Lottiemxo: March 2015

In my last post I looked at side arms in airsoft and their pros and cons and promised that I would go through some different ways there are to incorporate them into your load out. First you need to select your preferred type of holster, there are a few on the market and it all comes down to your preference.

My personal favourite is what’s known as a moulded holster, these are made out of polymer so they are solid and durable. They are made to fit a certain pistol so you do have to buy one for each of your side arms. There are a few companies that make these holsters such as Blackhawk, IMI defence and also WE have also released their line of holsters. Here are some examples of Blackhawk Holsters, IMI Holsters and WE Holsters

As mentioned before they are pistol specific so if you chose to use one of these then you better check there is one available before you buy your sidearm. The advantage of these holsters is that they hold the gun in place and offer great retention with no risk of your pistol falling out when you are moving. They are also really easy to draw from with the handle being exposed fully allowing you to unclip with your index finger, while bringing the pistol up sliding your finger to the trigger allowing for you to put fire down quickly. Also there are many ways of incorporating them into your load out, the black hawk holster offer the most variety I have found with simple belt loops as pictured above, pancake holster and a MOLLE platform to use on your plate carrier of webbing as pictured above and is also my favourite way of carrying my side arm. The belt loop is offered by the others to and works best with assault vests which either don’t have a holster built in, I used this method when I first started out as the Viper assault vest has no way of putting a pistol on it so I used the belt loop on my combats and it sat great just under the vest and was easy to use. This also works well with chest rigs as chest rigs can get full up with magazines very quickly, a friend of mine runs his on a belt loop with a chest rig and thinks its brilliant. The pancake holster, in my opinion, doesn’t work great for airsoft and is mainly designed for security personal as a means of concealing their weapon and still be able to access it quickly. The MOLLE platform, pictured above on my webbing, is great as it allows you to have everything in one place and being MOLLE you can move it around your plate carrier or webbing. The other good thing about the MOLLE platform is that you can fit the holster either vertically or horizontally; I have seen players have it mounted on their plate carrier horizontally at the top of their plate carrier.

Another way is what’s known as a drop leg platform, these are available from Blackhawk and IMI, they strap to your belt and then down to your thigh. I have tried these and they can work well but I find that with a lot of moving the leg straps can come lose and begin to move.

You can also buy fabric adjustable holster like these;

Viper Modular Adjustable Holster

5.11 MOLLE LBE Holster

Strike Quick Release Holster

These can be adjusted to fit most hand guns, and they can fit onto most load outs as the straps can fit in the MOLLE loops or can be attached to a belt. I have used the viper holster for my first side arm but found that even with the retaining loop at the top, my pistol still fell out and when I was in a fire fight I would move to pull it and to my horror my gun would be missing, luckily I found it every time, some people aren’t that lucky. So if you can I would always choose the moulded holsters.

Which one will you choose?

Glen.

Are side arms necessary for airsoft?
To play airsoft, no as long as you have your RIF your ready to go. So why do players have them? Well they do have some practicality to them but most of the time they just sit looking pretty in their holsters. As with rifles there are an insane amount of pistols to chose from and it all comes down to players preference, or they do look good as collector items. Like the rifles there are different functioning pistols; there are AEP’s and GBB/CO2. AEP’s are electric pistols and function like an AEG requiring small batteries to function. These look good are reliable and mainly used in the winter due to issues you can have with gas pistols, which I will explain about soon. The choice for AEP’s is not as broad as gas side arms, mainly because they don’t look quite as good and don’t function realistically and for the more serious Airsofter the customisation on them is a lot harder. So having said that I would say for a side arm always go gas. I personally have 4 of them, and I do try to use them all and swap them round depending on what I’m feeling when packing my kit the night before a game.

Gas side arms work with gas primed into the magazine and cycles pretty much like their real steel brothers, the magazine is inserted, the slide is pulled back to allow the first bb into the breach, then when fired the bb is fired with a blast of gas from the magazine and at the same time the slide comes back to prime the next round and so on. When the magazine is empty the slide locks back to show it is empty then you can eject your empty and insert your next mag and hit the slide release and your back in action. It’s about as close as you’re going to get to firing a real pistol in the UK. The only down side to these is that the gas, in cold weather, can expel and empty the gas reservoir in a few shots, this is mainly because of the temperature and when it goes below a certain temperature then you might get a few shots out then lose the gas whereas AEP’s can function in all weathers. However, recently WE Europe have brought out their new Nuprol range, their new pistols combined with their new gas range can have it functioning all year round. There are a few different gasses on the market, which I will go through in another post. Having said that there are quite a few pistols that offer a CO2 option, instead of priming the gas into the magazine, you fit a CO2 bulb into the magazine. CO2 is a great way to run your sidearm as long as it is made for it or it could blow your pistol to pieces, so CO2 magazines in CO2 pistols only! The other bonus is that the CO2 can work in the colder climates, and also they do have a bit more recoil power.

