As a tech, I am often approached by mostly well intentioned folks who want me to install the latest
whiz-bang piece of gear into their AEG with the idea that it will somehow greatly increase their performance. Like many other industries, the airsoft one is saturated with items that are designed to pry a lot of money from your wallet. And much like the firearms world – it also tends to slant itself heavily in the triumph of gear over skill.
This also illustrates another item a lot of airsofters fall prey to: desire over necessity – otherwise known as “priorities.”
I see a great deal of new players immediately jump into buying all the “cool guy gear”, optics, plate carriers, carbon fiber knuckled gloves, jump helmets, and so on and so forth. Often times this comes at the expense of a mediocre airsoft gun that fails out of the gate, or an abundant lack of skill because the gear was supposed to create some illusory advantage and make you a better player. I’ve seen more high speed kit waxed by skillful players dressed like a bum with stock Tokyo Marui’s (a creaky FAMAS no less!) than the inverse.
As I mentioned in the first paragraph, a lot of gear is designed to assuage money from your wallet. Most of the airsoft industry is built around this, actually. A Pro-Win hop up chamber looks sexy, but is it really better than your stock hop up chamber? Will you even be able to perceive an advantage to having a CNC hop up chamber vs. stock? Can it even be scientifically tested? Take the world of cycling as an example: replacing all your factory chromed bolts for titanium analogues so you can shave off a measly 4 grams from your frame. It doesn’t really make you go faster, nor will a Pro-Win necessarily make you shoot farther.
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| “Pro-Win gets you babe for monthly payment of $39.99.” |
This is what you call the “point of diminishing returns.” You’re spending more and more money to receive less and less back. At some point, it flips over completely and you’re spending a lot of money to receive almost nothing back.
Certainly the area that will benefit most from performance upgrades will be the hop up chamber – but here we are talking about buckings and nubs – which aren’t very flashy nor very sexy… not the chamber itself (not to be taken de facto, some guns will benefit from a hop up chamber upgrade, such as a G&G Combat Machine, which suffers from a sloppy chamber.)
This is not to say that all upgrades are useless or a waste of money. Most players benefit greatly from optics, especially red dots which, (if all things properly adjusted) can greatly increase or guarantee your first round hit potential vs. merely looking over the top of the weapon like most. New buckings and spring swaps are similarly great for increasing accuracy, FPS, and range, but not necessarily needed. And contrary to internet lore, you do not need full metal internals (it does make us techs’ richer though), Maple Leaf buckings (the current magical talisman craze), jump helmets with an NVG mount you will likely never use (NVG users need not apply), or gold-infused-panda-piss-lube to make your gears spin faster (*cough* Frog Lube *cough*). Now, there is gear and equipment that can certainly help you out, and even does offer performance increases over older, perhaps technologically obsolete items. But there is a big difference between the player who can utilize gear to help leverage his skill and shave seconds versus the player who utilizes gear based upon image or perception that it will make his skill improve. One does not attain advantages without first attaining the skill to use those advantages.
Now there is nothing particularly wrong with being a “Geardo” or gear-junkie. A lot of us enjoy this sport because it allows for a huge amount of gear choice and selection – and who doesn’t love to tinker with their guns, right? That being said, it shouldn’t foster the atrophy of your skill and ability to compete.
In reality, here’s what you need to get started in Airsoft:
1) A quality gun that is reliable, decently accurate, and maintainable. This excludes anything found at Wal-Mart, Big 5, etc. Similarly it will exclude most one-off designs that offer zero aftermarket support.
2) Quality BB’s, magazines, and batteries. The lifeblood of your AEG or GBB. Cheap is bad.
3) If your local playing field has uniform restrictions and you want to play there, respect it and dress accordingly. You can dress like a bum while playing COD games in your backyard.
4) Develop your personal skills and playing ability through experience, practice, training, and / or mentoring by players who have been at the game for a while. Always be willing to learn new techniques, methodologies, tips and tricks, etc. More skilled players also mean events that are a lot more fun for everyone involved. Just as it is in Call of Duty, shooting the endless horde of Nazi’s scrambling over that same broken hole in the wall in scenic Bastogne gets boring after awhile.
That’s really it. All the cool upgrades, Gucci Gear and Panda-Piss-Lube is just icing on the cake. It looks pretty, and tastes good, but it doesn’t make the cake a cake.
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