Airsoft Season Begins

Finally.

We've been having an unseasonably wet and cold spring here in K. Most of our weekends have been filled with pretty crappy weather. I went to the local hobby shop yesterday morning and found out the meeting place for the local airsoft group. Thankfully it was only a half-hour drive away.

I nearly didn't find the place. I had parked my car at a near-by school and began walking. I stumbled upon the parking lot serendipidously. The guys there were rather suprised that I showed up. The were generally friendly and welcomed me as things were just beginning.

This was their third day this year and we began with about an hour to an hour-and-a-half of maintenence work around the site. We moved the port-a-john, re-built some stairs, and set up some barricades. There were about 12 of us there.

At about 10:30 we began our first game. It was elimination-style and the only rules were that we had to use our guns on semi-auto. When I asked why, they replied that until the grasses and foliage grew in, it wasn't very interesting to just blast away on full-auto. The area was surprisingly small. We primarily stayed within an area that measured 100x50 yards. I thought the games would last longer and that we'd be farther off from our starting point, but I doubt the games lasted longer than 15 minutes with about six people on a team.

My new M-4 worked flawlessly after I discovered that I played the first game without winding my hi-cap magazine. I probably only shot off about 10 rounds. The rest of my trigger-pulls were just shootin' air. Talk about a newbie screw-up. Then during my second game I realized I had to adjust the hop-up. I keep my gun stored at the neutral-postion, because I'm under the impression that it'll last longer if I store it that way. Basically if I fired some test shots before we started, I could have worked out those kinks immediately. The other guys were firing their guns, but I was a little embarassed to join them.

I didn't use my Glock-18C AEP. I wanted to save the batteries for later, but that was stupid. Even though I had two batteries, they should have still lasted me about at least 400 shots which is more than enough for half-the-day the way we were playing. I fired a total of about 200 rounds with my M-4 for the whole morning.

Others were using M-4 variants, GBB pistols, a G-36, a couple shotguns, a couple rifles with scopes. The GBB's were very cool. I might have to get one myself ;-) but I don't want to spend any more money right now.

I brought a pair of cheap shooting glasses, but they quickly had me switch to a face mask. It was a field rule and that was fine by me. I had two hi-caps for my M-4 and only used one. I had three extra batteries, but didn't even use up my first. Granted we were using semi-auto only, but I only see myself no more than tripling my consumption for a morning of full-auto. I doubt that I'll need more than two hi-caps and two batteries for my M-4 all day long. I do need to find a better way to dispense my BB's for reloading between games. I'm pouring BB's out of a zip-lock bag right now, and there's always a few BB's that get wasted in the process. I hate the thought of dropping more BB's than is necessary.

I ended up getting hit about as many times as I made my own kills. I think I should have counted a couple of hits in hind sight. I didn't realize until half-way through the morning that I should count richochettes. To tell the truth, it was a little difficult to tell when you were getting hit, kinda. I don't want to get into the bad habit of not calling hits.

Our strategy was pretty much to rush the line as soon as we began for good position over the field. It wasn't really necessary given that we were playing elimination over capturing a base, but it was still fun. I really tried to practice constant forward/agressive movement, but it's difficult. Sometimes you get pinned down and I probably should have pulled back and flanked for a better shot.

I had a fantastic time and after I figured out the initial glitches I was able to play without futzing around with my gear. I would like to figure out my sling. It would have been nice to switch weak-side a couple of times and I found the three-point sling to be annoying at times. I can also see why Clint Smith doesn't like them. I found my saftey got switched off a few times when carrying the M-4 between games. I was very careful about the trigger, but that was pretty unsettling to think that might happen with my real M-4. I'll also need a new holster. My Glock spun around my body a few times during the game. A drop-leg set-up would eliminate that problem. I wouldn't want to reach for my side-arm and find that it's not there.

So, the guys are letting me come again. The next game, May 6th, will be at night beginning around 20:00. I have no idea what to expect. I'm wondering if I'll need a light or not. I think the team leader said that it wasn't necessary. We'll see.