Fill my brain with info.

[Fubujubu]

So after playing paintball for 9 years ( bring on the hate :P) both speed and woods iv found myself looking into airsoft. Iv done some snooping around for info and just have a few questions kickin around.

BB's... why the different wieghts and sizes and are they all compatable with all airsoft guns. Or do certain sizes only work with certain guns?

Batteries... Generally how long do they last? How small is to small?

Last of all the guns. Iv done more snooping and find its a slim world out there... or I just dont know those sweet sites or stores yet. But theres got a be a big distributor for Canada or a awsomely packed store in the Barrie/Wasaga/vaughn area of Ontario.

Anywho guys dump your info on me, Iv read a bunch of the stickies and they helped me out a bunch tho I was left a little confused :P tho I'll still be snooping around.

[m102404]

BBs
- 0.20's are general purpose and great for indoors where engagement ranges are shorter.
- 0.25+ are better for outdoors and they are more predictable in the wind and for punching through vegetation. also a bit more of a "punch" than a light BB...less doubt that you got hit by one when shots are taken at long range.
- some hopup setups at certain power levels prefer certain BB weights. For example, I've got one rifle that shoots 0.28's most consistently and another that just seems to shoot better with 0.30's. Not much of a difference really, but I notice that each is more consistent with it's own preference.

Batteries
- dependant on your mechbox setup. stiff springs use up more power (more resistance). Smaller than 8.4v 1200mah mini batteries are not usefull for more than stock power setups (300fps w/0.20's). 8.4v/1400mah minis are so so for mid power levels (350fps). Large cell batteries have plenty of juice for all day games with lots of shooting. Often the space in the AEG dictates what batteries can be used (i.e. a SIG55x doesn't have much space in it...a folding stock AK usually takes a mini stick type battery...etc...).

Get age verified for retailers and classifieds.

There are lots of FAQ and Stickied posts with tons of information in them. Some are long reads, others are short and sweet. Plough through them and you'll have more info than you'll know what to do with.

[Cobrajr122]

6mm BBs are the most common, and probably the only size you will ever use. The other size is 8mm, they can only be used in rifles made for 8mm, 6mm cannot be used in them.

Also - Read all the FAQs(I mean ALL OF THEM)
And get AVd to get access to a plethora of guns in the classifieds and access to all of the stores/retailers. Information on getting AVd ca be found in the FAQs.

One thing you will find on ASC is that we are not here to spoonfeed you. Please show some initiative and research topics on your own, pretty much any question you can think of has been asked before, so please use the search function up top

Welcome to the sport and ASC! Hope you have fun.

Originally Posted by m102404

Get age verified for retailers and classifieds.

There are lots of FAQ and Stickied posts with tons of information in them. Some are long reads, others are short and sweet. Plough through them and you'll have more info than you'll know what to do with.

[DarkAngel]

There are two main sizes of BB's for airsoft

6mm and 8mm.
6mm is the most common size, availiable in many different weights. Tyson did an excellent explainiation of the different weights.
8mm are used in specialty guns, (ie. some revolvers, shotguns etc). 8mm guns are fairly rare, but do exist.

There are many places that sell airsoft, and as Tyson mentioned above, Age Verification is the best way to find them.

Age verification allows you access to the classifieds and retailers on the boards. We have a strict 18+ rule on ASC. Players and retailers will not sell to you unless you are over 18. The AV Status is your proof.

Once your AVed Youll find that doors will magically open for you in the sport, but without AV, youll find it very difficult to obtain anything of real quality or value.

Do not attempt to purchase guns or receivers from outside of Canada. It is illegal and will get you in serious federal trouble. Theres a search button on the top toolbar, it will be your friend for the next month. Seriously... Anything and everything has been discussed on this board, and you will find many international airsofters come here as the wealth of information is phenominal. You just have to know where and how to look.

Good luck, hope to see you on the field.

[L473ncy]

Well you've already saved ~$50 by being a PBaller. You can reuse your PB mask.

Also if you've played woodsball and have camo (that's relatively stain free) then you've saved another ~$40.

The best way to get info is actually to go out and meet people. I'm sure if you buy the AV rep a pint or some timmies they'll be happy to shoot the shit in regards to the nuances of airsoft.

