LAST POST

IT AIN’T ALWAYS EASY!

WITH THE SLOW PACE OF AIRSOFT OVER THE HOLIDAY PERIOD, FRENCHIE STRUGGLED TO FIND SOMETHING OF (AIRSOFT) INTEREST FOR THIS MONTH’S COLUMN AND HIS THOUGHTS TURNED INWARDS. WE’LL LET HIM EXPLAIN...

Happy New Year one and all! I realise this piece may well appear after the event but it’s the first piece I have written in 2022, hence the good wishes. I’ve had a whole month to contemplate a subject for this issue and I have failed miserably. A whole December of nothingness, the muse has definitely decided to take some time off. Now granted, preparing for family Christmas may have got in the way a bit, my one unvaccinated child contracting flu was a bit of a distraction (for the record, he actually managed to catch a non-Covid related flu bug - they still exist it seems!) and finally the fact that airsoft as a sport and industry doesn’t actually move particularly quickly, all conspired to leave me banging my head off the table.

I even resorted to trawling through my files of previous articles, looking for inspiration or a subject that needed to be revisited because of significant changes. Nope, nothing. Comms remain comms, multitools are still useful, upgrades are still worth doing sometimes and BBs are still spherical. Major events just don’t happen that often in airsoft if we’re being honest about it.

I’m not knocking the sport itself. Quite apart from shooting myself in the foot, that would be like complaining that football games are always played in the same way, or that they haven’t embraced the excitement of a cuboid football. The game persists, each one the same but each one different because none of us play the same way every time; situations are different, challenges are different, players are different, but the broader airsoft universe remains largely unchanged around us.

I have mentioned the slow pace of technological innovation before, and in fairness there are good reasons for that, mainly because when Marui invented the AEG, they got it pretty much right the first time. (As an aside, there is probably an article or two about

“I’M NOT KNOCKING THE SPORT ITSELF. QUITE APART FROM SHOOTING MYSELF IN THE FOOT, THAT WOULD BE LIKE COMPLAINING THAT FOOTBALL GAMES ARE ALWAYS PLAYED IN THE SAME WAY, OR THAT THEY HAVEN’T EMBRACED THE EXCITEMENT OF A CUBOID FOOTBALL.”

how much they got right, but I’ll save that for later in the year). Electronic triggers, full steel gear sets, metal receivers and recoil units are all incremental improvements and while welcome, I am struggling to see areas where there is likely to be radical change. Airsoft guns as we know and use them have reached a point where they do what the majority of us need them to do at a price that is acceptable to the majority of players.

Spare a thought, therefore, for the poor reviewer who is faced with new guns that really don’t differ from what went before, but has to find something to say about them that isn’t just a list of parts and specifications. Years ago I had a period where I had a series of gas blowback 1911 pistols to review, five of the damned things. They were different models; original, MEU, ‘Tacticool’, but they were all made by the same company. Functionally they were identical, and for months I had to find new ways to describe a gun I had effectively described the month before. I’m certainly not seeking sympathy, but sometimes this gig isn’t easy!

Legally, at least as far as the United Kingdom is concerned, we are unlikely to see any significant challenges to our hobby. The key issues have been addressed, specifically the issue of lethality and how that relates to muzzle energy, and to be blunt, there are far more pressing matters for this current crop of incompetents to deal with.

This all sounds like a lament but in truth, it isn’t. Rather it reflects a sport and its associated industry which has achieved a certain degree of maturity. I questioned the nature of that industry previously, but the simple fact is that whatever its merits or failings, it is sufficient unto its task. It supports a reasonable player base, there are enough sites of sufficient diversity to offer players a decent amount of choice, enough established retailers to keep players old and new well equipped and supported, sufficient airsoft guns to equip a good sized army and a steady stream of new players to replace those who inevitably move on to pastures new.

Like middle aged parents, airsoft has reached a state of respectable contentment, even if there will always be those who find the very idea of it as the antithesis of respectability. Those people are outside the sport and frankly are probably the selfsame people who think that golf is a proper use of an adult’s time and resources. Each to their own I suppose, although obviously such people are utterly wrong in their beliefs. The whole affair is well enough established and managed (as far as that goes) to weather most storms that might beset it. Alternatives like Speedball will probably remain a bit niche (my personal opinion); one of the key attractions of airsoft is, and always has been, the excuse to play soldiers, with the addition of cool kit and realistic looking ‘guns’. During the discussions with the Home Office back in 2006-ish, it became necessary to define airsoft. We came up with “The acting out of military and law enforcement scenarios for the purposes of entertainment”, or as my then teenage eldest son put it, “playing soldiers for fun”. He was right, but we sadly couldn’t use his definition in the Statutory Instrument. That desire seems to be enduring; young men (mostly) have done it for centuries before they decide, or are forced by circumstance, to do it for real. I’m going to guess that there are very few players still active who I first met as a callow newbie, but the game itself endures and at present shows no sign of struggling for new recruits. The current pandemic has played havoc with it, but that doesn’t make it unique in this day and age sadly.

Fortunately for me someone will do something either spectacular or spectacularly stupid relating to airsoft at some point, hopefully in the not too distant future, that will whet my vitriol and allow me to have a damned good rant. However, until that inevitability comes to pass, I am forced to concede that, all things taken into account, airsoft in the UK, and indeed most places around the globe, is probably in as good and as stable a place as it ever has, and if that means that I have to search a bit harder for subjects to expound upon I really shouldn’t complain, should I? AA

“FORTUNATELY FOR ME SOMEONE WILL DO SOMETHING EITHER SPECTACULAR OR SPECTACULARLY STUPID RELATING TO AIRSOFT AT SOME POINT, HOPEFULLY IN THE NOT TOO DISTANT FUTURE, THAT WILL WHET MY VITRIOL AND ALLOW ME TO HAVE A DAMNED GOOD RANT.”