Airsoft is a sport played by mature individuals on private property. In many respects it is similar to paintball – the objective is to hit the enemy with your projectiles, while avoiding being hit yourself. Unlike paintball, there’s no paint and being hit relies entirely on the honor of the other player calling themselves out.
The past 4 years there’s been a tremendous advance in the airsoft gun technology, particularly due to the introduction of airsoft on the US market, and, as a result, increased demand for airsoft guns. Many Chinese airsoft manufacturers, such as CYMA, Double Eagle and Well, which were making low quality guns before, switched to manufacturing higher grade guns, and even invented their own! This makes airsoft guns affordable to a lot more people, and I hope will make airsoft a more mainstream sport in the US in the coming years!
Unfortunately, because most airsoft guns are imported, they are often hard to find, even online. To complicate the issue is the fact that most airsoft guns look like a replica firearm with very little separating them from each other externally.
To help you navigate through this soup of acronyms, especially if you are making a first time purchase, I put together this list of airosft electric pistols on the market today – May 2010
Tokyo Marui
- Glock 18c
- Beretta M93r
- HK USP
Cyma
- Glock 18c – Model name CM.030
- Desert Eagle – Model name CM.121
- Sig P226 – Model name CM.122
Double Eagle (DE)
- HK USP – Model M81
- Beretta M9 – Model M84
Jieke
- Beretta M93R – Model name P02
Well
- VZ61 – model name R2 and R2C
- HK MP7 – Model name R4
TSD
- HK MP7 – Model name R4, comes with more accessories
Jing Gong (JG)
- VZ61 – Model name 0451A
