My youngest son expressed interest in wanting to shoot more so I was thinking since I can't always take him to the range I thought a nice airsoft rifle would work!

We have a nice tin shed in the backyard that would make a nice back stop. Want to get something like AR-15 style nothing fancy just a good rifle to practice and make him better!

Looked on Amazon and a few other places but not looking to spend $100+ for this thanks for the advice.

Your probably going to need to spend closer to $200-$300 to get something that's not going to break the second time you use it.

I'll try to remember to post details in the morning.

Ost

Not trying to butt in on your decision making as a parent. And I understand you want him to be able to just shoot whenever in the backyard. Just wondering if you haven't considered getting him a .22 and teaching him the basics of safety and the fundamentals of shooting.

First off, airsoft guns are horribly low quality. They cut every corner they can to make something that looks half decent and goes "thwap", and then most retailers play "coupon wars" to try and attract 12 year olds who don't have jobs. Wood screws going into some zinc-ish-pot-metal is pretty standard construction.

Regardless of what you read on the interwebz written by said 12 year olds, you're lucky to get a gun that shoots 20 MoA. Not exactly accurate.

Also, safety is important. I've met someone two years ago who got permanent eye damage by screwing around with an underpowered walmart airsoft gun; a normal airsoft gun is likely to take an eye out. Shop goggles aren't close to sufficient, and even paintball masks are questionable. See my post on airsoftsociety.com for lots of details.

Airsoft guns basically come in three types:
- Springers guns are spring powered, manually cocked for each shot. Usually sub-$100 garbage that's designed to go under the Christmas tree Dec24 and be in the trash out front by New Years. The clear-plastic-body spring pistols are decent for teaching safety to new shooters though.
- Gas run off propane (or similiar low pressure compressed gas) stored in the magazine. Typically they cost $300+, require disassembly and cleaning every 500 rounds or so, and are known to be horribly unreliable. There was also a big scare about a decade ago when the ATF took a gas airsoft "M4", attached a real AR-15 upper, and got it to go full auto. The gas system is small enough that it's the best way to make semi-auto airsoft pistols (which are typically around $100).
- AEG are the standard, battery powered guns. They use a motor in the grip to spin gears that pulls back a spring-powered piston, and when the piston slips off the gears it's forced forward by the spring to fire. AEG's are pretty much THE standard for airsoft rifles.

The normal go-to for starting players is the G&G Combat Machine. $140 to $160 in most places. They *look* good, all plastic externals, but have a horrible reputation for durability. One of the regulars at my local field uses these, and replaces them every 6 months. They also have horrible motors, so you need to hold the trigger back (to connect the electrical contacts) for about 100ms before the motor will spin far enough to fire the gun. It's a very noticeable delay between pulling the trigger and "thwap".

Moving up, KWA and VFC are probably the way to go, starting between about $220 to $300 (add $100 to $150 if you want one with a railed handguard). Both companies still skimp everywhere they can; my old KWA had wood screws going into machined zinc parts for example. VFC is probably the top-of-the-line for factory guns, and they're the only company to make M4/M16 clones that have normal size pistol grips (most use wider pistol grips to fit the motors).

Personally, if I was in the market for an airsoft rifle today, I'd probably buy a KWA RM4A1 (part of KWA's AEG 3 series).

I built an airsoft clone of my "shtf" rifle about a year ago off a VFC VR16; ended up paying somewhere around $500-$600 when it was finished.

Add about $30 to your budget for a battery & charger for an AEG, plus eyepro. BB's bounce (and retain a lot of energy when they do), so even just shooting in your backyard should involve good eye protection

Also, manufacturers change things fast. A review from a year ago (which is what this post is) isn't relevant at all to what's currently being produced. KWA was awesome, then they were crap, now they're awesome again. It's a gamble.

We have one I'm not always able to take him when he wants to go. Also past two years we just been having problems finding a range last place I was at I was told to shoot across the river (Into Mexico told this by Hispanics.) or I have land and I shoot there. This time we know of places but my family is going to be living in a town 73 miles from where I have to work and live so don't always have the time.

Pretty much better off just buying a Daisy lever action BB gun and a good backstop. I saw how much the rifles are and thought it was a joke they cost as much as the real thing. Thanks!