Airsoft Retailer: Airsoft G.I.

As well as the world, the US has lots of airsoft retailers all around the country. The one I will show you is Airsoft G.I.

The one that everyone should know is Airsoft G.I. from California. Airsoft G.I. has great customer service (from what I heard, never dealt with their customer service yet) and they have a wide variety of stock. I like the way their site is always organized unlike some other retailers and they have frequent new items on their store which is nice. Also for Youtube people, Airsoft G.I. posts their own videos on Youtube and have new ones every week! So look at Airsoft G.I. for more information... and before you go there, they have free shipping on orders $100 or over!!!
As the retailer grows larger, their ideas get even better. Airsoft G.I. has an Airsoft Media and Forums for people to comment about airsoft. They show quite enough information for people to know about airsoft so they don't need to go to other websites that explain furthermore. One of the guys, Tim, who always is the host on Youtube, is great at explaining new products as well as making mistakes (gotta love those bloopers at the end of those videos!!).
Furthermore, Airsoft G.I. is like everyone says, a great, reliable airsoft retailer and people from all over the country buy from it because it is that great!

Common Terminology for Airsoft

In airsoft, the common words you hear will be "hop up", "fps", "rps or rpm", etc.(I'll let you know more on the etc) What do these words mean?
"Hop up" means the device that changes the direction of bb that flies out of the gun. You can only adjust the hop up to go up or down. The main point of hop up is to make the bb go straight instead of up or down and to increase accuracy.


As shown in this diagram of a M4/M16 , the hop up adjuster is above (its supposed to be above but to the side of the inner barrel) and the hop up chamber is right above it as well. When the dial is turned right, it increases the hop up meaning the hop up chamber goes down. When you fire the bb out, the rubber padding will touch the bb therefore making the bb go straight and give little more accuracy.
Keep adjusting it and firing it until you see the bb go straight. If you turn the dial all the way to the right (increasing too much hop up) the gun will break because the hop up chamber will be basically blocking the bb's path.


Fps means feet per second and is commonly used to see how much kick it gives. The higher the fps, the faster the bb will exit out of the barrel and hitting the target real hard.
Rps or Rpm means Rate per second or minute and determines how many bbs come out in each second or minute. Rps or Rpm is used for guns that have a full auto feature.


To determine the Fps and Rps(m) airsofters use a chronograph that calculates the how fast and how many bbs exit out of your gun.

Another terminology is "Field-Stripping" which means to take apart your gun WITHOUT using tools. CQB means Close Quarter Battle as opposed to Woodland meaning you have a skirmish (battle) in the woods or any open area.
If you have any question, ask them below in the comment section and I will answer them and possibly make a new post that will answer your question!!

Manufactures of Airsoft

There are many different airsoft manufacturers around the world but most are in Asia. So in today's post, I'll name different types of popular asian airsoft manufacturers.

So the top airsoft manufacturer that comes from my head is "Tokyo Mauri". This manufacturer is in Japan (obviously because it says Tokyo)and is the forefather of airsoft. The only thing that is bad about this manufacturer is that it is too expensive although the parts are high quality but the fps is low and Japan needs to reconsider making the prices lower.


The next airsoft manufacturer that every pro airsoft player likes is G&G. This company is from Taiwan, another country that has high quality parts in their gun. It is a good price for their good quality parts (even the plastic is high quality!!) Other manufactures from Taiwan are G&P (not the same as G&G), SRC, ICS, CA (Classic Army), and other places... Trust me, there are alot of manufactures from Taiwan... I actually don't know why though.


So the last Asian manufacturer that is popular among us all are the Chinese manufactures. Now there are 2 main Chinese manufacturers that are popular and that is: CYMA and JG (Jing Gong). Which one is better? Well I don't want to make people go against one company because of their stuff or because I said so. To me, I like both manufacturers because of their fps power and their low cost. Why do they cost less than the average G&G or TM (Tokyo Marui)? Thats because its "MADE IN CHINA"... and the quality of the parts they use are not always that great. Also these Chinese companies are what you call "Clones" and what they mean by clones are that the guns are re-branded from mostly Tokyo Marui and thats why people call these the "Tokyo Marui Clones." Now this isn't that bad because these Chinese companies aren't bad at copying everything from the Tokyo Marui guns.


JG is probably the most popular chinese manufacturer because of their great kick in their guns for an affordable price. They mainly use ABS plastic with some metal but lately they have been making full metal guns which is pretty good. But the metal they use are not the high quality aluminum or steel, but pot metal.
Here is an example of JG's gun and their boxing (not the best unlike other manufacturers).

Now I didn't mention about CYMA and their manufacturing. CYMA is another Chinese company like I have mentioned but unlike JG, CYMA is a pretty decent company (not like JG is bad but CYMA is a bit better). Also, unlike JG which copies many varieties of Tokyo marui guns, CYMA mostly focuses on their AK variants which are really good. Now for a little brief history, CYMA used to make AK's that were low quality and their guns will shoot 200fps...with .12g bbs. But over time, they have improved and made better quality guns with extremely higher fps. Not also does it only make AK guns but also makes Mp5 guns that are little better quality than JG's. But, if you prefer some AK (47 or 74) for an affordable price with great (I emphasize on great) fps, CYMA is the way to go.
This is a typical CYMA boxing. I can ensure you that their boxing is little better than JG's because their cover acutally shows a great picture of your gun and shows description. You will notice it will say "CM" with numbers on it. Why do they do this? The CM is just a shorter way of saying CYMA but the numbers...even I don't know it. Ask some Chinese guy who works there... but he wouldn't know either. JG does the same thing (ex. real gun G36c=JG's G608).

