(Category to be populated soon. Watch this space!)
Airsoft is one of the faster growing -and mostly safe- milsim sport one could nowadays get into w/out forking out much. Even just for newbies looking to try the sport out - there are rental markers and headgear available at these fields!
Though, as nice as a rental marker is, it will never be your own customized piece of equipment, rather, just a mostly featureless marker w/ open sights (if they are still intact) and no accessories. It also is not even guarenteed to be zeroed in for 20m / 30m.
Enter the world of airsofting! Airsoft gear, we understand, is mostly just hobby equipment for those not running their own AR-15 platform/setup off of that same gear. In no real way can airsoft be utilized for self defence as these markers typically do not fire the 6mm plastic shot (that they are chambered in) at muzzle velocities significanty enough to do alot of physical damage, as they were designed to be shot at other players with, mostly harmlessly, but hard enough for the player to feel, through layers of clothing, that he has just been "marked", once shot.
The real beauty of airsoft shines through in its capacity as a sport, to teach players squad / operator dynamics, the threat of being fired at and, depending on the level of competition, team-co-ordination and tactics. Alot of firearm owners do make the claim that airsoft does not translate to firearm (handling) skill, which, whilst the real intent of these markers, they quite actually do. Once the muscle memory is there, just the cartridge discharge noise and the recoil needs to be compensated for - the indoor and outdoor movement drilling is there, as is the CQB manoeuvering along w/ the footworks necessary to cut your peripherals around a doorway, non-vocal cues for your team mates to get the jump on the other players in the next room as well as tall-grass ambushing, making efficient use of cover & concealment, understanding the fundamental difference between the two as well as understanding a blend of the above, that wins the fight, so to say.
Airsofting really is much more than just a hobby - if taken up seriously, a group of operators / budding operators and our young generation of operators, can learn alot of battlefield basics from this sport, if they commit and self-improve!