As for guns, we can't actually direct you to where to get them (I'm pretty sure it's a forum rule to not tell unverified people where to buy) but if you can actually read you'll be able to distill this info. In addition to those "publicly" available sites there is a classifieds section which you'll be able to access after being AV'ed (especially read the FAQ on that a few times, that is a trove of knowledge). Note that after your info is submitted it may take between 1 hour to 2 weeks for your status to update as the admins do status updates in batches usually once a week but may take up to 2 weeks for the status to be updated. The benefit of AV is that you can access the classifieds and do a lot more "comparison shopping" to find the best deals.

In fact I buy exclusively from the classifieds and they've never failed me if I can get a good valuation of the goods being sold and catch those deals.

PS: When you chrono your gun it will be using .20's. We don't use velocity limits, rather we use POWER limits (measured in Joules) but for clarity's sake the power rating translated to .20 gram BB's are the standard for chrono.

[Captain Banzai]

As a newer denizen of these forums, I cannot emphasize to you just how much information there is available here.

The best advice I have for you is if you're going to start a thread, stop.
Type it into the search field first, especially if it starts with "what's the best ___?, Where can I find ___?"
I've been on for a couple of months now and I'm tired of seeing the same questions asked over and over again

Get yourself AV'ed and you will have full access to the site and you will certainly keep yourself occupied for a long while.

I've read practically every thread of interest and then the rest of them.
It takes time, but is most certainly worth it.

Like yourself, I started in Paintball (not sure if I'm going back) and if you've been at it for 9 years, you're off to a good start gear wise.

You'll be able to look at all the shiny, pretty things available when you get your highly coveted Age Verified tag.

good luck and welcome to the sport.

[Kuro_Neko]

Paintball: Yeah airsofters don't have a huge amount of respect for paintballers, especially speedballers. Airsoft is much more about milsim then simply blasting away at anything that moves. That and alot of paintballers tend to be more immature then our average members. That said, we don't generally flame on that fact alone. Lots of airsofters have their start in paintball and move to airsoft when they find a desire for something alittle deeper and more realistic. Keep your posts reasonably well thought out and you shouldn't take any flack for that.

Speaking of paintball versus airsoft, one thing you'll probably be pleasantly surprised about is the cost of keeping it running. Yeah, the initial outlay is more expensive then paintball. But once you have all the guns and gear, keeping it running is considerably cheaper. The guns run on rechargeable batteries, so no co2 canisters to fill (pistols run on gas, but on propane mostly which is very cheap). And the airsoft bb's are much cheaper then paintballs, two thousand rounds of high quality bb's only run you $10.

BB's: It's pretty much already been said, but I'll reiterate; baring a few specialty guns, 6mm is the standard. Weight wise, .20 is used for benchmarking, in close quarters combat and frequently in grenades but not for anything else. .25 and .28 are the standard for outdoor games since the extra weight gives them alittle more umph, allowing the rounds to be less affected by wind and light cover. .30+ are usually only used in high-powered sniper rifles.

Batteries: the mah is generally what you're looking for in terms of run time. There are generally three types of battery packs, stick, small and large. Stick and small don't generally go over 1400mah and have run time enough for an afternoon of moderate firing of moderately upgraded guns. They're generally only used in subguns and folding stock assault rifles. Large type battery packs can easily go up to 3300mah, in some cases higher, enough run time to blaze away all day and all night with a highly upgraded gun and not run out. Because of the size, they're generally only used in full stock guns (as a full stock is the only part of the gun with enough empty space to store them) but they can be used on folding stock rifles via battery bags or PEQ boxes.

Guns: Since full black guns are grey legal at best, you're unlikely to find any just advertised at large. The best you'll manage in that regard are the Cansoft, decent quality guns that have been specially made for Canada with clear or smoked receivers. If you want a full black gun then the only real method to get one is to get Age Verified here on Airsoft Canada and buy one from our classifieds.

As to what specifically to buy, if you could state how much you're willing to spend on the various parts of kit we would be able to advise you better.

Manufacturer is generally more important then the style. Generally all airsoft aeg's work the same so how it looks like outside is up to you. Though the advice in the Airsoft Newbie Buying Guide about styles is good. Generally ak47, m16/m4 or mp5 are good starter gun styles due to the availability of accessories and upgrades.