Good BB's? Bad BB's?

How do you know if one bb is bad? Well, the bad bb's are those which those which aren't that dense and don't have much power when being crushed. Those which are the good bbs are made in all the asian countries (Japan, Taiwan) EXCEPT for China. Everyone says that "Oh, made in China this, made in China that." Its not like their guns are bad but the bb's are not high quality and often break in people's guns. The BB's I recommend using high polished quality bb's that is from Japan or Taiwan. Others such as TSD, KSC, Airsoft Elite are acceptable because they are from one of the two countries I mentioned...not China.

Also another thing I don't recommend not using is .12g bbs. Why? Even though they might be in high quality, these bb's are way to light for your electric rifles or gas pistols. There are some guns that use .12g bbs such as those low quality Wal-Mart guns. If you use the .12g, your bb's will fly off everywhere and not where you want to shoot. The recommended bb's are .20g bb's because they are a good weight for your gun. There are some other heavier bb's (.23g,.25g,.28, .30g!!) because the fps (feet per second) for the gun might be too high so people use heavier bb's to lower the fps to get better accuracy; same as I said with .12g. If the bb's are too light and throw off your accuracy, use heavier bb's. But all airsofters would say not to use .12g because its WAY too light.

Another thing I didn't mention was that it is best to use Biodegradable BB's. These BB's are most used in Woodland situations and helps the environment. And once again, don't use .12g bb's even if they are Biodegradable...they are too light.
"All airsoft: Want to know airsoft? Its all right here!!"

How do Airsoft guns work?

How do airsoft guns work? Well its not that complicated to know. As mentioned in my previous post, airsoft guns are powered by air which gives it it's name ( "Air"soft....duh). There are different mechanisms in airsoft because there are 3 different types of guns. Lets use the basic inner mechanism of a spring gun.

As seen in this diagram from Airsplat (One of the famous retailers from CA), the bb's (the round balls) from the magazine start going up (thats is because of the spring in the magazine that makes the bb's go up) every time the person cocks the gun back. When the gun is cocked back, there will be a bb in the gun barrel and the spring will be pulled back inside the cylinder. When the person fires the gun, the spring will push forward and the piston will push the air from the cylinder to the narrow inner barrel and the bb will fire out of the barrel into a target. The power of the gun will depend on the power of the spring, the accuracy will depend on the length of the barrel.
The gas gun mecanism is a bit complicated but it still like the spring except using the piston and spring to fire the bb, it uses gas as its primary mechanism.

As shown here (another diagram from Airsplat), this diagram what a gas blowback version of a gas gun would look like. In order for the first shot to work, the person must cock the gun. When firing the first shot, the gas works two ways. 1) the gas pushes the bb out of the gun. 2) the gas pushes the slide back and when it comes back in a new bb is automatically ready to be fired.
The same works with the non blowback version except the gas doesn't push the slide back therefore saving little more gas for you.

The last and most complicated mechanism (thats why these guns are more expensive than regular spring guns) are the Electric airsoft guns (The one I will show you will be on an Automatic Electric gun). These guns are powered by batteries in the guns that help operate the motor; the motor helps function the bushings to pull the cylinder/piston back and letting the gun fire.
So when you fire the gun, the motor makes the bushings spin and makes the top gear (the one with the "teeth")spin 360 degrees and during that, it will attach to the piston that has the teeth in the bottom making it go backwards and when the gear goes halfway and the teeth are not connected together, the spring inside of the gun (with all it's force) will push forward and the air nozzle at the front will push the bb out of the inner barrel and into the desired target.

So those are the basic mechanisms for spring, gas, and Electric guns. For more info on the mechanisms, ask here on the comments below. Thanks and look out for more posts on Airsoft.
"All Airsoft: Want to know airsoft? Its all right here!!"

All Airsoft

"What is Airsoft?" "Where did it originate?" "Is it safe?"
These are the questions most people who have never been introduced to airsoft has asked. To answer the first question, airsoft is a sport where people use guns (don't freak out yet)where it is powered by "air." Unlike real firearm bullets, airsoft uses 6-8mm plastic BBs which only results in welts. From experience, I got shot by one of the airsoft guns in the chin (funny eh?) and it stung a bit but i didn't feel anything afterward. Later on I got a welt on my chin which left my friends laughing at me but, hey, it part of airsoft.
Airsoft was originated in Japan (oh yeah, the place where all the cool techno things start from)in the 1970's. Owning a firearm was (and I think it still is...let me know on that) illegal but people were so interested in these guns that they first invented the spring air gun that was obviously powered by air and a strong spring. Later on they started improving on their system and later on "Tokyo Marui" which is one of the best airosft manufacturer at Japan was found.
Is airsoft safe? Parents, if you want to know if this is safe for your child or if your child is starting to be interested in airsoft, talk to them about the specific rules of airsoft and if they follow these guidelines, then you'll know that this sport will be fun for everyone and will be safe:

1)Do not aim your airsoft gun at a unarmed, or unprotected person or animal.
2)Do not show your airsoft guns in public unless its safely put in a bag.
3)ALWAYS wear eye protection (this is the number 1 rule of all!!)
4)Do not fire your airsoft weapon without eye protection
5)Always put your gun on safety (there are always safety switches on every airsoft gun) when not handling your weapon.
6)After a game or finished with firing your airsoft weapon, always fire a couple rounds just in case you have any bb's in the chamber.
7)Along with rule # 5 and 6, always remove the magazine after play.
8) Last of all, "JUST HAVE FUN, BE SAFE!!!"