Airsoft as valid training tool.
My son and I played airsoft game for few hours last saturday (6 on 6).
AEGs were high end models with real optics designed for real guns.
I also wore plate carrier/9 pound steel plates/molle 3 magazine holder with flap
I did not have good boots on since it was muddy. Wore rubber mud boots.
Some observation in random order
1. 3x scope is slow for CQB. I used Redfield 3-9x.
2. Red dot site can be washed out even in the highest setting.
3. When you are going against the sun, you can't see anything even if they are standing out int he open (5 pm sun)
4. Tactical deployment is very physical work. Eventhough I am in excellent shape, I was out of breath from
up/down/crouch/crawl/sprint
5. Your equipment will fail
6. When ambushed, your heart jumps and panic.
7. If 20% of your team is weak, they bring the whole team down
8. When you see the enemy, doesn't mean your team will see them also.
9. In the heat of the battle, it is extremely easy to loose formation and communication
10. Friendly casualty can happen
12. You will forget to reload
13. It is very hard to hit a moving target while you are moving. Even at 5 yards. Especially in semi auto only games.
It helped me realize
My gears aren't perfect.
I am still out of shape.
25 pounds of gear on you will wear you out in four hours.
Flame suit on since ar15.com hates airsoft.
Load yourself down with a full kit, spend a whole day running - most airsoft games were more strenuous for me than doing the same thing for work.
As limited as the performance of even good AEGs are, you probably noticed that during dynamic shooting that the gun was outshooting you - which puts you ahead of all the chairborne commandos on here with a real rifle.
The skills DO transfer too. I spent lots of time running drills up close with AS stuff, and just last week shooting our predeployment Table III shoot, I was goofing around shooting support side and still making the tightest group on the range.
Go back and do the same running 32rds in all locap magazines (ends up feeding 28), and use the rig you shoot your firearms off of, and you'll really start making useful gains. Dumb as it sounds, learning takes place faster when you're doing something that's also fun as hell.
It's definitely valid so long as you use it as a training tool. It's often hard to separate the "game" from the training, but it's a great way to practice FoF if you don't have access to simunitions.
I played airsoft for years and I think the difference is about implementation. lets face it, anybody who has played airsoft, especially out in the woods knows that there are a lot of kids that just run around and hose at anything that moves out of a 300 round hicap mag, we've all seen the type, this is not a valid training . personally I think that the training viability of airsoft in the woods in somewhat limited, where airsoft by my estimation shines as a low cost (and low pain compared to simunitions) training tool is in urban and close quarters scenarios. close up airsoft's lack of range doesn't matter, and some ranges have low cap only games (20 or 30 rounds for rifle mags and no more than 20 rounds in pistol mags) which also adds to the training aspect. really what it comes down too is if you use it properly as a training tool. the other nice thing about airsoft is that it allows to you do things like practice stuff like shooting off your weak side, rapidly switching between targets etc. for basically no cost (bb's are like what? $10 for 2000) and hey you can do it in your backyard and NOT have the neighbors call the cops. I mean yeah there's no recoil to deal with and reloads are nothing more than dropping the old mag and slapping in the new one. and hey going head to head with your friends is good fun.
I played when I was younger but I didn't really have trainig in mind. Withoughg even processing I started to realize I needed to slow things down. I always played with 30 roundmags in my AK AEG and that really helped me focuse on taking shotsi new I could make and reloading frequently.
Its a good traningtool, no doubt. Even I you play with idiots you can stil focus on your own skills.
It was amazing to me how clumsy I got just trying to avoid bb's, let alone bullets. I can't imagine how that would feel.
I would like to try it out if I could get enough people to take it seriously, but I think it would end up like our paint ball games, just a game.
"5. Your equipment will fail "
Could you elaborate on what part of your equipment failed?
