I just got back from overseas and have decided I want to get into doing some competitive shooting. I've got a CZ 85B that I've put some new sights on, but with ammo prices the way they are and my ability to get real range time pretty limited I thought I'd give airsoft a try for training and practice. It's dirt cheap to practice with once you get past the setup costs with high quality ammunition ringing up at less than a penny a round. Biodegradable BBs are also available making cleanup at outdoor sites a non issue. Most popular models of firearm are available from one manufacturer or another and accept almost all of the accessories. A Japanese shooter, Tatsuya Sakai, actually won the 2004 Steel Challenge having only handled airsoft weapons as personal ownership of firearms is almost entirely banned there.
I'm not talking about the cheap spring powered airsoft guns you can get at big box stores, these are replicas of the real thing that weigh and handle very much like their lead slinging counterparts. Unfortunately you're restricted to mail order shops like Airsoft Atlanta, Airsoft GI, Airsplat and dozens of others. By law, in the US all replica guns have to have an orange tip to be imported. It's really common to take these off but since my pistol is a dedicated training piece I leave it on.
After doing some research, KWA makes a gas blow back model of a CZ75. It's what's called a gas blowback, or GBB, pistol that uses "green gas", just camping store propane with some silicone oil mixed in, as a propellant. Function is exactly like a semiautomatic pistol - pull the trigger, the projectile fires, the slide recoils back and forth, chambering the next BB. It even has a DA/SA feature just like my CZ and locks open on an empty magazine.
I have an adapter that allows me to fill my magazines from a bottle of Coleman propane, I just add a little bit of silicone oil. I use 10 weight RC shock oil. Any silicone oil will do as long as it is 100% silicone oil - hardware store stuff won't do since it has petroleum products in it that can eat up seals. The only caveat is that they add odorant to the coleman bottles and it smells pretty bad - not a big deal if you shoot outside. You can buy airsoft specific green gas which doesn't smell at all but is about 10x more expensive.
To give you an idea of how close these airsoft guns can be to the real thing, here's my KZ75 next to my CZ85.
First off, here's my CZ85 on the scale. It comes in at 942 grams empty.
Here's a fully loaded magazine, 16 rounds of 115gr steel cased Tulammo (it was on top of the ammo pile when I took these pictures). 275 grams, total weight of pistol+mag+16 rounds is 1217g, or about 2.7 pounds/2lb 11.2oz.
Here is the airsoft gun itself. You can see that it's about 2/3 the weight of the unloaded CZ85 at 673 grams.
The (totally empty) magazine for the airsoft gun is pretty close the loaded weight of the real magazine at 272 grams. Small enough that it doesn't matter.
Total loaded weight of the airsoft gun, then, comes in at 945 grams, a little over 75% of the weight of the real thing when loaded.
Handling it, it handles just like the CZ85. Excepting the weight it feels like the real thing and without the orange tip looks dead on to it. The manufacturers even have a dummy roll pin for the firing pin stop put in to complete the looks. Stripping the gun is just like stripping a regular CZ.
The trigger is the same DA/SA that is on all CZ75/85bs. It is softer and lighter than the real thing however and posseses a nice, solid reset.
I have a Blade-Tech Drop and Offset holster for the CZ85 that the airsoft replica fits into quite well. The fit isn't perfect as the holster is molded for the ambidextrous controls of the CZ85, requiring me to tighten the screws considerably to achieve the same tension. The ride of the airsoft gun in the holster is identical however. I get the feeling that if I had a CZ75 specific holster the airsoft gun would fit perfectly. The airsoft magazines fit quite well into the double stack sized mag pouches I use, no adjustment needed.
I have a shed in the back yard and strung up some electrical switch covers from the rafters using monofilament line. It's not a perfect setup by any means but I can get a nice loud ring every time the BBs hit. I also use cardboard cut to 1/3rd scale IDPA/ISPC/USPSA targets which can also be printed for free on standard 8.5x11 printer paper.
You can also buy more professional setups with plates that actually drop and even a spinner target at places like BAM! Airsoft.
Some places even do "force on force" type training since these are safe to shoot other people with. Of course, this assumes eye protection and some sort of mouth guard since the hard plastic BBs can chip and break teeth. Steel mesh to fit over the face is quite popular, or paintball masks.
The downsides to all of this? Startup costs are high. My setup cost me a bit over 300 bucks. Magazines for GBB pistols can be expensive, mine clock in at about 45 a pop - more than the real thing! All of these guns are imported from Japan or Taiwan so finding parts can sometimes be an issue particularly for guns like mine which aren't as popular as 1911s or Glocks. Quality replicas for some guns just aren't available. If you shoot indoors you have to deal with the mess of thousands of tiny BBs. You are also shooting out of a smoothbore barrel so accuracy just isn't the same requiring you to scale down a bit sometimes. Some guns can't take accessories as well without heavy machining - the sights on my airsoft pistol aren't quite the same as the fiber sights on my CZ, for example, since they're cast in to the slide of the airsoft gun. There are lots of cheap, low quality airsoft guns out there as well.
