Airsoft Hacks

Was out at HRTA as usual last Saturday for a skirmish and with the temperature sitting at a nice 5 degrees celsius or so, gas guns were just not working so well, saw a few people having issues using them and had two separate pistols belonging to myself that were not working correctly with propane. Also got a Mossberg M500 gas shotgun from Tony at eirsoft.ie last weekend and although it’s a lovely shotgun (more on that in my next post), it was a bit temperamental in such low temperature.

So inspired by a thread by vtec over on the boards.ie Airsoft forum today, I decided to do a bit of research about various airsoft gasses.

This is what I found:

There are 4 types of gas you can use in an airsoft gun.

HFC134a/Duster gas: Known as duster gas because you can commonly find it in computer stores to be used for blowing dust out of computers and other electronics without damaging the components. A relatively low-powered gas which is mainly used in Japanese airsoft guns.

Green Gas/Propane: As alot of people know by now, Green gas is basically propane without the smell and with some lubricant added, buying a propane adapter from airsoft-innovations.com allows you to use propane cans bought from your nearest hardware store instead. Most gas guns will easily take this gas with no problems.

HFC 22/Red gas: A very difficult gas to find, the only retailer I could find with it in stock that I know ships to Ireland is RedWolfAirsoft, at $20 for a 2000ml can, it’s not too bad a price, but like all gasses it can only be shipped by surface mail. Red gas is significantly more powerful than green gas and should only be used in properly upgraded guns which can handle it, using it in guns only designed for green gas or duster/hfc 134a will do damage to the gun and could be dangerous.

CO2: It’s a whole different ball game really, co2 cannot be used unregulated and can normally be found in small little 12g canisters but requires guns designed specifically for use with co2 gas.

There is also rumoured to be a “Black Gas” but I can’t find any definitive information on this and alot of information suggests that it is merely a name for CO2 as it is stored in black canisters.

While I was searching around, I found some excellent information from airsoftcanada.com, in particular these two diagrams below showing the composition and pressures of the various gasses:

And secondly, a graph of Red Gas, Green Gas and HFC134a pressures at different temperatures:

(Click the images above for a bigger version)

The first time I played Airsoft, I used a rental mesh mask which although it provided adequate protection against any stray bb’s hitting me in the eye, was not particularly comfortable, it had little or no padding around the eyes and nose which was slightly irritating to wear.

Pretty soon after, I got my hands on a Scott Paintball Mask, this was a great mask, nice big mouth guard which was not too close so as to restrict your breathing and also extended back to protect your ears. Eye protection was provided by the in-built goggles which have thermal lenses which have never fogged on me and the mask has a nice peak to provide a little bit of protection from the sunlight. It’s a truly great mask however it has one major flaw, it’s big and black, many times people were able to spot me hiding in a bush merely by the mask, I needed something smaller.

While on holiday during the summer, my prescription sunglasses broke, so I bought a pair of SH+ RG4200 sport glasses with the intention of using them for airsofting when I got home, they came in a nice case with a couple of pairs of spare lenses (Clear, Amber and Grey) and a head strap, the head strap unfortunately broke during my first skirmish but I continued to use the glasses as they stayed in place fairly well without it.

Recently though I wanted to get a pair of glasses with a foam backing due to a certain site owner making me paranoid about the tiniest little gap around my glasses and the possibility of that gap enlarging in awkward positions, a very slim possibility of being in the wrong place at the wrong time but I’d rather buy a new pair of glasses than get hit in the eye.

So just last week, user JonAnderton on the boards.ie Airsoft forum posted a pair of brand new, never used Guarder C4 glasses for sale, I snapped them up straight away for €25, they can also be bought from ehobbyasia.com for the same price. I got them a day or two later and my first impression was good. The glasses come in a soft neoprene type carry case which contains the following: Frames, Blue, Grey, Amber and Clear lenses (all anti-fog), soft drawstring bag, foam frame backing and headstrap (a cleaning cloth would have been a very nice touch, but can’t complain).

The glasses on their own sit quite comfortably on your face with or without the foam backing, which simply pops in and out. The lenses similarly are very easy to change, just pull the frames slightly away and pop the lense out. Without the foam backing, there is only a small gap around the frames, with the foam backing, even less, however for absolute security, it’s best to attach the head strap.

To attach the head strap, the arms of the glasses unclip via a small button on the side of the frame and the head strap clips in, this provides a very secure fixing for the headstrap and turns the glasses into goggles. With the headstrap in place, you can adjust it by a buckle on the back which is easily reached while wearing them if you find they are a little too tight or loose during a skirmish.

I wore these at a skirmish all day yesterday for the first time, and they did not fog once on a very rainy day. They are comfortable enough to wear for long periods of time with the head strap and foam backing in place, so much so, that I even found myself leaving the glasses on while in the safe zone between games, it just never occured to me to take them off.

Just as an extra re-assurance to myself, I tested these glasses by firing at them at close range, a single shot at point blank range left a bit of a mark on the lense with some possible slight deformation lines around the point of impact.

Close-up of the impact point.

A burst at 15ft left a good few marks across the lens, not as bad as the single shot, but still enough to leave a bit of residue on the lense and a slight mark, however the mark cannot be seen while wearing the glasses.

Burst shot close-up.

The short burst also popped one of the lenses out of the frames, so it is very important to ensure the lenses are secured properly when changing them out.

All in all, these are very good glasses/goggles, the only thing I could fault them on is the fact that you they do not have a prescription lense insert, however there are other options available if you require these and I am comfortable playing without prescription lenses.