Thursday, November 5, 2009

The History Of Airsoft Guns

By Anthony Carter

Airsoft guns are replica weapons that are usually highly detailed. They are built for recreational purposes. The games they are involved in entail the opposing players attempting to shoot at each other as one would in a paintball match. Airsoft guns fire pellets, not real bullets, which can travel as fast as 260 mps.

These pellets are usually propelled by some kind of compressed gas or perhaps a spring based piston. An electric piston may also be used. The guns can be fired manually or by an electric motor or by compressed gas, which is usually propane, green gas or Co2.

Airsoft guns are aimed at people over the age of sixteen. When handled carefully they can be safe, though some have voiced concerns about the use of airsoft guns. As the pellets are usually non-metallic and travel far too slowly, they cannot actually penetrate the flesh. However, though pellets made of metal are banned on every Airsoft site, they can still be bought from specialists. Some people also manufacture metal pellets for their own use.

A plastic or rubber pellet could, in theory, pierce the skin at close range. A gun would have to be upgraded to shoot faster than 150 mps. There are one or two sites that will suggest that guns set up in this way must not be used to play with. There has also been much concern over airsoft guns being used by criminal gangs.

During the 1990s there was a brief spate of robberies that involved the criminals using fake or replica guns in place of actual guns. The fakes were a lot easier to buy than real weapons, but could still be used to intimidate victims. To counter this, the American government has made it illegal to buy or sell airsoft guns that do not have an orange tip at the end of the barrel.

The origins of the airsoft gun go as far back as 1970s Japan. At this time it was illegal in Japan to own an actual firearm, so there was a demand for replicas. Some companies began to produce realistic spring loaded guns for public use. At first they fired a multitude of plastic and rubber projectiles. However, eventually they were standardized to either 6 mm or 8 mm. The spring loaded guns were eventually superceded by gas powered guns.

The hobby took America by storm in the 1990s. Classic airsoft, as it would become known, used the early Japanese guns. About ten years later the new generation of airsoft guns arrived. These were designed by Tokyo Marui Co. Ltd. And were termed the automatic electric gun. At this time Japan had just entered into a recession. Hundreds of Japanese manufacturers collapsed and eventually only Tokyo Marui remained as the main producer of airsoft.

Marui then worked to improve the accuracy and range of these guns. It developed an advanced Hop up system, which forms the basis of the modern gun. At the beginning of the 2000s a new company came to challenge Marui's dominance. Classic Army of Hong Kong began to introduce more and more accurate guns to the market. Since then dozens of Chinese brands have flooded the market with more basic entry level guns.

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