04 Apr Your First Quality Airsoft STARTER KIT Part 1 – Airsoft Bootcamp Ep 2
Your First Quality Airsoft STARTER KIT Part 1 – Airsoft Bootcamp Ep 2
Today we’ll be talking about the next step to get yourself in the awesome Airsoft sport namely, your starter kit.
But before we dig into this subject, make sure to subscribe to our blog page by filling in the form. Also Make sure to visit our Youtube Channel by clicking the button. Have a look at our store shop.reconbrothers.com to support us in what we do.
If you never went to an Airsoft event before, we recommend you to first look at episode 1 of our Airsoft bootcamp series, you can find the link by clicking the angry man’s image on the right.
That aside, let’s jump right into it.
When it comes to a quality airsoft starter kit its not necessarily about the best gun and accessories or stuff like that.
The first thing you should truly invest in, is your personal safety.
The 5 PPEs or Personal Protection Equipments
Here we’re talking about your eyes, teeth, feet, hands and ears.
If you make a good investment in this stuff right from the beginning, you don’t need to worry about injuries that could have been avoided. You also don’t need to get more quality products over time, because if maintained well, they will last years and years to come.
This will give you the very basis to start and build the rest of your kit or multiple kits.
Don’t expect to spend less than 100 bucks on all of this. Remember we’re talking about your safety and that should always have the priority to any kind of gun or piece of gear.
What can you expect to spend on this?
Your budget for this should be around 200 Euros. Let us explain what you want to pay attention to and why this will come to the budget amount we just mentioned.
Safety glasses
Let’s start with the most important one, your eyes. You cannot do Airsoft without safety glasses. So you would think any glasses are fine right? The fact is no, you still risk potentially permanent injuries if you use the wrong glasses.
An example of the wrong kind of eye pro are mesh goggles. This is because your opponent might be using poor quality BBs which can fragment on impact and those pieces can hit your eye and cause damage. So whatever you buy don’t go for mesh eyewear, you only have one pair of eyes!
So, for the good stuff you want to look for glasses that are at least ANSI or CE rated and that also have at least some sort of anti-fog technology. And believe us, that will save a lot of hassle.
Our recommendation
For glasses, we personally recommend the glasses from Revision. From our experience these still have the best antifog technology, but do notice not all glasses have an antifog layer.
If you want to learn more about safety glasses, like fitting and maintaining them properly, you can take a look at the image links below.
Teeth Protection
Just so you know, there are people that have had a tooth shot out or chipped off due to a BB impact.
If you want to avoid spending big amounts of money on dental costs then you better get yourself some sort of lower face mask or mouth guard. You can get on of these things for around 15 bucks or so.
But remind that a lower face mask also protects the soft skin of your face. Because BBs have also penetrated some people their faces before and a mouth guard won’t protect you against that.
Also notice that a simple balaclava or neck gaiter won’t do the job. They will prevent BBs from entering your mouth, but they won’t reduce the impact.
Boots
Boots are important for a few things. Most importantly is the ankle support especially for outdoor use, since there are a lot of spots where you can roll over your ankles.
And the fact is, a foot injury happens really quickly and almost always means the end of your day.
Secondly, boots provide grip which is important for slippery and vertical environments.
Above that, good boots are provided with a reinforced shoe tip, so you don’t hurt your toes when going downhill and hitting a rock or something like that.
The last important thing some boots are featured with is a TEX-membrane which makes them waterproof while maintaining breathable.
Why is this important? Because if you want to go play in wet weather conditions you want to avoid getting wet feet. Because wet feet get blisters and wounds over time.
Our recommendation
For boots we personally recommend a pair of the Lowa Tactical Boots, but this may differ to you because this also comes down to the fit of your feet in the boots. Boots will cover most of the cost when it comes to your PPEs and will come around 150 Euros.
If you want to learn more about fitting, lacing and maintaining your boots properly for tactical and outdoor use, you can take a look at the image links down below.
Gloves
The fourth PPE is about protecting your hands.
Gloves are especially needed to protect your hands against abrasion and splinters that come from the sometimes quite decayed environments we find ourselves in.
Also being shot on your hands can be very stingy, so wearing some sort of gloves will help with that as well.
Our recommendation
For now, we personally use and recommend any of the Mechanix Tactical gloves. These come at a price of about 30 Euros.
We will go deeper into gloves in the future, so if we’ve made it, those videos can also be found below this blog.
Ear protection
At last we come to the PPE for your ears.
Some fields allow the use of loud grenades called bangers, firework or even blank fire shots. These can reach up to 120 Decibels which can be compared to a jet taking off and will cause hearing damage if too much exposed.
Especially in confined spaces like buildings where these things are mostly being used it is vital to protect yourself against this and avoid tinnitus. This doesn’t mean you necessarily need to have an expensive headset or so.
Simple earplugs will already do the job which cost you about 5 Euros or so. So, if fields allow things that make loud noises, please wear them and avoid yourself getting deaf.
We will also cover this kind of stuff more detailed in the future, if we’ve made it, it will be available below.