So are the practical and useful in your load out? Yes they can be especially if you’re playing on a site that has building and indoor areas. First positive is if your RIF malfunctions or if you don’t keep count of your rounds during a fire fight you can let the rifle go and pull the side arm and give yourself suppressive fire to get to cover and sort yourself out. Second positive is if your moving into a structure again you can let the rifle go and pull your pistol and it is a lot easier and quicker to manoeuvre around doors and rooms as some rifles have long bodies and barrels and can wedge in doors or smack the barrel on doors or walls if you’re not careful.

So if you are thinking that you are going to go for a side arm you might be thinking “how am I going to carry it” there are a lot of ways you can do this and there a variety of holsters you can chose from. I will go through some of the more popular ones in my next post.

What’s your first side arm going to be?

Glen.

In my last post I went through the license you need to obtain if you wish to buy the more realistic looking RIF’s and the essentials to getting started in airsoft. The only thing I didn’t go through was load carrying, which is how you carry your kit in game. There are many different ways you can do this and many different combinations. I will go through some with you and what I think is best for a new Airsofter but ultimately, as always in Airsoft, it is player’s choice.

So the first thing I would recommend in purchasing is a way of carrying your extra magazines into a game as putting them in your pocket can be risky. I would recommend looking at the Viper Assault Vest, it is the first vest I used in Airsoft and great for beginners as it doesn’t break the bank as you can buy them new for around £30-£40. They also come in a few colours; black, olive green and woodland DPM. This vest is very versatile as the magazine pouches can fit M4, G36c and MP5 magazines, I know this from experience. There are 6 magazine pouches on the front and a couple of pockets at the top, which I used to carry a spare battery in. Also what you may want to look at buying is something called a dump pouch. There are some made by viper. These are for empty magazines. When your mag is empty you can eject the empty, pop it into the bag and then put a fresh one into your gun and less fumbling around with pouches. It can also hook onto the back of the vest securely.

If you don’t like the look of the Viper vest there are a lot of different load out options available. First I will explain about MOLLE, Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment. This is the most popular way of load carrying in airsoft as it is pretty much endlessly customisable. It is comprised of rows of heavy-duty nylon stitched onto the vest to allow for the attachment of various MOLLE-compatible pouches and accessories. The pouches fix easily on by sliding the straps on the back of the pouches through the rows and they fasten with poppers. Prices for MOLLE vest and pouches can range massively depending on the retailer. Here a few examples of MOLLE vests;

Platoonstores.co.uk

Landwarriorairsoft.com

Zerooneairsoft.com

All of these range in prices but all do essentially the same thing. You can move the pouches around to suit your play style.

A similar system to this are chest rigs, which are pretty much identical plate carriers except they only have MOLLE on the front, here are few examples;

Military1st.co.uk

Warriorassaultsystems.com

Cadetdirect.com

The other way is webbing, I use prefer this method as everything is around your waist and leaves your front free if you need to hit the deck. There are two different types of webbing MOLLE, which I have already explained about or PLCE, Personal Load Carrying Equipment which was the British army webbing system. You can pick up a full set on eBay from time to time for around £40. It has the same principal as MOLLE but using a different method of attaching the pouches to the belt. Here are some more examples;

Ukmcpro.co.uk

Sofmilitary.co.uk

One thing you might have noticed is that some come with pouches and some don’t. Which in a way is the beauty of MOLLE you can buy your preferred method be it plate carrier, chest rig or webbing or maybe even something else you found on your searches and you can add all the pouches you want and how you want them.

Also you probably noticed all the different camo patterns, it would be a good idea to settle on your preferred pattern before making any commitments to your desired load out. My advice would be to chose your pattern to your game site for example if you go for the all black SWAT/SAS load out, you do look quite formidable, but if your game site is woodland based your going to stick out like jam doughnut at a weight watchers meeting. If that’s what you really want go for it! Like I said earlier it is players choice. The most popular camo choices I have seen are woodland DPM and multicam with the occasionally all black, but that is more at urban game sites.

The other piece of kit you may want to look at buying with this is a sling for you rifle, again there are a few choices in style and colours. The most popular I have seen is the single point sling, which is mainly used on rifles which have a sling point half way down the rifle which allows easy movement and functionality and you wont drop your prized possession.

Here is an example; Landwarriorairsoft.com

There are more available by other manufactures. If you have a sling point at each end of your rifle like the MP5 I would recommend this type of sling; 511tactical.com

There is also a sling designed to be used with rifles with no designated sling points; Vipertacticalshop.co.uk

This can be modified to fit most rifles. If you’re not sure which sling to use then ask the retailer for advice or even consult the many Airsoft forums.

So that’s a lot to take in, in my next post I will look at sidearms, which you may have already seen players sporting. I will also cover the different ways to incorporate them into your load out.

What will be your load out preference?

Glen.

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