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Avoid these 5 Common Airsoft
Beginner Mistakes

Airsoft is an amazing community that one can easily join. There aren’t a lot of barriers to entry but there are some common mistakes you see with new players from time to time.

Here are the five biggest mistakes that new airsoft players make.


Sniper as a First Gun

It’s pretty common for those new to airsoft to go the sniper route, but this is also one of the most common mistakes for several reasons.

Sniping in airsoft is nothing like sniping in the real world. Airsoft sniper rifles don’t shoot very far, BBs can be disrupted by leaves, and often an airsoft sniper rifle isn’t any more accurate than any other airsoft rifle. Good airsoft sniper rifles are also expensive and have a slower rate of fire.

Real sniping can be quite tiresome as it involves a lot of patience and stillness. And there is no guarantee that you get to snipe anyone.

Trust me, it's a lot more fun to run and gun than to snipe. If you want some extra range and a sniper-like role, look into being a designated marksman.

A DM moves with a regular squad but may hang back in a firefight to make well-placed shots. In a pinch, they can instantly swap to a normal infantry role and start laying down fire.


Accessorising Too Much

It’s a lot of fun to have a rifle that can accept accessories. It’s very tempting to slap everything you possibly can on a rifle and roll with it. This includes an optic, a laser, flashlight, bipod, angled foregrip, and more.

While some accessories can be handy for some roles, they aren’t always needed. They tend to increase the weight of your gun and increase its price too. Before you begin slamming accessories on a rifle, examine how you play.

• Are you in the prone position a lot? If not, a bipod is useless.
• Do you play at night? If not, the flashlight is useless.
• Can you see and use the laser?

You see where I am going here? The two accessories I’d recommend are a good sling and a decent little red dot. The red dot is optional.

Not Focusing on Physical Fitness

Airsoft is an action sport. It requires a lot of moving, shooting, sprints and more. If you want to be a serious player, it’s good to be in shape. You need to be able to transition between multiple shooting positions rapidly.

Being healthy and physically fit isn’t just important to be a good player, but also to avoid injury. This includes little injuries like pulled muscles and more severe tears and pulls.

You are likely going to be playing outside and in the heat. If you aren’t in solid shape, acclimated, and eating and drinking healthy, you can sustain a heat injury. This includes heat stroke which can put you in the hospital.

Remember to focus on your physical self to be a safe and be and efficient player.

Armoury KitBag
WE Tactical Training International
WE Makarov
Test & Review
- Reviewed by Rhino


The Makarov is one of the latest pistols to come out of WE that I have been asked to test and review. WE have really upped the ante over the last couple of years with manufacture and quality control of their pistols, rifles and ancillaries. As most of their pistols are compatible with Tokyo Marui they have inevitably been benchmarked against the TM products which is never easy. Anyway on to my test results and review.

On opening the box you get the usual egg box type packaging which keeps everything in place and protected. In the box there is the pistol itself, magazine, manual and a barrel extension and silencer ( more on these items later). On close inspection of the pistol the finish is very neat and tidy with a matt black paint job and some basic trades and a couple of serial numbers. It’s not until you hold it you realise what a neat little unit this is. People with larger hands may struggle with this as the pistol grip is very short. The magazine is again very neat and tidy and possibly the smallest pistol mag I’ve ever seen.

Now stripping this pistol is quite different to the usual Glock or 1911 strip down and it’s a little bit tricky. Pull down the trigger guard then click the hammer back and push the slide right to the back and lift off taking care you don’t snag the slide on the fire nozzle. This then gives you access to a very basic set up with the barrel and hop unit still attached the lower. The hop adjustment is again totally different to any I’ve seen on a WE pistol. No wheel, just a little slider at the back of the hop unit which is very easy to adjust. Reassembly was just as tricky as the strip down so be careful.


So I filled the magazine with WE green gas and filled the magazine with the 16 bbs it takes, the bbs were the Nuprol ones. On firing the first thing I noticed was how snappy and crisp the blow back was as the slide had a very short stroke, it was also quiet. On the chrono test I got the usual 270-280fps with the mag at room temperature which is what we come to expect from WE pistols. Now this is where things got really interesting. As I mentioned earlier this Makarov comes with a barrel extension and silencer which both just screw onto the inner and outer barrels so no need to strip the unit. So I refilled the mag with gas and bbs and put it through the chrono, the results were astonishing. The fps had increased to 365-380 and I checked this at least three times and it was whisper quiet. So if you’re planning to skirmish this pistol I recommend using a low power gas like 144a. I got two bb reloads to one gas fill as the mags are very small in keeping with the design of the pistol.

This little pistol really puts a smile on your face when you fire it as it is very snappy and sounds great. It also looks very good especially with the suppressor fitted and the compact size makes it ideal for concealing at MILSIM events etc. The only down sides to this pistol that I can see are it’s compact size will put off people with larger hands and the strip down is a little tricky. But it’s certainly on my shopping list, Enjoy!


The test pistol was kindly supplied by Milspec Solutions and is available now on their website.

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KitbagQuarterMaster
BFG/VTG Holsters by HW Holsters
Review by Yosser



Here at the blog we love to see airsoft innovation at its best and the Kydex Custom made VTG and BFG holders definitely come under that category.

KitbagQuarterMaster
Rise of the
PMC Loadout
Feature Article
- Review by Yosser


Ever since the USA ‘outsourced’ warfare to Private Military Contractors, the now acceptable face of mercenary work, airsofters have followed the trend and load outs have followed too. There was a time when MERCS used and wore all the available surplus kit they could get their hands on but as the trend has changed to PMCs so has the fashion and kit available to these highly paid and highly deniable ‘forces’ available to Govts, private corporations and people with the means to pay for the ‘protection’.

So as the cash is good in this line of work many of the PMC load outs will incorporate the great & good in a mix and match of military and civilian gear, although some military gear is not for official sale or use by civilians and many PMCs want a more low key and less military look to their kit, PMCs often go for rugged use outdoor gear or as the ‘private’ sector has grown many manufacturers specifically cater now to this market. For airsofters to get this look is relatively easy by mixing and matching kit you may already have or is easily acquired.

KitbagQuarterMaster
Fobus Holsters Review
For XDM & 1911 Pistols
- Reviewed by Yosser




Often overlooked by airsofters, Fobus have been making holsters (and other retention systems) for quite some time now originally developed in Israel for military, law enforcement and other ‘special services’. The Fobus holsters are a sea change in holster design and technology, with the first injection molded polymer holster and Fobus claiming to be the leader with more fits for more models in the market place. If you’re looking for standard, retention, roto, thumb break, CH rapid release, ankle, concealed, drop leg, paddle or belt holsters (plus many others beside), Fobus probably has the solution for you and your weapons system.

As we can’t hope to ever cover them all, we shall be taking a look at a small sample from the range, including the paddle rotating holster for the 1911 and the thumb break model for Springfield’s XDM.