Hey! Matt with Fox Airsoft here, and in today's blog, we will answer the question, "What makes a good beginner airsoft rifle?" Now, when I first started playing airsoft back in the late 1990s, it was challenging to find information on what it took to make a good beginner rifle and what you needed to make that gun operate, so I'm hopefully going to be able to answer that question for you today.
The first thing I recommend is when you are getting into the sport, you want to make sure to start off with a quality gun. What makes a quality gun is having a reputable manufacturer that has parts support, which has been proven out in the field for a little while. Here at Fox, that's what we focus on. We want to bring you products that will bring you a lot of enjoyment, that we can support, and that you can have fun with for a long time. The brands that we recommend on this website, we put our trust behind, and we consider them excellent choices for you. If you look at guns that are really inexpensive but "you have to do some things to make it work," that is probably not a good place to start for a beginner. You want something that is out of the box and reliable. Our top picks for brands will be Elite Force and ASG. They are US-based distributors who make a great range of products, and for beginners, these are the brands I would look into first.
With that, the price point does make a difference. Typically, our entry-level rifles start at around the low $ 100s, which go up to about $200 for the Sportline category. You might hear the term "Sportline" as well as "Proline" that we throw around, and there are basically two classifications for the gun. A Sportline gun typically has a polymer or nylon fiber-style body, whereas a Proline gun usually has a metal body and a higher grade. The difference between those two is primarily in the external build quality and the fit and finish of the rifle.
Check out the Elite Force M4 CQC Starter Kit
In terms of shooting, the Sportline rifles are excellent if you go with a good brand. You can go head-to-head with almost every Proline rifle out there. When comparing the performance difference between Sportline and Proline rifles, the Proline guns typically shoot a little bit more crisp, cycle quicker, and tend to be slightly more accurate out of the box. They have some upgraded internals (slightly more durable about achieving that crisp and smoother performance). Still, in terms of velocity and accuracy, you're going to be pretty darn close with the entry-level rifle to start off with. The life cycle of the parts that could wear out on a Proline rifle over time will be similar to a Sportline rifle, so that's just a fact of life, no matter how much money you spend. You will just have a slight edge in performance.
When we first started selling airsoft guns here at Fox Airsoft, typically, none of the guns would come with a battery or charger nor did they have any product support. It was considered exotic no matter what brand of airsoft gun you buy, so you're often left to search for upgrades or repair parts on your own if you pick up airsoft and there is no store near you. The batteries and chargers were no exception. Nowadays, some brands include a battery and charger, whereas others do not. Typically, those are thrown in there just to give you something basic to get started and get going. The very first thing you want to do with any Sportline rifle is to get a quality charger and a quality battery. The reasons are very simple: A quality charger/smart charger will charge your battery faster, and it's going to automatically shut off the charger once it has completed its charging cycle. That's going to make your life so much easier versus using the wall chargers that take six to eight hours and don't shut off. A danger to not unplugging a standard charger or overcharging a battery is that they pose a fire risk or damage the battery pack altogether. I would not bother with simple wall chargers with no cutoff, and I would get an intelligent charger off the bat.
The next thing is getting a quality battery. Typically, the batteries that come with a competitively priced gun are very low-grade, lower voltage, and lower milliamp-hours (mAh). They often won't live up to the numbers for mAh because the performance is so basic and poor. We typically find that they only have about half of the field playing time that a good-quality battery would have. Now, a good rule of thumb with batteries is that if you have a quality battery, a milliamp-hour equals one shot. So if I have a 1,600 milliamp-hour battery, I can fire it about 1,600 rounds before charging it. I don't think of it in terms of hours on the playing field. The reason for that is that some guys are just going to go to town on full auto, whereas other people are going to use semi-auto, and they're going to get more life out of that. This is a generalization, of course, as it depends on your gun's performance and conditions. Upgraded guns tend to draw more battery juice to accomplish that performance. There's more to it than that, but that's a topic for another day. When your gun starts to feel sluggish when firing, that will be your queue to charge the battery or grab another freshly charged one if you have a spare.
If you're going out to the field for a day of play, it's a good idea to have a spare battery in your kit. That way, you can go through the main one, and usually, about halfway or three-quarters of the way through the day, when you notice your gun is starting to die out, just change it out. You can finish off your whole day of play, and that works well for most players.