Airsoft is also overrun with 13 year olds, for what that's worth.
There's no substitute for sending lead down range but with with ammo prices the way they I think this is a great way to do some training when you can't get to the range or feed your gun. The winner of the
I'm not talking about the cheap spring powered airsoft guns you can get at big box stores, these are replicas of the real thing that weigh and handle very much like their lead slinging counterparts. Unfortunately you're restricted to mail order shops like Airsoft Atlanta, Airsoft GI, Airsplat and dozens of others. By law, in the US all replica guns have to have an orange tip to be imported. It's really common to take these off but since my pistol is a dedicated training piece I leave it on.
After doing some research, KWA makes a gas blow back model of a CZ75. It's what's called a gas blowback, or GBB, pistol that uses "green gas", just camping store propane with some silicone oil mixed in, as a propellant. Function is exactly like a semiautomatic pistol - pull the trigger, the projectile fires, the slide recoils back and forth, chambering the next BB. It even has a DA/SA feature just like my CZ and locks open on an empty magazine.
I have an adapter that allows me to fill my magazines from a bottle of Coleman propane, I just add a little bit of silicone oil. I use 10 weight RC shock oil. Any silicone oil will do as long as it is 100% silicone oil - hardware store stuff won't do since it has petroleum products in it that can eat up seals. The only caveat is that they add odorant to the coleman bottles and it smells pretty bad - not a big deal if you shoot outside. You can buy airsoft specific green gas which doesn't smell at all but is about 10x more expensive.
To give you an idea of how close these airsoft guns can be to the real thing, here's my KZ75 next to my CZ85.
First off, here's my CZ85 on the scale. It comes in at 942 grams empty.
Here's a fully loaded magazine, 16 rounds of 115gr steel cased Tulammo (it was on top of the ammo pile when I took these pictures). 275 grams, total weight of pistol+mag+16 rounds is 1217g, or about 2.7 pounds/2lb 11.2oz.
Here is the airsoft gun itself. You can see that it's about 2/3 the weight of the unloaded CZ85 at 673 grams.
The (totally empty) magazine for the airsoft gun is pretty close the loaded weight of the real magazine at 272 grams. Small enough that it doesn't matter.
Total loaded weight of the airsoft gun, then, comes in at 945 grams, a little over 75% of the weight of the real thing when loaded.
Handling it, it handles just like the CZ85. Excepting the weight it feels like the real thing and without the orange tip looks dead on to it. The manufacturers even have a dummy roll pin for the firing pin stop put in to complete the looks. Stripping the gun is just like stripping a regular CZ.
The trigger is the same DA/SA that is on all CZ75/85bs. It is softer and lighter than the real thing however and posseses a nice, solid reset.
I have a Blade-Tech Drop and Offset holster for the CZ85 that the airsoft replica fits into quite well. The fit isn't perfect as the holster is molded for the ambidextrous controls of the CZ85, requiring me to tighten the screws considerably to achieve the same tension. The ride of the airsoft gun in the holster is identical however. I get the feeling that if I had a CZ75 specific holster the airsoft gun would fit perfectly. The airsoft magazines fit quite well into the double stack sized mag pouches I use, no adjustment needed.
I have a shed in the back yard and strung up some electrical switch covers from the rafters using monofilament line. It's not a perfect setup by any means but I can get a nice loud ring every time the BBs hit. I also use cardboard cut to 1/3rd scale IDPA/ISPC/USPSA targets which can also be printed for free on standard 8.5x11 printer paper.
You can also buy more professional setups with plates that actually drop and even a spinner target at places like BAM! Airsoft.
Some places even do "force on force" type training since these are safe to shoot other people with. Of course, this assumes eye protection and some sort of mouth guard since the hard plastic BBs can chip and break teeth. Steel mesh to fit over the face is quite popular, or paintball masks.
The downsides to all of this? Startup costs are high. My setup cost me a bit over 300 bucks. Magazines for GBB pistols can be expensive, mine clock in at about 45 a pop - more than the real thing! All of these guns are imported from Japan or Taiwan so finding parts can sometimes be an issue particularly for guns like mine which aren't as popular as 1911s or Glocks. Quality replicas for some guns just aren't available. If you shoot indoors you have to deal with the mess of thousands of tiny BBs. You are also shooting out of a smoothbore barrel so accuracy just isn't the same requiring you to scale down a bit sometimes. Some guns can't take accessories as well without heavy machining - the sights on my airsoft pistol aren't quite the same as the fiber sights on my CZ, for example, since they're cast in to the slide of the airsoft gun. There are lots of cheap, low quality airsoft guns out there as well.
Airsoft is also overrun with 13 year olds, for what that's worth.
There's no substitute for sending lead down range but with with ammo prices the way they I think this is a great way to do some training when you can't get to the range or feed your gun. The winner of the
