and you wouldn’t be wrong in doing so. How and where to store your pistol and its magazines is up to you, but I personally would give the most accessible spot to my rifle magazines, and allocate my pistol to a different area. A pistol lanyard and MagGuard are also good ideas for retaining your valuable pistol and magazines.

As a mostly MilSim and field player, a dump pouch has never been a huge necessity for me, when my magazines are empty, they go back into the pouches that they came from. However, I could see how in a CQB or small Field environment, where speed is paramount, a dump pouch could save you valuable seconds, and allow you to do “tactical” reloads without losing your mag.

No matter what environment you play in, being able to communicate with your team will be a huge advantage. In many situations, this makes it very productive to purchase a radio and headset. Many large MilSim games require and expect radios, but even in a CQB arena, a coordinated attack is better than a random or unorganized one. Companies like Motorola and Midland produce nice quality radios with headsets that are pretty affordable.

For MilSim, it is a great idea to carry either a Camelback, or similar product that is made to be MOLLE compatible. Dehydration can be a serious health issue when the weather gets warmer, but having your water close at hand can be a convenience and comfortability issue no matter your environment or time of year,


One piece of gear I’m going to have to advise directly against is a training knife, or similar facsimile. While these are cool and fun little toys, simply way too many issues has come from their use. If you are ever in a situation where you might be encouraged to attempt a “knife kill”, do your best to follow the rules of your field while avoiding physical contact. Typically, retreating to outside the MED and then taking the opponent out, or simply letting him pass are the best plans for staying in the game while avoiding any issues.

Of course, beyond what I have listed here in the gear section of this guide, there are thousands of products of varying value to your game. It seems every two weeks Magpul, Condor, or Pantac comes out with the newest thing that is going to take 3 milliseconds off of your reload, or make you .0035 ounces lighter. Some of these are very pricey garbage, and some are great. I am still very surprised with the value I’ve gotten from my MagGuards. I have even started keeping them on my real guns. Conversely, the Grim Lock clips I bought were pure unadulterated crap. Some of the stuff you will want to buy will have reviews, but most of it won’t. If you are lucky, you can mostly avoid the crap by sticking with reputable manufacturers. My personal philosophy for gear is that weight is important. You never want to be without useful equipment, but you do not want to carry around 4 pounds that you never use. As you get more experience, you will get better at deciding for yourself what you need, and what you do not. 

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