Airsoft IPSC gear

[fogogrego]

Hello, i've been wanting to get into airsoft IPSC so bad. i know its most popular in HK, but i know other places practice it as well (well i live in the usa so its pretty rare over hear since everyone want to use real steel)

 

anyways i was wondering if you of you participate in airsoft IPSC/own airsoft IPSC gear.

 

if so what have your experiences been, what do you recommend/what would you NOT recommend.

 

i currently own a stock WA 6"accelerator hybrid limited which is assume stock, but i've seem so may modded and open class IPSC pistols out there that looks amazing. i also own 2 WA infinity 6" expert pistols and they are nice as well (even though there just stock)

 

P.S. what site out there do you recommend to check out for airsoft IPSC.

[Otsu]

in sweden we call airsoft IPSC "ATCS", Airsoft Tactical Competition Shooting. we had quite a strong following for quite a while but during the summers when the usual PT halls used by schools are closed over summer vacation it dies out. hopefully it will start up again soon.

 

for ATCS to be fun it's extremely important that you're not held back by your gun. the most paramount thing is for the gun to be reliable in terms of cykling. it's not always necessary that it's extremely accurate, it's rare that you engage targets further away than 8m. the non-hopup guns from WA are for example tailor made for different kinds of competition shooting - in japan it's much more common that people compete in these sort of things where it's very difficult to get ahold of real guns to compete with. usually in airsoft competition shooting you don't need range but rather higher FPS to push falling targets over and make a clear distinct penetration thru paper targets.

 

to have a big capacity in your gun is of course advantagous because you don't need to reload very often. the common rule here in sweden is that no ATCS course should need more than 40 shots to complete, which requires the shooter to reload at least once but not so many times that people with less capacity need to have an abundance of magazines. of course a bigger magwell also helps, a doublestack high capacity magasine is easier to insert than a singlestack 1911 magazine.

 

the faster the cycling the better, because it means doubletapping is faster and the lag to get your next shot off is smaller. therefore it's not always a good thing to switch your slide for a metal one (in some cases it adds more weight which in turn slows cycling down) but it can be a good thing to put in a stronger recoil spring.

 

the Xcellerator series from WA are excellent choice for ATCS, even tho the 6" guns might have a bit too heavy slide for my personal preference. i generally recommend the TM Hicapa 5.1 for ATCS because it's long barrel and smooth cycling. it's also very reliable. with a Koba-cup, tanio koba barrel muzzle break, 150% recoil spring and a nineball 7" inner barrel you've got yourself a very reliable kick-*albatross* ATCS gun for a relatively small buck. please note that the taiwain hicapa copies from WE are nothing but trouble and should be avoided.

 

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as far as other ATCS related gear is concerned, you need a good pistol belt, a holster you feel comfortable with, fast magasine pouches on the belt and goggles/shooting glasses. most of these things are stuff most airsofters already have as a part of their ordinary loadout. if you're looking for "race gear" i suggest you take a look at the real IPSC stuff because most of it is compatible straight off with our airsoft stuff.

 

for inspiration i recommend the hong kong shooting association homepage, their URL is http://www.shooting.org.hk/photo/ - they have some insane awe-inspiring race guns for display. they also have a few movies of how they practice ATCS.

i don't know where in the US to turn for IPSC gear, in europe we're forced to shop from hong kong because most american retailers usually make a big fuss when it comes to shipping outside of CONUS. i recommend Supremeco for ATCS/IPSC gear if you can't turn to a vendor in america, http://www.supremeco.com.hk/catalog/index.php?language=en

 

hope this helps!

[Lusaka]

Otsu's advice is excellent.

 

As he said keep everything as simple and reliable as possible as you have too much to think about in getting round the stage than gear. Plus even if you shoot averagely, the number of peoples' gear that fails them means you won't come last

 

For instance I use a KWA G19 with metal slide AND upgraded recoil spring (so no safety to thumb off, plus its tough enough to handle green gas), FOBUS retention holster (no thumbreaks or dual retention systems) and PWL mag holsters which grip the mags even upside down but pull out easily http://www.pwluk.com/product_detail_641.php

 

I started with what pistol and gear I liked but ended up gettting what worked

 

The only other item is whether to have a mag drop pouch or not. We usually set out some hessian on the ground where people are likely to have to do a mag change so you don't damage the mags when dropped. But competitions may not allow for this (people change different places) so you could end up with a damaged mag We aim to hit the mag release and as the mag is hitting the floor the new mag should be coming up into the mag well - this you can't do if you are dropping the old mag into the pouch

 

Definitely check your national IPSC rules on airsoft. Here in the UK, UKPSA who is our regional body, have rules on holsters which mean no thigh holsters for instance.

 

Best of fun and wish we had the choice of real steel