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UNK
01-25-2012, 08:43 PM
I am curious if anyone uses airsoft for at home training?
What is your airsoft training regimen like?

abu fitna
01-25-2012, 09:01 PM
Like any other weapon simulator that does not mimic recoil, or even consistent mapping of trigger pull, I typically focus on holster, reload, target transition, and movement drills. Depending on the environment, with airsoft these can be "hot" with pellet or dry (gas only, for appropriate pistol simulators.) They also allow nonstandard starts (car, bed, fast action gun bag, etc.) that are very rarely possible at the range.

One of the real keys I have found is avoiding bad habits in which you break the muzzle discipline, trigger discipline, or recoil management factors that you spend so many hours on training with live ammo. It is easier to "forget" good things due to the administrative nature of the simulator, compared to the reminders of reality. It requires consistent discipline and focus to avoid the fact that you "know" the weapon is not real.

The same goes for other training platforms like the SIRT, etc.

Your mileage may vary...

UNK
01-25-2012, 09:49 PM
Like any other weapon simulator that does not mimic recoil, or even consistent mapping of trigger pull, I typically focus on holster, reload, target transition, and movement drills. Depending on the environment, with airsoft these can be "hot" with pellet or dry (gas only, for appropriate pistol simulators.) They also allow nonstandard starts (car, bed, fast action gun bag, etc.) that are very rarely possible at the range.

One of the real keys I have found is avoiding bad habits in which you break the muzzle discipline, trigger discipline, or recoil management factors that you spend so many hours on training with live ammo. It is easier to "forget" good things due to the administrative nature of the simulator, compared to the reminders of reality. It requires consistent discipline and focus to avoid the fact that you "know" the weapon is not real.

The same goes for other training platforms like the SIRT, etc.

Your mileage may vary...

So it sounds like there is no actual firing during your practice. I would like to hear from people who actually fire their airsoft, and find out what they shoot at and if they have a method for capturing bb's

abu fitna
01-25-2012, 10:08 PM
So it sounds like there is no actual firing during your practice. I would like to hear from people who actually fire their airsoft, and find out what they shoot at and if they have a method for capturing bb's

Depends on the objective whether I use the pellet load or not. I have done so for first draw shot and f-r-f drills, plus target transition; but I have found otherwise it does not build skills transfer as well as I might like. (And for pure first shot accuracy and trigger model, the SIRT is closer for me.)

I don't usually work about pellet capture, I just ensure a sufficient backstop (learned the hard way by ruining a door with a 300fps threshold airsoft pistol normally used for force on force.) Backstop for me has mostly been a decent sheet of relatively softer wood, but anything that blunts impact works fine. Pellet backsplash can be an issue depending on surface, so eyepro is a very good idea even if it is just solo practice. A shop vac takes care of the cleanup. (You generally don't want to re-use once fired pellets. The chip and shatter on impact in many cases and can cause serious malfs for the similuator weapon, so again not worth the pellet capture hassle for me.)

Doesn't seem like what you had in mind, though.

bbqbologna
01-25-2012, 11:04 PM
I used Airsoft, a couple of years ago, to help me get a handle on tracking and shooting moving objects. I bought a couple of cheap, motorized targets on Amazon. The targets only lasted a couple of months, but served the purpose of getting me moving in the right direction.

btyeung
01-26-2012, 02:36 AM
What I've done before is get some cardboard wine carriers (for 6 bottles), and cut out the front. Fill the inside with carpet, newspaper etc, and tape paper targets to the front. I live close to Napa Valley so I can easily get them from friends but I can imagine your local wine store would have them. They're easy to carry around and easily serviceable.

BY

UNK
01-26-2012, 06:40 AM
I have a prototype of a machine that presents a target, resets automatically and catches the bb. Is this something that would be a useful training aid if moved onto production?

Stuffbreaker
01-27-2012, 04:37 PM
Airsoft was a big part of my training when I first learned the basics of the draw and reload. My KWA USP replica has similar controls and action to my HKs, and it helped me get comfortable with some potentially dangerous skills before going hot. I bought a second mag to practice reloads, and my first several FAST and El Prez were done with airsoft. Though rapid fire with AS didn't do much for my recoil management, the blowback action helped me tremendously in learning to track the front sight through recoil. I did plenty of live fire between airsoft sessions and never developed any bad habits from it.

I reached a point of diminished returns with AS, and its been almost a year since I shot mine with any regularity. The trigger on my replica isn't all that similar to my real pistol, and dry fire with my P30 does more for my current skill development. I do plan to break it out to work some transition and cover skills before getting into IDPA this year. One of the instructors I train with has a similar 1911 replica, and there's been talk of using our pistols in an upcoming force-on-force class.

I've used gel targets, but most were destroyed from running my KWA on propane. The 20g projectiles blew through the back of the cheap targets in short order. Most of my targets are cardboard boxes with some sort of filler such as an old towel or newspaper stuffed inside to keep the BB from passing through. I've also used regular cardboard targets hung from the ceiling with a towel placed behind it. The BBs are absorbed by the towel and fall into a box or laundry basket on the floor below.