The History Of Airsoft Guns

By Anthony Carter

Airsoft guns are highly detailed replica firearms that are manufactured primarily for recreational purposes. Games are organized where players attempt to shoot each other in a similar manner to paintball. They fire small pellets, rather than actual bullets, at speeds of 30 to 260 miles per second.

The pellets are often launched by some type of compressed gas. A spring powered or electric piston is also common. Airsoft guns can be operated manually or by using an electric motor or by using compressed gas, which is usually Co2.

People under the age of sixteen should not use airsoft guns. When they are operated carefully they are completely safe. However, some have muttered concerns about the use of these guns. The pellets they use are normally non-metallic and are traveling at a slow speed. This means that they cannot pierce the flesh. Pellets made of metal are not advertised on any Airsoft site, but they can still be purchased from specialists. It is also possible for someone to manufacture their own metal pellets.

Additionally, a plastic or rubber pellet could break the skin when fired at short distances, if a gun is upgraded to fire faster than 150 miles per second. A few sites will state that guns of this kind should not be used to play with, especially when they are upgraded in such a manner. There has also been a lot of concern over these guns being used during criminal activities.

There was a spate of holdups during the late 1990s where the perpetrators used airsoft guns. These were obviously much easier to obtain than real weapons, but could serve a similar purpose. To counter this it is now illegal to import an airsoft gun that does not have a bright orange tip on the barrel.

1970s Japan is the unlikely origin of the airsoft gun. Back then it was against the law to own a real gun, and so there was a great demand for replica weaponry. One or two companies began to manufacture a realistic looking gun that had a spring loaded firing system. Many different sizes of bullet were used in the original run of these replicas. However, the projectiles were eventually standardized at 6 and 8 mm caliber. The gas powered guns followed in the late 1980s.

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.

Tokyo Marui spent a lot of time in the following years improving the range and accuracy of their guns. To this end it developed the advanced Hop up system that forms the basis of most modern airsoft guns. The early 2000s saw a new company arrive to challenge Tokyo Marui's dominance. The Classic Army of Hong Kong started to produce its own guns in competition to Tokyo Marui. In even more recent years there has also been a flood of Chinese and South Korean guns introduced on to the market. - 31373

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