Check out the Elite Force M4 CQB Starter Kit
When you first get your airsoft gun, the most important thing you want to do with it is make sure you're putting in high-quality BBs. Typically, 90% of the problems we encounter are from people using low-grade BBs in their airsoft guns. So you can solve this problem pretty easily. Go to a reputable airsoft store and look at their ammunition brands. Don't go to a big box store, which typically sells consumer-grade disposal-type equipment. You want someplace that's going to actually sell hobby-grade equipment for real enthusiasts. In an environment where we run and use our equipment hard, it is not in our interest or that of any other legitimate airsoft store to sell you lousy ammo that will cause your gun to fail and for you to come back with a broken gun.
How does an electric airsoft gun work? In simple terms, your airsoft gun operates by plugging a battery into it that drives an electrical motor that turns gears inside the "gearbox" or "matchbox" to move a piston back and forth to fire the gun. The piston pushes air out to your barrel, where your BB will get launched. With that, there's some internal complexity that goes on, and that has generated a lot of non-standard terminology across the industry. You'll hear terms like "upgraded" versus "not upgraded," and where that really stems from is that you used to buy guns that did not have what we would now consider upgraded internals. The gear sets and pistons were weaker, so that was a component that you used to upgrade on your own. The nice thing about Airsoft today is that these rifles, like the Sportline ones that we're selling, are coming with what we would have considered upgraded internals.
The guns are going to have a longer life cycle out of the box than the guns that we used to use. Good beginner guns that are maintained well are typically going 25,000+ rounds in between complete teardown maintenance intervals. So again, buying a trusted brand will ensure you have the upgraded internals you need. This is if you absolutely take care of the rifle, feed it quality BBs, and follow all the other necessary steps. People unfamiliar with airsoft may unfairly compare these toys to their real firearms and have unrealistic expectations about their life cycle, so it is important to draw sharp distinctions between them. We are firing many more rounds through airsoft guns in a shorter period of time compared to a person who casually uses a firearm and is not abusing their equipment, so 25,000 rounds may sound crazy, but it is a lot of hard use. This is a generalization, of course, and you may have one or two things that wear out and need replacing closer to that number, or you may exceed it with nothing going on, or it may be time for a complete rebuild. That's the way airsoft guns are going to be.
Another misconception is judging a gun on its velocity. First, the standard when looking at your velocity in airsoft is measured with a .2 gram BB. Be wary of this. There are manufacturers out there that try to inflate their velocity numbers by using a lower weight of ammunition. The other thing is that velocity is not a measure of how good a gun is. There are two velocities that guns are typically produced with out of the box. That comes in at about 400 FPS and then at about 350 FPS. The reason manufacturers choose these velocities is for the type of play you have. If you're playing at an indoor field, 350 FPS is the most typical limit you find across the United States. Check with your field first before purchasing.
Check out the Elite Force M4 CFR Starter Kit
An outdoor field limit is typically 400 FPS, so most guns produced will have velocities closer to 400. The other thing is that it's not uncommon to see slight velocity fluctuations based on what's published. If a gun was advertised to shoot 400 FPS out of the box, when you tune the hop up and get the gun broken in, it's not uncommon for it to shoot about 380 or 390. That's fine. That doesn't indicate that your gun is flawed and it's actually doing exactly what it should be doing.
A lot of Sportline guns out there these days are coming with rail systems. The rail system does a lot for you. It's your point where you're mounting all of your accessories. There are a variety of different types of rail systems. You have a standard picatinny, which is the most common. It's been around the longest. Then, you also have a KeyMod and M-LOK pattern that allows you to mount accessories and keep a low-profile front end. But if you have a standard picatinny rail system, you can mount almost any accessory.
When you're looking for your first rifle here, just know that the products we're putting on our website are fantastic. We want to give you guys something great that you'll enjoy for a long time to come. If you have any more questions about a specific model or need more details, feel free to send us an email at sales@foxairsoft.com or give us a call at (888) 316-7816. Any of our sales staff will be happy to help you. We have some great people here who are very knowledgeable in the sport, and their job is to make sure that you guys get what you want so that you can have fun and enjoy this hobby for a long time.
When venturing into the airsoft world, one of the most pressing questions for newcomers is "How much are airsoft guns?" The answer varies widely depending on several factors, including brand quality, type, and the level of realism you're seeking. According to Matt from Fox Airsoft, the journey to finding the perfect beginner airsoft rifle starts with prioritizing quality and reliability, backed by a reputable manufacturer known for good parts support and field-tested durability.
In conclusion, selecting the right airsoft guns for beginners is a multifaceted decision that hinges on quality, reliability, compatibility with accessories, and adherence to gameplay requirements. By prioritizing these factors and leaning on the expertise of trusted retailers like Fox Airsoft, beginners can embark on their airsoft journey with confidence, equipped with a rifle that offers a solid foundation for both fun and skill development in the sport.