I'll add my weight to the argument of cheap vs quality. Get the highest quality gun you can afford, you'll thank yourself in the long run. Upgrading a low grade gun to match a high grade gun almost always costs considerably more then simply buying the high grade gun in the first place. Not to mention having your gun break down on you in mid game due to cheap parts sucks rocks.

Another thing to consider is resale value. You don't want to spend too much cause you're not sure you'll stick with it? That's actually a good reason *to* get a high grade gun rather then not to. You spend $600 on a Classic Army gun and, provided you've taken decent care of it, you have a very good chance of recouping most if not all of that $600 back. On the other hand, the classifieds are continuously flooded with people trying to offload Aftermath guns with no luck.

Please keep in mind that the prices listed below are rough. I've seen each of the listed at the price given but that was months ago and I don't religiously follow pricing trends. They should be used as a guideline only.

For $200, the best you could manage is Aftermath (CYMA rebrand) stuff. Both the Broxa (full stock MP5) and the Kraken (AK47) are decent bargain basement guns, about $160 or so each. Stay away from Aftermath's Kirenex or Knight (both M4 variants) and the Lycaon (collapsible stock MP5) though, not a good rep.

If you're willing to go up to $300 you could get a JG. Yeah JG's are China clones but they're getting quite respectable nowadays. JG's M4 runs about $290. You could get one of the G&G M4's for about $340. G&G is the cheapest of the midgrade guns. $400-$450 would get you an ICS which is a higher end midgrade gun. $500-$600 would get you a G&P, there's some debate on whether this is the lowest of the higrade guns or if it should rank higher. Either way they make nice guns.

If you can afford it, highgrade guns such as Tokyo Marui or Classic Army are the way to go. They're going to run you $600-$700. Though if the M4/M16 style is what you want then I'd recommend staying away from stock TM's, the barrel wobble and creaking are pretty bad on the stock TM M4/M16's (yes the new TM M4/M16's have fixed this problem, but the bulk of the ones in country are the old ones so best to just avoid them for now).

I did extensive research and settled on the Tactical Carbine version of the Classic Army M15A4 (basically a full stock m4) as my first gun. If an Armalite is what you're looking for then I think it's the best of all possible versions. You have the shortened M4 carbine barrel, which makes you less likely to smack your barrel off something when turning quickly, combined with the full stock which houses a large battery. Small batteries don't have near the run time of a large battery, not to mention that the reinforced slip ring (the ring that keeps the fore-grip on) is really stong. While this is mostly a good thing and a big step up over CA's previous M15 versions, it makes changing small batteries in the field very difficult if not impossible.

CA's M15A4 series in general is a big step up over their previous versions and as far as stock armalites go they're probably the best. All metal where the real steel version is, the plastic parts where the real steal version is plastic are made of high quality enhanced nylon fiber rather then abs for great texture and feel. Classic Army has a deal with Armalite so you get all the proper markings. Plus that deal also goes to show the quality of the manufacture, Armalite wouldn't put their name on a shoddy product.

Internally the gearbox is reinforced metal and all the gears are metal as well. It fires hotter stock then Tokyo Marui's as well, firing at 300-320 fps where your average TM only fires 280-300 fps.

All in all this is a great starter gun if you can afford it. Because it's all metal you don't have to worry nearly as much about breaking it and you won't get any of the wobble or creaking that is infamous in stock TM M4/M16's. Unfortunately affording it is the biggest problem, they're not cheap. For reference I got my CA M15A4 from the classifieds, upgraded with a bunch of Systema internals to fire 390fps, for $600 shipped which was a great price.

As you can probably tell, I'm a big fan of Classic Army. One thing to keep in mind about Classic Army is they now have two lines, a proline and a sportline. Originally they were easy to tell apart because the proline had the metal body and the sportline had a plastic body but recently CA has been releasing their sportlines with metal bodies. The price tag should still allow you to easily tell the difference, the sportline being $300-400ish and the proline never being cheaper then $500, usually more like $600 or more but it's still something to keep in mind. All the pros that I went over above were regarding the proline model. The sportline model has cheaper everything internally and externally.

