Training with airsoft

[447MSGT]

I wanted to get some opinions or thoughts.  I have been a tactical instructor for a little while and I have been using the higher end airsoft for training for a while now with great results.  At the end of each course we have course and instructor critiques and we have had good feedback about the use of airsoft.  I know there is Simunitions but the cost of each trigger pull can be great to some smaller agencies.  There is also the down fall of VERY tight training budgets.  The integration of the real time interactivity of shooting and being shot at puts a total different spin on things for students.  There are some drawbacks when it comes to airsoft but they are few and far between, and I always address the fact that the focus is on movement and movement with weapons.  I also stress repeatedly that a good day at the range practicing weapons malfunction drills is imperative.  All in all the good that I can give to students is the meat and potatoes of shooting, moving and communicating.  Any thoughts ot suggestions, or is there anyone else using airsoft?  Another quick point is building use, I can ask a building owner or a local school to use a building and all I need is a good sweep down of the building afterwards.  There is no damage or walls "painted" up.  Again I have had positive outcomes and I am just fishing to see if there is anything I could use - thoughts please and Thanks

[Alfa One]

At the moment I have a M4 in airsoft and soon will have a pistol (gas operated) so I can practise at home (when wife and kids are not around).

I do see the use of it and it could be helpful in becoming a better (tactical) shooter.

[imschur]

I have been reading about agencies using this approach for the reasons you state.  :thumb:

[Longitude Zero]

When it comes to FOF training my department is about 2/3 Simunitions and 1/3 Airsoft.  Both are excellent training.  The sting of the sim or the pellet is a good teacher, especially cover vs concealment.  There are numerous airsoft pistols and rifles that can be accessorized just like their bullet firing counterparts.

Go for it.  Unless you are doing FOF you are not training correctly.  Shooting paper is blase for intelligent/competent training.

[Microgunner]

Not only does your airsoft simulations sound effective they also sound like a lot of fun. Wish I could play too.

[Mr. Jones]

I think airsoft is a great training method because of the realistic equipment that is available, but at a caveat of price.  You can get realistic airsoft AR platform rifles, sniper platforms, and even shotguns and explosive devices- but they are very costly on initial purchase.

A good airsoft AR is going to run $500+ on a good day, and more SWAT or tactical geared versions approach $1k. 

To be honest, it might cause more harm than good to train people with the toys then expect them to transition to the real thing.

As you say, it's more about movement and teamwork- with weapons.  I think that handing your team 7 pound, customizable, magpul style airsoft rifles will better prepare them for lugging around the real things.  Even little things like basic operation of various levers and switches ideally would be uniform between the airsoft trainer and it's centerfire counterpart; being able to customize each rifle to suit the shooters preferences is desirable as well.

So while your initial expenditure could be potentially large, the benefit over time is probably worth it.  As you mentioned, simunition is expensive, it's just a question of how many rounds of sim training does it cost before airsoft is more efficient.  Consider the cost of 1 year worth of sim training versus 1 year worth of airsoft:  what are the initial cost differences?  what are the eventual cost differences?

Overall, it's a great way to train, even as a civilian, I feel better prepared for dangerous situations through the lessons learned in airsoft and paintball.  Some outings have been very educational as well as fun; and even had a friend home from service that taught us how to stack up and breech as well as other pointers that made everyone much more effective in combat.  Even my little boy knows to fire a pistol from kneeling and go prone to snipe from our minigames we hold in the yard.  If it can do that for a bunch of weekend warriors and a handful of 6 year old kids, I can only imagine the benefit to any professional team.

And yeah.. my wife prefers to dual wield matching Uzis- she is screwed when I get my m249SAW  :grin:

[a|ex]

i frequently take my kids to airsoft games. for me, it's good exercise. for the kids, it teaches them not to panic if they need to go up against armed bad guys. my only problem with airsoft is the high capacity magazines. 300 rounds just kills the simulation. there are 30 round magazines but when playing for 6 hours, swapping and loading gets old really quick. i usually tell my kids to use semi auto only during the games.

since i train my kids to use my ps90 for home defense, there are several models of airsoft p90 replicas that i'm considering purchasing to simulate invasions at home.

here's some vids of the games:

-a|ex