ACTION AIR TAIWAN
SO YOU WANNA SHOOT ACTION AIR?
ACTION AIR IS AN INTERNATIONAL SHOOTING SPORT WHERE COMPETITORS NEED BOTH SPEED AND ACCURACY TO SUCCEED. OUR “MAN IN TAIWAN”, STEWBACCA, HAS BEEN SHOOTING ACTION AIR FOR A WHILE NOW AND HERE HE BRINGS US UP TO DATE WITH WHAT HE’S LEARNT AND HOW WELL (OR OTHERWISE) THINGS HAVE GONE.
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aving been shooting Action Air in Taiwan for nearly a year and a half now, as well as being a gas blowback pistol aficionado for nearly two decades (and given the fact that I’ve experimented with a variety of pistols for both skirmishing and Action Air - more recently shifting to using the CZ75 Shadow SP01 and then the Shadow 2 and finding the weak points of the succession of gas guns I’ve used in a competitive environment), I figured it might be a good time to relate to you my experiences of using all these guns, along with how to approach choosing a gun, a division to train and compete in and other sundry considerations for new shooters.
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Back in March 2019 the Taipei Focus Action Shooter (TFAS) and Spring Rain (SR) operated “Ding Ding Cup” was held, which was open to all shooters and my skirmish teammate at the time, Belinda (then a member of team Spring Rain), invited me along to give “running and gunning against the clock” a try, instead of against my usual meat target firefights in skirmish settings.
For that initial foray I used my somewhat standard sidearm of the time, a KWA HK45 GBB pistol (as reviewed in depth back in Airsoft Action issue No. 121 January 2021), the first gun I ever bought upon arriving in Taiwan and one that I had used in skirmishes for around a year and a half at the time. As well as adding a Docter red dot site and being very comfortable with the handling, I was making accurate shots at reasonable distances with it. At the time, the HK45 represented a reasonably hard-hitting, accurate and consistent choice, although I had a few magazine leak issues during that competition due to my use of it in skirmishes - and having accidentally dropped some of my magazines on Action Bunker’s concrete floors which compromised their base seals and general gasholding integrity! Were it not for these issues and the fact that when I finally moved to Taipei from Zhubei in late 2019 my HK45 was unserviceable and awaiting spare parts, taking the best part of a year to work out all the issues with and finally return to fully operational status, I probably would have continued using it once I joined team SPPT and began training in Action Air proper.
“…MY SKIRMISH TEAMMATE AT THE TIME, BELINDA, INVITED ME ALONG TO GIVE “RUNNING AND GUNNING AGAINST THE CLOCK” A TRY, INSTEAD OF AGAINST MY USUAL MEAT TARGET FIREFIGHTS IN SKIRMISH SETTINGS.”
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JULY 2021
