Chinese "Airsoft" for cheap plinking

[bennedose]

On a hot March night a couple of weeks ago a coconut tree branch fell and demolished my plinking target set up in my backyard. Since i want to renew it and do something better I am currently sitting on it - but plinking is more or less at a standstill.

On an impulse, while my wife was shopping for vegetables I popped into a toy store and bought a China make "Airsoft" pistol for Rs 180 ( ). Here is a brief review.

The price is unbeatable. The box is labelled "Colt" and I am supposed tobelieve that it looks like some Colt automatic pistol. I don't know. The box came with exactly 10 airsoft 6 mm pellets - enough to fill the magazine once. I went to Kumbarpet in Bangalore and bought a kilo of 6 mm airsoft pellets. (Rs 90)

The toy feels like an automatic pistol in that the magazine is pulled out of the handle and loaded by pulling down a little lever. The pistol is cocked by a realistic looking sliding bar on top. Need to be cocked before every shot.

Muzzle velocity: 40 meters per sec
Weight of each pellet: 0.17 gram (170 mg)
Accuracy: - Using a 15x15 cm (6"x6") paper target, I missed 2 out of 5 shots at 5 meters. At 3 meters it is possible to hit a 15x15 cm target 100% of the time.
Effective Range: Up to 10 meters - although actually hitting a fairly large target - like a bucket - happens only 50% of the time or less.

Safety: Eyes can be damaged. Be careful!
A4 size bond paper penetration test: - the paper is punctured up to 5 meters. That means the pellet carries a sting.
I fired at light fittings etc with no problem. But I shattered a bulb - so beware. Windows may crack at short range. I tested a pellet against my car body - no damage.

For timepass, cheap indoor plinking this is good. The yellow balls will mess up your floor or yard. Have a broom handy

[kiran2608]

That's pretty good for Rs 180. In fact I too started my plinking with this airsoft models. Few years back the same pistol costed Rs 50 to 70. And they were available at Richmond signals in Bangalore. As they were very realistic then, even Bangalore times published a picture of the person selling sarcastically.

KD


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[essdee1972]

Try shooting indoors with the fan off. The pellets are light enough to be deflected by the airflow. I used to do the same thing when I was in Bangalore (1998-2000). Bought a couple of airsoft (a "Colt" - sized like a 1911, and a much smaller "Beretta") for about 200 total and a kilo of pellets off a street vendor on Brigade Road opposite Kaveri. The "Colt" had a safety catch, too! Since we were students, and we had a decent artist among us, we had great fun shooting images of our profs!!!

[Tiger619]

Try shooting indoors with the fan off. The pellets are light enough to be deflected by the airflow. I used to do the same thing when I was in Bangalore (1998-2000). Bought a couple of airsoft (a "Colt" - sized like a 1911, and a much smaller "Beretta") for about 200 total and a kilo of pellets off a street vendor on Brigade Road opposite Kaveri. The "Colt" had a safety catch, too! Since we were students, and we had a decent artist among us, we had great fun shooting images of our profs!!!

LOL....essdee...images of prof's

[maheshvijay93]

Hi bennedose,
Please share a few pics of your gun with us!

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[jetley]

Happy Plinking ! good air soft guns or even toy guns are really hard to find now a days . I am from hyderabad and i still check out toy stores for some good guns ( certainly not those colourful ones & a strict No-No for those firing spone darts ).

[bennedose]

Here is an image of my two Airsoft pistols. yes I have two now. The original one I bought is plastic and pictured on the upper right was labelled "Colt". The quality is rather poor. That I got from a toy shop for Rs 180

The one below and to the left is labelled G3 - and is a clone of James Bond's Walther PPK. That one is all metal and is of slightly better quality. It shoots faster and further and seems more rugged. I paid Rs 1500 for it in National Market but a later Google search revealed the same model available from as little as 3 dollars to 30 dollars.

airsoftchina.jpg

The plastic one is actually more accurate. the metal G3/Wakther PPK goes further but is less accurate. It is difficult to hit a 6 inch x 6 inch target from 3 meters 5 out of 5 times. Maybe the G3 would be better with metal 6 mm balls. But I am using 0.177 gram 6 mm plastic

[bennedose]

Power/penetration test
***WARNING***: Do not try these tests yourself unless you know exactly what you are doing. I did the tests for a specific reason that I will mention in a separate post

i did the tests on myself and a volunteer because I knew exactly what I was doing and I know what velocity and power is needed to penetrate skin, and I also know exactly where injuries by pellets can be dangerous and I know exactly where in the body injury will be trivial even if skin is broken. Knowing this stuff is part of my profession. These tests are not done for fun and you can make someone blind in one eye if you don't know what you are doing. You could also get yourself arrested.

After calculating muzzle velocity and power I had a volunteer shoot a 6 mm plastic pellet at a pre selected safe spot on my leg from a distance of 1.5 meters. After that the volunteer requested that he to be allowed to see what it feels like. 5 minutes after that I photographed the spots that were hit - they were small red raised spots like mosquito bites.

