Introduction of Airsoft

Airsoft is the general term for replica firearms. It may be differ in sizes or weight from live firearms. It can be of metal or plastic. It fires spherical projectiles (metal or plastic pellets) of 6mm or 8mm which weights about 0.20g (known as BBs).

Airsoft is highly popular in several Asian countries, such as Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and even Philippines.

There are typically three kinds of Airsoft replicas grouped by their firing mechanisms.
They are the Spring replicas, Electric replicas and the Gas replicas.

Description of Spring Replicas

Spring powered replicas are single-shot devices that work off using an internally "wound up" spring mechanism to launch a projectile. In pistols, it is work by racking the slide. In rifles, it is work by pulling the cocking lever.

Description of Electric Replicas

Electric replicas can be known as Automatic electric guns (AEGs). It is powered by an electric motor and gear set that powered by a rechargetable battery pack. Most of them capbaility of three firing modes, that is single shot, three round burst and full automatic. The battey operates the motor that turns the gears inside the gun to compress and release a piston which creates a blast of air needed to propel the projectitle through the barrel. The rate of fire can be of anywhere from 600 - 900 rounds per minute.

Description of Gas Replicas

Gas powered replicas uses compressed gas to propel projectiles. The most popular ones are the Gas Blowbacks (GBB). The GBB allows a realistic, semi-automatic or automatic or both firing of the gun by the gas storage system of the magazine-stored or on-board. The most commonly gas used are propane (usually referred to as "green gas") and HFC134a refrigerant. The less commonly gas used are the CO2 and nitrogen. The same compressed air that propels the projectiles out of the bore to cycle the slide back (blowback) and that will recorking the hammer and chambering the next round in. All this happens in almost simultaneously. Hence this creates a realistic recoil by the cycling of the slide back and forth while firing the gun. This cycling of the slide creates a recoil unique to this category of Airsoft replicas. Basically, this will allow the functionally to empty a magazine of the gun as fast as you can pull the trigger, and simply reload the gun by inserting a fresh magazine. Depending on the type of gas used, the force of recoil can be compared to of a .25 caliber firearm, and the recoil is not tremendous but enough to make the shooting realistic. Gas powered replicas are generally a good deal more powerful than spring powered replicas, and thus have better range. There are also a lot of custom upgrade parts available for gas powered replicas to fine-tune their performance, such as barrels, spring kits, gas valves, slides, and many more that are commonly used for upgrading.