Welcome to Airsoft Shogun’s Everything about Airsoft Guide!  Whether you’re a starting player or a veteran, we put a lot of effort into making this general guide, emphasizing on Safety and also guide to shopping for the proper equipments, airsoft guns, and accessories.  All of us at Airsoft Shogun wish you have an enjoyable shopping experience and play safe!

Airsoft categorize as a hobby of collecting realistic, non-lethal, shooting replicas of actual firearms.  Airsoft guns are 1:1 scale replicas of actual firearms that shoots 6mm, round pellets commonly called as “BB’s” which are propelled out of the guns by compressed air.  In most cases, Airsoft guns mimic the looks and functionality of its real-steel counterpart.  By that, meaning Airsoft guns look, feel, weight, and functions similar to the actual firearm.  Often, the only way you can tell them apart is the blazing orange tip.

FPS (Feet Per Second) is generally the term to use how strong an Airsoft gun can generate.  With wide variety of aftermarket parts such as high tension upgradable springs, gearbox internals (gears, piston, etc) can significantly increase the longevity and power.  (Please check with local airsoft expert or online forum guide prior to any upgrade!)

 

There are 3 major types of Airsoft guns:  Spring-Powered, Gas-Powered, and Automatic Electric.

• AEG (Automatic Electric Gun):  “Mostly refers to Rifle” They are the most commonly used and widely available type of airsoft gun. Being the most popular type of airsoft because most popular rifle such as M4, AK and MP5, etc are mostly manufactured as electric powered.  Electric powered airsoft guns typically uses a rechargeable battery to power an electric motor, which cycles an internal piston/ spring gearbox assembly in order to launch pellets generating anywhere from 250-500 FPS (Feet per Second) with accurate and effective range of 100+ ft. 
  
  
  • Gearbox may break down into 2 types:  Metal & Plastic
    
    
    • Metal Gearbox:  Found in most Mid- High end AEG.  With metal outer shell and metal gears provides longevity of the airsoft gun also generating harder shooting power.  Generating from 300 – 500 FPS is widely use in airsoft events.
    • ABS Gearbox:  Found in low end AEG.  Perfect for beginner because of its lower price tag.  Averaging from 200 – 250 FPS, obviously their velocity is less powerful than metal gearbox AEG thus it’s less  used in airsoft skirmishes but perfect for target practice or backyard battle.  (Please follow proper safety measure before playing!, please see our “Guideline to Everything Airsoft- Part 1 ‘Safety’”.
      
      

• AEP (Automatic Electric Pistol):  AEP is also powered by rechargeable battery and gearbox.  Because of its small size, the velocity of the pellets is relative slow for airsoft standards.  The velocity of an AEP is usually between 200 – 280 FPS (Feet per Second).  Not so popular with airsoft players because of no AEP uses a full size magazine which an be found in most gas powered pistol due to either the electric motor or batteries occupy space in the hand grip. 
  
  

• Gas Powered:  While there are several types of gas powered airsoft guns, the most popular are the Gas Blowback guns (GBB).  The GBB allows a realistic, semi-automatic firing of the gun.  Basically the same compressed air propels the BB out of the barrel and cycles the slide back.  This creates the realistic recoil by cycling the slide back and forth while firing the gun.
  
  Airsoft Gas Propellant: Green gas, Red gas, Propane and CO2.  Green/red gas is propane. The only difference is that green/red gas is scented and includes silicone oil for lubrication mixed in with the compressed liquid gas and it's pressure. The only difference between green and red gas is the pressure that the gas is compressed in the bottle.  Because most compressed gas cans are not DOT approved but some brands.  Click here to see DOT approved Ultra Elite Airsoft Green gas with Silicone Oil.  For those of you who have airsoft/ outdoor hunting stores in your area you may easily purchase them in the store.
  
  
  
  

• Gas Blow Back (GBB):  Power by gas propellant, some may also use CO2 as propellant if a CO2 magazine is available for the particular model.  With a freshly loaded magazine inserted, GBB will only needs to be cocked once before firing, and slide will lock when the magazine is empty.  And just as easily reloading the gun by inserting a fresh magazine.  The gas propels the BB out of the barrel and cycles back pushes the slide backward.  Giving the realistic feel of a real firearm.
  
          
  

• Gas Non-Blow Back (GNB):  Power by gas propellant.  Same as GBB but Gas Non-Blow Back guns does not offer the blowback action.  It uses all of the gas to propel the BB out of the barrel, giving every shot its full force.  (Most GNB’s slide is fixed and cannot be pulled backwards.)   GNB tends to be very gas conservative, quiet comparing to GBB because without the slide back and forth motion.  The operation is straight forward, insert a fresh magazine, with the pulling of trigger which will pulls back the hammer for each shot.  Non-Blow back guns offers a very powerful and lasting performance, but loosing a realistic feel most players looks for.

• CO2 Non-Blow Back (CNB):  Power by CO2.  Any 12 Gram CO2 cartridge you may find in outdoor stores or stores like Walmart, etc.  Generally requires special magazines that take CO2 12 grams and upgraded internals to with stand the tolerances of CO2.