The Airsoft World and Real Steel Optics
Firstly it’s important to cover (for those that do not know) what Airsoft is.
Airsoft is a competitive team sport where groups work to deliver objectives and target opposition team members.
Unlike Paintball, the sport is totally based on trust. In Paintball people identify target hits with visible markings. In Airsoft, we use 6mm plastic balls in varied weights and rely on honesty to call hits throughout the game.
It’s an ever-growing sport that sees a significant investment in both clothing, kit and real imitation firearms used in the sport.
A lot of the kit used by a number of players is either surplus supplies from militaries around the globe. Other kit is of military specification and purchased/used on top of any current issued kit.
(Above is an example of some of the equipment I use at the events. I attend to fire a 6mm bb up to approximately 90 meters varying from 290 – 450 feet per second.)
The Events I Play
Airsoft falls under 4 main types;
1. Close Quarter - mainly indoor
2. Skirmishing - tends to be more outdoor events
3. Battlesim - 1 day events that have no stops throughout (carry what you need)
4. Milsims - military simulations based (from what I play) over a 36-48 hour period (again non stop throughout the event).
The preferred game mode that I play is Milsim’s and tend to have a back story for the entirety of the event (or sequence of events if carried over a number or weekends). These events involve night play so you need to pack for every eventuality.
My Last Event
The last event I played was a Milsim event at the Ministry of Defence training facility in Hampshire.
I was part of a team of 5, however (unlike myself who was attending this site for a 3rd time) the other 4 had never been to the site and for some it was their first Milsim.
(The Team and I (Glasses))
We arrived Friday (after a cheeky KFC at Cobham Services) and made our way onto the site.
Being part of the opposing force (battling against NATO) we were allocated a house in the purpose-built street used by the British Army for house-to-house training.
It was a cold weekend, and the game mode started at 10am on the Saturday morning with Opfor role-playing with a live market stall set up and NATO on patrol.
As the weekend escalated the calmness escalated to small battles between the two sides, moving into main battles between the sides on Saturday evening/night.
(The Chief, Paul Howe)
As day turned to dusk the game started to significantly drift in favour of the NATO force.
This team (of approximately 70 people) had access to Night Vision goggles (of varying generations) and led to a higher portion of the Opfor side heading back to their beds.
This was a massive factor in me looking into optics that support night games.
The gaming arena was pitch black.
It was a great weekend, it created a huge bond with the team but as I said above, identified a gap for me in optics needs.
Real Steel Optics and the Airsoft World
As already mentioned, the need for decent Night Optics was flagged at the Milsim event in Hampshire.
To fully appreciate this chosen game method I needed either NVG or Thermal.
On my other main Airsoft guns I have used a number of different optics in the past, mostly cheaper versions of modern-day models.
With a lot of money being spent on our kit, optics was always a cheaper target purchase seeing the damage caused to optics from a 6mm bb.
Step up Vortex.
Vortex offer extremely affordable optics that are of great quality and come with a legendary lifetime warranty.
A number of people I know have Vortex optics and use them in all arenas.
I know people who have had these lenses shot out by bb’s and after contacting Vortex, they have had a brand new replacement unit delivered to their door. (For our community, this gives us the confidence to purchase better optics with a nice comfort zone.)
I currently use the Vortex Strikefire 2 Red Dot, Strike Eagle scope and the Crossfire. They’re a great set of optics with great clarity and adjustment (for aligning to airsoft bb’s) as well as the Vortex Lifetime Warranty.
And as for night gaming, well after liaising with the team at Optics Warehouse, I’m now the proud owner of this:
The Pulsar Trail XQ50 LRF will massively improve my game and I cannot thank the team at Optics Warehouse enough for sharing their knowledge prior to making the purchase.
Till next time,
The Chief
