Springs, electricity, and gas are the driving forces behind the various airsoft guns on today’s market. These realistically designed firearms are produced in a variety of styles; pistols, machine guns, rifles, and shot guns. Even though these guns resemble real firearms, they are only able to fire projectiles that are 6-8mm in diameter. Below, we are going to tell you more about these guns…

When purchasing an airsoft firearm, many considerations need to be taken into account. These aspects include; the rate of fire, the life of the battery, the size of the gun itself, and even the holding capacity of the magazine. Alternative features that are also kept in mind are possibly the weight, reliability, range, how realistic it is, and customization.

Spring Powered – The first guns for airsoft were dubbed “springers” and were single action guns that only fired one BB at a time. Between each shot, the gun would have to be re-cocked to be ready for the next firing.

Electric Force – Automatic Electric Airsoft Guns, also known as AEGs, tend to be the most common ones used today. They are powered by batteries that are rechargeable, which are in control of the gearbox inside. This internal gearbox is what fires the projectiles out from the gun. Early airsoft pistols lacked a small enough motor to actually fit properly in the housing, which caused weak BB velocities. The firing range of these AEGs was greater than gas pistols.

Four magazine capacities are available for AEGs; real, low, mid, and high. For holding less than 30 rounds, the real-capacity magazines are used. As for the range of 30-80 BBs, the low-capacity version is used. When using 80-150 rounds, the mid-capacity is called for and high-capacity magazines are capable of holding 200-500 plus rounds. There are also drum magazines which allow the option of being able to hold thousands of BBs at one time.

They have also become more accessible because of their increase in quality and have changed to using “green gas”. This environmentally friendly gas is propane mixed with small quantities of silicon lubricant and perfume.

Once “green gas” was being used to propel the rounds from magazines and the quality of these guns had increased, they became more accessible. This new type of gas was created to be more environmentally friendly, compared to the CFC and the carbon dioxide gases previously used. Green gas is made by mixing propane with some perfume and lubricant, but there are adapters available today that allow the use of regular propane for cheaper projectile propulsion.

When using green gas, a recoil effect is caused when the gun is fired. The magazine in each pistol houses a storage cylinder with enough gas to propel 30+ BBs from the magazine, which adds to the realism of the airsoft firearm. With the gas being contained in the magazine itself, the gun can be loaded, unloaded, and fired similarly to the way a real semi-automatic pistol is. The typical gas airsoft hand gun magazine will hold 10 to 20 rounds. There are high capacity magazines with a winding mechanism that will hold up over 50 rounds.

Today a combination of aluminum and plastic are used, for both internal and external parts, to make realistic looking and light airsoft firearms.

Author: Anthoy Carter is very into the sport of airsoft and is very knowlegdeable about airsoft guns. Go to this website to find the best place to find airsoft guns.

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