The fun part: The Airsoft Gun
So now that you’ve invested in your personal safety we can go over to the fun part… the Airsoft gun. When it comes down to the gun there’s one golden rule you need to follow.
Don’t start with a bolt-action sniper rifle!
We know it looks very cool and yes it is awesome to hit someone at quite a long distance while laying down somewhere where no-one sees you. But we’re not the only one saying you should avoid them in your airsoft starter kit.
If you don’t believe us, you can go ahead, ask around and you’ll see that almost all Airsofters with experience will say the same.
The reasons for this are the following:
- 1: A standard sniper needs upgrades, except if you go for an already upgraded one but in both cases you require quite a big budget. By the way, it will also require someone that has the technical abilities to install the upgrades if you go for that option.
- 2: You can only shoot one shot at a time and while you do get the range when upgraded, you don’t have the same firepower as an assault rifle. That’s why camouflage is so important for the sniper role.
- 3: You need to have some experience in the sport to take in a sniper role, since this requires you to estimate distances and be familiar with things like a hop-up unit.
- And 4: You need to be aware of where you need to be to support your team as a sniper.
So guys, take our advice don’t do it when starting out, because you risk becoming frustrated and quit this amazing sport while you haven’t even started.
Instead you want to go for a platform that’s familiar to nearly every Airsofter in the world, namely a M4/M16 style AEG platform. Of course the M4/M16 model is just a recommendation, because we know some people don’t like the looks of them.
Why an AEG?
Because they come with a good price/quality ratio, they are reliable in both hot and cold weather conditions and they are highly upgradable and customizable.
Why an M4/M16 style platform?
That’s because these are very common in the Airsoft world and most people can help you with any sort of problems if they occur and you can mostly exchange magazines with buddies in the field if you run out of ammo.
If you want to put a price tag on a good quality gun to start with, that’s reliable and where you can build upon for the future to come, you should be spending about 300 Euros on the gun solely.
As an example to start with a quality gun, G&G is a highly recommended brand amongst the community both players and quality shops alike.
If we add the gun to the previously discussed safety PPEs we’re now about 500 Euros. So, you see the price of your airsoft starter kit is building up quite fast and that’s even without batteries, a charger and extra magazines.
On our Next Bootcamp Episode
Besides this information, on our next bootcamp episode we’ll go deeper into what’s somewhat the ideal Airsoft gun for a starter to look for by showing you an example and why it’s important to spend at least about 300 Euros on such an Airsoft gun.
We’ll also cover batteries, BBs, chargers, extra magazines and a case for storage. So, if you’re interested in that, be sure to keep an eye out on our third episode. If it’s made, again you’ll find the link below this blog.
Optional for your starter kit
This piece of your kit is optional and would be something to carry a few extra magazines.
We’re saying optional, because if you have some pants laying around with cargo pockets or a hoodie or jackets with side zippers you can mostly fit some extra magazines in there.
If not, we recommend to get yourself one or two magazine pouches preferably from a well known quality brand and attach them on a belt on your pants.
Why a quality Brand?
Well, that’s because later if you decide to get a carrier, rig or whatever you already have these two mag pouches which you can attach on it and put them further to use.
Our recommendation
You can get good quality pouches for about fifteen Euros each and for this our personal recommendation would be gear from Tasmanian Tiger.
So that would brings us to a total budget of about 530 Euros for the PPEs, the gun and if needed two pouches. Again this excludes extra magazines, a charger, batteries, BBs and a case if required by law for your AEG. But don’t worry, because we’ll cover all that stuff in our next episode.
Extra TIPS
Another tip we can give you that we’ve used ourselves back when we started was the use of an Excel file or just a list with the things you’re aiming to buy. This will give you an idea of your overall budget and spendings and will make it easier for you to make decisions.
Furthermore we’ve also made some videos with extra tips for you starters out there and how you can even safe some money by doing some things a bit different.
Don’t go cheap!
At last a rule of thumb, don’t go cheap, especially on those PPEs for your own safety. Remind that if you buy cheap, you buy twice and then you’ve lost more money than the amount we talked about in this video.
Be skeptical!
And guys, if you see tactical products with ridiculous sales, be skeptical and search for those products or brands. If you cannot find them on the web, it is indeed too good to be true and it’s just cheap trash which won’t last long.
Verdict
So, as you’ve seen, if you want to make a proper start you will have to spend more money than 200 to 300 Euros and we haven’t even talked about camouflaged clothing, any sort of gear and weapon accessories yet.
But, as explained in this video, this is the absolute core basis you can build upon for the future of your kit. That being said, for you new guys out there that don’t quite know us yet, we’re also doing monthly giveaways of all sort of quality stuff.
If you want to get your shot at it, take a look at reconbrothers.com and visit our giveaway page.
So guys, be safe, take your hits and enjoy the hobby. Don’t forget to subscribe to keep notified for the upcoming videos.
Thanks for reading our blog
“Your First Quality Airsoft STARTER KIT Part 1 – Airsoft Bootcamp Ep 2“
If this kind of stuff helps you out, make sure to share this content with your fellow Airsofters.
Also let us know if you are an airsoft starter or a more experienced one.
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