Photo of injury caused by Air soft pistols with 6 mm plastic pellets @ approx 40 meters per sec.

airsoftwounds.jpg

[bennedose]

The reason I wanted to do a power/penetration test is as follows. Mango season has started and I have several mango trees at home apart from other fruit trees. I have never ever chased away any squirrel or bird that comes to eat my fruits. I simply accept what I get, and what the animals get, they get.

But I do know that lots of gardens nearby have fruit trees where people, for economic reasons, want to protect from varmints. In the past (1980s) I have been sold air rifles with the specific recommendation that they can be used for varmints. The definition is left fluid and with hunting being illgeal, air rifles should not be used.

But I realized that cheap toy airsoft pistols with plastic pellets can be great for chasing varmints away
1. They are most likely to miss if the range is more than 2 meters - plastic balls veer way off course regularly.
2. Even hits beyond 2 meters do not maim or kill. Plastic balls lose power rapidly
3. The downside is the little pellets that are left around and need cleaning up. Biodegradeable pellets are available and I wish they were available easily in India.

[bennedose]

I have many fruit trees at home and they are a free for all for all birds and other animals who visit - either as tourists or long term residents. One guava tree is a prolific fruit producer but over 80% of guavas are eaten by squirrels.

After having satisfied myself that my China make Airsoft pistol would not harm any animal especially beyond 1.5 meters away, I decided to test its efficacy in chasing away squrrels from my guava tree. Here is a test report.

Earlier this afternoon I was plinking when I saw a lone squirrel (13% of the total number of squirrels that attack my tree every day) sitiing and feasting on a branch. I brought out my trusty China make airsoft 007 Walther PPK clone and loaded it with 3 x 2.7 grain corn yellow BBs. The magazine holds eight but anything more than 3 causes jamming.

The squirrel was clearly visible on a branch approximately 3 meters away. I shot a total of 17 shots at the feasting squirrel. All missed. After 4 shots the gun jammed and I had to do some callisthenics to un-jam it. After that it was smooth sailing. After 6 shots I decided to walk around and locate used BBs and reload them. The squirrel actually lifted its head after shot number 9 - which missed by about 15 centimeters, and I thought "Gotcha!" but it was simply looking at a noisy passing crow. One BB bounced off a leaf and came and landed on my head and rolled under my collar into my shirt. Friendly fire!!

My first 4 shots were aimed directly. Aim. Breathe steady. In. Out. In. Out. Hold - and shoot. I nearly fell asleep, but I forced myself to concentrate. After shot number 4, I started correcting the aim depending on which way the last BB had gone. If it had gone left I aimed right. If it had gone high I aimed low. After shot 17 my cellphone rang. I pulled it out and said "Hello!". It was a junk caller and I said "Not interested" and hung up. The squirrel heard me and ran away. Total time spent on chasing one squirrel away - 9 minutes 13.73 seconds.

Verdict: Junk calls are more effective than Chinamake Airsoft BB guns in chasing away squirrels from guava trees. If you try this - try and time it so you get a junk call. All you need is your cellphone.

I hope this test report is useful.

[kiran2608]

Wonderful " junk" test and message mate. I enjoyed your narration:-)

I too bought one for rs150 in national market, Bangalore. But I think I dint get good one:-(


When I trigger, my finger gets struck in the bottom of the trigger which hurts. Moreover I dint find it accurate. This one is just a toy gun only for kids.

KD



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[kshitij]

Have had similar air soft pistols when i was a kid in school. All the kids in the colony had it and we used to shoot plastic bottles and stuff. The thing was powerful enough for us, as it used to really sting if you got hit by it. The mischief began to get out of hand when a few light bulbs within the colony got broken. Soon all our guns were taken away
We were just kids having fun, yet the gun control brigade(our parents) managed to hit us hard

[chinmay1986]

Hi guys,

M a new member of the forum..was going thru the index when saw this topic...decided to have some fun with my old chinese airsoft gun
Immediately made up a 6"X6" target out of bond paper and got shooting.. I was using 0.12g plastic bb's

Have no idea bout the tech details like fps of the gun as have no means to measure it..but anyways..
here's the pic of the target sheet ...5 shot gp at 5 mtrs.

20141016_202306.jpg

would try a 10 mtr shot gp soon...although i doubt m gonna hit anything...

just for fun....happy shooting.

[kesh1982]

The rest of the world takes airsoft pretty seriously. There are full blown shoot outs happening every weekend with people loading up in full tactical gear and playing against each other. Gatling gun airsoft would be fun.

[estousandy]

Unfortunately, we're not pretty serious about that, or anything worth for that matter. Even decent versions of these cheap plinkers are elusive here.

Watching those full blown airsoft wars on tube is among my fav pastime.

And that gatling gun would be 2.5kUSD.."highly affordable"!!