There's alot of people that will expound the virtues of G&P as well. And I'll admit the externals of G&P are very nice, easily on par with CA, in some cases better. The reason why I don't say G&P over CA though is much the same reason why people weren't big fans of CA up until a few years ago: their quality control for the internals is not the greatest. That means a fair number of lemons. CA got a handle on this a few years ago and they've been making great strides in terms of their rep ever since, but G&P isn't quite there yet. This is simply my personal opinion and there are many people that would likely disagree with me, but it's something to keep in mind. ICS is about a cheap a gun as you can go and still get full metal out of the box. One thing to remember about ICS is they like to go their own way internally, so upgrading them inside will be more difficult then other brands. And needless to say it's not in the same league as CA or G&P. It's what someone on a budget but determined to get full metal would aim for. I should probably give TM some love here as well: Due to Japanese laws TM guns fire alittle cooler then most others and their externals are going to be almost entirely abs plastic. But *nothing* beats TM for internal reliability. You leave a TM stock internally and it will last for literally decades.

One of the perks of going with an M16/M4 variant is that mags are dead easy to come by and dirt cheap. You can get Star brand mags for like $5 a mag or less, plastic yeah but sturdy none the less (Star is also the only brand that makes realcaps too). Metal mags will run you a fair bit more, $15 to $30 a mag. There's no real reason to go with metal over plastic for mags except looks/realism. Though of course if you're going to go hicap then you might as well get metal ones. As to Brands, TM and CA make good mags. I've heard pretty good stuff about MAG brand mags as well. King Arms not so much, especially for M4/M16 mags. Star is always a good affordable fallback too.

Some people say you need to shell out for batteries, mags, camo, chargers and ammo in the begining. Most of that isn't necessary right off the hop. The stock battery will do you for awhile. Most of the guns come with a hicap (high capacity (300-600 rounds)) mag that will also do for awhile. I do agree that a good charger would be a sound initial investment, but not a total requirement, especially if you plan to get a good battery down the road and don't care if the cheap wall charger fries your stock battery. Camo isn't really required in the beginning either, just some dark clothes. Ammo, yeah obviously a requirement but even good ammo (BB Bastard) only costs $10 for two thousand rounds.

So truely, all you really need to start is the gun, a bag or two of ammo and good eye protection (which will run you between $30 and $50). That said, if you can afford it then it all helps. Camo would cost about $100, a chest rig or vest would cost another $100. A good loadout of mags, even the cheap Star mags, are going to cost at least $50. A good charger is at least another $50, with another $50 for a good battery. A sidearm is another thing that people like to have but isn't really necessary. A decent sidearm would cost you between $250 and $350. Probably another $100-150 for a duty belt, a holster, a sling, gloves and a misc pouch or two.

Sidearms aren't really required right away so if you're on a limited budget then hold off on the sidearm for now. If you have the budget for it then what you want in a sidearm depends on two factors (besides cost of course) whether or not full metal is a must and exactly what model you're partial to. Certain manufacturers tend to make certain models better then others. If full metal is a must then the best choice that isn't going to cost you an arm and a leg is probably KJW, especially for the M9 which they do very well. You'll see alot of WE's around, they're cheap and full metal but tend to have problems, especially their 1911 models. KJW has a rep of having mag problems, but I have had two KJW pistols and I haven't had any trouble with my mags. If full metal isn't a must then WA or TM would be very good choices.

As you can see from the above (very rough) prices, airsoft is not a cheap sport. It's generally accepted that the absolute minimum you need to get into it is $500, and it's usually more like $1000-$1500 if you go with quality gear. I've seen a few people do it for less then $500, but it takes a fair bit of time, effort and jury-rigging. And of course quality tends to be a problem at that level.

Now for some gun pron:

My Classic Army M15A4 Tactical Carbine without external addons:


My baby, CA M15A4 Tactical Carbine with m203 grenade launcher, red dot sight and taclight:

[leroy_stickshift]

great info in this thread!!

more info concerning ICS, as their website is apparently shit, and my local shop is out of stock on the gun im after,

you nailed it on the head though, i want a decent metal body gun at decent price, yet still be able to upgrade, and the 552 commando is a very appealing gun to me.

thanks for the heads up on the internals, i'll do some more reading, and maybe go get verified today as well.