Sidearms in Airsoft.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
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.
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.
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